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CNN NEWSROOM
Drones Gather Intel; Searching for Syria Answers; Freed Journalist Peter Theo Curtis Expected to Speak Soon; FAA Report Shows Passenger Jet Near Misses Have Doubled
Aired August 27, 2014 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
The Obama White House is weighing its options this morning on how to deal with the growing strength of ISIS fighters in Syria and the threat they pose to the entire region. An administration official tells CNN that drones are already flying over Iraq near the Syrian border to gather intelligence. Now, it's not clear if they've actually flown into Syria, a step likely needed for possible air strikes there.
It is the latest phase of a growing U.S. military buildup in Iraq since the ISIS threat first mushroomed. On June 16th, the White House ordered 275 military personnel to Iraq. And just a few days later, 300 more military advisers were ordered to Iraq to work with the Iraqi military. On June 30th, 200 additional forces are deployed to the area in and around Baghdad. And on August 12th, 130 more military advisers are sent to northern Iraq to assist with a humanitarian operation. So as of now, nearly 900 U.S. troops have been authorized to go to Iraq since the fall of Mosul in early June.
CNN's Barbara Starr joins us from the Pentagon with more. Good morning, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
So, you know, why ISIS, why now, why Syria, why all the focus on all of this? Well, what U.S. official will tell you is this ISIS movement is so different than anything they have seen in the past with terrorist groups. This is some 10,000 fighters. They have weapons, they have vehicles, they have armored vehicles, tanks, artillery, mortars. They move like an army. They are organized like an army.
So what the U.S. is doing right now is trying to collect intelligence on that ISIS army. Where are they on the ground? What are their patterns of movement? Where are their troops? Where are those convoys? How are they moving around? How are they so much on the march across northern Syria and across the border into Iraq?
President Obama expected to make a decision at some point about whether to conduct air strikes to challenge all of that. What the goal is, U.S. officials tell us, is air strikes would not defeat ISIS at this point, but to stop their momentum, to stop them from being able to move around to terrorize across northern Syria and across the border into Iraq.
So that's the goal that they're looking at. The decision, still, of course, absolutely in the president's hand. Does he want to go forward with all of this?
Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Barbara Starr reporting live from the Pentagon this morning. Thank you.
As those American spy planes continue to fly over the Iraqi/Syrian border, the president and lawmakers are struggling to decide what to do next. Senator Lindsay Graham accuses Mr. Obama of becoming derelict in his duties for not aggressively protecting our homeland. But lawmakers haven't exactly been aggressive either. They remain on vacation. No emergency session in sight. So let's talk about that. Larry Sabato is the director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and Crystal Wright is editor and blogger for conservativeblackchick.com.
Welcome to both of you.
CRYSTAL WRIGHT, EDITOR, CONSERVATIVEBLACKCHICK.COM: Thanks, Carol.
LARRY SABATO, DIR., CTR. FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Thank you, Carol.
COSTELLO: Thanks for being here.
Crystal, here is what Congressman Steve Cohen, a Democrat, told CNN. Listen.
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REP. STEVE COHEN (D), TENNESSEE: I support the president's action and I see no reason to come to Congress because if he does it will just become a circus. Congress is dysfunctional and no matter what the president does, the Republicans will oppose it and find reason to find fault. There's no reason to do that. This is the real world.
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COSTELLO: OK, so, Crystal, is he right?
WRIGHT: Well, he's right, I agree with the congressman, that this is the real world. And in the real world, the president doesn't have to seek congressional support to drop bombs and conduct air strikes on Syria. I think that I wouldn't necessarily use the words derelict that Senator Graham used. I would use the words a lack of leadership coming from President Obama. He's all over the place. He sat on the sidelines of Syria for the last three years and that's allowed ISIS to take root in Syria, Carol. And what we know by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Dempsey, who said last week that there's no way we're going to defeat ISIS unless we deal with ISIS fighters, which now are about 10,000 to 17,000 in both Iraq and Syria.
So we have the chair of the Joint Chiefs saying we need to deal with Syria and we have not dealt -- this administration has ignored Syria and all the civil war goings on for three years. And I think, you know, you talked a lot about Congress being on vacation. The president has said he doesn't need Congress to act. He has been on vacation. We had an American journalist beheaded, the British prime minister came back from his vacation and this president, frankly, I think, has been an a perpetual vacation.
COSTELLO: Well, it -- I don't know, Larry, it just seems a little ironic to me that lawmakers accuse President Obama of being on vacation when they're also on vacation.
SABATO: Well, hypocrisy is the lifeblood of politics, Carol, so I don't think we're surprised by that. But, look, on Congress, ask yourself this question. With an election coming up November 4th, how many members of Congress in either house are really eager to have a long, drawn-out debate on military action and then a firm roll call vote on it? Believe me, with some exceptions, Senator Tim Cain in Virginia on the Democratic side, Rand -- Senators Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Bob Corker on the Republican side, those are exceptions. But mainly they're perfectly happy to let the president handle this, no matter what they say in public. They remember Hillary Clinton. She'd be in her second term as president, Carol, if she hadn't voted for President Bush's war in Iraq.
COSTELLO: But see, Crystal, that seems like a dereliction of duty to me.
WRIGHT: Right. Right.
COSTELLO: That shouldn't matter. Our national security is at stake.
WRIGHT: Exactly. No, no, I -- look, Larry is absolutely right. He's named a few stalwarts in Congress who really are willing to put, I would say, their seats on the line and do the right thing for America. But as Larry pointed out, we're headed up to midterm election. You even have moderate Democrats distancing -- you know, in red states saying, hey, wait a minute, we've got to back away from this president.
So, you know, it's -- look, it's half a dozen on one, six on the other. But at the end of the day, the buck stops with the commander in chief, who is the president of the United States of America. He does have authority to do more than this -- I mean I think it's funny, Carol, that he calls what we're doing in Iraq a humanitarian intervention. This is a war on terror. He's had his secretary of defense saying that the war on terror is alive and well. He's had his joint chiefs. So I this that what we really just need at a basic level is a plan from the president, what's he going to do and, look, here's my plan. I'm going to go to Congress. I'm going to get sign-off for my plan and I'm going to protect the homeland. I mean that would go a long way.
COSTELLO: OK. So, Larry, do you think that would go a long way? SABATO: Well, it might go a long way. I don't think it's going to
happen that way. I think the president will inform the appropriate leaders of Congress. This won't be one of those incursions where the congressmen find out when the rest of us do. So he'll do his informational obligations.
But I don't think he's going to go to Congress. I don't think they really want him to go. And that's where we are. This is going to require executive action. And I suspect that's exactly what we're going to get. Because the truth is, on this particular case, just about everybody agrees privately that something needs to be done because who in the world imagined we'd find a terrorist group, ISIS, that made al Qaeda look moderate?
WRIGHT: Right.
COSTELLO: So it's just mind-boggling, right?
Larry Sabato, Crystal Wright, thanks so much for your insight. I appreciate it.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, an American journalist is freed from his Islamic captives in Syria. Now his mother is speaking out.
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NANCY CURTIS, MOTHER OF PETER THEO CURTIS (voice-over): So we had been waiting for that call, but, you know, it was a very, very long wait.
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COSTELLO: His mom's name is Nancy and she is something in her own right. We'll let you hear more after this.
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COSTELLO: The city of Boston was the scene of much rejoicing late Tuesday night at Theo Curtis, Peter Theo Curtis, an American journalist held captive in Syria for nearly two years by Islamic militants, was reunited with his family. Here you can see him with his mother, Nancy, at Logan Airport. And we understand just a short time ago this morning he emerged from his mother's home in Cambridge to hang a U.S. flag on the fence beside his home. He then posed with some police who were providing security at his house. We are expecting Mr. Curtis to speak at any moment. Of course, when he does, we'll take you out to Boston.
His mom, though, Nancy Curtis, spoke to CNN's Anderson Cooper about the moment she learned her son was safe and sound, and the emotional turmoil she's experienced and what the family's planning to do next.
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NANCY CURTIS, PETER THEO CURTIS' MOTHER (via telephone): I got a call from the FBI agent who's been working with us the whole time. She flew to the Middle East and she called me and said, "I'm standing on the Golan Heights with your son by my side." And he wants to talk to you, but he needs some time to compose himself." That was all she needed to say. I knew that he was healthy and safe, and it was a huge relief.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR, "AC 360": What is that moment like? I mean after waiting and, you know, so many ups and downs, and not hearing for so long?
CURTIS: This has been a very long -- very, very long road, and you learn -- you learn to get over the panic, which is how I felt initially. Sheer terror is what it began when I realized that he had disappeared. And then, you know, you get -- you slowly come to terms with the fact that he's gone, he's in danger. It was a relief to know, after nine months we heard that he was alive. And then, you know, we have so many people working on the case, and we had such support from so many terrific people that, you know, you learn to just take each hour as it comes.
COOPER: Do you have something planned? How do you even prepare for something like that?
CURTIS: Just like everything else. You just take it as it comes. I think he's going to be exhausted after a long trip. I can tell you I'm exhausted, and I think that we'll just be really quiet for a while.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: I don't know, Nancy, I don't think that Theo's going to be quiet, because this is a live picture from outside of the family home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. You can see Miguel Marquez, our reporter, standing right there near the microphones. A whole bunch of microphones there, awaiting Theo Curtis to come out of the home to talk with the media, probably about his ordeal and of course we expect him also to express sorrow about James Foley's death. And you know, there are also other Americans held captive by terrorists in Syria and in other places, so it won't be a completely happy speech.
But when Theo Curtis begins speaking, of course we'll bring his remarks to you live. But as I said, he popped outside of the home earlier, and the cameras, I was hoping you could see the American flag that he hung on the fence, but we can't see it in that shot. But he did pop out and hang an American flag on the fence and took a couple photos with police who are providing security for the home.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a new FAA report shows a spike in the amount of near collisions between passenger jets in the sky. Rene Marsh is tracking that story for you. Good morning, Rene.
RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. You know, the number of close calls nearly doubled in the skies. Coming up we're going to tell you how many times passenger jets got too close for comfort.
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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news. COSTELLO: All right. Let's head back out to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the American journalist Peter Theo Curtis is expected to talk at any time. As you well know, he was held two years by al Qaeda affiliated terrorists. Qatar, the country, sort of negotiated his release. He arrived home at Logan Airport to meet his mother standing there waiting for him last night.
Earlier this morning, he popped out of the house. And there you can see him. He looks to be in pretty good health and we're glad about that. And we are expecting him to issue a statement at any time. When Peter Theo Curtis begins speaking, of course we'll take you out to Cambridge.
Actually, let's go out there now and talk to Miguel Marquez. He's covering this story for us. Tell us more about what he might say.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's always nice to cover a good story and I think he is going to express a lot of gratitude for all of those who helped him out -- the U.S. government, the mission to the U.N., the Qatari government, the Qataris who say they did not offer or give any ransom for his release, and certainly for his family and friends. All the way along this journey, he has thanked everybody from the flight attendants on the flight that took him to Newark and then up here to Boston, the people on the plane who came up to him, and certainly now his family.
A huge welcome home. He looks completely different from those videos that we saw of him when he was scraggly, unshowered, clearly had clothes that had not been washed in some time. He looks like a renewed man.
W have a separate shot now down the street where his house is. We're set up about 150 feet away. He is there with his mother, speaking to police. They've said they are going to come around here at 10:00 a.m. Eastern today and make a statement, perhaps take some questions, and give us an idea of just how incredibly good it feels to be hold and what the last two years of hell have been like. Carol?
COSTELLO: All right, Miguel Marquez, we'll check back with you. I got to take a break right now. We'll be back with much more in the NEWSROOM.
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COSTELLO: All right, just a reminder, you are looking at a picture of Peter Theo Curtis, the American journalist who was freed from captivity. He was being held captive by al Qaeda affiliated terrorists. He popped outside of his Cambridge house earlier this morning. We expect him to make remarks to the media at any moment now. Of course, when he does, when he approaches the mic, we'll take you back out to Cambridge.
In another news this morning, the number of close calls between passenger jets has nearly doubled. Rene Marsh is following that story in Washington. Good morning, Rene.
MARSH: Good morning, Carol.
You know, this is not supposed to happen. We're talking about passenger jets getting dangerously close in the skies, but we have new statistics from the FAA that shows just how often it does happen.
CNN has learned the number of close calls nearly doubled in 2013 over the previous years. Now when you take a closer look at the numbers, you see that 38 were considered high risk. That's actually three fewer than the previous year. But take a look at the number of medium and low risk incidents. That number soared.
And this year, there have been other close calls. Four of them were very high profile, including a near midair collision in April over Newark. You had a United Airlines 737 landing with 160 passengers on board; it comes within 150 yards of a United Express regional jet preparing to take off.
Now the FAA says that its fairly new voluntary safety reporting system, which essentially allows employees to submit safety incidents confidentially, they say that has led to even more reporting, increased reporting, and that's how they explain the higher numbers. But some air traffic controllers say that may be true, but they feel that there are other factors at play here. They say some of these control towers are understaffed; that leads to fatigue, and Carol, they say eventually that leads to a mistake.
COSTELLO: All right. Rene Marsh reporting live from Washington. Thanks so much.
The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM begins now.
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