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Obama: NATO Agrees We Must Destroy ISIS; BBC: Ayatollah OK's Helping U.S.; FAA: Unresponsive Plane Crashes North Of Jamaica

Aired September 5, 2014 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: We will take you back to our breaking coverage of this plane that has crashed off the coast of Jamaica momentarily. But we have to get some other huge developments we are learning here on CNN.

Lot of news, of course, coming out of Wales, coming out of this NATO Summit, billed as really the most important meeting in the organization's history. Many saying really since the end of the cold war.

President Obama, he walked out of this two-day summit with a plan. The U.S. lining up its NATO allies to form a core coalition with one goal, to destroy ISIS. An agreement that the militants who are right now carving a bloody path through Iraq and Syria pose a significant threat to each NATO member and must be killed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: You can't contain an organization that is running roughshod through that much territory, causing that much havoc, displacing that many people, killing that many innocents, and slaving that many women. The goal has to be to dismantle them.

We haven't seen as effective a fighting force on the part of the Iraqi security forces as we need. And we're going to have to focus on the capable units that are already there, bolster them, bolster the work that the Peshmerga has done. We can support them from the air, but ultimately we're going to need a strong ground game.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That was the president speaking earlier today. Another big headline, NATO also working out plans to form a, quote, "spearhead force" of several thousand land troops to be based in Eastern Europe. The real message here, if you attack one ally, you attack all of them.

So let me first go to Jim Acosta, our senior White House correspondent, traveling there in Wales with the president. And so the president said in no uncertain terms, his goal not to degrade or shrink ISIS, but ultimately to destroy them, specifically hinting at targeting leaders, just as he brought up al Qaeda. What would those attacks look like, do we know? JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Well, we don't know yet, Brooke, because the president has not made a decision to order air strikes on ISIS targets in Syria. But you do get the sense that, you know, one of the aspects of, you know, what the president wants to accomplish as part of this ISIS plan is taking shape or did take shape this week in Wales.

The president said he wants to put together an international coalition before, you know, launching air strikes or making that decision on ordering air strikes. And now he has ten countries. Nine NATO countries and one in Australia forming ten.

And the president is confident he's going to get some Middle Eastern partners when he sends Secretary of State John Kerry, Chuck Hagel, the Defense Secretary and his counterterrorism adviser, Lisa Monaco down to the region next week.

They're going to be heading out there in a couple he days. So the president, he was being cautious, as we know, in the last couple weeks. A week ago created a lot of controversy when that he said he didn't have a strategy yet for dealing with ISIS in Syria.

And then earlier this week, he said he wanted to reduce ISIS to the point where they would be a manageable problem. Brooke, this was a very different President Obama today. The words were tougher. He used words like dismantle, destroy, defeat.

The message was really unmistakable and I think it was aimed not only at potential partners and international coalition, they were also aimed at some critics back home, including many Democrats, who were worried the president was just being too cautious.

BALDWIN: Jim Acosta, thank you so much.

And as we heard from the president, saying they have been systemic, methodical, and that they absolutely pose a real threat, you have this as we have been talking about ISIS, absolute avalanche of news.

But buried among all of this, this intriguing bit from Iran. Of all countries, about help in the fight against ISIS. The BBC is reporting that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei has authorized his military to cooperate with Iraq and the Kurds and the United States to try to defeat ISIS terrorists.

And as it happens, the president of Iraq came and did something quite similar in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's extraordinary that everybody is working together like this.

FUAD MASUM, IRAQI PRESIDENT (through translator): This is correct. And in my opinion, the countries in the region, particularly the neighboring countries of Iraq, they are supposed to form some kind of cooperation. As among them, and also with the United States in that regard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So Fareed Zakaria back with me today. We so appreciate it. Host of "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS" Sunday mornings. When you hear that the ayatollah is saying this now, how significant is this?

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": That's the most significant of all of this, the ayatollah, the supreme leader of Iran would say it. It suggests a couple things. One, that they are very worried about ISIS.

Two, that their attitudes towards the United States are softening. Perhaps most importantly, Iran is very pragmatic. It's very practical. We always think of them as these kind of mystical revolutionaries because they wear turbans and have big beards.

But the funny thing is this foreign policy of the Iranian regime has been very, very pragmatic. Their goal is to defend Iran, its interests, they'll ally with whom they need to. They'll oppose whomever they need to.

In Afghanistan, people forget, right after 9/11, when we toppled the Taliban, Iran cooperated with the United States. Here again, what they're saying is, look, we have the same interests and the same common enemy. We'll work with you guys. In an odd way, we have more trouble than the Iranians do.

BALDWIN: Working -- people working together. It's interesting you bring up 9/11 and we've all read your piece in the "Washington Post", why they still hate us 13 years later. And what you wrote then and your observations in the 13 years since when it comes to these terrorists. What is your biggest take-away?

ZAKARIA: My biggest take-away, the biggest mistake I made or the thing I didn't see was, you know, these countries are really fragile. So you talk about, OK, bringing democracy or getting rid of a bad guy. And you get rid of the dictator.

BALDWIN: Libya, Egypt.

ZAKARIA: Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq. But what ends up being true, there is nothing beneath it. Those guys have made sure in a sense there is no civil society. In some cases, there is not even a nation.

What we're seeing in places like Iraq, like Syria, like Libya, when the order goes away, people don't think of themselves anymore as Libyans or Iraqis. They think of themselves as Sunnis, as Shia. They reach back for an older identity, not the national identity.

And remember, many of these countries were created only 100 years ago by the British and French. So I think that I didn't recognize just how fragile these places were. And, of course, we're living with that reality.

If you look at what's happened and why ISIS has risen, it's mainly because there was a power vacuum. There was chaos. There were these badlands and into these badlands stepped ISIS.

BALDWIN: But what seems so different with ISIS, you have all these other terrorist organizations, but with this case specifically, a lot of people seem to demonize the enemy.

This is another point I wanted to bring up with you. ISIS itself is saying, yes, we are evil. It's like they're self-demonizing. So just what do you think of that observation, A and B, given that, how do you see this heading, their group?

ZAKARIA: It's a very important point. You know, how do you want to deal with somebody like that? I do worry that we are playing into their game.

BALDWIN: How do you mean?

ZAKARIA: Osama Bin Laden said something in one of his old videotapes. He said, you know, our strategy has to be we wave the flag of Jihad and call it al Qaeda anywhere in the world, and that will get the American generals to come running to fight us. In other words, a lot of this is bait.

BALDWIN: Bring it on, they're saying.

ZAKARIA: I hate to say this. But this is -- you know, the gruesome execution videos. All of this stuff has designed to -- first of all, make them important. Now everybody is talking about ISIS. They have become huge figures. But also to goad us into a fight.

To get us in a situation where we go into Syria and we go into Iraq, we get trapped. And I think we've got to be careful. Of course, you have to respond. Of course -- but let's make sure that the United States does this in a manner of its choosing at a time of its choosing when the United States has the proper intelligence and capacity.

Just the fact that they keep saying, come on, come on, let's have a fight doesn't mean we have to agree to that.

BALDWIN: Fareed Zakaria, thank you so much. We'll be watching for you, of course, on Sunday. "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS" watching his panel analyzing all of these stories. There is a lot going on. There have been quite a while at 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Eastern here on CNN. Thank you so much, sir. I always appreciate it when you come by.

Next, back to breaking news. This plane that we have confirmed crashed off the coast of Jamaica. Got some new information, new audio from inside the cockpit of that plane that went down. What did the pilot say? What clues could that provide for investigators? We will play that for you, next.

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BALDWIN: It has just been over an hour since this plane, this small aircraft, crashed off the Coast of Jamaica. We know it took off right around 8:30 this morning from Rochester, New York, was supposed to land in Naples. And we now know that did not happen. What we now have is a transcript. We're working on the audio. But we have a transcript. Go ahead and throw up the graphics, and we'll parse this through with Miles O'Brien in just a second. Here's what we have.

This is from the pilot. We need to descend down to about 180. We have an indication that is not correct in the plane and then you hear the response from the controller. Stand by, 900 KN descend and maintain 250. This is from liveatc.net, air traffic control.

Pilot responds, 250, we need to get lower 900KN. Controller, working on that. That's the bit we have. Miles O'Brien, CNN aviation analyst. When you see that, translate that for me.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: You know, I just listened to the tape itself. The conversations between the pilot, a high time, TBM pilot, more than 5,000 hours in TBMs. This was a brand-new model of TBM that he was flying. But he had a lot of experience in the aircraft.

And he indicated to the controller in Atlanta Center, which covers that sector of North Carolina, that he had a problem with an indication, in an instrument and in a very nonchalant way said he needed to get to flight level 180, which is 18,000 feet.

This was an area with a fair amount of traffic and the controller not hearing the magic word. The magic word in this case being "emergency." We have an emergency. He in a nonchalant way the pilot asked to get lower to 18,000 feet.

The controller ended up sending him off to the west and down to 25,000 feet, which explains that jog we saw. And after that, there were a few other exchanges where the controller asks the pilot to get down to even lower altitude, 20,000 feet.

And he was nonresponsive to those commands and eventually nonresponsive verbally. All of this taking place in the span of about 10 minutes. So something was wrong with that airplane. The pilot confessed that there was a problem, but did not state it as an emergency, which if it was, in fact, a depressurization event would be an emergency.

You declare an emergency and you go down. You own that air space. And you're -- the controller will not say, I'll get back to you and send you off in a vector and give you a -- you know, an altitude higher than you expect.

And eventually, this plane became nonresponsive. The controller tried to relay with other aircraft, tried to talk to the pilot doing -- with that method, but there was just no response. So it's just chilling to listen to this -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Miles O'Brien, stay with me. I want to parse through this a little more with you and Mary Schiavo because I also want to double back to one of your questions, how much training, how experience would this pilot have been to not utter that magic word "emergency." Thank you, Miles. We have someone on the phone from the Jamaican Defense Force who can walk us through exactly what's happening now at the crash scene, 14 miles off the coast of Jamaica. We'll talk to him after this.

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BALDWIN: We will take you back to our breaking news about the plane that crashed off the coast of Jamaica momentarily. But we have to talk about al-Shabaab, this leader, a terror leader here linked to al Qaeda was killed in a U.S. military operation earlier this week.

Just a short time ago, the Pentagon confirmed the death of the leader of the Somali group, al-Shabaab. He allegedly was the mastermind behind last year's deadly siege inside that Nairobi, Kenya shopping mall.

The Pentagon says his death is a major, symbolic and operational loss for the al Qaeda-linked group. Let's go to our global affairs correspondent, Elise Labbot at the State Department -- Elise.

ELISE LABBOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: As you say, Brooke, State Department, Pentagon, White House all calling it a major symbolic and operational success because Godane was not only responsible as you said for the masterminding of that West Gate attack, but also extending Al-Shabaab's reach outside Somalia.

He was really one of the people responsible for the affiliation with al Qaeda. So the U.S. has been after him for some time. If you remember in January, there were some drone strikes against al-Shabaab and they hope to get Godane at that time.

They only got one of his lieutenants, but now in fact, they understand he's dead. The question is now, who's going to take over and what the future of the group is going to be, Brooke.

One of his lieutenants who goes by the name of Karati as kind of the karate kid, basically espoused the ideology of is, a little bit more brutal than al Qaeda. There's been in debate within al-Shabaab about whether that's the way they want to go.

And without ISIS being the kind of Jihadist group in favor right now. The question is will al-Shabaab try and move closer to the ISIS mentality.

BALDWIN: We heard the president specifically mention this death today and talking about the threat of ISIS in that news conference and said we will defeat ISIS the same way we have al-Qaeda like in Somalia killing the leader of al-Shabaab. Elise Labbot, thank you so much for that.

On the other side of the break, as promised, we now have audio from the cockpit. You can hear the voice of this pilot from the plane that has now crashed 14 miles off the coast of Jamaica. What he said to the controller about the altitude. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: We need to assess down to that 180. We have an indication it's not correct in the plane.

UNIDENTIFIED CONTROLLER: Going to make things level 250.

UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: We need to get lower, 900 November.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So there you have the communication in part between that pilot and the controller. Seemed to be some sort of problem with an indicator in an instrument. Now with me on the phone, Major Basil Garrett with the Jamaican Defense Force. Sir, can you hear me?

MAJOR BASIL GARRETT, JAMAICAN DEFENSE FORCE (via telephone): Yes, ma'am.

BALDWIN: Tell me, I understand that the Jamaican Defense Force dispatched a rescue team to the crash site. Tell me what's happening.

GARRETT: Yes, we did deploy to the crash site primarily it involves two helicopters -- one helicopter from the air wing and fixed wing aircraft. We've also deployed some search and rescue divers to the air crash site.

BALDWIN: All of this happening 14 miles off the coast of Jamaica, Port Antonio. Precariously close to I know your people, Major Basil Jarrett, I'm going to let you go. Thank you so much for calling in from Jamaica. Stay with CNN. Of course, we'll continue our coverage.

This breaking story of this plane that left Rochester, New York earlier this morning, supposed to land in Naples and sadly instead crashed in the waters of Jamaica.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me. I'll see you back here Monday. But now "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts now.