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CNN NEWSROOM

Barbara Lee Opposed Bush's Iraq War, Says Repeal AUMF; Video Shows Man Following Virginia Student; Female Fights Volunteer to Fight ISIS.

Aired September 18, 2014 - 14:30   ET

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


BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

President Obama is now one step closer to being able to arm and train Syrian rebels because the House of Representatives voted yesterday to approve the plan. And in a matter of hours, it will be the Senate's turn to vote. We do expect it to pass there as well. Like in the House, it will not be without opposition. More than a third of the House members voted against the president's plan, including a coalition of liberal Democrats and Tea Party Republicans.

And of the Democrats, there was the only person in Congress, only person in Congress to vote against President Bush's request to use all necessary and appropriate force, Authorization for Use of Military Force, AUMF, in the days after the 9/11 attacks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARBARA LEE, (D), CALIFORNIA: September 11th changed the world. Our deepest fears now haunt us. Yet, I'm convinced that military action will not prevent further acts of international terrorism against the United States. Some of us must say let's step back for a moment and pause just for a minute and think through the implications of our actions today so that this does not spiral out of control.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That was California Congresswoman Barbara Lee, then, just days after 9/11. And here she is now joining me live from Capitol Hill.

Congresswoman, welcome.

LEE: Glad to be with you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: So many years ago, you were the only nay vote. Do you think the ultimate passing of authorization of military force then has now led to the situation we see today in Iraq and Syria and ISIS, and to use your words, it spiraled out of control?

LEE: Let me say, first of all, that was a blank check. It was an authorization to use force that set the stage quite frankly for perpetual war. This is a resolution that was so broad that it gave President Bush, now President Obama, and any future president, the authorization to continue to use force. The Congressional Research Service has documented over 30 times that it has been used. It's time for repeal that authorization, Brooke. It's time to repeal the 2002 authorization that authorized use of force in Iraq because this is now 10, 13 years later. We need to come back to the drawing board and debate what a new authorization is. Let the American public know what the options are, if there are options, to the use of force, and move forward in a way that doesn't create more terror, more anger, and more hostility toward the United States.

BALDWIN: On that note, let's talk about those options. That was then, and this was the issue of the blank check. Looking at the situation today, specifically in Iraq and Syria, and when we hear from Peshmerga forces, for example, saying thank you to the U.S. because the air strikes have helped them regain ground, you are against the air strikes. So my question to you is, how would you propose keeping ISIS from growing and becoming more of a threat?

LEE: First, we have to decide -- I think the president in his speech laid out -- and I thought it was a very good speech -- he laid an excellent strategy out. First, we have to really look at the non- military approach so that we don't create more danger and more hostilities and more rebels armed with our own armament that will be used against us. We have to have a diplomatic initiative, a political initiative. I think the secretary of state --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: They are a mighty force.

LEE: They are a mighty force and they are very dangerous. However, the president indicated very clearly there's no imminent, nor immediate threat. We have to decide if we're going to contain them now or dismantle them. We have to be clear on our strategy. And bottom line is, Brooke, we have to have a debate in Congress. We have to know what the options are. We know what the cost -- we need to know what the cost and consequences of any use of force can be. I supported the use of limited targeted strikes to protect the civilians, to prevent a horrific genocide from taking place, and to protect U.S. personnel. I caution them that any expansion of this would be, as many say, mission creep and we need to come back and discuss this, not in a continuing resolution to keep the government open, but in a broader context and a respectful way so the public will understand the cost and consequences and know exactly how we move forward.

BALDWIN: Do you think it's the responsibility of the United States to lead, to lead this effort?

LEE: This is a regional issue. It's a dangerous issue for the region. And there's no way that we can even -- the president and all of the military experts have said there's no military solution. We need to be part of the solution working with the region. We have to have all of the players in the region onboard. Everyone has to take, in the region, the responsibility for addressing and dealing with ISIS. Saudi Arabia has to play their part. Turkey has to play its part, Egypt, all of the countries. We have to help put together a coalition, a multilateral coalition to come together to address this in a way that once again does not create ISIS 2 in five years, as an example, or another threat to the United States. We have time to do this. I don't think arming the rebels, authorizing to arm the rebels to $500 million really leads us down that path. I worry that only a military solution could lead to more hostilities and more danger.

BALDWIN: I understand, and hearing testimony from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, he agrees with you in terms of building the coalition. He's been traveling, trying to get those other nations onboard. But just hearing from the Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel saying ISIS is the most brutal forces we have ever seen in the world today, and he has proposed military action and these air strikes and beyond, do you think he's wrong?

LEE: Let me tell you, you know, we need to have that debate, Brooke. That's the point. Members of Congress need to have an informed, long, healthy, robust debate on the implications, the consequences, and what, in fact, constitutes either containment or elimination of ISIS. We have not had that debate. What we did yesterday was debate on a congressional resolution to keep the government open. We amended that. I don't think that's where we lay out the possibilities and options and what we need to do. And so we need to do this. I think we need to do it very fast because I worry that this could escalate out of control. Unfortunately, I worry about that. I know the president and the administration does not intend to send combat troops but I'm concerned it could escalate into something and have unintended consequences that we never knew because we did not have that debate.

BALDWIN: Congresswoman Lee, I really appreciate you very much joining me and sharing your voice from Capitol Hill today. Thank you very much.

LEE: Thank you. My pleasure.

BALDWIN: We have now seen also some chilling new video in the search for this missing University of Virginia student. Pieces of video show someone following her. We'll get details, if they have any leads here, from the police chief in Charlottesville, Virginia.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Do you wonder why some people are happier than others? There is science behind that. Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, explains in this edition of "Human Factor."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Happiness isn't just a pleasant thing you feel. Science proves it's much deeper than that. Feeling happy actually helps you live a longer, healthier life. But how?

A large part of our happiness is tied to our social connections. If you don't have at least one close friend, you're less likely to be happy. Each of us have these things called Telomeres, tiny caps on DNA chromosomes that measure our cellular age. They also measure how many friends we have. No friends equals shorter Telomeres. So by being social, you can actually slow down your biological age, living longer and happier.

Another way to boost your level of happiness is by meditating. Research shows as little as 20 minutes a day can lower your level of stress hormones. Have you heard of an American monk, Berry Berzian (ph)? Berry meditates with such focused attention he says he can instantly generate his own bliss. People believe him. But doctors wanted some scientific proof, so they did an MRI scan of his brain and they showed that while he meditated, he activated the area of the brain where happiness lives, the left prefrontal cortex.

Time for a pop quiz. Is this glass half empty or half full? If you said half full, you're on your way to feeling happier and healthier.

A Harvard study found that optimists are 50 percent less likely to have a heart disease, a heart attack or stroke. Keeping an optimistic attitude offers protection against cardiovascular disease.

Science doesn't fare as well for pessimists. They have lower levels of happiness but research shows that people with negative thoughts are three times as likely to develop health problems as they age.

So what do you do if you're not a naturally happy person? Experts say the key is to act as though you're an optimist, even if you're not.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: There's new video of missing University of Virginia student, Hannah Graham. It appears to show a man following her the night she disappeared. A man walks into the camera's view and looks over his shoulder and steps into a doorway. Graham walks past him and then the man starts walking behind her. That's one video. Here's another. This is outside a jewelry store showing Graham walking with the same man. See it spotlighted with that same man following some distance behind her. The man in this video came to police and said he followed her because she appeared worried, she was distressed. Graham was with another man she appeared to know.

So let me bring in the police chief in Charlottesville, Virginia, Tim Longo.

Chief, welcome.

TIMOTHY LONGO, CHIEF, CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA, POLICE DEPARTMENT: Hi, Brooke. Thank you for having me.

BALDWIN: Can we just first clarify -- explain this to us. The man in the video is the same man that came to you to Charlottesville P.D. What exactly did he see?

LONGO: I think it's important to note that this gentleman actually contacted through the tip line before the video was even released, which I think gives him some credibility. He comes to the police and basically acknowledges seeing Brooke. He did what we asked him to do. He acknowledges seeing Brooke going up the mall and follows her and then sees her eventually catch up with another gentleman and they begin to talk. He assumes perhaps that they knew each other and then goes about his way. Now, we know that the person that she eventually caught up with was an African-American male. We don't know that person may not have been, like this gentleman was, trying to be helpful to Hannah. But we're trying to locate who they are and perhaps talk to them. What we do know and what the video supports is the easterly direction that she was traveling and had been traveling since she left McGrady's.

BALDWIN: Do you have -- that's near the University of Virginia. Do you have any leads? How solid of your leads, Chief?

LONGO: No. Unfortunately, all we know is her direction of travel. We are using scent-detecting bloodhounds to further that track and further research that track. We are finding some promise with use of those tools. I'm not at liberty to go into much detail in that regard. Between the surveillance videos and use of those types of assets and human assets to do the search, those are the most promising two things at this point. We're just being so aggressive to reach out to our community. You were here. You lived here. You know how small a town this is. So many people have been traveling that mall and we know, and you can see on that video, were traveling that mall that night. We're just asking people that may have seen Hannah to call us and perhaps they may be more helpful in providing us with information.

BALDWIN: Gosh, you know, I keep thinking about this young woman's family. They have to be just on pins and needles. For obvious reasons they're not doing media interviews. I imagine you have been in touch with the parents. How are they doing?

LONGO: You can imagine how they're doing. The sweetest people. They are so heartbroken and just can't understand how their daughter just vanished. Such a sweet child, she was, so full of life and energy. And now they just don't know what happened to her. And dad told me this morning, he said, you know, Chief, we want our privacy respected, of course, but this isn't about us. This is about Hannah. This is about our daughter. This is about finding her. And they are so grateful to this community and Hannah's friends and for all of the people that have come together to try to find Hannah and bring her home to mom, dad, and the university, and all the friends she has.

BALDWIN: Hope you are able to do that, Chief.

Thank you so much. Charlottesville, Virginia, a great town. Seems so safe.

LONGO: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Tim Longo, thank you very much.

Coming up next, my next guest calls them bad-ass women. Ladies standing up and fighting ISIS. We'll speak live with someone who sat down and talked to one of them face to face just before she was killed. Don't miss this. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Today the U.S. continues its air campaign targeting Islamic militants near Mosul and Baghdad, striking new ISIS targets. But on the ground, Kurdish guerrilla fighters have just begun to turn the tide on the front line. And among these fighters, fierce women. Female fighters who have volunteered from battle coming from Turkey, Syria, Iran, to fight alongside the Peshmerga forces.

Mohammed Salih is a journalist based in Erbil, Iraq. He has been covering Iraq for multiple international news organizations. And he wrote this piece that caught our eye in "Foreign Policy," profiling one of those women, called "Meet the Badass Women Fighting the Islamic State."

Mohammed, welcome.

MOHAMMAD SALIH, JOURNALIST: Thank you for having me.

BALDWIN: You sought out to profile someone who was fighting who is female and you found this woman named Avesta. Tell me about her.

SALIH: Well, she was a very, very interesting woman. A very, very interesting and brave fighter, I must say. And it was just very much impressive to see what kind of woman she was. She was very much motivated and very much believed in what she was doing. And she was also really a fighter of a very high quality given that she was a sniper, and not every fighter really gets to become a sniper.

BALDWIN: A female sniper. We should explain, you're using past tense. You're saying was because after writing this entire piece on her, she was killed. How did she die?

SALIH: Well, on the night of September 12th, there was a joint operation by the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, Iraqi Peshmerga forces and guerrilla forces of the PKK to which Avesta belonged, and during that joint operation to take some villages from ISIS fighters, Avesta was hit in the neck by a bullet. And then she was transferred to a nearby town where they did some very basic treatment. But then because her injuries were so severe and heavy, she needed to be transported to a much better-equipped hospital and, on the way to Erbil, she died.

BALDWIN: Just going back, you write about how she was inspired to fight to join PKK because of her brother's death. He was killed and he was fighting. And you wrote she told you, quote, "It was in the mountains that I found out women can also be powerful." She went to Iraq during this fight against ISIS on Mount Sinjar because she heard about the women there that were dying.

SALIH: Right. She didn't go there herself but there are quite a few units of the PKK who are now fighting at Mount Sinjar. The PKK is an organization that's been involved in an armed struggle against the Turkish military for almost three decades now. They've been fighting for Kurdish rise in Turkey and they are primarily based in the mountains in the border between Iraq, Turkey and Iran. But as a result of the recent developments in northern Iran, they also sent some fighters to some areas where Avesta was based and also to the Mount Sinjar, the place where the Yazidi community has been living for some time and where that catastrophe happened with that community.

BALDWIN: It's remarkable to put faces to these fighters and think of Arab nations where there are women snipers fighting the fight against ISIS, which is why we wanted to have you on.

Mohammed Salih, thank you so much. Excellent reporting for us out of Iraq.

And coming up next, disturbing new images from an ISIS propaganda video showing another hostage alive, but this is quite different from anything we have seen before. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)