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CNN NEWSROOM

Missing Girl's Parents: Please Help Us; Will The World Unite Against ISIS?; Could ISIS Release More Hostages?; Secret Service Falling Down on the Job?; Ferguson Return to the Spotlight?; NFL's Image Takes a Hit; Radical Islamist Turns CIA Double Agent

Aired September 21, 2014 - 18:00   ET

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


ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ana Cabrera. Thanks for joining us this hour, as we fast forward to the week ahead.

We'll take a look at all stories you'll be talking about and hearing about this coming week.

But, first, let's update you on the search for a missing college student in Virginia. It has been just over one week since Hannah Graham disappeared and for the first time today, we heard from her parents. Her father begged the public to come forward with any information, but her mother was so overcome with emotion she couldn't even speak.

At that same news conference, the Charlottesville, Virginia, police chief waved his arms stating we know who saw Hannah last and we need to talk to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN GRAHAM, HANNAH'S FATHER: You have all, I'm sure, read about Hannah. You've all read that Hannah is a second-year student at the University of Virginia, a skier, a musician, softball player. She likes to help people, and she's interested in a career in helping others. And just as a little example, last spring break, instead of hanging around on the beach like other students may have done, she spent a week in Tuscaloosa rebuilding houses and helping the recovery from the devastating tornado. That's Hannah. That's one Hannah. But Hannah is also our little girl.

CHIEF TIMOTHY LONGO, CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. POLICE DEPT.: In fact, I believe that Jesse Matthew was the last person she was seen with before she vanished off the face of the Earth. Let me say that again -- I believe Jesse Matthew was the last person she was seen with before she vanished off the face of the Earth, because it's been a week and we can't find her.

But somebody knows where she is. Somebody's got to know where she is. And we want to know who that person or persons are. I've made no mistake about it. We want to talk to Jesse Matthew.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Well, I'm joined now by CNN correspondent Jean Casarez who was at that news conference.

Jean, what we saw there, even the police chief getting pretty emotional today. What does that signal to you about how this investigation is going?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's just the passion that is in this entire community from law enforcement to community members wanting to find answers, wanting to find Hannah. You know, Ana, I want to tell everybody, we are right here in the downtown outside mall where Hannah was just a little over a week ago. She walked right along this area that night and then as the police chief says, she suddenly vanished.

You know, one thing that I think is important this weekend, as the community members were out trying and searching to find anything related to Hannah or Hannah, herself, Jesse Matthew walked into the Charlottesville police department unannounced and he asked for an attorney. And what we learned that press conference today was that they got him an attorney, and that he didn't talk. And then he left the building after that.

So, they knew as little as they did when he walked in when he left. But following that, the police chief said that he was driving and he increased his speed to what police believed was reckless driving, allegedly fleeing in the minds of some, and the police pulled him over and they now have an arrest warrant for him with two warrants of misdemeanor reckless driving.

I specifically asked the chief, have you arrested him yet, are you going to arrest him? The answer was, they're aggressively pursuing where he is, and if he does not give himself up, they will then arrest him. So along with that, they are also waiting for forensic results on the searches of the vehicle, which they made a very big point of at this press conference, that anyone who saw Hannah or Jesse or either one in the vehicle, to come forward as well as anyone who saw them at the restaurant, tempo, which is right here on the downtown mall. That would have been the early morning hours of last, a week ago Saturday.

CABRERA: So, Jean, is this Jesse Matthew person missing now as well? Did he disappear?

CASAREZ: The answer that I got to that question was that they're aggressively pursuing where he is. But I think we need to make it very clear, they do not have probable cause at this point to arrest him in the disappearance, abduction, or anything else related to Hannah. They said on Friday they don't have the probable cause to reasonably detain him. And, but yet, they are pointing the finger at him.

CABRERA: Right.

CASAREZ: There is no question about that.

This is the person they're interested in. This is the person they're interested in talking to. They did not say he was a suspect, but they said they want to talk with him, and they believe that he was the last person to see Hannah.

I've got to tell you, I've spoken to people in this community that know him. He works at the hospital. I confirmed he's an orderly at the University of Virginia Hospital Medical Center, and people that I've talked to that know him say that he's really a nice guy. And that he wouldn't do something like this. That he's a quiet person, a gentle person. And people are shocked that know him that he could even be questioned in this manner.

CABRERA: And when we talk about questioning, like you said, they don't have probable cause to arrest him, but the fact that the police chief seems so adamant that he was the last person to see Hannah Graham -- I mean, isn't that enough for them to say what happened? Can you give us some more information? I mean, to have him at least being brought in for questioning?

CASAREZ: You know, probable cause that you've committed a crime, even though, and I confirmed with the police chief, there's video surveillance that they left the tempo restaurant together out the front door. That's not a crime. That's not a crime. So they want more. Just because you were seen with someone doesn't mean that you then are responsible for their demise or their going missing.

But I think the police know a lot more than we do. They have to hold things close to the vest. I don't think they would throw all this out, say this at a nationally televised press conference if they didn't have something to back it up.

CABRERA: Makes you wonder a lot more questions than answers right now.

Jean Casarez, thanks so much.

And now, let's turn to our five questions for the week ahead.

Question number one: the battle against ISIS has brought together some unlikely alliances, with President Obama speaking at the United Nations on Wednesday. Will the world unite against ISIS? The president will be trying to convince more countries to offer more than just verbal support. He wants other nations to contribute significant resources in this fight against ISIS.

And question number two: will President Obama launch air strikes this week against ISIS in Syria? We saw hours of debate on the Syria crisis in Washington this week. The president has said the U.S. is ready to strike, so are those air strikes imminent?

Question number three. After releasing dozens of Turkish hostages, could ISIS release more? Forty-nine hostages including diplomats held by ISIS militants more than three months in Iraq were freed on Saturday. The details of that release still unclear, but the Turkish government says it was in direct contact with ISIS.

Question number four: is the Secret Service falling down on the job? The White House had two security incidents in about 24 hours. That raised some doubts about the competency of the president's protectors. Is this a wake-up call for the agency? What changes should be made?

Question number five, could the shooting death of Michael Brown return to the national spot light? The grand jury has more time to decide whether to charge Officer Darren Wilson in brown's death. Brown's parents are now taking his story outside Ferguson, in fact, out of state to try to garner more support for their cause. Will their message be heard?

The answers to all these questions and more right after this. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: So, as we look at the week ahead, I want to get back to our questions one and two. Will the world unite against ISIS? And will President Obama launch air strike against Syria?

Joining me now to discuss, military analysts and retired lieutenant colonel, Rick Francona, and senior political analyst, David Gergen, a former adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton.

David, you wrote a scathing op-ed. I want to read from it right now.

It says, "With one hapless episode after the other, the rollout of the president's plan to destroy ISIS is beginning to rival the less than splendid debut of Obamacare Web site. First came the series of muddled messages. Was this to be called a war or something else like a counterterrorism campaign? Who know after so many contradictions from the administration?

And is the threat from ISIS is something we're trying to prevent from happening one day or is it imminent? Again, contradictions."

David, what must the Obama administration do to save this rollout of the ISIS strategy?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure. Thank you.

Listen, I didn't write that piece happily, if anything, I really believe no one should take pleasure or joy in the missteps of the administration as we go to war. We need to be united as a country. I think the administration has gotten off to a rocky start, just as it did with Obamacare. I think right now the president needs to get his team settled down and get their message straight so we don't have this continuing muddle.

There is a reported rift -- it's been overemphasized in the press -- between the White House, president, and his generals. They need to get that rift ended. And I think very strongly, he needs to mobile ice a group of senior bipartisan leaders from the past who could be an advisory board for him and help him unite the country. People on both sides of the aisle, whether it be a Jim Baker or George Schultz on the Republican side or Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell somewhere in the middle there -- I think it's important he get the country united quickly and they get settled down. I would add this. In fairness to the president, you know, the rollout

to Obamacare was terrible, but they got it fixed then it worked much better than many of us, including me expected. I hope that's what happens here.

CABRERA: Colonel, is Gergen being too harsh here, or do you agree with him?

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I agree with him. It's important the administration gets their messaging down. They need to say what we're going to do and how we're going to do it. I don't think I would have announced ahead of time we were going to bomb Syria. I would have preferred he'd say, last night we began bombing Syria.

I also don't think he shouldn't have taken boots off the ground. Even if they are off the ground, he shouldn't have said that. It just sends the wrong message. And it complicates our efforts in the Middle East when we're trying to get allies to step up to provide forces, to provide tangible support for what we're trying to do if we won't do it for ourselves.

CABRERA: And like you said, he laid out the plan in front of the world including ISIS. So, is he giving away too much of the strategy?

FRANCONA: I think he already has. We've already seen the results both in Iraq and in Syria, where the French were lucky they got their airstrike in before ISIS dispersed all that equipment. We're seeing all of the units dispersion in Syria. They're moving everything out of what we would call good military targets into cities and towns. They're doing the same thing in Iraq. They're just complicating our targeting effort.

So, what we're going to do in the future is going to be much, much more difficult because of the messaging. And we have to get this straight.

CABRERA: Well, ISIS is responding, as you said. So, time is of the essence.

David Gergen, Secretary of State Kerry, he met face to face just this week. We know with people in the U.N. and he talked with Iran's foreign minister -- today, in fact. He talked about this threat.

Is the U.S. going to have to make some maybe messy alliances to really be able to destroy and defeat ISIS?

GERGEN: Well, I don't think we want a messy alliance with Iran. That's for sure.

What I hope the secretary has done is laid down a very strong marker about the nuclear negotiations that are under way that seem to be really slowed down and problematic at this point. But he also has to make clear that he wants a more inclusive government. The United States wants a more inclusive government in Iraq. We cannot let all the -- the best fighting be done by the Shia militia, allied with Iran. It's really important that the government and Baghdad be inclusive so you can get the Sunni tribes to get into this fight on behalf of Baghdad, the government.

So, we've got much to talk about with Iran, and it may be that there will be times when we and they will be pursuing similar objectives in a fight, but not in alliance, not if coordination, not in collaboration, but rather with some parallel interests.

CABRERA: The president did announce that we plan to bomb Syria. As you mentioned, Colonel Francona, will we see that happen this week?

FRANCONA: Hard to say. I think the president's hoping that he's going to get some allies to join this effort, and so far, we've come up with none. The French have said they'll bomb in Syria. Assuming the British have the same -- they have a similar restriction.

So, if anybody's going to bomb in Syria, it looks like it's going to be us. I mean, we can do it, but I think it's much better if there's a coalition that does this. But it would be really nice to see some Arab partners in this. Otherwise, it looks like the West, again, just bombing another Arab country.

CABRERA: And David, I'm kind of -- oh, go ahead, if you have a thought. Go for it.

GERGEN: I want to ask the colonel about this. One of the things the president will be seeking at the U.N. is a resolution by the Security Council. He's very likely to get it. In which nations say they basically will not allow their fighters to go and join up with ISIS. They'll try to close the border.

I'm curious about this. As you know, Turkey is so central to this question. And they haven't agreed yet really to seal their borders and just made this deal to get 49 hostages back from ISIS. And one wonders whether the Turks are really going to two along with us seriously about the borders.

Colonel, I'm just really curious about your opinion.

FRANCONA: Yes, I'm wondering, David, if one of the provisions for the release of those hostages was that Turkey agrees not to allow the use of the air bases because the air bases would be absolutely ideal for U.S. allied operations against Syria, and the Turks may have agreed to take that off the table. We can do it otherwise, but it makes it much, much more complicated.

GERGEN: Yes. Many of those foreign fighters also go through so ISIS -- if anything, we want to contain the number of people who join is. They have 31,000 now or whatever the number is. But they may -- if those borders remain open, they can have more people come in and join up than we can train in a year. So, we want to keep that is military group as small as possible and we really need Turkey's help on that.

CABRERA: Gentlemen, great conversation. We're going to continue this after the break. You know, just this weekend, in fact, as we were talking about, ISIS released dozens of those Turkish hostages, 49 to be exact. So does that mean they may be willing to release one of their Western hostages, perhaps? We'll discuss that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Question number three: after releasing dozens of Turkish hostages, could ISIS release more? Most of the captives are now back on Turkish soil. They were seized at Turkey's consulate in Mosul when the Iraqi city fell to is militants in June. Turkish officials refuse to go into detail about the release, but the state-run news agent says no ransom was paid.

Joining me now to talk more about this is a terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank.

Thanks so much for coming in.

So, why do you think this particular group would have been freed?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, we don't know. And we may never know. I mean, the Turkish government has denied paying any sort of ransom. And we've seen European governments in the past pay ransoms to ISIS, and then deny it. So, we don't know.

CABRERA: We don't know but we do know that Turkey is right there along the border with Syria. Has a lot of skin in the game here. Why would ISIS give up this leverage?

CRUICKSHANK: We just honestly don't know, whether there was some kind of financial settlement through an intermediary. Other terms discussed with Turkey. We don't know what we don't know.

CABRERA: Does it signal, though, that ISIS could be ready to negotiate perhaps with other countries as well?

CRUICKSHANK: I don't think when it comes to the British and American hostages, there are any prospects for negotiations. Both those governments do not negotiate with terrorist groups.

CABRERA: Let's talk about another development we learned today in Brussels. There was apparently some kind of terrorism plot exposed. Three people were arrested. What do you know about that?

CRUICKSHANK: What we're hearing about this is this is a possible terrorist plot by a cell linked back to ISIS in Syria. There were arrests in August in Belgium, in Holland, and in Turkey, and in Belgium, they found weapons in these people's apartments, so there was obviously a lot of concern they could be moving forward with some sort of terrorist attack. But authorities don't know what, if anything, they were planning at this point. Investigations are continuing.

CABRERA: When we talk about these foreign fighters going to Syria, to Iraq to go fight with ISIS, I spoke with the mother of one of these people who were eventually arrested prior to actually going to Turkey, her name is Shannon Conley. She was arrested in Colorado, just pleaded last week, in fact, to trying to aid ISIS terrorists.

What her mother told me was she had, you know, believed in the fight against Assad, and that was the main reason she was trying to get to Syria. Do you think that these ISIS recruits are being led astray?

CRUICKSHANK: All these people, the reason they initially went was to fight Assad. Then they join groups like ISIS, because groups like ISIS were effective at fighting Assad.

But, increasingly now, we're seeing people traveling for religious reasons. They believe it's their religious obligation to go and join a so-called Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. We're seeing surging travel to the region right now, ever since Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate back in June. That's obviously a huge concern to counterterrorism officials on both sides of the Atlantic.

CABRERA: And we talk about counterterrorism. We're not just talking about ISIS even though the conversation has been dominating when we talk about ISIS. We just learned this week, too, about this other group, the Khorasan, who is an offshoot of al Qaeda as well, kind of grew out of al Qaeda, and may be plotting some kind of an explosive plot, and they're very high-tech.

How concerned should we be?

CRUICKSHANK: They're very concerned. This is a group of al Qaeda veterans from al Qaeda central who traveled from the Afghanistan/Pakistan border region and actually arrived in Syria. The concern is they could be trying to recruit all these European and Westerners for terrorist plots back against the West, concern also they may be cooperating with al Qaeda in Yemen who have the master bomb maker Ibrahim al Asiri who in the past managed to get bombs on American planes, Ana.

CABRERA: Is that more of an imminent threat then?

CRUICKSHANK: That may well be a more imminent threat.

CABRERA: All right. Paul Cruickshank, thanks so much for your insight. We'll be talking to you in just a little bit throughout the show, as we talk about the special that's going to air tonight. Thanks again.

In just 24 hours, there were two separate security incidents at the White House. This man we're about to show you even made it into the front door. This has a lot of people asking, is the secret service doing its job?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Question number four. Is the Secret Service falling down on the job?

Nobody stopped an Iraq war vet after he scaled the White House fence. This was on Friday. He sprinted across the lawn. He actually got inside the front door of the White House before he was apprehended. And it turned out he had a knife in his pocket.

Yesterday a separate incident involved a young man who refused to move his car from a barricaded entrance. Bomb experts did check out the vehicle but found no explosives. It was interesting we learned that that same man had tried to go in on foot on a different side.

So joining me now, historian Julian Zelizer. He's a professor at Princeton University. Also rejoining us is CNN senior political analyst, David Gergen.

David, you served inside the White House under four presidents. How did the Secret Service let someone get inside the front door?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, there have been periodic incidences, ANA, and this is one of those rare cases that someone actually got through. It's very, very unusual. You know, if somebody can scale that fence, as soon as they hit the ground, sensors go off all around on Secret Service. They have 20 to 25 seconds to catch that guy before he can get to the front door, and if they can't run fast enough, they've got trained dogs.

They've got these wonderful Belgian Shepherd dogs that are fast, lean and mean, and they can take down somebody in a -- you know, just a few seconds. In this case for reasons we don't understand, that dog was never released. And we're not -- we're not sure why. There are indications that -- I don't think it's a structural leadership problem. They just put -- the president just put a new personnel woman, Julia Pearson, first woman ever to run Secret Service.

I think she's doing a fine job. There are real questions about whether they have -- because of budget cutbacks they have some rookies on the job and they didn't react -- fast enough in this case.

CABRERA: Right. And on that point, you know, the "Washington Post" came out with an article, it's pretty scathing and it said that there had been some severe staffing shortages with the Secret Service.

So, Julian, this question to you. The president and his daughters were walking out there on the South Lawn just moments before Omar Gonzalez hopped the fence. Do you think there is a problem at the top on down?

JULIAN ZELIZER, HISTORIAN AND PROFESSOR, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: Well, I don't think we can jump to the conclusion there's a huge managerial problem. I think David's correct. We have a new leader in place who's been working on repairing some of the problems that secret service had with the scandal and some other matters that happened recently. But clearly, the budget issues that the "Washington Post" talked about are serious. You can't have a strong defense if you don't staff that defense and that's why they're going to look at this incident.

CABRERA: David, the Secret Service does say it's reviewing its policies. The White House put out a statement saying it's very confident in its protectors. What changes might you expect them to make after this incident -- the back-to-back incidents? GERGEN: Well, I think the second incident was caught properly. I

don't think there's any -- you know, that doesn't show any negligence or anything, a weakness at all. I think what they do need to do is figure out if there are individuals who need to be disciplined, who didn't do their job, when this guy jumped the fence, clearly something went wrong and it's unacceptable. But I don't think we ought to get too, you know, worked up about it until we know some more facts.

What I do find interesting, Ana, is this is a situation in which the government responded too slowly and it seems to be -- seems that budget cutbacks had something to do with it.

Something similar is happening on this international crisis on Ebola. One of the reasons that it's -- we now see cases doubling every three weeks and one of the reasons international and the national response has been so slow is there have been cutbacks at the World Health Organization, and also Tony Fauci has said there have been cutbacks domestically in the U.S.

So, you know, I think what these stories raise the question of, are we shortchanging ourselves and agencies that really matter? And I think that's a bigger, larger question.

CABRERA: It's a great question, and I think this incident, the reason that it has sparked so much concern is because if this guy can do it, can get inside that White House, what if it was somebody who had really bad intentions who wanted to harm our country? Is this going to embolden, do you think, somebody who has those intentions? A terrorist?

ZELIZER: I do think the context of this is everything, and all the problems happening with ISIS leads people to read this and ask that very question. Whereas an intruder two months ago might not have received as much attention even if they didn't get so far. But I don't know if this will be the reason a serious attack is launched. I doubt it.

I think those who are looking for those kind of attacks have a much more systemic and broad approach to handling this. But clearly, any vulnerability can inspire another attempt. And that's why the Secret Service can't afford any mistakes.

GERGEN: Yes, Ana, there's another issue here. You know, the Secret Service has rules that they can't shoot. You know, you would think that they could just take down the person with a gun, but, you know, for obvious reasons, you've got mentality disturbed people who are doing this. And that appears to be the case here with a veteran of Iraq who had PTSD. And he seemed unhinged.

And you don't want to shoot them, but on the other hand in critical cases you might well want to make sure that they can. And I think we'll have to revisit that question, too.

CABRERA: All right, David Gergen and Julian Zelizer, thank you to both of you.

GERGEN: Thank you.

ZELIZER: Thank you.

CABRERA: Coming up, the family of Michael Brown taking the story to other cities. In fact, to other states.

In an exclusive interview with CNN, Brown's father explains why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Question number five in the week ahead, could the shooting death of Michael Brown return to the national spotlight?

We know the grand jury has a little bit more time to decide whether to charge Officer Darren Wilson in Brown's death. Their term was extended until January, in fact, but Brown's parents say they do not want their son's story to just disappear before then.

Our Nick Valencia spoke exclusively with Michael Brown's today, Michael Brown, Sr.

Nick, what did he say?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, both parents for Mike Brown, Jr. were in Atlanta. And many may ask why were they here?

Well, the National Action Network, which has been very vocal about their support for Mike Brown, has a very large presence here in Atlanta. It's part of a tour to make sure that the story, according to the parents, isn't forgotten and isn't dismissed from the national spotlight.

Mike Brown Sr., when I spoke with him exclusively one-on-one before a press conference that the family and their attorney held, he said the last month had been very difficult for him and his family.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: How are you holding up?

MICHAEL BROWN SR., SON KILLED IN FERGUSON SHOOTING: About the same. Just a little pain that came up, but I'm about the same.

VALENCIA: The nation's attention was solely focused on Ferguson for so long. Now, you know, things have sort of calmed down a little bit. What is your goal here?

BROWN: Just to keep the peace. Peaceful rallies. Just I thank the public for all of their support.

VALENCIA: We know that Trayvon's parents came forward to help you out. Jordan Davis' parents. Are you still in touch with Trayvon's parents, Jordan Davis' parents and others? And how has that helped you through the healing process?

BROWN: Yes, to answer your question, yes, I keep in touch with them. And, you know, we all went through the same thing, so it's easier to talk to someone that feels the same pain that you do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: You can really see the pain in his eyes there. Things very difficult for him. His wife and the mother, as well, the mother of Mike Brown Jr. was also in attendance.

The family, Ana, doesn't believe that they're getting due process. You had mentioned in the lead-up to the story that the grand jury was initially going to submit their decision in mid-October. Now we're hearing it's more likely going to be in January. Their attorney, Benjamin Crump, says that this is an example really that the prosecutor in the case doesn't have an intention of indicting Officer Darren Wilson.

Meanwhile, Darren Wilson supporters, they've maintained strongly and steadfast in their defense for the officer, and they believe that the shooting was justified -- Ana.

CABRERA: Well, the truth is, we don't know when the grand jury is going to come out with a decision.

VALENCIA: Right.

CABRERA: We do know that it could be as early as the mid-October date. That was sort of the guideline that the prosecutor initially gave but that it could end up being much later which is why their term was extended. So we'll have to wait to see in how justice turns out.

VALENCIA: Exactly.

CABRERA: Whether it's an indictment or not. We do know, though, it's been six weeks since Michael Brown's death and the protests there continue in the city of Ferguson. In fact our affiliate KMOV reporting that people were arrested last night for blocking the road as they were protesting outside the police station. We know there's a town hall meeting tomorrow.

What are officials hoping to accomplish?

VALENCIA: Well, I think you're -- actually on our way there to that town hall, people are still worried and curious about why there hasn't been more information made public. I think there's still a concern among the community as we saw this weekend with those arrests and that civil disobedience protest. There's concern that this story is being sort of swept under the rug and that the nation is forgetting about it.

People want answers. They want to know if this evidence will be made public. And this town hall meeting will in essence address that. Among other things.

CABRERA: All right. Nick Valencia reporting. Thanks so much.

VALENCIA: You bet.

CABRERA: It has been a tough week for the NFL. Many are calling on fans to boycott the league.

Will fans and advertisers turn off the TV? Or keep coming back for more?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: It's Sunday. That means NFL teams are back on the field today. A new chance for the league to focus on football instead of its players' legal troubles and the growing criticism of the league commissioner and how it has handled the NFL domestic violence issues.

Now big-name players arrested and in some cases convicted of domestic violence. Another accused of child abuse.

So let's talk more about the damage done to the NFL brand with Terence Moore, sports contributor to CNN.com and columnist for MLB.com. Also joining us, Martha Pease, branding expert and CEO of Demandwerks.com.

Martha, I want to start with you. We know big NFL advertisers have gone public with their concerns about this. Nike, Anheuser-Busch. But they really haven't taken action. Do you expect that we're going to see advertisers pull out this coming week?

MARTHA PEASE, CEO, DEMANDWERKS.COM: I think it's unlikely we'll see advertisers pull out. I think what's happening right now that we're not seeing are some quiet behind-the-scenes conversations between advertisers and the NFL.

It's impossible for advertisers to not be concerned with how the crisis has been unfolding and how it's been handled or not handled. And the conversations are going to be about the curtain has come up, and the mechanics, the picture behind the scenes at the NFL, is not a pretty one and advertisers are certainly going to be involved in urging the NFL to be proactive and to take a leadership position in dealing with the organizational issues that have really been driving the mishandling of the responses to these situations.

CABRERA: The criticism is all there, but in large part, it seems like the NFL has dodged a bullet from a business standpoint.

I want to show you both a quote by Bill Plaschke of the "L.A. Times." He writes, "There are a million reasons the NFL needs to clean up its arrogant and callous act but there are 22.2 million reasons that it will never happen. And that is the number of viewers who watched NBC's 'Sunday Night Football' recently. At the end of arguably the ugliest week in league history, it was as usual the most watched TV show of the week."

So, Terence, if fans keep watching and keep buying tickets, why would the NFL ever change anything?

TERENCE MOORE, CNN.COM SPORTS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, because the NFL is not going to change anything because the thing is that you know, I know and everybody knows that America is addicted to football in general, and to the NFL in particular, and I dare say also sponsors are addicted. And I can't stress this enough. OK? Everybody keeps talking about

the sponsor type deal. Not one has dropped the NFL. They all talk about being concerned.

Let's take Anheuser-Busch, for instance. They are the big mama when it comes to sponsors for the NFL. They brag about being the official beer of the NFL. They're not going to let that go away. They're in the midst right now, Anheuser-Busch, of a contract, six-year contract worth $1.2 billion.

Now I point that out because they sign these long-term bills simply because they know that -- let's say if Anheuser-Busch loses its mind right now and pulls out and drops the NFL, if they know that if they try to get back in two years from now, which they would try to do, the NFL would be even more popular and at $1.2 billion would be more like $5 billion.

So there's all these things that are out there that NFL is looking at knowing that with a wink and a nod, they're allowed to go about as business as usual, even though they're giving lip service to this other stuff.

CABRERA: Is it all talk then and not enough action, Terence?

MOORE: I mean, there's no question about it. You know, and all you have to do is look at that non press conference yesterday with Roger Goodell, and let me add this real quick, remember, Roger Goodell is hired by the owners. The ultimate fault here is not Roger Goodell, contrary to popular belief. It's the owners. They're allowing him to do this because they don't have a problem with what he's saying.

ESPN is the one who broke a story the other day pointing out that the Baltimore Ravens after the Ray Rice thing were begging Roger Goodell to go lightly on Ray Rice which is what he did because Roger Goodell works for the owner of the Baltimore Ravens along with the other 31 owners.

CABRERA: Martha, you wrote a column recently on CNN.com that the NFL is the only multibillion dollar corporation where the CEO is personally in charge of discipline. So how are we taking away the disciplinary power of Goodell really help anything?

PEASE: Well, in most well-run $9 billion corporations, there's a separate process outside of the CEO's office that involves human resources and the legal department and a compliance department if it exists, and they come together when there's an issue of employee discipline or employee criminal behavior. And there are standards already in place for how to evaluate what the discipline should be for any infraction on the part of an employee.

But a group comes together outside of the CEO's office and addresses the issue, investigates it, recommends action and oversees the actual implementation of whatever the disciplinary action is. And the CEO isn't responsible for it. It really does remove the CEO from the discretionary kind of situation that Goodell is in where he's basically judge and juror over every single situation. And it also frees up a CEO to run the company, you know, to do what

they're supposed to be doing which is setting the business, making sure the business is going forward, that it's well organized and that they're executing and they're doing what they're supposed to be doing with their business. It's a $9 billion company. It's a -- it would be number 300 on the list of the "Fortune 500" companies and it's a big company that's just not being run like a first-class business.

And I think that's the issue that people are responding to when you see men, you know, just going in the direction of really judging the NFL as not -- as not handling this well. What they're seeing is that the business is not being managed properly.

CABRERA: Terence, do these arrests of pro athletes reflect the same troubles that we see in the rest of society or is there some truth to the stereotype of the multimillionaire celebrity athlete who plays by different rules than the rest of us?

MOORE: Ana, years ago, I've talked to a Hall of Famer who told me that the reason why he was so messed up, which he was and still is to a certain extent, is because he said, quote, "When I was 30, I was still 18." OK, and that's what we're dealing with here.

And we're concentrating on the NFL. But let's go back to the college level. It starts there. Probably all the way back to the high school level. Right here in Atlanta, Georgia, the University of Georgia had seven guys arrested last year, one of which at least for domestic violence, so just project that to our future NFL player.

CABRERA: So I guess the question now is, is it because of their positions of power, or are you saying that it has something to do with them just being young?

MOORE: It's inherent in the sport, particularly in football. You're talking about a violent sport. I was talking to an NFL scout about this. You can't just turn it off. OK? You want these guys to be -- and everybody loves this violent type thing during the game, so they go home, OK, and it's still in them in some kind of way. And it's kind of hard to say, I'm not going to go there.

CABRERA: All right. Terence Moore and Martha Pease, thanks to both of you.

Coming up, meet a former European biker turned militant Islamist turned trusted al Qaeda insider turned CIA double agent.

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CABRERA: For half a decade, he moved back and forth between two very vastly different worlds. Morten Storm was a radical Islamist who turned into a CIA double agent and now he's revealing some of his deepest secrets in this book, "Agent Storm: My Life Inside Al Qaeda and the CIA."

Joining me once again, terrorism analyst, Paul Cruickshank. Paul, one of the ways obviously of tackling these extremist groups is

to have somebody on the inside, these double agents. How valuable is Morten Storm?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, he was the ultimate insider. He went deep into al Qaeda's world. He knew some of these top terrorist leaders. He was their friend. So they trusted him. So afterwards, when he was recruited by the CIA, all the Western intelligence services, he was a hugely valuable spy inside al Qaeda.

CABRERA: How in the heck did he end up in his position? I mean, I understand he was a boxer, he was a biker, was in and out of jail before he converted to radical Islam.

CRUICKSHANK: Yes, he became radicalized, he went to Yemen, he studied at a madraza, and introduced him to this fundamentalist, Salafi form of the religion. He became further radicalized after that, met some of the top figures in al Qaeda, including the shoe bomber, Richard Reid, including the 20th hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui.

This is the world that he was moving in. So when he began working for Western intelligence in 2007, he was a gold mine of information. A gold mine of contacts.

CABRERA: Apparently he had a big role in killing some 30 leaders in al Qaeda? Do you think it's going to be more difficult to, you know, basically recruit somebody inside is versus al Qaeda?

CRUICKSHANK: It's going to be very, very difficult because if they catch you, they'll torture you and then crucify you. And that's what he was facing when he was behind enemy lines with al Qaeda in Yemen, with other terrorist groups. He was facing that danger every day.

CABRERA: Incredible story. I imagine at this point, he's still at risk being now exposed as this double agent.

CRUICKSHANK: Yes. And ISIS fighters in Syria last year, they put out a video threatening his life. He's in hiding. His life is in extreme danger.

CABRERA: All right. Well, Paul Cruickshank, we're going to let you go so we can get to this documentary. We really appreciate your time. I know you spent a lot of time on this project, in fact, that we're about to show.

Thank you for joining us as well. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. Our special report "DOUBLE AGENT: INSIDE AL QAEDA FOR THE CIA" begins right now.