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Air Strikes Continue Against ISIS Targets; Interview with Madeleine Albright; Feds Warn of Lone Wolf Terror Threats; U.S. Official Confirms Five Strikes Overnight

Aired September 24, 2014 - 07:00   ET

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


BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: We will ask that question, we will press that question of Rear Admiral John Kirby when we talk to him later this morning. Barbara Starr, thank you very much. And now, Chris, to you.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you very much. There's a lot to know and even more to figure out in terms of what does it really mean. And we have a great opportunity for you this morning. We have Madeleine Albright, former secretary of state, the first female secretary of state, important, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations as well. She's now the chair of the National Democratic Institute and a professor of diplomacy at Georgetown University. It is great to have you here on NEW DAY.

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Great to be with you, Chris.

CUOMO: And we need you as much as ever right now. Let's just start at the beginning. This move of military action involving the United States against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, is it the right move?

ALBRIGHT: Absolutely. Because I think we know that ISIS is a threat to the region and ultimately to us, and this new group, according to what I've read, is a threat to the United States. And what is clear to me, Chris, is American leadership is essential. And President Obama has made that very clear. He actually as it turns out is in a perfect place this week in order to be able to muster support from friends and allies and to show that we are leaders, but we have to do it in conjunction with others, especially when it's in our area.

CUOMO: And I want to talk to you about what would be deemed success, what the president must get done as a solution, but first the problem. Did the U.S. create this problem through its actions and inactions in the region over the last few administrations?

ALBRIGHT: I think that the Middle East is a very complicated place in every way in terms of created the way it was after World War I in dealing with artificial boundaries and things that Americans have never known about. We knew very little about Islam but we certainly didn't know about divisions between Shia and Sunni and Persians and Arabs and a lot of complications. I personally do think that what happened during the Iraq War is one of the causing aspects of this.

CUOMO: Specifically what?

ALBRIGHT: Well, I think in so many ways it militarized the situation, and I happen to believe that we made a mistake in going into Iraq the way we did. We certainly had to deal with Saddam Hussein, and that was the Gulf war, the one that happened in the early '90s. But it doesn't prove anything to blame what happened in the past. We are dealing with a very, very serious situation at the moment.

CUOMO: The specific criticism would be but for your decision to pull troops out of Iraq or not force Maliki to keep them there, which many believe you could have, but for not arming the Syrian rebels sooner, had you done that, you wouldn't be where we are today. Fair criticism?

ALBRIGHT: We always deal with unintended consequences of decisions or not making them. I do wish we had armed the Syrians earlier. But the problem always was, who were they, how to figure out which ones to really arm.

CUOMO: Still a problem now, isn't it?

ALBRIGHT: Well, I think we're vetting people, and the president has asked for trying to figure out to train them, because we need help. And I think the part that's so important, Chris, is that the U.S. has to lead, but in partnership with others. And that is what the president is doing, what Secretary Kerry is doing, is getting a coalition together, and it's already working, because those that were with us on the strikes are were from the region. And so I think it's really important.

CUOMO: You are a diplomat first, there's no question about that. But the reality on the ground, should the U.S. be so steadfast in its opposition to boots on the ground, to putting troops there to fight in a fight that is certainly going to be decided on the ground?

ALBRIGHT: Well, I think that there's always what the definition of "boots on the ground" really is. A lot of military people don't like the term at all. There are trainers there. And what we do think is that our addition to this is what we can do in the air. We have a great deal of power in the air. And as I said earlier, it's the local various groups that can provide some of the activity on the ground with our training.

But I do think it's important to make clear what America's stake is in this, but even more important to make clear what the stake is of the countries that are in the region. They are involved in a massive discussion and fight and debate in every way about the future of Islam, how the countries relate to each other. And the hardest part here is everybody wants immediate results. This is going to be a very long story. And it's going to require the president and officials and people like us to try to explain what this is all about.

CUOMO: The president has a major moment in front of him today when he gives this speech, as you well know. The U.N. often is a situation for the right things to be said, what is actually done is secondary. Not this time, because isn't the risk that if he does not get a broad coalition coming out of this situation, that does tangible things, this is the U.S.'s war, this is Obama's war?

ALBRIGHT: Well, I think that he does have a very important moment. There's a lot of things going on at the United Nations, some of it that we also have to deal with, climate change, and then the president is going to chair a meeting of the Security Council, it's really an advantage that the United States is president of the Security Council this month. And there are an awful lot of bilateral meetings going on and the president is persuasive as is Secretary Kerry and Ambassador Power.

And I do think what is the message is America is involved, but America is not alone. We need others to make sure that in fact the very complicated situation in the Middle East is not just America's problem, it is an international problem, and the president is going to make that clear.

CUOMO: It is perceived right now, in most places in the world, though, that that's not the case, right, that this is the U.S. pushing the region to get involved instead of the region asking the U.S. to help them in their fight for the soul of Islam. And how do you change that when you have Egypt playing very carefully, when you have Turkey playing very carefully, when you have the Saudis in a very complicated position? Don't you need those big names to move equal to or ahead of the U.S. to make this a true regional war?

ALBRIGHT: Well, certainly moving with us, but that has happened. I find very interesting the Saudis, the Qataris, the Jordanians, the UAE have been involved in the strikes. And that is due to the work of President Obama and Secretary Kerry.

CUOMO: Not committing troops, though, Madam secretary.

ALBRIGHT: Well, I mean, let's see. I think one of the discussions is, who will in fact be on the ground. And it's going to take a while. And I think that what the president is doing is having a lot of meetings up here. And there's an awful lot going on. I don't think we should make a judgment at this point.

But what I find interesting is very clear that the United States is in a leadership position. President Clinton and I used to talk about the indispensable nation. We are. We are indispensable. But there is nothing in the definition of indispensable that says alone. It means we need to be engaged. But the main thing, Chris, we need to explain to the American people why this is important, what is in our national interests.

And the president yesterday, President Obama gave an incredible speech at the Clinton Global Initiative talking about America's responsibilities in civil society and individuals and human rights and values that are not just Americans but that we are the leaders in terms of working, helping the world work through what is one of the most complicated periods that any of us have seen.

CUOMO: We're being reminded here in the U.S. as to what the stake is with the Khorasan group and what they're now calling a heightened state of alert here in the U.S. because of what they now perceive as an imminent threat. That came as news to many. So what's on the table is fairly clear. What will be done will be the big question moving forward. Today a big piece of the answer will come in the speech before the General Assembly.

Madam Secretary, Madeline Albright, thank you very much for joining us here on NEW DAY.

ALBRIGHT: Great to be with you, Chris, thanks.

CUOMO: A lot of other news as well. Let's get over to John in for Michaela with the headlines. John?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks so much, Chris. Breaking overnight, a radical Islamist cleric is said to be freed in Jordan. A court acquitted Abu Qatada on charges that he had been connected to a plot to attack foreign tourists during England's millennium celebrations back in 2000. In July Qatada was cleared of conspiring to build an American school in Jordan in the late 1990s. He was deported from Britain last year.

Overnight, tensions flaring again in Ferguson, Missouri, moments after an emotional city council meeting. A group of protesters smashed windows, emptied a local beauty shop. Witnesses say there were sounds of gunshots in the area. Protesters were chanting for the arrest of Darren Wilson, the Ferguson officer who shot and killed Michael Brown.

Just released video shows suspected cop killer Eric Frein taking part in a Vietnam War reenactment four years ago. According to the film maker, Frein did not get along with others because he thought he had superior knowledge of military history. The manhunt for Frein is now in its 12th day. Police believe he is hiding in the woods, perhaps not far from where he allegedly ambushed and killed a Pennsylvania state trooper.

I want you to look at this dramatic video of a rescue in Texas. You can hear the frantic cry for help from a woman who got pinned down between her submerged vehicle and the canal wall there. The entire ordeal was captured by a local news crew in El Paso who actually got into the waist deep water to help save the woman. After nearly 15 minutes they were finally able to get her out. Amazing video to see.

BALDWIN: Amazing. She went on her merry way afterwards.

BERMAN: Yes, but nice to see the news crew got in there to help the woman out. We weren't just watching.

BALDWIN: No, we weren't. All right, Berman, thank you very much.

And coming up, America on high alert, word of possible revenge attacks by home-grown so-called lone wolf terrorists. It has law enforcement coast to coast on edge.

Also, Secretary of State John Kerry certainly has his work cut out for him trying to get allies on board for a long fight against ISIS. His live interview with our own Christiane Amanpour coming up here on NEW DAY. Also this morning, insight from Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John

Kirby, White House spokesman Josh Earnest, and former NATO commander General Wesley Clark. Stay right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY everyone. The Pentagon says air strikes will be ramping up in Syria. But here in the United States there is growing concern about homegrown terrorists seeking revenge for the strikes overseas. Now law enforcement officials nationwide are beefing up security. Our justice correspondent, Pamela Brown, is here with more. Good morning, Pamela.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, John. Across the country law enforcement is on heightened alert. Homeland Security and the FBI sent out a bulletin warning that the air strikes in Syria may embolden homegrown extremist who sympathize with Al Qaeda or Syria to strike.

Now, this bulletin is asking law enforcement agencies to be vigilant, asking them to scrutinize social media and be on the lookout for any changes in behavior or appearance of extremists they may be tracking, for example, if the suddenly drop off the radar, suddenly shut off their social media account.

BROWN: For example, if they suddenly drop off the radar, suddenly shut off their social media account.

And it's important to note here, in the wake of this bulletin, federal officials tell me they have no knowledge of any direct threats in the U.S. This is just as a precaution.

And this as we learn more about the alleged plotting by the al Qaeda group, Khorasan, that pushed U.S. military to strike them Monday night. A U.S. intelligence source says the group had acquired materials and was in an advanced stage of carrying out an attack on the U.S. but no specific targets are known. That's key point there, John.

BERMAN: All right, let's talk more about this, Pamela. We're going to bring in Juliette Kayyem; she's a CNN senior security analyst. She used to work in Homeland Security.

And, Juliette, you've been on the inside of Homeland Security in situations like this. So based on what you know, is this warning to law enforcement around the country to be on alert, is this just standard operating procedure?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, it absolutely is. So in this instance, Homeland Security is sort of a consumer of the intelligence that's coming from the CIA, foreign intelligence agencies. They're assessing it and then sending out what's called bulletins to local and state police departments, to tell them, one, the most important thing, there is no specific threat. But any logical reading of what's happening in the world will tell you that it's likely to inflame passions and there are lone wolves out there, who may have no ties to any terrorist group except in their own head, who might attack.

So this is pro forma, but part of what the department does, which is essentially communicate to the homeland, and all these different police departments who have no access to the intelligence that the federal government does.

BERMAN: No, it may be common sense, but still important to do. Pamela, do we have any information yet about how effective the attacks on this Khorasan group in Syria might have been? Were they able, these air strikes, to disrupt whatever planning might have been going on there?

BROWN: Well, officials are saying that they were successful with the strikes in disrupting active plotting by al Qaeda and ISIS, John. They targeted a training camp as well as command and control facilities linked to this group.

Officials are still assessing the success of the strike. And, of course, the key here is whether they were able to take out the leaders in the Khorasan group. One of the leaders, Muhsin al Fadhli, was actually in Osama bin Laden's inner circle. He was connected to the 9/11 terror attacks. So he's someone that they would want to take out. And there others in that group. And that is key, because if they weren't able to take out those leaders, then there is the potential for them to still carry out what they were plotting.

BERMAN: And, Juliette, it's very interesting, what we saw over the last 24 hours puts an exclamation point on a lot of things that have been going on for really the last month-plus or so. These warnings at the airports overseas and whatnot. Apparently Khorasan perhaps connected to that, a possible bombing plot. It's a window on what security and intelligence officials have been worried about for some time.

KAYYEM: That's exactly right. I mean, looking back now at the last two months, sort of hints at what was happening in Britain or Australia now start to make sense.

And from the perspective of why did we go in now, I mean first of all, here's a terrorist organization whose sole intent is the U.S. It's just -- they have no interest in any other political mission. Second, they clearly had the means, or at least the technology, to plan an attack against a Western arline or a U.S. airline. And finally, the most important thing, we were going to bomb in the area to attack ISIS. And so when we talk about how imminent was a terrorist attack, part of it is what are the atmospherics the terrorist group is working under. And so it makes sense, looking at it now, why we would attack both ISIS and the al Qaeda remnants in the area simultaneously.

BERMAN: I wonder if you could decode, Juliette, some of the language we've heard about just what imminent means in this case. Because, Pamela, what, they say they were in the final planning stages, perhaps.

BROWN: Right. They say they were in the final planning stages, but that they didn't have a specific place, a marked target, if you will, picked out.

BERMAN: So are we talking days, are we talking weeks, Juliette?

KAYYEM: Well, I think part of imminency is are we about to lose track of this organization? So I'm -- I cannot prove it but I would suspect that we have human assets nearby that are listening in or have access to the terrorist organizations, because the intelligence just seems too good. We have signal intelligence.

And so part of imminency is how much information can we get from the terrorist organization at any given moment? So even though there wasn't a specific place or time, our capacity to disrupt it was essentially imminent at that moment, when we decided to attack ISIS. So it makes sense that you do both simultaneously because otherwise you're going to probably lose access to intelligence and not be able to disrupt the terrorist attack.

BERMAN: So we have the attacks against ISIS. We have the attacks against Khorasan. And we have this sort of new be on the alert for possible lone wolves, which, Pamela, seems to be almost a third thing here. Because I don't think security officials are saying these are lone wolves that were trained or are somehow in cahoots with Khorasan; these are just potential bad actors who might be inspired by this organization.

BROWN: That's right. This has long been a concern by intelligence officials that there will be these home-grown violent extremists, and these could be people with no concrete ties to any terrorist organization. This could just be someone who sympathizes with al Qaeda, with ISIS. We know that there are about hundreds of individuals being tracked by U.S. officials, who have the potential to be homegrown violent extremists. And so the concern here, John, there's a heightened concern that perhaps these individuals might expedite any plans they may have had to launch an attack here in the homeland.

BERMAN: Could be just a disturbed guy with an internet connection.

BROWN: Exactly right.

BERMAN: Juliette Kayyem, great to have you with us, as always. Pamela Brown, nice to see you up here.

So were there any new air strikes overnight? Now we have no confirmation from the Pentagon just yet, but the military's chief spokesman joins us next with answers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY, everyone. A sobering and startling scenario about the spread of Ebola from the Centers for Disease Control. A new report says the number of cases in Liberia and Sierra Leone could spike to between 550,000 and 1.4 million by January if there is no further help from the international community. We have no change of behavior among locals. We're going to have a live report from Liberia coming up this hour. But those numbers are startling.

A woman was arrested at New York's JFK International Airport for allegedly trying to smuggle two handguns, 350 rounds of ammunition, and 33 pounds of marijuana through security. It was stuffed in boxes of baby wipes, laundry tablets, and kitty litter. The woman was carrying a Canadian passport and trying to fly to Barbados.

The New York Police Department is launching an investigation after video surfaced online appearing to show officers using excessive force against two women, one of whom is pregnant. The incident happened over the weekend in Brooklyn. Police officers wrestled one woman to the ground and moments later the woman is shoved to the ground. No word on the circumstances leading up to that scuffle.

So Chelsea Clinton is going to have a baby any day now. But the gender of that baby still very much a mystery. The world wants to know. So yesterday, at the Clinton Global Initiative, Chelsea opened up to withering questioning from CNN's Fareed Zakaria about her choice to keep the baby's gender under wraps.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHELSEA CLINTON: There's so few mysteries in life, Fareed, in which any answer is a happy one. And so my husband and I decided that we would enjoy this mystery for the nine-plus months that we were granted, and we are eager to find out what God will have given us.

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST: But isn't it strange that the doctors around you know, but you don't know?

CLINTON: No. I think the doctors around me know lots of things that I don't know.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Good answer. President Obama jokingly offered up his motorcade for Chelsea's trip to the hospital when she goes into labor.

And in New York today, President Bill Clinton will be interviewed by CNN's Erin Burnett at a special town hall. You can see excerpts tonight on "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT", and at 9:00 p.m., the complete interview airs. President Bill Clinton, a CNN special town hall with Erin Burnett.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CUOMO: All right, you see it there, we do have breaking news. A U.S. confirming five air strikes carried out overnight -- one in Syria, four in Iraq, all targeting ISIS vehicles and weapons.

Let's get some detail from Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. We've been waiting on this news, Barbara. What do we know?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again, Chris. Let's talk about this air strike in Syria: A coalition aircraft and a U.S. aircraft, so two aircraft going after the same target. We are told it was an ISIS staging area near the Iraq border but inside Syria. This was an area ISIS was using to stage vehicles and personnel to move them across the border into Iraq to spread the fight.

The U.S. aircraft struck this target overnight; the damage assessment still going on, even as U.S. war planes continue to strike ISIS targets across that border in Iraq. But we've seen another target in Syria now.

Interesting, the last couple of targets we've seen in Syria is what the military generally refers to as pop-up targets. They see a target of opportunity, they see vehicles, they see personnel on the ground. And they go after it. They're not right now, by all accounts, doing what they did in that first round, going after those strategic fixed buildings, command centers, headquarters, areas where ISIS commanders may be. We'll have to see if they get back to that.

Chris?

CUOMO: Well, I guess they're going to have many points of objective there, right? Because some of them are built-in infrastructure, like the oil refinery, where they want to take money from ISIS, and the others are the pop-up targets, as you refer.

Are you getting any sense -- we know they don't want to tell you what they do next -- but how varied is the attack in terms of different things they're trying?

STARR: Well, I think you've really hit the point. I mean, any military campaign -- this will be no different. They will go after a broad range of targets. They're going to go after those pop-up targets to keep ISIS from moving additional fighters and additional equipment across the border into Iraq. And they also go after the pop-up targets to keep ISIS from trying to take more territory in Syria.

Those are the sorts of things that are the near-term targets that you see day to day. But they're are also, many people will tell you, still going to have to work and go back against these more strategic targets -- the headquarters, the buildings, where the leadership may be. Because that's what's going to put ISIS back on its heels over the long-term.

So I think a lot of military people, a lot of analysts, are going to be watching over the next couple of days to see where the deeper target list is. They've hit 20 targets in the first round; presumably they're not done with that just yet. Chris?

CUOMO: And what looms largest right now, Barbara, is what we haven't heard. We know that this isn't about taking out a number of humans, but we are going to hear about who was killed in these, and that will come out and the military will have to respond to that propaganda that comes out and that information. And of course who will be doing the fighting. That's still unclear, as well as the mission being somewhat unclear at this point.

So Barbara, thank you for staying on it. We need the reporting. We'll come back to you when you have it.

Brooke?

BALDWIN: OK, Barabra, thank you.