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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

A Look at If Turkey Will Join the Fight Against ISIS; Cancellations at O'Hare Airport; Military Airstrikes on ISIS; Woman Beheaded in Oklahoma

Aired September 26, 2014 - 12:30   ET

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


LIEUTENANT COLONEL RICK FRANCONA (RETIRED), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: And General Clark brings up a good point. We don't know what's on the other side of that ridge.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: But couldn't there be some kind of covert intelligence from the Turks on that side of the border to at least call in --

FRANCONA: There could. And I think that Turkey, as everyone else has said, the Turkey portion of this is kind of the wildcard.

And when will the Turks get involved? I think the answer to that is when the Turks feel threatened, and right now ISIS has not threatened the Turks, and I think ISIS is smart enough not to threaten the Turks, because all of us have worked with the Turks, and they are a serious military.

BANFIELD: Yeah. Well, that would change everything without question.

What Fareed said, I think, just really astounding that in that meeting with Prime Minister Erdogan there was an indication that the tides could turn.

You've been watching incredible breaking news, a live firefight on CNN's cameras at the Turkish/Syrian border between ISIS fighters and Kurdish Syrian fighters.

Night has fallen, but that doesn't mean, as you just heard "Spider" Marks say, that the fighting hasn't stopped.

We're continuing our live breaking news, all of this as the British parliament votes overwhelmingly in favor to join the air strike campaign, the coalition of those who are dropping bombs on ISIS fighters inside Iraq.

More on this after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Live breaking news at this hour on CNN, we've been witnessing really a remarkable scene on the Turkish/Syrian border really in between Aleppo up north right at the Turkish border.

What you're seeing on your screen, just within the hour, a firefight between is fighters, what you're seeing on the screen on a ridge fighting against Syrian Kurdish fighters who can't be seen in this picture but can certainly see the tracers.

There's also small arms fire that's been playing out and the people in the foreground who are cheering are refugees who are watching this all from about two to three miles away, and within those refugees, in that crowd, is our own Phil Black, or CNN photojournalist Claudia Otto, witnessed through his lens that the ISIS fighters did take on casualties. It's been said that some of the ISIS colleagues were trying to rescue some of their downed fellow fighters.

Again, just a remarkable live firefight playing out on CNN just in the last hour. It is now nightfall. It is 7:35 p.m. in that area., so it is dark, but make no mistake, it doesn't mean that the fighting has ended.

And all of this happening at the same time that a very significant vote has taken place in the United Kingdom parliament. The British have voted to go to war, effectively saying, yes to joining the coalition in its air strikes effort against is fighters, but in Iraq not in Syria.

That measure was only to send British forces, firefight forces, air strike forces, to take out ISIS fighters inside Iraq's territory, not inside Syria. But that vote really a significant number as well, 524 to 43. That all just happened within the last few moments.

I want to bring in our two guests who have been very, very helpful to illustrate the significance of what we've been watching on our screens. General "Spider" Marks and Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona are with me.

"Spider," if I could just ask you, the Turks, and the significance of this happening so close to the Turkish border, we could literally witness it from behind the camera lens, where the Turkish armored vehicles, Turkish forces, and all of those refugees.

The refugee situation alone that those fighters have been causing -- in the last four days, over 200,000 of the refugees have been forced over into the Turkish refugees have been forced over into the Turk irk border -- is that not perhaps not a good indication for them to join and fight is?

MAJOR GENERAL JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Oh, absolutely, Ashleigh. You know, certainly, Turkey from the outset has established by necessity, job one, as Fareed Zakaria has already indicated, that they have a humanitarian disaster unprecedented in the region right now, and so they have to account for that.

But clearly as we've discussed, actions on the ground are incredibly chaotic and very dynamic and immensely fluid and what that means is Turkey's priorities may shift. Clearly, they have to have priority one on this refugee, this humanitarian disaster and has to be accommodated.

Mission one alpha may be we have to make sure that we can protect the integrity of the Turkish borders with this ungoverned space that we've seen, the border between Syria and Iraq is completely irrelevant, it's gone away and needs to be reestablished and that's happening right now, hopefully.

Turkey sees this as a potential challenge. I doubt ISIS is going to be able to generate enough power and momentum to get across the Turkish border. It's imminent and real and needs to be addressed. Turkey could engage but may choose its own type of engagement and might be a ground engagement of some sort to go after ISIS fighters and ensure that they don't come back and establish some type of a buffer zone.

Could actually be done. It's not unprecedented. Turkey has done that before. Gone across borders and established outposts and capabilities that aren't directly in their territory.

BANFIELD: To the notion of what the ISIS fighters are looking at, what they want and what they perhaps do recognize as the border when things can get much uglier, perhaps it's been easy to traipse across Syria where Bashar al Assad has not put up much resistance in that area.

Turkey is a whole other story. What do the fighters want in this area? I'm very nervous for the people on camera, very nervous for our CNN crew.

FRANCONA: We were talking to Phil earlier about this. His sense of this is ISIS is more interested in the territory, in the terrain, seizing and controlling the terrain than they are with the people that are there.

So it does not look like they're getting in the way of the Kurds fleeing into Turkey which creates a bigger headache for the Turks but they want them out of there. They want that territory. They want to seal off the border.

And I think "Spider" is right. I don't think ISIS is going to try to take on the Turks right now. They're going to respect that border.

Now, down the road, things may change, but for right now, I think that border is going to stay secure. There's going to be a lot more Kurds going across that border into Turkey.

BANFIELD: I bet there's been a time or two where -- oh, yeah. Go ahead, "Spider."

MARKS: I was just going to follow up on what Rick said. If we look at this thing very precisely. If ISIS wanted to go across the border into Turkey, and to infiltrate in some way, they wouldn't have done it as an armed force and try to take it on.

They would have dropped their weapons. They would have integrated themselves into this flow of refugees and gone across the border that way.

So what we see now, I think is --

BANFIELD: More stealthy. MARKS: Well, it's pretty well defined that it's not as stealthy as

they could have made it if they wanted to get into Turkey. They're looking to control terrain. That may be their ultimate downfall, I think, as the narrative has kind of taken shape here.

BANFIELD: That's a great point.

I'll bet both of you, in fact, have seen a thing or two on board an aircraft carrier in your careers. It is quite something, the remarkable noise and firepower when F-18s take off from the decks of an aircraft carrier.

And after the break we're going to take you there live, the U.S.S. Bush aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf where the sorties are being sent, and you're going to see it for yourself after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Some incredible breaking news this hour, live firefights, ISIS fighters taking on Syrian Kurds at the Turkish border, all of it captured on CNN cameras.

The nightfall now has quieted some of that air fire, but in the meantime, the big question has been, what about air strikes? Why aren't there any there?

One of the big questions is a lot of the U.S. air power directed against ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq, both come from the aircraft carrier the George H. W. Bush in the Persian Gulf, and CNN's Becky Anderson is there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's around 3:00 in the afternoon here on the aircraft carrier the U.S.S. George H. W. Bush.

What you're witnessing are the F-18 Hornets and Super Hornets returning from either training or armed missions. (INAUDIBLE).

Land. It's incredibly noisy. It's incredibly hard (INAUDIBLE) pushes you back. It's quite (INAUDIBLE) - it's quite something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD,: It is remarkable. Our Becky Anderson with just a terrific assignment. There is nothing like the force on being on one of those aircraft carriers when those FA-18s take off for those sorties (ph). Thank you to Becky Anderson for that quick look at what the sorties look like when they begin. Certainly they look a lot different when they get to their targets.

We've also got some breaking news this hour that I need to bring you from one of the busies airports on the planet, O'Hare, Chicago, where thousands and thousands of people right now are seeing their travel plans blinking on the screen to canceled. And it's not just in Chicago, either, but all of the connecting airports that are serviced through Chicago like a domino effect. Our Ted Rowlands is there right now with the story.

Fill me in as to the story behind these mass cancelations and where this airport isn't get back up and running?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ashleigh, this all started early this morning in the 6:00 a.m. hour, Central Time, at a facility about 40 miles away from here in Aurora, Illinois, where a contract employee there, according to local law enforcement, tried to kill himself. Apparently slit his wrists and then started a fire in this communications center. And that center, 40 miles away from here, is responsible for guiding planes in and out of O'Hare, Midway, and Milwaukee.

So immediately, when that fire started, the airports were shut down and there has been a ground stop ever since. There are some flights that are trickling in here with the help of other centers in the Midwest, specifically Indianapolis is able to guide some planes in. But for the most part, take a look at the sign. If you're traveling out of O'Hare, you're going to get one of those red canceled words next to your flight, sadly, and thousands of people literally today here have shown up trying to get to wherever they are hoping to go, and they are being met with long lines and sadly really no estimated time for the full flight operations to continue.

And you can see right now, there are just people milling around the areas and standing in these lines. We're at the American terminal here in terminal three at O'Hare, but this is going in all of the terminals, not only at O'Hare, but also over at Midway Airport. And there are a lot of people that are stranded now around the Midwest, people that were flying into O'Hare that couldn't land that are now in Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Des Moines. It is a major nightmare which continues here at this hour. Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: So, Ted, on the bottom of the screen, we have a banner saying, you know, police say this isn't terrorism. And then the secondary story, the hundreds of flights canceled, et cetera. But more about this contracted employee. What else do we know about this story behind the story that you're covering right there?

ROWLANDS: Well, we know this is a male contractor that was working at this facility, this FAA facility in Aurora, which is about 40 miles from here. And he showed up to work this morning. And for whatever reason, slit his wrists. At the same time, or either before or just after, started this fire in that facility. And the fire was severe enough where the facility had to be evacuated immediately, and shut down immediately. So it had an immediate effect. And there's -- the FBI is working with local law enforcement. The man survived his self- inflicted wounds, so they are questioning him, trying to figure out his motivation. But local authorities are quick to say this was not a terrorist-type scenario. This isn't a lone wolf scenario. This is just an individual that, for whatever reason, tried to kill himself and set the communications facility on fire.

BANFIELD: All right. Well, Ted Rowlands, keep us posted. We're being told that, you know, somewhere around 11, 12 minutes from now that things are starting to get back up and running. Well, at least that's when things might get back up and running. So we'll check in with you periodically to see how they can clear up the backlog. Ted Rowlands for us live at Chicago O'Hare. What a disaster. But, again, at this early stage, all of those different organizations involved, the ATF, the FBI, the FAA, the Aurora Police and Fire, as well as the Kane County Sheriff's Office, all assisting, each of them saying at this point, this early indication, it is not terrorism related.

In the meantime, just before we went to Ted Rowlands, we showed you a very -- a very different other kind of runway. One out on the open sea. It is the USS George H.W. Bush. Our Becky Anderson has been collecting some remarkable video of the action on board that carrier and those brave fighters who are heading out and doing those sorties in Iraq and Syria. The air strikes have been ongoing for quite some time now and Becky's had an inside look at what it looks like and what it sounds like. It is deafening and it is remarkable. The sheer power that you can witness in the seconds that it takes to lift those aircraft off of that floating aircraft carrier. More on that coming up after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Breaking news. I want to take you to some amazing images that our CNN's Becky Anderson has been bringing back from the Persian Gulf from aboard the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier. As many of those FA-18s have been returning from their missions, carrying out air strikes in Iraq and Syria. She's been describing some of the remarkable noise and heat that's generated when these missions actually take place.

I want to bring in Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona.

Granted, Colonel Francona, you are air force. I need you to weigh in on this. And just give me a bit of a feel for the size, the scope, the capacity, the capabilities, the ordnance they have stored on board. Just give me a real rundown of what we're seeing.

FRANCONA: This is a unique capability that very few countries enjoy, and we probably more than anyone else. This is 50 acres of sovereign American territory floating around the waters anywhere it needs to be. This is American power projection at its finest. You can put -- each one of these is the length of three football fields. It carries almost 100 aircraft which ranges from attack, to reconnaissance, to this one right here, which is electronic jammer, the one that's about to take off, and it's a full package. It's part of a carrier strike group. They go out and can, at a moment's notice, put American power in the air where it needs to be. They're playing a key role in the Gulf here.

Now, these aircraft are, of course, have to be built especially to take the stress of being catapulted off of this deck. And in the space of about three or four seconds, they're going to be going over 150 miles an hour.

BANFIELD: Just unbelievable.

FRANCONA: And conversting (ph), when they land, they're actually being snatched out of the air and thrown down to the deck. Watch that, right there, coming to a dead stop.

BANFIELD: With that (INAUDIBLE) - oh.

FRANCONA: Very, very quickly. The g-forces and the stress on the aircraft, and they do this day in, day out, in any weather, and at night. This is a unique capability that we enjoy.

BANFIELD: Amazing. Stress on the aircraft? The stress on the pilots as well. Those remarkable heroes.

FRANCONA: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

BANFIELD: Colonel Francona, I knew you were the man for the job.

FRANCONA: Young men and women. Young men and women do this, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Exactly. As it turns out from the UAE as well.

Colonel Francona, thank you so much. It's so good to have you here. Your insight is just impeccable. Air and land.

I want to switch gears for a moment because we do have this very distressing story that's coming out of Oklahoma. It is a horrifying workplace killing. It happened yesterday near Oklahoma City. One woman is dead, and it's the way that she died that is raising a lot of red flags. She was beheaded at a food warehouse. Another woman also was badly hurt. And the man who allegedly did this is right now in the hospital with a gunshot wound. There is some new information to add to this very bizarre and shocking incident in Oklahoma. CNN's Martin Savidge is standing by.

Obviously - obviously, Martin, whenever we hear the term beheaded now, it raises a lot of concern that this could potentially be something related to the calls that ISIS has put out worldwide to take this fight home, individual cells, lone wolves, that kind of thing, but do we know anything to that end?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Authorities right now are downplaying and saying that they have not found anything that would say that this was a terrorist inspired or in some way this might have been an ISIS inspired act. However, there are warning flags there and they are being investigated.

Number one, the suspect involved here, and as you say he survived, he's 30-year-old Alton Nolen, was apparently a convert to Islam. And there were reports by co-workers that he was attempting, at times, to have conversations and try to convert fellow employees there. And so naturally that's going to be investigated because -- and the FBI has been brought in in this case at the request of local law enforcement to gauge the social media footprint of this particular suspect. In other words, to see what kind of stuff was he listening to, who was he contacting with, what kind of stuff was he posting.

And so that's going to be carefully scrutinized here because the question is, is it organized? Probably. There is no indication that. Could this man have been inspired in some way? Well, that's what they want to make sure either did or did not happen. But as you point out, it's the nature of the crime, horrific beheading of a woman and the attack on another woman that was stopped by a gunshot. So it's all being carefully investigated at this hour. We should point out the man had been terminated just minutes before, so there is that running in the background as well as the possibility of motive, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: And then you just mentioned he was stopped ultimately because he was shot, but there are some reports saying he was shot by police. There are some reports saying he was shot by someone who was working at the warehouse. Do we know anything more about that?

SAVIDGE: He was actually -- both are correct. In other words, he was stopped by the COO of the company, this is a food processing plant, and the man also happens to be a deputy or a reserve deputy sheriff, and he had a rifle and apparently used that rifle and authorities say thank goodness he did. He's being hailed as a hero because they believe that this man would not have stopped his attacks, definitely would not have stopped the attack on the second woman, and she is in stable condition now. So he is hailed as a hero for being able to stop that attack.

BANFIELD: Just remarkable. All right. Certainly I know you'll update us as you get more details on that story, Martin Savidge. But very, very distressing details indeed. Thanks so much.

And just to recap our top story, just an incredible fire fight that's been playing out live on CNN's cameras at the Turkish border between Syrian Kurds and ISIS fighters. ISIS fighters taking on casualties. Tracer fire being witnessed on camera. Cheering crowds watching from two to three miles away. Refugees who fled those very forces. They're watching under fire.

Brianna Keilar is stepping in for Wolf Blitzer and she begins right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Brianna Keilar reporting from Washington. Wolf Blitzer has the day off.

And you are looking right now at some live pictures from the Pentagon. We are waiting right now for Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs chairman