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More Strikes in Syria; Jeter Plays Final Games; U.S. Officials Say No Indication of Subway Terror Plot; Fire Disables Great Lakes Region ATC Tower

Aired September 26, 2014 - 08:00   ET

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


ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan and Michaela Pereira.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome back to NEW DAY. It is Friday, September 26th, 8:00 in the east. Brooke Baldwin is here.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello.

CUOMO: Great to have you.

BALDWIN: Because?

CUOMO: An amazing morning for Kate Bolduan and her beautiful husband and now beautiful baby girl. It's going to be great stuff, we'll show you pictures and tell you what's going on. We do have a lot of news to talk to you about first. Breaking overnight a new round of U.S.- led air strikes targeting ISIS in Iraq and Syria. And here at home, U.S. officials say there is no evidence of an imminent attack but that isn't stopping officials from upping security in major cities after a warning from Iraq's prime minister about an ISIS plot against mass transit.

BALDWIN: We have more on that for you this morning. Also the FBI believes it has identified this masked terrorist seen speaking in these three different ISIS beheading videos. And in Britain this morning, live pictures here of parliament. Prime Minister David Cameron pressing members of parliament for approval to strike ISIS in Iraq, Iraq and Iraq only. So we have all angles covered for you this Friday beginning with CNN's Jason Carroll. Jason, good morning.

JASON CARROLL: Good morning to you, Brooke. Iraq's prime minister had U.S. security officials quickly trying to sort out intelligence, this after the prime minister said there was a plot to attack subways in the United States. U.S. officials are downplaying that intelligence simply saying it is not credible.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CARROLL: At subways in major cities across the country this morning, commuters can expect increased security after Iraq's new prime minister blind-sided U.S. intelligence officials Thursday telling reporters that Iraqi intelligence had uncovered an alleged plot to attack subways in the U.S. and Paris. Federal officials now say there is no credible threat. BRETT MCGURK, DEPUTY ASSISSTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR IRAQ AND IRAN:

We're obviously in very close consultation with the Iraqi government. There is no specific credible threat whatsoever that they have uncovered to the United States.

CARROLL: Offering further clarification that the prime minister was referring to the general threat ISIS poses to the United States. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city's police commissioner reassuring the public by taking the subway to a news conference to ease concerns.

BILL DE BLASIO, MAYOR, NEW YORK CITY: We are convinced that New Yorkers are safe. We're convinced people should go about their normal routine. Terrorists want to us live in fear. We refuse to live in fear.

CARROLL: This latest headline coming on the heels of U.S. air strikes on targets in Syria this week, aimed at destabilizing the terror group and an al Qaeda offshoot. The Khorasan group. FBI director James Comey telling us the threat from the al Qaeda cells may still be out there saying he's quote, not confident at all, that plotting by the Khorasan group was disrupted. Sources say the group is plotting against western targets including commercial passenger jets, testing explosive devices that could be hidden, masked as tooth paste tubes and other non-metallic items packed inside luggage.

JOHN KIRBY, READ ADMIRAL, PETAGON SPOKESMAN: We can't say with any great definition or specificity that we know we disrupted that particular plot. We do know we hit the targets we were aiming at.

CARROLL: Also on Thursday FBI officials confirm they have finally identified the man heard in all three of those chilling ISIS execution videos.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

CARROLL: As for the alleged subway plot, security officials say while they do not believe it could be credible this time, they point out that since 9/11, there has been at least a dozen credible terror plots against New York City.

BALDWIN: Jason, thank you very much.

CUOMO: Part of the reality post 9/11, we have to live with it and figure out how to be smart about it.

Breaking over night, another round of U.S.-led air strikes pounding Syria and Iraq. We bring in CNN Washington correspondent Joe Johns monitoring the latest. Joe what do we know about this?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Chris, U.S. central command confirming ten air strikes Thursday and early today in both Iraq as well as Syria, as part of the campaign to degrade and destroy ISIS capabilities in those two countries. U.S. military forces taking out targets of opportunity on the ground, making it more difficult for ISIS forces to operate freely and out in the open. Five of the air strikes in Iraq were south and southwest of Kirkuk, damaging vehicles on the ground, including one minor resistant ambush protected vehicle, they also took out a bunker and a guard shack west of Baghdad, as well as a command and control node and a check point near Al-Qa'im. In Syria, centcom says there were three air strikes south and south east of Deir Ezzor damaging four tanks. Important to say, these are very incremental steps in the war against ISIS. But in the big picture the aim of the U.S. military is to make it difficult for ISIS to move assets and otherwise conduct their operations in those areas, Chris.

CUOMO: Very complex, they have to work on their intelligence, going mainly now off pop-up targets, what they see readily available. That's why they keep say it will be a long time. Joe Johns, thank you very much for the reporting this morning. Brooke?

BALDWIN: Let's have a bigger conversation here about what's happening in the UK in parliament, we are joined by former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Bill Richardson and CNN senior commentator Jay Carney, former White House press secretary. And if we have them, let's throw up the live pictures for the British part amount. They've been debating whether or not they join the U.S.-led coalition air strikes, specifically in Iraq. Gentlemen, good morning first to both of you and Mr. Ambassador first, I think to quote Christiane Amanpour the word she used in watching British parliament, riveting. Give us a sense of what we're watching here first?

BILL RICHARDSON (D), FORMER GOVERNOR, NEW MEXICO: What we're watching is a strategy unfolding by the administration, first you get the Arab countries, the Saudis, the UAR, UAE, Qatar, Jordan involved in the military operation. The next step, though, is our allies for the real serious air strikes. We are taking the lead but France is going to be need, Britain is going to be need, and what is happening is the leaders of France and England are preparing their politics to make sure that they get the public support. I suspect because of the beheadings and the international coalition effort at the U.N., a very successful week at the U.N., that they'll get the support to conduct the air strikes so it's the politics, the dynamics, the internal work that is taking place.

BALDWIN: So that's kind of what's at play there in London. Jay, to you, just thinking of the president of course when we think of the usual suspects and allies, Britain being one of them as far as helping the United States I all but, perhaps, assume they will vote yes on helping with the air strikes in Iraq but perhaps no when it comes to Syria, and that is not exactly how the administration would like to see that play out.

JAY CARNEY, CNN SENIOR COMMENTATOR: No, that's right, Brooke. The president has been very careful as ambassador Richardson was saying in constructing this coalition in a methodical way so that he can present the best case both here at home and to our key allies in Britain and France, not just the leaders who were with him but to the people of those countries. As you know, in the past, we have seen a critical vote in the UK not go our way and we need to, in order to make this a stronger case against ISIS not just in Iraq but in Syria, we need all of our allies with us. I think the president will do everything he can to try to make that happen. BALDWIN: Jay, just referenced the vote last year when the British

parliament said no to the strikes in Syria, that was over something entirely different but nevertheless it was a no. Why not? Why not have the UK get on board when it comes to Syria? What is at stake for them?

RICHARDSON: Well, besides the dramatic show of that beheading, Britain is a leader in NATO. And they have a sophisticated air capability. So we need them, But their internal politics have been such that you recall that Tony Blair took enormous grief with his involvement n Iraq. So what needs to happen is for Prime Minister Cameron and the British political parties to get behind the air strikes. I think eventually, Brooke, they will support what happens in Syria.

BALDWIN: You do?

RICHARDSON: I do think eventually.

BALDWIN: How long will it take?

RICHARDSON: Well, you know, it may take a little while but I think the sentiment I'm suspecting after talking to a lot of people here at the U.N. That this coalition is really a very strong and very forward-looking coalition, and we're going to see substantial military involvement. What we don't want is for countries to join and say we're going to help but all they do is provide food and blankets.

BALDWIN: Right, not to play that down, but --

RICHARDSON: Not to put it down, but we need air strikes. It can't be just the U.S. although we're taking the lead and we're the best at it, and it's showing results.

BALDWIN: Okay, so here is the prime minister, and he basically said to these MP's, these members of parliament, hey, you need to come back because we need to have this open debate and vote on this. Jay, you see where I'm going. Obviously, the question is why is this not happening? We have had members of Congress on NEW DAY all week long and pressing them as far as why are you not back at work? Why are you not having an open debate? Why is the President not saying to congress, we need to debate about this, we need to vote.

CARNEY: Well there's a bit of a conspiracy here in which both parties are involved, which is nobody wants to test that, because we have midterm elections coming up, you know, members of Congress as I know ambassador Richardson recalls can be allergic to tough votes especially when the voters are about to go to the ballot box. And the president would prefer, at least for now, not to have the potential for disruption in Congress of this plan on the horizon. So at least for now I think there's a sort of quiet conspiracy between all sides to put this off.

BALDWIN: What are your thoughts on that?

RICHARDSON: I agree with Jay. Right now politicians both parties they don't want to take a vote. So conveniently they're leaving to campaign, but I think eventually maybe after the recess is over and the campaign is over, they should take a vote.

BALDWIN: Get on the record.

RICHARDSON: This is a major war that the United States is involved in. But Democrats, you know, they have their progressive base that is not supportive of air strikes and activity like this, and then Republicans, I think they're playing their politics. They don't want to give the president a vote on a national security issue that is the right thing to do. That's how I see it.

BALDWIN: Okay, back to this bigger picture here, we'll let that go for now. Turkey, to you. We know that the president called President Erdogan yesterday from Air Force one, had some sort of conversation because I think it was the Wall Street Journal said that their quote was Erdogan has been conspicuously absent thus far, as far as this coalition goes. You have this NATO nation, they are right there. You look at the geography and you can see the black ISIS flag from the border. If anything, helping stop the flow of foreign fighters in and out of turkey, but why aren't they doing more?

RICHARDSON: Well, that's very disappointing. Erdogan just was made President, got elected, he got his hostages out.

BLADWIN: Right.

RICHARDSON: He's a member of NATO. We really need them for humanitarian assistance, they're strategically located for their military operations. I think he's playing his Muslim politics. I think he sees a vacuum in Muslim leadership and he wants to go in there and, for instance it shouldn't be Egypt. It shouldn't be the Saudis. It's got to be me, and he has that internal strength right now, because he was reelected but it's disappointing because we really worked hard with Turkey to make them part of NATO. We pushed that. We pushed them getting into the European Union, and if they want to be part of Europe, the European union eventually, they have to join. I think eventually they will, but he's playing politics.

BALDWIN: Jay, how does the president get them on board?

CARNEY: I think he and Erdogan have a long-standing relationship. They've spent a lot of time on the phone. Whenever they get on the phone the call is lengthy and covers a lot of subjects, but I think there are complicated regional politics. Turkey and turkey's leaders are being short sighted about how they view their regional influence, their opposition to Assad, how they want to be players in what happens in Syria, and it's cost the region already because of the way foreign fighters have been able to flood into the region, into Syria, so I hope, I think the coalition should hope that this turns around. That with the election behind him, with the hostages freed that Erdogan will come to the table here and do the right thing.

BALDWIN: Jay Carney in Washington, thank you, sir, very much. Mr. Ambassador, Bill Richardson, thank you for the time this morning. I really appreciate it. And now to John Berman, who is in for Michaela, for some of the day's

top stories. John, good morning.

JOHN BERMAN, ANCHOR, CNN NEW DAY: Brooke, we have breaking news, all flights have been stopped at Chicago's O'Hare and midway airports because of a fire at an FAA radar facility in Aurora, Illinois. The facility is a traffic control center. All the employees have been evacuated. One person was injured. Pilots on the ground have been told to shut off their engines. O'Hare, one of the busiest airports in the world, guys, this is going to be a mess. Expect extensive flight delays out of Chicago.

Happening now, pedestrian bridge has collapsed onto a busy Detroit freeway snarling traffic and injuring one person. One car was crushed underneath when it collapsed. The driver was not seriously hurt. Officials say a truck driving northbound may have struck the bridge with a hitch causing the entire bridge to collapse. The blockage has caused a major backup.

Jesse Matthew, suspected of abducting a University of Virginia student, Hannah Graham is expected to be extradited to Virginia today after an arrest in Texas. Police are searching for Graham, who was last seen with Matthew before she disappeared 13 days ago. We are also learning that Matthew was investigated in a 2002 rape case but never charged because of lack of evidence.

It happened in the Bronx but the ending pure Hollywood. Derek Jeter in the final at-bat of his final home game of his career drove in the winning run, a walk off single in the ninth as the Yankees beat the orioles 6-5. Derek Jeter will play his final games in Boston but he is not going to play short stop. He wanted his final games at short, the position he manned his entire career, he will dh for one or two games in Fenway. The Red Sox and all the fans in Boston are thrilled, very excited to see Jeter head up there and play his final days.

BALDWIN: You were at the game last night.

CUOMO: I was, great moment to be there, got to get Mario his special Jeter hat, it was very cool. My buddy Erica Avrum (ph), we've been to lots of Yankee games together. I love Derek Jeter because of what he was off the field.

BERMAN: He said he heard the people yelling thank you, thank you, thank you and he was thinking to himself for what? All I was doing was coming and doing what I love every day.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Just imagine this, and you think it's all about numbers and money and about the vanity of the sport, he said his favorite thing in baseball is every time he touches home plate because he helps his team.

BALDWIN: His little boy called during the commercial break this morning and he said today is the day you got to wear the Yankees hat to school. CUOMO: Right. And then he hung up on me.

BALDWIN: Bye-bye, Dad.

CUOMO: Iraq's prime minister making news this morning, he says he has intel indicating ISIS was planning to attack rail lines in Europe and the U.S. including New York City's subway system, all at risk he says, but is that credible information? What we know about the chatter ahead.

BALDWIN: And we are keeping a close eye on what's been happening in Ferguson, Missouri. You see the protests. This isn't old video. This is just in the last 24 hours, happening again, protesters, people upset, the Ferguson police chief now has issued this public apology, so what happened when he was face to face with this crowd? We'll show you ahead.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL DE BLASIO, MAYOR OF NEW YORK: We are convinced that New Yorkers are safe. We're convinced people should go about their normal routine. Terrorists want to us live in fear. We refuse to live in fear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: The mayor there, the commissioner, Bill Bratton over one shoulder, his deputy, John Miller, over the other all agreeing that there is no specific threat.

However, we're hearing from a former head of state from Iraq that there could be a plot to attack the New York City subway system.

So who do you believe? Well, our officials, as I'm telling you, say they believe there's no indication of such a plot other than this warning from Iraq's prime minister. He says his country uncovered the alleged plan.

So we also then have to build into the picture the FBI, the director James Comey. He says he's, quote, "not confident that airstrikes in Syria have stopped the Khorasan group from carrying out an attack."

So the state officials say they're not worried, the FBI says the Khorasan threat is still alive. So what does it mean?

Joining us now CNN justice correspondent Evan Perez, CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director Tom Fuentes and Phil Mudd, CNN counterterrorism analyst and former CIA counterterrorism official.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Evan, let me start with you because I mangled my read there. Let's get the reporting straight for us, OK? Who thinks there is a threat? Who thinks there is not?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, it is very confusing. The Iraqi prime minister said that they have intelligence developed locally that there was this plot to attack the subways in France and in the United States.

Now all day yesterday I made a dozen calls and even this morning I'm hearing from officials that there is no known plot against subways in the United States.

Now, given that obviously, you recall the 2004 Madrid train bombings, 2005 tube bombings in London and is New York is always a top target for these terrorists. So U.S. officials say obviously there is something they always keep in mind and they're always worried there might be these types of attacks and so you saw New York raise, add some more security to the subway stations, and that's their response today, simply we're going to keep watching this, but there's nothing, nothing indicating a plot.

CUOMO: Philip Mudd, why would the Iraqi prime minister lie, if he either has the information or he doesn't? It's not that it won't get carried out. He's just saying I have the information and you have the New York officials say, yes, we don't buy it.

PHILIP MUDD, COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Chris, finally I feel like after all the time I talked to you, I get to take you into my old life. Let's sort the spaghetti. The prime minister I suspect got it backwards, that is, in my business you get a piece of information like that, apparently the information is from a detainee you've got to go through a validation process that might take months.

I remember threats that we dealt with that took more than a year to resolve, and some threats I remember we never resolved. We could never quite figure out what the terrorists were talking about.

So at the beginning of the process you get a vague threat like what the prime minister was talking about. You look at whether other security services or detainees are talking about the same thing, you look at whether you have informants who can validate it, you look at whether you have tactical information where terrorists are referring to something like this and slowly the puzzle pieces come together.

To close, Chris, I suspect what happened is the prime minister had one puzzle piece and he laid it on the table too early.

CUOMO: And I have to tell you, I've had more than one nightmare about being in your former life with you, Philip Mudd, I want to you know that, not a place I would ever want to be.

But, Fuentes, then we have your man, Comey, the head of the FBI, saying, hey, we don't think we stopped the Khorasan threat. We think something's going on, which takes you back to this plausible scenario that something is afoot that we have to be worried about.

What's your take? TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, what --

(CROSSTALK)

MUDD: I'm sorry, go ahead.

CUOMO: No, that's all right, I don't like stopping you, Mudd, because of what I said before; I'm scared of you.

But, Tom, go ahead; make your point.

FUENTES: Chris, I think the whole problem here is that the military says that they hit what they were aiming at, but there's no way to know -- our military doesn't know it, our intelligence people don't know that Khorasan group was actually at that location and if they were at that location, they were actually killed; and if they were killed that was everybody involved in the plot that was under way.

So there's too many questions for him to be confident that the Khorasan group has been eliminated or that threat has been eliminated.

I think that's all he was trying to say, that merely knowing that the military struck what it was aiming at, it's one thing if you're talking about an oil refinery out in the middle of the field and you can see the damage from aerial reconnaissance. It's another thing to say that everybody was in a building you were aiming at and got the right people. They just don't know, so he's not confident about that.

CUOMO: Evan Perez, let me ask you something, as a reporter, am I being too cynical when I suggest that, well, maybe they have to keep the idea that there could be a threat in the U.S. alive, because that's a big part of the justification of what they're doing against ISIS and Khorasan and everybody else they're finding in Iraq and Syria. Right?

I mean, if there's no threat at home, how do you justify doing all this abroad?

Is that too cynical?

You think there's something to that?

PEREZ: I think perhaps a little too cynical, but I think the FBI director's job is to worry about these things and so we don't know exactly who was killed in these airstrikes, and what I'm told from talking to officials is what he was referring to, is the fact that they believe that at least some of these officials, some of these high-level people in the Khorasan group did manage to evade this airstrike.

There has been some talk of Muhsin al-Fadhli, the leader of the group as whether or not he was killed or not; they don't know. But they do believe that there are still some of these Khorasan guys who are out there, and they're master bombmakers. And so that's his job to worry about, Chris. CUOMO: Philip Mudd, let me ask you this, I would suggest that the most pressing concern in dealing with this threat abroad is figuring out how to have Islam take on the battle for its soul and put down extremism. You're not going to do it through just force. You have political change and cultural change; that is the only thing that really changes the dynamic that we're all so worried about.

How hard of an accomplishment will that be, based on what you see on the playing field today?

MUDD: It depends on how you measure time. If you think this debate within Islam will be resolved within a year or two, that's crazy. We're talking about potentially decades. There is a debate that's been going on since 9/11 and before.

The advantage that we have, and if there's one sort of silver lining in the tragedy of loss of life out there, it is that in killing people and beheading people, ISIS is sending messages to potential recruits across the Islamic world that they are so extreme that the ideology they represent can never sustain itself.

That is ISIS is the architect of their own demise, so I think this will take decades to resolve within Islam but ISIS cannot win because the message they're sending is so extreme and so offensive to Muslims that it will be rejected over time. I guarantee you.

CUOMO: Hopefully, that's more than optimism, Evan Perez, Philip Mudd, Tom Fuentes, thank you very much for the intelligence on this topic and have a good weekend, gentlemen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks.

CUOMO: We have been talking to you this morning and we'll talk to you again because it needs your attention. Stunning video raising a lot of questions coming out of South Carolina, a state trooper there shooting an unarmed black man during a traffic stop, should have been routine.

Could argue the man was only following the directions of the trooper. We'll show you what happened. And you will decide. And then in Ferguson, site of another police shooting, the chief gives an apology, tries to march with demonstrators and this happens. You're looking at it right now, what set people off, what did he say in his apology and what's going to happen next?

The Michael Brown shooting still very much a controversy there. Stay with us.

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