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American Teen Arrested for Allegedly Trying to Join ISIS; ISIS Raises Flags Inside Kobani; Mortars Hit Baghdad's Green Zone; Turkey's Prime Minister Talks ISIS

Aired October 6, 2014 - 13:00   ET

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


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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 5:00 p.m. in Monrovia, 8:00 p.m. in Baghdad, 2:00 a.m. in Pyongyang. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks for joining us.

Let's begin with breaking news. The arrest of an American citizen for allegedly attempting to join the terrorist group, ISIS. The 19 year old from the Chicago, Illinois area was arrested over the weekend and appeared in court this morning.

Let's get details and analysis. Our Justice Reporter Evan Perez is here as is our Senior Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin. So, they've released a lot of information about this 19 year old. His name is Mohammed Hamzah Khan. So, what do we know, Evan?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Wolf, we know that he was at the airport on Saturday, trying to get on a flight to Vienna and on route to Istanbul when the FBI showed up at his house, conducted a search, was able to get some documents, handwritten documents they say they believe were written by him or by someone else in his -- in this conspiracy that they're charging here.

BLITZER: Documents in his apartment?

PEREZ: In his apartment -- in his parents' house. He lived with his parents, apparently. According to these documents, he was planning to join ISIL or ISIS as we now know it. There is -- there is some stuff that -- he left a letter for his parents, for instance, in which -- and I think we have a little piece of it here. It says, my dear parents, there are a number of reasons I will be going to the blessed land of Shaam, which is the name that they use for Syria, and leaving my home. And he says that there is an obligation to join -- to migrate and to join ISIS now that it is established of caliphate in the region.

And also he was upset that, as an adult, he's obligation to pay taxes that are used to kill his Muslim brothers and sisters. According to the FBI affidavit, Wolf, he was in touch with people. He had very detailed plans not only to travel to Istanbul but also to take buses and he had people he was going to get in touch with once he got to Syria. BLITZER: And do we know how the FBI got tipped off that this

individual allegedly was planning on not only supporting but getting involved in a terror organization?

PEREZ: Well, the FBI doesn't -- the affidavit does not say. We know that they are watching a lot of online forums where people are talking about this type of thing. So, it may well be that that's the case. We may find out down the line when this case goes to trial.

BLITZER: This 19-year-old, Jeffrey, he's in a lot of trouble right now. This potentially carries a, according to this document that the FBI put out, maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine simply for expressing an interest in going over there to support ISIS.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, the charge is that he attempted to provide material support. Material support is the key phrase here. Material support can be an individual volunteering for service in the military. But, you know, in his defense, as we can say, in advance, he never left -- he never left the United States and one of the peculiarities of the complaint is that he apparently purchased a round-trip ticket which, perhaps, means that he was probably coming back and not joining the military. But that's one fact that his defense attorney will presumably be able to work with.

BLITZER: That's an argument you could make that he -- it was a fictitious round trip. He was never, potentially, really going to use the second part of that ticket.

TOOBIN: That's a good government argument as well, I'm sorry.

PEREZ: And we know that one way for you to avoid detection is to -- is to not buy a one-way ticket. A one-way ticket is something that will flag you every time, especially if you're going to that region and with the FBI watching (INAUDIBLE.)

BLITZER: I haven't read the full complaint. I just read the brief summary that the Department of Justice put out. Does it say how he paid for the ticket? How much the ticket cost?

PEREZ: There's a --

BLITZER: Who may have funded that kind of ticket?

PEREZ: -- right. It's not very specific. It says that the ticket cost $4,000. That's a lot of money for someone who is 19 years old. So, we don't know -- and there is some hint in here that the FBI was watching other people here who he may have been in touch with. So, that's actually one of the keys here is they've been trying to figure out who is recruiting these young men to take him over there and to draw them over to Syria to join the fight.

BLITZER: Because sometimes they try to -- they have somebody who is pretending to be an ISIS recruiter or whatever, gets involved with these young people and sort of entices. Is there any indication that's going on in this particular case? TOOBIN: Well, certainly, the use of confidential informants is common

and, in fact, one of the effective ways to identify people in criminal organizations. It's -- there -- sometimes, in a complaint, you will see a reference to a confidential informant. There's no reference to one in here. It doesn't mean there isn't one there. As you point out, sometimes when there are confidential informants, the argument can be made that the individual was entrapped, was sort of encouraged to commit a crime. But, you know, that's getting way ahead, at this point. There's no indication that anything like that took place. This kid is in a world of trouble.

BLITZER: Yes.

TOOBIN: He's not going to get out on bail and certainly the Justice Department will prosecute him to the full extent that they can.

BLITZER: And I'm sure they also -- they want to set an example to others who may be thinking about doing something like this. They're not going to fool around. You get caught, you're going to jail.

PEREZ: That's right. And to Jeffrey's point, you know, the government has had great success with these types of cases. Even in cases where the -- where the judges expressed some concern that people are being drawn in or -- and entrapped, they still manage to get convictions. The government has been very successful in bringing these material support cases over the last few years. There is, you know, a few dozen of them.

TOOBIN: And I think the important message here is that you can be convicted of helping ISIL in Chicago.

PEREZ: Right.

TOOBIN: You don't have to go all the way to Syria or Iraq.

BLITZER: Yes.

TOOBIN: Chicago is plenty enough to wind up in jail.

BLITZER: All right, this is the breaking news. I want you guys to stand by with me. We're getting more information on this 19-year-old Mohammed Hamzah Khan, k-h-a-n. We'll get some more details about this individual, what his background is. Stay with us.

There's other news that we're following. Let's go to the Syria-Turkey border, for example. That's where ISIS fighters appear to be on the verge of capturing this strategically important Syrian city of Kobani, a city that is right on the border with Turkey. ISIS has been pounding away the city with tanks, heavy artillery. The Kurdish fighters defending Kobani appear to be, right now, totally outgunned.

Within the last few hours alone, at least two different ISIS flags were spotted on top of buildings inside the eastern part of the city. Coalition forces have conducted air strikes over the weekend and into today, including around Kobani taking out two ISIS tanks in a half a dozen of inspiring positions. Kobani has become a strategically important city. You can see it on the map there. If ISIS takes control of Kobani, it would give them an uninterrupted stretch of land all the way between the Turkish border and the self-declared ISIS capital of Raqqa in Syria. It's a huge amount of territory.

Now, to another breaking story we're following to the east in Iraq. Just in the last few minutes, alarms have been sounded in Baghdad as an unknown number of mortars continue falling within the city's so- called green zone. That's where the U.S. embassy international diplomats are basically housed.

Ben Wedeman is joining us from the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. What is this shelling all about? What's the latest, Ben?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, this happened about 25 minutes ago. We heard this alarm coming from the area of the green zone or the international zone where, as you mentioned, not only the U.S. embassy is located but also several important Iraqi ministries like the Ministry of Defense. Now, we know, from sources that several of those mortars landed within the international zone. No word, yet, of any casualties or damage. The same thing happened six days ago at about this time in the evening, a similar event occurred.

Now, it's not altogether clear who is behind them but we have spoken with several well-informed people who do believe that perhaps these are Shia militias who believe that the United States, in supporting the Iraqi government and becoming much more involved in the Iraqi affairs, is trying to essentially get its hands back into -- basically to control Iraq. So, that seems to be the explanation, although nobody, to the best of our knowledge, has been apprehended for these mortar attacks which seem to have come to an end.

Now, as far as the situation in Baghdad is concerned, Wolf, we were out on the western front, the so-called defensive perimeter of Baghdad in Anbar Province which is more or less almost completely under the control of ISIS. The last few days, we've seen the fall of the town of Heit (ph), which is about 100 miles to the northwest of here. Basically, at this point, ISIS controls the entire stretch of Euphrates River from the Turkish border through Syria, down to Fallujah which is only about an hour's drive from here.

Now, as far as the situation on the western perimeter of Baghdad goes, it seems as if ISIS is being kept at bay. We did see the Iraqi forces firing off into the distance with their M16s and fired one mortar round but it, perhaps, was probably more for the benefit of our cameras than actually -- because the enemy was advancing. But they were complaining, yet again, that there's not -- there's not enough air support from the coalition, as far as keeping ISIS at bay, away from Baghdad -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Ben Wedeman, be careful over there in Baghdad. I know there are, what, 1,600 hundred U.S. military personnel in Baghdad and Erbil and hundreds, if not thousands, of U.S. diplomats and other private contractors in that so-called green zone that's been shelled over the past half hour or hour or so. We'll stay on top of this story for our viewers. Thanks very much. Just ahead, we'll have much more on the Chicago 19 year old now accused of trying to join ISIS. We're going to get some insight from our law enforcement, our national security analyst about what this new development means. Stay with us.

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BLITZER: Well, let's get right to the breaking news. The arrest of a 19-year-old American citizen who was allegedly -- who allegedly sought to leave the United States to join the ISIS terrorist group. Mohammed Hamzah Khan was taken into custody over the weekend at Chicago's O'Hare international Airport.

Our Law Enforcement Analyst Tom Fuentes, the former assistance director of the FBI is joining us on the telephone. All right, so, tell us what's going on over here, Tom, because, obviously, there have been a lot of fears that some people residing in the United States could go over to Syria or Iraq and join ISIS. It looks like the FBI has now arrested someone allegedly planning on doing so.

TOM FUENTES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, actually, Wolf, this is yet another person. You recall that the FBI arrested a woman boarding a plane at the Denver airport a couple of months ago with the same intension. So, you know, a lot is made about the need for the FBI to track individuals who return from Syria or Iraq, return from the battlefield of terrorism and could pose a threat when they return here.

But the FBI also has its hands full trying to determine when people here are discussing joining, do they mean it? Are they really going to do it? Are they just talking or bragging and friends at a party? And, you know, once they get the airfare and once they decide to go, and, literally, the FBI is walking them down the jetway before they put the cuffs on them to show that they really did mean it, they were really on their way to do it.

So this is not the first time and it won't be the last time and it's the fear of the FBI that they can't track every individual with aspiration to join or to return and engage in terrorism here.

BLITZER: And as you well know, in these kinds of criminal cases, authorities usually do what they've been doing for a long time, they follow the money. In this particular case, this individual allegedly bought a round trip ticket from Chicago through Vienna and then to Turkey and back to Chicago for $4,000. They're going to try to figure out where that $4,000 came from because that's a lot of money for a 19-year-old kid.

FUENTES: That's true. That's one aspect of it. And I should add also, you know, the FBI has two offices in Turkey, the capital and also in Istanbul, where he was apparently going to fly to. And the FBI has had a great relationship with the intelligence and law enforcement services in Turkey over the years. So a lot has been made about whether they were going to fight and join the battle with their military, but I can tell you, behind the scenes, there has been a great deal of intelligence shared and it would include also the authorities in Austria because he was going to connect there. So there was a great effort behind the scenes right now and has been ongoing behind the scenes to try to determine the source of the money, as you said, but also who was behind this? Who are the logistical individuals who supply the tickets, who arranged for the transportation, who get him across the border, who hook them up with the actual fighters in Syria or in Iraq. So there's a lot more going on than just the FBI intercepting e-mail in Chicago.

BLITZER: And I assume that the decision to go ahead and finally arrest this young 19-year-old as he was about to board a flight out of Chicago's O'Hare Airport, that was a very sensitive decision because I assume they were monitoring him, watching him for a while. To go ahead and arrest this individual, that presumably would prevent them from following up on other leads, right?

FUENTES: Well, I think that there would be a general lack of confidence that even with the help of the Turkish authorities, it's still going to be very easy, once he gets there, to, you know, to be able to -- be smuggled into Syria across that porous border and, you know, we don't know if there may be some border authorities in Turkey who are supporters of ISIS or taking money from ISIS and may facilitate his getting across that border. So I think for the FBI, in this particular case, it's kind of a no-brainer. They just can't trust the ability to monitor him once he leaves the U.S. So the best thing is to keep him off the airplane.

BLITZER: So, in other words, if he had been allowed to fly to Istanbul, let's say, and you don't think Turkish authorities would necessarily have been trusted enough to monitor this guy, to watch him, to see who he's in contact with, see if he allegedly makes his way to the Syrian border, attempts to cross into Syria as arrest that individual as he's about to leave Turkey and -- but see who his contacts at the airport and elsewhere in Turkey might be? You don't think that there's enough trust between the U.S. and Turkey to undertake that kind of surveillance program?

FUENTES: No, I wouldn't characterize that as a lack of trust. It would characterize it as, it would be so difficult for any authority on the ground in another country or in our country to keep somebody under wraps 24/7. I mean look what else Turkey is dealing with. The battle for ISIS is right on their border now. Thousands of refugees coming in from Syria and then, you know, hundreds or more going across the border from Turkey into Syria. And this may just exceed their capacity, no matter how cooperative they might be, to do so. They just might not be able to do it. So I wouldn't - I wouldn't characterize it as we don't trust them, we just, you know, don't believe that they'd be able to keep track of every individual that arrived in their country.

BLITZER: That's a good point. Tom Fuentes, thanks very much.

We're going to stay on top of this story for our viewers. A 19-year- old American citizen, Mohammed Hamzah Khan arrested at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, allegedly for attempting to go ahead and support the ISIS terror organization. Just ahead, the prime minister of Turkey speaks to our own Christiane

Amanpour about the ISIS army that is now encroaching on Turkey's doorstep. You're going to hear what he had to say. That's coming up next.

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BLITZER: As ISIS fighters shelled the northern Syria city of Kobani, the Turkish prime minister now says nearly 200,000 people have fled across the border into his country. Turkish forces have fortified the long frontier it shares with both Syria and Iraq, but so far they have not engaged ISIS directly across their border, even though Kobani sits on Turkey's doorstep. The prime minister of Turkey says one big problem is the U.S. and its allies don't have what he calls an integrated strategy about how to stop ISIS lurching instead from one hot spot to the next.

Our chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, conducted a lengthy interview with the Turkish prime minister. Christiane is joining us from London.

As you know, Christiane, Turkey is both a Muslim nation, also a member of NATO, and a lot of American officials here in Washington are asking, why hasn't Turkey played a more prominent role in this war against ISIS, which is really right on Turkey's border?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. And that's precisely what I asked the prime minister. I've just come back from Istanbul. I sat down with him last night for a very in-depth interview about this precise problem. And I remember, when we were all discussing the air strikes on Syria, everybody said, hey, where's Turkey, NATO ally? Well, the answers that we got from the prime minister, who's well known, he was the former foreign minister, were the following.

One, Turkey has been doing a huge amount. As we all know, it's got about 1.6 million refugees in the three years of the brutal civil war that Assad has been waging. Now, as you just mentioned, they're getting hundreds and thousands of them from Kobani practically on a daily basis. And it's extremely tense. But he says they fundamentally disagree with what's right now the U.S. strategy, which is just to go after ISIS and not to go after Assad. And he says that they are absolutely willing, able, and determined to be what he called coalition of the willing but with very clear red line. First and foremost, obviously Turkish troops would be the most plausible boots on the ground, but only if the strategy is to go after Assad as well, because he said, unless Assad is defeated, then this will continue over and over again as it has over the last three years.

He also said that they're going to bargain very, very hard about joining. Here's what he said when I asked him about what he wants in return to joining the military campaign.

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AHMET DAVUTOGLU, TURKISH PRIME MINISTER: We want to have a no-fly zone. We want to have a safe haven on our border, otherwise all these burdens, they continue to go on the shoulder of Turkey and other neighboring countries.

AMANPOUR: If you don't get that, what will happen?

DAVUTOGLU: No, we are -- those who request something from us should understand our needs as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: So, there you go, Wolf. He said it very clearly, it's a two- way street, there's those who request something from us should understand what we need. And he spelled out why they need a no-fly zone and safe havens, because if there isn't such, he says, then no matter what town is saved or what town falls on the border, President Assad can keep the assault up as he's done and this war will continue and refugees will continue to go inside Turkey. So it's a big deal for them and they believe, as he said to me, you can't just leave one Satan in place in order to try to defeat the other one because the result will not change.

BLITZER: Turkey, a critically, critically important country in this entire crisis right now.

AMANPOUR: Yes.

BLITZER: Christiane, thanks very much.

An important note for our international viewers. You can watch Christiane's entire interview with the Turkish prime minister. That's coming up in our next hour on CNN International.

And just ahead, police searching for a suspected cop killer in rural Pennsylvania may have gotten an important break in the case. We'll have a live report.

And all the other important news, including the breaking news on the arrest of a 19-year-old American citizen on suspicion of aiding ISIS.

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