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U.S. to Send More Troops to Iraq; President Obama Set to Pick New Attorney General; President Meets With Republicans

Aired November 7, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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


JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: A few weeks ago, they were able to retake the Mosul dam, a key piece of infrastructure, back from ISIS. So the administration, the military encouraged that the Iraqi security forces are performing. They're not exaggerating that performance. They say that really substantial offensive operations by Iraqi security forces are some months down the line, but they are making some gains.

And you can see these additional U.S. troops and military advisers and the places they are likely to go such as Anbar as a sign of the U.S. providing support they see as necessary to allow Iraqi security forces to confront ISIS more aggressively, more offensively.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Jim Sciutto and Elise Labott, do me a favor, just stand by.

I want to bring two more people into this, our White House correspondent, Michelle Kosinski, and Bob Baer, former CIA operative.

So, let me bring both of you in.

And if you're just now joining us, as at the top of the hour, we're working this breaking news that we're getting from the White House.

Michelle, I will just kind of begin with you, that we now are learning that the U.S. troop number has basically doubled on the group, up, expanding to 1,500 people not in combat roles, but in supportive positions, specifically in Iraq and also as Jim was reporting $5.6 billion for OCO helping to fight to degrade ISIS. Michelle Kosinski, what more can you share?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The obvious questions the White House keeps getting on this is mission creep.

I know Elise Labott brought that up too, that the U.S. decides to get involved in something like this. The goal, of course, is success. If success proves to be trickier than expected, you want to still commit to it. The question then, where do you draw the line, because the line was already drawn very clearly by the president that these troops would not be in a combat role.

He sounded as if he was saying they would never be in a combat role. There's been some back and forth on that. Many believe that that should never be ruled out. But that's the line that's been drawn up to this point. It did not rule out sending more troops and more resources.

And even if we do draw a line at a combat role, the expense of this operation is also questioned and now we see that request for an additional $5.5 billion. It's expanding and the White House has repeatedly said this is a long-term operation.

Whenever there's been a setback, they say this is still early days. This is long-term. Every time there's a new milestone or a new big challenge like Amirli or Kobani, the White House has said, well, it's not necessarily the end of the road. If this doesn't work out, this is a long fight.

Well, obviously, the government now is committing more resources. We will have to see just how big a step up this then makes the progress -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: When we talk about progress, Bob Baer, Elise was saying, yes, this U.S.-led coalition campaign, these airstrikes, have made a dent. But when you hear this, the troop number doubling in Iraq specifically, how do you read this news?

BOB BAER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think it's a recognition that airstrikes alone aren't going to do it. They're not that accurate. They have certainly blunted the offensive against Kobani and Syria.

But they haven't turned back ISIS in Anbar province, specifically Ramadi and Fallujah, the main Sunni towns there. We're going to need a lot more equipment in that country. A lot more air support. A lot more advisers. The Iraqi army failed of course in June when they lost Mosul.

But they are also trying to create, I just heard this, a Sunni force which will be trained in Jordan. The Abadi government, the prime minister in Baghdad, is taking back officers that Maliki, the previous prime minister, had fired, Sunni officers. They are going to give some tribal support because they want this to be not just a Shia offensive against the Sunni provinces, but a central government that's truly unified.

The question is whether this will work and we won't know until this offensive starts, which is months off.

BALDWIN: Right. Stay with me.

Jim Sciutto, let me bring you back in. You're getting some new reporting. What are you hearing on this?

SCIUTTO: Well, just one key point to be made here. These are not combat troops. This is a train-and-advise mission, but the fact is they will be closer to combat. Baghdad and Irbil have been somewhat insulated just by the nature of these cities and the nature of the forces surrounding them, the concentration of loyal forces around Baghdad, the concentration of Kurdish forces around Irbil.

When these forces go out to areas such as Anbar, though they will not be at the front lines, they will be closer to the front lines, which by any measure increases the risk they will be facing. That said, just as a caveat there, they will continue, our information is, to be at command headquarters as they have been so far, rather than in tanks or Humvees out in the battle.

There will be at command headquarters back in the city, but fact is they will be closer to the dangerous parts of the country that are now controlled by ISIS and where ISIS has been operating successfully from those areas that it controls.

BALDWIN: OK.

Elise Labott, here we have news coming out of the White House. Is this something -- is there an authorization process that needs to happen before the troop numbers double and if and when he gets this $5.6 billion? How does that work?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, you heard the president say yesterday that he was going to seek a new authorization for the use of military force against ISIL.

Right now, the administration is relying on legal justifications from more than a decade ago, 2001, 2002, to go against al Qaeda and to go against Saddam Hussein and the president has said for a while that those are outdated, and now he's going to seek a new authorization. Mitch McConnell, the incoming Senate majority leader, has said that that's something that he would welcome and there will obviously be discussions about that.

I think the Republicans, while President Obama will send these troops in the short-term, I think the Republicans, particularly now that they are going to be taking control of the Senate, will want much more of a say in the development of this policy. I think if you look at the idea that there's always this perception that the Republicans are more hawkish, that they want a more robust strategy.

I think they would like to see a more carefully laid out strategy by this president and then they would feel comfortable that the U.S. is doing the right thing, Brooke.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: OK. In terms of doing the right thing, Bob Baer, you say clearly the airstrikes are not enough, that this need for troops on the ground, not combat, supportive, but nevertheless troops on the ground, at what point would that change?

We have heard the president say over and over and over they will not, they will never play a combat role. But at what point would that, could that change?

BAER: Well, I grew up during the Vietnam generation. I heard that in the '60s, too, that we're not going to get more deeply involved, and we did exactly do that. The problem is these Shia units, a lot of them are militias that have been put in an Iraqi uniforms. They haven't fought well. And if we have American advisers on the ground, you can count on that

they are going to have some real firepower in case these units collapse. And this is the real risk. The second risk is we do not want to appear to be supporting a sectarian government, which is a Shia government, in Baghdad. We do want to be allied with Sunnis in that part of the world.

This is well understood in the White House. The question is executing it, because Baghdad is a Shia government and the prime minister is a sectarian Shia leader. He's looked at that way by the Sunnis, not just ISIS, but a lot of Iraqis, and we need to overcome that before we actually go after ISIS in a coherent and effective way.

BALDWIN: Speaking of ISIS, I know that there are fears that wannabe jihadists are using these -- we're hearing they're using these ferry passenger ships to then go to Turkey to then ultimately join the ISIS fight. I want to stay on that.

Bob, stay with me on that.

Evan Perez joins me now on this report -- Evan.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brooke.

This is something from Interpol which told the AP yesterday that they have seen signs of people, jihadists, who wanted to join the fight with ISIS in Syria trying to evade some of the security checks that have been built up in the last few months to try to stop the flow of fighters.

Instead of going through -- by air through the airport perhaps at Istanbul, they are taking passenger ships, ferry ships from some of the neighboring countries again to try to get to Turkey and then to Syria from the Northern Syria border.

This is obviously a very big concern for American officials, because obviously they have spent a lot of time trying to stop the flow by air and if these guys are trying to find ways around that, that's a very big, big problem. Obviously, there's also a second problem. A lot of these passenger ferries are carrying tourists, American tourists, and you never know when these guys might turn their attention from just using this for transportation and perhaps carrying out attacks against Westerners, against Western tourists on those same ships.

BALDWIN: Hang on, Evan.

I want to just -- let me follow up with this. We have the map. Guys, keep the map up. Explain to me because I hear you on stopping the flow. We know Turkey is really locking down. But if you are a wannabe member of ISIS and let's say you are flying and you're coming in from London, are you telling me that they would get on these ferries and find a port in Turkey and then cross over that porous Turkey/Syrian border? Is that how this would work?

PEREZ: Right. Right, exactly. There are a lot of ferries that ply the waters, especially all those

islands in Greece between Cyprus and Greece and all that area in the Northern Mediterranean -- Eastern Mediterranean into Turkey and again this is a very big concern.

Interpol says they want to try to perhaps expand these watch lists and you know they have no-fly lists for airplanes. Well, they want to have a version of that that would work for passenger ships as well. The cruise lines that travel those waters are already very much on guard about this issue and right now what we're talking about are, these are passenger ferries that go the same routes and would be very easy because there's a lot of them, frankly, and they are very hard to watch.

BALDWIN: Bob Baer, passenger ferries? Does that surprise you?

BAER: It makes sense.

You are looking at it from an espionage perspective, you go through an airport, you get a lot of scrutiny, especially in Turkey, whether it's Ankara or Istanbul. And they are now looking for these people. There's been so much political pressure on Turkey that they are turning them back. But someone coming in a large ferry in a small port, young, European, no beards, they get off for the day and they disappear in Turkey.

You get over, for instance, the Iraqi border, which I crossed over by foot, it's very easy. Same way with the Syrian border. They can't control it. In a couple days and you're in Syria or Iraq and there's nothing the Turks can do about it. If I were a jihadi trying to get into Turkey, that's the way I would go also.

BALDWIN: Stand by.

I'm getting Jim Sciutto. I hear Jim Sciutto is standing, national security correspondent, by with a significant development from the Pentagon -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Hi, Brooke.

This is just more information from the Pentagon on exactly where these additional U.S. troops will be. This is a significant change. They say that they will -- U.S. Central Command will establish two advise- and-assist centers outside of Baghdad and Irbil, as we were discussing a short time ago. To this point, the two places that have been discussed have been in Anbar province, another in Taji.

This is just north of Baghdad, Anbar just to the west. But this is interesting as well. Central Command will also establish several sites, they say, the Pentagon says, across Iraq that will accommodate training of 12 Iraqi brigades and nine Iraqi army and three Peshmerga brigades.

This is not only expanding the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, doubling in fact from the 1,400 or so there now to a total of 3,000, but also greatly expanding the locations where they will be located. To this point, they have been in Baghdad and Irbil and they're talking now about establishing two operations command centers outside of Baghdad and Irbil. The likely locations that you have been discussed so far again are in Anbar and in Taji, but in addition to that, the Pentagon saying in a statement that they will establish several other sites around Iraq to continue the training of 12 Iraqi brigades, nine of them Iraqi and three of them Kurdish.

You are seeing not only a numerical expansion of the U.S. military presence on the ground there, but a geographical expansion of where those U.S. advisers will be based.

BALDWIN: And, again, this is Iraq specific, not Syria. It's Iraq as we get more information and you are getting more information, we will be watching for your reporting, Jim Sciutto, on the how, the where, the why now.

Jim Sciutto, I really appreciate you in Washington. Elise Labott, Bob Baer, Evan Perez, thanks to all of you here at the top of the hour.

We are going to move along and just talk about the bombshell development today in the mystery of a family that disappeared for three years before their bodies were even found. CNN as it turns out interviewed the suspect before he was arrested in the past 24 hours.

Plus, the Pentagon says we were never supposed to know the name of the Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden, the so-called shooter here. But now he's coming forward. You will hear about those moments and what he did in the hours after.

Plus, President Obama meeting with Republicans today who crushed his party in the midterms, but thus far it sounds like both sides aren't willing to budge on anything. Our chief Washington correspondent, Jake Tapper, will join me ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A family vanishes and authorities are absolutely baffled. Fast-forward three years. Their remains are found buried in shallow graves in this California desert. Then, yet another year to the day, the mystery may finally be solved.

Authorities in San Bernardino, California, have just announced the arrest of the suspect in the murders of the McStay family, Joseph and Summer McStay and their two little boys who were just 3 and 4 years old.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CPL. RANDY NAQUIN, SAN BERNARDINO, CALIFORNIA, SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: Charles "Chase" Merritt was identified as the suspect responsible for the death of Joseph, Summer, Gianni, and Joseph McStay.

There's no information to suggest there were any other suspects involved in this crime. Chase Merritt was a business associate of Joseph McStay. The cause of death was determined to be blunt-force trauma. MIKE RAMOS, SAN BERNARDINO DISTRICT ATTORNEY: We filed the special

circumstance of multiple murders that makes him eligible for the death penalty. I don't need to tell you that this is a cold and callous murder of an entire family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And here is the suspect here. This is Chase Merritt being led to county lockup. San Bernardino Sheriff's Department posted this video online for all to see today.

With me now, CNN's Randi Kaye, who has covered this case extensively. She did an entire documentary on this.

Randi, you were the only journalist to have interviewed the now suspect in this case. When you were sitting with him for that hour- long interview, what was he like? Was he questioned?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He was very calm, Brooke. He was pretty quiet. He was sort of soft-spoken. He was very warm, though. He was friendly to the crew. But he came off I guess a little bit shy and he lacked any real emotion. But he looked me straight in the eye.

And, yes, he had been questioned. He had met with police early on. He was never named a person of interest. But he did take a polygraph, a lie-detector test. And I asked him, so you must have passed it if you are sitting here with me. And he said, well, actually, I don't even know the results because they never came back to him on it.

But he was certainly the last person of interest, the last person to see Joseph McStay that day. They had lunch. He would have been considered a person that they wanted to talk to.

And we asked him about that. We asked him about the last time that he saw Joseph McStay during our interview and this is what he told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: A great of authorities. You were questioned by detectives. What did they ask you?

CHARLES "CHASE" MERRITT, SUSPECT: Of course.

MERRITT: The standard questions. You know, just do I know anything about them disappearing? Did I have anything to do with it? Just the standard questions that probably was asked to everybody.

KAYE: As far as you know, you were the last person or at least one of the last people to see him, right?

MERRITT: Yes. Yes. When he left Rancho Cucamonga, nobody else -- although I think somebody, there was another person or two that he talked to. I'm not sure.

KAYE: But you were the last person he saw?

MERRITT: I'm definitely the last person he saw.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: And, Brooke, it's really strange because the authorities know that this family left their house in quite a hurry that night. They left food on the counter. There were rotting eggs when authorities finally got in there. There were popcorn bowls still sitting on the sofa, maybe where the kids were watching TV.

There were coffee grinds all over the counter and they left their two dogs, which they really treated like members of the family, still tied up outside.

BALDWIN: So, then, all of these years, what did police think had happened?

KAYE: Well, initially, the investigation was being handled by San Diego, not San Bernardino, who now has made this charge against Chase Merritt. But when San Diego was handling it, they thought that this family had gone off to Mexico. And there's a few reasons why.

One, their Isuzu truck, which a neighbor's security camera had seen leaving the home that night, it was found parked within walking distance of the Mexican border. They also saw there was a search online on the family's computer for paperwork and passports that were needed to get into Mexico. And then they found this security -- this surveillance camera video from the border which shows a family of four that authorities thought resembled the McStays crossing the border.

They pretty much said that they left on their own will, but the family, Joseph McStay's father and brother, you see the security camera video there, the brother and the father said, you know what, we didn't think that was them ever. It didn't match. Joey had a very distinct walk. And it didn't match his walk. They never thought they just walked into Mexico and they had no reason to do so.

BALDWIN: How bizarre. And that you sat with this now suspect for an hour.

KAYE: Yes.

BALDWIN: Randi Kaye, we will be watching your reporting tonight 8:00 Eastern on "A.C. 360" and we will be tuning in next week Tuesday night delving deeper into this mystery. Hear from the suspect. Watch "Buried Secrets: Who Murdered the McStay Family?" CNN Tuesday night 9:00 Eastern.

Also breaking today on this Friday, President Obama getting ready to announce his choice for attorney general and his selection, a woman who has a history of dealing with police brutality cases.

Plus, he says he's the one that fired a shot that killed Osama bin Laden. Wait until you hear what he was doing during President Obama's historic announcement when bin Laden's body was sitting in the next room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: You heard it first right here on CNN. President Obama has apparently decided on a leading candidate to replace Attorney General Eric Holder.

U.S. officials tell us he's expected to nominate federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch. She's the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn. And if she is nominated and then confirmed, she would absolutely make history, becoming the first African-American woman attorney general of the United States.

Justice reporter Evan Perez broke this story for us on CNN today. He's joining us, as is our CNN senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, who apparently goes way back with Ms. Lynch some decades. We are going to age you just in a minute, Jeff Toobin.

But, Evan, first to you. Do we have any idea as far as a timeline when this will be official from the White House?

PEREZ: Well, the president has a trip that he's leaving for, for Asia on Sunday, so it looks likely that this is going to slip when -- until the president comes back, which is in another week.

Loretta Lynch is not well-known around the country. Frankly, she's not even well-known in New York, as Jeff has pointed out. But she's very popular inside of the department and probably will have an easier time getting through a Republican Congress than some of the other people that President Obama was looking at, Brooke.

She has done a lot of corruption cases. As you mentioned, she's done some police brutality cases, one in particular in the late '90s involving cops who brutalized Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant, and she helped -- was part of the trial team that prosecuted that case.

That's going to be important obviously given the fact that we're waiting for Ferguson, Missouri, and the Michael Brown case to come down the pike and that's something that she was probably going to have to handle once she gets in.

BALDWIN: She may not be incredibly well-known. I hear she's a prosecutor's prosecutor.

And, Jeff Toobin, 1990, that's when the two of you had offices just down the hall from one another. Tell me about her.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: We started together.

We were both very junior prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office, the same one she now runs. And we were learning how to be prosecutors. We were doing mostly what were known as mule cases, cases where people were caught smuggling drugs into Kennedy Airport, which is part of the Eastern District of New York.

And Loretta has been in that office basically her entire career, almost continuously. What's unusual about her career is that she was U.S. attorney, the lawyer in charge, in the Clinton administration and then named again to run the office by President Obama.

She's a very experienced prosecutor, not very well-known. It's not as high-profile an office as the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan, which is run by Preet Bharara, but she's highly respected. She's not controversial. And I expect she will be confirmed easily.

BALDWIN: If she's confirmed, not only would she be the first African- American female. She would be the first to go straight from U.S. attorney to A.G. since 1817. There's a factoid.

Let me stay...

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: You know what? And, Brooke, that was before I was in the U.S. Attorney's Office, 1817, yes.

BALDWIN: That was before you were around? Thank you for clarifying.

I mean, 1990 was a minute ago. But that would -- 18 -- I digress.