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ISIS Releases Video of Beheadings of Christians; Egypt Begins Airstrikes against ISIS; Gunman Killed in Denmark; Interview with Denmark's Ambassador to U.S.

Aired February 16, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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


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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This Islamic State is nothing like I have ever seen before.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gruesome video shows the beheading of more than a dozen Egyptian Coptic Christians.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Could this latest brutality bring Egypt into the U.S.-led coalition?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bang, bang, bang. Very quickly we could understand that something was going on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In a shooting incident in Copenhagen during a free speech forum.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We heard a lot of noise and we realized it was a shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And shot him dead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay calm and stay focused. Stay off the roads. Stay indoors, stay safe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hit him and then someone else hit me and then someone else hit me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't see anything.

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ANNOUNCER: There is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to NEW DAY. It is Monday, February 16. It's President's Day, 8:00 in the East. Chris Cuomo is off today.

We do have some breaking news overnight. Egypt on the attack: its target is ISIS. The country launching air strikes against the terror group in Libya after horrifying video appears to show the beheadings of more than a dozen Christians on a Libyan beach.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: There is growing outrage around the globe. Will this latest round of bloodshed prompt Egypt to join the U.S. coalition? We have live team coverage for you this morning beginning with CNN's Ian Lee live on the ground in Cairo. Ian?

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michaela, early this morning we saw Egyptian M-16s slipping into the night sky under the cover of darkness bombing the city of Darna, trying to hit ISIS supply depots, weapon depots, and training camps. This is revenge for the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians yesterday that we saw the video yesterday. These Christians brought out on to a beach, some saying "Oh, God, oh Jesus" before they are executed. A militant in this video gives out a very serious warning to the Christians here in Egypt, the Egyptian government, but also Europe.

Libya is roughly 200 miles from the southern shores of Europe, very close. And what this video show us the most is that ISIS has a very firm presence in Libya, exploiting the political and security vacuum that is the country after the 2011 uprising that overthrew Moammar Gadhafi, an uprising that was backed by the west. For Egypt this is just another front in the battle against ISIS. They are already fighting militants in the northern Sinai. We heard from the president and the foreign ministry, they are calling for greater international intervention. The president of France called the president of Egypt and said that he would try to help him push something through the U.N. Security Council, but this looks like it is just the beginning of a wider Egyptian involvement in the conflict in Libya. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: All right, Ian, thank you for all that background.

The Obama administration calling the terror group "cowardly" following that attack in Libya. Will this help the president's push for military against ISIS? For that part of the story with turn to CNN's Sunlen Serfaty. She's live at the White House. Good morning, Sunlen.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. The White House calls it a heinous act of murder, and a strongly worded statement came from the White House press secretary overnight reading in part, quote, "ISIL's barbarity knows no bounds. It is unconstrained by faith, sect, or ethnicity. This wanton killing of innocents is just the most recent of the many vicious acts perpetrated by ISIL affiliated terrorists against the people of the region which only further galvanizes the international community to unite against ISIL."

Now, Secretary of State John Kerry, he spoke on the phone Sunday with the Egyptian foreign minister. He of course expressed his condolences on behalf of the American people but he also promised to keep in close touch with Egypt as they make their response.

Now, all of this comes at a time, I should say, of poignant backdrop, providing the counterterrorism summit the White House is hosting this week with foreign leaders. The White House continues to insist that it's not going to focus solely on Islamic extremism during this summit, but, of course, given this lasts attack and the long line of others previously most likely that will be the large discussion point. Michaela?

PEREIRA: It certainly will be. All right, Sunlen, thank you so much for that.

We head overseas now where new details are emerging from Copenhagen this morning about the weekend attacks that left two people dead and several others wounded. Police have identified the gunman, 22-year- old Danish born Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein. Two other men have been charged for allegedly helping him, helping hide him after those attacks. CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson joins us now from Copenhagen with more details. Nic?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela. What we're learning about these two men that helped hide the gunman, according to prosecutor saying that they helped hide him by prior agreement, an indication that they perhaps had some prior knowledge these attacks were going to take place. So, that, obviously, a point of big concern for authorities here. And we're learning more as well about the gunman himself.

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ROBERTSON: This morning, Copenhagen, the latest European city traumatized by an apparent act of terrorism.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm very shocked.

ROBERTSON: As new details emerge about the 22-year-old gang member who killed two civilians and injured several police officers in a frightening attack over the weekend. His name, Omar Abdel Hamid El- Hussein, according to Reuters. El-Hussein recently served time in jail after being convicted of a knife attack on board a commuter train. According to police there were no known ties of Islamic extremism and they believe he didn't travel to Syria or Iraq. The chilling moment the gunman opened fire Saturday afternoon in the middle of a free speech debate obtained by the BBC.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The turning point is but. Do we still say but --

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ROBERTSON: You can hear more than 20 shots through the cafe windows, the suspect killing 55-year-old filmmaker Finn Noergaard and injuring three officers before escaping. CNN is unable to authenticate the recording. The assumed target, Lars Vilks, a controversial cartoonists on Al Qaeda's most wanted list for satirical drawings of the Prophet Mohammed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They rushed me from the seen, and they took me and threw me into a storage room.

ROBERTSON: Hours later the same suspect attacked a synagogue three miles south, the gunman killing 37-year-old Dan Uzan, a guard providing security for a Bat Mitzvah party.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will do everything we can to protect the Jewish community in our country.

ROBERTSON: The terror filled weekend ending Sunday outside these apartments when the police killed the 22-year-old in the third gun battle in less than 24 hours.

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ROBERTSON: And police operations are continuing here. The concern, possibility of more accomplices or the threat of a copycat type of attack. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: All right Nic Robertson, thank you for all of that. Let's discuss the latest on the Copenhagen terror attack with Peter Taksoe- Jensen. He is the ambassador of Denmark to the United States, Mr. Taksoe-Jensen, thank you so much for being with us. Can you help us understand what happened over the weekend and what we saw? Was this an attack on freedom of speech or was this an attack of anti-Semitism?

PETER TAKSOE-JENSEN, AMBASSADOR OF DENMARK TO THE U.S.: It certainly looks like both. We have still investigations going on to figure out what is actually behind this to understand why did this person, who was known by the police, who had been engaged in crime and gang activities, why did he suddenly become an extremist? This is some of the questions that we're trying to answer now. And it looks as if it was an attack on free speech, and also unfortunately an attack at the Danish synagogue in Copenhagen. So both could be true, but we're still investigating that.

CAMEROTA: Is there something particular about Denmark? Is there something going wrong in terms of fighting extremism there?

TAKSOE-JENSEN: I don't think you could say something was going wrong. Actually, if you look at the two attacks, the police were actually extremely successful preventing a much larger disaster. But we have to rewind the film and think about the cartoon crisis in 2005-2006. At the time, the Danish -- Denmark became on top of the terrorist target list, and, unfortunately, we have been there since. There's been some attempts over the years. This time was the first time a real attack was carried out. So I think this is something we have been preparing for and have been expecting could happen. And unfortunately it happened this weekend.

CAMEROTA: But these are not just threats from outside of Denmark. These are threats from inside Denmark. In fact, we learned, Denmark, per capita, has the second highest number of fighters who leave Denmark to go to Syria and Iraq, join up with ISIS and then attempt to come back. It seems as though something is going wrong in terms of different communities and assimilation in Denmark.

TAKSOE-JENSEN: We are working very hard on that. It is true that we have a lot of foreign fighters who have gone to Syria and some gone back. We have authorities looking at these persons and we are trying to put in place programs that can actually reintegrate them into the Danish society. This person that carried out the attacks over the weekend was actually not affiliated with anything else as far as we know now. So therefore it's extremely difficult to protect yourself against a lone wolf that changes from a normal criminal, so to speak, to becoming an extremist.

CAMEROTA: And in addition to the threat of lone wolves and that sort of extremism that you're seeing within Denmark, there also seems to be a wave of anti-Semitism that is picking up in Denmark or across Europe. Why is this happening 70 years after World War II?

TAKSOE-JENSEN: I don't think you can say there's a wave of anti- Semitism going on in Denmark. I think we have a very, very long, good tradition with Jewish community in Denmark and been integrated and part of the Danish society for many, many years. We have a brave story about the rescue of the Danish Jews during the Second World War. This attack, the fact that a young man decided to attack a synagogue is unfortunate and deplorable, but it's really not an example of rising anti-Semitism in Denmark. I wouldn't say that.

CAMEROTA: The Danish prime minister talked afterwards, after these attacks, about what she believed. Let me read just a little portion of it to you. "We have tasted the ugly taste of fear and powerlessness that terror would like to create. They want to rebuke our freedom of speech. This is not a war between Islam and the west." Do you think that things will change in Denmark? We've talked earlier about how one of the things that Denmark is doing is quite unconventional. They have tried to rehabilitate extremists rather than lock them up. Will this change anything?

TAKSOE-JENSEN: I think apart from the investigation, the next big step is get things back to normal because if we have a situation where you actually have people thinking twice before they go to debate meeting about freedom of speech, then we actually have lost the fight. We have given up on some of the basic pillars in our democracy, so therefore the genesis to get things back to normal and not have so much change. And then of course our law enforcement authorities have to see if they can learn anything to protect the Danish society even better going forward.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. Peter Taksoe-Jensen, ambassador of Denmark, thank you so much for being on NEW DAY.

TAKSOE-JENSEN: You're welcome. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Michaela?

PEREIRA: Breaking overnight we have learned that several Ukrainian forces have been killed since the ceasefire went into effect this weekend in battle scarred eastern Ukraine. The ceasefire remains in place, largely holding, yet terribly fragile. Fred Pleitgen joins us from eastern Ukraine with more on this fragile ceasefire if in fact it even exists.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Michaela. I tell you, we really are in a very delicate situation at this point in time here in Ukraine. We have talked to people who lived in the areas along the front line. They say in places where it's holding, it's great for them. For the first time in weeks they actually can leave their houses. They are able to move around, they say, and in many places it's very quiet in Ukraine right now.

But of course there are also many infringements of the cease-fire, and those are causing a very big problem. So far the Ukrainian military says that the cease-fire have been infringed upon as many as 129 times. The Russian separatist for their part are saying the same exact thing. They say it's the Ukrainian forces who keep shelling them even though the cease-fire should be in place.

And that's all very significant because today is a very important day after the cease-fire. It's after the 24 hour period that both sides are supposed to start moving heavy weapons out of the immediate conflict area to create some sort of buffer zone. The Ukrainians, for their part, are saying they're simply not going to do that as long as these infringements of cease-fire continue. The pro-Russian separatists say exactly the same thing.

So right now the cease-fire is holding in most places. There are some pretty heavy infringements of the cease-fire going on, but the big problem is these infringements are stopping the cease-fire from moving into that next very important stage. So we will wait and see what happens in the next coming hours and the next coming days. But it is really a very decisive, a very important time right now for this country. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, Fred, thanks so much for that updated.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously ordering Houthi rebels to give up power in Yemen. The U.N. warns it's ready to take further steps if the Houthi do not comply though they did not spell out those steps. The Council also demanded the release of Yemen's president and prime minister from house arrest.

PEREIRA: A chaotic scene this weekend at a mall near Orlando. Authorities say more than 200 teenagers began fighting in a food court and about half of them rushed into a nearby movie theater. Police say some of the teens had drugs and guns and carried the mayhem over to a nearby gas station. Eventually officers were able to get them under control. Two teens were arrested. And miraculously no one was hurt.

CAMEROTA: OK, our favorite item of the day, comedy all-stars reunite to celebrate 40 years of "Saturday Night Live." Several "SNL" alumni, a lot, in fact, were on hand to recreate some of their most memorable and beloved characters. And of course it would not be "SNL" if they did now make fun of what's happening currently in the news. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld was on hand and he took a swipe at a certain embattled news anchor.

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JERRY SEINFELD, COMEDIAN: I just found out that one of the original cast members in 1975 was Brian Williams. I didn't know if that's true, but I never heard that.

(LAUGHTER)

SEINFELD: It doesn't sound true. It might not -- it might not be.

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CAMEROTA: I miss Jerry Seinfeld.

The night also included musical performances by Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, and Miley Cyrus.

PEREIRA: What a comedy all-star show. Imagine if you were among them. You have to be at the top of your game because the best of the best were there.

CAMEROTA: It was just an entertainment bonanza. They had music and comedy. It was so, so great.

Well, killed for bring Christian, ISIS tactics getting even more extreme, if that's possible. The mass beheadings stirring outrage worldwide. What will happen next?

PEREIRA: Long awaited rules for drones have been issued. Will companies like Amazon be able to deliver their goods by drone? What could the rules mean for your new favorite gadget?

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PEREIRA: Egypt taking aim at ISIS targets in Libya overnight after a new video showed the horrendous beheadings of more than a dozen Egyptian Christians. These murders are raising concern that ISIS is shifting to even more brutal tactics to expand its deadly message.

Joining me are CNN counterterrorism analyst and former CIA counterterrorism official Philip Mudd and Paul Cruickshank is here, CNN terrorism analyst and co-author of "Agent Storm: My Life Inside Al Qaeda."

Gentlemen, I know you both had a chance to view the video. Phil, obviously, this is a new level of brutality that we're seeing here. I want you to tell us what you see in this video that is significant to you, the markers that you noticed.

PHILIP MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Look, what's significant to me here is a story we haven't discussed, and that is whether ISIS is expanding too rapidly. Back when we saw al Qaeda expand 15 years ago, they were very cautious about allowing people to use the brand. Now, we've had, in the space of six months or so, ISIS showing up in places like Yemen, Afghanistan, now just in the space of the past year, Libya. You have these local groups accepting or adopting the ISIS brand and using this kind of brutality to try to quickly show that they are the biggest players on the block. I think in the short term, this intimidates the population. In the long term, and I'm talking about over the course of years. I think what we will see as a result of killings like this is that people start to say, this is a brand we don't want any part of. It's just we won't see that in the short term because people are intimidated. PEREIRA: Paul, you see the same way?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: I think over the long run, absolutely, there will be a backlash. This is a very calculated move from ISIS to get into Libya. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi sent one of his top aides, Abu Nabil al Anbari, to build up the organization there. 300 returning ISIS veterans from Libya returning back to Libya to lead the charge. They've been expanding at a very alarming rate. They have got control of Derna, a city in the east with a population of 100 thousand. They've been expanding all the way along the coast. And just last month, we saw that attack from ISIS against the Corinthia Hotel, an international hotel in Tripoli where an American was killed.

PEREIRA: We saw the Egyptian forces conducting airstrikes on Derna and that stronghold you talk about. Talk to me about the significance of Libya, in terms of the proximity to Europe. Is this going to be a new front in the war against ISIS, you think?

CRUICKSHANK: It's very near Europe. I mean, the southern shores of the European Union and Korea are just 200 miles from Derna. On a clear night, you can actually see the southern hills of Crete from Libya. This is near, just a few hours in a speedboat. The Europeans are very worried. I think the fact that they drenched the Mediterranean in the blood of these poor Coptic Christians is really symbolic. They're sending a message to the Europeans, we're coming after you, we want to retaliate against you for the airstrikes in Iraq.

PEREIRA: And Look, the level of brutality, Phil, clearly knows no bounds. The barbarity has reached a new level. But we also know they have killed their own countrymen and fellow Muslims. We know they have killed Jews. We see here a dozen Christians being killed. That is significant. This totalitarian ideology is literally about equal opportunity murder.

MUDD: It is. There's another aspect of this related to those murders we have to think about this. We're looking at this from a western optic, looking at the murder of Christians, looking at the attacks in Denmark and Paris. There's another aspect of this that is critically important: if the tide over the course of years will turn against ISIS, and that is - In a lot of these places they're moving into, Libya, Yemen, even we've seen ISIS flags in Afghanistan, there are already obviously locally entrenched Islamist groups. What ISIS is doing as it moves so quickly is to alienate these local groups. So in addition to these attacks on Christians and trying attacks in western Europe, and I suspect the United States, we will also see fighting among Islamic groups where local groups that are less extreme than ISIS take on ISIS, and I hate to say this, but there will be a spasm of violence as this Islamic group of violence takes place over the next few years.

PEREIRA: Some are quick to label this a religious war, Paul. Do you see it as such?

CRUICKSHANK: ISIS believes it's a religious war. In fact, back in 2010, they said they would attack Christians right across the Middle East. There were a couple of Egyptian women who were cops who supposedly converted to Islam. The rumor was they were abducted and taken to monasteries. And back in 2010, ISIS said they would take revenge for this right across the Middle East and they referenced this again in "Dabiq" magazine where they referenced this beheading. So from an ISIS point of view, it's obviously a religious war.

PEREIRA: And Phil, you talk about this, you know, ISIS, almost a tribal war that's happening, the violence against their own people. You see that as a point of weakness. And then on the other side of it, how do western coalition forces battle that?

MUDD: I do think it's a point of weakness, but again, only in the long term. I think in the intermediate range, let's say 1 to 3 years out, you will have so many people in villages intimidated by ISIS, as we've seen in places like Iraq, that they're unwilling to take up arms because the option is to be beheaded. There's a couple things when you talk about Western intervention you have to think about, and this relates to the president's move to get the Congress to discuss a continuing authorization for the use of military force. Let's step back for just a second. The U.S. can't intervene, regardless of what political stripe you have in this country, simultaneously in Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, it's not physically possible. I think one of the questions will be how we enable local force to intervene. This has been successful in a place like Somalia, how we help armed organizations or militaries like the Egyptian military, like the Yemeni military, in the midst of a civil war and how we continue to extend the use of drones. This is a debate in America, but drones are very effective when you don't want to put your own forced at risk. In contrast to the conventional use of force that we've seen in the past 15 years in Afghanistan and Iraq, limited use of force, light footprint, aiding local security services, and use of drones, I think, will be the debate of the next few years.

PEREIRA: Phil Mudd, Paul Cruickshank, we appreciate you joining us to talk about this grisly video. I'm horrified we have to talk about it, but it's important to keep shining a light on this. All right. Thank you, gentleman. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: All right, Michaela. Big changes coming for small devices flying in the sky. The FAA set to unveil new drone rules.

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