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THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER

President Obama on Terror Threats; ISIS Pushed Back in Iraq; Obama Speaking at Violent Extremism Summit

Aired February 18, 2015 - 16:00   ET

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


JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: The question from some critics: Can he stop Islamic extremism if he won't even use the term?

I'm Jake Tapper. This is THE LEAD.

The world lead. In moments, President Obama will lay out how the U.S. intends to win not just the physical war against ISIS, but the battle against what he calls the propagandists, recruiters and enablers encouraging brutality everywhere. What will the president say?

And they beheaded people on camera, burned others alive. Just when you think ISIS has run out of gruesome tactics, the Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations now making this outrageous claim. He says ISIS is butchering people to sell their organs. Is that true?

Plus, more evidence ISIS is pushing into Libya as the group vows to conquer Rome, and with the terrorist madmen potentially only 300 miles away from the shores of Sicily, Italy now saying it fears an ISIS invasion.

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

We begin today with our world lead. We are waiting on President Obama. He is set in just minutes to lay out his vision on combating extremism everywhere, violent extremism. But as the president zeros in on hearts and minds, the war against ISIS, the actual war, the one being fought with guns and bombs, that rages on.

Overnight, U.S. and coalition fighter jets bombed 16 targets, 14 in Iraq, just as Kurdish forces were fighting off an onslaught from the terrorists outside the city of Irbil. Coalition fighters also hit two ISIS outposts in Syria. And today, a U.S. defense official telling CNN Syrians could soon be the ones calling in those strikes. The Pentagon will equip moderate Syrian rebels with gear that would allow vetted fighters to call in the coordinates for American airpower.

And today, two more grisly claims of ISIS depravity. A local Iraqi police chief saying ISIS burned dozens more innocent people to death, while Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations is now accusing the terrorists of harvesting organs from their freshly killed victims.

I want to go right to Jim Sciutto.

Jim, CNN has not been able to independently verify these claims. What are U.S. officials saying? Are these outrageous claims true? JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Let's talk

about the burned bodies in the town of al-Baghdadi.

The first reports raised the possibility that those soldiers had been burned alive, soldiers or civilians, which of course brought back horrible memories of the Jordanian pilot. I have read situational reports from the ground written by Iraqis involved in the fighting who say it is more likely that those bodies were burned after they were killed in the fighting, desecrated, which is a tactic that ISIS has used before.

That said, this is in the midst of fierce fighting for the town of al- Baghdadi. It is in Anbar province. It's very close the a U.S. base there. And no one involved would be surprised what ISIS is capable of as it continues to fight for this city.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO (voice-over): With ISIS locked in battle with Iraqi forces in al-Baghdadi, eyewitness accounts from the Western Iraqi town claim the terror group is burning the bodies of soldiers and tribesmen killed in the fighting to desecrate them.

Today, the Pentagon indicated there is video of the victims which it is now analyzing.

REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: Certainly, it wouldn't surprise any of us here if it turns out to be authentic and true, given the kinds of atrocities that this group continues to wage against innocent civilians.

SCIUTTO: And from Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, another startling claim, that ISIS is harvesting human organs from its victims in Iraq and selling them on the black market in Europe for profit. A dozen doctors in Mosul who refused to operate, he says, were murdered.

MOHAMED ALHAKIM, IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS (through translator): These are in fact crimes of genocide committed against humanity that must be held accountable before international justice, without even mentioning the traffic of human organs.

SCIUTTO: CNN has not been able to confirm the claims and the ambassador offered no proof. The U.N., however, tells CNN it is investigating. If true, what could be driving the terror group's increasingly extreme tactics?

ISIS financing has suffered as the U.S.-led air campaign has destroyed many of the group's lucrative oil facilities. And while ISIS recruiting remains strong, more and more attracting women and highly educated people, these extreme atrocities often filmed get attention, which in turn further fuels recruiting.

MICHAEL WEISS, CO-AUTHOR, "ISIS": We have already seen them burn people alive in cages, so it's just par for the course for ISIS. They have been crucifying people in Syria for the past two years. There really is no form of atrocity or, you know, sort of gruesome death that they haven't thought of.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: The brutal fight for al-Baghdadi is taking place just nine miles from the Al Asad Air Base, major base for Iraqi forces, also 400 coalition military advisers there, including 300 Americans.

That base was attacked last week by ISIS forces, that attack repelled. But it's interesting. When you are seeing this taking place, it's an indication of the limitation of the U.S. military role there. It's just nine miles away, brutal battle for a key city. Iraqi forces under enormous pressure facing enormous losses. Those American military fighters -- advisers, though, in their current role, they are not moving to those front lines to help them in this case.

Maybe a call for airpower, but you certainly won't see the advisers on the front lines of this, at least not for now.

TAPPER: Jim Sciutto, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

CNN international correspondent Ben Wedeman is live for us now. He's in Irbil, Iraq, close to where ISIS launched that major assault and was thankfully beaten back by Kurdish fighters.

Ben, the fighting there raged for hours last night. How close did ISIS come to actually overrunning the Kurdish lines?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it appears that it was not too far from doing that.

This occurred 30 miles to the west of here in an area called Gwer on the Zab river, where ISIS attacked in three different areas. The fighting went on for five hours in the middle of the night. There was heavy fog as well. The two sides were fighting so closely together that the coalition aircraft, which apparently were in the area, were unable to target ISIS because they were so close to the Kurds.

Eventually, the Kurds, however, were able to push ISIS back far enough for those strikes to occur. The strikes, according to Kurdish officials, left 40 ISIS fighters dead. So it was certainly the most intense fighting near Irbil in quite some months, but keep in mind, Jake, that the Kurds have a 1,000-kilometer, 600 -mile front they have to defend against ISIS and they certainly aren't as well-armed as ISIS, ISIS, of course, having looted the armories of the Iraqi army in Mosul last June.

So it's quite a challenge for the Kurds. They don't have things like night-vision, they don't have their own aircraft. And I have seen with my own eyes, they are using some artillery from World War II -- Jake.

TAPPER: World War II.

Ben Wedeman in Irbil, thank you. And please stay safe.

And as we have been reporting this week, ISIS is clearly branching out from Syria and Iraq, perhaps most threateningly in Libya. The most notable and vicious piece of evidence, of course, that video showing the Mediterranean stained red with the blood of those 21 Egyptian Christians who were beheaded on camera by the terrorist group.

Last Friday, the terrorist group claimed that an ISIS suicide bomber detonated himself in Benghazi province at a Libyan military checkpoint. ISIS put out photos of the purported attack afterwards. Then Monday, it published images of a parade, ISIS fighters marching near the Libyan city of Sirte.

Being active in Libya is a real concern because it could allow the group to create something of a terrorist pipeline to Europe. That Libyan beach scene where the English-speaking ISIS messenger threatened to conquer Rome is only hundreds of miles from Italy.

And CNN justice correspondent Pamela Brown is in Europe, where leaders are taking this threat very seriously -- Pamela.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: They certainly are, Jake.

In the wake of that disturbing ISIS video you talked about, there is growing concern in Europe, but particularly Italy, that those ISIS militants just 200 miles south of Italy could sneak into the country and link up with criminals there who are battling for control of Italy. That concern was reiterated by the foreign minister in Italy today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): In Italy today, a warning from the foreign minister of a -- quote -- "evident risk" of ISIS joining with the Italian militia.

The country alarmed about ISIS on its shores, just a short boat ride from the beach where this heinous video warning the country was filmed by ISIS last week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will conquer Rome.

BROWN: The latest propaganda effort coming as concerns about terror sweep across Europe. Here in Denmark, new details on Omar El-Hussein, the shooter who appears to have pledged allegiance to ISIS on his apparent Facebook before terrorizing Copenhagen. Police have now released these pictures of El-Hussein just after the initial attack, dressed in black, a White Sox hat, his face covered in a dark cloth. He went on to kill security guard Dan Uzan in front of a Jewish synagogue.

El-Hussein seen here in a boxing video from 2013 used an M-95 rifle like this as one of his weapons. Police say it was a military weapon reported missing following a home robbery. Authorities believe it was here as an inmate at Vestre Faengsel prison, where he became radicalized.

WASEEM HUSSEIN, IMAM: Definitely is a concern that we have. And we are actually aware of this in the Danish prison service. BROWN: Waseem Hussein is an imam at the prison. The Copenhagen

shooter served time here for a stabbing and was released just two weeks before the attacks. The imam says a third of the inmates are Muslim.

HUSSEIN: They may have questions about what do I think about ISIS and what's my opinion about ISIS? They want to know, actually, is it actually good or are they bad guys or what are they? I will tell them my point of view, that ISIS, they are doing a lot of wrong things.

BROWN: He says radicalization in the prison isn't widespread, but propaganda messages from groups like ISIS reach inmates directly with access to televisions in their cells.

HUSSEIN: It is not uncommon to see people who are actually interested in things that the media is focusing on in jail, in prison, although they may not be that interested in it outside.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: We have been speaking with many members of the Muslim community, including the imam, about this issue. And they say that many young Muslim men here in Denmark and elsewhere feel isolated from society and the imam was saying that that may be one reason perhaps why they are more susceptible to extremist ideologies in some cases -- Jake.

TAPPER: Pamela Brown in Copenhagen, thank you so much.

President Obama is expected to start speaking any minute about the threat of ISIS and violent extremism. What will he say about the latest savage killings by the terrorist group and the terrorist attacks in Denmark? The president's live speech coming up after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Jake Tapper. This is THE LEAD.

Any minute now we are expecting President Obama to address the global threat of ISIS.

Our senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta joins me now.

Jim, although military action with international help is a factor here, it's not the only way President Obama will be talking about fighting the problem of ISIS.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jake. And you can see right now as counterterrorism advisor Lisa Monaco delivering sort of an introduction to the president, so he will be coming out at any moment. And, Jake, from what I'm told, the president is going to try to strike a careful balance here. He's going to call on Americans to be more accepting of Muslim Americans in their communities while at the same time urging those communities to be on the lookout for potential violent extremism.

And so, what we have been hearing all day long at this summit and the participants who are involved in this summit is essentially they want to try to bridge this divide, build up trust between people in the Muslim faith and law enforcement, and they have been the principal actors of this summit. I talked to an imam from Minnesota earlier today who said, you know what, don't blame us for the actions that have been perpetrated by ISIS. Judge us by our actions here in the United States.

So I think the president wants to call attention to that and he wrote this op-ed in "The Los Angeles Times" to preview this speech, where he talks about that case down in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where Muslim Americans were the victims of violence.

And so, the president is trying to bridge a divide in this country from Americans who just want to pound ISIS and a lot of Muslim Americans out there who feel they are being unfairly targeted because of what's happening right now with this war on ISIS overseas.

ACOSTA: All right. Jim Acosta at the White House, thank you so much. In the few seconds we have before President Obama comes out.

Jay Carney, senior political commentator, former White House press secretary.

Why won't President Obama use the term "Islamic terrorist" or "Islamic extremist"?

JAY CARNEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Because he believes it's not about Islam, it's about perversion of religion, first of all. Second, there's a strategic piece of this which is we need in the United States the Muslim communities around the country to help us, help law enforcement, help our efforts to penetrate and prevent the creation of cells of potential terrorists who would do in the United States what we have seen happen in Europe and Australia and elsewhere.

I think that's the most important reason. So, when people are critical of the decisions -- decisions around language, I think they have to understand the goal here. The goal here is to prevent the kind of lone wolf attacks we have seen elsewhere from happening here in the United States. And the only way to do that is to make Muslim Americans and leaders of mosques and others to feel included in that effort and not isolated.

TAPPER: Paul Cruickshank, CNN terror analyst, I will bring you in as President Obama is approaching the podium any second.

What do you make of the fact that the president is delivering this address? Is this just because of what's going on in Europe, is this out of concerns that there will be something that happens again here in this country?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERROR ANALYST: There is clearly concern about radicalization in the United States. There have been lone wolf attacks here. The bigger threat is in Europe. There has been more radicalization there.

But obviously, he wants to highlight this threat and bring stakeholders together from all around the world so that the best practice can be highlighted and some pilot projects to tackle radicalization can be highlighted as well.

TAPPER: Paul, we will -- President Obama is being introduced right now. So, let's take a listen.

(BEGIN PRESIDENT OBAMA'S SPEECH)