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CNN NEWSROOM

Jihadi John Identified; Previewing New CNN Show "The Wonder List"; McConnell, Boehner Now at Odds?; LeBron James' Son Being Recruited

Aired February 26, 2015 - 09:30   ET

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


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Terror a top priority in Washington today. Just hours after the identity of "Jihadi John" is revealed and three men are arrested in New York for attempting to join ISIS, on Capitol Hill, lawmakers are expected to grill James Clapper, the director of the National Intelligence Agency. Clapper testifying on current worldwide threats in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Of course, we'll continue to monitor that hearing and we'll keep you posted.

Back to the identity of that masked man believed to be behind the killings of American journalist James Foley and Steven Sotloff. His identity has now been revealed to the world. According to Reuters, citing a report by "The Washington Post," his name is Mohammed Emwazi. He's believed to be in his mid-20s, reportedly born in Kuwait but grew up in west London. He graduated with a degree in computer programming.

So let's talk more about this with CNN law enforcement analyst and former assistant director of the FBI, Tom Fuentes. I'm also joined by John Magaw. He's the former director of the U.S. Secret Service.

Thanks to both of you for being with me this morning.

JOHN MAGAW, FORMER DIR., U.S. SECRET SERVICE: Good morning, Carol.

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

So, Tom, U.S. authorities and British authorities aren't confirming this man's identity. Why?

FUENTES: Well, normally, because he's a British subject, you know, the British are very conservative in revealing the identity of any suspect or subject of their investigation. It's kind of common practice for them. I think they probably are not stunned that the information got out, but in a way would probably prefer that it hadn't because they want to try to track him in the hopes that maybe he'll communicate with a former classmate or friend in Britain and they can intercept an e-mail or some other communication from him and this just alerts everybody that knows him, even on the periphery, to just, you know, be careful of your communications. They could be monitored. COSTELLO: Yes, but still, John, this is like the worst kept secret

ever because I think that many, many people who -- knew the real identity of "Jihadi John" for a long time.

MAGAW: Well, I think that's true. And one of the things that becomes apparent is, if you look back in "Jihadi John's" career in developing where he is today, it's almost like the three suspects in New York where you grab them early on before they get into another country. And it's going to be more difficult now, I believe, to find him because the ISIS groups will want to hide him.

The other thing it did is it -- all of those others who have killed Christians and others throughout that -- the land in the east there now know that they're going to be looking for them. So that's a positive.

COSTELLO: Well, Tom, I was just going to follow up on what John just said by saying, you know, there's this idea that "Jihadi John" would make a mistake and post something on FaceBook or send an e-mail. He's a computer programmer. He has a degree in it. So isn't that unlikely?

FUENTES: Well, postings on social media that's a, you know, 15-year- olds do that. It doesn't require a programming degree to do that. So the programing degree --

COSTELLO: No, I understand that but, you know, he hasn't done it so far. So what makes think -- what makes anyone think he's going to make a mistake now?

FUENTES: How do you know what he's done so far? I mean we -- the authorities are tracking, I'm sure, a number of sites and a number of things that aren't public yet. And just because we don't know it publicly or the media doesn't know it doesn't mean that some of these things haven't been happening in another form or maybe under a pseudonym or some other method. So, you know, these are -- these are intricate, involved cases, especially in a place like Syria where we have such limited on the ground intelligence in the first place.

COSTELLO: And, John, let's talk about that limited intelligence on the ground. With that in mind, it's going to be very difficult in fighting this guy, even though authorities know who he is.

MAGAW: Well, it may be. I think it will take a while, but where we don't have good intelligence I think we'll obtain good intelligence. It's very -- going to be very important that we find him, that we bring him to justice. And I believe, as we have been successful in the past, even though it's in a foreign country, even though it's a country that's going to try to protect him now, at least through the jihadists. Somewhere, somehow, some way we will get the intelligence necessary to bring him to justice. I believe that. I wouldn't put a time frame on it. Didn't put a time frame on bin Laden. This man will be brought to justice.

COSTELLO: Tom Fuentes, John Magaw, thanks to both of you. I appreciate it.

FUENTES: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: In CNN's new series "THE WONDER LIST," Bill Weir travels to some rarely seen parts of the world. First up, Bill goes to an island nation in the South Pacific where the effects of climate change could threaten their way of life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL WEIR, HOST, CNN's "THE WONDER LIST": There is an alarming number of Americans who are skeptical that it is even happening and that island nations see this as an easy way to get some extra money.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really?

WEIR: What is the reality when it comes to climate change for an island nation like this one?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, some of the smaller islands within (INAUDIBLE). I mean we have seen, because we've been living here over years and years, where you can see the sea level rising.

WEIR: You can see the actual changes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can see -- you can see the actual changes.

WEIR (voice-over): A warmer planet will likely affect their crops, bring stronger storms, but folks in these highland villages are relatively safe from the rising tides.

But our next stop includes communities that live just inches above sea level. Places where they're thrilled to see one flight a month land on the grass patch that is the Mota Lava International Airport.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to Mota Lava.

WEIR (on camera): You're the man, Nick.

WEIR (voice-over): On this island, there are around 1,500 people and two cars. This is the one that runs, sort of.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh!

WEIR (on camera): It started. I will never complain about New York City taxi cabs ever again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Bill Weir joins me now to talk about this.

And you know climate change is a subject near and dear to my heart.

WEIR: I know that. COSTELLO: Because it's an important issue that we should all be paying attention to.

WEIR: I know that, yes.

COSTELLO: But, of course, our lawmakers aren't so much.

WEIR: Right. Right. An awful lot of people agree what's happening. And these people see it's happening. Some aren't so convinced. But I wanted this series to kind of look at issues like that, not just climate change but social change, overhunting, over fishing through the eyes of people who are seeing it beneath their feet, you know --

COSTELLO: Well, it's interesting you can go to this tiny island and talk to a man about climate change in an intelligent way and you can't do that in the United States sometimes.

WEIR: Yes. Yes. It's so politicized. It's such a third rail right now. But when you look at the fact that human beings have been on this planet for just a blink in time. You know, just a -- just a -- just a tiny second. And in that time we've managed to cut down half the forest, eat half the fish and it's just not sustainable in so many ways. So I wanted to tackle this in a new way and also give a sense of adventure and exploration and discovery and it was an amazing ride.

COSTELLO: Oh, no, I mean it looks absolutely amazing. So tell me one of your favorite moments and one of your favorite places.

WEIR: Well, this, what we're looking at here, this is -- Sovano Atu (ph) is this island nation. There's 83 different islands. And I wanted to see if there's still a Hawaii sort of without hotels somewhere in the world, you know, and where strip malls and the burger joints haven't entered yet and they have -- but they have all the food, all the fish they can catch, all the vegetables they can pick. And I saw this picture of this amazing place and these people in loin cloths with bows and arrows. And I went there and the cell phone signal is stronger than Manhattan.

COSTELLO: No!

WEIR: And that guy right there wants to be an actor. He's got wi-fi. And he can't wait until the hotels come. And I'm trying to tell him, look, man, you know, it may be a better quality of life. Who's to say they can't have flat screen TVs or better roads and these sorts of things, but it will change the rhythms of your life.

But it blew my mind in a bunch of different ways. Some tribes, like this, totally want the modern world in their lives. Others have been here and they say, you can keep it. We're happy to live in the most simple way you can imagine.

COSTELLO: Well, I cannot wait to watch. And thank you so much for joining me this morning. I appreciate it.

WEIR: Great to see you, Carol. COSTELLO: Bill Weir, I appreciate it. Catch the rest of the journey on

the premier episode of "THE WONDER LIST" with Bill Weir. That's this Sunday, 10:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

Still to come on the NEWSROOM, A Republican house divided. The House and the Senate squaring off over whether or not to fund the Department of Homeland Security. We'll get into that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It seemed just like yesterday when Republican leaders appeared on "60 Minutes," united in their fight against everything Obama.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From the president's State of the Union Address, let me ask you, dead or alive, raise taxes on the wealthy?

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: Why would we want to raise taxes on people?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll take that as a dead.

BOEHNER: Dead. Real dead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Make community college free of charge, dead or alive?

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MAJORITY LEADER: We've added more debt during the Obama years than all the presidents from George Washington down to George Bush, and giving away free tuition strikes me as something we can't afford.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll put that down as dead as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It seemed just like yesterday when Republican leaders appeared on "60 Minutes" united in their fight against everything Obama.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT PELLEY, "60 MINUTES": From the president's State of the Union address, let me ask you. Dead or alive, raise taxes on the wealthy?

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: Why would we want to raise taxes on people? PELLEY: I'll take that as a dead.

BOEHNER: Dead. Real dead.

PELLEY: Make community college free of charge? Dead or alive?

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MAJORITY LEADER: We've added more debt during the Obama years than all the presidents from George Washington down to George Bush, and giving away free tuition strikes me as something we can't afford.

PELLEY: I'll put that down as dead as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: See? Well, today Mitch McConnell and John Boehner don't seem exactly chummy.

This as the Department of Homeland Security is about to be defunded. We're talking about the men and women who protect our airports, our borders and our president.

Republicans in the House refused to pass a -- refused to pass a bill funding Homeland Security unless it includes a provision knocking down President Obama's executive action on immigration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MATT SALMON (R), ARIZONA: The speaker brought a vote to the floor, it was just a clean vote on DHS that funded what I believe an unconstitutional action. I'm not going to be part of funding something I believe is unconstitutional. I believe that's a dereliction of my oath of office and I'm not going to be part of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: You see? John Boehner has a very, very difficult job.

Is there any way out? And why isn't he talking more with Mitch McConnell?

Let's talk about that with CNN political commentator and Republican strategist Anna Navarro.

Hi, Anna.

ANNA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hi, Carol.

COSTELLO: Hi. So what happened between McConnell and Boehner?

NAVARRO: Look I -- I know these two guys and they are two completely different personalities and idiosyncrasies, but I think they do get along. They've got a relationship that frankly they've honed over eight years of being the leaders of the respected Houses, but they also have very different institutions that they are now leaders of. I think McConnell and Boehner understand that one of changes the

American people expects of a Republican Congress is less dysfunction and more coordination between the Senate and the House.

There are going to be times when they disagree, when they have to take different tactics, when they have to leave their very different chambers and I think this is one of them but, you know, Boehner still has a few days. He's got, I think, a few options up his sleeve so I -- you know, I'm confident that we're --

COSTELLO: OK. Well, a few options up his sleeve because Senator McConnell has found a way to move that bill through the Senate and senators will probably approve of funding DHS in a clean bill, and then of course it will go back to the House. John Boehner has said, I'm not even going to look at such a thing.

So is he just posturing for the base? I mean, what is his strategy?

NAVARRO: Look, you know, politics is about perception, and I think in all politics, in all moves you're going to see a little bit of posturing on both sides, but at the end of the day you've got a deadline. You've got a DHS department that needs to be funded and you've got a very hard deadline so I think he's -- you know, and I think he's hearing from a lot of people. He's heard from a lot of people.

He was in South Florida earlier this week and I can tell you the people that I heard speaking to him, folks don't want a DHS showdown. Certainly not when it comes to DHS. This is something that people don't want to play around with. And then he's got also add to that the pending legal action, which I think may give him an out because, you know, you can somehow tie one thing to the other to what the legitimate outcome of that is going to eventually be in court.

As you know, the courts have currently stopped it. So I think there's a lot of pressure upon John Boehner but I think John Boehner is a slick operator and I think he knows how to maneuver his caucus so let's see what happens in the next couple of days.

COSTELLO: Of course some might say the most disturbing thing about this is what seems to be a growing rift in the Republican Party. Is it growing? Is it -- because we all thought that was kind of going away.

NAVARRO: I hope it's not, and I go back to telling you I think John Boehner and Mitch McConnell have known each other and worked together and like each other. I think they're very different people. They're very different personalities. All you have to do is go have a drink with one or the other and you can tell that right away. But I think they've worked together for a long time.

And as I said, I think they understand that a lot of people voted for a Republican Senate and a Republican House in hopes that the dysfunction we have seen with a Democrat Senate and a Republican House would be over and that we would see more coordinated action and actual bills passed from a Republican-led Congress. I think they understand that they've got to show some results.

COSTELLO: All right. Anna Navarro, thank you for your insight. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the son of an NBA superstar -- say his name -- LeBron James' 10-year-old son already being recruited, Andy Scholes?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: Yes, that's right, Carol. LeBron James Jr. is so good at basketball already he's being recruited to play in college. He's only 10.

We'll hear what LeBron has to say about these offers when NEWSROOM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A once homeless college football player is no longer part of his team, all because a family friend offered him a place to live.

Andy Scholes has more on this morning's "Bleacher Report."

Good morning, Andy.

SCHOLES: Good morning, Carol. Yes, this is another ridiculous incident of an NCAA rule just not making any sense. The player's name is Silas Nacita. He's a walk-on running back for Baylor and he received national attention not too long ago when people learned he had been homeless for a year.

When he enrolled at Baylor, a family friend insisted on putting Nacita up in an apartment and helping him with his expenses and because he accepted that for free, Nacita apparently violated an NCAA rule and as a result, Baylor announced Wednesday that Nacita was no longer a member of the team.

But this story, it does get a little confusing because the NCAA tweeted yesterday that they have not rules Nacita ineligible and Baylor has not requested a waiver for him. So who made the decision that Nacita can't play anymore isn't exactly clear.

Either way Nacita, he's taking the high road. He tweeted that, "All I wanted to do was go to school and play the game I love but I respect the decision by the NCAA."

The Los Angeles Angels announced yesterday that star outfielder Josh Hamilton was in New York meeting with Major League Baseball officials. And according to reports, the former AL MVP has had a drug relapse. Hamilton was suspended from baseball from 2004 to June 2006 for issues related to cocaine and alcohol addiction.

According to CBS sports, Hamilton confessed to going on a binge that involved cocaine a couple of months ago. Hamilton was already going to be out of action until May after having shoulder surgery, but now he could be facing a lengthy suspension. LeBron James has a message to colleges all around the country. Quit

recruiting my 10-year-old son. LeBron James Jr. has become an Internet sensation after video of him just dominating other fourth graders has made the rounds. Some colleges have already offered LeBron Jr. a scholarship. And dad, well, he doesn't like it. LeBron told CBS Detroit, it's pretty crazy, it should be a violation. You shouldn't be able to recruit 10-year-old kids.

Well, the old man is going to take center stage on tonight's NBA on TNT double header. LeBron and the Cavs is going to host the Golden State Warriors at 8:00 Eastern. The game followed by the Thunder visiting the Suns at 10:30.

And, Carol, we've got some great news. Our friend over at TNT, Craig Sager, he's going to make his return to the sidelines a week from tonight. Of course Sager, he's been battling leukemia, but has been in full remission since late last year.

Can't wait to see him back on the sidelines wearing all those crazy outfits and suits he's always wearing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)