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CNN NEWSROOM

Senate Prepares to Vote on Clean DHS Bill; Multiple Shootings in Missouri; ISIS Pull on Young Recruits

Aired February 27, 2015 - 10:00   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.

We begin in Washington where the clock is ticking closer to that midnight deadline to keep the Department of Homeland Security fully funded. Any minute now the Senate expected to vote on a so-called clean bill that would provide money to DHS through the end of September. Democrats and Republican senators both on board. But the House of Representatives likely will not accept that plan and is instead expected to take up a new proposal from Speaker John Boehner.

So let's talk about this with CNN chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash and CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger.

Welcome to both of you.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Thanks.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here.

So, Dana, really, John Boehner is suggesting funding DHS for only three weeks and it probably won't pass anyway in the House?

BASH: Really he is suggesting it, and not just suggesting it, they're going to do that later this afternoon. We think it probably will pass but not with the help of Democrats.

But let's start with what's going to happen this hour in the Senate. In the Senate we are finally going to have a vote on a bill to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security through the end of the fiscal year just as the White House has wanted, just as Democrats have been asking for. This is because Republicans gave in. They realized they don't have the votes to do anything else

However -- here's the but, and we just started with this. The House isn't going to take it up. They're not going to vote on it because they don't agree with that. They do not agree with voting on anything that doesn't also block the president's immigration plan. The one that allows millions of undocumented workers to stay here in this country illegally. So what they're going to do is kick the can down the road.

So in the short-term, it's good news because the Department of Homeland Security probably will not be shutdown. But in the long- term, talking three weeks from now, we're going to be sitting here having the same conversation.

COSTELLO: So, Gloria, Mitch McConnell bit the bullet and did what was best for the country, right? He showed strong leadership. Why can't the House Speaker John Boehner do the same?

BORGER: I think John Boehner is actually asking himself the same question, Carol. He's got lots of Republicans over there who just say hell no. And they don't want to have anything to do with a vote that would look like they were giving their assent in any way, shape or form to immigration.

I think the only reason -- and I was told this by a senior House Democrat yesterday. The only reason that some Republicans who are conservative and hate the president's immigration plan could potentially vote for this is that -- their short-term fix -- is that they don't want the Department of Homeland Security to shut down when you've got Bibi Netanyahu coming here next week to give a speech on ISIS. OK, how would that look?

And there are some Republicans, and Dana knows this better than anyone, who understand that the public will blame them. Our own CNN polling shows that 53 percent of Americans would blame the Republicans in Congress if the DHS were to shut down and only 30 percent would blame the president. So, you know, they understand that the optics of this looks really bad for them.

COSTELLO: Well -- yes, the optics look really bad, Dana.

BORGER: I'm leaving you speechless.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: I know, I can't even believe this is happening.

BORGER: Right. Exactly.

COSTELLO: It's just so bizarre because, Dana, this wasn't supposed to happen when Republicans took control of both the House and the Senate.

BASH: And you know, what -- just sort of to give everybody the context and the backdrop here, not only was it not supposed to happen, the reason this is happening right now is because Republicans kicked the can from December to now.

BORGER: Right. Right.

BASH: Remember, the whole reason this is happening is because of the same issue, opposition to the president's immigration executive order --

COSTELLO: Guys, I'm going to have to -- I'm going to have to interrupt you. And I apologize while we await action in the Senate to start there, there is a very important news conference going on in the state of Missouri right now where nine people have been shot in numerous locations.

Let's listen to the Missouri Highway Patrol and the Texas County Sheriff's Department.

SGT. JEFF KINDER, MISSOURI HIGHWAY PATROL: A juvenile female caller indicated that she was in the residence and apparently had heard gunshots. She immediately fled to a neighbor's house to notify authorities and responding deputies found two deceased persons at this residence.

Further investigation revealed five additional victims who were deceased and one additional victim who was wounded in three additional residences. All three residences were in Tyrone.

Another residence revealed the body of a deceased elderly female who appeared to have died from natural causes.

The apparent suspect, a 36-year-old male from Tyrone, was found dead in a vehicle at a location in Shannon County from an apparent self- inflicted gunshot wound. There are a total of nine deceased individuals including the elderly female and the suspect. The injured victim was taken to a nearby hospital.

The investigation is continuing by the Texas County Sheriff's Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol's Division of Drug and Crime Control. Any information the public might have regarding the case can be forwarded to the Texas County Sheriff's Department at 417-967-4165 or the Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop G Headquarters at 417-469-3121.

Like I said, this is very preliminary in this investigation. I will try to take some questions. I'm not going to tell you I'll be able to answer them, but I'll do what I can.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Any word on the motive so far?

KINDER: None that we know of yet.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How about the relationship of the elderly woman to the other victims and the suspect?

KINDER: We're not sure about that either.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Talk about the -- just the timeline real slowly again to make sure that we're getting everything correctly.

KINDER: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So it sounds like you have five total residences, the first being with the 911 call? The first two (INAUDIBLE).

KINDER: That's correct.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And then the additional three, five bodies among those three? KINDER: That is correct.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: OK. And then the --

KINDER: And one other injured person who was shot. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And one injured person and then the elderly woman found on the floor.

KINDER: That's correct.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: OK. So four residences total?

KINDER: There will be five residences total.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: OK.

KINDER: Hers being the fifth.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: That's right. We have five.

KINDER: Yes, sir. We're currently working six active scenes including the location in Shannon County where the suspect was found deceased.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And so you said the elderly female, it's confirmed that she died from natural causes?

KINDER: It appears that she died from natural causes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are all of the victims gunshot victims?

KINDER: Yes, they are.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You have seven victims in the case?

KINDER: There are -- isn't that terrible? Lose count. But no, there is actually nine total victims here in this case. One of them being the shooter, the suspect in this. The other one being the elderly woman and then seven victims of gunshot wounds.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you know yet the relationship of the juvenile female who called and made the 911 call at the first residence? Do you know yet the relationship that that juvenile had to two victims found in the first household?

KINDER: No, I don't have any information that would confirm any of that other than she was at the residence at the time it started.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So like I said, so where is your investigation going from here? I guess, what do you have to work through with Texas County authorities and Shannon County authorities?

KINDER: Right. Yes. We have -- I believe we have seven investigators here with our Division of Drug and Crime Control and they are still working active crime scenes in Texas and the one in Shannon County also. And like I said, we're assisting the Texas County Sheriff.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: We have word that that 36-year-old victim, the one --

KINDER: We're assisting the Texas County Sheriff.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So we have word that that 36-year-old victim, the one who died in the car, had applied for a job at the local cabinetry company and that perhaps that happened recently. Can you confirm that?

KINDER: I can't confirm that. I don't have any independent information that would lead us to believe that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: When do you believe the victims' names might be released?

KINDER: We're working on that now. You know what? It's -- in this situation, we try to contact everybody's next of kin and it would be terrible if we released those names prematurely. So we want to be sure and get that done. Hopefully later on today we may be able to do that. We will get them as soon as we can.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sir, I guess kind of just tell me what -- as law enforcement officials what are you guys going through right now? How are you guys dealing with this personally?

KINDER: Well, you know what, that's -- in our job we see a lot of bad stuff and this is bad. This is also hard on the police officers who are working. It's not natural to see that sort of thing. And I'm sure they were as shocked as a lot of the people are, you know, in this room.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This elderly female seems to be the outlier. Natural causes. Is there anything you can say about the relationships between other victims and perhaps if the shooter (INAUDIBLE) at this point?

KINDER: You know, if I told you anything, I would be speculating. And I'm not willing to do that. But I'm sure there is some type of relationship there, but I'm not sure what it is. And we will try to pin down that sort of stuff. Like I said, this is very preliminary.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You are including, though, her, however, as a victim even as she --

KINDER: I was including her as being deceased. OK. She is -- we're not calling her a victim at this time. That's it? All right. Thank you all very much. We will put -- get some stuff together and we'll try to give you some more information as we get it.

COSTELLO: All right. We're going to step away from this news conference. Kind of confusing at times.

So I want to bring in Alexandra Field in. You were listening along with me. So what I got from this. Seven deceased. All of them died of gunshot

wounds. Six active scenes. The 36-year-old suspect was found dead in a vehicle of a self-inflicted gunshot wound but then authorities kept bringing up this elderly woman who died of natural causes.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. And two other people figure into this. One we know that somebody was injured who did not die and then they have indicated that there's this woman, an elderly woman that they said who died of natural causes. They're discussing her in the context of this, but you heard him say at the end there, let's not classify her necessarily as one of the victims.

The rest we're told died of shooting injuries. She of course natural causes. So we don't know I think at this point, Carol, if she was related in some way to the suspect or any of the other victims. So I think she's not outside the realm of the investigation into what happened but certainly no direct correlation, it seems, between the suspect. We don't know if he was in her house or not.

What we do know at this point, this is a confusing and a complex thing that evolved overnight. We know that this started when a juvenile female, that's how they're classifying her, a young girl it sounds like, made a phone call after hearing gunshots. Fled to a neighbor's house. Authorities responded. They found two bodies in that initial house. They went onto a number of different scenes and that's where they continued to find bodies. Five more in total.

They did ultimately find the suspect as you pointed out, shot himself to death inside a parked car. A number of different authorities working together now to investigate what the links could be between these people. What their connection could be to the shooter at this point. We also know that four people in this community, this was a very tense and trying overnight investigation.

COSTELLO: So it's a small community in this --

FIELD: Described as a rural community.

COSTELLO: Right?

FIELD: A small community. You've got to assume that a lot of people in this community certainly know each other and they all knew what was happening because you had officials going door to door checking to see if more people were injured and also telling people that they needed to stay inside while this played out.

COSTELLO: Perhaps it's telling that the Missouri State Patrol's drug unit is investigating. I'm not saying that drugs had anything to do with it. But it is interesting that that agency is part of the investigation.

FIELD: Right. They've got a lot of different pieces that they've got to try and put together here. These gunshots that were reported, these suspects. What's the connection between all of these homes, and I think they're bringing in the resources that they have to try and determine what could have motivated some of it. Maybe that's a clue. We just don't know yet.

COSTELLO: Alexandra Field, I'll let you get back to digging. Thanks so much. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, several Canadian teenagers vanished and police believe they may be on their way to join ISIS.

A look at the terror group's campaign to recruit the young, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: This morning there are chilling new concerns about ISIS and its ability to recruit young people to its deadly cause. Officials in Canada say at least four teenagers are believed to have traveled to Turkey apparently with plans to slip into neighboring Syria and join ISIS.

There could be even more. And a community college may be a central link in this unfolding investigation.

Let's turn now to Rosa Flores.

Rosa, you've been taking a closer look at this college professor. Tell us more.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, let me start with this, Carol. So the students and the administrators at College de Maisonneuve are in shock and in disbelief this morning for a few reasons. First of all, because these students who authorities believe traveled to the Middle East and were going to join ISIS attended this community college and then also because the professor of Islamic Studies and Quran was suspended by that community college because the community college alleges that they found hate speech.

Now we should add that this community college has not presented proof of this hate speech. So what we could do is look at his Twitter. Now he's very avid on Twitter. He tweets a lot. And he calls himself the coordinator of the Collective Against Islamaphobia of Quebec.

Now here are a few tweets from him. This first one. " The government must fight against Islamophobia in the same way that it fights against anti-Semitism, sexism and racism."

Now we've got to give you some background here because this particular professor was charged in 2003 for being a terror sleeper agent. Now he was completely cleared in 2009 from any wrongdoing. But of course he went to social media. He went to the Web and expressed his outrage sometimes about how he was treated by the government.

A Web site was set up. You're looking at it right now on your screen called Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui. In there they mentioned that he was treated unjustly, that his treatment was racist and Islamophobic. Now CNN has reached out to this professor. He has not responded to our request yet. But he is expected to speak to the media at about 11:00 today, Carol. And we will of course be there and bring you the latest. COSTELLO: All right. Rosa Flores, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

Still on the topic of young ISIS recruits, an 18-year-old Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to helping a terrorist organization. Authorities say the Somali-American tried to fly to Turkey with plans to join ISIS in Syria. The FBI was called in and he raised suspicion while applying for expedited passport. Agents arrested this young man before he could board the flight. That young man could now face up to 15 years in prison.

So let's talk more about the rising number of young people being seduced and recruited by ISIS. To talk about this, I'm joined by Phil Mudd, a former counterterrorism official for the CIA and now a CNN counterterrorism analyst.

Welcome, Phil.

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Thank you.

COSTELLO: OK. So the FBI was able to stop this 18-year-old Minnesota kid, right?

MUDD: That's right.

COSTELLO: Because he did something really stupid.

MUDD: That's right. We like the stupid ones. The problem in this case, though, is not the ones you stopped. It's the volume we're seeing, which, when I was in the business back in 2001, 2005, 2010, we'd have five on the plate, 15 on the plate.

You're talking about hundreds of people going from North America and western Europe, thousands from western Europe, to the battle zone. When you're dealing with that kind of a volume and I see one guy taken down in a case like this, I look at that and say what about the hundred we're missing. You can't keep track of that volume in my world.

COSTELLO: OK. So let's talk about what's happening in Canada along those lines. So at least four teenagers fly off to Turkey to go onto Syria to join ISIS.

MUDD: That's right.

COSTELLO: Three of them young women. They were -- I think three teenagers went to that community college where that professor Rosa was talking about.

MUDD: Yes.

COSTELLO: Taught.

MUDD: That's right.

COSTELLO: That's kind of a strange kind of twist to the story, right? MUDD: I would say not. I take it the reverse. Let me flip it and

tell you there are characteristics of this case that are almost emblematic of what we've seen in the age of sort of homegrown terror. The first is the age of some of these girls. Fifteen years old, 18 years old, we've seen 15 years old out of Denver as well.

The impressionable age of a person who can be influenced by an older figure. These people aren't terrorists. They're not jihadists. They're girls who are making a mistake. In those cases, in a lot of them, you get an older figure, in this case this professor who is the generator, the catalyst for radicalization. We have a 30-year-old in the case in New York. We had --

COSTELLO: Well, let's go back to that professor.

MUDD: OK. Please.

COSTELLO: Because you called him a catalyst. And you know, I don't want to make too much of this because we don't really know that much, right? So --

MUDD: I'll wager it. We don't know it but I'll wager it but go ahead.

COSTELLO: No, no, no. I'm just saying, let's say he was just teaching about Islamaphobia.

MUDD: Yes.

COSTELLO: And he was very passionate about it. And let's say these teenagers were also looking at online at these ISIS recruitment videos and posturings.

MUDD: Yes.

COSTELLO: That combined could have created in their mind a justification for going to Syria to join ISIS, right?

MUDD: I'd alter that a little bit. People talk about online radicalization, the influence of the Internet. That sounds good. In reality, it's a little bit different. My experience is that usually there's a human being who starts. That's why I use the word catalyst.

COSTELLO: Right.

MUDD: Who starts the process. The Internet plays a critical role because emotional images, videos, speeches by respected religious scholars. That can accelerate what that original human being told that child. So the Internet is important but it's usually not in my experience the originator of the process.

COSTELLO: So this has put the community college -- president in kind of a tough spot, right? Because people are now asking why did you hire this man? I mean, he was accused of --

MUDD: Yes. COSTELLO: Belonging to a sleeper cell. Was completely cleared but

still people are going to ask him that question.

MUDD: Well, hold on. Completely cleared. In my world, you know what that means? Judicial jihad. As soon as you say you're not -- we're not hiring you, especially in Canada, which has a lot of experience in cases where people in the Islamic world are alleging mistreatment, he's going to go and say. I've been discriminated against -- you saw his tweet early. I have been discriminated against because I'm Muslim.

So we have the jihad in Syria, we also have judicial jihad of people who might be suspected of doing something and cleared and can go get a position like this because if they're not hired, they're going to go get a lawyer.

COSTELLO: Well, but it is possible they're not guilty, right?

MUDD: My guess is given what we've seen in the past couple of days, there's a little more fire here.

COSTELLO: OK. So going back to the community college president.

MUDD: Yes.

COSTELLO: She says, you know, it's very difficult to determine which students are going to become, you know, ISIS terrorists and go to Syria. She says it's not like they come in with a poster on their chest proclaiming I'm with ISIS. She says there's no profile. So she's actually going to send counselors out to ask students if they're interested in ISIS. Is that effective?

MUDD: I don't think that'll be effective. What you're going to see in cases like this, and she's right. Oftentimes I saw people -- kids recruited, their mothers never knew, their fathers never knew. The immediate family doesn't know. How is a college administrator supposed to know?

These children and adults will keep their world segregated. Sort of like what you see in other parts of life for teenagers whether they're smoking, drinking. They're going to keep that world segregated from the parent. And they can lead a social life outside that where you would never know. And of course if someone comes in and says, are you sympathetic with ISIS, I suspect they're going to say not so much. Why are you asking me this?

So the segregation in the human mind, the ability to say that's a different world, I'm not going to talk about this outside of my friends, pretty common.

COSTELLO: Phil Mudd, thanks for coming in.

MUDD: Thank you.

COSTELLO: I really appreciate it. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, former Florida governor Jeb Bush

gearing up to take center stage today at CPAC. The big question, will he be able to escape his brother's legacy?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking news.

COSTELLO: All right. Missouri authorities investigating a grisly series of crimes. Nine people dead and just let me go down what we know happened right now. We know that seven people were killed. All of them shot. These seven people were located at five different residences in Tyrone, Missouri, which is a very small town in rural Missouri.

We understand also that one elderly woman was found dead but apparently she died of natural causes. We're not quite sure how she's connected to this case. Police also say they found a 36-year-old man dead in a car in Tyrone, Missouri. They say he died of a self- inflicted gunshot wound and he is the suspect in this case.

With me now on the phone, Sergeant Jeff Kinder with the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Welcome, sir. Thank you for -- thank you for being with me this morning.

KINDER: Well, good morning and you're welcome.

COSTELLO: Do we know how these shooting deaths are connected?

KINDER: Well, we're in the very preliminary stages of the investigation now and I'll read to you what we are -- we do have. It was yesterday evening at 10:15 p.m., the Texas County Sheriff's Department requested assistance with a disturbance involving a weapon at a residence in Tyrone, Missouri. A juvenile female caller indicated she was in the residence and apparently heard gunshots. She immediately fled to a neighbor's house to notify authorities. And responding deputies found two deceased persons at this residence.