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Female Arrested in U.S. Trying to Join ISIS; New Pictures of Terrorist Attack on Kenyan Campus; Saudi Arabia Ramps Up Security at Saudi/Yemen Border; U.S. Jobs Numbers for March a "Disappointment"; "N.Y. Times" Calls for Menendez Resignation Following Indictment. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired April 3, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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


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[13:31:38] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Brianna Keilar, in for Wolf Blitzer.

Federal authorities have made another arrest of an American citizen allegedly trying to join ISIS. Prosecutors say that her Twitter account, which was later deactivated, posted this message, "If we truly knew the realities, we all would be rushing to join our brothers in the front lines and pray Allah accept us as martyrs."

I want to go to CNN's Jason Carroll.

Tell us what we know about this woman, Jason, and how big of a threat she was posing.

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JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You saw her name on her Twitter account. Her name is Keonna Thomas but she went by the nickname "the young lioness," according to U.S. officials. She's a U.S. citizen from Philadelphia. She's 30 years old. According to the criminal complaint that we had an opportunity to read through, she has been charged with providing material support to a terrorist organization. Also in the complaint, it reads that Thomas attempted to, quote, "travel overseas in order to join, fight with and martyr herself for ISIL." Federal agents say that as far back as 2013, she started posting a lot of these jihadist-type comments on Twitter. You saw one of them there. Also back in 2013, she allegedly sent an electronic communication to a known Somali terrorist. Federal agents also began looking at her travel plans. Back in February, she received her passport. Then just last month, she got a visa to travel to Turkey. Also last month, she purchased a ticket from Philadelphia this Barcelona, Spain, with a scheduled return of April 15th. But clearly, according to this complaint, she had no intention of returning to the United States but was going to try to cross over into Syria.

If she's charged and, if she's convicted on these charges, she could face a maximum of 15 years in prison. We seem to be seeing a lot of these types of cases on the scale of what we saw yesterday here in New York compared to this case in Philadelphia. Certainly, not as serious as those two women that we saw being arrested yesterday in New York City, but still serious nonetheless.

KEILAR: Talk about some of these other cases. The one in particular that looked like it could have led to a terror attack on U.S. soil as opposed to this new one we're hearing about today.

CARROLL: You're talking about the two men arrested here in New York City from queens, New York. Arrested on charges of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, those two women, Noelle Velentzas, 28 years old, married with a young daughter, and also Asia Siddiqui, 31 years old. They were roommates, arrested for conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. Federal authorities say these two gathered bomb-making materials including propane panics, pressure cooker bombs. According to the criminal complaint, the women talked about targeting police as well.

Velentzas' husband spoke out and said he had no idea his wife was involved with something like this. Not only did he say that about his wife but he also said it about Siddiqui as well. He said he knew her. He said they were, quote, "just two normal women."

Also Siddiqui's attorney came out yesterday, spoke about his client. He said his client is not guilty, and when pressed for more information about her and the case, he said he wasn't going to try it in front of the press but in the courtroom -- Brianna?

[13:35:15] KEILAR: Jason Carroll, thanks so much for the report.

Ahead, the first pictures from inside that school in Kenya where 147 people were ruthlessly gunned down by al Shabaab terrorists. As terrible as it is to imagine what those victims went through, what our team saw in the school, very bad as well. We are live from Kenya next.

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KEILAR: A steady stream of ambulances came back and forth to Garissa University College in Kenya, today, removing the bodies. At least 147 dead, many others wounded after a brutal attack by al Shabaab Islamist militants. These are the first images we're getting from inside of the school. It is a gruesome scene where the al Shabaab Somali gunmen stormed the university. They killed several students, took others hostages. Witnesses say then they started shooting Christians while sparing Muslims. After several hours, Kenyan security forces moved in and managed to kill four gunmen.

There was a somber mood at Christian churches across Kenya today as worshippers attended Good Friday services. At this church here in Nairobi, they prayed for the victims of the attack.

CNN's Christian Purefoy joining us live from Kenya.

What are we hearing, Christian, in the aftermath of the attack today? We understand the details are terrible and that these gunmen really lured so many of these students out by promising that they would live. [11:39:58] CHRISTIAN PUREFOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna. The

actual university itself has been on lockdown all day but a heavy security presence as the ambulances and security forces come and go from that campus and the scene of that terrible what is basically mass murder.

But stories are beginning to come out from the injured, from witnesses. And they really are terrible. Some people, still finding them hiding in toilets and under beds. But the really horrific stuff -- we spoke to one medical doctor who went in shortly after the security forces and he said he saw people lying down flat, their face facing the ground and gunshots to the back of their heads. Some students in the bed shot randomly. There was another survivor we spoke to who she said had to cover herself with the blood of her friends so she could pretend she also died. So many dead but so many survivors, it's expected that there's going to be a lot more.

KEILAR: How does this community handle this? How are they coping?

PUREFOY: Well, to be honest, it's not just this community. This was a multi-religious school, a multicultural school with students from across Kenya. In fact, if anything, this community here hasn't really been affected that dramatically. But it's the rest of Kenya. You've got families across the country, who are still actually waiting to hear if their loved ones were killed because these bodies, they've been recovered but not all of them have been identified yet. So you have families desperate to know, Brianna, were their loved ones in that university.

KEILAR: It's so heartbreaking, Christian Purefoy, to hear about this story.

Thank you so much. We'll continue to follow it with you.

Saudi Arabia's military is ramping up security at the border with Yemen. But is the kingdom playing defense or are they preparing to escalate the fight against Yemeni rebels? And could this fight draw in other Arab nations, turn it into an even more dangerous conflict?

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[11:45:40] KEILAR: On land and at sea, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia are beefing up security. There are several U.S. Navy warships patrolling the waters off Yemen's coast. And Saudi tanks are on the move toward Yemen's border after a Saudi border guard was shot dead.

I'm joined by CNN military analyst, retired Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona, with us from Oregon; and CNN senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, joining us on the phone now from Saudi Arabia.

Nic, tell us specifically when we're talking about U.S. Navy warships patrolling the waters, what are they looking for?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Well, you have Saudi aircraft flying over. They will be able to provide and assist if there are any aircraft down -- the Saudi airmen that need to be picked up, certainly will be able to provide a better intelligence or a more complete intelligence oversight than the Saudis can alone. Those are two of the things that will be useful for the Saudis right now. The Saudis do not have a particularly large navy. So this is a component that they lack in substantial quality. That will assist them as well. What the Saudis want to do is to seal off and control all the coastline of Yemen so the Houthies cannot launch ships from one part of Yemen to reinforce other parts of the country. That is an important part of what the Saudis are trying to achieve here.

KEILAR: So control the coastline. And then also they're beefing up security at the border. Talk to us about that and what the Saudis are trying to achieve with that.

ROBERTSON: Brianna, we were at the border here two months ago. And when I went back today, it's night-and-day comparison. There's much more and tighter security. The border guards themselves, they've reinforced their numbers. There are fresh sandbag positions. There are more machine guns, heavy machine guns out there. The border guards themselves, even just driving around wearing body armor, helmets, because they believe the threats against them have increased. And the really significant component of what's happened is they're now supported by the Saudi army. We saw at least a dozen tanks and heavy armored vehicles on transporter trucks being driven to the border when we were driving away. That was just one tiny snapshot of what's happening. This does not configure on the border from what we've seen to look like an imminent land invasion. What the Saudis are doing, they have the border guards in the front line, if you will, right at the border and then perhaps half a mile behind, you have tanks, other heavy military vehicles and other reinforcements belonging to the army.

KEILAR: The Saudis are involved, their success is not guaranteed. Is this the kind of conflict that can just suck in other nations?

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I think it already has done that. If you look at what the coalition consists of, they claim to have Egypt and some of the other gulf countries as well as Pakistan. What we're really seeing are the Saudis doing this with a little bit of Egyptian help. But it could if it gets any worse. But what Nic said about the configuration of the border, with the Saudi Army behind the border guard, doesn't look like they're preparing for an imminent invasion. This is the last thing the Saudis want to do. Get involved in a land campaign in Yemen. It's never been successful. What they want to do is reach some sort of agreement, force the Houthies into a diplomatic solution where they can restore al Hadi to some sort of power arrangement. But they don't want to get into a land engagement there. So I think Nic is right. We're seeing a defensive posture, not something geared toward an invasion.

KEILAR: Sort of containment as they try to move toward some sort of solution. You have the Saudis obviously involved here. You have the Houthies. You have Iran-backed militias. Is this a proxy war? FRANCONA: You could look at it that way. In the region and they're

very, very concerned about that, so the last thing they want is yet another Iran state on their southern border. They'd like to take care of that if they can. I think that's where they're going to start going after the Iranian proxy wars is in Yemen.

[11:50:20] KEILAR: So what's the goal then, trying to stop Iran's ascendency? Is that the goal for Saudi Arabia here?

FRANCONA: I think so. They have been in a power struggle since 1979. Once they had the revolution, the Iranians began to export that revolution, and we saw them move into Lebanon, Syria and other areas. The Saudis regard themselves as the key power player in the Persian Gulf. I think we are seeing that the Iranians are on the verge of taking over that position.

KEILAR: Yeah, we certainly are.

Lieutenant Colonel, thanks so much for being with us. Really appreciate it.

Coming up, the political drama with a plot line that seems ripped from an episode of "House of Cards." You have New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, he's accused of trading favors for lavish perks worth close to a million dollars. Why he says the feds have it all wrong.

And then, Hillary Clinton hasn't said she is running for president yet, but a new clue that she's ready to announce sooner than later.

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[11:55:07] KEILAR: New jobs numbers are out and already they're being called a disappointment. The U.S. only added 126,000 jobs last month. That makes March actually the worst month for job creation since the end of 2013. The Obama administration acknowledged the figures as below the recent trend, but the president himself focused on the positive when he spoke moments ago at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This morning we learned that our business created another 129,000 new jobs in March and that adds up to three million jobs over the past year, more than 12 million new jobs over the past five years. That's the longest stretch of private sector job creation on record. But we've got to be relentless in our work to grow the economy and create good jobs. Parts of the globe have seen their economies weaken. Europe has had a weaker economy. Asia has been slowing down. We have had the strongest economy. But we're impacted by what happens around the world. And that's why we have to redouble our efforts.

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KEILAR: Now, the unemployment rate is holding steady at 5.5 percent but the labor force actually shrank. Hillary Clinton does not have an official presidential campaign yet,

but she's got a campaign office. Team Clinton signed a lease for two floors of office space in a Brooklyn Heights building. That's what a person familiar with the lease told CNN. The story was first reported in "Politico." And this is an office just across the river from Manhattan, very convenient to public transportation for all those staffers.

And the ink is barely dry on the 14-count criminal indictment against Senator Robert Menendez and "The New York Times" is already calling for him to resign. The newspaper's editorial board today said, quote, "He would be doing a disservice to New Jersey by clinging to power as a disgraced politician. His colleagues in the Senate should demand that he step aside."

At the center of the scandal is Menendez' 20-year relationship with this man, Florida Doctor Salomon Melgen. According to the Justice Department, Menendez received nearly $1 million in trips, donations and other perks. In return, the feds allege that the Senator helped him obtain U.S. visas for three girlfriends. They say Menendez intervened in a Medicare billing dispute, totaling nearly $9 million. Menendez has not pleaded guilty -- pardon me, has pleaded not guilty.

Let's bring in Athena Jones.

There is some pressure that the Senator is facing but he's not always been a stranger to it Athena.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, he hasn't. So far he's not seeing a lot of pressure to step down. His Democratic colleagues, like Senator Harry Reid and others, are saying let the justice system do its job. Senator Reid said in a statement, "I appreciate Senator Menendez' willingness to temporarily step down as ranking member. He has been a consistent champion for the middle class. As I have said about both Democrats and Republicans, our justice system is premised on the principle of innocent until proven guilty and Senator Menendez should not be judged until he has had his day in court."

Now, the Republican Senate campaign arm, the NRC, is saying Menendez betrayed the trust of New Jersey families and that his actions reinforce all that the American people believe is wrong with Washington Democrats. So Republicans are making hay out of this without calling on him to resign -- Brianna?

KEILAR: OK. That's really interesting. And then, Athena, you have Menendez in his defense here is that this is a friendship that he had with this doctor and that the feds are twisting it into this case of corruption. Critics say, look, it's one and the same. So when in the case of a member of Congress or a Senator does a friendly gesture actually become an illegal act?

JONES: Well, that's right. He was very, very defiant at his press conference on Wednesday night. He was calmer, but still angry after entering that not guilty plea in court yesterday. He's insisted he's done nothing wrong and he's not going anywhere. Of course, that's up for a jury to decide. This indictment, you mentioned the 14 counts, it includes 18 counts of

bribery and it has a lot of details about the perks Menendez got from this doctor friend. We're talking about 20 flights on private jets or in first-class airline seats, a $5,000 three-night stay at a luxury hotel in Paris, the use of a villa at an exclusive resort in the Dominican Republic, and $750,000 in campaign contributions. So there's a lot he has to deal with here. It's quite a story. His next court date, April 22nd. The trial is set for July -- Brianna?

[11:59:46] KEILAR: It's so Washington. You know, a friend with a private jet is a friend, indeed, I guess you could say.

Athena Jones, thank you so much.

That is it for me. I'll be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern on "The Situation Room."

For our international viewers, "Amanpour" is next.

For our viewers in North America, "Newsroom" with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Brianna, thank you very much.