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ISIS Claims Responsibility for Erbil Suicide Car Bombing; Former Senator Bob Graham Wants 9/11 Report Released; Ohio Man Pleads Not Guilty to ISIS-Related Terror Plot; Pearl Harbor Dead Soldiers, Marines to be Identified. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired April 17, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

[13:31:10] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get right to the breaking news. We have just received word here at CNN that ISIS, ISIS is now claiming responsibility for the suicide car bombing in Irbil in northern Iraq.

Our chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, is with us; and retired Lieutenant Colonel James Reese, a CNN global affairs analyst, former Delta Force commander.

First of all, Jim Sciutto, this is a major development. You've been to Irbil. You know the area. A suicide bombing right down the street from the U.S. consulate there. A lot of Americans who work there. All have been accounted for, right?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right. This is enormous coup if it is ISIS that carried out this attack. Irbil operates almost like its own country. It's has tremendous security run by Kurdish security forces there. As we were hearing from Ben Wedeman's report, the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters that form the outer barrier of security around the U.S. consulate there. They opened fire on the car. Complicated attack. It sounds like you had a smaller IED that went off perhaps as a diversion and then the suicide bomber comes up. Thankfully, didn't get close to the embassy to injure any U.S. personnel, but three civilians killed in the area. For ISIS to strike inside Kurdistan, inside the capital, Irbil, so close to the U.S. embassy, that's an achievement for ISIS.

BLITZER: We've also, Colonel Reese, learned that ISIS now is asserting directly that the target was the U.S. consulate there in Irbil. Your reaction?

LT. COL. JAMES REESE, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yeah. Wolf, right now, we've been talking about it for the last month. I.S., or Daesh, have been getting whacked hard in north Iraq by the Iraqi security forces and coalition aircraft. And we have seen now an adjustment to ISIS tactics. They know they can't go toe to toe with an organized military. What you will see here, and it doesn't surprise me at all, is you will see the more terrorist tactics that will come out, try to get car bombs in and IEDs especially towards the American targets. BLITZER: So that's obviously a serious concern.

Colonel Reese, what's your reaction to the apparent killing of Izzat Ibrahim al Douri, one of the most wanted Saddam loyalists, it's been about 12 years since the U.S.-led war against Saddam Hussein, but apparently they finally got him?

REESE: My hat is office to the Iraqi security forces. I spent several long nights in Iraq over the years trying to find this gentleman. He was a slick, very slick guy who we could not capture. JSOC, Joint Special Operations Command forces during that time, there was a deck of 52 cards, that they captured or killed roughly 42 members of that deck of cards. But it's a big win for the Iraqis. And, you know, a guy like this was very good at, you know, insurgency and raising money and helping the insurgencies, whatever it was, whether the Baath party or, I bet we'll see he had aspects with Daesh, ISIS, up in the Hawetha (ph) area where he was killed between Tikrit and Kirkuk.

BLITZER: Would he be number 43 in that deck of cards or have others been killed or captured as well?

REESE: Well, there were still about nine or ten left out there after U.S. forces left and so that would probably be number 43 or 44 on the deck. But I know, like the correspondent said a few minutes ago, there's some lower-level, the two of Clubs probably up there in Syria still.

BLITZER: All right.

I want to go back to Jim Sciutto.

Jim, you're getting more information on the other breaking story, this suicide car bombing outside right near the U.S. consulate in Irbil.

SCIUTTO: That's right. That's coming from the State Department, confirming this was a car bomb, known as a vehicle-borne improvised device, or VBIED. And at the time, because of the threat, what's called the duck-and-cover protocol was instituted for the U.S. consulate, the chief of mission there. In other words, all embassy personnel, get to a safe area because of the proximity of an attack. That shows just how close this was. Thankfully, we are told that all those U.S. personnel are accounted for. But, of course, people who were closer to the attack, three civilians killed, five injured. You can see from the damage there this was a formidable explosive device and, once again, right in the center, perhaps the most secure part of the country.

[13:35:27] BLITZER: Quickly, Colonel Reese, duck and cover, want to elaborate what that means?

REESE: Yeah. Duck and cover is a reaction to artillery, IEDs, just what all our folks go through to train to find a place to get to cover in case of an explosive like that.

BLITZER: Colonel Reese, thanks very much. Jim Sciutto, thanks as well. Don't go far away.

We're following the breaking news. Much more on that coming up.

Also another story we're following, a former U.S. Senator, who wants a classified portion of a congressional report on the 9/11 attacks released, will be joining us. We're going to tell you why he thinks, why he thinks there was a tie directly to Saudi Arabia and 9/11.

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BLITZER: Did the 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudis, and who took thousands of lives on September 11th, 2011, act alone or were they assisted by someone else, someone in the United States, namely someone who was supported by the Saudi government. That's the question the former two-term Florida governor, former three-term U.S. Senator, Bob Graham, a chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who retired in 2005, wants answered. Graham wants the government to make public a secret session -- section, I should say, of a congressional review that he helped write. By many accounts, the classified 28-page section of that review implicates some Saudi citizens potentially at helping those 19 hijackers.

Joining us from Miami, the former U.S. Senator Bob Graham.

Senator, thanks very much for joining us.

You believe, if they declassified the 28 pages, what will we learn?

[11:40:16] BOB GRAHAM, (D), FORMER U.S. SENATOR: First, thank you, Wolf, for the opportunity to talk about this important subject.

What we'll learn is that the truth will finally be made available to the American people through this and a number of other documents, which have also been classified and withheld. And I think the truth is going to be that there were many connections between the Saudi government, banks, charitable organizations, other entities of the kingdom, and the 19 hijackers. Everyone who was involved in doing a serious inquiry into 9/11 has come away with the conclusion that it is implausible that these 19 people, most of whom could neither speak English or had never been in the United States before, could have carried out this plot without some help.

BLITZER: Because the 9/11 Commission report -- I'll put it on the screen -- concludes with this, it says, "It does not appear that any government other than the Taliban financially supported al Qaeda before 9/11, although some governments may have contained al Qaeda sympathizers who turned a blind eye to al Qaeda's fundraising activities." And it goes on to say, "Saudi Arabia has long been considered the primary source of al Qaeda funding, but we have found no evidence that the Saudi government, as an institution, or senior Saudi officials, individually, funded the organization."

Now what do you say to that?

GRAHAM: Well, the Saudi government has been using exactly those sentences to defend themselves. Now two of the members of the 9/11 Commission, former governor and Senator, Bob Kerrey; former secretary of the Navy John Lehman, have submitted affidavits to a court saying that was -- that it was not intended by the 9/11 Commission to give Saudi Arabia a "get out of jail free" pass, based on their activities. If there is nothing in the 28 pages, if the information is not relevant, then why don't we let the American people read it and form their own independent judgment?

BLITZER: Have you -- you, as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, you had access to those 28 pages, right?

GRAHAM: I participated in writing them, yes.

BLITZER: So you know what's in there and obviously you can't release classified information, but from your perspective, you have no doubt -- and I don't want to put words in your mouth, Senator, known you a long time. But you have no doubt if the 28 pages are released, the American public will conclude that people in Saudi Arabia, government entities or whatever, had a direct role in plotting to go ahead with the 9/11 terror campaign?

GRAHAM: Wolf, I will say this, that the 28 pages will give much more information that has been made public to date on the question of who financed 9/11, and it will point a strong finger at Saudi Arabia.

BLITZER: Who in Saudi Arabia?

GRAHAM: That I cannot, because of the classified nature and my commitment as a chair of the intelligence committee, disclose any of the specific details. But I can say the 28 pages, primarily on the question of who paid for 9/11, and point a finger Saudis Arabia.

BLITZER: Can you tell us if they were private Saudi citizens or government officials?

GRAHAM: I cannot tell you from the 28 pages that. I can say this, that we know particularly a lot about the hijackers who lived in San Diego, California, and there is significant indication that they received financing through a private firm, which gave a ghost job. The man got paid but didn't have to ever show up to work. His payments of which jumped substantially when the two hijackers came to San Diego, creating the inference that he was a conduit. And then his wife began receiving payments from a special fund under the control of the wife of the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar, which, again, carried with it the inference she had become a source of financing for the hijackers.

BLITZER: But one final question before I let you go, Senator. Why would anyone in the Saudi government, whether Prince Bandar, now a national security adviser to the new king, why would anyone -- he was the Saudi ambassador to the United States, as you well know, and he was considered a close friend of the United States. Why would they want to plot to bomb the World Trade Center or do any of those horrible things done on 9/11?

[13:45:23] GRAHAM: Well, those are additional unanswered questions. I can give you my informed speculation, because this had happened previously. Bin Laden was very upset with the kingdom because it allowed foreign forces, the United States forces, on the soil of Saudi Arabia during the first Persian Gulf War. He had wanted to use his Afghanistan-trained warriors to defend the country. After the first Persian Gulf War, as he was planning what became 9/11, bin Laden recognized there was little chance they could be successful without some support by people who knew the language, knew the culture of the United States. He knew that Saudi Arabia had a network of people, like those who were in San Diego, who were there to monitor Saudi students, and he insisted that it -- that the kingdom make that network available to him to support the people that he would be putting in the United States. And if the kingdom did not comply, he would start a civil insurrection inside Saudi Arabia, which has been the ultimate desire of the kingdom to avoid.

BLITZER: Senator Graham, thanks very much for joining us.

I should point out that Prince Bandar over the years has always flatly denied these allegations, as the current Saudi ambassador to the United States, Adel Abjabear (ph). They've always flatly denied all these allegations, as you well know.

GRAHAM: Yeah. If I can say one other thing, both of those people have asked that the 28 pages be released. If they're prepared to have them be released, why should the United States government be withholding the truth from our people?

BLITZER: All right. Let's see if those 28 pages are released.

Senator Graham, thanks very much for joining us.

GRAHAM: Thank you.

BLITZER: Up next, we'll move on to other news we're following, including the plea in the case of an Ohio man who prosecutors say was taught terror techniques in Syria. We'll take a closer look at the charges and how he was tracked by anti-terror investigators here in the United States.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:49:43] BLITZER: A not guilty plea today for an Ohio man accused of planning a terror attack here in the United States. Abdel Rahman Sheikh Mohammad (ph) was arraigned in federal court today. Investigators say the 23-year-old trained in Syria last year and then came home, intent on attacking American soldiers. Among the charge, supporting terrorism, making false statements to the FBI.

Let's discuss what's going on with our law enforcement analyst, Tom Fuentes. He's a former FBI assistant director.

He became a U.S. citizen just not that long ago, a naturalized U.S. citizen. I assume once he came back, he was immediately under surveillance.

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Absolutely. But by becoming a citizen, he has a U.S. passport and it's easier to come back and forth. In his case, he was on a one-way flight to Athens, connecting through Istanbul, got off the plane, and never got on the connecting flight. Had the network take him to Syria, which later led to his lie. When the FBI interviewed him, he said, no, I was in Istanbul. They knew he was in Syria. So that was the charge of lying.

BLITZER: It was very sophisticated. The ticket he purchased was to fly to Greece, to Athens, with a layover, a connecting flight in Istanbul. When he got there, he just stayed there. So his final destination, at least people seeing him leave the United States, was Greece.

FUENTES: Right. It was supposed to be Greece. When he went to Syria, he's putting stuff on Facebook, pictures of him with an A.K.-47 and --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Isn't that pretty idiotic? Doesn't think people are going to see that?

FUENTES: It's very idiotic.

BLITZER: He came back for eight months. They were watching him before they formally arrested him. Is that normal?

FUENTES: It depends on having enough evidence to convict him for committing terrorist acts. Just the mere fact would be providing material support to terrorism by going over there, but they wanted to have more about him because he was talking about actually killing soldiers and police here in Texas.

BLITZER: How significant, if it is significant at all, the allegation that he was trained by an al Qaeda affiliate, al Nusra, in Syria as opposed to ISIS?

FUENTES: Not that significant, I don't think. You have a buffet of terrorist groups over there. He's originally Somalian. He came over when he was, you know, a very young child. But he's from Somalia. He could have gone back and joined al Shabaab. He could join al Qaeda. They think he was trained by the Nusra Front in Syria. But they're not positive. In a way, it's irrelevant. He openly talked of being trained in the use of firearms, explosives, home invasions and other techniques. He was told to come back and do an attack here.

This is the expectation and prediction that the FBI and other U.S. security services have been saying from the beginning. These several hundred people that intend to go over there and learn how to be terrorist, you know, that's one thing, if they get killed on the battlefield there. If they come back, that's the threat.

BLITZER: It's a major threat.

Thanks very much, Tom Fuentes, for that update. Still ahead, nearly 400 sailors and Marines who died at Pearl Harbor

have yet to be identified more than 70 years later. Now the Pentagon says it will bring closure to their families.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The Pentagon announced this week it would be begin exhuming the remains of nearly 400 sailors and Marines who perished at Pearl Harbor and who are now buried in anonymous mass graves in Honolulu. It's all because of a 93-year-old survivor of the 1941 attack who's been working tirelessly through the years to identify as many fallen sailors and Marines as possible.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy.

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[13:49:56] BLITZER: With nearly 2400 killed, the Japanese bombardment on Pearl Harbor remains one of the deadliest attacks in U.S. history. Minutes after the first bombs dropped, the "USS Oklahoma" capsized and sank. 429 sailors and Marines went down with it. More than 70 years later, the majority of those service members are still in Hawaii, buried in mass graves. Their remains never identified, marked simply with a set of numbers and one word, unknowns.

Their comrade, Navy veteran and pearl harbor survivor, Ray Emery, believes that's not enough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAY EMERY, NAVY VETERAN: Every one of those graves has got a story to tell.

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BLITZER: He's embarked on a final military campaign of sorts. His mission, to restore the names of the fallen. For years, he scoured through medical and service records, trying to piece together who's who. All while pushing the government to do the same.

This week, the Pentagon announced it would join his cause. In a statement, deputy defense secretary, Robert Work, said, "Analysis of all available evidence indicates that most 'Oklahoma' crew members could be identified individually if the caskets associated with the ship were disinterred. The secretary of defense and I will work tirelessly to ensure your loved ones' remains will be recovered, identified, and returned to you as expeditiously as possible, and we will do so with dignity, respect, and care."

The defense department hopes to identify most of the unknown service members from the "USS Oklahoma" and return them to their families for burial with full military honors.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. COL. MELINDA MORGAN, PENTAGON SPOKESWOMAN: We are going to start with "USS Oklahoma", but we'll also be looking at other unknown graves and determining whether they're eligible for disinterment in the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: With us now from New York is Tom Gray, a relative of one of the sailors killed in Pearl Harbor.

Tom, thanks for joining us. Thanks for what you're doing.

Tell us first of all about your relative, Edwin Hopkins.

TOM GRAY, RELATIVE WENT DOWN ON "USS OKLAHOMA": Edwin Hopkins, he was a fireman third class. When the "Oklahoma" went down, he went down with it. It was raised in 1943. At this point, he was buried. In 1949, in preparation of putting the sailors into the punch bowl, he was exhumed with a number of others. At that point, because of a lot of decisions that were made at the time, there was confusion, and he and a number of other sailors were put into unknown graves.

Ray Emery, thanks to his great research, eventually, we found out in 2008 that Edwin Hopkins had actually been recovered. His remains were marked "Edwin Hopkins" in 1943, but when the switchover came, it was placed as unknown. At that point, the Oklahoma family did research, tracked down -- there was 27 people in the same category as my cousin. They opened up one of the graves in the early 2000s. Five people were in it. They were recovered and brought home. Unfortunately, there were about 60 to 100 other remains in the grave. At this point, the navy decided for different reasons not to continue with the program.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: The Navy actually began this process, as you know, to try to identify unknown remains about a decade ago. Then the whole operation stopped. What happened?

GRAY: Well, apparently, there was a lot of confusion or there was a lot of worry about the remains that were in the grave with the five sailors that were supposed to be in there. So at that point, a decision had been made not to go forward until all the remains from that casket had been identified. So that stopped the process.

BLITZER: Has there been any pushback from families who don't want this process to go forward, who don't want these remains disturbed?

GRAY: When we started this process, again, I started this process mainly with my cousin, but then it started to evolve into the 22 sailors that this discrepancy concerned that Ray Emery had found out about.

My state rep., Sean Scanlon (ph), actually was working for Senator Chris Murphy in Connecticut. They picked up on this issue. He interviewed all of the families. There's 18 families concerning the 22 sailors left across the United States. At that point, one person had objections to it. They've since passed away. The rest of the people that are concerned, they're all for it. I understand the other point of view. I think it's valid. But we want our relatives home with us.

[13:49:] BLITZER: Tom Gray, thanks very much. Good luck to you. Good luck to all the families. We appreciate it very much.

That's it for me. Thanks very much for watching.

The news continues next on CNN.