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Bin Laden Urged Followers to Avoid "Islamic State"; Thanks David Letterman for 33 Years of Laughs; ISIS Seizes Syria's Historic City of Palmyra. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired May 21, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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


[06:30:00] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: You're playing politics though with the troops though?

KEVIN MADDEN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: So that was my last point, which is while we've seen some upticks in public approval for the idea of troops on the ground, I think it's one thing that public opinion that is evolving and it's another thing to say it, and whether or not there's going to be a big ground swell of support for candidates who come out with a very robust proposal to do so.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: I mean, Paul, you know, Hillary Clinton's position as you just laid it out as this is an Iraq problem, doesn't necessarily work if ISIS, you know, continues its plan to attack America.

PAUL BEGALA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, first off, they're not attacking America.

CAMEROTA: Well, there are some is-inspired attacks as we have seen.

BEGALA: There are. There will always be terrorism and we should always be on guard and we should always do what we can to protect the homeland. But the notion we need to send thousands of more troops. We have tried that, and the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. The American people are simply not going to stand for a third Middle Eastern war.

I mean, my goodness, we've tried this. The Bush doctrine and I think Kevin's Freudian slip was telling was invade and conquer and occupy huge nations in the Middle East, and somehow reform them and they'll be just like Wisconsin except maybe milder winters.

It hasn't worked. It's been abject failure. And the person going to have the hardest time with this is Jeb Bush because this is his brother's policy on trial. And he's going to have to -- he's been unable to state a position clearly on this.

CUOMO: But with Hillary, as one of the architects of the last six years of what we've seen, she's going to have to articulate a different strategy also, because what's going on right now is not satisfying many people.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

Guys, we have to leave it there.

BEGALA: Absolutely. She was asked about it this week, I think she gave a very clear answer.

CAMEROTA: All right. Paul, Kevin, thanks so much. This debate obviously continues. Great to have you guys.

MADDEN: Great to be with you.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

Michaela?

BEGALA: Thanks, Alisyn. Thanks, Chris.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Alisyn.

Life after the late show with David Letterman starts now. The legendary host signing off last night. Ahead, we're going to look at what kind of legacy he leaves behind.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:36:03] CUOMO: Big headline this morning: ISIS taking over the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria, putting more priceless artifacts and a lot of human life at risk.

Back in Iraq, the terror group is continuing its push toward Baghdad, firming up its grip on Ramadi. The U.S. is responding by rushing 1,000 anti-tank rockets to Iraq security forces. This according to the "New York Times."

PEREIRA: Kentucky Senator Rand Paul with a 10 1/2 hour plea to his colleagues not to extend the NSA's bulk data collection program. It would require an extension of the key provision of the Patriot Act which Paul calls unpatriotic. It remains to be seen whether his antics or tactics worked. The NSA program expires June 1st. The chamber could go into recess as soon as today.

CAMEROTA: Something caught on video at LAX airport. Los Angeles police Tasing a man right there who would not cooperate with airport security. The man taking this cell phone video by the way is also interesting. It was actor Verne Troyer, best known as Mini-Me in the "Austin Powers" movies.

Now, in this video, the man was told to get on the ground, but he ignores officers and he goes up a flight of stairs. The man who was Tased went to the hospital to be checked out.

CUOMO: What do you do? I mean, I always think that these situations really illuminate these decisions these guy haves to make in the moment, men and women.

CAMEROTA: Yes. I mean, you have to stop somebody running through security. That's clear.

PEREIRA: Absolutely.

CUOMO: All right. You don't want to be the guy who has to tell people over a holiday weekend that the weather's not going to be good. So, I hope that's not the situation for meteorologist Chad Everett Myers this morning.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. I'm afraid if you live in St. Louis or Chicago you don't want to even listen to this. It's raining all weekend.

For you, not bad. The Northeast is pretty good.

Still showers in Texas, still flooding there. The flood watches and warnings continue. Last seven days everywhere that's red or purple, 4 to 6 inches of rainfall. In some spots, 10 inches of rainfall.

Ft. Smith, you have now surpassed your greatest monthly record for rainfall of any may of any time since there's been a Little Rock, since there's been an Oklahoma City. All those areas now for hundreds of years of records finally seeing this wettest May.

Rain showers for the Northeast today, but they move away. In fact, the northeast gets a really nice weekend. In fact, a hot one too. Monday, if you're going to take the day off as well, we'll be here, it will be very hot. Temperatures in New York City could approach 90 there.

Look at D.C. by Sunday. All the way to 86. That hot air is headed up for your holiday weekend.

Alisyn, back to you.

CAMEROTA: Yawza!

OK. Chad, thanks so much for that forecast. See you soon.

Well, what was inside the mind of Osama bin Laden? Letters and documents seized in the 2011 raid on his Pakistan compound now released. And we get to analyze them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:42:58] CAMEROTA: U.S. intelligence officials releasing a treasure-trove of letters and documents that were seized in the raid on Osama bin Laden's Pakistan compound four years ago.

Joining us to go through them is Peter Bergen. He's our CNN national security analyst who's interviewed bin Laden and the author of "Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search."

Good morning, Peter.

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Good morning, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK. So, these things are fascinating. I mean, let's go through what they found in his compound. The first one is about what we now know as ISIS. And he's talking about them. He says, "You should ask them to avoid insisting on the formation of an Islamic state at the time being, but to work on breaking the power of our main enemy by attacking the American embassies in the African countries."

This is undated, but it was a letter to his aides. So, is he talking about some sort of rift between his philosophy and what would become ISIS?

BERGEN: I think he is, Alisyn. I mean, this is one of these examples of something where there's a very sharp contrast between one wing of the jihadi movement led by bin Laden and ISIS. I mean, bin Laden in these documents repeatedly says don't try to form an Islamic state, we have too many enemies, we're not ready, we can't defend it. Concentrate on the far enemy, quote/unquote, "the United States". That's responsible for everything going on in the Middle East.

And ISIS really has kind of completely opposite point of view.

CAMEROTA: Peter, it's also interesting to know if he feared being caught or feared being listened to. Here is an example of that. This is on August 7th, 2010, between bin Laden and his aides. He says, "We should assume that the enemy can see these e-mails and only send through e-mail information that can bring no harm if the enemy reads it."

It's sort of nice to know that he was afraid of the U.S. watching over this.

BERGEN: Yes. One of his aides in another e-mail to him said, look, you should really encrypt your e-mail. In fact, he referred to a particular encryption program called the Mujahideen Secrets, which some kind of jihadi militants use.

So, they were all very concerned about this issue, rightly so because so many of them were being killed by drones because the United States was listening to their communications.

[06:45:07] CAMEROTA: Peter, here's a fascinating one. And this is a note to his wife. And in it, bin Laden says, "It comforts me to hear your news which I have waited for, for so long and longed for in years passed. How long I have waited for your departure from Iran."

You know, in some ways this one is the most disturbing because it's so unsettling to think of him as a tender person with a heart. Because if he's this tender to his wife, why did he murder 3,000 other wives and husbands on September 11th?

BERGEN: I mean, great question. Hitler loved his dog. One of the questions, you know, people had by releasing these are we humanizing bin Laden. Of course, he's a human and humans do good things and evil things. So, in once fear of his life, bin Laden behaved like a normal human being. In his professional life, he murdered a lot of people.

CAMEROTA: Here's another interesting one, and I wonder about the timing of this one. It's undated. This one was to his wife, but he says, "I think that I have to leave them." He's talking about the compound. "I think I have to leave them, but it will take a few months to arrange another place."

And the question about the timing of this is that is the administration releasing this in some part as a response to Seymour Hersh's article that everybody was kind of in on where bin Laden was. And this shows a different take.

BERGEN: You know, they started contemplating releasing these documents back in July. And they started seriously vetting them with seven U.S. intelligence agencies beginning in October. So, Sy Hersh's article had nothing to do with those decisions. And releasing, you know how big the federal government is and how many people have to sign-off. This is a process that took many, many, many months. So it's unrelated to Sy Hersh article.

But as a side point, you know, anybody watching is going to look at this document. There were pretty much every assertion Sy Hersh made in his article.

CAMEROTA: OK. That's good to know.

Last, you can tell a lot about somebody if you read their bookshelf. Here are the books found in his compound. "Obama's Wars" by Bob Woodward, a book by Noam Chomsky, "Hegemony or Survival: America's quest for Local Dominance".

What do you think, Peter, when you see the books he was reading?

BERGEN: Well, you know, you see a book about the Illuminati on the screen, too, and he had books about the Freemasons. He was kind of a conspiracy buff. He was interested in U.S. foreign policy. He even had a book saying that 9/11 was an inside job, which is ironic since after all, he was the instigator of the attack.

So, yes, the bookshelf is fascinating.

CAMEROTA: Yes, the whole thing is fascinating. Peter Bergen, thanks so much for walking through it with us. Great to see you.

BERGEN: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: All right. Let's get over to Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right. We're going to take a look at the impact David Letterman's career has had on late-night television. We'll have reaction to the big finale last night coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:51:50] DAVID LETTERMAN, TV HOST/COMEDIAN: The last six weeks it's been crazy. People have been saying lovely things about us. And it's really been over the top.

And I can't tell you how flattering, embarrassing and gratifying it has all been. The only thing I have left to do for the last time on a television program, thank you and good night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: How about that? After a record 6,028 shows and almost 20,000 guests, David Letterman signed off last night for the last time as host of 'The Late Show". He reminisced on that 33-year career on late-night television. Friends, celebrities alike bid him farewell.

Here to discuss it all, CNN's senior media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES", Brian Stelter, and former managing editor of "People" magazine, Larry Hackett. Two men stayed up very late and as fresh as daisies this morning.

I thought and I'm curious what your thoughts are, Larry. First of all, I start with you. Tonally, it was on point. It's exactly the kind of balance of sentiment but also just David being David.

LARRY HACKETT, FORMER MANAGING EDITOR, PEOPLE MAGAZINE: Actually, it sort of reflected his Midwestern background. Like you said, if you were playing your last ball game, right? You play the game. You get hits, you field, you do what you're supposed to do on the field.

That's exactly what Dave did. He came out, he did his thing, he had some jokes. It was obviously extraordinary and everybody knew it. He got on base. He got hits, he scored. That's what you're supposed to do.

PEREIRA: And there was that huddle kind of thing.

HACKETT: And it went a little bit over and obviously had all the guests on the top ten which we'll talk about but I thought it was terrific. It was extraordinary in ordinariness to steal your line.

CUOMO: The temptation, Brian, is do this comparatively, right? And other than Colbert and with all due respect it was cable not this massive audience that Dave's been dealing with all these years relatively, is there a basis for comparison? Who has gotten to go out on their own terms with absolutely no acrimony surrounding them in recent history?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Almost nobody. That's the thing about Letterman. Every CBS exec said this was his decision. They didn't even know what he was going to say last night.

You know, he's always been a famously private individual. He hasn't said anything about what's coming next for him either, other than he's going to Indy 500 this weekend with his family.

So, he's been able to sign-off on his own terms. I was told by members of the studio audience he was in the theater last night during the commercial breaks looking up around the room soaking it in, because he said he'll never come back. That's the kind of guy he is.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about that top 10 list because that was a great moment. So he brought out some of the show's favorite and the biggest stars to each read something about what they always wanted to say to Dave. Let's listen for a second.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARBARA WALTERS: You know when you wear the same cologne as Moammar Gadhafi?

LETTERMAN: Yes, yes, Barbara.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your extensive plastic surgery was a necessity and a mistake.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dave, I have no idea what I'll do when you go off the air. You know, I just thought of something. I'll be fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: How great was that? They're all so funny. You can tell he didn't know what they were going to say.

STELTER: It was the perfect way to include a lot of a-list celebrities but still make the hour about letterman.

[06:55:00] It wasn't like Colbert where 100 stars came out into the room. They each had their moment but then went through Dave.

HACKETT: And it reflected the electrical current that went through those interactions for those 30 years, that he would have those jokes on and they would crack a joke and he really thought it was funny. For 33 years, he's still laughing at these jokes. I thought it was wonderful.

PEREIRA: We talked about where Letterman was in our lives, I always loved how he is with children. The guy is great with kids. And they did a big portion of that.

Larry, I know it's one of your favorite moments too. These kids cracked him up.

HACKETT: They cracked him up. The segment was rather long for the last show.

PEREIRA: It was, considering.

HACKETT: To pick all the things you can pick for a 32-year show I thought it was fantastic. The ease with which he's with these kids he's so relaxed. He's so naturally affectionate, he lets them tell the jokes. He doesn't step on their lines.

I thought it was great. I really, really thought it was interesting. I wonder -- you notice these clips tend to be relatively latish in his career. And I think it was something and clearly he's reflected this in discussing his son and how much he enjoys being a dad.

It was a real interesting insight into who he is.

CUOMO: He's also one of those guys who I think kind of gone in today's late-night environment where it wasn't really about him. He was the filter for, right? But he maintained that I wonder what I would do in the situation Dave's in right now but it was always about the situation.

HACKETT: Exactly.

CUOMO: Maybe that's the last of that.

HACKETT: Yes.

STELTER: I was about to say old school, and sometimes that has a negative connotation, but this has a very positive connotation. You look at set, you look at the people, you look at the classiness and glamour of the late show over the years, that's a very special thing in American television.

HACKETT: There's a scene near the end the camera angle at the floor and he's walking around and has the off colored socks.

CUOMO: He brought that back.

HACKETT: The way he ambled about the stage, he was so in command. This is my home, I'm ready to go and this has been a wonderful sendoff.

PEREIRA: I want to look at Twitter. I think we have the ability to pull that up. We know tributes have been pouring in from comedians and people trending, et cetera, et cetera. You say that you've been watching some of the commentary.

STELTER: Yes, on Twitter and elsewhere still the number one trend this morning. You see here on the Letterman account a bunch of celebrities and frankly rivals and other networks all praising Letterman and the way he signed off. From what I've seen almost all of the TV critic reviews overnight were positive, because it was Letterman in his own way. He wasn't trying to be someone he's not.

And he didn't tear up. Members of the studio audience teared up. But he didn't tear up. He wasn't quite as emotional as everybody else.

PEREIRA: I bet there's going to be people running down there to take a cell phone picture of the marquee, because remember, that marquee will now --

STELTER: Yes. There were last night already. And I do wonder how long before they take it down. Colbert's staff is starting to move in next week. They have to get ready for their September premiere.

HACKETT: You mentioned old school. Dave obviously has been aware of show business and what show business means. One of the great old show business axioms is, leave them wanting more.

PEREIRA: That's a great way to end our segment with both of you.

Larry, Brian, thanks so much. We'll be remembering all this and talking about more this morning because guess who's here? Oh, yes, Gilbert Gottfried is here and we'll talk about Letterman's legacy and appearing on the show himself a few times.

CAMEROTA: Fun. Let's do that.

CUOMO: Dave is big news. There's no question about it. But there's a lot of news this morning. Let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: ISIS militants capturing a strategically important city.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ancient city of Palmyra.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is at the mercy of ISIS.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: New developments in the quadruple murder mystery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Authorities are looking for a 34-year-old man with a long record.

CUOMO: DNA left on pizza inside the home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the Chinese navy. This is the Chinese Navy. Please go away quickly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The U.S. sees this as international waters. China used these islands as its sovereign territory.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It appears to be buildup of military infrastructure.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to your NEW DAY.

And we do have breaking news overnight for you. ISIS terrorists gaining new strategic ground in Syria, taking full control of the historic desert town of Palmyra.

CUOMO: Perspective here matters. First it was, well, it's just one city, just Ramadi, this isn't a reflection of the strategy. Now, it's two big wins in one week in two different countries.

So, ISIS is now in a position to murder large numbers of innocence and destroy irreplaceable parts of the history it so hates.

We have complete coverage starting with CNN international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh live in Beirut. Nick was just inside Syria.

What's the latest?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Chris, the deep concern is for now civilians and trapped inside Palmyra as ISIS move through and of course for the historical significance of the ruins in that town. Let me start with the people: 100 regime soldiers killed overnight, the key infrastructure military of that town taken by ISIS. And now we're told by resident they're going door-to-door looking for regime soldiers. A real sense of horror I think.

ISIS initially being relatively kind we're told but that's how they always work and then their brutal way of life tends to take grip. But the world looking at Palmyra more because of the staggering damage potentially ISIS could do to those historical treasures there, dating back to the first century.