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Hagel Defense Nomination Under Fire; Brennan Tapped for CIA Director; World Reacts To Defiant Assad; Israel Plans Fence Along Syrian Border; Palestinian Authority Rebrands

Aired January 07, 2013 - 12:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Suzanne Malveaux.

President Obama is announcing his new Cabinet choices that will shape the future of the U.S. military, as well as defense policy, as well as intelligence gathering. In the next hour, the president is naming two more Cabinet nominees. He's going to nominate former Senator Chuck Hagel for Defense Secretary, and Homeland Security Adviser John Brennan for CIA director. Now, he's already picked Senator John Kerry as his nominee for Secretary of State.

The president's choice of Chuck Hagel for Defense Secretary already coming under some fire. Some Republicans point to comments that Hagel made back in 2007 that they perceive as anti-Jewish. Here's how South Carolina's Lindsey Graham described the president's decision to nominate Hagel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: This is an in-your-face nomination by the president to all of us who are supportive of Israel. I don't know what his management experience is regarding the Pentagon. Little, if any. So I think it's an incredibly controversial choice. And it looks like the second term of Barack Obama is going to be an in-your-face term.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Want to bring in our White House correspondent, Brianna Keilar.

And, Brianna, we know that the White House has actually been reaching out, calling senators, trying to build some support for Hagel here. We also hearing from a senior administration official from our Jim Acosta, they're pushing back pretty hard on this idea that this is -- that he is anti-Israel, saying that his comments of the Jewish lobby was a poor choice of words. He's apologized. By no means that he is anti-Israel. Are they confident that they're going to be able to push that message through and get a confirmation?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Talking to sources here, Suzanne, they say they feel pretty good about it. And, obviously, as you know, there are even some Democratic senators who have concerns. But talking to sources at the White House, there's a sense that there are obviously a number of things that Chuck Hagel will have to answer for in a confirmation process, but there's a feeling here that he has good answers to the questions that he will be asked and he may be able to win over some people.

As you know, for instance, the comments where he said "Jewish lobby" when he was talking to a reporter instead of saying pro-Israel lobby, that, the White House has said, was something that was very much in artful and was not meant to be offensive and that he has apologized for.

And the other issue, a lot of criticism that you've heard from senators like Lindsey Graham, that Hagel has been soft on Iran. And the White House feels that if he is able to talk about his record -- for instance, having issues with unilateral sanctions, but not sanctions against Iran, which he supported as a senator, that he will be able to make his case.

MALVEAUX: Brianna, I thought it was interesting that we heard from the head of the anti-defamation league this morning, releasing a statement on Hagel's nomination. And he's saying here, I'm quoting here, that "Senator Hagel would not have been my first choice. but I respect the president's prerogative. I trust that the confirmation process will provide an opportunity for Senator Hagel to address concerns about his positions." He goes on to say, "I particularly hope Senator Hagel will clarify and explain his comments about the Jewish lobby that were hurtful to many in the Jewish community."

It seems in some way that they are throwing him a lifeline. Giving him some wiggle room here, even perhaps some political cover, to tell the president and the White House, we're willing to listen to the explanations that Hagel's going to give and ultimately we will be happy -- we'll be OK with supporting his nomination.

KEILAR: I think that is a fair assessment, Suzanne. And, also, I think there's a sense here, because the possibility of a Hagel nomination has been out there for so long, there has been a lot of time for critics to launch a campaign against Hagel, should they want to. And that would include AIPAC, leading pro-Israel lobby here in Washington, D.C. It hasn't. And I think that's something that is viewed here at the White House with some positivity. A sign that even though, of course, we're going to be hearing a lot of tough questions coming during this confirmation process, that it is one that isn't doomed and that they think will ultimately succeed.

MALVEAUX: All right, Brianna, we're going to get back to you. Obviously the ceremony taking place, the nomination ceremony, in about an hour.

So the president also picking his chief counterterrorism adviser to take over the CIA. Now, John Brennan, he spent 25 years working at the spy agency. If he is confirmed, he would replace General David Petraeus, who resigned after admitting to an affair. Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, is joining us for that part of the story.

And, Barbara, let's talk about the past a little big here because he was considered a shoo-in for the position after Obama's 2008 election. He came under some criticism, however, for those harsh -- the interrogation techniques many people considered torture during the Bush administration. Dropped out of the running. Do we think that he has put that to rest, or will he face more questions about it?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Oh, Suzanne, I think it's absolutely inevitable he will face questions about all of that at a confirmation hearing. What his role was in the interrogation, the enhanced (INAUDIBLE) techniques may not be well and fully understood even now. But the questions he will get asked is, what did he know about them? Did he support them? Does he believe that enhanced interrogation techniques, which many people flat out say is torture, does he believe they're useful? Did they give any -- did they result in any useful information, the people who were waterboarded, the other enhanced interrogation techniques, did the intelligence community really ever get anything out of that, that it could use to track down other terrorists or foil terrorist plots? These are some of the key questions he still is going to face.

MALVEAUX: Barbara, I imagine he'll get some tough questions about the deadly attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi as well. What was his role and how do we expect that to play out?

STARR: I think he will, especially with -- you know, depending on if and when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies. He may well be the next person up in front of the TV cameras, in front of the committees to talk about Benghazi. And senators will want to ask him again what he knew. What was the intelligence that he might have had or seen about terrorists threats at that Benghazi compound, what did he know afterwards, how quickly did he actually know it was a terrorist attack? And still these questions that keep circulating. Did the administration know more and know it more quickly about what happened in Benghazi than they were willing to tell the public?

MALVEAUX: Barbara, I want our viewers to take a look at this photo. It's a familiar one, but they perhaps hadn't noticed that Brennan -- he played a major role in the raid of killing Osama bin Laden. He is actually the one who is looking behind -- standing by Hillary Clinton as this raid is being carried out. Describe for us the relationship between the president and Brennan.

STARR: Well, see, this is what's going to be absolutely key, isn't it? I mean, he has been at the president's hand for all of these years now during the first term, working out of the White House, can basically walk into the Oval Office if he needs to and speak to the president, call him 24 hours a day with any of the latest intelligence information the president needs.

Once he moves to the CIA, that becomes very different because just the way it works, the very fabric of how a president is constantly informed about threats against the United States, to some large extent they come from those top White House advisers. He will now be at the CIA and he will have all of those responsibilities, still talking to the president, but not as close, perhaps, as he's been.

MALVEAUX: All right, Barbara Starr. Thank you, Barbara. Appreciate it. Want to talk a little bit more about John Brennan's nomination. Peter Bergen is joining us. He's a CNN national security analyst.

And, Peter, we know -- you and I have talked numerous times about the drone program here and the support for the drone program, it's very controversial. There are some critics who say that these strikes, that they are not actually accurate enough, that there are a lot of civilian casualties. Do we think that Brennan would be the kind of leader who would expand the program perhaps in Yemen, in Pakistan, in other hot areas?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Suzanne, as you know, he's been the principle architect, arguably, of the drone program, particularly in Yemen. John Brennan has traveled to Yemen seven times since the Christmas Day attempt by al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen to bring down Northwest Flight 253 over Detroit. And we, at the New America Foundation, where I work in addition to CNN, track drone strikes. And we have found that just as the drone program in Pakistan is going down rather dramatically compared to its high in 2010, it's expanding very rapidly in Yemen. There was one strike, for instance, that we can tell, two years ago and there were probably around -- at least 46 in this past year. So he has presided over this policy and surely it will be a discussion at his confirmation hearing, whether you think of it, either negatively or positively.

MALVEAUX: Do you think it could be a liability for him, for those who have been very critical of this and say this is not really an ethical way of doing things, going to war and going after terrorists?

BERGEN: I sort of doubt it, Suzanne, because I think in Congress, and certainly in the United States in general, there's sort of broad support for this. I mean the Senate Intelligence Committee, lead by Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, who he'll -- Brennan would be dealing with most directly on the drones, is satisfied in her own mind and has said publicly that the drones don't kill a lot of civilians, that there's very -- a great deal of care taken with this. And broadly speaking in Americas, you know, there is a kind of consensus that the drones, at least the public feels that these are a reasonable way to go after terrorists.

And the picture you see here was Brennan actually delivering the most detailed rational of the drone policy that an Obama administration has done. It was April 30, 2012, at the Woodrow Wilson Center. And he said essentially that they're ethical, they're legal, we take great efforts to make sure that we don't have civilian casualties. These are very discriminatory weapons. Now, obviously, there are people who disagree. The United Nations, for instance, has announced that a division is going to set up an investigation of this in Geneva this year and look into the American drone program.

MALVEAUX: All right, Peter Bergen, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

We're going to have full, live coverage of the president's announcement of his new Cabinet nominees. That is coming up at the top of the hour. And that is 1:00 p.m. Eastern. We're also going to get the latest on the civil war in Syria. That is where Bashar al Assad just told his country that the enemies of his regime are going to hell.

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MALVEAUX: Both his friends and enemies are troubled by Syrian President Bashar al Assad's latest show of defiance. All right, speaking before a crowd of cheering supporters, the embattled leader delivered his first public address in six months. He laid out terms for a peace plan that, of course, keeps himself in power. He ruled out any talks with the opposition, calling them enemies of God who will go to hell. Those are his words.

Hala Gorani is joining us to tell a little bit about this. Tell us about the stagecraft. Like why -- why did he do this. This was in Damascus, in the opera house. Very deliberate here.

HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, deliberate because it makes him look statesman like. And the carefully picked crowd, of course, kind of laughably that ended up mobbing him at the end of his one-hour speech we saw, as broadcast by Syrian state television. We also had it on CNN.

But as you mentioned, once again blaming outside forces and terrorists for attacking the state of Syria, vowing to defend Syria and certainly not offering to step down, which is something that, of course, western leaders have asked him to do. The Lakhdar Brahimi plan calls for a political transition. He is not signing on to that. It must be a big disappointment for all of the negotiators in the U.N. because clearly Bashar al Assad is now saying, I am sticking now to it until the end.

MALVEAUX: Tell us a little bit, Hala, what we're looking at, these pictures here. Who are these people? You eluded to the fact that it was kind of laughable that they've got them practically mobbing him. Are these real supporters? And does he have any real support still inside his country?

GORANI: You know, that's a very good question. I mean obviously they're going to pick people who are perhaps -- and I'm just guessing here -- employees of ministries, people who are close to the state, people who are picked from his, you know, inner circle and close to him. But does he still have supporters? He certainly -- in Syria you have portions of the population against the rebel movement. Not least members of his religious minority, and Alawite sect, and others. Some Christians. Others on the fence as well. But what this tells you, though, this type of speech, is that this is not going to be solved diplomatically. I mean there is really very, very little chance of that happening.

MALVEAUX: I imagine people were pretty disheartened when they heard his enemies are going to hell. That is not an opening for talks or for anything else that might be optimistic in terms of getting these sides together.

GORANI: Absolutely. And you look, this speech was given at the opera house in Damascus. You have to remember and put this in context.

A couple of miles away you have rebels knocking on the door of the Syrian regime. Whether or not his downfall is imminent, I don't think it is. I think this is going to take a lot longer than people are guessing it will take right now.

I think it could be months because you're seeing very incremental advances by rebels and you're seeing the Syrian regime able, more or less, to control pockets of security.

And I know we're waiting for the official nomination of Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense and we looked up what he had said about Syria and, echoing the position of senior administration officials who have spoken to CNN over the last few months, he is not someone who advocates intervention on any level.

This was back in May, as published by "Foreign Policy" magazine. The last thing you want is an American or Western-led invasion into Syria.

MALVEAUX: Is part of the problem that there has not been a more robust international presence inside of that country?

Or is it more or less the fact that they really can't identify who these rebels are, this opposition? They can't get control over who these different groups are inside of the country?

GORANI: Again, that's a very good question and I think it's a combination of the two things.

On one hand, you can really not defeat the Syrian army of Bashar al Assad, despite all the defections and despite how weakened the regime is, without really arming the rebel forces.

On the other hand, who are the rebel forces? You're seeing more and more foreign fighters, more and more of the tactics of al Qaeda in Iraq is now being utilized in Syria.

So, you know, you have these two things. Perhaps a year ago if intervention had happened it would have been cleaner and simpler. Right now, no matter how you look at it, it will be a mess.

MALVEAUX: It will be a mess. All right, Hala, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

We are watching very closely the mess that is happening in Syria, the civil war there. After almost two years of bloodshed, the Israeli government is trying to call and do everything that it can to keep the violence in Syria from spilling over into their country.

The solution? Building a fence.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: There is growing concern that the civil war in Syria is going to spill over into neighboring countries, so Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his country plans to build a fence along the border with Syria.

I want to bring our senior international correspondent, Sara Sidner, to talk about this.

The prime minister making this announcement before the Cabinet yesterday and he essentially said, look, the Syrian government is stable. What kind of threat is he specifically talking about and how did he back that up? How did they respond?

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, Israel has been concerned for some time now because, as the months go on, the situation inside of Syria keeps deteriorating. There's a great deal of concern about many different issues.

The fence, though, in particular, is about one particular issue that the prime minister said he is concerned about and that is the potential of jihadists who are now fighting against the al Assad regime ending up crossing the border into Israel and starting violence here, starting violence in the Golan Heights and then being able to move further and to create more headaches for the Israeli military inside of Israel.

The issue with the fence is that it looks like they would like to construct a steel fence, very tall, one that has all sorts of technological advancements, such as cameras, motion detectors and radar, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: So, is there any evidence that there are jihadists crossing from Syria to Israel or is that just something that he is concerned about that might happen in the future?

SIDNER: Yes, there is a concern in that manner.

Let me explain to you because we've talked about this before. Just the last couple of months of 2012, you will remember that there were some incidents where mortars came over the ceasefire line and some of them landed within the no-man zone there, the demilitarized zone.

So, we saw mortars. There was also gunfire that ended up in the Golan Heights as well. There were no injuries, but a lot of concern, not knowing exactly where that might be coming from.

Also, there were tanks from the al Assad regime that ended up in that demilitarized zone though they were pointing towards Syria.

Now, at one point, the Israelis decided they were going to fire warning shots. They did fire warnings shots, hitting military targets there.

But the concern is that jihadists also will try to start a fight and involve Israel. So far, Israel has not been involved in any way in that conflict, but very concerned about it, concerned about it spilling over into the borders and having to deal with yet another threat.

Suzanne? MALVEAUX: All right, Sara, thank you. Appreciate it.

Palestinians are trying to pull together now as a single people. They're doing it by rebranding themselves. We're going explain how.

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MALVEAUX: The Palestinian Authority has rebranded itself. It comes about a month after the United Nations gave a status upgrade to the Palestinian Authority. Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree renaming his government to the "State of Palestine" last week. Now, this move comes amid efforts to unify the rival Palestinian factions of Fatah and Hamas.

And today is Christmas Day for many orthodox Christians around the world. In his Christmas mass, Egypt's leader of the orthodox Coptic Christians told his followers, do not be afraid. There have been concerns that the country's new constitution could lead to stricter Islamic law in that country.

Coptic Christians make up just 10 percent of Egypt's population.

Twitter followers are using #missoni to send messages of support to the family of the missing Italian fashion mogul, Vittorio Missoni.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NADIA BILCHIK, CNN EDITORIAL PRODUCER: ... that one of the three heirs to the Missoni fashion empire was with his wife, another couple, the pilot and co-pilot. They were in the island of Los Rosques.

They left there on Friday morning at 11:30 on Friday morning. Only 10 miles having left Los Rosques, we know that the 71-year-old Venezuelan-born pilot spoke to the mainland and that was the last we heard of the six.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Missoni's company is well-known for dressing celebrities in its pattern knitwear and signature zigzag stripe.

Well, the Missonni name became more popular when it produced a cheaper line for Target stores back in 2011.

It is a controversial private trip to North Korea not backed by the U.S. government. Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Google chair Eric Schmidt flew from Beijing to North Korea earlier today.

Now, sources told CNN last week that the trip is a private humanitarian visit. It is thought that Richardson might try to negotiate the release of an American prisoner.

Less than an hour from now, we're going to take a look at those pictures in the corner of your screen. That the White House. Keeping a close eye on this, watching to see who actually goes through the gate there.

The president's going to be announcing nominations for two key positions in his administration, Secretary of Defense and the head of the CIA. We're going to bring it to you live.

Watching live pics of the White House there. Our special coverage begins right after the break.

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington with CNN special coverage as President Obama prepares to announce two major Cabinet nominations.

It all happens in about 30 minutes from now in the East Room of the White House. We'll bring it to you live, every step of the way.

The stakes right now are very, very significant. The president, first of all, will nominate the former senator from Nebraska, Chuck Hagel, to be the next Secretary of Defense. He will also nominate his homeland security adviser at the White House, John Brennan, to become the next CIA director.

Both of these men have certain controversies. They will be grilled during their confirmation hearings in the Senate.