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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Iraq Conflict Sends Gas Prices Soaring; Escaping Honduras Slums; Bergdahl Investigation; Brutal ISIS Photos, Videos Spark Fear; How Much Has U.S. Spent in Iraq?

Aired June 16, 2014 - 12:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get you caught up now on the chaos in Iraq.

Another U.S. warship has moved into the Persian Gulf. The amphibious transport ship Mesa Verde carries 550 Marines and a fleet of tilt rotor aircraft that could be used to bring out Americans in a hurry if I comes to that.

The aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush is in the Gulf as well, but in an interview this morning, Secretary of State John Kerry implied that a decision on air strikes still has not been made.

Over the weekend more Iraqi cities and towns fell to Islamist militants who call themselves ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and chilling new photos emerged, purportedly of ISIS fighters executing Iraqi security forces.

And I want to talk more about this, what's really a campaign of fear by ISIS, with CNN's Arwa Damon. She's in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil. Arwa, tell us about some of these horrible -- I mean, they are just horrific, these clips that have surfaced on Facebook.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's absolutely sickening, Brianna.

In one of these videos, you see a bearded man holding a gun with a row of five captives on their knees below him. He's calling them Maliki's dogs. He identifies them, and we know from the patch on the uniforms of the two of the men that they were border guards. You see them slapping them around.

And then in another video he's focusing on one man. He's trying to get them to repeat, "Islamic state, here to stay." The man appears to be incredibly dehydrated, not entirely fully aware perhaps of what's happening around him.

At one point you see him pushed to the ground. The butt of rifle put to his neck. Now, in another clip afterwards, you see that his jaw does get blown off. We actually managed to get in touch with someone who has been in touch with that man's family. He was born in 1977. He was the father of three. He had two boys and a little girl.

He was described as a silent type who had just taken up the job of a border guard because he wanted to build a home for his family. He absolutely adored his children. And this is not isolated incident, Brianna. We're seeing more and more videos like this emerging. The situation here is beyond out of control. It's beyond catastrophic at this stage.

KEILAR: It's horrible. When you put it in very real terms like that, Arwa, you can imagine how people are personally responding there. What do you think the fall out is of how Iraqis respond to seeing something like this?

DAMON: The vast majority of the population is absolutely horrified, and you have to just look back at what they've already been through over the last 10-plus years in terms of violence and horror. And now we're seeing what was being described as unimaginable levels of violence being taken to an entirely new level of true brutality.

Now these videos along with still photographs were posted to Facebook, a Facebook account, which we believe is the Facebook account of the man who carried out the execution.

He's identifying himself on Facebook as being Abu Hamza. He' from Tunisia, and he's proudly boasting about the fact that he killed Shia, and he's encouraging people to circulate these videos to all of the Shia to try to clearly foment even more rage, even more sectarian divides within the population here.

The issue is that even though the vast majority of people will tell you that they don't support these kinds of activities, when you feel as if you're under that level of threat, there's invariably going to be a harsh reaction. And that's part of what we're seeing unfolding here, this manipulation of people's emotions, of their fears being used by these various different extremist groups to foment even more violence, Brianna.

KEILAR: OK, Arwa, stay with me now. We're going to bring in, for some insights here on the ISIS threat and how to confront it, CNN national security analyst and former CIA operative Bob Baer, former Navy SEAL and Iraq War veteran Chris Heben.

Chris -- and this video is new, we obviously can't show it in its entirety. It is just horrific and very graphic, but you have a sense of what's going on here, what ISIS is trying to do. What's the value to ISIS in showing this kind of thing?

CHRIS HEBEN, FORMER NAVY SEAL: It's the very essence of terrorism. Terrorism without an audience loses its impact completely, so these video falls very much in line with that terrorist doctrine.

We're going to show what we normally do to the world. We're going to cause a huge amount of fear with these acts of brutality that we're going to broadcast. And I think what Facebook needs to do is clamp down on this stuff, and YouTube, and take it off immediately and block these incoming videos. But it's the essence of terrorism, plain and simple.

KEILAR: So the essence of terrorism, Bob. that's what Chris is saying. This is very much -- this is ISIS propaganda. How do you see the Iraqi government responding to this in an effective way?

BOB BAER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, that's the problem. These people are what we call (inaudible), and they will not surrender, they will not negotiate, and their intent is to purify their part of Iraq and Syria. There is no talking to them.

The Iraqi government at this point can completely crush them, drive them back into the desert, or hope some moderate element will take over, but I don't see that now. With this kind of violence going on there will be a prolonged several war an perhaps the partition of Iraq. I don't see this easily solved.

KEILAR: And, Arwa, you said this is sort of -- it plays on the emotions of many Iraqis. In your experience, having spent years covering the conflict in Iraq, what are you expecting the response to be?

DAMON: The majority of the population that is going to be horrified and also terrified that they perhaps could become the victim of the same fate.

And one goes back to the stories, the horrific stories, we were hearing from 2005 to 2008 when the violence here was at its worst about how neighbors turned on each other along sectarian lines, even families where you had mixed marriages between Sunni and Shia, horrific murders taking place, in families in and of themselves.

We saw the entire disintegration of Iraqi society during that era, an era that so many Iraqis had hoped at one stage, at the very least, was behind them, now having to emotionally cope with this reality that not only is it back, but it's also back in a much more brutal and gruesome form than it was in the past without the U.S. military here to try to even begin to rein in some of the violence.

Instead, they're having to deal with a government also, to a certain degree, that has proven to be incapable of reaching out to some of the Sunni parties to try to bring about some sort of political resolution to all of this.

So by all accounts, many will tell you that the situation right now is much worse than it has ever actually been.

KEILAR: It's so alarming to hear you say that, Arwa. And, of course, Chris, we look at this and wonder what can be done? What type of intervention? It seems we're hearing talk about the possibility of U.S. involvement via, perhaps, drone strikes. If that is the role that the U.S. decides to play, to what effect do you think?

HEBEN: The drone strikes are certainly amazingly effective. We've seen that, whether we're sending a drone strike to break up a terrorist meeting in Oman, or where we're targeting high level individuals in Africa. The drones are very effective. What we need to realize, though, is Iraq has been on the world stage for 25 years now and not in a good way. I think the world needs to address this issue.

Us leaving Iraq when we did was the equivalent leaving the nursery when the babies were in diapers and needed to have the diapers change. We left way too soon, and now we're seeing the aftermath of that. We need to reengage. We need to bring in the world to help us. It's not a U.S. issue. It's a world problem.

KEILAR: And, Bob --

HEBEN: So we need to do something immediately, definitively, militarily.

KEILAR: What, Bob, do you see as the -- let's say -- collateral damage of drone strikes?

BAER: The collateral damage is there's not going to be a whole lot of support for them in Saudi Arabia and places like Qatar which have supported ISIS, at least private donors.

I don't know what effect that will have on the Saudis, but they certainly support the Sunni in Iraq, and I think this administration, as Chris says, will be forced to -- the violence will get so bad that we're going to have to bring in the drones.

We're going to have to set up infrastructure for it. We're going to have to coordinate with the Iranians. They don't want to see chaos there. I know that's not particularly palatable.

But we just can't let this situation go and devolve into complete chaos, because if we do, it will spread to the rest of the Middle East. And you think oil prices have spiked now? And that's not to mention, of course, even worse is the bloodshed.

KEILAR: Yeah, it's so acute right now. Arwa, Bob, Chris, thank you to all of you.

Now from the first Gulf War until now, the United States has spent more than $200 billion in Iraq.

As the country now teeters on chaos, where and how has that money been spent? We'll be breaking it down, just ahead.

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KEILAR: The worsening crisis in Iraq is threatening the stability of the entire Middle East, and whether we like it or not, the world's economy is tied to the oil that flows out of the region.

The conflict could have major impact on your wallet. Gas prices could climb if the militant group ISIS isn't stopped from taking control of Iraq.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has already spent billions upon billions of dollars on training and equipping Iraqi security forces. So should America spend more to help Iraqi forces? Will our economic ties to the region force us to act?

CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans, breaking down how much the U.S. has already spent in Iraq.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, the U.S. spent a stunning $776 billion on the conflict in Iraq. That's according to the Congressional Budget Office. The biggest chunk of that went to military operations, but it also includes 41 billion spent on diplomatic operations and foreign aid and $26 billion spent on local security forces. Now, experts argue that estimate could be low and costs will continue to rise.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We actually cut taxes after we got involved in Iraq and Afghanistan, so we had to borrow a lot of the money to fund the war. We also have the cost that we're going to be paying for our lifetimes to take care of the people who were both physically and mentally wounded in that war.

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ROMANS: The Department of Defense alone spent $732 billion. A lot of that was spent in 2007 and 2008 during the counter insurgency campaign five years after the beginning of the conflict. Also included in that overall $776 billion number, $60 billion in rebuilding. A staggering figure given what's happening now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The terrorists have come in, have captured a lot of the equipment that we gave and some we sold to the Iraqi forces. So now they've got much better equipment than they had.

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ROMANS: This is the most expensive conflict since World War II. After adjusting for inflation, the conflict in Iraq cost more than that in Afghanistan, Vietnam or Korea. And, of course, this says nothing of the value of the lives that were lost.

Brianna.

KEILAR: Thank you so much. Thank you, Christine.

And be sure to tune in to special coverage of the "Crisis in Iraq." My colleague, Wolf Blitzer, will host a special hour starting at 1:00 p.m. Eastern right here.

Now here's a sobering number. This year, more than 60,000 children will cross the U.S. border illegally and by themselves. Why do children risk everything, leaving their homes to get to America? We'll show you what everyday life is like for some of these kids living in Honduras. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Congress' inability to pass an immigration reform law has left the government with few answers to a big problem, what to do with all of the illegal immigrants, including a growing number of children, who sneak across the border. And when you see the conditions in those places from where they are fleeing, you might understand why. One example is Honduras. And CNN's Rosa Flores reports that hundreds of Hondurans are deported from the U.S. every week only to return in the grim circumstances they were trying to escape.

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ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the extreme poverty Hondurans are trying to escape, where homes with indoor kitchens, doors that lock and glass windows are a luxury. People in this slum sell just about anything door to door to put food on the table. They tell us about 90 percent of this community of about 3,000 is unemployed.

"When I can't feed my kids," says this mother of six, "I'm very tempted to give the American dream another try." She's already been deported once.

It seems everyone knows someone who has taken a stab at the dangerous trek, like this woman's son. "There is danger everywhere," she says. "Ten died down the street and mothers are left praying."

FLORES (on camera): The communities, on opposite sides of this river, are a glaring example of the breakdown of law and order. On one side you've got a gang controlled slum where crime is rampant. On the other side of the river you've got a neighborhood watch community taking security into its own hands.

FLORES (voice-over): Setting up a checkpoint with armed guards, only allowing residents inside. Before this, gangs were notorious for raiding this neighborhood to rob, assault and kill.

"Slowly," says this guard, "we've forced all of the known criminals out." But the poverty, they fear, is here to stay.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: And Rosa Flores joining us now live from New York.

You know, we've heard that the trek to the U.S., it's -- this is dangerous. You talked to kids there on the ground, Rosa. Tell us about some of those stories they told you.

FLORES: You know, one young gentleman comes to mind in particular. He's 14 years old. And he explained to me, you know, I was robbed, kidnapped, tossed into a house in Mexico and held for ransom. And others say that they hop on trains. Some of those kids die because they hop on trains. Others lose limbs.

They also jump on what they call cowlas (ph), which are cage where they transport animals on their trek to the United States. So it's very, very dangerous, Brianna. As you might imagine Mexico is just ridden with cartels and so they share a lot of those same areas. The voyage is the same whether you're smuggling drugs, arms or, in this case, people.

KEILAR: People, youngsters. And how many - or what's the expectation for how many try to cross?

FLORES: You know, what we're hearing from organizations is that this year alone they're expecting about 60,000 miners to try to get to the United States. And from talking to some of those miners who have tried to come to the United States, here's what they tell me they do to try to cross. It's this modern type of coyote they call it. They call them guides. And so these guides give them a tour to the United States.

And what they do is, they hop on commercial buses in Mexico and these guides instruct them what to say, they give them money so they can bribe Mexican officials and they tell them, if they ask you any questions, say that you are alone and they actually are alone if the Mexican government says we're getting you back to your country, we're deporting you back to your country. I mean a lot of those kids were deported by the bus load back to Honduras.

KEILAR: Thank you for telling this story, Rosa. I really appreciate it. Rosa Flores for us in New York.

FLORES: You're welcome.

KEILAR: Now, a U.S. soldier held captive by the Taliban for almost five years is back in the United States. What is next in Bowe Bergdahl's recovery? How is this investigation into whether he was a deserter going to proceed? We'll have details ahead.

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KEILAR: A high ranking army general has started an investigation into why Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl left his post in Afghanistan. And as Ana Cabrera explains, it all boils down to one ugly word, the "d" word.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The main question in the Bowe Bergdahl controversy, is he a deserter? Now a two-star general will investigate. The general, appointed by the Pentagon but not named publicly, will look into Bergdahl's disappearance from base in June of 2009. An army investigation in the months after he disappeared found that Bergdahl did deliberately leave his base in the Paktika Province of Afghanistan, but it did not find that Bergdahl deserted. That would depend on his intent and the answer to that question is not yet known.

DR. ELSPETH RITCHIE, MILITARY PSYCHIATRIST: You want to make sure that he knows what's going on, that he is oriented and alert and that he's not psychotic. By psychotic I mean hearing voices that aren't there or seeing things that aren't there.

CABRERA: It's not clear when Bergdahl himself will be questioned. Afghan witnesses tell CNN that when he disappeared Bergdahl was abducted and beaten. Some of his fellow soldiers say he may have been trying to contact the Taliban.

EVAN BUETOW, BERGDAHL'S FORMER TEAM LEADER: I heard it straight from the interpreters lips as he heard it over the radio. And at that point it was like, I don't - this is -- this is kind of snowballing out of control a little bit. There's a lot more to this story than just a soldier walking away.

CABRERA: Another question, were any U.S. troops killed while searching for Bergdahl? Some soldiers say yes, six troops were killed. The Pentagon says there's no evidence of that. The answer to another question is also not known, just how long the investigation will take.

Ana Cabrera, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: And this just in. The U.S. military just announced that Major General Kenneth Dahl will lead that investigation.

Thanks so much for watching. Wolf starts right now.