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6.0 Earthquake Hits Northern California This Morning; American Hostage Held In Syria Released

Aired August 24, 2014 - 14:00   ET

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

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: We're gathering more information on that. We're also following new information that is emerging after a 6.0 earthquake hit northern California this morning. The governor has now declared a state of emergency after that strong earthquake struck near the San Francisco bay area. It caused dozens of injuries and significant damage as you can see there. Bricks that fell onto roadways, to sidewalks, roads buckled, homes destroyed gas and water lines ruptured.

Here's what we know right now. The 6.0 magnitude quake hit eight hours ago just about at 3:20 a.m. local time, the pacific time zone. People were rudely awakened to say the least. It was centered about six miles from Napa as we put up a map here over roughly 50 miles from San Francisco between two major fault systems.

Fires broke out right after this hit. Several buildings particularly in downtown Napa have now been damaged. As we show you video of the fires because of the gas lines that ruptured. Historic buildings like Napa county courthouse sustained damage. Five mobile homes were destroyed and several others were also damaged.

Napa officials now say rescue teams were deployed after people were reportedly trapped. At least 90 people were hurt. Most of them have minor injuries but three people are critically injured being treated at a local hospital including a child who was hit by a falling fireplace.

Now, the USGS estimates more than a million people may have experienced shaking ranging from moderate to severe, but millions more felt the quake. One resident, in fact, described emotions after seeing all of the damage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELSIE MARTINEZ, QUAKE VICTIM: I was in shock to see people's homes and people's offices on the floor and crooked. And to know that this is life changing for a lot of these people who will not have a home to go home to tonight and work to go to tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: This earthquake cracked some roads, knocked out power to at least 15,000 people. There have been about 50 gas main breaks up to 100 reported and 30 water main breaks. Now, this is the strongest earthquake to hit this area since 1989. And the White House tells us President Obama has been briefed on the quake and federal officials are in touch with state and local responders to see how they may be able to assist.

Already more than 60 aftershocks have been felt in the Napa area since this quake hit. All of those fortunately just minor. We want to go now live to the scene in northern California. CNN's Kyung Lah is right in the heart of Napa. She is near the epicenter of the earthquake.

Kyung, describe the scene there.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, if you have ever been to Napa, you know the downtown area is filled with old buildings. That's why when you walk around here, this is what you see. You can see all of these bricks that are on the sidewalks. And if you look up above, that is where they fell from. The business owner of this building says timing is really fortunate.

At 3:20 in the morning there's no one here. Had it happened at different time of day, people would have been sitting there and those injury totals that you just went over would have been far different.

As we walk through downtown Napa, this is a scene we see repeated over and over again. Just a block from where I'm standing there's a car smashed by bricks. There's buildings that have gaping holes in them where windows have fallen out, where bricks have fallen out. So there is going to be some suggest cleanup here.

But something that we do want to stress is that there are a lot of people walking around. The damage may be widespread, but it is not so severe that people are completely shaken up. People are very calm. There is a sense of calm in Napa as they try to figure out exactly what's going on.

And one other thing, Ana. I want to mention that so far we haven't got any reports of any missing people -- Ana.

CABRERA: That's good to end on a high note. Thank you, Kyung Lah. Stay on top of it for us, please.

Let's bring in meteorologist Chad Myers in our severe weather center.

Chad, we're hearing from people on social media , you know, wondering what is next and what could come. One good question a viewer wanted to ask you is, you know, could this fault movement affect other faults in this area?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Ana, you know, a lot of times that will happen with a major quake. We've been talking about this as a strong quake. The 6.0 has shifted the land, the plates, the faults under. So, yes, one quake can make another quake someplace else. We know the big quake (INAUDIBLE) years and years ago did create other quakes that we believe were probably coincided with that.

But a 6.0 making other quakes other than right along the rupture that we have right now, we all those aftershocks, probably unlikely at this point, Ana.

CABRERA: OK. And show us what you're standing there next to in terms of putting all of this into perspective. Obviously, this is a major quake or a strong quake, I guess, is the technical term. A 6.0 hasn't been felt in this area for 25 years. But they do happen more frequently than we might think.

MYERS: Yes. And (INAUDIBLE) was 6.9. And if you think about the 6.0 to 6.9, that's still a just six. The 6.9 is nine times stronger than 6.0 -- one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine times. And then as one of the viewers pointed out on twitter, it's more powerful every time you go up from a five to a six, it's 32 times more powerful, more release of energy so it's just kind of cloudy math there for me. But 130 quakes like this on the yearly average across the globe, not across the U.S. across the globe.

This is a big shake though. When you get down to seven, that's what we call that a major quake, seven to 7.9 and then when you get eight that what's is called the great quake. Eight or above is considered a great quake.

Here's what we have in downtown Napa. This is the earthquake shake map. Did you feel it map? All that reports that have come, USGS and Napa, really, right in the middle of did you feel it, absolutely. Felt it in Sonoma and as far east as Sacramento and certainly all of the way down to East Bay. We'll keep backing you up here so you can see it.

This is what we know as the bay area. At least, what I consider the bay area. I consider San Francisco, Oakland, all of the way down even farther down toward San Mateo and farther south. This is considered north bay to people that live there. And if you think about the wine regions, you are talking about the wine maker a little while ago, this would be considered carneros (ph). Even though it is Napa, close to Napa the city, the wine making area would considered carneros (ph). The Napa valley farther to the north have been enough hot air balloons in this area. To serve me with my lifestyle (INAUDIBLE).

But a beautiful area certainly with a big shake today. It was very shallow to the ground and not a 200 mile deep quake. It was only about seven miles deep. That means the shake they felt was a rupture, was a really a sharp quake rather than just a rolling rumble that people described as (INAUDIBLE) especially if you remember, I do, you were probably one watching the world series in 1989. That was a rolling quake for sure for people that felt it in candlestick park. To this day I remember the words that those announcers talked about. I think we're having an earthquake during that world series.

CABRERA: It is blast from the past so to speak, right?

MYERS: I know you weren't one.

CABRERA: I wasn't one. But I appreciate that you might have thought I could have been one.

MYERS: Fair enough. CABRERA: All right, Chad, we'll talk to you again soon.

MYERS: You're welcome.

CABRERA: You mentioned the winery region affected. And it's $13.3 billion industry there in Napa county with 49.7 million cases of wine that were produced out that area in 2011 as we're looking to get more information from that region. Our Dave Duncan who was there who we spoke with, he is one of the wine makers in the region who said he at least lost tens of thousands of dollars in wine as he's doing the initial assessment on some of his damage that was done there.

So we will continue to follow this for you. And we'll have more information from Napa as well as the other breaking news story we are following regarding an American just released from being held hostage in Syria as we continue here on CNN.

Thank you so much for being with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Welcome back to our breaking news coverage out of northern California where at least 90 people have been treated at a hospital with three people in critical condition after that strong earthquake hit the Napa Valley area this morning.

We have firsthand accounts from several people now who were caught in the middle of all this when their homes started to shake.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kind of a shock. That's the biggest earthquake I have ever been in. I mean, I was on couch downstairs and, you know, I wake up. I thought it was a thunderstorm. And then, all of the sudden, I see the chandelier in the dining room shaking, everything, you know. And things on tables are falling off. I hear glass breaking. I ran upstairs to regroup with my family. Even my little brother, he is 11-years-old. He's startled and rattled as well.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was asleep and was woken from my fairly deep sleep. It felt like a ride. It felt much like being on a roller coaster and felt like it was much longer than it was. Like it felt like it was occurring for about five minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do not have power. We do not have water. I'm thankful that I'm OK and everyone that I know is OK as well.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It gives me the chills and this morning when it was really quiet down here. It is like a scene out of a movie. It's like crazy and eerie.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks like a fairly typical kind of earthquake. It's just the magnitude is much larger than we have seen for a long time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The hardest part was having to deal with the lack of water for the incident and knowing that you had structures immediately threatened by the ones that were burning. And pretty much knew you were destined to lose additional units without that water supply. So having to look at something and get somebody out and know that there wasn't a lot of hope of saving that particular unit was very difficult. We currently have four structures to the ground, mobile homes, and six to eight with varying degrees of damage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anybody hurt?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this time we have no reports of injuries and none of the occupants are reported missing associated with units that are burned to the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: That crackling. It's still a fluid situation there in the Napa region where emergency crews are continuing to respond to people who may need help, to the destruction trying to secure businesses and residents and make sure everybody there is safe.

I want to bring in Will Cain, a reporter at San Francisco Chronicle. He's at the Clean of the Valley medical center in Napa and he has been with us throughout the morning in California.

Will, thanks again for joining us. Are you still seeing people being brought there?

WILL CAIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR (via phone): There are still a handful of people being brought here but not the scale we saw this morning. (INAUDIBLE) But we see maybe one or two every 20 minutes. It's hard to say if people that are arriving were injured in the earthquake or here because of the earthquake or here because of another medical reason.

CABRERA: Unfortunately we don't have good connection with you, Will. It's very scratchy. So we'll try to get you back. We do appreciate you being our eyes and ears on the ground at the hospital. I can tell our viewers that when we spoke with the hospital spokeswoman not long ago, she did confirm that 90 people had been brought there. The majority of them with lacerations, cuts, bruises, fairly minor injuries, but there were three people critically injured.

One person, she said, had multiple fractures. Another person who was a child who had been flown to the hospital after being crushed because of a fireplace that had fallen over during the early morning hours. Again, this happening about 3:20 local time in California when people were fast asleep primarily. It was a 6.0 earthquake that struck about six miles outside of Napa. Some 50 miles from San Francisco. And it was just six miles deep, which is why so many people felt that shaking that lasted reportedly up to 20 or 30 seconds.

The majority of the damage has continued to be from homes that had some bricks crumble or buildings, maybe restaurants and other businesses that sustained damage internally. A few that seemed to have partially collapsed. There were significant damages to a mobile home park when a fire broke out there because of the gas line that had ruptured in that area.

Right now, we're learning that parts of the emergency alert system have not worked because of the overwhelming number of people who need help. And we are going to work to get more information on that and join you on the other side of this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Welcome back to the CNN NEWSROOM.

We continue our breaking news coverage of the early morning earthquake. A strong earthquake that struck northern California around 3:20 local time while people were fast asleep shaking homes, damaging several buildings, buckling roads, rupturing gas and water main. This is the region we are talking about happening just outside of Napa, some six miles away where this earthquake was centered, about 50 miles from San Francisco, up to a million may have felt moderate to severe shaking, we were told from the USGS.

We are just learning, there was an alert that went out to a group of people, warning them ten seconds before the earthquake hit. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Earthquake, earthquake, light shaking expected in three seconds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Apparently this was developed by some scientists at the University of California at Berkeley. And I want to bring in meteorologist Chad Myers right now to talk a little bit more about how this works -- Chad.

MYERS: The speed of electricity is faster than the speed of shaking. So there was sensor near the earthquake. It said we had an earthquake. They sent that signal down the power lines, down the signal lines, and it received there at the University of California Berkeley. Ten seconds before the actual shaking could make it because the shaking is about five, maybe, miles per second. And the speed of light much faster than that. So instantaneously down to Berkley, they said has been an earthquake near us. We will be feeling the shaking fairly soon.

So the big question is, can it be longer than ten seconds? You know, sure it can be longer than 10 seconds if you are farther away from it. But the big question would be what if I was five miles from it, how much time would I have? Probably less than one second because that shaking would happen and all of the sudden the earth would move and primary wave would go and secondary wave would go and you would not have extra time compared what we have farther and farther away.

Where is the biggest shaking? Near the epicenter. Of course, we want more time near the epicenter. The shaking is more violent there. It's just, so far, not predicting earthquakes. It's feeling a shake, sounding an alarm a little bit of a ways of telling you, you have three, four, five seconds to get into the doorway, to get out of the building, whatever it might be. When I saw the video, I was, like, wow. That's really cool. I put it on my twitter feed. To see that, come on. That was pretty awesome.

CABRERA: Right. Well, you know, ten seconds in this case doesn't sound like a whole lot of time. But that could make a huge difference for somebody who can quickly move to a different area where they'll be safe, right?

MYERS: you know, and especially if this wasn't in Napa. Let's say it was in the ocean where no one really felt it or didn't get damaged by it initially, that would be fantastic that all of a sudden the coast of California would get six, eight seconds, however far it is.

If you have to think about the distance in time, the signal when the earth shakes and there's a seismometer, a seismometer is close enough that feels it, it sends a signal as I felt it shaking, sends it to people farther away to say prepare for the shake that I'm already feeling. That's what it is doing. So that's how cool it is.

CABRERA: And everybody want to know, can't it be longer than ten seconds. But as you just described, it all depends on how close you are in terms of the time that you have for warning. But are there other systems that, you know, in the process of being developed perhaps or that you can see with the science that would allow people to be warned earlier?

MYERS: I would love to come up with something on television right now to say that.

CABRERA: You wouldn't be here with us, would you? You would be a millionaire.

MYERS: You can talk about Italian scientists that find release of ozone, you can talk about Russian scientists found other releases prior to earthquakes. But you know, when you go to the doctor, the little sign there says medicine is not an exact science. Earthquakes are equally not yet an exact science. We are just not there yet.

CABRERA: Yes. Scientists at U-CAL Berkeley continue to work on this system, we do know. And state officials say they hope to implement a statewide system, some kind of an alert for those in harm's way. That may be implemented on a state level in the next few years.

Chad Myers, thank you for your expertise and walking us through how this early warning system works.

We will have more on the earthquake straight ahead as we continue to follow the destruction and the response by emergency crews who are currently looking for those who may be trapped, responding to infrastructure damage, responding to those water mains that are broken as well as the gas mains broken.

Here's a live picture of some of the damage in downtown Napa. This is a building right in the heart of the downtown area. And of course, there are reporters who are also on scene there. But you saw the bricks that fell onto the road. We've showed you images of the fires that broke out right after that earthquake struck.

We will continue to bring you the latest information right here on CNN. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CABRERA: Breaking news on two fronts right now. Hello, again. I'm Ana Cabrera.

We know an American hostage has been released in Syria. And we're also following breaking news out of northern California where people are cleaning up after a strong earthquake this morning.

First, let's start with the hostage situation. Law enforcement officials telling us that American Peter Curtis who had been held hostage by Islamic rebels was released today in Syria. Our Evan Perez is joining us as he's been talking to his sources. He is in Ferguson, Missouri. Our Erin McPike is live at the White House with more reaction from there and Nick Paton Walsh is in London.

Evan, let's start with you. what is the latest that you have learned?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, we know that he's safely out of Syria. The U.S. authorities tell me that they were contacted and were told that he is now free. His family in Massachusetts obviously is very, very happy. The U.S. has known about his capture since 2012 when he disappeared. And we now know that he was being held by (INAUDIBLE) which is an Islamic group in Syria which is fighting the Assad government. Now that is a group that is separate from ISIS which is the group that is believed to have beheaded an American journalist and publicized it earlier this week. They are now trying to bring him back to this country. And obviously, his family is overjoyed, Ana.

CABRERA: It's great news to hear. I want to bring in Erin McPike at the White House. I understand you are hearing reaction from Secretary of State John Kerry. What have you learned?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ana, that's right. We have statements from Kerry as well as National Security Adviser Susan Rice. As far as Kerry goes, in a statement he says Theo's mother who we know from Massachusetts and with whom we worked during this horrific period refused to give up and has worked to keep hope alive that this day could be a reality.

He goes onto say over these last two years the United States reached out to more than two dozen countries asking for urgent help from anyone who might have tools, influence or leverage to help secure Theo's release and other Americans held hostage in Syria.

There are still Americans being held in Syria and he says that the president has made clear as well that the United States will use every diplomatic, intelligence, and military tool to find them and bring them home. An important message as the United States continues its campaign in Syria -- Ana.

CABRERA: Thank you, Erin McPike. In that statement, they call him Theo, but we're talking about American Peter Curtis. That's his formal name. Nick Paton Walsh is gathering information in London. I understand you have been talking with a man who actually was held with Peter Curtis for a while.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Matthew Schrier was his cellmate for a long time. Now, the story of how Matthew and Theo came to be separated is a shocking one. They were cellmates for a long time. They hatched a plan together to escape because life was unbearable for them.

Hunger, abuse, really a bad time at the hands of their captors there. That escape plan involved them prying open a window at the high end of their cell to get there one of them had to stand on the back of the other to use him to raise his high top.

The day they decided to make this escape happened Matthew who went first and stood on Theo's back and pulled himself out of that basement cell where they both had been staying for a number of months. They were moved around between different locations.

He reached down to try to pull Peter Curtis to safety as well, but Peter Curtis was stuck in that window and then Matt described to me when I interviewed him last year in August the agonizing choice he faced where he had to either jump back in and try to get Theo out knowing that wouldn't work or escape himself.

He escaped and talked to me about his horrifying ordeal, but throughout he was terrified about what they would have done to Peter Curtis once they discovered that Matt escaped. He is overjoyed to hear that Curtis is now free. We don't know details.

It's not ISIS holding him. The group is a terrorist organization by the United States because of their links to al Qaeda. More moderate than ISIS. Something has cleared happened here in those months where a back channel has been opened and private negotiations we understand that led to his freedom --Ana.

CABRERA: It's good news. We hope to learn more about what transpired for him to be released and not rescued. They call this a release. This comes on the heels of James Foley's execution and as we speak, a memorial service is happening for him right now in New Hampshire. Do you know any more information about the investigation into who executed James Foley?

WALSH: We know that the British ambassador to the United States has told our "STATE OF THE UNION" program that they are very close or close to establishing the identity of James Foley's killer. Now that's a task that would have involved them listening to that British accent of the man giving the speech behind James Foley before his execution. Working out what voice recognition capabilities they have that can assist them and go through data bases from phone calls intercept and looking at the man in the video's eyes and see if that fits into eyes and it's lengthy and it's potentially very precise, but it will have a lot of uncertainty in there as well.

When the British ambassador to the U.S. says they're close, we know that another agonizing choice comes ahead of them soon, what you do if you established it. Do you open a channel to that family to get communication going? Do you apprehend or try to kill that man? What does that mean for the fate of the other American or Americans held by ISIS?

CABRERA: That's what we have to keep in mind. There are still Americans being held hostage in the Middle East right now as we speak by these terrorist organizations. Great news for the family of Peter Curtis.

Evan Perez, Erin McPike, and Nick Paton Walsh, thank you for that update. We're following the breaking news out of California at this hour as well. An earthquake 6.0 magnitude struck in Northern California now eight hours ago. Our Kyung Lah is live in the heart of it -- Kyung.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's clean up time in Napa. There are bricks littering the street. Buildings have gaping holes in them. A live report coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: We have breaking news out of Northern California. A 6.0 magnitude earthquake shook Napa area early this morning. This is new video coming into CNN from inside a grocery store in that area following the shaking that happened. You can see a huge mess. Clean up is under way.

The governor, Jerry Brown, has declared a state of emergency in Napa County. We know 90 people were hurt. They were treated at one hospital there in Napa. Three are considered major injuries. In fact, critical condition.

Fire officials say one of them was a young girl who was badly hurt when a fireplace collapsed on her and she had to be air lifted to the hospital. Fires broke out in several homes after the quake.

At least five mobile homes are destroyed and making matters worse, a water main broke in downtown Napa in the heart of the city where a lot of the damage is.

Thousands of people also lost power this morning. We have more video of the damage inside a local hardware store in Napa and there's also extensive damage to the wineries in this area or region known for its wine making. Barrels, you can see, knocked over.

Bottles of wine covering the floor. Keep in mind it takes 600 to 800 grapes just to make one bottle of wine. One barrel of wine contains 740 pounds of grapes. An industry also struck pretty hard.

Let's go out to Northern California and CNN's Kyung Lah near the epicenter of the earthquake in Napa. We can see damage right there behind you. How bad is it?

LAH: The damage is pretty extensive throughout this downtown Napa area. A lot of old buildings here. I'm going to walk you just a little bit closer. I don't want to get too close. One of the real threats here is aftershocks and a building that's been compromised like this one can collapse if there is one.

The threat of aftershocks very, very high. You can see there's a gaping hole there the bricks fell out of that building down below. This happened at 3:20 in the morning. Had this been in the middle of the day, people would have been here.

It's not just at this corner. There's also this bank over here that has been pretty much split apart. That's one area and then if you look over this way down the street, you can see that there's yellow tape all of the way down the street.

On that corner, a car has been smashed in. This is just one snapshot of downtown Napa. Extensive damage. Widespread. Unbelievably, no one was killed. Timing may be a part of it. If you come here and speak to some of the people, they describe a terror.

They were so afraid after felt like an eternity, which we now know is only 10 to 15 seconds, afraid to go back into their homes. People are shaken, but they are thanking their lucky stars that there wasn't anyone killed in this.

CABRERA: It could have been worse when you put it into perspective that way. Kyung Lah, thank you.

We also should mention that some of those buildings perhaps did not sustain more damage because we learned from local officials they have been reinforced in recent years. Some retrofitting that's gone on particularly to older buildings near Napa that may have saved buildings from further destruction.

Much more straight ahead as we continue to follow breaking news there. First, U.S. Open starts tomorrow and it will be a first for one player from the Dominican Republic who caught a lot of people by surprise. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At 34 years old, the most unlikely of U.S. Open first timers and yet the journeyman from the Dominican Republic is set to make his debut.

VICTOR ESTRELLA, 81ST RANKED SINGLES PLAYER: It's very special for me. A lot of Dominican people in New York and are going to jump in the car crazy to get there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Growing up in an a country are baseball rules supreme, few can afford to join the exclusive tennis clubs and he was no exception. He became the first player from the Dominican Republic to crack the top 100. His recent success is generating a lot of interest back home.

ESTRELLA: When I'm in the Dominican, I was on a show and one guy says, victor, how you do the last two months? You know me? I read the paper and everything.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: This just into CNN a short time ago. U.S. saying it led more air strikes against ISIS targets near Erbil and the Mosul Dam in Iraq. Earlier this week troops recaptured the dam after it had been seized by ISIS fighters.

Since August 8th, the U.S. has led more than 90 air strikes using fighters and drones. Sixty two of those air strikes have been in support of the battle to retake the Mosul Dam, which again was successful.

I want to bring you up to speed on other news that just broke in the last hour as well. Law enforcement officials sources telling us that American Peter Curtis who had been held hostage by Islamic rebels was just released today in Syria.

This is video of Peter Curtis. Also, this afternoon, a memorial for murdered American Journalist James Foley was just held in Rochester, New Hampshire. Foley's execution at the hands of ISIS terrorists was posted for the world to see and the man who murdered him now may be the world's most famous terrorists.

British authorities telling us they are close to identifying that ISIS extremist who has that London accent. CNN military analyst Major General "Spider" Marks is joining me now. Lots to talk about.

I want to start with this new information. You've been an intelligence officer in that part of the world including Syria. What is your reaction to the release of hostage, Peter Curtis?

MAJOR GENERAL JAMES MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Clearly those that held Peter Curtis were not ISIS, at least we understand that another group took credit for this and then released him. They are looking to exact some benefit or it's to their benefit they released him.

The United States needs to be careful. We don't want to enter into a relationship -- what I would call a tactical relationship, with any type of terrorist organizations. In other words, we should not view this as their trying to extract goodwill from the United States.

It is not forthcoming. So it's a wonderful day for the Curtis family clearly, but the United States needs to stay focused on that part of the world and the number one priority in this case ISIS.

So let's keep those two separated. I don't think there's a causal link between his release and our efforts against ISIS. Those are not connected right now.

CABRERA: We don't know exactly the details that were entailed into terms of this release. Secretary of State John Kerry has said, however, that the U.S. is using all of its available tools to try to secure the release of Americans in Syria. What tools might we have available to us?

MARKS: Well, Ana, first and foremost, we have a military tool that we see being used right now vis-a-vis ISIS and their efforts in Northern Iraq and Syria. Clearly we have diplomatic efforts. They are very, very loose at best, but there are elements of influence that exist within the Middle East that are not what I would called directional.

They are asymmetric and parties that influence actions on the ground so we deal with them and they may not be governments. They may be elements there within different countries. But we're not dealing directly with Syria. We don't have relationships that would be fulsome that would allow with Assad and his regime and Syria at all trying to topple that individual.

There are other elements we can work with diplomatically to work out favorable reactions and favorable results to the United States and in the United States national interest.

CABRERA: What about ransom? What do you think of that?

MARKS: We don't pay ransom. Ransom goes directly to the coffers of terrorists organizations. ISIS, a different organization from the organization that just released Curtis, but ISIS has hundreds of millions of dollars available in their bank accounts so that they can execute, they can train and they can conduct operations.

They stole money from the Mosul Bank and when they have hostages and when nations pay ransom money, that money goes directly toward their benefit to continue to train and develop capabilities. You don't get into that business at all knowing there is a link between ransom and increase and enhanced capability of those organizations.

CABRERA: You mentioned how well funded ISIS. We heard Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel earlier this week say it's a terrorist organization unlike any other. He talked about how tactically they are challenging to go after, how it's difficult because they are spread out so you can't just cut the head of the snake off so to speak. What do you think we could do as a nation in order to have a major impact in the fight against ISIS beyond air strikes?

MARKS: Ana, that's the key. What we need to achieve right now is some time which gives Iraq and its neighbors capability. Time is the ingredient that you can't replace it. And the Iraqi security forces have to be able to achieve distance and time so they can build up capabilities to push is out of Iraq and to try to get them more quickly.

What the United States can do right now is help provide that time by going after ISIS through air strikes. We have Special Forces capabilities but you only use those in two instances. One, build up Iraqi forces and organizations within Iraq like the Kurds to help fight against ISIS and other challenging tasks.

And then the second one is you can go after a very precise targets when you have great intelligence. The use of U.S. forces starts with right now based on these circumstances with airpower. It can grow over the course of time. If the U.S. demonstrates that it is committed to defeat ISIS then our neighbors in the region will step up. United States has a leadership role to achieve that task.

CABRERA: Even beyond Iraq, so much is said about ISIS strong hold in Syria where U.S. has been hands off. How do you identify those targets if we don't have more people boots on the ground?

MARKS: You can get intelligence through other sources, but the fact that we don't have U.S. boots on the ground doesn't mean we don't have eyes on the ground in Syria. We have sources. We have folks that are working for our intelligence agencies to provide good human intelligence on the ground.

But there are also technical intelligence means that allow us to go after a target like ISIS. ISIS is well-funded and it also has a lot of equipment. It presents itself as a target that we can strike. So with good intelligence provided through a number of different means, we can continue to strike.

And we should strike in Syria and the first thing is we shouldn't ask for permission. We should just go after those targets as we identify them and we recognize them and we can identify them. We need to target them very, very aggressively.

CABRERA: We know the president is weighing that option right now. Major General "Spider" Marks, thank you.

Gaza rocked by more air strikes and seven Palestinians including a mother and her three children have been killed. A rocket struck what Israeli government says was a Hamas target. It's been just five days since the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas collapsed. In that time Israel Defense Forces say several rockets and mortars have wounded four Israeli civilians.

Here in the states, the Ferguson community is preparing to say good- bye to Michael Brown. His funeral is set for tomorrow in St. Louis. Thousands of people are expected to attend including three White House officials.

The Reverend Al Sharpton will deliver the eulogy. The 18 year old was unarmed when he was shot and killed by a police officer on August 9th and his death set off two weeks of unrest including nightly protests. We saw the militarized police response and violent clashes at times.

Chicago's Little League team is headed to the World Series championships. What a Cinderella story this is. This team topped Las Vegas in the U.S. title game just yesterday. This is the Jackie Robinson West squad, which is composed entirely of young African- Americans. It will make its first appearance in the Little League World Series in 31 years as they take on South Korea this afternoon.

First pitch top of the hour in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Good luck to Jackie Robinson West. We'll be cheering for you.

A live picture out of Northern California where we are awaiting a news conference from Napa officials. That's expected at the top of the hour to bring us new information about what they have uncovered as they continue to survey the damage and respond to people in need near Napa following that 6.0 earthquake that shook northern California this morning. We bring it to you live when it happens. We're back after a short break.

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