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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

U.S. Conisders Attacking ISIS; Earthquake Rocks Napa; American Journalist Released by Terrorists; Hunt for James Foley's Killer Heats Up; Funeral for Michael Brown Under Way

Aired August 25, 2014 - 12:00   ET

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

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm Ashleigh Banfield. It's Monday, August 25th. Welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

We've got a lot of live coverage today. In fact, a mother is laying her 18-year-old son to rest while the rest of the world is watching. The funeral for Michael Brown, the unarmed teen who was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, is right now under way. The service is taking place at the Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis.

Among guests, Martin Luther King III, the Reverend Bernice King, Reverend Jesse Jackson, the families of Trayvon Martin and Sean Bell, celebrities like Spike Lee and P. Diddy and Snoop Lion (ph) and the White House has also sent three of its emissaries to the funeral. What you're seeing on your screen right now is Michael Brown's mother. She's surrounded by a number of her family members as well.

In the meantime, as we continue to watch the live coverage, after two delays due to the violence protests, the students are now going back to school in Ferguson today. The district is planning to have double the number of normal counselors on hand throughout the schools today. And teachers and administrators have received training, in fact, to deal with traumatized students. We're going to get you back to Ferguson and Michael Brown's funeral in just a moment.

But first, I want to get you to some of the other top news that we're watching as well. Within the past hour, President Obama sat down with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel at the White House. And while they did not invite the press along, it is a safe bet that ISIS, Iraq and Syria were top on the agenda. Yesterday, the Jihadi radical, who many call ISIS but who call themselves Islamic State and who Washington receives to as ISIL, well, they took another huge prize, a Syrian air base in the northeastern provinces that's become their base of operations.

Today, the embattled Syrian government is, believe it or not, welcoming the United States' help in attacking a common threat, but only if the United States, quote, "coordinates with Damascus." Read, Bashar al Assad. And while you just ponder that for a moment, coordinating with Bashar al Assad, I want to bring in CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr and also joining us from Columbus, Ohio, is Peter Mansoor, who is the - is a retired U.S. Army colonel, CNN military analyst, and also the former executive officer to General David Petraeus during the Iraq war surge.

First to you, Barbara.

I still can't believe that I actually am saying that headline as I come to you for analysis on this. The United States coordinate with Bashar al Assad. If that's even possible, do you have any idea the extent of the planning for any potential action in Syria?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, whatever the planning is, don't count on the Pentagon coordinating with Bashar al Assad. I think that's way beyond a safe bet. I think that's a certainty. The U.S. is not going to telegraph its military moves to the Syrian regime.

What we do know, of course, is, as we've been saying here at CNN for some days, there's been a good deal of planning about what it would take to conduct air strikes inside northern Syria against ISIS strongholds if President Obama made the decision to go ahead and do that. What we know is the first step is going to be reconnaissance flights over that area to get precise intelligence on where ISIS troops are, training camps, strongholds, that sort of thing.

I mean, look, they've been flying satellites over the region, but that only gives you a snapshot in time. They really need to get in there and get that very precise, real-time intelligence about where ISIS is. And as they do that, the president has to make a decision if he wants to go down that road and strike ISIS. Maybe one of the big hints was late last week, Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser, told reporters the U.S. would not be limited by the border, the essentially nonexistent border between Iraq and Syria. So there's nothing that says they won't go into Syria, it's not because it's a different country, but the president has to make that decision.

Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Colonel Mansoor, what about the notion that the Americans thought it prudent enough to send a number of advisers to effectively get the picture on the ground inside Iraq before any air strikes potentially could be effectuated properly? I mean you can't just bring in air strikes without knowing exactly what you're striking. But can you actually put special ops or Delta forces inside Syria to try to do ground coordination?

PETER MANSOOR, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I think you could put special operations forces and special forces inside Syria to ally and embed with the Sunni tribes that want to fight ISIS but have no capability to rise up against it. This would be part of a coordinated plan to reawaken the Sunni tribes, as we did in 2006, 2007 and 2008 in Iraq. And we could do that on both sides of the border since the tribes span the border. And then these special operations forces and special forces, the green berets, would have links to U.S. air power, making the tribal rebellion highly effective against ISIS.

BANFIELD: And, Barbara, is there any thought to -- I mean this may be jumping way ahead of the cart here, but is there any thought to, you know, what kind of action could be taken in Syria, be it drone, which doesn't perhaps require, you know, as much potential human collateral, obviously, but even drone strikes require knowing what you're striking and there's an entire mess of insurgents with all sorts of differences in allegiance in Syria.

STARR: Well, Ashleigh, that's why I say, the first step is going to be reconnaissance flights over this area to get that real-time intelligence so you can have precise targeting intelligence and know what you're going after. But make no mistake, air strikes will not do ISIS in. The Pentagon doesn't think so. The secretary of defense doesn't think so. The chairman doesn't think so. And the president doesn't think so.

Air strikes are simply an effort to try and stop ISIS' momentum across northern Iraq and -- pardon me, across northern Syria and into Iraq. Air strikes are essentially a tactical move on the battlefield. They're not going to defeat ISIS, but if they can disrupt them, if they can disrupt their communications, if they can put them back on their heels so they can't, you know, do more recruiting, get more weapons, take more territory, that's the beginning of a step they hope. And as Colonel Mansoor said, the real issue is to, they feel, is a political one, to get those disaffected Sunni tribes, break them off from ISIS, get them back into wanting a more democratic representative situation for themselves and get them fighting ISIS. U.S. air strikes can get the process started. They can be an incentive. They will not defeat ISIS. I don't think anybody believes that.

BANFIELD: And not only that, but we've seen, you know, how ineffective it is when campaigns are short and how long the memories of so many of these insurgents.

And, Colonel Mansoor, to that end, would a short campaign, be it an air campaign or be it anything else inside Syria, really be any kind of solution anyway, given the fact that we've now been in Iraq for almost a decade and a half?

MANSOOR: No, I think a short campaign inside Syria would be worse than none at all because it would give the insurgent groups there the narrative that America's attacking us, America's attacking Islam, without solving the problem. Look, you know, the American people have to be steeled for a long, long haul in this region and they need to be told that this is going to take not weeks, not months, but perhaps years to completely eliminate this threat to our national security. And if we're not willing to stay the course, then it's best probably to stay out.

BANFIELD: Boy, we've sure heard that a lot, you know, the appeal for patience. Colonel Mansoor and Barbara Starr, thank you both. Appreciate it.

And then just days after the brutal murder of American journalist James Foley was broadcast to the world, another hostage has instead been freed. What we're learning right now about his time in captivity and, of course, the most important part, his release, coming up right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Northern California rocked into a state of emergency. A huge 6.0 magnitude earthquake rattling bay area residents right out of their beds early on Sunday morning. And we've got some brand-new surveillance video of it as well. This comes from inside a music store. Take a peek. What a mess. Showing the power of this quake when it struck.

And right now, the after effects of this, you know, have been felt so vastly. Thousands of people are still without power. Of course schools are closed. People -- many of them don't even have homes to go to right now. Structurally dangerous until they're checked out or completely gone, whichever it is. And at least 100 homes have been declared too unsafe to even enter.

We do know that several hundred people were injured in this quake. Luckily, though, and this is great, no death reported so far. Right across the region, we can tell you this, stretches of roadway split in two, parts of California simply crumbling in the strongest earthquake to hit the bay area in 25 years. Our Dan Simon has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The first moments of the powerful quake caught on camera, rattling residents out of their sleep at 3:20 a.m., striking the bay area at a whopping 6.0 magnitude. The strongest felt here in 25 years.

MARLOW DANIEL, NAPA RESIDENT: This just kept going and kept going and kept going and I felt like I was like on a raft in the ocean almost.

SIMON: In downtown Napa, just six miles southwest of the epicenter, historical buildings and homes sustained heavy damage. Pieces of this courthouse and other structures crumbled to the ground. Authorities reporting over 100 injuries, including a young child seriously hurt when a fireplace collapsed.

ELISE MARTINEZ, NAPA RESIDENT: was in shock to see people's homes, people's offices, on the floor and crooked and to know that this is life changing.

SIMON: Business owners in the famed wine country also reporting being hit hard. Hundreds of gallons of wine spewing from a crack in this storage tank.

LT. GOV. GAVIN NEWSON, CALIFORNIA: A wine maker right across the street from us, they were devastated. Dozens of their barrels collapsed.

SIMON: Fires broke out following the quake, destroying dozens of homes. Broken water mains hampering firefighters' efforts to extinguish the flames. Fire crews having no choice but to let these mobile homes burn to the ground. Experts now warning residents of aftershocks.

JOHN PARRISH, CHIEF OF CALIFORNIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY: We think that there's probably over 50 or 60 aftershock now, the largest one being of magnitude 3.6. We do think the aftershocks will continue for several weeks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: And joining me now from Napa, the place that actually took the brunt of the impact, is our correspondent Dan Simon.

Dan, I'm just looking at the image and behind you it's just a disaster. It's such a mess. Are you still feeling those aftereffects, those quakes? Because I heard that they can go on for as long as a year.

SIMON: Yes, Ashleigh, I actually haven't felt any of these aftershocks but I've been following the website that is keeping track of these and there were just two in the last hour. They're really small. So it would be tough for folks to feel them.

We're in downtown Napa, Ashleigh, let me just sort of set the stage for you. This is one building, an historic building, that really got hit, as you can see. These bricks just crumbled to the ground. On the upper floors, those were offices. On the bottom, this was an outdoor cafe. And you can just imagine what would happen if this earthquake actually occurred during the daylight hours. Thank goodness it happened at 3:20 in the morning because nobody was on the sidewalk, nobody was eating out here, nobody was walking around. If, in fact, it happened during the day, you could have seen some serious injuries.

Behind me, over there, we just talked to the owner of a coffee shop. He is the only guy on this block that didn't have his building red tagged. And so that's kind of the story in Napa. You go around. Some people had damage. Some people didn't. It sort of reminds me when you cover a wildfire. There's just sort of a randomness to it. As one resident told me, you know, some folks suffered damage and others didn't. So they're really trying to pick up the pieces, excuse the pun, but it's really true in this case.

Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: We've had a big banner on the bottom of the screen while we've been talking to you, saying the damage totals may top $1 billion.

Have they even begun to assess just how bad this is going to be?

SIMON: They really haven't. You know, we've seen some of these devastating pictures of barrels on the ground and wine spewing from tanks, but we don't really have a full appreciation in terms of the scope of this disaster.

We know that this is a $13 billion industry, very important to the local economy. I've been talking to people in the industry, been trying to reach out to then, and they say it's really going to take some time before you get a full accounting, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Dan Simon, doing the job for us. I hope you were OK, Dan. I know you live out there, so we're glad to see you're OK this morning.

Dan Simon for us, live, in the Napa area, thank you for that. We have our cameras trained all over the nation now and the world as

well. We're following events in Ferguson, Missouri. We'll continue our coverage live after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: An American journalist is now free after being held hostage in Syria for close to two years. An Islamist rebel group with ties to al Qaeda captured this man, Peter Curtis, back in October 2012.

White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice says Curtis is safe and was on his way to Tel Aviv a while back, and he will be reunited with his family shortly, we are told.

In the meantime, the search for James Foley's killers is certainly heating up, with British officials saying they are, quote, "close" to identifying the ISIS militant who beheaded that American journalist.

CNN's Atika Shubert joins us with the very latest on the manhunt. Is the manhunt a digital manhunt, actually looking at videotape and trying to analyze it down to an actual geographic position, if that's possible?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is, in part, because there's so much online video, audio, pictures, you name it, that are out there, posted by so many of these jihadists. So part of what they've done is gone through and compare every scrap of video and audio they have.

But also more likely they have also gone back to their networks and really leaned on them for more information as to who the man in this video might be. And it's quite possible a man of this stature, if he is, in fact, somebody who's quite high up in the organization, isn't going to have the same online profile.

And I've actually been speaking to a number of researchers and analysts today who say actually on the social media networks, things have gone relatively quiet when it comes to the Foley killing and that tape. There's a lot of people passing the video on and making remarks on it, but details about what exactly happened on that video are very -- in fact, very few.

BANFIELD: So when we read reports of what linguists can ascertain from watching the video and hearing him speak, they suggest that he seems to be younger than 30, he was educated in London from a young age, more than likely southern London or England.

Is this something that investigators are putting forth or just linguists who think they might be able to help?

SHUBERT: No, this is definitely something investigators are looking at. They're going to be looking at his voice. One of the important things they're going to be looking at is also how the video was edited and not just the audio recording.

There's a number of things about this video. There are cuts in it. You never see the actual killing taking place. And there's some speculation as to whether the man who holds the knife to Foley's throat is the same man who actually delivers the propaganda speech at the beginning of the video.

So these are all things they'll be looking at, trying to analyze, see whether or not there are any clues as to whether or not the British man speaking is, in fact, not the man who carried out the killings. These are all important factors, but probably human intelligence, talking to contacts, leaning on those sources.

Remember, also, that a number of British fighters have actually gone to Syria and even come back here and so you can be sure that British intelligence will be leaning on their networks here to find out more about whether there's anybody here who may be close to or knows the man in that video.

BANFIELD: Thank you, Atika Shubert, doing the work for us in London.

Back now to Missouri, stateside, where Michael Brown's family is celebrating his life, at the same time as mourning their loss. As they focus on his funeral today, a grand jury is instead focusing on figuring out what happened and if the officer who shot Michael Brown should be charged for that.

What we've learned about the people on the ground jury who are making that decision, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: You're looking at live pictures inside the friendly temple Baptist church where Michael Brown is being memorialized by dozens of speakers.

There are numerous celebrities, dignitaries, cultural leaders, singers and of course in the hundreds as well of Brown family members, Michael Brown family members, not the least of which, the woman who was just in the center of the screen, Lesley McSpadden, Michael Brown's mom, who has been featured front and center with her family and with Michael Brown's father, Michael Brown Sr., listening to this extremely hot day in Missouri as literally hundreds gather.

This is a church that can house 2,500 in the room you're looking at, and there are other facilities who accommodate more people who may have shown as well. A number of people have turned out for this memorial service today, this funeral that's under way.

We'll continue to watch this. This family after today certainly has would be heck of a long journey ahead of them.

A grand jury is already starting to wade through what is certain to be a large volume of evidence. It could take them months to decide whether police officer Darren Wilson should face charges.

We know the makeup of this 12-member grand jury. As so much attention in this case is being paid to race, we can also say there are seven males and five females that are hearing this case and that three of the jurors are African-American, nine of the jurors are Caucasian. Keep in mind this grand jury was impaneled back in May, important to note, not only because of the impaneling process, which was pre- incident, but also when a grand jury is impaneled, they are told not to watch or consume news on the potential cases that they will be following. That changes the dynamic somewhat.