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U.S. OK's Spy Flights Over Syria; Family of Freed American Awaits His Return; New Mysteries in Search for ISIS Killer; New Audio in Michael Brown Shooting; Burger King Leaves U.S. in Mega-Merger

Aired August 26, 2014 - 09:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: New clues this morning. Word of a second terrorist in the James Foley beheading video. We'll break down the tape straight ahead.

And the whopper goes north, Burger King announcing it's merging with Canada's coffee and donut giant Tim Hortons. This morning, new calls for a boycott and claims of tax dodging.

Let's talk, live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me this morning.

The White House takes a major step to put ISIS in the crosshairs and possibly nudges the United States closer to new military action against the terrorists. U.S. officials tell CNN that at any time reconnaissance flights could launch over Syria, that could set up airstrikes against the group that has vowed to kill Americans at home and abroad.

ISIS has already made good on the threat and underscored its reputation for savagery with the beheading of captured American journalist James Foley.

There are new questions about that tape this morning including the possibility of a second terrorist in that video.

We're going to get to that in a few minutes but first the potential of airstrikes and the concerns already welling up on Capitol Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE TURNER (R), HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: I think what the administration needs to do is come forward with a plan. Right now they have no coordinated plan. We have no stated goals and objectives. The administration has inconsistent statements as to whether or not even they see ISIS as a threat to the western United States.

British Prime Minister Cameron clearly stating ISIS is a threat to the West. This administration seems to be waffling on what the threat is and how to approach it so it's very difficult to either galvanize the American public or certainly Congress behind the administration without a strategy and plan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Barbara Starr is at her post at the Pentagon.

Barbara, tell us more, good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Here's where we stand at this hour. President Obama we are told has indeed authorized reconnaissance flights over Syria. They could begin at any time. It could be unmanned drones. It could be U-2 spy planes flying at very high altitudes, F-18s, not clear what assets would be used but it is now authorized.

Why are they doing this? Well, if they're going to go for airstrikes they need to collect fresh intelligence, very timely intelligence about ISIS positions on the ground that they want to target, troops, weapons, ISIS training camps, ISIS command and control areas, where the leadership may be, so what we should expect to see the next move would be these reconnaissance flights mainly perhaps we are told flying over the Syria-Iraq border region, having a look at what's happening on the ground in Syria. Because what they want to do is cut off that resupply line for ISIS to reinforce itself.

A lot of weapons, a lot of troops moving back and forth across that border, but still, the actual move to proceed with airstrikes not approved, we are told, by the White House yet. They're going to start with the reconnaissance, have a look at what's going on, on the ground, and then we're told a decision will be made a go or no go on airstrikes.

One of the big ironies, if you will, in all of this is if U.S. airstrikes are enacted against ISIS, they could have the unintended consequence of actually of course helping Bashar al-Assad, the leader of Syria, that the U.S. wants to also see go. His troops have been fighting ISIS not terribly successfully, so if the U.S. strikes ISIS it could deal Assad an advantage from the U.S. that he didn't quite expect -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Barbara Starr reporting live from the Pentagon, thanks so much.

The family of another journalist, Peter Theo Curtis, is anxiously awaiting his return to the United States. Curtis was released on Sunday after being held captive for two years by Islamist militants. His mother told ABC News what it was like to finally be able to talk to her son after all this time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY CURTIS, MOTHER OF PETER THEO CURTIS: It was wonderful. Usually he doesn't have a whole lot to say to me. He's, you know, typical guy, "Hi, mom, yes, everything's fine." But he was so excited. And he was saying, "Mom, they're being so nice to me. And they put me in this 12-star hotel." He was over-the-top excited.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: No word yet on when Curtis will make his way back home.

Miguel Marquez has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Peter Theo Curtis, nearly two years held prisoner in Syria, free. A mother's relief, plain as the smile on her face.

(On camera): Are you happy that he's out?

CURTIS: What do you think?

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Captured late 2012 by al Qaeda affiliated al- Nusra Front as Syria's civil war raged. Writing under the name Theo Padnos, he covered the horrors of Syria, often critical of the Assad regime, Al-Nusra's enemy. It made little difference. For nearly a year, family, friends, had no idea where he was or what happened to him.

KIRK KARDASHIAN, PETER THEO CURTIS' FRIEND: I don't remember exactly how I discovered that he was being held. I think at first it was just a disappearance and then the information slowly came out that he was being held.

MARQUEZ: Others found out after Matthew Schrier, held captive with Curtis, managed to escape in 2013. The story of their treatment terrifying to hear.

MATTHEW SCHRIER, HELD CAPTIVE WITH CURTIS: All day long you're hearing people get tortured. All day long you just hear whack, whack, whack, of the feet -- their feet getting whacked and they're screaming and yelling.

MARQUEZ: Curtis' family now gathering at his mother's Cambridge, Massachusetts, home. The news from Theo so far? Positive.

CURTIS: We've heard that his health appears good, so that was very encouraging.

MARQUEZ: But videos of Curtis in captivity released over the last few months showed him in an agitated state.

PETER THEO CURTIS, HELD CAPTIVE BY TERRORISTS: My name is Peter Theo Curtis, I'm a journalist from the city of Boston, Massachusetts.

MARQUEZ: Then a week ago, everything changed. The shocking public killing of journalist James Foley by ISIS, an al-Nusra Front rival, may have pushed the government of Qatar to step up negotiations for Curtis' release. No word on whether a ransom was paid.

ROBERT BAER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: After Foley, the Qataris probably moved very fast. They wanted to show a victory, they needed to, because if this -- if it goes really bad, Syria in Iraq, the Qataris do not want to be blamed for this.

MARQUEZ: Now his family, his friends prepare for Curtis' return. One of his favorite things? Road bicycling.

KARDASHIAN: Can't wait for us to go out on a bike ride in Vermont.

MARQUEZ (on camera): On a very long bike ride I'd take it?

(LAUGHTER)

KARDASHIAN: Yes, maybe.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): He's already had a hell of a ride.

Miguel Marquez, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Now let's focus on the execution of American journalist James Foley and the manhunt for his cold-blooded killer. It turns out that the taunting star of that gruesome video, a masked terrorist with a British accent, may not be the killer after all.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh breaks down some big clues and haunting inconsistencies in that tape.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As investigators carefully examine the video, looking for who committed this atrocity, there are some disturbing clues and on closer examination of both the long speech in English and the gruesome execution, some fresh puzzles.

First, there is a clear edit in the video which fades to black between the English accented talker and the man who appears to carry out the beheading. And the man on the left who has the English accent appears of a different stature to the man on the right, who apparently carries out the killing.

There is another problem with continuity, the knife wielded by the English speaker is different visibly from the knife left by the body of the deceased.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROSS PATEL, AFENTIS FORENSICS: There's definitely a change of actor, the change in the physique of the individual standing next to the deceased. There are noticeable, there are subtle but there are also noticeable changes in that build, that physical appearance. The dimensions of the knife, the style of the knife that is used.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: But when trying to determine whether the British accented man is also the executioner, it helps to examine where his pistol is holstered. That is for use by his right hand but the executioner from the video appears left-handed. It's unclear why this happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATEL: The person who was essentially the mouthpiece may not have been willing to carry through the deed or may not have been able to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: This could present a problem for investigators as the speaker's voice and few doubt the voice heard is that of the man on the video was one of their biggest clues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN BARRY, FORENSIC VOICE ANALYST: The speaker is using a variety of English known as multicultural London English, and that's a kind of melting pot accent that's emerged in recent years, particularly in deprived multiethnic areas of inner London.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: The video contains a wealth of other data, we are told, like the measurements of a face even beneath the balaclava that could help investigators sift through databases of passport photos. But it is possible that the man whose voice and Britishness chilled many Westerners was not the one to carry out the killing.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Wow. At the bottom of the hour we'll take a closer look at this curious turn. Why would ISIS go to so much trouble to swap out terrorists? We'll talk with an expert -- he's also an expert on the effort to recruit and radicalize. We'll talk to him about that, too.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, new audio allegedly revealing the deadly confrontation between Michael Brown and Officer Darren Wilson. What could it mean for the investigation?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: New audio has emerged in the shooting death of Michael Brown. It appears to starkly illustrate exactly how many times Officer Darren Wilson shot at Brown as he ran from the police cruiser.

What you're about to hear is audio recorded in a nearby home while a man was talking to a friend on a video chat service. You'll hear his conversation and then you'll hear the shots in the background. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are pretty.

(GUNFIRE) You are so fine. Just going over some of your videos.

(GUNFIRE)

How could I forget.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Now the FBI has questioned the man on the recording but CNN has not independently verified the authenticity of that tape. But I'd like to -- I'd like you to listen to it again. It lasts nine seconds. In that nine seconds 10 shots can be heard with a gap in the shooting after the sixth shot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are pretty.

(GUNFIRE)

You are so fine. Just going over some of your videos.

(GUNFIRE)

How could I forget.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. I know that was difficult, but thanks for trying, the number of shots, though, and that gap after the sixth shot seems to match at least -- at least some of the eyewitness accounts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "AC360": You said there were one or two shots you think?

MICHAEL BRADY, WITNESS TO SHOOTING OF MICHAEL BROWN: Yes, the very first one. The first one when he gets out.

COOPER: Did you see if Mike Brown was hit by any of those shots?

BRADY: I don't think he was at the time because like I said, he was 20, 25 feet down, so obviously he was still running.

COOPER: Right. Because we don't know -- the autopsy said that there were at least six shots that hit Mike Brown. We don't know how many shots may have been fired, if there were other shots that were fired, if other bullet casings have been collected. We don't know.

BRADY: About time I get outside, he's already turned around, facing the officer.

He's balled -- he has his arms like under his stomach and he was like under his stomach and he was like halfway down like he was going down, and the officer lets out about three or four shots at him. (END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right, CNN's Stephanie Elam is in Ferguson with more on this.

Tell us about the tale of the tape. Where did it come from, Stephanie?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN ANCHOR: The tale of the tape, where did it come from? Well, this is from someone who we believe lives in the neighborhood right there, and didn't know that this was going on. We believe he also had his ear buds in and so that's why he didn't react immediately to the shooting. This is what we're getting here.

But what we're discerning from this tape, if the FBI does decide that this is authentic and that it is truly from the time when the shooting occurred, it adds in another texture, another layer to this puzzle that they are trying to put together about what happened there, and syncing it with what Officer Wilson has told investigators and also with what witnesses have said about what happened that afternoon when Mike Brown died -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Stephanie, we also had a forensic expert analyze this tape. Here's what he told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL GINSBERG, FORENSIC AUDIO EXPERT: I hear six shots being fired in rapid succession, followed by a pause of about three seconds. I'll have to measure that precisely, and then there are I believe four more shots. I made a plot and examined it both in real time, as well as in halftime to be able to get more precise information.

This will test the credibility of the officer and whatever else is included in the official report as to how many shots were fired, what type of weapon was used, was it reloaded, and was it from the same gun.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So assess, Stephanie, this forensic expert seems to be saying the gap you hear in the tape after the sixth shot is the most important thing.

ELAM: The gap is what it's about. It's all about that break between the gunshots from what I understand. It's because what happening during that time.

Now, from what we understand, Officer Wilson has told investigators that Mike Brown was reaching for his gun but we also have witnesses who have said that this was a time when Mike Brown was running away and showing that he was unarmed and that he was surrendering.

We don't know how these puzzle pieces come together with the truth, and what this gap does, it gives a window of an argument, if this isn't true, an authentic recording from that time, it gives credence to either argument.

The question is, which way will it go, based on what we've heard from both sides? Because right now, we really have a case of he said/they said. So, we'll have to see, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Stephanie Elam reporting live for us this morning.

Still to come in THE NEWSROOM, Burger King just announced a controversial mega merger that's sending it to Canada. Why? To avoid taxes.

But should the fast food giant have it their way when it comes to paying Uncle Sam?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Fast food may be as American as apple pie, but America's second largest burger chain is moving north of the border, seriously.

Burger King just announced a massive multibillion dollar merger with Canadian fast food chain, Tim Horton's. It should not impact your ability to get a Whopper anytime soon, but behind the scenes, it will help BK dodge some taxes right here in the good old USA. It's a controversial strategy known as inversion.

I love these financial terms, Christine Romans, is sitting beside me. Inversion is legal but some politicians and fast food lovers alike are fired up about it. Petitions and boycotts against the burger behemoth re popping up all over Facebook and on MoveOn.org.

CNN's chief business correspondent Christine Romans is with me now, along with Curtis Dubay, the senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation.

First of all, Christine, what exactly is going on?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's a big merger. Burger King, which is based in Miami, is going to merge with Tim Horton's, which is based in Canada. The company's new headquarters will be in Canada. Both companies are going to, I guess, keep their separate footprints but it makes Burger King a Canadian company.

And while the stock is up because everyone in Wall Street and shareholders thinks this is going to lower the tax bill for Burger King, the company not saying anything about its tax bill in its press release, announcing this deal, it will absolutely be asked about it when it talks to reporters and talks to analysts a little bit later on.

Burger King shares up because taxes are lower. Corporate taxes are lower in Canada than they are in the U.S., and the very young management team of this company clearly thinks that they can make more money, better money as Burger King Tim Horton's together than separately. COSTELLO: Again, it's a very smart business move and it will save the

company money and, you know, the stock is soaring as you said.

ROMANS: Yes.

COSTELLO: So, Curtis, there are calls for boycotts but does Burger King care?

CURTIS DUBAY, SR. POLICY ANALYST, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION Probably not. I mean, they're doing what's right for their company. Our tax code makes it uncompetitive around the world, and so, they're doing something to get out from under that burden. They're doing what's right for their shareholders and their owners.

What's bothersome is that Congress is bothered by this, we're all bothered by this, but the plans they're coming up will do nothing to stop inversions. What has to be done is the tax code has to be reformed. We have to have corporate tax reform. We have to lower the rate. We have to modernize the system to stop inversions from keeping on happening.

COSTELLO: OK, so I'm laughing, Christine. So, Congress will have to do something to stop this.

ROMANS: Yes, Congress reforming the tax code is, I mean, I don't even know what kind of odds I would give that at this moment, you know, because that's what's so different.

Reforming the tax code is very difficult, 16 bound books like this. One of the things we know that a lot of companies are doing this, Carol, a lot of drug companies, it's been a lot of medical device companies, some 47 over the past decade and while you hear people like Senator Sherrod Brown, even yesterday, Josh Earnest, the White House spokesperson, said -- not talking about this in particular, but saying the president thinks it's unpatriotic for companies to be able to move overseas to lower their tax burden because the American people can't do that.

Nobody likes it but a company's job is to return value for shareholders. And so, what's happening in these cases is shareholders are making money, people who invest in these companies are making money. The private equity who have been making money but the United States Treasury loses revenue and has to be made up somehow.

COSTELLO: OK. So, Curtis, the president says it may be legal but it's wrong. As Christine pointed out it's unpatriotic.

But can the president do anything on his own to stop companies from implementing inversion?

DUBAY: Maybe. We're not sure yet. The Treasury Department is looking at it and trying to figure out if it can use the rules and regulations at its disposal to slow down this process.

The best way to fix it, though, is for Congress to act. I know it's a big lift. I know Congress hasn't done a whole lot, but we've known for a long time we need to reform the tax code, that's the proper way to stop the inversion issue, and they can do it if they set their minds to it.

The things they're discussing now will have almost no impact on slowing down these inversions.

COSTELLO: OK, well that leaves me kind of depressed and I hate that.

ROMANS: Well, Burger King shares in your 401(k), if you do then your 401(k) will be up a little bit.

COSTELLO: Sadly I don't.

Christine Romans, Curtis Dubay, thanks so both of you. I appreciate it.

Still to come in THE NEWSROOM, setting up to possibly expand the air war against ISIS. President Obama OKs a reconnaissance mission over Syria.

CNN's Athena Jones is at the White House this morning.

Good morning.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. That's right. These reconnaissance flights will help gather important intelligence on possible ISIS targets in Syria, but it's still unclear when or if any airstrikes will ever take place. More when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)