Return to Transcripts main page

Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

ISIS Boasts of Atrocities; Obama's ISIS Plan to be Outlined this Week; New Video of Running Back Ray Rice Sucker Punching Wife in Elevator

Aired September 08, 2014 - 12:00   ET

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

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: I'm sure John will have many questions, as will I, about their big day. Our congratulations to them.

Thanks so much for joining us for @ THIS HOUR. "LEGAL VIEW" with Ashleigh Banfield starts now.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Brutality beyond the beheadings as President Obama ponders a strategy to take on ISIS, a brand-new video surfaces exposing even more savagery of these terrorist murderers. We can't even show you most of it.

And also this hour, another video you may find hard to watch. That's Raven's running back Ray Rice. And, yes, he is driving his fist into his fiance's face. His punishment for this knockout punch, a two-game suspension and no jail time. Why?

And another NBA owner selling his stake in the team over racially insensitive remarks. So why is he actually winning praise from the NBA commissioner?

Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield and welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

As President Obama rolls out his long awaited strategy for defeating ISIS, the group itself is helping him make his case because there's yet another stomach turning video highlighting the atrocities, this time at the Syrian air base that ISIS overran last month. I hope you agree that we've seen plenty of these atrocities already and I'm not going to show you a whole bunch more but there are some news-worthy images that are also being included in this latest ISIS release. And CNN's Brian Todd joins me now from Washington with the latest.

So, Brian, start with ISIS' eyes in the skies, because there's some significant angles that we see from this video that mean they've got some good gear.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They do have some good equipment, Ashleigh, and that is what is significant about this piece of video. This video overall shows them capturing some pretty heavy duty equipment, which is also newsworthy here. But let's talk about the drones.

We've seen ISIS exhibit their drone capability before. Sometimes they've used it to map out areas on the battlefield. Sometimes they've used it to kind of show people after the fact what they've captured. We're not sure which is the case in this particular video. This could have been - you know, this drone video could have been put up or they could have taken this video right after the battle at this Syrian air base.

But, either way, it looks like they've got some pretty good capability in the air. One of our analysts said, look, just the fact that they have some drones or maybe a significant drone is very noteworthy because they can use this to map out battle plans and battle areas over the next ridge, in the next town, things like that. So just the fact that they're exhibiting this capability in the air, Ashleigh, is significant.

BANFIELD: And before we get to the atrocious images that they have released in this video, talk about some of the spoils of this battle at this Syrian air base. They got some significant spoils that should make people worried.

TODD: That's right. Most significantly they seem to have captured some Syrian fighter jets at this airbase. There is video of ISIS fighters climbing on top of these fighter jets displaying the flag and just, you know, you'll see at least two or three Syrian fighter jets under their control.

Now, one of our analysts said that, look, you know, just because they can capture this certainly doesn't mean they can fly it and they have the capability to do that. But let's say they've captured some Iraqi pilots from the battlefields in Iraq. Maybe they bring them over and they can somehow get them to fly these planes or to at least give them the capability, give them the technology, the know-how to get these planes in the air. Not out of the realm of possibility, but right now, Ashleigh, there's no indication that anybody in ISIS can actually fly these jets.

BANFIELD: All right, Brian Todd, thank you for that.

And I want to dovetail right off of that to CNN's military analyst and retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling.

You heard Brain Todd saying that many have said, just because you have the gear, doesn't mean you can run the gear. And then there's the notion of what the Iraqis might have done to the gear before they fled or were captured. Can you speak to that?

MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I can, Ashleigh. And it's some great film. The purpose for this film, obviously, is an attempt to recruit, to show their capabilities. But walking through the various elements of the film, the first part of it, the drone, that looks more like a Go-Pro camera on an aviation - a remotely piloted vehicle, not necessarily a drone. The effects that come in, that point out the truck driving down the road or the emplacements, those were all added after the fact. And with a real drone capability, you can conduct targeting.

Now, this drone would give them what we in the military call a soda straw approach. You can look down that soda straw and see the area you want to operate in, but not much more than that. Not some of the advanced capabilities of a normal drone.

In terms of the fighter jets, yes, they did capture them. Yes, there is a requirement to have multiple hours of combat training before you actually fly one of those Migs, which is the type of aircraft it is, and I'm not sure many of the jihadis have that. There is always the capability that they can get someone to pilot those, but at the same time I might suggest that with the amount of increased U.S. presence and potentially coalition presence of air power in the area, that's not something they really want to do.

BANFIELD: And then let me ask you about just some of the atrocious images. We can't even come close to showing anything -

HERTLING: Right.

BANFIELD: Even with digitization or an effect. We just can't put these things on the air. They're so horrifying. They are truly just the grisly nature of the after effect of battle, the bodies, what's happened to the bodies, that kind of thing.

HERTLING: Right.

BANFIELD: And it just makes me wonder if ISIS' strategy here is not so much just for the local recruiting but to dare people to get into battle with them.

HERTLING: Yes, I think it is, Ashleigh. The world that keeps coming up is goating (ph). They want people to take an instantaneous response and do things without preparation. It's so terrible that you want to react to it. It's like being hit in the face and wanting to counter back as opposed to thinking about your next move in a boxing arena. That's what they're attempting to do. And luckily we're not falling for that. I think we're developing plans, gaining intelligence on their capabilities and then, as the president outlined this weekend, there's a systematic campaign to defeat this organization.

BANFIELD: Well, we're going to find out about that a little bit more. If you could say with us, General Hertling, thank you for that.

In fact, you remember the no strategy comment from President Obama on ISIS. It appears to be changing now. He's going to be laying out the strategy, or at least what he is able to publicly this week, what we can hear about that, what we expect to hear. And, by the way, where is the rest of the Arab and Muslim world if there's a coalition being built against ISIS? Can it work without them?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: President Obama says it is time to, quote, "start going on some offense" against ISIS. And he'll lay out his plans to the leaders of Congress tomorrow and then to the rest of us on Wednesday. But this much we know, he won't rely solely on air strikes, but he won't commit ground troops either, and he won't be going it alone. More now from our senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After a few fumbles on ISIS, President Obama has a new game plan, he says, to start going on some offense.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to shrink the territory that they control and ultimately we're going to defeat them.

ACOSTA: But in an interview on "Meet the Press," the president insisted once again U.S. combat troops won't return to Iraq.

OBAMA: This is not the equivalent of the Iraq War.

ACOSTA: That tough new approach on ISIS came with an expansion of U.S. air strikes over the weekend, targeting the terror group for the first time in western Iraq, around the Haditha Dam. That air power, the president hopes, will tip the balance to Iraqi and Kurdish forces, as well as potentially moderate Syrian rebels battling ISIS on the ground.

OBAMA: We are going to be helping to put together a plan for them so that they can start retaking territory that ISIL had taken over.

ACOSTA: The ISIS reset was welcomed by Democrats, who worried the president was being too cautious.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: I want to congratulate the president. He is now on the offense.

ACOSTA: GOP critics are far from convinced.

MITT ROMNEY, FORMER GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know the Pentagon was going through "what if" scenarios but the president apparently wasn't, hasn't developed a strategy. You know, I don't know whether you can't see reality from a fairway.

ACOSTA: That golfing reference is not lost on the president, who acknowledged he stumbled after the beheading of American journalist James Foley. Mr. Obama admitted he sent the wrong message during his recent vacation when he recognized Foley's execution, only to head to the golf course minutes later.

OBAMA: You know, I should have anticipated the optics. You know, that's part of the job.

ACOSTA: The president will be sitting down with congressional leaders here at the White House to go over his ISIS strategy. At this point White House officials are not yet ready to say whether he'll seek authorization from Congress to expand air strikes into Syria.

Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: I'm joined once again by CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. General Hertling, what about the notion that the Arab League, at least

in word, has signed on against ISIS militarily and politically? Those are words but so far no action. Where are they?

HERTLING: Well, I think they're -- we're developing the situation. I know the secretary of state and defense were in the area. The president has been talking to key leaders in the area. It's critical to get the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council on board. This is a Sunni organization, an extremist Sunni organization, and we don't want to stumble into a Sunni/Shia war. So I think the requirement to get other key governments that have Sunni populations involved is critical to this, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: But, general, when you hear -- and you have to look at the translation -- and again, we can't even show most of this video because it's just so horrific. But at least part of the translation, they were showing dead soldiers, Syrian soldiers, and saying that these people are greater disbelievers than the Jews and the Christians, presumably because their Shia. These are Muslims killing Muslims and you think, if anything, that might prod the Arab League to say it's wrong. No matter how you look at it, it's wrong.

HERTLING: Well, that's -- that's the prodding that it takes, though. I think the entire international community has to be involved in this. And when you talk about what the president said yesterday and what he'll elaborate on - probably on Wednesday, is his four key areas, the blunting of the momentum of ISIS, the degrading of their capabilities, their shrinking of their territories and then defeating them. Not destroying them but defeating them. This is going to take a lot of effort, not just on the part of the United States, but on the entire international community, not only from a military perspective but from a diplomatic and an economic and an informational perspective.

BANFIELD: We sort of hear that a lot though and we've heard it a lot in the last decade and a half as well in terms of extricating ourselves from a situation which was seemingly, at many times, a quagmire. And I feel as though we're in a no man's land right now. so this isn't going to be Iraq and it's not necessarily going to be not Iraq. But I'm not exactly sure what that means. Do you have any idea, with all of your background, what kind of strategy can you put together without boots on the ground.

HERTLING: Yes, it's - well, it's a great point, Ashleigh. It's not going to be Iraq. It's going to be much tougher because you're talking about international boundaries, a region that's being affected by this, an international community, both Europe and the United States that could be affected by this. This is much more complex than Iraq ever was and, truthfully, Iraq was pretty doggone hard. Having spent three years there, that was a tough fight to fight. And it's going to take a very long time. And I think the president is also preparing people for that. This is not something that's going to be over any time soon. This is going to take years, perhaps even decades to counter.

BANFIELD: Here we go again and we're not even over round one.

General Hertling, thank you so much.

BANFIELD: Thank you, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: It was good to have you.

Our other big story today, NFL star Ray Rice was in hot water after some video emerged of him dragging his unconscious girlfriend out of an elevator. But now we're seeing the other angle. The video from inside the elevator. And we're going to show you what is such a shocking punch but then what might be even more shocking, what happened afterwards. And why did this young man not go to jail? Big questions, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)