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Justice Department Unveils New Plan to Fight Extremism; War on ISIS; Fans and Personalities Supporting Adrian Peterson; U.S. Troops March in Ukraine

Aired September 15, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: That is quick, and with your mom, Samuel. Sorry. So how can you get it off your phone?

BURKE: That's the other thing people have a problem with, is they don't know how to delete it just from their phone. So you have to go into music and swipe left to delete it. You just swipe left. But you have to do it song by song and then it stays in the Cloud so I say Apple has another case of the clouds because you remember what happened with the hacked photos, and people are saying it's popping up again. So there we go.

But one thing to note, Apple just talked about the sales of the first iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Four million phones in 24 hours preordered. Their stock is up. It looks good for iPhone 6 even if it doesn't look so great for the Cloud.

COSTELLO: All is well in the end at least for Apple.

Samuel Burke, thanks so much.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

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

We begin in Paris where international leaders are gathering to craft a strategy to defeat ISIS. Among them, Secretary of State John Kerry who met with his Iraqi counterpart moments ago at this roundtable session. Separately, France has begun reconnaissance flights over Iraq. That country's president says the threat from ISIS is global and the response must be as well.

In the meantime, the U.S. says it will not coordinate militarily with Iran, a sentiment echoed by Iran's supreme leader who rejected any notion of working with the United States saying via Twitter the U.S. has, quote, "corrupted its hands" in this issue.

And as the Obama administration tries to galvanize international support for its plan to fight ISIS, Attorney General Eric Holder has announced a plan to thwart the group within U.S. borders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC HOLDER. U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Today, few threats are more urgent than the threat posed by violent extremism. And with the emergence of groups like ISIL and the knowledge that some Americans are attempting to travel to countries like Syria and Iraq to take part in ongoing conflicts, the Justice Department is responding appropriately.

Through law enforcement agencies like the FBI, American authorities are working with our international partners and Interpol to disseminate information on foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq, including individuals who have traveled from the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN justice reporter Evan Perez joins me now from Washington.

So Evan, has this type of program been in place before?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Carol, yes. They have been trying various things to try to counter some of this extremist threat in various parts of the United States. For the last few years the U.S. Attorney's office and the FBI has been having 1700 meetings with various community groups. So what's going to happen now with this new program that the attorney general is announcing is that they're going to take it beyond the law enforcement.

The FBI, DHS is still going to be involved working with local police, obviously, because they know their local neighborhoods better but also they're going to be bringing in some of these imams and religious leaders, also mental health experts and people involved in social services, and they're going to specifically craft these plans for different cities.

For instance, Minneapolis is probably one of the first that will have one of these programs, partly because, you know, we've seen a lot of recruits for Shabaab and other extremist groups from that area -- carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Evan Perez, reporting live from Washington this morning.

We're also learning more about David Haines, the British aid worker brutally beheaded in the latest ISIS video. His brother opening up about his initial reaction upon learning of Haines' death and why he chose the work he did.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL HAINES, BROTHER OF DAVID HAINES: My first reaction could be one of hatred. But my brother's life wasn't about hatred. It was about love for all men. No matter what religion, no matter what creed, it was to help people.

David, early on, found that working in difficult conditions, working for people in time of hardship, brought him a job satisfaction. When he got the position with Acted, he was really excited. Very, very enthusiastic. He was looking at logistics and the planning, how best to put the Acted's operations into safe operation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: According to British officials, Prime Minister David Cameron knows the identity of the masked murderer seen killing Haines and two American journalists in these ISIS propaganda videos.

The terror group currently holds more hostages from Western countries and Cameron is promising his country will, quote, "hunt down those responsible and bring them to justice no matter how long it takes."

Sounds familiar, right?

The fight against ISIS has war drums beating loudly right now. Case in point, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham who thinks President Obama is flat-out wrong about taking the option of U.S. ground troops off the table in the fight against ISIS. Graham calls the threat posed by ISIS a turning point in the war on terror.

Here's what he told "FOX News Sunday."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: This is a war we're fighting, it is not a counterterrorism operation, this is not Somalia, this is not Yemen, this is a turning point in the war on terror. Our strategy will fail yet again. This president needs to rise to the occasion before we all get killed back here at home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK, so let's talk about that. Senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta and chief national correspondent Jim Sciutto join me now.

Welcome.

Hi. Jim Acosta, I'm going to start with you because Americans are already terrified. Polls show Americans are terrified ISIS is going to strike the homeland. So is this something that a sitting senator should be saying?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, who am I to tell Lindsey Graham what he should and should not be saying but what he is saying I think is reflected, you know, among a lot of people in Washington who were concerned that ISIS does pose a national security threat to the United States.

You know, you heard the Defense secretary and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs saying very similar comments until the White House really quite frankly started cooling down some of that rhetoric. And it is important to point out that the White House and various National Security officials have said that at this point ISIS does not pose a direct threat to the U.S. homeland. They're not picking up on any chatter that they're publicly talking about. But at the same time, Carol, I think there are two schools of thought

that are starting to emerge here in Washington, one is whether or not the threat is being overhyped by some people here in Washington and that sort of takes us back to the 2003 days before the launch of the Iraq war under George W. Bush.

But, Carol, quite frankly, there's another school of thought and that is whether or not we're talking about the pre-9/11 days under Bill Clinton in the beginning, months of the George W. Bush administration and whether this threat is being underestimated and it is being missed and could that potentially lead to some sort of terrible tragedy on the home front.

You saw that NBC News/"Wall Street Journal" poll that came out over the weekend, 62 percent of Americans saying that they support what the president is doing against ISIS but almost the same number of people aren't sure that that strategy is going to work. So there's a lot of ambivalence and a lot of fear quite frankly right now.

COSTELLO: Because, Jim Sciutto, I think there's still so much confusion out there about what kind of threat ISIS really poses.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I think that this is just a reminder that intelligence is not an exact science. It's about measuring risks with the best information that you have available, you know, and I agree with Jim Acosta, you have -- and I sense this in the U.S. officials I've been speaking to for months in terms -- there's a question out there unanswered by the administration as to how urgent this threat is.

Because a few months ago I was speaking to them and U.S. intelligence officials and they talk about yes, ISIS aspired to attack the U.S. homeland, there might be some planning, they didn't have any immediate plots that they were aware of but this was clearly a plan and an aspiration that raised their concern about them.

Now more recently and I think in part in response to some of this beating of the war drums, some administration officials and also to help calm the American public have been saying listen, we don't have any specific threat that we're aware of today. You know, don't run to ground, don't be concerned that things are going to start blowing up on the streets of America today.

But at the end of the day they don't know for sure. Right? So the question is, how do you respond? What is the appropriate response possible? What is the appropriate level of alertness and I think they're trying to find the right balance now and invariably when you try to find that balance you're not going to please everybody. Right? You're going to have folks on one side that are going to say, you know, we should be going in there with tanks, right?

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Right.

SCIUTTO: To kill every ISIS fighter and then you have folks on the other side who'd say, hey, listen, you know, this is group that's more focused with their issues on the ground, let's not build them up to be something more than what they are.

I'd say there was an interesting moment when I was speaking to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel last week, when I pressed him on this question his answer was it was effectively we don't the luxury of saying it's not an immediate threat. Now we may not be aware of it being, but we don't have the luxury so we have to act, when I say "we," the government, the country has to act as best it can to alleviate that threat. And I think that's where they are. Ultimately it's not a satisfying answer but, you know, with intelligence questions and risks and so on --

COSTELLO: But here's the thing. And I'll pose --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Here's the thing. I pose it to -- to both of you. We have lived under such a threat since 9/11. In my mind, that threat has never gone away.

ACOSTA: Right.

COSTELLO: Right? So --

SCIUTTO: Right.

ACOSTA: Yes. I think --

COSTELLO: So when --

ACOSTA: I think, Carol, what they're talking about and quite frankly the way to describe it at this point is a preventative war that is being waged against ISIS and it is a -- that is a term that if you go back to the Bush administration, it's not a term everybody would like to cling to because it suggests that we might go to war against a threat that isn't real or is perhaps overhyped as was the case with the weapons of mass destruction.

But in this case, Carol, the beheadings are not phantom. There is video of them. And while that fear is driving a lot of the U.S. policy right now, I think that is why you're seeing the president being so careful and cautious and there probably isn't somebody who's more careful and cautious than this president right now in putting together this international coalition which, by the way, is buying him a lot of time to really do some surveillance and do a lot of reconnaissance over in Syria to make sure that they are selecting the right targets when these airstrikes begin.

So, yes, a lot of unanswered questions. A lot of debate about whether or not this threat is real but it isn't a threat at this point that I don't think the United States is willing to sit by and say, you know, we're not going to do anything about this. I don't think the president can really be in that position and rest easily. I think he's at a point where he feels like he has to do something.

SCIUTTO: You know, Carol --

COSTELLO: Jim, I've got to end it here, I'm sorry.

SCIUTTO: That's all right.

COSTELLO: Jim Acosta, Jim Sciutto, thank you so much for your insight, I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, NBA great Charles Barkley defending Adrian Peterson as he faces serious charges of child abuse. Hear why Barkley says it's a cultural misunderstanding, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Ray Rice is fighting back. He's expected to appeal his indefinite suspension from the NFL. Both ESPN and profootball.com are citing multiple league sources that the appeal will happen soon. Rice has until midnight tomorrow to file an appeal.

CNN has reached out to Rice's lawyers but so far no response.

The man in the hot seat along with Rice, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, was a no show at Sunday night's 49ers game. It was the first home game at the team's brand new billion-dollar stadium.

The pressure for Goodell to step aside from the commissioner's post continues to build, too. At several games over the weekend the women's rights group Ultraviolet flew banners with the hashtag "Goodell must go." A banner will also be flown over tonight's game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Then there is Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson who is facing serious child abuse charges, felony child abuse charges. He was forced to sit out Sunday's game after police say he beat his four- year-old son so badly it left welts and even drew blood. Those facts aren't stopping some fans from pledging their full support, like this woman who donned a Peterson jersey and even carried around a switch pretending to beat people.

Peterson even has some big names supporting him like NBA legend Charles Barkley who blamed some of the outrage on cultural differences.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES BARKLEY, SPORTS ANALYST: I'm from the south. I understand boomers rage and anger but I think we have to accept we're born -- he's a white guy, I'm a black guy. I don't know where he's from, I'm from the south. Whipping is from -- we do that all the time. Every black parent in the south is going to be in jail under those circumstances. I think we have to be careful letting people how we -- they dictate how they, you know, treat their children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't matter where you're from. Right is right and wrong is wrong.

BARKLEY: No. Well, that --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't matter where you're from.

BARKLEY: I don't believe that because listen, we spank kids in the south. I think the question about it, did Adrian Peterson go overboard?

But listen, Jim, we all grew up in different environments.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: He's talking about Adrian Peterson, supposedly. According to police, he used a switch to hit his 4-year-old child leaving marks behind and bruises. He used that switch with the child's pants pulled down and left marks all over the lower part of that child's body. That's according to CBS Houston and Police.

So let's talk about this. Let's bring in Marc Lamont Hill, LZ Granderson and Rachel Nichols.

Welcome to all of you.

So, LZ, I want to start with you.

LZ GRANDERSON, CNN COMMENTATOR: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: This is not a black/white issue. I mean, police alleged Adrian Peterson beat this child and left welts on his body.

GRANDERSON: Yes. And you know, Charles Barkley isn't necessarily describing the differences or the nuance of this story in the most eloquent of ways but I agree with what he's trying to say which is, this is a significant cultural thing and if you look at the polling, you will find that Americans agree with Charles Barkley.

In the south, significantly more southern Americans, support spanking your child versus those in the north. There's also an educational barrier. Those who have a college education tend to view spanking as bad. Those who do not have a college education tend to agree with spanking your child as a form of discipline.

So the conversation about Adrian Peterson is so much more than an NFL player. It is about this information getting out there and the science that has proven that spanking your child does not produce the desired results. But that information is not out there and the country is very divided on this topic of spanking children.

COSTELLO: Marc, weigh in.

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I mean, I think there are some debates about whether or not limited types of spanking do have effects -- does have a positive effect. There are very limited ages, I think ages 2 to 6 where very rarely it can be implemented for behavioral correction and does have some benefit.

In general, the evidence would suggest that spanking doesn't have the type of impact we want. The data is very mixed. You know, oftentimes we lump in really harsh forms of corporal punishment --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: We're not talking about spanking.

HILL: I can't hear -- I'm sorry?

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN HOST, UNGUARDED WITH RACHEL NICHOLS: Let's just agree.

HILL: Well, let me finish. Let me finish the point.

NICHOLS: This isn't spanking that we're talking about here.

HILL: Well, that's the point I'm trying to make. That's what I was going to say is that there's a difference between harsh forms of corporal punishment which have negative impacts which is what we saw with Adrian Peterson. That's not a spanking versus what we see when a parent uses an open hand on a child, who his clothes on, his or her clothes on. You spank them three times and you give them a lesson, and et cetera, et cetera.

That's a very different thing. And the juries are out on that. But I think the idea that this is a cultural thing --

COSTELLO: It is.

HILL: -- is important to think about because there is this cultural issue --

COSTELLO: See, I don't know that it is because, Rachel, please, outline what exactly Adrian Peterson is alleged to have done.

NICHOLS: Yes, and look, one thing I think that's important to note in this context is the statute in Texas talks about whether the child was beaten beyond the -- or disciplines beyond the community standard. And that's an interesting notion, right? What is the community standard? It's what Charles Barkley is talking about. And that community standard we hope evolves over time. Right?

It's not the same 100 years ago or 50 years ago as it is today. So the hope is that this case will possibly change the community standards slightly because what happened in this case, allegedly, is that Adrian Peterson was disciplining his son who he says was actually --

COSTELLO: Who's four.

NICHOLS: Who's 4 years old who he says was getting into a fight with his 5-year-old child. So he was trying to make sure that the kids didn't hurt each other and that he was disciplining his son and that he used a switch, he called it, a tree branch with the leaves taken off to take the child's pants down and whack him and he intended, he said, to whack him on the bottom. The -- the doctor involved found bruising and open cuts a few days later even on the child's buttocks, legs, thighs, on his scrotum. And there's a report -- there's a report in the police report of

Adrian texting the mother of his child saying, "Hey, I didn't realize that this was going to hurt him as much as it did." It's pretty clear from the chain of events that this wasn't an intentional beating. He wasn't trying to injure his child. But that doesn't mean he didn't, and it doesn't mean that it is OK.

COSTELLO: So that's what I'm talking about, LZ. When you call this cultural, this isn't cultural because this isn't a spanking. He's alleged to have done so much more than that.

GRANDERSON: Right. My point is, is that if you were to take an informal poll, particularly of people who have southern experiences, and tell them if they've ever been disciplined with a switch to the point at which blood was drawn, you would find a great deal of Americans would tell you yes. You would even find that a great deal of Americans will look back on those memories with a sick form of fondness to it, joking about having to go out and pick their own switches and things of that nature.

I mean, that's the kind of nuances we need to be talking about. It's one thing to look and look at the research and look at these pictures and go, this is terrible, blah, blah, blah, and anyone who does it is a child abuser. That may be true in the end game. But to get the nation to that point, you have to understand where the vast majority of Americans, particularly those in the south, are with regards to spanking even to that level or degree.

(CROSSTALK)

HILL: I think that's the point.

NICHOLS: And one thing to keep in mind, guys, though, is that Adrian Peterson is a professional football player. OK? He's 6'1", he's 217 pounds of all muscle, and you have to keep that perspective when you think about this 4-year-old child.

HILL: I don't think that's the point, though.

NICHOLS: There is a difference.

HILL: With all due respect, I don't think that's the point. I think that's a straw man. I mean, I don't think -- I haven't met anyone, even people who are advocates of this, who are saying that Adrian Peterson did the right thing. I think we all agree that what he did was excessive, even if you believe in spanking, that's wrong.

The question of culture -- isn't used in an exculpatory fashion. In other words, I'm not saying that you appeal to culture to say it's right. All kinds of stuff happens terribly in the name of culture. Female genital mutilation happens in the name of culture, stoning happens in the name of culture, child brides happen in the name of culture.

I'm not saying that culture is a defense, but what I am saying is that culture gives us insight into where he's coming from and how we can correct it. If we don't look at culture, we don't look at this as a cultural ritual, and what happens is we look at Adrian Peterson as some outlier, some weird sociopath that goes around terrorizing 4- year-olds, as opposed to a parent who used a measure that is very common that we might want to change.

COSTELLO: All right.

HILL: But that is deeply entrenched into his own culture.

COSTELLO: OK. I've got to end it there but I could talk about this all day.

LZ Granderson, Rachel Nichols, Marc Lamont Hill, thanks to all of you.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: More than 100 U.S. troops marched on Ukrainian soil this morning but it's not exactly what you think. Some 1300 troops from NATO and partner nations including the United States are flexing their muscle and kicking off 11 days of joint military exercises in western Ukraine.

If you find the timing of troop arrival kind of strange, you're certainly not alone because over on the other side of the country, which is just a few hundred miles away, a 10-day-old cease-fire has all but shattered. Shelling and fighting continued this weekend between government forces and pro-Russian rebels. Six civilians were killed in Donetsk just yesterday.

To say the least, the situation in Ukraine right now is fragile.

CNN's Reza Sayah is live in western Ukraine with the latest on these NATO troops.

Good morning.

REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Here's the big question. Is it a good idea to have U.S. forces and NATO forces on Ukrainian soil at a time when Russian soldiers are also allegedly on Ukrainian soil engaged in a high-stakes conflict on the other side of the country? Some say yes, some say no, that it's only going to fuel the tensions. If you say yes, you're going to be pleased because, indeed, U.S. forces are on Ukrainian soil and so are NATO forces.

They say it's all part of a training session, they're only here to practice, they're not going to be involved in the conflict in the eastern parts of the country. Even so, this is going to be a move that Moscow is not going to like.

All of this training session happening here in a town of Yavoriv in -- in western Ukraine, a town about 10 miles east of the Polish-Ukrainian border. This is a training exercise that happens every year. It's an annual exercise but obviously this time it's taking place under very different circumstances because 600 miles east of where we are is a very fragile cease-fire in a conflict where on one side you have pro- Russian rebels. On the other side you have Ukrainian forces.

And that's why some critics of this event, including Moscow, say this is the wrong time to have NATO and U.S. forces on Ukrainian soil, that it's only going to serve as a provocation. Nevertheless, 1300 troops are here practicing with NATO, you have 11 NATO member states, four non-NATO member states and over the next couple of weeks they're going to be practicing and reacting to ambushes, practicing rescue operations, working with command centers and everyone is going to be anxious to see how Moscow reacts.

Again, they're already saying it's a provocation but NATO and Washington in a way sending a message to Moscow to that this is our military might, this is our alliance, it's strong and look how far it can reach -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Reza Sayah reporting live from western Ukraine this morning. Thank you.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello, thank you so much for joining me. Checking our top stories at 29 minutes past.