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Kerry Coordinates anti-ISIS Coalition in Middle East; Cameron Knows Identity of ISIS Executioner; Sarah Shroud Talks Ransoms for U.S. Hostages; Adrian Peterson Speaking Out on Spanking.

Aired September 15, 2014 - 14:30   ET

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

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BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Just past the bottom of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

A third beheading at the hands of ISIS militants adding new urgency to efforts to build a global anti-ISIS coalition. Right now, there's an international conference under way in Paris. Leading the charge in this bid for this alliance, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. He says many other nations in the Middle East and beyond are signing up to help but he is not being specific as far as which countries they are and what kind of help they're offering.

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JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: We have countries in this region, countries outside of this region, in addition to the United States, all of whom are prepared to engage in military assistance in actual strikes if that is what it requires.

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BALDWIN: But perhaps no country is more outraged and horrified than this most recent beheading video than the U.K. Not only was the victim a Brit, but it appears his murderer is as well. And now it appears Prime Minister David Cameron might know the identity of this masked killer.

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh joins me live now from Baghdad.

Jomana, we know that this beheading is obviously adding to the increased urgency and need to confront ISIS.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is what Iraqi officials and Iraqis here are saying, Brooke. They are happy to see the United States international community really waking up now to this serious threat from ISIS recognizing that it is not only confined to Iraq and Syria but there's an urgency and the international community must move fast. Yesterday, I spoke to an ISIS expert here, someone who has study jihadist groups for more than a decade. He says that President Obama, by revealing parts of his strategy, gave ISIS pretty much a heads-up, that we are seeing ISIS already making and doing countermeasures here. It's preparing for what it knows is coming as part of what was revealed of the strategy. For example, saying that some weapons have been moved into valleys and

areas between Syria and Iraq, hidden away. Fighters have been moved into population centers and they know the United States and any coalition will not target these civilian areas. And also a lot of other concerns about this coalition. While it is what is needed, this is what Iraqis want, and what many people here in the region want to see is everyone come together to fight ISIS, they are concerned that it could drive other jihadist groups like al Qaeda affiliates closer to ISIS because they would see this as what this expert described to me as a crusader's war against Muslims.

So another player missing in all of this, Brooke, is Iran. There's a lot of concern about sidelining Iran when it comes to this ISIS coalition. Iran is a key influential player in Iraq. And this expert tells me that it could be very dangerous to sideline it because it will try to sabotage any military efforts here and it could also, as we have seen in the past, during the days of the U.S. military's presence here, try and target the U.S. advisers and trainers here through the Shia militias that it controls -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: Jomana Karadsheh, thank you so much for walking us through all of this and the significance of each of these nations who could be onboard and who couldn't, ending on Iran.

Thank you so much from Iraq for us.

Staying on the notion of U.S. ransoms, should America pay money to free hostages? The mother of James Foley recently talked to CNN and said she's absolutely livid with the Obama administration for not doing more to save her son. In fact, she said she was threatened with prosecution if she raised ransom. My next guest says the U.S. should rethink its policy. She's Sarah Shourd, the American held in Iran for two years. Stunning story. Her opinion next.

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BALDWIN: Fears are growing for Western hostages after ISIS released this latest video showing the brutal execution of a British aid worker. The Islamic militant group is believed to have at least two more American captives, begging the question is the U.S. doing enough to free them?

CNN interviewed James Foley's mother who says the government failed the murdered journalist.

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DIANE FOLEY, MOTHER OF JAMES FOLEY: Jim believed to the end that his country would come to their aid. We were, you know, asked to not go to the media, to just trust that it would be taken care of. We were told we could not raise ransom. It was illegal. We might be prosecuted. We were told to trust that he would be freed somehow. And he wasn't, was he?

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BALDWIN: That was Diane Foley sitting with Anderson.

National Security Advisor Susan Rice responded in this CNN interview.

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SUSAN RICE, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: I and others in the U.S. government worked very hard with Diane Foley and her family to try to be supportive, to try to provide what information we could and, of course, as you know, the president ordered a very daring and very well-executed rescue operation.

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BALDWIN: I'd like in Sarah Shourd, held hostage for a year by the Iranian government from 2009 until 2010, ultimately freed after her ransom was paid.

Sarah, welcome. Nice to have you on.

SARAH SHOURD, FORMER HOSTAGE: Great to be here.

BALDWIN: You offered an unbelievably unique perspective on the issue of hostage and paying ransom. You believe the U.S. should be paying ransom for these captives. Tell me why.

SHOURD: I think it's always a very delicate and careful equation. Every case is different. I do feel that in the case of these American hostages, beheaded by the Islamic State, that we could have prevented so much more damage.

No one wants to pay ransom to a group like ISIL. But think of the ramifications. Think about how much this has escalated violence and brought us into what looks like an all-out war. Once we start bombing, it will be very difficult to stop bombing, and without making it look like Islamic State has won and the U.S. is weak. And think about how much they've been able to spread their message of terror through these videos. So not only should we safeguard what important work that Americans are doing in the Middle East as journalists and as humanitarian workers but we should also prevent more material to spread this horrific message.

BALDWIN: Sarah, I hear you loud and clear, as a journalist, that this is important work for these journalists and humanitarians to be in this difficult part of the world. The other line of thinking, and you point out that this is very delicate very appropriately, that it could go dangerously the other direction if the U.S. -- this is the U.S. policy. If the U.S. were to be paying, they were asking for $130 million-plus for James Foley and if the U.S. had paid, that would just up the ante for groups like ISIS. The prize is there. Catch more Americans. They'll keep paying. Do you see it that way as well?

SHOURD: I understand that argument. I think it's very valid. There are instances where paying ransom is not the right thing to do. But the situations are never black and white. And first of all, it never should have gotten to this point. The U.S. says that it doesn't negotiate. It says it doesn't pay ransom. But frankly, that's dishonest. In our case, it was through a third party. It was a very thinly veiled ransom that the Iranian government called bail money. There's no way the Omani (ph) government or Qatar of any other government would pay ransom for U.S. citizens without the U.S.'s approval. So the U.S. finds ways to negotiate and free people. And to say they don't is very dishonest.

As far as the money that is paid for ransom, of course, we don't want to fund these operations. But think of the power of this propaganda. The vast, vast, vast majority of people in the Middle East loathe ISIS but there are people in every country of the world that are extremists that can be emboldened by this propaganda and want to join ISIL's forces. That should have been prevented. That material has done more damage than any ransom ever could.

BALDWIN: You're right on the propaganda. Talked to a lot of experts who would 100 percent agree with you. That's one part of the equation. Then you have the other part of the equation, and hearing Diane Foley saying she was told not to raise funds herself and that would be illegal and she could be prosecuted if they tried to raise that money to save her son's life. Just curious your reaction to that. What would you say to that mother?

SHOURD: I have an incredible amount of empathy for Diane Foley and the families of Sotloff and Foley. Of course, it brought back so many memories. I was held hostage for a year and I was released before my now-husband and friend, and I was in middle of the negotiations for their release. We heard a lot of disabling from the U.S. government. We heard again and again direct messages of things that would work from the Iranian government, through the Omani (ph) government, sometimes small gestures, and we heard again and again this is a non- starter, this can't be done.

And I think people need to put pressure on our government to do a lot more and to safeguard not only journalists and people that are working for the American government in the Middle East but citizens and humanitarian workers, people that -- this situation in Syria, no one went into that situation knowing that beheading was a possibility. That wasn't something that Sotloff or the young woman that still remains -- there's a 26-year-old humanitarian worker that's being held hostage by ISIS right now and an American man. The ransom they asked for her is $6.6 million. I really want to ask if that amount of money is not worth it to save this woman's life, to safeguard the work that Americans do in the Middle East, and vital work, so that we can know what's going on on the ground and we can add that to the conversation and to stop ISIS from being emboldened by being able to use this propaganda.

BALDWIN: So you would change the policy. Gosh, also thinking about your own experience and just reading about what you've written, you especially being in solitary, spending time alone, feeling broken, hearing these promises. Can you just describe, as you have been forced to relive some of this because of what's happened in the news recently, what has really been brought back for you memory-wise?

SHOURD: Well, our families went through hell. We never knew that we would have a happy ending. It took two years. And in our case, our story from the beginning had a tremendous amount of support and got a tremendous amount of media attention because of the circumstances. And I think that gave us leverage that we could use to pressure our government to act in the end, and to put pressure on third parties to secure our release. Not everyone has that. And it just makes me think about all of the times that our families were told not to make a lot of commotion in the media and to wait and to be patient. And that's exactly what Diane and Sotloffs and Foleys families were told. It really does make me angry. It makes me feel like our government is not being honest and is not treating all of its citizens equally with equal weight.

BALDWIN: I appreciate your anger and I appreciate you coming on. It's a conversation we have to have in this country.

Sarah Shourd, thank you so much.

SHROUD: Thank you.

BALDWIN: And my best to you and your husband and your family. Thank you so much.

SHROUD: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Just in to us, the daughter of the British aid worker, David Haines, who was murdered by ISIS, just thanked everyone for their support. And said this on Facebook, she wrote, "Hi, I'm David's daughter who lives in Perth. I was touched by the messages of support during this hard time. I know my dad would be really touched and grateful." She goes on, "Thank you so much. All of the messages really mean a lot to me and the family." More on that ahead.

Also ahead, also just into us here at CNN, the football player accused of abusing his son, a charge that sparked a national conversation on spanking here is now speaking out and he's explaining himself. His emotional statement next here on CNN.

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BALDWIN: We have just now got a statement from someone in the news in the last couple days. Adrian Peterson accused of abusing his young son. We are now hearing to him.

I want to take time to read this to you to climb into his head and see what he's thinking and we'll have a bigger conversation on spanking coming up.

This is what Adrian Peterson has said. "My attorney asked me to not to discuss the facts of my pending case. I hope you can respect this case and help me honor it. I want the public to hear from me but it's not appropriate to talk about the facts in detail at this time." He goes on. "Nevertheless, I want everyone to understand I know the hurt I have brought to my child. I never wanted to be a distraction to the Vikings organization or the community or my teammates. I never imagined being in a position where I'm being called a child abuser because of a discipline I administered to my son. I voluntarily appeared before the grand jury to answer any and all questions they had. Before my grand jury appearance, I was interviewed by two different police agencies without an attorney. In each of those interviews, I have said the same thing, and that is that I never, ever intended to harm my son. I will say the same thing once I have my day in court. I have to live with the fact that when I disciplined my son the way I was disciplined as a child I caused an injury I never intended to happen. I understand after meeting with a psychologist that there are other alternative ways of disciplining a child that may be more appropriate. I have learned a lot and have had to re-evaluate how I discipline my son going forward but deep in my heart I believed I could have been one of those kids that was lost on the streets without the discipline instilled in me by my parents and other relatives. I always believed the way my parents disciplined me has a great deal to do with the success I have enjoyed as a man. I love my son and I will continue to become a better parent and learn from any mistakes I ever make." Adrian Peterson says this. "I am not a perfect son. I am not a perfect husband. I am not a perfect parent. But I am without a doubt not a child abuser. I am someone that disciplined his child and did not intend to cause him any injury. No one can understand the hurt that I feel for my son and for the harm I caused him. My goal is always to teach my son right from wrong and that is what I tried to do that day." His final paragraph here, he writes this. "I accept the fact that people feel very strongly about this issue and what they think about my conduct regardless of what others think, however, I love my son very much and I will continue to try to become a better father and person."

Adrian Peterson, just in this statement, coming out, speaking. So we'll have a much bigger conversation. I would love to hear what you think about his statement. Send me a tweet and let me know what do you think? Adrian Peterson, coming out. Accused of abusing his son.

Just ahead, fears the killing of four men could be part of a, quote, unquote, "bloody crusade." A college student accused of cold-blooded killings in America as revenge against the United States.

Plus, a man is killed by police and, once again, what police say is not matching what eyewitnesses are saying. So which side does an independent autopsy support? The details on this Utah case coming up.

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