Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Obama to Meet with Special ISIS Envoy; U.S. Aids Kurdish Forces against ISIS; Senate Hearing on ISIS Threat; U.S. Sends 3,000 Troops to Fight Ebola; Rihanna to CBS: "F YOU!"

Aired September 16, 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: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

The war against ISIS has begun. As the United States strikes targets from the air near Baghdad, America on the offensive for the first time. The action comes as ISIS claims another Westerner for execution, and the Senate prepares to grill our nation's top military men about the cost of another war on terror.

That Senate hearing will start in just about 30 minutes. We expect to hear testimony from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey, but first to the White House where President Obama is about to meet with the man in charge of the mission in charge of is, General John Allen.

Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta is there.

Good morning, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. That's right. Within this hour, President Obama meets with the man he's tapped to coordinate the global coalition against ISIS, retired General John Allen.

And as for that airstrike operation southwest of Baghdad that the Obama administration announced last night, senior administration officials say expect more of that to come, but U.S. and coalition forces, those officials caution will not be signaling who or what will be targeted next or when.

As for the administration's efforts to build the coalition, one official said last night that several countries could issue press releases today announcing what they're prepared to do, but the White House is indicating that instead the public will see something of a roll out of the coalition and its various roles over the coming weeks especially around the president's trip to the U.N. next week.

As for those airstrikes on ISIS and Syria that everybody is expecting, a senior administration official said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would be making a critical mistake if he intervened any attacks from Assad's forces on U.S. warplanes would prompt an American military response, officials says over here at the White House. And, Carol, as you mentioned, Chuck Hagel, the Defense secretary,

Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, they're both scheduled to testify at the Senate Armed Services Committee within this hour.

Keep in mind, Carol, to key critics of the Obama White House, Senator John McCain and Senator Lindsey Graham, both sit on that committee, so you can expect it to get pretty testy up there on Capitol Hill -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes, it should be quite fiery, that hearing set to get under way 9:30 Eastern Time.

Jim Acosta, stick around. He's going to join our panel discussion a little bit later.

As lawmakers prepare to address the ISIS threat, the U.S. goes on the offensive. Stepping up its campaign, just as President Obama promised in his speech last week. For the first time, U.S. airstrikes have pounded ISIS targets near Baghdad. It was all to help Iraqi forces win back territory. And in northern Iraqi, Kurdish forces are battling it out with ISIS over a key bridge.

CNN's Anna Coren has been on the front line of the fight in northern Iraq.

Tell us more -- Anna.

ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are near the township of Hassan Sham, about 30 kilometers east of Mosul in northern Iraq. And as you can see from the black plumes of smoke behind me, it is being the scene of an intense battle between the Peshmerga and ISIS militants. Now just before dawn, the Kurdish forces launched a ground offensive to clear out five townships under the control of the Islamic extremists.

In regaining this territory, the Peshmerga are pushing closer to a strategic bridge that's blown up by ISIS a month ago. Now it's a vital link between Irbil, the capital of Kurdistan, and Mosul, Iraq's second largest city which has been an ISIS stronghold since June. So the Peshmerga need to take back control of this area, rebuild the bridge in preparation for the next phase of the operation, the battle for Mosul.

Well, U.S. airstrikes have been critical in today's operation. For hours they circle the skies above us before hitting enemy targets and vehicles. The U.S. is refusing to make direct hits on towns and villages, fearing civilian casualties. However the Peshmerga tells us the local population has fled, and that only ISIS militants are here.

Earlier we saw the remnants of a suicide bombing in an oil tank attached with explosives driving towards the Peshmerga, but before he could reach them, he was hit by an RPG causing a huge plume of smoke.

Well, according to Kurdish forces in these towns and villages, ISIS is using snipers, they're laying explosives and IEDs, plus using suicide bombers in an attempt to slow down the Peshmerga advance.

Anna Coren, Hassan Sham, northern Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: All right. Anna Coren, reporting there.

We want the take you live now to the Capitol Hill. The Senate Armed Services Committee is about to get under way. It's hearing all about the war against ISIS, testifying today, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Martin Dempsey.

With me now, Jim Acosta, senior White House correspondent, Jim Sciutto, our chief national security correspondent, Ryan Cooper, national correspondent of "The Week," Maria Cardona, CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist, Reihan Salam, CNN political commentator and contributing editor to the "National Review," and Major General James "Spider" Marks, CNN military analyst.

Thanks to all of you for being with me this morning.

Jim Sciutto, I'm --

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. Jim Sciutto, I want to start with you. What do the senators hope the accomplish today?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I think you're going to hear both Dempsey and Hagel get it from both sides in effect. They're going to get it from the Grahams and the McCains pushing for more aggressive military action particularly the point they both been pushing that you need boots on the ground.

And then from the other side, you're going to get questions from senators who are skeptical of what is the end game here? What is the actual urgency and the immediacy of the ISIS threat to the U.S. homeland which presumably is what's really driven the administration to act more forcibly here particularly following the beheadings of James Foley and Steven Sotloff?

I think those are crucial questions but also how substantial are the commitments that the U.S. is getting from its partners both in Europe and the region? So far at least in public those commitments have been very limited.

Now the reasons for that, Carol, because particularly the Arab nations are not going to want to advertise how involved they're getting, they're going to have populations that oppose this, but the senators expect them to press Hagel and Dempsey to say, OK, is it really all just on our shoulders, or are our allies coming to our aid here in a substantial way?

COSTELLO: General Marks, I think most Americans want to hear a clear mission from General Dempsey this morning. Do you think he'll deliver? MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I think he

will. Absolutely. The president laid out his strategy, the end state of that strategy is to defeat ISIS. What you're going to hear today will be a desire on the part of our Department of Defense, our military and the coalition to minimally degrade ISIS. You're not going to have a statement of defeating ISIS until you can agree that there have to be soldiers and there have to be forces that are on the ground to go after targets within Syria where ISIS gets all of its support and all of its motivation, all its recruiting, et cetera.

So degrading, yes, defeat, I don't think you're going to hear that. And if you hear that today, then you have to ask the next question, how is that really going to happen exclusively with air power?

COSTELLO: Ryan, the House will vote tomorrow to possibly arm the Syrian rebels, 5,000 over the next year. That's really not so many. What gives with that?

RYAN COOPER, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, THE WEEK: Well, I'm not -- I can't be certain. I think that the big issue is that Syria looks like every sign of being an unutterable quagmire and that it would -- it looks every day more likely that that's just a disaster area that the United States should steer clear of. And that any weapons we give to people there would likely end up in the hands of Assad or the local al Qaeda affiliate or ISIS itself.

So, you know, it just seems like, you know, you could question the strategy supporting the Kurds or supporting the Iraqi government, that's one thing, but Syria, I have not seen any sort of rationalization that makes sense as far as getting the significant U.S. involvement there.

COSTELLO: And this is a real concern, Maria. We heard earlier on "NEW DAY" from Senator Joe Manchin who said he is not going to vote to give any money to arm the Syrian rebels, because, frankly, he doesn't trust them. So what must we hear in this hearing today to make Americans feel more confident about that?

CARDONA: Well, I think what we need to hear from both General Dempsey as well as the secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, is what have we learned in the past two years about the Syrian rebels that gives us confidence that we now know who they are, that we now know who and how much we can trust them so that we can go in there with training, with arms to make sure that they take the fight to ISIS.

This is very critical, and I agree, it's very difficult, and it has been a quagmire. We haven't known who's with us, who's against us. These are rebels who frankly change sides every day, but let's see if ISIS has become such a threat, an existential threat to them that they have now committed and in what sort of way to focus on defeating ISIS.

I also think it's critical for the administration to underscore that there is currently right now no intelligence that is telling us that there is an imminent threat to the homeland and you have been critical, Carol, in pointing this out, because I think there have been some Republican senators that have been very irresponsible in their rhetoric in terms of inflaming the anxiety and the fear of Americans here at home when our intelligence does not match that right now.

COSTELLO: I'd have to agree with you, Maria, on that point. I also think that most Americans don't want America to go it alone and supposedly the --

CARDONA: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: -- the U.S. government has this regional coalition, but Reihan, I want to read you a quote from Rami Khouri, from the American University of Beirut. He says, quote, "Secretary of State John Kerry looks less like the maestro of a united orchestra, and more like a strong willed sheriff assembling a half-hearted posse of scared locals to chase the dangerous guys."

So, Reihan, do we have a coalition willing to fight alongside us?

REIHAN SALAM, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: We have a variety of partners who are ambiguous to various degrees. That's certainly true. But the point is that we need to build up a moderate Syrian opposition. We either have to do that right now or we have to do that some years from now.

Already 170,000 people have died in Syria. There is enormous numbers of refugees streaming out of the country destabilizing the broader region. The rise of ISIL in Iraq is, to some degree, a reflection of the collapse of Syria. We ought to have started doing this years ago. And now we're doing it belatedly, we can hem and haw about it, but it's something that has to be done. So I would say, let's do it now rather than wait until we don't have the assets when a bigger threat emerges in that region. It's as simple as that.

COSTELLO: OK. So, Jim, let's say we do it now, and we go full speed ahead, right? So in the president's mind, what does a win look like?

ACOSTA: What does a win look like? At this point, what they're saying, Carol, is their mission is to degrade and destroy ISIS, and I ask the question specifically yesterday during the White House briefing, whether or not the president has authorized the Pentagon to conduct airstrikes on ISIS leaders. Because, obviously, you know, you can't really defeat ISIS unless you take out its leadership.

And, you know, the press secretary Josh Earnest, he didn't really give a straight answer to that. He said he didn't want to get ahead of presidential decisions, but granted that yes, you can't really take out ISIS without taking out its leadership. So I do think that this is a work in progress. This whole notion of a half-hearted group of nations that are part of a posse. You know, I think that might be -- that might be a little bit more, I guess, harsh when you match it with the reality.

You know, the White House, the secretary of state, they have been putting together this coalition. Last night the State Department put out a long list of what these various countries are going to be doing. You know, a lot of these countries are obviously not going to be conducting airstrikes, but some of them will, according to the White House, according to the State Department. They're just not at the point where they're going to announce this coalition, and exactly what they're going to be doing.

They're really pointing to the president's appearance at the United Nations' general assembly next week as being a critical moment in putting together this coalition. They're saying that, essentially, we're going to start getting more details about what that coalition is going to be doing then, but, Carol, no question about it, this is the largest foreign policy challenge facing this administration for the remaining two years of President Obama is in office. And they are basically saying, you know, they may not be able to end this war before his time is up, and it may be left to the next president to ultimately defeat ISIS.

COSTELLO: All right. Jim Acosta, Jim Sciutto, Ryan Cooper, Maria Cardona, Reihan Salam, Major General James "Spider" Marks, and Josh -- actually Josh Rogin is going to join us later so I'm thanking him in advance.

(LAUGHTER)

Thanks to all of you. We'll see you again at the bottom of the hour.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, as the Ebola outbreak threatens to spiral out of control, the president set to announce thousands of troops to help in the battle. We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: This morning, President Obama is outlining an expanded and military effort to contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Up to 3,000 U.S. troops will be sent to the area to coordinate an international command center based in Liberia, which is ground zero for the outbreak. In the next six months, the United States could spend as much as $750 million on the operation, which will include the building of 17 new treatment centers, each with a 100-bed capacity.

The president is going to tour the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta later and give further details of this plan and remarks later this afternoon.

Joining me now to tell us more, senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. Good morning, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Good morning.

So, Carol, you know, there are projection s and the reason why you are seeing this big effort is that there are projections that if we just continue the way, that we could have upwards to 200,000 new Ebola cases in West Africa by the end of the year, because, people have been so brave and working so hard in Africa, but what we have been doing is just not working to slow the chain of transmission.

COSTELLO: Could this military effort be a game-changer?

COHEN: You know, the folks who I have been talking to the say, look, it is a sea change in terms of the effort that the U.S. government has been putting in. But they have some concerns. One of them is, how quickly can we get this done? Because this epidemic is growing exponentially. It's not linear, it's exponential. And they say, how quickly can we get it done?

Also, they have noticed that the U.S. government is not sending in doctors and nurses to directly take care of the general population of Ebola patients, and that's what the World Health Organization says they need, that's what do Doctors Without Borders says they need, is actual doctor and nurse, boots on the ground, to take care of the general population of Ebola patients. There is a concern that that's not what the U.S. government is doing.

COSTELLO: Why wouldn't the U.S. government want to do that?

COHEN: You know, what they're doing is to send people in to train the health care workers, and I don't know why they have chosen not to do this. I mean, an obvious sort of guess would be is that they don't want people to get Ebola. I mean, more than 250 health care workers have contracted Ebola working in West Africa, and they don't want it to happen to the U.S. troops. But the administration has not been clear about why they chose not to go that route.

COSTELLO: All right. Elizabeth Cohen reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

COHEN: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: And still to come in the NEWSROOM: note to CBS -- don't mess with Rihanna, because she is telling the network to F-off for dropping her song in the wake of the Ray Rice controversy.

Oh, I love her more, Andy Scholes.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Rihanna not holding back. We'll tell you what she said and why she said it, after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: I always loved Rihanna and I love her even more today. But do not expect to her hit song "Run This Town" at any CBS NFL football games in the near future. This morning, Rihanna told the network to -- well, F-off in the wake of the league's domestic abuse scandal.

Quote, "CBS, you pulled my song last week, and now you want to slide it in this Thursday, no, F-you. Y'all are sad for penalizing me for this."

CNN's Andy Scholes joins me now with more.

We know Rihanna is a victim of domestic violence and she is no victim anymore.

SCHOLES: That's right. She followed up the tweet with two words, the audacity. And now if you have not been following this situation, last week, CBS debuted their Thursday night package with the Steelers and Raven. And she was supposed to sing that song "Run this Town" with the actor Don Cheadle doing some commentary in between.

Bu the NFL pulled the song because they thought it would be in poor state considering Rihanna probably is the most famous domestic violence victim that we all know out there.

But I'm with you, Carol, and I'm with Rihanna. Her being a victim, she shouldn't have been punished just because she was involved in a domestic violence case in the past.

COSTELLO: No, maybe the NFL did not mean it that way, but it came off that way.

SCHOLES: Yes, it certainly did. I guess they were in a tough situation either way. You know, we were talking about it last Thursday that that the situation that's going to "Run this Town," and Rihanna singing with Jay-Z, into their first Thursday night telecast. And, of course, the big subject that night was Ray Rice, and what had been going on with him.

But it was a tough situation, but Rihanna definitely has a point, now they are going to start playing it this coming Thursday and in the future -- well, I'm on her side, and she should be outraged.

COSTELLO: All right. Andy Scholes, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, you're looking live at Capitol Hill where the top two military men in the nation are about to go with before the lawmakers. They're going to lay out the strategy to defeat ISIS. We'll take you live to Capitol Hill, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)