Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Obama Set to Address U.N. Regarding ISIS; Obama Addresses United Nations

Aired September 24, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: No question. This is an enormously powerful moment for the president. He is bringing the nation to war, the president who intended to take the U.S. out of the wars in the Middle East; in fact, withdrew troops from Iraq. This was a key foreign policy goal of his. But he's also bringing an international coalition to war. In some ways, he's bringing the region to war and asking for more.

He's going to ask for more today later this afternoon. Not just for help with the U.S. airstrikes against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, but also a binding resolution calling on the entire world really to stop the flow of fighters and financing to this group. It's a big ask.

He's asking for countries that frankly have been involved in supporting this group, whether directly or indirectly, to stop that to make it criminal behavior, to allow fighters to go to this country. I was thinking as well.

Last year, this time last year, the message from the president was very different. It was about reaching out to Iran that the U.S. had been at odds with for decades. That was the message last year.

The message this year it's about bringing the world together to fight another war in the Middle East and from the president who was meant to end those wars. It's a momentous moment for the president, for the U.N. and frankly for his legacy.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: He's definitely going to try to get this resolution through the Security Council presumably will -- probably the Russians will at least acquiesce and not use their veto. But some of the critics are already pointing out, maybe it's too late.

There are thousands of foreign fighters who have come into ISIS already. As far as the funding is concerned, we heard from a Jordanian minister yesterday that ISIS may already have a billion dollars, money they have stolen from banks in Mosul in Iraq and elsewhere. They have a ton of cash already.

So whatever this resolution does achieve will go forward, but it may be too late as far as the foreign fighters and the money is concerned.

SCIUTTO: They have a lot of money and they are making more money every day from selling oil, producing tens of thousands of barrels of oil a day. So they have that money. And there's criticism both on stopping the foreign fighters in the financing, but also now arming the rebels in Syria.

Remember these are stamps that even members of his own administration, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton among them who had pushed for arming the rebels earlier. So is it too late?

There are certainly those critics, but the focus now is that he believes they have to act. And I'm told from U.N. sources that the feeling among member nations here today is that as uncomfortable as they are with military action, particularly inside a sovereign country without the backing of the U.N. resolution that there is a sense that this had to be done.

The president is getting the support he wants not just for military action for the five Arab partners who are taking part alongside him, but from other nations here telling the president and U.S. officials privately, you know what? We're with you. We know you have to do this now.

BLITZER: All right, hold on for a moment, Jim. Jake Tapper has been speaking to officials in Washington as well and getting a little preview of what the president's message is going to be. Jake, update our viewers.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, "THE LEAD": This conflict is one that he had to engage in. In fact, when we were interviewing the former Jordanian foreign minister on my show yesterday, he confirmed in Jordan they have picked up ISIS terrorists crossing the border with the intent of carrying out terrorist actions in Jordan.

So this is something that is clearly a destabilizing threat to the entire region. You'll see President Obama talking about not just the war against ISIS and in other terrorist groups in the region, but other major international actions within the context of American leadership, working with other countries around the world.

And the phrase that I've had described to me is that President Obama will talk about how the world is at a cross roads between integration and chaos. That touches on the uncertainty that many people feel right now when they look at what's going on in the world.

Whether it's the Ebola crises in Western Africa or Russia's incursions into Ukraine, in Europe or of course, the terrorist threat in the Middle East and throughout the world.

Indeed the idea that President Obama will be describing what needs to be done not just with ISIS, but all these other crises including Ebola, including Russia and Ukraine within the context of American leadership.

And most importantly, the context of America working with other countries not doing it alone. Hence the term cross roads between integration and chaos. The idea that that's the choice between the chaos that so many people around the world are fearful of right now versus integration working together.

That's the way that President Obama, I'm told, will describe what needs to be done right now -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Major challenge for the president as he gets ready to address the United Nations General Assembly. Let's bring in our senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta.

Jim, I think it's fair to say this president six years into his office, he didn't want to spend the last two years of his presidency as a war year. In effect that he's been described as a reluctant warrior. He wanted to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He didn't to start a new one against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. But as we know, sometimes history has other plans for American presidents. I think that is what we're going to see from President Obama over these next couple years.

You know, Wolf, you're right. This is a president who campaigned on the notion that he was going to end wars in the Middle East, not start them. And now what you're hearing is something that's really kind of a 180 for this president.

He's going to be talking about how this is going to be a long struggle for the United States and the world, battling ISIS, battling violent extremism, not only in the Middle East, but potentially on American soil.

This is a war, Wolf, if you want to call it a war on terrorism 2.0 or the new war on terrorism against ISIS and groups like Khorasan that he's going to be handing off to his successor. That's something that I don't think the president ever really envisioned.

But talking to officials about this speech and what we're going to hear from the president, I think it's interesting to note, Wolf, that in his preview that a senior administration official offered us this morning that it says in those comments, we stopped the advance of ISIS.

So I think you're going to hear the president say that these airstrikes while they have been very unsettling to a lot of people in that region or around the world and got a number of members of Congress concerned he doesn't have the authorization to do this.

That he's taking the right approach. He doesn't really have a choice in some sense. The other thing, speaking of that legal justification, there's been a lot of talk about that.

The "New York Times" has a scathing editorial about that this morning calling into question whether the president has the proper, legal authorization to conduct these airstrikes not only in Iraq but broadening them into Syria.

I'm told that we should expect the president to talk about that somewhat. It won't be the overarching theme of this piece, but he will go by it. But as you know from talking to Christiane Amanpour this morning, her interview with John Kerry, you're starting to hear the beginnings of the argument from the administration. As to why they believe they have that authorization that Iraq invited the United States and these partners into their country to stabilize the situation and that you can't deal with Iraqi security unless you deal with ISIS and groups like ISIS in Syria because of the spillover effects.

So we may hear the president talk about that as well. As everybody else has been talking about, he wants to get to the root cause of the extremism that has become sort of an army of ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria and he wants to counter that as well.

And as Jim Sciutto mentioned, the president will be talking about this issue of foreign fighters when he presides over the U.N. Security Council later today.

Another interesting thing on the president's agenda today, Wolf, this meeting with the new Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi. They will be talking about these airstrikes that have been taking place in Iraq. I think Prime Minister Abadi would like to have more of these airstrikes and we'll have to see what the president has to say about that as well.

BLITZER: About 200 U.S. airstrikes. France has also launched some airstrikes in Iraq together with the United States. The U.S. launching airstrikes in Syria together with five Arab allies.

All right, standby, I want to bring in our senior political analyst, David Gergen, our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger. They are joining us now.

David, you served four presidents. Take us a little bit behind the scenes under normal circumstances, how does a president prepare to address the general assembly? There's a whole laundry list of issues you have to go through.

But these are not normal circumstances right now. I think it's fair to say the United States is involved in a new war.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Absolutely. And Wolf, this speech to the United Nations for a president is second in important to only the state of the union address. This is an annual affair for presidents. It's a chance to speak to the world.

In this case not only to talk about the individual crises, but very importantly in this speech, the president wants to assert American leadership. There's been a sense around the world that we have been in retreat, that we're paying more attention to things back home and that's what the president promised here as a candidate.

That's what he wanted to do. From the world's point of view, that has contributed to a sense that order is slipping away from us. And they will welcome the United States back on stage.

They will judge him by how realistic his goals are and his staying power. They want to make sure if you're going to get us into this, are you going to be there to succeed and not walk away from it. BLITZER: And Gloria, I think it's fair to say the president has outlined what his objective is in Iraq and Syria to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIS. What is still murky is how the U.S. is going to achieve that and whether it can be achieved without introducing U.S. combat troops on the ground.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. I don't think the president is going to talk about troops on the ground today. I think what he is going to do, Wolf, is talk about the notion that David just spoke about which is American leadership.

And in talking to senior administration officials, it's clear to me that he's going to come out and talk about what the world of chaos in which we live and how we need more unity of purpose among civilized nations.

And he is going to talk about how he's been willing to lead in that area, whether it's through the attacks on ISIS, whether it's through helping form a more inclusive Iraqi government, fighting Ebola, getting five Arab nations to join him in these attacks.

So for those who would say that the U.S. has been, quote/unquote, "leading from behind," I think this is a moment for the president to say actually that is not the case.

In this crazy world in which we live, the United States still stands as a leader and is willing to do that. As you point out, this isn't a legacy or a place the president wanted to be in terms of foreign policy.

It wasn't part of his narrative, but it is now and he's decided to take it to the United Nations and say, look, we have to take on these foreign fighters. We can't let them travel and sort of issue a call to civilized nations to stand together and make sure this stops.

BLITZER: The president of Brazil is speaking now. She's the first world leader to address the new session of the United Nations General Assembly. The president of the United States will follow fairly soon. President Obama will be introduced. He will then address the United Nations General Assembly. We're standing by r for live coverage of that.

I want to bring in Fareed Zakaria into this conversation. Fareed, I think a lot of us were impressed. A lot of us were surprised that the United States, the Obama administration did, in fact, put together a coalition including five Sunni Arab countries to not only express support, but military support.

They got involved in striking these ISIS targets in Syria. That certainly is going to put enormous pressure on the rest of the world and friends of the United States to at least voice support for what the U.S. is trying to achieve.

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": It's very true, Wolf. The most impressive part of what the administration has been able to do is to get these Sunni Arab states to commit themselves to publicly do it.

Frankly, I wouldn't mind seeing the United States leading a little bit from behind on this one, which is to say having the Sunni Arab states in the front confronting ISIS rather than having what the ISIS would regard as the crusader capitalist western Christian power.

The issue here, though, is that the strikes are fine and I think the president will find there's broad support in a campaign against ISIS. There's broad support for the kind of talk about world order.

Jake Tapper's very interesting reveal about what the speech will be about, these are themes Obama likes. But what's the regional strategy and follow-up?

BLITZER: All right, Fareed, the president of the United States has just been introduced. As normally this is the protocol. The president of the general assembly will say a few words. Let's listen in as he's introduced. Here's the president of the General Assembly.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, fellow delegates, ladies and gentlemen, we come together at a crossroads between war and peace, between disorder and integration, between fear and hope.

Around the globe, there are signposts of progress.

The shadow of world war that existed at the founding of this institution has been lifted, and the prospect of war between major powers reduced. The ranks of member states has more than tripled, and more people live under governments they elected.

Hundreds of millions of human beings have been freed from the prison of poverty, with the proportion of those living in extreme poverty cut in half. And the world economy continues to strengthen after the worst financial crisis of our lives.

Today, whether you live in downtown Manhattan or in my grandmother's village more than two hundred miles from Nairobi, you can hold in your hand more information than the world's greatest libraries. Together, we have learned how to cure disease, and harness the power of the wind and the sun.

The very existence of this institution is a unique achievement, the people of the world committing to resolve their differences peacefully, and to solve their problems together. I often tell young people in the United States that, despite the headlines, this is the best time in human history to be born, for you are more likely than ever before to be literate, to be healthy, and to be free to pursue your dreams.

And yet there is a pervasive unease in our world, a sense that the very forces that have brought us together have created new dangers, and made it difficult for any single nation to insulate itself from global forces.

As we gather here, an outbreak of Ebola overwhelms public health systems in West Africa and threatens to move rapidly across borders. Russian aggression in Europe recalls the days when large nations trampled small ones in pursuit of territorial ambition. The brutality of terrorists in Syria and Iraq forces us to look into the heart of darkness.

Each of these problems demands urgent attention. But they also are symptoms of a broader problem -- the failure of our international system to keep pace with an interconnected world.

We, collectively, have not invested adequately in the public health capacity of developing countries. Too often, we have failed to enforce international norms when it's inconvenient to do so. And we have not confronted forcefully enough the intolerance, sectarianism and hopelessness that feeds violent extremism in too many parts of the globe.

Fellow delegates, we come together as United Nations with a choice to make. We can renew the international system that has enabled so much progress or we can allow ourselves to be pulled back by an undertow of instability. We can reaffirm our collective responsibility to confront global problems or be swamped by more and more outbreaks of instability.

And, for America, the choice is clear. We choose hope over fear. We see the future not as something out of our control but as something we can shape for the better through concerted and collective effort.

We reject fatalism or cynicism when it comes to human affairs. We choose to work for the world as it should be, as our children deserve it to be.

There's much that must be done to meet the test of this moment. But today, I'd like to focus on two defining questions at the root of so many of our challenges, whether the nations here today will be able to renew the purpose of the U.N.'s founding and whether we will come together to reject the cancer of violent extremism.

First, all of us, big nations and small, must meet our responsibility to observe and enforce international norms.

We are here because others realized that we gain more from cooperation than conquest.

100 years ago, a World War claimed the lives of many millions, proving that with the terrible power of modern weaponry, the cause of empire ultimately leads to the graveyard.

It would take another World War to roll back the forces of fascism, the notions of racial supremacy and form this United Nations to ensure that no nation can subjugate its neighbors and claim their territory.

Recently, Russia's actions in Ukraine challenge this post-war order.

Here are the facts.

After the people of Ukraine mobilized popular protests and calls for reform, their corrupt president fled. Against the will of the government in Kiev, Crimea was annexed. Russia poured arms into Eastern Ukraine, fueling violent separatists and a conflict that has killed thousands. When a civilian airliner was shot down from areas that these proxies controlled, they refused to allow access to the crash for days. When Ukraine started to reassert control over its territory, Russia gave up the pretense of merely supporting the separatists, and moved troops across the border.

This is a vision of the world in which might makes right -- a world in which one nation's borders can be redrawn by another, and civilized people are not allowed to recover the remains of their loved ones because of the truth that might be revealed. America stands for something different. We believe that right makes might -- that bigger nations should not be able to bully smaller ones and that people should be able to choose their own future.

These are simple truths, but they must be defended. America and our allies will support the people of Ukraine as they develop their democracy and economy. We will reinforce our NATO allies, and uphold our commitment to collective self-defense. We will impose a cost on Russia for aggression, and we will counter falsehoods with the truth. We call upon others to join us on the right side of history. For while small gains can be won at the barrel of a gun, they will ultimately be turned back if enough voices support the freedom of nations and peoples to make their own decisions.

Moreover, a different path is available: the path of diplomacy and peace and the ideals this institution is designed to uphold.

The recent cease-fire agreement in Ukraine offers an opening to achieve those objectives. If Russia takes that path -- a path that for stretches of the post-Cold War period resulted in prosperity for the Russian people -- then we will lift our sanctions and welcome Russia's role in addressing common challenges.

After all, that's what the United States and Russia have been able to do in past years, from reducing our nuclear stockpiles to meeting our obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to cooperating to remove and destroy Syria's declared chemical weapons. And that's the kind of cooperation we are prepared to pursue again if Russia changes course.

This speaks to a central question of our global age: whether we will solve our problems together, in a spirit of mutual interests and mutual respect, or whether we descend into the destructive rivalries of the past.

When nations find common ground, not simply based on power, but on principle, then we can make enormous progress. And I stand before you today committed to investing American strength to working with all nations to address the problems we face in the 21st century.

As we speak, America is deploying our doctors and scientists -- supported by our military -- to help contain the outbreak of Ebola and pursue new treatments.

But we need a broader effort to stop a disease that could kill hundreds of thousands, inflict horrific suffering, destabilize economies, and move rapidly across borders.

It's easy to see this as a distant problem -- until it is not. And that is why we will continue mobilizing other countries to join us in making concrete commitments, significant commitments, to fight this outbreak and enhance our system of global health security for the long-term.

America is pursuing a diplomatic resolution to the Iranian nuclear issue as part of our commitment to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and pursue the peace and security of a world without them. And this can only take place if Iran seizes this historic opportunity.

My message to Iran's leaders and people has been simple and consistent: do not let this opportunity pass. We can reach a solution that meets your energy needs while assuring the world that your program is peaceful.

America is and will continue to be a Pacific power, promoting peace, stability and the free flow of commerce among nations. But we will insist that all nations abide by the rules of the road and resolve their territorial disputes peacefully, consistent with international law. That's how the Asia-Pacific has grown. And that's the only way to protect this progress going forward.

America is committed to a development agenda that eradicates extreme poverty by 2030. We will do our part to help people feed themselves, power their economies and care for their sick. And if the world acts together, we can make sure that all of our children can enjoy lives of opportunity and dignity

America's pursuing ambitious reductions in our carbon emissions, and we've increased our investments in clean energy. We will do our part and help developing nations to do theirs.

But the science tells us we can only succeed in combating climate change if we are joined in this effort by every other nation, by every major power. That's how we can protect this planet for our children and our grandchildren.

In other words, on issue after issue, we cannot rely on a rule book written for a different century. If we lift our eyes beyond our borders, if we think globally and if we act cooperatively, we can shape the course of this century as our predecessors shaped the post- World War II age.

But as we look to the future, one issue risks a cycle of conflict that could derail so much progress, and that is the cancer of violent extremism that has ravaged so many parts of the Muslim world.

Of course, terrorism is not new. Speaking before this assembly, President Kennedy put it well: "Terror is not a new weapon," he said. "Throughout history it has been used by those who could not prevail either by persuasion or example."

In the 20th century, terror was used by all manner of groups who failed to come to power through public support. But in this century, we have faced a more lethal and ideological brand of terrorists who have perverted one of the world's great religions. With access to technology that allows small groups to do great harm, they have embraced a nightmarish vision that would divide the world into adherents and infidels, killing as many innocent civilians as possible, employing the most brutal methods to intimidate people within their communities.

I have made it clear that America will not base our entire foreign policy on reacting to terrorism. Instead, we have waged a focused campaign against Al Qaida and its associated forces, taking out their leaders, and denying them the safe-havens they rely upon. At the same time, we have reaffirmed again and again that the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. Islam teaches peace. Muslims the world over aspire to live with dignity and a sense of justice. And when it comes to America and Islam, there is no us and them. There is only us, because millions of Muslim Americans are part of the fabric of our country.

So we reject any suggestion of a clash of civilizations.

Belief in permanent religious war is the misguided refuge of extremists who cannot build or create anything, and therefore peddle only fanaticism and hate.