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New Airstrikes Target ISIS Cash Flow; Missing Student Suspect Appears In Court; Police Chief of Ferguson Says Sorry; Young Muslims Speaking Out and Taking a Stand

Aired September 25, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM. Air strikes target the financial lifeline of ISIS: the oil refineries. We're taking stock of the damage done in Iraq and Syria as we stand by for an update from the Pentagon.

Then a suspect in the disappearance of UVA student, Hannah Graham, arrested after a nationwide manhunt. He was picked up halfway across the country from where he was last seen with her, so where is Hannah now?

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I have your license please?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has a gun. Get out of the car --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Shot for not wear a seatbelt. The victim of this police shooting survived, but the trooper is now facing criminal charges. Let's talk live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We begin with the latest on the U.S.-led airstrikes on ISIS in Syria. In just about an hour, the Pentagon will update us on day three of the offensive.

We know the latest strikes in Syria targeted oil facilities operated by ISIS. They enrich the group by about $2 million every single day. A human rights group in Syria says day three of the strikes killed 14 militants and five civilians, but this morning Washington could not confirm those numbers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe in a matter of years, maybe in a decade, they'll be in Europe anyway. When you ask if we're going to Syria or Iraq, I don't believe we need to. I believe the sharia will be in Europe. I will never stand against my Muslim brother. (END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The coalition is growing. Belgium and the Netherlands say they'll take part in the airstrikes, but only in Iraq, not in Syria. ABC News says French military leaders are discussing that option, too, today. British lawmakers take up the debate tomorrow.

The British media is reporting that a well-known radical cleric is among nine men arrested in an overnight terror sweep. London police say they each belong to or support a banned organization.

Let's turn our focus to the newest target of the U.S.-led airstrikes, the oil fields and refineries that ISIS has stolen and now control. Each day those pipelines pump as much as $2 million into the terror group.

Max Foster is in the United Arab Emirates, one of the Arab allies taking part of the strikes and chief business correspondent, Christine Romans is in New York.

Max, I want to start with you. The airstrikes are targeting the only smallest operations. Why?

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is what ISIS is relying on. They have these mobile units. They are modular units, prefabricated oil refineries which are make en off-site and taken onto the site. They are what ISIS is using to refine the oil, which they're then selling onto the black market which is financing a lot of their operations.

Central Command has said there were 13 strikes against these refineries, smaller ones and 12 of them hit. You mentioned the Pentagon coming up with an update. It will be interesting to see what impact they have on the smaller refineries. They're maybe small, but they are vital to the ISIS operation. They're trying to hit ISIS basically in the pocket.

COSTELLO: I'm just going to ask you, you say 12 of them are hit. Were they destroyed?

FOSTER: That's what we're waiting to hear from the Pentagon. It will be interesting to hear. We haven't had an update for some hours. We want to find out what refineries were hit and actually if they'll continue with that operation.

COSTELLO: Max Foster, thanks so much. Let's turn our attention to Christine Romans. The oil facilities aren't the only revenue streams being targeted there, right?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The oil facilities are incredibly important. We'll hear about just how badly they were damage. That's where a lot of the money is coming, but it's also coming from ransom. It's also coming from extortion around oil facilities.

The United States government, the Treasury Department yesterday, Carol, cracking down on 11 individuals in one group that are fundraising or facilitating money for terrorists. They have a global terrorist list. They're adding more people by the week to that list and more organizations.

One of these guys, Omar (inaudible), a Georgian, who is said to be in charge of the region where the Raqqa Prison was. Another guy who is known as the Amir of suicide bombers, these are some really scary folks.

The United States Treasury putting them on the list so that no one can do business with them, their assets can be frozen, but also as a public of relations to say we know who you are, who these people are specifically in this operation.

Trying to keep money from going to them. But in terms of those airstrikes, trying to get them where they're already making an awful lot of money.

COSTELLO: You say they're scary guys. I thought they were doing that after 9/11 and keeping an eye on --

ROMANS: It's interesting. There are -- for 10 years they've been doing this. There is a whole infrastructure at Treasury where they're looking at Indonesian Islamic radical groups, al Qaeda, al Nusra front. Now ISIS is the newest incarnation of that. They're going after these people.

So you know, is it symbolic? They are not exactly have a Citibank account, right. It's not as if they have a bank account here. It is sort of symbolic, but it does also starve off anybody who could be trying to raise money to send to somebody.

To get him from some place in United States to Syria to fight. That's part of the problem. That's part of the aim here.

COSTELLO: Christine Romans, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

Now to the suspect in the disappearance of 18-year-old college student, he's behind bars in Texas this morning. Just a short time ago, a judge ordered Jesse Matthew held without bond. He had been on the run since Saturday.

Police arrested him yesterday on a Galveston beach after getting a tip. Soon he could be headed back to Charlottesville, Virginia, to face charges, where 18-year-old UVA sophomore, Hannah Graham, vanished nearly two weeks ago. Police say Matthew was the last person seen with her.

CNN's Jean Casarez is in Charlottesville. HLN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney, Joey Jackson joins me from the CNN Center in Atlanta. Welcome to both of you. Jean Casarez, first to you, bring us up to date.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: First of all, they were searching for him on different states here on the east coast, although the police chief said that the four corners of this country he wouldn't exclude. He was found in the Galveston, Texas, area on the beach camping in a tent.

So what happened was someone made a phone call about a suspicious person and he was arrested after that. But just about an hour ago, he finished his initial court appearance there in Galveston County, being held on a federal warrant, along with some local charges of not saying who he was and why he was there.

But we understand Virginia authorities are en route or have arrived in the Galveston, Texas area. Now the question is whether he will voluntarily come back to the state of Virginia or if he will try to fight it. That is futile. You never win on that. It just extends the time period of when he'll stay in Texas before he comes back here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES CAMBLOS, JESSE MATTHEW'S ATTORNEY: I am Mr. Matthew's attorney. I was hired on Saturday. That's the only thing that I'm going to confirm at this point. The family and I -- nobody is making any statements at this point in time. We might later on, but right now we are not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: That man you just heard from right there is James Camblos. I spoke with him yesterday. It's the first time we knew who the attorney was for Jesse Matthew, but he is the man. He's been practicing law for almost 40 years.

Ironically he used to be the elected commonwealth's attorney here in Charlottesville. That means the top prosecutor for the area. But now he's become defense and representing Jesse Matthew -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So why isn't he in Texas?

CASAREZ: Why is he in Texas? You know, that's a good question. And prosecutors will say he was trying to flee the jurisdiction because of consciousness of guilt that he knew what he was doing and knew where he was going.

Potentially some may say he was trying to get through the border of Mexico. Galveston is not a way to Mexico because you end up just on the water. You have to go another route to get there. He couldn't go any farther because the water was there. He'd have to swim if he left Galveston and went farther.

COSTELLO: This case is so strange. So is the charge against him, Joey Jackson. I want you to explain what this is because I've never heard of this. He's charged with abduction with intent to defile.

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Sure. Good morning, Carol. That's the initial charge. Keep in mind that the charge can be upgraded depending upon what the facts of this case ultimately dictate.

Right now what they're saying is that he abducted her, that is, he took her, Ms. Hannah Graham, and he had bad intentions. To defile? Well, that's of a sexual variety. When you abduct someone and take them away with the intentions that they are saying that he had, that becomes a class two felony, which is punishable by 20 years to life in jail, Carol.

But that again is the charge. Now as the police continue to investigate, we know search warrants were executed for his apartment. We know search warrant was executed for his car. Items were taken and hopefully she's brought back and brought back well.

In the event that's not the case, then we could see an upgrading and a charge that's significantly different from the one he's facing right now.

COSTELLO: I want to talk about upgrading that charge and why he is isn't charged with, let's say, murder or something like that. It makes you wonder what exactly they found in Jesse Matthew's car.

JACKSON: It really does, Carol. Certainly we hope for the best, but in the event that that's not the case, a different reality has to be faced. I think what you'll see is what the police are doing. A, they're relying extensively on speaking the eyewitnesses to determine where Hannah Graham was that night.

They've gotten surveillance to determine where she was. Apparently he is, that is, the suspect now and now a defendant in that particular surveillance. That's a critical part of the case.

Also critical would be what those items were that were taken from his home and taken from his car and is there any DNA items on them. Therefore, you would have to ask, if Hannah Graham's DNA is there, is there an innocent explanation? What's the nature of the DNA, is there any blood?

A third avenue would be this consciousness of guilt that Jean Casarez spoke of. What does it mean? It means if you're innocent, why are you running away? We're a long ways from potential upgrading of charges. But in the event they do find things, that is, the authorities, the charges will be upgraded and he will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

COSTELLO: A final question to you, Jean. I know police have gotten hundreds of leads but no Hannah Graham. Any indication about where she might be or what happened to her?

CASAREZ: That's the big question this morning especially since they have the man that they believe was the last person to see her in custody. He was picked up at 3:30 yesterday afternoon. When I called the jail at 8:00 last night, he had just arrived at the jail.

They had him on scene, they told me, questioning him, and this is an emergency situation. Hannah needs to be found. They're able to ask those questions, where is she, tell us. We don't know if they got any answers --Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Jean Casarez, Joey Jackson, thanks for your insight as always. I appreciate it. Let's head to the United Nations now. As you can see the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani is speaking now before the general assembly and of course, he's expected to speak about the fight against ISIS, something Iran supports. It just doesn't support the way the United States is going about it.

We'll be listening to his remarks and we'll pass them along after a break. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The police chief of Ferguson, Missouri says he's sorry. The city has been engulfed in turmoil following the shooting of Michael Brown. In the weeks since the small town has been scarred by riots and protests and looting. Now the Police Chief Tom Jackson has taped an apology. Jason Carroll joins us to tell us more.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I think a lot of people out there were waiting for this, wondering if it would ever happen. He's been under so much scrutiny for so long, criticized for so many things, for the shooting, the way protesters were handled, criticized for the way Michael Brown's body was handled.

There were many calls for his apology. We heard it in the hours, days and weeks following what happened. Also calls recently for his resignation. Finally in the past hour, Chief Tom Jackson, did speak out, issued an apology, not only to the community, but to Michael Brown's family.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHIEF TOM JACKSON, FERGUSON, MISSOURI POLICE: As many of you know, my name is Tom Jackson, chief of police of the city of Ferguson. The events of the past few weeks have sent shockwaves, not just around the community here, but around the nation.

Overnight I went from being a small town police chief to being a part of a conversation about racism, equality and the role of policing in that conversation. As chief of police and as a resident, I want to be part of that conversation.

I also want to be part of the solution. But before we can engage in further discussion on the broader issues, I think it's important that we address the central issue that brought us here today, and that's the death of Michael Brown.

I want to say this to the Brown family. No one who has not experienced the loss of a child can understand what you're feeling. I am truly sorry for the loss of your son. I'm also sorry that it took so long to remove Michael from the street.

The time that it took involved very important work on the part of investigators who were trying to collect evidence and gain a true picture of what happened that day. But it was just too long and I'm truly sorry for that. Please know that the investigating officers meant no disrespect to the Brown family, to the African-American community or the people of Canfield. They were simply trying to do their jobs. There were many people who were upset about what happened in Ferguson and came here to protest peacefully.

Unfortunately there were others who had a different agenda. I do want to say to any peaceful protester who did not feel I did enough to protect their constitutional right to protest I am sorry for that.

The right of the people to peacefully assemble is what the police are here to protect. If anyone who was peacefully exercising that right is upset and angry, I feel responsible and I am sorry.

I'm also aware of the pain and the feeling of mistrust felt in some of the African-American community towards the police department. The city belongs to all of us and we're all a part of this community. It is clear we have much work to do.

As a community, a city and a nation we have real problems to solve, not just in Ferguson, but the entire region and beyond. For any mistakes I have made I take full responsibility.

It's an honor to serve the city of Ferguson and the people who live there. I look forward to working with you in the future to solve our problems and once again, I deeply apologize to the Brown family.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A couple things that really struck me about that, one of the things he said there, he said he wants to be part of the solution. Carol, I have to tell you in the days following the shooting when I was down there in Ferguson, when I spoke to the chief that was one of the points that he wanted to make to me over and over.

He said, Jason, I do want to be part of the solution here. Remember, this is a chief who took over in 2010. A lot of the problems that have existed in that department with that community have been going on for generations. He was aware of that.

He said what they were trying to do was bring in diversity training with some of the officers. There's still so many problems that exist in that department. One, lack of diversity.

You've got some four officers who are African-American on the force, more than 50 of the officers are white in serving a community that is overwhelmingly African-American.

You have a history there of mistrust between the African-American community and the department. It's going to have to work on that as well. Maybe this is a first step. We'll see.

COSTELLO: Let me ask you this, because I was talking to Paul Callan about this earlier. He's a cynical sort. The voters of Ferguson elect the officials that appoint the police chief. Maybe Chief Jackson is just concerned about losing his job.

CARROLL: I don't know. As a reporter sometimes all you have to go on is your gut, right? In speaking with this man repeatedly, I do get the sense and I know there are others out there as well, even some in the African-American community that get the sense that this man is trying to make an effort, this man.

But still you have entire department that you've got to deal with different officers with different points of view. So again, it's just a gut, but my gut says this is a man who is trying. His motivation for that, I think that's up for debate.

COSTELLO: All right, Jason Carroll, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

Later today, Ana Cabrera, will sit down with Chief Tom Jackson. Her one-on-one interview will air tonight on Anderson Cooper.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, outrage and fed up with ISIS young Muslims are speaking out and taking a stand. Up next, the social media campaign taking the internet by storm.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right, let's head out to the United Nations right now. The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, is now speaking before the General Assembly and he is talking about terrorists extremists. Let's listen to what he told the General Assembly.

PRESIDENT HASSAN ROUHANI, IRAN: Terrorism has become globalized from New York to Mosul, from Damascus to Bagdad, from the eastern-most to the western-most parts of the world from al Qaeda to Daesh. The extremists of the world have found each other and put out the call.

Extremists of the world unite, but are we united against the extremists? Are we united against the extremists? Does that include Iran? Let's talk about that with CNN global affairs analyst, Bobby Ghosh. What do you make of that comment by the Iranian president?

BOBBY GHOSH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: He's trying to have it both ways. He represents the regime with the longest history of supporting terrorist groups. When he talks of extremists he'd like us not to think of Hezbollah and Hamas.

He wants us to think of Sunni groups. He represents a Shiite regime. He's being fast and loose with the facts to suggest the world is not united, certainly not united with him while he's supporting these terrorist groups.

COSTELLO: Fareed Zakaria sat down and talked with him. He told Fareed arming these Syrian rebels would only create a new terrorist group and America would be responsible for that.

GHOSH: Again, same thing. He has sent his proxies, Hezbollah to fight for Bashar Al-Assad who is his puppet. He's opposed to any kind of action that would endanger his own or Iran's own interest in this country. It's your terrorists versus my terrorists. COSTELLO: So let's talk about the international effort to combat extremists across the globe? While the United States tries to bolster international support for the fight against ISIS, there's a new battle taking shape online.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's totally un-Islamic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because they are killing innocent people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because you're unjust.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We must all unite together and try to stop this group from damaging Islam and damaging Muslims.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not in my name.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because your leader is a liar.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because your actions do not represent the actions of the companions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because you don't remember the Omar.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because what you're doing is inhumane.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: A new social media campaign called #notinmyname started by a group called the active change foundation. Young British Muslims have been using the hash tag to denounce the brutal tactics and tell the world that the terrorist group doesn't represent their beliefs. The hash tag is getting attention from President Obama yesterday who praise the move yesterday during his speech at United Nations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Look at the young British Muslims who started the not in my name campaign, declaring ISIS is hiding behind a false Islam.

COSTELLO: So let's bring in Bobby Ghosh once again. Is the campaign effective?

GHOSH: There are many campaigns online. One of the great things about social media is it allows people to express themselves. For years now I've been hearing people in this country and elsewhere saying why don't Muslims speak out against the extremists?

Moderate Muslims have always spoken out. They just have not been heard because they often speak in languages we don't understand. They speak in Arabic and speak to their audience and we don't often hear it.

The great thing about this program is this campaign is that we hear it, too. Everybody around the world hears it, whether in a Muslim country or not. That's great because it allows us to see that there is and there always has been this reject of extremism.

Rejection of violence from the great mass of the Muslim people. And if it means that more people outside the Muslim world take it seriously, great, that's wonderful.

COSTELLO: Also another hash tack picking up steam called Muslim apologies. Used by people who are frustrated because they feel like they have to apologize on behalf of all Muslims? It has a sarcastic tone. I'll read you one of their apologies.

I'm so sorry for coffee, checks, parachutes, chemistry, inoculation, soap, shampoo, cameras, et cetera, #muslimapologies. So they're upset that they even have to apologize because people should know that an extremist ideology is not theirs.

GHOSH: By definition it is extremist, it's not part of the mainstream. They have been rejecting these people for a very long time. I can understand why they're tired of being told over and over again why aren't you speaking up? They have been speaking up.

This is my favorite hash tag of the week. There have been lots of really smart, funny, pointed, ironic comments made there. It also speaks to the same point. These are people who implicitly are rejecting extremism. They're saying listen, stop telling us to reject this.

We've already been doing this and we don't need to hear from you that we have to reject extremists.

COSTELLO: I think many Americans would rather hear from the leaders of Arab countries denouncing these extremists, loudly and clearly so the world hears. Why aren't they doing this?

GHOSH: That's a great point. They need to hear more from Arab people, Arab countries and Arab leaders. The other people who need to hear more from the Arab leaders are the Arab people. You know, all these Arab countries that have joined the coalition against ISIS that's a great thing to join the coalition.

But you know what? The president of the United States first went to the American people and explained himself to the American people.