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Britain Joining Airstrikes On ISIS In Iraq; Attempted Suicide Snarls Air Travel; ISIS Firefight Erupts Live On CNN; Woman Beheaded At Work In Oklahoma

Aired September 26, 2014 - 14:30   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: United Kingdom joining the war on ISIS. British lawmakers decided just a short time ago to join in the air strikes on ISIS targets in Iraq. The vote in parliament was 524-43. It followed hours of debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: There already is a military conflict taking place. ISIL have taken territory. They're butchering people in Iraq. Iraqi, including Kurdish security forces, are already fighting ISIL. We have to decide if we're going to support them. And I believe that we should.

GEORGE GALLOWAY: If there's a consensus in here that we're going to soon be bombing Syria, the words don't mention boots on the ground. But there's a consensus here that there will be boots on the ground. The only question - the only question being, whose boots are they?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We see the self-glorification by I.S. with the release of many videos showing the treatment of captured Iraqi soldiers, lines of men being marched into the desert and shot or knifed on the banks of rivers.

Videos of Sunni imams being killed because they would not turn over their mosque to IS. There has been the persecution of minority groups such as the Yazidis and Christians and hundreds of women taken away to who knows where.

CHERYL GILLAN, BRITISH PARLIAMENT: I have to say my fear is that I have heard nothing today that makes me certain about the end game. I think for us Iraq is a never-ending story. I would caution the government because I do not want to see this country drawn into a never ending war.

RORY STEWART, BRITISH PARLIAMENT: We must get out of the black and white mentality of engagement or isolation, surge and withdrawal, and instead show through a long-term diplomatic and political footprint, the seriousness which should define this nation.

SHABANA MAHMOOD, BRITISH PARLIAMENT: Mr. Speaker, the anger and the hurt of the Muslim community both here and abroad is secondary to the pain, the death, and the destruction that ISIL have visited upon their victims. And their victims who are Muslim and non-Muslim alike. ISIL's rightful place is behind bars or beneath the earth six foot under.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about all of this now. CNN political commentator and anchor of CNN's "Smerconish," Michael Smerconish is here. Before I put the tweet up, it's fascinating to watch.

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN ANCHOR, "SMERCONISH": Isn't that great stuff?

LEMON: That should have happened already and that town down the road from here in a couple hours.

SMERCONISH: I woke up this morning at 5:00, turned on CNN, and watched that. I'm a junkie for this thing, but I think we should all be demanding that level of debate and that openness among our members of Congress. We are war right now, but we haven't had a declaration.

LEMON: Let's put up your tweet. You said this is exactly the level of debate we are owed but have not had.

SMERCONISH: Correct. Right. Don, here we are with Americans going to the polls in less than two months, casting ballots for a third of the Senate, all of the House, do we really know where our individual members stand on this issue? I say not.

LEMON: But when it comes to parliament in the U.K., is it a little bit too late? The bombs have already -- even here, the bombs have already started falling.

SMERCONISH: Well, I don't think that the president has the authority to continue to do what we're already doing.

LEMON: Really.

SMERCONISH: We should have had this debate by now, but we certainly ought to have it when they reconvene. I think you're owed the answer when you go in and close that curtain of knowing did my member of Congress, did my two U.S. senators vote for that which is now playing itself out around the globe? The answer is we don't know.

LEMON: That was the crux of your, as always, one thing that you write, one paragraph that sums up everything. You said I think the American people are entitled to know exactly where our elected representatives stand, not from a media appearance, right, but from a vote.

Accountability demands that people close a curtain on a ballot booth in November knowing whether their representatives voted for or against the use of military force. Makes perfect sense to me.

SMERCONISH: Going to war should be the most difficult decision our legislators have to face. In my opinion, they've not faced it in this instance.

LEMON: There is a risk, a political downside or risk for Congress. SMERCONISH: Yes.

LEMON: Let's put up the poll. CNN/ORC poll early this month showed overwhelming support for U.S. airstrikes in Iraq. Airstrikes against ISIS in Syria. It shows there's support.

SMERCONISH: I think it's soft, the support. Frankly here's my view. They all regard themselves, members of the House and Senate, as presidential timber. I think they look at Secretary Clinton and the way she is now saddled with that 2002 vote about Iraq and saying I would rather not cast this ballot. There could be an election in my future where I don't want it coming back to haunt me.

LEMON: So you're much savvier about these issues.

SMERCONISH: I doubt it.

LEMON: What happens next? What happens when Congress comes back?

SMERCONISH: I would like them to come back, have a robust debate like we saw in the U.K., vote on a broad encompassed war authorization against the Islamic State. Do I think it will happen? No. I don't think it will happen. I think they'll continue to duck.

I'm frustrated with the Congress. I'm frustrated with the White House for not asking for this, but also the American people. Go to your town hall meeting and demand this type of debate.

LEMON: But there's apathy out there.

SMERCONISH: No doubt. Don, you know what that is all about, the draft. Because without a draft very few are bearing the burden for all the rest of us.

LEMON: Yes. Thank you.

SMERCONISH: Good to see you.

LEMON: I'll be watching you. I'll see you tomorrow. You know why. Tune in. It's a great program. We are getting back to our special coverage in a moment.

But first a bizarre story developing out of Chicago, an attempted suicide shutting down air traffic. It did for hours. We'll take you live to O'Hare for new details.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Air travel across the Midwest is slowly returning to normal after an attempted suicide. For a while all flights were grounded at the world's second busiest airport. More than 1300 flights canceled at Chicago's O'Hare and Midway Airports.

Here's what we know right now. A contract employee at a Chicago area air traffic control center apparently set a fire and tried to kill himself. Two law enforcement officials tell CNN that the employee has cuts on at least one wrist. Police say the incident is not related to terrorism.

I want to bring in now our Ted Rowlands. He is at Chicago's O'Hare. So Ted, what is the very latest from authorities on this very bizarre story?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what they're doing now, Don, is interviewing that individual who tried to commit suicide and who apparently started this fire which has caused so much chaos.

Meanwhile, they're also assessing the damage. That control facility, which is located in Aurora, Illinois, about 40 miles outside of Chicago, it's still down. Some work is being done at a facility in Indianapolis, and that is enabling a few flights to trickle in and out of O'Hare, Midway and Milwaukee.

But the lion's share of the flights are still grounded here and in airports across the country. This is the result, lines extending literally hundreds of people in these terminals in line.

A lot of these folks have been waiting for hours, being rebooked. People started -- this process started in the 6:00 a.m. hour this morning. It has caused, as you can imagine, a massive ripple effect across the country and it continues.

The FAA has extended the ground stop for another two hours until 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time. They'll reassess at that point. We're awaiting a news conference from Aurora with local authorities for more information about this individual who tried to kill himself and apparently set the fire.

LEMON: So my next question you may not be able to answer. I was going to ask you who is this guy. We know he's a contract employee, but what do we know about him and where is he now?

ROWLANDS: We know it's a male, that's it we don't know his age. We're not sure of his circumstances. There has been some reporting that he was an electrician, but we have not been able to confirm that. He was a contract employee who had access to get into that facility in Aurora.

That's all we know at this point. Hopefully we'll get more information at this news conference. Local authorities want to emphasize, this is not a terrorism scenario.

LEMON: But, man, look at those lines behind you and in the video. Keep us updated after you get to that press conference. Thank you very much.

CNN cameras rolling on something we have never seen. A live fire fight between ISIS and Kurdish forces. See that militant? He appears to be hit. This is not propaganda. This is what they don't want us to see? What can these pictures tell us about the strength of ISIS or their weaknesses? We'll examine that next.

Plus if your father was beheaded by one of those militants, the daughter of one of the victims has a message to her government. We'll play it for you after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The daughter of a Scottish man beheaded by ISIS supports British forces entering the fight against the extremist. Bethany Haines is a 17-year-old of David Haines. Haines, a humanitarian worker who is murdered by ISIS in a video released nearly two weeks ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETHANY HAINES, DAUGHTER OF HUMANITARIAN WORKER KILLED BY ISIS: IS needs to abdicate. They can't continue to do this, no matter nationality western or not, hundreds of civilians have been killed by them. They need to be stopped. If this is what it takes, that's what it takes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So Bethany also spoke of her family's need to have her father's body returned.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAINES: We have not had a body. I don't know if it's to prolong peoples pain that they're not returning it, or they don't feel they need to do it. But as -- as an adult or some someone, you want closure. They tried to hurt us by taking away someone we loved. But in a way we failed, everybody knows we'll have a part of him with us forever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Bethany Haines, 17 years old.

Let's get back to that dramatic battler between ISIS militants and Kurdish forces exchanging fire on a hillside straddling the Syria- Turkish border. We showed you earlier that this exclusive CNN footage where ISIS forces had inched closer to the northwest from within Syria.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel saying just a short time ago that a buffer zone on the Turkish border may become a possibility. I want to bring in former CNN counterterrorism analyst, his name is Aki Peritz.

He co-authored "Find, Fix, Finish, A Look Inside the Counterterrorism Campaign That Led to the Killing of Osama Bin Laden and Weakening of Al Qaeda." Thank you very much for joining us.

I want to talk about as you look at this video, what does it tell you about the movements? You said they're trying to consolidate their gains in the north by the Turkish border. Is that what's going on?

AKI PERITZ, FORMER CIA COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: They're trying to consolidate the land that they have. There's only a few places where you can actually go from Turkey into Syria. Land borders and the like.

So they're trying to actually push against the Syrian-Kurdish areas and take over that whole area, but the Kurds are fighting back. But remember that ISIS is actually creating a massive refugee crisis.

Over 100,000 people have left that area in the last week. To put this in perspective, it's the equivalent of Boulder, Colorado being depopulated within a matter of days.

LEMON: I want you to hold that thought about the Kurds, I have a question for you. But first, as you look at that video and the fighting, does this say to you that, you know, ISIS is not the giant that we think it is or does it confirm that for you?

PERITZ: Well, it's always tough to look at very tactical videos. We all know that ISIS actually has heavy weaponry and the Syrian-Kurds actually have light weaponry. So, unless they -- unless there's a push, ISIS may triumph in the end.

That's where American air power can really make the difference. The Kurds are the ones fighting and dying on the ground near Kobani and that general vicinity.

LEMON: So you say that ISIS has a lot of technology, the Kurds have light weaponry, and they have a lot of guts. What are you suggesting America should be doing with the Kurds?

PERITZ: Well, there are several things. Obviously we're committing to airstrikes throughout Syria right now against ISIS positions. As we run out of targets in Raqqa and other places throughout Syria, we may consider firing on ISIS positions that are pressuring the Syrian- Kurdish areas.

Obviously we have to work with commanders on the ground because we don't want to accidentally hit the Syrian-Kurdish fighters as they retake things on the battlefield.

LEMON: You're suggesting that they link up and provide help for the Kurds. The U.S. should be striking there. Can we talk about Khorasan right now?

PERITZ: Sure.

LEMON: Dempsey said it is too soon to tell whether airstrikes killed any of the leaders of ISIS or the Khorasan Group. What threat could Khorasan still pose here?

PERITZ: Well, the thing about Khorasan and al Nusra, which is the organization that al Qaeda has really sort of taken over, is that this organization could actually train and recruit people with American and European passports to go and commit operations abroad, whether it's here, in the U.K. where I am now or in the United States.

That's really the nut of the issue. They could also -- they also could see what kind of explosives they could create. They could train them, equip these things on their fighters. So, until we know what happened with the fighters and the leaders of this organization, they still remain a very large threat.

LEMON: Aki Peritz, thank you, great information. We appreciate you joining us here on CNN.

Removing the heads of their victims. It's the calling card of ISIS militants, but it may be the new pledge of allegiance for ISIS supporters around the world. Police in Oklahoma say a man suspected of beheading a woman at work may have been trying to convert people to Islam. A live report coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Welcome back, everyone. If you're confused about the direct threat of terrorism right now, you are not alone. In the last 24 hours, we have gotten really some incredible and some contradictory information.

U.S. officials say the new Iraqi prime minister got it wrong when he said his country uncovered an imminent ISIS plot against New York and Paris subways. In fact even his own guy, the Iraqi president, said he has no clue what his prime minister was talking about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FUAD MASUM, IRAQI PRESIDENT (through translator): Personally I don't have any information about this. I have not heard or seen exactly what he said. It could be that it's an expectation to -- of this to happen by a sleeper cell and they retaliate. But they could resort to such things, but as detailed, accurate information, I have not seen any information like this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So instead the real threat may come from an al Qaeda terror cell known as Khorasan Group. In fact, FBI Director James Comey admitted he is not confident at all that U.S. airstrikes disrupted the group's ambitions to hit American targets.

Saying they could, quote, "carry out the attack tomorrow, next week, or months from now." Then there's a claim by the counterterrorism chief from the European Union that some 3,000 European westerners were either in Syria, had been there, or planned to go there to fight.

And that there was a real risk some of them could return and commit attacks on western targets. So, let's talk about beheadings, shall we? They're the M.O. of ISIS militants, not the kind of crime you would expect to hear in a small town outside of Oklahoma City.

But now the FBI is investigating after a woman was beheaded while working at a food distribution warehouse. Now we're learning that this ISIS style of killing may not be a coincidence.

We want to go to CNN's Martin Savidge who is following it for us. We're hearing that the FBI may be called in to investigate claims that he was trying to convert people to Islam. Obviously there's a fear of copycat killings by ISIS supporters here. What can you tell us about that?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you point out, ISIS itself put out a call to people who may be sympathetic to their cause to launch attacks. Could this be something like that? There's no doubt that there is that concern, there are some red flags.

Yesterday this was first reported as a workplace dispute. It was a man who had been fired. It looked at that time that possibly this person had sought revenge by attacking people where he worked.

However, today we learned that M.O., the first person he attacked was a woman he not only stabbed her but beheaded her. As you point out, these days any time you hear that word, you think automatically of terror.

On top of that, according to authorities, this same person who is identified as Alton Nolen, 30 years old is the suspect. He tried to convert fellow employees at that plant before he was fired to becoming a member of the Islamic faith.

So add those things together and people are starting to say wait a minute, maybe this was something inspired or he was sympathetic to the terrorist causes. That's why the local police called in the FBI.

The FBI would be looking at this man's social footprint on social media, trying to find out what web sites or with whom was he communicating? Was he getting orders from somewhere or merely finding these videos readily available out there and finding he liked what he was hearing from ISIS?

We don't know. It's still being investigated. In the heartland of America, it is sending shock waves across the rest of the country.

LEMON: I have to ask you, in the beginning when the beheadings started, we heard about all the ISIS recruits possibly coming from the United States, there were certain things in their background, maybe the regions in the world where they originally had ties to. Is there anything in this man's background that would lend to this activity?

SAVIDGE: From what we are hearing, I have to warn you, this has only just begun, the investigation only today. It will take some days, but it seems at least on the federal level they are looking at this as if it's possibly a lone wolf.

In other words, someone inspired by ISIS, but not a card carrying member, someone not directed to come here and carry out an assault. It's way too early. They are just starting to follow the threats.

LEMON: Got it, thank you very much. Martin Savidge following this bizarre story happening in Oklahoma City. Thank you.