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American Suspected of Trying to Join ISIS; Joe Biden Under Fire; Battle Against ISIS Continues

Aired October 06, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: A lot of people are talking about travel to Syria or their support for ISIS and other -- some of the other groups that are over there fighting.

And so it does appear that they were onto him well before he decided to buy this plane ticket, $4,000 plane ticket, and he decided to show up at O'Hare Airport to fly first to Vienna and then on to Istanbul. Now, he had a detailed plan, according to the FBI. While he was at the airport, they searched his home, his parents' home, and they found documents, handwritten documents, including his plan to go from Istanbul by bus to Eskisehir, which is a very difficult name to pronounce, in Turkey, and then down to Urfa, which is down in south, right on the border, near the border with Syria.

This is a route that a lot of people have used, not only Americans, but Europeans, to get over to Syria and to try to join the fight.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: OK. Evan, hang with me.

Ted, to you. I presume you're standing in front of the home, his parents' home. At 19, was he living with his parents?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, apparently living with his parents and brothers and sisters referred to in the indictment that was handed down by the federal authorities.

And this is a classic Midwestern suburban community and they lived in -- live in a classic Midwestern home here. And talking to neighbors there, obviously, as is always the case, they're shocked that this young man would be accused of something as he is.

But they also said that they kept to themselves, the family here didn't come out much, so nobody really knew him at least that we have talked to in this neighborhood.

One of the things that was featured in that indictment that was handed down by the federal government was a letter that was taken from this home from Khan to his parents telling them not to tell the authorities and saying that he was going to fight in Syria for the Islamic State and that he even invited them to come fight with him because he said that he was disgusted by the fact that now that he was an adult, he would have to pay taxes in the United States, and he couldn't foresee himself contributing to the denigration of the Western society, as he sees it, and paying taxes to that effort, so that a very compelling piece of evidence found inside this classic suburban home. BALDWIN: I hear we have sound from some people you talked to, Ted.

Go ahead and roll it, Jeff.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I really don't know anything about them. I do know they stick to themselves. And I have ridden by quite a few times, waved high, and no response, just (INAUDIBLE) stare.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That was just one example, Ted Rowlands, of someone you spoke to obviously in the neighborhood.

But, Evan, I have to come back to you, because I just want a little bit more from you as far as what was found in the parents' home. You alluded to some of the notes and also this round-trip ticket that he bought.

PEREZ: Well, Brooke, that's a very key, key part of this. A lot of people are very suspicious about did he plan to come back? I will tell you this. The FBI keeps an eye on people that buy one-way tickets. This is a classic way for you to try to avoid detection.

According to the FBI, he was interviewed for three hours on Saturday night after he was arrested and he waived his Miranda rights and he told them that he was going there to either do humanitarian work or possibly to engage in combat. He had -- according to the affidavit that the feds filed, he also had a list of people, four people, that he said he was going to be in touch with once he got there.

And so we don't know exactly whether there were any other recruiters in this country. But we know that he knew who he was getting in touch with once he got to Turkey and then eventually to Syria.

BALDWIN: This is all this information now sort of coming out. I'm sure we will be learning more and more. We will be watching for both of your reporting throughout the course of the evening here on CNN.

Evan Perez, Ted Rowlands, thank you both very much.

And as we hear about this right now, I want to show you a picture on top of a building. The most feared flag in the world is now flying. See that? We spotlighted it for you. The black flag of ISIS hoisted on to this building and a hilltop in Kobani. This is a key border city. It straddles that Syrian/Turkish border and for three weeks this has been the flash point of a deadly assault by ISIS militants.

And today Kurdish fighters are seemingly losing the battle in the southeastern part of the city. You have these Turkish forces. They have fortified their long frontier their country shares with Syria and Iraq, but thus far, they have not engaged directly, even though Kobani -- we showed you the map -- sits basically on Turkey's doorstep.

Want you to take a listen to what the Turkish prime minister told CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AHMET DAVUTOGLU, TURKISH PRIME MINISTER: We will do everything possible to help people of Kobani because they are our brothers and sisters. We don't see them as Kurds or Turkmen Arabs. If there is a need of intervention to Kobani, we are telling that there is a need of intervention to all Syria, all of our border.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Joining me now, Arwa Damon, our senior international correspondent there along the border.

Arwa, it's pitch black where you are, 10:00 your time, just after, maybe perhaps advantageous for the ISIS fighters because of the night- vision equipment, correct?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right.

The Kurdish fighting force, the YPG, had initially thought that when ISIS managed to enter the city of Kobani that perhaps they, the Kurdish fighting force, would have the upper hand given that they have local knowledge of the streets, but instead they found themselves at a very decisive disadvantage because they say ISIS has night-vision capabilities, snipers with night scopes that they have at their disposal.

Now, we spent all day watching the fighting taking place in Kobani, being pounded by artillery, the ISIS flag flying not just from that building, but also from a very strategically located hilltop. The fighters that are inside, they are doing whatever it is that they can, but quite frankly, they cannot hold out indefinitely. They want to see more international action. They want to see the coalition doing more.

There's also a lot of indignation and anger at the fact that this U.S.-led coalition let the situation in Kobani deteriorate to this degree. They feel as if there were plenty of opportunities when ISIS was out in the open, whether it was when they were fighting on hilltops or moving massive convoys of their equipment and military machinery that the coalition could have used these opportunities to actually take out these ISIS fighters, and instead Kobani finds itself on the brink of collapse.

BALDWIN: Arwa Damon, thank you so much for your reporting.

I got to pull away because we're getting some breaking news in the war against ISIS because we're now hearing of mortars in Baghdad, in the capital city. We're also learning about the U.S. Apache helicopters targeting ISIS in Fallujah. Coming up next, we will talk live with the Air Force colonel who actually developed the air strategy for Operation Desert Storm. How does he grade the U.S. airstrikes thus far and what might he do differently? He will join me live.

Plus, a nurse who heads a union that represents nurses nationwide says they are unprepared to handle Ebola patients. What's being done to change that? Let's find out next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A key border city could be about to fall to ISIS militants.

And the most ominous sign of victory, they have just raised, as we were discussing with Arwa Damon, their black flags, plural, over the city of Kobani there on the Turkish/Syrian border. But back in Baghdad, alarms have been sounding as we're getting now these reports that mortars are falling within the city's Green Zone.

We're also watching Fallujah very, very closely. That's the city captured and then lost by ISIS and as Iraqi forces are struggling to keep that city and U.S. Apache helicopters are now moving in.

Joining me now, John Warden, retired U.S. Air Force -- Colonel John Warden, retired U.S. Air Force and author of "The Air Campaign."

Sir, you developed the so-called five-rings theory of air attack. Hit its leadership, communications and transportation, infrastructure, popular support, and the troops in the field. And we will get to that in just a minute and your own experience, but first just welcome to you.

And let's begin with this shelling, Colonel, in Baghdad's Green Zone. A major push on nearby Fallujah. We keep hearing that Baghdad, it is too big to fall but might that be the U.S. underestimating ISIS again?

COL. JOHN WARDEN (RET.), U.S. AIR FORCE: Well, that's entirely possible.

Baghdad is big. Taking cities is big. But the mere fact that these guys are able to get even close to it I find that to be extraordinarily disturbing. It simply should not be happening.

BALDWIN: What about this Apache helicopter offensive now in the area? Your take?

WARDEN: So helicopters are certainly useful, but they don't have the same capability as fixed-wing airplanes, nor to the best of my knowledge do they have the numbers that would really be required to be effective in this particular kind of an operation.

BALDWIN: So this is what's happening. This is the information we're getting out of Baghdad. Let me just ask you based upon your own experience about your five-pronged air operation strategy from Operation Desert Storm. Could the success you saw then, Colonel, work in, say, Kobani on the Turkish-Syrian border now?

WARDEN: I see no reason why it -- that it shouldn't.

But what our problem is, is that so far we have been averaging something like only five or 10 sorties per day. So in the first day of operations in the first Gulf War, we flew more than 100 times that many and that was something that the Iraqis simply couldn't withstand. We haven't done that yet. BALDWIN: At what point will we do that? This is a very different

war. The president has made it very clear this is an entirely different situation, but at what point might that be necessary?

WARDEN: So the president declaring it's a different kind of a war doesn't make it a different kind of war. What the president has really said is that he intends to conduct the war in a very measured, very slow kind of way, which he may or may not realize but that really is by far the most dangerous, the most expensive kind of a war to fight and the one that has the lowest probability of winning. It's not a good idea.

BALDWIN: What would be a good idea, sir?

WARDEN: A good idea is to put enough airplanes from both the sea and from the ground over the skies of Syria and over the skies of Iraq that you simply induce an operational and a strategic paralysis on the part of the Islamic State guys.

I would guess that right now that the majority of these guys have not yet seen an American fighter or bomber attack of any kind because the attack intensity has been so extraordinarily low. This is not the way to fight an air war.

BALDWIN: Just curious. As we talk so much about Kobani and I have talk to other military experts who say this is insignificant, that the taking of Kobani is insignificant. But I guess my pushback on that would be, is it not symbolic here that this is part of the sort of strategic highway that ISIS would be creating and this then would be encroaching upon Turkey?

WARDEN: To me, I would agree with you, that it probably has little or no military value, but it probably has a fair amount of strategic value because it's another, if you will, another feather in the Islamic State cap that in the face of apparently the strength of America, here these guys are able to capture cities on the Turkish border away from the Kurds. It's not a very good thing to have happen from an overall psychological standpoint.

BALDWIN: You hit the nail on the head saying psychological. Isn't so much about war psychological? Colonel John Warden, thank you so much. Come back. We appreciate your expertise.

WARDEN: Pleasure.

BALDWIN: Coming up, Vice President Joe Biden forced to apologize for comments he made about U.S. allies and ISIS. Hear the president's off-the-cuff comments that are getting him in some trouble today and the harsh words one world leader had in response.

Plus, how prepared are our U.S. hospitals for an Ebola outbreak, especially after what we have been seeing in Dallas? My next guest is a nurse and she says her fellow nurses across the country are not, I repeat, are not ready to deal with Ebola patients. What needs to change? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Now to Ebola and a new development out of Spain.

Health Ministry officials in Madrid have just confirmed a nurse has tested positive for Ebola. She treated an infected Spanish missionary who recently died. And this is significant because this makes this the first known case from this current Ebola outbreak to have been contracted outside of West Africa. Certainly, this will heighten concerns among American nurses.

Many say they are worried they are not prepared to treat Ebola patients and protect themselves at the same time.

So, let's talk to a nurse. Joining me now is Karen Higgins, an intensive care unit nurse at Boston Medical Center and the co- president of the nurses union National Nurses United.

Karen, thank you for being a nurse first and foremost. And thank you for joining me. Listen, I know you all had a scare over the weekend, thought maybe this patient had Ebola, turns out to be malaria. But why do you feel that nurses are unprepared?

KAREN HIGGINS, CO-PRESIDENT, NATIONAL NURSES UNITED: Well, I mean, I think the issue is that we had obviously been concerned about this before Dallas happened, and I think Dallas was an opening to be able to actually do a quick survey and look at nurses and ask them across the country how prepared were they and how prepared are they?

And 85 percent of the nurses that we spoke to -- and I think there was over 1,500 that they actually got a quick survey very rapidly -- said that they felt they were not prepared and that they either didn't have any information or what they had they felt was very lacking.

So, you know, our goal here is to not live in fear of this, but to basically have a plan in effect that would actually work across this country. And so what we're doing is saying, you know what? We need the government, we need CDC and we need the State Departments of public health to get together and come up with a uniform plan.

The problem is in this country, we have multiple health care systems and they're all independent and they all are doing what they feel they should be doing, and none of them are consistent in any way, shape or form. So, as we have seen, we need to be able to do this.

What we want is a uniform plan, so that people don't live in fear, but to actually understand there is a really strong uniform plan in place.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: That's what it is. Just so I'm hearing you loud and clear, it's not that you lack the facility, the technology, the medicine, although there is lacking in medicine in this particular story, but it's just simply the X, Y, Z, the ticktock, the if and when an Ebola patient comes in, then, boom, you know what to do.

HIGGINS: Right. What we should be doing and why we want to talk to state departments

of public health is we should be able to come down with a plan that actually gives us specific hospitals. Not every hospital needs to take Ebola patients if in fact they show up.

We should have hospitals that are ready, that basically their staff is well-trained to be able to take these. We have seen this in some of the hospitals that have been taking these patients from Africa. We should have equipment. We should have a place where they can go, so that they would be the hospitals that would be the actual hospital that would take these patients no matter where they show up.

And then we should have the staff well-trained to be able to do this. It shouldn't be just for Ebola. It should be for any disease that we have concerns about. Right now, that's not in place and that's the biggest fear. You can go from place to place and you can find we go from being in hazmat suits to basically being in gowns and boots. That's not good. That's not good for patients. That's not good for the health care worker and it's not good for the hospital to be doing this.

What we're looking for is someone to come up with a plan that is actually uniform and that we are all doing the same thing and that we don't need to put all of these patients in every hospital if they show up in different places, that we actually have designated places where we can put them in.

I think it would lower the fear and then well-trained nurses, a lot of good equipment to follow through, and I think that this would basically help everybody dealing with this in the future and going forward.

BALDWIN: Karen Higgins, I know we have the phenomenal nurses. We just need the plan. I think everyone sort of in the United States is watching sort of nodding their head saying, yes, yes, we need that preparation and we need that plan. I hope we get that.

Karen Higgins, thank you so much for me in Boston. I really appreciate it.

(CROSSTALK)

HIGGINS: No problem. We're working hard, like I said, to try and make sure that we do, do this for people. Hopefully, we will have a plan and we will be better prepared and people don't have to live in fear of what's out there right now.

BALDWIN: I have no doubt you all not just in Boston but across the country are working hard on that. We appreciate you very much for doing so.

HIGGINS: No problem.

BALDWIN: Let's move along. Some of the United States' allies in this fight against ISIS did not take too kindly to the remarks made by Vice President Joe Biden. What did he say that led him to apologize? And was there any truth in what he said? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Just about the bottom of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Vice President Joe Biden definitely has a reputation for speaking his mind and his off-the-cuff style has got him into trouble yet again, because the vice president made two apologies to a pair of world leaders over the weekend, the fallout from remarks he made last week during his Q&A session at Harvard. Here it was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our allies in the region were our largest problem in Syria.

The Turks were great friends. And I have great relationship with Erdogan, which I just spent a lot of time with, the Saudis, the Emiratis, et cetera. What were they doing? They were so determined to take down Assad and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war, what did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens -- thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad, except that the people who were being supplied were al-Nusra and al Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That was the vice president last Thursday.

Flash forward to Turkey and the United Arab Emirates definitely taking exception to the vice president's implication that they have been aiding, helping ISIS terrorists. Turkey's president even said Biden will be -- quote, unquote -- "history to me" if he doesn't apologize.

What did the vice president do? He called both leaders in both countries to clarify that he never meant to imply they were intentionally backing terror groups.