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Mandatory Ebola Temperature Screenings; FBI: Help Us ID Possible American Jihadist; U.S. Conducts Six Airstrikes In Kobani; Tycoon Calls For 3-Day Work Week; Actor Stephen Collins Faces Molestation Probe

Aired October 08, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You will get your temperature checked when you come to the U.S. You will also be asked questions, were you exposed? Were you near an Ebola patient?

Are you experiencing symptoms like vomiting or diarrhea? This is a sea change from what's currently happening. When I came in from Liberia to Atlanta on September 27, there was basically no screening whatsoever, which I found really shocking.

So we've been talking a lot about this on CNN. I've been talking about my experience and now the federal government has decided, yes, we are going to start screening people including temperature checks.

They won't be putting a thermometer in anyone's month. They're thermometers that are aimed right here. It almost looks like a gun. It's a little scary that you see it. They point it at your temple and that takes your temperature.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, I know you're trying to dig up more information on this. Elizabeth Cohen reporting for us live from Dallas.

The FBI makes a bold and unusual move and asks you and your neighbors do you know this ISIS terrorist hiding behind a mask? In a gruesome propaganda tape released last month, this man appears to execute captured Syrian soldiers who are unarmed.

Here's why the FBI is now involved. This man sounds like he could be American so now the feds are asking you to listen carefully to his whole message, which is in both English and in Arabic. Here's a sample.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're here in the 17th Division military base just outside the city of Raqqa. We are here with the soldiers of Bashar. You can see them now digging their own graves in the very place where they were stationed.

The very place where they were stationed terrorizing the Muslims in Raqqa. That will be carried out on the same soldiers by the brothers from the Mujahadeen that captured them and behind them you can see the officers' residence filled with bullet holes and artillery shells from the Islamic State.

This is the end of every one that we get a hold of. This is the end that they face. We must stop fighting and turn our guns towards the Muslims. They lie. We are the harshest wars that they fought and the flames of war are only beginning to intensify. The fighting has just begun.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Brian Todd is in Washington with more on the investigation. Good morning.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, carol. This man appears only at the very end of 55-minute ISIS propaganda video, but his presence in that video is chilling and it resonates all the way to Washington.

The man speaks perfect English. He moves seamlessly from English to Arabic. From his accent, experts tell us he could be Arab and educated in the west. He could be American or Canadian.

It's his speech patterns and his actions in the video, which have the FBI and western intelligence agencies eager to hunt him down. He gloats over the prisoners he is about to kill.

He taunts the west. I spoke with analysts about why is would put him in this video and about the horrifying act he appears to commit on camera.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANK CILLUFFO, HOMELAND SECURITY POLICY INSTITUTE: Clearly ISIS had a calculated step to be able to put this guy on camera. Why? Because he seems American, the message is aimed at a western audience and his intent is to, A, project fear to the United States, and, B, to instil and give this sense of a projection of power.

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORIST ANALYST: This is a North American. This is quite extraordinary because it would be the first time that a North American ISIS fighter has committed a war crime on camera.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: Now one big question here. Now that the FBI is firmly on this man's trail, did ISIS make a mistake by exposing this guy, by having him say too much on camera, maybe do too much on camera? Analyst, Frank Cilluffo, says maybe they didn't make a mistake in their eyes.

The value for them, he says, is in propaganda and recruiting. If this man gets captured or killed, they have more westerners in their ranks -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Brian Todd reporting live from Washington. Thank you so much.

The FBI has put together this wanted poster and they want it plastered on every TV and computer screen in America. Can you identify man in the mask? If you can -- and that seems rather difficult to me -- call 1-800-callFBI.

Is it possible to identify this guy from this picture? I don't know. Let's talk about that. Haras Rafiq is the head of Outreach at the Quilliam Foundation, a think tank focused on counter extremism. He joins us now from London. Good morning, sir.

HARAS RAFIQ, OUTREACH OFFICER, QUILLIAM FOUNDATION Good morning.

COSTELLO: Is that poster remotely helpful?

RAFIQ: I think the poster in itself plays a number of roles. One of is to get the American Muslim community engaged in trying to play their bit in identifying people, but what will give us more information is the voice, the voice patterns, the speech, the mannerisms.

The eyes themselves may give something away because let's not forget that there will be somebody who knows that they know somebody who's disappeared over the last few months who's gone to Iraq and Syria.

This particular video is clearly made in Eastern Syria so it's not new. It's certainly a few months old, but the voice patterns certainly may give us more than the poster itself.

But it's also very, very important that the American Muslim community play their role because these guys now are focusing on a crusader narrative.

We've just had a foiled beheading attack, four guys arrested yesterday in London. We had the same in Australia, the same in Norway. It may well be coming to the U.S. and they would differentiate between American Muslims and non-Muslims.

So it's very important that the Americans play their part in identifying anybody that may be out there.

COSTELLO: I'd like to concentrate on the voice. Authorities are now saying he has a North American accent. What does that mean?

RAFIQ: Well, when they say North American, they're talking about either Canada or the USA as opposed to Southern America. It's the way that he -- the inflection in his voice, the tone, the way he pronounces certain things.

But it's also interesting that the message has been altered so trying not to give too much away. Certainly from the Arabic and certainly the pronunciation of the Arabic as well, it tells us one of two things.

Either he is somebody who is from an Arabic ethnic origin or somebody who's learned his Arabic whilst he was either throughout or from somebody before he went out there who is certainly an Arab.

COSTELLO: I ask you that question because other experts I've talked to says he doesn't sound like he's North American. He sounds almost like a Syrian, have been in Syria who knows English very well.

RAFIQ: Well, experts are saying that he's a North American chap. It's his tone and the inflection, the way he actually says certain words that give a lot more away, but they could well be right and this is certainly a -- just as we had a difference of opinion on who is Jihadi John.

And whether it's one person or two people, whether it's certain parts of London or whether his voice has been altered slightly. This we can tell has been clearly altered digitally.

And certainly majority of experts that I've spoken to who've listened to the voice, the inflection, the speech patterns, say he's sounding as if he's been educated in North America.

His ethnic origin may be in dispute, but certainly somebody who has lived in North America for a period of time.

COSTELLO: Haras Rafiq, thank you so much for your insight. I appreciate it. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The United States says it will not be overly concerned if Kobani falls to ISIS, but it won't sit back and let it happen, exactly. Over the last two days, the U.S.-led coalition conducted six air strikes near the town on the Syrian/Turkish border.

Destroying an ISIS armored personnel carrier and other vehicles plus two artillery weapons. Forty ISIS fighters were also reportedly killed. If ISIS does take control of Kobani, it will control a section of land between its self-declared capital and Turkey that encompasses 62 miles.

Still, the U.S. says the goal is not to save cities and towns, but to go after ISIS' senior leadership.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESWOMAN: No one wants to see Kobani fall, but our primary objective here is preventing ISIL from gaining a safe haven and our focus strategically is on, as I outlined, command- and-control structures, oil refineries, that's where we're taking our military action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Arwa Damon joins us now from the Turkish/Syrian border. Arwa, how devastating would it be if Kobani did fall?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It would be for a number of different reasons, not just because of that strategic logistical route that would open up, but also because of the shear humanitarian catastrophe that has resulted because of ISIS' push into this entire area that began well over two weeks ago. Kobani historically has been known as a city, a town of resistance for the Kurds, they most certainly are going to fight until the very end, but there's a lot of anger and frustration upon hearing that rhetoric coming out from the United States that Kobani was not a priority.

Because people will say to you, look, America came to the rescue, the coalition came to the rescue of certain cities in Iraq, for example, Baghdad, Erbil, the dam in Mosul, are that lives of those people there worth more than the lives of the Syrian-Kurds here trying to beat ISIS back or the tens of thousands that have now refugees in neighboring Turkey?

That being said, though, there is a certain sense of appreciation over the last few days for that handful of airstrikes that did take place because fighters inside Kobani will tell you that that has to a certain degree forced ISIS to advance on foot.

But that being said, they do want to see more take place and there is also a lot of frustration that these airstrikes did not take place before ISIS managed to get a foothold in Kobani -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Kobani is right up against the Turkish border. Turkey has expressed frustration with the United States as well. Why doesn't Turkey enter the fray?

DAMON: Well, it's quite complicated for Turkey. Its military has been massed along the border and a lot of people are saying, look, just drive your tanks across it. It's not as simple as. That one has to takes into consideration the complex and tense relationship between the Turks and the Kurds.

The Kurdish fighting force at the very least wants to see Turkey allow a corridor that would mean that they could get weapons, resupply. Turkey not agreeing to that until the YPG, the Kurdish fighting force, joins the Free Syrian Army, the more moderate rebel fighting force as it is largely being described.

Turkey also wants to see a bigger operation, a more border and defined policy before it's going to join any sort of potential coalition. Turkey wants certain guarantees from the U.S and its allies. They want a no-fly zone. They want a buffer zone.

They want to know that should they decide to take part in this coalition, the end game not going to just be decimating and defeating ISIS, but also ultimately going after the regime itself that they view as being as big a threat as ISIS to the stability, not just of Syria but of the entire region -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Arwa Damon, reporting live for us this morning. Thank you so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, feel like the work week is dragging on forever? Well, the richest man in the world says you're working way too much. Christine Romans, I like this man.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: His name is Carlos Slim, Carol, and he thinks you should work three days a week, but you'll have to work until you're 75. I'll tell you what his take is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: I know, you're working your fingers to the bone and you're not getting paid much for it and your boss does not care. But now you've got some backup, although I don't know if it will mean anything, really.

But the Mexican billionaire tycoon, Carlos Slim, says the work week should actually be cut in half. Wow. Christine Romans sat down and talked with Mr. Slim.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: He's doubling down on it. He says it will happen, Carol. He says we're going to work smarter. Why are we working 40 hours, 50 hours, 60 hours five days a week? Listen to what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLOS SLIM, MEXICAN BILLIONAIRE TYCOON: I think that people should work three days.

ROMANS: Three days.

SLIM: Maybe 11 hours, but not retire at 60 or 65. They should retire at 75. But you should have more time for you doing your life, not when you are 65 and retire, but you will have more time for entertainment, for family, for quality of your life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: For quality of life.

COSTELLO: What is that?

ROMANS: Isn't that amazing.

COSTELLO: I don't know what that is.

ROMANS: He talks about working until 75 because there are a lot of things you can still learn and offer into your 70s and how many of us know somebody who retired and said "I don't want to retire" and goes back to work? He is 74. A lot of successful people are working much, much longer.

COSTELLO: OK, so let me ask you a question, how many hours of work does Mr. Slim work?

ROMANS: Well, I think he works a lot. The guy is always on duty. But he loves his work and I asked this, actually, the fashion designer Cynthia Rowley. I recently asked her "do you believe you should lean in" like Cheryl Sandberg says or "lean back" like Arianna Huffington.

She said "I work all the time because I love to work. Successful people work all the time." So you have this two-speed message. There are people going, going, going and super successful.

Then some of the big thinkers are saying now, wait a minute, maybe we should be working more smartly.

COSTELLO: Here's the thing, not everyone aspires to be a multimillionaire or a super successful business person. Most people are happy with what -- $40,000 a year is the figure most polls show because they want to spend more time with their family so why shouldn't they work less?

ROMANS: We should take the vacation that we're due because most people don't take the vacation they're due, maybe because they don't feel like they have job security.

Talk to Richard Branson, another billionaire who says, you know, you should have unlimited vacation. There are others who think we should have more part time jobs so people can double up on part time jobs.

That means you have to have decent wages for the jobs that are there because you still have to pay the rent. No one is going to cut your hours of rent or gas you have to pay in your car.

I think Larry Page, one of the Google founders, echoes similar things. Technology will allow us to change the way we work and to do different things with our time and that all of these guys are talking about it shows we're moving in this direction where work will look different in the next generations than in the past.

COSTELLO: I'll believe it when I see it. I'm like you, I work all the time because I like.

ROMANS: Carol, you work half days, 12 hours every day, right?

COSTELLO: Exactly. As do you.

ROMANS: Takes one to know one.

COSTELLO: Christine Romans, thanks so much. You can see Christine's full interview with tycoon, Carlos Slim on CNN "Money" this weekend right here on CNN, this Saturday at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, 27 days, that's when the nation heads to the polls. It could change the balance of power in the Senate. What? You don't care? Maybe you should? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: An audio recording that purports to have been recorded during a therapy session between Collins and his estranged wife.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many times (inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you said that there was another girl. How many girls all together?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's it. There was (inaudible) sister, there was --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sister who is ten because she wrote me, 10, 11, 12 around several years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were I think there were -- yes, there were, like, three incidents over about three years.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So -- and then there was the girl across the way on (Inaudible). And then there's -- so just three? You're sure?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Sara Sidner has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Steven Collins has played many roles including a cheating husband in the "First Wives Club," an ambassador in the movie "Blood Diamond" and Diane Keaton's love interest in the movie "Because I Said So."

But he is perhaps best known for his role as pastor on the television show "7th Heaven" that ran from 1996 to 2007. In real life, Collins is the target of an ongoing child molestation investigation from an alleged incident 40 years ago in New York City.

A law enforcement source telling CNN a woman came forward in 2012 saying Collins forced her to touch him inappropriately when she was 14, but no charges were ever filed. But the investigation came to light Tuesday after TMZ released an audiotape where it says Collins made incriminating statements.

According to TMZ, the recording was made by Collins' estranged wife, Faye Grant, during a counseling session two years ago. CNN was unable to confirm whether the recording is, indeed, Collins' voice or whether the recording was edited.

The NYPD would not confirm or denied the heard the recordings. His estranged wife, Faye Grant told "E" news "I woke up today to learn an extremely private recording I handed over to the authorities in 2012 per their request in connection with a criminal investigation was recently disseminated to the press.

I had no involvement whatsoever to the release of the tape to the media." For the past two years, the couple has been involved in a contentious divorce case. CNN obtained documents from the proceedings that began in 2012.

In court documents, Faye Grant, alleges her husband had been engaged in a "long-term pattern of sexually molesting children" and that he had, quote, "admitted that he had sexually molested three underage girls over a decade ago."

In the documents, Collins does not specifically address the claims, but he made a reference to it saying "this is really an attempt to extort concessions in a settlement."