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Three Israeli-American Rabbis Killed in Ax Attack; Governor Declares State of Emergency; White House Hostage Policy Review; Early Winter Like Weather; Feds Link Virginia Woman to ISIS Recruitment; Interview with U.S. Senator Dan Coats of Indiana

Aired November 18, 2014 - 09:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM.

Breaking overnight, a synagogue attack in Jerusalem. Four people are dead. Israel this morning saying they will respond with a heavy hand.

Plus, hostage review. President Obama ordering a comprehensive review of our policy against negotiating with terrorists. Should American families be thrown in jail for trying to pay a ransom?

And whiteout. A third of America, a third of America, snow-covered and shivering harsh winter winds set to break records for millions of us. Forty-nine of 50 states waking up below freezing this morning.

Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We begin this hour with breaking news out of the Middle East.

Two men armed with knives and axes storm into a Jerusalem synagogue and hack away at worshippers. Four Israeli civilians are killed and just over an hour ago, we learned three of those victims were Israeli Americans. And because of that, the FBI will launch an investigation of its own.

Well, let's head to Ben Wedeman, he's live in Jerusalem with more for you.

Hi, Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Yes, the Israeli Emergency Services received a call at 7:00 in the morning local time. When it turned out that two men had entered this synagogue in the Har Nof neighborhood. People were there for morning prayers.

These two men are two Palestinians in their 20s, cousins from the Palestinian neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, in east Jerusalem. They entered not only with knives, axes, a handgun, it also appears from the pictures, they had meat cleavers as well. They started to attack the worshippers. Four of them were killed.

When these attackers were leaving the synagogue, Israeli Police only took seven minutes to arrive on the scene. They engaged and killed these two attackers.

Now the -- we understand, as you mentioned, that three of those victims were -- three of the dead are Israeli American citizens, dual nationality. The fourth is a British Israeli national as well. So the FBI is going to become involved in the investigation. We don't know what British authorities are going to do.

Now it was roundly condemned, this attack, by -- rather, Secretary of State John Kerry, and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who said that Israel would come down with a firm hand on those who were behind the attacks.

Now he's blaming, in part, the Hamas and the Palestinian Authority for what he calls incitement, to attack Israelis in Jerusalem. This is a result of the tensions revolving around the access of Jewish worshippers to the Temple Mount, or the Haram al-Sharif as it's known, to Muslims.

Now we understand that last Thursday evening, Secretary of State Kerry met with the king of Jordan and the Israeli prime minister to try to lessen tensions in Jerusalem. And for a couple of days, things were relatively quiet. But they've definitely deteriorated since then -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Ben Wedeman reporting live for us this morning. We're going to be talking a lot about this a little later on in the NEWSROOM.

Answering calls for a tougher response to hostage-taking terrorists, President Obama has ordered a policy review. The announcement follows the execution of aid worker Peter Kassig, the third American hostage killed by ISIS. Kassig's father spoke movingly of forgiveness.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED KASSIG, PETER KASSIG'S FATHER: Greater love hath no man than this, than to lay down his life for another. A while ago, we were informed that our beloved son, Abdul Rahman, no longer walks this earth. Our hearts, though heavy, are held up by the love and support that has poured into our lives these last few days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The hostage policy review will include a focus on the captive's families. Previously families have criticized the Obama administration, saying it didn't follow leads or threatened criminal prosecution if ransoms were paid.

CNN's Joe Johns is at the White House with more for you this morning.

Good morning, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. This is supposed to be a comprehensive review, yes, looking at contact between the government and the families, as well as the intelligence community. Also, the diplomatic community. This review was ordered by the president over the summer, and it was

badly needed because so many families felt they were being caught in the middle between their concern about their loved ones and the often conflicting communications coming from the government.

The review was disclosed in an exchange of letters between Congressman Duncan Hunter of California and officials of the government, the National Security Council, actually put out a statement last night, confirming that this review was going on. Also saying that the government cannot tell people what they are doing, all the kinds of things they are doing to try to rescue hostages. Nonetheless, they say the review continues.

The big question, of course, is about that government policy on not paying ransom. And there's a reason for that, Carol. Obviously, if you pay the ransom, you finance terrorist activities and you just end up promoting more kidnappings and more ransoms. So it's sort of a vicious cycle. Perhaps the best definition of a vicious cycle -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Joe Johns reporting live from the White House this morning.

President Obama is one Senate vote away from a confrontation with Congress over the Keystone oil pipeline.

Just ahead of a runoff election, Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana says she now has the 60 votes needed to push the controversial pipeline forward. A vote to come as early as tonight. Fifteen Democrats need to join 45 Republicans in supporting the bill. Who that 60th vote is remains a mystery.

The bill, which passed the House last week, will take construction out of the hands of the Obama administration. Completion of the pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast is waiting for a review that has lasted six years.

The state of Missouri is now under a state of emergency. Governor Jay Nixon making the declaration and activating the National Guard ahead of the grand jury's decision in the shooting of Michael Brown. Nixon says the St. Louis Police will lead the response. Oddly, though, the governor was unable to say definitively who exactly would be in charge of security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Given that you have declared the state of emergency and you've put the Highway Patrol on the unified command, does the buck ultimately stop with you when it comes to how any protests are policed?

GOV. JAY NIXON (D), MISSOURI: You know it -- our goal is to -- is to, you know, keep the peace and allow folks' voices to be heard. I have to say, I don't spend a tremendous amount of time personalizing this, vis-a-vis me. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Well, I guess another way of putting that

would be, you know, is there any one official or agency ultimately in charge here in terms of response?

NIXON: We've worked hard to establish a unified command to outline the responsibilities. And now with the additional assets provided by my order today of the Missouri National Guard, you know, we've worked through, you know, a number of operational issues, the folks have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Nixon's announcement comes just days after the FBI issued a bulletin to law enforcement across the United States, warning that any protests following a grand jury announcement, quote, "will likely be exploited by some individuals to justify threats and attacks against law enforcement and critical infrastructure."

You know, like electric plants. For his part, Nixon says his belief is that peace will prevail, but he has a plan to tackle any problems that might arise.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO (voice-over): Primarily peaceful protests have in the past turned confrontational. Police have been accused of provoking the crowd and many people are displeased by the governor's declaration of a state of emergency in Ferguson.

ANTHONY GRAY, BROWN FAMILY ATTORNEY: I would go as far as to say the entire region is gripped by fear from the announcement of the National Guard, police, grenades, helmets, shields. It's like they're preparing for war instead of peace.

COSTELLO: It's not clear when a grand jury will hand down a decision on whether to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. And it's not clear how people will react.

AREVA MARTIN, ATTORNEY: People have formed opinions about it. You know, those that want to believe that Officer Wilson should be indicted, I don't think any decision by this grand jury is going to change their decisions about that.

COSTELLO: Governor Jay Nixon says he's bringing in the National Guard as a precaution, in case the announcement sparks violence, like what has occasionally been seen in the aftermath of Brown's death.

NIXON: This would be, from our standpoint, a secondary role. We would not have the Guard, you know, on the front lines, interacting with, dealing with, confronting protesters.

COSTELLO: Meanwhile, the role of the Ferguson Police Department has been diminished. Instead the St. Louis Police Department will take the lead.

(END VIDEOTAPE) COSTELLO: Governor Nixon's decision to declare a state of emergency is drawing sharp criticism from State Senator Maria Chappell Nadal. She represents Ferguson and she's criticized how protests have been handled in the wake of the Brown shooting.

I'll ask her about her concerns and her wish that the federal government take over security in Ferguson. That comes your way at 9:30 Eastern Time.

Let's talk about the weather. It's not even winter yet, but get ready for the deep freeze. Round two. Another arctic blast is hitting some 200 million Americans today.

Check out Upstate New York, where more than two feet of snow is expected, but they're not the only ones layering up today. Forty-nine of the 50 states are below freezing this morning.

CNN's Indra Petersons is out in the cold tracking it all for us.

You're a brave woman, Indra.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): Another frigid night for millions as bitter cold arctic air grips nearly the entire country. Temperatures shattering records across the Midwest, with some parts in the single digits. In northern Texas on Monday, temps dropped to nine degrees. That's the lowest on that date since 1959.

A nationwide deep freeze has 50 percent of the U.S. now covered with snow, crippling some parts of the Midwest.

In Cincinnati, parents and volunteers of a high-school football team were shoveling 400 tons of the white stuff off their turf.

GREG TARKERSLEY, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: It will be an ice pack. So if we don't get it off today, they're probably not going to be able to practice on the turf all week.

PETERSONS: And in Louisville, Kentucky, almost 2,000 tons of salt covered the streets after their first major snowfall dropped nearly five inches, closing area schools on Monday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My employer is -- we're on a three-hour delay.

PETERSONS: Adding to the misery? Up north, lake-effect snow is now pummeling Michigan and New York state through Thursday. Some parts will see more than two feet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PETERSONS: Well, let's put this in perspective, guys. It is not even winter yet, it is fall, yet many places say we'll feel like we're feeling below-normal temperatures, even for the month of January. So let's put it in perspective in a different way. If you take the entire U.S., you factor this in, we haven't seen temperatures this cold in the month of November since the 70s. A little fun fact for you. Everywhere in the contiguous United States

today, there is a freezing temperature out there that we saw this morning. Let's talk about these temperatures. With a wind chill, we're talking about teens, even below zero if you talk about places like Chicago, teens as far south as the south.

Look at Atlanta, Georgia, this morning. We're talking about temperatures there just into the teens. And everyone keeps wondering, is this going to last? Well, for a little bit longer, in fact even as we get to our daytime highs. Here in the northeast, temperatures will be 20 if not 30 degrees cooler than just yesterday. That's how much this huge drop is. Temperatures will be hovering around the freezing mark, and it's all thanks, as we talked about yesterday, to this lovely omega block.

This blocking pattern that's going to keep wave after wave of cool air right in place and it's not going anywhere. In fact we have another little wave for the end of the week. And the next one, next week -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Can't wait. Indra Petersons, thanks so much. I'll let you get inside now.

It's too cruel to keep her out there.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

COSTELLO: The NFL has suspended Adrian Peterson without pay for at least the rest of the season. A league statement says Peterson violated the NFL's personal conduct policy in the physical abuse of his 4-year-old son.

Last week, Peterson accepted a plea deal of no contest for using a switch while disciplining his son. Peterson then appealed to the NFL for immediate reinstatement. Now the earliest he can be reinstated is April 15th. The NFL Players' Association is appealing the suspension.

More top stories for a Tuesday morning. Scary moments in Chicago overnight. A small cargo plane crashed into a home near Midway Airport. No one inside the house was hurt. The condition of the pilot unknown.

Pope Francis is causing quite a stir with the LBGT community. During a speech yesterday, he said children have a right to grow up in a family with a father and a mother. That statement seems at odds with the Vatican leader's push to make the church more accepting of nontraditional families.

Eighty-year-old convicted killer Charles Manson and 26-year-old Acton Elaine Brown, who actually goes by the name Star, well, they're soon to be wed. Because he's serving a life sentence in prison, Manson is not allowed conjugal visits, but the two are allowed to invite someone to officiate the ceremony and up to 10 outside guests might attend.

A new customer service poll says Comcast and Time Warner Cable are pulling down the entire industry's reputation. The companies helped land the cable and satellite TV industry dead last in a recent UGov brand index survey of consumer satisfaction.

We'll hear from the 49ers, Bucs, and Seahawks today after the DEA raided their team Sunday. At issue, whether the team gave prescription meds to players without a license.

And it is the biggest deal in baseball history. It's being reported that Giancarlo Stanton is close to a 13-year $325 million contract with the Florida Marlins. Stanton's new deal would break the previous record for the largest contract in MLB history, which is, of course, Miguel Cabrera's and the Tigers, at $295 million for 10 years. Wow.

Those are your top stories this morning. I'm back after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: One of the many frightening things about the terror group, ISIS, is its ability to successfully recruit newcomers, including those from the West. Well, today, a Virginia woman is charged with lying about her ties to the terror group and social media postings promoting ISIS.

CNN's Deborah Feyerick is chasing down the details. She joins me live with more.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And, you know, this is a woman who allegedly talked her sister into jihad and following ISIS. She's 29-year-old Heather Coffman, accused of working as an ISIS recruiter, someone who could help people get to Syria and join the blood thirsty terrorist group.

Well, according to an FBI criminal complaint, she tried to recruit two people, including an undercover FBI agent. In the first case, a man she claimed to be her husband, but whom she had never met, well, she allegedly set him up with brothers who could get him contacts and get him into Turkey. The man ultimately changed his mind, he stayed in Macedonia instead, and that really seemed to annoy her.

But in all of this, the initial red flags were that Coffman was very active on Facebook. She created about a half dozen accounts. In each, it appears that she was becoming more and more radicalized. FBI agents were able to get a search warrant for the Facebook accounts and found a history of ISIS writings, listing her work as jihad for Allah's sake, posting images of black ISIS flags, as well as promoting Allah and the fight.

Now, an undercover agent met with Coffman several times, expressing his interest in jihad and she said that she could find someone who was a legitimate facilitator to get him to Syria. At least one of the meetings was recorded with Coffman creating a code, and language allegedly in order to avoid detection. When confronted in her office by FBI agents, she denied the activity. She was charged with lying and also providing materials to support terrorists.

COSTELLO: So, they actually have a link between this woman and ISIS. She was actually communicating with them? FEYERICK: She was -- she was communicating about them. She was

communicating about them, but what really concerned them is they went into the Facebook account and they began to look at the things she was saying, and also, she began to fancy herself a recruiter. And she was making contacts with this man in Macedonia and she was sort of getting this -- you know, when the FBI agent, the undercover agent said, I want to go, she said, I think I can set you up with a legitimate facilitator.

So, she was acting as a broker. Could she have done it? Unclear. But she advanced herself as such.

(CROSSTALK)

FEYERICK: And no comment from her lawyers.

COSTELLO: I was wondering, who is this woman?

FEYERICK: We are learning about her and we will have a lot more later on in the hour.

COSTELLO: I'm sure you will.

Deborah Feyerick, thanks so much.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, one Senate vote. That's what's stopping a showdown between the president and Congress on the Keystone pipeline. I'll talk to Indiana Senator Dan Coats about today's vote and more, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We could be just hours away from a fight over oil in the nation's heartland, with President Obama in one corner and Congress in another.

Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu, whose fighting for her political life, says she's rankled up enough votes to push the Keystone Pipeline through the Senate.

But the senator is finding protesters have brought the issue right to her front door. Just yesterday, environmental activists marched on Landrieu's lawn, bringing with them an inflatable pipeline.

The real pipeline would stretch from Canada through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, and rate into the Gulf Coast. And it has both sides looking for a knockout blow.

Senator Dan Coats of Indiana, a Republican, joining us now.

Good morning, sir.

SEN. DAN COATS (R), INDIANA: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Welcome back and thank you so much for being with me.

Do you know who this 60th vote is?

COATS: I don't know who it is, but I know Mary Landrieu. I'm sure she was up all night, cajoling at least one of her colleagues to become the 60th vote.

It's very important for Democrats to try to salvage this seat after the shellacking they took a week ago Tuesday. And so, this is the last-minute desperate attempt and I think they're trying to do everything they can to get to 60. And I think they'll probably get there.

COSTELLO: So, you think they will be successful?

COATS: I do think they'll be successful. But the real success is that Republicans after six years are getting a chance to vote and send this to the president, a very reluctant president, in fact. But not because it creates jobs, are Democrats voting this, or because it meets environmental standards, or less dependence on Mideast oil. Simply to salvage one Senate seat that they desperately think they need after the shellacking they took on Tuesday.

So, it's somewhat cynical, but we're just happy it's going forward, and hopefully, Mary Landrieu will spring that 60th vote there. But the real effort has been on the part of Republicans, including our candidate in Louisiana to get this done, over and over and over, that the president has continuously blocked.

COSTELLO: So, if the issue does make it through the Senate and President Obama vetoes it, what happens then?

COATS: Well, then we will immediately take this up after we take control and we'll send it back to the president. This creates 40 some thousand jobs. Talk about a stimulus needed to move this economy forward.

It lessens our independence on Middle Eastern oil, we know what that problem is, and it has passed five environmental reviews and sanctions from the State Department with their own environmental reviews. It's just a no-brainer.

There's no reason we shouldn't go forward here. Lowers our energy cost for America, makes us more competitive, blocked simply because some extreme people on the left, on the environmental side, have got the president's ear and he simply doesn't want to go forward.

COSTELLO: So, if the president vetoes it, what message will he be sending to Republicans in Congress?

COATS: I think the message will simply be, I don't want to work with you in congress, despite some of the rhetoric following the election that he's had.

And secondly, I think it says that he cares more about an extreme environmentalists dictating what's good for this country, rather than the practical effects of a program here that has passed all the environmental reviews. COSTELLO: Senator Dan Coats, thanks for joining me this morning. I

appreciate it.

COATS: Thank you very much.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM: prayers and passions echo across Israel after a deadly attack inside a synagogue. Three of the dead are Americans. We'll talk about that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)