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Obama's Quick Hospital Trip; American Photojournalist Killed in Yemen; Garner Protests Continues

Aired December 06, 2014 - 16:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Poppy Harlow joining you from New York. It's 4:00 here on the East Coast.

We begin with President Obama making a quick trip this afternoon to the hospital. The White House spokesman revealing that the president had been complaining of a sore throat and that his physician suggested he have some tests done there. Let's go straight to Sunlen Serfaty she is standing by with more for us in Washington.

What else is the White House saying as to why he actually went to the hospital and didn't have these tests done, say, in the White House?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, the White House spokesman said that this is something that President Obama had been complaing about today and it was under the guidance of the White House doctor here that he go and have some additional diagnostic tests is what they say.

But they really are taking pains to emphasize here that it's a matter of convenience and not a matter of urgency. In a statement the White House spokesman Josh Earnest said "the quickly scheduled test is a matter of convenience for the president not a matter of urgency."

Now, this was a light day for President Obama. No on-camera statements. We have not seen him yet today. So the White House said that he was taking advantage of the light schedule to go get additional tests and they promised updates of those diagnostic tests, but, Poppy, we do not have the results of them yet.

HARLOW: All right. Because they've just been done and they spent some 28 minutes only at the hospital. Important to note here the last health exam the president got in June came back, with quote, "excellent results." Stay on top of that for us, Sunlen. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Also today, two major developments in dealing with the war on terror in the Middle East. First, the Pentagon planning to keep an extra 1,000 U.S. troops on the ground in Afghanistan boosting the number to as many as 10,800 for the first few months of 2015. Now, outgoing Secretary of defense Chuck Hagel announced that today in a surprise trip to Kabul.

And in Yemen, a desperate attempt to rescue two hostages, one of them an American photojournalist Luke Somers, ended in failure. The militant also killed South African hostage Pierre Corkie (ph). Now, according to his employer, relief group Gift of the Givers, they said they confirmed that he indeed was also killed.

President Obama ordered the rescue mission after U.S. intelligence learned Somers could be executed soon. At a U.S.-Israel forum in Washington today, the vice president called it a "despicable crime."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: The women and men who special forces who were in engaged in these two rescue missions did an incredible job. And inflicted serious damage on the captors. But this time, this time they were unable to save them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Unable to save Luke. Let's more talk about this 33-year-old. Who was Luke Somers? Those who knew him described him as someone who is inspired and dedicated as a photojournalist. Our Brian Stelter tells us more about the man whose work was seen around the world. Hi, Brian.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Poppy. Yemen has lost a friend today. That was the statement from the U.S. embassy in Yemen after Luke Somers' death was confirmed and that sentiment has been expressed by so many others who say that Somers fell in love with the country and really turned it into his second home in the two years that he spent there taking photographs.

We can see some of them here. They're really quite beautiful. In some cases we see protests. We see political meetings. But we also see the ordinary lives of people there. Trying to live their lives amid conflict. Earlier today on CNN, one of the other journalists who spent time in Yemen, (INAUDIBLE) spoke about Somers. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFED MALE: He was really dedicated to Yemen. And he spent, you know, over two years there continuously telling the stories and documenting the people that he met and that he really truly, seemed to enjoy it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STELTER: Along with taking photographs, Somers also sometimes worked with the "Yemen Times," it's an English language newspaper in the country and earlier this week after the Al Qaeda militants threatened to kill him, the newspaper came out with an editorial calling for his release. They wrote this "Luke loves Yemen and wants the best future for Yemenis."

Unfortunately all those calls went unanswered. Luke Somers was 33 years old. Poppy, back to you.

HARLOW: Tragedy. Brian, thank you. Well, protests condemning the choke hold death of Eric Garner are picking up here in New York City. Let me show you some video. This is a die-in protest that took place in Washington, D.C., there in Union Station less than an hour ago - this after protesters staged another die-in right here in New York at Grand Central station. Then they left. They went on the move. They're on the move right now. Our Chris Welch is with them. Chris, what are you seeing?

CHRIS WELCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, Poppy, really within the last hour or so it was a pretty strength - pretty strengthy march. People went from Grand Central Station where I believe you just showed video of a die-in. There were probably about 75 people there laid down on the ground for 15 1/2 minutes of silence.

Now, those 15 1/2 minutes signify 11 times that Eric Garner cried "I can't breathe." Plus 4 1/2 minutes to signify the 4 1/2 hours that Michael Brown laid on the ground in Ferguson after he was shot. Now, things here just within the last five minutes started to die down. They had a pretty brief march today.

Take a look around. You can still see some remaining police officers. You got them in the blue jackets over there. This is Times Square. Kind of typical for what you see here. But while we were marching today there were certainly police marching right alongside the group. And they've been saying, this group's been saying, the organizers have been saying, they've been working very well with police today. Almost a hand-in-hand effort, you got to do that they say to keep something like this smooth and to keep it nonviolent which thankfully it has been.

Obviously the rain here keeping some people away but we did have a pretty group of about 200 people, Poppy.

HARLOW: And that's what I was wondering, Chris. I mean, thank goodness from most accounts what we've seen happen here in New York is what you want to see is a peaceful expression of opinion. But last night I was here in New York. It was raining really hard. You didn't have as many protesters. It's raining today. Is there a sense from the protesters that once things clear up they're going to be back really in full force again come the beginning of the week?

WELCH: I think it's kind of hard to tell. A lot of these protests that popped up over the last few days especially last night have been very organic and not very planned and to help us answer I've got someone next to us who helped organize today's event.

This is Devario Johnson. Devario, I just wanted to ask you, first and foremost, why was it important for you to be out here today and the last few days? I know you were out with the marches even in the rain. Why was it important?

DEVARIO JOHNSON, PROTESTER: Well, it's important that, you know, we make sure that these types of issues and other social injustices are always brought to the forefront. We have to make sure that we put an indelible stamp in the community's collective consciousness, to understand and realize that these things are not acceptable under any circumstances whatsoever.

It does not matter the weather whatsoever. Our forefathers went through so much more. This right here is absolutely nothing compared to what they went through and we must continue to fight to ensure that our rights are protected as human beings and individuals at large.

WELCH: Give me your sense. The first couple nights were big. Last night a little smaller. Obviously the rain played a part and today a little smaller as well. But will this continue? Do you think there will be several more days? How long will you go and how long do you think the protesters are willing to be just out there voicing their concerns?

JOHNSON: We're going to be here until justice is served.

WELCH: Thanks, Devario Johnson. I appreciate it very much.

Poppy, that's the scene here in Times Square, a rainy scene at that but right now, as I mentioned, things seemingly dying down at least from this group of marchers here. Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes, it sounds like from that protester they are going to be staging protests for many days to come. Chris Welch, thank you, appreciate it.

The three cases of unarmed African-Americans dying at the hands of police gripping this nation. Coming up at 5:00 Eastern here on CNN, we will examine the evidence, break down crucial video frame by frame and ask our panel of experts what does equal justice look like.

But, first, for months Kurdish fighters have been defending their home city of Kobani from ISIS militants. Our crews got an inside exclusive look at what the toll this war has taken there.

Also, biker gangs joining the fight against ISIS. You have to hear this one. Do they have any idea what they're getting into? We'll discuss.

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HARLOW: Welcome back, I'm Poppy Harlow in New York.

Our senior international correspondent Nick Payton Walsh spent two days inside the besieged Syrian city of Kobani. That is where months of heavy fighting between Kurdish Pashmerga fighters and ISIS militants has taken a crippling toll. Nick is now safety out of Kobani and he gives us this rare look inside a city on its knees.

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NICK PAYTON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): We've been taken down this street towards the eastern front line behind those curtains they've put up to protect them from snipers, (INAUDIBLE) media are two of the female YPG fighters escorting us down there and this is near the eastern front where there's been much more intense fighting in the past three or four days. While we get differing figures from whoever you speak to here about quite how much of the city is controlled, you see here quite remarkable devastation caused by the explosives used, what's quite clear is that ISIS are far from giving up from this fight, in fact, trying to take ground every day. Their move towards the official border crossing three or four days ago that was a substantial advance they tried. They were beaten back. But each night particularly last night we heard very intense clashes further down this street towards the eastern front here.

You can hear the - you can see the absolute devastation here as we get closer towards ISIS' positions here to the northeast of the city. Some of this caused by air strikes but some, too, from daily constant sometimes every five minutes thump of mortars, some homemade by ISIS. They've been pounding into Kobani for months now.

We can see Turkey literally just behind us but here they are edging through this wreckage closer and closer to the places where ISIS are trying to push forward.

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HARLOW: Welcome back, I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. Let's get some expert insight in to one of today's major stories - the U.S. Navy S.E.A.L. team the effort to rescue an American and another western hostage inside Yemen.

As we've been reporting the Al Qaeda captors killed photojournalist Luke Sommers and South African aid worker, Pierre Corkie during yesterday's raid. President Obama ordered the rescue after U.S. intelligence learned Somers might soon be executed. Lets talk about this with Christopher Dickie, foreign editor of the "Daily Beast." Also, with Phil Mudd, a former CIA counterterrorism official.

It sounds, let me give it to you, Phil, it sounds like this raid according to our Barbara Starr went as planned until the last moment when they lost that critical element of surprise.

PHIL MUDD, FORMER CIA COUNTERTERRORISM OFFICIAL: Look, when you're dealing in the war on terror as I dealt with it on the CIA, you don't have any good options. Back when I was at the agency, do you send a prisoner to Guantanamo or do you let them go? As we've seen with ISIS in Iraq, do we get re-engaged in Iraq after the president has committed to getting out or do we go support the Iraqi government?

Once again, in this case, it's a tough choice. Do you go intervene with a raid and risk the life of the hostages or do you stand back and just hope that they don't suffer the same fate as the hostage that we saw in Iraq and Syria and the answer is you got to go in.

HARLOW: Christopher, this decision was made very quickly because as the president said, secretary of state John Kerry, there was this video and there were legitimate threats that this 33-year-old American citizen could lose his life in a matter of days. Does - how quickly this had to come together play in it at all?

CHRISTOPHER DICKEY, FOREIGN EDITOR, "THE DAILY BEAST": Yes, it does. But remember, they tried to rescue him just a few days ago. This is the third rescue operation like this that we know of in the last few months and all of them have been failures which is a pretty depressing record if you think about it but as read in the "Daily Beast" today, the problem is that the United States and Great Britain unlike most of the countries in Europe won't pay ransom. They won't cut deals. They won't try and buy or negotiate the way out for these civilians who are being held hostage in these different environments. They did in the case of Mr. Bergdahl because he was a soldier.

HARLOW: The trade.

DICKEY: They traded him out because he was a soldier but for the civilians it's either rescue, die, or rot.

HARLOW: One thing that I want to ask you about the South African Pierre, the aid worker who was there and who was also killed in this, apparently they are saying, the captors, that he was going to be released. And the question is whether or not the U.S. was aware of this. Would that factor in to the strategy here?

MUDD: Sure. But you're dealing with a situation where on the other hand you have after videos in Syria the assassination, the murder, the beheading of those detainees very quickly. In this case we had a video showing the American and I would anticipate if I were back in the chair in the White House that he would be beheaded quickly. So you got a very tough balance.

The prospect and it's only a prospect that one of the detainees will be released in the high likelihood that the other would be murdered I would have done the same thing they did which is go in.

HARLOW: Christopher, what do you think can be gleaned from this, can be learned from this? Is there anything strategy-wise that can be different? Because remember, thank goodness, the elite navy S.E.A.L.S got out of there OK. They put their lives on the line.

DICKEY: Look, (INAUDIBLE) they're really very, very good. Very effective as you said at the beginning they lost the element of surprise there. That's the kind of thing that can happen. Maybe, I'm sure that they will go back and look at lessons learned to see how they can improve their tactics in these kind of raids but at the end of the day it's always going to be an extremely delicate thing and you're always going to risk killing the hostages as well. It's not only in Yemen that that happens. God knows it happens here in the United States when S.W.A.T. teams go in to rescue hostages.

HARLOW: And there are times when it's incredibly successful, look at Osama Bin Laden.

DICKEY: That's right.

HARLOW: Thank you both. Stick around. Stay with us. Don't go anywhere, I want to take a quick break and I want to get our guests' take on the coalition's newest ally. Biker gangs from Europe actually going to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria and also jihadis who went to fight with ISIS now asking their country take us back. One of them even saying, quote, "my ipod doesn't work." We're going to talk about these stories next.

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HARLOW; At first glance it seems like it could be a joke. Reports of European biker gangs packing up, heading to the Middle East and fighting ISIS. But some of these biker gangs are from Germany, others are Dutch. Some have posted photos online along with request for donations like bulletproof vests and night vision goggles. It's not exactly clear why they think they can successfully take on ISIS.

One German biker gang reportedly is made up of ethnic Kurds eager to protect their homeland. Others appear to be motivated by outrage like we all are about the brutality of ISIS. But lets talk about whether this is really going to do any good or just more harm.

Back with me now Christopher Dickey and Phil Mudd. Chris, to you, what is your reaction to this? To this report?

DICKEY: Well, I think it's kind of amusing until you think of a couple of things. First of all, these guys are going to Syria to kill people. I'm not sure that I like the idea of bikers' just sort of freelance going to another country to kill people. Maybe they come back and start killing people, too. I don't think it's a given that they are perfectly peaceful, upstanding characters.

HARLOW: Right. That's a good point.

DICKEY: I'm not casting any aspersions on any bikers here but I just don't think it's a good idea. But the other problem is why is it OK for them to go fight against ISIS with a lot of them with a Kurdish group that's been called a terrorist group, the PKK. And yet it's not OK for other people to go fight against Assad because they might wind up in bed with ISIS or Al Musra (ph)?

HARLOW: Where is the line?

DICKEY: How do you start to draw those lines? I just don't think it's very clear at all.

HARLOW: To you, Phil, what I immediately thought aren't they putting more at risk, because if they don't get killed and they don't get out successfully they could easily be taken hostage and risk more lives trying to save their life.

MUDD: That's right. Look, there are a couple of deeper problems here as you suggest, Poppy. The first is what happens if they get captured and then we feel a responsibility as Americans, American government, the European government -

HARLOW: Any western nation will.

MUDD: To intervene and capture them. They think they're only putting themselves at risk. They are putting a lot of special forces guys at risk. But there's a broader cultural issue. There's a lot of anti- immigrant sentiment in Europe and the UK and France and Germany. I worry that if you get people like skin heads or bikers traveling out to fight jihadists this will feed a sentiment back home that says this is OK.

HARLOW: We want to be careful here. I know you're not trying to (INAUDIBLE) but to put skin heads and bikers in the same -

MUDD: I understand that. But I'm afraid we are going to encourage people as Christopher suggested, to say, whoever we are it's OK to join a fight. In most countries that's a federal violation of law.

HARLOW: Right. The article does point out this is against the law. I want to talk to you also about another shocking story about some French jihadis who have gone over to fight with ISIS, OK? I want to read you some quotes from this article - this journalist that reported out, one of them saying they are fed up. Saying "they want to send me to the front but I don't know how to fight." Another, quote, in the article "I'm fed up. My ipod doesn't work anymore here. I have to come back." Asking their country then to welcome them back. Chris?

DICKEY: Well, not throw them in jail. I think the problem is that a lot of these people who go off to fight Assad, that was the original motivation in many of these cases. We talk about this as if everybody goes to join ISIS because they think that's so cool. Some do. But a lot of people went to fight Assad because they wanted to take up a great cause just like people in the Spanish civil war, for instance.

Now they can't go home. Even if they find it wasn't what they wanted. Even if they find that they are having to associate with ISIS, they hate ISIS, they want to get away from it. Where can they go? Can they go home again? They can't. It's a real problem.

HARLOW: Very quickly. Do you agree?

MUDD: Look, the federal government has to figure out what to do, if these kids come home and they're not really ideological inspired, do you throw them in jail or do you say let's find a way to get them out?

HARLOW: What do you do?

Thank you both, gentlemen. Good to be with you.

Coming up. Do police have different rules for people of different races? How much force should be used on unarmed citizens? Can we trust police to police themselves? All that and more at the top of the hour.

But first a new kind of drug is being marketed to kids as completely harmless but it is far from safe. Our Sanjay Gupta explores that on his show, "Sanjay Gupta, M.D." begins right now.