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Judge to Sentence Teen Joining ISIS; More Females Joining Jihad; NFL Confirms Footballs Deflated; Are Chris Kyle's Stories Tall Tales?

Aired January 23, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Just half past the hour. You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

A short time from now a federal judge will sentence an American teenager for attempting to join and provide material support to ISIS. She's 19. Arrested at the airport ready to board the flight that was supposed to get her to an ISIS training camp.

CNN's Ana Cabrera has an exclusive visit with her in jail. And she joins me outside that courthouse.

Ana, why did she want to do this?

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She's not talking about her case because she's been advised not to do so. When I started talking to her through video conference at the jail, she quickly said, no comment. But she did say that she is not the same person who was arrested back in April. In fact, she's even changed her name. She's going by the Muslim name Amatula. She says that means female servant of Allah. She's still practicing Islam.

She seemed a little nervous, a little anxious, as you might expect a 19-year-old young woman to feel waiting their sentence after she admitted she met a man online, a suitor, she called him, who was believed to be an ISIS fighter. They shared an extremist form of Islam that required violent jihad. She was planning to meet this man, marry him and become a nurse in an ISIS camp in Syria. She told investigators that that was part of her plan when she was arrested back in April. Almost a whole year. This is coming full circle.

They found that she had taken special training in military tactics and firearms that she was prepared and willing to fight if necessary. They also found shooting targets in her home at the time of her arrest that were specifically marked with number of rounds fired, with distances. They found that she had DVDs and Anwar al Awlaki lectures and books and articles about al Qaeda, its affiliate groups.

Her parents said they had no idea she had such an extremist view of Islam. She was a recent convert. Really, they believed she had done all of her research about the religion through the Internet where they say she became a victim of these radical jihadists who seem to have such powerful and really strategic recruitment abilities -- Brooke? BALDWIN: This whole narrative about these women wanting to wage so-

called jihad and how they are attracted to this life.

Ana Cabrera, thank you very much. I can't read enough about it. We will talk about this. Appreciate you, Ana.

Connelly is not the only one out there. We have seen them before. We have seen them in the United States, the U.K., and most recently in Paris with the terror suspect, Hayat Boumeddiene.

Joining me, Jayne Huckerby, the director of the Duke International Human Rights Clinic.

Jayne, thank you so much for joining me.

JAYNE HUCKERBY, DIRECTOR, DUKE INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CLINIC: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: You wrote this piece. I read the piece in "The New York Times", which I can't -- I can't wrap my head around anyone would want to join these groups but women in particular. Can you tell me what roles these women think it's they are going to play? Is it a supporting role to men overseas or do you think they will go into combat?

HUCKERBY: Women joining the Islamic state are playing a number of roles. They are being recruited, particularly luring other young women to come and join them in the group. They are fundraising for the group. They are operating checkpoints and going on raids, because they are search women in ways in which men can't. They are playing a key role as wives, as homemakers, as nurses, as the case of Shannon Connelly shows. But also important in terms of helping to rebrand the image of ISIS, making it less of a terror group and much more of a state building exercise. Very important to propaganda.

BALDWIN: As you point out in your piece, taking Instagram pictures of being a normal girl drinking a milk shake and putting that out there on social media. It baffles my mind. This is part of a quote in your opinion piece in the "Times." "Despite stereotypes about domesticity and passivity, the idea that they must always be under men's influence or tricked into joining, women are drawn to groups like the Islamic State by many of the same forces as men, adventure, inequality, alienation, and the pull of the cause."

But, Jayne, back to the inequality bit, why would a woman want to join a group that would oppress them?

HUCKERBY: In groups like ISIS, they are being strategic about the roles of women. Some of the push factors leading women to go are the feelings of inequality. Inability to practice their own religion in countries in Europe is often cited why women are going. ISIS presents a different narrative. They put out a call pushing young women to come and join and build an Islamic State in which they really promoted the idea young women would be involved and be able to practice their religion. BALDWIN: It's interesting, because you cite this specific example,

this feeling oppressed, the ban on burqas in France. Some women are angry they can't do that and so consider joining the fight?

HUCKERBY: Particularly women from the West. We are seeing an increasing trend, of which Connelly is a part, of young Western women traveling to join ISIS, particularly talking about this issue of not being able to practice their religion, the impact of Islamophobic attacks in their home countries. Women bear the brunt of the attacks, particularly women wearing religious attire, for example. We need to look closely at -- it's a complex matrix of factors that are pushing and pulling women toward groups like ISIS.

BALDWIN: Such a problem.

Jayne Huckerby, Duke Human Rights Clinic, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

HUCKERBY: Thank you very much.

BALDWIN: Just ahead, did the American sniper, Chris Kyle, tell the truth about some of his stories? CNN did digging. Hear about his dark past.

Plus, breaking news on Deflate-gate. The NFL confirming evidence does show that the footballs used by the Patriots last Sunday were under inflated. Who knew what when? Let's talk with Tom Brady's former backup quarterback and tight end, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Back to breaking news. I have in my hand, officially, from the NFL, the first time the NFL coming out with the statement basically saying, yes, we acknowledge we have done our investigating, we continue to investigate. This is all pertains to Deflate-gate and the Patriots and the game last Sunday, 11 of the 12 balls not properly inflated. NFL says, yes, that's true. They say, "While the evidence thus far supports the conclusion that footballs that were under inflated were used by the Patriots in the first half, the footballs were properly inflated for the second half, as confirmed at the conclusion of the game, and remained properly inflated."

That's the word within the hour from the NFL. They're looking into it. They'll continue to investigate it, talk to people.

We'll talk about this with former Patriots Quarterback Damon Huard, Tom Brady's first backup from 2001 and 2003, winning two Super Bowl rings in the past; and also with me, Benjamin Watson, who plays for the New Orleans Saints. You, too, have a Super Bowl ring.

Welcome to both of you.

Thank you.

Thanks for having us.

BALDWIN: All right. Benjamin, to you first.

With Tom Brady as your quarterback, you were the guy catching his passes. Did Tom Brady like footballs deflated?

BENJAMIN WATSON, NEW ORLEANS SAINTS PLAYER: You are asking me a question from five, six years ago, Brooke. But, no, I --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: You've got a good memory.

WATSON: I can't say he liked them deflated or over inflated. He threw the ball -- each quarterback likes the ball different. There are ways quarterbacks are allowed, by the NFL, to doctor the balls, whether rubbing dirt or scratching them with a brush. There are particular rules that are set for that. Tom Brady is no different. Like every other quarterback I played with, he has his specific, I guess, cocktail of how he likes to throw footballs.

BALDWIN: In '01, when he told this radio station in Boston that he liked the balls deflated, you don't remember his cocktail from five to six years ago?

WATSON: I remember the balls being brushed. I remember -- I know for a fact that a lot of quarterbacks use a mud composite where they rub the balls, they bake them, and it gives them a tacky feel. As far as inflation and deflation, that was never anything that was discussed.

BALDWIN: Damon, show me your football. You brought a football in because you are trying to prove a point.

DAMON HUARD, BACKUP QUARTERBACK FOR TOM BRADY, 2001-2003: Yes. Brooke, I had to do the Pepsi Challenge for myself here. This football, a little old, came out of the locker. Been a while. Had it pumped up to 13 PSI. The minimum is 12.5. I put it at 13 and felt it. Yeah. Then let's put this down at 1111. It feels like every football I have thrown in my life. Quarterbacks, we're particular about the grain of the leather. For me, it was about the grip of my thumb on wanting these pebbles. It was never about the air pressure. I'm telling you, whether it's 13 or 11, you would have a hard time finding the difference.

BALDWIN: This is the getting into the semantics of Tom Brady at the news conference yesterday. Tom Brady was flat-out asked, are you a cheater? His answer, quote, "I don't believe I'm a cheater."

Benjamin, should he have said no?

WATSON: You know you have a great relationship up there with the media. Tom was saying is he's not a cheater. I can remember being there in 2007. I can remember the whole Spygate incident. What that did really for the team was draw the team in closer. We rattled off 18 straight wins. I can imagine what's going on in the locker room right now. That's something we will watch is how the team responds. Do they rally behind their leader? Do they rally behind Tom Brady and Coach Belichick? Do they play a great game? Do they disperse? I'm guessing they will come together, like we did in 2007.

BALDWIN: With Spygate, since you bring it up and you were there in New England during that time, there was proof -- that the team was punished. There was a fine. In this case, thus far at least, there is no proof. We heard from Roger Goodell once upon a time, and I think during the Ray Rice saga, saying, ignorance is no excuse. When you have both coming forward this week and saying, I know nothing of what happened, what's your response to that?

WATSON: The NFL is going to conduct an investigation. What we don't want as players, we don't want a witch hunt like we saw in New Orleans. We don't want the NFL investigating every player and pointing fingers at guys without evidence. Obviously, they will say they don't know anything about it. Maybe they don't or maybe they do. We don't know. The NFL will get to the bottom of this.

Any time you talk about the integrity of the game, any time there's a question mark, especially when it comes to a playoff football game with Super Bowl implications, there's going to be an investigation by the NFL. Don't expect anything to be happen soon. These investigations take a while. Look back to the Dolphins case down there in Miami. That took months and months before we ever knew what happened. The NFL will get to the bottom of this. It won't be long before we know exactly who knew what and when.

BALDWIN: Damon, I want to get to you next, but let me play a sound back. This is from the quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks. This is coming from Richard Sherman, talking about this situation.

(LAUGHTER)

Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD SHERMAN, QUARTERBACK, SEATTLE SEAHAWKS: It's not going to have any affect on this game. It's not going -- nobody will get suspended. Nothing is going to happen. They will play this game. Whatever they did, the risk/reward was greater.

People somehow get a skewed view of Tom Brady that he's just clean cut, does everything right and never says a bad word to everyone. We know him to be otherwise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's go to his first point, about they will play the game and move along. As far as punishment, the NFL is saying in the statement, yes, those balls were deflated the first half of the game. The question to you is, what is the punishment?

HUARD: Well, you know, I think along the lines with this investigation, you will have to go to the officials. My vision of what happens -- this is what I think. I'm guessing Tom Brady Saturday morning after his walk through, 30 footballs are laid out in the equipment room and he goes through and picks out his favorite 12. Again, it was about the grip. It wasn't about the air pressure. I guarantee you those 12, and those backup 12 there, they go into this room where the officials check it two hours before the game. I want to know, did the officials stick the gauge in all 24 footballs? What was it at? I guarantee you, my opinion, those officials -- this ball feels fine. That one is good. It's an ordinary process that it the officials do every single game that --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: What's the punishment? I hear you, but what's the punishment?

HUARD: What's the punishment? Again, the punishment is going to be down the road, after the Super Bowl, no doubt about it, it probably is a seventh round draft pick, minimal.

BALDWIN: Interesting.

(CROSSTALK)

WATSON: I would agree. I would agree.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: You would agree? You would agree as well?

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: OK.

Benjamin Watson, Damon Huard, thank you both very much.

HUARD: Thanks for having us.

BALDWIN: You got it.

Coming up next, "American Sniper," blockbuster at the box office. Now stories from the past of this man at the heart of the movie raising questions. Are some of the stories tall tales? We look back into that part of his story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: "American Sniper" is one of the biggest box office successes of 2015 and it's just January. Popularity has revived interest in the man it portrayed, the late Navy SEAL sniper, Chris Kyle. No one disputes what's in the movie. But some of the other stories he reportedly told his buddies appear to be dubious, at best.

Ed Lavandera has been looking into some of these older claims. He joins me now.

Ed, let's begin with the incident south of Dallas in which he said he killed two would-be carjackers. What was the story there?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's fascinating, Brooke. These are a series of stories that haven't gotten a lot of attention as the popularity of the movie has exploded. But the story goes that Chris Kyle was driving along a stretch of highway and that two men attempted to carjack him while driving in a pickup truck. Supposedly, the way Chris Kyle told the story is that he essentially leaned on his Navy SEAL skills, shot both men twice and they dropped dead. Where the story takes a weird turn is that the way he told the story is that when police officers showed up, they took his driver's license. When they ran his name, it wasn't his name or address that popped up. He said that it was a phone number for someone at the Department of Defense. After the call was made, that Chris Kyle was simply left to leave the scene without any charges. Some people, who have investigated this story, have spent months looking into it, have never been able to verify it. One of the people that heard the story was a writer. Michael Mooney, a writer for "D Magazine" spent months trying to verify the story and couldn't.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL MOONEY, WRITER, D MAGAZINE: What it comes down to is, it was either a joke that he didn't say was a joke, he was lying for some reason that we don't know, or it was evidence of an enormous conspiracy that no American is going to feel comfortable with. We don't know. The fact is he was killed and there's no possible way to get an answer from him now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Michael Mooney had written an extensive profile of Chris Kyle. By the time he had gotten around -- he was going to ask Chris Kyle about it, he had been shot and killed.

BALDWIN: What about the story about how Kyle says he went to New Orleans after Katrina and used his sniper skills to kill looters?

(CROSSTALK)

LAVANDERA: Again, another one. He told friends supposedly that, in the days after Hurricane Katrina, when things were so chaotic down there, he had claimed to have been down there with another sniper friend and on the roof of the Super Dome and, depending on the story, that they killed 30 people there in New Orleans. We spoke with the Lieutenant General Russel Honore. He was the man who led the federal response there in New Orleans. He said, look, if something like that had been going on, if something like that had happened, I would have known about it. He says there is no way anything like that ever happened in New Orleans.

BALDWIN: Ed Lavandera, I know you have got more tonight at 7:00 "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT." We will look for that full report coming up later this evening. Ed Lavandera, Thank you very much.