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ISIS Threatening to Kill Japanese and Jordanian Hostages; New England Dealing with Consequences of Record Snowfall; Flood in Marshfield "Voices of Auschwitz"

Aired January 28, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

And we begin with breaking news. A 24-hour deadline is up as a frantic scramble to free two ISIS hostages plays out. Right now we do not know the fate of a Japanese journalist and a Jordanian fighter pilot. ISIS is threatening to kill them both unless their demands are met for the release of an Iraqi woman long held inside a Jordanian prison. Now there are signs this morning that the militant group may get its way. Jordanian officials say they are willing to release this terrorist in exchange for the safe return of their fighter pilot.

As far as we know, we have not confirmed an exchange has been made. Now, let me talk a little bit about this woman. This terrorist. She's a would-be suicide bomber, she's been on death row for a 2005 attack. 57 people were killed in a series of bombings at Jordanian hotels in 2005. She says her suicide vest malfunctioned or she would have murdered even more people.

Now, we have made the decision not to show the ISIS video released yesterday. We feel it's propaganda. And frankly, I have no interest in spreading that kind of terror. So, I want to talk about this, though, because it is important. Let's begin with CNN's terrorism analyst Peter Bergen. Hi, Peter.

PETER BERGEN, CNN ANALYST: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So, Jordanian officials say that they are willing to consider a prisoner exchange. That can't be a good thing.

BERGEN: Well, we've exchanged prisoners in the past. I mean the Jordanian pilot is more like a prisoner of war than anything else. We made - we the United States, made the same calculation about Bowe Bergdahl who was being held by the Taliban who we considered to be a terrorist group and we exchanged him for five Taliban leaders who were in Guantanamo.

So, you know, it's a lot easier to release somebody that the Jordanian government regards as a prisoner of war than it would be for the exchange for the Japanese journalist.

COSTELLO: I want to head to Will Ripley for just a second, Peter. Because he's been watching developing events in Japan. What's the latest from your vantage point? WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The latest, Carol, is that what we are seeing on the airwaves here is what we've been seeing all over the world. So many various reports coming in of different events that really until we get an official line of communication from the governments involved here, meaning we get an official statement here in Tokyo, we get an official statement from Amman, Jordan, it's going to be very difficult to corroborate what exactly is happening.

And we know, all along through this process that if there's indeed a prisoner exchange happening, as we speak, the deadline now has already passed. It passed more than an hour ago. The apparent ISIS execution deadline that any exchange is going to happen in secrecy and we will not know. We perhaps may never know all of the details. But what we really won't know what has happened until there's word that either these two hostages are safe, one of them is safe, or we get some other type of propaganda message from ISIS.

And so, it's for hours now we've been hearing a lot of different reports, a lot of speculation and yet still silence from the government officially here in Tokyo and silence from Amman, Jordan aside from saying that if their pilot comes home alive, that they will - they are willing and ready to hand over this terrorist. And we just don't know if that has happened yet. And we're continuing to work every angle to see what we can find out.

COSTELLO: I want to go to Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. I hear what Peter Bergen is saying about Bowe Bergdahl, and I get it. But what would be the reaction of the U.S. military if this exchange does indeed go down?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think it's a perhaps broader reaction by the Obama administration. There is compassion and understanding certainly for the people, the government, the family in Japan, and also the family of the Jordanian pilot in Jordan. This is a humanitarian situation to a large extent to try and get these people back safely home. The U.S. as we have talked about doing the same thing itself exchanging Taliban prisoners to get Bowe Bergdahl back several months ago. He was held by the Taliban for a very long time.

Underlying all of that there is the issue of ISIS propaganda. You know, it was just yesterday the head of U.S. Special Forces said that ISIS is continuing to recruit fighters at what he called a staggering rate. They are very effective at using social media and these propaganda videos to achieve their objectives in the region, which is to show themselves as bringing strong, and show themselves in their view as having inevitable victory.

So, if they get this woman back from Jordan, I think it is a safe bet you'll see plenty of ISIS propaganda video and social media out there claiming victory about all of this. The coalition, the U.S., has a different view. They've been talking lately about the progress they're making against ISIS. ISIS continuing to recruit. The U.S. says the airstrikes are beginning to work. They're beginning to chip away at ISIS progress so you have a lot of different things going on here. ISIS continuing to rely on that social media strategy. The U.S., the West, continuing to rely on air strikes and fundamentally the U.S. wants to be sure it keeps Jordan in that coalition. Carol.

COSTELLO: Right. Right. And speaking of Jordan, I want to go to Jordan right now and talk to our CNN correspondent Jomana Karadsheh. Have you heard anything new in addition about this prisoner?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we're hearing from the Jordanian foreign minister, Carol, through tweets from his official account over the last hour, this is after a period of silence, really, from the Jordanian government about the situation. He's saying that denying any reports that Sajida al Rishawi had been released. This was about an hour ago he tweeted that. And denying that she had left the country as some may have suggested, he said that her release has been conditional with the release of the Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh.

And another tweet in the last few minutes, Carol, the foreign minister Nasser Judeh is saying that they - the Jordanian government a while ago, had asked for a proof of life, to show that - the pilot Muath al- Kaseasbeh is safe and well and they say they have not received it.

Jordanian officials, they are saying, they are watching this situation very closely minute by minute, but as mentioned earlier, they did come out with this offer in response to ISIS' demand saying that they're willing to release Sajida al-Rishawi that convicted would-be suicide bomber in exchange for the Jordanian pilot. No mention of the Japanese journalist, Kenji Goto.

And, of course, Carol, as we know, this is not the demand that ISIS made about 24 hours ago. They wanted an exchange with the Japanese journalist and Sajida al-Rishawi, but they raised the stakes saying that they would kill both, the Jordanian pilot and the Japanese hostage.

COSTELLO: All right, so, to you, Peter, because Jordan is in a tough spot. I want to read you a quote from this pilot's father. He said "All people must know from the head of the regime, Jordan, to everybody else that the safety of Muath means the stability of Jordan and the death of Muath means chaos in Jordan. Is that true?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I mean, this is obviously a huge political issue in Jordan and the fact is that Jordanians are actually going to feel a lot more comfortable about an exchange of one of their own nationals than the Japanese journalist. So, it's really a tough situation here, Carol, because the demands of the hostage takers are not what the Jordanian government is willing to do it appears at this moment.

COSTELLO: All right, we just got another guest that's going to join us right now. Dan O'Shea, he is the former hostage negotiator for the FBI. He's in Tampa. Dan, are you with me?

DANIEL O'SHEA, COORDINATOR, HOSTAGE WORKING GROUP, U.S. EMBASSY IRAQ: Yes, I am. COSTELLO: So - so, if this prisoner exchange goes down, how might

that work?

O'SHEA: Well, again, I'm not a negotiator for the FBI. I want to make that clear.

COSTELLO: I'm sorry.

O'SHEA: But this - that's OK. This is a high stakes game and this is just a play out of what we saw back in 2004 and 2006 at the height of the al Qaeda kidnapping. In fact, during the Joe Caroll crisis, kidnapping crisis, and the Christian peacemaker team - this very woman was also one of the - one of the, you know, ransom demands and the - demand was for the same woman, this woman that was involved in the bombing at the hotel in 2005 in Amman, Jordan. So she's a - there's a very strategic value for her. This also shows a direct connection, probably some type of a relationship building between ISIS and al Qaeda and the fact that they are going after someone who is at the time an al Qaeda suicide bomber.

So, this is obviously going on behind the scenes. We all know that hostage negotiation is how terrorist groups like ISIS and al Qaeda, how they negotiate with not only the West, but with also nation states in the Arab world as well.

COSTELLO: Also, Dan, do you - if this exchange does happen, do you consider this a win for this terrorist group?

O'SHEA: Of course. How else can you look at it? They are getting their demands. This is - the hard challenge we have is that every kidnapping case -- said they were going to put 200 million up to counter ISIS and help defeat the threat. Well, what do they turn around to do? They capture two Japanese and that was the original ransom demand was 200 million. So, they are very smart in how they do this, they are exploiting everything on social media and this would be a huge strategic victory if they can get this woman back because she's very much considered a heroine and at a time when ISIS and al Qaeda are going after targeting women. They really want to get women involved and this would be a huge strategic victory for them to get this woman back in a prisoner exchange if this is what happens.

COSTELLO: Well, see, that's really interesting. And I'll pose this question to Peter Bergen. I'm just wondering, because this woman has been in prison for ten years. ISIS didn't exist ten years ago. So, why are they so interested in her?

BERGEN: You know, one thing if you think back, you know, ISIS in the past has also asked for (INAUDIBLE), who is an American Pakistani descent who wounded an Afghan soldier. She's in American custody right now. And I think for these groups when they have women who have taken on in their mind, you know, heroic operations, they become a particular fixation for these groups. And of course, al Qaeda in Iraq, who is the parent organization of ISIS - really is a distinction between the two. And so, you know, the same set of folks who are running ISIS now are the same set of folks in many ways who were running al Qaeda in Iraq at the time. And, you know, one other quick point here, Carol, I mean the Israelis will routinely swap hundreds of prisoners for one Israeli soldier. So, when it comes to sort of prisoner of war exchange, you know, the United States, Israel and many other countries are more than happy to exchange pretty valuable prisoners to get their military servicemen back.

COSTELLO: OK. I'll have to leave it there. We're going to keep our eye on the situation. So, Barbara Starr, Peter Bergen, Jomana Karadsheh and Dan O'Shea, and I'm going to get your title right. You are the coordinator at the hostage working group, U.S. Embassy Iraq, 2004-2006, so, you know, what you are talking about. Thanks so much to all of you for being with me this morning. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the "NEWSROOM," people digging out after a record snowfall for parts of New England. Nearly three feet of snow fell in the Boston suburb of Worcester and now even more snow is on the way. We'll take you there next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: New Englanders return to the roads and the region tries to return to normal, just hours after Massachusetts lifted its travel ban, this is morning rush hour in Boston.

New Englanders are returning to work this morning after parts of the state saw record breaking snowfall. Some areas saw as much as 36 inches. Here's a rundown of some snowfall totals. While New York was largely spared, parts of suburban Long Island were buried under 2.5 feet. For the most part, the worst of the storm hammered the Massachusetts coastline. In some beach communities the sea water is right now rushing through the streets. The storm pushed waves over and sometimes through the seawall. You can see huge chance of that concrete being broken apart by the pounding surf. Now, south of Boston in the coastal town of Marshfield, at least two homes have already been condemned and crews are expected to survey more damage later on. So, let's get straight to CNN's Brian Todd. Good morning, Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. This town just coming to grips with what happened yesterday. Just starting to recover this morning from that flood damage that you talked about. We'll come up here during - along this seaside street in Marshfield. Cherry pickers just kind of lowered their buckets there, just trying to restore some power up there along this street, this entire area was without power for much of the day yesterday. We got here just as those tidal surges were hitting that seawall in a second high tide of yesterday.

A very violent push from the ocean into the seawall. The seawall breached at least two places of lengths of about 50 feet each time, in both of those places and caused significant flooding damage.

Several homes had to be evacuated. People had to be held from their homes. We were told that a front end loader had to be used to get to one injured man who had 70 stitches in his face from flying glass. That was the only injury of any real significance that we heard about. So that's very fortunate. No serious, serious injuries to report from the damage, but the storm surge was very violent. And it was very dangerous. We were told that again, a lot of people had to be evacuated. They had to use Humvees, they had to use all sorts of special equipment to get to these people.

And a lot of stuff washed in from the ocean. There were lobster traps that were flying around the streets and got deposited in the middle of the streets and a lot of debris, now being cleared out, pushed back into the ocean. They had backhoes there this morning clearing huge rocks and sand and putting - basically, putting it back into the ocean where it belongs.

But this town just kind of scrambling to recover from this storm that came up very suddenly on them, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Brian Todd reporting live for us this morning. Thanks so much.

Now, let's head to Boston and CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray. Jennifer, we know the travel ban has been lifted, but things certainly aren't back to normal, right?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, you know, the highways, the interstates, those are all clear looking really good. We're right here. One of the major thoroughfares in Boston. Atlantic Avenue. And traffic is very, very light. Look, there goes another plow. They are still working today to get these roads up and running. But motorists are having a fairly easy time getting around. This road is normally just packed with cars. And you can see barely anyone.

So the city is getting back up and running. Very nicely that she is back up and running, but do expect major delays there. Of course, flights have been delayed. We've seen about 100 cancellations here in Boston. That's the most of any airport in the U.S. They are trying to get that back on target as well. And then just clearing out the streets. Look at all of these big snow mounds right behind me in the park. You can see just a lot of snow there. So, once all of the streets get cleared, you'll see these continue to pile up. They are taking all of this snow to different snow farms. Actually, three of them. So they are trying to haul a lot of this snow out of the city and Carol, we had 24.6 inches of snow. That makes it the number one January storm. It ranks number six on the all-time storms. They are about three inches shy of making it to number one.

But I can tell you, this is plenty of snow for someone who deals with nine hours of blizzard conditions in Boston. That's the final word and for somebody that was standing out here for all nine of those hours, it was a mess. Today is feeling much, much better getting some sunshine, but we are in store for very, very cold temperatures through the weekend. Carol?

COSTELLO: All right. Jennifer Gray reporting live. Thanks so much. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right, breaking news out of Israel this morning. Two Israeli soldiers have been killed and seven wounded in a Hezbollah attack on a military convoy. The incident taking place along the country's border with Lebanon, a disputed region. CNN global affairs correspondent Elise Labott is on the border. She joins me now with more. Hi, Elise.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Well, it started this morning with this Hezbollah anti-take gunfire into Israel. Israel has been responding with punishing air strikes and ground artillery into the Lebanese border. This is the second day of fighting. If you remember, yesterday Israel was taking in rocket fire from the Golan Heights. This has been a front that's relatively quiet, but Hezbollah took up Syrian army positions launching rockets into Israel.

Israel responded overnight, but with airstrikes into Syria warning Hezbollah that it will not accept a new front on the Golan Heights. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning Hezbollah and warning Iran, really, saying that Iran is responsible for all of this and it will not tolerate this type of behavior. It's also saying listen, if you want to open up a new front with Israel, remember what happened last summer in Gaza with Hamas.

It definitely did not end up very well for Hamas, with "Operation Protective Edge," Carol. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu pointing to the nuclear negotiations with Iran saying, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon to be able to continue nuclear terror umbrella, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Elise Labott reporting live for us. Thanks so much. Their voices have been silent for seven decades, now but the memory of what happened to more than 1 million souls who perished at Auschwitz, most of them Jews, lives on. Holocaust survivors and world leaders gathered at what was one of the most infamous Nazi death factories to mark 70 years since its liberation. Wolf Blitzer has a very personal connection to Auschwitz. He joins me now. Hi, Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN POLITICAL ANCHOR: Hey, Carol, thanks very much. And I was there. I visited Auschwitz. It certainly is a personal issue for me. My paternal grandparents were killed at Auschwitz so it is haunting simply walking around and while I was there, I reflected on what I was seeing. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: It haunts us to this very day. You just hear that word, Auschwitz, and you think of death. You smell the death when you're walking around.

I'd read a lot about the Holocaust. I had seen the movies. I've seen a lot of the pictures. Certainly, I knew what happened, but until you actually see the location, you see where it occurred, and you get a sense of the enormity of this crime, it's hard to believe that people can be as cruel as they clearly have been.

1.2 million people. Within two or three years were slaughtered. And then when I went to Birkenau and saw the crematoria, the gas chambers, it will stay with me for the rest of my life. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And you know, Carol, one thing you do have to notice when you go to Auschwitz, you go to the museum there, you go through the archives of the 1.2 million people who were murdered in those few years in '43 and '44 leading up to liberation of Auschwitz in January of 1945, 1.1 million were Jews. 100,000 were non-Jews, mostly partisans, mostly people who opposed the Nazi regime whether Catholic priests or homosexuals, or Gypsies or others. They kept amazing records all of those years and it's pretty awful just to think about what happened exactly 70 years ago yesterday when that camp was liberated.

And what we've done in this documentary that I will air later tonight, Carol, as you know, we've interviewed Auschwitz survivors most of whom were young kids when they were brought there in '43 or '44 and they tell their stories of what their life was like before World War II, during World War II, and since the war and I got to tell you, these stories have been so powerful and so amazing. They are all really, really extraordinary people that tell their stories. These voices of Auschwitz. I think our viewers will be moved.

COSTELLO: I know you shared a little bit about what happened to your family at Auschwitz. But could you share more details? Would you mind?

BLITZER: No, of course. On my dad's side, the Blitzer family, they were actually from the town of Auschwitz, which is the German name Osventsim, in Polish. And they grew up there. My dad's parents were taken to Auschwitz, and I learned - actually, I knew they were killed, of course, during the Holocaust. I didn't know exactly where until this past summer when I was doing research for that Roots project, that family history project several of us were doing for CNN.

And I discovered while visiting the Holocaust memorial museum at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem that my grandparents on my dad's side, Isaac and Haya (ph) Blitzer were killed at Auschwitz. My dad, he had never been sent to Auschwitz. He was sent to about a dozen other slave labor camps. So, he didn't go to Auschwitz. He survived the war. My mom survived the war and eventually they wound up in Buffalo, New York, where I grew up.

But it's a - If you saw the Roots piece that I did, you know that personal story, that history that I had. That's why when I went there to help prepare for this documentary tonight, "Voices of Auschwitz", it was so moving for me just to walk around with some of these Auschwitz survivors and hear their stories. Not only hear their stories at a museum outside of Poland, but at a museum - at the actual place where it all occurred in Auschwitz and Birkenau, which was really the death camp there where the crematoria and the gas chambers were located.

COSTELLO: Wolf, thank you for sharing your story with us. I appreciate it. And Wolf's documentary "Voices of Auschwitz" airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.