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Pentagon: Battle for Mosul Inevitable; Jordan Says No to ISIS Swap Unless Jordanian Pilot; UVA Sorority Sisters Told Not to Attend Parties; Marshfield Hit Hard by Blizzard; More Bad Weather Expected for New England; Video of Machete Attack

Aired January 28, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Some military analysts believe Mosul in Iraq could be vulnerable. This is the second biggest city in Iraq. You see it in the north. It's been under ISIS control since last summer. The Pentagon calls this key terrain. It says that a battle for the city is inevitable.

Let's talk about this with David Ignatius, a columnist and associate editor with "The Washington Post."

David, thanks for being with us.

From your perspective, do you think the White House strategy against ISIS is working?

DAVID IGNATIUS, COLUMNIST & ASSOCIATE EDITOR, THE WASHINGTON POST: I think it's making slow progress. I certainly -- success that Kobani has been freed of ISIS fighters and many ISIS fighters were kill there had is a success. I don't think that people are wise to talk about a quick move against Mosul. ISIS is very dug in there. It's a big city, place you need to have house-to-house fighting to clear people out. Bombing like what you saw in Kobani wouldn't work in Mosul. I'm a little surprised to hear people talking about that as if it's a near term objective.

KEILAR: If we are talking about Mosul and it would require going house to house, sort of clearing as we saw U.S. troops do in Iraq, who is capable of doing that a side from U.S. soldiers?

IGNATIUS: You put your finger on what I think remains the most difficult part of the U.S. strategy in Iraq and eventually Syria. Who are the boots on the ground going to be as you go in and retake this territory? Bombing is useful in degrading your adversary, as we've seen in Kobani. To actually clear from urban areas requires very, very tough experienced troops.

Typically, Special Operations forces, U.S. Marines as in Fallujah in 2004. Those troops don't exist yet. The U.S. is trying to train them. My sources say they're nowhere near ready for that kind of battle. I think people need to be careful that they don't let the sense of momentum get too far and get into fights they can't win yet.

KEILAR: Maybe don't put too much stock in that and how much it means. Can we talk about this hostage situation with ISIS? It appears

thousand -- or we know this. The Jordanian state-run television quoting the information minister saying that -- we're getting the impression here that Jordan is trying to negotiate a prisoner swap here, a woman who is on death row in Jordan who is key and would certainly be a propaganda coup for ISIS if they could exchange her for this Jordanian pilot.

Then also a Japanese hostage, we believe, is still alive. Japan certainly wants to get him released as well. When you look at this willingness to swap prisoners or what appears to be an effort on behalf of Japan to release the Japanese hostage, what are your worries?

IGNATIUS: My biggest worry to be honest is the public pressure in Jordan. To release this woman, who's been in prison since 2005, who is responsible for a horrific attack on three Jordanian hotels -- her husband blew himself up. Her bomb didn't detonate. She was captured and has been serving time in prison. What's worrisome is that the family of the Jordanian pilot who's being held by ISIS and others from the tribal community from which this pilot is from, are demanding the government do something to get him released and are beginning to say, this isn't our fight, our pilot should be fighting in Jordan, for Jordan, what are they doing fighting outside Jordan in Iraq? That's worrisome because it undermines the government -- King Abdullah's basic position as a member of this coalition.

KEILAR: It certainly does. And you bring up so many questions. You can see how complex the situation is.

David Ignatius, thanks for being here.

IGNATIUS: Thanks for having me.

KEILAR: Outrage on campus two months after "Rolling Stone" backed off their story about an alleged rape. Hear why sorority sisters at the University of Virginia are now being told don't go to parties on campus this weekend. Plus, captured on home video, the moment a man armed with a machete

tears through the front door. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Sorority sisters at the University of Virginia got an order this weekend they found to be ridiculous and offensive. National Chapters have asked to avoid fraternity events, specially a big night for bid parties. This would be a big deal at any school. The fact it's UVA makes it huge. In November, you'll recall the article in "Rolling Stone" that a cued the school of ignoring the rape on campus. It led to harsh criticism of fraternities in general but in particular at UVA. In response, the school shut down Greek social life, turned it off.

But the "Rolling Stones" story unraveled, the frat at the center was reinstated. UVA has remained under the microscope. For a lot of sororities, this new request to avoid frat parties sounds patronizing and, worse, it sounds to them like victim blaming.

We are joined by Lindsey Bond, a UVA student and a sorority member who is leaving Greek life, a decision she just made, so she can speak more freely about this situation.

But, Lindsey, as you talk to us from Charlottesville, when you heard about this order coming from national chapters asking sororities to avoid fraternities on a key social night, what was your reaction to that?

LINDSEY BOND, UVA STUDENT & SORORITY MEMBER (voice-over): So I think that the initial reaction amongst girls was disappointment and anger. It's obviously considered a big night of celebrations. So my initial -- along with other girls, confusion and anger. I think that, as this unraveled, the exciting thing is a lot of conversation is starting.

(AUDIO PROBLEM)

KEILAR: Oh no. We're having -- Lindsey can you hear us?

(AUDIO PROBLEM)

BOND: Yeah.

KEILAR: Sorry Lindsey. We lost you for a second. You were saying that a lot of people were angry and looking forward to this evening.

BOND: Yeah. It's a --

(AUDIO PROBLEM)

KEILAR: Oh no. Oh, bummer. We're going to try again to talk to Lindsey because this is an important conversation. Stick with us as we try to re-establish that connection there.

Next, we'll talk about round one of the winter storm. It is winding down. Let's talk about round two, because there could be more bad weather on the way? We're live from Boston after the break.

Plus, we have some unbelievable video. You won't be able to take your eyes off this. An intruder bursting through a man's front door with a machete. You won't believe what happened next. We'll have that story ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: We are back now talking about a story coming out of the University of Virginia. Big night coming up for the embattled Greek system there at the university. Saturday night is bid night. A night of certainly a lot of socializing, big parties and maybe drinking, I don't know.

Lindsey Bond is joining us now, a former sorority member. She made the decision to leave the Greek System so she can talk about what's going on. She's joining us on the phone. So, Lindsey, you have national chapters of sororities telling women in the sororities at UVA they can't go to these parties at fraternities on Saturday night. I know that so many of your former sorority sisters are upset by this. Some say it's blaming the victim. Do you hear any of them saying that?

BOND: Yeah, I think -- I've definitely heard a lot of people saying that. Certainly women are concerned about the message this sends stigmatizing women. I think the positive conversation that's coming out of this is that women are banding together and try to find ways to assert ourselves and reclaim our agency. Moving forward women need to gain respect to be included in these conversations.

KEILAR: So what do you think should be done? Should there be for of a focus on fraternities or I guess male students if you think the Greek system is really just part of the problem here?

BOND: I don't actually see the Greek system to be -- I don't think the Greek system is problematic. I think it fostered some things. A social dynamic, given the fact it's run by a male dominated social scene. It's the men that have the parties. I don't see that that the men are to blame in the current situation. I think that they're being given the privileges by their national chapters to have these parties and the women are not. I think that women really need to do inventory on how we're treating our women and sort of how seriously we're taking them and sort of allowing us to make more of our autonomous decisions.

KEILAR: All right. Lindsey, we certainly appreciate you coming on and talking about this. The conversation is certainly going on, and it's a good one.

Lindsey Bond, from Charlottesville, Virginia, thank you.

New England is cleaning up today after a monster blizzard left much of the region snowed under and coated in frozen sea water and sand. The digging out may be short lived because another storm is forecast this weekend. Record-breaking snow fell in some areas. A town in Massachusetts was hit especially hard. Take a look there. In nearby Marshfield, a sea wall collapsed, carrying chunks of ice into coastal communities, bringing down some buildings there. But Boston is holding strong. This pictures shows someone shoveled snow off the marathon finish line. That's a nice image to see, indeed.

Let's go to CNN's Brian Todd in Marshfield with a look at the devastating aftermath.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, this is where the damage was worse, in the town of Marshfield. This is where it came through Tuesday morning, broke through the sea wall violently. We got here as the waves were violent, slamming against the sea wall. You can see where this old sea wall was breached here. A 50 foot breach that way. We were told it went down there in another area where homes are.

This homeowner tried to brace the flood waters by putting furniture and a mattress and things up there in addition to other things to try to shield his house from that stuff. Flood waters did come in here. You can see the damage it did to the basement down here.

Just flooded out this entire area. This was the case with several homes near here. This is the front of that same house. Look at the devastating damage to the front. We were told the owner had to be removed by rescue crews manning a front-end loader. That was the only way they could get through the flood waters to his house, lift up and get him out of there. He was hurt by flying glass. We're told he had to have 70 stitches in his face. He's OK now. A very harrowing experience for the owner of this house.

Here's flood damage along this street, one of the main-drag commercial areas. They're trying to get power back up and trying to get the debris off the road. They had backhoes here earlier just putting sand and rocks back into the ocean. This was one of the things they had to deal with when the flooding was at its peak. Lobster traps blown in from the ocean all over this town.

So, Brianna, this area is starting to recover. Going to take weeks if not months for these folks to get back to normal -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Brian, thanks so much for the look.

Let's talk to Jennifer Gray in Boston to tell us a little about what we are expecting here with this next storm coming in.

Perhaps more snow and cold temperatures, Jennifer?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right Brianna. The last thing people in Boston want to hear is more snow. That's exactly what they're going to get at the end of the week and possibly again by the beginning of the workweek next week. Now the next snow system isn't going to be quite as bad by any stretch of the imagination. Expecting a couple of inches. Not enough time for this snow to melt, so it will add to it. It's going to happen Friday and roll into Saturday morning. Of course the models are still not agreeing 100 percent on the forecast.

Looks like they could see anywhere from an inch or two. Worst case scenario four to five inches of snow. We'll watch that closely over the next couple of days. Cold temperatures for sure. We are going to see temperatures barely hover around freezing over the next couple of days before taking a nose dive on Saturday with a high temperature only at 17 degrees. Cold air through the weekend. That's for sure. Then snow in the forecast again during the next couple of days -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Jennifer Gray, in Boston, thank you.

Still ahead, with the lives of two hostages hanging in the balance, the country of Jordan is ready to make a deal with ISIS. What's the cost? We'll have a live report from inside Jordan where all this is playing out.

Plus, the terrifying moment a man with a machete bursts into an apartment. We'll show you what happened next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Chilling new video of an attack inside an apartment building. A man in Idaho saw glass flying from the balcony above his apartment and set up a camera in case the chaos spilled into his hand, like he knew, right? He had already a verbal altercation with his neighbor and bought a gun to protect himself. Watch what happens next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR (voice-over): It looks like a scene from "The Shining." This shows an attempted murder that seems straight out of the script of a horror film.

(SHOUTING)

KEILAR: James Cvengros heard screaming and saw breaking glass falling from the balcony from the apartment above his. He set up a video camera to document the chaos. Little did he know it would spill into his own home.

(SHOUTING)

KEILAR: Cvengros' neighbor, Twain Thomas), intended to kill. His weapon? A machete.

(SHOUTING)

(GUNFIRE)

KEILAR: Cvengros was prepared. He fired three shots, hitting Thomas in the chest. Watch again. After just seven kicks and hacks, Thomas walks through the splintered front door. The video goes black. But what we hear is a muffled confession.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MOANING)

CVENGROS: Stay down, Twain. I didn't want to do that. Why did you do that?

TWAIN THOMAS, MAN WIELDING MACHETE: Why did you do that? Why did you do that? It hurts. It hurts.

CVENGROS: You were going to kill me.

THOMAS: You're right. I was.

CVENGROS: Then I did the right thing.

THOMAS: You did.

KEILAR: Thomas' attorney, Dave Martinez, told CNN the 55-year-old suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. He served in Germany during the Gulf War and suffered a brain injury during a car accident when he was 16. This month, an Idaho district court judge sentenced Thomas to as long as 15 years in prison. The court ruled Cvengros acted in self-defense.

CVENGROS: I don't think there's a word to describe it. It's like watching a bad car wreck. Something horrible is going on, but you can't take your eyes off of it. That's the best way to describe it. There's just too many feelings.

(END VIDEOTAPE)