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ISIS Hostage Kayla Mueller Confirmed Dead; Senator Lindsey Graham on ISIS; Remembering Kayla Mueller

Aired February 10, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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


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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CO-ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kate Bolduan.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CO-ANCHOR: And I'm John Berman.

The breaking news this hour is heartbreaking. The White House and the family of Kayla Mueller confirm she is dead. She was the 26-year-old aid worker held hostage by ISIS, captured while doing humanitarian work, trying to help people in Syria in 2013.

Last week ISIS claimed she was killed by air strikes launched from Jordan.

BOLDUAN: But it's not clear yet if that is how Mueller died.

Her family just put out a statement. In part it says this. "Our hearts are breaking for our only daughter, but we will continue on in peace, dignity, and love for her." The statement truly heartbreaking in reading their sentiments to their loving daughter.

Let's get to our reporters. Kyung Lah is in Prescott, Arizona, where the Muellers live. Pamela Brown is in Washington with a lot more information. Pamela, let's start with you. What convinced the Muellers and the president that Kayla is dead?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate and John, we've learned that over the weekend, ISIS, Kayla's ISIS captors, sent the Mueller family a message, telling them that she had died and also sending the family pictures.

We know that after that there was a forensic examiners in the FBI and elsewhere that were trying to authenticate pictures before they jumped to conclusions. But I can tell you that on Saturday, John and Kate, that there was a growing sense within the U.S. government that Kayla had in fact died, not only because of what ISIS said but also coupled with some other factors -- the fact that they had said she died on Friday and that it was likely that ISIS would let her surface alive after saying she had died and just looking at their history how they've treated other hostages here.

There's a couple interesting things to note here. First of all, U.S. officials still don't know how she died. Of course there's been skepticism that she died in the Jordanian air strike on Friday. But the evidence that has been presented to the U.S. government does not clarify how she died.

Also it's interesting to note that ISIS has not released these pictures publicly like they have in the past with other hostages with those gruesome beheading videos and so forth, the propaganda that they've tried to use. In this case they haven't done that and it makes you wonder whether the fact that Kayla Mueller is a woman has changed the calculus at all.

John and Kate?

BERMAN: Nevertheless, they died in her hands. They kidnapped her and held her hostage for well over a year. Those are acts of pure barbarism.

I want to give you a sense of what this woman was like. The family released a statement today, mourning the loss of their daughter, and they included a letter that Kayla wrote while she was being held prisoner by ISIS and it included this line.

She said "I will always seek God. Some people find God in church. Some people find God in nature. Some find God in love. I find God in suffering. I've known for some time that my life's work is using my hands as tools to relieve suffering."

Kyung Lah, you are in her hometown of Prescott, Arizona. You are talking to the people she knew, people who loved her. What's the reaction there?

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We haven't specifically spoken with the family spokesperson today. As you can imagine, John, there is a lot of sadness, and that's because this is a woman who in this very small town -- it's 40,000 people in Prescott, Arizona -- a lot of people here knew her.

She's a woman who people saw walking the streets fighting for a campaign, the Save Darfur campaign, fighting against genocide even in high school. She went to college and she wanted to fight for the people who could not fight themselves.

It's a belief system that people who watched her grow up say they have no idea where it came from, other than the upbringing of her parents, but that it was so strong in her that it was almost inexplicable that she felt she need to understand the suffering and understand it in a very personal way.

She went to Israel. She went to the Palestinian territory. She went to India. She wanted to understand how people who are so unable to feed themselves, who don't have any rights in this world, could perhaps understand what Americans naturally just by being here, just by being raised in this country just take for granted. That's what she wanted to do.

And so what we've heard over and over again from the people who are talking with the parents is that this is what they want people to know about Kayla Mueller. She wanted justice, social justice for the people who don't have any rights.

And I think it's particularly poignant, John and Kate, that they also released a handwritten letter that Kayla Mueller wrote while in captivity. It's dated November 2nd, 2014. It's referenced within the body of the letter. And if you understand the family, there's a reason why they released it. There's a sentence in there that I think that's very important.

It says, Kayla writes, "I've been shown darkness, light and learned even in prison one can be free. I'm grateful. I've come to see that there's good in every situation. Sometimes we just have to look for it."

That is part of the very fiber of who this woman was. Always trying to find good even in the darkest of places on this planet. John, Kate?

BOLDUAN: Kyung, thank you so much.

Her strength and humility really do come through in this handwritten letter that the family has released.

Kyung is in Prescott, Arizona, where the family lives. Kyung, Pam, thank you both very much. We'll get back to you.

Let's also bring in now the Republican senator from South Carolina, Senator Lindsey Graham. Senator, I know you, everyone -- doesn't matter if they're an elected official or not has been following this very, very closely, the well-being, the whereabouts of Kayla Mueller.

This is exactly what everyone feared. What are you hearing?

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Well, exactly what you said. I know how hard Senator McCain has been trying to help this young lady. He's talked to the parents. He's been working with our government, and all I can say is that her family has got to be heartbroken.

But my God, this is the best example, this young lady, of being an American, being a decent human being that one could imagine, and I believe very strongly that she's in God's hands. She's going to have an eternity befitting her beliefs and her actions.

And those who captured her and in my view killed her, I think God will judge them differently.

BERMAN: I think her goodness, Senator, clearly illustrates the evil of those who were holding her hostage and who, one way or another, are responsible for her death. We haven't confirmed exactly how she died, but I don't think there's any question who is responsible here then, Senator.

So the question becomes then -- and this is an area where you have done a lot of talking recently -- what to do about it? What do you do about ISIS right now?

GRAHAM: What you try to do is degrade and destroy. The president's got the right goal, which is to degrade and destroy this evil force that will attack our homeland soon if we don't act.

So you keep building up capacity in Iraq; rebuild Iraqi security forces; supply the Kurds with arms that really actually are modern; try to get the Sunni tribes to break away from ISIL and the Anbar region; and you retake Mosul and you liberate Anbar.

You can't do that without a larger American ground component assisting the Iraqis. But the real problem in degrading and destroying ISIL lies in Syria.

BERMAN: Senator, you have spoken about boots on the ground. You are out much farther than many in your own party, certainly many Democrats, in suggesting that there should be a ground force. You say a ground force of some 10,000 people, including American troops.

How would that work? You want U.S. ground forces in Syria invading Raqqa, for instance, going door to door there? Do you want those same forces in Iraq, perhaps involved in the invasion of Mosul?

GRAHAM: Just listen closely to what I'm trying to convey. I have talked to American military leaders and commanders that have been in the region for over a decade. They have come to conclude that the Iraqi security forces lack capacity in the area of intelligence, that our special forces are much better than anyone on the planet, and that you'll need air capability, you'll need forward air controllers, you will need to embed American trainers probably at the company level.

The majority of the fighting force will be Iraqis and Arabs when it comes to Syria. But the lack of capability of any Arab army that I know of is pretty stunning. So what we want is an American component to go in on the ground in Syria, led by the Arabs in the reason, but no Arab coalition is going to be formed unless you deal with Assad.

The Arabs are not going to fight ISIL and allow Syria to be dominated by Assad, a puppet of Iran, so the strategy fails in a couple ways. If you train the Free Syrian Army, you send them into Syria on the ground. Assad will kill them if they get any strength because they will eventually turn on him.

So the strategy needs an American ground component. The vast majority of the members of the coalition will be from the region, but the American ground component is the difference between success and failure/

And the worst thing of all is to take ISIL on and lose.

BOLDUAN: Well, taking ISIL on and losing I don't think many Americans would say is an option here.

But when it comes to what you're proposing, there are many of your colleagues on Capitol Hill, those even in the Republican Party, who disagree, who do not want to see any soldiers, let alone 10,000 American soldiers on the ground, fighting ISIS.

What realistically do you think is going to actually come through Congress as the president is preparing to put forth his request for war authority?

GRAHAM: There will be an authorization to use military force that I would support that allows the degrading and destruction of ISIL to occur.

You're not going to destroy ISIL from the air. Somebody has to go in on the ground in Syria. I am convinced that we'll have to be part of that force or we risk losing.

As to Iraq --

BOLDUAN: You think there's no other option for success here other than American troops on the ground?

GRAHAM: There's no option without a ground component. You can't win from the air.

If you agree with the proposition you can't win from the air alone, somebody has to go on the ground. Name an Arab army that exists today that is willing to go in on the ground in Syria without American help.

BERMAN: Senator, let me just ask you this. On the authorization of force vote along those lines, you want ground troops. Would you vote for any measure that restricts the use of ground forces?

GRHAMA: There's a measure that says no enduring offensive capability. I'm not talking about an Iraqi invasion of 100,000 American troops that would hold the territory. I'm not talking about an occupying American force. I'm talking about a force to supplement the regional forces that exist today.

If you took American combat power off the table in terms of ground troops, I would vote against it. But we've got 3,000 people in Iraq right now. That's not enough. The goal is to win and to supplement the Iraqis and any coalition going in on Syria.

To my colleagues, if you think you can win this fight without any American troops on the ground, your evaluation of the capabilities in the region are far different than mine, and I want to win for the sake of this young lady and for the sake of all who have suffered under the hands of this brutal regime who burned a man alive. For God's sake, let's get on with degrading and destroying.

I'm not worried about the politics here. I'm trying to convey to the people the South Carolina I know you're tired and I know you're tired of being in the Mideast, but I'd rather fight the war there before it comes here.

So I'm not talking about a political position. I'm talking about a reasoned military solution to a very hard problem that requires America in the air and on the ground at some level.

BOLDUAN: Senator Lindsey Graham, Senator, thank you very much for your time.

We need to return, though, to our breaking news -- and thank you very much for your thoughts on the tragic death of Kayla Mueller right off the top. We really appreciate it as always.

GRAHAM: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Let's now return, though, to Washington. Pamela Brown has more details on the death of Kayla Mueller. Pamela?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate and John, we know that President Obama called the Mueller family. We believe it happened not long after they received the message from Mueller's captors -- from ISIS captors over the weekend, that message including pictures that apparently verified her death.

Also, we've learned the family is trying to get her body back. Now we don't know what that means if they're in touch with ISIS captors because we know they have a direct line in or how that process is taking place.

Secretary of State John Kerry released a statement today, and there's an interesting part in this statement. It says, "ISIL alone is the reason Kayla is gone. Like our friends in Jordan, our resolve is unshaken."

So that is in reference to the fact that no matter how she died, it was at the hands of ISIS. ISIS is the group that kidnapped her, and the U.S. government still doesn't know exactly whether she was killed in an air strike or through an ISIS execution, but the bottom line is that she died at the hands of ISIS.

John and Kate?

BERMAN: She died while she was being held hostage by ISIS. There's no question about that. They are responsible one way or another for her death.

Pamela Brown, thank you so much. We're going to have much more on our breaking news, the death of Kayla Mueller. The White House responds. The situation on the ground when we come back.

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BERMAN: Our breaking news this morning. Just a short time ago, the White House and the family of Kayla Mueller confirming that she is dead. The 26-year-old had been held hostage by ISIS in Syria since 2013. The White House releasing information that she was dead. The family says they received notification from ISIS, including a photo over the weekend, proving the fact that she died. This was a wonderful young woman who was overseas trying to help people doing humanitarian work.

Someone who knows her well, a former professor and a friend of Kayla, Carol Thompson, professor at Northern Arizona University.

Professor Thompson joins us now by phone from Zimbabwe, where she's working right now. I wonder if you can just give me your thoughts about Kayla on this tragic day. CAROL THOMPSON, FORMER PROFESSOR AND FRIEND OF KAYLA MUELLER (on the

phone): Yes. Thank you, John. It's been 18 months of anguish and tears and hell for the family. Those of us who were trying to come up with an alternative outcome, to not only Kayla, but to the other hostages, to James and Steven and Peter. So it's a sense of failure, is my feeling, along with almost a sense of inevitability because we know ISIS, and a sense of impotence to be of any help to the family. So along with that comes resolution to pick up where Kayla was very much living and acting to try to overcome some of the horrors that are going on right now.

BOLDUAN: The letter that was released by Kayla's family is difficult to even get through.

BERMAN: It's heartbreaking.

BOLDUAN: It's heartbreaking when you see her strength and her humility and the love that she has in the face of the terror that she was living day by day by day. This was a letter that she was able to give to other captors who were eventually released and it was able to get to her family. Part of it, Carol, I want to get your thoughts on. I mean, everyone should read it in entirety, but one part really struck with us. She says, "If you could say I have suffered at all throughout this whole experience, it is only in knowing how much suffering I have put you all through. I will never ask you to forgive me, as I do not deserve forgiveness." What does that mean to you that as she's sitting wherever she was writing this letter, that she was more worried about the burden she was putting on family and friends than she was about herself.

THOMPSON: Yes, and that's Kayla. Total compassion. Ability to connect with the other and to lose herself in the other and to identify with that. I agree with you that it's the ultimate to be able to do that when you're a hostage being treated, I'm sure, brutally and you're still worried about the family and what you're putting them through. That's our Kayla --

BERMAN: Professor -- I'm so sorry to interrupt. It's a long, long phone call here. But on this day, when we're learning that she was killed at the hands of ISIS while being held by ISIS, that's not how the world should remember her. The world should remember her for her work and for her heart. How would Kayla want to be remembered?

THOMPSON: Kayla would want to be remembered as one who is teaching us, and that includes me, her so-called professor. I did teach her about southern Africa. I know nothing about the Middle East. She was teaching me about that. That we must not standby and let horrific relationships appear normal, and that would include torture. That would include bombing and that would include the brutalities that are going on for hundreds of thousands of people. So she would most be wanting us to say, okay, what actions, how can each one of us do a little part? And that would be a second part of her message in that she had no illusion that she was going to transform the world. But she went trying to do whatever small thing she could do to change maybe a couple of relationships, a small corner of the world. And each one of us could do that in honor of the peace heroes who have died. Those who have been hostages and trying to work for peace, such as James Foley and Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig.

BOLDUAN: Carol, as we're talking to you, we're looking at images of Kayla. Obviously, in happy times. You see pictures of her with her family and it does make us, of course, wonder -- No one can imagine what her family is going through right now. Have you been in touch with them recently? How were they? How do you think they're doing?

THOMPSON: I have been in Zimbabwe, I'm on sabbatical, so I've been in Zimbabwe since last September, but I was working with the family in terms of the threats that they had received in July and August. So I was with them before I came to Zimbabwe. I have not been in direct communication with them because they're deluged, but I've been in communication with other close friends and what they're communicating is what I experienced for 18 months of their incredible generosity in relating to others, in being open to others and, yes, like Kayla, worrying about others and how they're taking it. They very much share what we did during the 18 months on my occasional visit was for me to share my Kayla because that was different. I'm the educator. They would share their Kayla. I'm sure they are still very consistent in both of those of sharing with open generosity. I'm returning to Prescott by Friday night because I simply must be a part of this.

BERMAN: Professor Carol Thompson, we're so sorry for your loss. We're so appreciative of your strength and we also know the family, no doubt, is as well. Thank you so much for being with us.

THOMPSON: Thank you for letting Kayla speak. It's very important.

BOLDUAN: Through you, she does. Thank you so much.

We'll continue to follow this breaking news, of course.

Let's get back over to the White House, as we've now learned that the president has spoken with the Mueller family, has called the Mueller family. That's where we have our White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski. She has more on that. What more are you learning now, Michelle?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The president did speak with the family, although, the White House isn't giving a time frame on this. They're not saying that it happened last night, as has been reported. But offering condolences, talking about wanting to bring Kayla's captors to justice. The president also put out a lengthy statement just before we heard from The National Security Council offering more detail. This is a long statement by the president using detailed and emotional language. Even at one point, quoting Kayla's own words.

In one part of it, "Kayla represents what is best about America, and expressed her deep pride in freedoms that we Americans enjoy, and that so many others strive for around the world. She said, 'Here we are. Free to speak without fear of being killed. Blessed to be protected by the same law we're subjected to. Free to see our families as we please. Free to cross borders and free to disagree. We have many people to thank for these freedoms and I see it as an injustice not to use them to their fullest.'" And it's unusual to see -- That was just a small part of this long statement. Usually, these statements, even when something tragic happens, I mean, when you look back to the summer when this happened with James Foley and Steven Sotloff, usually a statement by the president or by the White House is brief, expressing deep condolences, condemnation of ISIS. But we saw a week ago in the death of the Jordan pilot, very publicly, horrific scene of when the president wrote, again, a long statement, practically eulogizing him. Calling him a true son of Jordan. That was unusual to see, and it might have been because the King of Jordan was visiting Washington, D.C. on that same day. But you have to see that the White House is aware that as this war against ISIS grinds forward and all of these airstrikes, 2,000 of them, more than that so far, what the public is acutely aware of are incidents like these. The killing of innocent people, including Americans, and now including a young woman who was just there to try to help other people. John and Kate?

BOLDUAN: Michelle Kosinski following the developments at the White House for us. Michelle, thank you so much.

We're going to continue following this breaking news. We have a lot of other news that we'll get to, as well, this hour, including this: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he is set to speak before Congress. That's coming up next month. But even before he arrives, the list of no-shows is growing. Senator Bernie Sanders is among those saying that he's not going. Coming up, he's going to be joining us to explain why.

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