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President Obama Says U.S. Not at War With Islam; Wal-Mart to Raise Its Minimum Wage; President Obama's Remarks on Violent Extremism

Aired February 19, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Happening now in the NEWSROOM, a live look at the final day at the White House Summit on Extremism. President Obama just minutes away from giving his second speech in two days on that topic.

A source of controversy? The one phrase you will not hear the president say -- Islamic extremism. More on that in just a minute.

Last hour Secretary of State John Kerry also weighed in saying that the 60 countries assembled here cannot ignore that the root of terrorism is in the recent surge in recruiting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: You have to do everything. You have to take the people off the battlefield who are there today, but you're kind of stupid if all you do is do that and you don't prevent more people from going to the battlefield.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: New reports of ISIS' barbarism again today. Iraq is asking the United Nations to investigate reports that ISIS is harvesting organs from slain civilians and then selling them on the black market.

CNN is unable to verify those claims nor can we confirm reports the ISIS fighters have slaughtered at least 40 police officers and tribesman in Iraq's Anbar Province. An Iraqi officials says most of the victims were burned alive.

All right. Let's talk about the controversy over the president's decision not to say the phrase Islamic extremism.

CNN's Michelle Kosinski joins us live from the White House with more on that.

Good morning.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Yes, you listen to the words of the president in a speech yesterday saying that you have to confront this discussion head on. You can't shy away from it. Take on this twisted ideology squarely and honestly.

But then, you know, over the last couple of weeks the White House has come under fire by some for not ever using the phrase Islamic extremism, seeming to shy away from it there. And we all know that there are other kinds of extremism, but it gets to the point where it's just as awkward to never say it as it would be if you just kept saying it over and over.

We had a few people demonstrating outside the White House yesterday while the summit was going on and one guy was holding a sign that said, "Just say it," and especially when you consider that a lot of the programs that are being highlighted during the summit are geared toward Muslim communities in the U.S.

Well, now the president has addressed this criticism, explaining his thinking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: Now, so it's really two points he was making, that he didn't want to elevate terrorists by calling them religious leaders, which he says that is what they want, and to emphasize again that this is not a war against Islam. He thought both of those points, if you keep emphasizing that as Islamic, it's incorrect, first of all, and then it just could lead to more recruiting.

That's been the administration's thinking. I think it's also notable to say that he also mentioned during this speech a couple of times the need for communities including Muslim leaders to address this, to try to counter that ideology and to take responsibility -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Michelle Kosinski, reporting live from the White House, thank you. The debate surrounding the use of Islamic extremism has taken a decidedly ugly term.

Let me be clear, it is a worthy debate. But the argument for it has turned at times bizarre. Here is the Reverend Franklin Graham on FOX News.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKLIN GRAHAM, PRESIDENT, SAMARITAN'S PURSE: The president, his entire life, his whole influence, has been Islam. His mother was married to a Muslim. His father is a Muslim. Then she married a man from Indonesia, he was raised in Indonesia, went to Islamic schools. I assume she was a Muslim.

So this whole life, his experiences have been surrounded by Islam. He only knows Islam. And he's given up past Islam. He's refusing to accept and understand the evil that is in front of him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Graham's remarks went unchallenged on FOX even though they are not true. The president is Christian and he was born in Hawaii, and he never attended a radical Muslim school.

Graham isn't the only person charging the president as somehow anti- American. Rudy Giuliani took aim, too, not at Obama's his religion, but his love of country. According to "Politico" Giuliani told a group of politicos in New York, quote, "I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America. He doesn't love you and he doesn't love me. He wasn't brought up the way you were brought up and I were brought up, through love of this country."

And on my show yesterday Congressman Scott Perry intimated Mr. Obama is collaborating with the enemy.

So let's talk about this and more. With me now Anushay Hossain, an expert in global women's affairs and the author of "Anushay's Point." She's also Muslim and worked with women's groups in Bangladesh.

Thanks for being here, Anushay.

ANUSHAY HOSSAIN, EXPERT, GLOBAL WOMEN'S AFFAIRS: Thank you so much, Carol. Great to be here.

COSTELLO: Nice to have you here. So when you hear Franklin Graham's comments, what goes through your mind?

HOSSAIN: I just want to shoot myself. Listen, it's so easy for Republicans and, you know, critics of Obama to kind of have a field day with the president's statements, but I think, you know, people might assume that he is just being incredibly rhetorical. But the president right now -- first of all I completely agree with his statements. He is being extremely tactical.

You know, he -- this distinction that ISIS are not Islamic leaders, that we are not at war with Islam, that these people are terrorists, it's extremely important and it's an extremely important point and stipulation to make right before the president is seeking military authority to go after -- to go after ISIS with the might of the U.S. military.

COSTELLO: And --

HOSSAIN: Playing into ISIS' hands, calling this a war with Islam is going to be playing directly into ISIS' hands. We have to be very careful.

COSTELLO: Well, some people might just say, you know, why not just call it what it is, Islamic extremism, then we know what we're fighting, we know what we're up against. It's very clear.

HOSSAIN: I know. You know what, the president is in a very tricky position. OK. He has to make sure he doesn't fall into the hands of an ISIS PR machine which has positioned themselves as the defenders of Islam. So this is exactly what they want to do -- drag the U.S. into an all-out war and the U.S.' allies against Islam. So the president is being very tactical by keeping religion completely out of it.

I know people want to, you know, call a spade a spade, but language here really matters. You know, the U.S. has to make sure that they can strategically go after ISIS without isolating their Muslim allies and their Muslim population. He is in a very tricky position.

COSTELLO: So for your family in Bangladesh, what do they think when they hear the term Islamic extremism?

HOSSAIN: Everybody always gets very terrified. And you know I don't want to speak on behalf of all Muslims. But I know that the Muslims that I speak with and I know from my own family, we immediately kind of brace ourselves for this backlash because we do feel like our religion has been hijacked. It has been hijacked.

And you know, whatever you say, because there's no centralized kind of authority in Islam, it's very easy for these kind of crazy people to come in and try to claim it. But I can, you know, denounce them, but maybe some other people -- it's just like when the -- when Christian extremists bombed abortion clinics.

A lot of Christians can be like, they don't speak for me, but really who is to decide whose interpretation is valid? So it's extremely tricky when the president of the United States is trying to go after these guys without making it an all-out war about religion.

COSTELLO: Anushay Hossain, thanks for your insights. I appreciate it as always.

HOSSAIN: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, ISIS' tactics continue to get more and more brutal. What witnesses are now saying they're doing to soldiers. That's next.

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COSTELLO: The United Nations is now investigating claims that ISIS may be harvesting organs from slaughtered civilians and then selling them on the black market in order to finance their terror activities. The shocking report comes from Iraq's U.N. ambassador. So far CNN has been unavailable to verify those claims.

We're also learning that militants may have killed at least 40 police officers and tribesmen men, many of whom may have been burned alive in Iraq's Anbar Province.

Let's bring in CNN's chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto. He has more on this.

Good morning, Jim. JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning,

Carol. You know, two allegations almost impossible to believe except when you're talking about ISIS which has already shown its enormous ability to carry out attacks like this. Now both the U.N., the Pentagon taking these claims very seriously. They're still investigating them. I've read situation reports from Iraqi forces on the ground that say it is possible if those bodies were burned after they were killed.

There are also questions about, if ISIS is harvesting organs, how they would safely get them out of the country to Europe to sell them. But still interesting reaction, for instance, from the State Department that says, in its word, there's no reason to doubt these claims exactly because of ISIS' brutal history so far.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO (voice-over): With ISIS locked in battle with Iraqi forces in al-Baghdadi, eyewitness accounts from the western Iraqi town claimed the terror group is burning the bodies of soldiers and tribesmen killed in the fighting to desecrate them. The Pentagon indicated it is now analyzing evidence of the incident.

REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: Certainly it wouldn't surprise any of us here if it turns out to be authentic and true, given the kinds of atrocities that this group continues to wage against innocent civilians.

SCIUTTO: And from Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, another startling claim, that ISIS is harvesting human organs from its victims in Iraq and selling them on the black market in Europe for profit. A dozen doctors in Mosul who refused to operate, he says, were murdered.

MOHAMED ALHAKIM, IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS (Through Translator): These are in fact crimes of genocide committed against humanity that must be held accountable before international justice, without even mentioning the traffic of human organs.

SCIUTTO: CNN has not been able to confirm the claims and the ambassador offered no proof. The U.N., however, tells CNN it is investigating. Big question, how the terror group could run harvested organs out of a war zone.

If true, what could be driving the terror group's increasingly extreme tactics? ISIS financing has suffered as the U.S.-led air campaign has destroyed many of the group's lucrative oil facilities.

And while ISIS recruiting remains strong, more and more attracting women and highly educated people. These extreme as atrocities often filmed get attention which in turn, further fuels recruiting.

MICHAEL WEISS, CO-AUTHOR, "ISIS": They basically peeled people away from al Qaeda. Guys who were formerly part of the bin Laden-Zawahiri network, they see that ISIS is now the going concern. They are the vanguard jihadi organization. They've managed to do what al Qaeda never could.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: One or topic of investigation on ISIS' most recent video, that of showing the beheading of Christians in Egypt in -- from Egypt on a beach in Tripoli, an American accent or North American accent heard on that tape by one of the attackers.

We've spoken to language experts who say that it may not be a native speaker but someone who either studied in the states or had a teacher from the U.S.

This is important, Carol, as they investigation because you'll remember Jihadi John, the English-sounding attacker that's appeared in other videos. We know that British authorities were able to get an absolute identity of him, not just his nation of origin, but they know who he is. And if could do the same for this we'd certainly be able to move forward their investigation.

COSTELLO: All right. Jim Sciutto, reporting live from Washington, thanks so much.

So let's talk about how to fight ISIS with military analyst Colonel Peter Mansoor. He's also the former aide to General Petraeus.

Colonel, thanks for joining me.

COL. PETER MANSOOR, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. I want to get this question out of the way first. From a military perspective, is it necessary that the president of the United States call it Islamic extremism?

MANSOOR: I think that it's important that we know who we're fighting, and we have to know the cultural, historical and religious roots of those groups, and they call themselves Islamists, and so I think we should as well.

COSTELLO: Tell me again why you think it's so important from a military perspective. Why not -- the president would say, for example, that you're giving them more power by assigning a religion to their movement when in actuality they're just a bunch of thugs. They're terrorists.

MANSOOR: Well, I would make a difference between calling them Islamic, that is, part of the -- religion of Islam and Islamist. That is someone who uses religion for their own end. So it may be a fine difference, but I think we could probably make that difference.

They use religion as a recruiting tool and they use it as a call to action. They talk about the historical roots of Islam and the crusades and so forth, and we have to understand that if we're going to meet them on even terms in terms of the battle of ideology.

COSTELLO: All right. Let's talk about -- the most effective way to fight ISIS because that conversation is now ongoing at the White House. In your mind, what needs to be done?

MANSOOR: Well, we're -- we stopped their momentum with airstrikes. But airstrikes alone will not bring stability to these lands that ISIS controls. We can see now they've moved into Libya, they already have chunks of Syria and Iraq. And eventually we're going to have to support ground forces going back in to roll back ISIS. We'd love those ground forces to be local. The Kurdish Peshmerga, the Iraqi Army, Syrian forces that we could find and train.

In Libya we have the Egyptians now who want to get involved and would be a big benefit, a big bonus to that fight. Egypt has a very strong and powerful army. So we have to find partners who are willing to fight this out on the ground and then support them to the limits that we can.

COSTELLO: All right, Colonel Peter Mansoor, thank you so much for joining me this morning. I appreciate it.

MANSOOR: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: To another big story, half a million Wal-Mart workers about to get a raise. The company says it's boosting its starting pay to nine bucks an hour. That would mean their employees get paid $1.75 over the federal minimum wage.

Our chief business correspondent Christine Romans is following that story. She has more.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Carol. The company doing quite a few things to sort of change its relationship with its associates, among them will be more choices in scheduling, come sometimes in 2016, they'll have more flexible or fixed actually schedules for some workers. Workers in many cases who might have two part time jobs, right? So they want to know what their schedule is.

They're going to make those change to make it easier to get sick time -- paid sick time. But immediately what happens, in April, the starting wage, the starting wage at Wal-Mart will be $9.00 an hour. That compares with $7.25 for the minimum wage. That's going to affect 500,000 employees.

The starting wage of $9.00, if you -- if you broaden it out a little bit here, $13 an hour is the average full-time employee wage. So the average full-time employee at Wal-Mart by April, they're making 13 bucks an hour. That includes some shift managers and the like. $10 an hour the average part-time hourly employee at Wal-Mart.

And so they are trying to raise that wage there. The company said -- a company executive told me earlier today that in fact they realized it could be good for the economy. They're going to spend a billion dollars to do this. They're going to have to put money in the pockets of their workers, but they expect those workers to go out into the economy and put -- and spend that money -- Carol.

COSTELLO: We'll see what happens. Christine Romans, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, in just minutes President Obama takes to the podium. He'll be speaking at the White House Summit to Counter Extremism, calling for a world effort to target groups like ISIS and al Qaeda.

Our special coverage with Wolf Blitzer after a break.

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: You're taking a look at -- live look at the U.S. State Department here in Washington, D.C. We're just a few minutes away from President Obama, he's getting ready to address a global audience. Leaders from the United Nations, 60 other countries, attending a summit for countering violent extremism.

We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world to the CNN special report. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

This morning the president is going to call for a global effort to get to the root of extremism in groups like ISIS and al Qaeda. This is his second speech on this topic in just the past 24 hours. On Wednesday the president said the United States is not at war with Islam, but the people who perverted Islam. And he's being deliberately vague and certain of his wording, not linking extremism to the Muslim faith directly.

Let's begin with our colleague and good friend, our chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper.

Yesterday he was largely addressing the domestic American effort to counter violent extremism. Today he's going global.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, although I think yesterday's audience, based on conversations I've had with sources close to the White House, was largely the American Muslim community, not the American audience at large. And that's why there was such an emphasis on talking about the root causes of terrorism, combating the political issues that exist, the economic issues that exist, emphasizing the need to bring the Muslim community into the fight against this extremism and not to alienate them.

Now -- today's speech I think is going to be another Muslim audience which is the worldwide Muslim audience and specifically the leaders of Muslim countries. And that's why he's going to continue with the theme of the causes of terrorism, the economic injustices out there, the political injustices out there. Why there are so many people that might be turning to radical Islam such as groups as Boka Haram or ISIS or al Qaeda.

And also talking about the need to -- for these governments to fight back against the narratives that ISIS is pushing forward. BLITZER: In the audience at the State Department, officials, leaders

from around the world including Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. Secretary- General. We're told the president will echo many of the themes he delivered last September before the United Nations General Assembly, looking forward to the next meeting of the General Assembly September of this year.

He's addressing this worldwide audience, in effect saying the Muslim -- the billion plus, 1.6 maybe billion Muslims around the world, they've got work to do as well.

TAPPER: And the president does this knowing that the domestic American audience is not really, generally speaking, interested in hearing the message he's talking about. The domestic American audience perhaps is more interested in hearing, what is he going to do about the ISIS threat in Syria, in Iraq, right now, about the kinetic activities, about the war. But he's not going to be talking about that because he's talking to a different audience in general.

BLITZER: Let's bring in our White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski.

We know Secretary of State John Kerry is going to introduce the president, but he's going to have some carefully crafted remarks knowing the people all over the world, Michelle, are going to watching and listening.

KOSINSKI: Right. And to the extent that he feels that the domestic audience is paying attention and the global audience at large, beyond the Muslim communities out there. He also wants to send that message that he put this together, that he's in charge, that he's leading the coalition, not only militarily, Wolf, because that is a big part of it. And he wanted to mention that, too.

I thought that was interesting in his speech yesterday. He wanted to say, yes, there is a military component. And we've heard that emphasis and repetition from the State Department, too. But he wants to say that he's also leading this, delving into the root causes, and we did hear that before the U.N. General Assembly, especially focusing on foreign fighters and information sharing.

So now moving this forward and they want to formulate an action plan ahead of the next General Assembly. It's going to be along those lines. What can governments do really? But that said, a lot of what has been talked about throughout were these really localized, new in some cases, community-based programs that you wouldn't think would really have a global audience out there.

But he mentioned a lot of this community outreach in his speech yesterday. So it seems like they want to take those kinds of programs and see how much sort of repetition they can get there, how much of a catching-on those could do on a larger scale. Of course it's not like you can enact one of these programs globally instantly. But the approach has been, you know, you've got to start somewhere.

And in the words of John Kerry, actually today, he said it would be stupid to approach this only militarily and not get into those community-based ideas and pressures and ways of countering this ideology. As the president said yesterday, we have to find a way to amplify those other voices out there. And yes, that, too, was a message to Muslim communities domestically -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Michelle, stand by over there at the White House. I want to bring in Jim Sciutto, our chief national security correspondent, Michelle -- Danielle Pletka, the foreign and defense policy studies expert, senior vice president of the American Enterprise Institute, and Jay Carney, the former White House press secretary, CNN senior political commentator as well.

Part of the effort that the president is going to make today is to expand and bolster this international coalition he's been trying to put together to fight ISIS, al Qaeda, these other terror groups.

SCIUTTO: Think about the immense distance between speech today and Cairo in 2009. The president who was ending the long American wars in the Middle East, moving beyond that, and lo and behold, dragged back in because of the severe and immediate threat from ISIS.