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Egypt's President Wants Arab Unity Against ISIS; Mueller's Parents Slam "No Ransom" Policy; British Girls May Be on the Way to Syria; Al Shabaab Threatens American Malls; The Politics of the 2015 Oscar Films; Slick Messages Meant to Appeal to Westerners; Colleagues Slam Bill O'Reilly's War Stories; Movies in 4DX

Aired February 22, 2015 - 17:00   ET

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


POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone, you're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Poppy Harlow. It is 5:00 Eastern. And there are major developments today in the war on terror.

Right now more world leaders lining up in their fight against ISIS, not just in theory, not just against the terror group's ideology, but also militarily.

Here's what may change the landscape. The president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, on television today describing his vision for a united military force with the singular goal of destroying ISIS. Forces from his own country, also Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. That's how he sees it. He says the need is there and it is growing every single day.

This is a significant development. I want to talk about it with our Bob Baer, he's our intelligence and security analysis, also with me retired Lt. Col. James Reese, global affairs analyst.

Thank you, gentlemen, for being here. So el-Sisi saying this on television today.

And, Bob, to you first. He didn't outright demand that this happen and he didn't say we have had a -- you know, a conference and this is going to happen and we're going to begin this coordinated military offensive tomorrow, but he did talk about his vision for this.

Do you think that that changes the game?

ROBERT BAER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I think we're getting there, Poppy. I see changes everywhere, today or yesterday in Saudi Arabia, the mufti, al-Sheikh came out strongly against the Islamic State, said they're not real Muslims and we have to crush this movement.

You see the UAE bombing in Libya, the Egyptian Air Force, of course, has been bombing. And I think what the Arabs are heading toward is some sort of like NATO-like organization and frankly this is the best way to crush this disease.

HARLOW: And to you, Colonel Reese, we really saw Jordan go all in against ISIS when their pilot that was taken hostage was so brutally murdered, burned, burned to death, and then of course earlier this week, you had those 21 Egyptian Christians brutally murdered in Libya by ISIS.

Do you read this as Egypt's way of going all in?

COL. JAMES REESE (RET.), FORMER U.S. DELTA FORCE OFFICE: Poppy, I do, absolutely. You know, the other thing, the President Sisi is challenging the other Gulf members. Remember, the GCC has a force called the Peninsula Shield. It's 40,000 -- 40,000 soldiers strong, all the GCC countries that has been used sparingly, last time in Bahrain.

I see this as a turning point for the Middle East and for -- for the GCC countries, and I -- you know, Egypt has a heck of a military, and I think one of the things what you do is, again, kind of sit back, support them where need be, especially if we're going to eradicate ISIS.

HARLOW: You know, Bob, no question, this would be welcomed very much by the United States, by our Western allies. It has been sort of the line we've been hearing over and over from the administration. We need our allies on the ground to do their part as well. This isn't just an American war against terror, if you will.

Here's the question. Who leads this? Because you've got really strong intelligence in Jordan, you've got strong military force in Turkey, as Col. Reese just said, you have a strong military force in Egypt. So who leads the way here?

BAER: Well, as Colonel Reese said, the best military in this really are the Egyptians, well-disciplined, they could into battlefield as they are in the Sinai right now. If it was a decision to go into Libya, an international decision, it will be the Egyptian military. The GCC has an iffy military, but the Jordanians are good. And it's just a matter of uniting these forces together, including the Saudis.

HARLOW: But --

BAER: Yes?

HARLOW: Bob, I just wonder if you think Egypt, yes, militarily quite strong, but if you think right now just the political landscape there, and -- we've seen uprisings, protests in the past few weeks where Egyptian citizens have died so I wonder if you think that it is on solid ground enough just sort of politically and the social environment there for people to lead?

BAER: I don't see any instability in Egypt right now. They are mopping up the radical wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, which came to power with Morsi, President Morsi, you know, but I think at the end of the day the Egyptians will win at this, and I think we really should consider the Egyptians moving into Libya.

Libya is a running sore which will spread across North Africa. There's a lot of weapons. It's getting worse by the day, as you know, Poppy, two days ago there was the big bombing in Qubbah, Derna. They're extending. And this needs to be crushed militarily. And we don't want American troops in Libya. It just -- it's a bridge too far for us, and the people to do it, the natural, you know, military to do this would be Egypt.

HARLOW: All right, gentlemen, stand by because I want to get your take on a few other stories that we're tracking here. One significant development, for the first time we're hearing from the parents of the slain American aid worker Kayla Mueller. You'll remember her, she was kidnapped by ISIS back in 2013 while she was helping Syrian refugees in that embattled city of Aleppo.

Two weeks ago her parents and the rest of the country received confirmation that she was dead. In breaking their silence, Mueller's parents took aim specifically at the long-standing U.S. policy of not paying ransom to terrorists. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARL MUELLER, KAYLA MUELLER'S FATHER: We understand the policy of not paying ransom. But on the other hand, any parents out there would understand that you would want anything and everything done to bring your child home. And we tried, and we asked, but they put policy in front of American citizens' lives. And we didn't get it changed. So that's something they're going to work on. I'm sure that's in the works.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you feel like our government did enough to help you?

MARSHA MUELLER, KAYLA MUELLER'S MOTHER: I think they wanted to, but I think again the policy, and I don't think anyone had any idea this group would be as powerful as they were.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Well, Kayla Mueller's parents, they're obviously grieving for the loss of their daughter and talking about the policy this country has. Kayla Mueller's deep desire to help Syrian refugees was understandable. She wanted to go there and do something.

Perhaps, perhaps it is that same impulse behind three British teenagers, three young women now apparently headed to Syria. The father of one of the girls said she acted perfectly normal last week before she and two of her school friend slipped out of London and boarded a flight to Istanbul.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Before Tuesday, had she started showing an interest in Syria? Was she talking a lot about humanitarian problems in Syria?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not at all. Not at all. She was doing her schoolwork because she's taking her GSCEs this year. There was no sign to suspect her at all. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And had she shown an interest in politics, in

international affairs? Did she kind of -- did she talk much about the problems in the Middle East?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not with us. Maybe with her friend. We don't know really.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. It is not clear what has motivated these three girls to, they believe, try to go to Syria, but Britain's prime minister says there is a disturbing trend of radicalization among British youth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Well, it is deeply concerning. And obviously our authorities will do everything we can for help these girls, but it does make a broader point, which is the fight against Islamist extremist terror. It's not just one that we can wage by the police and border control. It needs every school, every university, every college, every community, to recognize they have a role to play.

We all have a role to play in stopping people from having their minds poisoned by this appalling death cult.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: So Bob Baer and Colonel Reese joining me again.

Colonel Reese, let me begin with you on this. Clearly we don't know why these three girls have left, flown to Istanbul, and authorities believe they're trying to go to Syria.

Are they going to help as aid workers? Are they going to join in with any terrorist organizations? We don't know, but even Jeh Johnson, secretary of Homeland Security here in the United States, said recently we can't control broken travel, right? Once they're sort of out of the eyes of authorities, what do you do, Colonel Reese?

REESE: Well, you know, the secretary is absolutely correct. We can track them coming into Istanbul very well, but once they get off in Istanbul there's hundreds of thousands of people daily coming into Istanbul going in four directions there. If they have an idea because they fit a profile, law enforcement, the intelligence agencies, they see this profile coming in, they might be able to put surveillance on them.

But again we only have so many assets out there that can do these things and then once they get out there they kind of get lost in the crowd and then we have to wait to see what happens next.

HARLOW: Bob Baer, thinking about that part of the interview we just heard from Kayla Mueller's parents, it is heartbreaking, and even if you are an ardent supporter of U.S. policy to not negotiate, not pay terrorists, you can't imagine being in their shoes unless you're in them.

Do you believe -- and we know the U.S. is assessing our policy right now on this, but do you believe in any circumstance, even private money, not through the government, should be paid as ransom to try to get their loved ones back?

BAER: Well, Poppy, I think what we're all forgetting is Iran contra when we traded arms for hostages in Lebanon, when the Iranians took hostages and paid effectively millions of dollars and a lot of arms went to Iran. It almost brought the Reagan administration down.

And I think that this president is probably looking at that occurrence and it's politically unpalatable to pay money to terrorist groups. And he would really get hit in Congress and in the press if he started doing that.

HARLOW: But -- but not just politically. Because this is a president that doesn't need to get elected again, but just talking about the global war and the prolonged war on terror, do you believe that it strengthens terrorists significantly to pay for your hostages back? Because we know other European countries have done it.

BAER: No. I don't think it does. I mean at the end of the day, the French -- let's don't forget the French paid for their hostages from the Islamic State, and so do a lot of aid groups. They have paid a lot of money. They're not admitting it. They got their hostages back. There've been no hostages taken. And from a humanitarian aspect, it's possible. And it's something the Central Intelligence Agency could do if it were permitted.

It could be done quietly. You know, I think we should review that policy and frankly -- as cynical as the French are, I think we should look at what they've done and what they've accomplished.

HARLOW: All right. Thank you, gentlemen, both very much. Good to have you on the program. Stand by because we have a lot more to get to, including this.

The terror group calling for terror attacks on Western malls, specifically naming Minnesota's Mall of America. The details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Well, this weekend, two new videos emerged from terrorists overseas. Both of them ominous. One of them with a specific warning, a threat to people in America's heartland. The first one from ISIS and it is frightening and incredibly troubling image. You see it there. This shows a line of trucks and men locked in cages being paraded around.

They're the same type of cages and the same orange jumpsuits that we saw in a video of a Jordanian pilot being burned to death by ISIS. The men appeared to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters who have been fighting ISIS in Iraq.

Another video, this one from the terror group al-Shabaab, linking -- which is linked to al Qaeda and operates in Africa, but what it does is it calls for the group's followers to attack shopping malls in Britain, Canada and the United States. Al-Shabaab is the group -- the same group responsible for the assault on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya where more than 60 people were brutally murdered.

A voice on the video specifically mentions the Mall of America. That is the enormous shopping center in Minnesota. The Mall of America has responded saying, quote, "We take any potential threats seriously and respond appropriately. We have implemented extra security precaution. Some may be noticeable to guests and others won't be."

The head of the Department of Homeland Security on CNN this morning saying this. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEH JOHNSON, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: If anyone is planning to go to the Mall of America today, they've got to be particularly careful. And as the statement you read indicates, there will be enhanced security there that will be apparent to people who go there.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN ANCHOR: Federal security as well?

JOHNSON: There will be enhanced security there, but public vigilance, public awareness and public caution in situations like this is particularly important. And it's the environment we're in, frankly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Joining me CNN's Erin McPike in Washington, also in New York our Will Ripley.

Erin, let me begin with you. I'm interested in how you read what Jeh Johnson had to say. Do you think that he was suggesting that al- Shabaab has increased in terms of its threat to the West?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, no, Johnson and a pretty big handful of government officials are stressing today that in this case, there is no specific attack plan and no set group of fighters or anything who have, say, maps drawn out on how they can strike the Mall of America. In fact, we just got in a brand new statement from the Department of Homeland Security attempting to clarify all this.

A spokeswoman said they, "are not aware of any specific, credible plot against the Mall of America or any other domestic, commercial shopping center."

The fear is this video is a call to action for people who have been radicalized. And Secretary Johnson explained that by saying a new phase of terrorism is underway. Even though they can step up security, they can't necessarily prevent attacks by people who've seen these videos and get inspired to carry out attacks individually.

Those are of course what we call these lone wolf attacks, Poppy.

HARLOW: So one of the concerns obviously, when you look at the Mall of America, obviously, you know, the biggest mall in the country, right, so it's got sort of that figurehead if you will.

And then also to you, Will Ripley, when you talk about Minnesota, you're talking about a place that has been a fertile recruitment ground for al-Shabaab in the past.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and, Poppy, you've covered that issue extensively, growing up in the Twin Cities. And as you know, the Twin Cities, Minneapolis has about 30,000 Somalians living there. So it's the largest Somali concentration in the country. A lot of them in the Cedar-Riverside area.

And what the FBI noticed, starting back in 2007 was a disturbing trend, more than 20 men were leaving, many of them, most of them of Somali origin, were leaving the Twin Cities, and they were going to fight for al-Shabaab in East Africa. And a number of those young men died. Others are still at large.

So the FBI has been on the ground in that area trying to -- trying to work the community outreach angle, trying to find the root of this radicalization and put a stop to it. But there's concern, Poppy, that this video by mentioning the Mall of America, they are specifically targeting an area where al-Shabaab has been known to have an influence, and of course all it takes is one or two people to see the video and act for there to be really devastating consequences -- Poppy.

HARLOW: And we know as recently as last year over the summer, ISIS was actually successful in recruiting, you know, a Minneapolis citizen to go fight with ISIS who ultimately was killed fighting with ISIS.

It is so important to stress, you know, I spent a lot of time with this community, they're wonderful people. We're talking about a minority of people in this population. It does not at all, at all mean that this entire community is in any way tied up. And that's a very hard thing they're trying to fight, saying look, we do all of this outreach, we do all that we can, and this is a small minority of people that have been recruited by al-Shabaab and ISIS. But of course the FBI is keeping a close eye on it.

To you, Erin, on that point, I'm interested in what you've read of the statements we've gotten from FBI officials today who have said look, al-Shabaab may be trying to recruit, but they're just not that strong to carry out an attack like the Westgate Mall attack

MCPIKE: Poppy, that's exactly right. An FBI spokesman said today that al-Shabaab is in a, quote, "pretty weakened state." Those were his exact words. And that's why there's been some controversy bubbling up behind the scenes in Washington today.

Jeh Johnson, as you played there at the top, said on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" that anyone planning to go to the Mall of America should be particularly careful. Well, that came as a bit of a surprise. I asked him, you know, what does that mean? How should people -- act? I wanted him to clarify that. And he just keeps stressing, he wants people to be vigilant. If you see something, say something. That is the bottom line coming from Jeh Johnson today. HARLOW: And quickly, we do have to go, but Will Ripley, any of the

response you've gotten from community members there within that community in Minneapolis?

RIPLEY: This is obviously, as we've been reaching out our crews on the ground there. This is very upsetting to them. They feel their community has really been traumatized by this exodus of certain individuals, again as you point out, a very small minority, but every death hurts, every radicalization hurts.

HARLOW: Right.

RIPLEY: So to have a video like this, very, very troubling.

HARLOW: Absolutely.

Erin McPike, Will Ripley, thank you both.

Coming up next, what is al-Shabaab? And is the terrorist group trying to compete with ISIS? We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: This weekend, two more threatening videos released by two extremist groups, ISIS and al-Shabaab. One of them mentioning locations in Britain, Canada and the United States by name and calling on followers to attack them.

The head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security saying he believes those terror groups might be jostling for the world's attention.

Tom Fuentes joins me now. He's a former assistant director of the FBI.

Tom, when we talk about ISIS and al-Shabaab, and this propaganda video released by al-Shabaab today that is strikingly similar to the highly produced videos we've seen from ISIS, do you believe they're trying to compete with ISIS?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Absolutely. Absolutely, Poppy. I think it's a classic case of propaganda envy, you know, in this case. The ISIS puts out, you know, an edict and tells people around the world, you know, capture of tourists and cut his head off, and suddenly you have attacks in Australia, Ottawa, Canada, New York, you know, all over the world.

And now you have al-Shabaab, who have not been able to have that. The people that they recruited, the 27 kids from Minneapolis area that went to Somalia, you know, they had personal recruiters come to Minneapolis and face-to-face get them -- talking in to going back and set up the logistics for them.

HARLOW: Right.

FUENTES: To make the trip to Somalia. That's over with. And the parents were shocked, the religious leaders were shocked.

HARLOW: Yes.

FUENTES: The community people, and they work closely with the FBI and the state and local police.

HARLOW: Well, that's -- that's what I wanted to ask you, since you have, you know, experience in a former top leadership role in the FBI. I know what I've seen the local officials on the ground do to try to combat this.

FUENTES: Right.

HARLOW: In Minneapolis. What about the FBI? What has the FBI done? And frankly, Tom, do you think there is more they need to do because we know Minneapolis is one of the cities where they're rolling out this pilot program to try to prevent things like this.

FUENTES: Well, they have a tremendous outreach program, not just in Minneapolis but in a number of other cities that have a large Somali population. And in fact the RCMP as well in Toronto and other cities in Canada working very hard. But, you know, when this recruitment went on, the parents had no idea, the religious leaders had no idea, until the kids were gone.

And only when they had a number of them gone and some of them end up dead in Somali did they realize that they had this problem.

HARLOW: Right.

FUENTES: They do work very closely, they immediately notify the FBI or the police.

HARLOW: Right.

FUENTES: When they think that their son is on the verge of joining and being transported over there.

HARLOW: Do you believe -- do you agree with the FBI's assessment today, FBI telling CNN that, although there's no doubt that al-Shabaab would like to carry out an attack on a U.S. mall, they're in a, quote, "weakened state"?

FUENTES: Yes, absolutely. Because, you know, the attacks that they've done until now that were outside of Somalia, in 2010, they did an attack in Kampala, Uganda, when people were watching the finals of World Cup soccer, detonated a bomb, killed about 60 or 70 people, including a number of Americans.

The FBI dispatched 65 agents there to deal with that, conduct that investigation, and then they've been persistent in trying to attack Kenya. Culminating in their most successful a year ago, September.

HARLOW: Right.

FUENTES: The Westgate Mall. Now these countries are neighbors. It's very easy for them to go across the land borders and bring the AK-47s and the hand grenades. And they have safe houses in both those areas.

For them to be able to extend that logistical chain to the United States or Canada --

HARLOW: Right. Right.

FUENTES: -- I think is almost impossible. The one thing that is possible, as Jeh Johnson mentioned earlier today, is that somebody watching the video might say, oh, what a great idea.

HARLOW: Right.

FUENTES: I'm going to go do that.

HARLOW: Recruitment. Tom --

FUENTES: Recruitment. Right.

HARLOW: Tom Fuentes, we're out of time but I appreciate the expertise. Thank you for joining me this evening.

FUENTES: Thank you, Poppy.

HARLOW: All right. We're going to shift gears in a big way here and bring you some happy news from the red carpet the way that only, only my friend Don Lemon could do.

Live at the Oscars, looking good in Armani -- Don.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Happy -- thank you very much. Happy news for some people. Because you know not everybody can be a winner. But we're going to be talking to the people who are thinking they're going to win, and I keep looking this way. I'm going to have a crick in my neck because that's the way they're coming. Down the red carpet.

We'll be here for you live, Poppy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: It is the night Hollywood holds its collective breath. The 87th Annual Academy Awards but much of the night is pretty predictable, right? You've got that kind of annoying music that goes off when the speeches are too long, the inevitable red carpet bloopers, the shoo-ins for certain categories, but what surprises are in store?

CNN's Don Lemon is on the red carpet, sparkling, sparkling in his designer studs.

What are you excited about tonight?

LEMON: I'm excited about this selfie I'm going to take with you. Are you ready, Poppy? Smile. Here we go. All righty. There we go. Did you see how tight it is? Can you see that?

HARLOW: I can't see, but it doesn't even rival Ellen DeGeneres from last year. Nice.

LEMON: That's our selfie. That's you. You like that?

HARLOW: I love that. I love that. Why am I not surprised you're taking selfies on the red carpet.

LEMON: I think we look pretty good. Everybody's taking selfies. It's really -- I mean, it's really exciting. This is my first Oscar red carpet. Not my first red carpet. But I've got to tell you, it's been really exciting being here and I've seen just about everyone. I keep looking to the left because the red carpet just opened, Poppy, just a couple of minutes ago and folks are starting to come up and they look absolutely beautiful.

The big stars are expected to get here a little bit early today because rain is expected. And we are covered by a canopy because of the rain. The limos are arriving now. And the big stars are all popping up. So who's going to come over?

I want to talk to Benedict Cumberbatch. I want to talk to Reese Witherspoon. I saw J. Lo last night. She said I'll come over and talk to you, Don. Patricia Arquette just arrived, you know, Patricia Arquette, "Boyhood." That movie is the odds-on favorite to win Best Picture, so we're going to see. What do you think? Who do I think is going to win?

HARLOW: Who do I think is going to win Best Picture? I'm totally going out on a limb and I think "Grand Budapest Hotel."

Who do you think is going to win?

LEMON: What?

HARLOW: I loved that movie.

LEMON: I love "Grand Budapest Hotel."

HARLOW: I love that movie.

LEMON: I think -- I thought it was great, it was a little quirky, it's the kind of movie you watch and then you have the munchies afterwards, if you know what I'm talking about.

(LAUGHTER)

It's a little odd. Yes, come on.

HARLOW: OK. You said it.

LEMON: Totally that kind of movie.

HARLOW: You said it. I didn't say it.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Hey, it's the truth. "Boyhood" is the odds-on favorite, as I said. But personally I like "Selma" and I like "Theory of Everything." The "Theory of Everything" I just -- I thought was everything, and I thought "Selma" was pretty fantastic.

This is my little cheat sheet. It's got all the nominees on here that I had so.

HARLOW: Hey --

LEMON: Anyway, they're starting to come and they look gorgeous.

HARLOW: And big props to your producers behind the scenes who I know put together that amazing cheat sheet for you. Very helpful on the red carpet. I, too, love "Selma."

LEMON: Wait, let's -- look at this.

HARLOW: And hope it gets a big nod.

LEMON: This is all -- these are all of my cheat sheets. Can you see that?

HARLOW: Yes, you got a pretty great team putting those together. Absolutely.

Don, have a great time tonight. We'll be watching minutes from now.

LEMON: Thanks, Poppy.

HARLOW: Don't miss Don Lemon, Michaela Pereira, live on the red carpet. Hollywood's biggest night, 6:00 p.m. Eastern only right here on CNN.

Well, it is no surprise that some of the year's most celebrated films are full of political undertones, but is it possible to look at the people who worked on the movie, wrote it, directed it, funded it, and how liberal or conservative they are? Did that bend the movie at all?

Let's bring in our Chris Moody he joins me from Washington. This is really interesting. I was reading through your piece and you were able to dig down and see where -- basically where the money came from to fund these films and if that tells us anything about them politically.

CHRIS MOODY, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT, CNNPOLITICS.COM: Well, breaking news, Poppy, Hollywood is liberal.

HARLOW: Really?

MOODY: Yes. We all -- we all know that, right? OK. So what we did was we teamed up with a group called Crowd PAC, that tracks political donations. And we looked at all the people who worked on the movies up that are for Best Picture, and looked at their political donations, which are all public. You can tell a lot from a very private celebrity about their political donations, which they have to file with the FEC. And we found that the most liberal movies, at least the most liberal

people who worked on the Best Picture movies we're the "Imitation Game", "Birdman" and "Selma." And on the other side of the spectrum I would say the most moderate or at least liberal was "American Sniper" which was directed by Clint Eastwood who spoke at the Republican National Committee last year.

But interestingly enough, despite the Clint Eastwood factor and his political donations to Republicans, he also gave to Democrats, and so even the most, quote-unquote, "conservative" movie was on the left side of the spectrum, as far as the people who worked on that movie.

HARLOW: But can I -- let me ask you this. OK. Honestly, when I saw this, I was like, how much credence can we give this? Because it goes back and it looks at people's political donations like for Bradley Cooper, the last political donation it has was from 2000. I mean, how much can we really read into this?

MOODY: Well, that's just one person. There's dozens of people who work on movies. And a lot of the donations were from 2012, quite a few people who worked on these movies gave to President Barack Obama or they gave to campaigns in California, where a lot of them live. Brad Pitt, he gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to support the pro-gay rights movement in California.

So yes, there are some that go back quite a ways, but also you can tell a lot from a person over time to see their donations over several years. You wouldn't want to look at one cycle, because views can change over time. So I think having a nice, a long sample is really -- really is helpful.

HARLOW: It's really interesting. Go to CNN.com, read the piece. You can sort of see the spectrum. It has all the movies listed there instead of the blue to the red. And as you said, most of them were on the blue side.

MOODY: Or blue to light blue.

HARLOW: Moody to light blue. Exactly.

Chris, good to have you on. Thanks so much.

MOODY: Thank you, Poppy.

HARLOW: Coming up, again, switching gears here. ISIS mobilizing an online army to recruit followers and raise money and they're flooding social media with 90,000 messages a day.

We're going to talk about that next, and the government's newest plan to fight this growing online propaganda war.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Well, fighting ISIS on the ground has been a huge challenge as you know. Fighting them online equally difficult. Their ability to use the Internet and social media to gain converts and mobilize is really unprecedented. It appeals to the tech-savvy youth, it can reach them directly on their cell phones, on their computers, anywhere.

Let's bring in CNN intelligence and security analyst, former CIA operative Bob Baer. Also joining me, Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Weisenthal Center.

Thank you both for being here.

Rabbi, thank you for joining us on the program. It's the first time we've had you on and I'm really interested to hear what your group, I know you're leading this group and a lot of what you do is to try to fight the online propaganda war, working with companies like Facebook, et cetera.

What are you doing to try to combat this?

RABBI ABRAHAM COOPER, ASSOCIATE DEAN, THE SIMON WEISENTHAL CENTER: Well, Poppy, thanks for having me on. I head up a project for the Weisenthal Center called Digital Terrorism and Hate. And basically -- and I've been globetrotting Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, everyone we speak to in the intelligence and in policing have the same concern -- the ISIS and the similar groups have these brilliant and very effective marketing plans in place that encourage the teenager girls to leave London and be, you know, in Syria in three days.

And it's great to hear the White House talk about proactive measures of positive messages, but we have to really focus in on a -- on a fundamental. We need the social networking giants to do their job, to help degrade the very effective marketing plans of terrorists.

HARLOW: Well, here's the question, right? There are limits to what you can just take off line in this country because you don't want it out there. Just because you disagree with the message, as horrible, vitriolic as that message is, you cannot just take it off line, right. Of course execution, things like that. That's a different story. So what do you want these social networking giant to do?

COOPER: Actually we don't see this as a speech issue. You know, we each hit that button that says I agree, sign a contract with the company, Facebook has a set of rules, if you don't follow them, they have the right to throw you off. And our focus here is not about hate speech, but about the food chain of terrorism. That's really the key. And if you're proactively involved -- for example, today showing the 27-minute video on YouTube, threatening malls in the United States.

HARLOW: Right.

COOPER: Who says YouTube has to show it? They have the right to take it down.

HARLOW: Bob, to you, when and how did ISIS get so good at this?

BAER: They've simply, Poppy, stolen our technology, as we talked about earlier, you know, they've got encryption technology, which the National Security Agency can't beat. And for instance, even in tactical communications in Iraq they're using Russian speaker, Uzbek speakers, so the locals can't understand them. They're using satellite Wi-Fi. And, you know, and even Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's speech is -- was a brilliant piece of propaganda.

I mean, the photography was good. His Arabic was very good. It was -- you know if you don't understand Islam, it's very, very convincing. And of course the execution tapes were high quality, high production values, a lot of this technology people from the West are just sort of showing up in the Middle East and applying it to this recruiting campaign, which surprises me that it's working, but it is.

HARLOW: Yes. It's working but it's absolutely terrifying. And I do -- quickly before we -- go, yes?

COOPER: I just want to say, Poppy, that within an hour of the French killing the two assassins of the "Charlie Hebdo" character people, you had hashtags, you had their picture of on their twitter. These were heroes, role models. But look, they'll find a way to get their messages out. But we are just giving them literally the red carpet and the five-star treatment using social network.

If we put our minds together on this, in combating terrorism, not speech, we have a chance of at least degrading their brilliant marketing strategies.

HARLOW: Bob Baer, Rabbi, thank you both for joining me. I wish we had a lot more time to talk about it. We will continue to stay on it on this program. I appreciate it.

Coming up after a quick break, Bill O'Reilly's former CBS colleague says the FOX News host lied. We'll bring you his comments, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Some former colleagues of Bill O'Reilly say that some of the stories that he told about reporting from Argentina in the 1980s just are not true.

The FOX News host worked for CBS back then. On a trip to cover the Falkland war he depicted Buenos Aires as a, quote, "war zone" and a combat situation telling a story of how he helped save an injured cameraman at one point, but multiple CBS employees are telling CNN they don't remember anyone getting hurt during that coverage. The cameraman declining, though, to comment to CNN.

O'Reilly's former colleague Eric Engberg from CBS was also in Argentina at that time covering the story. He told our Brian Stelter O'Reilly is not telling the truth. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Is Bill O'Reilly lying when he describes his combat situation?

ERIC ENGBERG, FORMER CBS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think that what he's doing is he's trying to build it up into a more frightening and deadly situation than it was. It wasn't a combat situation by any sense of the word that I know. There were no people killed. He said that he saw troops fire into the crowd. I never saw that, and I don't know anybody who did, and I was there on the screen.

The one thing I am going to argue about and the thing that's got me talking about this is that in one of those tapes -- you haven't played it. But in one of those tapes --

STELTER: Actually I think I know what one you're going to refer to. Let me play a couple of these sound bites because these are the ones you referred to.

ENGBERG: Go ahead and play that.

STELTER: So here's the first one. This is from the Hamptons in 2009.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL O'REILLY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: When the Argentines surrendered to the British there were riots in the streets of Buenos Aires, I read about this from my novel, those who trespassed. And I was there pretty much by myself because the other CBS news correspondents were hiding in the hotel and I said why are guys -- you've got to get out and cover the story which I did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STELTER: So, Eric, that was the first time.

ENGBERG: Right.

STELTER: That I wanted to have you react because he says nobody else was out there that night but you're a CBS correspondent who said you were --

ENGBERG: What he just said is a fabrication, a lie. There were five CBS News correspondents including him assigned to that bureau. He sent all five of the correspondents and all 10 or 12 of the camera crew members out into the street, nobody stayed in their hotel room because they were afraid. We were all working and we saw what looked -- what was a moderate-sized riot.

It was a couple of thousand people attacking the Casa Rosada or the area around the Casa Rosada by waving their arms, by clapping and chanting and singing songs. Nobody attacked the soldiers. Nobody attacked the police. There were no -- there was nobody lying on the ground when it was over that I saw.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: All right. I want you to know also that our Brian Stelter did reach out to Bill O'Reilly, also to FOX News with multiple interview requests. His requests so far have been denied and if we get an update on that we will let you know.

Well, we are just moment away from our special live coverage of the Academy Awards so stand by for that 6:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

Also we're going to take you inside a movie theater that literally hits all five senses, but first this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just last month, 67-year-old Linda Garrett started her journey with the Fit Nation team.

LINDA GARRETT, FIT NATION PARTICIPANT: It feels good.

GUPTA: Swimming, biking --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Watch your heart rate.

GUPTA: -- running, all to get ready for the Nautica Malibu Triathlon in September.

But now, just a few short weeks later, the first major hurdle for Linda to overcome.

GARRETT: This is a big one. Yes. Yes.

GUPTA: An old knee injury flared up and she needs surgery.

DR. CHRISTOPHER CAREY, ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON: So Miss Garrett had a tear of her medial meniscus, which is sort of the cushion pad on the inner side of her knee over there.

GUPTA: Dr. Carey was able to do arthroscopic surgery just a few days after he found the injury, and all went smoothly.

CAREY: Everything went very well. Pretty much everything we expected in there. Big meniscus tear which is what we're looking for because that's something that we can eliminate those symptoms right off the bat.

GUPTA: Recovery time says Carey?

CAREY: I usually start my patients pretty quickly with regards to range in motion, things like a stationary bike. She can start on that. In a few days, I usually try to hold everybody back from anything vigorous specifically for her running or anything for about six weeks or so after the procedure.

GUPTA: But overall, he says Linda will be as good as new.

CAREY: She'll do well. She had some arthritis but good looking knee over all.

GUPTA: As for Garrett herself, she says she's a little sore but also looking forward to getting back in the game.

GARRETT: I feel like I can catch up. Just a minor setback, it's a hiccup. GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. It is Hollywood's golden night and we are just moment away from our live red carpet special that begins at 6:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN, but could we see a change in what films get nominated next year thanks to a completely new way to watch movies?

Our Brian Stelter introduces us to 4DX.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STELTER (voice-over): If you've never heard of 4DX it's like seeing a 3-D movie on steroids.

(On camera): I though there were a lot more than four dimensions going on in here.

ANGELA KILLOREN, CJ 4D CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER: The fourth dimension beyond just sight and sound so you have the motion from the chairs moving up and down, forward, backward, side to side.

We have fans so air blowing air shots. It feels like, you know, bullets whizzing by your head or maybe an arrow going by, and then there's water, rain can come up. They shoot from the back of your chair and they kind of shoot up.

STELTER: Right.

CATHERINE YI, CJ 4D SENIOR EDITOR: We have eight different scents. We have a gun like gunpowder, burning rubber and we actually have one that we mix together where it will put out the gun powder and the burning together so that just smells really great.

STELTER: This is underneath now all the chairs.

YI: Correct.

STELTER: Flower, raspberry, coffee.

YI: So this one you're going to be able to smell right away, ready?

STELTER: You can let it out right here? Smells great.

(Voice-over): And while it's only available in one theater in the United States right now, it is flourishing elsewhere.

KILLOREN: It's doing extremely well in Mexico, Japan, China, Korea. Pretty much any territory that's building new cinemas at a rapid rate is excited to have this theater technology that differentiates it and drives more people to come to the theater and creates a special experience.

STELTER: The only U.S. theater with 4DX technology, Regal LA Live in Los Angeles, says the investment is more than paying off.

TODD GOLDSTEIN, CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER: We've seen the revenue up 50 percent just in the first few months that we've had this theater but we're going to have what would be probably the biggest box office year in history here in 2015.

STELTER: And as for what you can expect to see in 4DX later this year.

GOLDSTEIN: "Jurassic World." "Fast and Furious 7". "Insurgent." Certainly at the end of the year, the J.J. Abrams "Star Wars." Everyone wants to experience their life as Hans Solo, Luke Skywalker and the Millennium Falcon.

STELTER: Brian Stelter, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: All right. That'll do it for me. I'm Poppy Harlow.

"HOLLYWOOD'S BIGGEST NIGHT" hosted by Don Lemon and Michaela Pereira begins right now.