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Abu Sayyaf Is Dead; Boston Marathon Bomber Sentenced To Death; Federal Railroad Administration Demands Urgent Changes; Jeb Bush In Iowa. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired May 16, 2015 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00] POPPY HARLOW, CNN HOST: Officials say Abu Sayyaf is believed to have had deep knowledge of ISIS hostage operations. The plan originally was to have him captured alive, but U.S. officials say he fought back and died during an intense firefight, that included hand to hand combat. His wife, however, was captured by those U.S. special operations forces. She is being interrogated inside of Iraq. The mission was lead by the army's delta force and order directly from President Obama.

Let's go straight to pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. She broke the story. She has been getting more and more details throughout the day.

Barbara, defense secretary Ash Carter calling it a significant blow to the terror group. Tell us about this man, Abu Sayyaf. Who is he? How critical is he?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: I have to tell you. Poppy, information is sketchy. He is not probably known to those who follow ISIS in the media, in the academic world. But clearly, someone that U.S. intelligence and the U.S. military had known about and were tracking for some time. I think lot more is likely to come to light. We cannot assume we know everything at this hour.

But officials familiar with the raid in Syria have told CNN that he was for some time essentially the oil and gas emir, the head of ISIS' oil and gas operations, which had in the past been vital to them raising money. But recently had become something much more than that, something very troubling. He had taken on an increasing role in ISIS operations, planning, commanding control. And critical information here. The U.S. believes he may well have had some kind of communication with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS.

So you put this whole intelligence picture together, plus his wife and her knowledge potentially of hostage operations that ISIS had been involved in and you see why the U.S. wanted to get him. This was supposed to be an intelligence operation. They were going to try and get both of them alive and interrogate them. Even though he died in this operation, the wife is undergoing interrogation and we are told now that the U.S. special forces delta force, army delta forces captured a good deal of intelligence, communications, laptops, cell phones, that kind of thing. Now they're going through it all.

HARLOW: And Barbara, that's what I wanted to ask you because clearly this was from the top down. This came from President Obama, he approved this, putting American lives at risk. They thought this was a critical enough mission to do that, to send in these special operations forces. How much information do you understand they expect to be able to get from all of these computers, cell phones, et cetera, that they were able to also get in this raid along with killing him?

STARR: Well, what we have seen in past similar raids, even the Osama bin Laden mission, when special forces captured this kind of data, they go through it. They make an initial pass at it very quickly to see what they have, to see if there's anything that they might be able to take action on, if you will, very quickly. Is there realtime intelligence that they can exploit and perhaps conduct another raid, another mission, get better understanding of ISIS operations and organizational structure. So they will go through that very quickly and see essentially what they can do. I think a lot of people may have the question why is there so much information about this?

HARLOW: Right.

STARR: You know, they're not giving us the full story, the administration clearly, the White House, the Pentagon telling us what they want us to know. What we don't know is, is this a signal perhaps to other ISIS operatives. If there are ISIS operatives out there, do they now scurry around. Do they move, do they change their e-mail passwords, do they go deeper underground. What else is U.S. intelligence watching for right now deep inside Syria where we certainly thought there wasn't a very good intelligence picture, at least not until now.

HARLOW: And we know the Assad regime was not told about this but the Iraqi government was aware. Very quickly before I get to my guests, do we know if the president will address it at all this weekend?

STARR: We are told through our own CNN White House team at this point there is no expectation of President Obama speaking about this publicly if, and I think this would be the next thing to watch for as our own Evan Perez and Jim Sciutto have reported, you know, when you have delta force in an operation that involves trying to get intelligence about what happened to western hostages in Syria, including potentially some of those American hostages, if information is developed on that, the administration will come out and talk about that when they have that all tied up and they feel they can actually begin to reveal some of that to the public, if that happens.

[15:05:06] HARLOW: Barbara Starr, thank you very much.

Joining me now to discuss, CNN national security analyst and author of "Manhunt, the 10-year search for Bin Laden," Peter Bergen. Also with me, former CIA operative and CNN intelligence and security analyst Bob Baer.

Bob, let's begin with this because some are even doubting in the early stages if this mission and risking this much was worthwhile for this figure, a figure, Sayyaf, who many people hadn't heard of before.

ROBERT BAER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: He wasn't that important. But on the other hand, Poppy, you know, with the battle for Ramadi going on, and apparently ISIS will take Ramadi sooner rather than later, probably (INAUDIBLE), we need to have a response to this ISIS offensive. And even if it is by ground, the attack occurred near (INAUDIBLE). It is open country. There is no air defense there. It is likely defended. This was an obvious target, clearly well planned. They could send in a blocking force as well as the operators.

So, you know, but what it does tell me is that we're getting deeper into this war against I ISIS than we had planned and air power alone won't do it.

HARLOW: Peter, you have called this unusual but not unprecedented. Why is it unusual in your mind?

PETER BERGEN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I mean, let's get to the unprecedented, the fact that it is unprecedented. We saw on July 3rd of last year a special operation force go in to Syria to try and rescue Jim Foley, the American journalist. Now, there are Americans held by ISIS. Unfortunately, the intelligence that they had was kind of dated. The hostages had been moved. So we've seen it within the past year, another similar raid deep into Syria.

And then if you go back to the George W. Bush administration, we saw a raid against a high-level leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the parent organization of ISIS, that took place in 2008. So this has happened before. It's unusual, but it's not unprecedented.

HARLOW: Bob Baer, to you, we know that the national security council spoke (INAUDIBLE), had said that they are looking to see if they got any information related to any hostages, American hostages that may be held over there. It's going to be critical how successful they are in interrogating his wife, who they have captured and taken over to Iraq. Do you think U.S. intelligence will be able to flip her?

BAER: You know, I don't -- you know, it's a question how much she knows. I mean, she may have been not part of this at all. The sort of documents they got, the Islamic state isn't known for keeping a lot of paper around. I don't think this is going to be some huge breakthrough. This is a long war of attrition. And they're going to be looking now at al-Baghdadi, for instance. And the more they get accustomed to moving in these parts of Iraq and Syria, I think we'll see more of these raids. Because frankly, again, I'll say we're not doing well against the Islamic state. It's not dead. And it is more vicious than ever.

HARLOW: And the timing comes as you guys said just off the heels of it being pretty clear that we're going to lose -- the Iraqi forces will lose Ramadi to is.

Peter, Ash Carter, the defense secretary, used these words, a significant blow to ISIL. Is that how you would assess it, a significant blow?

BERGEN: He's in a better position to make that judgment than I am. But going back to the woman and what she can tell us, perhaps, about the hostages. You know, there was a female hostage, an American hostage held by ISIS who was killed. You know, these people are -- have very firm views about, you know, women only dealing with women.

So if she had any role in the hostage taking, that would be the one area where she might have something to say. Otherwise I agree completely with Bob. I mean this is an organization. They have encouraged women to come and join them, but they have no role when they get to Iraq or Syria. So the only place where I think you might have find interesting information, if she has any, is the issue of the female hostages, which included not only Americans but also Italian females and others who were held by ISIS. Some who were unfortunately murdered by ISIS and others who were let go because of ransom money that was exchanged.

HARLOW: Bob, we know that the -- as I said, the Assad regime did not know about this, was not notified about it, even though it happened inside Syria. But Iraq was fully aware. The Iraqi forces, Iraqi government was aware. What does that tell us about the collaboration between the United States and the Iraqi forces right now?

BAER: Well, we clearly can't, you know, trust the Syrians to any degree. They have gone back to using chemical weapons, probably Sarin as well. They are the enemy as well as the Islamic state. The Iraqis, we needed them for -- I'm sure there was a blocking in force, you know. It wasn't just a simple JSOC team that went in there with a dozen guys. So you need coordination on the ground. You'd have to bring the Iraqis in for air control and the rest of it.

I mean that's a good sign. I mean, our best ally in this whole region is Iraq. It's actually fighting. But they're not 100 percent reliable either.

[15:10:10] HARLOW: Bob Baer, Peter Bergen, thank you very much.

And for all of you watching, you're not going to want to miss this, "Blindsided: How ISIS Shook The World." Who is ISIS, a deep look inside of ISIS.

"Blindsided," Fareed Zakaria's Special Report Sunday night right here at 7:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.

Well, this operation took out a top target with no American casualties whatsoever. That is what the U.S. government is saying. Is it a perfect job by delta force? We'll talk more about the details and what we know so far, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:13:44] HARLOW: All right, we're back with our breaking news. U.S. special operations conducting a raid deep in ISIS-controlled territory killing a senior ISIS figure and capturing his wife. This development reported first right here on CNN could have huge implications for the U.S.-led war on ISIS.

Joining me to talk more about it Jonathan Gilliam, a former navy seal and former FBI special agent, also with us on the phone lieutenant colonel James Reese, a former U.S. delta force commander.

Gentlemen, thank you very much for being here.

Let me go to you first, if I can, colonel Reese, you -- this was carried out by delta force operatives, special forces. You were formerly delta force. What can you tell us about how textbook this operation was from the early indications?

LT. COL. JAMES REESE (RET.), FORMER SPECIAL FORCES COMMANDER (via phone): Yes, from the early indications this is textbook JSOC operations. You know, JSOC has been doing these type of operations and raids since 9/11, throughout Afghanistan, Iraq and other places throughout the Middle East. And this is exactly what delta was formed to do over 35 years ago. It's a very intricate raid. And you know, the reason they, you know, they went in was because their major task was to try to capture this guy, need intelligence piece, but unfortunately it didn't happen.

[15:14:58] HARLOW: Well, it's interesting that they chose to do it this way. This was a helicopter used -- they used a helicopter in this operation. There was hand-to-hand combat we're told. Why that route instead of a drone strike?

REESE: Well, because, Poppy, the piece, the one that happened here, once again, reporting this, they wanted to capture this guy for the intelligence. If all they wanted to do was kill him, they just would have done a drone strike because it is cross board operation into Syria, putting boots on the ground. You know, a lot of people are saying it's high risk. It's risky, but for the JSOC forces it's literally a battle drill and there is something there, it is a two- minute drill for them. They have been doing it for years.

HARLOW: That's a very good point. And what the U.S. government is saying is that they did get a lot of potential information, right? They got laptop computers, they got cell phones, et cetera.

To you, Jonathan, we have heard over and over there will be no U.S. boots on the ground. This -- clearly there were in this operation, in and out, no lives lost. Do you see this, though, as a shift in policy?

JONATHAN GILLIAM, FORMER NAVY SEAL: I would hope so -- I mean, because if not just a shift in policy where they admit the fact that we have to have boots on the ground sometimes. I mean, you can't just say no boots on the ground. That's unrealistic statement.

But I think this is something -- these strikes, we just showed, you know, despite the Intel, we just show them that we can go to one of their most hardened targets and we hit there. And we can hit there and get out with no casualties.

Casualties, though, don't be surprised if eventually we do have casualties. It happens. But in this case we were able to get in and take the fight straight to them and get out. And it was an intelligence gathering mission along with trying to grab these two individuals. So as the colonel was just saying there, you know, sometimes you can't just go in and just destroy a site, you actually have to go in and explore it. HARLOW: Well, also, look. The drone program has come under intense

scrutiny, largely for the amount of civilian casualties that have come with it. That's obviously part of a consideration. Again, this was mainly for intelligence, as we heard colonel Reese say. What about his wife? We know that they have taken her into custody, they are interrogating her. What information do you think that they could glean from her?

GILLIAM: Well, as your report earlier was saying, females are not generally used in this misogynistic type of atmosphere by the leaders of these groups. But we do see sometimes women are privy to a lot of stuff. If she was integral in any part of moving or trafficking women, just that alone is a huge amount of information. And you know, just being in and around the events that are happening, she might be able to actually shed some light on stuff. It's just how quick can they get to that and how willing is she going to be --

HARLOW: Will she say anything?

GILLIAM: Right. You'd be surprised. Sometimes when somebody has never been in an environment when they have been, you know, taken hostage or never been inside a site when it was exploited, they can open up very quickly if they're scared. Otherwise if she's hardened, then you know, they have ways of interviewing her that maybe she'll over a period of time give out some information.

HARLOW: All right, Jonathan Gilliam, thank you very much. Colonel Reese, thank you. We'll have more from colonel Reese a little later in the hour.

But we're going to switch gears here. When we come back and speak to a remarkable woman who I've gotten to know over the past year and a half. Heather Abbott, she is a survivor of the Boston marathon bombing. She testified in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. What does she think now of the verdict, that he will get the death penalty for his crimes? She'll join us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:22:20] HARLOW: Condemned to death for his role in the Boston marathon bombings, a federal jury's unanimous decision that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should pay with his life for the 2013 terror attack. The pressure cooker bombs planted at the marathon killed three people, injured some 240 others, 17 people lost limbs, including my next guest, Heather Abbott. She lost her left leg below the knee. And I reported on her recovery and had the privilege of getting to know her over the past two years. Her spirit throughout has been absolutely remarkable. She helps other amputees obtain prosthetics through her foundation, is it the Heather Abbott foundation. You can find it online at heatherabbottfoundation.org.

Heather, thanks for being here.

HEATHER ABBOTT, BOSTON MARATHON SURVIVOR: Hi, Poppy. Thank you.

HARLOW: You testified at this trial. I wonder what the moment was like yesterday afternoon when you heard the verdict.

ABBOTT: I was definitely anxious to hear it and then it was -- I guess I was expecting I would feel some sort of emotion, but it was really just signed of sad. It didn't feel like something to celebrate.

HARLOW: You posted on facebook that the verdict does not bring you peace and that it makes you sad. You say the verdict, regardless of which one it turned out to be, does not bring me peace. You found peace and closure long before this.

ABBOTT: I did. I think I had been looking for something else throughout the process of this trial, but I didn't -- I didn't get any answers. I don't think I ever will. So I think when I look back over the last two years (INAUDIBLE).

HARLOW: Have you been talking to some of the other survivors? I mean, I know you guys are really a close-knit community. I wonder if you've spoken to them since the verdict came down and what the feeling is.

ABBOTT: I have. And we've talked but nobody really expressed their opinion of the verdict. It was more just expressions of support for each other.

HARLOW: You gave a commencement address yesterday. I know I spoke to you on the phone right after that and you were driving home. But tell me a little bit about what that -- leaving that commencement speech and then hearing the verdict brought to your mind, considering Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's age, college student. You just finished speaking with these college students.

ABBOTT: Yes. I couldn't help but think that he would be in the same shoes as a lot of those students I spoke with last night. And you know, how excited they were about their future, all that they had to look forward to. And you know, it sounds like at one point he was a very likeable person and very intelligent and I just wonder why he threw all those opportunities away and what went wrong.

[15:25:16] HARLOW: We were showing some images, I think we can pull them up again, but some recent images of you at the launch of your foundation. Because I know the headlines today are about the verdict and about Tsarnaev. But really, the focus needs to be on the survivors like you and so many other. And frankly, the work you're doing is incredible. I mean, I couldn't imagine what I'd do if what happened to you happened to me. You've channeled it in this incredible positive way. Tell me about the foundation, what you're doing, what your goal is.

ABBOTT: Well, when I became an amputee, I was -- became vastly aware of the extremely high costs of prosthetic devices and the lack of insurance that covers them. And I couldn't help but think what if the whole world didn't know about me? What if I didn't lose my leg in the Boston marathon bombing and everyone wasn't reaching out to help. I bet there's a lot of people that are in that situation on the past two years. So the foundation is to help people obtain prosthetic devices that insurance doesn't typically cover like sports devices, high heel devices and hopefully that will help some other people the same way that I was able to.

HARLOW: It's amazing work that you guys are doing, Heather Abbott. I know you and I were joking about maybe running a 5k together, maybe not a whole marathon, but a 5k. Do you think we should do that still?

ABBOTT: I do. I think we should.

HARLOW: OK. I will come up and we'll do it in Newport, Rhode Island.

Heather, thank you so much. I appreciate it. And I'm just so impressed with your resilience and all you're doing for others. Thanks a lot, Heather.

ABBOTT: Thank you.

HARLOW: All right. You can help Heather's foundation if you want. You said they're trying to help others get prosthetics that are incredibly expensive. And a lot of these prosthetics that look like human limbs are not all covered by insurance. So if you want to help, you can go to heatherabbottfoundation.org for more information on how to give.

We'll have more news back in just a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:30:55] HARLOW: Five days after eight people were killed in a horrific Amtrak train derailment, 21 people remain in the hospital, some of them critically injured. And today the federal railroad administration is demanding urgent changes. This afternoon it ordered Amtrak to make several immediate modifications to its trains to prevent a similar tragedy.

Erin McLaughlin has the details.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, we're just hearing from the federal railroad administration that they are instructing Amtrak to take a number of steps to improve safety along that very busy northeast corridor. It says that the following will be formalized with an emergency order in the coming days, including ordering Amtrak to install technology to control speeds along that northeast corridor, including automatic train control, which detects when a train is above the speed limit and automatically applies train brakes which currently use at southbound train. They want it on a northbound in the area of that crash immediately.

They also are ordering Amtrak to assess risk at all curves along the northeast corridor and they also want increased speed limit signage. Amtrak must increase, they say, its wayside signage alerting engineers of maximum authorized speeds throughout the northeast corridor. It's described these as initial steps. We are still waiting to hear from Amtrak -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Erin, thank you very much. And at the same time one of the engineers interviewed by the NTSB

yesterday says that the locomotive engineer aboard this train reported his windshield had been struck by an object. Passengers aboard the Acela train and a Septa train on the same corridor that same night reported something had happened to their trains. You see all three images there. It looks like something had hit the windshield of all three of those separate trains. Because of this, the FBI has joined the investigation.

Let's bring in our next guest, Paul Nichini, president of Rail Power Incorporated, which is a licensed locomotive engineer.

Thanks for being with me, Paul, I appreciate it.

PAUL NICHINI, PRESIDENT, RAIL POWER, INCORPORATED: Yes, how are you doing?

HARLOW: I'm well, thank you, sir.

It looks like when you look at these images, like appearance a rock or something came up and hit the windshield. When you think about a train going this fast outside for hundreds of miles, you think that that could easily happen. Is it odd to you to see something like this?

NICHINI: Well, it is unusual, but it does happen. In fact it's the reason why the federal railroad administration implemented regulations requiring a type of window glazing called type 223 glazing, which is used on all locomotives and passenger cars. And the reason for this glazing is to keep objects that could be thrown at the train or fall off from overpasses or through tunnels from impairing the locomotive engineer or injuring passengers.

So when you see an impact as you see on the locomotive, number 601 that was on the Amtrak train, and the septa lead passenger car, you see that there is significant impact damage to those windshields which would indicate that something significant was hurled at the front of the train and prior septa train.

HARLOW: Something significant. It would indicate you say something significant hit that windshield, whether it was hurled or not, no one knows. That's why this is being investigated. Would a rock do that?

NICHINI: I think a rock would cause some chipping, but I'm not an expert on what the impact results look like. But I can tell you that what it looks like, it looks like something fairly large. And obviously, the person or persons that caused this on both trains were focusing on the locomotive engineers in both cases. They were on that side of the cab, and they were aware enough to throw objects, it looks like a couple of objects at the Amtrak train and the same thing with the septa train.

So I don't think it should be discount. But obviously there's other factors need to be considered and one needs to keep an open mind about what caused something like this to happen, but it looks as though from what we've seen so far, this is a plausible explanation for why there was disruption in the cab and locomotive.

[15:35:00] HARLOW: The NTSB is saying that 65 seconds before the crash, the train accelerated, from 70 miles an hour to over 100. Actually to 106 miles per hour before it barreled into that curve and derailed. You're a locomotive engineer. Is there any way that this train could have accelerated on its own? Could there be a malfunction that caused it to accelerate on its own or is that not plausible?

NICHINI: I think it's -- I guess it's possible. I've never experienced it or heard of that happening. I think a more realistic explanation well could be that the engineer was accelerating, as he would, into the piece of track that he was operating on to get up to track speed, which prior to this curve I think was 70 or 80 miles an hour.

So when you move the throttle on the locomotive, it's not spring loaded so it will stay wherever you place it. There's typically eight notches. On this particular locomotive, I assume it's the same case. So this engineer was most likely advancing the power to get the train up to speed. And if all of a sudden there was a large object that hit the windshield of this locomotive at 60, 70, 80 miles an hour, he well could have been stunned, he could have fainted, he could have panicked.

You know, people react differently, obviously. You can imagine if you're driving your car down the highway and just relaxed on a piece of road you're used to driving along and having a large object hit your windshield from an overpass or some other place, you'd be startled. And it's very plausible that this happened and that this engineer was put into a situation where he was out of control, let's say, or out of control of the train and unconscious perhaps for a very brief period of time. And this engine is a very powerful, high horsepower locomotive, designed to accelerate passenger trains very quickly.

So it may seem difficult for people to comprehend that this could happen so quickly. But if he was unconscious even a minute, this locomotive could have accelerated the train to a speed of 100 plus miles an hour and by the time he came to, got his wits about it and realized where he was, it may have been too late. And I think that's what may have been what happened here as the engineer claims not to know what happened.

HARLOW: Paul, thanks very much for your expertise for your joining us. We appreciate it. And we'll stay on this and bring our viewers the developments as we have answers, as they're clearly investigating this, trying to find out how this could have happened.

Thanks so much, Paul, appreciate it.

Still ahead, more on the secret U.S. raid that killed a top ISIS commander.

Also major developments involving the battle for a key Iraqi city, Ramadi, that story net. But first this. Tomorrow night "PARTS UNKNOWN," right here on CNN.

Filmmaker Darren (INAUDIBLE) joins Anthony Bourdain is in Madagascar for two distinct views of the country. Sights, people and of course food.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY BOURDAIN, CNN HOST, PARTS UNKNOWN: I asked Darren (INAUDIBLE), who directed such films as "Pie," if he could go anywhere on earth, where would you like to go? And he said Madagascar. It's simple. The more you look, the harder you look, the more complicated it gets. Two different perspectives, one place, Madagascar.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:42:55] HARLOW: We want to update you on a major U.S. operation within Syria. The Pentagon is calling it a significant blow to ISIS. Abu Sayyaf, a top ISIS commander who helped the group manage its black market sales of oil and gas is now dead. This follows a U.S. raid by special operations forces near Syria's biggest oil field.

Sayyaf's wife was captured. She is currently being interrogated in Iraq. U.S. officials also say they recovered reams of data from the raid on how ISIS operates, communicates and how it funds its operations.

The mission had been in the planning stages since march and this operation comes amid a fierce battle for the key Iraqi city of Ramadi. Sources telling us here at CNN now that Iraqi troops, supported by coalition air forces, have managed to push ISIS militants out of parts of the city, regaining control of a mosque, police headquarters and a government building.

Let's bring in Bob Baer, former CIA operative and CNN intelligence and security analyst. Also the author of "the Perfect Kill."

Bob, earlier this hour as you and I were speaking, you know, we had said that it appears Ramadi will fall to ISIS. Within the last five minutes we've gotten this update from Iraqi government -- that Iraqi government forces have retaken part of Ramadi. How significant is that, to see that shift?

BAER: Well, I'm not sure I trust the Iraqi government, Poppy. They have said that yesterday they had moved into big parts of the city and were taking it back. That's been denied by reports on the ground. It's pretty much a seesaw battle for Ramadi. But the point is that the Islamic state has about three-quarters of Ramadi. There are a couple of government outposts there that are holding on. The Shia militias which are ones who took Tikrit are not moving into Ramadi for political reasons. So whether the army can actually take back the center of the city is still very much up in the air. We'll just have to wait over the next couple days.

HARLOW: What's the strategic importance and significance of Ramadi?

[15:44:57] BAER: Well, what the Sunnis want with Ramadi is to make it their capital of Anbar province as a separate state, separate from Baghdad. This is a Sunni dream. If the government is forced out of Baghdad -- I mean forced out of Ramadi, it will look like that a lot more, that they're getting what they want, so it's a huge significance for the Sunnis and huge significance for the Islamic state because they did lose Tikrit. And you have to take Ramadi before you can move on to Mosul and retake that.

HARLOW: Can we talk about the wife who was captured here, his wife's name, Umm Sayyaf. They managed to capture her. They're interrogating her right now. Do we have any idea how significant is the information that she may have, how significant that is and if you think they'll be able to get any of it out of her?

BAER: You know, whether she flips or not, I can't tell you. She may know some things. She can certainly identify the leadership of the Islamic state. Remember, since they moved into Mosul last year, the Islamic state has pretty much been a blank slate for us. The best intelligence is collected now by the joint special operations command for these raids. I mean, this is how we won the war, you know, the surge in Afghanistan and in Iraq. That's when you take these positions back. You land forces on the ground, you grab people, you grab documents and the rest of it.

So we're going to get something out of this. It's not going to turn the battle. Nature of the organization because they have the ability, something like the Islamic state, to regenerate leadership. But it's still a significant victory.

HARLOW: Bob Baer, thanks very much. We'll continue to follow this breaking news of this key mission inside Syria by U.S. special operations forces.

Bob, thank you.

Also, presidential politics. Jeb Bush is in Iowa today trying to put the Iraq discussion that dogged him all last week in the past. We're going to take you live to Iowa city. And we're also going to talk about it with our political commentators, Ben Ferguson and Marc Lamont Hill. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:00:47] HARLOW: Jeb Bush is in Iowa this hour making rounds trying to regain his political footing after quite a week, a week spent, mostly talking about the invasion of Iraq. He's making several stops at a number of different events in Iowa. Tonight he joins ten other White House hopefuls in Des Moines for the state party's dinner.

CNN's political report Sara Murray joins me now from Iowa city.

Sara, thanks for being on. Good to have you on the program. First tie we have had you on. And let's talk about this, right? Jeb Bush first said he would, then said he would not have invaded Iraq given what we know now. It took him most of the week, though, to really come out with a clear stance to recover from the stumble. Why did e he fumble it? SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, his advisers have said he

knew this question would be coming at some point. He practiced his answers and just misheard it. He messed up. And he was very honest about that as he's been campaigning in Iowa this morning. He actually got asked about it by a voter. Let's take a look at that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got to watch you the other night during on Megynn, the interview with Megynn Kelly. We did not see the misstep, I'm sorry, that created --

JEB BUSH (R), FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: I obviously didn't either. But I messed up for sure. I answered a question that wasn't asked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: Now, Poppy, that point where he says he obviously didn't either -- that is a sign that he and his campaign were just not ready to clean up this mess once it happens. And they are being really honest about that. They are saying, look, we flubbed the messaging on this. We let a story that should have happened over one day stretch into the entire week and this is a learning moment both for the staff and for the candidate that when you make a gaffe like that you have to mop it up quickly -- Poppy.

HARLOW: But some have said that, you know, maybe there should be a bit of concern over the fact that he hasn't really been on the campaign trail for ten years. And when you have to get a lot of money and a lot of backing behind you, I wonder who your sources are telling you about how concerned they are about this, if they think this is an indication of what is to come with him on the campaign trail potentially, or if this is a one off?

MURRAY: I think people are concerned because they thought that Jeb Bush would be more camera ready. I think they figured even though he's been off the trail for about a decade, his dad was president, his brother president, he should know how these things go. But they are also saying they are concerned about his staff. They are concern that his staff didn't realized this was an issue. They didn't know how to fix the miss more quickly.

And Jeb Bush was actually just asked about this by press here in Iowa. He's clearly not able to leave these questions behind. He said, look, candidates make mistakes. If you want to find a candidate who doesn't ever make mistake, you'll have to go back 2,000 years.

HARLOW: I think that's probably true. It certainly humanizes him, I think, to hear him say, yes, I misstepped. And it sort of like, OK, that's a human answer. Not a political answer.

Sara, thanks. Good to have you on.

Coming up, a U.S. delta force operation taking out a top ISIS leader. The story breaking today. All the details still coming in. Also, this leader's wife who could have crucial information about ISIS

hostages is now being interrogated by U.S. forces in Iraq. We'll have more details about that operation, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:58:12] HARLOW: All right, we want to introduce you to this week's CNN hero. His name s Robert Lee and he quit his job on Wall Street so he could fight food waste and hunger in America. Here's how he did it.

ROBERT LEE, CNN HERO: The club that I was involved in, in college, brought leftover dining hall food from campus to the homeless shelter. And I just thought that the concept could be applied outside the borders of NYU.

So, welcome, and thank you guys for coming. Today we'll be going to the Long Adeo (ph) Cafe.

In Manhattan alone, there is about 100,000 restaurants. Our strategy is to work with as many restaurants as possible and get that food waste to people who need it.

Looks really good.

Our group has no minimum food requirement. We pick up any amount of food, no matter how small it is.

Thanks a lot. Thanks, guys. I'll see you later.

Because that small amount can feed someone.

Let's do this.

Volunteers can sign up on our website.

It's very easy to do after work.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I like going to the shelters and helping someone to have a meal today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It just takes about half an hour to an hour of your time on any given day.

LEE: After we drop it off, we always get the weight of the food.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is so heavy.

LEE: That's how we actually measure our impact. Every little bit counts. That's one person's life that you just changed.

You see the line now, they're actually going in for dinner. All that food today wasn't going out without your help. So really appreciated.

Since we started, we have rescued over 100,000 pounds of food. It's just the beginning. The need is so great, and there is just so much demand.

Perfect.

With more restaurants, who knows how much more we could do?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[14:00:07] HARLOW: IF you know someone you think should be a CNN hero, go online to nominate them at CNNheroes.com.