Return to Transcripts main page
Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield
President Obama Remarks Following Briefinh on National Security; Freddie Gray Family Attorney Interviewed. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired December 17, 2015 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:33:14] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Once again, some live pictures for you, McLean, Virginia, this is the National Counterterrorism center, Tysons Corner, Virginia as well. This is something whereby a lot of big SUVs with a lot of secret service and protection likely rolled up to this center within the last couple of hours because it's a VIP meeting where the president is being briefed by the likes of Vice President, Secretary of State, the Homeland Security Secretary, the Attorney General, the White House Chief of Staff, the National Security Adviser, the Director of the Office of National Intelligence, the director of the FBI, the Director of the National Security Agency.
And I have only named about, oh I don't know, a third of the VIP's attending this briefing of the president and the president in turn is going to do a briefing for you and for me on holiday security in the Nation. So as soon as he goes live, we go live.
This office, by the way, didn't even exist until 2004.and it came about at the urging of the 9/11 commission for a single agency to analyze all terror related intelligence just to maintain a repository of sorts, for known and suspected terrorists And then also they started this agency to keep senior policymakers in the loop of what was going on, on the terror front, on the security front, the president, due to make the statement any moment, so we're watching that.
But in the meantime, there's couple of people who know a thing or two about what these discussions just might entail.
Our Jim Sciutto is our Chief National Correspondent and Bob Baer is CNN Intelligence and Security Analyst, former CIA operative. Thank you to the both of you.
First to you Jim Sciutto, when you read a list like this, it reminds me of Monday, when the president was at the Pentagon for one of his effectively sort of war strategy briefings. But this was a massive meeting for National Security on Monday and here many of the same players joining him again today.
[12:35:06] What do we think that president going to come out to say us today?
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: You're right to know that actually this is a collection of the most powerful people in government, the president, the vice president, the secretary state, the nation's top spy, Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, the head of the FBI. All the people charged with in effect, keeping America and Americans safe.
On Monday, at the Pentagon, we had the president get a briefing from his generals and that same crowd of people on the fight against ISIS on the ground.
So, here at the NCTC, it's in effect the fight against ISIS on the homeland, how is the NCTC, how the Intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies keeping America safe from these attacks? And what is the actual level of threat?
I had the chance to spend some time in the NCTC just a few weeks ago for the purposes of a documentary we're shooting for CNN.
And this, as you noted, founded after 9/11, to bring together all those streams of Intelligence from all the various agencies in one place to, in effect, be the early warning system for terror attacks, potential terror attacks on the soil, on U.S. soil. We were inside the operations center there, this is a 24/7 of course as it would have to be operation where they're hearing these streams all the time.
Police reports, frankly, they're watching the news as well, seeing what's happening so they could immediately respond but also prevent, you know, this is the big part of this is about prevention.
I think what you'll hear today from the president, in addition to an update, is an attempt to calm fears. Because we know the fears are quite high and we saw that the other day with Los Angeles schools shutting down over what turned out to be a hoax e-mail.
And I've heard that calming message from counter terror officials I speak to. But I think we saw it as well in the contrast and responses to that e-mail between New York and Los Angeles, you had Los Angeles in an abundance of caution close the schools. You had New York say, listen, it's a hoax. We want New Yorkers to live their lives.
You know, this is a difficult decision for decision makers to make. But I think you're going to hear from the president, one, he's on it and he's going to make that claim at least, that he's on this.
And two, don't lose sleep in effect, be vigilant but don't lose sleep. I think that's going to be a big part of his message.
BANFIELD: It seems like what we heard, you know, right before the thanksgiving holiday.
But Bob Baer, with your CIA background, some of the issues regarding intelligence so it has to stay quiet. It's not something the president can go in front of a live microphone and telegraph to us to make us all feel safer. But terror only works when you terrorize, so he's sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place in that he wants to comment that, give out too much information. What can he tell us? BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: Well, you're right, Ashleigh, and Jim is absolutely, you know, he's trying to calm people, this is very much in public, the sense of it's a show in the public face, that he's doing the best he can, you know, against terrorism. It is a difficult problem but he's also asking the question, was San Bernardino preventable?
And I would imagine the National Security Agency would be there who's probably run telephone calls to these two people, the two shooters there. The CIA databases, where I'm sure were searched and the president could be talking about those.
So much of this information, it is as we've talked about, is only pertinent after an act occurs but the president wants to be reassured this, you know, wasn't stoppable with the information we had. And what are we going to do in the future, I mean, it's clear to me. Now if you want to get an F-1 visa or student visa that homeland security and immigrations are going to have to be able to look into social media and they're going to have to look at anybody who expresses support for violent.
Jihad just can't come in this country, because the fact is, the foreigners don't have rights here. The same ones and especially when they're not inside this country.
So I think the president's going to want to tighten up the laws as it should be. And, you know, he's behind the curve right now and he's got to do a lot of running to catch up.
