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Bombing Suspect's Wife Left U.S. Before Bombings; Official: Bombing Suspect Has Not Yet Been Read His Rights; Woman's Tip Leads Police to 2nd Bomb in NYC; Obama to Give Final Speech to United Nations. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired September 20, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:30] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Great. Have a great day. NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We do have breaking information to share with you now, and it's about the New York and New Jersey bombings.

Within the last hour, we have learned two important details. The suspect has not yet been read his Miranda rights, and his wife left the United States just before the attacks. His wife born in Pakistan. We're going to break down those developments in just a minute.

First, though, this is surveillance video believed to be the suspect, Ahmad Khan Rahami. He's wheeling a duffel bag near the Chelsea neighborhood where an unexploded pressure cooker was found. A handwritten note was also found right next to that pressure cooker. It's described as rambling and makes references to previous terrorists, including the Boston marathon bombers.

Rahami, injured in the shootout with police, now charged with five counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer. Investigators say he is not cooperating with authorities and, again, he has not yet been read those Miranda rights, his legal rights. So the most ominous question looms large, if Rahami is indeed the bomber, did he act alone?

Just last hour we heard from New York's governor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Do you think that he had help?

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO, (D) NEW YORK: You know, it is possible that he did, and that is the predominant operating theory, but it's also being casted in a serious investigation. We just want to make sure there's no other associate of this man who could be a potential threat. And they're quite exhaustive in that review.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: We are covering all the developments for you this morning. Our correspondents digging up the details from New York all the way to Afghanistan, but we begin here in New York with CNN Justice Correspondent Evan Perez with us. Two new bits of information I shared at the top of the show, tell us more.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, we know that the wife is very much key to part of this investigation. The FBI wants to question her. We're told that she did travel from the United States. She's from Pakistan, so the assumption is that she was headed there.

COSTELLO: So let's look a second just so our viewers understand. So the suspect went to Pakistan. He met his wife there.

PEREZ: He met his wife there. He --

COSTELLO: And she did come to the United States?

PEREZ: She did immigrate. He helped sponsor her immigration here to the United States, and we're told that she did travel in the days before this all happened. Now, we don't know whether she knew ahead of time. That's certainly at the top of the minds of the investigators. They want to know what she might have known, what she might have seen, whether she noticed any changes in his behavior.

A key part of this investigation, obviously, in figuring out --

COSTELLO: Or if she had anything to do with the bombing herself.

PEREZ: Or if she had anything to do with it. Again, those are all open questions that need to be answered.

The FBI is going to work with authorities in the UAE where we believe that she might have stopped and, of course, the Pakistani authorities since she is a citizen there, to try to get some questions to her and try to get some answers as to what happened.

COSTELLO: So when, exactly, did she leave the United States?

PEREZ: We don't know exactly when she left, but, again, there's -- you know, obviously, it raises some concerns and some suspicions, but we can't make those assumptions until they talk to her obviously.

COSTELLO: Interesting. So she was stopped in the United Arab Emirates, you say?

PEREZ: We believe that she was in the United Arab Emirates and that's where the focus is right now, to talk to those authorities to try to get to talk to her. The question also is what did the family members see?

We know that NBC News caught up with his father yesterday, and they asked him what he might have seen. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: Did you know that your son was doing this?

MOHAMMED RAHAMI, BOMBING SUSPECT'S FATHER: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You had no idea? RAHAMI: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And when you hear now that he's been accused of this, do you believe it? Do you believe it? Sir?

RAHAMI: I'm not sure what's going on exactly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not sure?

RAHAMI: Yes, I'm not sure what's happening exactly. But I think so. It's very hard right now to talk, OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREZ: And, Carol, we do expect that the FBI's going to try to question Rahami today. They haven't Mirandized him, and he had some surgeries yesterday. That questioning will be also key to try to figure out exactly what happened.

COSTELLO: All right. Evan Perez reporting new information for us this morning. Thanks so much.

With the investigation now focusing on finding a motive, officials are trying to piece together exactly who Ahmad Khan Rahami is. CNN's Jessica Schneider live in Elizabeth, new jersey with more on that. Good morning.

[09:05:01] JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. We knew that Rahami traveled overseas multiple times between 2011 and 2014, but whenever he re-entered the United States, immigration officials never flagged him. Well, now, the Feds have raided his family home just behind me, and now the question remains, was Rahami radicalized?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): This is 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami, the suspect behind a series of bombings in New York and New Jersey.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. I saw him like two weeks ago. I said hello to him. I spoke to him, how are you doing? How's your daughter? How's everything? And he looked a little stressed out but nothing of concern.

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Born in Afghanistan, Rahami traveled back and forth between that country and neighboring Pakistan multiple times.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His father wanted him to go back there and get to know his roots.

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Most recently, he took a year-long visit to Pakistan from April 2013 to March 2014. While there, a Facebook photo shows the suspected bomber and his brother, Mohammad, relaxing in traditional clothing.

In 2011, Rahami spent several weeks in Quetta, Pakistan, a Taliban stronghold. It was there he married a Pakistani woman, the U.S. approving her entry into the country in 2012.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a very friendly guy. You'd never suspect this. I'm terrified. He's hiding in plain sight. You would have never known.

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Rahami underwent secondary screenings upon returning to the U.S. because of the area he visited but was never flagged according to a law enforcement official.

The bombing suspect had a run-in with the law before. Rahami was arrested in 2014 on weapons and aggravated assault charges though a grand jury declined to indict him. His family came to the country seeking asylum decades ago. Now, they own a fried chicken restaurant in Elizabeth, New Jersey and they live above it.

MAYOR CHRIS BELLWOGE, ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY: This place has been in operation for many years. We've had issues with this location regarding code enforcement issues.

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): The Rahami family claimed to be the victims of discrimination and harassment in this 2011 lawsuit against the city of Elizabeth and its police department, the suit alleging that a neighbor told them Muslims don't belong here and that they were threatened and harassed by police officers.

MAYOR BELLWOGE: There was a lot of congregation going on, a lot of people hanging out. The city council was getting complaints from the neighborhood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER: And throughout the morning, we've seen Federal agents going in and out of this home. Rahami's family live there. It was also the last known address of Rahami himself. Carol.

COSTELLO: Jessica Schneider reporting live from Elizabeth, new jersey, this morning. Thank you. So let's talk about this. With me now, CNN International Correspondent Ivan Watson -- he's in Afghanistan this morning -- CNN National Security Analyst and former assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Juliette Kayyem, CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen and CNN Legal Analyst Paul Callan. Welcome to all of you.

Paul, I'd like to start with you because you heard what Evan reported at the top of the show, that this suspect, this alleged bomber, has not been read his Miranda rights yet. Why would that be?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I'm not at all surprised because under U.S. law, there is a doctrine called the "Public Safety Doctrine," and when you have a situation particularly like this where a bomb has been exploded in a civilian area, a large city, there's always a worry there might be other bombs out there. There might be other compatriots who haven't been apprehended.

So, at least preliminarily while the investigation goes on, for public safety reasons, you can interrogate without administering Miranda warnings.

Now, there's a second doctrine at work here. He had surgery. He's obviously under drugs of some kind, so he wouldn't be competent to be questioned or to receive the Miranda warnings anyway until the anesthesia clears.

COSTELLO: But his family could, at any time, say we have a lawyer for our son, right, Paul? And then he would be read his Miranda rights. Is that correct?

CALLAN: No, not necessarily because there's a second doctrine that they're probably looking at, and you heard Senator Lindsey Graham raise the issue. And that is, is he an enemy combatant under U.S. law?

Apparently, there's been some indication that he has indicated an allegiance of some kind possibly to Al-Qaeda. They have been characterized as unlawful enemy combatants against the United States, so is in essence -- is he a soldier of a foreign combatant organization? If that's the case, he wouldn't necessarily have the right to counsel right away, the way a regular American suspect would. So you've got some complex questions at work here.

COSTELLO: OK. So let's just pause right here because Donald Trump yesterday said that he thinks that this suspect should not be given due process rights, and Senator Lindsey Graham weighed in and said this guy should be not be tried in a civilian court. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: This idea of criminalizing the war has got to stop. These guys should be dealt with with the FBI and CIA and DNI, all the other experts, to find out, you know, what he's up to. He's presumed innocent in the court of criminal law. I'm not worried about criminal disposition. I'm worried about intelligence gathering.

[09:10:06] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But isn't he a U.S. citizen? He deserves to be read his Miranda rights?

SEN. GRAHAM: No. I mean, he's an enemy -- he's a suspected enemy combatant. One, he's not guilty of any crime, but there's enough evidence to suggest he may have been involved in international terrorism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So, Paul, could he be deemed an enemy combatant?

CALLAN: Well, you can certainly make the argument, but, you know, for instance, if we go to Mr. Trump's statement, which was that -- kind of criticizing the fact that he's going to be hospitalized and everything else, under the Third Geneva Convention, even enemy combatants have the right to humane treatment. I mean, that's always been, you know, the symbol of a civilized society. So whether he's an enemy combatant or whether he's a U.S. citizen

simply being held pending trial in Federal Court, he has the right to be treated humanely by the United States.

COSTELLO: All right. So I want to head to Afghanistan right now because, Ivan, we know that Rahami, the suspect, traveled to Afghanistan, then he spent a year in Pakistan. He got married to a woman from Pakistan. If he was, indeed, radicalized in these places, where would he go?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we do know from U.S. officials that he spent a considerable amount of time in the Pakistani border city of Quetta, which is kind of known to be a headquarters for the Afghan Taliban in Pakistan, that he crossed the border by land, that he went to Kandahar in Afghanistan -- the former, effectively, capital of the Taliban before the u.s. kind of moved in here and knocked the Taliban out in 2001.

We've reached out to the Taliban, Carol. We've spoken with a spokesman by telephone, and he has denied any links whatsoever to Rahami or to the bombings in New Jersey and in New York on Saturday. And that's worth noting because when the Taliban carries out an operation here in Kabul, in the capital here, it is very quick to claim responsibility for those attacks in what is effectively the longest war in U.S. history, a 15-year war between the U.S. and the Afghan government and the Taliban on the ground here.

It's important to note that U.S. investigators are going to, also, be looking at other organizations, militant groups that are active in Afghanistan and in Pakistan in the border regions.

It's not just the Taliban. Al-Qaeda was active here and ISIS has -- he's one of the newest players on the scene here, and there are other militant groups as well. And you better bet that U.S. investigators are reaching out to both Afghan and Pakistani officials to hear what they could say about his travels between these two governments -- these two countries.

We've reached out to the Afghan government, Carol. They have, so far, declined to comment on this. The Pakistani government, the spokesman for the foreign ministry, they've said, hey, this man was born in Afghanistan. He's not our problem. Carol.

COSTELLO: Interesting. So, Peter, all of that said, we're also learning from an official, and you heard Evan's report here that Rahami's Pakistani wife left a few days before the bombing. So with all that Ivan said, what does this tell you, if anything?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, we don't know. In law school, sometimes they say, you know, suicide or flight are usually a sign of potential guilt, but we just don't know. But adding to what Ivan is reporting, I mean, the Pakistani Taliban did send an American citizen, Faisal Shahzad, who used to work at the Elizabeth Arden cosmetics company in Connecticut to New York.

They trained him how to make a bomb. The bomb was placed in an SUV in Times Square on May 1, 2010. Luckily, it didn't detonate properly. He didn't get sufficient training.

So if we are to look at the universe of potential groups that might have been involved in this, the Pakistani Taliban, which is quite distinct from the Afghan Taliban. It's based in Pakistan and tends to attack the Pakistani state. It's certainly something to look at.

That said, there's no evidence he's been trained by anybody. And whoever trained him, obviously, he didn't do a particular good job because this was a guy who made elementary errors in the way that he placed the bomb, in the way that he made the bomb.

COSTELLO: So, Juliette, police are trying to figure out if this was a larger effort than just Rahami, right, or if he acted alone. And with all of the information that we have so far, is there any way to tell?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY, HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT: Not yet, because I think there's no clarity. I think you saw Governor Cuomo sort of say that there has to be a theory of the case because in a lot of these cases here in the United States, there is some international connections. So just this investigation is going to take three separate lanes.

One is him and his family, right? What did they know? The second is, of course, the online signature footprint, what is he doing online? Who is he talking to, encrypted information.

[09:15:00] And then the third piece is what happened when he was abroad? I think that's going to be very illuminating.

But just to Paul's point at the beginning, while this is scary and, you know, terrorism is scary, our U.S. courts and investigators know how to do this. And I think you're seeing a lot of push back on this idea of him being deemed an enemy combatant because it actually may hurt an investigation that is actually, you know, quite familiar to our very qualified and sophisticated law enforcement, FBI, and international agents.

COSTELLO: OK, I have to leave it there.

Juliette Kayyem, Peter Bergen, Ivan Watson, Paul Callan, thanks to all of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM: she found this on the sidewalk and she called police. Meet the woman who helped police capture the suspected bomber, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:20:03] COSTELLO: New details this morning revealing how officials captured Ahmad Rahami. Police in New Jersey taking him down after an intense gun battle. The suspected bomber now charged with attempted murder. But law enforcement had help leading them to this suspect.

Let me explain. This is surveillance video you're going to see. This is the suspect rolling two rolling bags down the street. This is 27th Street. Now, you see, he ditches one bag near a trash can. Police then say

two unidentified men, they noticed this bag, this rolling suitcase, and they emptied it out and left, possibly inadvertently deactivating this device, this pressure cooker bomb, and that's when Jane Schreibman comes into the picture.

Jane joins me live to share her -- to share her story. It's so -- you know you're an inadvertent hero, right?

JANE SCHREIBMAN, FOUND SECOND DEVICE ON NYC SIDEWALK: I think anyone would have done what I did if they had seen a pressure cooker bomb in front of them.

COSTELLO: But you didn't realize what it was at first.

SCHREIBMAN: Right.

COSTELLO: So, you come out of your house?

SCHREIBMAN: I came out of my house and I see this -- it looked peculiar, but I thought there's a lot of strange things on the street and it looked sort of like a science project that someone had dumped on the sidewalk.

But, you know, I went to 23rd Street. I heard there was a bomb so I happened and I couldn't get close. I didn't really know what had happened. I was coming home and I wanted to take another look at that object because it had been lingering in the back of my mind.

COSTELLO: So you walked back on 27th Street and it was still there?

SCHREIBMAN: It was still there and it looked more suspicious the second time now that I knew there had already been a bomb. And that this wasn't in a pile of junk like I had first assumed.

COSTELLO: Did the Boston marathon bombings --

SCHREIBMAN: I knew that they made bombs out of pressure cookers and that also rang a bell.

COSTELLO: So what did you do then?

SCHREIBMAN: I went upstairs and I called 911. They said this is high priority, someone is on their way.

COSTELLO: What went through your mind when they said that?

SCHREIBMAN: Nothing. You don't think of a bomb as looking like a pot. I spent a lot of time in Pakistan where they have posters showing you what bombs look like and they're sort of small, solid objects.

So, this I didn't take seriously. Until I went on the street and they said, "run, get off the block".

COSTELLO: Oh my goodness! SCHREIBMAN: And I said, well, they're taking it seriously. I still didn't believe it.

COSTELLO: So extraordinary amount of luck went into this. Cooker out of the suitcase --

SCHREIBMAN: Yes, and it didn't blow them up.

COSTELLO: Right. And then you noticed it coming out of your house.

SCHREIBMAN: Yes.

COSTELLO: And called police.

SCHREIBMAN: I don't think too many people walked by that spot because it's under scaffolding and it's sort of such a nondescript block. It's not a big thoroughfare.

COSTELLO: So, when you think police, they, you know, confiscated that pressure cooker, they found fingerprints on it which led to this suspect.

SCHREIBMAN: Right.

COSTELLO: Now you think what?

SCHREIBMAN: I think better safe than sorry. And if you ever see anything suspicious, call. You never know, especially these days. You really have to be vigilant.

COSTELLO: Yes. You know, a lot of people just walk by stuff in New York and they don't know because you see a lot of weird stuff in New York, right?

SCHREIBMAN: I know. You just have to look twice.

COSTELLO: So, Jane, thank you, thank you, thank you. You did all the right things a I'm sure New York and especially your neighbors appreciate it. Thanks for stopping by, Jane. We appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM: they are the most helpless people in the world. And within the hour, they will command the attention of the world's most powerful. We'll preview President Obama's address to the United Nations, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:28:05] COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Sometime within the next hour, President Obama will deliver his final speech to world leaders gathered for the United Nation's General Assembly. The main focus will be issuing a call to help the world's refugees, a humanitarian plea that has become politically charged in this presidential election.

White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski at the U.N. this morning with more.

Good morning.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

Yes, right. He's definitely going to want to bring that out. I mean, he's hosting a sort of side summit on refugees while he's here. But when you look at the venue, I mean, the fact that he comes here to speak he entire world. He always wants this speech to be impactful, but, of course, more so this year. Now that it's really his farewell speech to the world.

So, he's going to want to speak in big concepts speaking to his legacy, why he feels that his approach of deeper international cooperation and diplomacy have accomplished a lot over the last eight years. So probably make reference to things like the Iran nuclear deal, the Paris climate agreement, getting past the global economic downturn and even the coalition against ISIS.

He feels like, yes, there are still some enormous problems in the world where diplomacy hasn't worked like North Korea, like Russia. Well, he feels that those past examples should be a good template and still the right approach for tackling problems today. Of course, he's doing this in the context of more attacks in America. We heard him say while he was here that he feels one of the biggest ingredients for fighting terrorism is to not give in to fears.

So, we may well hear him make reference to that today as well, although, you know, critics jump on him for saying that, saying that really it's going to take a lot more to defeat terror than just not giving in to fear, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Michelle Kosinski reporting live from the U.N. -- thanks so much.

Let's talk about Syria. Syria is -- looks like hell. There's no other way to put it. And again, the better angels in that country have paid a heavy price.