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Police Arrest Suspect in New York and New Jersey Bombings; Airstrikes Kill Dozens in Rebel Held Areas of Aleppo; Bombing Suspect Charged with Attempted Murder. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired September 20, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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


[00:00:10] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour, captured alive and now charged. The suspect accused of planting multiple bombs in New York and New Jersey arrested after a massive manhunt. But what was his motive? And did he had help?

The fight against terrorism once again the focus in the race for the White House. Both candidates have very different plans on how to keep the country safe.

And renewed fighting in Syria leaves the ceasefire all but over. Can the U.S. and Russia salvage the peace plan?

Hello, everybody. Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause. NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.

Authorities have now charged the suspect in a series of bombings in New York and New Jersey with five counts of attempted murder of police. Investigators have been questioning Ahmad Kahn Rahami but sources say he is not cooperating. He was identified by a fingerprint left off one of the devices. Sources also say surveillance video shows him near the site of the explosion which wounded 29 people on Saturday in Manhattan.

A tipoff led police to Rahami. He was found asleep outside a bar in Linden, New Jersey. He was shot during an exchange of gunfire with police which also wounded two officers.

We get more details now from Deb Feyerick on how the arrest unfolded.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A massive manhunt for Ahmad Khan Rahami ending in a shootout with police in Linden, New Jersey. The tip to Rahami's location came shortly before 11:00 this morning when a local bar owner who has seen the suspect's photo on CNN called police to say he was sleeping in front of his bar.

Linden's police chief tells CNN that when an officer approached Rahami, he pulled out a gun, shooting the officer, striking his bullet proof vest. Rahami took off running firing at random. LISSETE TORRES, WITNESSED SHOOTOUT: I stayed on the corner and then I

hear people yell out active shooter and then I see cops with bulletproof vests, like, running on to the street and then I heard three shots.

FEYERICK: Officers shot Rahami multiple times, taking him down in the street. The 28-year-old was alert as paramedics loaded him into an ambulance.

JAMES O'NEILL, NEW YORK POLICE COMMISSIONER: A lot of technology involved in this, but a lot of good old fashioned police work, too. I mean, between the FBI and the NYPD, the members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, this is a pretty quick turnaround. And this happened 50 hours ago and we have our suspect in custody.

FEYERICK: The terrorist spree began Saturday morning in Seaside, New Jersey. Pipe bombs placed in a trash can partially exploded right before the start of a charity 5K race for U.S. Marines. No one was hurt. Then around 8:30 Saturday night, a bomb exploded in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood, injuring 29 people. It was a pressure cooker bomb similar to the ones used in the Boston marathon bombings. A federal law enforcement officials says BB's and ball bearings were among the pieces of metal packed inside.

Four blocks away, another device was discovered. A pressure cooker bomb which failed to detonate, providing crucial leads. A senior law enforcement official tells CNN that an attached cell phone, possibly the detonator or timer provided important numbers in the phone. A fingerprint was also discovered.

Surveillance video showed a man in both Manhattan locations. Stopping first on West 23rd Street and then on West 27th Street. Leaving behind a duffel bag which contained the second device. Late Sunday night police were called to a train station in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where a backpack was found containing five suspected bombs. One exploding after a robot tried to disarm it.

The investigation rapidly developing overnight, but the focus on Elizabeth, New Jersey, where FBI agents executed a search warrant at Rahami's family restaurant and an upstairs apartment.

(On camera): The FBI chief here in New York says there is no indication that there is a cell operating here. However, there are questions about the motivation, why did he do this? And is there anyone who may have helped him or provided support?

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Joining me now, retired FBI special agent Steve Moore and former FBI counterterrorism agent Tim Clemente.

Thank you both for being with us. When you look at what we know so far about what happened over the last 48 hours there does seem to be a few elements which don't seem to -- don't seem to add up on their own. So first off, to Tim, I want to look at, you know, the actual

preparation, the bombs. There are two different types of bombs here. The use of an explosive called HMTD, also using cell phones as a trigger, as a timing device. Can someone learn that simply off the Internet?

[00:05:02] TIM CLEMENTE, FORMER FBI COUNTERTERRORISM AGENT: I think they can but I don't believe that this individual did it alone just off the Internet. The fact that he was successful -- although his attacks weren't completely successful he did successfully make, build and deploy IEDs using a very unstable explosive that is very, very sensitive to shock, light and other things, electrical charges. And so even attaching a timing or command detonation device like a cell phone to the device could cause a misfire, could cause that IED to go off and it didn't.

One was ineffective in a garbage can, another one hadn't gone off because the individuals took it out of the duffel bag. But he was able to deploy them. They weren't effective but they were able to be deployed. You know, unfortunately so many dozens of people were injured in New York but thankfully nobody was killed. So the effectiveness isn't what it could have been. So I'm looking at the possibility that one individual could make these many devices on his own without anybody else knowing or aiding him in any way to me sounds like it's a very implausible scenario.

VAUSE: Yes, and all that (INAUDIBLE), this guy allegedly managed to do what 20 other terrorist plotters have not been able to do since 9/11 which is essentially make those bombs, deploy them, some went off, some did not go off. So you can talk about the effectiveness of the attack. But he did actually manage to carry this out. Was it pure luck or did he have help?

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think it's pure luck he didn't blow himself up putting the bombs together. But Jim may be right. But there is another possibility here is this guy didn't have a life. I mean, this guy lived above mama and daddy's house and he had time. And so he could have been building these bombs for the better part of a year. We don't know. I do agree with Tim, though, that this is something that likely came out of training he got in Quetta or in Afghanistan.

I think this is one of the big, huge gaping gaps we have in our security system. We're letting people go to terrorist training camps, coming back, interviewing at the airport and taking their word for it and we don't have the manpower to go after them and follow them.

VAUSE: To this point a lot of people go back to where -- the country where they were born. That seems normal. But to spend a year on Quetta on the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, an area known for jihadis.

CLEMENTE: Yes.

VAUSE: And in particular ISIS. CLEMENTE: Yes. My problem is that we just put him through secondary

at the airports. We have a TSA officer possibly interviewing him and not an FBI or CIA agent with counterterrorism experience. Somebody who would know the parameters of what goes on in that region and what's likely to have -- or what likely this person may have encountered there. It's not necessary that they would have gone there to become a jihadist but it's possible they would have been recruited there. So those are questions that wouldn't ordinarily be answered by a TSA officer. They wouldn't know how to question somebody like this. Whereas somebody, you know, you take Bob Baer, a famous CIA guy.

VAUSE: Sure.

CLEMENTE: Put him at the airport when one of these individuals comes in and have him question them in secondary, you might get a different result.

VAUSE: We should mentioned there's not that many coming back after spending --

(CROSSTALK)

MOORE: No. All you have to do is ask a certain question or two, and if he doesn't come back right with that answer, you've got -- you've got sirens going off in your head.

VAUSE: Do officials see -- do you make a difference between someone who actively helped this guy or someone who knew about it and did nothing to stop him?

MOORE: Well, I think there's -- I think there's -- I don't believe his parents could have seen him building bombs, practicing, he might even have gone and done dry runs beforehand. I don't think that everybody was blind to this. I don't know if he had assistance here in the United States but I don't think that everybody was clueless.

VAUSE: OK. Donald Trump, because this is the political part of it. I don't want to get into the politics of it all. But I want to play for you what -- you know, because Donald Trump has again expressed his support for profiling. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our local police, they know who a lot of these people are. They are afraid to do anything about it because they don't want to be accused of profiling. Do we have a choice? Look what's going on. Do we really have a choice? We're trying to be so politically correct in our country and this is only going to get worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Tim, to you, you know, for someone who has been out on the streets, who's dealt with this kind of thing, is he right and is there a difference between racial profiling and criminal profiling? CLEMENTE: Well, I think we've unfortunately built a wall between

racial profiling and profiling as if there's a separation between the two. Racial profiling, if you're in a place where this person, this type of person is doing this crime, to not look at them because they are of a particular race is ignorance. It's not -- it's not the opposite of profiling, it's worse than profiling. And so I can't say what Donald Trump is speaking to when he uses the word profiling. My brother is a profiler. He went through the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, spent more than a decade there. Profiling looks at all aspects of behavior. And you can't look at the behavior involved in this without seeing that radical Islamic extremism is one of the causes of this type of behavior. So it's impossible to separate those things.

MOORE: And it's kind of like saying we're not going to look at males when we are investigating rapes.

[00:10:04] I mean, that's a gross overgeneralization but we know historically it's going to be a male. So why look away from something that is so obvious just about -- just for being politically correct. And to be clear, the race, the religion, the background of the person is not the determining factor. But it is a factor and if you get to the part where it says Muslim and you say I can't look at him anymore because that would be profiling it's suicide. You might as well have a gun to your head.

VAUSE: OK, finally, there was a new cell phone alert which was sent out during the manhunt phase that seemed to be incredibly effective, sure, for law enforcement, something I guess we'll see a lot more of?

CLEMENTE: I hope we see a lot more of because obviously we see ISIS using social media to a great success and it's about time we did the same thing. I mean, if this is the thing that alerted that bar owner that this was the individual, and maybe there was a description and possibly an image of him included that's a great tool. And I hope it's spread wide throughout the United States.

VAUSE: Last word quickly.

MOORE: I agree with him 100 percent.

VAUSE: We'll let it at that. Steve and Tim, thanks for coming in. We'll talk to you again next hour. More we need to get to.

MOORE: Sure.

CLEMENTE: All right. Thanks.

VAUSE: Police have identified a tenth victim in Saturday's stabbing rampage in Minnesota. They're also searching for a motive to explain why 22-year-old suspect Dahir Adan stormed the shopping mall. He was shot and killed by an off-duty policeman. An ISIS affiliated news agency is praising Adan as a, quote, "soldier of the Islamic State." But police say there is no evidence of a direct link to terror groups.

Well, still to come here, the U.S. president offers a message of reassurance after the weekend's attacks. What he does not want Americans to do.

Also ahead, the presidential candidates offer different views on how to handle terror threats like the New York bomber. Donald Trump says it's time to get tougher.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He will be given a fully modern and updated hospital room. And he'll probably even have room service, knowing the way our country is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:16:05] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. U.S. president Barack Obama is urging Americans not to give into fear after the bomb attacks in New York and New Jersey.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to take this opportunity to reassure the people in this city, this region and Americans across our country that our counterterrorism and law enforcement professionals at every level, federal, state, and local are working together around the clock to prevent attacks and to keep us safe. They are the best of the best. Over the years they have thwarted many plots and saved many lives and we are incredibly grateful for their service today and every single day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The presidential candidates, though, had very different reactions. Democrat Hillary Clinton warned against the urge to go after an entire religion, saying it plays into the hands of ISIS. Her Republican rival, Donald Trump, repeated his support for racial profiling, extreme vetting of immigrants and a ban on immigrants from countries which are hotbeds of terrorism.

Joining us here in Los Angeles, Democratic strategist Dave Jacobson and Republican consultant John Thomas.

OK. So today two presidential candidates, two very different responses. First let's listen to part of what Donald Trump had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: These attacks and many others were made possible because of our extremely open immigration system, which fails to properly vet and screen the individuals or families coming into our country. Got to be careful. (END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: OK. And then Hillary Clinton, different view from her. Let's listen to what the former secretary of state had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There are millions and millions of naturalized citizens in America from all over the world. There are millions of law-abiding, peaceful Muslim Americans. This is the kind of challenge that law enforcement can be and is prepared to address, namely, going after anyone who would threaten the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: OK, Dave, to you, normally, you know, cooler heads, they usually make for better policy but do they win more votes?

DAVE JACOBSON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Look, I think Donald Trump's reaction is emblematic of what he did after the Orlando shooting. He came off cocky. He congratulated himself. Then he went and reiterated his extreme position on the Muslim ban and then he said we're going to go out there and we're going to be tough but he didn't have any meat on the bones in terms of policy and specifics.

I think -- and then if we look at polling after that, 51 percent of Americans according to the "Washington Post" said that they had an unfavorable view of his response.

VAUSE: We'll look into the polls in a moment.

JACOBSON: Right. But precisely, like this rollout was precisely the -- it was almost like a mirror reflection of what we saw after the Orlando shooting. So I don't think this is going to bode well for him.

VAUSE: OK. John, you're shaking your head.

(LAUGHTER)

JOHN THOMAS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: It's not going to work well for her. I disagree because you saw her initial response, I think she was on her plane where she was very tepid in her response, didn't show any compassion for the victims who had been stabbed or had shrapnel effects. The fact is, when you're running an election, you want to meet the voters where they're at. Right now voters are afraid. They're afraid that terrorism is happening in their backyard, that they can't walk by a trash can without run the risk of being blown up. And Donald Trump is speaking better to that concern than Hillary Clinton.

VAUSE: Bigger picture, though, here, John, is that there was a study done that apparently throughout this campaign which is not a usual campaign, the more a candidate talks, the more that candidate gets headlines the lower their poll numbers. The worse they do. So in some ways with Hillary Clinton taking this sort of measured, softer approach is that a smarter play, though?

THOMAS: Because the issues haven't been the main factor. It's been the personalities. Right now terrorism is the issue. The candidate that better addresses the issue I think will win. And Donald Trump made a good argument. He said, look, if you're happy with the direction of things that are allowing these attacks to occur, I'm not your candidate.

[00:20:06] VAUSE: OK.

THOMAS: But we need to do something differently.

VAUSE: And to that point, Hillary Clinton has moved towards Donald Trump in some ways calling for stronger vetting.

JACOBSON: Precisely. But look, I mean, she is more of a mirror image of the president who has according to the "Washington Post" a 58 percent approval rating. And the reality is, look, I think she came off more methodical and thoughtful and she wasn't necessarily reactive. Right? Like, she waited for the law enforcement, the experts on the ground to really say, hey, listen, this was a bomb and this is what happened. And then she responded. Whereas Donald Trump landed his plane in Colorado and just shot from the hip again.

THOMAS: You're right. It was a risk but he nailed it. He got it right.

VAUSE: OK. There was a problem, though, in that everybody kind of knew it was going to be a bomb. But you know, when you're in that position of authority, you have to wait, you have to wait for the law enforcement to make it official, right? No one can just -- there is a certain responsibility that comes with being a Republican nominee.

THOMAS: When you are running for office it's a little bit different story than when you're elected.

VAUSE: No.

THOMAS: If he had gotten it wrong, that would have been a problem.

VAUSE: Yes. OK. OK. Let's look at some of these poll numbers, Trump does have an edge on the issue who would handle terrorism better. He is leading Clinton by six points. But in that same poll that was taken earlier this month when -- when the respondents were asked who would be a better commander-in-chief, Trump trails Clinton by five points. So that seems to be at odds.

So, Dave, how do you explain those numbers?

JACOBSON: Well, I mean, look, I think you've got to really look at the polling averages because if you just pick one poll you're not necessarily going to get numbers that are reflective of the electorate. Like if we look at the "Washington Post" poll that came out last week 50 percent of Americans, of adult voters, said that Hillary Clinton would handle terrorism better than Donald Trump, 41 percent for Donald Trump. VAUSE: There was a discrepancy, though, between the commander-in-

chief for all and being good with terrorism.

JACOBSON: Look, I think at the end of the day, like, she comes off looking more sort of temperamentally fit for the job and not reactive like Donald Trump and erratic, and I think that's the challenge is you've got this candidate who says hey, listen, we need to alienate ourselves from our allies like NATO and pull out of them, we need to give more nukes to some of our allies and perhaps some of our adversaries and really shake up the world. And I think he embodies instability around the globe and she embodies stability and I think that's the dynamic.

THOMAS: I think Americans are going to have to ask themselves, do they want results or they want somebody with a cool, calm temperament? That is the question they're going to have to ask themselves.

VAUSE: OK. Donald Trump has simply harsh words for the suspect here, Rahami. He was at a campaign stop in Florida, in particular bemoaning the fact that the suspect is getting hospital care.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Now we will give him amazing hospitalization. He will be taken care of by some of the best doctors in the world. He will be given a fully modern and updated hospital room. And he'll probably even have room service, knowing the way our country is. And on top of all of that, he will be represented by an outstanding lawyer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: John, Rahami is an American citizen. He is entitled to due process. Yet listen to the boos and the reaction he got from that crowd.

THOMAS: I don't think anybody was saying that he shouldn't be entitled to medical care.

VAUSE: He was kind of --

THOMAS: Or a public defender. I think Donald Trump was more making the statement of look, you know, we treat these people very well. We need to be taking the fight to them. And we're not doing that. And just showing the kind of hypocritical nature, I don't think he's arguing to change the system.

JACOBSON: Well, criticizing the system, our legal system at least, like this really underscores how Donald Trump has campaigned throughout the course of this election. Like he criticized a Latino judge who -- you know, who had some ties or some heritage from Mexico and said that he is biased simply because of where his family was born. He was an American born citizen. But I think it's emblematic of the fact that Donald Trump, you know, really criticizes whether it's our health care system with people who are, you know, not guilty -- you know, they're innocent until proven guilty or the legal system. I think it's a big challenge for him. VAUSE: I want to get to this last outrage which was sparked by Donald

Trump Jr. on Twitter the past few hours. He tweeted this out, "If I had a bowl of Skittles and I told you just three would kill you, would you take a handful? That's our Syrian refugee problem."

I mean, this has sparked a lot of outrage on Twitter. And we should note there was a Cato Institute study that came out earlier this month which said the chance of an American being killed in a terrorist attack caused by a refugee is -- stands at one in 3.64 billion per year. OK, so, Dave, does this play into a narrative around the Trump campaign or this is simply a distraction?

JACOBSON: Precisely it's disgusting. Flat out. And I think it's emblematic of the fact that Donald Trump seeks to divide and conquer in this campaign. And I think that's a big struggle for him. I mean, at a time when he came out and he said, look, President Obama was born in the United States. He's trying to, you know, appeal to those moderate college-educated white voters to say, I'm not a racist, I'm not a divider, I'm not bigot. This is like -- this is backfiring and it's taking him five steps backwards.

VAUSE: This is Donald Trump Jr. Still coming from the campaign.

THOMAS: Yes. Right. Well, the --

(CROSSTALK)

[00:25:01] THOMAS: Well, one of the campaign's big platforms has been to overhaul how we let people into this country. I'm not going to speak to the specific meme. In fact I think it was a rip-off from some other campaign.

VAUSE: It was. Yes.

THOMAS: But --

VAUSE: Something from the alt-right actually.

THOMAS: But the fact is, it's coming out that we're letting people into this country that slip through the cracks. You know, why is it that this guy who had pressure cooker bombs went to Afghanistan and back and we didn't know about it?

VAUSE: OK. You're saying, the outrage highlights the problem and gets everyone talking about it. OK. Which seems to be a big part of the Donald Trump's campaign for the last year and a half.

(LAUGHTER)

THOMAS: It's been working.

VAUSE: OK. We'll talk to you again next hour. Thanks very much. Appreciate it.

THOMAS: Right. Thank you. VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we come back, diplomats trying

to save the ceasefire in Syria. Why the U.S. says it's up to Russia to rein in the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

Also ahead, the United Nations is condemning attacks on aid workers also in Syria. Why it's saying Syrian forces may be guilty of a war crime.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour.

Authorities are questioning the man they say is directly linked to the bombings in New York and New Jersey over the weekend. Ahmad Khan Rahami was arrested in Linden, New Jersey, on Monday after a shootout with police. He is charged with attempted murder after wounding two policemen.

And we're learning new information about Ahmad Rahami's time overseas. Officials say the 29-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen made several trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the past five years. While in Pakistan, he married a Pakistani woman. Rahami was questioned and went through secondary screening on his return to the U.S. but was never put on a watch list.

[00:30:00] Police are trying to determine what caused the suspect in Saturday's stabbing rampage to attack and injure ten people at a Minnesota Mall. A Somali community leader tells CNN, the suspect, Dahir Adan seemed joyful and happy before he went to the mall.

He was shot and killed by an off-duty policeman. ISIS is praising Adan as one of its soldiers.

The ceasefire is still in place in Syria. It's not doing a whole lot to stop the killing. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says at least 32 people have died in Aleppo as air strikes hit the rebel-held city.

This video is said to show a Red Crescent warehouse burning after it was attacked allegedly by Syrian aircraft. CNN cannot confirm the video's authenticity or claims that the Syrian regime was responsible. The U.N., though, is outrage after a deadly strike on one of its convoys, its aid convoys in the same area.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says talks continue on extending the ceasefire and getting aid to the besieged areas. He says Russia has to stop the Syrian government from carrying out indiscriminate bombing.

For more on this, James Fearon joins us now. He's an expert on political violence and a professor at Stanford.

So thank you for being with us.

The Syrian regime has said that the ceasefire is over. And now after the strike on the aid workers, we have a statement from the State Department saying the U.S. is outraged. It goes on to say, I'll read this to you.

The destination of its convoy was known to the Syrian regime and Russian federation. And yet these aid workers were killed in their attempt to provide relief to the Syrian people.

"The United States will raise this issue directly with Russia given the egregious violation of the cessation of these hostilities. We will reassess the future prospects for cooperation with Russia."

We know the Russians and United States Kerry and Lavrov will hold talks on Tuesday.

Can they salvage the ceasefire at this point?

JAMES FEARON, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, STANFORD UNIVERSITY: I would be surprised. I would be very surprised. You know, it seems like it's a good indication of the difficulties and that -- this really is unlikely to go anywhere.

And even before this, there was a lot of lower-level violence. And so far, this looks like it's -- you know, has about the same prospects as previous attempts. So, you know, I wouldn't be optimistic.

VAUSE: You mentioned other incidents. But there was that air strike, which killed 60 Syrian soldiers over the weekend. It was carried out by the U.S. and its coalition partners.

Would you say the ceasefire was effectively over after that air strike?

FEARON: You know, I think we need to know more about what exactly happened there. I've seen reports that said that they were not actually Syrian soldiers but possibly prisoners of war. You know, we will probably never know exactly what the story is there. But I wouldn't be completely surprised if it was not what it initially appears to be. And you know, may have actually been something of a set up by the Russians and the Syrians. But who knows.

I guess, you know, the real issue is whether there -- you know, even if you could get, you know, a week of less violence, the prospects for this to work in the longer run in terms of coordinating U.S. and Russian actions and the idea of, like, a joint implementation committee that would somehow help them figure out, you know, which are the rebels, that it's OK and which are the ones that it's not. Seemed like it was a real stretch, you know, even there.

So, you know, we can hope and pray that they'll get enough, you know, that we can get back to something like the slight respite that, I guess, over the parts of Aleppo had for a few days to get to some kind of U.S. attempt at coordinating more strikes on the group called al- Nusra and ISIS. But even that looks like it is going to be extremely difficult.

VAUSE: Very quickly, if the two biggest -- or two of the biggest powers in the world, you know, the United States and Russia, if they can't make a ceasefire in Syria work, then who can?

FEARON: Well, probably no one. I mean, I think, you know, the general thing to keep in mind here is that although the Syrian war has been going on for five years now, the average civil war lasts around 11 years and even the median duration is like around seven years?

So, you know, half of civil wars are still going on after seven years. So the Syrian one hasn't even -- you know, it's still typical in a way.

[00:35:00] What's not typical is how extremely violent it's been. We don't see that many wars this intense. This many people killed per month, per year for this long. And that has a lot to do with interventions on both sides.

I guess, one of the interesting and maybe hopeful things we're seeing is -- well, I don't know if it's hopeful or not, it's tricky. But the Obama administration policy with this attempt in ceasefire, you could say is creeping more in the direction of, you know, effectively being OK with the Iranian and Russian position on, you know, essentially preferring -- you know, certainly not being in favor of a rebel military victory because they think it will lead to even worse stuff and deciding that U.S. national interest is really to focus on ISIS and al Qaeda.

And that might effectively undermine the kind of stalemate -- or might lead to a partial undermining of the stalemate that's kept this going on so long.

VAUSE: Right. OK. So we'll leave it there. But we appreciate your insights.

James Fearon, a professor of political science there at Stanford University.

Thank you, sir.

FEARON: Thank you.

And still to come here, we'll have more on the man arrested for the bombings in New York and New Jersey. What the investigation has uncovered so far?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody, with more now on our top story and what we know about the main suspect here, Ahmad Rahami.

And joining us is Brian Levin. He is the director of the center for study of hate and extremism.

We also have former CIA agent Bryan Dean Wright who is in Dallas, Texas.

And Bryan Dean Wright, I'll start with you there. The issue of the travels to Afghanistan and to Pakistan, when you have someone like Rahami staying overseas in Pakistan for a year, in particular in Quetta, why didn't that raise more red flags for U.S. officials?

BRYAN DEAN WRIGHT, FORMER CIA AGENT: It certainly should have. And I guarantee in the coming hours and days, there will be individuals in Pakistan, Afghanistan at the embassy as well as the Washington, D.C. and CIA headquarters and FBI headquarters asking exactly that question.

How did he slip through the cracks because he certainly shouldn't have?

VAUSE: And Brian Levin to you now, Rahami like Dahir Adan, the attacker in Minnesota, he is an American citizen. He's not a foreigner or a refugee. He's a recent immigrant. He does seem to fit the profile, though, of Jihadist who have carried out other attacks in the U.S.

BRIAN LEVIN, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR STUDY OF HATE AND EXTREMISM: Right, but you know, profiles can also be over-inclusive as well. That's why we've got to be careful with things like profiling by race or religion.

What we do want to look for is behaviors. One of the things that we -- let's backtrack. When we had issues when I was in the NYPD with groups like the IRA, if someone went to Ireland or Northern Ireland and there was suspicious behaviors that's what ratcheted things up.

[00:40:00] So as someone who is on the California state racial profiling training commission, we got to be careful that we look at behaviors because the law requires us that unless there's individualized suspicion that for instance race cannot be used as a basis for criminal suspicion without anything else.

VAUSE: Right.

LEVIN: Unless we have a description of a suspect. But, look, I'll tell you something. I think the American public has a right to know why people who go to areas where there are notable terror networks, why they're not vetted a little bit more when they come back. And that things were citizenship -- I'm just saying, like, hey, what did you do while you're in Pakistan or Afghanistan?

VAUSE: And these are a lot of questions as Bryan Dean Wright. They will be looking at this, you know, in the coming days and weeks.

And Bryan Dean Wright, to you, in Dallas, we still don't know if Rahami in fact linked to ISIS. He was inspired by ISIS or he was just an angry and disturbed man. But the answer to that, I guess, is not necessarily mutually exclusive.

WRIGHT: Well, I think you're absolutely right. I think, though, if you look at where he attacked. So, first, we have a marine corps run and second in Chelsea, which is well-known to be a gay community or gay neighborhood.

You know, he's attacking two very critical pieces of what ISIS and al Qaeda have advocated their followers hit. So whether or not he was inspired by ISIS or al Qaeda, or if in fact he was directed, I think that that will be flushed out in the coming days and weeks. But it certainly fits a pattern of what this sort of political Islamist, radical Jihadism is pushed by these groups abroad.

VAUSE: And Brian Levin to you, we now have information from sources that he left a note on the bomb that didn't explode on 27th street in New York, a reference to the Boston bombers.

LEVIN: Right.

VAUSE: That will be, what, a pretty good indication of his motive.

LEVIN: Yes, I want to hear more about it. But also, you know, the weaponry itself.

VAUSE: The pressure cookers.

LEVIN: Yes.

Look, I was one of the first people go on national television after the Boston bombing saying, hey, look, you know, al Qaeda just had something come out recently, which is a recap of issue number one which talked about how to make pipe bombs and put them together and also how to use pressure cookers. That's something we generally did not see with home-grown, like anti-government folks who just liked pipe bombs.

And one of the things that we saw in San Bernardino or community that got hit is these folks were radicalized, for instance, initially perhaps by AQAP, al Qaeda. And then Tashfeen Malik pledged allegiance to ISIS. So they go a little bit from one buffet to a little bit of --

VAUSE: They shop around.

LEVIN: Yes.

VAUSE: Bryan Dean Wright to you, finally, even though Rahami, he had limited success here. You know, it wasn't -- I should say, he wounded 29 people and didn't kill anybody in that context.

Even so, do you think that his actions could inspire other lone wolf to try and carry out something similar?

WRIGHT: Well, I think that that has been the concern of both the intelligence and the law enforcement community and will continue to be a concern.

At the same time, you know, these individuals who have hate or terror in their hearts, or radicalized by their own mental deficiencies, they will find a means and way to do it. There's a lot of things that one can find online. You don't necessarily have to look at this individual to be inspired but it certainly does help.

VAUSE: OK. We'll leave it at that. But we know you guys is coming back next hour with all of that, because there is a lot here to talk about.

So Bryan Levin, thank you for being with us here in Los Angeles, and Bryan Dean Wright there in Dallas, Texas.

We appreciate your insights.

LEVIN: Thank you.

VAUSE: And thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. "World Sport" is up next, and I'll be back with another hour of news from all around the world. You're watching CNN.

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