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New Video on Captured Bombing Suspect; Police Digging into Bombing Suspect's Past; Interview with Bar Owner Who Spotted Bomber; How Bomb Suspect Went Unnoticed; Obama: Don't Give into Fear; Police Identify Suspect in Minnesota Mall Attack; Trump Reacts to Report of Hundreds Wrongly Given U.S. Citizenship; Airstrikes Kill Dozens in Aleppo During Ceasefire. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired September 20, 2016 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:00:11] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour --
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VAUSE: Hello. Thank you for staying with us. I'm John Vause. Our third hour of NEWSROOM L.A. begins now
We start with new video of the suspect arrested in the bombings in New York and New Jersey. Ahmad Khan Rahami is seen wheeling two duffel bags down 23rd Street in Manhattan not long before an explosion wounded 29 people on Saturday. Rahami is charged with five counts of attempted murder after a shootout with police on Monday. The two policemen wounded in the shootout are recovering. Meantime, sources say a handwritten note on the pressure cooker found in New York mentioned the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. That attack was carried out with a pressure cooker rigged with explosives.
Rahami was captured by someone watching CNN.
Jim Sciutto has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(GUNFIRE)
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONALS SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After a shootout with police on the streets of New Jersey --
(GUNFIRE)
SCIUTTO: -- the prime suspect in the New York and New Jersey bombings is in custody. 28-year-old Ahmad Rahami as well as four officers were injured in the altercation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard another pop, more pops and it kept going.
SCIUTTO: Authorities tipped off to his location by a bar owner who was watching CNN and recognized Rahami who he found asleep in the door way of the bar.
JAMES O'NEILL, COMMISSIONER, NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT: Now that we have the suspect in custody, the investigator can focus on aspects such as whether he acted alone and what his motivations may have been.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get off the street.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get off the street.
SCIUTTO: A weekend of terror across the two streets including two bombings and the discovery of unexploded devices.
BILL DE BLASIO, (D), NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: We have every reason to believe this was an act of terror.
SCIUTTO: It started at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday in Seaside Park, New Jersey. Thousands of people were about to run a Marine Corps race when a pipe bomb exploded in a garbage can near the starting line.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get off the street right now!
SCIUTTO: Then, that night, panic on the streets of New York City --
(EXPLOSION)
SCIUTTO: -- when a bomb built from a pressure cooker explodes. It detonated at approximately 8:30 p.m., on 23rd Street and 6th Avenue, injuring 29 and sending panicked crowds running for cover.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
SCIUTTO: Police scramble, searching the area and finding another suspicious-looking pressure cooker located on 27th Street. Both devices packed with ball bearings commonly used to maximize human damage.
Investigators say surveillance footage shows a man they believe to be Rahami with a duffel bag in both Manhattan locations. He leaves a bag at the spot where police say they discovered an unexploded pressure cooker. A multi-state manhunt launched for Rahami after he is identified by a fingerprint on a cell phone on one of the devices.
At 9:30 p.m. on Sunday in Elizabeth, New Jersey, a backpack containing up to five pipe bombs found in a garbage can outside of a neighborhood pub, just 500 feet from a train trestle.
(EXPLOSION)
SCIUTTO: One of those bombs detonated when police sent a robot to examine the devices after two men had alerted them.
(on camera): One focus of the investigation is his foreign travel, multiple trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan where he was married. None of that by itself incriminating, but the focus will be on whether he had contacts of concern during those trips with groups or individuals tied to terror. They don't know the answer to that question yet, but it will be a focus going forward.
Jim Sciutto, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Authorities are trying to figure out how and when Rahami may have been radicalized, especially during trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Senior investigative correspondent, Drew Griffin, has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[02:04:42] DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ahmad Khan Rahami and his brother, Mohammad, traveled to Pakistan in 2013. In this Facebook post, the brother talks about experiencing bombings in Quetta, an area with a strong Taliban presence. "Another bomb just went off. That's seven bomb blasts in less than 24 hours. WTF," he writes, "We can't get out of the house."
Another photo shows the suspected bomber relaxing in traditional clothing. He had a wife in Pakistan, according to law enforcement source. It is this trip and others to Afghanistan the investigators are looking into it.
JAMES O'NEILL, COMMISSIONER, NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT: As we go forward into this investigation, that's part of what we do. We talk to family and friends and see what the connections are.
GRIFFIN: An acquaintance remembers the family talking about the trip.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was like, he's on vacation in Afghanistan. I was like, all right.
GRIFFIN (on camera): You got the impression it was an extended vacation?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. Because of this and it makes sense.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): A bar owner spotted Ahmad Rahami this morning around 9:00 a.m. sleeping in the doorway of his tavern. He recognized him from watching CNN and called police.
Two officers were wounded in the shootout, as was Rahami, but he was awake and alert.
Rahami is a U.S. citizen. His family came to the U.S. seeking asylum. They own a fried chicken restaurant in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and they live above it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was a very friendly guy. You'd never suspect this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Terrified. He was hiding in plain sight.
GRIFFIN: Rahami's family claimed to be victims of harassment in this lawsuit against the city of Elizabeth and its police department. The suit says a neighbor told them, "Muslims don't belong here," and that they were threatened and harassed by police officers.
The mayor of Elizabeth said the suit was a long-standing suit between the family and the city.
CHRIS BOLLWAGE, MAYOR OF ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY: There was a lot of congregation and people hanging out. The city council got complaints from the neighborhood and they voted to close it at 10:00, which led to clashes with the police department because police were enforcing a city council ordinance.
GRIFFIN: Rahami attended Middlesex County College in Edison, New Jersey, from 2010 to 2012, majoring in criminal justice. He did not graduate.
Friends from high school describe him as a class clown, really funny, popular.
(on camera): While the forensic investigation continues, investigators are now trying to connect connections. Pakistan, Afghanistan, any radicalization that may have taken place that could explain just why this attack took place.
Drew Griffin, CNN, Linden New Jersey.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke to Harinder Bains, a New Jersey bar owner, who spotted Rahami sleeping in a doorway and tipped off police.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARINDER BAINS, BAR OWNER: I was watching CNN on my laptop and you guys have his picture on site, like a PAP, and I said this guy looks familiar, like the same guy, you know, and then I got a little busy in the store and I was still wondering, is he the same guy? Is he the same guy? I'm just thinking and then my friend, he has a trucking repair shop. He came to my store and his name is Vinnie. I said Vinnie, did you see that guy lounging in the back. He said yeah. I said look at this photo, I showed him the photo. I said he looks like this guy but only the mustache, but he's the same guy. He said are you sure? And I said yes. And he said let's call the cops. I was about to call 911 and then he said, no, I have the number for the Linden cops so we should call them. That's when I called the cops, you know?
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, A.C. 360: There's a lot of folks calling you a hero today. Do you feel like a hero?
BAINS: No. I'm not a hero. I'm just regular citizen doing what every citizen should do, call, whenever you see, you should call the cops. Cops are the hero, you know.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: I spoke to two former FBI agents, Steve Moore and Tim Clemente, about how Rahami could have gone unnoticed and how he could have made his explosives from instructions found on the Internet.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TIM CLEMENTE, FORMER FBI AGENT: I think they can but I don't think this individual did it alone off the Internet. The fact he was successful -- although his attacks weren't completely successful, he made, built and deployed IEDs using an unstable explosive that is very, very sensitive to shock, light and other things, electrical charges. Even attaching a timing or a command detonation device, like a cell phone to the device could cause a misfire or an IED to go off and it didn't. One was ineffective in a garbage can. Another didn't go off because individuals had taken it out of the duffel bag. He was able to deploy that. They weren't effective by able to be deployed. Thankfully, no one was killed the effectiveness isn't what it could have been. Looking at the possibility that one individual could have made this many devices without anyone knowing or aiding him sounds implausible scenario.
[02:10:25] VAUSE: On that issue, Steve, this guy allegedly managed to do what 20 other terrorist plotters have not been able to do since 9/11, make the bombs, deploy them, some went off, some did not go off. You can talk about the effectiveness of the attack but he managed to carry this out. Was it pure luck or did he get help?
STEVE MOORE, FORMER FBI AGENT: It is pure luck he didn't blow himself up putting the bombs together. Jim may be right, but there's another possibility here. This guy didn't have a life. This guy lived above mama and daddy's house and he had time. He could have been building these bombs for the better part of a year. We don't know. I do agree with Tim, that, this is something that likely came out of training he got in Quetta or Afghanistan. This is one of the big huge gaping gaps we have in our security system. We are letting people go to terrorist training camps, coming back, interviewing them 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 the country they were born. That seems normal, but to spend a year in Quetta on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan in an area known for jihadis and ISIS.
CLEMENTE: We have a TSA officer at the airport and a TSA interviewing them 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 -- or what likely this person may have encountered there. It is not necessary they would have gone to become a jihadist but it is possible they would have been recruited there. Those are questions that wouldn't orderly be answered by a TSA officer. They wouldn't know how to question like this. Whereas, somebody -- take Bob Baer, famous CIA guy, at the airport, and have him question him, you may get a different.
VAUSE: There's not that many coming back after that extended period of time.
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 have sirens going off in your head.
VAUSE: Do officials make a difference between someone who actively helped this guy or someone who knew about it and didn't do anything to stop him?
MOORE: I don't believe his parents could have seen him building bombs, practicing. He may 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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Tim Clemente and Steve Moore speaking with me a short time ago.
In New York, U.S. President Obama spoke about the attacks urging Americans not to give in to fear.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, at moments like this, I think it's important to remember what terrorists and violent extremists are trying to do. They are trying to hurt innocent people, but they also want to inspire fear in all of us and disrupt the way we live to undermine our values. So even as we have to be vigilant and aggressive, both in preventing senseless acts of violence and making sure we find those who carry out such acts and bring them to justice, we all have a role to play, as citizens, in making sure that we don't succumb to that fear. And there's no better example of that than the people in New York and New Jersey.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: We'll take a short break here on NEWSROOM L.A. When we come back, there's outrage over air strikes on U.N. Aid workers trying to deliver relief in Syria, and the ceasefire there now in serious jeopardy.
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(SPORTS REPORT)
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[02:18:05] VAUSE: Authorities are trying to find a motive behind Saturday's stabbing rampage in a mall in Minnesota.
Sara Sidner has the latest details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Terror in the mall. Dispatchers scramble to send help.
POLICE DISPATCHER (voice-over): We're taking reports of shots fired and people stabbed. They're sending people out the north side of Macy's.
SIDNER: By then, 10 people had been stabbed. They all survived. The attacker did not. Shot dead by off-duty officer, Jason Faulkner, who is being hailed a hero.
According to the mayor, surveillance video shows a customer running with children in tow and the suspect comes into frame.
DAVID KLEIS, ST. CLOUD, MINNESOTA MAYOR: You see him lunge forward with a nice and the officer fire. The suspect went down. He got back up. The officer fired again. He got back up. This was three times.
SIDNER: The man responsible, 20-year-old Dahir Adan. An ISIS-linked news agency tweeted he was one of their soldiers.
The FBI is calling the attack a potential act of terrorism while police search for more evidence of a link to ISIS.
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL: As we talk today I don't have anything to make that connection.
SIDNER: The attacker worked as a part-time security officer and wearing his uniform during the stabbing. He lived in this modest apartment complex.
Somali community leader, Abdul Kalani (ph), spoke with his family and said the young man lived in the U.S. nearly his entire life.
(on camera): Was he living with his family?
ABDUL KALANI (ph), SOMALI COMMUNITY LEADER: He was living with his parents, both parents. And the members of the extended family was around the apartment, same building.
SIDNER: Did they give any indication they saw a change in him or they noticed him watching videos or anything like that that gave an indication he was becoming extreme?
KALANI (ph): They haven't told us anything about that. They were shocked, as everybody else was and they are in disbelief it could happen.
[02:20:00] SIDNER: From speaking to the family, would you say this young man had assimilated as an American?
KALANI (ph): He was as American as everybody else was.
SIDNER (voice-over): Something clearly changed him. He says their son left home saying he was going to the mall to buy an iPhone, and three hours later, the family was informed he was dead and many were wounded.
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER): Terror has visited St. Cloud and it is our job for it not the find a home.
SIDNER (on camera): All of the victims have been released from the hospital.
And we know the Somali community is concerned about potential retaliation, one saying they received a threat. This community has worked very hard to try and quell that. And now community leaders are coming together to figure out what to do next but the entire community is grieving for those who were injured -- John?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Sara Sidner, thanks for that report.
Now to a mistake which has given American citizenship to hundreds of immigrants. A new report from the Homeland Security Department shows how flaws in the system allowed it all to happen.
Tom Foreman explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In one explosive line, the new report lays out a potential security break down. It says, "The United States Immigration Services granted U.S. citizenship to 858 individuals ordered deported or removed."
On the campaign trail, immediate reaction.
DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Another 858 immigrants from dangerous countries have slipped into our country and have been granted full citizenship despite pending deportation orders.
(BOOING)
TRUMP: These are people that were supposed to be deported and they were giving full citizenship. They made a mistake.
FOREMAN: How did it happen? Investigators found hundreds of people, who were supposed to be deported under their real names, simply came up with other names and new birth dates side stepping the removal orders. The key weakness, old paper fingerprint records that have not been digitized and were not readily available to immigration officials.
Homeland Security notes not everyone who slipped through the net this way represents any security threat. But still there are worrisome details. The report found three of these people received credentials, which have been since revoked, to work in secure areas of transportation, two in commercial airports, one in shipping ports. Another is now a law enforcement official. And as citizens, these folks have a lot of rights, including, quote, "sponsoring other aliens' entry in to the United States."
So why don't federal officials track them all down and deport them now? Investigators note that once someone gets citizenship, authorities must prove fraud was involved, not just an honest mistake. That means resources, courts and time.
Homeland Security says it is trying to implement improvements to the system suggested by the report but it's a big job. Investigators found 148,000 other old fingerprints have yet to be processed in such a way to stop this from happening again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Tom Foreman, thank you for that report.
Now to Syria and the ceasefire is still in place. It's not doing much to stop the killing. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says at least 32 people have died in Aleppo as air strikes hit rebel-held areas. The U.N. is outraged after a deadly strike on one its aid convoys. A Red Crescent warehouse also was attacked, allegedly, by Syrian aircraft, although that has not been confirmed.
Our Jomana Karadsheh joins us live from neighboring Amman in Jordan.
Jomana, do we know at this point if the air strike was carried out by the Syrian regime or Russian fired jets involved? Or does it make any difference who carried it out at this point?
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's so vague right now. We don't have much information, not even confirming this was an air strike. What we know is this was a joint aid convoy with the United Nations and Syria Arab Red Crescent. It was meant to deliver humanitarian aid to people in the Western Aleppo countryside. The United Nations said it was clearly marked as a humanitarian convoy and there was prior notification to all parties about this convoy. Then it was hit. How it was hit, who hit it is not clear. So far, U.S. officials are saying that indications are that this was an air strike. The U.N. is not saying it at this point. U.S. officials say it was not the coalition that hit this convoy. That would leave the Russians or the Syrian regime who we have not heard from at this point regarding this attack. According to the United Nations, John, this was a convoy of 31 trucks, and 18 trucks were hit. And a Syrian Red Crescent warehouse was hit and a clinic was also damaged in the strike that killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 12 aid workers, drivers who are working as part of this aid convoy.
The United Nations says, John, that if this was, indeed, an intentional attack in this case, this could amount to a war crime. We have seen -- this is another dangerous precedent that is being set with an aid convoy being hit inside of Syria. But over recent months, we have seen so many attacks targeting things like hospitals inside of Syria and no one has been held accountable for these attacks -- John?
[02:25:43] VAUSE: Jomana, very quickly, Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov meeting in the coming hours trying to salvage the ceasefire. If they come up to terms can they be implemented on the ground? Can they make it stick?
KARADSHEH: We will have to wait and see, John. All indications are it is not looking good at this point. Just as that cessation of hostilities agreement expired yesterday, as you mentioned, we saw the Syrian regime, according to activists, carried out dozens of air strikes on rebel-held Aleppo. More than 30 people killed. We've seen so many violations, each side accusing the other of carrying out these violations over the past week. It's not looking very good, but we will have to wait and see what comes out of the meetings today -- John?
VAUSE: Jomana Karadsheh, thank you for that. Jomana live today in Amman, Jordan.
Coming up next for our viewers in Asia, CNN's "State of the Race" with Kate Bolduan.
For everyone else, we will take a break. The U.S. terror attacks are front and center in the presidential campaign. In a moment, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, staking out their very different positions.
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[02:30:16] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.
We'll check the headlines.
(HEADLINES)
VAUSE: The weekend attacks in the U.S. are putting the presidential candidates' positions on terrorism in the spotlight.
And as Sara Murray reports, their reactions are vastly different.
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SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER (voice-over): The 2016 presidential candidates are facing a terror response test.
DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary Clinton is a weak and ineffective person and, I will tell you, if you choose Donald Trump the problems will go away.
HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We must remain vigilant. This is a fast-moving situation and a sobering reminder that we need steady leadership in a dangerous world.
MURRAY: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump taking different positions navigating the string of attacks in the U.S.
Trump calling for a more muscular stance and tighter immigration rules that include an ideological test for those coming to the U.S.
TRUMP: Let me state very, very clearly, immigration security is national security.
SIDNER: The GOP nominee suggesting the U.S. should instate racial profiling. TRUMP (voice-over): Israel has done an unbelievable job and they will profile. They profile. They see somebody that's suspicious, they will profile. They will take the person in and check out. Do we have a choice? Look at what's going on. Do we really have a choice?
SIDNER: And pouncing on the opportunity to land another jab at Hillary Clinton for referring to half of Trump's supporters as "deplorables."
TRUMP: Hillary Clinton talks tougher about my supporters than she does about Islamic terrorists.
SIDNER: Meanwhile, Clinton is leaning on her record as secretary of state.
CLINTON: I'm the only candidate in the race who's been part of the hard decisions to take terrorists off the battlefield.
SIDNER: Calling for changes to the visa program, improved intelligence gathering, and collaboration with the Muslim community.
CLINTON: It is crucial that we continue to build up trust between law enforcement and Muslim-American communities.
SIDNER: While slamming her GOP rival for his controversial comments about Muslims and immigrants.
CLINTON: We know that Donald Trump's comments have been used online for recruitment of terrorists.
SIDNER: With a week until the first presidential debate and 50 days until the election, both candidates' commander-in-chief credentials are under the microscope. 51 percent of voters say Trump is better prepared to fight terrorism, compared to 45 percent for Clinton, but they believe Clinton's temperament is better suited for the presidency. And 50 percent say she's more prepared to be commander- in-chief compared to 45 percent for Trump.
Meanwhile, former secretary of defense, Robert Gates, offered a dim assessment of both over the weekend, saying neither candidate has done much to give anyone confidence but reserving the harshest criticism, saying, "At least on national security, I believe Mr. Trump is beyond repair. He is unqualified and unfit to be commander-in-chief."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Sara Murray reporting there.
And earlier, I spoke with strategists for both the Democrats and the Republicans about Trump's response to the weekend attacks.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN THOMAS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: You can't stop all terrorist attacks but we need to look at people coming here. We can't let any more come. That's the concern. VAUSE: Trump was very critical about the hospital care that the
suspect in these bombings is receiving. He was at a campaign rally in Florida and got a lot of boos, I guess, supporting boos for what he was saying. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[02:35:01] TRUMP (voice-over): Now we will give him amazing hospitalization.
(BOOING)
TRUMP: He will be taken care of by some of the best doctors in the world.
(BOOING)
TRUMP: He will be given a fully modern and updated hospital room.
(BOOING)
TRUMP: And he'll probably even have room service, knowing the way our country is.
(BOOING)
TRUMP: And on top of all of that, he will be represented by an outstanding lawyer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Not exactly John Adams, is it at the end of the day?
(LAUGHTER)
The bit about the best lawyer. I mean, the guy -- the guy is innocent until proven guilty and entitled to due process. He is an American citizen.
THOMAS: He is, but the point is we treat even people who harm us incredibly well and we should focus on taking care of the terror threat, both here and abroad, and not coddling him. I don't think he is suggesting he shouldn't be given a lawyer or having his wounds attended to. We should be focused on getting the terrorist not nurturing them.
DAVE JACOBSON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: But he is criticizing the schism, whether it's criticizing the judge presiding over the Trump University case. This guy does criticize the Justice Department or the criminal justice system as a whole in America. And I think that's a big issue. Like, if you have this guy as the next president of the United States questioning the innocence of someone before they are proven guilty that is a big issue.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: John Thomas and Dave Jacobson there.
Joining me is Brian Levin for more on the profile of the bomber and the radicalization. Brian runs the Center for Hate and Extremism and he's also a criminologist and a civil rights attorney.
So let's get to the legal issues here when it comes to profiling. We have heard Donald Trump saying it works well in other countries, mostly Israel. There is a difference between criminal profiling and racial profiling.
BRIAN LEVIN, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR HATE AND EXTREMISM & CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Absolutely. Unless race is being used as a specific description of a criminal suspect who is known, not that we have to known the identity, but known the constitution states you can not use that to infer criminal suspicion. We can't just have a road block set up without an individual suspect saying we are going to take all white people and pull them over unless of course there is a white suspect. If no crime has been committed we just don't pull over white suspects. However, if someone is coming from a place where there is criminality or terrorism, like we would have heightened scrutiny for people flying in from Colombia, for instance, when I was a police officer during the '80s or people coming from Northern Ireland. So there's behavior and a place that's something we can use.
VAUSE: What about a religion? That's what it is getting down to. Should they not be racial profiling but religious profiling?
LEVIN: There are significant constitutional issues related to that. If I may, we just came out with a study that was featured in the Sunday "New York Times." After President Bush gave his speech on September 17th, 2001, says after 9/11, hate crimes dropped between 47.5 and 66 percent. After Mr. Trump talked about his ban on Muslims on December 7th, after our community was terrorized.
VAUSE: San Bernardino.
LEVIN: Yes. Hate crimes against Muslims went up 87.5 percent. This is a terrible affront to religious liberty. Thomas Jefferson wanted three things on his tombstone, founder of Virginia, author of the Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of Religious Freedom. We can't go in that direction. It shows an extreme ignorance. Are there violent jihadists and we should look and monitor them, of course. But it is a disgrace that we are talking about Americans and people of faith just on that alone, lumping them in as terrorists. This is a terrible time for the United States of America.
VAUSE: Let's get to the investigation. There's a profile out there, a criminal profile, if you like, of the type of men who carry out these attacks Rahami actually fits that profile almost to a "T."
LEVIN: That is over inclusive, as well. For instance the folks who were holed up in Oregon at the refuge had a predominant Mormon base, but that doesn't mean that all Mormons are like that. The key thing with regard to profiling is criminal profiling involves a variety of variables. Certainly if we are looking for radical jihadists, it makes sense we will look at folks who are radical Muslim folks, but we look at behaviors, statements and connections to other people.
[02:40:24] VAUSE: Again, there's a familiar pattern of behavior here when it comes to Rahami. He grew up in America, he went over to Pakistan, Afghanistan for an extended period of time, and according to those who knew him, he had changed when he returned. That's something we have seen time and time again.
LEVIN: Exactly right. As I have testified before Congress, yes, someone who travels to a place where we know there's a terror network and radicalism and violence, we have every right to have a heightened scrutiny based on that behavior of going to a place where that happens. But what I'm afraid of is bigotry. The "Journal of Social Forces" just came out this month showing that Muslims are the most derided group in the U.S. We have to make sure that when we are going after extremists, let's go after extremists but not go broad brush an entire faith community. Excellent point.
VAUSE: Brian, we will leave it there. Thank you so much.
LEVIN: As always, thank you so much.
VAUSE: Appreciate your coming in.
We'll take a short break. When we come back an all-too-familiar story. Police in Oklahoma release a video of another fatal shooting of an unarmed black man. Details in a moment.
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VAUSE: A fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man is under investigation, this time in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 40-year-old Terrance Crutcher was shot and killed by a police officer during a traffic stop on Friday. Authorities released video of the shooting on Monday. The city's police chief calls the footage very disturbing. You can see Crutcher walking to his car with his hands up. Police say he did not have a weapon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[02:45:20] CHUCK JORDAN, CHIEF, TULSA POLICE CHIEF: It will come out. I will make this promise to you, we will achieve justice in this case. I'm going to tell you right here and now there was no gun on the suspect or in the suspect's vehicle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is my responsibility to make sure that the facts fit the law. I will do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The Crutcher family is demanding the police officer who shot him be charged. He's been put on leave. They are angered and devastated by an audio recording of one officer calling Crutcher, quote, "a bad dude."
Crutcher's sister spoke about that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIFFANY CRUTCHER, SISTER OF TERRANCE CRUTCHER: You all want to know who that big, bad dude was, that big bad dude was my twin brother. That big, bad dude was a father. That big, bad dude was a son. That big, bad dude was enrolled at Tulsa Community College, just wanting to make us proud.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Protesters gathered outside of Tulsa's courthouse shouting hands up don't shoot and holding sounds that read Black Lives Matter. The police chief is urging the community to maintain the peace.
U.S. President Obama expects a hard-fought battle to remove ISIS from Iraq's second-largest city. He talked about the operation to retake Mosul with the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi, who was in New York on Monday. The leaders are there for the U.N. General Assembly. U.S. officials say the Mosul offensive could start as soon as next month.
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you for your good work. Now, it will be a tough fight. Once it is initiated, one of the things that we discussed is the importance of not just driving ISIL out of Mosul, but making sure that the population there that invariably will be displaced and will have suffered and is going to be looking for warmth and food and water and shelter, that we are prepared to help provide rapid humanitarian assistance and that we can rebuild the city in a way that assures not only ISIL does not come back but extremists ideologies born out of desperation do not return.
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VAUSE: The U.S. presidential candidates also met with leaders at the U.N. General Assembly hoping to show off their foreign policy credentials. Hillary Clinton and Ukrainian President Viktor Poroshenko talked about Russia's advances in Ukraine. Clinton also raised concerns over North Korea with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. This is a familiar role for the former secretary of state. While Donald Trump on the other hand, is a foreign policy novice. Both Clinton and Trump met with the Egyptian president about working together to fight ISIS.
Firefighters are struggling with new fires in the Amazon rainforest in Peru. They have destroyed 20,000 hectares and are threatening to two protected areas. The fires likely spread when farmers were burning debris to clear their land for planting.
Short break here. When we come back, a banking scandal in the U.S. is showing no sign of letting up and the CEO of Wells Fargo is fighting to save to save his job.
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[02:52:29] VAUSE: Tuesday will not be an easy day at the office for the CEO of Wells Fargo. And he won't be at the office. He will be answering questions from U.S. lawmakers about millions of fake accounts at his bank. Thousands of employees have been fired but angry customers think more heads should roll, most likely his.
"CNN Money's" Claire Sebastian reports.
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UNIDENTIFIED WELLS FARGO CUSTOMER: When I found out about it, I opened an account at the Capital One bank.
CLAIRE SEBASTIAN, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For this Wells Fargo customer, the sacking of over 5,000 employees for opening fake bank accounts was enough for him to start to move his money.
(on camera): Who do you think should be responsible?
UNIDENTIFIED WELLS FARGO CUSTOMER: Wells Fargo. If I open up credit cards in someone else's names it's a felony and they will look for me.
(CHEERING)
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): He's not the only one to feel that way. Senator Elizabeth Warren taking the cause to the campaign trail on Saturday.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Wells Fargo cheats tens of thousands of people and Republicans want to repeal the rules on Wall Street. We believe in more accountability for big banks. And when CEOs break the law they should go to jail like anyone else.
(CHEERING)
SEBASTIAN: The Justice Department has opened an investigation in to Wells Fargo. It is still unclear if that will lead to charges. Wells Fargo declined to comment.
And even if it does lead to charges, there's no guarantee it would lead to prosecution.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It depends on the evidence and what type of facts that you have that you can connect senior people to the misconduct. That's part of it. The other part of it is frankly having the will to stand up to some of the most powerful institutions in the world and willing to risk losing.
NEIL BAROFSKY, FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL, TROUBLED ASSETS RELIEF PROGRAM: We do have a pending audit.
SEBASTIAN: Neil Barofsky would know about taking on those institutions. In 2008, he was put in charge of policing the U.S. bank bailout fund. (on camera): How much of this is because of those bailouts and the
too-big-to-fail attitude?
BAROFSKY: The take away for large financial institutions is frankly they got away with it, and you look at Wells Fargo and there's some similarity to what spurred the mortgage crisis. Banks in the financial industry were preying on their customers.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Despite some concern among those customers, though --
UNIDENTIFIED WELLS FARGO CUSTOMER: I just made them check my account. And I'm one of the lucky ones.
SEBASTIAN: For most, it is a risk they have learned to live with.
UNIDENTIFIED WELLS FARGO CUSTOMER: And it could happen to Bank of America, Chase. So the truth is to move it, is where do you move?
SEBASTIAN: Claire Sebastian, CNN Money, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[02:55:07] VAUSE: We have great news for anyone traveling to Turkmenistan. The former member of the Soviet Republic has a new shiny airport. Price tag, more than $2 million. Only one problem, no one travels there. The airport can process 1600 passengers every hour. Last year, over 100,000 visas were issued to anyone visiting the country. Although they are hoping for higher numbers for the Asian indoor games next year.
And finally, two British athletes are giving new meaning to the phrase "brothers in arms." Olympic silver medalist, Johnny Brownlee, was leading in Mexico on Sunday when he was suffering from heat exhaustion. His brother, Alistair, who was behind, joined him at the finish line. Johnny was second and his brother third. There we go.
You are watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.
Stay with us. There's more news after a short break with Rosemary Church.
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[03:00:09] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: The ceasefire in Syria is hanging by a thread. The U.S. --
