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The Lead with Jake Tapper

ISIS Claims Execution of Second American Journalist; ISIS Video Appears to Show Beheading of Sotloff; Interview with Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania

Aired September 02, 2014 - 16:00   ET

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

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: ISIS terrorists claiming to be acting in the name of a compassionate and merciful God seem to have, without compassion or mercy, beheaded a second American in as many weeks.

I'm Jake Tapper. This is THE LEAD.

The world lead: His name was Steven Sotloff. He was 31, a Miami Heat fan, by all accounts, a kind and curious soul. He was missing for a year. And now the worst has apparently happened, ISIS releasing a video claiming to show Sotloff's execution just as the terrorist group vowed to carry out in retaliation for U.S. strikes in Iraq.

The politics lead. The ISIS executioner in the Sotloff video, he was speaking right to President Obama just days after the president admitted he didn't quite have the a strategy yet to fight ISIS in Syria. How should the president respond now?

And also in world news, while the Pentagon still has plans to deal with ISIS on the drawing board, the U.S. did carry out a strike on a different terrorist target, no, not in the Syria, thousands of miles away in Somalia.

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

We will of course begin with a horrific world lead. It is not as if the world needed more proof of the innate savagery of the terrorists of ISIS, but they have given it anyway, a video appearing to show a second American beheaded by these terrorists just days after President Obama said he doesn't have a strategy yet for fighting ISIS in Syria.

That American's name is Steven Sotloff. ISIS threatened to kill him if the U.S. did not stop its airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq. And while the U.S. has not yet confirmed the authenticity of the video, there's very little to doubt that ISIS would follow through on that threat, especially after it released a video showing the execution of Sotloff's fellow American journalist captive James Foley.

Let's straight to chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto.

Jim, first of all, while this is a big political story, geopolitical, terrorism, national security, it is about the loss of one young man, 31-year-old Steven Sotloff. Have we heard yet from the Sotloff family? JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: No question,

heartbreaking for the family. We had -- we have -- it's very simple, sad statement. "The family knows of the video and is grieving privately."

Jake, I avoided watching the James Foley video, just for the simple reason that I felt I didn't want to have another person terrorized by the group ISIS, which is obviously their intention. But I watched this video this afternoon.

And a few things struck me. It struck me, one, how it is aimed very much directly at the U.S., its title, "A Second Message to America," the first being the beheading of James Foley, but it also addresses President Obama himself directly.

And as a second American is murdered on camera, this has become a direct confrontation between ISIS and the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO (voice-over): The image is haunting and familiar, an American in an orange jumpsuit on his knees, his killer all in black standing above him brandishing a knife; 13 days after American James Foley was killed, a new video appears to show journalist Steven Sotloff brutally beheaded by ISIS as well.

The masked ISIS executioner who appears to be speaking with the same voice and British accent as Foley's killer made clear the murder was aimed directly at the U.S.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.

SCIUTTO: Sotloff, 31 years old, grew up in South Florida. He was freelancing for several publications, including "TIME" and "The Christian Science Monitor," when he disappeared while reporting from Syria in August 2013.

Staring straight ahead, his head shaven, Sotloff himself speaks to the camera before he was apparently killed, likely under duress, saying he has to pay the price for U.S. intervention. Next to him is another hostage identified by ISIS as David Haines, a British citizen who ISIS says may be its next victim.

SHIRLEY SOTLOFF, MOTHER OF STEVEN SOTLOFF: My son Steven is in your hands.

SCIUTTO: Only last week, Sotloff's mother released a video pleading for her son's life.

SOTLOFF: I ask you to please release my child.

SCIUTTO: Today, the president's point person on Iraq, Brett McGurk, vowed a firm American response.

BRETT MCGURK, U.S. DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: It's just a reminder of the barbarism of this organization and I think President Obama has shown that when organizations do these types of things to American citizens, they do not go unanswered.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Watching this video -- and, again, it is alarming -- another thing that is striking is just how calm Steven Sotloff is as he delivers what he must have known were his last words, calm even at the alarming point when the knife goes to his neck.

And, Jake, as you said, lost in the politics, the military options, all the debate about this, this is very much a personal story, a family who lost their son and had to have that loss broadcast around the world in the most horrible way.

TAPPER: Tragic and terrify.

But I have to say, Jim, obviously, we are seeing a very sophisticated propaganda network at work here with what ISIS is doing.

SCIUTTO: No question.

We talk a lot about how they are successful as a military organization. U.S. military officials will say they behave like a military, they advance like a military, they hold ground like a military. But at the same time, they have a slick propaganda organization. You see all of that played out in this video, first of all, just the brutality of it.

You see the aftermath of a beheading in the simplest terms, the fact it was American, the fact it was a journalist, of course. One, it draws a lot of attention because it's an American journalist, but also it scares journalists from going there so that ISIS can in effect dictate its own message and just the way they get it out across the world via the Internet and how it's shared by Facebook and Twitter.

They do this very well. And that's very powerful for them.

TAPPER: And it's terrifying for us in this country and for most of the Western world and yet it is effective for some sick people out there that it is recruiting. Jim Sciutto, thank you so much.

I want to bring CNN counterterrorism analyst Philip Mudd and CNN terror analyst Paul Cruickshank.

Paul, let's start with you. He's talking specifically to Obama, but Obama is not the only audience here.

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: He's not the only audience. This is also a message for their radical supporters around the world that they're fighting back and they're not going to take these U.S. strikes in Iraq lying down, Jake.

TAPPER: And, specifically, Phil, let me ask you. He does -- the terrorist does specifically mention continuing your bombings in Amirli, Samarra and the Mosul dam. This could be interpreted as a response to the fact that the U.S.

bombing campaign in Iraq is being effective because this terrorist is specifically mentioning these the bombing campaign.

PHILIP MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: I think that's true, Jake. If you look at al Qaeda initially in Pakistan and how they talked about U.S. operations publicly and privately, they talked a lot, for example, about drone strikes.

If you look how these folks are talking now, these terrorists are talking about U.S. strikes in Iraq, my belief as an analyst at the CIA was, when the adversary starts complaining and talking about how much pain that we're inflicting on them, that's an indication that they're in trouble.

I think the airstrikes, I think they're too limited at this point, but this is clearly an indication that this is causing them a lot of pain. If you look just at what happened around the Mosul dam, this is causing them in some cases to pull back.

TAPPER: Paul, the gentleman speaking who has what has been described as a South London accent, do we think it is the same person in this video that was in the previous video? And where is the U.K. government in identifying who this is?

CRUICKSHANK: I have watched both videos. It's a very, very distinctive voice. Seems to be from London to me. To me, it seems to be the same guy in both videos. The British government, the British ambassador here in Washington said a few weeks ago that they were close to identifying who this is.

But we have heard nothing since then. We do know there have been about 500 Brits who have gone over to fight with the various jihadist groups in Syria. It may be quite difficult to whittle down who exactly this is, Jake.

TAPPER: For those who haven't been paying full attention, who are the Beatles? There's this group of British terrorists called -- referred to as the Beatles and I hate to take the Beatles' name in vain. But who is it, who are they?

CRUICKSHANK: According to "The Guardian" newspaper, this is their reporting, that the captors of James Foley and these other Western hostages are known as the Beatles, that they're a group of British jihadists who joined ISIS.

TAPPER: OK.

Phil, we also see another British citizen being held and threatened in this same video. So do you think that this is going to continue to happen every couple weeks, a horrific beheading? And what could be done to stop this?

MUDD: A couple things to think about. We have to put this in context. You look at what happened to the hundreds of Nigerian girls in northern Nigeria, you look at the assassination of a woman in Somalia a couple weeks ago simply because she wasn't wearing the right headdress, you look at the application of brutal justice, what they call justice in the tribal areas of Pakistan, killing security personnel, assassinating them, amputating people's hands for theft, you put this in context, you realize that this is what these groups are.

This is not about U.S. bombing in Iraq, this is about how they visualize the West and what they think is appropriate behavior, whether it's a Yazidi villager or an American journalist. The only thing that can be done in my judgment -- and it's going to take a lot of time, potentially years -- is the slivers of these organizations, whether they're in Yemen, Somali, Iraq, that are involved in recruiting and training foreign fighters are relatively small.

It's hard for them to bring in foreign fighters and send them back to Europe or the United States. Isolating who the leadership is, and I suspect they're probably in Syria right now, and conducting operations to capture and kill that leadership is the only way out of that. But building that intelligence and conducting those operations repeatedly over time, as we have seen in Somalia in the last 24 hours, that can take four or five years. We have been at it in Somalia for six or seven years.

TAPPER: Paul, you wanted to weigh in?

CRUICKSHANK: But if the United States does go into Syria, that could be a red line for ISIS that could even be more escalation from this group.

Syria is their stronghold. They may see that as an existential threat and so they may even retaliate against U.S. interests in the region. They have 1,000 European recruits in their ranks. Training camps last seen on a scale in Taliban and Afghanistan tens of millions of dollars. They have frightening capabilities if they want to pull the trigger with attacks back in the West, Jake.

TAPPER: And, Philip, of course we should point out, as your answer to the last question suggested, ISIS has been doing this on a larger scale to Shiite Muslims and Yazidis and other groups throughout Syria and Iraq for months and months.

MUDD: That's right.

I think this will be eventually, if I had to make a prediction, they're going to be the architects of their own downfall. If you look at Islamic insurgents as far back as Egypt and Algeria, during some revolutions, Islamic revolutions in the 1990s, going forward to what happened initially in Iraq, when Sunni villagers in the mid-2000s started to say, we don't like these revolutionaries, they're too violent, if you look at the dialogue between ISIS and al Qaeda where al Qaeda says, hey, be careful going too far, what happens when people like this take power is that they're so consumed with proving that they are the true believers, that they have the true path, that they alienate the very people they have to recruit.

What I'm saying is if past is the precedent, what will happen here is, villagers will start to say it's nice that you provide security. The Iraqi government didn't. But when you start to kill people, frankly, not Americans but Yazidis, Shias and others, we are not up for it and we will start to take you out. I think that's probably what will happen over time in Iraq. It will take awhile and maybe tens of thousands of people will die.

TAPPER: Phil Mudd, Paul Cruickshank, thank you so much.

Coming up, while we wait to hear a U.S. strategy for battling ISIS in Syria, the American military has been unloading on ISIS targets in Iraq for weeks. Is it working?

And President Obama is leaving on a trip out of the country a few moments ago without commenting on the Sotloff video. We will ask a senator from the president's own party, what should the president say when he lands?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. And we are continuing with our world lead, of course.

For the second time in a matter of weeks, we have been forced to confront to the haunting image of a mass executioner, the captive American, and an open threat to President Obama, all courtesy of a loathsome terrorist calling himself a member of ISIS -- the brutal jihadist terrorist group who have already burned across huge chunks of Iraq and Syria, killing anyone standing in their way.

I'm joined now by Senator Bob Casey. He's a Democrat from Pennsylvania.

Senator, thanks for being with us.

First, let's just get reaction to this terrible video. You called the death of James Foley, the American journalist beheaded two weeks ago, you called it an act of, quote, "cowardly brutally", it seems to be that the cowardice and brutality is continuing unabated.

SEN. BOB CASEY (D), PENNSYLVANIA: No question about it, Jake, and I've said the same thing about the killing of Mr. Sotloff, and we, of course, so many millions of Americans to express condolences. And I think in terms of what the president as well as our government must do is to continue with an enduring determination to go after the Islamic State and to destroy it, and that's going to continue some time but I think we can do that and I think we must do it.

TAPPER: What do we do as a country, in addition to the bombing campaign in Iraq, which the president has said is limited and designed to just keep Americans in Irbil safe and with some humanitarian missions when the U.S. is able to do it. Does more need to be done militarily? Does more need to be done in other ways?

CASEY: Well, I think in some ways, it's a continuation of what the president has already started, which is the targeted strikes and that will can and should continue. That, of course, is based on good intelligence and good cooperation and working with in this case a good fighting force, the Kurdish fighters have been very capable and determined. The Iraqi forces are showing more strength and we're having some success. Virtually, every goal that our military has set out with regard to the initial stages of the strikes have been successful.

I think all of those elements have to be coupled with a few more though. One of course, is coalition work. The United States has begun to work together with countries in the region and beyond the region, because it's in their interest, it's in the interest of the world to stop what is both a terrorist organization as well as a well- fortified and well-financed military.

And then, finally, Jake, I'd say that the financing question is critically important. Senator Rubio and I have sent a letter to the State Department outlining a series of steps that they can take to cut off the funding for the Islamic State and to label the Islamic State -- what they are, in addition to being an army in a sense and a terrorist organization, they're also an international criminal organization. They should be so labeled as a so-called TOC, transnational criminal organization.

TAPPER: Senator, what you're saying makes a lot of sense. I think a lot of people at home are probably sitting and wondering, it's the United States working with the Kurds and with the Iraqis to destroy this group, that clearly has -- poses a threat to every Arab country in that region, and all of the Western world, in terms of at least its ambitions to stage terrorist attacks.

Where is -- where are the other European countries? Where is the Arab League? Where is Jordan and the UAE and Saudi Arabia? How come we are not seeing a number of other countries rallying to the support of the U.S., the Kurds and Iraqis?

CASEY: You're right, Jake. We have not seen enough of that yet, but I know that our government, both the administration overall but in particular, the State Department, have made very determined efforts to bring in those coalition partners, it's in their interest.

And when you consider the UAE or the Qataris, or the Jordanians, as well as the Turks because we know the Turks worked with us on a lot of things. Sometimes they get us mad, at least I get frustrated by them by some of the things they say and do. But on this one, because you have some of these jihadists coming from the United States or Europe through Turkey, they need to be much tougher about interdicting not just jihadists but the smuggling that the Islamic State does and the oil sales, really oil and gas sales that both the Islamic State has engaged in in the region.

And we need to make it very painful economically for any organization, any nation that deals with the Islamic State or trades with them.

TAPPER: Senator, when President Obama spoke last week and gave his statement that we don't have a strategy for dealing with the threat of ISIS in Syria, he was compared unfavorably with the British Prime Minister David Cameron who spoke the next day and seemed to give a very forceful address about the threat there have Islamic extremism and what the U.K. was going to do.

What do you want to hear from President Obama about the beheading of Steven Sotloff and about the threat from ISIS?

CASEY: Well, Jake, I think those -- the comparison between the two is not grounded, in fact. I think if you look at what the president has been doing, all the elements are there, at least the initial elements of a broader strategy which may not be completely worked out yet, but there's no question that the president was very prudent and I think very effective at putting in place the air strikes, based upon good intelligence. But you can't just unleash a strategy without knowing what you're getting into. So, I think he's made prudent steps on the military aspects of this and I think that will continue but coupled with a number of other elements.

Number one, making sure that the Iraqi government is doing what it should have been doing for the last couple of years, have a government of inclusiveness and national unity for a lot of reasons, principally because that will dampen the effectiveness of ISIS when it's recruiting Sunni fighters or other jihadists.

Number two, I think the administration will continue and focus on making sure that the efforts that they've begun which is to build a coalition of other nations, get other support and to shut down the financing of the Islamic State.

So I think all the elements are there, and I think the president has been honest and direct about what our goals are and I think we're making some progress, but we have to continue and be vigilant because this threat is not simple political a threat to the region. I think it's beyond the region now.

TAPPER: Senator Casey, Bob Casey from Pennsylvania, thank you so much.

Coming up, ISIS says it killed Steven Sotloff in retaliation for U.S. strikes in Iraq and we will next take you to Iraq to see whether those strikes are actually putting a dent in ISIS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

Continuing with our world lead, a gruesome video appears to show ISIS beheading a second American journalist, Steven Sotloff, they say in retaliation for U.S. airstrikes on ISIS targets in Iraq. The terrorist in the video with the British accent says a British citizen is next.

Joining us now from Irbil, Iraq, is CNN's Anna Coren.

Anna, thanks for joining us.

I want to read you some of the comments that the terrorist in this video gives. He says, "I'm back, Obama, and I'm back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State, because of your insistence in continuing your bombings in Amerli, Samarra and the Mosul Dam, despite our serious warnings. You, Obama, have yet to gain," et cetera, et cetera.

I guess the question I have for you, Ana, is this terrorist very specifically is referring to American bombing campaigns in Iraq, in the country you're in, Amerli, Samarra and Mosul dam. Does that suggest to you and based on what you're seeing on the ground there, that these campaigns are working to a degree in killing off and defeating ISIS?

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jake, I think there's no doubt that ISIS is under pressure, and this is why we are seeing them react the way that they are. They mentioned Amerli, they mentioned Mosul dam. And this is where those U.S. airstrikes have been extremely effective. The focus of that air campaign has been around Mosul dam, that critical piece of infrastructure that the Kurdish forces, the Peshmerga managed to claim back at the beginning of last week after ISIS had captured it earlier last month.

But it does certainly allow that ground offensive to come in by those Kurdish forces and push ISIS back. We were up, mind you at Mosul dam over the weekend, Jake. And we did see ISIS digging in.

Yes, the airstrikes were happening. Yes, taking out the artillery, the mortars, the convoys of vehicles that were traveling across these plains, but at the same time, you know, ISIS is not retreating back to Mosul -- Iraq's second largest city that they have complete control of only 40 clicks away. They are still there. They are still fighting.

But there is no doubt, Jake, that the U.S. air campaign is changing the situation on the ground and that ISIS is under pressure.