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The Lead with Jake Tapper

American Beheaded By ISIS; National Guard Activated in Ferguson; State of Emergency Declared in Missouri; Protecting America's Secrets

Aired November 17, 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 HOST: Experts now searching for new clues in the latest atrocity by ISIS.

I am Jake Tapper. And this is THE LEAD.

The world lead: Jihadi John still shouting his twisted ideology as another American, Peter Kassig, is beheaded by terrorists, and ISIS vows to make Western streets run red with blood.

The sports lead. As the Drug Enforcement Agency blitzes NFL locker rooms looking for evidence of prescription drug abuse, we ask whether the justice system allows professional athletes to play by their own rules. One woman says yes and she has got the bruises from her NFL- playing fiance to prove it.

Plus, the national lead. We still know so little about what happened the day that Michael Brown was killed. Now, while a grand jury decides whether to send the officer who shot the teen to trial, Missouri's governor declares a state of emergency. And new video emerges shedding light on the case.

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

We begin today with our world lead and the gruesome execution of yet another American at the hands of the terrorists of ISIS. The U.S. government confirming that a video showing the severed head of American Peter Kassig first released over social media is regrettably authentic, the pictures all too real and by now all too familiar.

Kassig is the third American to be beheaded by the terrorist group. He disappeared inside Syria more than a year ago while delivering medical supplies. His ambulance was ambushed at a checkpoint. He was 26 years old.

We now know that the U.S. government believes the recognizable silhouette hovering over Kassig's body, the black-masked executioner, is the same man in the previous beading videos of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff. He's a British man nicknamed Jihadi John.

Chilling, blood-curdling, however you want to describe the last minute showing Kassig's end and the 15 minutes of gory propaganda that precede it, the video is just a small glimpse of the totality of ISIS' terror. Today, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights puts the number of

executions by the jihadists at 1,500 since June, when ISIS declared its caliphate.

CNN chief national correspondent Jim Sciutto joins us live now.

Jim, this new video very disturbing. What more can you tell us about it?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: No question, Jake.

What's different about this video is, it goes off what has become the typical script for an ISIS video. There's no picture, for instance, of Kassig on his knees in an orange jumpsuit, as we saw with Steven Sotloff or Jim Foley before their deaths. There's no statement from another hostage at the end of the video, sort of a teaser of the others who are in their captivity, a sign that this one was rushed.

Some have read that as a sign that the group is under pressure. But if you can imagine it, and it's unimaginable, this video even more brutal than ones we have seen in the past.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO (voice-over): A graphic display of savagery in ISIS' latest video. A masked man believed to be the terrorist known as Jihadi John stands above an American's decapitated head.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Peter Edward Kassig, a U.S. citizen of your country.

SCIUTTO: Former U.S. soldier Peter Kassig served in Iraq in 2007. He returned to the Middle East as an aid worker in Syria, where ISIS captured him.

PETER KASSIG, AID WORKER: There's this impression, this belief that there is no hope. That's when it's more important than ever that we come in against all odds and try to do something.

SCIUTTO: Kassig is the fifth Western hostage to be killed by ISIS, but after four very similar videos, the latest one is notably different. For the first time, the speaker gives away his location, the Syrian town of Dabiq. And unlike those before him, Kassig does not make a final statement on tape, nor are his last moments before the execution shown.

Still, in this 16-minute video, the slaughter of a dozen men described as Syrian military pilots is gruesome and dramatized. Unmasked ISIS fighters grab for their knives as they lead the soldiers to their deaths.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we say to you, Obama.

SCIUTTO: Speaking in English and cloaked in black, the man who seems to be the same killer as in the previous videos has a message for President Obama, taunting him to send U.S. ground troops.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your forces will return greater in number than they were before. You will return.

SCIUTTO: The extent of the U.S. return continues to be debated. This weekend, the president said there are circumstances where ground troops, once off the table, would be considered.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If we discovered that ISIL had gotten possession of a nuclear weapon and we had to run an operation to get it out of their hands, then, yes, you can anticipate that not only would Chairman Dempsey recommend me sending U.S. ground troops to get that weapon out of their hands, but I would order it.

SCIUTTO: Still, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel tells CNN's Barbara Starr that U.S. combat troops are out of the question unless the military needs them.

CHUCK HAGEL, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: If we get to any other variation of recommendations from General Dempsey, then we will deal with it. But we're not there yet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Just a short time ago, Peter Kassig's family reacted to the news in a statement using his Muslim name, Abdul-Rahman. He converted to Islam while he was in captivity. They said, "Our hearts are battered, but they will bend," showing a strength that the Kassig family, like the Foley family and the Sotloff family before them, really under unbelievable circumstances, able to manage that and ending by saying they need time to heal and if you can believe it, Jake, time to forgive as well.

TAPPER: Jim Sciutto, thank you so much.

On what is surely one of the worst days of their lives, Peter Kassig's parents spoke out just moments ago. As Jim mentioned, through the sadness, they were somewhat defiant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our hearts are battered, but they will mend. The world is broken, but it will be healed in the end. And good will prevail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Kassig's parents echoing what seemed to be the theme of their son's existence, to do good. After serving as an Army Ranger, Kassig turned in his gun for a medical kit, trading a war zone and an army of brothers for another war zone and a solitary mission trying to stop the bleeding in a region so fraught with turmoil.

The number of people who make these decisions to go into conflict zones to put their lives at risk in the service of others, it is a relatively small group and they form a tight-knit community. Our own Nick Paton Walsh is one of those people.

CNN senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh joins us from Beirut now.

Nick, you knew Peter Kassig quite well. What was he like? What kind of person was he?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He was a very giving person, who -- obviously you could tell by what he chose to do with his life, bringing medical aid to Syrians, teaching them how to heal the wounded there, gave a lot of himself, anything he really could, frankly.

And that's I think what is the most powerful thing you saw about the choices he made and what he chose to -- the risks he chose to put himself through. But also I think you hear of a character like this who endures risks like that, was in the Army Rangers for a bit, he was also a very meek, polite and gentle person.

I remember once giving him the keys to my flat and saying, you can stay there while I'm away for a few weeks. And I kind of came back a little bit worried that maybe he had emptied out the bar or something and I would walk into like a party aftermath scene. And he had never even been in once. He was a bit too kind of concerned to have messed the place up and gave the keys back to me kind of very humbly, a very gentle soul too who gave everything he could of himself.

TAPPER: What memory do you have that sticks out most in your mind?

WALSH: e used to run in the Rangers and I run quite a lot here, too. We went for a run together.

But Pete turned up barefoot, which is kind of perhaps a dangerous thing to do in Beirut. It's not always the evenest ground around here. But he didn't have any shoes. So, he ran all the same, said he liked it, he liked to feel the concrete under his feet.

And he was a chain smoker, but he was still giving me quite a run for my money. I tried to get a bit of revenge by taking him up the steps here, some (INAUDIBLE) steps. There are quite a lot of them, and they're quite exhausting.

And he matched me all the way up and then got to the top, collapsed and literally retched, vomited. And I was like, why did you put yourself through that? And he sort of just sort of looked at me and said, there's no way was I going to give you the satisfaction of beating me on that. He was just a persistent person and wouldn't stop until the thing he wanted to see done was done.

TAPPER: The video that ISIS released is slightly different from previous ones. Peter doesn't read or recite any sort of pre-rehearsed statement insulting the West or vowing more terrorist attacks.

Knowing Peter as you did -- and I'm sorry to ask you to speculate -- but do you think he simply refused to go by the script handed to him? Or what do you think is at play there?

WALSH: It's a difficult video to watch.

It's also a confusing one, too, because as you say it doesn't have -- it doesn't follow the script, doesn't have the message to the West. It doesn't have the horrifying moments of death partially captured like previous videos have done.

I think the one small comfort I get from that hole in the narrative, not quite knowing what happened, is that, yes, maybe he didn't go along with it. He was a tough guy. He was in the Army for a while, but had a lot of time to think about what he was going to do. And I -- in some ways, I would like to think he didn't go along with it, perhaps made it very difficult for them. Yes, it's hard to think about, Jake.

TAPPER: Nick, thank you so much for helping us to remember your friend. I'm so sorry for your loss.

As Nick said, this latest ISIS video is different from the previous ones. There are no orange jumpsuits, no direct camera statements. Does this mean anything?

CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank is in New York.

Paul, good to see you, as always. This new video, how else is it different from previous ISIS videos?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: One of the other ways this video is different is, there's no parading of another Western hostage, a British or American hostage, in front of the cameras threatening their life.

Not clear why this is the case. We know that ISIS has other Western hostages, notably John Cantlie, the British journalist, who they're forcing to act as a spokesman.

TAPPER: France's interior minister today said there is a high probability in his view that a French national, Maxime Hauchard, participated in Peter Kassig's murder and is one of the unmasked men in the video.

Hauchard gave an interview to a French TV outlet back in July. What else do we know about him?

CRUICKSHANK: It's suspected he took part in the murder of the Syrian soldiers rather than Peter Kassig.

We know he's in his early 20s. He's a French convert from Normandy. He converted two or three years ago. He was radicalized. He spent some time in Mauritania. In 2013, he traveled to Syria and joined ISIS in Raqqa and now participated in this absolutely horrendous, brutal decapitation video of these dozen Syrian soldiers.

The worry is that killers like that with European passports could return to the West, Jake. TAPPER: From Normandy, place where so many died fighting this kind of

barbarism.

ISIS did not make specific threats for a very long time and then after the U.S.-led airstrikes started, they started talking about hitting Western targets. In this latest video, the guy called Jihadi John, the terrorist, makes an even more detailed threat. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To Obama, the dog of Rome, today, we're slaughtering the soldiers of Bashar. And tomorrow, we will be slaughtering your soldiers. And with Allah's permission, we will break this final and last crusade and the Islamic State will soon, like your puppet David Cameron said, will begin to slaughter your people, on your streets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Slaughtering your people on your streets, that's very specific language. How seriously do you think officials should take this threat?

CRUICKSHANK: They're taking this threat from ISIS very seriously indeed.

ISIS have about 1,000 Westerners in their ranks. They have training camps on a significant scale. They have deep financial pockets. In other words, they have everything they need to unleash carnage back in the West. There's a lot of concern that they could plot attacks.

There are hundreds back in Europe who fought with ISIS and other jihadist terrorist group. Very difficult for the Europeans to monitor more than a fraction of these 24/7. We already saw a terrorist attack linked to ISIS in May in Brussels.

Four people were killed at the Jewish Museum there. There's a lot of concern we could see more of this and ISIS itself with its very considerable resources orchestrate terrorist plots against the West. The big picture thought here is for the next one, two, three years, there's going to be a terrorist safe haven in Syria and Iraq. That puts us in a period of danger, Jake.

TAPPER: Paul Cruickshank, thank you so much.

Turning now to our national lead, a state of emergency was just declared in Missouri, Democratic Governor jay Nixon calling in the National Guard as the city of Ferguson braces for a decision from the grand jury in the shooting death of Michael Brown. Is there a specific reason for the heightened alert? That's next.

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

Some breaking news in our national lead now. Democratic Missouri Governor Jay Nixon just declared a state of emergency there. He's calling in the National Guard so as to better prepare for the response to what many legal observers will be a decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown.

Of course, we do not know that that's what the grand jury is going to do. The grand jury has not yet made its decision whether to charge Wilson for killing the unarmed black teen back in August. But a series of leaks suggest an indictment may not happen.

Meanwhile, new recordings are giving us a better perspective on the final minutes of Brown's life. Audio and video obtained by "The St. Louis Post-Dispatch" document something of a timeline. Listen to these first moments when police encountered Michael Brown.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

OFFICER DARREN WILSON: Twenty-one to 25 or 22, you guys need me?

(END AUDIO CLIP)

TAPPER: Just minutes later, you could hear someone screaming in the background of the audiotapes.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DISPATCHER: Frank 25.

OFFICER 25: Get us several more units over here. There's going to be a problem.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

TAPPER: According to recordings, the counter that ended with Michael Brown dead lasted fewer than two minutes. Then there's also a new video from "The St. Louis Post Dispatch" showing Officer Wilson hours after the shooting. That's him in the white t-shirt. There you see him. Police claimed he had bruises and a swollen face as a result of his altercation with Brown. The grainy black and white video and color video doesn't seem to clear that issue up one way or another, at least not on initial viewing.

As we wait for the verdict, Michael Brown's family is calling for peace.

Anthony Gray is co-counsel for the Brown family. He joins us now live from St. Louis.

Mr. Gray, good to see you as always. What's your --

ANTHONY GRAY, BROWN FAMILY ATTORNEY: Good to see you, too, Jake. Thank you.

TAPPER: What's your reaction to the state of emergency declared by Governor Nixon?

GRAY: Well, I'm not surprised by it. It was somewhat anticipated. The governor has telegraphed for quite some time now over the last few days that he intended to get in front of any security concerns that the law enforcement may have. And I'm assuming that this is one of those efforts that kind of get in front of the security, and what they anticipate may or may not have as a result of an announcement. So, I'm not surprised by it at all.

TAPPER: Does it sound -- it's not just getting ahead of security. It sounds like Nixon is worried that there will be some violence because there will not be an indictment, no?

GRAY: Yes. I mean, clearly, that's the -- what you would call under the surface. It's lurking beneath all of the rationale between everything that they're deciding. He's not necessarily coming out saying that per se. But clearly, that's the underlying message that we're all getting, that he's preparing for war and not necessarily peace, and that they want to be ready for that event.

I only hope that it doesn't generate the reaction that they're looking for, preparing for. Sometimes you can push people into behaving a certain way just by preparing for just that kind of a reaction. So I'm concerned that that might be the reality. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that.

TAPPER: Has the Brown family seen or heard any of these new recordings that "The St. Louis Post Dispatch" got their hands on? If so, what was their reaction?

GRAY: They have heard all of the recordings, if not a majority of them. To me, what we have said the whole time is that the recordings support what Dorian Johnson said from the very beginning, Jake. I mean, it talked about -- you know, it verifies there was an incident.

But what the recordings don't do, and let me make sure what we're clear about this -- it never mentions the convenience store in any way. We know that officer Wilson had an encounter with Mike Brown Jr. and Dorian first. He asked them to get out of the street. They still had on the same clothing. And that later, when he said he was going out with two, I think that was his terminology, he didn't say relative to the convenience store.

So, the recording doesn't establish any connection with the convenience store incident. And that, in my opinion, was a good point to be made listening to the recordings.

TAPPER: Police are asking residents in Ferguson and surrounding towns to stock up ahead of the grand jury's decision in case they're supposed to stay in their homes for a little while. You also have schools asking that they get a heads-up before any announcement is made so the schools can prepare. How is the family going to be told about the decision?

GRAY: Well, we are supposed to get some degree of an advanced notice. Not sure in what form it's going to come in at this point. We believe we will receive a phone call. My number has been made available to the prosecutor's office. And I'm hoping they will follow up as committed and give me a call. And then we will know and have some kind of advance notice.

I don't think it's realistic to think you can onto a decision like that for 24 hours. I think somebody within the decision makers will clearly leak it out within minutes after making the decision, especially those that would not agree with it.

So, I don't think it's realistic to wait that amount of time. But we're hopeful we'll get some kind of advanced notice before they make it public.

TAPPER: Let's hope for peace in Ferguson and more importantly --

GRAY: Yes, sir.

TAPPER: And more importantly, peace for the Brown family.

Anthony Gray, thank you so much for talking to me today. Appreciate it.

GRAY: No doubt about it. Thank you, Jake.

TAPPER: Coming up, White House computers were not the only ones hacked. The U.S. State Department now admitting that their e-mail system was infiltrated as well. Were Chinese hackers behind the attack at the same time President Obama was visiting their country?

Plus, new allegations the NFL ignored abuse claims. A victim comes forward to say she was beaten by her NFL-playing fiance, and the NFL did nothing about it. She'll join me live, coming up.

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