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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Israeli-Hezbollah Clashes in Golan; Dire Situation in Nantucket; Some Claim Link To ISIS, FBI Investigating; Questions Raised About Drone Safety

Aired January 28, 2015 - 16:30   ET

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

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to "THE LEAD." In other world news today, what could be another very dangerous moment in the Middle East? Evacuations are under way right now in the Israeli-controlled region of the Golan Heights after the militant group, terrorist group, according to the U.S. State Department, Hezbollah, claimed responsibility for a missile attack on an Israeli military convoy near the area of the Lebanon/Syria border, and the Golan Heights killing two Israeli soldiers and injuring seven others. A U.N. peacekeeper also killed in the fighting. It's unclear how as of now.

Now, this was in apparent retaliation for an airstrike that killed six Hezbollah fighters in Syria earlier this month. It is the deadliest Hezbollah attack against Israeli forces since the two sides went to war in 2006. And overnight, Israel fired back and delivered a warning to Hezbollah, Syria and even Iran. CNN senior global affairs correspondent Elise Labott is near the Israel-Lebanon border. Elise.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, there's a tense calm over the area right now. Military sources say that they hope that things have calmed down, that there won't be an escalation, but as you know from covering the region, that one wrong move on either side, whether it's an Israeli soldier or Hezbollah fighter on the other side, things can easily spiral out of control. Israeli prime minister today coming out warning Hezbollah and also Iran and Syria that Israel will not accept a new front on its northern frontier along Syria, along the Lebanese border. Very concerned as you mentioned in these recent days after that Israeli strike which they have never really copped to, by the way, killing those Hezbollah commanders and that senior Iranian commander as well, general.

Today, Netanyahu warned Iran, saying that it is basically responsible for deploying Hezbollah to open up this new front and said Iran or whoever did this attack today will pay the price.

TAPPER: Elise Labott, thank you so much.

Joining me now to discuss this all is former U.S. ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, who also served as U.S. Special Envoy for Israeli Palestinian negotiations for the Obama administration from 2013 to 2014. He is the founding director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. Mr. Ambassador, thanks for joining us. The Middle East always seems like a combustible place, but with everything going on right now in Syria, with ISIS, and so much land controlled by who knows who, how combustible is it today with this tension between Hezbollah based in both Lebanon and Syria, and Israel?

MARTIN INDYK, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL: It's definitely more combustible, to state the obvious, but logic would say that neither Israel nor Hezbollah, their interests would be served by an escalation. Hezbollah's focused on Lebanon -- on Syria, sorry, and saving the Assad regime and the Israelis are not really interested in new conflagration on the northern border but it's the Middle East and logic doesn't always prevail. It's an Israeli election period. The left-wing opponents of Netanyahu are talking about being tough up there. He, too, is talking about being tough, although he has shown himself to be quite cautious in these situations. And Hezbollah has a history of provoking actions and even wars on the eve of Israeli elections. That was certainly true back in a previous time when Netanyahu was contesting election with Shimon Peres in 1996 and you had a full-scale war there that Hezbollah deliberately provoked.

TAPPER: Mr. Ambassador, do you think the U.S. has a role here or is that even possible these days, given the very strong tensions between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama?

INDYK: Well, I don't think that notwithstanding the really strong tensions that you refer to, that the United States wants to see another war in the region. The United States and President Obama remains steadfastly committed to Israel's security and so I would expect that the administration is doing everything it can to calm things down here, get both sides to exercise restraint. Doesn't have much influence on Hezbollah, but that clearly is a strong American interest, and so I would expect the administration would be on the one hand strongly supporting Israel's right to defend itself and on the other, trying to prevent yet another conflagration from breaking out.

TAPPER: If you were still advising President Obama in an official capacity, would you tell him he should talk publicly about this soon, or is it better for him to do this all behind closed doors?

INDYK: Well, I think that the normal way to handle it is in this stage, at least, to call publicly for restraint. I'm sure the State Department is doing that. The Secretary of State has his own channel to the Iranian foreign minister because of those negotiations that are going on and I would expect that we have a way of communicating the importance of them exercising restraint. They, of course, have very strong influence on Hezbollah. And then, of course, there's the Lebanese government, although it's not very strong, it certainly doesn't want to see and would suffer greatly from an outbreak of war between Lebanon and between Hezbollah and Israel. So I think we could work quietly and I would expect that we are already with all of them to try to calm things down.

TAPPER: Before you go, sir, I do want to get your take on this debate right now about the appropriateness of Netanyahu speaking to Congress against Obama's position on sanctions, against Iran for its nuclear program. I would think that what happened today with Hezbollah might only embolden Netanyahu given the close relationship between Iran and Hezbollah, but what's your take on this general debate? INDYK: Well, I do think that Prime Minister Netanyahu sees Iran as a

primary, even existential security threat to Israel if its nuclear program turns into a nuclear weapons program, and so he doesn't need any reason to be emboldened in that regard in terms of taking a stand. I do think he wrong-footed himself by going behind the president's back to do this deal with Speaker Boehner to come here, especially right on the eve of his own elections, which makes it look like it's a political ploy for internal domestic purposes. And I think it, you know, we would all be better off given the stakes in the region at the moment if that hadn't happened and if the prime minister didn't use the Congress as a way of expressing his understandable concern about Iran's nuclear program.

TAPPER: Ambassador Martin Indyk, vice president and director of the foreign policy program in Brooking, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

INDYK: Thanks, Jake.

TAPPER: Let's shift gears back to that massive blizzard that hit New England. I want to go back to William Pittman, the police chief for Nantucket, the island where things remain dire and people are still practically stranded. Sir, thanks for getting back on the phone with us. You just met with the governor, Charlie Baker. How was that meeting? Do you have all the resources you need?

WILLIAM PITTMAN, NANTUCKET POLICE: Yeah, we do. The meeting was very productive. Director Schwartz from Massachusetts Emergency Management and the governor came here and offered a lot of reassurances to the emergency and first responders that have been working for the past 72 hours, almost, and they pledged to work with us on the recovery efforts for some of the damage that was done to town infrastructure.

TAPPER: What is your biggest concern right now? Is everybody on the island accounted for?

PITTMAN: Well, we don't know that. We still have a couple of areas that we have yet to be able to get into because of the drifting snow. Now, they are areas where we don't believe there are residents living right now. Mostly they're summer homes. But you never know what might be out there. But we did a flyover with the Coast Guard earlier this afternoon. Couple of our staff went up and checked out these areas from the air and they found nothing that would indicate there is any problems in those areas.

We also got a better view of how much damage we sustained to our town pier and infrastructure downtown as a result of what we discovered to be a breach in the harbor on the Atlantic Ocean side.

TAPPER: Emergency officials said - shelter to Nantucket for extra support. How many people are using this space?

PITTMAN: Well, we've got, you know, that's kind of wrong there, little bit.

TAPPER: OK. PITTMAN: Right now we had the shelter is almost empty of people that were sheltered from the storm. We are systematically returning them to their homes as power is restored. I think we have maybe a half dozen or eight or so who are essentially displaced because of damage to their homes that we are working to find them a place. But the emergency equipment we had brought here was to essentially house the emergency power company staff who has come here to help put the island back together. They brought, you know, close, I think the number is close to 100, 100 plus people here to help get all the power back to these houses.

TAPPER: All right, Nantucket police Chief William Pittman, thank you so much. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people on your island. We appreciate your talking to us.

Coming up next, military jets scramble after a bomb threat is made against a passenger plane. A U.S. official now telling CNN there has been a sudden spike in similar incidents as many as 50 in fewer than two weeks. The FBI is investigating. New details on that next.

Plus he says he's the one who crashed a drone on to the White House lawn but do authorities believe his story? That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. The Money Lead right now. Right now, the FBI is trying to track down whomever is behind a series of bomb threats targeting commercial airliners in this country.

Just yesterday, a tweet went out threatening an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Chicago. The plane ended up landing safely, of course. Another tweet took aim at a United Flight from Newark to Miami, although that flight had already been canceled because of the northeast blizzard.

There have been literally dozens of social media threats in recent weeks and whether this is just goofy if malicious pranksters wreaking havoc from their mom's basement or something more sinister, law enforcement officials are not taking any chances. They really can't.

Let's go live to CNN aviation correspondent, Rene Marsh, live from LaGuardia in New York -- Rene.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, you know, this is a relatively new threat. It's gone from happening once in a while to an everyday occurrence, sometimes multiple times a day. A U.S. official tells me that this uptick in this particular sort of online threat started just this month.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH (voice-over): Planes diverted, passengers evacuated, law enforcement and bomb sniffing dogs close in. All because of fake bomb threats on social media.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We didn't know until we landed.

MARSH: It's happening more and more. A U.S. official tells CNN online threats increased after a bomb scare on a flight from Atlanta to Raleigh January 17th. Fifty similar incidents followed.

In New York, this flight swept for explosives. Military jets scrambled after a tweet said bombs were on board two planes bound for Atlanta. And a tweet claiming to be from the terrorist group, ISIS, targeted a flight from San Diego to Dallas.

The threats have the attention of Transportation Secretary Anthony Fox.

ANTHONY FOX, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: We take these threats very seriously. Not only FAA but an interagency team works through these issues and tries to get to the bottom of what's happening.

MARSH: The FBI is now investigating, tracing computer I.P. addresses.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It could be a small group of people. It could just be one person with a few Twitter accounts and a really dumb idea. No devices have been found, but we can see how much it disrupts the system.

MARSH: These threats tax law enforcement, airport, and military resources. It's also costly for airlines and passengers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every time a threat comes in it has to be taken seriously. Aircraft have to be turned around or landed at the nearest location. Airports stop what they're doing to assist with the search and the vetting of passengers and thousands of dollars are lost every minute that that plane is unexpectedly delayed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH: The way this all works is once an airline receives a threat, they automatically report it to law enforcement. Then it's between the pilot on board the airline and law enforcement to assess how credible is this threat and make the decision are they going to divert this plane.

The bottom line is they believe that this is a copycat situation in which one person sees one incident and another person follows. Many law enforcement officials as well as the airlines say they believe the publicity is what's contributing to the uptick.

That being said, look, this is a federal crime. So investigators are looking into it and once they track back to that person, they are looking at time behind bars -- Jake.

TAPPER: Rene Marsh at LaGuardia Airport, thank you so much.

This week marks 70 years since Soviet soldiers liberated the Auschwitz death camp in Poland where more than a million Jews were slaughtered at the hands of Nazis. Tonight on CNN, the horrors of Auschwitz are remembered through the eyes of those who survived. Wolf Blitzer is here with a preview of tonight's special report, "Voices Of Auschwitz" airing at 9:00 p.m. Eastern tonight. Wolf, what's the program going to be?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": We are going to hear from four Auschwitz survivors, who were all basically little kids, 10, 12, 14 years old at the time they were taken to Auschwitz, separated from their parents, mostly who were immediately sent to gas chambers and crematoria.

We will hear from these four individuals, these four survivors who will tell us what life was like for them before the war, during the war and after the war. It's really an inspiration to hear their stories, how they survived and what they have done with their lives since the end of World War II, 70 years.

They all have amazing personal stories. It's very inspirational, extremely meaningful, especially for those of us who are children of holocaust survivors, it has a really powerful, powerful impact and I think our viewers will be grateful to CNN for producing this one-hour documentary.

TAPPER: All right, well, I'm looking forward to watching it. I know it's personal for you, as the child of survivors.

Coming up next, we are learning new details about the man who says he crashed the drone on to the White House lawn earlier this week, but does his story add up? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. The National Lead, the company behind a drone that crashed near the White House this week raising some pretty serious safety and security questions, is now making software tweaks that would ban its drones from flying throughout much of Washington, D.C.

This news comes as we learn more about the man who was the apparent pilot when that drone went down. He just so happens to work for a spy satellite government agency and he told the Secret Service he had been drinking at a nearby apartment when this all happened.

Let's go live now to CNN senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta. Jim, this raises very serious safety and security questions. What can you tell us?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Jake. We were able to reach that drone operator today over the phone. While he isn't saying much about what happened at the moment, his crash landing at the White House has served as a wake-up call to the rest of Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA (voice-over): CNN has learned the man who crashed a small drone at the White House earlier this week lives just blocks away from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. That means the tiny quadcopter only had to fly less than ten blocks, a straight shot from the man's apartment to reach the White House.

One possible explanation experts say is the drone signal lost contact with the operator and ran into trees while trying to return home. The operator, identified as a man who works for the top secret National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, declined to comment on reports that he was intoxicated while flying the drone.

In a brief phone call with CNN, he said I can't really speak right now, I hope you understand. U.S. Secret Service officials have said it appears the man was using the drone for recreational purposes and that there was never any threat to the president or first lady, who are traveling overseas at the time.

Asked about the incident, aides to the president insisted the White House is safe from drones.

ERIC SCHULTZ, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: This technology is not new to the secret service. This is something they have been working through for some time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This drone that landed in the White House --

ACOSTA: But in an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria, President Obama argued the rapid expansion of civilian drone use warrants new regulations.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I have actually asked the FAA and a number of agencies to examine how are we managing this new technology because the drone that landed at the White House, you can buy in Radio Shack?

ACOSTA: The builder of the DJI Phantom quadcopter says it's requiring customers to update their drone's software to prevent the aircraft from flying over Washington.

JON RESNICK, DJI: We are more than willing to collaborate with government agencies and regulators to work on technologies that will assure that quadcopters and our products don't make it into restricted areas.

ACOSTA: It's already against the law to fly drones in the district. Charges can lead to fines and up to a year in jail. But the question in prosecuting such cases rests on whether the operator knowingly or willfully violated those restrictions.

The rules were clear up on Capitol Hill last year where lawmakers had to give authorities a heads up before flying a drone at a congressional hearing. It also crashed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: As for the man under investigation, the White House drone case, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency says he does not work on unmanned aircraft at his job, but a source familiar with the case said he is likely to face disciplinary action. We should point out the man has not been charged. The investigation is continuing -- Jake.

TAPPER: Jim Acosta, thanks.

That's it for THE LEAD. I am Jake Tapper in New York. I now turn you over to Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.