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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Obama: Extremism A Fight For Hearts And Minds

Aired February 18, 2015 - 16:53   ET

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

(PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA'S SPEECH)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: President Obama concluding his remarks, his keynote address at the White House Summit on violent extremism. He hit home a number of points, only talking about the military component in the fight against Islamic extremists at the very end, talking mainly about the ideological fight.

Let's bring in CNN senior political commentator, Jay Carney, served as press secretary under President Obama, along with CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank.

Jay, I want to start with the fact that the president talked about the need to address the economic and political grievances that terrorists exploit. And that has to do with human rights abroad as well as poverty. This is a real disagreement that we saw when the British Prime Minister David Cameron was here.

President Obama made a nod to it about the fact that some terrorists do come from wealthy backgrounds. But I just think it's interesting that he's talking about the economic grievances and political grievances when so much of the nation is really paying attention to just these horrific thugs, these terrorists in Iraq and Syria.

JAY CARNEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think what he was getting at in the speech overall on that issue and speaking to the sense of isolation that can develop among Muslim communities, either here or elsewhere in the west, is that we have to go after the root causes.

The things that are exploitable by the effective propaganda we see from ISIS and other extremist groups. There's a reason why young men in particular, but some young women in the Muslim world are attracted to the ideology that's presented before them and an element of this, though there are wealthy individuals and the president talked about this who join this ideology.

An element of it is a sense of despair, a sense of a future that isn't welcoming to them, that doesn't give them opportunity. I think we in the United States do a much better job when it comes to not isolating communities like that.

We have forever been a melting pot, but it's a reminder that we need to keep at that work both here and abroad in the Middle East and in Europe. TAPPER: Paul Cruickshank, one of the things that some of the analysts of ISIS have mentioned in the last few days is why people join ISIS, the idea that there is for want of a better term, a romantic appeal to some people, and the president did touch on that a bit when he seemed to be reprimanding in some ways the older imams perhaps in the room, telling them your stuff is often boring, challenging official Islam to provide a more compelling version for these young Muslims out there.

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Jake, yes, I mean, the fundamental driver of so much of this recruitment and radicalization from the ISIS side is a twisted and distorted interpretation of Islam. So I think the president said the right things on that that you need to empower the Muslim community to fight against this, only through that will you be able to defeat it.

Obviously the Muslim community needs to do that on all sorts of different levels including on social media. I think what was perhaps missing from this speech was a greater sense of urgency of tackling this terrorist safe haven in Syria and Iraq.

Because after all, it's from Syria and Iraq that ISIS are putting out all this propaganda, putting out calls for followers in the west to launch attacks and also increasingly training westerners and directing them to return home and to launch attacks.

TAPPER: All right, we have some breaking news now.

You were just talking about the moment of urgency. Just moments ago, West Midlands Police, the counterterror unit in the U.K. apprehended a woman at London's Heathrow Airport. Police say she was arrested on Syria-related terror charges shortly after 9:00 p.m. U.K. time. She was traveling with her 1-year-old son.

Let's continue to discuss this and also the wider terrorism issue with CNN national security analyst, Fran Townsend and former Homeland Security advisor -- she is former Homeland Security advisor to President George W. Bush.

Also with us is Quintan Wiktorowicz, who served as President Obama's senior advisor for countering violent extremism from 2011 to 2013. You just came from the summit. The president talking about the fact that he doesn't use the term Islamic extremism because he does not want to give the terrorists the credit, doesn't want to give them credibility. Is that a compelling argument, do you think?

QUINTAN WIKTOROWICZ, FORMER OBAMA ADVISOR ON COUNTERING EXTREMISM: I think it's a complicated issue, but to a very large extent, they are trying to appeal to religiously legitimate terminology with jihad martyrdom and references to Islam. To the extent we play into that by leveraging that kind of terminology, calling something radical Islam, for example, we are giving them a propaganda coup.

TAPPER: Fran, let's talk about what Paul was touching on, the idea that maybe the president's speech didn't convey the kind of urgency that perhaps many Americans feel when they see these horrific images of Americans being beheaded by this terrorist group. What are your thoughts?

FRAN TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: You know, Jake, what Paul talked about, the safe haven in Iraq and Syria, what we didn't hear from the president was how we are going to attack the safe haven that has become the internet. The president talked about their effective propaganda, these horrific images of beheadings, videos, the burning of the Jordanian pilot.

He made a passing reference to propaganda on Twitter, but not how the government and the private sector or, you know, nonprofits in the private sector are going to work together to deny them that safe haven.

You know, on the calling it what it is, this Islamic extremism debate, I would just note the UAE ambassador here in Washington today in an op-ed on "Politico" condemned Islamic extremism.

I understand what the president was trying to say, but I think it's important that we understand what it is we are trying to battle and call it as it is while raising up the moderate, the majority of moderate Muslim voices to push back on it.

TAPPER: Jay, one of the other issues going on and the president didn't really talk about the military component, the campaign being waged in Iraq and Syria, is the fact that it is limited, what the U.S. can achieve without boots on the ground.

I'm certainly not calling for boots the ground, but it has limited what can be done which is why you have ISIS threatening Kurdish fighters in Erbil even today, six months after the campaign began.

CARNEY: Well, there is no question that the decision not to launch a full scale invasion or introduce combat troops into that conflict means that the duration of the conflict's going to be longer. It also I think means that we won't be engaged in another war that I don't think the United States has as a policy interest to pursue.

But you know, Jake, the fact is the president today and in speeches we have seen lately is preparing the country for the fact that this is a long-time proposition, a war that will last beyond his presidency.

TAPPER: Indeed. Jay Carney, Paul Cruickshank, Fran Townsend, Quintan Wiktorowicz, thank you so much for your analysis. I'm Jake Tapper. I turn you over now to Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.