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The Lead with Jake Tapper

New Propaganda Video From ISIS Released Today; Midwestern United States Slammed With Wicked Winter Storm; Red Carpet Revolutionaries; Violence Rages on Despite Peace Deal; Hollywood's Biggest Night Gets Political

Aired February 23, 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 HOST: CNN's Atika Shubert is live from London with the latest on the search for the teens.

Atika, have there been any new leads on their whereabouts?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, police believe they may still be in Turkey but it already has been nearly a week since they left, so it is quite possible that they slipped over the border to Syria. But what police are trying to do is trace their route, see who they were in contact with and if they were met by anybody in Turkey that would quickly lead them across the border.

So, they are looking at a number of people online that may have been is recruiters and see what kind of instructions or guidance they were given to actually get to ISIS-controlled areas within Syria.

TAPPER: All right. Atika Shubert, thank you so much. A new propaganda video released by ISIS today shows the terrorist group drilling its hateful messages into the minds of what it calls jihadists in training, little children -- some seemingly as young as five years old.

Now, CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of the video, which also shows what appear to be Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers in cages being paraded through the streets of Iraq.

Let's bring in CNN chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto.

Jim, not only is this video chilling, but it highlights what's become a growing concern for national security officials here in the United States.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: No question. That is in particular how to track this kind of group and how to prevent plots by this group, ISIS, and others overseas.

And I spoke earlier today with the head of the NSA and Cyber Command, this at a New America Foundation event. That is Admiral Michael Rogers. And he delivered a frank warning, acknowledging that the most formidable intelligence agency in the world has new blind spots in tracking terrorists such as ISIS, which in turn is impacting the U.S. capability to prevent new terror attacks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO (voice-over): ISIS advertising its brutality once again, parading captured Kurdish soldiers in cages, like the one where the captured Jordanian pilot met his death.

Despite distributing propaganda publicly on social media, today, the head of the NSA acknowledged new blind spots in tracking terrorists like ISIS as they have altered and concealed their communications in the wake of revelations by Edward Snowden.

I would say that it has had a material impact on our ability to generate insights as to what counterterrorism -- what terrorist groups around the world are doing.

SCIUTTO (on camera): Do you have new blind spots that you didn't have prior to the revelation?

ADM. MICHAEL ROGERS, NSA DIRECTOR/COMMANDER OF U.S. CYBER COMMAND: Have I lost capability that we had prior to the revelations?

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ROGERS: Yes.

SCIUTTO: How much does that concern you?

ROGERS: It concerns me a lot.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Still, ISIS has not pulled back its messaging on the Web, releasing propaganda videos like this one showing an ISIS training camp for children.

Wearing camouflage and ISIS bandanas, the terror group calls these kids their cubs. Admiral Rogers identified another clear and present danger to the U.S., cyber-attacks with the capability to inflict significant damage on the homeland.

ROGERS: I think it's only a matter of time before we see destructive offensive actions taken against critical U.S. infrastructure.

SCIUTTO (on camera): Which states today are capable of carrying out such an attack like that?

ROGERS: We have talked about our concerns with China, what they are doing in cyber. Clearly, the Russians and others have capabilities. We are mindful of that.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Still, Admiral Rogers, who heads the U.S. military's Cyber Command, admits that the U.S. capability to deter such a cyber-attack and prevent further escalation remains -- quote -- "immature, despite the growing threat."

ROGERS: But we clearly are not I think where we need to be, where I think we want collectively to be. This is still the early stages of cyber in many ways. So we are going to have to work our way through this. (END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: We heard Admiral Rogers there saying that he knew and had testified it was only a matter of time before we saw a destructive offensive cyber-attack on U.S. soil. What he said, though, he just didn't expect it to be on an American movie company.

TAPPER: And, Jim, you and I have talked about this at length. The attacks purportedly from North Korea were met by some sort of cyber- attack on North Korea, suspected to be the United States. Did Admiral Rogers own up to the U.S. doing that?

SCIUTTO: I asked him. He wouldn't answer. There was a smile on his face, but he wouldn't answer and he wouldn't talk about offensive operations like that.

But one thing he did say that was interesting, I asked him, was China more helpful on this than it had been in the past, because China, of course, is a close ally of North Korea? He said that they had very open conversations with China about the threat posed from North Korea, particularly the cyber-threat.

TAPPER: All right, Jim Sciutto, thank you so much.

We want to go back to some national headlines now, another wicked winter storm slamming a huge portion of the country. New England, you get a reprieve this time. It's the Midwest taking the brunt of this hit. The cold, snow and dangerous ice that will cause trouble for much of the week, that's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I am Jake Tapper.

Turning to other national news, more brutal winter weather whipping its way across the country today, this time slamming the South and middle of the U.S. as it moves toward the Atlantic Ocean. Check out this video out of Dallas, Texas, an SUV illustrating just how slick all the sleet and ice have made the roads there.

The wintry mix causing major travel issues, nearly 1,500 flights canceled across the country just today, according to FlightAware.com, many of them out of that Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, as Texas continues to bear the brunt of today's storm.

Martin Savidge joins me from Stephenville, Texas.

Martin, what are you seeing out there?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake, well, it's improved a little bit as the heat of the day has come about, but this morning in Texas, it was an absolute mess. A winter storm moved in. This is the second storm to strike the South in a week, obviously hitting an area not accustomed regularly to this kind of weather.

And, as you say, Dallas woke up to a mix of sleet, of snow, of freezing rain, and it shut down just about everything. Those who were brave enough to go out on the highways probably wished they had not. There were a number of reports of multiple car pileups. You already mentioned the travel problems at DFW and Love Field. Hundreds of flights in and out were canceled there.

Schools across much of this area were shut down, as were government offices. And here's the problem, Jake. It has thawed as the day has come to a warm 35, but it's quickly going to drop below freezing again, so everything that's thawed is going to freeze hard overnight and they expect tomorrow morning to be another treacherous commute -- Jake.

TAPPER: Brutal. Martin Savidge, thank you so much.

The calendar says spring is just around the corner, but those temperatures nonetheless continue to drop.

(WEATHER UPDATE)

TAPPER: From Russia with love -- this missile on display in Russia with a special message for President Obama. What does it say, and what does it mean for the fighting in Ukraine?

Plus, the passion and politics at last night's Oscars, but does celebrity advocacy on stage ever actually change anything?

The red carpet revolutionaries -- when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. In more world news, new video from Ukraine, we see heavy military weapons patrolling the streets at times set to a sound track of shelling and explosions. This is apparently what a so-called cease-fire looks like.

We are about a week into the European brokered peace deal, and yet all signs point to a violent crisis that shows no signs of slowing down between the Ukrainian military and pro-Russian separatists as well as the Russian military.

The ongoing violence did not stop thousands from gathering in Donetsk for a traditional soviet holiday celebrating the Russian army, similar celebrations of course also took place in Russia, where amid the sea of soviet flags and Russian flags and patriotic signs came this disturbing message to the United States.

It's a missile inscribed with the words quote, "to be personally delivered to Obama" and written in Russian, of course. We noticed this image when the former U.S. ambassador to Russia tweeted it out, adding wow.

Let's go live now to CNN's Diana Magnay who is in Donetsk. What's the situation now?

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jake. It was a fairly quiet day, but the last few hours there has been some shelling around the outskirts of the city. It was a lot louder and closer a few hours ago and it's strange because the last few nights, the shelling has mostly been around Donetsk airport.

But this time it was coming from different locations. It follows a pattern. There has been continued artillery shelling in several hot spots around the town of Debaltseve, where there was that huge fight last week after the ceasefire was broken.

Here in Donetsk, still and down on the southern coast. So it doesn't feel much of a cease-fire from where I'm standing. That's the reason why the Ukrainian military says it hasn't begun the process of withdrawing the heavy weaponry.

Monitors have been asking for an inventory of weapons from both sides and that they start detailing how they are going to pull that weaponry back, but with the fighting still ongoing, that process hasn't started yet.

TAPPER: We showed that picture of that missile that Russian missile inscribed with the threatening message to President Obama. The context of course is that the Russian propaganda machine is blaming this entire conflict on the United States as opposed to Putin wanting more territory, and I guess it seems to be working in Russia.

MAGNAY: The propaganda machine is a very slick thing, and it has certainly managed to push that particular message, and it comes right from the beginning, right from the start in Kiev there were rumors and murmurings coming from Russia that this was orchestrated by the U.S.

You had Sergie Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister saying to the U.N. Security Council that the United States was behind the root cause of all problems in Ukraine and the Middle East and you hear it here on the streets of Donetsk.

I spoke to somebody today who said most people here think that Ukraine is simply at war because of the U.S. and Russia. So it's a very, very strong propaganda message that has trickled down very forcefully to the people on the ground.

And it denies the Ukrainians having any kind of agency or desire to stand up as a nation on their own two feet with western intentions which is clearly what Russia doesn't want to see --Jake.

TAPPER: Thank you so much. Stay safe.

Wolf Blitzer is here with a preview of "the situation room." you are going to be going over the shopping mall threat from Al-Shabaab with the former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Peter King.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Peter King. Then later, I will speak with Jen Psaki, State Department spokeswoman. She will join us as well. What I'm anxious to try to figure out, are we going to have to have metal detectors at shopping malls across the United States. If you go to Europe, major shopping malls have metal detectors. Tel- Aviv, there are metal detectors. We used to not have them at airports or sporting events. You go to a wizards game at Verizon center or madison square garden, you have to go through metal detectors. Will that happen at shopping malls here in the United States? Like all of us, we are really concerned about what's going on.

TAPPER: A few weeks ago, I had Jeh Johnson, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, same day as an NPR report in which they said homeland security was considering not allowing any passengers to bring on any carry-on luggage.

And I asked Jeh Johnson if that was true. I expected him to just say no, that's not going to happen. He wouldn't touch it one way or the other. He wouldn't deny it at all. Obviously everything is up in the air. Wolf, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Look forward to "THE SITUATION ROOM" in 8 minutes.

Coming up next, some were wearing Valentino, others wearing politics on their sleeves. In between the back patting, the academy awards got powerful. The messages pushed coming up in our pop culture lead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. Our money lead, the Oscars is a night where Hollywood goes all out and millions of Americans tune in. This year's star-studded event did bring in far fewer viewers than had been hoped, 36.6 million, to be exact.

For reference, that's down about 10 percent from last year when Ellen hosted and the lowest number since 2009. So while the show was relatively lighter on viewers, it was heavy on gold and glitz and glamour and politics.

It isn't exactly news that Hollywood, shall we say, leans a bit to the left, but this year's speeches seemed to bring more outright activism than we have seen from that stage in more than two decades.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER (voice-over): The 2015 academy awards had everything Hollywood loves, paparazzi, pageantry and politics.

PATRICIA ARQUETTE, ACTOR: It's our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America.

ALEJANDRO GONZALEZ INARRITU, DIRECTOR: I just pray they can be treated with the same dignity and respect of the ones who came before and build this incredible immigrant nation.

JOHN LEGEND, SINGER: There are more black men under correctional control today than were under slavery in 1850.

TAPPER: With a massive audience, the stars dove head-first into pushing their progressive politics, but like so much else put out by Hollywood, this isn't new.

Marlon Brando in 1973 sent an activist up to decline his best actor award in protest for how Native Americans were portrayed in the movies.

SACHEEN LITTLEFEATHER, ACTIVIST: He will very regretfully not accept this very generous award.

TAPPER: The anti-Vietnam war film "Hearts and Minds" won for best documentary in 1975 and the producer, Burt Schneider, read a cable from the Vietcong. That statement led to an on-air apology by co- host, Frank Sinatra.

FRANK SINATRA, OSCAR CO-HOST: The academy is saying, quote, "we are not responsible for any political references on this program and we are sorry that they had to take place this evening."

TAPPER: Michael Moore's 2003 win for bowling for Columbine turned into a rant against the Bush administration.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our democracy was hijacked and there's a squatter on federal land at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

TAPPER: In 2009, Sean Penn won best actor for "Milk" and told critics of same sex marriage that they need to reflect on their great shame if they continue to hold those opinions. Liberal politics notwithstanding, some conservatives this year note that the people of the United States have voted on best picture.

Their pick is "American Sniper" which has racked up more than $400 million at the box office so far. Though it only won one award last night, for sound editing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "American Sniper."

TAPPER: Hollywood's pick was the third showbiz related film to win a best picture Oscar in four years, "Birdman," an artistic film about an over the hill actor who fears irrelevance.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: That's it for THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. Turning you over now to Mr. Wolf Blitzer, who is next door in "THE SITUATION ROOM." thanks for watching.