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Pentagon Briefing on Beheading, Somalia Air Strikes; More Information on Steven Sotloff; Obama Criticized on ISIS; Obama Heads To Wales for NATO Meeting.

Aired September 02, 2014 - 14:31   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: So we've been listening for the last 20 minutes or so to a pretty important Pentagon briefing by Rear Admiral John Kirby. One, he said off the top and reiterated his point, he was asked about the ISIS video showing the beheading of the second American, Steven Sotloff, and General Kirby couldn't address the situation. He said they are still gathering information. We know the intelligence community is working to authenticate the video but he did say, of course, his thoughts and prayers continue to be with the Sotloff family.

Secondly, and this took over the bulk of the briefing, was the air strikes, the U.S. air strikes in Somalia just south of Mogadishu. What was key there, whether the leader of al Shabaab, he said that they had intelligence that led them to this location. They took out a vehicle. But he was specific in saying we believe we hit what we were aiming at, but would not say definitively where the U.S. got the al Shabaab leader.

Thirdly, just heard briefly mentioned what's happening with Russia and Russian, which we will get to all momentarily.

But let me, if you're just joining me, reset here. We're at the bottom of the hour. You're watching CNN breaking news as we've seen this video of this American journalist, Steven Sotloff. We saw the plea of his mother, Shirley Sotloff, pleading with the leader of this ISIS terrorist group basically asking for them to save her son's life.

We have Karl Penhaul standing by. He has seen the video. He has listened to the message and he's assessed when he believes, based upon mentions of the air strikes in Iraq, when this video was taken. We have Athena Jones standing by at the White House. We have Bob Baer, a former CIA operative and national security analyst, joining us. We also have Kurt Volker, former U.S. ambassador to NATO; and seated next to me, Christiane Amanpour.

Let me first go to you.

I don't know if you've had a chance --

(CROSSTALK)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I don't like to look at these things. BALDWIN: I don't like to look at it either, but based upon what we

heard with the James Foley video, the black-masked terrorist speaking directly to the camera, wielding that knife, speaking to Barack Obama, what do you know about it?

AMANPOUR: I've been talking to a really renowned expert on this group and he said a couple of things. ISIS had to do this. It has threatened to do this and its credibility depends on it actually carrying out what it says it will do. So, unfortunately, when James Foley, our colleague was executed a couple of weeks ago and they paraded poor old Steven Sotloff in that video as well, they basically sealed his fate. And now they have done the same to another hostage, a British hostage, which they may very well carry out as well.

He was not clear and could not determine by the video whether or not the execution of Steven Sotloff happened around the same time or at the same time as James Foley's execution even though a brand-new Obama piece of sound was attached to the top of the video and they purported to be reacting to a President Obama, we don't know that. It's a brutal, brutal organization that needs to be confronted. The United Nations and Amnesty International have come out with separate reports, documenting their catalog of brutality, their ethnic cleansing. Amnesty calling what they've done across Iraq and Syria, turning the region into blood-soaked fields.

I just also spoke to the deputy U.S. assistant for the state who said that the president's challenge now is to gather a coalition to defeat ISIS. He focused much more on Iraq. But the truth is, as we've been reporting internationally for a long, long time, ISIS has sustained its safe haven and has been replenished and aided by its position in Syria. That is where the heart of this devil beats. And that is where the fight has to be taken. And the deputy assistance secretary was not going to be drawn on whether President Obama would be moving into Syria.

BALDWIN: That was my next question.

AMANPOUR: But most people are beginning to understand, very sadly, because of the evidence of ISIS, that what they are saying they should do now, which is find a moderate opposition, arm them, train them, get a coalition, stop these people, they could have done with much less resistance two and three years ago. They're looking to arm and train the same people who many said should have been armed and trained two and three years ago.

BALDWIN: On that point, Mr. Ambassador, let me bring you in, Kurt Volker. We know the president will be leaving for Wales via Estonia and the message will be "don't leave the Baltics," to the Kremlin, based on what we've seen with Ukraine. So that's one focus. But know we have, and we've long known about the threat of ISIS, not just in Syria but in Iraq. And here you have, according to this ISIS video, the second beheading of another American. How does that shift the focus for the president and these NATO countries?

KURT VOLKER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO: I think there are a couple of things that converge here. We're seeing a lot of assaults on civilizations, whether it's an evil terrorist group or whether it's Russia dismantling a neighboring state by invading it, and these are the topics I think Prseident Obama will have to start talking about. We have tried to play a role from a distance, tried to operate the sanctions against Russia, we've tried to be limited in our goals in Iraq and Afghanistan. What we're seeing is that thse crises are escalating and we need to be pulling together coaltions to try to actually help put down some of these critical problems, whether it's direct assistance to Ukraine or putting together a coalition of European allies and allies in the region to start building a strategy of how to take down ISIS.

BALDWIN: I have to get a quick break in. I hope you're able to stay for a few more minutes, to all of you, because I think it's important, as we look at the global stage and the comments we've seen from the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, and what we've seen from President Obama, we need to talk about White House reaction, talk more about this NATO meeting.

Quick break. You're watching CNN. We'll be right back.

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BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. A second American has been beheaded. We want to stop and let you know more about this 31-year-old journalist who grew up in south Florida with his mother, father, and younger sister. He majored in journalism at the University of Central Florida. He took Arabic classes and picked up freelance writing for a number of publications, including "Foreign Policy," "Christian Science Monitor," And his travels have taken him to Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, among other countries, and eventually Syria, where he was taken last year.

With me, Christiane Amanpour, and also Athena Jones at the White House.

Christiane, a little bit more on Sotloff, just listening to his mother Shirley in that video where she's addressing the leader of ISIS, sort of talking about her son and how he was so moved for the plight of the people.

AMANPOUR: Moved by the plight of the people, studied the area, the language, the culture for a long time and took himself up there to tell the stories that he hoped would make a difference. We saw a picture of him greeted by Egypt. He's traveled around. An ordinary man. A 31-year-old with ordinary likes and dislikes and he's found himself caught up, now deceased, in the most horrendous war that has afflicted that part of the world and this is the big fear now, on to the West since 9/11, is, or as they call themselves Islamic State because they have a state, Brooke, they have a state, they call themselves Islamic State because they've carved out a state right now and nobody has figured out how to push back from the parameter of that state which some say is bigger than the U.S. state of Indiana, some four million people living under their terror control and threatening us all.

BALDWIN: Let's talk about the president because we know he's leaving for Wales for this NATO meeting. But as many people have called it the end of the Cold War and the consequences of this are incredibly high. The stakes are incredibly high. He's going to Estonia before he gets there. Thinking of the president, the last time we saw him publicly talking about this, he was criticized over the statement he made when asked about potential air strikes in Syria essentially saying, I don't want to put the cart ahead of the horse, I don't have a strategy yet, that's been compared to British Prime Minister Cameron, yes, the threat overseas and U.K. seems stronger because of the foreign fighters from the U.K.

AMANPOUR: And from the U.S. as well. I remember the chief of police of the state of New York where we are right now, the state of New York, said one of the greatest threats to New York right now is Syria because of the blow back from ISIS. I mean, this is a huge statement from the chief of police of the city that was home to the terrible attack on 9/11. So this is not something that is a far away threat for the United States of America. And whether it comes to the homeland any time soon or whether it attacks American targets, embassies, cultural institutions, other such institutions that are American and around the world, this is a very, very big threat.

Yes, the president has been criticized for those words that at that time he said after convening a national security meeting last Thursday, that they didn't yet have a strategy. General Dempsey said to Congress, is needs to be confronted and not just in Iraq but in Syria as well.

And everybody who has read the newspapers today, the columnist of "The New York Times" said today that "He's adopted a note of defeatism. Is the president consoling us or himself? It's like he's taken his interior monologue and wired it to speakers in the town square and it's rattling."

That's a columnist from "The New York Times." But his own party, Senator Dianne Feinstein, head of the Intelligence Committee, Dianne Feinstein, said this weekend, "I've learned one thing about the president, that he's very cautious, maybe in this instance, too cautious."

There terrible irony is, of course, President Obama doesn't want to create or get America into more wars. Of course not. The American people don't want that. There's no happy medium. There's been this sort of withdrawal from the world, from American leadership while the enemies, ISIS, takes advantage of this vacuum and --

(CROSSTALK)

AMANPOUR: Well, not just that, created a terrorist state for the first time ever in the Middle East.

BALDWIN: Let's go to the White House because we need to get the White House's stance.

Athena Jones, how is the White House, how is the administration responding to criticism after criticism of the way that the president has or has not handled this? ATHENA JONES, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, I asked

White House Secretary Josh Earnest about that. It's not criticism just coming from the Republicans, like Senator John McCain, Lindsey Graham, who want to see immediate action and an immediate plan, but it's also coming from Democrats, now.

As you heard Christiane Amanpour mention, Seantor Dianne Feinstein, a top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, questions whether the president is being too cautious. I asked about that and Press Secretary Earnest said that this president does like to be deliberative. He likes to take a well-thought out approach. He said, despite -- he's bound and determined -- this is what Josh Earnest said -- even in the face of criticism, to make the kind of decisions that he believes are in the best interest of national security and the American people. He made the point at this NATO summit meeting later this week they will be talking about is with other NATO members. And, of course, we all know that the president is going to be chairing a special session of the U.N. Security Council at the U.N. General Assembly later this month, talking about ISIS and foreign fighters. So the White House believes that the president should take his time to make a big decision involving any sort of military force. So they have given us no timeline, though, for when that decision will take place -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: The pressure is on and they have an established state. They call themselves the Islamic State.

Athena Jones, thank you so much.

Christiane?

AMANPOUR: Just to Athena's point, ther are a lot of democratic and meetings and things, sort of sign posts for the future.

BALDWIN: Sure.

AMANPOUR: The assistant secretary of state told me that the aim is to create a coalition to get --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: That's important. Why haven't they done that yet?

AMANPOUR: Because it takes time and they are trying to build it up. I was there when the First Gulf War happened and Saddam Hussein, they came up with a coalition, a political coalition of the entire world and they faced down Saddam Hussein, and this is a massive existential threat. ISIS is al Qaeda, squared, cubed and taken to the nth degree.

BALDWIN: So we'll talk about the coalition, how that's incredibly important. We're looking ahead, talking about this NATO meeting. We'll bring Nic Robertson up, our senior international correspondent. He's standing by in Wales where the NATO meeting will take place. Stay tuned for that.

You're watching CNN breaking news. Be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: I was just talking to Christiane Amanpour about British Prime Minister James Cameron. We now have a statement on the ISIS behading video of American journalist, Steven Sotloff. He said, quote, "I've just seen the news. It's absolutely disgusting and despicable act and I will be making a statement later." So we'll be watching for that.

Let's go to Wales where this conference will taking place. The president is heading to Wales via Estonia.

Nic Roberson, let me bring you in.

We have this latest layer, a beheading of another American, adding to the complexities globally, what's happening with the pro-Russian rebels and eastern Ukraine and Kiev, how does this change the equation when it comes to the meeting on Thursday?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's likely to change the equation. It will put it in the forefront of everyone's minds. But this meeting has been for some time. Afghanistan is the first major issue. Then dealing with the threat of Russia, perhaps changing -- going back to the core of NATO, a threat from the east, as well as looking at NATO's future.

As far as building a coalition to support -- to get NATO's support for taking on ISIS and Iraq and Syria, this may get discussed over the main banquet being held in Cardiff Castle on Thursday night, but it's not front and central of the agenda. It's really come up over the last couple of weeks. And one of the reasons that finding and building a coalition is going to be so important for President Obama and others, think of Prime Minister Cameron a year ago. He could not get parliamentary support for intervention and air strikes in Syria following the gas attacks there. Intervention in the Middle East has become toxic for all of these politicians individually. They have to build a coalition if they are going to bring everyone with them. Having this issue in the headlines will help that.

But let's just talk about one other issue here about where the Islamic State stands versus al Qaeda. The precursor to the Islamic State was called al Qaeda in Iraq. At that time, the leader beheaded the American businessman, Nicholas Burke. He was the leader of the al Qaeda in Iraq. And pretty much the beheadings stopped. What is different now? The Islamic State is not being criticized as far as we've seen by al Qaeda's leaders. Al Qaeda leaders are being marginalized. The Islamic State is moving front and central, this radical, nihilist jihadist movement, and their tactics are only getting worse. This is what we're witnessing at the moment -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: Nic, back to your point about this NATO meeting and how important it is to build this coalition, who jumps in first? Is it the usual suspects of Britain and Australia? But you need those Arab nations as well, correct?

ROBERTSON: You do. And there are stumbling blocks here, which is, if you go into Syria in terms of air strikes or whatever else to target ISIS, you are almost, by default, taking the side of Bashar al Assad. There are ways around that, but these are the issues. Certainly, it is President Obama's wish, it appears, to build that NATO support, but the Europeans are in trickier positions. Look at David Cameron. Could not get the support of the parliament for intervention in Syria a year ago. He may not even be able to get it right now.

BALDWIN: Right. And he addressed that from 2013 in that last news conference last week.

Nic Robertson, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Quick break. More breaking news, next.

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