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Suspected Bomber Captured Alive; Police Arrest Suspect In NY & NJ Bombings; Sources: Bombing Suspect Visited Afghanistan & Pakistan; Syria's Ceasefire Appears Finished; Police Identifying Mall Attack Suspect As Dahir Adan; Stark Differences Between Clinton, Trump On Terrorism; Donald Trump, Jr. Compares Refugees To Skittles; Police Digging into Bombing Suspect's Past. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired September 20, 2016 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:08] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour, the accused New York City bomber captured alive and facing charges of attempted murder after a shootout with police. Renewed violence in Syria leaves the ceasefire in tatters. Can Moscow and Washington salvage the peace deal? And terrorism, immigration, and Skittles, a tweet from Donald Trump, Jr. goes viral, comparing refugees to toxic candy.

Hello, everybody. Thanks for being with us. I'm John Vause. Another hour of NEWSROOM L.A. starts now.

Why did he do it, and did he have help? Two big questions for investigators after the takedown of the man suspected of bombings in New York and New Jersey over the weekend. He was caught after a massive manhunt, now faces charges of attempted murder. Jim Sciutto has the details.

[01:01:15] JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Tonight after a shootout with police on the streets of New Jersey, the prime suspect in the New York and New Jersey bombings is in custody. 28-year-old Ahmad Rahami, as well as four officers were injured in the altercation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard another pop, more pops, and then it kept going, and that's when I saw the police vehicles.

SCIUTTO: Authorities tipped off to his location by a bar owner, who was watching CNN and recognized Rahami, who he found asleep in the door way of the bar.

JAMES P. O'NEILL, NEW YORK POLICE COMMISSIONER: Now that we have the suspect in custody, investigations can focus on other aspects; such as whether this individual acted alone and what his motivations may have been.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, go! Get off the street.

SCIUTTO: A weekend of terror across the two states included two bombings, and the discovery of several unexploded devices.

O'NEILL: We have every reason to believe this was an act of terror.

SCIUTTO: It started at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday in the beach town of Seaside Park, New Jersey. Thousands of people were about to run a Marine Corps Charity Race, when a pipe bomb exploded in a garbage can near the starting line. Then that night, panic on the streets of New York City, when a bomb built from a pressure cooker explodes. It detonated at approximately 8:30 p.m. on 23rd Street and 6th Avenue, injuring 29 and sending panicked crowds running for cover. Police scramble, searching the area and finding another suspicious looking pressure cooker, located just several blocks away on 27th Street. Both devices packed with ball bearings commonly used in bombs to maximize human damage. Investigators say surveillance footage shows a man they believed to be Rahami with a duffel bag at both Manhattan locations. He leaves the bag at the spot where police later find the unexploded pressure cooker. A multi-state manhunt launch for Rahami after he is identified by a fingerprint left on a cell phone in one of the explosive devices. At 9:30 pm on Sunday, Elizabeth New Jersey, a backpack containing up to five pipe bombs found in a garbage can. Outside a neighborhood pub, just 500 feet from a train trestle. One of those bombs detonated when police sent a robot to examine the devices, after two men had alerted them. One focus of the investigation now is his foreign travel. Multiple trips to Afghanistan, multiple trips to Pakistan, where he was married. None of that by itself certainly incriminating but the focus is going to be on whether he had contacts of concern during those trips with groups or individuals tied to terror. They don't know the answer to that question yet, but it will be a focus going forward. Jim Sciutto, CNN, New York.

VAUSE: Back with us now, Retired FBI Special Agent Steve Moore and Former FBI Counter-Terrorism Agent, Tim Clemente. And Steve, first to you, you know, we've heard a lot about the availability of information online to make these kind of bombs, you know, the Al-Qaeda magazine sort of spelled it out. But in this instance, officials are saying he used an explosive called HMTD, it's not typical for Jihadist to use that. The last time it was used was the London bombings back in 2005. So, what does that say to you about this guy's ability to put these explosives together using something like HMTD?

[01:04:40] STEVE MOORE, RETIRED FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Well, it leads me to believe that there was probably some hands-on training given to him in Pakistan or Afghanistan. It is too easy to make something like TATP, which in and out itself is not the safest thing in the whole world. There is smokeless powder you can make pipe bombs with. So the fact that he went to HMTD makes me wonder if he didn't get specific training in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

VAUSE: And how difficult is HMTD to basically put together without blowing yourself up?

[01:05:10] TIM CLEMENTE, FORMER FBI COUNTER-TERRORISM AGENT: That's the tough part. It's not hard to put together, as you--if you can get the precursor chemicals and mix them properly at the right temperatures, you can make the explosives. But doing it without losing all your fingers and hands or killing yourself is very difficult, and it's one of the reasons why it's not a popular explosive for Jihadist.

VAUSE: Okay. So, we have a situation where he has put together two different bombs, fairly sophisticated with cell phones and timers with a sophisticated explosive chemical agent being used in that, but then, the way he has deployed the explosives was pretty ordinary, to say the least, and very ineffective.

CLEMENTE: Ineffective. So that aspect may have been something he did solo. It may have been - he had help in the design of the devices and possibly building the devices and certainly planting the devices. But then the execution was poorly done. This is somebody that didn't have practice planting bombs. He hadn't spent time in Iraq putting roadside bombs and trying to kill U.S. troops there. This is a first go for him and although he injured 29 people, which is horrible, thankfully he wasn't effective. Because if he had reached a more concentrated population with that device in the middle of them and not contained in something that actually redirected its blast, but directed the blast outwards and the shrapnel that it included outwards, many people could have much more wound -- badly wounded.

VAUSE: So, Steve, this seems to be a - to the point that he had help plus did one of those many trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan on training. When he came back, he was solo, which is why the authorities are saying he was a lone wolf here and they're not looking for anybody else?

MOORE: Well, obviously, they're going to make sure that he had - that there is nobody out there still left. I mean, you had five guys pulled over by the Joint Terrorism Task Force on the Verrazano Bridge. So I think that they've got some leads to where there might be some assistance. I think what's really interesting here, though, is -- to an investigator, usually you're going to go with all pressure cookers or all pipe bombs, or something you're -- you don't want to keep reinventing the wheel. The fact that he had pipe bombs and the pressure cooker, to me, really makes me wonder if there was some secondary help or a second opinion involved in this.

VAUSE: At least only a period of time.

CLEMENTE: Yeah. And I think that if you look at the Boston bombers, what they did, they used the pressure cookers at the bomb placement of the race. But then they had pipe bombs later on which they were throwing at law enforcement out of the vehicle when they were trying to flee. So they used that combination, too, but with a different explosive.

VAUSE: OK. Stay with us because authorities are trying to figure out a motive behind Saturday's stabbing rampage at a mall in Minnesota. Here's a report from Sara Sidner, we'll pick up on the other side.

[01:07:44] SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Terror in the mall. Dispatchers scramble to send help.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're taking report of shots fired and then people stabbed.

OFFICER: We're sending people out in the north side of Macy's.

SIDNER: By then, 10 people had been stabbed. They all survived. The attacker did not. Shot dead by off-duty officer Jason Falconer, who is being hailed a hero. According to the mayor, a surveillance video shows a customer running with children in tow, and then the suspect comes into frame.

DAVID KLEIS, ST. CLOUD, MINNESOTA MAYOR: You see him immediately lunge forward with a knife and you see the officer fire. The suspect went down. He got back up. The officer fired again. He got back up. This was three times.

SIDNER: The man responsible, 20-year-old Dahir Adan and ISIS-linked news agency tweeted, he was one of their soldiers. The FBI is calling the attack a potential act of terrorism, while police are searching for more evidence of a link to ISIS

WILLIAM BLAIR ANDERSON, ST. CLOUD POLICE DEPARTMENT OFFICER: As we talk today, I don't have anything to make that connection.

SIDNER: The attacker worked as a part-time security officer and was wearing his uniform during the stabbing. He lived in this modest apartment complex. Somali community leader Abdul Kulane spoke with his family and said the young man had lived in the U.S. nearly his entire life.

SIDNER: Was he living with his family?

ABDUL KULANE, SOMALI COMMUNITY LEADER: He was living with his parents -- both parents. And members of the extended family was also around, a different apartment but the same building.

SIDNER: Did they give any indication that they saw a change in him or that they noticed him watching videos or anything like that that gave an indication that he was becoming extreme?

KULANE: They haven't told us anything about that. They were shocked, as everybody else was, and they're in disbelief that it could happen.

SIDNER: From speaking to the family, would you say that this young man had assimilated as an American?

KULANE: He was - he was as an American as everybody else is.

SIDNER: Something clearly changed him. He says their son left home saying he was going to the mall to buy an iPhone. About three hours later, his family was informed he was dead and many were wounded.

REV. JAMES ALBERTS, PASTOR, HIGHER GROUND CHURCH: Terror has visited St. Cloud, and it is our job as members of this community for it not to find a home.

SIDNER: All of the victims in this attack have been released from the hospital. We also know that the Somali community is very concerned about potential retaliation. One saying, that they indeed received a threat. This community has worked very to try and quell that, and now community leaders are coming together to figure out what to do next. But this entire community is saying that they are grieving for those who are injured. John?

VAUSE: Thanks to Sara for that report. And we heard in Sara's report, they've been saying something changed. So, it's in (INAUDIBLE) with radicalization between the, you know, the Somali-U.S. Community. What's your take on this?

CLEMENTE: Well, with him being of the age groups of most individuals that are radicalize, a young male, 18 to early 20s are the primary people that get radicalize. One of the things that is used by the people that radicalize by both online and in person, is they use guilt. And the guilt is there's an individual living in the western world. He may still be a Muslim by faith, he may even be practicing but he has abandoned Allah according to those that are extremist back in Mogadishu or back in Nairobi where he may have come from. And that radicalization is done because they're saying to him, "Look, you've left this world behind. What about your fellow Muslims that are still living in poverty in Somalia because of places like America? Instead, you're contributing to America, and just - I mean, small conversations like that take place on the internet, and the next thing you know, there's somebody that's second guessing their way of life and all of a sudden turning around and looking at the very population he's living with and considering them the enemy.

VAUSE: And if you're a young man and these things can often be very difficult to deal with. One thing, though, Steve, if you look at these two separate attacks that we've had, the bombings in New York and New Jersey, stabbing at a shopping mall, let's say hypothetically if the attacker had a semiautomatic weapon, what's your bigger fear here? Some guy with a gun in a shopping mall or somebody - a guy leaving bombs behind on the streets.

MOORE: Statistically, if you have one guy with an AK-47 or an AR-15, what you're going to have to do is have some accuracy, you're going to have to have some - that attacks are going to have to last a while. If - and then the casualties are going to be as bad as they are, they are going to be limited. If they get past this and they realized, "Hey, wait, I don't have to have an AK-47 to inflict dozens and dozens of casualties. I need to go to Home Depot, and get the precursors to make ANFO bombs, they can go to hair salons and get what they need for TATP. The big scary goblin the future is what happens when they realize how they can make explosives.

VAUSE: Yeah, or they can do both.

CLEMENTE: I think he'll be James Holmes, the shooter in Colorado, the Aurora Colorado Theater. When he left there, or when he was arrested, the police left there and went to his apartment and found incendiary devices.

VAUSE: Yes.

CLEMENTE: If he had brought those incendiary devices to the theater and he had managed to start a conflagration in a very packed theater, imagine the dozens of people that would have succumb to both the fire and the smoke and then the trampling trying to get away.

VAUSE: It is a terrifying and horrific thought.

CLEMENTE: It is.

VAUSE: OK. Steve and Tim, thanks for being with us.

MOORE: Thank you.

CLEMENTE: Thank you.

VAUSE: And we will take a short break. When we come back, these attacks are already having impact on the presidential campaign. After the break, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump stake out a very different position.

HILLARY CLINTON, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a fast- moving situation and a sobering reminder that we need steady leadership in a dangerous world.

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have seen how failures to screen who is entering the United States puts all of our citizens, everyone in this room, at danger.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[01:15:44] KATE RILEY, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: I'm Kate Riley with your CNN WORLDSPORT Headlines. The Fancy Bears internet hacking group has struck again. Last week, they broke into the World Anti-Doping Agency's database, and put many athletes' medical records online. Monday's list of 26 names included some high-profile athletes including three who won gold medals at the summer's Rio Olympics. However, they had been granted Therapeutic Use Exemptions, known as TUEs, which allow athletes to take banned substances for verified medical conditions. There is no suggestion of any of the sports' biggest names were or are involved in any wrongdoing. And WADA has strongly criticized the leak.

To the English Premier League where Tottenham Hotspur have announced international midfielder Dele Alli has signed a new deal to remain at the club until 2022. But his England teammate, Harry Kane, he scored the winner against Sunderland on Sunday, is reportedly set to be out for a few weeks with an ankle injury.

And brothers in arms was given a whole different meaning in the closing stages of the World Triathlon Series in Mexico. Olympic silver medalist Jonny Brownlee looked set for a second World Series title, and (INAUDIBLE) but was on the verge of collapsing with 700 meters to go of the run, but his brother Alistair was just behind and put his arms around Jonny and all but carried him the final few meters before pushing him across the line to take second place. And that's a look at all your sports headlines, I'm Kate Riley. (END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[01:17:28] VAUSE: The weekend attacks in the U.S. at the top of the presidential candidates talking points, and Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump could not be more different in their approach in dealing with terrorism. Jeff Zeleny has more down on their pointed criticism of each other.

[01:17:44] JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Tonight, the bombings in New York and New Jersey impacting the presidential race.

CLINTON: This is a fast-moving situation, and a sobering reminder that we need steady leadership in a dangerous world.

TRUMP: Hillary Clinton talks tougher about my supporters than she does about Islamic terrorists, right?

ZELENY: One week before their first debate, a new test for Trump and Clinton already on a collision course over who's better equipped to be commander -in-chief, and who has better judgment? Trump quickly seizing on the Afghanistan-born suspect to make an immigration argument.

TRUMP: Let me state very, very clearly, immigration security is national security.

ZELENY: He also said police should be allowed to racially profile suspects.

TRUMP: They're afraid to do anything about it, because they don't want to be accused of profiling. In Israel, they profile.

ZELENY: Clinton accusing her rival of fueling hate, blasting his call to ban Muslims from the U.S.

CLINTON: We know that a of the rhetoric we've heard from Donald Trump has been seized on by terrorist, in particular, ISIS, because they are looking to make this into a war against Islam.

ZELENY: With the election in 50 days, voters sending mixed signals on the qualities of Trump and Clinton. As to who's the strong and decisive leader, Trump leads by eight points. As for who has the temperament to serve as president, Clinton holds a wide 20-point advantage. Both candidates reacting in real time to fast-moving developments in the bombing investigation on the streets of New York and New Jersey and a multiple stabbing at a Minnesota mall. All being investigated as acts of terror, Trump taking to Twitter. "Under the leadership of Obama-Clinton, Americans have experienced more attacks at home than victories abroad. Time to change the playbook." At a rally today in Florida, Trump echoed the call.

TRUMP: That's all we need is four more years of Obama, except worse.

ZELENY: And Clinton delivering a pointed response to Trump for linking her and the President to attacks on the home front.

CLINTON: It's not grounded in facts, it's, you know, meant to make some kind of demagogic point. And the facts are pretty clear.

ZELENY: It's an open question of how much the attacks will affect the presidential race, or if they will affect it at all. Hillary Clinton is making the argument that her strength and experience is needed in this moment of crisis. But Donald Trump, he said it's precisely not. He said now is the time for change and strong change, at that. Jeff Zeleny, CNN, New York.

VAUSE: Joining us right now, a Democratic strategist, Dave Jacobson, and Republican consultant, John Thomas. OK. So, we've heard from both the candidates here, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, obviously, they have very different approaches on how they would deal with ISIS and national security. And Dave, you know, Clinton trying to put forward this cooler nuanced approach to policymaking, but, you know, is that the kind of thing that wins votes? At the end of the day, you know, a lot of people like the very blunt, simple statements coming from Donald Trump.

[01:20:52] DAVE JACOBSON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: If you want fresh evidence of where Americans are at, look at The Washington Post poll that came out on September 14th before this latest terrorist attack. 50 percent of Americans support Hillary Clinton when it comes to handling terrorism, to 41 percent with Donald Trump. And I think one of the challenges that Donald Trump has as a candidate in this campaign is he comes off as unhinged and erratic and all over the map on a lot of national security issues, when it comes to dealing with NATO or, you know, hugging Vladimir Putin. And I think that's a big struggle for him in this campaign. Hillary Clinton comes off looking stable, and people want security at this time, particularly with the terrorist attacks, and that's why she polls better than Donald Trump with these kinds of issues.

[01:21:31] JOHN THOMAS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: Yeah, they want security. And so, the question is, Hillary Clinton has mirrored Barack Obama's foreign policy to the tee, and look what that's getting us, what, four terror attacks in a day? I mean, if you're happy with the direction things are going, Hillary Clinton is your choice. I think that's the argument Donald Trump is making. So, we need to do something differently than the last eight years.

VAUSE: But the question is what is the different? What is Trump putting forward that will be different that, I guess, the argument will be that, is he going to make the situation worse?

JACOBSON: Well, that's the question, John. Like we've got a debate about a week from today.

VAUSE: Yes.

JACOBSON: And like Donald Trump is going to be under the spotlight, and he's not going to be able to have these sort of like one-liner answers. He's not going to have 16 other GOP candidates next to him on stage, like, he's got to put forward like a real meat on the bone. Like real substantial -

THOMAS: Really has. I mean, he's put forth a defense budget plan, instead of cutting the defense budget, he's recommending strengthening, he says instead of just doing drone strikes to kill terrorists, we can go in there and actually kill all the terrorists. Just - I think his tone and temperament is much more aggressive on taking the fight to the terrorists than Hillary Clinton.

VAUSE: I mean, a lot of what he said about, you know, vetting, extreme vetting even though Hillary Clinton sort of said we need better vetting as well. That wouldn't have done anything to prevent these attacks over the last 48 hours.

THOMAS: Well, it might - well, it might have.

VAUSE: Well, because these poor people who essentially came here as kids and were raised here?

THOMAS: That's true. But what about the guy from New Jersey who went to Afghanistan to get radicalized? Why was he not on our radar at the point of coming back?

VAUSE: I think between - but Trump is talking about vetting people who arriving here and moving here, immigrating here -

THOMAS: Right.

VAUSE: -- to give that admission in the first place, not every time they come back in.

THOMAS: Right. And you can't stop all terrorist attacks.

VAUSE: Sure.

THOMAS: But certainly we need to take a look at people who are coming here. We can't let any more come. I think that's the concern.

VAUSE: OK. Trump was very critical about the hospital care that the suspect in these bombings is actually receiving. He was at a campaign rally in Florida, got a lot of boos, I guess. You know, supporting boos for what he was saying. Listen to this.

TRUMP: Now, we will give him amazing hospitalization. He will be taken care of by some of the best doctors in the world. He will be given a fully modern and updated hospital room. And he'll probably even have room service, knowing the way our country is. And on top of all of that, he will be represented by an outstanding lawyer.

VAUSE: Not exactly John Adams is it? I mean, in the end of the day, I mean -- you know, the bit about the - about the lawyer, they'll get the best lawyer. I mean, the guy - you know, the guy is innocent until proven guilty. He's entitled to due process. He's an American citizen. THOMAS: He is, but I think Donald Trump's point is, look, we treat even people who harm us incredibly well, we should really be focusing on taking care of terror threat both here and abroad, not coddling them. I think that's - I don't think he's suggesting at all that he shouldn't be given a lawyer and he shouldn't have his wounds attended to. I think he's just saying, look, we should be focusing on getting the terrorists, not nurturing them back to health.

JACOBSON: But he is criticizing the system.

VAUSE: Yeah.

JACOBSON: He's got, like, a long, like, record of doing this, right? Whether it was just, you know, criticizing Judge Curiel, who's overseeing the Trump University case for, you know, his heritage as a - as a Latino, as having family from Mexico, even though he was born in America, saying that the guy is biased and shouldn't oversee his case. Like, guy does criticize the justice department or the - or the criminal justice system as a whole in America. And I think that's a big, like, issue, like, if you have this guy as, like, the next President of the United States, questioning, you know, the - you know, the innocence of someone before they're proven guilty, I think that's a big issue.

VAUSE: There is a criticism of respect for institutions and conventions and traditions -

JACOBSON: Right.

VAUSE: -- that are already in place. OK. Donald Trump, Jr. has sparked outrage of the twitterverse, much, you know, like father, like son. He said -

JACOBSON: What's new?

VAUSE: Exactly. He sent this tweet out, "If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you that just three would kill you, would you take a handful?" That's our Syrian refugee problem. OK. There is a lot of criticism. There was this tweet put out by John Favreau who's Obama's former speech writer, "Hey, Donald Trump, Jr., this is one of the millions of children you compared to a poisoned skittle." That's a photo of Omran, a 5-year-old Syrian boy who was pulled from the rubble after an airstrike in the city of Aleppo that obviously sparked a lot of attention around the world. I mean, this is beginning to be a problem for Donald Trump, Jr. This is a guy who was lauded after the convention as being a possible near-future politician. He's having a bad couple of weeks.

THOMAS: Yeah. He had gas chamber references the week before.

VAUSE: Yeah.

THOMAS: There's no doubt that the Trump campaign has to get a hold of their surrogates. You know, sometimes in campaigns, the hardest surrogates to rein in are the family members, because they don't listen to guys like their family. JACOBSON: Donald. Yeah.

VAUSE: But this - does this go to a bigger point about the campaign, though, John - I mean, Dave, rather - as what is the narrative which seems to continually come from Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Jr. and others?

JACOBSON: When I think, it's also - it underscore the fact that, like, this is why you need a big campaign staff. Like, Donald Trump, Jr. should have been staffed and he should have communication staff, like advising him on, like, what his message should be. It should be jobs and the economy. It should be talking about terrorism. It shouldn't be about skittles. I mean, these are, like, real people. They're not candy, you know, bites, right? And that's the issue. And I think you're getting off-message. We're talking about skills, we're talking about something besides what Donald Trump needs to be disciplined and focused on, and it's his son who's doing it. I mean, this is candidate who's (INAUDIBLE) himself throughout this campaign, and I think he is now - the son is now a reflective of Donald Trump, and we've seen throughout this campaign, and that's a big issue for him.

VAUSE: We agree it was incredibly insensitive?

THOMAS: Yes.

VAUSE: OK. OK. And with that, we'll leave it at this, guys. I appreciate it.

JACOBSON: Thanks.

THOMAS: Thanks for having us. I appreciate it.

VAUSE: And we'll take a short break. When we come back, next here on NEWSROOM L.A. Airstrikes hit a U.N. aid convoy trying to help people in Syria, and now, the ceasefire there looks to be all but over.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:30:46] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause, with the headlines this hour.

(HEADLINES)

A warehouse in Syria was left in flames after an attack by helicopters and jets. The man in the video says the Syrian government and Russian forces carried out the strike, but that has not been confirmed. The U.N. says war planes also hit an aid convoy, killing at least 12 people.

And monitors in the U.K. say that heavy air strikes have killed at least 20 other people in the Aleppo area in Syria on Monday.

Senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen, has more now from Damascus.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The ceasefire in Syria brokered between the United States and Russia appears to be all but over and all but failed. The Syrian government, for its part, announced that around 7:00 p.m. on Monday they believe the ceasefire had expired and it wasn't long after that announcement took place that air strikes started raining down on the eastern district of Aleppo.

According to activists on the ground, they said air strikes took place and the numbers that we're getting is more than 30 people were killed in the air strikes in the eastern district of Aleppo and many others were wounded as well.

One of the things that made it difficult for search-and-rescue crews to get to folks was the fact there is no electricity in the eastern part of Aleppo. All this happening in the dark, making it even harder for the search-and-rescue crews to get to those people and try and save lives.

By and large, there were clashes in Aleppo between rebel and government forces. And one of the other things that the United Nations says happened is one of its convoys, an interagency convoy of the United Nations and also the Syrian Arab Red Crescent was targeted by what the U.N. believes was air strikes in the Western countryside of Aleppo. That's an area that is controlled by opposition forces. In those air strikes on that rebel convoy, the U.N. says that some 12 people were killed in that. And that the convoy was carrying aid set to help 78,000 people apparently, most of those killed and wounded were truck drivers of the convoy as well as workers for the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. Most of the trucks belonged to that organization.

The U.S., for its part, says it's not willing to say just yet that the ceasefire has ended, and it makes clear that the ceasefire is one between the U.S. and Russia and therefore, the U.S. Secretary of state is saying he's waiting for clarification from the Russian side as to where they stand at this point in time.

But again the Syrian government for its part is saying, according to their calculations, the ceasefire ended at 7:00 p.m. Monday, Syrian time. They said they believe it was the rebels who had shown no commitment to the ceasefire. The opposition has a very different take on that. But regardless what both sides are saying, absolutely clear there is a major uptick in violence here in Syria.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Damascus.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Earlier I spoke to Stanford University Professor James Fearon about the situation in Syria.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: The Syrian regime says the ceasefire is over. Now, after the strike on the aide workers, there's a statement from the State Department saying the U.S. is outraged. I'll read it. "The destination of this convoy was known to the Syrian regime and the Russian Federation and, yet, these aide workers were killed in their attempt to provide relief to the Syrian people. The United States will raise this issue directly with Russia given the egregious violation of the cessation of hostilities. We will reassess the future prospects of cooperation with Russia."

The Russia and the United State will hold talks on Tuesday. Can they sell the ceasefire at this point?

[01:35:30] JAMES FEARON, STANFORD UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR: I would be very surprised. You know, this is an extremely brutal attack and in such a kind of blatant way. It's hard to see this as something that's, you know, it seems like it's a good indication of the difficulties and this really is unlikely to go anywhere. Even before this, there was a lot of lower-level violence and, so far, this looks like it's -- has about the same prospects as previous attempts. I wouldn't be optimistic.

@: You mentioned other incidents. There was that air strike which killed 60 Syrian soldiers over the weekend, carried out by the U.S. and coalition partners. Would you say the ceasefire was over after that air strike?

FEARON: We need to know more about what happened there. I've seen reports that they were not actually Syrian soldiers but possibly prisoners of war. We will probably never know exactly what the story is there. But I wouldn't be completely surprised if it was not what it initially appears to be. And you know, may have been something of a set up by the Russians and the Syrians. But who knows?

I guess, you know, the real issue is whether -- even if you could get, you know, a week of less violence, the prospects for this to work in the longer run in terms of coordinating U.S. and Russian actions and the idea of, like, a Joint Implementation Committee that would somehow help them figure out which are the rebels it's OK to hit and which are the ones, it's not seemed like a real stretch, even there. So you know, we can hope and pray that they'll get enough, you know, that we can get back to something like the slight respite that parts of Aleppo had for a few days to get to some kind of U.S. attempt at coordinating more strikes on the group called al Nusra and is. But even that looks like it is going to be extremely difficult.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Professor James Fearon speaking to me a short time ago.

We'll take a short break. When we come back, we're learning more about the man suspected of planting bombs in New York and New Jersey. And now authorities want to know how Ahmad Rahami may have been radicalized.

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[01:41:16] VAUSE: Welcome back. Authorities are trying to figure out how and when the suspect in the New York and New Jersey bombings may have been radicalized. They say Ahmad Khan Rahami made several trips to Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past few years.

Senior investigative correspondent, Drew Griffin, has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ahmad Khan Rahami and his brother, Mohammad, traveled to Pakistan in 2013. In this Facebook post, the brother talks about experiencing bombings in Quetta, an area with a strong Taliban presence. "Another bomb just went off. That's seven bomb blasts in less than 24 hours. WTF," he writes, "We can't get out of the house."

Another photo shows the suspected bomber relaxing in traditional clothing. He had a wife in Pakistan, according to law enforcement source. It is this trip and others to Afghanistan the investigators are looking into it.

JAMES O'NEILL, COMMISSIONER, NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT: As we go forward into this investigation, that's part of what we do. We talk to family and friends and see what the connections are.

GRIFFIN: An acquaintance remembers the family talking about the trip.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was like, he's on vacation in Afghanistan. I was like, all right.

GRIFFIN (on camera): You got the impression it was an extended vacation?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. Because of this and it makes sense.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): A bar owner spotted Ahmad Rahami this morning around 9:00 a.m. sleeping in the doorway of his tavern. He recognized him from watching CNN and called police.

Two officers were wounded in the shootout, as was Rahami, but he was awake and alert.

Rahami is a U.S. citizen. His family came to the U.S. seeking asylum. They own a fried chicken restaurant in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and they live above it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was a very friendly guy. You'd never suspect this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Terrified. He was hiding in plain sight.

GRIFFIN: Rahami's family claimed to be victims of harassment in this lawsuit against the city of Elizabeth and its police department. The suit says a neighbor told them, "Muslims don't belong here," and that they were threatened and harassed by police officers.

The mayor of Elizabeth said the suit was a long-standing suit between the family and the city. CHRIS BOLLWAGE, MAYOR OF ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY: There was a lot of

congregation and people hanging out. The city council got complaints from the neighborhood and they voted to close it at 10:00, which led to clashes with the police department because police were enforcing a city council ordinance.

GRIFFIN: Rahami attended Middlesex County College in Edison, New Jersey, from 2010 to 2012, majoring in criminal justice. He did not graduate.

Friends from high school describe him as a class clown, really funny, popular.

(on camera): While the forensic investigation continues, investigators are now trying to connect connections. Pakistan, Afghanistan, any radicalization that may have taken place that could explain just why this attack took place.

Drew Griffin, CNN, Linden New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Brian Levin is the director of the Center of Hate and Extremism, and former CIA agent, Brian Dean Wright, join us from Dallas, Texas.

Thank you both for being with us again this hour.

Brian Dean Wright, first to you. How will they find out how and when Rahami was radicalized? What are the clues?

BRIAN DEAN WRIGHT, FORMER CIA AGENT: They will evaluate when he traveled and with whom he met. They will be working with police and intelligence officials and engage his family, friends and start to look for behavioral changes. Certainly we're seeing and hearing some of those from his ex-wife when he came back to the United States he was dressing and behaving differently saying he hated America and hated gay people. Those interviews will tell us.

[01:45:17] VAUSE: Brian Levin, to you. How does the process work for someone like Rahami? He was the class clown and outgoing and he spends time away and comes back and is suddenly changed. Hypothetically speaking what buttons do they push?

BRIAN LEVIN, DIRECTOR, CENTER OF HATE AND EXTREMISM: Great question. We see them between 18 and 32, foreign travel. Are there peers that are a bit more radical? As people cleave away from family and get involved with a social peer group that might be radical also Internet, one of the things an agent told me is an on all these attacks, they always find a copy of "Inspire" magazine.

VAUSE: Which is the al Qaeda magazine?

LEVIN: Yes, yes.

VAUSE: The ISIS one is not as popular? LEVIN: Interestingly enough with Afghanistan and Pakistan, ISIS does

not have a real foothold. That being said, you know, there is so much cross pollination with regard to the literature. As we saw in the San Bernardino attacks, AQAP, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which was vigorous in marketing "Inspire" magazine, started them, but they ended their path with is.

VAUSE: Brian Dean Wright, to you, we don't know about links between Rahami and ISIS. But at this point, is that what ISIS is effectively waiting for is to come up with a direct link before they claim him as one of their own? They were very quick to claim the guy who carried out the attack at the shopping mall in Minnesota?

DEAN WRIGHT: I think this individual may have been likely not to al Qaeda or ISIS but a lone-wolf attack. Now his bomb-making skills were notable. That would who suggest he had some degree of assistance. Now it's possible he could have got that on the Internet but it's equally possible, if not more so, it was while he was in Pakistan or Afghanistan. It would line up with his behavioral changes and what he was saying about America, et cetera, and how he was dressing and so forth.

VAUSE: Brian, staying with you, there was a note on one of the unexploded bombs with references to the Boston bombers, that kind of thing. Why leave a note on something which you expect to be exploded?

DEAN WRIGHT: Well, trying to get into the mind of a terrorist or a mad person can be difficult. So I would assume and note that police, FBI, and others will get in front of this terrorist and they will ask him that very question. I think, though, crazy people tend to leave manifestos for various reasons with the hope that someone will piece things back together. That could be a part of his calculus.

VAUSE: Brian Levin, to you, and we have Rahami studying criminal justice that leads to a job in law enforcement or security. And the Minnesota attacker was a security guard. The Orlando shooter was at a police academy for a time and became a security guard. Is all of this -- is this more than a coincidence?

LEVIN: You can throw in Syed Farook. What's more important is not that they went to college or involved in security work but in that age cohort and got caught up with peers and as well the literature. Anwar al Awlaki was killed in 2013 but his literature lives on. Perhaps they had some contact where they got an additional degree of efficacy beyond the Internet but the execution was not good at all.

VAUSE: Brian, in Dallas, I want to pick up on that point as well. As far as the profile and profiling of these, you know, these suspects, we have heard it's a political issue now, Donald Trump raising the issue of profiling, some saying racial profiling. But you know, is there a case to be made here for profiling of men, young men, who fit this description?

[01:50:09] DEAN WRIGHT: I think we have to be extraordinarily careful when we are talking about profiling individuals. I agree with your other guest that you have to look more at behavior. That being said, you know, I'll tell you when I was at the agency one of the things that we looked at was a certain type of individual who would travel to Pakistan and Afghanistan who fit this 18 to 34-year-old category but we didn't base it off of because they were Muslim but because they fit a number of different sort of categories, if you will. So I think we need to be very, very careful about what we call it and how we go about doing it. It is a very slippery slope.

VAUSE: It is the difference between racial profiling and criminal profiling and a lot of people are sensitive to that.

Brian Dean Wright, in Dallas, and Brian Levin, here in Los Angeles, thank you for coming in.

LEVIN: Thank you so much.

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: Thank you, sir.

DEAN WRIGHT: Thank you.

With that, we'll take a break. When we come back, Jimmy Fallon has responded to his critics who say he was too soft on the Donald.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

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[01:55:12] VAUSE: Comedian Jimmy Fallon scored another big interview, this time, with Hillary Clinton. Fallon welcomed her with a surgical mask and hand sanitizer. A joke about her recent bout with pneumonia. Over the weekend, he defended himself against critic who said he was too easy on Donald Trump in his interview last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Is there people giving you a hard time being too soft on Donald Trump? What do you think about it?

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, JIMMY FALLON LIVE: I never -- have you seen my show? I'm never too hard on anyone, yeah.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: That's the truth.

You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause. And I'll be back with another hour of news right after this.

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