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New Day

U.S. Air Strikes May Continue Against ISIS; Interview with Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen; Ceasefire Holding between Israel and Hamas; New Possible Evidence in Michael Brown's Shooting Investigation; American Journalist Peter Theo Curtis Released from Terrorists' Captivity

Aired August 27, 2014 - 07:00   ET

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

DAN SIMON, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. counterterrorism investigators had been looking into McCain's activities for some time. He was on a terror watch list of Americans believed to have joined militant groups and would be stopped and questioned if he traveled. McCain had some past run-ins with the law. Between 2000 and 2008 he was arrested at least six times, all for minor offenses.

Isaac Chase, who grew up with McCain, says he was a nice, quiet kid who loved playing basketball. He says McCain was impressed that Chase was serving with the Air Force in Iraq and making something of his life and wanted to do the same.

ISAAC CHASE, FRIEND OF DOUGLAS MCCAIN: It don't make no sense. The Doug I know is a good person, and I wouldn't even think that he would ever do anything like that.

SIMON: Several months ago McCain told family members he was traveling to Turkey. What they did not know is that from there he made his way into Syria to ISIS strongholds to fight and die for their cause.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON: And you can bet that American intelligence officials are looking into every aspect of McCain's life that will hopefully identify or lead them to other Americans serving in is or sympathetic to its cause Alisyn?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, that would be very helpful. Dan Simon, thank you. It must be so confounding to his friends and family who thought that they knew him.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Of course, the issue is how was he recruited, and who recruited whom?

President Obama weighing his options on how to counter the growing ISIS threat in Syria. Drones already flying near the Syrian border to gather intelligence, and CNN has learned the United States is trying to keep up with terrorists using satellite images and real-time imagery in a possible lead up to air strikes. Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has more now on how the U.S. is waging this battle already in some ways against ISIS. Good morning, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Indeed. Good morning, John. No decision by the White House yet for air strikes, we are told, but there is an awful lot of preparation going on. We know that from officials that the U.S. is looking at targets deep in eastern Syria along the Iraqi border. What they are looking for are ISIS positions, troops, training camps, weapons, convoys and anything that they could decide to hit that would stop ISIS in its tracks, stop it from being an army essentially on the move, much more than a terrorist organization right now.

If they go after targets in eastern Syria, one of the advantages may be Syrian air defenses along that border are less robust than they are in central Syria. They can get in and out very quickly. What might they use? Officials tell us maybe the aircraft of choice could be the B-1 bomber. It flies very high and drops multiple loads of precision weapons in one pass. So, again, you get in, get out very quickly. You hit the maximum number of targets while you're over enemy territory.

But, still, no decision by the White House. If it proceeds, we're told the goal, again, is to stop ISIS' momentum. Nobody at the Pentagon thinks air strikes are going to defeat ISIS, but they do want to at least start by slowing them down. John?

BERMAN: Very interesting details there. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thanks so much. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: So what can the U.S. do to stop ISIS? Let's bring in Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida. Good morning, Congresswoman.

REP. ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, (R) FLORIDA: Good morning, thanks so much.

CAMEROTA: Thanks for being here.

So we understand President Obama is weighing his options as to how to tackle ISIS. What do you want to see the U.S. do?

ROS-LEHTINEN: Well, I think that we lost a real opportunity several years ago when the people in Syria were rising up, demanding freedom. The president then just a little while ago said we're going to do air strikes and laid out the course of action. And then many of us in Congress said yes, we're with you. He said I'm going to come to coming, seek authorization, and then he pulled the rug from under us and said, no, we don't have support so I'm not going to get authorization.

Now this situation has spiraled out of control. We have ISIL taking over large chunks of Syria and into Iraq, and if we're successful with helping the Kurds, arming them so that they can get rid of ISIL, little good will that do if they just find sanctuary in Syria. So this has morphed into a real cancer all over that area, so we've got to continue with our -- with our air strikes in Iraq, help the Kurds, but also I think that he must come to Congress, get authorization to go into air strikes in Syria as well. You can't just do like whack a mole, whack them here. They will come out somewhere else.

CAMEROTA: Aren't air strikes whack a mole? Aren't air strikes in Syria, many of our military analysts say that actually won't do the trick. You have to have people on the ground.

ROS-LEHTINEN: No, for sure, air strikes, limited air strikes, which is all that the president seems to be aiming for in Syria, is not going to defeat ISIL. But what we don't want to do is to have the Kurds do the fighting in Iraq, defeat ISIL or bring them back or get them out of there, and then have them pop up in Syria and yet we do nothing there.

Now we've got to get our coalition forces. We already see that they were helping us, not the biggest air force and not the biggest army folks, but we have countries that are willing to help us. We're not in this alone.

And I know that that sounds, oh, my gosh, it sounds like Iraq all over again. But let's look at what we're dealing with. This is a group that's barbaric, that's not going to stop at just getting a dam here and maybe lose it tomorrow.

CAMEROTA: Of course.

ROS-LEHTINEN: They are going to keep on going. It's a threat to our interests.

CAMEROTA: So to be clear, are you saying --

ROS-LEHTINEN: So the president needs to lay out what his analysis is.

CAMEROTA: And to be clear, what would you like to see is more air strikes in Syria, which I believe the president is considering, but you are not willing to go so far as to say that there should be forces on the ground?

ROS-LEHTINEN: No, and I think that the president has said that time and time again, that there won't be boots on the ground in Iraq, and when we were considering air strikes in Syria a while ago he also said no boots on the ground. We have superior technology that we can share with our allies and we have fighters who can do the job of at least containing this threat and not having it continue spread over to Jordan, to spread over to Lebanon. I think we missed a great opportunity, but we can't look back. We can only look back to the future.

CAMEROTA: I'm sorry to interrupt, we just had on the former U.S. ambassador to Syria on, and he said that that notion that had we armed the Syrian rebels that this wouldn't be happening, he says that's a fallacy. And the reason he said that is because we spent eight or nine years arming and training the Iraqi army and they fell apart at first confrontation with ISIS. So he said what makes us think that some ragtag band of rebels, had we armed them, that they wouldn't have fallen apart at the first sight of ISIS. What's your response?

ROS-LEHTINEN: Well, I think arming rebels in Syria, which is different than arming the Kurds in Iraq, that -- that train left the station years ago when folks like John McCain, they were saying arm the rebels, Congressman Eliot Engel was saying that. Now it's too difficult to arm those groups because it's too hard to know who the good guys are, and in fact these strikes and arming them may work in favor of Assad. This has been turned around in such a malicious way.

So what I favor is continuing the air strikes in Iraq, continuing to arm the Kurds, do what we can to get allies involved in doing what we said we were going to do, do those air strikes in Syria, have the president come to Congress and get authorization, and see if we can contain this threat and then demolish this group. But we've got to try, but he needs to lay out what his scenario is. What is his strategy for this threat, and he has not laid that out. We don't know if it's to contain them in Iraq? Is it to defeat it? Is it to remove Assad from power? I don't know what his vision is, and he needs to lay that out to the American people.

CAMEROTA: Here's what the foreign minister of Syria has said about potential air strikes in Syria. He released this statement on Monday. "Any breach of Syrian sovereignty by any side constitutes an act of aggression." So are you saying, congresswoman, that if we could not get their approval, if we could not collaborate somehow with the Syrians, that we should do air strikes in their country anyway?

ROS-LEHTINEN: Well, I don't think that we should collaborate. I don't think that we should consult. I don't think that we should seek the permission of Assad. I don't think that he's going to do those belligerent acts, as he says that he's going to do. You know, ISIS is a problem for Assad himself. And so this is a very muddled tricky situation that we let get out of control by ignoring the threat. We wanted to say, hey, everything is fine, this has been a success, just like we did in Libya and then we had so many problems there. They are still ongoing.

So for Assad the objectives should not be removing him from power, but it's certainly -- we certainly cannot be consulting with him and asking him for permission. Our goal is securing U.S. national security interests, and President Obama has to lay the case out to the American people about why this is an important fight and why we should share intelligence with our allies and partners who can defeat this enemy.

CAMEROTA: Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

ROS-LEHTINEN: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: We appreciate it.

ROS-LEHTINEN: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Let's go back to John.

BERMAN: Thanks, Alisyn.

BERMAN: A new ceasefire is holding between Israel and Hamas this morning. The two sides have agreed to an open-ended ceasefire. Egyptian mediators brokered the deal to halt fighting while both sides prepare for a new round of peace talks in Cairo. Ben Wedeman in Jerusalem with the latest. How is it being received right now, Ben? BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we're 19

hours and 10 minutes into this ceasefire, and it does seem to be holding. As you mentioned, the next step, of course, is now for an Israeli delegation to travel to Cairo. We don't know exactly when where through Egyptian intermediaries they will try to work out some sort of more lasting peace with Hamas.

Now we saw last night Hamas and the residents of Gaza celebrating what they consider a victory, having survived this 50 days of fighting with Israel. On the Israeli side, a much more muted reaction to the cease- fire. There were no celebrations in Israeli towns and cities. We haven't heard any statement, any spoken word from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on this ceasefire. As a matter of fact, he didn't even put it to a vote in his cabinet because we know that there are members of his cabinet who were opposed to a ceasefire.

But to add to all of this, the problems with Gaza, we now have news that there's several stray rounds that have been fired from Syria into Israel. One Israeli colonel, or rather officer, was wounded in that incident. The Israelis fired back, so there may be quiet in the south, but it could be getting noisy in the north.

BERMAN: Tumultuous times. All right, Ben Wedeman for us in Jerusalem, thanks so much. Michaela?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, a quick look at your headlines right now. We begin with breaking news. Ukrainian officials say Russian soldiers are firing artillery over the border near Donetsk. Officials say Russians and militants have seized villages in that region and 13 Ukrainian troops were reportedly killed. Dozens more have been injured in just the last 24 hours. This after the leaders of Russia and Ukraine met face to face agreeing that a ceasefire needs to happen, but Vladimir Putin says it's up to Ukraine's leader to work with pro-Russian separatists.

A bit of a stunner from the V.A.'s inspector general. A new report says no deaths can be conclusively linked to scheduling problems that rocked the agencies Phoenix facilities. More than 3,400 cases were examined. The report says 28 veterans were harmed by delays and six of them eventually died. The V.A. secretary says he agrees with all 24 recommendations made for improvements.

The British nurse who became infected with Ebola virus has been given the experimental drug ZMapp. Will Pooley was flown back to the U.K. after contracting the virus in Sierra Leone. He's being treated in a special isolation unit in a London hospital where doctors say he is doing well. Meantime, a Liberian doctor and medical assistant who were also treated with ZMapp are now said to discharged from the hospital later this week.

CAMEROTA: So that serum is effective. They just need to produce more it.

PEREIRA: They can't conclusively say, but it seems anecdotally, you have people being released from the hospital.

BERMAN: Reason for hope.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Michael Brown's family attorney reacts to the audio tape first obtained by CNN allegedly of the shooting. Does it bolster their case? You'll hear his reaction.

BERMAN: Plus, breaking overnight, Peter Theo Curtis back home. His mother tells us what the days leading up to his release were like and why the moment of joy is really somewhat muted for her.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Protests and voices, talking about the shooting death of Michael Brown, they have resumed in Missouri. Demonstrations were held in Ferguson, also in St. Louis with marchers demanding justice. These come as CNN learns the FBI's evaluating that new audio recordings first obtained by CNN allegedly of the moment Michael Brown was shot and killed by police. Now, this was apparently recorded unintentionally. You'll hear the voice of a man talking over what sounds like gunshots. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are pretty.

[GUNSHOTS]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're so fine. Just going over some of your videos. How could I forget?

[GUNSHOTS]

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: OK. CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of this tape. Joining me right now is the attorney for the Brown family Daryl Parks. Thank you so much for joining us. You've been making yourself available to us, and we really appreciate that. Right off the bat, Mr. Parks, I think we have to get your gut check on this audio recording. What do you make of it?

DARYL PARKS, ATTORNEY FOR MICHAEL BROWN'S FAMILY: Well, first of all, I obviously can't verify that that type was contemporaneously with the shooting that took place. However, if it is authenticated at some point, I think it adds an extra layer on to what we already know. However, we still believe that the four eyewitnesses that have come forward thus far and there may be more are very, very encouraging and seem to be very assured of what they saw on that day. We also though encourage other witnesses who may have any type of evidence, for example, who knew that this audiotape would come up that would be a part -- possibly be a part of this case, so if there's other evidence out there, we want those folks to also come forward with whatever they may have that could lend any more credence to what may have happened on this morning, on this day. PEREIRA: The FBI is investigating the tape. They have it. They are looking to see if it is indeed credible. If it does, from your vantage point as an attorney for the family, how does it fit with the eyewitness accounts that we've been hearing?

PARKS: Well, certainly the one issue -- there was a single shot in the car that Dorian talks about. I don't know how that fits into this particular tape, whether it does or not, but also it clearly says that there was a series of shots and Michael obviously felt hit, his body jolted and then he turned around to attempt to give up to the officer and tell the officer not to shoot and yet the officer continued to shoot despite it was obviously Michael had been hit by this first set of bullets. So, it clearly says that there's a real possibility that this officer had a chance not to kill this kid, but chose to kill him anyway.

PEREIRA: You feel that the pause was indicative of the state of mind that the officer was in, a choice he was making at that time?

PARKS: Well, it certainly - it does. I mean if you listen to the witnesses they all talk about the fact that he gave up, and been shot and went down and said you shot me, yet the officer continued to shoot him anyway despite him being down. I think one of the things that we clearly see from the autopsy is that you see that there's a clear chance that Michael was in a sub position to the officer when the officer shot him from above, and that's very, very, very -- something that we have a serious concern about that he would be shot in the manner that he was, especially in his head, from a back-to-front position.

PEREIRA: Your co-counsel, Benjamin Crump, obviously representing the family as well, re-tweeted a viewer's response saying "audio recording of shooting just released. Very interesting, proves a lot." You two have obviously had a chance to discuss things. What do you feel it does prove then?

PARKS: Well, certainly I think the pause is the important part here, Michaela that the fact that you have this pause in here clearly gives him a chance to -- to make decisions about what he wants to do. This is - for how things happened here, that pause is very important and gave him ample opportunity to make decisions about whether or not he needed to take this child's life. We believe that he had no reason to take Michael's life in that situation as the witnesses described the situation to us.

PEREIRA: The funeral and the home going was on Monday. We saw yesterday there were peaceful demonstrations, people keeping the story very much alive, but we know the national media has largely sort of backed off from the story a little bit. The spotlight isn't shining so intensely on Ferguson. How do you keep the intense pressure on in terms of your pursuit of justice for the family of Michael Brown?

PARKS: Well, we're on the ground. As you know, we have local counsel as well as our firm representing the Michael Brown family and we continue to push both the local authorities and the feds on their investigation to move forward. We have every reason to believe, especially given the fact that the Department of Justice, civil rights division is involved in this case, that we will get justice in this case one way or another.

PEREIRA: And what are you hearing from all of those investigators?

PARKS: Well, they don't tell you. They don't tell you where they are with their investigation, but I can tell you that given their track record, given the fact that the attorney general obviously has said that this is a priority investigation and that they are going to lend the resources that are necessary to get to the bottom of it. So, they make no assurances about the number of witnesses they make talk to, the amount of evidence that they may, but they do tell you that they are going to give it their best effort and this is a priority of theirs to show that we can get to the bottom of whatever happened in this situation.

PEREIRA: You spoke moments ago about the potential for other witnesses coming forward. Do you have reason to believe there are other witnesses that perhaps are hesitant to speak up or come forward or are fearing retribution?

PARKS: I think so. I mean, this weekend while we were on the ground in St. Louis we had folks who've walked up to us and say, hey, I have information. I haven't talked to the police yet and we encouraged them to go forward. We took their names and told them to go forward. So we continue to -- to really advise people who may have some information to move forward and to talk to the authorities. You know, I have heard through the news sources that the FBI, they have talked to 200 people in this case. It seems like a pretty large number, but there may be - still be others out there who haven't talked to the FBI, but I also think that they also ought to talk with the state authorities as well. Remember, in this case the state authorities have far wider charging capabilities than the feds have in this situation so it's also very important that they do talk to the federal investigators -- excuse me, the state investigators who are there in St. Louis County, Missouri as well.

PEREIRA: Yeah, right, just because they have spoken to one doesn't necessarily mean they've spoken to all parties involved and obviously there's some people who are going to have some reluctance thinking like, oh, what I know isn't important. It very well may be. So when in doubt go speak to someone. Daryl Parks, thanks so much for making time for us right early this morning.

PARKS: Thank you.

PEREIRA: All right. We're going to take a short break. Here, on "NEW DAY" breaking overnight American Theo Curtis finally back home with his family two years after being held hostage in Syria. We're going to hear from his mother coming up.

Also, the first American killed fighting for ISIS is only one of many Americans that are fighting with militant groups. What exactly is fueling this extremism, and is it going to get worse? We'll look into it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Breaking overnight. Journalist Peter Theo Curtis now reunited with his family in the United States after being held captive for almost two years by Islamic militants in Syria. I think we have a picture to show you right now of the moment when Curtis was reunited with his mother. We don't have that picture, but it was a lovely moment when he was reunited with his mother in Boston. She said she was overwhelmed with relief that she has her son back.

Our Miguel Marquez is following development for us from Cambridge right outside Boston. Good morning, Miguel.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning there, John. I think it's fair to say that it is joy here in Cambridge today, that picture that you mentioned, if we can bring it up, shot at Boston Logan Airport, the mother beaming at her son, newly released after 22 months in captivity by al-Nusra front, al Qaeda-affiliated group, and seeing Theo Curtis, Peter Theo Curtis, the family calls him Theo, after this - the last time we saw him he was in captivity looking shaggy, unshaved, unshowered and now he clearly has a clean shirt on. He is shaved and looking a heck of a lot better.

He did release a statement. I want to read part of it to you. "I've been so touched and moved beyond all words by the people who have come to me today, strangers on the plane, flight attendants and most of all my family to say welcome home. I am also deeply indebted to the U.S. officials who worked on my case. I especially want to thank the government of Qatar for intervening on my behalf.:

The Qataris I should say also insist, that they did not -- they didn't pay a ransom for Mr. Curtis' release. What next for him? Well, he is home just a few blocks from where we are right now. His mother says she is a very good cook. We know that he loves to road bicycle, so I think he's going to get a good meal and a decent ride.

Back to you guys.

BERMAN: We now have that picture of when they reunited yesterday, Peter Theo Curtis and his mother Nancy, who has been through so much. I just cannot imagine the (INAUDIBLE) he will have and how many times he thought about that over the last two years.

Our thanks to Miguel Marquez in Cambridge.