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U.S. Targets Al Qaeda Linked Terrorists in Somalia; Obama to Stop in Estonia Today; Human Trials Begin for Experimental Ebola Vaccine; White House Reacts to Captive Americans' Pleas

Aired September 02, 2014 - 06:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan, and Michaela Pereira.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, September 2, 6:00 in the East. And we do have breaking news this morning.

The U.S. military has carried out an operation in East Africa targeting al Qaeda linked terrorists in Somalia.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're still getting details, but we do know that Pentagon officials say U.S. forces launched a military attack against the Al Shabaab terror network. And Somalia officials say the missiles targeted a convoy of senior leaders. We have complete coverage of this breaking story for you this morning.

Let's get right to global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott, who's live in Washington with the very latest. So Elise, what more are we learning about this operation?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, the Pentagon is not saying much more at this point about the operation, specifically who the target was. But Somali officials do say the leader of al Shabaab, Ahmed Godane, and his deputies were holding a meeting of their top commanders in the rebel-held village that was hit by the U.S. overnight. The meeting was how to withstand this ongoing offensive by the Somali military and African Union trying to flesh them out from the region.

Now, Godane has been a driving force behind al Shabaab's close ties to al Qaeda. He's pressed for the groups to launch attacks outside Somalia. So it does seem as if the U.S. was going after him and the top leadership, but it's unclear whether Godane or any of those top leaders were killed. And that's what the U.S. wants to assess before they say any more. Because earlier this year, in about January, there were several strikes trying to target him, and it doesn't look like obviously they were able to.

Now, this comes just a day after a group of al Shabaab fighters set up a car bomb at a prison in the capital Mogadishu. They launched gunfire against military forces to free members of their group who are inmates. Kate.

BOLDUAN: So a lot more we need to learn about this operation and its success, if you will. Elise, great to see you. Thanks so much.

CUOMO: All right, let's figure out some more right now. Let's bring in Will Geddes; he's a security analyst and the managing director of International Corporate Protection. They are a threat management company. And Mr. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, an author and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

All right, so Elise laid it out there well. Let me start with you, Daveed. Why now? They tried to get this guy twice before. Is this about imminent threats or is this about ongoing operations?

DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS, SENIOR FELLOW, FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: I don't think it's about imminent threat; I think ongoing threats is much more likely. When it comes to someone like Godane, who's a very prominent figure in the international jihadist movement, essentially targeting of him is probably going to be driven by intelligence. There was also, similarly, a raid, a U.S.-led raid, in the same area, in Baraawe, last year, just about a year ago. And it was unsuccessful ultimately, but that indicates that the U.S. will strike where it has an opportunity.

CUOMO: Where it has an opportunity. Will, let's pick up on that point. Why was there an opportunity in this situation? We do know that there are concerns there has been kind of a closing in of personnel coming back to Somalia to join Shabaab. That is probably a recruiting concern, but why was this the opportunity?

WILL GEDDES, SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think as your other guest was saying, Godane is a mover and shaker within al Shabaab and he's been very much a driving force in trying to consolidate certainly the al Qaeda assets in the region, and especially in terms of providing that sort of catchment area within Somalia for transnational insurgents to join their cause.

Now, Godane being a driving force is a key increment and a part of the whole structure, and to take him out will somewhat dismantle al Shabaab's leadership. So to focus on him, and particularly from the intelligence that's borne both from the African Union forces and the Somali forces, but in addition to that foreign special forces which have been carrying out reconnaissance, is a critical part of the campaign to try and undermine al Shabaab's taking of movement. And we've seen, certainly in this attack in Mogadishu quite recently, this is -- they're getting braver certainly in some of their strategies.

CUOMO: And that was an obvious concern, and you did hear from the people on ground fighting against them that, when there was word that the allies were coming in, they all but disappeared, the al Shabaab fighters, so that was an immediate positive impact in that battle front.

But obviously, Daveed, everybody has ISIS on the brain, and the question will be why are you going after this al Qaeda offshoot in North Africa when you have this emergent situation that is so urgent so Syria in Syria and northern Iraq?

GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: It certainly is urgent, but I think it's a mistake to take our eye off the ball when it comes to al Qaeda. I think al Qaeda is very much being underestimated right now for a variety of reasons, one of which deals precisely with ISIS, which is we know that prior to Osama bin Laden's death he really wanted to rebrand al Qaeda. He believed that its brand had been very much diminished by the excesses of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who had led al Qaeda in Iraq which then became ISIS later on.

And with ISIS's rise, it gives al Qaeda a prime opportunity to rebrand itself as being a more rational, more moderate voice of jihadism. And as a result I think there's a lot of risk of more money channeling into the al Qaeda network. A lot of countries in the region, even those who are very moderate in their outlook are looking at whether or not al Qaeda and some of its offshoots, such as the Nusra Front in Syria, should be seen as a counterweight to ISIS, and that's really problematic and will be I think a real problem for us in the long term.

CUOMO: Al Qaeda as the more moderate voice of extremism in Islam. That is a truly relative and scary threat. But what does this mean in terms of the likelihood of action against ISIS in Syria and/or northern Iraq? Will, what does it think? Does this make it more likely that you see more military action?

GEDDES: Well, I think it's inevitable somewhat. And certainly, again, following what your guest was saying, the biggest concern that we have is a lot of these groups merging together, as your guest mentioned

ISIS were born from an al Qaeda front, so you have a consolidation of terrorist groups, and as we've seen this before, you will have various groups working together sharing resource, sharing capability, and again in this particular region it's important to try and dismantle it where possible. Otherwise you have an amalgam of all these variant types of groups that are aimed towards fundamentally the same goals. And therefore to focus on al Shabaab is critical, particularly with the weak borders surrounding Somalia and their ability to spread.

CUOMO: So the important thing here, Daveed, to kind of come back to a point you made earlier on, is that just because the focus, certainly the media focus, is on ISIS, that doesn't mean that the war on terror doesn't have several fronts that demand urgent action.

GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: Absolutely. And one of them is Somalia. We can see, on Sunday, a very spectacular attack launched against the -- one of the major prisons in Mogadishu. Also elsewhere in Africa you have right now Islamist militias that took over the U.S. embassy in Tripoli. Fortunately, it had been abandoned before that as well as many other major government buildings. Right now, because of these groups, the Libyan government is unable to even exercise basic functions of government.

You have a number of other areas, like in Nigeria where Bokok Haram just captured a major city and part of (ph) the stae. So all of that indicates that, yes, there's a lot of different fronts going on. There's a lot of interconnectedness between some these actions. And we shouldn't by any means think that Syria and Iraq is the only thing right now that matters.

CUOMO: Rear Admiral John Kirby obviously gives us the information coming out of the Defense Department about this. Any word from either of you two about whether or not this was deemed successful as an attack in terms of getting the leadership?

GEDDES: From my point, obviously, there's very little information. It's still coming out at the moment. But certainly I would say that the strikes by UAVs and by drones is going to be considerably more successful because the reconnaissance efforts by special forces have been considerably more successful in determining the whereabouts of various key people. However, al Shabaab is a formidable foe. They're not foolish and they're not stupid and therefore they will keep moving themselves around, and particularly some of their figureheads.

CUOMO: It will be interesting to learn what was deemed success here, and was there any ground component to it that involved non-Somali fighters.

Thank you very much to both of you, gentlemen. Appreciate it. Kate?

BOLDUAN: And this operation we can expect to be one of many items on the agenda for the president as he heads to Europe today. He's arriving first in Estonia before the NATO summit in Wales Thursday and Friday later this week. The Russian aggression in Ukraine will also be a top priority as NATO leaders are looking to rein in Russian president Vladimir Putin.

President Obama will be looking to build support for the fight against ISIS while facing severe criticism at home for being too cautious in his policy towards the terror group.

CNN's Michelle Kosinski is at the White House for us of course this morning with much more. A huge agenda. A lot of criticism, which also means a lot -- a lot for the president to -- a lot on the president's plate right now.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right. Hi, Kate. And it's hard to believe that it was only less than a year ago that we were all talking about NATO having something of an identity crisis, like what do we do now? And oh yes, there's this summit coming up.

Well then Russia effectively invaded Ukraine, and now the talk is of expanding membership and rapid response forces.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOSINSKI (voice-over): How is President Obama ending up in the sleepy Baltic capital of Estonia this afternoon? Just take a look at its neighbor and Russia's unceasing actions down the road in Ukraine. And suddenly this added-on meeting with leaders of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania hits at the heart of what the NATO alliance is for -- as the White House put it, to reaffirm our iron-clad commitment to collective defense.

Now, once again, just as we commemorate the start of World War II, NATO matters.

Ukraine is looking to join. NATO's Secretary-General is proposing creating a rapid response military force ready for emergency defense in 48 hours, something that the White House supports. This summit now will also look at what to do next about Russia as Europe draws up new sanctions.

Yet another crisis looms to be discussed by the west and that is ISIS. With thousands of foreign fighter with Western passports currently fighting in Syria, Britain's prime minister now, with Europe, has vowed to act.

DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: A firm security response with a military action to go after terrorists. International cooperation on intelligence, or uncompromising action against terrorists at home.

KOSINSKI: President Obama at home, while air strikes on ISIS in Iraq continue, had a bit of a rough long weekend in the press following those words on Syria.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We don't have a strategy yet.

KOSINSKI: With head-turning reaction from both parties.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: The Russian bear is encountering the Obama kitty cat.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTENN (D), CALIFORNIA: He's very cautious. Maybe in this instance too cautious.

KOSINSKI: The president has made clear he's loath to use military force unless it's well thought out and will work, has repeatedly emphasized the need for a strong international coalition on both Russia and ISIS. Now this NATO summit has plenty on the table.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSINSKI (on camera): So now among the goals of this summit are to assess the effectiveness of the international response, not only to Russia but to ISIS, and to see what more can be done. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Michelle Kosinski at White House for us, a lot at stake. Michelle, thank you so much.

A lot going on around the world and here at home. Michaela's got many headlines for us. Good morning.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, welcome back, guys.

BOLDUAN: Thank you!

PEREIRA: Good morning to both of you and good morning to you at home. Here are your headlines 11 moments ago.

Breaking moments ago, more than 100 family members of victims of an ISIS attack have stormed Iraq's parliament building. They are demanding more information about the fate of the victims and for their bodies to be returned to them. This attack happened in June at a camp of Iraqi forces near Tikrit. Family members refusing to leave until officials address their concerns. We'll keep an eye on that.

The first human safety trials will begin today for an experimental Ebola vaccine. Three healthy human volunteers will be tested at the International Institutes of Health. If found safe, it will be given to another small group of volunteers. In the meantime, Liberia's president is warning the Ebola outbreak could become a global crisis and has extended a stay-at-home order for non-essential government workers for another month. In our next our, I'm going to speak with the director for -- of the Centers for Disease Control Tom Frieden. He just returned from a trip to West Africa.

Protesters in support of Michael Brown and his family shut down a major road in Missouri despite a request from the Brown family to delay blockade. Several demonstrators showed up along Interstate 270, impeded traffic before police arrived. Their goal was to be on the roadway for four and a half minutes, symbolizing the four and a half hours Michael Brown's body was left in the street after he was gunned down by a police officer in Ferguson.

The hunt is on for the hackers who stole and posted naked photos of Hollywood A-listers, including actress Jennifer Lawrence. The FBI and Apple are both now investigating just how hackers obtained the private photos. The images were apparently accessed from Apple's iCloud online storage service. A spokeswoman for Lawrence calls the hacking a flagrant violation of privacy and says that Lawrence has contacted authorities.

A little later in the show, we're going to talk to Brett Larson about how we can keep our own information -- we all use the iCloud. We got to figure out how to keep our stuff.

BOLDUAN: I have long been suspect of the cloud.

CUOMO: You have been long suspect, period. I'll tell you, when I heard this story though, my interest went the same place that Mick did. You know, I don't have any interest in their pictures but what about ours?

BOLDUAN: What about your nude pictures?

CUOMO: Not those types of pictures, not that I have any, but I don't know about you two.

PEREIRA: Come on, now, my mother is watching.

CUOMO: But if they can get to a celebrity, how safe is everybody else?

PEREIRA: And there's all sorts of other information that is held in our iCloud, or through the iCloud. So we want to make sure --

BOLDUAN: And even more importantly -- exactly. CUOMO: And, most importantly, what is an iCloud? I have no idea.

BOLDUAN: Marinate on that.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: I don't think they even exist. It's a conspiracy.

We're going to take a break here on NEW DAY. When we come back, we have these extraordinary one-on-one interviews inside North Korea. Three detained Americans pleading with the U.S. government to secure their release. We have reaction from their families and we're going to ask the U.S. government what will it do now?

Plus, with our CNN team out of North Korea, they can speak freely and we're going to hear what really happened in those interview rooms.

BOLDUAN: And also new images from inside a flight forced to make an emergency landing after cabin pressure dropped. We're going to show what you it was like as the plane made its descent.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: The White House calls release of three Americans held in North Korea a top priority, in response to those unprecedented interviews with CNN. Kenneth Bae, Jeffrey Fowle and Matthew Miller are all being held for alleged crimes against the state.

Correspondent Will Ripley had rare access to them, speaking with them under close supervision of North Korean authorities.

The three men pleaded for the Obama administration to help bring them home now.

Will Ripley has just left the secretive country. He's joining us now live from Beijing.

Will, unprecedented access, a unique opportunity and quite a surprise for you and the crew. Tell us more.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was surreal, Kate. I mean, we requested to speak with these three detained Americans at the beginning of our trip to North Korea. We actually made a couple of different requests and each time, we were told it would be virtually impossible to speak with them. We were there covering a completely different event.

We were following around these wrestlers who are here for an international wrestling tournament doing stories about sports diplomacy, when in the middle of one of those two-hour tours, we were pulled off of the tour and told we had to get in a van. I pulled out my cell phone and started taking the video you see right now of us racing down this empty road through rural North Korea towards the capital city Pyongyang.

And when we arrived in the city, we pulled up to a building. It was a hotel and conference center in an area of town that outside and tourists are never allowed in. It was not on the regular route, the government-approved route.

We thought we might be speaking to a government official, but when we went to the front door and we stood there, they came out and briefed us and said we were going to be speaking with the three detained Americans. We had five minutes with each and we had to follow a very strict set of guidelines and were told if we strayed beyond the approved topics, the consequences would be severe.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KENNETH BAE, AMERICAN HELD IN NORTH KOREA: I do need help from the U.S. government.

MATTHEW MILLER, AMERICAN HELD IN NORTH KOREA: This interview is my final chance to push the American government into helping me.

JEFFREY FOWLE, AMERICAN HELD IN NORTH KOREA: I'm getting desperate for help.

RIPLEY (voice-over): The three Americans detained in North Korea uniting in a clear and possibly coached message -- send a U.S. envoy.

BAE: I do believe that special envoy needs to come in order to resolve the situation that I'm in right now.

FOWLE: This is an opportunity for maybe Bill Clinton to come back. Maybe George Bush, it's his turn as an elder statesman, to try his hand at that.

RIPLEY: North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un has previously shown no willingness to release Kenneth Bae or the other two men. So far, the U.S. State Department has not revealed a plan to free the three men held right now, a spokesman only saying, quote, "we continue to work actively to secure these three U.S. citizens' release."

TERRI CHUNG, KENNETH BAE'S SISTER: If there was ever a time to step up efforts, it's now.

RIPLEY: The family of Kenneth Bae pleads for the U.S. to respond, Bae serving 15 years hard labor for what North Korea calls a Christian plot to undermine the regime.

CHUNG: He is an American citizen, a father of three, and, you know, he is pleading for help from our government. The message has been consistent all along. It is up to our leaders to seek his amnesty.

RIPLEY: Bae asked his family to pray for him, saying his health is failing, working six days a week in a labor camp.

BAE: It's been very difficult sleeping at night, and working in the field every day.

RIPLEY: Bae and his sister say he needs help now.

CHUNG: Primary concern is his health and that there's some permanent damage being done. We need to have him come home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY: Kate, the message delivered by the three Americans was remarkably similar. They all said their situation is urgent or desperate. They said they are being treated humanely, and they also said they want the U.S. government to send a special envoy so one would assume that perhaps they were spoken to or coached ahead of time, just like we were spoken to ahead of timed about the parameter for these interviews.

And behind the camera, what you didn't see, Kate, was a group of people, North Korean government officials timing us and monitoring our every move, photographing us and videotaping us as well. We didn't end up in the Pyong newspaper that I picked up on plane, but it wouldn't surprise me if photos and video of our interview ended up on state-controlled media in North Korea sometime in the near future.

BOLDUAN: And I just want to ask, Will, just more about the -- now that you can speak more freely now that you're out of country, I wanted to get your take on what it was like to head into those interviews. As you said going in, you didn't even really know who you're going to be speaking with almost until you were walking into the room.

Were they nervous? What were the circumstances?

RIPLEY: Yes, I mean, the way it works often in North Korea, especially journalists who have been in there multiple times, things were highly unpredictable, and in our case we were told that something was impossible. And then, in just a very short period of time, all of a sudden, we were granted access the to three detained Americans who have been kept isolated from each other but they were in rooms in the same building just feet apart, yet they didn't know each other's names, aside from Kenneth Bae who has been there for more than two years and been in the news. He was familiar to the other two men, but they have never seen each other face-to-face, and we just walked from room to room.

There was a lot of tension -- tension on our part because, you know, we were told, we had a flight out in the morning, but if the government was displeased with the tone of our reporting, there would be consequences. Again, mentioning that we had a flight out in the morning.

What would have happened, we don't know. We abided by the guidelines we agreed to and the timing we agreed to.

Inside North Korea, Kate, you feel the oppressive power of the government. Everywhere you look, there are photos of the leaders. They are in every paper that you read. It talks about -- it talks about the supreme leaders. And two of these men, it's significant, were arrested for charges based on religious activity. Religion is viewed as a threat to the North Korean regime because the divine people in that country are the leaders, Kate.

BOLDUAN: And, Will, I mean, it seems pretty clear choreography on the part of North Korea as it always does when it comes to letting any Western journalist in. I wonder since you've been out now that you're in Beijing have you heard any more response from the U.S. government in response to their pleas and calls for help from a special enjoy?

RIPLEY: Nothing as of right now aside from the statement that it remains a top priority, which is usually what is said when there is no real headline or no real announcement to make as of yet. But usually, as you know, discussions tend to happen behind closed doors.

Look, in the geopolitical scheme of things, North Korea doesn't have a lot of bargaining chips. Tensions are rising, with China, right where I am right now, China is one of North Korea's biggest benefactors. U.S. sanctions are crippling the economy.

This is a country that very much wants an open line of communication with the U.S., and frankly these three detained Americans are one of the few things that they can have that can actually put them on the radar right now, aside from a barrage of missile tests this year and the possibility, the looming threat of another nuclear tests at some point in the future.

BOLDUAN: Will Ripley in Beijing for us -- Will, great reporting. Thank you so much for bringing it to us. Talk to you soon.

All right. The U.S. military strikes a terror group in Somalia. Who was targeted, how were they targeted, and was it successful? Information still coming in. We'll have the very latest.

And a flight forced to land in South Carolina after a cabin pressure problem. Passengers broke out their cell phone cameras to document the response and what happened next. We're going to show you the new pictures coming in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Good to have you back with us here on NEW DAY.

Here's a look at your headlines:

In a bold effort to fight terror, British Prime Minister David Cameron has proposed dramatic new measures, among them, giving police power to seize passports of British citizens suspected of supporting is and other terror groups abroad and attempting to return home. Prime Minister Cameron is also proposing forcing suspected extremists to attend de-radicalization programs.

Jury deliberation begins today in the trial of four former government contractors who gunned down 17 Iraqis in 2007. In question is whether the Blackwater guards were justified in opening fire. Iraqi witnesses have testified that they fired without provocations.