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U.S. and Arab States Launch Air Strikes against ISIS Targets, Terrorist Group Khorasan; Interview with Fmr. Amb. John Negroponte; The Search for Hannah Graham

Aired September 23, 2014 - 07:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Overnight, U.S. and partner nations carried out 14 intense strikes against ISIS strongholds in Raqqa, Syria, and other northern cities. The attacks destroying or damaging multiple targets, including training compounds, headquarters, and command and control facilities, and briefly knocking out power in the region.

U.S. forces launching tomahawk land attack missiles from the sea. Bombers, drones and fighter jets, continuing the assault by air. Including an F-22 raptor, a new Air Force tactical plane that can conduct air to air and air to ground combat with near impunity. The air strikes targeting key is positions, including the city of Raqqah, where they are essentially based. The attacks meant to degrade their ability to command and control, resupply and train, according to a U.S. military official.

Five Arab nations, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain joining in the fight, four of them helping attack by air, alongside U.S. war planes. In January, ISIS turned Raqqah into their home base, creating a terrorist safe haven, the militants controlling the city, power, water, schools and banks.

Two countries not taking part in the attacks at present, Turkey, who had previously joined the global coalition against the terrorist group, and Syria itself. Then there is this buried in the press release from the military, a report that an imminent attack against the U.S. was thwarted in Syria overnight, according to U.S. officials. Eight air strikes were conducted by the U.S. west of Aleppo, against the terrorist group Khorasan, a network of seasoned Al Qaeda veterans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And Khorasan, this group, Barbara, is one that a lot of Americans haven't heard much about. But the threat we're hearing more about in the last week, how did this affect the timing of the strikes, if at all?

STARR (on camera): Well, Brianna, what we are hearing from a senior U.S. official is the reason they struck Khorasan right now is they had intelligence that the group of Al Qaeda veterans was in the stages of planning an attack against the U.S. homeland and/or an attack against a target in Europe, and the information indicated that Khorasan was well on its way, perhaps in the final stages of planning that attack.

So because they were hitting ISIS they felt they could essentially surprise Khorasan. They knew the information was there. They knew this was the time to do it. But everybody was focused on ISIS, so this was somewhat they hoped of a surprise to Khorasan.

What did they hit? We are told they hit Khorasan training camps and explosives and munitions production facilities, command and control and communications facilities of that group. We're going to be looking for much more information on this later today. But this is the first time we are hearing about the possibility there was an attack planned against a U.S. homeland target. Brianna?

KEILAR: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon with our latest information there, thank you so much.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: This attack on Al Qaeda is certainly going to come as a big surprise to many of you at home. And it also points us in the direction of why so many were pushing President Obama to start military action inside Syria because of the interests to the United States specifically there. And now we're seeing what one of those may well be. The question is, why was this done right now with regard to ISIS, especially with the big U.N. G.A., the General Assembly going on this week.

Let's get some insight into that. Let's bring in CNN's Michelle Kosinski live at the White House. So what's the spin out of the White House? Is this a show of strength that shows that President Obama is no joking around when he gets to the General Assembly?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Chris. Yes, well done. That's sound like a pretty good statement. Unfortunately we're not hearing anything as of yet from the White House. Consistently they've referred all detail, all comments to the Pentagon. And that's where most of the information has been coming from.

We just found out that we will for certain hear from President Obama today before he leaves for his trip to the U.N. So he's expected to leave at 10:30 this morning. Before that the White House now says he will make a statement here at the White House, and it will be about the latest in the continuing counterterrorism strategy against ISIS. It's interesting how they phrase that because they have continually framed their action as a counterterrorism strategy, although many have questioned them, is this not a war against ISIS? They acknowledge, yes, it is. But that's how they're framing it for now.

At the U.N., the president is looking to expand international support against ISIS. He's looking for commitments and further participation from other countries. It's surprised many to see the participation in this last night and the Arab countries involved.

Also he's looking for a resolution from the U.N. Security Council so that these nations united against ISIS will also fight the flow of foreign fighters. That's something that all of these nations have been concerned about as a real threat. Chris? CUOMO: A declaration of war or going to war, very important with

ISIS, not so much against this Al Qaeda group, though, because certainly the U.S. would be authorized to go after it if its own interests were involved. Michelle Kosinski, thank you very much, keep us informed on what's going on this morning. Brianna?

KEILAR: Let's bring in now John Negroponte. He's a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, a former U.N. ambassador, and he was the first director of national intelligence. Thanks so much for being with us to lend us some insight this morning.

The president, we're going to hear him speak in just a couple of hours. But he's coming to New York for the U.N. General Assembly. He will be convening a summit with a number of nations here to talk about this very threat. Tell us about the timing. Why pursue strikes today overnight before coming here to the U.N. General Assembly?

JOHN NEGROPONTE, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ: Well I'm sure that the strikes were carried out because of the requirements of the actual situation on the ground. But if you think about the timing, I think it's certainly definitely better he does it before he comes to the U.N. than imagine if he had done it just after leaving New York City after the General Assembly.

This is really starting now to look like a fairly comprehensive strategy. There's been a move in Syria which we've been waiting for for a long time. There's a coalition with the other countries, the other Gulf states, who have been participating in these attacks. And of course, the other shoe that has to drop now, it seems to me, is what happens in Iraq. What kind of boost to the morale of the Iraqi and Kurdish forces will these actions represent? They've got to follow up on what I think now is an opportunity being created for them. But it's starting, in my view, to look a lot more like a comprehensive strategy.

KEILAR: So you look at the allies here that the U.S. has in this fight, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, and Qatar. Are you impressed with this coalition?

NEGROPONTE: I think it's a good thing rather than going it alone. Secondly, I wouldn't rule out others joining in now that we've had this strong showing from the Gulf states themselves. Also, by the way, I think it's paying off very strong diplomatic efforts that our leadership has been taking in Gulf countries in recent months and years.

KEILAR: You mentioned Iraq this is a key part of the puzzle here. There is a new prime minister in Iraq and it's up to him to undo some of the damage done under Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki where many Sunnis were disaffected and actually welcomed ISIS and so in a way sort of allowing ISIS to fill a void in that country. Do you have confidence that the new prime minister can turn things around? And what's at stake if he doesn't?

NEGROPONTE: Well, I think that remains to be seen. But he has to do it. This effort is not going to be complete until the ISIS has been turned back in Iraq, until the cities that they have captured, Fallujah, Mosul, and so forth have been recaptured and the ISIS have been pushed back or pushed out.

KEILAR: You expect with the president coming here to New York that he will walk away with more support than the five countries that he's had from the get-go here?

NEGROPONTE: Well, he's also going to be proposing an initiative to curtail the international movement of foreign fighters. And I think that it's very possible, likely, in fact, that that resolution will be passed by the Security Council in the next couple of days. And that would be a good thing.

KEILAR: We've certainly known, many people have looked at that and said that's not something that can really be enforced. Is that going to be toothless?

NEGROPONTE: It's a bit like if you, right after 9/11, we passed a very important resolution against terrorist financing. And what it does is it lays a legal basis for countries to then go back to their capitals, pass domestic legislation that might help carry these kinds of things out. But it highlights the problem. It forces domestic debate in these different countries about should we be letting these people leave our countries to go fight in these wars. And so I would say it's definitely going to be a net plus. How completely it will be enforced is another question.

KEILAR: And so many countries just haven't even addressed it.

NEGROPONTE: Well, it will force them to address it.

KEILAR: ISIS has been recently calling on essentially lone wolves to be inspired by ISIS, to target the west, including the U.S. How concerned are you now that this is becoming even larger? There have been air strikes ongoing in Iraq, we now have these just happening in Syria overnight. How concerned are you, that there will be lone actors inspired by this?

NEGROPONTE: You never can rule this out. But I would say the focus of concern needs to be the situation on the ground in Iraq and Syria.

KEILAR: What's, and speaking of that, how does the U.S., how do American allies capitalize on these air strikes?

NEGROPONTE: You have to boost the help to the Free Syrian Army and the forces fighting against ISIS and the Syrian government in Syria. So, again, part of the overall strategy, use the air strikes to provide moral support and cover for these free Syrian forces.

KEILAR: And they will be trained and equipped, we know that. Funding has been passed. Are they able, how much confidence do you have that this can be successful?

NEGROPONTE: The confidence issue really relates to how whether we're in this for the long haul or not. We tend as Americans to think things can be over and done with much more rapidly than is really the case. These efforts are going to take months and years, and so we got to be prepared to be in this for the long haul.

KEILAR: And right now it appears that U.S. public is on that side. But we'll see certainly if it does continue to last.

NEGROPONTE: Exactly.

KEILAR: Ambassador Negroponte, thank you so much for being with us.

And we're also getting reaction from Capitol Hill this morning to the first air strikes against ISIS inside of Syria.

CUOMO: Let's get to congressional correspondent Dana Bash. She's been down there. We do know that, Dana, as we bring you in, we know that the president spoke directly to leadership, John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi. And as you know, they've been only too willing to let the president take control of the war on ISIS. So where are they on these strikes?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So far, supportive. We haven't seen very many formal statements from the leadership. But we have from key members of Congress, the armed services chair, some others who have been outspoken. Marco Rubio just sent out a message. I spoke with Senator Lindsey Graham who is one of maybe the chief hawks in Congress specifically on this issue, all incredibly supportive for lots of reasons.

Number one, you just heard John Negroponte tell Brianna that he sees the beginning of a comprehensive strategy. He is traditionally a Republican politician, a Republican diplomat who served the Republican presidents. To hear him say that tells you everything you need to know.

The other bit of news that we got this morning, that there was an imminent threat, that's not something you're going to hear any members of Congress say that this is not something that the United States military should have gone after.

And the last point I want to make, the fact that there are five coalition partners in the Arab world, five Arab countries that were joining in the United States, that is something that is huge when it comes to these members of Congress selling this mission back home, because a lot of people say why does the U.S. have to be the policeman for the world? This is an example where the U.S. is partnering with countries in the region.

CUOMO: Well, look, the U.S. going it alone and striking Khorasan in Syria on the basis of an imminent threat to the homeland is going to be very compelling and it's going to be a surprise to many people. Which way do you think it spins the control of politics down there? Do you think that this emboldens Congress to want to get involved with this and take ownership of this war? Or do you think it rationalizes their decision to step back and say let the president do it and say, well, he's being the commander-in-chief pretty well.

BASH: It could go either way, Chris. You raise a very good question. The problem is it's going to be hard to know the answer to that for maybe six or seven weeks because Congress isn't here. You and I discussed this last week. They split. They left at the end of last week to go home to campaign full time through the election on November 4th. And they're not going to come back for the lame duck session until mid-November.

We're already hearing talk and we did before they left of the fact that Congress does want to have a voice, but not until after the election. So it's unclear whether or not they're going to be aggressive enough to write and pass a new authorization for force for this particular mission during the lame duck session. That would be unusual for a Congress that has effectively just, many of the members have just been voted out, to come in and have that kind of important vote. But we'll see. It's possible. I think it really depends on how the next couple of weeks go while Congress, again, is not here.

CUOMO: For all the yap about respecting the constitution that's become in vogue in down D.C., it's interesting they just punted on their constitutional responsibility here. But to come back they need the coaxing of the president probably, or public shaming.

BASH: That's a great point. And he believes that he already has the authority. He's been arguing he's got the authority under the 2001 use of force authorization already and that he doesn't need it. This would be Congress giving its blessing, giving its stamp, something that the president again says he would like, but doesn't need.

CUOMO: And he probably wouldn't like it, right, because he wants to go alone. He doesn't want to get mixed up with them. They're fighting them too often, and now things are going well for him. He's the last person who is going to call them back in all likelihood, but we'll see what happens, as you say. Dana Bash, thank you very much.

These air strikes, they could be ongoing right now. They've been going on through the night. We're showing them to you here this morning. Syria is certainly the focus of the war on ISIS this morning. We're going to have General Wesley Clark. He's going to join us to explain what could be coming next.

KEILAR: And it's been 10 days and there's still sign of Virginia college student Hannah Graham. We have the latest on the investigation. We are live with the Charlottesville police chief ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our breaking coverage, the U.S. launching air strikes against ISIS targets for the first time in Syria, and not alone. Five Arab nations, Sunni Arab nations, assisted in those air strikes.

Beyond that, the United States went solo launching strikes against an al Qaeda cell called the Khorasan group after intelligence emerged that this group was plotting an imminent attack against the U.S. homeland, also possibly interests in Europe.

Want to bring in Bobby Ghosh, a CNN contributor and managing editor of Quartz. Bobby, we're talking about fighting ISIS here, this is what the map says, there were air strikes against ISIS in this part of Syria. But a separate unilateral strike by the United States against this group called Khorasan over here in Syria. Who is Khorasan?

BOBBY GHOSH, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: They're a very small group. We've not heard a whole lot from them. But they've been building up infrastructure in that spot west of Syria. They're led by a guy called Muhsin al-Fadhli who was a very close associate of Osama bin Laden.

BERMAN: From practically the beginning, we are talking before 9/11.

GHOSH: He's said to be one of a very small group of people who knew about the 9/11 plan long before it was executed. That is how close he was. He's managed to escape the attentions of the international sort of security community and hold himself up there west of Aleppo and he's been creating this infrastructure. There's been reports suggesting that they have been planning a major attack against the U.S.

Now keep in mind that al Qaeda has lost its way a little recently. ISIS has taken up all the oxygen in this fight in Syria and Iraq and al Qaeda, if you like, the brand is diminished in the eyes of many of its followers, so it's been planning a big attack and now we think that that attack, we are hearing that that attack is being planned by the Khorasan cell out of Aleppo.

BERMAN: The unilateral operation by the United States, a completely separate operation from the coalition attack against ISIS in this part of Syria. Now, Bobby, this is a look at the coalition involved in the air strikes against ISIS.

I did just get a new bit of information from Jim Sciutto, our chief national security correspondent. You are looking at the coalition that struck against ISIS in Syria. One nation that we're fascinated by was Syria itself. What did the regime of Bashar al-Assad know or not know prior to the strikes? Jim Sciutto reporting that the Syrian regime was told by the United States prior to the operation. What do you make of that?

GHOSH: That's a big deal. It's a little surprising. You can see why they would do that. Because the last thing you want is the Syrians to scramble their own planes and mess up the scene a little bit. You don't want confusion in the skies, especially if you've got planes, and we don't know exactly how many planes were involved from these other Arab states. But if you've got multiple Air Forces at work over the Syrian air space you don't want the Syrian Air Force to scramble their jets and add to the general confusion.

So I could imagine a scenario in which the Syrians are informed, perhaps by one of the Arab allies rather than directly by the United States. I would be quite surprised if it was direct communication from the Pentagon.

BERMAN: All we know is inform somehow, not cooperating, not part of the operation, but informed. Let's talk about who is cooperating right now. This coalition of five Sunni Arab nations, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Qatar, we're not sure how involved they were in the strikes themselves, but part of this coalition. Interesting group.

GHOSH: It's optics, this is optics. We want, the administration wants this map up all over the Arab world, showing that Arab nations have participated in this campaign. This is just a start, hopefully, presumably we'll see more of this. And the fact that there are Arab nations is vital. The fact that they're Sunni nations is vital. The Iranian's we know are sort of brisling, they want to join in on the fight, the U.S. does not want them as part of the coalition, because the Sunni states would not tolerate that. It was very important that the first major campaign over Syrian air space involved these Sunni states.

BERMAN: Let me talk about another nation not involved, up here in Turkey. This is Turkey. They are not involved in this at all. Despite the fact they share a border with Syria. Despite the fact there are tens of thousands of Kurdish refugees flowing over the border into Turkey. Despite the fact they're a NATO nation and have air fields which could be instrumental in assisting in the air strikes. Turkey saying no.

GHOSH: The Turks are saying, look, don't tell us we're not involved, we're housing tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of refugees. So they're taking on a brunt of the consequences of the civil war in Syria and Iraq. That would be their take on this. I have to think the Turkish intelligence is involved. They may not do this overtly because of political considerations in Turkey.

But they've got a lot of eyes in Syria. They've had a lot of the foreign fighters, the militants who got into Syria, whether to join ISIS or al Qaeda, or to the non-religious rebel forces have gone through Turkey. You have to think Turkish intelligence knows these people.

BERMAN: They may be involved, never the less they didn't get themselves on the press release from centcom bragging about what nations were involved. They want to keep some separation here.

GHOSH: Right now they do. But as more and more -- We see more and more of these, if the Arab states get more and more involved in Syria, Turkey is going to want to participate. Because they don't want to lose their influence in that part of the world. Syria, as you pointed out, and Iraq here, have long borders with Turkey. It will rankle many in Turkey that the Saudis and the Qataris are involved in the fight and they're not.

BERMAN: I have to say, so many developments. It is fascinating. Thanks so much for being with here, Bobby Ghosh. Really appreciate it.

We'll have much more on the U.S. airstrikes in Syria ahead. General Wesley Clark standing by for analysis. But first, the FBI now involved in the disappearance of Virginia student Hannah Graham and the search for clues. Police have searched the home of someone they think may have saw her last. They have searched that home twice now. We'll have the latest from the police chief, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back. The air strikes on ISIS in Syria is a developing story. We will get back to it in a moment.

But first we want to get to the other search for missing UVA sophomore, Hannah Graham. Now, take a good look at this man, this is Jesse Matthew, police have put his face on this wanted poster and technically, it's for driving violations, but there's growing consideration of him obviously by the police involving her disappearance.

There's no question that they believe he may well be the last man to have been seen with Hannah Graham. Police conducted a second search of Matthew's home yesterday. Did they find something that gets them closer to finding the missing college student?

Let's go to the man who would know, Charlottesville police chief Timothy Longo. Chief we know you are very busy, thank you for joining us again this morning. What can you tell us about the need for the second search and what was found, the status of your investigation?

TIMOTHY LONGO, CHARLOTTESVILLE POLICE CHIEF: At some point in the investigation, investigators, their attention was called to some articles of clothing that might be relevant to this investigation. They petitioned the court by affidavit for a search warrant to go back to the house yesterday. Sometime I believe, sometime after the afternoon, I actually didn't find out that the warrant had been executed until sometime last evening. I spoke to investigators and obviously we're going to get those articles off to the lab as quickly as we can.

We're hopeful to get some lab results back some time this afternoon from our initial search of the vehicle, particularly the vehicle, on Friday. We're moving in that direction today and hopefully following up on more leads and doing more with our search on areas throughout the city. It's going to be a long day, an aggressive day.

CUOMO: What you're saying, obviously, you're still in a little bit of a preliminary phase. But fair question, probably cause, we don't want to keep this man in your cross hairs for to long if there is not an ability to make a case.