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Desperate Search For Hannah Graham; U.S. Airstrikes Hit ISIS In Syria; "Imminent Attack" Against U.S. Disrupted in Syria; White House Intruder Had 800 Rounds Of Ammo

Aired September 23, 2014 - 07:30   ET

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

CHIEF TIMOTHY LONGO, CHARLOTTESVILLE VIRGINIA POLICE CHIEF: So we're moving in that direction today and hopefully following up on some more leads and doing some more with our search on some areas throughout the city. It's going to be a long day, an aggressive day.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: By what you're saying, obviously you're still in a little bit of a preliminary phase. Fair question, probable cause, we don't want to keep this man in your crosshairs for too long, if there's not an ability to make a case highly prejudicial. Do you think that you're getting closer to a probable cause basis for an arrest?

LONGO: I hope so. But as I've said many times before, we make that determination not unilaterally. That determination is made closely with the prosecuting authority and we meet with him almost daily about what we have with regard to this investigation.

But you know, talking to Jesse is really so important because as you pointed out, we do believe he's the last person to have seen her before she disappeared. That's why there's such a press to communicate with him.

CUOMO: All right, well, you have your police force, which by all accounts is very capable. You now have the FBI included in the investigation. How hard can it be to find this man?

LONGO: Well, you know, it's not as easy as one might think. We have a variety of resources, activated, deployed in an effort to do so. We also have the Virginia State Police that are working very closely with us.

And obviously, Chris, we're not going to disclose what those resources maybe. But make no mistake about it we are as aggressively as we legally can, trying to locate him.

CUOMO: Talking to family, did you find out if he has counsel representing him, those in his circle, does anybody know where he is?

LONGO: Yes, we've -- my understanding is that that investigators spoke with family members yesterday, they've been very cooperative. My understanding something they will certainly work with us to try to locate him to the best of their abilities as well. I do know that he's represented by counsel. I'm not at liberty to disclose that attorney's name. I suspect that will be done pretty quickly. I'll speak with the commonwealth attorney this morning to see whether or not we can do that so that folks have an understanding who he may be.

CUOMO: Obviously, you don't want to get too much of a single focus. You want to be open to all other possibilities.

LONGO: Absolutely not.

CUOMO: But right now as you're looking at the situation from more of 30,000 feet is there any other scenario that makes sense on your radar right now?

LONGO: Well, there's other scenarios that could have occurred. I alluded to one of them yesterday. That might be that at one some point in time when they came out on to this mall together, they separated.

We don't know that, no one has told us that. That's why it's so important to talk to Jesse. We're following up on additional leads that folks continue to push into. So either through email or tip line about others that may have been seen on the mall that night.

And as you say, Chris, we are not -- although it may seem our focus is narrow, our focus is very broad. But a logical person to speak to is the one who we believe was the last with her before she disappeared.

CUOMO: Chief, because it is so damning that Jesse Matthews knows you want to talk to him and hasn't made himself available except for that initial appearance. Let me get your reaction from something.

Is there anything to the speculation that when he entered the police station to talk he was confronted in a very aggressive manner and somewhat accused and that upset him and he pulled away and now believes that there's a witch hunt going on?

LONGO: No, that did not occur.

CUOMO: OK, so your understanding is it wasn't about what was done to him. He did all of these -- whatever actions he took were on solely his own motivation?

LONGO: You know, I don't know what motivated him and it would be wrong for me to speculate. I know what our interaction with him was, but I don't know is what the discussion he might have had with counsel. That was something. Certainly I wasn't privy to.

CUOMO: But there was no reason for him to feel spooked?

LONGO: No, sir.

CUOMO: All right, Chief Longo, thank you so much. This is very important. We want to keep it in the national eye. We want to help any way we can. Let us know how we can do that, sir. LONGO: And I appreciate that, Chris, thank you.

CUOMO: All right, Chief, thank you.

Let's get over to John Berman now. He is in for Michaela and he's got headlines going on. This is a big news day -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, thanks so much, Chris. In the midst of all the information breaking overnight about the U.S.-led airstrikes against ISIS targets in Syria. President Obama will be among 120 heads of states attending this morning's climate change summit at the United Nations.

Top executives from big oil will also be there to announce a series of new initiatives designed to reduce carbon emissions. About 100 demonstrators were arrested Monday in New York for blocking streets near the stock exchange. They are protesting what they call Wall Street's contribution to global warming.

Also breaking overnight, a deadly shoot-out with suspects that Israel says abducted and killed three teens over the summer. Israel's military said it carried out an operation in the west bank to apprehend the pair.

A fire fight ensue leaving one suspect dead, the other seriously wounded. Tensions between Israel and Hamas ratcheted up over the summer after the teens' bodies were found.

Three Afghanistan military officers who vanished while training at a Massachusetts military base now in custody at the U.S./Canada border. They're being questioned by federal authorities.

It's still not clear why the men vanished. They were last seen on Saturday at a mall on Cape Cod in the town of Hyannis. U.S. officials insist they pose no threat to the public, but I am sure they are relieved. They are now in custody.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: So we don't know if they were seeking asylum or not. But perhaps they were.

BERMAN: Perhaps they were headed to the border.

CUOMO: John said there have been cases of that before. We'll know soon enough. That's for sure.

KEILAR: Thanks, John.

Well, ISIS targets, this is the big story we're following today. Now under attack. There are five Arab nations supporting U.S. airstrikes. We will break down the importance of those partnerships as the fighting rages. And General Wesley Clark will join us on that next.

We're learning frightening new details about that White House fence- jumper who made all the way into the White House. He had been stopped multiple times outside the White House once carrying a hatchet. And what he had in his car, even worse. We have details ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: All right, we have breaking news for you. Overnight, the U.S. and five Arab nations blasted ISIS targets in Syria. Give you a moment there to see and hear what is going on, probably right now. This is video from inside the USS Philippine, a missile being launched obviously on its way to a terror target in Syria.

This is significant escalation of the U.S. military engagement. Certainly you could call it war and it comes on the eve of President Obama's appearance at the United Nations.

He is expected to lead a Security Council meeting and hoping to build a broader coalition against ISIS. We've learned the U.S. military on their own hit a different terror network, an offshoot of al Qaeda called the Khorasan Group inside Syria.

Why? They say an imminent attack against the U.S. homeland was thwarted. That's going to be a big headline today. Let's turn to General Wesley Clark, former NATO Supreme Allied commander and senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center.

Also the author of "Don't Wait for The Next War, Strategy for American Growth and Global Leadership." Should have read that book, General, because that's exactly where we find ourselves. Thank you so much for your perspective this morning. We couldn't have anybody better for this situation.

Let's start with the headline. OK, you have the idea of being in Syria, attacking al Qaeda because of an imminent threat to the homeland. We hadn't heard anything about this. What do you make of it?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), SENIOR FELLOW, UCLA BURKLE CENTER: Well, when the news came out about Khorasan Group over the weekend. They got a base there. There are a lot of these terrorist groups. There are off shoots. We are watching them all and when we've got the authority to strike, we are going to strike them.

CUOMO: So that is done. It shouldn't come as a big -- should we be scared is the question. There was an imminent threat and we didn't know about it? What was it? Where was it?

CLARK: Because this is going to go on for weeks and months and maybe years with terrorists. The ideology is out there. Young men are being misled and drawn into this. We've got a much stronger homeland security structure than we had before 9/11 and we're engaged over here.

When we pick up the information, we can act. In this case, we acted in Syria. We didn't have the authority to act in Syria this way before, now we've done it.

CUOMO: And that's a big point.

CLARK: It's a big point. CUOMO: We're hearing that, but just being in Syria was a big step because there are lots of different goals and groups in there. That the U.S. and its friends may want to get after.

CLARK: That's right and there will be no sanctuary for terrorists. That's the basic message of U.S. strategy. It has to be. If you're a terrorist organization and you're a threat to the United States of America, we're going to come get you, one way or the other.

CUOMO: So this could have been ongoing manhunt. They hit there the U.S., all by themselves and then it's about what they did against ISIS specifically, which we were expecting. Now we get what they call the first punch in the nose.

Most notably, we have the al Qaeda offshoot, we talked about that. This is Raqqa. This is known as the ISIS stronghold. The Iraqis were afraid to get in there. We went there first. The reason pretty obvious, right?

CLARK: Sure. If you can take out any of their command and control and communications, where the power lines are. You probably know where the fibre optic cables are if there are any or telephone wires.

You may have seen them going in and out of buildings, you have a good idea where the command centres are. Maybe they are dispersed, which you're taking out what you know right now. You'll keep observation over it.

You'll come back and strike it again and again and again and continue to watch for their signs of reconstitution and strike. But the big one is the strike on the oil refinery. They've been making --

CUOMO: That's right here.

CLARK: That's right. Between $1 million and $3 million a day, selling illegal oil. They claim they're a state? Fine. This is an attack on the state finances. That's the strike that's important that immediately cuts their ability to pay and organize. They're paying their Islamic State terrorist soldiers a lot of money.

CUOMO: And it plays into the support role that U.S. wanted to help out in a regional conflict. Who's buying that oil, right? Somebody's got to buy it I know it's the black market, under the radar. But we can find out a lot of things --

CLARK: It's going this way. We know it's going this way. It's going through many different channels. Now that we're over Syria, we're looking at this refinery. We know where the pipeline network is if they're moving it by pipeline, we know that.

If they're moving it by trucks, we will see it. This is a big learning lesson for is. They may have thought they knew what the United States could do in Iraq. They don't have any idea what we can really do. And it's also a big lesson for Bashar Al Assad and for Russia. We're engaged now. CUOMO: That's interesting, very, Mr. Putin been very quiet. He's not known for that I guess he's just watching and seeing how much of the world can join up for a righteous cause.

You mentioned Assad. We do have word that the U.S. walked the line here. They let the Syrian envoy to the U.N. know through the Iraqi foreign minister, they didn't go to them directly. But they said through the Iraqi foreign minister to the U.N.

Envoy for Syria, we're going to be in there, we're going to be bombing and it's going to be a while. They engaged Syria, and said, we knew about this.

CLARK: And gave them the opportunity not to try to engage coalition aircraft because had they done so, they would have lost. Now we've been very respectful of the Syrian air defense network. We say lots of things about it.

And the Russians have provided some radar and there's probably Russian service members in there. So we'd rather not get into that. This is to focus on the terrorist forces. But obviously the United States and its coalition partners are going to defend themselves. And Assad has to respect that.

CUOMO: And he has so far.

CLARK: While we're doing this, remember, we've still got other major issues. We've got Ukraine. There's a nominal cease-fire. But President Putin is pushing, he's organized, he's redeployed Russian forces, they took some serious casualties.

They're refitting those forces and Ukrainian president, Poroshenko is struggling to stabilize and reconstitute his forces. We've got China walking and the Iranian nuclear issue bubbling on the sidelines.

CUOMO: It will be interesting to see people's willingness to be on the winning team. That takes us to other two spots, up in the northeast of Syria and down on the Iraqi border, these are two areas where the local fighters are getting beat up pretty badly and a big part of the mission is to support who will be on the ground.

A big question mark. They helped out in the air. That the Iraqis took big losses because they didn't get air support. Hundreds and hundreds of men killed. So there was bombing there and the Kurds up north, obviously the Peshmerga, very important for the ground effort. What signal does that send?

CLARK: You've got to do the best you can with this. But it's very difficult to bring in air support unless up precise knowledge of where the friendly elements are. This is the tougher problem. The cutting edge of the battlefield.

This is where the Special Forces officers are in the command posts. They're reporting on current locations, they're training them to know where they are. I'm sure we're giving them GPS, location capabilities they don't have it. So they can accurately call in the strikes. That won't be just here, but hopefully inside Iraq. You know about two-thirds of ISIS still in Syria, but one third is in Iraq and they're still pushing in Iraq and engaging forces.

CUOMO: So this is what's going on right now this is the military aspect and in some ways, as complex as it is, this is the easy part of the job. The hard part will be what you were referring to, how do you deal with the rest of the international community? The money flow, the building of the Iraqi state that is what leadership often is about. And tell me, what's the title of the book we should have read?

CLARK: "Don't Wait For The Next War." We have to look beyond the 24- hour news cycle you all at CNN are so good at. This is part of the larger strategy, the United States is redeploying from a decade and a half of war in this region.

We're trying to leave behind modernizing states that can respond to the needs of the people and there's an ongoing struggle. A struggle between terrorist and state. A struggle between Sunni and Shia Islam.

We're trying to play a constructive role in that without getting totally drawn back in. We don't want a Judeo-Christian Army on the ground in the midst of this religious struggle where is ISIS using Sunni Islam fundamentalism to motivate their soldiers, an extreme version of Sharia Law.

CUOMO: Let us show our leadership in other ways.

CLARK: That's exactly right, it is their war.

CUOMO: General Clark, thank you so much and again the book is called?

CLARK: "Don't Wait for the Next War."

CUOMO: All right, thank you very much, sir. Appreciate your perspective here as always. We'll have more on the air strikes in Syria ahead.

But first, we are learning startling new details about the man who jumped the fence at the White House. He had been written off as one random incident, right? No, he made it to the house, he had a knife, but it's not the first time that they've stopped him had and there were things in his car you'll want to know about, straight ahead.

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KEILAR: Welcome back. We will have more breaking coverage of the airstrikes in Syria ahead, but let's get to that major security lapse here at home. We are learning disturbing details about White House fence jumper and Iraq veteran, Omar Gonzalez.

Prosecutors now say police found more than 800 rounds of ammunition, two hatchets and a machete in his car. And another stunning revelation, Gonzalez was arrested in Virginia back in July with 11 guns, an ax, and a map of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

White House correspondent, Michelle Kosinski, is following the latest developments for us. This is so alarming -- Michelle.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are talking about 11 guns, assault rifles, and three loaded pistols, scopes that a sniper would use, and a map of Washington, D.C. with a line leading directly to the White House.

And that is what police found in Gonzalez' car in July and charged only with reckless driving and possession of the sawed off shotgun and the Secret Service was notified and then a month later the Secret Service stopped him here at the White House at a different gate.

He was walking around with a hatchet in his waistband and he wasn't arrested that time. He was just sent on his way, but is this part of what the Secret Service going to be reviewing the prior knowledge of and dealings with him and were proper procedures followed.

Not only at those prior times, but Friday night when Gonzalez was able to get over the White House fence and make it across not only the lawn, but inside of the White House where he was then tackled by the Secret Service.

In the immediate sense, the Secret Service has already made some changes. We are seeing the additional staffing, and more surveillance outside of the White House, and this new fence they put up. It is temporary, and it is much smaller.

But it adds a buffer of about eight or nine feet between the passerby and the existing White House fence. But they are also looking at longer term what enhancements they might need to do and will they be doing bag check of the people walking around and restrict access?

It is all in the planning, and the reviewing stage at this point. But by the way, the White House says from now on, when that front door is not in use, it will be locked -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Well, you sure would hope so. Michelle Kosinski at the White House. Thank you so much.

The U.S. launching airstrikes on ISIS targets inside of Syria for the first time, but the U.S. did not go it alone. Five Arab nations also participating in the attack. We will get the very latest from the Pentagon spokesman, himself.

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