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Obama: We "Underestimated" ISIS; U.S. Airstrikes Hit Turkey- Syria Border; Kurdish And ISIS Fighters Clash; Hong Protesters Demand Democracy; Beheading Suspect Facing Murder Charge

Aired September 29, 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 Monday, September 29th, 6:00 o'clock in the East. Kate is on maternity leave. Michaela Pereira and I at the helm. Good to have you back, my friend.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, darling -- good to be back.

CUOMO: Tell us about your vacation a little later on.

Up first, an admission from President Obama that is getting a lot of attention -- US intelligence officials underestimated ISIS. In a 60 Minutes interview, the president also admitted those same intelligence officials overestimated Iraq's ability and will to fight back against the extremist group. This as U.S.-led air attacks pounded very specific ISIS targets in Northern Syria and Iraq throughout the weekend. Air attacks by the way that three out of four Americans now support.

However those numbers don't hold up when it comes to the president's job approval ratings. They remain virtually unchanged in the mid-40s. We will show them to you in this new CNN/ORC poll. We are going to cover all of this for you.

Let's bring in White House correspondent, Michelle Kosinski. Good morning, Michelle.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Chris. Right, so we have airstrikes continuing in Iraq and Syria. Now the president openly talking about how the U.S. underestimated ISIS in the past while overestimating the ability of the locals to fight them and that is exactly what has many worried here in this country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOSINSKI (voice-over): Speaking on CBS' "60 Minutes," President Obama acknowledging what the U.S. head of intelligence has said that the government absolutely underestimated ISIS.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: They were able to reconstitute themselves and take advantage of that chaos and attract foreign fighters who believed in their jihadist nonsense and traveled everywhere from Europe to the United States to Australia to other parts of the Muslim world converging on Syria.

KOSINSKI: While the U.S. and Arab allies continued hitting ISIS from the air in both Syria and Iraq through the weekend, ISIS still managed an advance in Syria near the Turkish border.

Yet, Turkey is still not a military partner in this fight. Some European countries have joined coalition, but won't touch Syria. The U.S. is still leading this.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: That's always the case, America leads. We are the indispensable nation. We have capacity no one else has. Our military is the best in the history of the world and when trouble comes up anywhere in the world, they don't call Beijing. They don't call Moscow. They call us. That's how we roll and that's what makes this America.

KOSINSKI: So how do Americans feel about this? A new CNN/ORC poll released just this morning shows 73 percent approve the airstrikes, but about the same amount feel the U.S. will likely have to send ground troops and fewer, 61 percent, are confident the U.S. will succeed in its goal of degrading and destroying ISIS.

Bipartisan support for the mission, but now bipartisan concern, what the end will look like, whether Congress should have debated and voted on the plan, whether U.S. boots will end up on that volatile ground no one else steps up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have no choice. These are barbarians. They intend to kill us. If we don't destroy them first, we're going to pay the price.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSINSKI: Those poll numbers are interesting, it shows that more Americans now than just a few weeks ago approve of how things are going in this country and how the president is handling ISIS. But those numbers are still quite low and more than half of Americans, 51 percent, say they don't trust him as commander in chief -- Chris.

CUOMO: Interesting numbers. It's still very early, but who would have thought, Michelle, this close to the mid-term elections we'd be talking about a foreign battle and not Obamacare or immigration. Thank you for the reporting this morning -- Mich.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Chris, for the first time the Pentagon says it hit targets in a Kurdish area of Syria that was under siege by ISIS. Fierce battles have been raging between Kurdish forces and ISIS, but the question is, has the U.S. been doing enough to help out the Kurds.

Let's bring from our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr. Good morning, Barbara. We hear that the Kurds are asking for more effective airstrikes.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: They are, indeed, Michaela. Good morning. We did see one U.S. coalition airstrike over the weekend at a place called Kobani. Remember that name. That is a key area along the Turkish border just inside Syria where our own CNN crews have witnessed so much of the fighting.

That is one of the airstrikes over the weekend. There were a number of others in Syria against oil refineries, other ISIS installations. But it's raising the question about what is going on in Northern Syria along the Turkish border and why the U.S. has only had really one strike there so far.

What U.S. officials are telling me is their mission in Syria is to degrade and destroy ISIS, not to defend the Syrian Kurds at this point. That is not a U.S. mission. If they were doing it without authorization, it would be called mission creep, essentially.

So not yet, at least. But Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has said that they are looking at the situation along that Turkish border where the Syrian Kurds are struggling to fight against ISIS, talking to coalition partners.

Remember, this is right up against the Turkish border, a NATO ally. Turkey not in the fight yet, but there is some talk from the Turkish government about what their next steps may be and everyone is watching to see what the U.S. may do next.

This is really shaping up to be an air campaign where the U.S. is striking in a number of areas trying to put ISIS back on its heels. But very clearly, it will take a long time. Even the Pentagon saying airstrikes alone will never be enough -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: Delicate, yet important work. We know how vital those airstrikes are especially for the forces on the ground. Barbara Starr, thank you so much.

Let's give you some perspective from the ground now along Syria's border with Turkey. We turn to our senior international correspondent, Arwa Damon. She is in Turkey in a village controlled by ISIS near the border. What can you tell us from where you are, Arwa?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're on the Turkish side, but just across the border is a village that is controlled by ISIS. That is a village that, in fact, ISIS managed to take over after those U.S. airstrikes that took place further to the east still close to the town of Kobani that you heard Barbara Starr talking about earlier.

The town of Kobani right now between it and this ISIS frontline are only two villages. The Kurds here have been begging for more help, failing to understand how it is that coalition aircrafts can be overhead, and yet this is allowed to take place.

We have been watching all morning, a handful of mortars falling into the village in of itself. But ISIS fighters driving around motorcycles with complete impunity, bringing in even more weaponry.

And then further to the west from where we are right now, two mortar round landing inside Turkey, very close to cameras that CNN has right there in that location. Yesterday, mortars landing inside Turkey as well. So again, people here asking us over and over again, what is the coalition waiting for?

PEREIRA: All right. Help us understand a little bit more about this village of Kobani, the number of civilians that are there. We also know that ISIS has been indiscriminate in their killings, why are they feeling so threatened and cornered?

DAMON: Well, they're effectively under siege. ISIS came barrelling through here around ten days ago, taking over dozens of villages and towns. It is predominantly Kurdish part of northern Syria, sending upwards of 200,000 refugees fleeing across the border. Kobani effectively is the last town standing.

Humanitarian crisis and need aside though when it comes to the strategy in the battlefield, if Kobani falls to ISIS, that means ISIS has a direct logistical route to the border with Turkey.

When it comes to the Kurds that have proven to be fairly effective in terms of fighting ISIS and also fighting the regime. If Kobani falls to ISIS that means that the territory that they control would also be partitioned.

PEREIRA: Arwa Damon again reporting from the Turkish of the Syrian border. Thank you so much for that. Chris, we'll turn it over to you.

CUOMO: All right, Mich, let's try and figure out what's going on and we'll also get into why it's going on right now. With us, we have Retired Lt. Colonel Rick Francona, CNN military analyst and Mr. Peter Beinart, CNN political commentator and contributing editor for "Atlantic Media."

Gentleman, thank you for being with us. We are getting more dots, but of course, this is just barely representative of everything that's going on. In terms of the trending, Lt. Colonel, what are we seeing that happened over the weekend and why?

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA (RETIRED), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, we are seeing increased airstrikes in Syria. We are trying to focus on the targets that we know are there. The problem is, in Syria, there is no one on the ground that we are working with.

We are seeing these operations that Arwa just mentioned up on the Turkish border. We can bomb into the vicinity, but we can't bomb on the front lines because once you have troops in contact.

They're much too close for you to drop coordinates on unless you have someone positively controlling those airstrikes, which we don't have. We have that in Iraq. We don't have it here.

CUOMO: We will discuss the why in a just a second, but we are seeing more refinery hits and also more hit up here in Aleppo. Remember, this was the origination of U.S. only strikes against a group that's know as an al Qaeda offshoot called Khorasan. More there, more refineries. What does that mean?

FRANCONA: This tells me we hit everything the first time. This was a restrike. Tray went back to hit what they didn't get the first time. They decided not enough damage was done with those strikes. Let's go back and hit those. The refineries, again as we detect these mobile and make-shift labs, they take them out.

CUOMO: OK, so now, Peter, let's get some perspective on what's going on up here. Sometimes we are fascinated with what's going on because we can actually see it, right. There is nothing about Kobani that is particularly strategically important, right.

There are lots of Kobanis along the border. The idea that, it's right here. They're just about to go into Turkey and the Kurds are desperate for help. How do we understand that situation?

PETER BEINART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's a tremendous dilemma for the United States. On the one hand, the Kurds have been our best allies in Iraq and potentially in Syria as well.

On the other hand, they're kind of big dog in all this. Turkey, the ally that we are trying to draw into this fight, which has the air force and the army that can deal a significant blow to ISIS is very, very concerned that this war is going to lead to Turkish independence.

It could mean to succession within Turkey. So we're trying to balance on the one hand. The allies that we have the Kurds and supporting them in Syria, with on the other hand not alienating Turkey whose support we need.

CUOMO: Now these go hand-in-hand the Kurds, it sounds very compelling. You have to help us. You said you were going to help us. We can't just bomb and there are no coordinated airstrikes. There is no infrastructure. People don't understand how you actually support the ground from the air. What is missing?

FRANCONA: Well, what's missing is someone on the ground that actually is lazing the targets or designating the targets with smoke. Some way to control where the bombs will be dropped.

CUOMO: Otherwise.

FRANCONA: Once have you troops in contact, you will cause tremendous amounts of friendly casualties, and that we don't want, which goes to this question about boots on the ground. That's what this debate is about. Will you put U.S. troops in close contact on the front lines so you can have more effective airstrikes, but that could put them in harm's way.

CUOMO: Now people will say, well, that can't work. That's what we did in Afghanistan some years ago with a northern alliance. That proved very effective there.

FRANCONA: It was very effective. If you get just a handful of special operations troops in there that know how to call in airstrikes, they can be very effective. Because they can leverage all of the ordinances flying around in the sky and put it directly where the bombs need to go. We can stop this advance, but we just don't have people there.

CUOMO: All right. Now so the big concern is who is there to do it? That's really why Turkey is so important. People aren't going to understand the capabilities. Just how big and powerful is their military?

FRANCONA: Let's look at the Turkish Armed Forces. The Turkish Armed Forces are the sixth largest in the world. When you talk about NATO, they're second to the United States. But the United States is spread out world ide. Turkey is the big gorilla in NATO.

If you take Turkey's forces and you stack them up against the rest of NATO. You take the next largest forces are Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. Turkey surpasses all three of them combined.

CUOMO: So if they want to roll through, they could. So the obvious, Peter, is why not, why haven't we gotten Turkey on board the coalition? Why haven't they gotten this fighting force involved? It's right on their border. Shouldn't they care?

BEINART: Well, it's pretty because it's right on their border. They are worried about retaliation from ISIS. They are worried about the Kurdish succession movement that has been a big problem in their own country and over the past couple years, Turkey's primary concern has been Assad.

They have taken a position that we should focus on Assad first then deal with these jihadist militants. The U.S. is trying to push the Turks to flip that around. The Turks are worried, they have been very hostile to Assad from the beginning and are worried that they could ultimately end up strengthen him.

FRANCONA: They're watching what's going on across the border. They say ISIS is a threat to Assad. ISIS is a threat to Baghdad, but ISIS right now is not are a threat to Turkey.

CUOMO: But it's taking its people.

FRANCONA: When they perceive it's a threat to Turkey then they'll act.

CUOMO: Well, that actually happened?

FRANCONA: It looks more likely today. You have to give the Obama administration some credit. I don't think a few weeks ago, most thought it would be on the verge of a coalition that had Shia Iraq, governments like Saudi, which are very, very hostile to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Remember, Turkey supports the Muslim brotherhood. There is a deep divide between Turkey and Saudi Arabia over this question about the Muslim Brotherhood. To be able to create a coalition that had both Shia and Sunni and Sunni countries pro and anti-Muslim Brotherhood were deeply quite a remarkable accomplishment. What it means oak is a different question. But diplomatically, I think it's actually pretty impressive.

CUOMO: It's very interesting to see as we are moving on to this early stages here. What's going on is getting much more support from the American people and these polls were saying, however, this is still you have to remember the easy part.

All these politics and these machinations you guys are talking about, much harder to achieve and moving much slowly than the bombing on the ground. Lieutenant Colonel, Peter Beinart, thank you very much for joining us. Appreciate it -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, so much complexity there. We want to turn now to another situation of tension happening right now, riot police in Hong Kong remain on guard as protesters pack the streets in a pro-democracy movement.

They pack the streets. They remain vocal. Even though officials say the riot police have pulled back. Organizers aren't going quietly though. They are accusing police of using heavy-handed tactics against the crowd.

CNN's Ivan Watson is live this morning in Hong Kong. Ivan, good to have you. Give us an idea of what the situation is on the ground. It looks like you are in the midst of those demonstrators.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Michaela. Look at this sea of humanity, these thousands and thousands of people, the demonstrators who have occupied the main highway that runs through Hong Kong, through the city, through the financial hub.

They have paralyzed traffic during what should be rush hour traffic, people trying to get home from work and all because this overwhelmingly young crowd of demonstrators is demanding more democracy, more freedom. They are standing up, not only to the government here in this former British colony of Hong Kong, but also standing up through the ruling communist party that governs and controls not only Hong Kong but also mainland China. And saying they want true free and fair elections in 2017.

Early this morning, late last night, this crowd was being tear gassed. But they came back and they stayed here. The riot police have pulled back and these kids are saying they won't leave until they get what they ask for -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, Ivan. I mean, that sea of humanity for as far as your camera can show us is unbelievable and remarkable, another area pushing for democracy and political reform.

Thank you so much for being on the ground there to give us a sense of what is happening.

Certainly a lot going on in the news today as always. Christine Romans is here with the headlines.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good Monday morning, everybody, it is Monday.

Let's go to Chicago first where the FAA says it will take weeks to get that city's fire-damaged air traffic control center back online. Officials hope to have it repaired and return to full service by October 13th. About 3,600 flights have been delayed or cancelled since Friday at O'Hare and Midway after an air traffic employee apparently set the fire before a suicide attempt.

Afghanistan has a new president this morning. Ashraf Ghani has taken the oath of office in the country's first peaceful democratic transition of power since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Ghani succeeds Hamid Karzai after a three-month standoff over disputed election results. U.S. helps broker a compromise, allowing the runner-up to assume a top diplomatic post.

Jury selection begins this morning in the sentencing phase of Jodi Arias' murder trial. Arias has already been found guilty of first degree murder for the 2008 shooting and stabbing death of her boyfriend Travis Alexander. The original jury was deadlocked. Arias needs just one voter to vote against the death penalty to have her life spared.

It's a girl for Chelsea Clinton. The former first daughter welcomed a baby girl. Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky, this is Friday, New York City, the first child for Clinton and her husband Marc and the first grandchild for the former president and secretary of state. Chelsea Clinton chose not to find out the baby's gender until she gave birth. Mom, dad, baby and beaming grandparents are said to be doing well. She said, there are so few mysteries life where the answer is always good thing, a boy or a girl. That she wanted to go that route.

PEREIRA: Those are some happy grandparents right there, beaming.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely, the second most special little girl born recently.

PEREIRA: We have another one. I can't wait to see her.

CUOMO: Cecelia E.

PEREIRA: What a beautiful name.

Baby Bolduan, she's here.

CUOMO: Yes.

ROMANS: Well, she's not here.

PEREIRA: She's here.

CUOMO: She's right here.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: Right now, they're at home probably watching. Kate likes that. All right. We have new information for you about that Oklahoma man accused of beheading a female co-worker. Charges could be filed within hours against a 30-year-old Alton Nolen. We're going to tell you about the incident now the police believe may have been what triggered the madness.

PEREIRA: A horrifying situation there.

Also in Japan, dozens of bodies left stranded by a volcano in Japan. Why search crews have been ordered to now stay away from that scene for now. We'll tell you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Prosecutors are expected to file murder charges this morning against the man accused of beheading a female colleague in a suburb of Oklahoma City. Police say 30-year-old Alton Nolen had just been fired from his job before he went on a bloody rampage. We are finding more now about the suspects' past this morning.

Our Deb Feyerick is here. This is such a disturbing tale.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is such a very disturbing tale. Investigators right now are really trying to understand what drew Alton Nolen to Islam and whether he may have been inspired by the terror group ISIS, whether the attack may have been premeditated.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK (voice-over): New details are emerging about the man accused of brutally beheading a female co-worker at an Oklahoma food processing plant last week. People who knew him say they were stunned.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He really was just a normal person.

FEYERICK: Police say 30-year-old Alton Nolen is expected to be charged today with first degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon, allegedly going on a knifing spree inside his workplace at Vaughan Foods after being fired. An FBI probe into Nolen's background is underway. Police say he recently converted to Islam and tried to convert his workers. Members of his mosque describe him as quiet.

SAAD MOHAMMED, ATTENDED THE SAME MOSQUE AS NOLEN: You can tell he was different from everyone else. As far as violence, we never saw it coming.

FEYERICK: Nolen's knife spree was stop when he was shot twice by Mark Vaughan, the company CEO who's also a reserved deputy with the Oklahoma County sheriffs office, shots fired recorded in this 911 call.

CALLER: It sound like he's running around out there.

DISPATCHER: OK. And that's a gunshot.

(GUNSHOT)

CALLER: And that -- that's a gunshot.

FEYERICK: Other disturbing details coming to light, a beheading posted on his Facebook page under the alias Jah'Keem Yisrael. Officials have found no links to terrorism, but Oklahoma residents wonder if the attack could have been influenced by Muslim extremism.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My son was raised up in a loving home.

FEYERICK: In this video, two women who say they're relatives come to his defense.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's two sides to every story and we're only hearing one.

FEYERICK: Oklahoma police revealed Nolan has a lengthy rap sheet. In 2010, he got into a scuffle with a state trooper during a traffic stop. She made this chilling statement to CNN.

TROOPER BETSY RANDOLPH, OKLAHOMA HIGHWAY PATROL: If there would have been anyway to know the things that he is alleged to have done a couple of days ago, I would have killed him when I had the opportunity.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: And even assaulting the officer indicates that Alton Nolen had aggression issues. He had been incarcerated for a number of years. Recently released in 2013. He appeared to try to turn his life around. However, it simply didn't happen.

It's unclear whether the attack is premeditated or whether he was simply acting out. The women he killed, we have to keep that in mind, 50-year-old Colleen Hufford, her family is grieving her loss. There is another woman who's recovering from stab wounds. This was very, very serious.

This is a crime of opportunity. He simply walked in and attacking the people.

PEREIRA: They were targeted.

FEYERICK: They were not targeted, it doesn't seem. He walked in and began attacking the first people he saw, the second he walked through that door. So, it's really tragic.

PEREIRA: They're going to need counseling. That is a traumatic events, to witness, to be around. It's called horrifying.

FEYERICK: It really is. Also, you have to think about it. Beheading somebody is an intensely personal crime. It's not somebody that can deal with a gun. There is an intimacy to it.

So, that, too, is problematic.

PEREIRA: Deb Feyerick, a really horrifying story to hear about and to learn details about. Thank you for that.

All right. The search for more than 20 missing hikers has been suspended in central Japan after a deadly volcano eruption killed dozens of people on Saturday. We're going to tell you why rescue crews are now being ordered to stay away from that scene this morning.

CUOMO: And there is a manhunt underway in Ferguson, Missouri. Yes, that Ferguson. This time the attention is for a gunman who wounded a police officer. Is this incident anyway connected to the shooting death of Michael Brown? That's the obvious speculation. We'll get into whether or not there is any basis for it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)