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Al-Shabaab Calls for Attacks on Malls; ISIS Video Shows Caged Kurdish Fighters; Bomb Blast at Ukraine Protest Kills 2; 'Birdman' Soars at Oscars; ISIS Lures British Teen Girls to Join Fight

Aired February 23, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: We have CNN's Nick Valencia on the scene in Bloomington, Minnesota, for that part of the story.

Nick, what do we know?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

It was clearly a chilling video message posted online by the Somali terror group al Shabaab over the weekend, listing a handful of potential targets in the west, including West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada, and this mall here in Minnesota right behind me.

In response to that video message the Mall of America did release a statement over the weekend saying that they're taking extra security measures, some that will be visible to shoppers, some that won't. But they also went on to say that there was business as usual here, and people were still showing up to the mall.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security saying that there is no working credible threat right now, but they are urging shoppers, specifically here at the Mall of America, to remain extra vigilant.

Also one more point to add. I spoke to some leaders in the Somali community over the weekend, one leader saying that this video was shocking and that the community here is still traumatized. That they called this group, al-Shabaab, a ruthless group that does not speak for the majority of Somalis in this community.

They do say, however, though, that they fear that those younger, more impoverished, vulnerable youths in the Somali community may be inspired by this attack. That's, of course also, what federal -- this threat, I should say. And that's, of course, what federal officials are also concerned about, as well -- Chris, Alisyn.

CUOMO: Nick, a key move by you to go to the community. Because certainly their efforts to as top the radicalization will be a very important piece of this. Thank you for the reporting.

So now to ISIS. They released a new propaganda video. This video shows more than 20 Peshmerga -- those are the Kurdish fighters -- locked up in cages, being driven around town in Iraq. Now, under obvious duress, some of them urge their fellow Peshmerga to give up the fight. We have CNN senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman. He has more from Erbil, Iraq -- Ben. BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this video

came out over the weekend. It shows 21 men in orange jumpsuits, their hands chained. They're led to cages where they're interviewed by a man with a microphone with an ISIS logo on it.

Among other things, one of the caged men calls on his comrades to stop fighting ISIS, to stop fighting, in his words, "on the side of the Jews and the crusaders," if they want to avoid a similar fate.

Now, later in this nine-minute video, we do see still photographs flashed on screen of the beheading of Egyptians in Libya last week. The video ends with just a tight shot on one of the prisoners. It's not clear whether they were executed or not. But certainly, the implication is that's a very good possibility.

Now, while this is going on, down south from here, it appears that ISIS is on the defensive when it comes to the Kurdish front lines. We understand that over the weekend there were two attempted breakthroughs of the Kurdish front lines, both fortunately failures. We understand that, in one instance, at least 50 ISIS fighters were killed when they approached the Kurdish frontlines. There were also coalition airstrikes that drove them back.

In a similar incident to the west of here, more than 30 ISIS fighters were killed. Now this is as people are talking more and more about the possibility of an offensive to retake the city of Mosul from ISIS. But we're hearing from the Iraqi defense minister, Khalid al-Obeidi, that they're very unhappy that American officials are talking numbers and talking dates. They say that this is an operation that should be secret.

Back to you.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Ben. Thanks, so much.

Let's bring in now CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Army Major General James "Spider" Marks and CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director Tom Fuentes.

Gentlemen, we have a lot of development in the war on terror to talk about this morning.

General, I want to start with what the president of Egypt talked about. He's calling for an Arab coalition to fight ISIS. Let me read to you exactly what president el-Sisi has said. He says, "The need for a unified Arab force is growing and becoming more pressing every day. The challenges in the region and facing our countries are huge challenges. We can overcome those challenges once we are together."

Clearly, that is the answer. Is there any possibility of that happening, General?

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, it's about time. I mean, frankly, this is what we have been calling for, for the longest time, with the acknowledgement that if boots on the ground were to be used -- and clearly, there's a need for soldiers on the ground -- that it would probably have to be led by somebody other than the United States and for President el-Sisi to come on board and say, "Enough is enough. Let me let Egypt be the central core point and let's build a force around it. And then let's figure out how we're going to use that force."

Obviously, details to be determined. But strategically and politically for the region, this is a big deal. And it's absolutely the right first step.

CAMEROTA: And Tom, another reason it's a big deal is because, if you just look at the numbers of how the coalition, so-called, is fighting ISIS, obviously the U.S. is doing the lion's share. According to CentCom, 80 percent of the airstrikes against ISIS still to this day are conducted by the U.S., 20 percent conducted by the rest of the coalition.

But is there an appetite among Arab countries to get involved in a meaningful way, Tom?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Alisyn, I think if there isn't, we're not going to succeed. The airstrikes aren't going to get the job done. Everybody knows that, no matter -- you know, not everybody; a few people think it will. But it won't. And we need boots on the ground.

But if it's American boots on the ground, it plays into the ISIS narrative to the Sunnis that they're, you know, in the area where they're operating in homeland that the U.S. is undecided. The Shias undecided. The Baghdad government, which they hate, backed by Iran, you know, encouraging the Shia militia groups to continue their campaigns of violence against Sunnis. It will not have a good outcome.

And we might succeed if we put enough boots, American boots on the ground, in being able to retake much of that land. But we certainly won't win the political war over the long run.

We need the Arab states to be the ones to eventually put the boots on the ground. Whether they actually end up doing it and being dedicated to this, we'll have to see. But we need that, because they're Sunni Muslims. And they can take away the ISIS narratives that only the Shias and Jews and infidels and every -- all their enemies are against them and take away, break up the alignment of Sunnis with ISIS.

CAMEROTA: General, back here at home, let's talk about this chilling warning that is coming out from al-Shabaab targeting the Mall of America in Minnesota. They have a history of mall attacks. They did this in Nairobi. How seriously should Americans be taking this, this morning?

MARKS: Well, very seriously, certainly. And the Department of Homeland Security has indicated that there is a concern, but it's not imminent.

So the real point is, is that when we see proclamations like this, we need to take them seriously. And the beginning point of any investigation or into what we think might be a network or what might unfold needs to start with the presumption that this might be very bad. There might be terrorist links. And then, through the investigation, as Tom can describe, as he has done most of his life, is you can then eliminate possibilities from there.

But we can't start with this as the assumption of petty crime. It's very, very important that we view this at its worst possible outcome and take it from there.

CAMEROTA: Tom, you do have a long history with these types of investigations. I mean, this is the very thing. This strikes the heart -- strikes fear into the heart of Americans, because it's so easy. Malls are soft targets, as we've been taught. So what's happening today to make sure that people can still go about their business at the Mall of America?

FUENTES: Well, first of all at the mall, itself, you have, you know, obviously, tremendous security. And all of these malls have, you know, literally hundreds of security cameras out in the parking lot at the entryways, down the main walkways. The stores themselves have it.

And oftentimes, you know, standard security would be one or two people in a control room checking all the different screens, you know, for what they see. So when you beef up security, you bring in more people so you can look at more cameras simultaneously and react in a more quick fashion.

Also, you would have more plain-clothes police officers walking around, uniform police officers, squad cars. The tactical teams from the FBI and the local police would be on high alert, you know, on short notice to respond.

And they already train together. They already have response plans to address an incident at a mall or movie theaters or stadiums, any place where a large number of people would be congregating and be considered a soft target, because there are so many entrances.

So all of that security, you know, will be in place.

But don't forget, al Shabaab, the attack they did at Westgate Mall, Kenya is right across their border. They have no trouble going across the porous border in Kenya. They had safe houses in Nairobi to stage, to store their weapons, to bring people in. And then they dispatched the four kids.

But the reason Westgate was such a disaster -- I mean, yes, they went in and started shooting people. But the Kenyan authorities could not get their act together. And many, many of the more than 60 that died bled to death, because the authorities didn't even try to enter that mall for something like ten hours after the attack started.

That would never happen here. We have law enforcement that have trained, that are prepared, that have the discipline, the training and the leadership to respond.

CAMEROTA: Yes. FUENTES: It won't be ten hours of standing outside scratching their heads what to do.

CAMEROTA: Yes. And let's hope that it never happens and never comes to that. That is great context.

Tom Fuentes, General Spider Marks, thanks so much for joining us on NEW DAY.

FUENTES: Thanks.

MARKS: Thanks, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Let's go to Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Alisyn. Let's go to Ukraine. There has been a lot of qualifying about this, but here's the truth. There is no ceasefire in effect. A bomb blast at a protest in Eastern Ukraine just killed two people. Ukrainian military officials are refusing to pull back their heavy weapons, because they say pro-Russian forces are shelling them.

That is the reality. Diana Magnay is live for us in Donetsk, Ukraine, a place that's really become a hub of the violence.

What is the situation on the ground there?

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chris, that is the bottom line. There is no literal ceasefire in place. It is not as heavy, the fighting, in any sense as we saw earlier last week around the town of Debaltseve. But there are still -- is still shelling in various areas, three areas, really, including here in the city of Donetsk.

Earlier this morning, round about 7 a.m. some shelling on the outskirts of the city. And you're right, the Ukrainian military says that they will not pull back their heavy weaponry, which was the second part of the Minsk agreement, until -- until there is an absolute ceasefire.

And the OSCE monitors who are meant to be overseeing the ceasefire and then the withdrawal of heavy weaponry, I've just been speaking to them on the phone. They say that they've requested from both sides an infantry of the heavy weapons to be removed. The routes that they will be taking to move them out. And then how they intend, both sides, to keep those pieces of artillery and tanks and all the rest of it that they're going to be taking out. And they've received nothing from either side, Chris.

CUOMO: Please stay safe there. And it's interesting to note that those OSCE monitors, they haven't been able to fully lock down the MH- 17 crash scene yet. Who knows? There still could be the dignity of the dead at play there. Because of the war, they just can't deal with it. Thank you for the reporting -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Well, four days and counting until funding runs dry for the Department of Homeland Security. Today the Senate expected to vote for a fourth time on a bill to fund the department. But it will almost certainly reject it again. And that's because it's tied to the president's executive actions on immigration.

If a deal is not reached by Friday, DHS will run out of cash, and we could be in for another partial government shutdown.

CUOMO: Eleven students at Wesleyan University in Connecticut sent to the hospital for possible drug overdoses. Police say the students took a bad batch of MDMA, which is known on the street as Molly. Talk to your kids about this drug. The sell on it is that it's a gentler form of meth. It is not. Two of the students reportedly in critical condition. Police are trying to figure out where the drugs came from.

CAMEROTA: That's terrible.

Well, Rudy Giuliani trying to clarify his message after saying President Obama does not love America. Giuliani writes in the "Wall Street Journal," quote, "Obviously, I cannot read President Obama's mind or heart, and to the extent that my words suggested otherwise, it was not my intention. But I can only be disheartened when I hear him claim, as he did last August, that our response to 9/11 betrayed the ideals of this country. When he interjected that 'we tortured some folks,' he undermined those who managed successfully to protect us from further attack."

A number of prominent Republicans have distanced themselves from the former New York City mayor because of those remarks.

CUOMO: He's caught in a situation, Rudy Giuliani. He didn't want to apologize overtly. Everybody is going to say he should have. And those two statements don't go together. You can't say that about me and not be saying that you know what's in the content of my character and in my heart and all those others.

CAMEROTA: Right. But again, he is just continuing a narrative that we've heard for many years. We talked about this with John and Margaret, about how conservatives often say that the president is on an apology tour, that he doesn't support America, that he doesn't love America. This is more of the same. It's interesting that now Republicans are coming out and saying, "No fair. That's a foul ball by Rudy Giuliani."

CUOMO: There was a time that, if you questioned the president's loyalty to the country it was wired as treason. So let's hope we just move on from this.

All right. So did you see the Oscars? We know our answer. But I'll tell you, she stole the show. Her look, her poise even made up for her co-star in the production. We're talking about Michaela.

Michaela Pereira joins us right now from the Montage, Beverly Hills, Hotel.

You look great. I know there was a lot of drama and a lot of things, but I just had to say, you look great. And you guys did a great job, you and the other... MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks. We had fun me and that other

guy. We had a really good time despite the rain. Despite the rain. I've got to tell you, it was a great show last night.

Let's talk about the winners right off the bat. "Birdman" winning for Best Picture. Interesting to note about that film: it's the lowest grossing film to ever win Best Picture. Not a lot of people saw it. The critics loved it, and they voted for it last night. Or at least the people at the Academy did.

Also, really moving, moving speeches last night. In fact, I want to play for you the speech from Graham Moore. He won for Best Adapted Screenplay and shared a very emotional experience he had when he was 16 years old. Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAHAM MOORE, BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY WINNER: When I was 16 years old, I tried to kill myself, because I felt weird and I felt different; and I felt like I did not belong. And now I'm standing here. And so I would like for this moment to be for that kid out there who feels like she's weird or she's different or she doesn't fit in anywhere. Yes, you do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Baby, you do belong. In fact, backstage he said that he realized he had a rare moment to have the spotlight to say something important and meaningful. And boy, did he.

Let's talk about the show. The producers promised a magic show with a lot of song, and they delivered at least on the song. Arguably, some people might even think that the show is reminiscent of the Tony's. Of course, with Neil Patrick Harris at the helm and his opening number, and then Lady Gaga and Julie Andrews with that terrific, terrific rendition. And, of course, John Legend and Common from [SIC] "Glory" with that tremendous song. Really a beautiful night of music for sure.

The rain didn't get in our way. Can I show you a quick picture? We had to get a little inventive, Chris and Alisyn where we were on the bridge. We had to get the umbrella out. Because literally, the rain was coming into our area, not just pouring down on top of us. So funny they say it never rains in L.A. We know that not to be true now. It only rains on Oscar night, two years in a row. I don't know what to say. Not my fault.

CAMEROTA: No. And you still looked glamorous, even with the huge umbrella.

PEREIRA: I had a lot of hair spray.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Got it. Great stuff, Michaela. Thanks, so much. We'll check back in.

All right. Well, back to one of the stories we're following. Kayla Mueller's grieving father takes out his anger on U.S. policy. Did his daughter die in ISIS captivity because the White House was more concerned with policy than her life?

CUOMO: A flash point in politics. If I said, "I don't think you love America," is there any chance I can say that and not be questioning what's in your heart? Rudy Giuliani says the answer is yes. "Inside Politics" will take on the botched apology and the fallout.

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CUOMO: All right. So we have two situations to unpack. First, three British teenaged girls are feared to be headed to Syria to join ISIS.

Second, the parents of Kayla Mueller, who was just killed while in ISIS captivity, blasting the U.S. no-ransom policy, saying the nation is putting this policy ahead of American lives.

Let's break these two down. We have Phil Mudd, CNN counterterrorism analyst and former CIA counterterrorism official. And Hilary Leverett, former national security member under presidents Bush and Clinton. Also the author of "Going to Tehran."

Mr. Mudd, let's start with these girls. Young angry men disaffected, uneducated, we get it. Young women, super-educated. Listen to what the sister of one of these girls has to say in describing them and what's being done to the family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RENU (ph) BEGUM, OLDER SISTER OF MISSING SCHOOLGIRL: She's an A-star (ph) student. She's -- to convince such young girls at that age that are so vulnerable and so -- it's just wrong. It's evil. It's a really evil thing to do, breaking up entire families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: The cost is obvious. But what is the cell that would work on a sophisticated, educated young woman?

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Let's start with the target here, and I use that word advisedly. The target, Chris, is not a young woman; it's a child. A 15-year-old in my world, whether it's a boy or a girl, is not a man or a woman.

CUOMO: OK.

MUDD: It's a child who's vulnerable to a message. That message is not about joining ISIS. That message is about, to an impressionable young person, "Why don't you come to a world where you can live according to an Islamic ideal? We're not about murdering people; we're not about beheading people. We're about going to a better place, starting 14 centuries ago, where the ideals you learn about in mosques are the ideals you can live here. You can't live them at home. We will give you an opportunity to live them here."

A 15-year-old does not have the capacity, if they're listening to someone whom they respect, to respond in an adult way to that message. So I look at this, and I see a headline that says someone is recruited by ISIS, I don't buy it. Someone is just persuaded that they can have a better life somewhere, and that someone is a child.

CUOMO: OK. So what about the semantic difference, or it's a real analytical principle? Hilary, what do we do about it?

HILARY LEVERETT, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY MEMBER: Well, I think there is a real analytic difference. I don't think there's a lot of data to support the assertion that these are all uneducated child -- children being recruited. There are a lot of very sophisticated, well-educated people, whether it's in the Islamic State today, or whether it's al Qaeda of yesterday. Someone like Ayman al-Zawahiri is a very educated kind of...

CUOMO: But specifically these girls. That's the concern.

LEVERETT: Yes, but it's girls as well as boys. I mean, people are targeted, because the Islamic state holds itself out as the strongest, most formidable Sunni Islamist resistance organizations that can resist the United States and our so-called, as they see it puppet governments in the Middle East.

So it's men and women, girls and boys are attracted to that kind of resistance organization as they see it.

CUOMO: But...

LEVERETT: They're not playing on some people that are stupid or illiterate. They're actually playing to people who are extremely literate, who know how to use the Internet, who can look at lots of different sophisticated arguments and weigh for themselves what they want to do.

CUOMO: Well, look I think that, just as you say there -- you know, there's a contradiction and a premise, there's also a contradiction in what we're seeing in the performance also. There are plenty of disaffected, uneducated young men getting dragged into this because they want to be warriors for something that they see as an ideal. And they're playing on that unsophistication in sending them to a death sentence.

But this is something that they're going to have to figure out how to counter-message, because when you start having women brought into this, when they have to know their fate is a horrible one, that's something that has to be countered very aggressively.

Let me ask you something else, though, while I have you here. Hilary, you have Kayla Mueller's parents come out and say no negotiating with terrorists, except when we do. We'll do it for the military, but there are all these civilians being taken. And basically, you're out of luck. Is that policy good enough?

LEVERETT: Well, it certainly isn't good enough for the family, and I don't think it's good enough for the millions of Americans whose heart goes out to the family. It's also not good enough from a policy perspective. Because clearly, for example, the Obama administration was willing last year to trade Bo Bergdahl -- for Bo Bergdahl five senior Taliban officials from Gitmo.

So when it suits the administration's interests -- and it's not just the Obama administration. It was other administrations before it. When it suits their interest to reach a political accommodation with a group, like the Obama administration looking to do that with the Taliban last year, they negotiate.

CUOMO: But...

LEVERETT: When they think that or want to forward a narrative that the group can be destroyed, so we don't need to deal with it, that's when you get this fact-free assertion that dealing with terrorists yields nothing but incentivizing their bad behavior.

CUOMO: Right. But Philip Mudd, final thought on this, because what the U.S. will say, is no, no, no, no. It's when it's military, it's no man left behind. We do what we have to do to bring our own home. And maybe they just haven't adapted to the civilian component of this yet. What's your take?

MUDD: I think that's right. There are two quick questions you've got to answer here if you're in the White House. And the president did evidently order a review of hostage policy last fall.

The question one, as Hilary said, we traded Taliban for Bo Bergdahl. Why do you tell a family that you can't negotiate with ISIS? I know there are distinctions. In my world of counterterrorism, I don't think they're huge distinctions for a family that's grieving.

Second and final, if you go into that family's living room and you say, "We can't talk to you because you're potentially going to give money, blood money, to bring your daughter home. That's a federal violation," I don't think that's good policy.

I realize giving money to a terror group to bring a girl home is a violation of federal law. But I do not think the Department of Justice and the White House can legitimately go to a grieving family who's trying to bring their daughter home and say, "We can't talk to you, because you might be breaking the law." That doesn't make sense to me.

CUOMO: Philip Mudd, Hilary Leverett, thank you very much for unpacking these two situations this morning -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker rocketing to the top tier of potential Republican presidential candidates in recent weeks. And he's finding out that being in the media spotlight has a price. He is now using Twitter to say enough is enough. John King will sort it all out for us on "Inside Politics."

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