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New Day

Guilty Verdict in 'American Sniper' Trial; Senate Showdown Over Homeland Security Funding; ISIS Abducts 150 Christians in Syria; Missing U.K. Teen Girls May be in Syria; South Braces for Winter Storm

Aired February 25, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We, the jury --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just looking for help for my son.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Find the defendant, Eddie Ray Routh, guilty.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've waited two years for God to get justice for us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nearly 100 Christians in northeast Syria were kidnapped.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They want to horrify the west.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What these men are worshipping is an extremist violent interpretation of Islam.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You hit an icy spot on the road, or a slushy spot, and just hold on for the ride.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ice, sleet, snow, freezing rain expected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with, Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, February 25th, just before 6:00 in the East.

The verdict is in the American sniper murder trial is in and it is guilty. A Texas jury rejecting Eddie Ray Routh's insanity defense in the shooting deaths of former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and friend Chad Littlefield. The jury of ten women and two men took less than two and a half hours to decide.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And the judge in the case then immediately sentencing the former Marine to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

And this morning we're hearing for the first time all of the real-life drama unfolding in that courtroom.

CNN's Martin Savidge joins us from Stephenville, Texas, with more. That was a fast verdict, Martin.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It definitely was. Good morning to both of you.

And you know, it was pretty clear that this jury from the get-go was not buying into any of that insanity defense. None of that "pig man" kind of defense that was being put out there. And you know that by this simple fact: It took longer for closing arguments than it did for the jury to make up its mind.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUDY LITTLEFIELD, MOTHER OF CHAD LITTLEFIELD: We've waited two years for God to get justice for us on behalf of our son.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): Breaking overnight, the "American Sniper" trial, captivating the nation, is over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We, the jury, find the defendant, Eddie Ray Routh, guilty.

SAVIDGE: Deliberating for less than three hours, the jury found 27- year-old Eddie Ray Routh...

EDDIE RAY ROUTH, FOUND GUILTY OF MURDER: I told her I had to kill men today.

SAVIDGE: ... guilty of killing former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and his friend, Chad Littlefield, the former Marine seemingly showing no reaction as the judge sentenced him to a life behind bars without parole.

TIM MOORE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: He thought he had to take their lives, because he was in danger.

SAVIDGE: Jurors rejecting defense arguments that Routh, diagnosed with PTSD, was legally insane.

E. ROUTH: I've been so paranoid schizophrenic all day, I don't know what to even think of the world right now.

SAVIDGE: The 27-year-old, shown here in 2013 moments after police arrested him for shooting Kyle and Littlefield multiple times at a gun range. Later Routh told police that he believed his victims were pig- human hybrids.

E. ROUTH: They're pigs. I've been smelling it this whole time.

SAVIDGE: In an unusual circumstance, the judge barred audio from the trial until the verdict was reached.

JODI ROUTH, MOTHER OF EDDIE RAY ROUTH: He was very suicidal. SAVIDGE: Routh's mother, Jodi, who claimed Eddie once threatened to

kill himself and their family, retold what she did the moment she heard her son killed Kyle.

J. ROUTH: I had Chris's phone number in my phone, and I dialed that number, praying to God that he would answer.

SAVIDGE: Taya Kyle, the wife of the former sniper, was overcome with emotion on the stand...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take a minute if you need to.

SAVIDGE: ... recalling the last time she saw her husband.

KYLE: Just that we loved each other and a kiss and a hug like we always did.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: By the way, Taya Kyle was not in the courtroom when that verdict was read, because she had stormed out during closing arguments, she was so angry by some of the points that the defense made about the murder of her husband.

CUOMO: Understandable, Martin. Thank you very much for the reporting.

Well, it was obviously fast. But was this verdict obvious at all? Paul Callan, CNN legal analyst, senior legal partner at Callan Legal and a former NYC homicide prosecutor and criminal defense attorney. Joey Jackson, HLN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney.

Gentlemen, two and a half hours. Very fast. The judge pushing them to deliberate. Do you think that was a factor, and are you surprised by the quickness of the verdict? I wasn't -- Paul.

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I'm very surprised at how fast the verdict went. I mean, whatever you want to say about this case, there were complicated issues involving mental illness. And there's no question he did it, obviously, but I would have expected it probably to go overnight in terms of deliberations. So the speed of it surprised me.

CUOMO: And Joey, let's talk about something here. We're going to learn, and throughout the show we're going to be playing you a lot of sound about what was said by people during the trial. Because we couldn't during it, but now we can.

The prosecutor said, "Crazy don't run." And the prosecutor said, "He was a weird little guy," and the prosecutor said, "Some of us have cancer. Some of us have heart disease. But we're still good citizens. I'm tired of mental illness being an excuse." Do you find those acceptable comments?

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, what they did as the prosecutor, and certainly on appeal you can argue that, you know, was it a fair comment or was it too inflammatory? But at the end of the day, what the prosecutor did, I think skillfully, was to embrace mental illness, but at the same time, say that that more relates to someone who is troubled, as opposed to meeting the definition of legal insanity, which is the distinction between right from wrong.

CUOMO: I think the prosecutor was playing on the stigma where people don't want to see mental illness as illness. They want to see it as an excuse, and that's why they use the word "crazy," which is a stigma word. That's why they characterize them as weird instead of ill. And that's why they said...

JACKSON: Weird little guy.

CUOMO: ... cancer -- yes, cancer and heart disease?

CALLAN: But you know -- but you know...

CUOMO: Cancer and heart disease. How do those diseases deal with your ability to deal know right from wrong.

CALLAN: Chris, when you think about the jury system in America, how strange is it. We have asked this jury to make a diagnosis, a psychiatric diagnosis of a defendant before they decide a criminal case, a huge responsibility that we put on juries in America.

CUOMO: Now, was it enough because of the fairness under law; that's justice, right? We all know that as lawyers, and you know that now from watching all these things take on. The legal definition was narrow: Do you know right from wrong? Was this guy done, Paul, when he kept saying, "It was wrong, it was wrong." He ate a burrito; he ran afterwards. He took the car, took the cell phone. Was it over?

CALLAN: Every insanity case that I've looked at through the years has, I would call it, a smorgasbord, a collection, a buffet of evidence. And there's always evidence that right and wrong was understood by the mentally ill person. But that's usually outweighed by other things indicating the severity of the mental illness.

And the jurors in this case, they kind of picked and choosed [SIC]. They picked the issues that they wanted to believe in to find him guilty.

CUOMO: Was this guy mentally ill?

CALLAN: He's clearly mentally ill, but was he legally insane? And that's what people have to understand, is that there's a difference.

CUOMO: Do you think the system is fair?

CALLAN: It depends on how -- is it fair in terms of us saying there are so many mentally ill people who commit crimes, we can't let them all go? And this is the underlying fear that nobody expresses.

CUOMO: You put them in a hospital and get them help. This guy is in jail for the rest of his life.

CALLAN: I'm not -- I'm not talking about that, Chris.

CUOMO: Is that going to address his illness?

CALLAN: I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the fact that the prisons in America are filled with people who have done robberies, rapes and other garden-variety crimes who have mental illness.

CUOMO: Or they're drug addicts.

CALLAN: And if we say...

CUOMO: Which may be mental illness itself.

CALLAN: ... people with mental illness who commit crimes go to hospitals, not jails, the jails will empty. The hospitals cannot accommodate them. And you know something? Jurors know this. And they're very, very careful. This is a special thing that they have, for only very, very special kinds of crimes where you get a not guilty by insanity.

CUOMO: You know what's going on in America right now as they're watching this? They're saying, "Boy, that Cuomo is soft on crime, Joey Jackson. He's just a bleeding heart. He wants to help all of these sick people. He doesn't want them to be held accountable for what they do like everybody else." Are they like everybody else? In this case.

JACKSON: Here's the point. The point is that insanity to begin with is looked upon with great skepticism, and the reason for that, Chris, is we cannot see inside people's minds. As I've said before, if Chris Cuomo is sick, if Paul Callan is sick, you might slow some signs, in addition (ph) of being sick. Your nose is running; you look feverish; your skin color changes. As a result of being mentally ill, we can't get inside your mind.

And that's why nationally, there's a skepticism of this. And in several states, there is no excuse that you can use with regard to saying that you're legally insane. It's just not an excuse.

CALLAN: And I want to remind Chris Cuomo of one thing that went on as we covered this trial every morning, Joey and myself. You more often than not called in favor of the prosecution, saying that they had put on the board that he understood right and wrong. So now looking back, we're saying...

CUOMO: But the system is what it is. We're playing within it.

CALLAN: The system is what it is and this jury applied Texas law. They probably apply it correctly. So I don't think you can criticize this jury for doing what the law probably required them to do.

CUOMO: I 100 percent agree, and it was a horrible thing done here; and people want to not see someone rewarded for doing something horrible. Chris Kyle, Chad Littlefield were good men, trying to use their lives in a good way, and their families will never have them back. Understood. But Joey Jackson, my question is, when you have a prosecutor, these are social commentaries, as well. Mental illness, we call you crazy. You're a weird little guy, and we're going to liken it to heart disease and cancer. Does that show that we know what we're dealing with yet in this society, with the maturity about mental health?

JACKSON: Well, the reality is we do have to have a greater discussion about mental health, and people who have mental health issues need to be treated.

But this jury had ample evidence to find either way, I would argue. There was information before this jury to say this was a premeditated act. If you look at yesterday's testimony with regard to the expert who analyzed the crime scene. He described it as a sneak attack.

CUOMO: Right.

JACKSON: That would be indicative of someone who plotted and planned, waited until people could not pose any danger to themselves. And then acted and acted to take a life.

And so with respect to the jury's decision, Chris, there was ample evidence before them to make a decision that this person knew right from wrong. And that's the legal definition.

At the same time, there was evidence before that jury, where they could have concluded that, based upon the mindset of Routh, his history of illness, the medications he was on...

CUOMO: Right.

JACKSON: ... the statements he was making that were irrational, rambling and incoherent that they could have went the other way. And so therefore...

CUOMO: Texas makes it easy for this to be the verdict. The jury looked at these things. We're not surprised by the verdict. They did their job responsibly. I'm not even -- I was surprised it was that fast, because I was surprised the judge pushed them that way. But that's not -- you know, that's not a criticism. So now we have our verdict.

What I'm saying is the result is the man is in the jail for the rest of his life -- jail. I wonder what Chris Kyle and the others who were trying to help this guy would think about that verdict. Because he's not going to get help for his mental health there. It's just interesting, from the perspective of how this all started.

And of course, everybody -- I looked into his brother's eyes, you know you lose a brother. They lose a family. They'll never, ever be able to put anything on that that will make it OK.

Listen, you guys did a great job on this, Paul Callan, Joey Jackson, sometimes trials are about a lot more. This is one of those. Appreciate it.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris.

We're just two days away from the possible partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. But today, signs of a compromise to end the Senate stalemate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell offering a so-called clean bill to fund DHS short-term and a separate bill to repeal President Obama's executive action on immigration.

CNN's Jim Acosta joins us from the White House to help us understand the latest. What's going on there, Jim?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Well, President Obama, he's really just standing on the sidelines right now, watching to see whether or not the Republicans who are in control of Congress can get this done as you said. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has this plan to allow a vote on a clean spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security so that department does not shut down at the end of this week and then offer up a separate vote to allow Republicans to cast a vote, basically, registering their complaints with the president's executive action on immigration.

Now the Democrats for their point of view, they believe that the Republicans won't follow through on this, over in the House, and that is why Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday, he's skeptical. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: Unless the speaker is in on the proposal, of course we have to make sure that we get a bill to the president. Not that we send a hot potato to Boehner. that doesn't do the trick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now, speaking of hot potatoes, there was another piece of legislation making news yesterday. And that was the Keystone Pipeline bill. The president vetoed that yesterday, only really the first veto of his presidency on a major piece of legislation. He's had three so far.

Take a look at the presidential veto count. Three for President Obama, 12 for George W. Bush and then many more for Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.

Alisyn and Chris, Michaela, that number three for President Obama, it's really a monument to gridlock here in Washington. You know, back in the old days, 10 or 15 years ago, lawmaker when they disagreed, they still passed legislation, and presidents would veto that legislation. These days, they're so bitterly divided, now they just don't pass legislation. That's another reason why that veto count is so low -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much. That's an interesting context.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: That really interests me, and this further point of the stalling that's going on there in Washington. Frustrating to be sure.

Want to turn now to a dramatic development in Syria. ISIS militants are now believed to be holding some 150 Assyrian Christians captive. It's believed that the terror group is going to release a message today threatening to kill them.

Senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is tracking this for us live from London -- Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Michaela. This is just another offensive against Syrians -- against Christians that we've seen in Syria. The northeast of Syria, in the town of Hasaka (ph), ISIS went in. They have captured women, children, men, the priests, elderly -- and priests, as well, is what we're being told by Syrian human rights groups and a Assyrian human rights group, as well.

Not only are these 150 people been kidnapped, but there are others at risk in the area, as well. Seven hundred families were forced to flee, about 3,000 people forced out of their homes. We understand 600 of those could be holed up in a cathedral close to the -- close to the town where they were forced from their homes.

So at the moment, ISIS threatening here, potentially, their lives. What we've seen when ISIS has captured Christians in the past, is to either give them an option, you either convert or you get killed. And during that operation last night, ISIS radios were overheard. They were talking about capturing crusaders, as if these people had never lived there for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Thank you very much, Nic. Appreciate that.

We also have new information about three teenaged girls suspected of running away from home in London to join ISIS. Let's get to Atika Shubert, joining us from London with more. What do we know?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Well, British police believe the girls have now crossed into Syria. They are believed to have crossed even maybe four days ago. Police aren't absolutely sure exactly when or where they crossed. But either way, they do appear to be inside Syria. And possibly in ISIS-controlled territory.

That will be devastating news for the families, because they know that the chances of their daughters coming back home are now very unlikely -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, Atika, with that. Thank you. We appreciate it.

Ukraine's army, meanwhile, getting some much-needed help from the west. British Prime Minister David Cameron announcing 75 British soldiers will be sent to Ukraine to provide training and nonlethal support. This as the U.S. announces its own plan to deploy between 5 and 10 U.S. troops to Ukraine to provide a second round of combat medical training.

CUOMO: An American missionary has been kidnapped in Nigeria. Police say masked gunmen abducted Rev. Phyllis Sortor from her work place and are demanding a ransom of more than $300,000. Officials say it is purely criminal, this action. They haven't identified any responsible group. Sortor is a missionary for the Free Methodist Church. She runs an organization that educates children in the region.

CAMEROTA: Well, take a look at this unbelievable video. Fifteen people were hurt after a natural gas explosion leveled this home in New Jersey on Tuesday morning. Neighbors reported a strong smell of gas, and crews headed to the scene to fix a suspected leak. Officials say the house was evacuated before the blast. Thank goodness. Neighbors say the explosion could be felt more than a mile away. Two utility workers, though, were critically injured in that blast. So scary.

PEREIRA: Terribly frightening. Especially if you live in the neighborhood and aren't really sure what's going on and suddenly hear this explosion.

CAMEROTA: Right.

CUOMO: Neighbors...

CAMEROTA: You smell gas, get out.

CUOMO: Neighbors see something, say something. We saw it here happen in Manhattan. Neighbors were hearing things. They get it. Is the response time right. They go there. You know, there's some risks here, and we have to remember the men and women who are trying to, you know, stop these in time, and we're sorry about their injuries.

PEREIRA: But not often you get to see that video. Wow.

All right, want to turn to a significant winter storm that's developing in the Deep South. Georgia and Alabama already have declared states of emergency ahead of the storm. The danger is real. There have been at least 30 related deaths in the last week in Tennessee.

Meteorologist Chad Myers joins us now from the CNN center in Atlanta. The south just not accustomed to this kind of deep freeze.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No, and you never get accustomed to an ice storm. And there's nothing you can do with an ice storm when it really rains on ground that's 31. You can't drive on it; it's hard to walk. Maneuvering is just impossible.

So this storm goes all the way from Dallas, Texas; Tyler, Texarkana, all the way across the Deep South, northern Mississippi, Alabama and into Georgia with the winter storm warning. That's the pink area. The purple area is surrounding it, the winter weather advisory area.

We were in a winter storm watch here yesterday. They've upgraded that to a warning. Expecting Atlanta to be 33 to the south of the city, 32 and ice where I'm standing, and 31 and snow just 20 miles north of here. And that snow could be, could be six inches deep. And there's just no way to plow that when you have, like, ten plows for the entire city. I know there's a few more than that, because every little municipality has a certain number of plows.

But here we go. Here's the storm as it rolls across the south. You get Memphis involved. You get Nashville involved. You get Jackson, Mississippi. You get Birmingham and Huntsville and all the way through Atlanta. And finally, exiting the coast where Raleigh and Elizabeth City and Hampton Roads (ph) completely get smashed with snow. Yes, the low country of North Carolina will get a big snow event. Could be eight to ten inches of snow there.

Where Atlanta, we're expecting four to six, you get up toward Rome, Dalton, Chattanooga, there could be a 10-inch snowfall there, maybe Blairsville and the like. So this is just snow that no one likes, but when it comes to the south, it's particularly annoying.

PEREIRA: Maybe they have time to get some loaner snowplows. Ten's not going to do it.

CUOMO: People will help. Chad's covered a lot of those stories. You know, surrounding communities and states, they help. But it's about time and what they're handling, as well. I think Cha-Cha, my 5-year- old, has got it right. She said -- last night, we were reading a story about Mother Nature. She goes, "Mother Nature, she's not very nice."

PEREIRA: She's powerful. She smiles at us often.

CAMEROTA: Don't mess with her. We know that.

CUOMO: She no very nice.

PEREIRA: Cha-Cha wisdom. That's a hash tag if I ever heard one.

CUOMO: So there's been a big see-saw on how the war against ISIS is going. Here's the latest. ISIS terrorists are on a rampage in Syria. They just kidnapped 150 Christians, mostly women and children. Hundreds of others are now running for their lives to escape the same fate. What is this about, and what is being done to stop it? Answers ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Developing story now on ISIS. The terrorists abducting 150 Christians from villages in northeastern Syria, most of them women, children and the elderly. What is the terror group demanding now?

Lieutenant Colonel James Reese is our CNN global affairs analyst and former Delta Force commander and founder of Tiger Swan. And Michael Weiss is the co-author of "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror."

Michael, I want to start with you. You've studied ISIS. You have interviewed dozens of ISIS fighters. Is the abduction of these 150 Christians, is this just another gruesome chapter, and we will see them have the same outcome that we saw with the 21 Egyptian Christians, or is ISIS up to something different?

MICHAEL WEISS, CO-AUTHOR, "ISIS: INSIDE THE ARMY OF TERROR": I suspect it's the former. It's not the latter. One possible scenario could be that they're trying to gain some sort of legitimacy by maybe negotiating with the Vatican for the release of these hostages. Al- Nusra (ph), which was formerly a part of ISIS. They were dispatched into Syria by Abu Bakr Baghdadi in 2011. They kidnapped several Christian nuns, several months ago in Syria and used Qatar, our ally Qatar, as an intermediary to negotiate for their release.

But al-Nusra tends to be, although this is now changing, much less draconian in the way that they rule over territory in Syria. With ISIS, I think, if you're a Christian, you're in a very tough spot if you're captured.

CAMEROTA: Colonel Reese, why is the Assad regime allowing ISIS to rampage through Syria and abduct hundreds of people and take over towns?

LT. COL. JAMES REESE (RET.), CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Alisyn, good morning. The bottom line, this is the Assad regime is just worried about the Assad regime. And that's it. He takes his military. He protects him; he protects his infrastructure that's going to protect him. And he really doesn't care. There are times that they will fight, and that they will fight with other terrorist groups in Syria. But it's all about Assad, and that's it.

CAMEROTA: Michael, as we said, you've interviewed dozens of ISIS fighters. What's the strategy here?

WEISS: Well, look, the rank-and-file, I would argue, have a much more ideological bent. They are part of the messianic Islamic fundamentalist contingent that we're now debating in the west about what ISIS really wants.

The upper echelons of the organization, and we haven't interviewed, you know, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi himself, or even members of the Shura (ph) Council, but a lot of these guys, I think, this is a political project. They have superimposed the so-called caliphate on two countries in the Middle East. Both of them now essentially run by Iran.

The war machine in Syria is commanded by the Revolutionary Guard corps. In Iraq you have Shia militia groups on the ground, which is the vanguard fighting. ISIS is presenting itself to the Sunni populations of these two countries as their only custodian and their only guarantor of security, safety and also future restoration.

So we knocked out Saddam in 2003, thus ending Sunni minority rule over a Shia majority. ISIS says, "We're going to reclaim Baghdad. So we will expand from the Lemand (ph) to Mesopotamia and then beyond." So this is -- this is an evangelist (ph) project, fundamentally.

CAMEROTA: Colonel Reese, we also have some new information this morning about the three British teenaged girls, 15 and 16 years old, who are believed to be trying to join ISIS. The British police say that they believe that the girls have now crossed from Turkey into Syria.

Colonel Reese, how can we know so much about these girls' movements and travel, yet not be able to intercept them?

REESE: Yes, Alisyn, you know, I was thinking about that last night. It just boggles my mind that three young girls, under 18 get on a plane, fly from the U.K., land at Istanbul, go through customs. People are seeing these things happen. And when they hit Istanbul, then these expediters really pick them up, and they move them. And it's not just like they're just moving them to the customs area and saying, "Here's our three girls we're taking into ISIS." They move them across the Turkish/Syrian line, you know, expeditiously to move over. But it blows my mind. I just don't get it one bit.

CAMEROTA: And Michael, you -- I was reading that you think that some of the lure for these girls is that these young ISIS fighters are like sex symbols to them?

WEISS: They are. They're ISIS pin-ups, basically. There's one guy from Egypt who is a body builder, an amateur body builder, and there's old photos of him on social media, you know, without his shirt on, you know, looking very fit, and then that's counter-imposed with images of him in wherever he is, Raqqah, with the long black beard. People are drawn to this. You know, I mean, look, why is it that Charles Manson, who's been in prison for decades manages to get married to women that become -- start out as pen pals?

CAMEROTA: That is shocking. It is shocking. But there's a handful of those women, I mean, who are attracted to Charles Manson and like, you know, psychopaths, but somehow ISIS is getting A-students, these girls. I mean, what is the lure?

WEISS: Well, look, I mean, in the case of pious Muslims, you know, watching what has happened in this part of the world for the last four years, actually, the last decade. It can sort of fire the imagination in the sense of needing to be part of this -- this jihadi project. Right?

I mean, if you're Sunni, you've been persecuted, killed, ethnically cleansed, dispossessed for decades, almost a decade now. So people have been drawn into the ISIS fold, because ISIS is appealing to them on that basis. A lot of the guys actually who are going over, they don't even have any background in Islam. ISIS almost actually prefers them that way, because they get to build them up in their own image.

CAMEROTA: Very quickly, Colonel Reese, are the British police blowing this?

REESE: Well, I don't know if the British police are blowing it. I just think we're -- we're not following the different aspects of what we're looking for. I mean, right now, you know, people aren't really -- we know there's young girls going over. We know. I believe with Michael it's kind of this rock star, "Hey, we want to go hang out with the bad boys in ISIS." That's the allure of the young girls.

But, you know, there's so many things to be looking at in this profile of folks coming in to support ISIS. It's very difficult to watch and again we don't have the assets around the world to track everybody.

CAMEROTA: Colonel Reese, Michael Weiss, thanks so much to all of you.

REESE: Thanks, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Let's go back to Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Here's the latest in a line of lies. The new V.A. secretary says he's sorry for lying about serving in the Army's Special Forces. Robert McDonald, insisting he has no excuse for his, quote, "misstatement or mistake." Will angry veterans accept the apology? We'll discuss.

PEREIRA: Also in California, dozens of people injured in a fiery crash involving a passenger train and a pickup truck. Why this disaster would have been deadly if it had happened just a few years earlier.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)