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Jihadi John Identified; 3 Brooklyn Men Busted in Alleged ISIS Plot; ISIS Holding 262 Assyrian Christians Hostage; GOP Battles over Terms of DHS Bill; Winter Storm Slams South

Aired February 26, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Arrests made in Brooklyn, New York. Their objective was simply to carry out attacks here in the United Stats.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To shoot Obama and then get shot ourselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the concern about the lone wolf inspired.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a lot of questions about exactly what they're accused of doing.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We're waiting for the Senate to do their job.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This partisan politics has got to stop.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need a fully funded Department of Homeland Security.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you do not have to travel, do not travel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We collided with a minivan that was backed, that had crashed into a pick-up truck.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Schools in Atlanta, Knoxville, Greenville all closed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY, this Thursday, Februrary 26, just before 6:00 in the East.

And do we have breaking news. The main known as Jihadi John, the executioner in several of those gruesome ISIS beheading videos, has now been identified by his real name. The BBC, the "Washington Post" are reporting that the man on your screen right now is actually Mohammed Emwazi. He is a British national. He was allegedly known by authorities there. His name was not released for operational reasons. That we cannot verify; sometimes they say they knew the name and they didn't. But now they're naming. That should be helpful to the investigation overall.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: This is big breaking news because this has been one of the biggest mysteries about ISIS and helping to crack their code. Everyone thought that he had a British accent; that has now been confirmed. They believe he is from west London. That's where he grew up. He was known to British security services.

Again his real name, Mohammed Emwazi, and he, of course, is the one in the execution videos. He is believed to be assassinating and beheading the American journalists, as well as the aid workers, as well as all the gruesome videos that we've seen.

CUOMO: Right. And it also plays both ways. On the one hand, yes, they know his name. But it also shows how difficult it is to find people, even when you know their name.

And in the difficulty of making these cases, let's take that right back here to New York City, the site of yet another clear and present terror threat.

Three Brooklyn residents taken into custody, charged with conspiring to travel to Syria and join ISIS. They were threatening to carry out attacks over there and in the U.S., and that wasn't the whole plan.

CAMEROTA: At least two of the suspects threatened to plant a bomb on New York's Coney Island and to kill President Obama. And wait until you hear in just a few moments how authorities uncovered their plot.

But this morning law enforcement across the country on high alert for other violent extremists. We have this story covered from every angle, and we begin with Will Ripley in Brooklyn, New York. What do we know at this hour, Will?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, we've been working overnight to learn more about the two younger suspects who were arrested here in Brooklyn, including the 19-year-old, who lived in this building behind me. This is a young man who paid just $571 to get a ticket to try to fly over, try to join ISIS, a plot that was only foiled by the federal authorities because of the fact that these two young men were so careless.

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COMMISSIONER WILLIAM BRATTON, NYPD: The initial actions were effectively to go to Syria.

RIPLEY (voice-over): This morning two men intent on waging war with ISIS, according to the FBI, are in custody in New York. A third accomplice, arrested in Florida. At least one of the alleged aspiring terrorists lived in this Brooklyn, New York, apartment complex. The building's superintendent says he didn't seem suspicious.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They no talk too much, you know. Every time quiet.

RIPLEY: But federal prosecutors say 24-year-old Abdurasul Juraboev and his 19-year-old friend planned to fly from New York to Turkey and then cross into Syria to join ISIS. The team's attorney says the FBI is rushing to prosecute.

ADAM PERLMUTTER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: This is all information that is delivered to the FBI from a confidential informant that the government says in their own complaint they can't rely on the credibility of.

RIPLEY: The third Brooklyn man, a 30-year-old business owner from Uzbekistan, allegedly funded some of the efforts. According to the FBI, the men had a killing secondary plan if they were unable to reach Syria.

BRATTON: If they were not able to go, that they would seek to acquire weapons here, handguns and machine guns, and seek to attack, very specifically, police officers.

RIPLEY: According to court documents, Juraboev tried to make contact with the terror group in an online chat room last summer, saying, "To shoot Obama and then get shot ourselves, will it do? That will strike fear in the hearts of infidels." That alarming post brought FBI agents to his front door. Juraboev allegedly admitted he would harm President Barack Obama, but did not have the means to do so and said, if ISIS ordered him to, he would also plant a bomb on Coney Island, in New York City.

ISIS's online propaganda, a growing threat to the U.S. The State Department says they're combatting around 90,000 tweets a day. This as the FBI says there are investigations into home-grown violent extremists in all 50 states.

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RIPLEY: This morning, the U.S. government believes at least 150 Americans have left this country to join ISIS. They believe they stopped three others from doing the same thing. But again we do need to point out the attorney for the 19-year-old suspect says these are just allegations at this point, and the indictment for all three men has yet to be filed.

Back to you.

CUOMO: And Will, that's not unusual. The indictments can grow over time. So we'll see how they build this case. Thank you for the reporting. Let us know what else you find out about this.

Now, what we just learned about the true identity of Jihadi John and that that was known and that authorities were in contact with this young Londoner when he was still there, when he was getting his degree in computer science, and yet they couldn't stop him from going to Syria. Shows how difficult it is, even with the clumsiness that we just saw with these guys in Brooklyn.

So let's bring in Evan Perez to discuss this investigation, because it speaks to what we're dealing with with Jihadi John, Evan, and how difficult it is these cases are to make.

Let's start with the idea of the lynchpin of this arrest here of the terror investor. What is that?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's exactly right, Chris. This represents a big change in what we've seen in these types of cases, according to this current complaint by the FBI, we have a real network here. We have an investor, essentially, who's financing these, what basically the two men, who are going to go fight in Syria.

And if they can't do that, they're planning to attack here in this country. Now, you know, the back-up plans they had, which is to perhaps assassinate the president or to kill FBI agents, was more aspirational. But you know, this is something the FBI has seen before, and they expect that you know, it's not very difficult to go from aspirational to actually carrying this thing out. One of these guys yesterday, as he was boarding the plane, ended up not being prepared for his flight. Because he didn't actually have a visa to get into Turkey.

So it shows you that this plan was not very well thought out. But thank goodness the FBI was already watching these guys, and was able to move quickly.

Back to you.

CUOMO: But it does show, Evan, that even when they're watching people, that doesn't mean necessarily they can make a case whenever they want, and that's how you see a guy like who they're now identifying as Mohammed Emwazi, Jihadi John, goes from being surveilled in the U.K. to now being the face of ISIS in Syria -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris. There is still much breaking news to analyze. Let's get right to it. There's we want to bring in Tom Fuentes. He's our CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director. And Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, senior fellow for the Foundation of Defense of Democracies. Gentlemen, thanks so much for being here.

Tom, let me start with you. Let's just talk about what we know now about Jihadi John. This seems as though it's a big investigative coup, that investigators have figured out, that he is actually Mohammed Emwazi. He grew up in West London. How would they have gone -- gone about piecing together his identity?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, I think that they probably were able to find people in London that knew him, knew of his travel there. And it's his intention to join ISIS and -- and eventually revealed that to the authorities in London.

CAMEROTA: Daveed, here are some things that we know. You know, the BBC and the "Washington Post" are reporting his real identity, and they've done the background research into who exactly he is.

He is a Brit. He is allegedly from a well-to-do family. He grew up in West London. He graduated from college. He graduated with a degree in computer programming. Does this fit the mold of what we think about ISIS fighters? Or does it break the mold? DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS, FOUNDATION FOR THE DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES:

There's various molds. I wouldn't say that you have a single demographic. And you know, the information that's coming out about these guys has been only a fraction of the whole.

If you look at the foreign fighters who have gone over, there's over 20,000 foreign fighters. About 4,000 of them are from western countries. About 16,000 are from the Arab world. And the amount of geographic -- or biographical information we have is really just a fraction of that.

But in terms of previous Jihadi profiles, this does fit the mold in certain ways. Terrorist groups in general, not just jihadist groups, tend to recruit from people who -- or tend to be comprised of people who are of higher socioeconomic status than the norm, people who are more well-educated than the norm. There's -- the IRA was an exception. It was composed of people who were of lower socioeconomic status. But in general, terrorism rather than insurgency, tends to be a profession of the elites.

CAMEROTA: Tom, until this moment he had been called Jihadi John. Because no one knew his identity. And the first time that he came to be seen in the public view was during James Foley's execution and beheading. Since then, this same man with the same build with the same accent was seen in other gruesome beheading videos, Tom. How significant is it that authorities now know his identity?

FUENTES: Well, significant in terms of being able to identify other people that may be, you know, his friends or classmates, other individuals that know him and may be inspired by him to go over and do the same thing. And I think that that's probably how they caught up with him and identified him, is through his network of friends back in London and the people that he may have stayed in communication with or thought he was being clever enough as a computer programmer to be able to, to have discreet communications with that eventually gave him up. I think that it's very important to identify who else might be involved with him.

CAMEROTA: Daveed, this is breaking news, so I'm just reading some of these details along with you at this moment. So he was not born in London. He was perhaps raised there, and he lived in west London. However, he was Kuwaiti born. It says here he's in his mid-20s. He appears to have left little trail of social media or elsewhere online.

Those who knew him say he was polite. He had a penchant for wearing stylish clothes while adhering to the tenets of his Islamic faith. He had a beard and was mindful of making eye contact with women. What does all that tell you, Daveed?

GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: There's a few different things. I mean, No. 1, the lack of a social media trail indicates that he may have radicalized quite a bit earlier.

Oftentimes, when someone is radicalizing fairly close to the time of trying to either go over to Syria or carry out a terrorist attack, they have a social media trail where you can see development of their thoughts. That's been one of the very interesting things about recent terrorist cases. Because, you know, ten years ago, say, when I was studying these issues, it was really the exception when someone would have a trail like that. Sometimes they would have a blog. But now almost everyone has a social media trail.

A second thing that's interesting about that, look, there's a debate that's been reopened by Graham Wood's article in the "Atlantic" about do ISIS guys really believe in the religious ideas? There's some indications in there that religiosity is important to him. But I think that we'll learn a bit more as more biographical information trickles out, as you said. This is really breaking right now, and we're starting to get just the first details. And I think we'll have a much more comprehensive biographical sketch of this guy by later on today or tomorrow.

CAMEROTA: Here's one more interesting tidbit, Tom. And again, this is courtesy of the "Washington Post" that has done this reporting. They spoke to friends of his. The friends, who spoke on condition of anonymity, because of the sensitivity of the investigation, believe that Emwazi -- that is his real name -- started to radicalize after a planned safari in Tanzania, and following his graduation from the University of Westminster. Tanzania, that's not a place that we think of as a hotbed, is it?

FUENTES: Absolutely. Al Qaeda has been up and down Africa for more than a decade. We had the U.S. embassy bombings in August of 1998, and the FBI sent several hundred agents to East Africa. That investigation went from Somalia down to South Africa. So -- so the U.S. embassy being one of the places bombed, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

CAMEROTA: Daveed, let's switch right now to the other breaking news, which is that the three suspects were arrested in Brooklyn as they were trying to join ISIS. These guys are also fascinating: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, living and working in Brooklyn? Tell us more that you've learned about this investigation here at home.

GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: There's a few things that are interesting about it. I mean, the most interesting is you generally don't have the interactions that occurred in this case, with the FBI. I mean, as the report prior to this interview said, they went to one of the defendants in this case, and asked him about a social media postings. And he admitted to them, that he wanted to kill the president; he admitted that he was a supporter of ISIS. And look, he was basically caught red-handed. But generally, people will make up some sort of excuse. So it's interesting that he came outright and admitted all that.

It's interesting they were able to get a confidential informant into the group after he had admitted to the FBI that he wanted to kill the president and was an ISIS supporter. This indicates some poor operational security on their part and the fact that they were so eager to get in with ISIS and spread ISIS's ideas, that they trusted someone who was unfamiliar and ultimately helped to provide the FBI some information that gave them authority, for example, to undertake wiretaps and other such things. CAMEROTA: It is fascinating to read this 23-page complaint from the

FBI on these guys. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Tom Fuentes, thanks so much for helping us walk through all of this. We'll have more on all of this breaking news throughout the program.

Let's go over to Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Alisyn. This morning we are learning that the number of Assyrian Christians being held hostage by ISIS has nearly tripled. There are growing concerns about their fate.

Senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman is live in Erbil, Iraq, with the very latest on what we know -- Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Michaela, if you thought the story was bad, it's just gotten a lot worse.

Day before yesterday, our initial reporting was that between 70 and 100 people in northeastern Syria, Assyrian Christians, mostly women, children and the elderly, had been abducted by ISIS.

Now we hear from Edward, Osama Edward, who's the founder of the Syrian Human Rights Network, who is in Sweden but has relatives and is in touch with people in the area. He now says that that number is 262 people abducted and currently in the hands of ISIS.

Now we don't know their fate. There were reports that some of them had been sent to Raqqah, which is in north central Syria. Essentially, the capital of the Islamic state. And of course, as we know in the past, oftentimes these people, especially the women end up being sold as sex slaves to ISIS fighters.

In addition to that, we are hearing that thousands, not the original 700 Assyrian Christian families have fled villages, approximately 11 of them, according to Osama Edward, have been attacked. Eleven of those villages have been attacked and occupied by ISIS, as well. So that situation getting increasingly grim as we look for more information.

Meanwhile, there is a somewhat brighter story here in Iraq, to the south, the town of Baghdadi, which is right next to the Ayn al-Asad Air Base, the biggest base in Anbar province, where several hundred American servicemen and contractors are working to support the Iraqi army, the Iraqi army reporting that they were able to retake at least 70 percent of the city -- Michaela.

CUOMO: All right. I'll take it, Ben, thank you very much. We have some new terror arrests, obviously, here; and they make clear how intensive and fragile these cases are. That means you don't want to destabilize the efforts, which means the games being played with homeland security funding right now are that much more dangerous.

Let's bring in CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta, who has more. So what's the lay of the land there? We know it's snowing, but is it warming? Is it thawing behind you with the GOP leadership and the Democrats? ACOSTA: The forecast is unclear, Chris. But that case up in New York

and these other lone-wolf cases are exactly what the White House is worried about. These alleged lone wolves who travel from the United States and the west down to Syria to try to join ISIS, get training and then come back to the homeland to potentially wreak havoc, and that is why White House officials say this is no time for the Department of Homeland Security to run out of funding. It is a message the president delivered at a town hall last night in Miami. Here's what he had to say.

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What we said to Republicans is, instead of trying to hold hostage funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which is so important for our national security. Fund that, and let's get on with actually passing comprehensive immigration reform.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now, as for the state of play up on Capitol Hill, the Senate should technically be able to get to this homeland security bill later today, have a bill that only funds the agency and puts aside everything else and then that potentially could go to the House.

But really, nobody is making any guarantees up on Capitol Hill because of that uncertainty in the House, and we have less than 48 hours to go. But keep in mind: the president will be doing a round of local television interviews later on today. He'll have one more chance to hammer home that message.

Guys, back to you.

CAMEROTA: OK, Jim. Thanks so much.

CAMEROTA: Also breaking overnight, the Taliban claiming responsibility for a deadly attack outside the Iranian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Police say the target was actually a Turkish military convoy. The Turkish embassy is adjacent to the Iranian one. At least two people were killed. Iranian officials condemned the attack and say no members of their diplomatic staff were injured.

PEREIRA: Recreational marijuana use is now legal in our nation's capital. Adults 21 and over in Washington, D.C., can smoke pot, possess up to two ounces, and grow up to six plants in their homes for personal use. The law took effect at midnight. The sale of marijuana, meanwhile, is still illegal in Washington, but the district council is considering a measure to regulate and tax pot sales much like they do in Colorado.

CUOMO: So did the movie, "American Sniper," influence the murder trial of Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield. No says an attorney for the man convicted of murdering the two men. He says the case wasn't impacted by the fact that some jurors saw the film and that most jurors can do their job and make up their minds based on evidence.

He and the rest of Eddie Ray Routh's team defense team did not see the film as a reason to dismiss any jurors.

Routh was quickly convicted and sentenced to life in prison, despite pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. In our next hour, we're going to speak with this man. This is Jeff Kyle, Chris Kyle's brother. This is his first live interview since the guilty verdict. He'll tell us about what the family is thinking and what they'll do next.

CAMEROTA: Also, storm warnings in nearly a dozen states this morning, parts of the south facing a state of emergency. North Carolina getting hammered by snow as we speak. So how dangerous will your morning commute be? We'll let you know.

CUOMO: And mysterious drones flying over Paris. No one seems to know who's at the controls. Are police close to getting any answers? We have the latest.

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PEREIRA: Much of the south is getting slammed by another winter storm. Warnings are in effect in 11 states. Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina have declared states of emergency. In fact, North Carolina getting hit hard by snow right now. Many schools across that state are closed for the day.

It's not just the south. Up north in Maine, snow and ice contributing to a massive pile-up on I-95; 70 vehicles involved. Incredibly, no one was injured.

Want to turn to meteorologist Chad Myers with more on the latest dose of crippling, crippling cold.

Hey, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: The winter that...

PEREIRA: Won't quit.

MYERS: ... will not stop. I know. Northern Alabama, a foot of snow overnight. Huntsville, a brand-new all-time record, eight inches of snow. Even Chattanooga in the act here at seven inches.

Still snowing in Richmond, Virginia, Washington, D.C. I have a picture from Washington, D.C., hard to see the snowflakes, but they're flying through. You can you see little gators (ph) back and forth here, pushing snow out of the way. Maybe you can see the snow in the lights here. Up into Washington, D.C., this morning. It's going to be a slow drive up and down I-95, a slow -- 64, 68. All the interstates through the northeast are going to be slow. Even seeing a little bit of light precip all the way up into Boston and Philadelphia.

But it will be quickly offshore later today. This goes away. This goes away in the next four or five hours. But still, Richmond, you're seeing the snow come down. Another two to four before it finally stops for you. Hampton Roads seeing its fair share of snow, as well. Likely breaking daily records there, because it doesn't know at Virginia Beach very often. But it is today.

For tomorrow we move away, and for the next couple days we move more storms move in there, lined up like planes landing in LaGuardia. For the weekend, more snow for Chicago, most likely heavier snow south of Chicago, but for the skiers, they'll take it. Feet of snow in the Colorado Rockies that have been fairly dry. All the snow has been in the east. Not in the west. So some natural snow for the skiers. I think they'll enjoy it. New York City, you still don't get above freezing for the next five days. You will try. But it's still coming down.

And more snow totals coming in at 7 p.m. That's the time they always come in. We'll update those on Twitter.

PEREIRA: All right, Greg [SIC]. We'll keep watching that. Thanks so much for that, Chad.

Joining us on the phone right now is Bill Bell. He's the mayor of Durham, North Carolina.

Mayor Bell, good morning to you. First of all, four to six inches we're getting reports of overnight in Durham. How did your city hold up?

BILL BELL, MAYOR, DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA (on camera): I think we held up well considering. We had about 30 trucks out last night, spreading brine, the weather broke and allowed us to do that we've got our trucks and state trucks.

Durham is a city with a lot of trees, pine trees in particular, so what we're finding is trees are bending, limbs are falling. So we've had about 35,000 units that are out today, even over at North Carolina University. I understand some of the students have been moved into the gym, because the power is out over there.

PEREIRA: So power outages a big concern today. Obviously, getting those roads clear. We understand temperatures are going to get a little warmer. But then cool off again. Tonight, I guess the concern on the roadways will be black ice.

BELL: Exactly, we're urging people to stay off the roads, city government has delayed an opening until 11 today, and all of our schools closed. The best thing to do is for people to stay off the roads so our crews can get out clear the roads.

PEREIRA: Look, we know you folks are hardy there. You -- this is not a record-breaker by any stretch of the imagination. That was back in 1922 and 15 inches or something. But it is the fourth named winter storm of just the past two weeks. It's sort of a repeat. We keep talking about this as the storm that will never end. Is this stretching your city resources?

BELL: To an extent it is. But it's causing a lot of havoc with our schools. We've had closings. We certainly didn't want that. Some businesses have had a lot of delayed openings. So your point is correct. It's been consistency that's been the problem. It seems like there's been a let-up.

PEREIRA: We also understand that your city offices right now will have a delayed opening. Will you make a call at some point today to just shut them down for the day?

BELL: Well, at some point in time we'll make that call. It will be closer to 11. But hopefully, we're going to be able to open at 11, and, you know, if the temperature rises, we'll get some relief.

PEREIRA: So what is your biggest concern today in priorities for the city?

BELL: Keeping people on the roads, so we can get the roads cleared. When the temperature falls again tonight we'll have clear roads and hopefully things will be better Friday.

PEREIRA: OK. And it's good to know that you see that there's crews out there dealing with the power outages and the downed tree limbs. Again, urging residents in that area and across North Carolina altogether. Because we know state of emergency is in effect for that state, and a winter storm warning continues to be in effect as well.

Mayor William Bell in Durham, we appreciate you, and we wish you well during this storm.

BELL: Thanks, Michaela. Take care.

PEREIRA: You, too.

CUOMO: There is breaking news this morning. We now know who terrorist Jihadi John is, the name of this rich kid turned savage. We have new info for you on how authorities learned his identity and when. Some tough lessons here, and we have them ahead.

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