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American Freed from Syria Back Home; Details Of Freed American's Release; Will ISIS Strike in Syria; Militants Seize Golan Border Crossing; Militants Seize Golan Border Crossing; American ISIS Member; Westerners Join Terror Networks

Aired August 27, 2014 - 13:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, an emotional thank you from freed American hostage, Peter Theo Curtis. Standing on the steps of his mother's home in Massachusetts, Curtis says he will tell more of his story soon.

Also right now, Islamic militants now control the border crossing between Syria and the Golan Heights. It's the closest the militant fighters have come to Israel. The question now, how will Israel respond?

And right now, all eyes on President Obama. We're watching to see whether the U.S. will get involved in the fight against ISIS in Syria. We'll talk about what's at stake for the president, both here in the United States as well as around the world.

Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting from Washington. He was held by militants in Syria for almost two years. But today, the American journalist, Peter Theo Curtis, is back in the United States. Curtis spoke briefly with the reporters outside his mother's home in Massachusetts. He says he's overwhelmed by emotion and grateful to be free. Curtis was captured in October of 2012 by Al Nusra. The Al Nusra front, that's an Al Qaeda affiliate. He says he's thankful for all efforts that went to securing his release.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETER THEO CURTIS, AMERICAN JOURNALIST: First of all, I want to thank you all for coming out here on this beautiful Wednesday morning. In the days following my release on Sunday, I have learned bit by bit that there have been, literally, hundreds of people brave, determined and big hearted people, all over the world working for my release. They've been working for two years on this. I had no idea -- when I was in prison, I had no idea that so much effort was being expended on my behalf.

And now having found out, I am just overwhelmed with emotion. I'm also overwhelmed by one other thing and that is that total strangers have been coming up to me and saying, hey, we're just glad you're home. Welcome home. Glad you're back. Glad you're safe. Great to see you. So, I suddenly remember how good the American people are and what kindness they have in their hearts. And to all those people, I say a huge thank you from my heart, from the bottom of my heart. And now, look, I'm so grateful that you are expressing all this interest in me. At the same time, I have to bond with my mother and my family now and I can't give you an interview and I can't give you -- talk back and forth --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you tell us what it feels --

CURTIS: And I -- that's all I can say to you. But in the future, I promise I will respond to your e-mails and I will be present and I will help you guys do your job. I'm one of you and I know what you guys are going through. So, I want to help you guys and I will be there and I will respond but I can't do it now. Thanks very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: CNN's Miguel Marquez was there in Cambridge, Massachusetts when Curtis went before the cameras. He has more now on what's next for Curtis.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it was an intensely emotional moment as Mr. Curtis walked up to the cameras. He was dressed very simply in a t-shirt and jeans and sandals. But he was clean and comfortable. He did look tired but he was extraordinarily relieved. He did not want to take questions, as you heard, but clearly has a lot to get off his chest.

The next thing for him, I think, is just to stay with his family. His mother says she is a very good cook. I think specifically the next for him would be a very good meal, perhaps two, three or five or 10. He likes to bike ride as well so he'll probably get maybe a mellow bike ride in, maybe some time alone on the road just to think about everything that has happened -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Miguel, thanks very much. We're also learning more details about the journey to freedom for Peter Theo Curtis. CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke by phone with Curtis' mother last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "A.C. 360": Nancy, first of all, just congratulations. I'm so happy for you. Can you take me back to that moment when you first learned that your son had been freed?

NANCY CURTIS (via telephone): I got a call from the FBI agent who's been working with us the whole time. She flew -- she flew to the Middle East. And she called me and said, I'm standing on the Golan Heights with your son by my side. And he wants to talk to you, but he needs some time to compose himself. You know, that was all she needed to say. I knew that he was healthy and safe and it was a huge relief.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's bring in our Law Enforcement Analyst Tom Fuentes, a former FBI assistant director. Tom, a lot going on behind the scenes. And you heard the mother say that she got the word from an FBI agent who was there on the scene and who had been working this issue. Take -- you're a former FBI agent. Take us behind the scenes. What was going on?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I helped run that program. It's called the Personnel Recovery Program and it involves the training of the employees and family members who are being deployed throughout the world. And if a capture happens of someone, whether it's an employee of the FBI or another government agency or a civilian, whether it's a student or a journalist, if they're captured, then the FBI begins working with all the other agencies, intelligence, military, through diplomatic channels to try to learn as much as possible. But as you heard the mother say, a big part of this is working with the family and keeping the family informed in any and all progress that might be made toward getting their family member either rescued or released.

BLITZER: I assume the FBI, other U.S. agencies, will want to debrief Peter Theo Curtis now in these coming days. They probably started that process about as much as they can to learn what he can share with them.

FUENTES: That's true. And the -- and the program has built in that when the person is recovered or released, they do the debriefings, try to find out as much as they can about who had them in captivity, where they were, anything that they talked about, any clues that might help in other cases. So, that goes on.

But also, a big part of the program is to make sure that person is receiving the medical care, the mental health care, all that they're going to need to assist in being reunited with the family and the program, the people here back in the U.S., work with the families. If it -- if it means -- if, for instance, he had to be transported to Ramstein in Germany or to another European hospital for care, it involves uniting the family with that person, getting the family assistance to be with their loved one. So, it's a very interesting program and it's a great program.

BLITZER: Yes, he quickly went from Syria. He was held by Al Nusra --

FUENTES: Right.

BLITZER: -- over the Golan Heights through some U.N. checkpoint, if you will, into Israel, to Tel Aviv. He spent a couple days there, and is now back in Massachusetts.

There's another American, not held by Al Nusra but held by ISIS, Steven Sotloff, whose mother appeared on Al Arabiya television network to make a personal appeal to the leadership of ISIS. I want to play a little clip from her appeal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHIRLEY SOTLOFF: I've learned that Islam teaches that no individual should be held responsible for the sins of others. Steven has no control over the actions of the U.S. government. He's an innocent journalist. I've always learned that you, the caliph, can grant amnesty. I ask you to please release my child. As a mother, I ask your justice to be merciful and not punish my son for matters he has no control over. I ask you to use your authority to spare his life and to follow the example set by the prophet Muhammad who protected people of the book. I want what every mother wants, to live to see her children's children. I plead with you to grant me this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Sotloff family had been quiet until that video that was released the other day showing the beheading of another American journalist by ISIS. But now, they're going public like this. Take us a little bit behind the scenes. It's a -- not an easy decision to go public like this, is it?

FUENTES: It's not easy at all. And I think the shame in this one is that she's trying to appeal to their religious beliefs on religious grounds as to why they shouldn't be doing it, according to the laws of Islam. But the problem is, you're dealing with some people who have shown that they're also psychopaths. So, you're not going to -- you're not going to be able to convince them. I think another imam probably would not be able to convince them because their belief is that anybody that's more moderate -- even if they're Sunni or Shia Muslim, if they're more moderate than they are, they're infidels, too, and they deserve to die. And we've seen them killing Muslims and everybody else in Syria and in Iraq.

BLITZER: If you're a mother of someone like this, --

FUENTES: Oh, absolutely.

BLITZER: -- you do whatever you think that has to be done.

FUENTES: Oh, it's heart wrenching to see what she's trying to do.

BLITZER: Of course. Obviously, very painful. We hope Steven Sotloff is freed, released soon, not only for the mother's sake but for everyone's sake.

FUENTES: Right.

BLITZER: Thanks very much for that. Tom Fuentes, the former FBI assistant director, our CNN Law Enforcement Analyst.

Up next, two Americans killed in Syria fighting for the brutal terror group ISIS. Did the U.S. government know they were there? We're about to take a closer look.

Also, should President Obama get Congressional authorization if he decides to strike ISIS targets inside Syria? We'll speak with the Congressman, Scott Rigell, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee. He has some very, very strong views.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Now to a major new development in the war in Syria. We're getting reports that Islamic militants have seized control of a key border crossing between Syria and Israeli occupied Golan Heights. Take a look at this. You'll see some smoke rising amid intense fighting between the Syrian army and Islamic rebels, including an Al Qaeda affiliated group.

Our own Ben Wedeman is joining us now live from the Golan Heights. So, Ben, tell our viewers what's going on.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what I can tell you right now, Wolf, is that we're not far from the demarcation line between Syria and Israeli forces. Now, right behind me is an Israeli police car blocking the road because this area has been declared a closed military area, as a result of these errant shells, as they're described by the Israeli army, coming over into Israeli- controlled territory from the fighting in Syria.

Now, what we understand from the Israeli army, as well as activist sources within Syria itself, is that the Syrian side of the konesur (ph) crossing between the Israeli occupied Golan Heights and Syria has been taken over by rebels led by members of the Nusra front. That is a radical militant organization affiliated with Al Qaeda that has -- we've seen their influence grow steadily in the last year and a half within Syria.

Now, what this means, essentially, Wolf, is that now there's only about 200 yards separating Al Nusra front, this Al Qaeda-affiliated group, from Israeli forces on the Golan Heights.

Now, as a result of these -- this fighting on the Syrian side, a number of shells have landed within Israeli-controlled territory. This morning, an Israeli officer with the army was wounded by one of those errant shells. And this afternoon, another civilian was wounded by shells as well. That's why this area has been declared closed military area. We know that over the last few years there have been occasional flare-ups of fighting on the Syrian side. The fighting is sort of the shells have spilled over the demarcation line.

The Israelis today did respond to the sources of fire within Syria itself. But certainly this is the -- probably one of the most severe flare-ups in the Golan Heights since the outbreak of the Syrian uprising in March of 2011.

Wolf.

BLITZER: What's the Israeli government reaction to this al Nusra Front, these Islamic militants taking over this key border crossing from the Syrian military, the Syrian regime of President Bashar al Assad?

WEDEMAN: There's a lot of concern about this. The Israelis obviously have been keeping a very close watch on what's going on, on the other side of the demarcation line. Very concerned about what's happening. But by and large, they have tried to stay out of the fighting, tried to just keep it contained on the other side of the line. But Israeli officials have made it clear that any attempt to approach Israeli forces on that line will be met with force, decisive force, because they aren't going to allow the kind of fighting that's going on in Syria with the kind of elements that are involved in the fighting in Syria to spill over into their territory.

Wolf.

BLITZER: We're told, Ben, and I know you're up on the Golan Heights, you're not in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, but that the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in about half an hour or so, is going to make a statement, joined by his defense minister and his army chief of staff. Is it going to be -- do you know if it's going to be a statement about what's going on as far as Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights is concerned, or will it be about the cease-fire that now seems to be holding, that went into effect yesterday?

WEDEMAN: We understand the focus will be largely on the cease-fire, which, of course, was a controversial decision taken by the prime minister without consulting, matter of fact -- or without putting that decision to a vote within his cabinet, within which there are ministers who were strongly opposed to any sort of cease-fire. But, obviously, the developments on the Golan Heights are going to figure into his statements that we expect to be delivered within about 15 minutes.

Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, thanks very much. We'll, of course, monitor what the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, has to say. Ben Wedeman, up on the Golan Heights, be careful up there. Thank you very much.

Government officials, meanwhile, here in Washington believe there are more than 100 Americans fighting in Syria with terror groups like ISIS. We have also learned that two Americans were killed while fighting for ISIS. A Syrian opposition group now says the two were killed in a battle near Aleppo. We had heard the name of one before. That would be this man, Douglas McArthur McCain, originally from Minnesota, although spent some time in California. Our Justice correspondent, Evan Perez, is with us right now.

So did the U.S. government know about McCain going into all of this? They -- he was on some sort of watch list I assume, that's what we've been told. But there's another American also who had served - who's serving with ISIS, who was killed by Syrian forces, anti-government Syrian forces, shall we say?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, they know - they believe there are upwards of a --

(EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM)

PEREZ: -- officials for the last few months. They've been watching him. They've been watching social media accounts, for instance, to try to figure out where he was going to go. And, you know, they - obviously the concern is, not only what he's doing there, but what he might do if he tries to come back home.

BLITZER: Because on social media he was pretty blunt in expressing his -

PEREZ: Right. BLITZER: Support for ISIS.

PEREZ: Absolutely. I mean he was very much a fan of what they were doing there and - which is what the family is very shocked about. They knew that he had converted some 10 years ago to Islam, but they didn't know that he had radicalized to this point.

BLITZER: So the other American mentioned by this anti-Bashar al Assad regime front, this group, also anti-ISIS group.

PEREZ: Right.

BLITZER: The other American they say was killed. Do we know the identity of this other American?

PEREZ: The U.S. government so far is not confirming whether or not that's true. The - you know, again, there's a lot of problems with them having visibility down there. We know, for instance, that there are some Americans who also have other - other nationality, other citizenship, that are fighting there.

BLITZER: Maybe dual citizenship.

PEREZ: That is correct. And so that might be one of the issues that's at play here, Wolf.

BLITZER: So the - we don't know the name of this other American.

PEREZ: Right.

BLITZER: But if there, in fact, another American was killed serving with ISIS, we'll probably get that name sooner rather than later.

PEREZ: Sure. Absolutely.

BLITZER: Because when they - when this - when they announced the name of this Douglas McArthur McCain they showed his picture and his pass -

PEREZ: Right.

BLITZER: His U.S. passport. So maybe we'll get some more information like that.

PEREZ: Right.

BLITZER: And we'll watch it very closely. A very disturbing development, obviously.

Thanks very much, Evan.

Up next, much more on what is drawing young westerners to Syria, why they're joining the ranks of terrorists. I'll speak with a former CIA analyst.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: Douglas McArthur McCain was just one of thousands of westerners who have gone to Syria in the past few years. They've joined various terror groups. They've also joined some other opposition, more moderate groups to battle the Bashar al Assad regime. Tara Maller is a former CIA analyst on Iraq. She's now a research fellow on international security at the New America Foundation here in Washington, D.C.

Tara, thanks very much for joining us.

Let's talk a little bit about what draws these young Americans and British subjects, other Europeans, to give up so much and go to Turkey and then sneak into Syria, eventually wind up, some of them, working for ISIS or al Nusra, maybe some of them have gone with ISIS into Iraq now. What draws these people to do that?

TARA MALLER, FELLOW, NEW AMERICA FOUNDATION: Well, surprisingly, in many cases, it's not originally strong religious ideology. Many of these people, like the one that we just saw being killed in Syria yesterday, McCain, they had typical, normal, average, everyday childhoods. And then something goes wrong, something goes astray. In the same way that we see people, you know, individual school shooters or what not, something goes wrong, and then they are recruited by this organization or they find something appealing about the organization. I don't think they intend to end up necessarily beheading an individual or becoming part of the group doing the activity its doing, but, you know, something goes astray and that's why we need good intelligence to find these people.

BLITZER: Because some of these groups like ISIS, they're very active, effective on social media in recruiting these individuals.

MALLER: Yes, social media, through Twitter, through online forums, and these are things that intelligence agencies track on a regular basis so they can keep track of individuals, westerners and Americans, who go overseas.

BLITZER: You used to work at the CIA, so if someone like McCain, this Douglas McArthur McCain, if he's tweeting nice things about ISIS, people are watching that and they're checking him out to see who he is and that's why, presumably, he would be put on some sort of watch list?

MALLER: Absolutely. I mean there's a lot of forms of intelligence that are being monitored from open source intelligence, like social media, (INAUDIBLE) intelligence, imagery intelligence. The problem is there's also a lot of noise. So there might be a lot of individuals like McCain tweeting similar sympathetic messages who aren't ending up being part of the small portion of individuals who are fighting in Syria or end up being in the very radical heart of these organizations. So part of the difficulty of intelligence is separating the cases like McCain versus the sort of outer fringes of these groups.

BLITZER: If the U.S. is going to - the president of the United States, we know he's weighing this option, is going to consider expanding air strikes against ISIS targets that have been going on in Iraq right now, but going into Syria, you need really good intelligence about where to strike in Syria. You used to work at the CIA. Does the U.S. have that kind of intelligence?

MALLER: Absolutely. You need really good intelligence. You need not just the imagery of the sites you want to actually hit, you need to have good signals intelligence to know that if you're targeting particular individuals, that they are where you think they are.

Things can go wrong. I think the quote Secretary Hagel said the other day is, intelligence is never packaged neatly with a bow. There's always going to be gaps. There's always going to be holes. And in a place like Syria, these gaps are particularly salient because we don't have a strong presence on the ground. We saw one of these gaps with the recent special forces raid. Intelligence isn't perfect. People can move locations. Sites can be changed. Weapons can be moved around.

So I think what you're going to see in Syria is right now you've seen the spy planes go in. They're probably collecting imagery to see if there are sites where we think we can make an impact. But at the end of the day, you know, it's going to be a harder case than Iraq. Iraq, we've had thousands of troops on the ground for the past decade, so I'd imagine that intelligence there was a lot better for the strikes we saw which were effective in the recent weeks than we're going to see if we strike in Syria. So I think it's something we need to be prudent about, but I think that's what the administration's probably looking at to see how we can be most effective if and when we are to strike Syria, which it looks like we may be moving towards.

BLITZER: Yes, and one of the things they have to really worry about is civilian casualties, collateral damage, as they used to call it in the military. If the U.S. is going to launch what they call precision air strikes, there are potentially a lot of civilians who would be -- could be killed in the process and that's a major problem for the U.S. that the president has to consider.

Tara, thanks very much for joining us.

MALLER: Absolutely.

BLITZER: Tara Maller is with the New America Foundation here in Washington.

Coming up, President Obama is weighing his military options to stop the advance of ISIS across northern Iraq, but what -- at what point should he seek congressional authorization under the War Powers Act? We're going to discuss that with Republican Congressman Scott Rigell of the House Armed Services Committee. He's got some very strong views.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)