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Wolf

White House Tightens Security After 2 Incidents; Obama Talks Fight Terrorism at U.N. General Assembly; Global Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson Talks He for She Campaign.

Aired September 22, 2014 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Wolf Blitzer, reporting from the United Nations. We're here for the new session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. We want to once again welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world.

White House security is noticeably tighter today following two incidents in recent days. The man seen sprinting across the lawn on Friday goes before a judge today on charges of unlawful entry with a weapon. He's an Iraqi war veteran who made it all the way inside the White House with a knife before he was stopped. His family says he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder from his U.S. military service.

A second unrelated incident on Saturday resulted in the arrest of a teenager who left his car at a barricaded entrance at the White House. The Secret Service says the young man tried to enter the White House grounds on foot just a short time earlier.

Daniel Bongino spent about a dozen years with the U.S. Secret Service. He's joining us now from Washington.

Daniel, look, I spent almost eight years covering the White House when Bill Clinton was president of the United States. Very often you see these guys trying to jump over a fence. I don't remember a time when someone managed to jump over the fence, run through the North Lawn of the White House or the South Lawn, for that matter, and actually get inside. What happened here?

DANIEL BONGINO, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT: Yeah. Sadly, Wolf, that's not uncommon, as you've just stated. We've dealt with fence jumpers for over a decade I was there and they've never gotten 10 or 15 yards. The system always worked. What happened here, I'm not sure, Wolf. You have to wonder if it was misfeasance or malfeasance. Was if misfeasance, what it a lap in attention? Did someone try to engage one of the non-lethal measures and it didn't work for some reason or was it malfeasance? Did someone neglect to push a post, as we say, cover a post that they should have posted.

And you're going to see an exhaustive analysis of this, I assure you, and the answers will come out. We'll find out shortly. This is shocking to anyone who's ever worked in the Secret Service and is still there now, including the spokesman and the director. They have been clear on that.

BLITZER: I think there should be a complete review to make sure it doesn't happen again. Do they normally leave the door at the north portico unlocked?

BONGINO: Well, it depends, Wolf. You've been there quite a bit. It's a place of business as well. It's not just a tourist attraction or the president's residence. It's actually the official business location for the executive office and the president of the United States. People walk in and out of that door all the time. You know, there are multiple ways to engage the locking mechanism on that door. It's not just one. It's not as if it's a person sitting there with a skeleton key who locks it. I think that's why the Secret Service is so confused as to how this happened and how all of those mechanisms failed. Wolf, there are dogs and unseen security measures that were defeated here, and that's why we are all so confused as to how he got so far. That's a good 70-yard sprint there. There was some time, not a lot, but enough time to engage, and we've always successfully done that. That's what the review is going to focus on, how the security on the door failed and how the personnel failed to respond.

BLITZER: They apparently made a deliberate decision not to shoot and kill this intruder. What are the rules of engagement as far as stopping someone who is sprinting across the North Lawn of the White House towards the residence?

BONGINO: Well, I'm elated that you asked that question because I've been getting e-mails on this all morning. The Secret Service personnel guarding the North Lawn or the agents that protect the president -- remember, the uniformed division protects the White House and the agents protect the president, regardless of where he is. There are rules of engagement regarding escalation of force, use of deadly force, in this case, are the same as they would be for any law enforcement officer. They are no different. So you have to be careful. You can't just shoot someone because they are trespassing. That's not in our Use of Force guidelines or our training.

BLITZER: Daniel Bongino, thanks very much for your perspective.

BONGINO: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: Appreciate it very much.

Jeh Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, is going to be speaking with me, live, later today in "The Situation Room." The Department of homeland security oversees the U.S. Secret Service. That's coming up later today, 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room."

Coming up, it's being called one of the largest solidarity movements of the 21st century. A kickoff for the He For She campaign here at the United Nations trying to promote gender equality around the world.

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BLITZER: Fighting terrorism certainly will be President Obama's top priority when he arrives here tomorrow at the United Nations for the annual meeting of the General Assembly. The president hopes to broaden the coalition of countries signing on to fight against the ISIS terrorists. He will lead a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, focusing on ISIS and a threat posed by the foreign fighters. He will also address the United Nations General Assembly Wednesday morning.

Joining us to talk about all of what the president is planning to do, what to watch for, our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger.

It's a huge week for the president, Gloria. He's got to show the world that he's on top of the immediate crisis in Syria and Iraq.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah. He's got to do that, Wolf. He wants to gather a coalition that will be willing to overtly participate in air strikes. You see the Secretary of State John Kerry lobbying about that. The president will be lobbying about that. He'll also chairing a session on countering violent extremism so the countries can coordinate with each other about how to counteract these violent extremists before they get to the point where you have to fight them the way we are now.

BLITZER: I want you to listen, Gloria, to what the former president, Bill Clinton, said. He was speaking to our own Fareed Zakaria -- about his wife, the former secretary of state, what she wanted, whether he agreed with her as far as Syria and Iraq are concerned. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I agree with her and I would have taken the chance. When we were talking about doing it, there was no ISIS. However, it was an argument she lost within the administration, and she admitted then and acknowledged in her book that she can't know that if her recommendation had been followed it would have worked. That's one of those things you can't know. That's why all of these decisions are hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: He was referring to Hillary Clinton's recommendation that the U.S. go ahead and arm those moderate Syrian rebels opposing Bashar al Assad's regime a couple of years ago. The president decided that would be too risky. He was concerned where those weapons would wind up.

BORGER: Yeah. And, you know, the president was opposed by other members of his national security team as well, Wolf. But, you know, it's very interesting the way President Clinton framed this. Because while his wife clearly disagreed and he says he clearly disagreed, there is always -- you know, he gave weight to the president's argument because he doesn't want to see him out there completely opposed to the president, which is that it was hard to know and it would be hard to know what if these weapons got into the wrong hands. Now, Bill Clinton says it's a risk he was -- he would have been willing to take and that's the way his wife felt. But they are clearly giving some weight to the president's argument that you never know. Of course, right now, as you know, we're in the situation where that's exactly what we would be doing.

BLITZER: And were you surprised at all what Leon Panetta told "60 Minutes" last night that he disagreed with the president as far as his refusal to arm the Syrian oppositions, that he would have liked 8,000 or 10,000 troops to remain in Iraq, even after all of them were supposed to be pulled out at the end of 2011?

BORGER: I thought it was interesting because it shows you how united in many ways that his national security team was against the president, and the president made his own decision in opposition to them. It didn't surprise me so much as it sort of showed you a little bit about the president's leadership, which is that, when he looks at an issue, he solicits all points of view but was willing to disagree with Panetta and Clinton. And, you know, it tells you that he's the one making the final decisions and then they march out there and support him.

BLITZER: Let me quickly bring in Michael O'Hanlon from the Brookings Institution.

Michael, this is a work in progress. The president's evolving strategy in fighting ISIS right now. Give us your assessment. How's it looking?

MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Hi, Wolf. Well, I think that's right and I think it's going to remain a work in progress because the Syria part in particular is so underdeveloped, partly for the debates that you're rehashing right now but also because of the inherent difficulty and the place of the situation. But I think it's going to be 2015 at the earliest before we can see our options. The idea of knowing how we can have a Syrian opposition to take down ISIS when our current plan is only going to train 5,000 people over 12 months that shows you how far we have to go. The Iraq piece is going to have to play out first and then the Syria piece will play out gradually and secondarily.

BLITZER: You think this new government in Baghdad is going to be better than the old government in Baghdad which turned out to be a disaster?

O'HANLON: Yes. But I also think we have to avoid thinking that our problem is solved just because we now have Prime Minister Abadi and the beginning of national unity. As you well know, Wolf, the Sunni/Shia divide is so deep that to think that the removal of one person would solve it would be just as unrealistic as thinking that Saddam Hussein was going to bring peace 11 years ago. Which is now why they are talking about the National Guard in Iraq. That's the kind of army institution in Iraq that doesn't currently exist, but the idea is to have locally trained and recruited forces fighting for their homeland, because that's the only realistic way to avoid having these Sunni/Shia chasms continue to poison politics and the military.

BORGER: And, Wolf, the moment for the president here --

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: The moment for the president here is that he has to be willing to tell the American public -- he's done it a little bit -- but actually be realistic about this and say, as Michael is saying, this is not going to be done overnight. This is a long-term proposition. It's something he never intended to be part of his legacy, to be honest about it, but it will be, and he needs to let the American people know that this is a commitment, for better or worse, that's going to be years in the making.

BLITZER: And, Gloria and Michael, both of you weigh in. Michael, first to you. This president was not anticipating that the final two years of his presidency he would be deeply involved in a U.S. war.

O'HANLON: That's right, Wolf. But you know, I think, first of all, he has to handle the inbox that is thrust upon him. Secondly, even though we can have the debates of who was wrong and when, he has nothing to worry about in terms of his political flank. He has a strong record overall in national security. Even though I've been a critic, I would say that. Going forward, what the American people expect is that he will address the threats that now face us in a realistic and serious way. So whether or not he promised to get us out of two wars, and that was always his aspiration, it's not going to be a standard that most Americans will hold him to. They will hold him to the standard of trying to be serious about responding to the challenges that we have before us today. So I don't think he needs to worry about these debates and political fights of the past as long as he has a good plan going forward.

BORGER: Well, I would say --

BLITZER: 10 seconds, Gloria.

BORGER: --it's affected his overall popularity. The American public is ambivalent. His leadership on foreign policy is now under 50 percent. And so I think it's going to be a struggle for him going forward to have the American people go the way he wants to go on this.

BLITZER: All right. Gloria and Michael, thanks.

O'HANLON: That's fair. All I'm trying to say is --

(CROSSTALK)

O'HANLON: Sorry, Wolf.

BLITZER: Finish your thought quickly.

O'HANLON: I just don't think he has to worry about just dealing with the debates of the past. If he gets serious about a new strategy going forward, he'll be OK.

BORGER: I agree.

BLITZER: Michael O'Hanlon, thanks very much.

Gloria Borger, thanks to you as well.

Much more news coming up. We'll be right back.

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BLITZER: NASA is celebrating today about something far away from here at the United Nations, the arrival of MAVEN in the Mars atmosphere. It took the MAVEN aircraft 10 months to get there. The news comes just as NASA looks to a revived mission for American astronauts on American spacecraft.

Here's CNN Karen Kafa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAREN KAFA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One up in the air for almost 100 years, the other for just over a decade. Boeing and SpaceX following a four-year competition have been tapped by NASA for a private-sector partnership to put American astronauts back on American spacecraft.

CHARLES BOLDEN, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: From day one, the Obama administration has made it clear that the greatest nation on earth should not be dependent on any other nation to get into space.

KAFA: The first flight to the international space station is planned for 2017 the year in which an agreement with Russia ends. The contracts are worth $16.8 billion. Boeing bid with its CST 100 space capsule. SpaceX already shuttles cargo to the ISS with its Dragon capsule.

NASA ANNOUNCER: Ten, nine, eight --

KAFA: The NASA space shuttle program flew 135 missions over three decades before being cut amid funding concerns. So when "Atlantis" touched down at Kennedy Space Center in the pre-dawn hours of July 21, 2011 --

NASA ANNOUNCER: The space shuttle pulls into port for the last time.

KAFA: -- it marked the end of an era. And now a new chapter for Cape Canaveral and new goals for NASA.

BOLDEN: Turning over the orbit transportation to private industry will also allow NASA to focus on an ambitious mission of sending humans to Mars.

KAFA: NASA says hoping on Russian spacecraft cost about $70 million per seat, typically purchasing six seats per year. Recent tensions between Russia and the U.S. over Ukraine have also led to increased tensions between the two space programs.

In Washington, I'm Karen Kafa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And just ahead, it's being called one of the largest solidarity movements of the 21st century.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMMA WATSON, ACTRESS: We are launching a campaign called He For She. I'm reaching out to you because we need your help. We want to end gender inequality. And to do this, we need everyone involved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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BLITZER: It's being called one of the largest solidarity movements of the 21st century. I was honored to host the kickoff of the He For She campaign here at the United Nations. A campaign designed to promote gender equality around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: I'm honored to support this extraordinary cause, once again, as a man who not only loves his mother, loves his wife, loves his daughter, but truly appreciates the unique and wonderful role that women and girls have played throughout the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: I was thrilled to introduce the actress, Emma Watson, named a Global Goodwill Ambassador. At the event Saturday night here at the United Nations, she told the audience that no country has achieved gender equality and spoke about the experiences that shaped her own views.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: I started questioning gender-based assumptions a long time ago. When I was eight, I was confused about being called bossy because I wanted to direct the plays that we would put on for our parents. But the boys were not. When, at 14, I started to be sexualized by certain elements of the media. When at 15, my girlfriends started dropping out of their beloved sports teams because they didn't want to appear muscle-y. When at 18, my male friends were unable to express their feelings. I decided that I was a feminist. This seemed uncomplicated to me. But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word. Women are choosing not to identify as feminists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: She really did an amazing job. Emma Watson, the Global Goodwill Ambassador. I recommend you watch her entire presentation at CNN.com.

The He For She campaign, by the way, intends to mobilize -- get this -- one billion, billion, men and boys around the world in the fight for gender equality over the next 12 months. Go to heforshe.org. You can go ahead and sign up. I recommend it. This is an extremely important cause. That's it for me. Thanks very much for watching. I'll be back here

at the United Nations, 5:00 p.m. Eastern later today. Jeh Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, and Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, they will join me live. Don't forget.

For our international viewers, stay tuned for "AMANPOUR."

For everyone else, "NEWSROOM" with Don Lemon starts right now.