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Wolf

Bomb Threats Force Airlines to Divert, Evacuate, Cancel Flights; Fareed Zakaria Interview with President Obama; Two Israeli Soldiers Killed in Golan Heights

Aired January 28, 2015 - 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: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer, reporting from Washington.

Since Saturday, more than two dozen bomb threats have been posted on Twitter and other social media have forced airlines here in the United States to divert, evacuate or cancel flights. The threats began Saturday when military F-16 fighter jets were scrambled to escort two flights bound for Atlanta. The number of threats keep growing. 17 were posted yesterday alone.

Our aviation and government regulations correspondent, Rene Marsh, is joining us now from New York.

The FBI has gotten involved in tracking down these threats. The FBI and FAA have to take them seriously. What's going on here?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION & GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely right. No one wants to take a risk. So far, all these threats have been unfounded but in the climate we're in in this day and age, law enforcement, airlines, no one wants to take the risk. Just last night, there was another threat via Twitter, bomb threat in which San Francisco FBI as well as four Delta planes, they were threatened.

I spoke with a U.S. official today and this official admits that there is indeed a spike in the number of these sorts of threats via social media. Used to be something where this happened once in a while. Now this has become unfortunately an everyday occurrence. That same official telling me that they noticed an uptick in the trend following a specific incident.

This was on January 17th. This was a Delta flight from Atlanta to Raleigh, North Carolina. It received a lot of publicity and following that incident, the number of these Twitter or social media threats just increased exponentially. Many of the officials I speak to, law enforcement, they believe that this is copycat incidents in which someone sees this, whether it's in the paper, on the news, and duplicate the efforts of trying to create a scary and chaotic situation for travelers and airlines as well. It really is problematic for travelers and the airlines. We're talking about diversions as a result of this, talking about fighter jets, military resources being scrambled as a result of those sorts of threats. Passengers having to be evacuated from planes, rescreened, their luggage rescreened, passengers missing flights. It's costly to airlines if they have to divert.

We should note, the FBI are investigating all of these incidents. So what they will likely do is try to trace back that I.P. address to get a hold of the person who's responsible or persons responsible. And this is a crime.

BLITZER: These people can be arrested. They can wind up in jail for a long time. They think they might be having some fun posting these kinds of fake threats out there on Twitter or social media. But this is potentially a significant crime and people could go to jail for a long time. There have been some of these threats that they've claimed to have ties to ISIS. Are investigators taking those claims seriously?

MARSH: Yeah, some of these threats, they do pledge allegiance to ISIS or other jihadi groups. At this point, the information that I'm getting is this, they don't necessarily feel that all of these threats are credible. However, that said, again, in the climate, no one wants to take the risk. Whether this individual is indeed just purely inspired by ISIS, it's unclear. But one law enforcement official put it like this to me. They said that in most cases, someone who truly is a member of ISIS, they're not going to tweet out what they're going to do. They have the equipment. They're going to just do it. They won't give us a heads-up via Twitter. That, from a law enforcement official. But that said, everyone takes these seriously. Down to law enforcement, down to the airlines because you just don't want to be wrong that one time because so many lives are at stake -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Yeah. And law enforcement officials have said to me they have ways of going back and finding these individuals who are posting these threats. They may think they can do it anonymously, they can run, but the FBI believes they'll find these people eventually.

Rene, thanks very much.

Up next, the CNN exclusive. Our own Fareed Zakaria goes one-on-one with President Obama. The president discusses Iran, nuclear weapons, Israel, his decision not to meet with the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. The interview, that's coming up next.

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BLITZER: President Obama says he won't be meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his planned visit to Washington in March. In a one-on-one interview with our own Fareed Zakaria, the president explains his decision. He speaks about the political implications of the visit, his battle with Congress over the ongoing nuclear discussions, the negotiations with Iran.

Here's part of his conversation with Fareed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, FAREED ZAKARIA GPS: Last week, it was announced that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is going to come to Washington and do a joint session of Congress at the invitation of the Republican speaker of the House. Many people are saying this is a rebuttal of your arguments about negotiations with Iran or the possible deal with Iran. Do you think it's appropriate for him to come in this manner at this time to Washington?

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I'll let Mr. Boehner answer that and Mr. Netanyahu. I speak with Prime Minister Netanyahu all the time. We're declining to meet with him. I'm declining to meet with him simply because our general policy is we don't meet with any world leader two weeks before their election. I think that's inappropriate. And that's true with some of our closest allies. David Cameron, who has an election coming up, recently came to visit because we insisted that if he wants to come and it was an important meeting, it needs to be far away enough from the election that it doesn't look like in some ways we're meddling or putting our thumbs on the scale.

To the broader issue, Fareed, I don't think there's been any rebuttal of my argument. I haven't heard a persuasive rebuttal of my argument that we crafted very effective sanctions against Iran specifically to bring them to the negotiations table to see if we could resolve the Iranian nuclear issue through diplomatic means. By all accounts, including the accounts of Israeli intelligence, Iran has abided by the terms of this interim agreement. They have not advanced their nuclear program. They have actually rolled back their stockpiles of highly enriched uranium. And so we have lost nothing during this period of negotiations. Iran's program has not advanced. And we have the chance of providing a mechanism where we can verify that Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon and Iran has the ability over time to re-enter the community of nations as a responsible player.

Now, I don't know that we're going to be able to get that done. But my argument is for the United States Congress to insist on imposing new sanctions that all our partners, as well as the Iranians, can interpret as a violation of the interim agreement, for us to undermine diplomacy at this critical time for no good reason is a mistake. And that what we need to do is to finish up this round of negotiations, put the pressure on Iran to say yes to what the international community is calling for. And what's been remarkable is the unity we've been able to maintain in the P5 Plus 1, even with Russia, given all the strains we have with them, China, which has a great hunger for Iranian oil, we've still maintained that unity, which shows how effective our diplomats have been. And if, in fact, we don't get a deal, make sure that it's the Iranians' fault because they couldn't say yes to a reasonable deal. And so I haven't heard a good counterargument yet. I will veto legislation if it comes up that imposes additional sanctions.

And, by the way, what I've said to members of Congress and what I've said to the Israelis is, the day after Iran walks away from a reasonable deal, the easiest thing for me to do in Congress is pass additional sanctions against Iran. It would take about two days for me to be able to sign a bill like that. So we have the ability to exert additional pressure. But it's important for us to show that we've exhausted every possible avenue of diplomatic resolution.

ZAKARIA: If you listen to what people are saying in Congress about the prospective deal -- everyone knows where it is, somewhere in the range of 5,000 to 6,000 centrifuges, seems like any deal you bring to this Republican Senate, they're not going to go for it.

(CROSSTALK)

OBAMA: Well, I think it's important for us to actually have a deal in place and then make an argument for what the deal is. I've said before that we will take no deal over a bad deal. But if I can prove that the deal we've put in place assures us, through indisputable verification mechanisms, that Iran cannot achieve breakout capacity, if I've got a bunch of scientists and nuclear experts saying this assures us that Iran is not on the brink of being a nuclear weapons power, then that's a public debate we should have.

And I will then ask every member of Congress to ask, why would we reject that deal and prefer a potential military option that would be less effective in constraining Iran's nuclear program and would have extraordinary ramifications at a time when we've already got too many conflicts in the Middle East? I'm pretty confident I can win that argument.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: You'll be able to see Fareed's full interview with President Obama this Sunday, 10:00 a.m. eastern, on "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS" only here on CNN.

The first lady, Michelle Obama, has come under some fire for her wardrobe in Saudi Arabia. She was there with the president to offer regards to the new king. The first lady is being criticized by some for not covering her head as is the tradition among Saudi women. But as we look back, that's not the case with American women leaders. Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, Madeleine Albright, when they were all secretary of state and visited Saudi Arabia. Also Laura Bush, Nancy Pelosi, who was on this trip with the president on this trip.

And the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, when she was there, she did not have a scarf on either. None of them actually covered up. But it's interesting the first lady did cover up during a visit to Jakarta, Indonesia, back in 2010. That's because she went inside a mosque and, out of respect to Islam, she wore a scarf at that time.

Still ahead, more on our top story. Two Israeli soldiers killed in the Golan Heights. The IDF spokesman, he is getting ready to join us live with more. We'll hear what's going on. Will there be an escalation? All that coming up.

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BLITZER: Here in Washington, the State Department is weighing in on the deadly attack along the Israeli/Lebanese/Syrian border. The spokeswoman of the State Department, Jan Psaki, said this moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAN PSAKI, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESWOMAN: We support Israel's legitimate right to self-defense and continue to urge all parties to respect the blue line between Israel and Lebanon as prescribed by 1701. We also, of course, condemn the act of violence and will be watching the situation closely.

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BLITZER: Joining us on the phone now is the Israeli military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, from Jerusalem.

Colonel, is this situation along the northern border of Israel with Lebanon and Syria the confrontation with Hezbollah about to explode into a full-scale war?

LT. COL. PETER LERNER, ISRAELI MILITARY SPOKESMAN (voice-over): Well, I certainly hope not. Here's what we know. Earlier today, five lethal antitank missiles were fired and launched at civilian vehicles traveling a civilian road. Happened to be there were soldiers inside. Ultimately, they could have killed anybody traveling this road. Indeed, a major and a staff sergeant were killed and seven others were wounded. So we have to take the necessary precautions and be prepared for that escalation. We don't hope for it, but we will defend the state of Israel. That is what we are charged with and we have to be prepared for that. So that's what we're doing, that's the steps we are taking currently in order to closely watch the situation, closely watch the developments on the other side of the fence, and be prepared for anything that could happen.

BLITZER: We know Israel has moved some of the Iron Dome antimissile systems up north to the Golan Heights. I assume Israeli forces are reemploying, moving north as well. Is that right?

LERNER: Absolutely. We have forces and defensive capabilities and offensive capabilities in the north along the border, in the border area, specifically to deal with the threat. And we need to be prepared for potential threats that could develop there. It would be rockets or more cross-border attacks. Today, we had a drill, search for potential tunnels that could have been dug by Hezbollah into the north of Israel. So we need to be prepared and take precautions to address the threats. We're not willing for Hezbollah to attack us so we need to be prepared to respond to those, to that aggression, if it actually does happen.

BLITZER: Hezbollah says Israel started all this about a week or so ago when it launched an airstrike against a convoy of Hezbollah vehicles going through Syria and killing several Hezbollah militants and an Iranian general who was in one of the vehicles as well. What do you say about that?

LERNER: Without going into specifics, clearly, Hezbollah, it's a lethal terrorist organization that's carried out terrorism locally against several Western targets. They're at the beck and call of Iran. That's what they do. Iran has been arming to the teeth. They have hundreds and thousands of rockets just for one mission. This is exactly the type of threat that we are facing. That is precisely what we need to be prepared for, this Iranian backed terror organization that has terror on its mind.

BLITZER: Peter Lerner, the spokesman for the IDF, Israel Defense Forces, thanks very much for joining us.

LERNER: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Still ahead, as we mark 70th years since the liberation of Auschwitz, I'm going to show you how that concentration, that death camp directly impacted my own family.

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BLITZER: Now a story with deep meaning for my family and me. Yesterday marked 70 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp. More than a million people were killed there, most of them Jews, including my grandparents.

I visited Auschwitz for a CNN special on the camp's survivors and to trace my personal connection to the atrocities that happened there. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: It haunts us to this very day. You hear that word, Auschwitz and think of death. You spell the death when you're walking around.

I read a lot about Holocaust, saw the pictures and movies. I knew what happened. But until you see the location, you see where it occurred, you get a sense of the enormity of this crime. It's hard to believe people can be as cruel as they clearly have been.

1.2 million people within two or three years were slaughtered. Then when I went and saw the crematorium, the gas chambers, it will stay with you for the rest of your life. It was a powerful moment.

Auschwitz survivors went through hell. They lost parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents. When you hear those stories, it's so moving to listen, appreciate and understand what these people had to endure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

BLITZER: When I think about what she and her sister had to endure at 10 years old. Taken to the doctor, Joseph Mengele, for the most barbaric kinds of torture experiments. It's so shocking, so horrible. To believe these were so-called doctors. This is a sick part of the Nazi history, sickest you can imagine. It's hard to believe people could do this to other people.

(on camera): Parents were taken to the right. Older brothers and sisters were taken to the right. They went right to the gas chambers.

(voice-over): When I first walked into the gas chamber, I thought about my paternal grandparents, my dad's mom and dad who were killed probably in that gas chamber. I don't know for sure. I know they were killed, murdered at Auschwitz. I know that they probably were taken into that gas chamber. I don't know what was going through their mind. Did they know it was going to be the end?

I waited a long time. I could have gone many years earlier, but for some reason, I didn't. I don't know why. On my dad's side, he grew up in the town of Auschwitz. He was born there and grew up in the village town. I walked around the town. I couldn't believe how close it was. He himself was never taken to Auschwitz. They took him to a dozen other slave labor camps.

I grew up hearing these stories. My parents were very open about it. They never hid anything from me.

I finally went. It was a powerful moment when you walked around the areas of Auschwitz, knowing the blood in the ground there. It wasn't until that moment that it hit me that my father's parents were killed in Auschwitz. Powerful experience, something I'll never forget.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Don't miss the CNN special report, "Voices of Auschwitz." For viewers in North America, it premieres tonight 9:00 p.m. eastern. For international viewers, see it Saturday at 11:00 a.m. and Sunday at 8:00 p.m. London time this weekend on CNN International.

That's it for me. I'll see you at 5:00 p.m. in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

The news continues next on CNN.