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Wolf

3 Arrested Trying to Join ISIS; Susan Rice Condemns Benjamin Netanyahu's Visit to U.S.; Congress at Standstill on DHS Budget; "Al Jazeera" Journalists Arrested in Paris.

Aired February 25, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting from Washington.

We're following breaking news out of New York. The FBI now has three men in custody, three men the FBI says were planning to fly out of the United States to Turkey and then cross into Syria and join forces with ISIS. Our justice reporter, Evan Perez, is joining us from New York.

We're getting new details, including allegations that one of them may actually have wanted to kill the president of the United States and another may have had plans to plant some sort of bomb on Coney Island in Brooklyn. What else do we know?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. One of these suspects -- his name is Abdurasil Jurabia (ph). He is 24 years old. The allegation from the FBI -- they've sent out a few tweets in the last hour making some of these allegations against this one suspect who's now under arrest. That if he could not travel, if he could get carry out his plan to join ISIS in Syria, that perhaps the plan would be to carry out on attack here on U.S. soil either killing the United States -- the president of the United States perhaps plant a bomb on Coney Island or also assassinate police officers or FBI agents. He was determined to carry out something on behalf of ISIS whether here or on Syrian soil.

We should also say that we now know -- we got new information just a few minutes ago that the FBI has sent out one of their joint intelligence bulletins, which is intended to give state and local law enforcement around the country the heads-up on these big cases. And in this intelligent bulletin, they're basically telling officers around the country about this particular case, Wolf. But they're also warning them and telling them to be vigilant for other similar type of suspects out there, not only people who might want to travel overseas but also who may be planning to carry out attacks here.

BLITZER: I'll also bring in Bob Baer, our CNN security and intelligence analyst.

In this document that the Justice Department released, Bob, it says that two of these guys actually came to the attention of the FBI in the summer of 2014 after they started posting their anti-U.S., their pro-ISIL views on various websites. The investigation revealed that two of them subsequently devised a plan to travel to Turkey and then to Syria for the purpose of waging jihad on behalf of ISIL. So if they first noticed these guys in the summer of 2014, walk us through what would normally happen. How would they monitor these three individuals?

BOB BAER, CNN SECURITY & INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Once they went up in social media, then you would start listening to their cell phones. You would go to the travel databases, looking for reservations to Turkey. Once they started to take those actions, then you start human intelligence and start running people into them to see what their plans and intentions are. They clearly weren't putting on the net that they were intending to kill the president. And only once the FBI really launched a full investigation with agents and proxies into these guys would they really know -- and then they had to monitor them. They had to figure out how big the group was.

And they had to pull the plug at the right time to roll these guys up. Clearly, the attack on the president is aspirational. But putting a bomb in Coney Island, easily done. Obtaining a machine gun, shooting up police, a police car, easily done. Sounds to me that the FBI moved at the right time. Clearly, we needed domestic intelligence agency -- the FBI is doing a great job but we have to keep going. If the FBI director is right, there are in all 50 states, there are cells. This is a huge problem. And remember, there are the lone Wolfs that don't go up on the net which is who worries the FBI the most.

BLITZER: And these guys may have been dumber than you think, because in this document, it says -- I'll read it to you and our viewers here in the United States and around the world, "In an August 2014, posting on an Uzbek language website that propogates ISIL's ideaology, Ayuabia (ph), one of the suspects arrested today, offered to kill the president of the United States if ordered to do so by ISIL."

So obviously on this Uzbek website that promotes ISIL's or ISIS's ideology, he specifically said, if necessary, "I'm ready to kill the president of the United States." That according to this document released by the Justice Department. What were they thinking?

BAER: Well, these are the dumb ones. It's the low-hanging fruit, the guys who haven't figured this out. We do monitor Uzbek sites. And if they did go up with this and were that explicit, they would come to the FBI's attention. It's the ones, as I said, that stay off these social media sites, that don't blog that worries the FBI.

But in these other 50 states, what's going on there? They haven't been able to move but they suspect there are cells, that they've active and they expect they're listening to the Islamic State, this call for violence against police and against Americans. We could go anywhere with this.

BLITZER: Maybe they thought nobody's paying attention to an Uzbek language website that's loyal to ISIS.

Guys, stand by, Bob Baer, Evan Perez.

More on the breaking news coming up. Also coming up, unfortunate and destructive. A U.S. official uses

some of the strongest language yet to criticize the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the United States next week. Susan Rice, the president's national security adviser, bluntly condemning this visit. We'll talk about the impact when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Next week's planned to visit to Washington by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stirred up a hornet's nest here in Washington, D.C. The House speaker, John Boehner, thumbed his nose at protocol when he invited Netanyahu to address the joint meeting in the United States Congress about negotiations with Iran and its nuclear ambitions. He did so without consulting the president, the White House or with the Democratic leadership. That, in turn, had many Democrats deciding whether they should even attend the speech.

The national security adviser to the president, Susan Rice, she went one step further last night on PBS's "Charlie Rose" show, calling it destructive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN RICE, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: What has happened over the last several weeks, by virtue of the invitation that was issued --

CHARLIE ROSE, PBS HOST: By the speaker of the House.

RICE: -- by the speaker and the acceptance of it by Prime Minister Netanyahu two weeks in advance of his election, is that on both sides, there's been injected a degree of partisanship, which is not only unfortunate, I think it's destructive of the fabric of the relationship.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's discuss what's going on with Netanyahu's visit.

Joining us, CNN senior political analyst, Ron Brownstein; and CNN chief political analyst, Gloria Borger.

I don't remember a time, Gloria, when there's been in kind of blunt, angry language coming from both sides, the prime minister of Israel, he's bitterly condemning what the U.S. is trying to do with Iran. And now Susan Rice is calling his whole visit destructive.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Let me speak to Susan Rice's language for a moment. National security adviser of the United States does not go on national television and use a word like destructive without the explicit permission or direction of the president of the United States. She is clearly reflecting a president who is very annoyed by this, who is angered by this. So what she said reflects the president very clearly. And this thing is only going to ratchet up after Netanyahu comes. He's refused to meet with Democrats separately. And you've got a big Jewish meeting here in town, Washington, next week. So the administration is playing this out and Netanyahu is playing it for his election on March 17.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Wolf, we might be -- you covered this --

(CROSSTALK)

BROWNSTEIN: When you think of other examples, Ashot Shamir (ph) and James Baker. Netanyahu and Bill Clinton were rocky. But even compared to those, there's nothing in modern times like this, nor is there anything like the decision Netanyahu has made to really identify and align with the Republican Party to a greater extent than we've seen Israeli leaders on either side align solely with one party.

There's a legitimate debate to be had and that will be had about the terms of an agreement with Iran that the administration seems to be moving toward. There will be a lot of questions about it. But I think Netanyahu has made it much tougher for Democrats to join that questioning by framing this in such a partisan way.

BORGER: And the vice president is going to be out of town when Netanyahu speaks. John Kerry is going to be out of town when Netanyahu speaks. And one thing we all ought to know about domestic politics in Israel is that President Obama has a 59 percent unfavorable rating. And so could it be possibly that there's politics going on here?

BLITZER: Here's the problem, though, from the Israeli point of view, from the prime minister of Israel's perspective, assuming he's reelected. And it's a close election on March 17th.

BORGER: Sure. Very close.

BLITZER: So there's no 100 percent guarantee he will be reelected. But there has been real serious damage done, at least in the short term, not only with the president of the United States and his administration, but with Democrats in the United States. When you get a letter by Dianne Feinstein and Dick Durbin to the prime minister of Israel, they're expressing their irritation with the way this invitation was coming forward, and then they say, we'd like you to meet behind closed doors with the Democratic caucus, Democratic members. Netanyahu says, no, that would be too partisan, you can't do that. But normally, Israel has always tried to have good relations with both parties and you can't irritate half of the country, if you will.

BROWNSTEIN: This isn't entirely new, either. In the 2012 election, I think Netanyahu went remarkably far in indicating his preference for Mitt Romney both --

BORGER: Former business colleague.

BROWNSTEIN: -- when he was there in Israel and also in the speech in September, in the hype of the U.S. election. I've talked to expert in this area who said there's never been anything quite like the level, the degree to which he's been willing to identify with one party. I think you would have to say that this is the most counterproductive foreign intervention in American politics --

BORGER: Right.

BROWNSTEIN: -- in modern times. I said that the other day and it was said, since the XYZ Affair in the 1970s --

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: And he is really short term. And this is really short term, really dangerous politics that B.B. Netanyahu is playing right now.

BLITZER: His point is, Israel has an existential threat, he has to alert the Congress because that's really the last --

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: Why not meet with these Democrats?

BLITZER: That's the last bastion, if you will, to prevent this deal. That's what his argument is.

BROWNSTEIN: He may be making it tougher, not easier to have that fundamental debate (INAUDIBLE)

BLITZER: Guys, thanks. We'll obviously cover that visit next week.

Thanks very much.

Coming up, in less than three days, funding for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security runs out. The House speaker, John Boehner, says he's in a wait-and-see mood right now. We have the latest on this fight when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The House speaker, John Boehner, says it's now up to the Senate to get something done on funding the U.S. Department of Homeland Security before his chamber can act.

Here's what he told our own Dana Bash just a little while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Mr. Speaker, on DHS funding, are you concerned that if you bring up a clean bill to fund the Homeland Security Department, like McConnell says he'll do in the Senate, it will be the end of your speakership?

REP. JOHN BOEHNER, (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I'm waiting for the Senate to act. The House has done its job to fund the Department of Homeland Security and to stop the president's overreach on immigration. And we're waiting for the Senate to do their jobs. Senate Democrats have stood in the way now for three weeks over a bill that should have been debated and passed. So until the Senate does something, we're in a wait-and-see mode.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: This is just the latest move in the fight between Republicans in Congress and the president over immigration. If a funding agreement for the Department of Homeland Security isn't reached by midnight Friday, the department faces at least a very serious partial shutdown.

Representative Matt Salmon, a Republican from Arizona, is joining us right now.

Congressman, thanks very much for joining us.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Let's say the Senate does, today or tomorrow or even Friday, pass what's called a clean bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security at least for the next several months, through the end of this fiscal year, the end of September. It comes to the floor of the House of Representatives, no references to immigration. Will you vote in favor of funding the department?

REP. MATT SALMON, (R), ARIZONA: I believe that we should then add those riders back on, send it back to the Senate and iron it out in a conference committee. That's how the process works.

BLITZER: Because as you know, the Democrats, they have filibuster rules. They have an ability to block that. They say they will if you were to do so and that would simply avoid payment for hundreds of thousands of employees --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: -- of the Department of Homeland Security. In effect, there would be that partial shutdown.

SALMON: I'm certainly in hopes, high hopes that the Democrats would honor the process and go through the conference committee. We have a very strong difference of opinion. We believe that the president not only overreached but we believe that what he did was unconstitutional. We believe that we have a responsibility and the November election was a strong mandate from the people and the president wants to say, elections do have consequences. When are we going to be relevant? I don't mean we, as Republicans, but I mean we, the Congress. There's three co-equal branches of government. One branch doesn't control everything. One of the powers that were given to us, the power of the purse, to try to bring the president back into control, so to speak. One other thing I'd like to say is that my voters believe in November that Harry Reid wouldn't be running the Senate anymore. I'm sad to tell them he still is.

BLITZER: Let me ask you this. If the speaker of the House were to decide to go ahead and just put up a clean bill as it's called without any references, any amendments or attachments to immigration, all the Democrats, I assume in the House would vote for it, a whole bunch of Republican colleagues would vote for it. Would you consider that? If the speaker would allow that to come up for an up or down vote a betrayal on his part?

SALMON: I usually don't deal with hypotheticals. But if the speaker brought a vote to the floor, a clean vote on DHS, that funded what I believe an unconstitutional action, I'm not going to be part of funding something I believe is unconstitutional. That's a dereliction of my oath of office and I'm not going to be part of that.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: What about the argument that that whole immigration plan that the president put forward by executive order is on hold because a federal judge in Texas said it was unconstitutional. It's now going through appeals, going to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. This could take months and months and month. And at a time of terror threats, you don't want to fool around with Homeland Security on a matter of principle even if the president is not going to be able to implement his immigration plans in any cace.

SALMON: I don't want to fool around with our national security as all. In fact, that's why we passed a bill a month ago and the Senate Democrats have not even let it come for a vote on the floor. They've been flat-out irresponsible. I would hope that ultimately the president and the Senate Democrats would care at least as much about national security as they do about the president's overreach.

BLITZER: We'll see what happens.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Do you want to give us a prediction what's going to happen between now and midnight Friday?

SALMON: My prediction is that, if the Senate does finally do something -- and I think that's a big if -- if the Senate does finally do something and they strip out the language, the riders ha we put on it, my prediction is we'll put it back on, send it back to them. We should go to conference committee, iron it out. That's the Democratic process. We don't live in a banana republic. We live in a republic.

BLITZER: Representative Matt Salmon, of Arizona, thanks very much for joining us.

SALMON: Thank you.

BLITZER: Coming up, Paris on edge after another night of mysterious drones flying over some well-known sites. We'll have the latest on the investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: For a second straight night, drones have buzzed the skies over Paris. They've been over national monuments in the overnight hours. French police now say they've arrested three journalists from "al Jazeera, English" for drone violations. Here's the thing. They're unrelated to the mystery drone sightings over the past two nights. Let's get some analysis. Joining us our CNN aviation analyst, Miles

O'Brien.

Miles, what do you think? What's going on? You see the drones flying over the Eiffel Tower, the U.S. embassy in Paris, other landmarks.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Yeah. I think those would be pretty shots for one thing. I can see why journalists would be trying to do this. But the French are particularly tough about this. For one thing to fly a drone there, you have to have what's tantamount to a pilot's license, a motor glider license. And you have to have specific permission to fly over a specific location. It sounds like they failed on both of these accounts and may have gotten some pretty pictures but also got in hot water.

BLITZER: Looks the FBI is getting involved in helping them. There was a drone that flew over the White House a few weeks ago, as you well remember.

O'BRIEN: Yes, I do remember that. It's interesting. What happens, as you well know, technology gets ahead of regulation? This is an exploding market of technology, these lightweight drones that carry these small, go pro style cameras. It can get amazing images of what it costs tens of thousands of dollars with a helicopter. Now it can be done for a fraction of that. The regulators have not caught up to this. We're in a weird gray area right now where you don't want to stop a very cool technology from coming to fruition, but people are pushing the envelope in ways that -- well, are helping define the regulations, put it that way.

BLITZER: French investigators now videoed the drones actually flying around.

The concern, I suspect is not so much the video that will be shot by these go pro cameras on a drone, but potentially if it's a terrorist or hostile intention, that could be serious damage too.

O'BRIEN: There could. There's security implications, the ability to see over walls, that kind of thing is one issue. A lot of people express concerns about them being weaponized in some way. These are very small drones. We're talking the payload is extremely limited. The weight of the camera is about really all it can carry. I think that's a bit overstated. There is the real possibility that if you fly them properly or -- don't fly them properly or recklessly, you could hurt somebody or conk somebody on the head. There's a level of expertise and knowledge about it is important before you allow people to fly them over places.

BLITZER: Some law enforcement officials have said to me that one of the concerns is if you're a bad guy, a terrorist, you use it for surveillance to plot some other attack, if you will, on the ground.

O'BRIEN: Yeah. There's a lot of ways to do that. You can also use Google Maps and that kind of thing to do that sort of thing. There's a lot of ways -- there are cameras everywhere as we well know.

BLITZER: Especially in Europe.

O'BRIEN: Yes, exactly. This is one more layer in that ability to look over the fence and look down on things. Everybody has to kind of sort this out without stopping what is a legitimate industry. For me, as a journalist, it's exciting to have the capability to get those shots.

BLITZER: Uncharted territory for a lot of us that we'll have to learn a lot about to deal with this.

O'BRIEN: Right.

BLITZER: Miles, thanks very much.

Miles O'Brien, our aviation analyst.

That's it for me. I'll be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room." Much more on my interviews with the U.S. Army chief of staff, Chief Ray Odierno.

For our international viewers, "AMANPOUR" is coming up next.

For our viewers in North America, "NEWSROOM" with Ana Cabrera starts right now.