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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

ISIS Killer Known as Jihadi John Identified; DHS Shutdown Possible?; Jodi Arias Sentencing Phase Goes to Jury; Aboard an Ice Breaker in the Great Lakes

Aired February 26, 2015 - 20:00   ET

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

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST, OUTFRONT: You will not believe this people. There are reports there are llamas on the loose in Vancouver, Washington, north of Portland. This is not joke. Llamas are taking over. They are out. They are out on the lam. Beware because they spit.

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Anderson starts now.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, good evening. Thanks for joining us.

At the end of a day which we learned the identity of the ISIS killer known as jihadi John, we are just now learning about the search for what could be his latest young recruits. Four Canadians maybe more potentially in Syria potentially part of the fight already and we learned today from the director of the national counterterrorism center more than 3400 westerners have gone off to fight for ISIS so far. That total includes as many of 180 Americans according to the director of national intelligence and possibly those young Canadians.

Our Paula Newton in Ottawa for us tonight covering the breaking news.

So what do know about these teams?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that somehow they were radicalized in the last few months. That their families alerted local authorities first, Anderson, to the fact that they were missing. It became apparent, though, within a few days that this was handed off to national security officials and that they had gone overseas somewhere to the Middle East, likely trying to get to Syria in the hopes of joining ISIS. And the fact remains, Anderson, that these families are frantic right now trying to figure out what actually happened to their children.

COOPER: So their exact location right now is not known.

NEWTON: No. And in fact, security officials on the ground in Turkey are trying to help Canadian officials. But as we just discussed, Anderson, I mean, there are many westerners right now that security authorities are trying to track, and it's a huge problem. And the trail has, in fact, gone cold. And once they step over to Syria, it is very difficult to figure out exactly what's happened to them.

COOPER: And you purported that Canada started revoking passports in this kind of a case. Obviously, that did not happen here.

NEWTON: Yes. I mean, Anderson, I have to tell you. You and I have been covering this for more than ten years. We did it for years and years and years in Britain where we talked about radicalization, what's different in these Canadian cases?

It is not like the families from before. These families are alerting authorities. The problem, in these cases, it just didn't happen early enough. And a lot of parents are speaking out in Canada saying I want those passports taken away from my children. When they find out what's going on and alert the authorities, they have the legal power to revoke those passports. Fortunately, it didn't happen in this case.

And Anderson, you know, tonight the Quebec public security minister saying, look, she's finding that radicalization is a growing problem here in Canada.

COOPER: Yes. Paula, I appreciate the reporting. Paula Newton, thanks very much from Canada, tonight.

Now, the young British man from a well off family with a college degree has become the global voice in some cases of ISIS. Today, we learned from a number of sources including several highly placed intelligence officials that the ISIS executioner you see there with the English accent who first appeared in the murder video of American James Foley is a Kuwait-born Londoner. They say that Jihadi John, as he is now called, as he can be known is actually Mohammed Emwazi.

Today, the daughter of one of his British victims, talked about the news and what she thinks should happen to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think all the families will feel relief once there's a bullet between his eyes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: They might just get their wish. Sources telling CNN's Barbara Starr that this man is considered a high-valued target right now. We have more on how he came to be identified from our chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's been the voice of some of ISIS' most brutal terror videos. Calm, ruthless, and with a distinct and surprising British accent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our knife will continue to strike the next of your people. SCIUTTO: Now U.K. authorities have identified terrorist known as

Jihadi John as Mohammed Emwazi, a 26-year-old British national born in Kuwait but raised in London. Though, U.S. officials would not publicly discuss his suspected identity, today the White House said Jihadi John is a top terror target.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: In the mind of the president, he ranks highly on the list because that individual is responsible for the murder of innocent Americans who the president is determined to bring to justice.

SCIUTTO: Emwazi illustrate ISIS' alarmingly broad appeal from a well off family earning a college degree in technology at the University of Westminster and until his travel to Syria in 2012, enjoying a life of privilege.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was a diligent, hard working, lovely young man, responsible, polite, quiet. He was everything you'd want a student to be.

SCIUTTO: Today, his friends said they never saw signs of his future as a terrorist.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was such a beautiful young man, really. You know, it's hard to imagine, but it's not unfamiliar for us.

SCIUTTO: Emwazi's friends say his path to radicalization may have begun n 2009 when he traveled to Tanzania to go on a safari, a graduation present from his parents. But he was detained in arrival, held overnight, then deported to the U.K. Authorities suspecting his true intention was to travel to Somalia.

In 2010, he was detained again by counterterrorism officials in Britain. Two years ago later, Emwazi is believed to have traveled to Syria where he joined ISIS. His friends claim mistreatment by British authorities set him on a path to terrorism.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our entire national security strategy for the last 13 years has only increased alienation, has only increased people feeling like they don't belong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And Jim Sciutto joins us. Now, I mean, it seems like he was on a path already if authorities are correct. That's why he went to Tanzania.

So U.K. authorities knew about this guy going back to 2009. Hindsight I guess is, you know, it's easy to say, but clearly, they didn't do enough.

SCIUTTO: This is the landmark for security services. We saw this with the Kouachi brothers in Paris with the Paris attacks. They had been on French authorities' radar. A lot of these potential recruits take steps that are worrisome but not enough to be sure to indicate that they're going to carry out jihad, join a group like ISIS. One, from just a perspective because you can't track everyone, you

can't arrest everyone. And two, from a legal perspective, you know, oftentimes the first illegal step that these guys will do is try to hop on that plane to go to Syria. We have that case with some of these Brooklyn suspects just yesterday. That's when they were arrested, when they got on the plane. In this case, Jihadi John got on the plane in 2012 and continues on the horrible path. And it was only last summer that he became the sort of Jihadi star appearing in the videos.

COOPER: It's got to be so frustrating for law enforcement and intelligence officials who has connections with them who, you know, took him into custody from time to time but not enough to actually hold him.

Today, the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, he gives new information about the number of Americans who actually tried to travel to Syria.

SCIUTTO: He did. He raised that number to 180. And keep in mind, so this figure, as you say, it's people who have either gone to Syria and Iraq successfully including the group such as ISIS who are trying to go, some of them killed there. So it's a broad number. It's an estimate.

But the estimate has jumped. Last year, that number was around 50. It creeped up to the 70s. It creeped up to 100. A short time ago, it was 150. So, it is growing. And partly it's growing because more people are being attracted. It is also growing, Anderson, because they're making a better effort to keep track of these people.

But, you know, that's a worrisome sign. It's not to the level you see in European countries, several hundred in the U.K. and in France, et cetera. But still, that's a significant number and that's already a difficult group of people for U.S. authorities to follow.

COOPER: Yes. Jim Sciutto, appreciate the update. Thanks, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

COOPER: Well, the killer in question grew up in a city in London that was a hot bed for radicalization long before ISIS even existed, something that Maajid Nawaz was experienced as a young extremist back in the day and now as a leading anti-extremist. He joins us along with former CIA and FBI counterterrorism official Phillip Mudd.

Phillip, obviously, the British (INAUDIBLE) have known this guy's identity for a while, try to keep it on the down low. Now that it is out there, does it that make easier or harder to actually to try to either capture him or kill him?

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: I don't think a capture is likely here. You go on the war zone like that, first, you got to get the intelligence not only where he is today but where he is tomorrow. And second, you got to take the risk of putting somebody -- I suspect over time, he will be identified and killed either by U.S. forces, by a Syrian striker, by fighting among extremist groups. I can't imagine despite what the White House says about bringing people like this back for justice that he is ever going to come out of there.

COOPER: You know, Maajid, it's interesting because there is, obviously, and we have talked about and a lot of people are focused in the past from radicalization and other things that lead to it, you know, poverty, lack of opportunities, sense of humiliation.

This guy wasn't poor. He went to college, had a degree in computers. I mean, it seems like there really are no boundaries anymore for somebody who actually may be attracted to this stuff.

MAAJID NAWAZ, FORMER ISLAMIC EXTREMIST: Well, yes, Anderson. I mean, I've written a piece tomorrow for one of the national newspapers, "the Guardian" comparing Islamism to racism. And just like racism can affect anyone, whether they are educated, whether they are not educated, it's an idea that people seek to adopt as an excuse for their own insecurities.

And Islamist ideology is the same. Let's not forget this guys, not only graduated from the University of Westminster in London, but others who controlled the student union, not just the Islamic society but the student union in that university were affiliated with my own former organization, (INAUDIBLE), which was the first group to popularize the notion of reestablishing a caliphate.

This idea of recreating an Islamic state affects in a disproportionate way the most highly educated Muslims born and raised in Britain.

COOPER: What is the appeal though? I mean, you believe, what, it's your personality can traits or your personality failing that is leading somebody to this in a case like him?

NAWAZ: He - probably, yes. Once they tried to work out whether he's British, whether he is Kuwaiti or whether he is Muslim identities supersedes both. And that identity crisis combined with charismatic recruiters such as Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the so-called caliph, and then ideology of Islamism works to kind of all come together and radicalized vulnerable among Britain and disproportionately western born race Muslims to this ideology.

COOPER: Phillip, if U.S. or another country was interested in trying to kill this guy or capturing, whatever, is the fact that he is British citizen, does that make it more difficult? Does that even play in?

MUDD: I think theoretically it does. We have an ally country, can you imagine somebody targeting a U.S. citizen with, for example, a drone strike and not telling us if it's a close ally?

This is a pretty clear case though. If you look at somebody who is involved in terrorism and who is what we call in the business an imminent threat, someone who is not only involved in murder but is most likely involve with (INAUDIBLE) today, I don't know how you stand back and say, look, because this is somebody who is a citizen of a close ally, we won't take a shot. This guy is clearly over the bar. COOPER: But is it -- I mean, is it likely he's actually a high level

or just happens to be the guy they picked to talk on camera because he's got the accent and able to speak English, he is able to kind --?

MUDD: I think this story is misleading. He's a target not because he's operational command. He might look on screen and say he is got to be a player on ISIS. Look how much air time he gets. I look at this and say he would not be my top tier target. The guys who are running the organization, training.

That said, in the 15 years of this war, for somebody who can have this magnetic appeal across the explosion of social media, you wouldn't have targeted this person 15 years ago. Today, because of the magnetic appeal and ability to reach out, he's got to be on the list.

COOPER: Maajid, you're concerned about people having sympathy for this guy are trying to kind of almost make excuses for why he was radicalized because this group cage, they lays for blame for his radicalization to British intelligence agency.

NAWAZ: Yes. I mean, look. I mean, I know the guy I have seen from cage. I went to university with him. These guys are Islamist sympathizers. When I was with his (INAUDIBLE) I have seen him spoke at a rally outside of the U.S. embassy in London alongside me supporting groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and (INAUDIBLE).

These guys are holy subscribe to these Islamist ideologies. So it's no surprise that they've been spending the day on British media defending Mohammed Emwazi. In fact, Asim (ph), who is the spokesman for Cage basically said Mohammed Emwazi was a beautiful young man as he knew him and then he actually shed a tear live on air when he was reminiscing over this so-called jihadi John and yet didn't shed any tears for any of the victims of this be-header.

People are like Peter Kasich (ph) and others who this man brutally murdered, he showed no remorse for their own deaths, no consideration for the family and this is typical kind of a half-truth a hob truth narrative of playing the victim constantly and blaming foreign policy, blaming torture.

Look, you know, I have opposed Guantanamo Bay. I was in prison cell opposing the invasion of Iraq on the George Bush Jr. But that doesn't mean that just because we oppose Guantanamo or the invasion of Iraq that Islam is the opposite, the solution. This victim of narrative has to be debunked.

COOPER: Maajid, great having you as well, Phillip a well. Thank you very much.

As always, quick reminder, make sure you set your DVR. You can watch 360 wherever you want.

Coming up next, exposing the ISIS (INAUDIBLE). We will take you inside the terror group's online empire and look at ways try to counter that message. Plus, take a look at one of the group's latest propaganda videos

destroying precious artifacts at a museum in Mosul and bossing about it. The question, why is this something to brag about? The answer says a lot about the interpretation of Islam that drives them. We will explore that when we continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Again, breaking news. Canadian authorities saying at least four young people from Quebec province left the country last month. The CBC reporting they now joined militants in Syria.

Back in America, we are learning tonight how the case against those three alleged ISIS supporters in Brooklyn began. Law enforcement source telling out Deb Feyerick that the joint terrorism task force identified one of the alleged conspirators after a post he allegedly wrote on a web site threatening to kill President Obama. The threat was brought to the attention of the secret service last summer.

Investigators say that all three men spent time online, apparently, becoming more radicalized. One official telling The New York Times there's no indication they were motivated by anything that they heard at places of worship. Which leads back to the ISIS propaganda machine that the so-called jihadi John is such a big part of without giving what is essentially a slit production house or snap films either more credit or more publicity than something like that deserves, we do want to briefly explore how they operate.

Our Randi Kaye investigates.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You might think this is a commercial from the tourism board of Canada. It's actually a video from ISIS posted on social media aimed at convincing want to be jihadist to join ISIS in Syria.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Islam in Syria. I originally come from Canada.

KAYE: Andre (INAUDIBLE), a Canadian convert, was the ultimate pitchman for ISIS until he was killed fighting for them. But even that won't stop would-be extremists from searching out ISIS online connecting in member-only chat rooms. But is it that easy to just contact ISIS online?

When these wannabe jihadist say they're emailing ISIS, are they really emailing ISIS?

Well, they are emailing a coordinator or liaison of ISIS.

KAYE: Michael Weiss who wrote a book about ISIS says there are thousands of online forums where jihad is the draw available in all sorts of languages including English.

Why aren't they being shut down? MICHAEL WEISS, AUTHOR: Well, I mean, some of them are hard to find.

How do you -- what are you going to do, shut down all of twitter or all of facebook? There's one called V Contacte. If you're from (INAUDIBLE) or Dagestan or Georgia or Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan, you have the language, you have Russian. You can easily link up with networks on here.

KAYE: And find somebody that -- to go do jihad with?

WEISS: Sure.

KAYE: It's that simple?

WEISS: Yes.

KAYE: In fact, one of the suspects from Brooklyn just arrested this week for trying to join ISIS was using this Uzbekistan web site.

But this is a group that beheads people, crucifies others, subjugates its female members. The list goes on. So what exactly is the attraction? According to Weiss, everything I just mentioned.

WEISS: The (INAUDIBLE) that they exhibit is designed to attract jihadists because they are showing the people that were going after, Yazidis, Christians, whatever, they're post-states (ph). They were worthy of only death.

KAYE: Even more frightening? Hooking up on social media may mean these wannabe extremists don't even have to leave their home. ISIS assigns them deadly tasks from afar.

WEISS: Stay where you are. We will inspire you, radicalize you, if you are not already radicalized and then we will teach you how to build a fertilizer bomb in your basement.

KAYE: A dangerous directive from a group whose popularity is only growing online.

Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: We want to dig a little deeper now to the means and methods of radicalization. Beyond that into the theological justifications that many extremists have for. We are joined by Atlantic contributing editor, Graeme Wood who recently wrote a powerful piece from the subject to the magazine titled "what ISIS really wants."

Graeme, you know, obviously, it is hard for a lot of people to understand what it is that attracts some people to ISIS, you write that western recruits are quote "ready to give up everything at home for a shot at paradise in the worst place on earth." Explain that. I mean, what is that appeal?

GRAEME WOOD, CONTRIBUTING WRITER, ATLANTIC: Yes. So it is important to note these people were trying to leave the United States. They may have been looking for ways to attack the United States, but they really wanted to go to Syria and to the Islamic state because they think that to fulfill their destiny as Muslims and to really live their religion, they have to be in the Islamic state. We don't know exactly what the motivations of these particular people were, but that's usually why people are going there.

COOPER: So how do you begin to counter that kind of propaganda? How do you compete with an organization that's promising, I mean, if you call it kind of a death cult and they are promise nothing less than paradise to the people they recruit?

WOOD: Well, I think you first have to acknowledge exactly what is being offered. And then show that it's not actually there. If they think they have a utopia that they're going to, and then you can show them that actually, there's a place full of inequity, that is no better at providing for citizens or allowing people to live a nice pious life. And I think you've got distance toward making that propaganda not so attractive to these people.

COOPER: And sure the nellyism (ph) of it all, I mean, this video that ISIS released today of militants destroying artifacts in the Mosul museum in Iraq, I'm reminded of Taliban destroying those statues, you know, of Buddha in Afghanistan back in 2001.

WOOD: Yes. And it is really -- it gets to the heart of what this movement is which is an attempt to get rid of all competing libel civilizations and cultures. And you know, when they actually do control a place like Mosul, which is a fine museum, then I am surprised that it really took them this long to attack the statues with hammers. There is so much in Mosul that they could go after and they already destroyed mosques. They've already destroyed shrines. They really want to purify everything around them, so it only follows the particular variety of Islam that they follow.

COOPER: And Michael Weiss, we saw in Randi's piece, he wrote a book on ISIS, he says that while they might be destroying some of these artifacts on camera, they are also selling a lot of them off camera. And we've been hearing that now for month that the trade in antiquities is a source of income.

WOOD: Yes. That they are certainly very active in sale of antiquities. There are things that are reaching the market already that have come through their ends. Essentially, they don't have any value for these things at all. They would love to trade them for cash. They would also be happy to pulverize them and turn them into dust.

COOPER: The article you wrote for the Atlantic was really fascinating. And yours is a cover story. I urge people to read it.

And in it you said that ISIS is quote "very Islamic." And I wonder what kind of a response you got to that. Because when you were on the program, you were talking about how, you know, many people in the Muslim world say, look, they're un-Islamic. They are, you know, defiling the religion of Islam. But you're saying, according to the ISIS interpretation, they're following very strict codes and teachings from way back.

WOOD: Yes. There's the distinction I would draw and that is between being in Islamic organization and then practicing the right variety of Islam. And almost all Muslims would say that they are practicing the wrong variety of Islam.

However, the traditions that they are reaching into are the same Islamic texts that are recognized as holy by all Sunnis, certainly. And we're talking about the Koran, the sayings of the prophet and the actions of the first generations after the prophet.

It's a very selective reading of these texts and it is one, again, that almost all Muslims reject. But it's definitely an Islamic tradition just as the Christian tradition.

COOPER: Yes. That's one of the things you wrote about is that they're really isolating and focusing on the very violent text and teachings as opposed to non-violent ones.

WOOD: Yes. That's right. They are really looking into this tradition and they're definitely finding ways to emphasize things like crucifixion, like beheading of the apostates. They are looking for any way to terrify us. But, you know, they are not making these things up. This is the main point I'm trying to make. There are texts that they look to, they selectively reading these texts. But these are texts that are within the Islamic tradition.

COOPER: Graeme Wood, appreciate you being with us. Thanks so much.

Up next, more breaking news that frankly it could not come at a worse time. Given all that you just heard about concerns of the growing influence of ISIS, department of homeland security is about to run out of money. The Congress just punted yet again on funding. The department will go to Washington and try to figure out exactly what's going on down there tonight.

Also later, you probably saw it today, Llama drama, two of them on the run. If you don't know, you'll see how it all ended ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Some breaking news on top of all these ISIS developments, with news of at least four young Canadians who have joined Syrian militants, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper saying last year was the worst on record for global terrorism. Congress it seems again has not gotten that message, with less than a day and a half until the Department of Homeland Security runs out of money, lawmakers bickering over the bill to fund it have given up for the night. Dana Bash joins us now from Washington. Does it look like in two days, DHS is actually going to shut down?

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Probably not. It looks like tomorrow, like hours before the deadline comes for it to actually do that and shut down, the House is going to pass a stopgap measure to keep it funded for about three weeks, and the Senate is probably going to do the same. I should also caution that Democrats in the House are, the leadership I'm told, are telling their members don't do this, because they say we're done with kicking the can down the road. We want to fully fund this department. It's incredibly important. So if enough Democrats oppose it and some conservatives who would never vote for a spending bill anyway, this could be in big trouble, but right now looks like that's the plan to just barely keep it going.

COOPER: John Boehner was asked about the House's next move and had kind of an interesting response. I just want to show that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be a clean DHS funding bill. You're going to put it on the floor, you're going to kill it, you're going to let them vote on it? Have you even had this discussion?

BOEHNER: When I make decisions, I'll let you know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: I don't know what to make of it. What was that?

BASH: Let me translate. I'll be the Boehner whisperer. He was not trying to kiss that reporter. He was basically saying, kiss my you know what, because this was the umpteenth question that he refused to answer. Legitimate questions we were all trying to ask. Which were, look, the department is running out of money. You're not saying what your next move is, what is your next move? And he simply wouldn't answer. That was his way of doing so, it was kind of vintage Boehner, but in the vacuum not knowing what that was, it looked very odd.

COOPER: For all the talk of things maybe changing on Capitol Hill, there is probably a lot of people rolling their eyes out there, thinking here we go, Congress can't do what it was put there to do.

BASH: And they should be. They absolutely should be. It's part of the reason why in the Senate this week, you saw the new Republican majority back down. I mean, they caved politically, because in making the decision between standing up for what conservatives want them to do, which is fight the president's policy every step of the way, or showing that they can govern, Mitch McConnell and his colleagues said we got to show we can govern. It's too early out of the gate to do otherwise, but the House Republicans have a completely different situation, different dynamic. So they're still fighting the fights that we were reporting on last year and the year before, saying we've got to, you know, stick to our guns. That's why we still have the same fights, despite the fact it's complete Republican control in the Congress.

COOPER: Dana, thanks very much.

Let's get the latest in other stories we're following. Amara Walker has a 360 news and business bulletin.

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Anderson. A 360 follow-up. An Argentine judge has dismissed a criminal complaint accusing President Cristina Fernandez and other top leaders of covering up Iran's involvement in a 1994 terrorist bombing in Buenos Aires. The prosecutor who filed the allegations was found dead days later.

Prosecutors in the Aaron Hernandez murder trial played surveillance video showing the former NFL star and his friend, Carlos Ortiz, buying gum and cigars at a gas station shortly before Odin Lloyd was killed. Prosecutors say the gum and the white towel draped around Ortiz's neck link the men to the crime.

And (inaudible) Calvin Klein gown. Actress Lupita Nyango wore to the Oscars made quite a splash, but it's now been stolen. A thief lifted it from her hotel room in West Hollywood. The pearls alone are estimated to be worth $150,000.

And in Sun City, Arizona, an impromptu rodeo. Something you don't see every day, and I can promise you that. A posse from the sheriff's office and others chasing two wily llamas. They broke free from an assisted living facility where they are used for therapy, and they got out and made a run for it, as you see. They managed to evade capture for about an hour. Some quick lasso action from John Roan (ph) led to the capture of this llama. The other was also captured definitely, though, not the kind of thing you see every day.

COOPER: It was amazing to see the guy just from the back of the pickup truck. He was really good.

WALKER: You don't really see that, ropers lassoing llamas in the middle of a street, that's incredible.

COOPER: From a pickup truck. Amara, thank you very much.

Just ahead, at any moment, convicted killer Jodi Arias could learn her fate. Will she get the death sentence? It's been a long journey to this point, with many twists and turns. We'll have the latest on the deliberations and why it's taken so long to get to this point.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Tonight the fate of convicted murderer Jodi Arias is in the hands of a jury for the second time. The sentence could come at any moment. The name of course sounds familiar but the details are fuzzy. Believe this, we understand. Arias faces possible death sentence for killing her former boyfriend, Travis Alexander. Her first trial was broadcast live, the grisly details captured global attention. That was nearly two years ago. Tonight, Jean Casarez has the latest on the jury's deliberations, but first reminds us how she got here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Jodi Arias murder trial first began in January 2013.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not a case of who done it. The person who done it, the person who committed this killing, sits in court today. It's the defendant, Jodi Ann Arias.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Throughout the trial, you'll learn more about Jodi Arias, much more about Jodi. You'll find she's an articulate, bright young woman, who is a very talented artist and photographer. But most of all, what you'll learn is that Jodi loved Travis.

CASAREZ: Arias was accused of stabbing her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, almost 30 times and shooting him in the head. The premeditated crime, prosecutor Juan Martinez said, came after Arias realized Alexander wouldn't marry her. The two had a volatile relationship, and much of it came before the jury. Salacious audio from sex tapes.

ARIAS: Remember the first time you and I grinded?

CASAREZ: Journal entries by Arias.

ARIAS: I wish that suicide was a way out, but it is no escape.

CASAREZ: And Jodi herself taking the stand for more than two weeks.

ARIAS: There's a lot of that day that I don't remember. There are a lot of gaps. I don't remember the poses of the pictures. I remember them now that I've seen the pictures, but I didn't remember them until I saw them. I remember taking pictures, I just don't remember the pictures themselves, even though we looked at them. And now I see them, I remember them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What factors influence your having a memory problem?

ARIAS: Usually when men like you are screaming at me or grilling me, or someone like Travis doing the same.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So that affects your memory, right?

ARIAS: It does, makes my brain scramble.

CASAREZ: Prosecutors said Arias planned out the murder, driving from California to Alexander's home in Arizona, bringing with her, her grandfather's gun. Following an afternoon of sexcapades in the bedroom that were caught on camera, Arias, Martinez says, went in for the kill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So she gets the knife. And she took the knife and stabbed.

CASAREZ: The defense said Arias was emotionally and physically abused by Alexander, and when she couldn't take it any longer, fought back. Four months after the trial began, Arias was convicted of first-degree murder.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We the jury duly impaneled and sworn in above entitled action upon our oath do find the defendant as to count one first-degree murder guilty.

CASAREZ: But the jury then deadlocked on the second phase. Should Jodi Arias live or die for her crime?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Jean, we just got word that the jury left for the weekend.

CASAREZ: They have, and they're not going to deliberate on Friday. We were waiting all day to see if there would be a verdict. There is not. Now they have the weekend. But the day started this morning with the jury asking a question, can we have a list of all the exhibits? I mean, that really shows how serious they are, and there are many exhibits. Because this re-penalty phase began in October. This is the fourth month of it. And I do want to say, and later, they also brought a lot of food today, including a crock pot, a male juror brought a crock pot, which I've never seen before, but saying all that, this is the most serious judicial function we have in this country. This is a penalty phase of life or death. They're deciding whether she lives or she dies. And it will take a lot of deliberation. It should, a phase like this.

COOPER: No doubt. Jean, thanks very much. Appreciate it.

Just ahead, the misery the latest winter storm left in the wake across the South, plus we'll check in with Gary Tuchman, who's been on an ice breaker in the frozen Great Lakes. We talked to him last night and we'll show you what they're up against tonight and how much progress they're making.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: From Texas to the Carolinas, another round of misery today. The fourth winter storm to pummel the South in two weeks dumped more than a foot of snow on parts of Alabama. Nine inches in parts of northern Georgia. Heavy snow and ice caused widespread power outages in North Carolina, and in every state in the storm's path, icy roads and snow turn roads treacherous. Drivers in Alabama were stranded overnight on I-65. Air travel also took a hit. Nearly a thousand domestic flights canceled. Even states used to brutal winters, the index misery has been topping out. Subzero temperatures froze nearly every square mile of the Great Lakes. Gary Tuchman took the short straw. He's been on an ice breaker since yesterday, seeing first hand what they're up against.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Coast Guard cutter, Hollyhock, is being called to duty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll be on the way to lower Lake Huron for ice breaking.

TUCHMAN: Ice breaking duty in Lake Huron. 85 percent of the five Great Lakes surface is now frozen, which compares to 70 percent this time last year, and there is essential commercial shipping traffic that can't move without the ice being broken. The Hollyhock is one of nine U.S. Coast Guard vessels on the Great Lakes that clear the way.

The first 30 minutes of the mission are very quiet because we haven't hit the ice, but that's going to change imminently.

A two-day mission has now begun to help escort two Canadian commercial cargo vessels back to their home port in Ontario. The vessels are still hours away from us as we travel at about 10 knots. U.S. and Canadian Coast Guard personnel often work to help from both countries. Justin Kimura is the commander officer of the Hollyhock.

COMMANDER JUSTIN KIMURA, USCGC HOLLYHOCK: A common observer might think we're just splitting the ice open. We are actually using the weight of the ship, where the front of the ship or the bow is made to ride up on the ice and then the weight of the ship crushes down to break the ice.

TUCHMAN: After being on the ship for a while, you tend to forget you're on a lake. You feel like you're on a glacier. We're being told this point in Lake Huron, there's about 8 inches of snow on top of about a foot of ice.

The ship is constantly vibrating. It creates the feeling of being in a rock tumbler. The sun goes down. Night falls. Another day begins, and then we see the ships from afar. The ice breaking mission is about to pay its dividends. The big ship is named the Algo Steel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Algo Steel, Hollyhock, (inaudible), evaluate as the day progresses. From what we saw yesterday evening into this morning, I'm fairly confident we'll be able to get you down through the cut.

TUCHMAN: The Algo Steel is the quicker one of the Canadian ships.

We pull up very close. The ship has just transported a cargo of salt to the Chicago area.

The crew members aboard this Canadian vessel, the Henry Jackman, were also delivering salt to northern Illinois. After the delivery, the ship headed north up Lake Michigan, then south here on Lake Huron before getting stuck. This Coast Guard vessel has literally created a watery path, blazing a trail so that Jackman can follow us and get home safely.

A short time after our rendezvous, though, the Algo Steel got stuck. The Hollyhock had to turn back to relieve pressure from the ice. But both the Algo Steel and the Henry Jackman are now safe. Two of 367 ships the Hollyhock has assisted this winter, aiding in the delivery of $300 million worth of cargo.

KIMURA: Knowing what we can do to assist the movement of the commercial vessels and knowing at the end of the day what the impact is to our economy, to keep those products moving, to keep the power plants open, to keep these industrial productions running, it's a very satisfying feeling.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Gary joins us now. It's really cool. I had no idea these ice breakers are out there in weather like this. It's really admirable stuff they're doing. Why did that ship get stuck, though, did they not go directly behind the Hollyhock? TUCHMAN: That commonly happens that the ships get stuck because of

the pressure gradient. There were two ice breakers, one behind, one in front, but (inaudible) huge distance because they are great vessels, and sometimes they do get stuck. It's not out of the ordinary. And they got it working, and now we are about 15 minutes away from the end of this 27-hour mission. The two Canadian vessels are pulling to port on the Canadian side. We are pulling into port in Michigan on the United States side. And the 45 crew members on this vessel will get a day off tomorrow before beginning another multi-day mission on Saturday.

COOPER: Gary, thank you very much. I know you've been working really hard out there and it's not easy. I hope you get a day off or a couple of days off. Maybe a cup of cocoa or a jug of wine or something.

Gary, thanks.

Up net, we'll take you to the far corner of the world. An island nation in the South Pacific where you can get incredibly close to an active volcano. The journey is part of the CNN new series "THE WONDER LIST," with Bill Weir, debuting this weekend on CNN. A preview when we continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, this week, don't miss the debut of CNN's new series, "THE WONDER LIST," with Bill Weir. Bill and filmmaker Phillip Bloom travel the world to tell the untold stories of really extraordinary people, places, and cultures. In the first episode, they take us to Vanuatu, an island nation in the South Pacific where you can get extremely close to a live volcano. It's amazing. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN ANCHOR: Behold Mount Yasser, one of the most accessible live volcanoes anywhere in the world.

PHILLIP BLOOM, FILMMAKER: (inaudible) based around the daily and the nightly eruptions, which occasionally we hear as we're climbing up there now, walking up into the heavens.

WEIR: It's so surreal to come out of this lush, thick, green jungle and then find a moonscape. As you get closer, hear these percussive booms and then stand here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: That is cool. Bill Weir and Philip Bloom join me now. The visuals, everything about it. Explain the idea behind it. You're really traveling to a lot of incredibly remote places.

WEIR: The idea basically was I looked at my 10-year-old girl one day and thought, she's going to turn my age in 2050, and I wonder, will there still be wild tigers in India, at that time, how many species will go extinct in Galapagos? Will the Dead Sea still be accessible? It's shrinking at an alarming rate. And for this episode, I wondered if there's still a Hawaii without hotels out there, a Bali before (inaudible), and we saw this amazing place, this country, Vanuatu, that was such a great test study in values. You know, some tribes can't wait for tourists to arrive. They want hotels on their islands. They're willing to give up their lives as fishermen. Others like the tribe that lives on the volcano doesn't want any part of the modern world. They actually worship that as a god and they think trudging up there is disrespectful. And then of course they are low lying islands. So they worry about climate change as well, but just fascinating people, and we got to these places. In the middle of nowhere, the cell phone signal was stronger than in Manhattan.

COOPER: I looked at some of the images, Philip, and I think like, you know, David Lean and T.E. Lawrence. They're beautiful, beautiful images. You guys had a small hardy crew. How did you -- were you using drones?

BLOOM: In Vanuatu, we used a drone. We didn't use them very much in the show, because it's difficult to use them in many countries because it's so disorganized right now in regulations. But in Vanuatu, it was incredible landscape that was just perfect for it, and of course the volcano. We worked with a very small crew. We had way too much gear. Way -- I was checking in.

COOPER: And he never carries any gear.

(LAUGHTER)

BLOOM: The moment I turned up, the first one was (inaudible), and I turned up, and just all of these cases. This was the start. You didn't quite realize. We had to get on a ferry to get it to Korea, and it was up, equipment is like five flights of stairs. All of these cases.

WEIR: 17 bags. But I had been a fan, I had been a camera nerd. Phillip is very generous with his knowledge on his web site.

COOPER: I see you with the camera a lot too.

WEIR: I took thousands of still photos and learned a lot from him. But what I didn't realize, I said, I want your look. I want to go around and capture these amazing places in the most cinematic way possible.

COOPER: You really do get a sense of how quickly the world is changing.

WEIR: Yes. Everywhere you go. You can hear from a climatologist the Alps, the glaciers are melting in the Alps, but then you go to up and talk to extreme skiers, who know that ice better than anything, or fishermen in Vanuatu, or game wardens in the jungles of India, and it really makes you realize how all of our little decisions in our lives add up to big seismic changes.

COOPER: It looks incredible. I'm so excited to see it. Great to have you back. Nice to see you, and Phillip, great to meet you. Congratulations. Just incredible work. A remarkable journey. "THE WONDER LIST" debuting this Sunday at 10:00 p.m. here on CNN. I urge you to watch it.

That does it for us. "MORGAN SPURLOCK: INSIDE MAN" starts now.