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ISIS Leader Killed in U.S. Special Forces Raid; Congress Getting Classified Briefings on Russia-Ukraine Crisis; Biden Heads to New York to Focus on Combating Gun Violence; Dangerous Winter Storm Brings Ice, Snow to Much of U.S. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired February 03, 2022 - 11:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. We begin with breaking news in the global fight against terrorism.

President Biden just confirmed that the leader of ISIS is dead, killed overnight during a raid involving U.S. Special Operations Forces in northwest Syria. This is the biggest counterterrorism mission there since 2019, when the U.S. killed the previous leader of ISIS al- Baghdadi. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Last night, operating on my orders, United States military forces successfully removed a major terrorist threat to the world, the global leader of ISIS, known as Haji Abdullah.

Knowing that this terrorist had chosen to surround himself with families, including children, we made a choice to pursue a special forces raid at a much greater risk to our own people rather than targeting him with an airstrike.

We made this choice to minimize civilian casualties.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: There were no U.S. casualties but Syria's civil defense forces claim 13 civilians were killed, including six children and four women. And CNN is learning new details about the tense moments inside the White House Situation Room as President Biden oversaw the raid. Let's begin this breaking news coverage with CNN's Barbara Starr.

She's live at the Pentagon.

Barbara, what else have you now learned this morning, which is quite a lot, about this operation?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Several details; we want to tell people that one U.S. helicopter had to be destroyed by the American forces onsite because it suffered mechanical trouble. They could not fly it out. It did not get hit by enemy fire so they blew it up and they didn't want to leave any of that behind.

In terms of the civilian casualties, we are told that, when U.S. forces arrived onsite, they had loudspeakers and they issued messages, telling them to send out the civilians, the women and children. Some, thankfully, did come out.

But the U.S. says that the ISIS leader blew himself up on the third floor of this building and that led to the death of civilians, who were still in there with him.

In just the last few minutes, we've learned another interesting detail, which is there was some minimal coordination with Russian forces. Now in this area of northwest Syria where this occurred, Russian air and ground forces routinely operate.

And what the U.S. did is have what they call routine coordination with Russian air units. This has happened before; it is what they do. There is understanding on both sides. The U.S. did not give the Russians specific details but basically said, we are going to be operating in this area. You've got to stay away. Don't get involved. Just stay away.

And apparently they did and the operation went down, as laid out by the White House -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Barbara, thank you so much for your reporting on this. Let's go now to the White House, where President Biden, Vice President Harris and their national security team were in the Situation Room last night. Here's a photo from that, watching the operation unfolding. CNN's John Harwood live at the White House for us.

John, what are you picking up?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Kate, fascinating parallels to what transpired in 2011, when the United States took out Osama bin Laden when Joe Biden was vice president, Barack Obama was president.

We all remember the tense photo from the Situation Room as they watched in real-time. In that case, they didn't bomb bin Laden's facility because they were not sure that he was there. They wanted to make sure they could identify him.

In this case, the United States knew that the target was in that building but they didn't want to do anything that, by bombing the building, would cause an excess of civilian casualties.

They had also calculated, the engineers, that if, as expected, the ISIS leader detonated a bomb to kill himself and kill his family, they were trying to assess whether that building would collapse and kill more civilians. They correctly calculated that it would not.

So President Biden, of course, was tense, as his national security officials were, in watching this in real-time, that it unfold correctly, all remembering that Joe Biden opposed the raid on bin Laden because he thought it was too risky.

Here he made the decision it wasn't too risky and that risk, so far as we can tell, appears to have paid off with no casualties among U.S. soldiers and the only civilian casualties, those caused by the ISIS leader with that suicide bomb.

BOLDUAN: John, thank you so much for that. Joining me now for more on this, retired general Leslie Clark.

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BOLDUAN: He's the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander and a CNN military analyst.

Also with us, the CNN counterterrorism analyst, Phil Mudd, a former CIA and FBI counterterrorism official.

General, what's your reaction to this operation?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: A great operation; it was obviously extremely well conducted, pretty long distance. So they knew what they were doing. Glad to see the coordination with the Russians and hope that this will make a difference.

But we know that, in previous experiences, when you take out the leadership of these groups, you do get some temporary benefit, like someone else steps up and so you've still got to deal with all the different routes and groups that are associated with ISIS. This won't kill it.

BOLDUAN: Great point.

Phil, what's known about this ISIS leader?

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: You're looking at somebody that they don't even, they're not even certain what his real name is. So a very shadowy figure. One of the things ISIS leaders and Al Qaeda leaders have done over time, especially in the past few years, is stay out of the limelight, including not making public appearances.

Remember, Baghdadi, the previous leader of ISIS, made public appearances. This person was never seen. So we don't know that much about him. He's an Iraqi. He's been around for a while. It appears he was leading operations from that house, which makes sense, sort of like what bin Laden would have done years ago.

But very shadowy figure, presumably because he's concerned about just what happened overnight.

BOLDUAN: General, the choice against doing an airstrike, the choice to put troops on the ground, talk to me about that.

CLARK: Much better to put the troops on the ground. You go in, you get the intelligence. You may capture people that you can interrogate. You just know what's going on.

Yes, you can strike and you can blow it up and someone could possibly give you some information. But here, you know exactly what you've done and you get the bonus of the intelligence. And that intelligence bonus should be substantial.

BOLDUAN: Fascinating.

(CROSSTALK)

MUDD: If I could make one point on that, that's important to understand civilian casualties here. If you're surveilling a target of this priority, you're watching over days, maybe even weeks.

You get what we used to call a pattern of light. You know who's in the building, when they come, when they go, how many women, how many children. So I assume there was a lot of surveillance of this building.

If you had done a strike from the air, you would have guaranteed women and children would have died. In this operation, you hope they don't. Although we know the tragedy that happened. But the ground operation gives you a better chance of fewer civilian casualties.

BOLDUAN: General, announcing the success of a raid like this, what is the effect on, in the fight against terror, what is the effect on ISIS?

What is the effect on other hot spots and other terror networks around the world?

CLARK: I think it's a demonstration of U.S. military capabilities and intelligence capabilities. So you get, in effect, not only on the terrorist network and supporters and people, it just puts them deeper underground, more concerned about their own security, less willing to take risks, less willing to, by recruiting and by moving and other things.

So they know then how powerful the United States is. But you also get an effect on countries like Russia and China. They can't do this. They don't have this reach.

And it's, you know, in the context of what happened in Afghanistan, what's going on currently in Ukraine, possible fears about Taiwan, this is a demonstration of U.S. military competence and leadership competence at the White House.

BOLDUAN: That's really interesting, General. Phil, what, General mentioned Afghanistan. There was a real -- the

resurgence of ISIS was a very real concern and a big part of the conversation following the withdrawal, the debacle withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Do you think this overnight has anything to do with that?

MUDD: No, I don't. I look at this, obviously it made a lot of people happy about what happened overnight, as they should be. But I'd agree with the general, we have to look at this in context and that includes Afghanistan, that includes Africa, places like Nigeria, Somalia, that includes Yemen.

ISIS and Al Qaeda are adversaries for 20-plus years, are on their way back. I'm not saying they're surging; I'm not saying they're nearly where they were in 2014. What I'm saying is you need these operations, month after month, day after day, for years, going into decades, to eliminate an ideology.

This is a piece. But in Afghanistan and Iraq and also some places in Africa, we got a long way to go.

BOLDUAN: Phil, thank you.

General, thank you so much.

The general will stick around. More to discuss with him, really appreciate it, though.

Let's turn our attention to the developing crisis in Ukraine.

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BOLDUAN: Top officials are holding classified briefings with members of Congress about the threat of Russia invading Ukraine. The briefing for senators is beginning, really, right now, as we speak. The House will be briefed then this afternoon. CNN's Manu Raju is live on Capitol Hill for more on this.

Manu, what are you learning?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the top leaders in the Biden administration are on Capitol Hill right now to meet with senators behind closed doors in this classified setting.

Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, as well as Lloyd Austin, the defense secretary; Avril Haines, the Director of National Intelligence among others as well as Mark Milley, the general, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Milley actually briefed Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, also about the ISIS raid as well. So members of the Senate will learn more details about the raid that led to the killing of the ISIS leader.

Now this briefing, which is designed to be about the situation in Ukraine and Russia, comes at a key time on Capitol Hill, because they're still trying to sort out exactly how to move forward with the package of sanctions to be imposed on Russia.

The question among senators is exactly when is the right time to move forward, whether or not the situation is evolving within Russia and Ukraine, whether or not Russia pulls back from the potential invasion.

And that could potentially impact how and when senators decide to introduce their measure. But Kate, they are still trying to sort out some key questions about when exactly to impose sanctions on Russia for its attention and its aggressive posture toward Ukraine.

So that's one of the questions they'll try to get resolved here as they decide to move forward on the sweeping set of economic punishments against Russia -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Manu, thank you very much.

CNN has also exclusively learned that the Kremlin is, quote, "worried" about the U.S. announcement that President Biden is deploying 3,000 troops to Eastern Europe to back up NATO allies in the coming days.

Back with me now for more on this, retired General Leslie Clark.

General, you led NATO forces. This news yesterday, this deployment of 3,000 troops to pull in Germany, Romania to back up NATO allies, the Kremlin told CNN's Matthew Chance that this gives them, in the way they put it is, an obvious reason to be worried.

What do you make of this deployment and now this response from Russia?

CLARK: Well, I think the deployment is a really excellent idea. I think, on the whole, the Biden administration has done an outstanding job of managing this crisis. And this deployment is just more reassurance to allies.

What I hear is our allies are ecstatic about the consultation, the coordination. They say it hasn't been this good in 20 years. And then putting this small number of U.S. troops in there just reinforces that the United States is with NATO. We're committed, we're there.

But this is not an offensive force. This is not a group that's going to invade Russia. So when you read the Russian statement, you know that's just propaganda. That's just playing the information war game, trying to make the United States look like a provocateur when, in reality, it's all about Russian provocation.

This is about reassuring NATO allies and Europe and the world that the United States stands with its allies.

BOLDUAN: The White House announced yesterday, General, that they are no longer going to be calling a potential Russian reinvasion of Ukraine "imminent" because the word, they suggest, sends an unintended message.

If that is the case, where do you think things stand right now?

CLARK: Really hard to say but my assessment is that Putin is in a lose-lose situation based on everything we know. We know the Russian troop build-up is continuing, there are indications even that Russian mercenaries are pulled out of Africa to go in and reinforce.

So he's still got his military machine cranking for a possible invasion. But on the other hand, got a resolute NATO. You've got -- it's stronger now. And the more he does, the stronger NATO becomes in reaction.

So if he really wants to go after NATO, then using military force is no good. But he's already lost because NATO's stronger. So if he doesn't invade, then he looks like a loser to the world. So he's got to find a face-saving way out of this.

Right now, he doesn't have it. If something were to change in Ukraine or if he simply decides that's it, I don't care, I've got the great military, we're going to do this and face the consequences, he will face some unimaginably difficult consequences, economically and diplomatically worldwide.

If he goes in, Kate, he's a rogue state. Russia's a rogue state. He's a war criminal. This is against international law. This has incredible financial and economic implications for all of Russia if he does this. So I think, on balance, he's the loser in this.

BOLDUAN: General, it's great to have you today. Thank you so much.

CLARK: You, too.

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BOLDUAN: Coming up, President Biden is heading to New York City right now to focus his attention on combating gun violence. The plan he's expected to lay out -- next.

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BOLDUAN: New this morning, President Biden is heading to New York to focus his attention on combating gun violence amid a troubling surge of violent crime in cities across America.

NYPD headquarters is President Biden's first stop. CNN's Kaitlan Collins is live in New York.

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BOLDUAN: Also joining us is Chief Charles Ramsey, a CNN law enforcement analyst.

Kaitlan, what does the president want to do, to accomplish today?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think the main thing the White House wants is it to be a takeaway here, that President Biden is focused on the levels of crime in this country.

And the concern that you have seen show up in poll numbers among people about the crime that has been up since the pandemic, they want to make this stop today to show this is something he's addressing.

You've seen his Republican critics try to paint him as weak on crime and so that's something the White House wants to focus on.

In the efforts here, he's going to the NYPD headquarters when he lands here in New York from Washington. He's on the way right now, talking about the efforts they want to have nationwide, not just what's happening here in New York.

But you saw this directive from the White House earlier today, telling U.S. attorneys' office across the nation to bolster resources and help combat crime on a local level and get training for prosecutors to go after the so-called ghost guns, which are basically untraceable.

It's something you've seen the attorney general talk about several times but you heard from some gun experts say that is just a small part of what's happening across the United States.

But I think the overarching effect and the point of this visit that the president is making today is to show he's serious about this. And Eric Adams, the new mayor in New York City, you've heard some Democrats say they have this likeminded situation, maybe he's a template for Democrats to use going forward, where you can talk about things like addressing crime and gun violence and curbing police brutality.

These are things we've seen since the George Floyd case kind of swept over the nation. So I think that is kind of the balance here, that you're seeing Democrats try to strike, not just today but overall going into the midterms in 2022.

BOLDUAN: Chief, what do officers here in New York and far beyond need to hear from the president, do you think?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, they need to hear support. I think that Kaitlan laid it out very well toward the end of her comments there.

The real challenge, most officers realize there's a need for reform, not only in policing but the entire criminal justice system. But at the same time, they have to be able to address the rising violent crime that's occurring in our country, that's very, very real.

And they want to hear something that really gives them the support they need to fight crime, as long as they're doing it in a constitutional way, and, at the same time, address some of these other issues.

Because it's not just about police; you have to look at prosecution, you have to look at courts, corrections, you have to look at all of that comprehensively. And quite frankly, that's not being done. I mean, everything is being done in a piecemeal fashion. The last time this country's taken a real hard look at the entire

criminal justice system was back in the '60s, when LBJ was president. And obviously, a lot has changed since then.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

Kaitlan, you laid out some of the initiatives that the president is focusing on, the White House has announced. I'm just curious.

Is there more specifics about what concrete steps the president is going to be laying out or wants to see happen, in order to, as the chief's pointing to, strike this very difficult balance?

COLLINS: Well, I think that is the challenge really facing the White House, is how do you actually bring these numbers down, how do you make people feel like this is something that the president is listening to, how do you --

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BOLDUAN: How do you make people feel safe, right?

COLLINS: Well, also a lot of this happens on a local level, at state levels, at local levels. So I think that's also the challenge for the White House.

What are the limits of what President Biden can do here while also sending the message that he is on top of this?

And it's a delicate balance to strike, of course, when with what Democrats say, some progressive Democrats over the last two years, talking about defunding the police. And the White House has highlighted time and time again, that's never a theory that President Biden himself subscribed to.

But it's been a challenge for them to push back on some of the Republican criticism to that extent.

And I think that's why you see Biden come here today, because he attracted a lot of similar, likeminded voters that Eric Adams did with this issue, these more moderate voters that do have real concerns about this.

So I think that's something you will see him try to talk about today while addressing real concerns. And nowhere is it more prevalent in recent weeks than in New York City, where two officers were recently fatally shot.

And so I think that is going to be kind of the context and the backdrop to this visit here today.

BOLDUAN: Chief, it's great to see you. Thank you for coming in.

Kaitlan, thank you.

RAMSEY: Thank you. BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, thousands of people are without power as

the dangerous winter storm blankets much of the United States. The latest forecast next.

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BOLDUAN: At this hour, 100 million people are under winter weather alerts as a powerful winter storm is dumping snow and ice, from New Mexico all the way to Maine. The storm, as you can probably guess, is causing major travel delays and power outages as well.

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