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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Terrorist Bomb Maker Killed?; New Republican Majority; Boehner to Obama: Don't Poison the Well; Obama Sends Secret Letter to Iran

Aired November 06, 2014 - 16:00   ET

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

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: He was a bad guy keeping U.S. security officials up at night, but now it looks as though a key bomb maker for an al Qaeda offshoot won't be making any evil plots anymore.

I'm Jake Tapper. This is THE LEAD.

The world lead. After striking out on the first night of Syria airstrikes, military officials in the U.S. say they finally killed an al Qaeda all-star, an innovative bomb maker dreaming up all kinds of new nefarious ways to blast innocent people out of the sky.

The politics lead. An alleged sexual harasser pro-life doctor who demanded his patient get an abortion after he got her pregnant, a guy who threatened to throw a reporter off a balcony, all these dudes got elected or reelected on Tuesday. Do scandals even matter anymore?

And the money lead. I'm going to let you finish, Kanye, but Taylor Swift did something this week that you cannot take away. Why the adorably awkward small-town girl is now the most powerful name in music.

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

We're going to begin today with our world lead, and the U.S. using its airpower to go after terrorists trying to blow up planes over American soil. Defense officials tell CNN a U.S. strike killed this man, David Drugeon, a 24-year-old French national, the premier bomb maker of what the U.S. calls the Khorasan group, an offshoot of al Qaeda.

Intelligence and military sources allege Drugeon was the deadly craftsman behind an ongoing attempt to put jihadists onto planes with undetectable explosives. The attack that claimed Drugeon, we're told, was one blip in a wave of strikes today and yesterday across Syria, but none of those blitzes was against ISIS.

American jets and drones pounded five separate sites, all Khorasan targets in Northwest Syria, according to CENTCOM. Syrian activists also claim the U.S. took out six militants with the al-Nusra front. That's another terrorist cell closely aligned with al Qaeda.

With all indications pointing to a splintering operation inside Syria, military brass in the U.S. insist the ISIS campaign, the reason U.S. planes first crossed into that war-torn country, they say it's working. The general in charge of operations against ISIS, Lloyd Austin, head

of CENTCOM, told me at a forum earlier today that airstrikes have made ISIS afraid to congregate in any sizable formation. He also suggested that the coalition is able to listen in on the terrorist group's communications.

"As we listen to them," he said, "we know that the impact of the precision strikes is demoralizing to them."

Live at the Pentagon, CNN's Barbara Starr has more on details of all of this.

Barbara, what can you tell us?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Jake.

You mentioned that other group a minute ago, the al-Nusra, an al Qaeda group that activists say the U.S. struck. The U.S. says it was not targeting the al-Nusra Front. It was targeting the Khorasan group. And now they do believe they got their man.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STARR (voice-over): The U.S. had painstakingly put together critical intelligence about where this man, 24-year-old French jihadist David Drugeon, might be riding in a vehicle in Northwest Syria.

According to U.S. officials, after tracking him, a U.S. Reaper drone fired a missile, striking Drugeon's car. Officials believe Drugeon was killed, but they are still trying to confirm that. Drugeon was a key leader in the Khorasan group, a cell of hard-core al Qaeda operatives who moved to Syria from Pakistan. The U.S. called them an imminent threat, finding and killing their leaders an urgent priority.

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: It suggests the United States has very good intelligence about the movements of Khorasan operatives, particularly of Drugeon, suggests they either have a guy inside the group or near the fringes of the group, or that they were able to pick up specific electronic transmissions indicating their movements.

STARR: Drugeon was believed to be working on bombs that could potentially get past airport screening and facilitating the movement of fighters in and out of Europe to Syria, and possibly back to the United States.

In addition to the strike believed to have killed Drugeon, a B-1 bomber and an F-16 hit other cars as well as bomb making facilities and training areas, according to the U.S. military. The U.S. has been frantically hunting for Drugeon since September 22, when an initial round of U.S. missile strikes failed to kill him, as well as Muhsin al-Fadhli, the Khorasan leader.

The latest strike, an intelligence coup, but the Khorasan group may be far from down and out. CRUICKSHANK: This does not remove the threat that Khorasan poses to the United States. They are likely to have other bomb makers in the group. This is al Qaeda's A-team.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STARR: And the big worry right now is that there are other Khorasan operatives out there, and the U.S. may not even know who they are -- Jake.

TAPPER: Barbara, at this point, how much are these strikes are meant to take out ISIS? And how much of this campaign is being directed at Khorasan or al-Nusra Front or other terrorist threats?

STARR: Well, let's take those one by one.

Khorasan group, relatively small, a pretty hard-core small group. The problem is finding them and targeting them, knowing exactly where they are at a point in time so you can hit them. ISIS, you're talking about thousands of fighters spread out town by town across a good chunk of Syria and Iraq. They are collecting intelligence. They fly overhead. They look for them. They target them when they can.

But everyone will tell you, targeting ISIS could go on for months, if not years. These other groups, Jake, al-Nusra, other groups in Iraq tied to al Qaeda, what the Pentagon is saying is, look, our top priority is ISIS and the Khorasan group, but these other groups are mixed in at various locations. If they happen to get killed in a strike, so be it.

The Pentagon insists it's not targeting them outright, at least not now -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thank you so much.

While the U.S. air campaign continues to target all manner of terrorist outposts, the goal of the past day 's strikes was to take out this French bomber. Intelligence officials tell CNN Drugeon was a key bomb maker with the Khorasan group with an evolving arsenal of deadly devices. He reportedly was working on a palm-size explosive that could blow a hole in a 777.

I want to bring in CNN justice correspondent Pamela Brown for more on this.

Pam, what can you tell us about this bomb maker David Drugeon? What specifically was he working on?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Sources I have been speaking with, Jake, say that Drugeon was actually one of the most active bomb makers within the Khorasan group. His knowledge of explosives, European background and access to Western fighters in Syria makes him arguably the most -- one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world.

And his mission was apparently to create very small non-metallic explosive devices that could be smuggled through airport security and onto a U.S.-bound plane, where it then would be assembled and then used to blow up the airplane.

And sources say he was working on a variety of bombs that could be easily disguised in everyday common objects, such as a cell phone, a toothpaste tube and objects like that. And experts say it's likely he was using everyday chemicals that could put in those devices. Officials say a small well-placed bomb like what Drugeon was believed to be creating, Jake, all would need to happen is be well-placed, be put onto a certain part of the plane.

That could puncture the skin of it and then cause a plane to go down potentially. That's really what he was focused on.

TAPPER: And from most accounts, Drugeon had a relatively normal upbringing, a middle-class kid in France. How did he end up this dastardly plotter of evil bomb plots?

BROWN: It's really interesting when you look back at his childhood, because like you said, by all accounts, he had a very normal childhood.

His dad was a bus driver, his mom was a secretary. She was Catholic. That's how he was raised. And then apparently when he was 13, his parents got divorced. And like we see in so many of these cases, that's when he started to become radicalized. At 14, he converted and then moved to Pakistan eventually and learned how to make bombs there with al Qaeda and then made his way to Syria in the past couple of years and then became, like we said, one of the most wanted terrorists in the world, Jake.

TAPPER: Pamela Brown, thank you so much.

BROWN: Thank you.

TAPPER: For more on this, I want to go to Robert McFadden. He helped run counterterrorism and counterintelligence for NCIS, the Naval criminal investigative service. He's now senior vice president at the Soufan Group.

Robert, thank you so much for joining us, as always.

ROBERT MCFADDEN, FORMER MILITARY INVESTIGATOR: Thanks for having me.

TAPPER: What are you hearing from military circles, intelligence officials? What are they saying about these devices? How close was this bomb maker to getting someone on an airplane, either wearing these clothes drenched in explosive or with one of these devices?

MCFADDEN: Well, from what's been consistently reported from some time in the late spring, early summer, it appears that the al Qaeda element and in this case down-range element in Syria was close.

When it comes to priorities for the U.S. going back to even before 9/11, al Qaeda, its leadership circles and then those with the highest skills, such as master bomb makers, so you know he had to have been on the target list for a number of months.

TAPPER: But did they think that this was only a matter of months before he actually succeeded in getting one of these explosives, one of these devices on a plane?

MCFADDEN: You know what, we're not really hearing where the cell was exactly in the operational cycle.

But, Jake, it doesn't really matter in the sense that it's very, very important to disrupt forward motion. So whether they were, say, in terms of months or even longer, it really doesn't matter so much in terms of going after them as a target. But back to your original question, it appears that they had their capability quite far along the path.

TAPPER: And Drugeon, of course, wasn't the only bomb maker among terrorist groups. Ibrahim al-Asiri is still out there and works with AQAP, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. There's certainly others. Killing one bomb maker won't eliminate this particular threat. Right?

MCFADDEN: Absolutely.

In fact, al Qaeda core has long had an essentially train the trainer program, where you have a master bomb maker like Ibrahim al-Asiri that trains proteges and technicians.

Back in the day between 9/11 and East Africa embassy bombings, its master bomb maker was Abu Abdulrahman al-Muhajir. He's been killed in 2006. But nonetheless, the program continues because they aggressively train others.

TAPPER: And of course this is potentially a deadly game of call and response where the U.S. reacts to these threats. There was Richard Reid, the alleged for attempted shoe bomber. He's the reason why we have to take our shoes off at security at the airport. The 2006 British-based plot led to the ban on liquids over three ounces. The TSA put in body scanners after the attempted underwear bomber.

When this bomb maker came on the radar, some international travelers had to turn on their phones at security to make sure that they were actual phones. How do you think the TSA is going to react to this or should react to this? Is there anything more preventative that should be done?

MCFADDEN: Well, the measures, more than likely, of course would continue, because as you rightly point out, there are others out there.

For example, there's a Norwegian citizen who is also known to be in that same category, to have been trained by al Qaeda's best bomb making skills and technicians. So it becomes a matter in this cat and mouse game of going after targets kinetically, intelligence operation, law enforcement cooperation and sharing information and vital bits of pieces of information to put that mosaic together as to what their intentions, targets, and capabilities are. So that will continue. TAPPER: Airports are the last line of defense for plots like this.

How confident are you that airports in Istanbul and Doha and Hamburg are ready?

MCFADDEN: Yes, that's a really good point, because, as we know, those who travel internationally and have worked in the business, there are degrees of skills and sophistication.

However, what has changed in a really big way in the 9/11 era is the cooperation between the U.S. and the U.K., for example, where there are U.S. flagged and co-chair carriers. For me personally and professionally, I have a high degree of confidence that airport measures, last line of defense, you call it, are good and adequate.

However, the intelligence part of it, getting those pieces is absolutely indispensable.

TAPPER: U.S. officials have been concerned about the potential for this explosive-soaked clothing since 2013, maybe even before then. What's the next device or means that we have not yet heard of that terror analysts are concerned about?

MCFADDEN: It's as broad as your imagination.

I know from my times of interviewing many al Qaeda members, inner circle in the past, described in great detail how important it is when talking about al Qaeda core to come up with different devices and different ways to sow fear.

And that's why aviation is part of the fear factor, continues to be one of its primary targets. As far as devices, again, it's just as broad and as wide as the imagination.

TAPPER: Robert McFadden, thank you so much. We always appreciate it.

MCFADDEN: My pleasure.

TAPPER: Coming up on THE LEAD, it might take a lot of that Kentucky bourbon. President Obama's relationship with the new Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and the new Republican majority, well, it's already off to a rocky start -- where they agree to disagree about everything.

And the money lead. Maybe the secret to success in today's music industry is being Taylor Swift -- now and how her latest album is reinventing the pop world right now.

Stay with us.

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TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

Time now for our politics lead -- the dust is still settling after Tuesday's midterm elections when a Republican wave swept the Senate, shifting the power of balance in Washington, and leaving sad and disheartened the Democrats in its red wake.

While some analysts say this is a direct reflection of Obama's presidency, there's at least one person who disagrees, the president himself. He made it clear in his post-election news conference that he's planning still no negotiations necessary executive action on immigration reform.

Today, House Speaker John Boehner, who's about to have the biggest Republican majority since Herbert Hoover was president, took the president on.

CNN chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash was there. She joins me now -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, I was actually expecting a lot more kumbaya than confrontation in today's victory lap press conference that the speaker had, but the bipartisanship and divided government is talking about, it's not so easy in today's times.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH (voice-over): House Speaker John Boehner minced no words, warning the president not to use his executive power to change the broken immigrant system without Congress.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: When you play with matches, you take the risk of burning yourself and he's going to burn himself if he continues to go down this path.

BASH: Surprisingly confrontational, quite different from the post- election talk of compromise and getting things done. And what was supposed to be a "let's work together" op-ed from Boehner and incoming Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, included, quote, "renewing our commitment to repeal Obamacare."

Republicans know that's not going to happen while President Obama is in office.

(on camera): How do you expect the president to trust that you really want to work together when out of the gate you say that you want to repeal his signature law that you know has no chance of getting a veto-proof majority? How do you expect him to trust you?

OBAMA: Listen, my job is to listen to the American people. The American people have made it clear, they're not for Obamacare. And I ask all of those Democrats who lost their elections Tuesday night, a lot of them voted for Obamacare.

BASH (voice-over): But Republicans are infuriated by the president's plan to issue an executive order allowing some illegal immigrants to stay legally when he delayed until after the election to help Democrats on the ballot who lost anyway.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I feel obliged to do everything I can lawfully with my executive order to make sure that we don't keep on making the system worse.

BASH: Boehner personally wants immigration reform. But it's always been up against deep pocketed conservative groups and rank-and-file Republicans who don't. That, plus what Republicans view as the president's defiance at his own post-election news conference a day earlier fueled Boehner's combative tone.

BOEHNER: That if he acts unilaterally on his own outside of his authority, he will poison the well and there will be no chance of immigration reform moving in this Congress. It's as simple as that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Now, Boehner added that he doesn't see his job as just to get along with the president. It's to listen to his Republican members. Now, this might just be bravado from both sides of the Pennsylvania Avenue, but, Jake, when we're talking about poison wells and waving red flags in front of bulls, it doesn't sound like the Washington that everybody is talking about that needs to work and that's what they say the message from voters was on election night.

TAPPER: That's interesting, because there are both Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill who thought that Speaker Boehner expanding his majority would give him more wriggle room, he could lose more Republicans, to do the things that he wants to do, that President Obama wants to do, such as a big deficit reduction deal, immigration reform. It doesn't sound like he thinks that.

BASH: It doesn't. I think there are two reasons. One is on the issue of immigration. He really generally does want to do this. You know him.

TAPPER: Yes.

BASH: You know that this is something that's important to him.

TAPPER: He said he was going to do it.

BASH: Exactly. Well, yes, there's that.

But also as a leader of the party, he knows how important it is for the Republican Party to expand, to reach out to Latinos and so forth and he also knows his caucus. He's been down this road. He understands that it doesn't take a lot for them to get their backs up when it comes to the president. Executive order on immigration, I mean, forget about it. That's why he was talking about that.

Also, I do think that talking to Republican sources, that he will have more wiggle room in trying to make compromises. But on something like immigration, it's a completely different story.

TAPPER: Things are off to a great start.

Dana Bash, thank you so much.

Coming up on THE LEAD, some breaking news, they are the most unlikely pen pals on the planet. President Obama writing to Iran's supreme leader to talk about taking on a common enemy.

And in national news -- Ferguson, Missouri, bracing for that grand jury decision in the Michael Brown shooting and for more violence, no matter which way it goes. Will cops change tactics this time around?

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TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

Turning to other world news, it's the ultimate diplomatic back channel. How much trade craft and how many dead drops it took to get a letter from the White House to Tehran? We might never know. But now, CNN can confirm what was first reported by "The Wall Street Journal" that President Obama secretly wrote to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urging the famously anti-American leader for cooperation in the U.S.-led campaign against ISIS.

For more details, let's go to Elise Labott at the State Department.

Elise, this is a fascinating story. What can you tell us about the content of this letter?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, it's fascinating that the president reached out to the supreme leader and basically he said, listen, there's a lot of shared interests here between the U.S. and Iran on beating back ISIS. Obviously, Iran is not a friend of ISIS and definitely doesn't want them taking over territory in Iraq and Syria where they both have -- where Iran has great interest in both countries and said, listen, shared interests but the nuclear deal, as you know, the deadline is approaching, November 24th, nuclear deal -- a major impediment to further cooperation.

But I have to say, Jake, this is not the first time that the U.S. has reached out to Iran asking for their cooperation with ISIS. In fact, the supreme leader made comments last month that both the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, John Kerry, have all reached out to Iran's foreign minister and ambassadors looking for Iran's help in combating ISIS. So far, Iran is being very coy about what they are willing to do.

TAPPER: Elise, what's the potential downside of reaching out to him? Obviously, this is somebody who is perceived to be an enemy of the West.

LABOTT: Well, a couple of things. First of all, even if there was a deal on November 24th, U.S. officials caution that there's a lot of other problems that they have with Iranian behavior, whether it's state sponsor of terrorism around the world, whether it's human rights, they're still holding several Americans. And so, if there was a deal, that's not to say that the flood gates would open for cooperation with ISIS or other matters.

And so, they still have to resolve some of that, and Iranian nuclear deal is a major impediment. But the other drawback is that Iran says, no. Listen, we understand that you're desperate right now, you need our help, but we're not going to give it. We're going to go off on our own and that is the biggest fear that Iran will continue to play its own game in Iraq, it's own in Syria, and not coordinate with what they are trying to do and the U.S. feels there's no reason why they can't cooperate.

TAPPER: Elise Labott at the State Department, thank you so much.

Coming up in the money lead -- Taylor Swift shakes off Spotify, because she's so big, se doesn't need one of the biggest sources of streaming music on the Web. How she is singlehandedly writing off music industry obituaries this week.

Stay with us.

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