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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Growing Concern Over ISIS; Interview With Rep. Adam Kinzinger; Heavy Snow Caving In Roofs In New England; Massive Security Flaw Exposed At U.S. Airports?; Chris Christie Takes "Straight Talk" To Iowa

Aired February 10, 2015 - 16:30   ET

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

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome back to THE LEAD.

More news now in our world lead: the growing concern that ISIS is plotting to kidnap new Western hostages now that the terror group has just one known Westerner left in custody, this as an online manual to help recruit Westerners for jihad in Syria surfaces.

CNN's chief security national correspondent, Jim Sciutto, is here with the latest.

So, Jim, the intelligence community must be very, very concerned, especially now that the death of Kayla Mueller has been confirmed.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: No question. The big concern, what do they do now, because they know the enormous value that these groups attach to these hostages.

I have been briefed by U.S. intelligence officials on this concern that ISIS will attempt to capture more Western hostages by attempting operations across the border from Syria, into countries neighboring, Lebanon, Turkey. There's no evidence yet that group has attempted this in any significant way, but it worries some in light of the value of hostages to the group, both as leverage and for propaganda.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN CANTLIE, ISIS HOSTAGE: I'm John Cantlie.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): British hostage John Cantlie, frequently seen in ISIS propaganda videos, is one of the last Western hostages held by the terror group. The others, from American journalist James Foley now to aid worker Kayla Mueller, dead while in ISIS' hands.

Now renewed concerns ISIS may attempt to replenish its supply of hostages by abducting foreigners outside of Syria.

JAMES REESE, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: It would be easy for ISIS members to go up to these refugee areas, target a Westerner, whether journalist or aid worker, and try to conduct a kidnapping within the area of those refugee camps and just pull them back into Syria.

SCIUTTO: As U.S. and coalition warplanes continue to strike ISIS fighters in Syria, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he will not stand in the coalition's way. In an exclusive interview with the BBC's Jeremy Bowen, Assad hinted at even some limited cooperation, saying his country receives information about U.S. operations over Syria via third parties such as Iraq.

BASHAR AL-ASSAD, PRESIDENT OF SYRIA: That through -- through third party, more than one party, Iraq and other countries, sometimes, they convey message, general message, but there is nothing tactical.

JEREMY BOWEN, BBC: They don't tell you, we're going to be bombing Raqqa at 10:00 this evening; please keep out of the way?

AL-ASSAD: We knew about the campaign before it started, but we didn't know about the detail.

SCIUTTO: A senior U.S. military official tells CNN, "We do not communicate directly or indirectly with the Assad regime."

A U.S. intelligence official says that the number of fighters traveling to Iraq and Syria has risen to 19,000 from 16,000 in November, despite efforts by neighboring countries to stem the flow of militants.

A new ISIS manual tells potential recruits how to evade detection when crossing the border: Avoid looking nervous. Shaking hands, rapid breathing, cold sweats and lack of eye contact can all be detected as nervous behavior by trained security officials. And there may be guards on the long Syrian/Turkish border. Look around. And if the coast is clear, then run as fast as they can into Syria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: The 19,000 foreign fighters currently in Iraq and Syria come from some 90 countries, including 3,400 from the West. That includes an estimated 150 Americans who have traveled or attempted to travel to Syria and Iraq either potentially fight or otherwise support the conflict.

Best briefings I have gotten is that the new efforts to stop this flow have had some effect, but certainly haven't closed the door, so ISIS crucially still able to replenish its ranks, despite the fact that they have had a lot of losses from the U.S.-led air campaign.

TAPPER: Jim, just a quick question as long as you're here.

There are reports that American officials have suspended all consular activities at our embassy in Yemen. What can you tell us about that?

SCIUTTO: Consular activities, yes, yet another step in shrinking the presence there. No confirmation that they are going to close the embassy entirely, which would follow two other major closures in the region, in Tripoli and Libya, as well as in Somalia.

But I'm told by military officials that, even if they close that embassy, that U.S. counterterror operations there, of course the drone strikes against AQAP in the south, they will continue. TAPPER: All right, Jim Sciutto, thank you so much.

The family of Kayla Mueller had been communicating with ISIS to try and negotiate their daughter's freedom, as you just heard from Congressman Paul Gosar of Arizona. ISIS demanded not only ransom, but the release of this woman who is currently in a Texas prison, Aafia Siddiqui. She is a Pakistani scientist who was married to the nephew of admitted 9/11 mastermind of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

In 2008, Siddiqui was arrested in Afghanistan. In her possession were instructions on the use of explosions and chemical weapons, as well as notes about mass terror attacks against U.S. landmarks.

During her interrogation there in Afghanistan, American officials claim Siddiqui grabbed a gun and opened fire on U.S. personnel, shouting, according to prosecutors, "I'm going to kill all you mother F-ers" and "Death to America." She was ultimately convicted of attempted murder and is currently serving an 86-year prison sentence. CNN reached out to the Pentagon for comment. They have yet to respond.

The National Security Council at the White House said it has no comment.

Joining me live right now is Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger. He served in the Air Force in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He's a former member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Congressman, good to see you. Thanks for coming in.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R), ILLINOIS: Thanks for having me.

TAPPER: Are you aware of any demands by ISIS to release Aafia Siddiqui in exchange for Kayla Mueller? And if so, were U.S. officials considering it at all?

KINZINGER: I don't know. I haven't heard the details of that.

Congressman Gosar gave me the first. But, of course, she's from his district, so that would make sense that he would know. But I think it's very important that the United States stress that we won't negotiate with terrorists.

Even if you take demand would have happened, had an exchange happened, all you're doing is encouraging future abductions of Americans. And as tragic as this situation is with Kayla -- and our hearts and prayers are with her and her family -- we don't negotiate with terror. And this is why, because they begin to think they can get all ends of us.

TAPPER: Let's talk about what's next in the region. President Obama is expected to submit to Congress his request for war authorization in this fight against ISIS.

What have you heard about that document? Is it something that you could support? KINZINGER: It's something I want to support.

I personally don't think the president as commander in chief needs congressional authority. And I think he already has it under existing use of force. But I think it makes the country look great if he can come and we can pass it.

What I don't want to see is a use of force authorization that limits the president in his ability to destroy ISIS. Destroying ISIS is the ultimate goal. I know we don't need ground troops necessarily right now. It may take some more boots on the ground than what we have.

But at the end of the day, we have to say that destroying ISIS is the goal. The other thing to keep in mind is, this authorization is going to go beyond President Obama. It's not just him. It's going to be the next president, too, that operates under this.

TAPPER: The AP just published a new estimate from U.S. intel officials estimating there are now 20,000 foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria. You heard Jim just a few minutes ago say there were 19,000.

How large a fighting force does there need to be, whether it's U.S. or Jordanian or whomever, in order to defeat ISIS, do you think?

KINZINGER: Well, I think ultimately it's going to be in the tens, maybe even hundreds of thousands.

That doesn't necessarily mean American troops, though. Keep in mind there's a large Iraqi military that needs to have its spine re- stiffened, needs to be retrained, but ultimately will be the force, along with the Kurdish Peshmerga, which number a quarter-million, that take back and liberate Iraq.

The bigger question though is Syria. Syria is the incubator of this ISIS problem. And we will eventually liberate Iraq, but the question is, how do you get rid of ISIS in Syria? What do you about the brutality of the Bashar al-Assad regime? And who is going to be the forces on the ground there?

Is it going to be Turks? Is it going to be Jordanians, some American troops interspersed within them? Maybe. But right now, it's not looking like many good options in Syria.

TAPPER: Assad did an interview with the BBC in which it was suggested that there was some coordination going on, not that the U.S. told Assad's forces where U.S. fighters were going to be flying, but that maybe Iraq or some other country was serving as an intermediary.

I would assume that's necessary, so that the planes aren't crashing into each other.

KINZINGER: It's possible.

And it's possible that coordination is happening. But there's a huge psychological advantage for Assad to say that. He is demoralizing the Free Syrian Army that believe -- and they should believe -- that the United States is on their side. These are the moderate rebel opposition.

If they're under the impression that the United States is in any way coordinating with the regime of Bashar al-Assad, that would be very demoralizing to them, because he's trying to convince them as it is now that the United States is backing him. And if this in fact is the case, I think he has got a huge psychological reason for saying something like that.

TAPPER: I can understand why that would not be desired, but at the same time, we don't want American pilots or whomever, Jordanian pilots, UAE pilots hitting each other or hitting good guys on the ground. There does need to be some coordination, if even through an intermediary. You're a pilot. You would agree with that, I would assume.

KINZINGER: Yes.

And that's where you have to use intelligence surveillance, reconnaissance, the various technologies we have to find that out. Bashar al-Assad's air force is not something we need to be overly concerned about hitting in the air. They have a few fighter jets.

Where they really have an issue is barrel bombs coming out of helicopters and killing innocent civilians. You're not going to have a fighter jet collide with a helicopter. But these helicopters are creating new ISIS members every day, because people who are sick of the Assad regime either go to the Free Syrian Army or go to ISIS.

Right now, ISIS has all the money, they have all the power and they have all the momentum. And it's drawing a lot of folks into their ranks.

TAPPER: Congressman Adam Kinzinger, pleasure speaking with you, as always. And I know you just got off your jet a few days ago. So, thank you so much.

KINZINGER: You bet.

TAPPER: Coming up, she might look like an innocent grandmother, but she's also a gifted con artist -- ahead, how this 63-year-old managed to get through airport security, even board flights without a ticket. And she's done it more than once.

Plus, employees run out of a building in the Boston area as the roof begins to cave in. We're now learning about at least one death due to this latest winter storm.

That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. The National Lead now, this latest round of costly, frigid and destructive blizzards in New England has also turned deadly. A man was killed in Medford, Massachusetts, when a snowplow hit him. Police say in many cases, snowplow drivers simply cannot see what is in their paths. This is the third straight week of snowstorms in the northeast and two more systems are on the way. They have been record- breaking.

This week Boston got more than 22 inches of snow in one day. Look at the impact this roof at a sheet metal shop crumpled under the weight of all that snow. Six people inside ran straight to the door when the ceiling started to fall.

CNN's Miguel Marquez joins me live in Hingham, Massachusetts. Miguel, that town got two and a half feet of snow yesterday. That has emergency workers worried about more roof collapses.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, across the entire area. This whole part of the south shore just south of Boston got tons of snow. All that weight on roofs. This is a very old building that collapsed under the weight of the snow. This entire building will be taken down now.

It's right in the center of Hingham. There's a train tunnel that goes just behind it. They're concerned about that. Here's the problem, Jake, just the amount of snow, 2-1/2 feet. That's the sidewalk there, and that's the amount of snow they've gotten this week.

Schools are closed north of Boston. Schools are closed throughout the area. Courts. It has been a real disruption. This is a place used to snow, but people across the area say enough is enough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The worst I've ever seen. I'm 83 years old, and I have never seen so much snow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: Now, in addition to this roof that collapsed, there's a place not too far from here, Rockland, a piano shop, and in that piano shop was a very famous piano, the studded piano of Liberace. It was damaged when the roof there collapsed as well.

It's affecting a lot of people across a very wide swath. With another storm coming, even though they can keep the roads clean pretty easily, they're used to moving snow, but storm after storm after storm really affecting things.

One school district up north of Boston has closed for the entire week, expecting just a little more snow to come, just making things miserable -- Jake.

TAPPER: Miguel Marquez, thank you so much, reporting on those record- breaking blizzards.

In other national news, a serial stow away may have exposed a massive security flaw at several major U.S. airports again. The 63-year-old woman faces felony charges. She says she not only slipped past airport security, but sneaked onto multiple commercial flights without a ticket.

It's almost impossible to believe given all the security hoops one has to jump through to fly these days. Marilyn Jean Hartman told police she flew from Minneapolis St. Paul to Jacksonville and then left the airport, and posed as a guest at a Richie resort.

She is also accused of pulling the same stunts last summer sneaking onto a flight from San Jose to Los Angeles. CNN aviation correspondent, Rene Marsh, is here. Rene, this almost sounds like a modern day version of catch me if you can, but obviously this is really serious and potentially very problematic for TSA.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And you know, she not only made it past airport security once, she's actually done it twice and onto planes. Now she's claiming she's done it for a third time. Of course, that's putting security at our nation's airports back under the microscope tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I certainly don't want to do it again.

MARSH (voice-over): She has the face of an innocent grandmother. The 63-year-old Marilyn Jean Hartman's collection of mug shots continues to grow. Her M.O.? Getting through security and boarding flights free. She was arrested in Florida Sunday for checking into someone else's villa at this luxury resort.

The so-called serial stowaway also told police she flew from Minneapolis to Jacksonville without a ticket. Hartman has successfully pulled off the same stunt before. In August, she pleaded no contest in California for stowing away on a flight from San Jose to Los Angeles.

MARILYN JEAN HARTMAN, ACCUSED STOWAWAY: It was stupid, and it is something that I don't want to repeat.

MARSH: She bypassed Tsa and airline document checkers without a plane ticket. Hartman was arrested upon landing. And just six months earlier, she was arrested again after she got by security in San Francisco. She was seated on a Hawaii-bound plane when the passenger whose seat she was in arrived.

MICHAEL BOYD, AVIATION CONSULTANT: The fact is, we don't have good security. You do have to have a boarding pass to get into the security line. How did she manage to do that? You've got to have a boarding pass to get on an airplane? How did she manage to do that?

I don't have answers to that. We do have one answer. She did it on multiple occasions, which says that our system isn't layered. Our system is like Swiss cheese.

MARSH: The TSA says it's reviewing airport surveillance video to confirm whether Hartman's most recent stowaway claim is true. But she's not the only one who successfully breached airport security. This 15-year-old California boy caught on surveillance video didn't get a seat on the plane, but managed to stowaway in the wheel well of this Hawaii-bound plane. Officials say he snuck onto the tarmac at San Jose International and alluded detection for six hours before crawling into the wheel well.

BOYD: Airport security is everyone's responsibility right on down to the janitor up to the airport director. But overall aviation security is directed by the Transportation Security Administration. It is their responsibility to make sure everyone is doing their job. And in cases we've seen in the last several weeks, they're not doing their job.

MARSH: Last year, the serial stowaway said her law breaking days were over.

HARTMAN: Obviously, they'll be on the watch for me so I wouldn't dare attempt this again.

MARSH: But the question now is will airport security be able to stop her from striking again?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH: Hartman's charges stem solely from checking into posh hotel room under someone else's name. If investigators confirmed her airplane stowaway story, she'll face even more charges. She made that first court appearance today. Bond is set for $55,000. We did reach out to her attorney, but they're not offering any comment at this point -- Jake.

TAPPER: What a bizarre story. Rene Marsh, thank you so much.

Coming up, the revolving door at the Hillary Clinton campaign, and she's not even running yet, who's already out, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. The Politics Lead, the forecast in Iowa shows a low of 3 degrees so it certainly cannot be the weather luring so many high-profile politicians to the state this time of year.

Chris Christie is the latest on the list of unofficially though totally running potential 2016 candidates to make a pit stop in the hawkeyed state. The race is on.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER (voice-over): Leading the news in the probable presidential pack today is Jeb Bush from Florida with close to 275,000 e-mails he's dropped today ranging from 1999 to 2007. The former Florida governor posted them online, quote, "In the spirit of transparency and perhaps in hoping that reading 275,000 old e-mails will be alluring to would- be supporters?"

Governor Chris Christie brought his blunt Jersey talk to Iowa again where he said he would fight ISIS differently than President Obama.

GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: You see, the president taking bows, saying he has terrorism on the run. Yet ISIS is beheading people. I will make no apologies. No apologies for fighting terrorism hard.

TAPPER: For the Democrats, one of Hillary Clinton's top allies, David Brock resigned from the board of a pro-Hillary super PAC citing a, quote, "serious breach of trust with other would-be Hillary staffers."

No one is making too much of this, but staff infighting is one of the reasons Clinton lost the primaries in 2008. That's where we are, just 636 days to go before the finish line 2016.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: There's word today of an early presidential endorsement. According to the New York observer, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is said to be throwing his support behind Jeb Bush.

In national news, serial killer, Charles Manson, is reportedly calling off his wedding to the woman, who wants to make money off his dead body. All couples argue about this sort of thing, right?

According to a reporter who spoke to the "New York Post," Aston Elaine Burton who goes by the name "Star" was just waiting until Charles Manson died. She wanted to put the 80-year-old's corpse on display in Los Angeles. Apparently Manson got wind of it and called off the wedding.

That may explain why there was no wedding before their marriage license expired last week. Star does not exactly have your typical day jobs. She spends her days maintaining several of Manson's social media web sites. He's serving a life sentence. The two could have gotten married during weekend visiting hours.

Make sure to follow me on Twitter @jaketapper and also @theleadcnn. That's it for THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. I turn you over now to Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM."