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Sources: Federal Agents Arrest 8 Tajik Nationals In U.S. Over Suspected Ties To Terrorism; Rare Access Inside ISIS Prison And Detention Camp; Florida Jury Finds Chiquita Liable For Financing Violent Paramilitary Group. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired June 12, 2024 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[14:34:19]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Federal agents have arrested eight people from Tajikistan after investigators discovered possible links to ISIS. Sources telling CNN immigration officials made the arrests in Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: CNN security correspondent, Josh Campbell, joins us now with the details.
Josh, what are your sources saying about how these men were identified?
JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is interesting. I'm told that this was the U.S. government targeting ISIS actors abroad, essentially surveilling them, that allowed them to identify these members that were here inside the U.S. that had these potential ties to ISIS.
That's particularly interesting in light of the recent debates we've heard over the U.S. Intelligence Community surveillance authorities.
[14:35:03]
We know, for example, earlier this year, in Congress, particularly conservatives, were quite -- quite critical of the U.S. Intelligence Community's ability to actually do these foreign surveillance operations.
But we saw, in this case, that that allowed them to actually identify potential threats here at home.
Here's what we know about those group members and what actually went down. I'm told from law enforcement sources that these eight individuals had
entered the U.S. via the U.S. southern border.
At that time, they were vetted. But there were no red flags that were raised at the time. It was later that the investigation determined that, no, they actually had these potential ties to ISIS, which, of course, causes the federal law enforcement agencies to then jump into action.
There was this question about whether the agency should surveil them or take them into custody. You know, when I was working counterterrorism cases, that was always a big question.
Do you do what's called illuminating the network? That is investigating and trying to determine who is who, what are they trying to do, is there a potential plot here?
In this instance, guys, I'm told that the decision was made by senior U.S. officials that they were going to roll the group up and kick them out.
KEILAR: Talk to us, Josh, about this moment that we're in. Because senior FBI and DHS leaders have also raised concerns about an elevated threat environment.
CAMPBELL: That's right. FBI Director Chris Wray has said that he can't remember a time when all these different types of threats were actually elevated at the same time.
And of course, the Department of Homeland Security recently issued an assessment of its own. I'll read you part of that.
They say that, "While sustained counterterrorism pressure has significantly degraded the ability of foreign terrorist organizations to target U.S. interests, foreign terror groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS are seeking to rebuild overseas. And they maintain worldwide networks of supporters that could seek to target the homeland."
And of course, these assessments aren't academic. We see that the threat from ISIS remains. You look just three months ago in Moscow where 139 people were killed at a concert venue when four nationals from Tajikistan allegedly conducted this terrorist attack.
And as part of that attack, we saw that they set fire to this facility. Multiple people were inside and died. And as that was still going on, the fire, ISIS then claimed responsibility, releasing videos of these actors.
So certainly the threat like this remains. The big concern for U.S. law enforcement is try to - trying to stop, interdict any potential threats here at home.
SANCHEZ: Even all these years later, still a threat, not just in the United States, but as you pointed out, Josh, around the world.
CAMPBELL: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Josh Campbell, thank you so much.
Still ahead, CNN is getting rare access inside a prison for suspected ISIS fighters, as well as a detention camp housing families. Why a U.S. official called one of these sites a breeding ground for the next generation of ISIS.
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KEILAR: CNN has gained extraordinary access to facilities described as training grounds for the next generation of ISIS.
Five years since the fall of the terror group's so-called caliphate, more than 50,000 ISIS suspects and their families are being held in some 27 prisons and detention camps across Syria.
Officials warn the prisons and camps present a major security threat that needs to be dealt with. But human rights groups describe them as legal black holes.
CNN's Clarissa Ward went to these detention centers. And here's some of what she saw.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cell phone videos of ISIS's brutal justice that the world hoped it would never see again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WARD: Shared for the first time with CNN, these images weren't captured in Raqqa or Mosul in 2016. They were taken in 2022 in the Al- Hol Camp in northern Syria, a sprawling dumping ground for the women and children captured after ISIS was defeated.
Five years after the fall of the caliphate, ISIS's ideology lives on here. Security officials warn it is a ticking time bomb, ungovernable and hostile to the outside world.
(on camera): You can see just how vast this place is. More than 40,000 people are living here. And the most dangerous part of the camp is called The Annex. That's where some 6,000 foreign nationals are currently living.
(voice-over): We were granted exceptionally rare access to The Annex by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, who control the camp.
The women here hail from more than 60 different countries. Several raised their right index fingers for the cameras, a sign of solidarity with the Islamic State.
(on camera): Do you regret your decision to join ISIS or?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, why should I regret this?
WARD (voice-over): She complains that the conditions in the camp are awful.
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WARD (on camera): There are people in the world who will say, you went to join ISIS, you deserve it, you deserve it. What do you say to that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Normally, even with enemies --
WARD: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- women and children need services.
WARD (voice-over): The majority of Al-Hol's residents are kids who have ended up here through no fault of their own.
The U.N. has called it a blight on the conscience of humanity. It is effectively a prison camp where women and children are arbitrarily and indefinitely detained.
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WARD: A group stops us with a frantic plea. One of their sons has been arrested trying to escape the camp.
(on camera): She's asking if she can get her son back who's in a prison.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WARD: He's 10-years-old.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WARD (voice-over): "We wanted to send him out so the SDF wouldn't take him," she tells us. "Once boys turn 12 here, they take them."
It is a troubling story we hear over and over again. The SDF says it is their policy to separate adolescent boys because they are being radicalized by their mothers.
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WARD: An SDF raid earlier this year netted this video of a training session for children inside the camp.
The SDF claims young teenage boys are married off to repopulate the next generation of ISIS fighters, which they say may explain the roughly 60 births recorded here every month.
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WARD: This is where some of those boys end up after they are taken, the Orkesh Rehabilitation Center. Conditions here are much better than the camps, but there are only 150 beds and they are all full.
Shamil Chakar grew up in Cologne, Germany, until his parents took the family to the ISIS capital, Raqqa. A shrapnel injury to his head has left Shamil confused. (on camera): How old are you? (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)?
SHAMIL CHAKAR: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WARD: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)? You don't know?
CHAKAR: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WARD (voice-over): Shamil was living in Al-Hol Camp with his mother and siblings until a few years ago when security forces came into their tent in the middle of the night.
CHAKAR: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WARD: "A man came and pulled me up and tied my hand behind my back. My mom was screaming. She said, "Leave him alone," he tells us. "I didn't want to go with them. He pushed me saying, "Put on your shoes," but I didn't. Then he hit me."
Islam is from Dagestan, Russia, and is one of the youngest boys here.
(on camera): (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WARD: So he's saying that he is just 12 years old. He has been here about three or four months. He was taken from his mother. He doesn't even know what his last name is.
WARD (voice-over): Human rights organizations have said the separations are an appalling violation of international law.
But the SDF's top general, Mazloum Abdi, defends the policy.
GEN. MAZLOUM ABDI, COMMANDER, SYRIAN DEMOCRATIC FORCES (through translation): Instead of these organizations condemning what we are doing and calling it a human rights violation, these organizations should give us help when it comes to our program that we have in place for years now to rehabilitate these children.
WARD (on camera): But part of the problem seems to be that once these young boys turn 18, there's not anywhere for them to go, particularly if they can't return to their home countries. And so some of them, I believe, are ending up in prison.
ABDI (through translation): This is not a policy that we are following to put them in prison at 18. The reality is the goal is to reintegrate them with society.
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KEILAR: Our thanks to Clarissa Ward for that very important report.
And to see her entire report, head to CNN.com.
[14:49:02] We'll be right back.
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SANCHEZ: Now to a landmark ruling holding the banana giant Chiquita brands liable for funding of violent Colombian paramilitary group linked to murders in that country.
KEILAR: Yes, a Florida jury ordered Chiquita to pay $38 million to the families of eight victims killed by this violent paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia.
Chiquita recorded those payments as "security services."
CNN's Stefano Pozzebon is in Colombia's capital of Bogota with more.
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STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN JOURNALIST: The ruling in a Florida federal court on Monday that found banana company, Chiquita Brands International, liable for financing a Colombian right-wing paramilitary group that committed extensive human rights violations over 20 years ago.
It's a groundbreaking case of international litigation, according to the team of attorneys that won the argument in West Palm Beach.
Chiquita was ordered to pay the relatives of victims of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, or AUC, a criminal group connected to landowners and corporate interests in northern Colombia that the United States had declared a foreign terrorist organization in 2001.
[14:55:03]
Some details of the cases that were read in court were brutal. Talk of extrajudicial executions, forced displacements and gratuitous displays of violence.
But the ruling on Monday was celebrated as a victory for justice.
MARCOS SIMONS, GENERAL COUNSEL, EARTHRIGHTS INTERNATIONAL: This money is not going to replace what's been lost. We're still talking about horrific abuses that these families have suffered.
But the money is important because, unfortunately, the language that corporations understand the best is money. And so sometimes it takes a significant monetary penalty to change corporate behavior.
POZZEBON: The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, celebrated the ruling on his social media channels.
Chiquita is also facing litigation in Colombia, according to local media. And in a statement to CNN, Chiquita confirmed its intention to appeal. And throughout the last 20 years, the company maintained that it had been a victim of extortion by the AUC. But the U.S. justice previously found that Chiquita paid the AUC over 100 times between 1997 and 2004 for $1.7 million in total.
Monday's verdicts ruled that the money was instrumental in propping up the AUC and that Chiquita was liable for the human rights abuse committed by the group.
The cases heard in Florida are only a small portion of the total number of plaintiffs against the company. And a team of attorneys that brought successfully forward these cases intend to follow with further and further suits against Chiquita.
For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, Bogota.
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KEILAR: All right, Stefano, thank you for that report.
And in the next hour, a contempt of Congress vote against Attorney General Merrick Garland for defying House Republicans. But do they have the numbers they need? We're going to follow the latest on that, here on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.
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