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Iraq Says It's Open To U.S. Airstrikes; Washington Post: Bergdahl Writes Of Worries, Plans; One Priest Dead, Another Wounded In Attack; Is Brat Ready For Political Prime Time?

Aired June 12, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM -- Iraq 2.0.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is no longer a messy situation. This is a catastrophe.

COSTELLO: A country in crisis. Terrorists taking control of cities -- one-by-one. America two years after we pulled troops out, now considering, quote, "a range of options".

Troubled soldier.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bergdahl's journals and e-mail paint a picture of what it calls a complicated and fragile young man.

COSTELLO: Calling himself the lone wolf of deadly nothingness struggling to maintain mental stability, frustrated and longing to travel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got this layering effect of leadership that should be looking at this young man who apparently is a bit delusional.

COSTELLO: Chaos on camera.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's knocked down.

COSTELLO: The Vegas cop killers in the final moments.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The female just shot herself in the head.

COSTELLO: And power vacuum.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), HOUSE SPEAKER: He's been a very good leader for our party.

COSTELLO: Cantor's out. So who will take his place as the second most powerful Republican?

Let's talk -- live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

COSTELLO: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We do begin with breaking news out of Iraq and new fears this morning that the United States could be drawn back into the quicksand of a new conflict.

The big story this morning, Iraq is saying they are open for America to conduct airstrikes within their country. The White House, just a few hours ago, only saying that it's considering a range of options. Terrorists are rapidly seizing the towns where American troops fought and died and they're now marching on Baghdad. In red, the area now held by militant fighters. In yellow where the fighting for control still rages. And if their military successes are not chilling enough, consider this. These militants are so extreme, so vile, even al Qaeda has disavowed them.

Our correspondents and analysts are covering all angles of this rapidly deteriorating situation. Let's begin with our Nic Robertson in Amman, Jordan. Tell us what's happening in Iraq now -- Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The very latest details, ISIS fighters, this al Qaeda splinter group say that they are going for Baghdad. They have scores to settle. The commander has told them not to give them any ground, not even a hand's width. We've seen the Iraqi government today fail to even get together to vote on calling a state of emergency.

It shows the level of political breakdown in the country. We have seen Shia militias being stood up so that they can protect Shia religious shrines. Again, it shows the deteriorating and growing sectarian underpins ISIS rapid gains here.

We've also seen the ethnic -- the Kurds in the northeast of the country take up positions where the government forces have pulled out, significantly in the town of Kirkuk. It's a hot-button issue as to who should have control over it.

All of this -- all of these, a destabilizing influence, staggering that while on the one hand, the government of Iraq say it is open to U.S. airstrikes to come in and help them, yet they cannot even help themselves by getting together and agreeing to vote on a state of emergency -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Just to give us an idea of the scale, how many of these terrorists are in country fighting, and how large is the Iraqi military?

ROBERTSON: Well, the initial estimates were hundreds. There's possibly the figure may run to thousands. But what you have to look at here is that they're getting the support of Sunni tribesmen. There was one video I looked at earlier today, and it showed what was purported to be an ISIS commander talking to what looked like dozens, perhaps 100 or so, young men who held respect for him. They weren't fighters. They were the local men in the town. So while they have maybe several hundred, maybe a little more than that fighters, they have support from the Sunni community or some parts of the Sunni community. The government, on the other hand, has hundreds of thousands of security, police and army across the country who have been trained by the United States finest army trainers with a lot of experience.

They've got the better weapons. Better weapons than ISIS, yet they have not been able to put that together. Rather they've been putting those weapons down and retreating. One video I just looked at, unsubstantiated so far, purported to show a whole line of Iraqi army soldiers handing themselves over to ISIS fighters. That's yet to be substantiated. But this is the sort of propaganda that ISIS is putting out there -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Very disturbing. Nic Robertson reporting live for us this morning. I want to dig a little deeper into this crisis and the stakes involved and the options available. Jim Sciutto is CNN's chief national security correspondent and joining him from London, Charlie Cooper. He is a Middle East researcher for a think tank formed to combat extremism. Welcome to both of you.

So Jim, you just heard Nic Robertson. This is disturbing, to say the least and also, these terrorists, you know, now taking over Iraqi cities are so vile. These are the people who tweeted out images of crucifixions in Syria. Should the United States get involved?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Let me tell you, the other thing about ISIS is that they're also the most popular group to join for foreign fighters partly because their requirements are so low. You can just kind of come in on a kind of Jihadi vacation and join up for a bit and then return home. And this is a real concern because U.S. intelligence officials have been telling me and others for months that they are concerned about how Syria has attracted these foreign fighters.

What happens when those foreign fighters go home? Now ISIS controls territory in both Syria and Iraq. You know, the rate at which these folks carry out attacks when they go home, maybe it's 10 percent, maybe it's 20 percent, but we're talking about thousands of fighters. Some going home to Europe. We know of at least 50 to 60 Americans that have joined the fight there.

So there is a threat to American security. What can the U.S. do? You know, I'm told by U.S. officials now that they are focused on aiding, equipping, training the Iraqi army while they are keeping other options on the table. That's still their focus. You have this request from Iraq. The question is will the U.S. answer that request.

COSTELLO: Well, it's disturbing if the Iraqi army are indeed handing their weapons over to terrorists. It kind of makes you pause before you give them any more, right so --

SCIUTTO: Absolutely. And it also raises a question about that strategy, right? The strategy since the U.S. withdrawal has been to equip, train and equip, these forces. Now, if those forces, after billions of dollars in U.S. aid and weaponry and years of training can't stand up to a threat like this, this raises a major question forward. And think about it, Carol, not just for Iraq, but for Afghanistan because that's also the plan for Afghanistan when U.S. troops withdraw from there.

COSTELLO: Charlie, you wrote an op-ed for cnn.com saying instability threatens the wider world. Why should we as Americans care?

CHARLIE COOPER, RESEARCHER, QUILLIAM FOUNDATION: Because the way that ISIS is so appealing for foreign fighters to come from the EU, to come from America, to come from other Arab countries, they present a big threat in that way because a lot of the brigades that is has, they are single-nation brigades. People who go back to their own countries, and they will have a group of contacts who have fought together, who have been trained together. And it's a lot more threatening than, say, just one individual person who's gone to fight in Syria. The fact that they're being trained together is very, very dangerous.

COSTELLO: And, of course, Iraq is in a -- well, you know where it is, right smack in the middle of a hotbed of countries that concern the United States, including, Jim, Iran. In fact, I've even heard that some hope Iran gets involved and even drives this terrorist group out of Iraq, but is that really optimal?

SCIUTTO: Iran is already taking steps, for instance, to close its border because there's a lot of traffic between Iran and Iraq. You have a lot of Iranian pilgrims that go to the Shiite holy sites in Iraq. They are taking steps already. The question is what are the next steps? On the positive side, this would be an area where U.S. and Iranian interests align, right? They don't want to have, you know, Iraq falling to pieces.

The trouble is that, you know, if this is where -- if these are the partners you're relying on now, whether it's the army that Nic Robertson mentioned that trust me, caused a lot of trouble in the mid- 2000s in Iraq and Iran which, of course, we have a troubled relationship with, you know, if these are the secrets to solving this problem, that's a real challenge going forward. There are no good or easy solutions.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. But Charlie, I'll ask you the tough question anyway. If the United States chooses to get involved, what should it do?

COOPER: I think it should stay clear of intervening militarily because obviously the U.S. has a past in Iraq, and it's not popular among the Iraqi people. What the U.S. should do and what it must do is put pressure on the Maliki government to revolve, reintegrate the Sunni tribes that Nic Robertson mentioned earlier, reintegrate them into the government.

Because since the U.S. left a few years ago, Maliki has marginalized them. He's focused on sustaining the Shia areas more than the Sunni areas. So they need to be brought in economically, socially, infrastructurally. And that's the only way that you will be able to begin to combat the narrative of ISIS, which is very strong right now. But I do think that if anyone is to intervene, it should be an Arab country, perhaps Turkey but certainly not a western country.

COSTELLO: All right, Charlie Cooper, Jim Sciutto, many thanks to both of you. You can see Charlie's op-ed and all the latest developments on Iraq at our web site cnn.com, cnn.com/opinion for Charlie's op-ed.

Also this morning, we have a new window into the mind of Bowe Bergdahl before he was taken prisoner by the Taliban. Newly revealed journal entries given exclusively to "The Washington Post" by a friend of Bergdahl's gives us new perspective into the mindset of a soldier at the center of a national uproar.

This is one of those entries. Quote, "I am the lone wolf of deadly nothingness." These words paint a stark picture of the then-army private in the year leading up to the day that Bergdahl left his post. By his own account, Bergdahl struggled in the military.

Before basic training, he wrote, quote, "I'm worried. The closer I get, the calmer the voices are. I'm reverting. I'm getting colder. My feelings are being flushed with the frozen logic and the training, all the unfeeling cold judgment of darkness."

Then with unorthodox spelling, Bergdahl expresses feelings of alienation, quote, "Trying to keep myself together. I'm so tired of the blackness, but what will happen to me without it. Bloody hell, why do I keep thinking of this over and over."

But according to these writings, Bergdahl apparently had some kind of plan, just three weeks before his capture, he e-mailed a friend's daughter saying, quote, "I'm good, but plans have begun to form. No time line yet."

Now, when the friend asked Bergdahl what he was talking about, his response was cryptic. Numbers and letters strung together almost readable but not quite. And this may not have been his only plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, "THE LEAD": According to members of Bergdahl's platoon who spoke to me on condition of anonymity, the night before he disappeared, he spoke about wanting to become an assassin, walking his way to Pakistan or India and working his way up in a gang as a hit man, somehow ending up in the Russian mob. At the time the soldiers thought Bergdahl was just joking around. He had a reputation for saying some off-the-wall things. After he vanished, they wondered if he had actually been serious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Confusing, right? CNN has contacted Kim Harrison, this friend, the woman who gave Bergdahl's writings to "The Washington Post," but she declined to comment to us. I want to talk more about this. Let's bring in CNN Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr and Matthew Hoh, a former State Department official and family friend of the Bergdahls. Welcome to you both.

Barbara, I want to start with you because some might wonder how Bowe Bergdahl was in the Army in the first place.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, what we now know is that in the months before joining the Army, he actually spent about 26 days as a member of the U.S. Coast Guard. He was discharged from that very quickly with an administrative or non-specified discharge. We do not know the reasons he was discharged. That has not yet been made public. Despite all of the speculation and then he joined the Army.

One of the questions that has been asked is whether he got some type of waiver to join the Army, as many soldiers did back in those days of the troop surge. They needed to get enough bodies over there to meet the quota. We don't have an answer yet. The army says they're looking through their records to see if he was granted a waiver.

COSTELLO: Matthew, what do you make of these writings? Some might say he's just a crunchy granola guy and just writing nonsense. Others say it sounds as if he was mentally unbalanced. From your perspective in reading these journal entries, what do you think?

MATTHEW HOH, FRIEND OF BERGDAHL'S PARENTS: Good morning, Carol. Thanks for having me back on. You know, I think one of the key things we've got to remember, these are just journal entries. It's not the whole journal. But certainly it is a little troubling. They match up with some of the e-mails that were reported on that he sent to his family.

In the "Rolling Stone" article that Michael Hastings wrote a couple years back. What I think it does -- and remember, too, Kim Harrison, the young lady who released these journals, she did this because she wanted to prove that Bowe was not a deserter. And so you have to frame it in that context, too.

And I think it's very helpful because it gives us a very humanizing glimpse into his life. This shows a young man who is 22, going off to war, or at war, and it reminds us that this is a very, very personal story set amidst the madness of war. All of us who served over there have had feelings like this.

You have feelings of being alone or being against something that you can't understand or feelings of immense hope. You have romantic longings, you know, to see people again or to travel, to get away. So I don't think we should be too surprised at the tenor or tone of this. It may indicate that he did have some problems. But again, it doesn't really prove anything about what happened, and that's what we're still waiting to see.

COSTELLO: Barbara, I will say, if he was indeed a fragile man or he had some mental problems, admitting him into the Army and sending him into Afghanistan and making him a member of a platoon endangered all of the people he fought with.

STARR: Well, look. Let's -- I think it's really important to stick to the facts that we know, which are very minimal at this point. We have no direct knowledge that he had psychological problems. These are his writings. You know, we're not medical doctors to be able to evaluate this. And I agree with Matthew.

I mean, I've spent a lot of time with troops in the field, young men and women who, in those very tough circumstances, talk and write different things than we are used to seeing in civilian society. I don't think there's any indication that while he served in his unit, he was -- that we know of -- that he was a danger to anybody.

COSTELLO: All right, Barbara Starr, Matthew Hoh, thanks for the insight. I appreciate it.

HOH: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the Phoenix diocese is calling it a senseless act of violence. One priest dead, another critically wounded. We'll have the latest for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Two priests attacked at a Catholic Church, one shot and killed, the other critically injured. Police say it started with a 911 burglary call. When police arrived, they found both priests badly hurt. The Reverend Kenneth Walker who was shot died later at a hospital.

CNN's Victor Blackwell has been following this story. I just can't believe this would happen inside of a church.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's heart breaking. We see the video of the parishioners just standing in groups in the parking lot, really in shock. We know that Father Tara who was one of the two people who was shot or injured yesterday, he was the first to alert authorities that something was wrong. He called at about 9:00 to Phoenix dispatchers reporting a burglary.

But once Phoenix police arrived, they realized that whatever happened at Mother of Mercy Mission Catholic Church was much more than that. Both priests were found injured inside the church, but we're told not in the sanctuary, reportedly inside the living quarters. Father Kenneth Walker was shot. He died at the hospital.

But Father Joseph Tara, officials thus far have not elaborated on what his injuries were. They have not said if he was shot or if it was some other type of attack. Here's what we don't know. Of course, at this point they do not know who is responsible. They're searching for the suspect or suspects.

They do not know if this, in fact, was a burglary that became violent or if it was something else. They did, however, search for a stolen Mazda SUV. They have now found that. But again, these parishioners are in shock. Listen to one of them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TED BRUDNICKI, PARISHIONER: They're fantastic priests and I can't believe that they have been shot. For one reason, I can't understand what is going on. I just -- it's just amazing that people would do this kind of thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Yes.

COSTELLO: What do they expect to get inside of a church, these burglars?

BLACKWELL: We don't know. We also don't know if this was random or targeted. So the question here is were they going after something that they knew one of these men had, if it was a personal vendetta? No answer to that question yet. The officials here, they had an opportunity to speak with the priest who is still recovering from these critical injuries. They had a few conversations last night. But since then, the focus has been on his recovery.

COSTELLO: Victor Blackwell, thanks so much.

BLACKWELL: Sure.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Dave Brat's road to Washington. He's hit a few speed bumps in the first few hours as a national political figure. Should that be cause for concern among Virginia voters? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Dave Brat's political to-do list seems pretty solid these days. Political underdog, check. Primary upset of the decade, check. Hitting the national spotlight with a bang, well, maybe not so much. After beating Eric Cantor in what everyone dubs a political earthquake for the Republican Party, Dave Brat found the first 24 hours as the nation's hottest political star can be tough. You don't get to celebrate for long before the serious questions start.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should there be a minimum wage in your opinion?

DAVE BRAT (R), VIRGINIA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: I -- I don't have a well-crafted response on that one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me ask you about something -- a foreign policy question, arming the Syrian rebels. Would you be in favor of that with U.S. military helping to arm the moderate Syrian rebels?

BRAT: Chuck, I thought we were just going to chat today about the celebratory aspect. I'd love to go through all this, but my mind is just --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I understand that. But I just want to get a sense of -- BRAT: I love all the policy questions. I'd be happy to do more, but

I just wanted to talk about the victory ahead, and I wanted to thank everybody that worked so hard on my campaign.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: OK. So following that stumble, Brat's two-person staff canceled an afternoon news conference, opting instead for a statement. Add that to this, the Facebook page of Brat's campaign manager has reportedly been completely wiped clean of some provocative posts since Brat's win. So let's talk about this. Joining me now is Larry Sabato, Director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. Hi, Larry.

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: How are you, Carol?

COSTELLO: I'm good. Should the voters of Virginia be concerned?

SABATO: Well, they should be concerned if it continues. You know, it's the old line about dr. Johnson's dog, right? It's not how well he walks. It's the fact that he does it at all. This guy has only been in the periphery of politics, and he took down the House majority leader. Everybody knows it was a negative vote. Everybody knows that people looked at that ballot and saw Eric Cantor and the other guy.

And they decided to reject Eric Cantor, and they voted for the other guy. Well, now the other guy has a very good chance to be the congressman from the 7th District at least for two years, and every word he utters, every word he writes, every word that his staff utters and writes will be put under the microscope. Welcome to the real world of politics.

COSTELLO: I think the thing that disturbed me, he's an economics professor, and he couldn't explain whether he supported the minimum wage or not. And you know, professors, as you are one, Larry, they're people with plenty of strong opinions and not afraid to share them.

SABATO: Yes, well, this is what I've said about economists for years, Carol. I'm just kidding. We often criticize economists in the field of political science. But, look, Dave Brat -- and I don't know him personally, but I certainly know what he does because he's a professor -- he has a gigantic change of focus coming and he has to get used to it. He cannot just lecture wildly anymore and say anything that comes to his mind.

You know, like I do. He has to actually be in the role of representative. And he has to remember why Eric Cantor lost. Eric Cantor lost because the people at home didn't believe he was representing them anymore. He was all about power. So Dave Brat has a very, very steep learning curve here.

COSTELLO: So he's headed towards the general election, and of course, he's running in a very conservative district. But he has a two-person staff, and most of the people who are helping him are in their early 20s. That's going to be difficult, isn't it? SABATO: It will be. I suspect at some point you'll have interest groups and the Virginia Republican Party, in the National Republican Party coming in to lend him a hand because they can't take this for granted. It is a Republican district, but the people in that district have now shown that they are rebellious, and they're watching carefully. To tell you the truth, Carol, his real test is going to come in two years.

He is a novice and there are a lot of hungry, experienced officer holders who are Republicans who are this very day, carol, talking about challenging him in the primary in 2016. Yes. Welcome to the world of real politics.

COSTELLO: Couldn't some Republican be a write-in candidate? I mean, if it's not Eric Cantor, it could be someone else, right?

SABATO: Sure. If Eric Cantor said he's not going to do it, and he shouldn't because he would lose badly. Frankly, I think anybody else would lose. In order to win a write-in campaign, you have to be an incumbent who is seen as someone who has done wrong in a primary. Think Senator Lisa Murkowski from Alaska who won her seat again running as a write-in candidate after she was ousted in the primary by a candidate who turned out to be unacceptable to most Alaskans.

That's the kind of unique circumstance you need for a write-in to succeed. It isn't going to happen. It's just not going to happen. It would split the Republican vote, but that's a pretty Republican district. Brat has to be installed as the clear favorite for November, but that's just term one. You know, I'm sure he doesn't want to be a two-year congressman, a one-term wonder.

COSTELLO: We'll see as we watch the next chapter unfold. Larry Sabato, thanks as always. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, oil prices are spiking this morning as insurgents in Iraq surround an oil refinery. We'll talk about that next.

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