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Islamist Militants Threaten Baghdad; President Rules Out U.S. Troops in Iraq; Increased Numbers of Immigrant Children Crossing Texas Border

Aired June 14, 2014 - 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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FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Here are the big stories we're following now in the CNN Newsroom.

The U.S. is moving an aircraft carrier closer to Iraq today. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered the aircraft carrier "USSS George H. W. Bush" to the Persian Gulf. It has been in the northern -- north Arabian Sea, and the Pentagon says it will arrive in the Persian Gulf with two other ship it's later this evening.

Iraq is in a major crisis as militants are threatening to march on Baghdad. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, also known at ISIS, has already taken Iraq's second largest city of Mosul. And they've left a trail of blood and violence behind them.

Today Iraq's government is rushing to recruit volunteer fighters. Shiite supporters are answering the call in Baghdad, boarding buses, ready to take up arms and fight. President Obama says his national security team is keeping a close eye on the situation and coming up with a range of options. But the U.S. will not send troops back into combat in Iraq, he said.

Republican senator and former presidential candidate John McCain says it's time for the president to fire some of his national security team. When asked to name names, here's what he told Wolf Blitzer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Name names, because you've said the president should fire as national security team.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: Yes.

BLITZER: Who specifically should the president fire, from your perspective?

MCCAIN: The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, number one, the national security adviser, number two, who should probably spend time think their family on Sundays. I would certainly have all of her deputies, national security advisers gone as well. Kerry and Hagel were not there when some of these most crucial decisions were taken, but I don't have a lot of confidence in their performance either. (END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Senator John McCain, a frequent Sunday talk show guest himself, was making a rather, some would say, sexist reference to Susan Rice, appearing on Sunday's shows on behalf of the administration.

All right, White House officials are condemning the shooting down of a military transport plane in Ukraine and warned Russia to stop sending heavy weapons to militants across the border. Government officials in Kiev say pro-Russian rebels used antiaircraft machine guns to bring the plane down earlier today. All 49 people onboard were killed.

Secretary of State John Kerry called Ukraine's prime minister to express his condolences. This is one of the deadliest attacks since the crisis began.

Today is the second day on U.S. soil for Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. But the 28-year-old soldier still has not talked to his parents. Army officers at the San Antonio military hospital treating him saying it will take time for Bergdahl to adjust after being held five years by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Earlier this month his father acknowledged that it may take some time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB BERGDAHL, FATHER OF SGT. BOWE BERGDAHL: We're talking like this because we haven't talked to Bowe yet. We haven't called him on the phone, although you all know we have the capability to do that with satellite technology. There's reason for that, and that's because Bowe has been gone so long that it's going to be very difficult to come back. It's like a diver going deep on a dive and has to stage back up through recompression to get the nitrogen bubbles out of his system. If he comes up too fast it could kill him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Bergdahl was freed two weeks ago in exchange for five Taliban figures that were detained at Guantanamo Bay.

Every day hundreds of children are crossing illegally into the U.S. Some come with their mothers, but so many others come all by themselves, and border officials are running out of places to put them. Many of these children, in fact, and their parents are coming from Central America, mostly El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Rosa Flores is in San Pedro, Honduras. So Rosa, what are you finding out that help supports why so many of these little kids are taking this dangerous trip, in many cases alone?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Fredricka what we're hearing is that these children are trying to escape the violence, the violent streets that you see behind me. Now, if you take a close look, you'll see this green pasture here behind my shoulder. Beyond that pasture is what we have learned is the most dangerous area in the city where we are right now. Now, that green pasture is actually sugarcane fields. Right beyond that, two of the most dangerous gangs are fighting for that territory. That green field is where they drop the bodies.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: The dreams are dozens of Honduran children shattered when their trek to the U.S. ends in their home country on a bus filled with deported minors, some so young they're carried in their mother's arms. Honduras, preparing for a new wave of deported children.

The first stop off the bus is here to this processing center where all minors are processed. In the case of unaccompanied minors, parents must provide proof of legal guardianship. The kids who are not claimed end up here in this dormitory. Take a look around. The conditions are very basic. The ceiling is open. There is strip lighting and there is no air conditioning, but for now it's a roof over their heads.

The emotions are raw when young teens reunite with family. Francie says she was one of 28 miners that a modern day human smuggler was taken to the U.S. by bus. The price tag -- $3,000, paid for by her mother who lives in Memphis, Tennessee. "I want to be with my mother," she says. "I haven't seen her in eight years." She was one of the lucky ones, deported without incident.

This young man says he was robbed and kidnapped in Mexico and held until his family delivered ransom. "I turned myself over to immigration authorities," he says. "Now I want to stay in my country and leave the rest to god."

Uncertainty and fear is part of the game. On one end, minors waiting to be claimed, and on the other, parents hoping their child has made it out alive. "I have faith everything will be OK," says this mother of a 15-year-old boy. Sometimes it's the parents who are kept waiting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: Now, one of the other themes that's very common here is unemployment. Take a look around me. The scene is absolutely beautiful, but if you look closely, you don't see mid-rises. You don't see high-rises. Fred, places where people could actually hold good paying jobs, a lot of the jobs that we hear that people have here who are in extreme poverty, which 65 percent of country is in extreme poverty, a lot of those are just out on the streets.

WHITFIELD: Rosa, this is so heartbreaking. So you spoke to many of these kids, these unaccompanied children who were returned yesterday. What did they tell you in detail about what their experiences were like? We heard from one young boy who was held against his will until his family, you know, gave up some money, but typically what's happening to many of these kids?

FLORES: You know, they're very traumatic story, and what we keep on hearing is these modern day coyotes or human smugglers, they call them guides. And so what they do is, they take packs of kids, about 28 of them, in these just commercial buses in Mexico, and they're instructed, and they're also given money just in case they can pay off the police if they're asked to get off of these buses. So they leave on these buses. They are trained to say that they are going alone, and if they get off these buses, they just give the police money. They say, OK, we are just in Mexico by ourselves. And the hope is that they make it all the way to the U.S.

Now, here's the kicker. So these coyotes tell these kids that all they have to do is get to the border, turn themselves in to authorities, and that authorities will reunite them with the -- their parents in the United States. That, of course, we know is not true according to U.S. law. And so that's where the big disconnect is here. These kids have high hopes, but they get to the border and the reality is very grim.

WHITFIELD: They are misled. It's costing them a lot of money, their families a lot of money that they don't have in the first place, and then in some cases, costing them their lives. Rosa Flores, thank you so much. That is simply matter breaking.

FLORES: You're welcome.

WHITFIELD: President Obama is getting ready to speak at the University of California Irvine's commencement momentarily. Live pictures right now. The president is expected to take the stage shortly after 3:00 eastern time. You see everybody, faculty, staff, assembling there, and the graduates, of course, super excited about this day. Of course, when the president takes to the stage, we'll take that live.

All right, meantime, all this with this backdrop. The aircraft career USS George H. W. Bush heading to the Persian Gulf. But the president says diplomacy is still the preferred option in Iraq. The former assistant secretary of state explains how that will work.

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WHITFIELD: President Obama says the long-term solution to Iraq's crisis must be a political and diplomatic one, but where is that diplomacy heading as a terror group vows to take over Iraq's capital? Our Wolf Blitzer asked former assistant secretary of state Jamie Rubin about that.

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JAMES RUBIN, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: I think what we're going to see civil war in Iraq continue for some time, and we're seeing the combination of civil war in Iraq and civil war in Syria create this broader conflict between Sunnis and Shias. If diplomacy is going to succeed, obviously the Sunni forces that combine with the terrorist forces, what you essentially had here was a breakdown in the politics of Baghdad. Without America as a moderating influence when we had forces on the ground we were able to moderate the policies of Maliki. And with the rise of the Sunni terrorists in Syria, these two things together created a vacuum in which civil strife returned.

The only way to turn it around other than the military steps that may be necessary is to get some of our Sunni friends back in the game, and that means Jordan, that means Saudi Arabia, because let's remember, Wolf, right now we have an awkward bedfellow. We are on the same side as Tehran. We are working with the Maliki government, trying to persuade them to take steps to improve their relationship with the Sunni community. Meanwhile, Maliki's government is getting help from Tehran, from Al Quds forces possibly going inside, Revolutionary Guard forces perhaps going inside Iraq. So it's a very awkward situation for the United States.

BLITZER: Yes. Speaking of awkward bedfellows, not only is Iran supporting Nouri al Maliki, going after these ISIS Al Qaeda affiliated terrorists, but Bashar al Assad in Syria is going after them as well because they represent a serious threat to his regime.

I want to read to you what the former secretary of state Hillary Clinton told the BBC about the situation in Iraq. She said, "I agree with the White House's rejection and reluctance to do the kind of military activities the Maliki government is requesting. That is not a role for the United States." She wants basically, from what I hear her saying, Jamie, she wants the U.S. to stay out of Iraq right now militarily.

RUBIN: Well, I don't know what she specifically meant by that, but that presumably the airstrikes called for by Maliki were in the newspapers when she was asked the question. And I suspect what the president is doing is putting aside the specific Maliki request and sitting down, saying, OK, I have two military challenges. One, I don't want these Al Qaeda affiliated terrorists to create a base from which they can then attack our friends and personnel in the region and ultimately our homeland. So what military steps -- drones, perhaps -- will I need to take the way we have done it in Yemen, in the Afghanistan, Pakistan area?

Then the second military challenge is, what happens if this Sunni force starts to sweep into Baghdad? Will we do anything? I think what Hillary Clinton is saying is that, like the president, the public focus ought to be on why this happened. And this happened because Maliki stopped working and moderating his policies and working with the Sunni community. If he doesn't turn that around, Iraq is going to break up into three pieces, a Kurdish piece, a Sunni piece through the civil war, and then the larger Shiite piece in the south. So it's up to Maliki to change policy on how he treats, how he deals with and how he works with the Sunni community.

BLITZER: Do you think he will?

RUBIN: Some sort of unity government. I'm skeptical, because right now he's in a fight for his life, I suspect, and he's going to rely on the Iranians and wait and see what the United States does. So I'm concerned.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Jamie Rubin with our Wolf Blitzer there.

Still to come, an inside look at the brutality of that extremist group ISIS he speaks of, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Even Al Qaeda says ISIS is too violent for them.

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WHITFIELD: CNN has obtained a remarkable collection of videos, evidence of the draconian and brutal tactics employed by the radical Islamic group ISIS to control much of northern Syria. This is a group so radical that even Al Qaeda distanced itself. In the video recorded by the group itself, ISIS is seen interrogating prisoners and conducting executions. We should warn you that some of these images you're about to see are very graphic and disturbing. CNN's Ben Wedeman has an exclusive report on what can be learned from the recordings.

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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The voice off camera asks, "How old are you? I was born in 1980. Are you married? Yes," he responds. "I have two children. Do you want to see them again? God knows I do. I have nothing to hide." A man who calls himself Basil and a doctor pauses, collecting his thoughts. "So, talk, answer quickly. Are you cooking up lies?" shouts the other.

This video is one of eight interrogations obtained by CNN from Syrian opposition activists. The interrogators speak with distinct Iraqi accents and ask questions about goings-on in a town Al-Bab, northeast of Aleppo. From the questions it's clear the interrogators are not with the regime of President Bashar al Assad but rather with ISIS, the Islamic state of Iraq and Syria. It's not clear what happened to these men, but another chilling video will show you later may be a clue.

Early last year, ISIS emerged as a major power in opposition controlled areas of northern Syria. Since then, the ultra-extremist group has imposed strict Islamic law, held public floggings and executions, and most recently battled other opposition groups in fighting that has left well over 2,000 dead. Even Al Qaeda's leader has demanded ISIS leave Syria.

Missing in the interrogations is any mention whatsoever of the Assad regime. The only concern is the challenge posed by other opposition factions and the local populace to ISIS.

"Who is erasing the slogans and symbols of ISIS on the walls?" demands the interrogator. "I swear, I don't know, as god is my witness," responds this man, who identifies himself as Mohammed. Another interrogation. "What were they saying about the Islamic state," he's asked. "Say the truth. Save yourself." "I'll speak the truth even if I lose my head," responds this man, who says he's called Mustafa. All of these clips found in the residence of this man, known by nom de guerre Abu Ahmed al Iraqi, or the Iraqi. Activists describe him as an ISIS emir, a commander and an intelligence officer. They found the abandoned video in January after he fled fighting between ISIS and other factions.

Some of the clips and still shots show a young woman in the company of him trying her hand and shooting an AK-47 assault rifle. "Steady," he tells her. "Steady." ISIS is imposing the strictest possible dress code on women in the area it controls. Given that her face is uncovered, clearly this was for Abu Ahmed and this unidentified women a private moment.

So what happened to the interrogated men? It's not clear from the videos, but one of the last recordings documents in detail ruthless ISIS-style justice, execution by flashlight. "Ready," asks a voice off camera. And 14 men, some apparently quite young, are shot one after the other. The scenes are too graphic for us to show. Some fall into the mass grave already dug. The new boss in this part of Syria, not unlike the old boss.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Turkey.

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