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Jihadists Targeting Christians in Iraq; Female Jihadists Using Social Media to Recruit Women; Obama to Go Ahead on Executive Actions

Aired August 07, 2014 - 10:30   ET

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

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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Breaking news out of Iraq, where people are fleeing from a brutal offensive by ISIS -- the Islamic state, that terrorist group. Ivan Watson is in Irbil, Iraq. I also want to bring in our senior correspondent Nic Robertson from London.

But of course, I want to start in country right now. Ivan, are you there?

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. That's right. I'm coming to you from an unfinished high rise where I estimate there are probably more than 100 refugees, displaced people here, women, children, sleeping on the pavement here, they are but a fraction of the estimated more than 10,000 people who have streamed into this city, in towns around Mosul, in the last 24 hours. Some of these people moving by foot all fleeing an offensive by the ISIS militants.

They've shown up and they've basically moved into any place they can find that has a little bit of shade from temperatures more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It's hot, it's August in Iraq and they don't have a plan in mind at all. They've fled their homes. They've fled this offensive. And there's no plan really for meeting these people and the ones that I'm looking at in this unfinished building, they're just a drop in the bucket, about 100 people in this unfinished construction site.

You can imagine in the cement from the dirt, with the children, it's not a good situation -- Carol?

COSTELLO: So in other words, this terror group, ISIS, is -- I mean you either change to the religion that they prefer that this terrorist group prefers or you're being forced out of the country?

WATSON: Pretty much everybody I've met comes from a non-Sunni Muslim minority, so there are Shiites, they are Christians, and they're terrified of ISIS. They've heard stories. They've seen videos of people being butchered by the militants. That's part of why they're fleeing.

A Kurdish Peshmerga who control the city I'm in and much of northern Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan, the locals, the people who have fled, say that the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters were pushed out of their villages by ISIS and that's why these people fled as well. there was a certain amount of panic overnight here in Irbil which is a Kurdish stronghold because there were fears that ISIS had gotten within 50 kilometers of the city.

So people had a run on the supermarkets and were buying up milk, buying up diapers, and people have started leaving this city as well, prompting the Kurdish authorities to put out messages promising that they can defend Irbil, a traditional safe zone, from ISIS. It gives you a sense of how scared people are right now.

COSTELLO: All right. Ivan Watson, thanks so much.

Now to London and Nic Robertson. The Pope recently, I mean he's begging for help for these Christians. Any help on the way?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There's no indication that there actually is anyone in the short term that can come to help. We've heard the Pope today issuing the statement for help for these victims of the fighting in northern Iraq. A couple of days ago, the U.N. Secretary General said pretty much the same thing -- that people were in a desperate situation and they needed help. This was just before the Christian villages were attacked and people fled.

A community of (inaudible) another minority in Iraq -- 100,000 of them, 200,000 indeed, fled to the mountains. The U.N. appealed for help there. Now overnight we understand that some of them got help in those mountains, but not before we're told many dozens had died.

We're also now hearing from the French president, Francois Hollande, calling for an emergency session at the U.N. Security Council. What is happening in the north of Iraq now in this Kurdish area or around the edges of the Kurdish area, is intensely worrying for the international community, quite simply because until now, the Kurdish forces, the Peshmerga had been viewed as strong and capable of defending people, minorities and Kurds, against the Islamic state. And of course, now that is coming into question so the question becomes what happens next if we don't intervene.

That's where the U.N., the Pope, and the French president are now pushing this issue very fast and very hard, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Nic Robertson reporting live from London, thanks so much. Of course, the push for an Islamic state is not isolated to the Middle East. Jihadists now want western women to join the cause.

CNN's Stephanie Elam joins me now with that story. Tell us more.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONENT: Carol, it's all about the Internet, really. It is a game changer. If you take a look at how old Google is, how old Facebook is, how old Twitter is, in that amount of time that's where we've seen this big push by jihadists to lure western women their way.

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ELAM (voice over): There's leaning in and then arming up.

MIA BLOOM, AUTHOR: The idea that women can be involved in jihad is something that people still don't take as seriously as they should.

ELAM: Women around the world are now taking part in jihad -- in Nigeria, Syria, and now in America. The number of women willing to give their lives to terrorist extremists, experts say, increasing over the last ten years.

BLOOM: We've seen western women going to jihad in Syria for about a year and a half now.

ELAM: Why now? Experts believe terror group organizers count on women from Europe, Canada, and the U.S., to get past terrorism intelligence agencies.

BLOOM: If it's western women they come with their western passports, they're going to fall under a radar screen. The majority of the women are going to go there to be traditional wives.

ELAM: But that's not always the case. Take American Shannon Connelly, the 19-year-old is charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. She reportedly fell in love with an ISIS fighter online and allegedly was on her way to join him in Syria before officials picked her up in April.

BLOOM: She was interviewed no fewer than nine times before her arrest by the FBI because she was scoping out a local church.

ELAM: Her attorney had no comment. Many of these women are radicalized at home, seduced on the Internet.

(on camera) How are they appealing to these western women?

JEFFREY SIMON, AUTHOR: You don't have to convince that many. If somebody spams millions of people you only need a certain number that are going to respond to that.

ELAM (on camera): The scariest of prospects are the lone wolves, people acting on their own, like in Roshonara Choudhry (ph) in England. The King's College student dropped out of school just before graduation and tried to assassinate a member of the British parliament for supporting the Iraq war.

SIMON: She was not radical, she didn't talk about jihad. She just secretly by herself downloaded 100 sermons.

ELAM: Women, some fairly well known, are also using Twitter to recruit new members from the west.

BLOOM: Like M Lace (ph), who is one of the premier female jihadi. She's British, and she's the one that keeps calling to women around the world, especially women in the western countries, to come and join the global jihad. They think that they're doing something good for their community or their people.

ELAM: A darker side of the fairer sex now wanted around the world.

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ELAM: Now, the other thing to keep in mind the major other role that these women are playing when they head east is to bring about a new generation of jihadists. They go, they get married and they have children and these children are raised in this environment and that's also a key part of it. Besides the fact that they can fly under the radar and enter a building and commit some of these very heinous acts -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Unbelievable. Stephanie Elam, thanks so much.

I want to talk more about this now. What exactly is it about radical Islam that would appeal to western women? Here to talk about this, Daniel Pipes. He's the President of the Middle East Forum. Welcome.

DANIEL PIPES, PRESIDENT, MIDDLE EAST FORUM: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. Recent "Daily Beast" article talks about how these groups appeal to women with the idea that they can contribute to the movement by raising the next generation of jihadists. The focus, if you will, is motherhood and family, not martyrdom. Why would any woman believe that?

PIPES: Well, I think there are several appeals. One is that these appeals tend to go to women -- tend to attract women who are insecure and unsure of themselves. Here is a structured environment where they can fit in, they're told what to do and they're doing something that's beneficial.

Secondly, it is an appeal to join a community that is very intense and powerful, not floundering in one's own community.

And so -- thirdly there's the notion of motherhood and being part of a community of women who are working together and having a fine husband who is off fighting jihad.

All these things come together. Now, it's not a lot of women, but a few can do a lot of damage. It is also worth noting, that the appeal to Arabic speaking women, not Western women but women say in Tunisia, seems to be quite different. It's more of a comfort role. The Tunisian minister of the interior a few months ago said that there's a pattern of Tunisian women going off and servicing jihadis -- 10, 50, 100.

What it looks like, I can't tell you for sure, what it looks like is that Western women are being told motherhood and domesticity and raise the next generation and Arab women are being told go service the jihad.

COSTELLO: Ok. So women normally really care about their child's upbringing and the safety of their children. This group, ISIS, is unusually cruel. I mean they crucify people. PIPES: They do, but they're also telling the Western women that come

and you will be taken care of. You will have the basics of life. It won't be anything fancy, but you will be taken care of. You will be safe. You will be taken care of.

Now, I don't think this is a valid promise at all. But it does appeal and we are seeing a number of women from Britain, from Austria, from the United States taking their chances and going off there. And it's likely to be something that grows over time as this network on social media grows, as the advice grows, as the women there who can appeal to others back in the west.

It is not as great a problem as the men, but it is a significant problem.

COSTELLO: All right. Daniel Pipes, thanks so much for joining me this morning. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, President Obama pushing ahead for his plans for a year of action by using the power of his office. But could the controversy over executive actions actually divide Americans even more? We'll talk about that next.

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COSTELLO: President Obama is not allowing the threat of a lawsuit from House Republicans deter him from fulfilling his pledge to make 2014, quote, "a year of action". He is standing firm on his decision to act alone in dealing with the crisis on our border by issuing a series of executive orders next month.

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What I am consistently going to do is wherever I have the legal authorities to make progress on behalf of middle-class Americans and folks working to get into the middle class, making sure that federal contractors are paying a fair wage to their workers, making sure that women have the opportunity to make sure that they're getting paid the same as men for doing the same job, where I have the capacity to, you know, expand some of the student loan programs that we've already put in place so that repayments are a little more affordable for college graduates, I'm going to take -- I'm going to seize those opportunities and that's what I think the American people expect me to do.

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COSTELLO: Ok. So the bigger question, though, will Mr. Obama's executive actions further divide the country or are the President's hands tied? Here to talk about that, Ron Christie, former special assistant to President George W. Bush and Maria Cardona, CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist. Welcome to you both.

RON CHRISTIE, FORMER SPECIAL ASST TO GEORGE W. BUSH: Good morning.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning -- Carol. COSTELLO: Good morning.

Ron, I'll start with you, does the President risk dividing the country even more if he goes through with these executive actions?

CHRISTIE: I think he does, if he does to legalize millions of people who are here illegally. I mean you can look at the constitution, the constitution says that Congress under article I has the power to naturalize citizens, not the President. And I think what you've heard is a lot of talk about impeachment from the Democrats. You've had 83 mentions of impeachments on the House Floor by Democrats, only 4 by Republicans. I think they're setting the stage of impeachment off the table then allow the President to do what he wants to do.

COSTELLO: Ok. So in light of that, Maria, I can't really see how this country can become more divided than it already is.

CARDONA: Well, I think that's true, Carol. And on the issue of executive action when it comes to immigration, first of all let's remember that the majority of the American people do believe that our immigration system is completely broken and are in favor of fixing it and part of that is making sure to try to legalize all of the undocumented workers that have contributed mightily to the economic growth of this country.

Let's be very clear, if the President takes executive action, he will not be naturalizing these people, Ron. What he will be doing is will be giving them a temporary fix that will protect them from deportation and possibly giving them work permits until Congress gets their act together, which is what is the American people want, what the President wants, but hasn't gotten, and are able to actually legalize them.

COSTELLO: See, I was going to ask you, Ron, like shouldn't the President wait until Congress comes back? But Congress didn't do anything. They were running up on a deadline, they knew it and they left.

CHRISTIE: Well, that's actually not true. The House of Representatives actually passed two pieces of legislation --

COSTELLO: That they knew would never get over the Senate or be signed into the law by the President.

CHRISTIE: That's not how it works. If the senate decides that they don't like what the House did they actually have to go through a process of putting their own bill forward, amending the House bill, hammering it out in conference committee and sending it to the President. The Democrats want this as a political issue.

And what I would say to Maria is, you know, I'm just a humble country lawyer from California but my reading of the constitution and looking at what the President has tried to do, Maria I'm sorry, this is not legal. It's not constitutional and I think what we really Carol see here is politics. We're setting this up for the November election rather than dealing with the immigration problem. COSTELLO: Well, you could accuse the Republicans of the same thing.

I mean they both play that game, don't they -- the Democrats and the Republicans.

CHRISTIE: Hey, look, we're doing our work in the House of Representatives by passing legislation. I think Harry Reid has an obligation to put forth on his calendar what's the Senate's agenda and what are they going to do?

COSTELLO: Ok.

CARDONA: Well again -- thank you. So let's clarify, the Senate did try to pass their bill, Ron, but what happened? Unlike the House, the Senate does not work by passing a bill with just a simple majority. Who blocked that bill? The Republicans. So again you have complete and total and utter obstructionism from the Republicans. The one bill that the Republicans did passes in the house was to deport the Dreamers, deport valedictorians, deport people who have served in our military. That is not what the American people want. That will not move our country forward. That will not move our economy forward.

We need real solutions and that's what this president is offering.

COSTELLO: So here's my prediction. The President will come back next month and he'll issue these executive actions and the lawsuit will go on and not much will happen.

CHRISTIE: Well, I think that's the frustration of the American people.

CARDONA: Exactly.

CHRISTIE: And I think Maria, that's the one thing you and I agree with. I mean they actually need to get their act together and work together and they're just not doing it -- Carol.

CARDONA: Yes. I completely agree.

COSTELLO: Ron Christie, Maria Cardona -- I have to go.

CARDONA: We agree.

COSTELLO: This is nirvana. Maria, Ron, thank you so much. I'll be right back.

CARDONA: Thank you.

CHRISTIE: Thanks.

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ZOE MCCLELLAN, TRAVEL INSIDER: I'm Zoe McClellan (ph) and I'm so excited to show you two of my favorite spots in New Orleans. I just moved here about a month ago. I'm so excited to be shooting here. This happens to be my favorite city in the world. Are you ready to shop? I am. Let's go. This is Trashy Diva.

LINDSAY DAVIS, TRASHY DIVA WNER: We started as a vintage shop, an ode to the starlet back in the 1940s and 50s. And then in 2000 our owner released her first collection and it's all been uphill from there.

MCCLELLAN: I feel like when I want to get dressed up for a night on the town Trashy Diva is the place to go because everything here really embraces your figure. I feel like a goddess here. That is gorgeous.

DAVIS: Beautiful. Absolutely perfect.

MCCLELLAN: It's a keeper.

Now that I've got the shopping out of my system and the sun has gone down, I'm ready to play. Night Row -- one of my favorite places -- the Maple Leaf Bar. This is the best bar for live music.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is the quintessential New Orleans experience. You can ask anybody local, they're going to tell you, the place you want to be is here. It's a little bit of funk, it's a little bit of soul, it's a little bit of R&B -- how can you not dance to this?

MCCLELLAN: This band is pretty awesome. This is (inaudible) they've named a beer after this band. It's as delicious as they are. Cheers.

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COSTELLO: Let's get a check of the top stories at 55 minutes past.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden will be allowed to stay in Russia. The country has agreed to grant him residency for the next three years. Snowden has been living in Russia since last year after leaking information about U.S. spy programs. The former government contractor is charged with espionage and theft of government property.

A major announcement from Buckingham Palace this morning about Prince William: The Prince will continue his passion for flying and he'll start working as an air ambulance pilot next spring. He'll be flying missions both day and night. You might remember, William served in the military as a search and rescue pilot.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"@THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA" after a break.

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