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Iraqi President Appoints New Prime Minister; ISIS and the Threat to the U.S.; Teen Shooting Sparks Protests, Unrest; NASCAR Star Hits, Kills Driver

Aired August 11, 2014 - 10:00   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: Happening now in the NEWSROOM.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He turned around. He puts his hands in the earth and he started to get down, but the officers still approached with his weapon drawn and he fired several more shots.

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COSTELLO: An unarmed black teen shot and killed by police in a St. Louis suburb. Prayers and peaceful protests giving way to looting and vandalism.

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UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: Twenty officers with riot gear end route.

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COSTELLO: Protesters asking one question, why did Michael Brown have to die?

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Only Iraqis can ensure the stability and security of Iraq. United States can't do it for them.

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COSTELLO: Also, heavy bombardment from U.S. military jets in the skies over Northern Iraq as the president signals this is going to be a long-term project.

And horror on a dirt track, an irate driver marches down the track after his car hits the wall. That's when another driver runs him down.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this time, this is an ongoing investigation of an on track crash.

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COSTELLO: The video that has called Tony Stewart's future into question. Let's talk live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank so much for joining me. We do start this hour with breaking news out of New York City, where an American man was arrested at JFK Airport accused of being a terrorist sympathizer and weapons trafficker.

Prosecutors say he'd been tweeting in support of ISIS and Jihad while spending time in Lebanon. Our justice correspondent, Evan Perez is tracking developments from Washington. Evan, tell us more.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The guy we're talking about is Donald Ray Morgan. He is 44 years old. He was arrested when he arrived at JFK on August 2nd on a Delta Flight from Frankfurt, Germany. Authorities say that basically what he was doing when he was overseas was tweeting and doing other things online in support of Jihad and in support of ISIS.

Which is a group, as you know, that's now taken over parts of Syria and Iraq and this is obviously what has raised so much concern with authorities. They say there are over 100 Americans that have gone over to Syria and have joined one of these militant groups.

This is obviously the big concern here. Morgan is only charged with weapons possession. He's a former felon. He's facing these charge in North Carolina, which is where he is headed right now. He's going to face these charges.

They say he might have been involved with weapons trafficking. This is obviously before he left to go overseas. So right now they are still investigating to see how far this connection to ISIS, if any, goes -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Evan Perez reporting live from Washington, D.C. As you know, those ISIS militants have sent the region around Iraq and Syria into chaos and religious minorities fleeing to safety.

Anna Coren is in Erbil, Iraq, where 20,000 Yazidis managed to escape, but that thousands more remain trapped and surrounded by ISIS fighters who have vowed to kill them.

But first, before get into that, Ana, I would like to talk about what's happening with the Iraqi government. We have word that Nuri Al-Maliki has been pushed out. What can you tell us about that?

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Things are moving extremely quickly here in Iraq. The president has nominated a new prime minister. His name is Alberti. He's a former aide of the prime minister. Now, the United States has come out and welcomed this news, the new nomination.

He has 30 days to form a government and if approved by an absolute majority, he will then be prime minister. But as I say, things are moving extremely quickly. So while he has a month, this could happen within days.

But until that time, Carol, Nuri Al-Maliki is still the prime minister, which really puts into context what we've been seeing over the past few hours. He came out and bolstered the number of troops, Special Forces and tanks around government buildings in the green zone in Baghdad as a form of an intimidation if you like to the president and his political opponents.

And he also took to state television this morning with a fiery message saying that he intends to be prime minister for a third term. The concern here, Carol, is that he will use military force. That he will carry out a military coup if you like because he is still commander in chief and the troops, you know, some of them are still loyal to him.

So that, of course, is the concern in Baghdad. That this could potentially disintegrate if he decides to go down that root, but U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has come out and told Maliki not to cause any problems or trouble, and to allow this constitutional process to carry out -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Anna Coren reporting live from Iraq this morning. I want to bring, CNN national security analyst and author of "Manhunt," Peter Bergen and CNN military analyst, Retired U.S. Major General Spider Marks.

General, I want to start with you. What do you make of this latest development in Iraq that Nuri Al-Maliki has been pushed out? He still controls the military there.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET.), MILITARY ANALYST: He does. The Iraqi security forces were put in place deliberately by Maliki and his administration over the course of the last few years. The result of that incompetence, we see on the battlefield today, vis-a-vis ISIS. There certainly is no professionalism in the ranks that we've seen.

I think those middle level leaders have all disappeared and gone away because they just didn't see a future in the military. So Maliki being in charge still of the military is something we have to contend with going forward.

If you have a new government in Baghdad and you have a military loyal to the prime minister who is just ousted. Clearly that needs to be addressed.

COSTELLO: Peter, how do you address just such a thing?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I just don't know. I mean, that is to be determined. I mean, there is discussion, you know, potentially if Maliki keeps going down this path, you have the possibility of the civil war that's already engulfing Iraq actually coming into Baghdad.

Because you have a situation where the president and the prime minister are taking two very different tacks. At the end of the day, Maliki is not only is the commander-in-chief of the armed force, he also controls the Interior Ministry and the Defense Ministry. So he hasn't shown any ability to compromise over the last several years. Why would he start compromising now?

COSTELLO: And of course, this is a big concern because over the weekend, many lawmakers spoke out how dangerous ISIS is to the United States and I'm talking specifically about Senator John McCain. He made a strong statement on ISIS and what that terrorist group could mean for us. Here's what he told CNN's Candy Crowley.

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sen. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: If you read what they are saying, we are the enemy. They want to destroy us. They are getting stronger all the time. They have attracted a thousand young men from around the world who are now fighting on their side.

This ISIS is metastasizing throughout the region and their goal as they have stated openly time after time is the destruction of the United States of America.

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COSTELLO: So, Peter, U.S. officials arrested what they say is an ISIS sympathizer at JFK, so how big of a threat is ISIS to us?

BERGEN: Well, it's a potential threat. I mean, I think we need to like drill down a little bit into some of these numbers. The hundreds of Americans who have gone to Syria haven't all joined ISIS or the al Qaeda affiliate there. Some of them have joined other groups.

So far we've seen eight or nine Americans who have been indicted for joining either ISIS or al Qaeda in Syria. Certainly that's a problem. But is it bigger problem? A bigger problem is 700 Frenchman, 450 Brits and 270 Germans who have traveled to Syria.

They are from visa waiver countries who can come to the United States without getting a visa and that is a problem. So far we've only seen one attack in the west by a graduate of Syria, which was an attack in May, Carol, on the Jewish museum in Brussels.

So yes, it's a threat but it's really a potential threat. I mean, the Obama administration's rationale for the actions for protecting our mission in Erbil and stopping the genocide of the Yazidis and those are much more immediate problems than a fugitive threat to the United States from ISIS.

COSTELLO: OK, so let's talk about those problems. General Marks, U.S. air strikes seemed to have stopped ISIS at the moment. But the United States can't eliminate the threat through air strikes alone, right?

MARKS: Absolutely, Carol. These are sufficient acts, but they are necessary acts. They are insufficient. Let me put it to you that way. Clearly what you can do is give the Iraqi military some time and some space as we say through these air strikes, but this is simply an enabler. It is not a capability that could finish ISIS or alter their momentum. I guess it could alter their momentum, but it's really not going to fundamentally change their objectives and their abilities and that's what's most important.

ISIS has to be eliminated and clearly as the president indicated this is a problem that Iraq has to solve but what the United States and its allies must do right now is as Peter indicated preserve what is.

And let the long-term issue of ISIS play out through aggressive actions on our part, the use of intelligence, and other means to make sure that we don't let it get farther along.

COSTELLO: Major General James Spider Marks and Peter Bergen, thanks so much for joining me this morning. I appreciate it.

A protest that was scheduled to begin next hour in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson has now been postponed. That's according to one of our affiliates. That's where the deadly shooting by an unarmed teenager by police has led to violent protests and looting.

This is what it looked like at a gas station last night. A St. Louis alderman said 18-year-old, Michael Brown, and a friend were accused of stealing gum and cigarettes from the store on Saturday night.

A short time later, Brown would lie dead from gunshots wounds. A police officer shot and killed him. Reports differ as to what happened when the officer confronted him. He was supposed to start his freshman year in college today.

CNN's George Howell live in Ferguson, Missouri. He was in the middle of the arrest last night, tell us about it, George.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, we're just getting some new information from the mayor here of Ferguson, James Knowles telling us now that peaceful march and rally that is set to happen here in front of the police station within the next hour. That it will be able to commence. People will be able to come together.

However, police authorities will be keeping a very close eye on what happens. They say they will not allow the same unrest that we saw several hours ago and that is the hope of organizers of this rally, that they don't see a repeat of what happened last night.

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HOWELL (voice-over): Across the city, a night of pure chaos.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is your warning, leave the area, disperse!

HOWELL: People pushing the limit with police.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One black man.

HOWELL: Racial tensions, nerves on edge, even an officer we caught on camera gave into his rage, calling protesters animals. Listen. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bring it!

HOWELL: Many here are angry about what witnesses say was an unprovoked attack on an unarmed teenager. Michael Brown, shot and killed Saturday by a Ferguson police officer. Some protesters who took to the streets trying to keep the peace while taking a stand against police.

REV. DOUG HOLLIS, HIGHLY FAVORED CHRISTIAN CHURCH: This is really a peace march. It's nothing to -- it's nothing to start to hurt up on police officers. It's all about peace.

HOWELL (on camera): It's not a peace march anymore. You hear what's happening, these confrontations between people and police officers.

HOLLIS: It's gone outrageous.

HOWELL (voice-over): Others who simply came to cause trouble.

(on camera): All right, police are still stationary right now, but I want to show you what's happening over that JC Wireless. People broke through glass and right now, you can see people running in and out, looting that store.

(voice-over): Cell phone video captures the frenzy of stores being looted. Some people through rocks and bottles. The shots of gunshots rang out. We took cover. All of this started out as a peaceful march Sunday for Michael Brown's family.

LESLEY MCSPADDEN, MICHAEL BROWN MOTHER: Do you know how many people black men graduate? Not many! Because you bring them down to this type of level where they feel like I don't got nothing to live for anyway. They are going to try to take me out anyway.

HOWELL: The victim's friends say they were walking together when Brown was stopped by a police officer. Witnesses say the teen has his hands in the air at the time he was shot and killed, but police tell a different story. That Brown instigated the altercation, physically assaulting the officer while in his car and struggling to take his gun. The unanswered questions spark people to take action.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're down for the community, Caucasian, African- American, Asian, everyone, get out here and support your people.

HOWELL: Police may several arrests. Several hours of insanity. For the moment distracting from the greater call for justice.

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HOWELL: Giving you a live picture here in Ferguson, Missouri, where you see a first group of people coming together for what will be a peaceful march is what we're told, a peace rally that is set to happen here in front of the police station and again what we know so far, they want to get answers. There are two different accounts.

We saw the outrage on the streets. There are investigations under way. People here say that what happened last night really distracted and even under mined what they are trying to do, trying to get answers about what happened to Michael Brown -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I would definitely agree with that. George Howell reporting live from Ferguson, Missouri, this morning.

Still to come to the NEWSROOM, police are questioning NASCAR star Tony Stewart after the death of another driver. Rachel Nichols, host of CNN's "UNGUARDED" is following the story for us.

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN HOST, "UNGUARDED": The 20-year-old Kevin Ward Jr., is dead and the entire racing community is reeling. A lot more questions than answers surrounding one of the biggest stars of the sport.

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COSTELLO: Police in upstate New York are talking with NASCAR superstar, Tony Stewart after the weekend of another driver in a dirt track race. Authorities have made no charges around 20-year-old Kevin Ward, Jr., but say the investigation is in its early stages.

Stewart's car seems to make contact with his Kevin Ward Jr.'s 13th car and hits the wall and spins out. Now ward gets out of his car. Walks on the track toward the other cars and he's pointing his finger supposedly at Stewart's car but the right rear tire of Stewart's car appeared to hit ward, eventually killing him.

Joining me now, former NASCAR driver, Geoff Bodine and Rachel Nichols of the host of CNN's "UNGUARDED." Welcome to you both.

Jeff, I'm sure you've seen this video a hundred times. When you look at it, what did it look like to you?

GEOFF BODINE, FORMER NASCAR DRIVER: Well, I have an opinion of what happened that night. I mean, it's obvious that Kevin walk down the track. Most drivers have done that in their career, if somebody bumps them and they got out of their car and shake their fist at them, makes a gesture to show their displeasure.

That's what Kevin was doing and that's where the mistake was made. Obviously, it was a dimly lit race track, wearing a black uniform and very hard to see under those conditions.

COSTELLO: The other driver did see him though and swerved to avoid him. Stewart didn't appear to see him at all.

BODINE: Well, and that's a problem with that type of car. They have that big wing on top, and so it's hard to see past another car, and when the car in front of Tony swerved, all of a sudden Kevin was standing there, you know. Tony tried to react, to miss Kevin, but obviously that wasn't what happened, and we see drivers do this all the time.

It happened right in Watkins Glenn on Saturday race and I think you've heard this before. Drivers need to not do those things. You know, we're supposed to be smart guys driving these race cars, so getting out of your car, which is a safer environment, and getting out on a race track as cars are going by is not a safe environment.

And hopefully NASCAR along with all the other sanctioning bodies around the world will stop us from doing that in some way. I'm sure they will come up with a solution to this problem.

COSTELLO: Rachel, do you think so?

NICHOLS: You know, look, you certainly hope so, because it's a two pronged issue here. First of all you have the driver getting out of his car because tempers are flaring. He feels like he has to defend his place. He's been knocked out of the race in most of these kinds of cases.

As Geoff says it happens over and over again. He's standing his ground. There's a machismo ethic there. I'm not going to back down. Nobody else should mess with me. You got to eliminate that factor because if drivers are told they have to stay in the car.

And they are told that they don't, they would be penalized. Their teams will be penalized. It gives them a little bit of an excuse. Now they are not expected to go out there and have that reaction and defend their honor and their team's honor in that way and it will give drivers a bit more protection.

COSTELLO: Tony Stewart has a long history of hot headedness. I'm not saying he was at fault. They are still investigating that. That might have been a part in this too.

NICHOLS: It's part of the ethic of racing. No doubt about it, Tony Stewart, separate from this incident has made a career in some ways of having a hot headed personality. Fans love it for him. You got to take a look at this. This is from a few years ago, an incident with Matt.

He and Stewart getting tangled out. What does he do, he throws his helmet at Kansas. How about, he didn't hit him, but if you look at the circumstances of race at Saturday night, it looks awfully familiar. It's dangerous.

COSTELLO: Geoff, it seems to me that NASCAR encourages this behavior.

BODINE: No, not at all. They discourage it in. In our drivers meeting, they always tell us if we're in an accident, stay in the car. You put your window down to show you are OK. When the safety workers get to your car, then you get out.

They escort you to the ambulance to take you in to check you out to make sure you are OK. We're never told to get out and do any of those things. They discourage that. And they are going to have to put some penalties on if we do that, but the instinct of a driver --

COSTELLO: Geoff, they are not penalizing anyone. Isn't that encouraging the behavior if there's no penalty involved? BODINE: That's your opinion. No, race drivers are supposed to be smart enough to know not to get out in front of a race car. I've done it. So, you know, I guess that makes me a hot tempered driver because I've done exactly what tony has done. I never threw a helmet. They cost too much.

I used to throw my gloves and other things at people and I've had things thrown at me and believe me, Tony Stewart ranks at the top of the list of drivers in the world, he ranks up there with Mario Andrent at this and A.J. Foyt. He can drive anything he's gotten into and that's a special person.

He knows how to handle the car and I've thrown things at Tony. He never tried to hit me with his vehicle and vice versa is Drivers don't do those things. We might run into each other racing. That's called racing. But not use your vehicle as a weapon against another driver.

COSTELLO: All right, Geoff Bodine, Rachel Nichols, thanks to both of you. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, it's not unusual for the GOP to criticize the president's foreign policy, but you might be surprised who is calling President Obama's actions in Syria a failure.

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REP. PETER KING (R), NEW YORK: The president, he started this. He started this down fall in 2011 with the direct withdrawal of American troops, so as far as the weapons being turn over, that's a failure by Maliki. But the fact is we can't say Maliki didn't do his job we're going to sit back and let ISIS attack the United States.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: This commander in chief has no strategy, no vision. This is a situation of where he knows better than everybody else. He was told you should get engaged in Syria three years ago by his national security team. He said no. His military commanders said you should leave troop in Iraq as an insurance policy and he got the no.

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COSTELLO: We know Republicans are not fans of President Obama's foreign policy and you can now add former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to that list. She told "The Atlantic, quote, "Great nations need organizing principles. Don't do stupid stuff. It's not an organizing principle," end quote.