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Daring Rescue Of Iraqis From Mt. Sinjar; ISIS Fighters Using U.S. Made Weapons; Obama Statement On Iraq; Boy Poses With Syrian's Severed Head

Aired August 11, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: My gosh, I just had no idea. Rachel Nichols and Chad Myers, thank you both very much. Horrible, horrible story. Coming up next, this.

Exclusive video of a helicopter delivering food and water to refugees trapped in Iraq. You can see the forces firing as they fly away to protect themselves from possible ISIS attacks from the ground. More on this video and a closer look at the weaponry ISIS is using. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: I want to come right up, just go ahead and show the video. This is absolutely stunning stuff. Because we have been talking for days about this Mt. Sinjar in northern Iraq. We're finally seeing these men, women, children, these families on the top of this rocky hillside and start racing in.

Because here's this helicopter, Iraqis, it's the Kurds, the Peshmerga, working together, guns blazing. You see them -- the gunners on the sides of this helicopter, finally going in. They are dropping diapers, milk, water, food, for the people so desperately in need.

The people who have fled to Mt. Sinjar, and that mountain, as you know shall surrounded by those ISIS militants. And this was our camera crew, Mark Phillips, helping pull people in, trying to get some of the kids, children to safety in a way Ivan described it to me.

Once they realized they were safe, he said it was an explosion of tears. So as we stay on the video, I'm going to bring in Michael Weise, columnist for foreign policy and now Lebanon. And he has been -- very familiar with this part of the world. And just your first take watching this.

MICHAEL WEISS, COLUMNIST, "NOW LEBANON": It's incredibly harrowing. What worries me, this transport helicopter is exactly the kind of aircraft ISIS has the capability of shooting down. We talked about this before. US F-16s, F-18 fighter jets conducting air strikes on Iraq tend to be immune from what ISIS is capable of doing. They fly too high at an altitude.

The guns you have to be careful of with ISIS are Dushca, antiaircraft machine guns and ZPU-4. They have these in abundance, confiscated from Syrian stockpiles and a few from Iraqi stockpiles. I also mentioned before, a lot of guys in senior command were former Iraqi military. So they know how to use these weapons. Soviet era weaponry. This is what worries me. The surface-to-air missiles they have probably aren't going to hit U.S. planes, but these kinds of Iraqi helicopters, very, very vulnerable.

BALDWIN: That was I'm telling me on TV, yes, we absolutely took ISIS fire going and coming out.

WEISS: Right. So what's key here, I think, is, look, the U.S. is effectively providing air support to the Peshmerga and I guess also Iraqi security forces. You have to destroy the ISIS columns around Mt. Sinjar. Otherwise these guys can pick off -- you know, convoys of troops. I refer to ISIS as troops, because they are.

They resemble more conventional military than a terrorist organization. And, again, you know, the professionalism, with which they know how to deploy, and mount these attacks is very, very alarming. So I'm sorry to say, I don't see the level of protection on these transports just yet.

BALDWIN: It's heroic. That's what I've been saying over and over. These people are risking their lives to save the lives of what appears to be a dozen people who could fit on this helicopter and the rest just getting -- he was saying, I cannot believe the guns were blazing on either side of the helicopters to drop baby diapers.

But that speaks to the dire situation on the mountain. And to your point, we talked about this before, much ado about the U.S. weaponry that is has taken hold. But they're using Russian weaponry.

WEISS: Right. They do have --

BALDWIN: And that's pretty tough stuff.

WEISS: Everyone will recall the photographs and the videos showing when ISIS moved into Mosul, and they sacked or -- didn't have to sack, because the military bases we have created were at sort -- sort of abandoned by the Iraqi security forces.

They were posing in front of Humvees, M-1 Abrams tanks and these things. The key thing about this, this equipment is very, very difficult to maintain on the ground, particularly under the unforgiving conditions of the Middle East.

You need maintenance crews, specialists. It was difficult for a U.S. forces to maintain this stuff, much less is. So that worries me less than what they are very, very familiar with and what they know how to use really well, which is, again, this Russian-made material.

BALDWIN: Michael Weise, you're invaluable. Thank you so much. Columnist, foreign policy in Lebanon now. Thank you, sir.

WEISS: Sure.

BALDWIN: Critics are calling out the White House on its foreign policy dealings with Iraq, Syria, even Libya. Now another voice joining the chorus, President Obama's former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, says the president should have taken her advice.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Just some news to pass along to you. The president and the first family on Martha's Vineyard, vacationing. Left -- spoke publicly Saturday morning and then hopped on Marine One. We now just got word the president will be speaking on the situation in Iraq from the vineyard about an hour from now. We now just word that the especially 4:45 Eastern Time. We'll take it here on CNN.

The Obama White House sometimes does use the phrase "don't do stupid stuff" as a shorthand for its dealings with the rest of the world. But former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, says it takes more than slogans to implement a foreign policy.

In an interview with "The Atlantic," Clinton says she would have armed the rebels, trying to topple Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, and that the Obama administration's policy in Syria has failed. Let me quote her. She says this to "The Atlantic."

The failure to help build up a credit fighting force of the people who were the originators of the protests against Assad, there were Islamists, secularists, everything in the middle, the failure to do that left a big vacuum which the Jihadists have now filled."

Let's talk about that with former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, now a host of CNN's "CROSSFIRE." Newt, good to see you again.

NEWT GINGRICH, CNN ANCHOR, "CROSSFIRE": Good to be with you. And Jeffrey Goldberg got a remarkable interview, I think, of Secretary Clinton.

BALDWIN: Got to read the whole thing. Whole thing. And so she -- we know Hillary Clinton said she wanted to arm Syrian rebels. My question to you is, wouldn't some of those people back then, Newt, be the same people who we now know as ISIS and are now wreaking havoc in Iraq?

GINGRICH: Well, some of them would be, just as in Libya some of them turned out to be. And in Egypt, some of the Muslim Brotherhood turned out to be bad people. I think her point is, if you're not in the game, if you're not helping the others, you virtually guarantee bad people dominate and that's certainly what happened there. I was impressed.

This was the most candid, direct statement I've seen From Secretary Clinton since maybe halfway through the presidential campaign back in 2008. I thought she was very forceful.

If you read it carefully, she makes some comments about the need for a strategic plan, the need to take on the Jihadists across the whole region. I think she has been looking at the outcome in Hamas, Boko Haram in Nigeria and I think she is much more worried and much more sober than she has been in the last few years. And I think it's real. I thought it was a very impressive interview.

BALDWIN: Very complimentary from you, Newt Gingrich. And she definitely does defend a lot of Obama's policies. She says, you know, listen, he has faced all kinds of complex crises. Do you think it's possible for her to link herself to the Obama administration, to those successes, without then being saddled pre what didn't work?

GINGRICH: Well, I think she did a pretty interesting step in this "Atlantic" interview towards defining a unique Hillary Clinton position. She said --

BALDWIN: How do you mean?

GINGRICH: Well, she said, when I think the president is right, I'm going to praise him and always be respectful of him. He was, after all, her leader for four years in the cabinet, more than four years in the cabinet. But she said there are places we disagree.

And I think that's likely to widen, because I think the mess is going to get bigger. And she is going to be more dissatisfied with his lack of action over time. I also think she was very clearly decisively on the side of Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel.

And on Israel's right to defend itself, much firmer than Secretary Kerry or President Obama than on the issue of Israel and Hamas.

BALDWIN: As we talk about Iraq and as we talk about, you know, so far the U.S. Air strike campaign, no boots on the ground. Obama's whole stand on the sidelines approach, isn't he doing, nutrient, what the majority of Americans prefer?

GINGRICH: Not necessarily. I think the majority of Americans are sick and tired of not winning. They're tired of suffering the loss of Americans and wounding of Americans and the spending of trillions of dollars. The polls say be very cautious.

You can have Kurdish boots on the ground with American equipment. You can have a lot of things happen. You can ally yourself with Egypt and Jordan. There are many things you can do that don't involve American troops on the ground. And it's not just a question of either being passive or having troops there. There are a lot of steps in between.

And I think that's what Secretary Clinton was arguing for. She wasn't arguing for putting American troops in Syria. She was arguing for training the Syrians.

BALDWIN: And we should point out to everyone, Jeff Goldberg who did this interview from "The Atlantic", he will be on "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper in the next hour here on CNN. Newt Gingrich, thank you so much.

GINGRICH: Good to be with you.

BALDWIN: Coming up, kids, some as young as 7 years old, joining the terror group is, with their fathers fighting in countries like Syria like Iraq. What's going on? That story is next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Just a warning, the next story I'll share with you is disturbing. This is a photograph that shocked the world. An Australian boy just 7 years of age, pictured holding the decapitated head of a Syrian soldier. It's tough to look at. It was posted on Twitter by his own father.

An Australian now fighting under the black flag of ISIS militants. Joining me now writer producer, Amy La Porte. Amy, what do we know about this guy and why are he and his 7-year-old in Syria?

AMY LA PORTE, CNN WRITER/PRODUCER: It's so disturbing. What we know his name is Khalid. And he's basically a wanted man. Australian federal police are now hunting for him after this picture surfaced and it really -- he's been posting a lot of this stuff on his Twitter account, brutal disgusting stuff from ISIS.

This picture changed everything. His little boy, I mean you see him there in his polo shirt. His cap on. He's struggling to hold the head of an adult man believed to be a Syrian soldier and I mean, what we know about him.

He was actually arrested and imprisoned in 2005 for a foiled terror plot to blow up targets in two of Australia's biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne. They were foiled. But he was in prison for that.

He got out. Took an unassuming name. Nothing really heard of him till he took his family, his wife we believe and his three boys to Syria and started posting these incredibly horrifying pictures -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: It's disgusting. As we talk about this and you look at the timing, you have Americans and Australians, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel who is visiting Australia addressed the picture. What did he say?

LA PORTE: This didn't escape him. He's there with Secretary John Kerry, as well. He actually brought this up just out of the blue in a press conference with Australian journalists in Sydney. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHUCK HAGEL, DEFENSE SECRETARY: You all know what president Obama has said. He's made it very clear, ISIL is a threat to the civilized world, certainly to the United States, to our interests. It is to Europe. It is to Australia. I mean think reflected on local newspaper I saw this morning with a picture on the front page, it's pretty graphic evidence of the real threat that ISIL represents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LA PORTE: Yes, so you heard in there, Brooke, really justifying why the U.S. and its allies including Australia have to get involved and basically saying that this is our interest. This issue is not just in Syria and Iraq. It's now a global one.

BALDWIN: Hearing over the weekend, is speaking to the brutality, beheading children. Here you have this child holding an adult head. Amy La Porte, thank you so much. Awful. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIA BREAK)

BALDWIN: On ISIS militants in Northern Iraq, in Baghdad a political upheaval could happen any minute. Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki in the top job may be numbered as the Iraqi president nominates a new prime minister.

That man, the deputy speaker of parliament has 30 days to present a new cabinet, which parliament would then vote on. The question now is this -- will he go quietly or will he put up a fight? Al Maliki showing no signs of stepping down saying earlier today he planned to stay.

And so bloodthirsty, so ruthless, they were even disavowed by al Qaeda. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria or ISIS gaining control town by town by town. Their methods more brutal than anyone could imagine.

That is ISIS in Iraq. I'm Brooke Baldwin. We'll see you back here this time tomorrow. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.