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Biden Apologizes to Turkey, UAE Over ISIS Remarks; New Jersey Boy, 4, Dies of Enterovirus; Woman Defects from ISIS.

Aired October 06, 2014 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Just past bottom of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Vice President Joe Biden is known for many things, chief among them his reputation for speaking his mind, and it's gotten him into trouble once again. Some say he was just telling the truth, being accurate. He did apologize to two different world leaders over the weekend. The fallout from remarks he made last week during a Q&A session at Harvard. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our biggest problem is our allies. Our allies in the region were our largest problem in Syria. The Turks were great friends. I have a great relationship with Erdogan, the Saudis, the Emirates, et cetera. What were they doing? They were so determined to take down Assad and have a proxy Sunni/Shia war, what did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad. Except that the people who were being supplied were al Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So in the wake of that, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates took exception to the vice president's implication that they've been aiding these is terrorists. Turkish president said Biden would be, quote, "history to me if he did not apologize," so vice president called leaders as I said in both countries to say that he never meant to imply they were intentionally backing these terror groups.

For some perspective, let me bring in our senior international correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, who joins me now.

Nick, listen, the man is known for speaking out. Maybe it's not always on items that are so incredibly sensitive. Diplomatically, yes, maybe he was out of line. But was his real crime saying something that is true but in a public forum?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We let's not take much stock in those he offended to imply they were directly supporting those groups that NATO went on to be undesirable radicals. It's the truth. We saw ourselves in November last year, how Turkey was not turning a blind eye but almost blissfully ignorant with the sheer number of foreigners pouring across its border into Syria, that later went on to became ISIS that we see now. And, yes, it's been clear for a year at least that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates have in different ways been pouring large amounts of cash into the Syrian rebel movement. Of course, you can't tell where that money is going to go and often the more extremists and more organized groups get their hands upon it. That's what he's alluding to.

But Brooke, what a diplomatic disaster. It's impossible to count the number of air miles John Kerry racked up trying to get these different Sunni Arab countries onboard with the international coalition. The question is, how can Joe Biden blow that in one sentence -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: So we call it a diplomatic disaster. Many people are wondering, how and when will Turkey become involved in this coalition militarily? How might what he said derail those efforts?

WALSH: Well, I mean, the Turkey president said that Joe Biden is history. Turkey isn't playing America's game. They have their own specific interests. It's like Mexico, it's on their doorstep. It's been their problem for three years now and they're much more attuned to it than we could be, the United States could be, and pursuing their own interests, when they need to intervene and ISIS is no longer necessarily something they could allow to grow and to potentially assist them pushing Kurdish groups back, but active inside Syria and Turkey's problem than ISIS thus far, and then they will intervene.

They have tanks there. They are a member of NATO. I think they feel relatively secure at that stage. But bear in mind, they are also now waking up day by day to more of those black-and-white ISIS flags visible from their border. We saw them ourselves nine months ago and it must be causing a lot of sleepless nights in Ankara -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: More and more black flags and refugees seeking asylum.

Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much for your perspective. Appreciate it.

Just ahead, from school teacher to ISIS terror fighter, this 25-year- old woman defects, telling CNN's Arwa Damon why she thinks ISIS has gone too far. Plus, this little boy, he goes to bed and dies before the morning of

Enterovirus. No symptoms. Now his father releases this heart-felt letter as parents across the country are fearful for their own children. We'll speak with someone who has been in touch with the family.

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BALDWIN: While Ebola is taking most of the headlines here, there are doctors that believe another virus is a bigger threat in the United States. It's called Enterovirus D68, a strain of a common virus that's become a killer this year.

4-year-old Eli Waller went to bed the night of September 24th, no symptoms. He died before the morning. He is the first confirmed victim of the virus which has infected 538 people in 43 different states. This is according to Centers for Disease Control.

Let me read part of this statement that was released by little Eli's father. "Eli cared deeply for his sisters, aunts and uncles, grandparents and his mom and dad. My wife and I cannot thank you all enough for the roles you played in Eli's life. While our hearts break at his passing, our hearts overflow with overwhelming gratitude. We want everyone to know how grateful we are for such an outpouring of love and support. Not only during Eli's life but also after his passing. This is an incredible community in which we live and we don't know what to say to you all other than thank you from the bottoms of our hearts."

Kelly Yaede is the mayor of Hamilton Township in New Jersey where the Wallers live.

Mrs. Mayor, welcome.

KELLY YAEDE, MAYOR, HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, NEW JERSEY: Thank you, Brooke. Thank you for having me.

BALDWIN: First, just hearing the father's words, I don't know how much contact you've had with Eli's parents. How are they holding up? Everything I read indicates he didn't show any of the normal symptoms for this.

YAEDE: That is correct. Eli when his mother put him into bed. He's one of a triplet and she gave him a kiss good night, woke up the next morning and unfortunately Eli had passed. I have to tell you, Brooke, this family, particularly the mother and father, are so strong, and naturally they're concerned about the two daughters who are showing no symptoms. And they're ready to get back and resume their normal activities and getting back in their routines because they said to me, Mayor, unfortunately, we can't get Eli back. And now they moved past the point where they need to get the girls back into their routine and get their live into a routine.

And this family has been so overwhelmed by the amount of support and outpouring of love from the family and they really wanted to relay that. They have a large extended family that will help them get through this. I told them, as mayor, the entire Hamilton community will help you get through it. We also want to make sure that the rest of the community is doing what we all need to do to make sure our children are safe.

BALDWIN: He was a triplet. They have these two other little girls. And, Mayor, the fact that talking about other children in your community, he had pink eye. He stayed home from school for one day. Do you all have any idea how many other kids he could have come in contact with before then?

YAEDE: I think when we look at it from the school perspective, Brooke, we will never know how Eli contracted this virus. And everyone -- there was a presumption because information wasn't clear. There were some misstatements in the media that kind of intimated it was contracted at the school. Unfortunately we can never confirm that. Eli, as you know, played sports. So we will never know. What we have to do from this point on is continually message. It's a virus. There isn't a vaccine that can prevent this.

What we can do now is do policies within the school district such as washing your hands and coughing into your elbow and making sure you're cleaning your surfaces and for example one mother came up to me and said, Mayor, I clean my house. We understand that. I said you should continue to do that but what happens when you go out of the home? When you go to the grocery store? Or when you go to the movies, when you go to sporting events, you're all sitting -- you may sit in a chair but it's all about washing your hands. And the misconception that's out there is people say we have hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizer does not help with this kind of virus. So it's important to make sure you wash your hands.

BALDWIN: The good old-fashioned hand washing. We hear that from Dr. Gupta all the time.

YAEDE: A lot of individuals, when they ask me, Mayor, all right, if we clean our house and we do this within our homes, are we safe? And I try to tell them, with any virus, you can get it walking through the mall. You can get it watching your children play sports. It's everywhere. There's over 100 strains of Enterovirus and the flu. The only way you can prevent getting the flu is consistently washing your hands and sneezing into your elbow.

BALDWIN: We're trying to get more information on this. It's just so tragic that this little boy goes to bed and doesn't wake up. Our hearts and thoughts please thinking about the family there where you are.

Kelly Yaede, thank you so much. Hopefully, we'll get more information --

YAEDE: Thank you for having me.

BALDWIN: -- and hopefully they can find something to help these young people. Appreciate it.

Coming up next, confessions from an ISIS defector. This 25-year-old woman, formerly an elementary school teacher, takes up arms with the terror group ISIS and now she's trying to get out. What drew her to ISIS? And how she says the group has now gone too far. That's next.

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BALDWIN: Confessions from an ISIS detector. But this perspective is new because this detector is a young woman. She was sent from being a school teacher to becoming a member of a brigade enforcing ISIS law in this one city.

CNN's Arwa Damon spoke with her.

Just to warn you, what you're about to see, images are graphic and could be disturbing for some of you. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Beneath the veil is a young heart-shaped face. Eyes filled with guilt and turmoil under perfectly sculpted brows.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE ISIS MEMBER (through translation): At the start, I was happy. I was carrying a gun. It was new. I had authority. I didn't think I was frightening people but then I started asking myself, where am I? Where am I going?

DAMON: The 25 year old Hadisha -- not her real name -- is a former elementary school teacher turned member of the feared female ISIS brigade.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE ISIS MEMBER (through translation): We parole the streets. If we saw a woman not wearing the proper clothing, we would grab her. Sometimes they would be lashed.

DAMON: She speaks longingly of the start of the Syrian revolution and elation of being a part of something great. But then came the violence, displacing her family multiple times.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE ISIS MEMBER (through translation): Everything around us was chaos. The Free Syrian Army, regime, barrel bombs, strikes, wounded, clinics, blood. You want to tear yourself away to find something to run to. My problem was I ran away to something uglier. I ran away to people, this Tunisian, who lured me into the Islamic State.

DAMON: They met online when curiosity drew her to ISIS social media pages. He told her that he was coming to Raqqa, that they could even get married. So she convinced her family to move there.

Her cousin was already married to an ISIS fighter and a member of the junta brigade.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE ISIS MEMBER (through translation): She took me to the brigade headquarters in a hotel in Raqqa. She introduced me to the commander. She had a very strong personality. Her features were very sharp. She gave you the sense that she was a leader, not an ordinary woman.

DAMON: A Syrian is in charge of carrying out the lashings.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE ISIS MEMBER (through translation): She's female, but not a normal female. She's huge. She has an A.K., a pistol, a whip, a dagger.

DAMON: In the same building as the brigade headquarters is an office specializing in arranged marriages for the foreign fighters and in many cases, forced marriages.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE ISIS MEMBER (through translation): Foreigners are very brutal with women, even the ones they marry. There were cases where the wife had to be taken to the emergency ward because of the violence, the sexual violence.

DAMON: Burned into her mind, this horrific image she saw online of a crucified teenager accused of rape. It's not the only side plaguing her dreams.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE ISIS MEMBER (through translation): The worst thing I saw was a man getting his head hacked off right in front of me.

DAMON: Then she found her husband.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE ISIS MEMBER (through translation): I said enough. After everything I had already seen and all of the times I had stayed silent telling myself we're at war and when it's over it will be rectified. But after this, I decided no, I have to leave.

DAMON: This is the first time she tells anyone her story. She escaped just before the U.S.-led coalition air strikes began. Her family also fled Raqqa but are still in Syria. She desperately wants to be her old self.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE ISIS MEMBER (through translation): A girl who's happy and loves life and laughter. I want to be like that again.

DAMON: Arwa Damon, CNN, Turkey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Arwa Damon, thank you very much.

Let me remind you coming up on CNN tonight, the battle lines on two fronts both Ebola and ISIS. Can America handle both? Tune in for a special CNN tonight, 10:00 eastern, with Don Lemon. Do not miss it.

Coming up here, much more on our breaking news about this American teenager just arrested at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. The FBI says he was headed to Turkey to join ISIS. Authorities raided his house just this morning. We're live outside. What they found, coming up.

Also ahead, an American cameraman with the Ebola virus is now back on U.S. soil as of today. Hear from his parents about what he did when they saw him, next.

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BALDWIN: Here we are just about top of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN.

Breaking news out of Chicago. Getting new details about this 19-year- old American who has been arrested and accused of planning to fly overseas to join ISIS. His name is Mohammed Hamzah Khan. You see this picture behind me. This is his sketch that we got because it was federal court. This was his first appearance in federal court this morning. Authorities moved in and arrested him Saturday night after he crossed through security at Chicago's O'Hare Airport.

So we've got some new information for you.

Let me go straight to Washington to our justice correspondent, Evan Perez, with these new details on this case. Now, here he is, Ted Rowlands, outside this home in the Chicago suburbs.

Evan, to you first.

Can you just -- how did authorities even know to go after him?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The FBI isn't saying in the affidavit they filed in court today. But we do know they do a lot of extensive monitoring of websites where people talk about travel to Syria or support for ISIS and other groups that are over there fighting.