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Iran Vows "Harsh Revenge" After U.S. Kills Top General; Trump Administration Defends Killing of Qasem Soleimani; Mike Pompeo: Drone Strike on Iran Disrupted an "Imminent Attack"; Iran Vows "Harsh Revenge" After U.S. Kills Top General; Senate Returns Today Amid Impeachment Stalemate. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired January 03, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:01]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto in New York.

The breaking news this morning. Path to war? Iran is vowing harsh revenge after the U.S. killed its top general, Qasem Soleimani. Senior administration officials said that counterterrorism officials are now on the lookout for possible retaliation by Iran. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo telling CNN just moments ago that killing Soleimani was crucial because there was an imminent threat to Americans in the region.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: President Trump's decision to remove Qasem Soleimani from the battlefield saved American lives. There's no doubt about that. He was actively plotting in the region to take actions, a big action as he described it, that would have put dozens if not hundreds of American lives at risk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Pompeo did not provide further details on these plots. And despite saying Americans are now safer in the region, the State Department is urging all U.S. citizens to leave Iraq immediately.

In Iran, Soleimani's replacement has already been announced, and thousands are protesting in the streets of the capital Tehran.

The general was head of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Quds Force unit. Enormously powerful in the region and around the world. He was a revered military intelligence and political figure in Iran, arguably the second most powerful figure in the country. U.S. military blames Soleimani and his forces for the deaths of more than 600 American service members in Iraq.

Iran supplied powerful armor-penetrating IEDs to kill U.S. forces there. According to Secretary of State Pompeo, killing Soleimani yesterday has saved American lives. We're covering this story from every angle. It's a crucial time. A

potentially dangerous one. First let's go to CNN's Arwa Damon. She is live in Baghdad.

Arwa, speaking to you these last several days, this is a country that was already on edge. Today I imagine it is more so.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It most certainly is, Jim. I think everyone here is reeling from the shock of what just happened given how monumental it is and how it really pushes Iraq, Iran, the region, into uncharted territory.

Qasem Soleimani was not just revered inside Iran. He was very respected by all of Iran's proxies in Iraq and beyond. He was quite often spotted or reported to have been spotted on the battlefield in Iraq during the battles against ISIS where he was advising, presumably also helping to equip and fund what's known as the popular mobilization force. This is a Shia paramilitary unit that ostensibly now falls under the Iraqi Security Forces.

But it is mostly made up of those very same groups, Jim, that you were just talking about. The ones that during the years of the U.S. occupation of Iraq were taking Iranian technology and figuring out how to build bigger bombs with it targeting U.S. forces.

The other significant person who was killed alongside Qasem Soleimani, the leader of Kata'ib Hezbollah. That is the same group that was targeted by the U.S. in those airstrikes on Sunday that then led to those protests outside of the U.S. embassy, the attempts to scale the walls. He also -- his group is part of this paramilitary force.

Right now what you have, Jim, is all of these forces at the ready. The Iraqi government also viewing this as an aggression against Iraq. And even within the Iraqi population, Jim, Iraqis who are anti-Iranian who have been protesting against Iran do not necessarily support this happening because in this country, they know only too well what the price of American aggression is.

SCIUTTO: No question. And there are very many, thousands of pro- Iranian forces in Iraq. Armed ones.

Arwa, please stay with us.

Let's get to CNN's Ramin Mostaghim. He is live in Tehran for reaction there.

Ramin, we hear Iranian leaders promising retaliation at this point. There are protests in the street there. How seriously today is the Iranian government taking this assassination?

RAMIN MOSTAGHIM, CNN JOURNALIST: It is very important because in terms of the human casualties, the number of killed in Baghdad assassination operation is not many, but because Qasem Soleimani, the most admired commander here and in the region, and Mahdi al-Muhandis were among them, so it's very important and everybody, especially analysts from across the board, they -- I mean, they say the -- they attach importance to these assassinations.

[09:05:04]

As I talk to you, in front of U.N. office in Tehran, north of Tehran, young people, old people are gathering in protest to shout their anger. And among them you can see, according to the footage I have seen and eyewitnesses, fashionable ladies with hair of -- lock of hair exposed and also boys, young boys in (INAUDIBLE) attire, with spiky hairs, are showing their solidarity with other Iranians. And so what happens now is -- I mean, the Islamic Republic of Iran feels that it can consolidate its pillars thanks to Trump's mistakes as they call it -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Ramin, it's good to have you on the ground there. We will continue to follow the story from Tehran.

Let's get now to Kaitlan Collins. She's in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the president remains.

Kaitlan, the president has just tweeted talking about Soleimani and the reasons for this strike. What is the administration saying this morning, though, about how the U.S. handles any potential retaliation from Iran?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, essentially Mike Pompeo said earlier on CNN that they are anticipating all kinds of responses, though he didn't really offer specifics on what exactly those responses could look like or really what the administration's larger strategy here is. So far the president hasn't hinted that either but we are getting the most extensive comments from him yet on these strikes since we found out that it happened last night while the president was dining at his Mar-a-Lago club right here behind me over my shoulder.

And this morning on Twitter he's writing that, "General Soleimani has killed or badly wounded thousands of Americans over an extended period of time." He says, "He was plotting to kill the many more but got caught. He was directly and indirectly responsible for the death of millions of people including the recent large number of protesters killed in Iran itself."

The president goes on, "While Iran will never be able to properly admit it, Soleimani was both hated and feared within the country. They are not nearly as saddened as the leaders will let the outside world believe." He says, "He should have been taken out many years ago."

So there you have the president defending his decision to approve this strike which the Pentagon said explicitly came at his direction. And, Jim, we should note, as far as whether or not we're going to see the person -- the president in person today, the reporters were called to go to Mar-a-Lago this morning at about 7:30. We just got word from the White House that there's been a lid called which means we will not see the president until at least 2:00 this afternoon. He's scheduled to depart for Miami in several hours.

SCIUTTO: Soleimani certainly responsible for many. It's not clear where the president gets the figure millions there.

Kaitlan, stay with us.

Let's also bring in Arwa Damon who remains on the ground in Baghdad and Becky Anderson, the managing editor of CNN in Abu Dhabi.

Becky, if I could begin with you, I can imagine that countries around the region right now bracing themselves for Iranian retaliation which could take many forms but could also take place in many different countries including where you are in the Emirates. How serious --

BECKY ANDERSON, MANAGING EDITOR, CNN ABU DHABI: You are -- you are absolutely right. Yes, I mean --

SCIUTTO: How seriously are they preparing for that?

ANDERSON: Well, this is a dramatic escalation, Jim, of what is an already extremely tense and dangerous situation here in the Gulf. The secretary of State suggesting the world is a safer place this morning. You would be hard pressed to find people in this region who buy this. This is all about declaration of war, people will say here. Donald Trump basically saying the ball is in your court, Tehran. We know Iran will retaliate. The question is how.

So to your point, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are the U.S.' closest allies in this region, and by geographic proximity, of course, the closest to Iran. So they are an obvious potential target. There are thousands of U.S. troops and military assets deployed across this sort of wider region right here in the UAE. There are about 5,000 U.S. troops. At least 3,000 in Saudi. As many as 13,000 in Kuwait. Another 10,000-plus at CENTCOM at Al-Udeid base in Qatar.

So when Ayatollah Khamenei warns that a, quote, "harsh retaliation" is waiting, that puts people here on extremely high alert. We've just heard from Anwar Gargash, who is the United Arab Emirates minister of state for foreign affairs, who says this, and I quote him here, "In light of rapid regional developments, wisdom, balance and political solutions must prevail in the face of escalation."

The issues that are facing the region, he says, are complicated and suffer from the loss of trust between a party's rational dealing with the situation. It requires a calm approach free from reaction, he said.

Look, Jim, I think the bottom line here is that the response from the Gulf is actually echoed across this wider Middle East region.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

[09:10:03]

ANDERSON: If this attack has done anything, it is to align countries otherwise at odds geopolitically. Real concern here.

SCIUTTO: You make the note there are thousands of U.S. forces stationed around the region. In fact there are more because the president has deployed more. But we should also note there are thousands of U.S. diplomats and civilians in the region and Iran has not hesitated to attack nonmilitary targets in the past. That is a concern.

Arwa, I want to begin -- I want to go to you because Iraq's government was already talking about considering legislation to force U.S. forces out of Iraq several days ago before this strike. There's now a special session of parliament called. Are U.S. forces now more likely to be forced out of Iraq in response to this?

DAMON: It's hard to imagine a scenario, Jim, where this bill that parliament was already meant to be drafting and working on addressing the U.S. troop presence here does not somehow pass. This strike as we've been hearing from Iraqi government officials, the prime minister and even the president was a direct violation of Iraqi sovereignty. Not only was a top general who, by the way, like him, hate him, support him, admire him, despise him, did have a significant role in the anti-ISIS fight in Iraq, was assassinated on Iraqi soil alongside a top Iraqi commander.

This is something that it's hard to see how the Washington-Baghdad relationship recovers from militarily and politically. Some will even go so far as to say that the U.S. killed Qasem Soleimani but they also may have entirely obliterated their relationship with Baghdad.

The Iraqi population already knows the price of American aggression as I was saying, Jim. And so there are great concerns right now that what's happening between Washington and Tehran is going to further destabilize the region. We already know what happened the last time America decided to come in and carry out something monumental here.

That is the U.S.-led invasion of 2003. The toppling of Saddam Hussein that then led to the rise of al Qaeda in Iraq, these various Shia militias with close ties to Iran that then led to ISIS. There will be consequences to this. We just don't know exactly what they're going to be just yet.

SCIUTTO: No question.

Kaitlan, this was another case where the president seemed to bypass the national security policymaking infrastructure here. For instance, reporting to the Gang of Eight. Those are congressional leaders of both parties on the relevant committees. Instead, speaking to his pal Lindsey Graham earlier this week, who's chairman of the Judiciary Committee, not a member of that group, and there are reporting responsibilities for a president to Congress.

So he bypassed that team again, much as he did with his Ukraine policy. Has the White House explain why he did so?

COLLINS: No, they haven't made any comment on that yet, though we've asked. And the question about Lindsey Graham being even briefed is a question of just whether or not he was in the right place at the right time. He came down here to Palm Beach on Monday. He was seen golfing with the president and he was also at the president's club on Tuesday when the president was there. He said he had not golfed that day but had had a briefing on the Middle East.

Of course, that was as those protesters were storming the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. So that's raising big questions about whether or not Congress was left in the dark here and just how imminent this threat was that Pompeo says was being posed by this commander and why they carried out the attack so quickly. And of course, they didn't offer a lot of specifics on what that threat looked like. So those are going to be the questions that lawmakers have going forward.

Why wasn't there congressional authorization? Why weren't they briefed? Because as of last night there had been no formal Gang of Eight briefing and then Lindsey Graham is saying this morning he was pleasantly surprised that he was brought in and that he was briefed on what it was the president had to say about this. So that's another big question.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

COLLINS: Not just what is the administration's larger strategy here. Why wasn't Congress told is going to be a big one as well.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Becky, you are based in the region, you know the region well. You could argue that the U.S. and Iran were already in a low-grade conflict prior to this. Iran has attacked oil shipping, attacked Saudi oil facilities, and shot down a U.S. drone. Carried out an attack a number of days ago that killed a U.S. contractor. And that shows you some of the range of targets that Iran can hit already.

In response to an attack like this, explain how far that range extends. I mean, diplomatic facilities in the region. Other economic facilities.

ANDERSON: Tourists.

SCIUTTO: Shipping, et cetera. Explain that range.

ANDERSON: Yes.

SCIUTTO: And the level of concern there.

ANDERSON: So, you know, we are a flight, an hour's flight away, Dubai to Tehran, for example.

[09:15:00]

We see, I remember this region, as you rightly point out, has already suffered in the tit-for-tat escalations between Tehran and Washington. Now many of those actions thought to be at the order of General Soleimani, as we've been pointing out today. I mean, so we've seen these attacks on the Saudi Aramco facility blamed allegedly on actions by the Al Quds Force associated with or run by Soleimani, the gulf's oil supply in the Strait of Hormuz -- I mean, you know, badly disrupted.

Much of last year, it has to be said, by attacks which have been blamed on the Iranians. And we've got diplomatic facilities as you rightly point out across this region. And we have also, of course, got oil installations. U.S. --

JIM SCIUTTO, ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Yes --

ANDERSON: Employees, basically, these oil installations, we have already seen the U.S. employees in Iraq being told to leave these oil facilities. U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham earlier today saying if Iran continues to attack America and our allies, they should pay the heaviest of prices which includes the destruction of their oil refineries. So we're not just talking about troops --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

ANDERSON: Or diplomatic sort of installations. We're talking about much wider --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

ANDERSON: Potential environment here for attacks on a tit-for-tat basis.

SCIUTTO: Yes, and the very tactics of this group that Soleimani led, the IRGC, the Quds Force was to carry out violence against whether uniformed or un-uniformed, and to the many relatives or friends of people posted there, whether diplomatic posts or military posts or otherwise we'll continue to bring you all the information we have on these threats. Becky Anderson, Arwa Damon, Kaitlan Collins, thanks to all of you, we'll have more.

Iran is now vowing to retaliate. What could that retaliation look like? Who is at risk from cyber attacks here in the U.S. to potential attacks on Americans and American interests around the world. Plus -- and don't miss this, newly released e-mails show that the order to withhold that critical military aid from Ukraine, where did it come from? Directly from the president.

There are e-mails, documenting that. This fueling Democrats' calls for witnesses in an upcoming Senate trial. Majority leader Mitch McConnell will speak as he gavels in the first Senate session of the year just hours from now. Stay with us.

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[09:20:00]

SCIUTTO: This is the moment we're in today. Iran now threatening to retaliate, calling a top commander killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq by the U.S. a martyr. Richard Haass; former director of Policy Planning for the State Department under George W. Bush tweeted the following -- "make no mistake, any war with Iran will not look like the 1990 Gulf War or the 2003 Iraq wars. It will be fought throughout the region with a wide range of tools versus a wide range of civilian, economic and military targets. The region, and possibly the world will be the battlefield."

Those are alarming words, but those are the very capabilities that Iran has. And it's demonstrated them before. Iraq's Prime Minister calling the drone strike that killed Soleimani, quote, "a flagrant violation of conditions for the presence of U.S. troops" in his country. Meanwhile, American ally France says, quote, "today, we wake up to a more dangerous world." That can be agreed upon.

Joining me to discuss, Barbara Leaf; former U.S. Ambassador to the UAE, and CNN military analyst and retired lieutenant General Mark Hertling. Thanks to both of you. You've got enormous experience in the region, both as diplomats and as soldiers. Barbara, if I could begin with you.

This is a threat, not just to uniformed military in the region, but to Americans, whether civilians or diplomats serving abroad. What is the danger to them today, and what could be done today to protect embassies, diplomats and their homes, et cetera. What's your level of concern?

BARBARA LEAF, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UAE: Well, look, in situations such as these, the -- normally, the administration, the State Department along with other agencies sends out alerts in advance to missions that they think are in harm's way to basically batten down the hatches.

But as a number of your speakers have pointed out, there's a -- there's a surplus of targets across the gulf and across the region. I, frankly, don't expect anything from Iran in the immediate days. I think there will be reprisals, but I would also be concerned that those reprisals will come against targets of our partners in the gulf, perhaps not taking on the U.S. directly.

SCIUTTO: It's interesting as you speak there, Barbara. We're hearing that U.S. Embassies in Bahrain, Pakistan, elsewhere in the region are now issuing security alerts to their staff here. In light of this, that's natural, it's warranted. General Mark Hertling, you commanded forces in Iraq, Soleimani has been on the other side as you have been on the ground there.

And I know and I'm sad to say, I think we should remind our viewers that you've lost soldiers under your command to IEDs supplied by Soleimani and his Quds Force. You know the danger, but I want to ask about the danger today the U.S. forces in the region. Secretary Pompeo says Americans are safer as a result of this strike. Is that true or are they more at risk?

MARK HERTLING, FORMER COMMANDING GENERAL, EUROPE & SEVENTH ARMY: I don't concur with the secretary's assessment, whereas this certainly could have prevented some kind of attack like the secretary said. And truthfully, Jim, in this day and age, it's hard to do this, but I'm going to say, I trust the intelligence assessment of what Soleimani was doing.

The kinds of actions he was preparing for. So I'm sure that they had some really good intelligence on some potential attacks. So, no, I'm not in agreement that it is going to make the region safer, it certainly is not going to make our allies safer in the region. And it is going to come as the ambassador just said in the form of attacks that some of us are familiar with, but it will go beyond that. [09:25:00]

The asymmetric warfare -- and I'll give a plug to your book, that you give such great examples of, talking about what Russia is doing, what Iran is doing. This general was a clone of another general in Russia, Gerasimov, who used asymmetric warfare and the power of government and the power of politics to bring conflict to nation, not just military forces.

We are trained in overt use of military forces, a drone strike, a conventional fight, a counter-insurgency, a counter-terrorist action. This guy with his portfolio and his number of forces has been training and arcing his background across a wide area using asymmetric warfare.

SCIUTTO: Yes, they call it the Gerasimov doctrine, even, it's about warfare --

HERTLING: Right --

SCIUTTO: On multiple fronts at all times, I called the shadow war in my book. But hybrid warfare tactics and Soleimani was expert at it. Barbara Leaf, let me ask you -- so, this is a tactical success. You've taken out a bad guy via military action. What is the strategy here? What's next because when President Trump came into office, there was a nuclear deal.

Iran's nuclear program was at least under limits, it's now expanding. That nuclear program and, in fact, carrying out more hostile acts in the region. Is there a strategy that you can discern here for dealing with Iran?

LEAF: Not as yet, not as yet. Although, the president tweeted out overnight a tweet that was a bit perplexing, but was clearly signaling to the Iranians, yes, I've hit somebody, I've hit one of your guys, but let's not forget about negotiations. I don't know that that's going to be a very compelling message for the Iranian leadership in the days ahead.

I think the administration's strategy, such as it is, has suffered chronically for the past year as to where it was going and how it was going to lead to negotiations. The ostensible purpose of the maximum pressure campaign. That's still an open question. I agree with Mark.

There are -- you know, I'll take it on face value that there was compelling intelligence reasons of an imminent threat, but to respond. I think doing it on Iraqi soil has its own dimensions of complexity. And that's what I'm most concerned about in --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

LEAF: The days ahead.

SCIUTTO: Yes, and you already hear from Iraqi officials responding to that, saying that this is a violation of the agreement with U.S. for the status of U.S. forces in Iraq. General, news is coming in as we speak. We're learning that Soleimani will have a funeral in both Iraq and Iran.

LEAF: Right --

SCIUTTO: Interesting, and that he has a following in both places --

LEAF: Yes --

SCIUTTO: There. I wonder, is it possible that he is, if not more dangerous, still dangerous as a martyr than as he was as a general?

HERTLING: It's interesting you say that, Jim, because in part of the intelligence read I read many years ago about Soleimani, they called him the living martyr. He was as valuable to Khamenei alive as he would have been as a martyr dead. So as -- in taking on this martyrdom role as he's doing right now, the implications of this with followers of Shia, and --

SCIUTTO: Right --

HERTLING: This is going to outrage Shia no matter what side of the equation they live in. If they're partly pro-American, which many of them are -- are most of them contrary to Americans, they are all going to see this as an attack on the Tehran government. And it's going to be -- it's going to be --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

HERTLING: Chaotic for a while. I disagree with Ambassador Leaf a little bit. I think we will see some actions, very covert from the Iranian government, and it could take the form of various PMF forces conducting action throughout the range of their swath of land between Lebanon and Tehran. But it could be certainly cyber attacks and the stoking of an increasing number of cyber attacks.

And even some Homeland Security issues as we know, there is a network of Iranian elements within the United States that the FBI is watching. All of those things --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

HERTLING: To me are scary. And I come down on the side of -- we've got to be prepared for what's going to result from this action.

SCIUTTO: You mentioned the U.S. Homeland. Soleimani has publicly threatened attacks on the U.S. Homeland, and the U.S. believes he was behind a plot to carry out an assassination in Washington D.C. in a busy restaurant in 2011. Barbara Leaf, Lieutenant General Hertling, thanks to both of you, I know we're going to be coming back to you in the coming days.

We're going to get reaction next from a Republican member of the Armed Services Committee, also a veteran, what's his response to this assassination? Stay with us.

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[09:30:00]