Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

American Forces Bracing For Retaliation After U.S. Kills Iran's Top Military Commander. Aired 2 -2:30p ET

Aired January 03, 2020 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:03]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Here we go. You're watching CNN on a Friday afternoon. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being here. Here's the breaking news today.

American forces right this very moment are bracing for retaliation after the U.S. has killed Iran's top military commander, Qassem Soleimani. Soleimani, a notorious terrorist, his death extremely consequential and a potential path to war.

President Trump now deploying thousands of additional U.S. troops after ordering the drone strike that killed Soleimani. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo telling CNN that Soleimani poised an imminent threat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: President Trump's decision to remove Qassem 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)

BALDWIN: But despite that message, the State Department urged all U.S. citizens to leave Iraq immediately because Iran is vowing their words, harsh revenge. Thousands of protesting in the streets of the capital city of Teheran.

Meantime, back here, closer to home in Washington, D.C., Democrats are outraged. They're outraged over the President's decision to keep them in the dark.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): The President does not have the authority for a war with Iran. The lack of advanced consultation and transparency with Congress can lead to hasty and ill-considered decisions. SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): I recommend that all senators wait to

review the facts and hear from the administration before passing much public judgment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: We have live team coverage at the top of this hour. Ryan Browne is at the Pentagon for us. Our CNN senior international correspondent, Arwa Damon is in Baghdad, Phil Mattingly is on Capitol Hill. But I want to start, Ryan Browne, with you, at the Pentagon and reporting thousands more troops are heading overseas. Do we have a specific number yet? And do we know where they're going?

RYAN BROWNE, CNN PENTAGON REPORTER: Well, Brooke, we have a rough number. In fact, the Pentagon just confirming our earlier reporting that the rest of this brigade is -- this brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division, which had been put on standby will be deploying to the Middle East to support U.S. forces there.

And we were told that's about 3,000 or so soldiers remaining from that brigade. So the rest of the 3,000 will be going over. The initial 750 soldiers from that same unit had already been deployed during the crisis events surrounding the attempts of this Iranian-linked militia group to storm the American Embassy. So they will be joined by several thousand more paratroopers there.

Those original forces are in Kuwait, likely the follow on forces are to join them there. From there, they can respond to a variety of locations. As we've heard the reporting, the threats from potential Iranian retaliation are not just in Iraq, where the U.S. has some 5000 troops, but there's a potential for other locations in the Middle East.

Defense officials telling me that the U.S. has recently changed its alert status for its forces in the Middle East, telling them that the security risks were now higher, that there was Intelligence indicating that an attack could be -- that there was a high likelihood of an attack against U.S. military forces ranging all the way from Egypt all the way to Pakistan. This is a very large area. They've had their security status upgraded.

These additional forces will be heading to the region, but the U.S. had already deployed some 14,000 troops in the Middle East in recent months, due to this perceived Iranian threat. That threat only likely to increase given the prospect of a retaliation for this airstrike that killed General Qassem Soleimani.

BALDWIN: All right. And again, just reminding our viewers, President Trump ran on drawing down those numbers of our military men and women overseas.

Arwa, to you in Iraq, what is the reaction there?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A lot of anger, Brooke, and quite a bit of surprise. Most certainly, we were expecting that something was going to be happening quite simply because of the growing tensions between Tehran and Washington.

But yesterday at this time, those protests in front of the U.S. Embassy had dissipated. They had moved somewhere else. There was something of a tenuous pause in all of this. Parliament was meant to be debating a bill that would be addressing the U.S. troop presence in Iraq.

And then these strikes took place, and really shook this entire country, not to mention the region as a whole, not just because Qassem Soleimani in that convoy, but also especially specific to Iraq, because the other key figure there, who is the leader of Kata'ib Hezbollah, that Brooke, is the same group that was targeted by these us airstrikes on Sunday. That is the same group whose forces were among those protesters who were out trying to storm the U.S. Embassy.

[14:05:10]

DAMON: This group is part of an Iraqi, predominantly Shia paramilitary force that is part of the Iraqi Security Forces. The Iraqi government that was already incensed at the U.S. over Sunday's airstrikes, who had already called those a violation of its sovereignty, now, is basically saying that this act by America is an aggression against Iraq itself.

There's going to be an emergency session of Parliament taking place tomorrow. A number of these Iranian-backed proxies in Iraq now have their fighters at the ready. You also have radical cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, whose own Armed Force is quite notorious for its attacks against the Americans during the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.

He had put his Army on a freeze now saying that he was going to basically unfreeze them. And you just have a situation right now where it's very difficult to see how Baghdad and Washington are ever going to repair this relationship, not just militarily speaking, but politically speaking as well. And that is also going to have some pretty grave consequences.

BALDWIN: Right. But as you point out in the near term, the big question is, what does that harsh retaliation look like? Arwa, thank you so much. You've been up reporting on this all day.

Phil Mattingly, to you overall on Capitol Hill. I mean, we alluded to the frustration, you know, over the President ordering these strikes and who was or was not notified. What are you hearing from members on that?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN U.S. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, the frustration amongst Democrats is that they were not told and it's not just every Democrat or rank and file Democrats we're talking about, we're talking about Democratic leadership and particularly Democrats and the Gang of Eight, the kind of top tier, the folks with the highest clearance, the folks that are supposed to be aware or traditionally are historically are aware of these types of operations, either before they happen or shortly after they occur.

And through last night, none of those Democrats had been called or contacted. The House Intelligence Committee, Chairman Adam Schiff hadn't heard anything. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Intelligence Vice Chairman, Mark Warner all hadn't heard anything last night.

Now, that's starting to change throughout the course of the day. Now, Gina Haspel, the C.I.A. Director spoke to Mark Warner earlier today. The outreach is starting to continue.

I think one way to view things right now is that it's too simplistic to say this is breaking down partisan lines. I think there's agreement on who Qassem Soleimani was and what he represented, particularly in terms of the deaths that he played a large role in related to U.S. troops in Iraq and in the Middle East over the course of the last decade or so.

The questions and this isn't just specific to Democrats right now, I've talked to Republicans who are wondering the same thing is what's next and what is the strategy as this plays out?

There is no question there will be a response, at least that's how people up here feel. But what is the preparation for said response and what is that the next step that the U.S. decides to take in the wake of whatever that response should be.

BALDWIN: Hang on, one second. Forgive me. Let's -- we want to go to your colleague, my colleague there on Capitol Hill, Manu Raja. He has the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff. Let's listen in.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): ... this administration a series of steps and retaliatory steps, beginning with the decision to leave the JCPOA to embark on a maximum pressure campaign. Iran's decision to start attacking shipping, attacking oil infrastructure through Iraqi militias, attacking U.S. military facilities.

But lately, this spike in the back and forth between Iran, the deadly attacks on U.S. base and the loss of a U.S. contractor, injuring U.S. service members, followed by a U.S. airstrikes on these Iranian backed Iraqi Shia militias, and now the killing of Soleimani have increased the danger of a war with Iran, not decreased it.

And I have yet to be fully satisfied that the administration either has a strategy, that this is not simply a one-off act of retaliation or preemptive strike, that this is part of some broader coherent plan, and that greatly concerns me.

This is how you, when nobody seeks war end up in a war. And so if the administration has a broader strategy, they have yet to articulate it, they have yet to explain to the Congress why that strategy lacks the support of our own allies, and how this is somehow going to make us safer.

So all steps are going to have to be taken immediately to protect our personnel in the region and elsewhere. We have to fully expect there will be Iranian retaliation. And I think we, and the Iranians need to figure out steps that could be taken to divert us from this path of increasing act and retaliation and retaliation and increasing prospect of war.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What was the -- what was the imminent threat to the United States as you understand it?

SCHIFF: Well, I can't go into the specifics of the briefing. But one thing I'm not yet satisfied on, and that is Soleimani has been a risk to the United States for a long time. Soleimani has been engaged in deadly and malevolent action throughout the region for a long time.

And the question is why the administration chose this moment? Why this administration made the decision to remove him from the battlefield when the other administrations of both parties decided that would escalate the risks, not reduce them. I have yet to get an adequate answer to that question.

And this is not just an Intelligence question. It is also very much a policy question and to me, the greatest deficiency here is the strategic vision or lack of vision by the administration about how any of these actions, how this maximum pressure campaign is supposed to work, because the evidence to date is, it isn't working. It is increasing Iran's deadly and dangerous action, not reducing it.

QUESTION: Do you think that the strike warranted, and do you have any concerns about the safety here in the U.S.?

SCHIFF: I have concerns that we are on a pathway where a U.S. action is met by an Iranian reaction, which is met by a U.S. reaction with both U.S., the United States and Iran contemplating further potential military action. And where is that going to lead us?

And so I think the dangers of are going up, not down. In terms of the risks here in the United States, I think the paramount risks are probably elsewhere, but there's probably an increased risk anywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks, guys.

RAJU: Should the Articles be sent over -- do you think Nancy Pelosi should send the Articles over?

BALDWIN: Okay, so that was Manu and a couple of Capitol Hill reporters there with Chairman Schiff. Two quick notes, you know, questioning whether the strike was warranted, he didn't entirely answered that.

But that a point was made about was this an imminent threat? Right? We know the Secretary of State has said people are safer now as a result of this, that Iran had proved to provide some sort of imminent threat, therefore, they targeted and killed Soleimani and he said he couldn't say specifically.

But this, you know, this guy has been a threat. He has been an enemy to the U.S. for years and years. His question is, why did they take them out now?

Now, quick note before I bring in these great voices. We also learned from Pam Brown and our team at the White House that administration principals are continuing conversations with congressional members. They're organizing a briefing of the Gang of Eight as soon as everyone is back in town next week.

So that said, with me now CNN chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward. CNN military analyst Colonel Cedric Leighton and Trita Parsi, founder and former President of the National Iranian American Council. He now serves as Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. So welcome to all of you.

And Trita, let me begin here with this this harsh revenge that Iran is vowing. When, where could this revenge occur? How harsh and who do you think is most at risk?

TRITA PARSI, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE QUINCY INSTITUTE FOR RESPONSIBLE STATECRAFT: We don't know the answer to any of those questions. The only question I think we have some idea about is that there is very likely going to be some form of a response by the Iranians, but what type? Who they will target when?

I think they will take their time. I think the first thing the Iranian government will do is that they will actually consolidate their elite. They have been fractured, but this is going to be something that is likely going to help them to rally around the flag, not just within the elite, but outside of it as well, and then choose some form of a target at some point that will maximize the surprise, similar to what we've seen happening in the region for the last six months.

BALDWIN: Do we think, Colonel, similar question to you? I mean, is the target Americans abroad? Americans at home? Cyber? Terror attack? What could consequences of this targeted killing look like?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, it could be in all of those, Brooke. And you know, it's great that you mentioned cyber and you know, some of the other elements that are more or less asymmetric or at least unconventional in the way they work out.

But I think what we're looking at here is something that could affect us, certainly abroad, but could also potentially reach us here in the homeland because we know the Iranians have been interested from a cyber-perspective in attacking things like the critical infrastructure in the United States.

So that's something I would certainly be paying attention to. It may not be the immediate threat, but it may be a threat that is on the horizon.

BALDWIN: Clarissa, this has been described as the most consequential military action in President Trump's tenure. You've covered Iran for years and years. What can the U.S. expect from the Revolutionary Guard?

[14:15:05]

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think Trita is exactly right when he says we don't know what can be expected, but you can be very sure that there will be some kind of response. There has to be some kind of a response because Qassem Soleimani was not just vitally important as an Iranian figure, both politically and militarily, but he also had taken on this almost cult- like heroic persona in Iran.

When I was in Tehran last fall, I was really surprised and taken by the number of images of him I saw plastered around the city. I went to a museum, the gift store is full of souvenirs bearing his image. People sharing online videos of him reciting poetry, of him striding across the front lines, of him attending the funerals of martyrs who have died in the Iranian cause.

And so because he took on this kind of cult-like status, I think that Iranian and Iraqi leaders I should add, are going to have a difficult and challenging time trying to rein in the passions of many young Shia militants, and also just ordinary young men and women who will see this as an act of war, an act of aggression.

So Iran is definitely going to want to choose its moment and choose an appropriate response. I don't think Iran wants to see this devolve into an all-out military conflagration, but not responding to such a bold and momentous escalation will be inconceivable at this stage.

The difficulty, as you heard from the Colonel and Trita is that they have so many different options at their disposal and so many different proxy forces that they can rely on that it makes it very difficult for the U.S. to be vigilant about protecting Americans overseas and its interests overseas -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Okay. Clarissa and Trita and Colonel, thank you so much. We will continue all of these conversations over the course of the next two hours. Still to come, who exactly was Soleimani? How big of a role did he currently play in Iran? CNN's international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson looks at how he rose in the ranks.

Plus the 2020 Democrats responding with tough words for President Trump. You'll hear straight from them just ahead here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:21:38]

BALDWIN: Welcome back to the breaking news here on this Friday. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Shockwaves are being felt all around the world following the death of top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. Leaders in France and Germany are warning of dangerous escalations following the U.S. strike.

But earlier this morning, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told CNN that that is simply not the case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POMPEO: The world is a much safer place today. And I can assure you that Americans in the region are much safer today after the demise of Qassem Soleimani.

The Iranian people understand that America is a force for good in the region, and I'm convinced that the support that we have provided to the people in Iran and the support we will continue to provide for the people in Iraq will work to protect American interests and make lives better for those people as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So who was Qassem Soleimani? How much of a threat did he really pose? CNN International diplomatic editor Nic Robertson has more on him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice over): Iran's most revered and feared Commander, Qassem Soleimani, leaves a gaping hole in Iran's war fighting machine. The theocracy's foremost fighter killed in this devastating rocket strike was both the brains and the brawn behind a coalition of sheer fundamentalist proxies loyal to Iran's Ayatollahs across the Middle East.

He began his war fighting in the 1980s, a young man in his 20s, rising rapidly through Iran's military ranks in the brutal Iran-Iraq war.

At least half a million troops were killed. Battles fought World War I style in trenches, chemical weapons used by both sides. Soleimani emerged battle tested, battle hardened -- a hero.

Soon after, becoming a Commander in the IRGC, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Within a decade, he had risen again to head the IRGC's elite Quds Force.

Following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Soleimani became Iran's point man, directing and dispersing funding to Iran's proxies, killing U.S. forces.

A signature of their attacks in the early days was the deadly shaped IEDs designed to pierce U.S. Humvees armor, spraying troops inside with molten copper.

In 2007, U.S. commanders had Soleimani in their crosshairs in Iraq, but didn't pull the trigger. The next decade as war escalated in Syria, Soleimani was instrumental in keeping Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad in power.

Long before Russia came to Assad's aid, Soleimani, now a Major General was to be seen striding the battlefield, directing Iranian forces. He had become Tehran's vital overseas visionary aligning the theocracy's expansionist agenda by directing proxies in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and their massive partner, Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In the past few years, Tehran had cultivated Soleimani's image at home. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a rare display of largess, awarded him high military honors. The regime was reinforcing his status as not just a war hero, but a national hero. There is no one of his iconic status waiting in the wings to replace

him. Iran is weakened without him. Nic Robertson, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[14:25:23]

BALDWIN: Nic, thank you for that. We're also learning more about how the U.S. was able to track down Qassem Soleimani. Sources tell CNN that U.S. intelligence pointed to Soleimani in Baghdad meeting with a top Hezbollah official.

A senior administration official says he was visiting following protest at the U.S. Embassy to plan future attacks on the U.S. with Iranian proxy forces.

And with me now someone with a lot of experience tracking the movements of this man, former Army Special Operations soldier, Brett Velicovich. He also co-authored the book, "Drone Warrior." Brett, nice to have you back. Thank you so much for coming on.

BRETT VELICOVICH, FORMER ARMY SPECIAL OPERATIONS SOLDIER: Nice to see you.

BALDWIN: So you tracked Soleimani, a couple of years ago as part of your work in the Special Forces. What was that even like? How elusive did he prove to be?

VELICOVICH: Well, he wasn't really too much of an elusive character. This wasn't like some senior leader within ISIS, who was always in hiding. I mean, he really operated as if he was untouchable. He believed that himself, that he operated with impunity, because every time that we would go up the chain to ask whether or not we could capture or kill Soleimani, the answer was absolutely not and that we couldn't do anything about it.

Because the administration was constantly worried about this tit-for- tat. If we took out one of their soldiers, they would take out one of ours, but the fact is that that policy really failed. For the last two decades, it didn't work.

I mean, we've seen American soldiers' lives taken because of it, and right now, though, because of the strike on Soleimani, this is a very delicate enough situation that it could easily escalate into all-out war.

Soleimani is the type of individual that the Iranian regime would consider going to war over, and that's obviously very dangerous. But one thing that I do believe is that the world is a safer place because Soleimani is dead, and that he had it coming to him.

Now, that's not to say that we should be in this business of revenge. Nothing I see from the strike that took place indicates that it was all about Soleimani's past, that it was in fact about this intelligence or information that indicated Soleimani was planning to attack U.S. servicemen and American diplomats. And so that was the focus here. But at the same time, Soleimani has

been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. soldiers, wounding thousands more. I personally --

BALDWIN: No, he has been enemy of the U.S. for years and years. And if I'm just hearing, you know, right, Brett, it sounds like since he wasn't elusive, you know, he could have been attacked at any point in time, but no prior administration, you know, Republican or Democrat wanted to do so until now.

As we've heard from Pompeo, you know, this was about, they knew something about an imminent attack. We don't have the specifics of that. Obviously, this is all still very fresh.

I do want to ask -- I'm just curious more about, as you're tracking someone like him and try to put yourself in the shoes of the folks who then, you know, ultimately took him out, what kind of planning goes into a targeted attack like this?

VELICOVICH: Well, this wasn't something like a target of opportunity. You know, this was really something that was planned. There's a lot of strong Intelligence on the Iranian regime. The U.S. government is trying to figure out what they're doing? What's their next move? And Soleimani is key to understanding what the intentions of the Iranian regime is.

And so he has been tracked for quite some time now. And there's a lot of different Intelligence resources that are available to individuals to be able to define that, but at the same time, a strike like this, again, isn't just some target of opportunity.

He wasn't hit because he landed in Baghdad, and he happened to be there at the time. There was more than likely very strong information indicating not only he was going to be in town, but he was there for a specific reason. And that could have been to attack U.S. service members.

So there's a lot of planning that goes into this information, so potentially he was tracked from Lebanon, maybe they even had information on his private jet landing in there.

All I know is that, individual like this isn't necessarily going to be able to be in hiding. I mean, he was a public figure. He was a hero to certain leadership within Iran as he spread his terrorism around, and so he was a very dangerous individual.

And frankly, I'm glad to see him taken off the battlefield because, again, he was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American soldiers and that reign of terror ended yesterday.

BALDWIN: Appreciate your opinion. Brett, thank you so much. Good to have you back on.

VELICOVICH: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: President Trump reportedly surveying people about his decision to authorize the strong strike. We'll talk about the President's next moves from here, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:30:00]