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White House Confirms Leader of ISIS Killed in U.S. Special Forces Raid in Syria; Biden to Announce New Efforts to Combat Gun Violence During New York City Visit; Area Around Supreme Court Closed Off Because of Suspicious Vehicle. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired February 03, 2022 - 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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[10:00:00]

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning, everybody. I'm Bianna Golodryga.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

The breaking news this morning, and it is busy news morning. The leader of ISIS, one of the top terrorists for the top terror organizations in the world, one of them, killed during a U.S. Special Forces operation in Northwest Syria overnight. Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi took over the terrorist group following the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019. This was a complex raid, a dangerous raid. The news from the White House this morning is that all U.S. personnel got out safely.

GOLODRYGA: And this image you're looking at was released by the White House, a powerful image, showing the president, the vice president watching that mission unfold. President Biden is expected to speak shortly more details about that raid overnight.

But we begin with a team of reporters and experts covering this from all angles. Kaitlan Collins is in New York where the president will be later this morning, a very busy day for the president, Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon, CNN Military Analyst Colonel Cedric Leighton and National Security Analyst Peter Bergen are in D.C.

Kaitlan, let's begin with you. Yesterday, all of the focus was on the military announcing that there would be some 2,000 troops sent to Eastern Europe. Obviously, while that was unfolding, this operation was just hours from happening. Talk about what happened and what went down at the White House.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. There have been clearly a lot of sensitive discussions underway at the White House that we've noticed, not just those 3,000 troops that President Biden has now decided to send, but also, of course, this decision here that they have made to conduct this raid last night. And we did see earlier this week the defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, spent about three hours at the White House. We believe that was in relation to the decision to deploy those 3,000 troops to Eastern Europe.

Now, of course, there are questions about whether this was also a matter of discussion because given that we saw several White House aides at the White House late last night, as this raid was under way, this mission was under way.

And so we will hear from President Biden momentarily. The White House had not confirmed many details about what happened in this mission last night until President Biden himself put out this paper statement earlier today confirming that the top leader of ISIS was killed in this mission, taken off the battlefield was the phrase that President Biden used.

And so he will be making remarks momentarily, hopefully providing some more details about how exactly this went down and how it was executed and, of course, how President Biden ultimately gave the go-ahead for this to take place.

SCIUTTO: Barbara, so much to get into in terms of the detail here. It's a complex raid. It was a nighttime raid. The intelligence behind it but also, we're learning new details about the effort to attempt at least to avoid civilian casualties here, members of his Qurashi's family. What do we know?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, there's probably nothing more to sensitive to the Pentagon right now than ensuring they do everything they can to avoid civilian casualties. It is our understanding that troops on the ground through a translator called out through an aired speaker, called out and said, have the civilians, women and children, come out. Some of them may well have.

But civil defense authorities on the ground are saying that 13 civilians including six children were killed. It appears, according to U.S. officials, this happened when the target, the ISIS leader, blew himself up inside the building where he and others were holed up. This is the initial report that he blew up explosives and that's how people, including civilians, were killed. You can bet the Pentagon will take a very close look at this and we will have to see how it unfolds.

It's really important, I think, to understand just how dangerous these missions are. This was a group of U.S. special operations troops that landed on the ground there via helicopter in the middle of the night. They go in as quick -- they and try to get in as quickly in and out as they can, because that's how they work to protect themselves as well and nobody, thankfully, was wounded or injured on the U.S. side. So, these missions are very lethal, very hot. They unfold and happen very quickly, routinely when these are done.

[10:05:00]

We're going to have to learn more about just how complex this one may have gotten on the ground.

By all accounts, this was some of the most elite of the elite of special operation forces that were tasked to undertake this mission, Jim.

GOLODRYGA: And to highlight that point, Colonel Leighton, this was a risky decision by the president to green light. Talk about the planning that goes into a decision like this and how much precision he and his advisers must have in terms of being accurate about where this target was.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, Bianna, those are excellent questions, because what they really need to do to is they need make sure that the target is in a certain location. If we remember back to the Bin Laden raid, it was a 50/50 chance that we would actually be there at the right place to conduct that mission. And at the time, President Obama went with it because he felt that the chances were fairly good that they could get Bin Laden.

The same type of calculus goes into the planning for any of these raids against what we call high value targets, and that planning is incredibly detailed because you want to -- as Barbara mentioned, you want to minimize those kinds of civilian casualties. That is the worst thing that can happen is to have civilian casualties. But when they're going to do the assessment of this, they're going to see whether or not those civilian casualties were killed because of U.S. actions or because of what al-Qurashi did when he blew himself up.

SCIUTTO: Peter, you've literally written the book, more than one book on Al Qaeda, Bin Laden, also ISIS. And you've written extensively about what the death, the killing of Bin Laden meant to Al Qaeda. What does the killing of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi mean for ISIS, a leader? He's been in charge of the group for a little over two years since al-Baghdadi was killed. Is it a significant blow to the organization?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I'm skeptical because this guy had virtually no public profile. Al-Qurashi is a kind of a nondeju (ph). It indicates that he came from Prophet Mohammed. He may or may not be true. But they will replace him. He was not a charismatic person out there making statements.

But I think also it's an interesting question about President Obama as commander-in-chief. You recalled then that Biden was against Bin Laden raid for all the reasons of a risk of the attack. People out of Afghanistan, here he is sending troops into Eastern Europe, authorizing what was a somewhat risky raid. It seems he's in a different place.

GOLYDRYGA: And, Kaitlan, this goes back to the question of many people wondering if the president can manage having a lot of crises going on at the same time. He himself likes to say that people, and he and the administration and this country can walk and chew gum at the same time. What message does this send to both allies and adversaries around the world that, on the one hand, he can focus on the crisis at hand in Ukraine and with Russia, and on the other hand, take out the leader of this major terrorist organization.

COLLINS: Well, I think that's part of the job of being president, is that you have often multiple issues facing you at one time. And often we've talked about with national security officials at the White House that what's been happening in Ukraine and the amount of focus that officials have invested in that has also undermined -- not undermined but taken away from the focus that President Biden has wanted to put on threats that he says are more important, like China. And, of course, that has been not derailed but to a degree, distracted some to a degree because they've had to focus so much on what's happening in Ukraine.

Now, there's this issue and it does come just days after we have seen ISIS fighters take over this prison. That had been a big focus for the National Security Council in recent days as they were dealing with that. Whether or not the White House will say that that is tied to this mission that happened, it's not clear. Often, these are missions that are months in the making and they have to wait for the right intelligence because, as Barbara is noting, they are so sensitive and you do have to be so careful carrying out something like this.

So, often, these are things that they've been talking about for quite some time, potentially even before you saw Putin putting out 100,000 forces on Ukraine's border. But I think it speaks to the level of doing multiple things at once.

And it also is notable we're hearing from President Biden on this, because this is the first time you've seen something like this happen since he has taken office. And, clearly, he wants to be able to talk about it and tout the success of it.

SCIUTTO: Well, it's a test as well, bigger picture for the small footprints strategy that the U.S. has pursued for some time now in Syria, hundreds of U.S. forces to augment local fighters, in this case, Kurdish fighters here, to fight ISIS, as opposed to a big footprint, as we've seen in Afghanistan and Iraq prior.

Listen, all of you stay with us. We do expect the president to speak any minute now. We will, of course, bring you those comments live.

GOLODRYGA: And after speaking on the raid in Syria, President Biden will be heading to New York to unveil new efforts to combat another crisis, this one, domestic, the gun violence crisis here. That includes several new steps by the Justice Department to target ghost guns and drug-related violence.

[10:10:01]

SCIUTTO: Crime and Justice Correspondent Shimon Prokupecz, he's in New York this morning.

We know, the mayor of New York, Eric Adams, for instance, he's asked for federal help here because he -- the NYPD often say, this is not just a city problem, it's a national problem. They talk about guns flowing in from states with lax gun laws. So, what do we expect to hear from the president today to answer those calls?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right. Of course, the famous iron pipeline, right, guns coming in from outer state, flowing into this city, other major cities. New York City has some of the strictest gun laws and that's the thing that the mayor is saying. We're doing our part. We have the laws. We have the things to try and combat some of this. But we need more help. And that is what he wants. He wants federal help. Of course, money, but he also wants law enforcement help. He wants help from prosecutors.

And that is one of the things that the president is going to be talking about. He's coming here with the attorney general, Merrick Garland, and they're going to talk about some of the efforts that they're going to be putting together in sort of this alliance of prosecutors, the DEA, the ATF, some of that to combat ghost guns, but also, drug violence and how it relates to the use of guns and gangs. All of that is something that the president and the attorney general all want to focus on and, of course, passing some of the new budgets and passing some of the new laws.

The mayor this morning talked about some of those efforts and the help he needs. Take a listen.

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MAYOR ERIC ADAMS (D-NEW YORK CITY, NY): We're saying to Washington, D.C., SOS, we need your help. We have to stop the flow of illegal guns in our city. 6,000 guns removed off the street last year, close to 400 since I've been in office, yet they keep coming from gun dealers throughout this entire country.

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PROKUPECZ: So, that is some of the efforts, but also the fact that the president is coming here to the NYPD just a day after they buried another officer who was shot in Harlem with that other officer, the two officers who died here, hopefully will serve as a morale booster for these officers who feel that they do not have the support of politicians. This is something that the mayor is trying to help with and fix and certainly, having the president here, the mayor hopes will help boost some of the morale here with the NYPD and just having this moment for them to talk to the president.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, this as crime continues to rise in this country, this is something the administration and president himself does not want to make an issue for him or a weakness. Shimon Prokupecz, thank you so much.

Well, just in to CNN, the U.S. Capitol Police just closing off an area around the Supreme Court after they say a man illegally parked his vehicle in front of the court for a second time now.

SCIUTTO: CNN Law Enforcement Correspondent Whitney Wild joins us now with the latest. It was only several weeks ago we saw a similar threat take place around the court. What do we know here?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, Capitol Police say it's the same man that we covered back in October who parked his vehicle outside the Supreme Court, who refused to move, and eventually back then, Capitol Police had used a flash bang to extract him from the vehicle. Now, he's back this morning and apparently Capitol Police are speaking with him at this very moment.

There's very little we understand about what is going on and what led up to this moment this morning but what we do know now is Capitol Police have reopened the area, so, clearly, they don't think there's any lingering threat here.

But a lot of investigating will have to go into this because this is an example of the type of concerning behavior that Capitol Police is trying to figure out what types of incidents will not result in harm and what could end up exploding.

And this is another reflection of what Chief Manger has talked about over and over. Last year, Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said that the department had to field or at least knew of more than 9,000 threats against members. That represents a dramatic increase in what they were dealing with in past years.

So, these are the kind of dynamic situations that apparently continue to pop up for Capitol Police as they manage this, again, growing wave of threats against members.

Let me just, again, bring you back to what we know about today specifically, Capitol Police saying that a man named Dale Paul Melvin, who, again, the man from October, returned to the Supreme Court this morning, parked his Chevy Tahoe in front of the court again. Again, investigators were talking to him. They did shut down the area but now have reopened it.

So, a lot of lingering questions, mainly how, if he was there prior and was arrested prior, was he allowed to come back to the very same spot? Back to you.

SCIUTTO: Same man, same vehicle, remarkable. Whitney Wild, thank you so much.

GOLODRYGA: And still to come, we want to bring you that breaking news again. We're expecting President Biden to speak about this raid that killed the head of ISIS overnight, just minutes from now. Stay with us. We will bring you that live coverage.

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SCIUTTO: Right now, a major, wide ranging and cold storm is hitting parts of the U.S. covering cities with snow, ice and sleet. No matter what your travel plans might be, getting there could be trouble today.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. Take a look at these images. More than 4,200 have been canceled already with one major airport, Dallas-Fort Worth International completely shutting down this morning.

CNN's Pete Muntean is live from Reagan National Airport and CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Dallas.

Pete, how hard is it for anyone trying to fly today? [10:20:00]

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Really hard, Bianna. The worst day for flight cancelations we have seen in the last year. The numbers just keep going up, according to FlightAware, more than 4,200 flights cancelations nationwide so far today. We have not seen numbers this bad since the ice storm that hit Texas around this time last year.

Now, this storm is impacting airports, dozens of major airports from Texas to New York, a huge impact, some of the biggest airline hubs being impacted by this. Just look at the breakdown here. Dallas Love Field, that is the headquarters for Southwest Airlines, about 85 percent of all departures there canceled today, about three quarters of all departures in Austin, about half of all departures at Dallas- Fort Worth, DFW, that's a major hub for American Airlines, and about a quarter of all departures at Chicago O'Hare.

A lot of disappointed passengers, of course, but, thankfully, the airlines are giving them a lot of notice preemptively canceling a lot of flights before passengers end up in the terminal and stuck there for a long time.

Also, a bit of good news here, airlines are providing travel waivers to passengers who could possibly be impacted by this storm. They are able to change their flights free of charge even if they think they're going to get stuck. Bianna, Jim?

SCIUTTO: Pete, good to know.

Ed, Dallas, we don't expect to see this kind of weather there with regularity, freezing temperatures in Texas today.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Freezing temperatures in everybody's mind in this state, Jim, on whether or not the state's power grid is going to hold up. Because the last time we saw a winter storm like this, the power went out for millions and millions of people across the state. Nearly 250 people died because of that winter storm. So all of that --

SCIUTTO: Ed -- stand by, Ed, hold that thought. President Biden speaking on the deadly raid that killed the leader of ISIS, this from the White House.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: -- in my orders, the United States military force successfully removed a major terrorist threat to the world, the global leader of ISIS known as Haji Abdullah. He took over as leader of ISIS in 2019 after the United States counterterrorism operation killed al-Baghdadi. Since then, ISIS has directed terrorist operations targeting Americans, our allies and our and countless civilians in the Middle East, Africa and in South Asia.

Haji Abdullah oversaw the spread of ISIS affiliate terrorist groups around the world after savaging communities and murdering innocents. He was responsible for the recent brutal attack on the prison in Northeast Syria, holding ISIS fighters, which was swiftly addressed by brave partners in the Syrian Democratic Forces. He was the driving force behind the genocide of the people in Northwestern Iraq in 2014. We all remember the gut wrenching stories of mass slaughters that wiped out entire villages, thousands of women and young girls sold into slavery, raped, used as a weapon of war.

And thanks to the bravery of our troops, this horrible terrorist leader is no more. Our forces carried out the operation with their signature preparation and precision and I directed the Department of Defense to take every precaution possible to minimize civilian casualties.

Knowing that this terrorist chose to surround himself with families, including children, we made the choice to pursue a Special Forces raid at a much greater risk to our own people rather than targeting him with an airstrike. We made this choice to minimize civilian casualties.

Our team is still compiling the report, but we do know that as our troops approached to capture the terrorist, in a final act of desperate cowardice, with no regard to the lives of his own family or others in the building, he chose to blow himself up, not just with the vest but to blow up that third floor rather than face justice for the crimes he has committed, taking several members of his family with him, just as his predecessor did.

I'm grateful for the immense courage, skill and determination of our U.S. forces who skillfully executed this incredibly challenging mission. The members of our military are the solid steel backbone of this nation, ready to fly into danger at a moment's notice to keep our country and the American people safe as well as our allies.

And I'm also grateful to the families of our service members. You served right alongside these soldiers and sailors, marines, Special Forces and loved ones giving them the strength and support they need to do what they do. To our service members and their families, we're forever grateful for what you do for us and we owe you a debt. Thank you.

We're also aided by the essential partnership of the Syrian Democratic Forces.

[10:25:00]

I want to commend our dedicated intelligence community, the Department of Defense and members of our national security team throughout the government whose meticulous and tireless work over the course of many months ensured that this mission succeeded. This operation is a testament to America's reach and capability to take out terrorist threats no matter where they try to hide anywhere in the world.

I'm determined to protect the American people from terrorist threats and I'll take decisive action to protect this country. And we'll continue working with our close allies and partners, the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Iraqi Security Forces, including the Kurdish Peshmerga and more than 80 members of the global coalition to keep pressure on ISIS to protect our homeland. We remain vigilant. We remain prepared. Last night's operation took a major terrorist leader off the battlefield and has sent a strong message to terrorists around the world, we will come after you and find you.

Once again, today, we continue our unceasing effort to keep the American people safe and to strengthen security of our allies and partners around the world. I want to thank you all. May God bless you and may god protect our troops. I'm heading off to New York right now, I'm late, and I thank you for your time.

GOLODRYGA: And there you heard the president addressing the nation there, giving more details in that overnight raid that killed the leader of ISIS, al-Qurashi, also as the president said, his name, Haji Abdullah, also referenced by that name as well. The president said he was a horrible terrorist leader and he is no more.

He also went on into more detail as to what we had been reporting earlier that he himself, the terrorist himself chose to blow up that third floor and thus killing some of his family members and children in the process there.

The president going on to say we will remain vigilant, a major terrorist leader has been taken off the battlefield and said that should be a message sent to terrorists around the world, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes. He also -- some news in there. H says that the U.S. considered a bomb strike and chose not to go that path, used what is a riskier operation, a ground operation to attempt to avoid civilian casualties, as Barbara Starr reported a few moments ago. It was also an attempt to encourage via megaphone family members to come out of the building before the operation went in. But in the end, the president is saying, the finding is Qurashi himself blew up his own family.

Our panel is back with us now as we analyze the comments here. Kaitlan Collins, Barbara Starr, Colonel Cedric Leighton.

Peter, if I -- Peter Bergen, if I could begin with you here, big picture, this is a test to some degree of the strategy in Syria to be distinguished from past strategies in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not a big footprint. Several hundred U.S. Special Forces operators with a local force, in this case, the Syrian Democratic Forces, largely Kurdish fighters, carrying out pinpoint operations like this as opposed to a big ground presence. Is this an indication that that strategy can work to help at least with operations like this one?

BERGEN: Well, yes, this operation worked. And I thought another piece of news in there, Jim, was the fact that this was being developed for many months. And as you said, they dismissed the air operation. It's the same basic calculus they used in the Bin Laden operation. They thought about B-52 bombs on the site that would have caused a lot of massive civilian casualties. They went with the ground operation, which is always much riskier.

As I mentioned, President Biden, then-Vice President Biden opposed the Bin Laden operation. Here, he's much more comfortable with carrying out this kind of operation, which still had civilian casualties, very similar to the Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi operation, the former leader of ISIS who blew himself up and killed three children. So, a lot of similarities between these two operations, two very different presidents, Trump and Biden, basically making the same call and clearly having a successful result.

But, I mean, there will be somebody else that ISIS will announce within the next few days, I'm pretty sure, who will claim dissent from the Prophet Mohammed and it will carry on. I mean, I think it obviously is -- it's useful to have an operation to take out somebody who -- if the president says will be responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of (INAUDIBLE) and planning other terrorist operations, that's great. But ISIS is still around in Afghanistan. It has a lot of freedom of movement and it continues to be an issue in Iraq and Syria.

GOLODRYGA: And, Kaitlan, as we become familiar with these types of operations with different administrations, we see and hear more details about what was transpiring in the situation room in the moments before and leading up to that raid.

[10:30:04]

Can you talk about what you're hearing and what White House sources are telling you transpired last night?