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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Obama in Estonia; Ceasefire Agreement in Ukraine; ISIS Video Determined To Be Authentic

Aired September 03, 2014 - 04:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Another American apparently beheaded on camera. ISIS claiming they have killed Steven Sotloff, the journalist kidnapped by a terrorist one year ago in Syria. The video closing with a threat to kill another captive if U.S. airstrikes in Iraq do not stop.

What we're learning this morning from this video and hundreds more U.S. troops headed to Iraq this morning. That's ahead.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All eyes on President Obama this morning, in Eastern Europe, set to speak to the media within the hour. What will his response be to the apparent murder of Steven Sotloff? And will it overshadow his trip to deal with the heightening crisis in Ukraine?

We're bringing you live team coverage. Crisis management on a global scale for the president.

Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: And I'm John Berman. A very busy morning here. It's Wednesday, September 3rd, 4:00 in the East.

And up first, pressure mounting for President Obama to strike back against ISIS. The Islamic militant group saying it beheaded a second American. In a gruesome video released Tuesday, a knife-wielding black-hooded executioner posed a direct challenge to the president in the moments before journalist Steven Sotloff was apparently brutally murdered.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With your insistence in continuing your bombings in Amerli, Samarra and Mosul dam, despite our serious warnings, you, Obama, have yet again through your actions killed just another American citizen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Meanwhile, the president has authorized the deployment of 350 more U.S. troops to Iraq with the White House insisting they will not be serving in a combat role.

Anna Coren monitoring developments for us live in Irbil, northern Iraq, this morning.

Good morning, Anna.

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John, obviously, the announcement of 350 more troops coming here to Iraq is certain welcomed by the Iraqis as well as the Kurds. Yes, they won't have a combat role but certainly they will be advising. And that is what the forces here node. They need that direction moving forward.

Obviously, those airstrikes pressuring is, we heard the executioner of Steven Sotloff making direct reference to those airstrikes around Mosul dam, around Amerli. Now, these are places where ISIS is on the back foot. And, obviously, those air strikes pressuring is, they're responding the way they are. We are, though, know they are digging in around certain parts where the air strike have been.

We just got off the phone with military officials who say that the township of Suma (ph) where there's fierce fighting going on, the bodies of soldiers, civilians, as well as animals are being bobby trapped. So, this is what the Peshmerga are having to deal with. It's a completely different scene out on the battlefield. There are no rules to this war.

And obviously, now that a second American has been beheaded apparently by ISIS, there is many people here, John, looking for guidance as to what to do next. Kurdish officials telling us now more than ever is the time the world needs to come together and unite because there's no place for ISIS in this world.

BERMAN: Obviously, as we said, no rules in this conflict.

Anna, I was going to ask -- you sort of mentioned it there. What's the reaction been to this video of an apparent second beheading? I've been in Iraq where there's awful brutality before, it casts a pall over everything and everyone, including reporters. This is very hard to see.

COREN: Yes, absolutely. I mean, people are sickened by it, no two ways about it. They are appalled.

And as far as officials are concerned, they have come out and condemned this hideous brutal, barbaric act. But, you know, when we saw Steven Sotloff at the end of that video at the end of James Foley's execution, many of us dreaded that he would face the same fate as James Foley, and when that video appeared yesterday, while everybody was shocked it didn't take too many of us by surprise. Why? Because ISIS is the personification of evil. That is how it has been described to me.

We heard Shirley Sotloff, the mother of Steven Sotloff appeal directly to the leader, I should, say of ISIS, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, saying please spare my son, he is not evolved in U.S. foreign policy, who was merely in Syria covering the Syrian civil war, trying to make the world aware of what was taking place in the country, where many media outlets where no longer going. He was there doing his job, bringing the news to the rest of the world. And sadly, tragically, that plea, that appeal, just fell on deaf ears.

And when we saw that video yesterday that executioner almost, you know, just -- it's hard to describe the words, but just how he said to Obama, Obama, I'm back. You know? It's just the audacity of these people, this righteousness, this self-entitlement to terrorize and to create fear, inflict fear and pain and suffering.

But as we know, John, they're also using these videos as propaganda tools as a recruitment tool. I mean, it disgusts us to think that people will be attracted to this, but sadly, they are, and that's why we are seeing more people come to the region, more firefighters join this cause.

BERMAN: The audacity does leave loss for words. And, Anna, you know, we're seeing this brutality in case of the two journalists, but you've seen it town after town in the region, you've been covering northern Iraq. We thank you for being there, to show us what's going on.

Anna Coren for us in Irbil, thanks so much.

The Sotloff family is grieving privately this morning, awaiting authentication, excuse me, of the ISIS video. Their son is being remembered for his heartfelt reporting from places like Syria, Yemen and Egypt. Colleagues described him as an honest, thoughtful and courageous storyteller.

Listen to one childhood friend describe his determination to shed light on injustices.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIELLE BERRIN, JOURNALIST: Steven was my hero. He was traveling to the most dangerous troubled places on the planet so that he could report back stories of human suffering. He was someone who could not ignore pain and injustice. He felt responsible, and he had to respond.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, what do we know about this individual and the ISIS executioner in it?

Karl Penhaul is live in London with that later this half hour.

ROMANS: The president has still not commented on the beheading of Steven Sotloff or the possible U.S. strategy to strike back against ISIS. He's in Estonia this morning, trying to reassure our allies in the region, the U.S. and Europe will protect them against any Russian aggression. Mr. Obama is scheduled to hold a news conference within the hour, and we will bring it to you live.

I want to bring in senior international correspondent Matthew Chance. He's live from Estonia's capital city Tallinn.

And what these Baltic states want, they want some assurances from the president and from NATO that any future Russian aggression, they will not be alone.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. There's a couple of crises that President Obama is having to deal with here in Tallinn, first of all, this ISIS problem that we expect there will be a statement later on today. Certainly, he'll be asked about it within the next half hour of the joint press conference with the Estonian president.

But the emphasis very much is the reason that President Obama is here is to reassure Estonia and the other Baltic republics as well, the three NATO states that in fact border Russia, the United States stand with them. NATO allies stand with them in event in any Russian aggression towards them, of course, that ongoing crisis in Ukraine.

Russia is just across the border from Estonia, Estonia deeply concerned that it may be next on the Russian list. It has a large ethnic Russian population here, 25 percent. The Kremlin has said it has the right to intervene to protect the rights of ethnic Russians, if it sees the need to do that. And that's made these republics very unsettled indeed.

So, President Obama here, ahead of that NATO summit to say, look, if you're a member of NATO, we're going to protect you. Article 5 covers you, attack on one is an attack against all.

Of course, the subtext of that and Ukraine won't get any consolation of this, is that if you're not a NATO member, you don't qualify for that kind of protection. Of course, Ukraine, where the crisis is right now is not a member of the NATO alliance.

ROMANS: Yes, indeed. And one of the reasons why Ukraine would like to move forward closer to European -- these European groups is because they want to be more allied with Europe than Russia and that's something that Vladimir Putin does not want.

Quickly, this would be the first time we've heard from the president since the beheading of Steven Sotloff. I can assume we can expect the president to talk about this at the top of his remarks?

CHANCE: Yes, this was always going to be on the agenda, or at least being discussed on the sidelines in the NATO summit in Wales which starts tomorrow. He wasn't going to discuss this. It wasn't part of the agenda.

But obviously, this gruesome video merging just after President Obama got on the plane. The expectation is within the next hour, he's going to make some remarks. The very least, he'll be asked questions about this issue in the joint press conference to be held in the next 45 minutes or so.

ROMANS: All right. Matthew Chance, you'll be there for us. Thank you, Matthew.

Ukrainian officials say they are now engaged in direct combat with Russian forces. We are on the ground live from Kiev with those latest developments 10 minutes from now. BERMAN: A senior Israeli military intelligence official says Hamas

suffered a huge dramatic hit during the 50-day clash saying senior commanders were killed, thousands were likely wounded and major damage was done to the group's military infrastructure. He also told "The New York Times" that Hamas lost two-thirds of its rockets. But he acknowledged that only several hundred Hamas operatives out of a total of 16,000, that's their estimate, he says only a few hundred were killed.

ROMANS: Another American doctor has been diagnosed with the deadly Ebola virus. This missionary work he works for says the doctor was treating pregnant women in Liberia when he became ill. He was not treating Ebola patients, so it's not clear how he became infected.

Tom Frieden, the director of the CDC, declaring the Ebola outbreak out of control after spending a week in West Africa. He says the window of opportunity to stop Ebola from spreading, that window is closing. Every nation needs to be concerned.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kent Brantly is speaking out about his life and death battle with Ebola, an experimental drug helped him survived this virus after he was brought to an Atlanta hospital for treatment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENT BRANTLY, EBOLA SURVIVOR: I don't think they ever said, Kent, I think you're about to die, but I felt like I was about to die. And I said to the nurse who was taking care of me, I'm sick. I have no reserve, and I don't know how long I can keep this up. I thought I'm not going to be able to continue breathing this way. And they had no way to breathe for me if I had quit breathing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Wow.

The World Health Organization meets this week for several promising drugs of vaccines that could help in the fight against Ebola. Complicating matters, a new study says the virus is mutating dramatically, a development that could dramatically diminish the effectiveness of any drugs now in the pipeline. U.S. health officials moving quickly, announcing a $24.9 million contract with Mapp Biopharmaceutical to speed development of the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp.

BERMAN: Lawyers to the NSA are defending the bulk coalition of domestic phone call records. The ACLU is challenging the agency's surveillance program that was revealed by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Attorneys for the NSA told the three-judge panel on Tuesday that the collection of phone data is necessary to detect and prevent terrorist plots.

ROMANS: All right. Twelve minutes past the hour. Time for an EARLY START of your money.

European stocks higher this morning ahead of tomorrow's European Central Bank meeting. Asian stocks ended the day higher on strong manufacturing numbers from China. U.S. stock futures pointing up. The S&P 500 very close to its record close. It hit an intraday high yesterday, but then close slightly lower.

Our big story this morning, Home Depot investigating a huge security breach. This hack first reported by the cyber security journalist Brian Krebs after a massive batch of debit and credit card information went up for sale on the black market online. Krebs said the hackers were at Home Depot systems since May. That could make the breach even larger than the one in Target last year that affected 110 million customers.

It's remarkable to think about your information, John Berman, available there on the black market. Available for a few dollars, maybe $20, so that all of your information right here for anybody to create their own identity.

BERMAN: Is it wrong for me to think it's not worth much more than a few dollars in my own private information?

ROMANS: I'm going to find out what yours is worth. I'm going to guess 3 or 4 bucks.

BERMAN: A buck 50 at tops.

All right. We were standing by here this morning on EARLY START because President Obama is expected to address the media in less than an hour, in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, so much to talk about. We have major developments right now in the fight against ISIS. The apparent beheading of a second American there and major developments in the fighting in Ukraine as well. We'll bring you the very latest live from Ukraine right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. President Obama in Estonia at this hour for the start of a three-day European swing. He still has not commented on the apparent beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff by is extremists. The president will be addressing the media in the next half hour. There are so many questions this morning. We'll bring that to you live.

Of course, he's also there to discuss Russia's aggressions in Ukraine. He's talking to Baltic leaders. After that, the president heads to Wales for a two-day summit with NATO.

ROMANS: All right. Breaking news: the president of Ukraine says he's spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the two leaders have agreed on a permanent cease-fire. This after Ukrainian officials reported they are fully engaged in combat with Russian troops. Now, this fighting escalating after Putin told the European official he could take Kiev in two weeks if he wanted to.

Reza Sayah joining us live from Kiev this morning.

OK. What do you know, Reza, about a reported cease-fire? This could be a development in this conflict.

REZA SAYAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed it would, Christine. It sounds like a breakthrough. It sounds like some sort of agreement. We don't have all the details yet, but on its surface, it certainly looks like a positive development. Within the past hour, the Russian news agency Interfax reporting that in a phone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko agreed on a path out of this conflict.

Here's a quote from the spokesperson saying the viewpoints of the presidents of the two countries largely coincide on possible ways out of the grave crisis. We then waited for reaction from Ukrainian officials here in Kiev. And they verified this, and in fact, they seemingly took it a step further.

According to the president's office, the result of the conversation was an agreement on full cease-fire in Donbas. That's the south Ukrainian region where the conflict has taken place. They've also reached mutual understanding on steps that would lead to peace.

Again, we don't know all the details of this agreement, but it certainly sounds like a cease-fire has been established. And the question is, what concessions did the two sides make?

Remember, Kiev, the Ukrainian officials, they wanted the pro-Russian rebels to disarm, to lay down their arms, did that happen? We don't know at this point.

And on the other hand, the pro-Russian rebels want a guarantee of autonomy, some sort of self-determination in a federalized government. Did they get that? We're going to work to find out if indeed those concessions were part of this agreement. But in a conflict where we haven't had much good news in the past several months, this looks to be potentially setting the stage for a possible cease-fire, Christine.

ROMANS: We want to see what those details are, Reza, what those concessions were, and again, the Russian president's office saying that the two spoke by phone and their views largely coincide. And then it's the Ukrainian side taking a step further saying they've agreed to a permanent cease-fire. We'll wait for you for more information as you get it.

Reza Sayah, thank you.

BERMAN: I think the fact that this agreement was reached between the presidents of those two countries, that's a very, very big deal. And as Reza said there, you know, President Poroshenko of Ukraine tweeted out just seconds ago, as a result of my phone conversation with the Russian president, we reached an agreement on a permanent cease-fire.

So, this does seem to be the case right now. We need to find much more about that because that is a major development this morning. Just one of many major developments we're following.

ROMANS: As the president is there in the region. BERMAN: Exactly. And the president will no doubt take questions on.

He's in Eastern Europe, expected to speak to the media within the next 30 minutes. Will he address this new ceasefire deal in Ukraine? Will he discuss the apparent beheading of Steven Sotloff? We'll talk about that, plus new clues about ISIS and its executioner, what can be learned from the new video?

We're live from London after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. We have more breaking news for you this morning. Just moments ago, U.S. officials confirming, they have now analyzed the ISIS showing the apparent beheading of the American journalist Steven Sotloff, and they do say, they believe it is authentic.

Right now, investigators continue to study frame by frame of this video to find out what they can learn. You can see that black-hooded member of this Islamic extremist group behind him wielding that knife, this tape could contain clues that's not apparent to the rest of us, the untrained eye.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL GINSBERG, AUDIO ANALYST: The intelligence committee will go through every inch of this, every second, analyzing the electronic impulses, the audio, the video, the speech and voice identification, the geography, for whatever information it can provide, as well as the production techniques and any embedded information that may be there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Again, the news coming in just moments ago, the U.S. intelligence community now does believe that this video tragically is authentic.

So, the big question now this morning is there any evidence on that video that could lead the United States to Sotloff's executioner?

Karl Penhaul live from London this morning.

Good morning, Karl.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

British authorities are also working to try and gain whatever clues they can from that video and also compare it to the previous video in which James Foley was murdered two weeks ago. In fact, in a few moments, the Prime Minister David Cameron has concluded his meeting with the National Emergency Council. We would expect a statement from him shortly.

But what we can see from that video is that certainly, the video on August the 19, and the video that was released yesterday certainly appear to have been filmed with a number of days separation. Why? Because in the first video, Steven Sotloff appears shaven-headed and with no beard. And then in the video that we saw yesterday, he has a stubbly growth of hair and also a stubbly beard. So, a number of days have passed.

Also the executioner in that very familiar, apparently British accent also refers to bombing raids around the Iraqi town of Amerli. Those took place Saturday and Sunday. And that raises the possibility that Sotloff was murdered in just the last three days.

Bringing you on to the executioner, he certainly looking the same height, the same stature, the same build as the executioner we saw in the previous video. That accent, we ran that past a language expert and he says that he believes that the voice on both videos is the same. And he believes that is a multicultural accent from a multicultural region of the city of London, John.

BERMAN: Karl Penhaul for us in London -- thanks so much. London, in England, Britain is just one of the countries analyzing this video frame by frame to learn what they can. Our thanks to you.

ROMANS: And poring over the names of hundreds of young men who they think are British-born jihadists and where they are, their whereabouts and whether they could have been involved in this case.

All right. Twenty-seven minutes past the hour. We're following the very latest in the ISIS execution of the American journalist Steven Sotloff. All morning long, we're covering as that we await word from President Obama. He's set to speak to the media within the next 30 minutes.

We've got live team coverage of the president's arrival in Estonia and his speech and press availability after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)