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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Obama Authorizes Strikes in Syria, Iraq; The 13th Anniversary of 9/11; Did NFL Have Ray Rice Tape Back in April?; Judge Reading Verdict in Oscar Pistorius Murder Trial

Aired September 11, 2014 - 04:00   ET

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

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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All this following months of brutality by ISIS that has many concerned the terror group could be plotting to infiltrate and attack the U.S.

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country wherever they are. That means I will not hesitate to action against ISIL in Syria as well as Iraq. This is a core principle of my presidency. If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.

In Syria, we have ramped up our military assistance to the Syrian opposition. Tonight, I call on Congress, again, to give us additional authorities and resources to train and equip these fighters. In the fight against ISIL, we cannot rely on an Assad regime that terrorizes its own people, a regime that will never regain the legitimacy it has lost.

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's a very big moment for this country, a very big moment for his presidency. Will President Obama face resistance in Washington for his plans? Did he sell his plan to the American people, already weary of conflict overseas?

We're joined this morning by Mark Preston, the executive editor of CNN Politics, from in Washington. Mark, what's some of the early reaction to this address?

MARK PRESTON, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, CNN POLITICS: You know, John, we weren't necessarily surprised by what President Obama outlined last night. He talked about more air strikes. We've seen more than 150 air strikes so far by U.S. planes. He talked about more aid, humanitarian aid. He also talked about putting advisers on the ground. But what he was very specific about is that there would not be U.S. combat troops on the ground. That is something right now that the American public does not want to see. It is something the U.S. Congress does not want to see.

Early reaction from Congress is accepting and very much in many ways. However, they want more details. In the end, John, it looks like President Obama is going to get what he wants, but he's going to have to do a little more explaining when it comes specifically to the idea and the issue of having to train and arm moderate Syrian rebels.

ROMANS: Yes, and that's been such a strange issue. But because when you look at the conflicting allegiances in the -- the various enemies in the region, you've got to be very careful who you're arming and why, that those arms don't turn around to bite you in the end. For example, ISIS is attacking these people with American-made machinery in some cases.

Let's talk about the boots on the ground. There will not be soldiers fighting side-by-side with Iraqi forces. However, there will be more military advisers there. What is that? Is that CIA? Is that special ops? Do we know what these more military advisers look like?

PRESTON: Well, they haven't been specific. I mean, and -- you know, let's put this on the table. We already do have military advisers on the ground right now working with the Iraqi army. This is in addition to what we already have on the ground. The idea is to try to bolster up the forces, the Iraqi army, try to get that army back together and also to go across the border into Syria and get these moderate rebels more in unison with each other. Because in many ways, they're disparate. So that's what the United States is trying to do right now, Christine. The question is, is it going to work? Is it a little too late? We'll see those questions play out in the next couple days, next couple weeks, next couple years.

BERMAN: And, Mark, I want to ask you specifically about what will go on where you are sitting right now on Capitol Hill?

President Obama says he has the authority to launch air strikes against ISIS in Syria because of the resolutions that were passed way back in 2001 to battle against al Qaeda. So he's not asking for a vote on that specifically, but he is asking for a vote on this idea of training and equipping the rebels inside Syria. So there could be a vote on Capitol Hill in the coming days. Where do you see that headed?

PRESTON: Well, interesting, John. He's asking for support; he's not asking for necessarily the legal blessing to do so.

Just in a few hours, we'll see House Republicans meet to discuss this very option. The question is, because this is such a controversial measure, will this be part of a legislation that needs to pass by the end of the month to keep the federal government funded. Within two weeks, John, we're going to see Congress leave. They're going to go home and campaign. They need to pass legislation. Could they add this to that piece of legislation or could it be standalone? Right now, we know in the Senate they're trying to draft legislation that would be standalone to have it ready if needed. But it's something we'll see play out in the next 24 hours.

BERMAN: All right, Mark Preston for us on Capitol Hill. Thanks so much, Mark. Great to have you with us this morning. Nearly 500 additional U.S. personnel, as we've been saying, are being deployed to Iraq. This is part of the president's plan to degrade and destroy ISIS. When they arrive in about a week, that will make 1,600 American soldiers, or 1,700 depending how you count it, on the ground in Iraq. The president makes clear they are not there, though, for combat operations.

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OBAMA: We will send an additional 475 service members to Iraq. As I've said before, these American forces will not have a combat mission. We will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq. But they are needed to support Kurdish forces with training, intelligence, and equipment.

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BERMAN: Of course, merely being there could put them in harm's way.

I want to go live to Iraq now. We're joined by Anna Coren, live in the Northern part of that country, in Erbil. Anna, give us a sense of what these U.S. troops have been doing there over these last few months and how effective they've been in really moving the fighting forces there, the Kurds and the Iraqi military, forward in their battle against ISIS.

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDNET: Well, obviously the U.S. forces here very much protecting the U.S. personnel in the consulate, the embassy. That has been the mission from President Obama.

Well, that all changed when we heard the expansion of the mission here in Iraq and obviously those 475 U.S. soldiers joining those troops already here. They are assisting, they are advising, and they will be training. The Kurds, the Iraqis, they need more weaponry. They need better arms. They need the intelligence gathering. And this is where the Americans play a critical role.

They'll also take up that role of leadership, which has been sorely lacking here in Iraq. The Kurds and Iraqis have been operating very separately, as far as their military are concerned. And that hasn't been that effective. Yes, they've been taking the fight to ISIS on the ground with that critical U.S. air support. But, really, they need that leadership so that there is that cooperation and coordination with those U.S. air strikes.

The president announcing a systematic campaign, obviously an intensification from the Kurdish forces we have spoken to this morning, obviously here in Erbil and the Iraqis in Baghdad, they welcome this strategy that was outlined by the president. They were looking for commitment from President Obama. And as far as they're concerned, John, they got it.

BERMAN: And military sources are telling CNN it could be some weeks before we see action inside Syria, air strikes, but we could see an intensification where Anna Coren is right now in Iraq, in Erbil. Anna Coren, thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate it. ROMANS: It was the rapid pace at which ISIS grew this summer that got the attention of global leaders. The terror group managed to recruit to its ranks from around the globe, including the man who killed James Foley and Steven Sotloff, who's believed to be from Britain. It's that kind of global reach that the president says needs to be curtailed before it's too late.

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OBAMA: While, we have not yet detected specific plotting against our homeland, ISIL leaders have threatened America and our allies. Our intelligence community believes that thousands of foreigners, including Europeans and some Americans, have joined them in Syria and Iraq. Trained and battle hardened, these fighters could try to return to their home countries and carry out deadly attacks.

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ROMANS: Parts of Europe have already taken action with a terror threat level raised in London. That's where Arwa Damon is standing by with reaction to the president's address. Good morning, Arwa.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. And that threat level has been raised earlier this month from substantial to severe. There are varying estimates of exactly how many western fighters have joined the ranks of ISIS in Iraq and in Syria. Several thousand perhaps, but around 500 of them from the U.K. itself.

We recently spoke to a young man in his 20s, a Syrian who had defected from ISIS because of some sort of personal dispute, not because he disagreed with its ideology. But he had interacted, he said, with several of the western fighters that had joined its ranks, a number of them from the U.K. who said that now they joined ISIS, whether it's in Iraq or Syria, they considered their homelands, these western nations where they had grown up, to now be enemies because they too were viewed as being infidels.

He also said, this defector, telling CNN that, if these fighters were able to do so, they would, in fact, return home and carry out attacks on their homelands. But what prevented them were several security measures that were being put into place. Bottom line is, they are concerned about being arrested if they do try return to countries like the U.K. And that is why, for the time being, they are carrying out their so-called jihad inside Syria and Iraq.

We're also seeing a number of westerners fronting these various very sophisticated videos that ISIS is putting out. So, at this point in time, it is going to be a very challenging effort for the United States and this coalition that it has built, at the center of which are several European countries, to try to really defeat ISIS. Because, as we have been reporting, this is not just a battle that is going to be won in Iraq through air strikes, or even if those air strikes are carried out in Syria. This, at the essence of it, is a battle of an ideology, a radical ideology that is beginning to take over and gain momentum because of the fighting that is taking place in Iraq and Syria.

ROMANS: All right, Arwa Damon for us, live this morning in London. Thank you, Arwa.

BERMAN: Of course, the president's remarks were delivered on the eve of the 13th anniversary of 9/11. A ceremony today at the World Trade Center in New York begins with a moment of silence at 8:46. That is the minute the first plane hit the north tower. President Obama will mark the day with a ceremony at the Pentagon. Another ceremony will take place in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the fourth hijacked plane crashed after passengers rose up against the terrorists.

ROMANS: A hard day for a lot of people.

BERMAN: A hard day. An important day to remember.

New claims this morning the NFL saw the video of Ray Rice punching his girlfriend months ago. Who is now on this case as the Ravens owner explains why it took so long to cut Rice from that team.

ROMANS: Plus, new video and new witnesses in the Michael Brown shooting. How they say the unarmed black teenager was killed, next.

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ROMANS: The former director of the FBI is being brought in to investigate the NFL's response to the initial domestic abuse complaint against Ray Rice. A league spokesman says Robert Mueller will conduct an independent investigation into the NFL's pursuit of the evidence and how it handled that evidence.

This follows an Associated Press report that says a copy of the video, the video inside the elevator showing Rice punching his then-fiancee, punching her out cold, that copy was sent to the NFL in April. The AP cites a voicemail, a 12-second voicemail, reportedly from someone in the league office confirming that the NFL, someone at the NFL had watched that tape.

For its part, the NFL says, "We have no knowledge of this. We are not aware of anyone in our office who possessed or saw the video before it was made public on Monday. We will look into it."

Meantime, The Ravens owner, Steve Bisciotti, is speaking out for the first time since Rice was cut this week. He says he didn't see the video either. He admits he made assumptions about the incident.

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STEVE BISCIOTTI, BALTIMORE RAVENS OWNER: I was picturing her whaling on him, and him smacking her and maybe her head was this far from the wall and, with her inebriation, dropped. So why did I conclude all that? Because I wanted to. Because I loved him, because he had a stellar record, and the cops had already seen the video. So I assumed it wasn't a forceful blow that moved her head three feet into that wall.

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ROMANS: Wow. Think of that. The NFL -- multibillion dollar enterprise where you would assume something, not have an investigation. The Ravens take the field tonight for the first time since the new video emerged.

BERMAN: There are so many questions about this this morning. Did they have the video? If they did have the video, why didn't Goodell know about it? At a minimum, it's disorganization. At a maximum, it's malfeasance.

ROMANS: I mean, the amount of investigation they do of their recruits or the people they're pursuing, right? They've got FBI, former FBI people on their staff. Law enforcement, people who scrub every inch of someone who they're going to hire and pay -- and they have the infrastructure there for that. They chose not to do it.

BERMAN: There will be questions as it gets later and later today, so stay with CNN for this because I don't think this story is anywhere near over yet.

17 minutes after the hour. New witnesses, new video, and new protests in the Michael Brown case. You have to look at this. This cell phone video obtained by CNN shows two construction workers in the moments after Officer Darren Wilson shot the unarmed teen. One contractor can be heard saying, and seen gesturing how Brown had his hands up. You have to look at that right there. Meanwhile, police arrested 35 protesters Wednesday after they threatened to shut down Interstate 70 near Ferguson. Police say some demonstrators threw bricks, rocks, and bottles at officers. The protest was aimed at persuading Missouri's governor to appoint a special prosecutor in the Brown case. But that new video is what people will be talking about today.

ROMANS: Time for an EARLY START on Your Money. European stocks mixed this morning and U.S. future are lower right now. Stocks were up yesterday, Apple leading a surge in tech. Shares jumped more than 3 percent; they're back above $100 a share for Apple.

Your information for sale on the dark web again. A list of 5 million G-mail addresses and passwords appeared on a Russian Bitcoin forum. Google says its systems were not hacked; the log-ins seemed to have been collected through phishing and hacking over several years. So a lot of the information is out of date. Still, Google has locked out anyone whose information was leaked, redirecting them to reset their passwords. You should check, folks. Google is also advising users to create stronger passwords and use its two-step authentication feature.

Is it wrong that mine is "I like John Berman"?

BERMAN: It's amazing how many people use that, though. It's like A B C D E. It's very, very common.

Happening now. The judge in the Oscar Pistorius case is delivering her verdict. This could take hours, but she has begun reading her thoughts on the subject. Does she believe the Olympic hero killed his girlfriend in cold blood? Or was it all an accident? We're live in South Africa next.

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BERMAN: All right, high drama right now in a South African courtroom. At this moment, a judge is reading the verdict in the Oscar Pistorius murder case. This months-long trial comes to an end right now. Pistorius, of course, has been charged in the shooting death of his girlfriend. The case saw twists and turns, often teary-eyed Pistorius in the courtroom. Already he has been in tears this morning as this judge begins the long process of reading the verdict.

As we said, it is happening live right now. Our Kelly Phelps joins us in Pretoria. Kelly, give us a sense of what's happening, what this judge is doing, and what hints you have so far of what her decision might be.

KELLY PHELPS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, she started off rather slowly by simply recapping all of the charges and recapping the details of each side's argument. But she's gone in straightaway now to analyze the evidence pertaining to the murder charge.

And, critically, she started off by dealing with the evidence around the various neighbors who say they heard a woman screaming and the different sounds of gunshots they heard. And, essentially, it appears, she is leaning toward the defense's interpretations of what the sounds must have been. She has already decided the state's witnesses must have been mistaken about hearing Reeva Steenkamp scream. The only other person in the house was Mr. Pistorius himself. So despite the fact that they thought it was a woman, it must -- it can only have been the voice of Oscar Pistorius.

And this of course is a critical part of the murder trial because we know that it was the basis of that evidence of a woman screaming that the state had built almost entirely their murder charge on. So that will be a very significant blow to the state's case.

BERMAN: She says she trusts technology more than human memory here. And, Kelly, just quickly explain to our American audience, who hear that the verdict is being delivered right now, how this will take some time before we actually learn the decision from this judge on guilt or innocence.

PHELPS: Yes, we can see her whole verdict sitting on her lectern and it's a rather thick, lengthy document. And she will read through all of her reasoning, all of her deliberation, her view on the various competing pieces of evidence and testimony. And that is a lengthy process. And the reason this takes a long time in South Africa is because we don't have a jury system. So it becomes all the more important, for legitimacy reasons, that the judge makes her reasoning and the grounds of that reasoning absolutely clear to the public, but also very importantly, to the two legal teams in order to assess their prospects for appeal later on.

BERMAN: All right, Kelly Phelps for us in South Africa. Thanks so much. And to our audience out there, a reminder, this will be going on all morning. We will keep checking in to bring you the key relevant moments as this verdict is being read. But, as Kelly said, at this moment, the judge seems to be hinting that she accepts the defense side of this case a little bit more. But that could change, so stay with us.

ROMANS: It could change. President Obama revealing his strategy to extinguish ISIS using force, aid and diplomacy. Will it be enough? And how is the world reacting this morning to the president's remarks? We're live, next.

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