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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Obama: U.S. Underestimated Rise of ISIS; Al Qaeda's Warning to the West; Massive Protests in Hong Kong

Aired September 29, 2014 - 04:00   ET

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Underestimating the enemy. President Obama on the record about the mistakes his administration made in the rise of ISIS. This as the fighting rages on in Iraq and Syria. We're going to take you live to the ground.

An al Qaeda leader's new warning to the West. How the terror group says it will seek revenge for U.S. airstrikes in Syria.

Massive protests filling the streets of Hong Kong. Police launching tear gas at thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators. But this morning, things have taken a turn. We are live, ahead.

Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans for you this Monday morning. John Berman is sleeping in this morning. He has the morning off. Four a.m. in the East.

We welcome all of our viewers here in the United States and around the world.

A stunning admission by President Obama reverberating in Washington this morning. The president acknowledging on "60 Minutes" Sunday night that one reason the rapid expansion of ISIS took officials by surprise is that intelligence agencies underestimated ISIS and overestimated the ability of the Iraqi military to fight off the terror group.

CNN's Erin McPike has more from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, in a new interview with CBS' "60 Minutes", President Obama acknowledges that the U.S. intelligence community did underestimate the strength of ISIS and what it was doing to set up its operations inside Syria. And then he said that that is the context for how the United States is going to have to go forward in battling terrorism in the future. This idea that terrorist groups can take advantage of a Middle Eastern nation torn apart by a civil war that has descended into chaos.

Listen here to more of what he said in that interview.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think our head of the intelligence community, Jim Clapper, has acknowledged that I think they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He didn't just say that we underestimated ISIL. He said we overestimated the ability and will of the allies, the Iraqi army, to fight.

OBAMA: That's true. That's absolutely true.

MCPIKE: But a lingering question from this interview and what President Obama has said in the past month, this idea that the U.S. with some support was able to quash al Qaeda, but it has now reconstituted itself in Syria as ISIS by taking advantage of the chaos there. What is to say another terrorist group won't take advantage of the ensuing chaos again -- Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: That is a big question. Thank you so much for that, Erin McPike.

Those estimated Iraqi soldiers are now getting a second chance from the Iraqi military, even though they were defeated or they fled -- they fled in earlier battles. Iraq's government needs trained soldiers to fight ISIS is now offering de facto amnesty to deserters, to former deserters. Officials more than 11,000 signed up.

U.S.-led attacks against ISIS from the air continued Sunday. U.S. Central Command saying airstrikes in Syria hit an ISIS tank, four modular oil refineries and a command and control center. In Iraq, targets included an ISIS safe house and check points.

But ISIS is still taking new territory in Syria. Shelling intensified Sunday on the town of Kobani, driving a new wave of refugees up against the nearby border with Turkey.

We go there now. CNN's Arwa Damon is there now live.

Arwa, this morning, you interviewed an ISIS fighter, an amazing interview. What did he tell you?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We did. But before we get to that, just to give you an idea where we were, that village right behind me, that is inside Syria and that is under ISIS' control.

There were fierce battles here that lasted well into the early hours of the morning, relatively speaking calm right now. We did hear a couple of explosions in the distance. ISIS gaining territory here. There were a few airstrikes to the east that took place earlier, but the people gathered, saying they want the coalition doing more.

Meanwhile, we did manage to speak exclusively with an ISIS fighter inside the city of Raqqa. The interview took place over Skype, and because ISIS had cut off communications in Raqqa, this man who goes by the pseudonym of Abu Tulha (ph) traveled to the Iraqi border to conduct the interview, because I am a woman, he refused directly to me, so the conversation went through one of our male colleagues. He was scoffing at the U.S. airstrikes on the oil and other installation.

ISIS FIGHTER (through translator): We, the Islamic State, we have revenue other than oil. We have other avenues and our finances are not going to stop just because of oil losses. They hit us in some areas and we advance in others. If we are pushed back in Iraq, we advance in northern Syria. These strikes cannot stop us, our support or our fighters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAMON: And that is exactly why that determination that ISIS appears to have that people here are saying they want to see the U.S. and coalition do more. They fail to understand how it is that ISIS can blatantly be controlling areas like the ones behind me and not have the American and other air power come in and do something about this situation. They are trying to push toward a town of Kobani. That is a town under siege and has been under siege for well over a week now, almost ten days at this stage.

It is on the brink of being greater humanitarian crisis than it already has been in the past, with well over 200,000 people fleeing in the last 10 days from Syria into Turkey. And inside Kobani, in and itself, great concerns because of lack of electricity, water, food, costs skyrocketing according to residents we've spoken to, and a lot of fear.

ROMANS: So interesting, Arwa, to hear from that ISIS fighter who is saying, almost bragging that it's not just oil, not just oil money that we have -- which is true, ransom money, protection, outright theft. I mean, that's how ISIS has been filling its coffers.

Give me a sense -- you say people on the ground want more from the United States and coalition. They want more done. What is it they want? They want more air strikes? What do they think the United States should do? What are people there telling do you think the United States should do?

DAMON: Actually, just as you were asking that, one of the gentlemen I was hearing him saying to the crowd, when is America going to come and help us? When are the airstrikes going to be coming in that are supposed to be saving us?

So, at least when it comes to the crowd here, they want to see more firepower used because they feel as if ISIS is still moving around this battlefield just across the border with a certain level of impunity. And they failed to understand how the international coalition that's been put together, led by America, is allowing this to continuously take place. They feel as if ISIS going to close in on Kobani, that that is a city and town holding out as best as it can, but it won't be able to hold out indefinitely.

People say if America and coalition want to prove that they are against ISIS, there does need to be more to do to stop ISIS' advance.

ROMANS: All right. Arwa Damon for us on the Turkey-Syria border, thank you so much, Arwa. We'll check in with you again later this morning.

The head of al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria is calling the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS a crusader alliance and vowing to fight back. In a rare audio statement, the leader of the al Nusra militants warns his own fighters to reject Western help in Nusra's own battle against ISIS. U.S. officials see al Nusra as a terrorist group, but Syrian rebels view it as an ally in their fight against both ISIS and Syrian President Bashar al Assad.

U.S. intelligence is working to confirm this morning whether a leader of the al Qaeda-linked Khorasan group was killed in a U.S. airstrike on Syria last week. A jihadist Twitter account offered the condolences of the Khorasan operative. But deputy national security advisor Tony Blinken said Sunday that he couldn't confirm the report. U.S. intelligence wanted to be sure the Khorasan leader wasn't trying to fake his death and go underground.

Now to northwest Pakistan where a U.S. drone strike has killed four suspected militants there. Two of the dead are described as citizens of Arab nations. No identities have been released yet. The Sunday attack targeted a vehicle parked outside the house in the Waziristan region. It's the second U.S. drone strike there in less than a week.

An American doctor exposed to the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone is back home this morning. Being kept in isolation at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, that's where health officials are conducting one of the first clinical trials on an experimental Ebola vaccine.

Meanwhile, Liberia's chief medical officer has just quarantined herself and everyone in her office for three weeks after an assistant died of Ebola. The virus spreading so quickly now, there are concerns the U.S. military response may not be rapid enough to help control the outbreak. Navy troops in Liberia just beginning work now on building a dozen tent hospitals to treat the sick and dying. But six months into this outbreak, doctors, beds and medical supplies remain scarce in West Africa. The virus has now officially killed more than 3,000 people. The World Health Organization warns that number vastly underestimated.

New details about a Secret Service security lapse that could have put the lives of President Obama's daughters at risk. According to "The Washington Post", it took the Secret Service four days to realize a man fired seven shots from a high power rifle at the White House in 2011. Oscar Ortega Hernandez of Idaho was caught and convicted only because he wrecked his car blocks away and left his weapons inside. One of the president's daughters was home at the time and one was minutes away from returning home.

All right. Ten minutes past the hour. Time for an EARLY START in your money this morning.

European and Asian markets are mostly lower, escalating pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong sent the market to its lower levels there in Asia since July.

Last week was a tough one for stocks. Despite a rebound Friday, Dow, the NASDAQ, and S&P 500 each lost about 1 percent for the week.

Getting your hands on money just got more expensive, by the way. ATM fees surged this year. That's according to a new survey by Bankrate. Out of network fees jumped 5 percent to a new high, on average. Customers charged $4.35 per transaction.

Bankrate also reports the high fees kept most people from using such ATMs. That's part of the problems. Banks hike fees to make up for the loss, and there's no sign of that slowing down. ATM fees skyrocketed 23 percent in the past five years.

All right. Hong Kong paralyzed by protests, pro-democracy protests taking over the street, dozens injured as police and pro-democracy demonstrators clash. This morning, there is a change in the air. We are live in China with what's happening right now.

Plus, a man accused of beheading his coworker. His family breaking their silence, ahead.

And thousands of flights canceled, but the problems are not over. Not over yet for airports in Chicago. Why this will trouble travelers for weeks, after the break.

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ROMANS: One of Asia's most stable financial centers filled with protesters this morning. Huge crowds of demonstrators began filling the streets of Hong Kong Saturday, wow, becoming the target of police swinging batons, firing tear gas. This follows a week of student-led pro-democracy boycotts and protests. At issue, what the demonstrators see is the heavy hand of Beijing trying to control the outcome of the city's coming elections for chief executive.

Standing by live in Hong Kong this morning is CNN's Ivan Watson.

And, Ivan, when I look at these pictures, I mean, it looks to me this is the biggest display of this sort in Hong Kong that we've since at least 1997 when China took over again control of this once British colony. I mean, this is a huge outpouring.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Certainly, Christine. We've never seen downtown Hong Kong paralyzed like this, occupied by a pro-democracy sit-in of this size. You've got thousands and thousands of people, mostly young residents of Hong Kong who are standing up to their own government here in this former British colony, as well as standing up to the ruling communist party in mainland China, saying they want more democracy. They do not want what one opposition leader here described as a sham democracy where in projected elections in 2017, the central government in China could basically vet and hand pick nominees to run for office to rule Hong Kong. They say they want what they describe as universal suffrage.

Now, the scene here is pretty calm right now, though as you can see the main highway that runs through the center of the financial hub is completely blocked. It has been for hours now. The riot police have pulled back since early this morning and late last night when we were in the very location getting hit occasionally by tear gas coming from the riot police. Those heavy handed tactics deplored by the demonstrators as well as opposition leaders and by the main lawyers association here as well. There have been calls for boycotts of going to university and going to school. A number of trade unions have also joined in to this call for a general strike.

We're in unchartered waters for Hong Kong and just have to see where this goes in this test of wills between the people in the streets and the local government here in Hong Kong. And, of course, the central government in mainland China -- Christine.

ROMANS: Absolutely. The Chinese government above all wants stability and this is not the kind of action that leads to stability. Very interesting.

We will check in with you again soon. Ivan Watson for us in Hong Kong this morning.

Here at home, it could take weeks to restore full service to Chicago's fire damaged air traffic control center. Thousands of flights into and out of O'Hare and Midway Airport have been canceled, disrupting flights nationwide. Police say an employee, 36-year-old Brian Howard intentionally set that fire on Friday and then attempted suicide, attempted to commit suicide. He survived. He is facing felony charges this morning.

Protests flaring again overnight in Ferguson, Missouri. Close to 100 demonstrators assembling across the street from the Ferguson police department. At least seven people were arrested.

Meanwhile, there's a manhunt under way for the gunman who shot a Ferguson police officer in the arm Saturday night. Officials say the incident is not connected to weeks of protests over the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown.

Today, police will present charges against a man suspected in a gruesome beheading in Oklahoma. Alton Nolen will be charged with murder in the first degree and assault with a deadly weapon. He is also facing separate charges from the FBI. Over the weekend, his mother spoke out defending her son in a video posted to Facebook.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOYCE NOLEN, MOTHER OF ALTON NOLEN: I know what they are saying that he done. Well, I will tell you this, that's not my son. There's two sides to every story, and we're only hearing one. His family, our hearts bleed right now, because what they are saying Alton has done. I want to apologize to both families because this is not Alton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Nolen allegedly beheaded one woman and attacked another at an Oklahoma food processing plant where he had worked.

Heavy rain and severe flooding leaving behind millions of dollars and property damage in northern Florida from New Smyrna Beach to Orman Beach. Several roadways are still shutdown, parts of the Palm Coast have already absorbed 18 inches of rain through this weekend. And there is more wet weather in the forecast for today and tomorrow.

It was a fitting end to a story to 20-year career. Derek Jeter's final at bat, a run scoring single against the Red Sox helping the Yankees win his last game in pinstripes. After the hit, Jeter was removed for a pinch runner. Red Sox fans chanting his name and giving him a standing ovation as he hugged each of his teammates one last time. He said he reveled in the rivalry and was glad to be part of it.

All right. Twenty minutes past the hour. Dozens killed when a volcano suddenly erupts. Hundreds of hikers stranded. We're live with this one, next.

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ROMANS: A somber recovery mission happening right now in central Japan. Crews airlifting bodies out of an area near the summit of Mt. Ontake. At least 37 people presumed dead after this volcano's summit erupted.

Will Ripley is there for us with the very latest.

What's happening right now, Will?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine, they had to cut the rescue efforts short because the conditions at the summit of Japan's second highest volcano as this become too dangerous.

So, I want to show you what it looks like at the top of the mountain. We had continuous smaller eruptions happening since that big eruption on Saturday just before noon, when the mountain was full of recreational hikers who were there enjoying the peak autumn viewing season. You see there's so much gas and ash shooting up from the volcano right now, which is hard to even distinguish the top of the mountain from the smoke plume, which is disrupting air travel in this area.

And it's also raining ash and embers down over an area several miles, including where we are standing near a roadblock, where civilians aren't allowed to get much further. We have been wearing gas masks in between our live shots. We have helmets just n case more dangerous embers start to fall.

And in the news that's coming off the mountain before rescuers had to cut off their search efforts is very grim. They have been hiking through knee-deep ash and they discovered five more lifeless bodies at the summit today, bringing now the total of 36 people who are presumed dead, 12 of them so far, have been identified, Christine. So, it's really heartbreaking news for the families who are gathering here. People who know these climbers who went to this mountain to enjoy the scenery and then got caught in the middle of this horrible eruption without any warning over the weekend.

ROMANS: Without any warning, that eruption on Saturday, and still trying to assist the damage at the summit.

Thank you so much for that, Will. We'll check in with you again next hour. Thanks, Will.

President Obama on record -- on the record now about his mistakes, the administration made, during the rise of ISIS. We have that for you next.

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