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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Obama Admits ISIS Was "Underestimated"; Al Qaeda's Warning to the West; Massive Protests in Hong Kong; Jeter Closes Out Career in Style

Aired September 29, 2014 - 05:00   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 fighting rages on in Iraq and Syria. We're going to take you to the ground live.

And 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 demonstrators. This morning, things have taken a turn. We are live with what's happening in Hong Kong ahead.

Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START, everyone. I'm Christine Romans. It is Monday, September 29th. It's 5:00 a.m. in the East. John Berman has the day off today.

A stunning admission by President Obama reverberating in Washington this morning. The president acknowledging on "60 Minutes" that the reason the rapid expansion of ISIS took officials by surprise is that intelligence agencies overestimated 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 say that -- just say that we underestimated ISIL. He said we overestimated the ability and the will of our 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 that another terrorist group won't take advantage of the ensuing chaos again -- Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: And that is one of those very big questions that remain. Thank you for that, Erin, McPike.

Now, those overestimated Iraqi soldiers are now getting a second chance from the Iraqi army even though they were defeated or fled in earlier battles. Iraq's government desperately needs trained soldiers to fight ISIS and is offering amnesty to former deserters. Officials say more than 11,000 have now signed up.

U.S.-led attacks against ISIS from the air continued Sunday. U.S. Central Command saying air strikes 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 this morning, 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.

I want to go there where Arwa Damon is this morning. She is there.

Arwa, you interviewed an ISIS fighter. You are there at the border where ISIS is very, very close to your position -- very close, moving in on Kobani. Give us the latest on the situation.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, just to give you an idea of how powerful ISIS continues to be, there have been airstrikes to the east of us. But behind us, that village is under control of ISIS. We have seeing their fighters moving around on motorcycles. There is an anti-aircraft machine gun mounted on the back of a vehicle. And right now, there are only two villages that stand between ISIS and the town of Kobani.

In this part of Syria, it is the last town standing. Now, we did speak exclusively in an incredibly rare interview with an active ISIS fighter. He had to get specific permission from his emir to be allowed to conduct the interview. And because since this coalition airstrikes began, ISIS has cut all communications from the city of Raqqa. He had to travel to the border with Iraq. We reach him on Skype, because I am a woman, he would speak directly to me. The conversation went through one of our male colleagues. But he was scoffing at this notion that the airstrikes on the oil and other installations were going to slow ISIS down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 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 additionally, he was saying and it does seem as if there are some gunfire in the background right now. But additionally, he was saying that what happened in Mosul, ISIS rapid takeover of Mosul, that was no coincidence at all.

Now, these people around us are watching the battle unfolding in front of them, say that it went on until the early hours of the morning. And we are continuing to hear bursts of gunfire at this stage. People here inside Turkey very concerned about what's happening on the other side. That part of Syria predominantly Kurdish. This part of Turkey as well. Many of those individuals around us have relatives on the other side.

And they fail to understand how it is that if we can see ISIS and what it's doing with our own eyes, the coalition isn't actually doing more to try to reduce ISIS's advance, especially towards the town of Kobani, so strategic for so many reasons. Less to say the refugee crisis that has been unfolding with 200,000 plus fleeing in about the last 10 days, but also because of its location.

If ISIS manages to take over the town of Kobani, there will be a straight shot from the Turkish border to the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa. And that is not something that anyone can afford see take place at this stage. That this is a critical battlefield that is unfolding behind us. One that again the Kurds, the Kurdish fighting force that so far has managed to keep ISIS outside of Kobani - well, they say they cannot do that indefinitely.

ROMANS: Clearly, a pivotal moment right now in the battle against ISIS for that part of Syria.

Arwa Damon, thank you so much. And please -- please stay safe there on the border with Turkey.

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

New details about a secret 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 had fired seven shots from a high-powered rifle at the White House back 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, the other was minutes away from returning home.

Time for an EARLY START on your money this morning. European and Asian markets are mostly lower. Escalating pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong sent the market there to the lowest levels since July. Here in the U.S., futures are lower this morning. Last week was a tough one for stocks. There was a rebound Friday but this is what the week look like. The Dow, the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 lost at least 1 percent for the week.

It was a bombshell announcement for Wall Street. A lot of drama still this morning about bond king Bill Gross, jumping ship from PIMCO, the firm he founded, to Janus Capital. And investors are reacting. Some investors with money at PIMCO, a $2 trillion firm gross founded, are already yanking cash from the company.

But analysts are advising against overreacting. They say Gross may be moving on, but he leaves behind a strong team at the world's largest bond fund manager. Gross' departure caught many off-guard. He is exiting to manage a newly launched bond fund at Janus. And the new heads at PIMCO say they have been working all weekend talking to their big investors. But a big drama in bond world, that's a big drama in the money world today.

All right. Pro-democracy protests taking over the streets of Hong Kong. Dozens injured as police and pro-democracy demonstrators clash in the streets. This morning, there is a change in the air. We're going to go live to Hong Kong and find out what's happening right now.

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

And thousands of flights canceled, but, oh, the problems are not over for airports in Chicago. Why this will have a ripple effect for travelers for weeks. That's after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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, becoming the target of police swinging batons and firing tear gas canisters. This follows a week of student-led pro-democracy boycotts and protests. At issue, the demonstrators see as the heavy hand of Beijing trying to control the outcome of the city's coming elections for the chief executive.

Standing by live in Hong Kong is CNN's Ivan Watson. And, Ivan, you remarked there are so many young people in the crowd.

Remarkable these are students and young people who don't like the heavy hand of Beijing and political process that is Hong Kong.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDEN: That's right. Christine, I feel like a really old man when I walk through these demonstrators who are out in the thousands and thousands behind me. And that's partially because these protests started exactly a week ago with student groups calling for boycotts of classes at colleges and universities and even high schools.

And that's not just for vacation, because education is highly prized here in Hong Kong. It is because they were angry at the system for elections in 2017. The students held protest after protest and they risked arrest. In fact, dozens of them were arrested on Friday, including a 17-year-old named Joshua Wong who helped organize the protests.

I covered those protests. They were smaller than the sea of humanity that you see behind me right now and that's partially because the arrests of these demonstrators, it seems to have galvanized the outpouring of people into the streets, into the highway behind me and really added fuel to this kind of popular fire that we see out here.

In addition, the fact that the security forces, the riot police used tear gas here, something that hasn't been seen in Hong Kong in nearly a decade. As you describe an island of stability, that also angered demonstrators and pushed more people out into the streets and now we see this real standoff where the demonstrators on the first working day have paralyzed downtown Hong Kong. What is normally a financial hub, a measure that could cost the Hong Kong economy millions of dollars. But it also shows how strongly people feel about this and how much they want to preserve as they put it, their democratic freedoms -- Christine.

ROMANS: We will watch and see the reaction from the Chinese government. They said these are outsiders at work here. We have seen China censoring, looks like they're censoring and blocking Instagram this morning from some of the pictures being uploaded of the police response. So, clearly, this is such a fascinating story. We'll check in with you again soon, Ivan. Thank you.

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

Today, police will present charges against the 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's 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. His motive is still under investigation. Officials say there are known apparently links to terror -- there are no apparent links to terrorism. But they say Nolen had recently been trying to convert coworkers to Islam.

Heavy rain and severe flooding leaving behind millions of dollars in 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 throughout this weekend. And there is more wet weather in forecast for today and tomorrow.

Indra Petersons has an EARLY START on your forecast.

Good morning, Indra.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning.

Probably the last thing they want to hear when you're still talking more rain in the forecast. Thanks to a stationary front. But yes, it is hanging right off Florida today. And that's going to be the concern. A little low, kind of rotating around it, enhancing the amount of showers that they will be seeing.

So, today, yes, in the same region, we're talking about flood advisories, thanks to some heavy rainfall. We could see two to four inches. Isolated amounts could be as high as even four to six inches of rain into an area where they're already concerned with heavy amounts of rain really for the last several days.

The other story is out toward the West. What are we watching? This is the big system that's going to bring in cold air and even a chance for some severe weather today, kind of in to the southern plains and southwest.

The big story and how it affects the rest of you is that cold pool of air is going to start making its way farther east. So, first in the Midwest, you are going to notice this drop. You talk about a drop. Look at Marquette, 79 goes to 47 today. That's over a 30-degree temperature drop and it doesn't stay just in the Upper Midwest.

There is the cold pool of air today, right? You can see the green. We're going to simplify this for you. By tomorrow, making its way to the Midwest, notice the drop. It advances to Chicago. And then, by the end of the week, a couple of days away, already making its way even into the Northeast. So, everyone is going to be feeling a little bit of this chill, making

its way farther to the east, also meeting some showers by the end of the week for us as well.

ROMANS: It was summer this weekend in the Northeast.

PETERSONS: So nice.

ROMANS: So, fall must come at some point.

PETERSONS: At some point.

ROMANS: Thank you so much, Indra.

PETERSONS: Sure.

ROMANS: All right. Derek Jeter wrapping up his legendary 20-year career. Andy Scholes will tell you how it all finished in the "Bleacher Report", next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: All right. Derek Jeter's historic career has now come to an end. The Yankees captain playing in his last game against the Red Sox at Fenway yesterday afternoon.

Andy Scholes has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report". Hey, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, BLEACHER REPORT: Hey, good morning, Christine.

You know, the search is now on for the new face of baseball. Derek Jeter playing in the final game of his historic 20-year career yesterday. Now, before the game, the Red Sox showered Jeter with a few more retirement gifts, including a custom-made respect Fenway placard.

In this second at bat at the game, Jeter hit this chopper and it would go for an RBI single and that would be the final hit of Jeter's career. He comes out of the game to a standing ovation after the hit. The fans chanting, "Derek Jeter, thank you, Derek." Fenway faithful showing their (INAUDIBLE). That's Jeter's mom right there, trying to hold back the tears -- just an awesome moment in a perfect ending to an incredible career.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEREK JETER, NEW YORK YANKEES: You know, you want to be known as someone who had respect for the game and respect for your teammates, respect for the fans, respect for the media, played the game hard.

But for me, I'm happy being known as a Yankee. That is all I wanted to be, was a shortstop for the New York Yankees. I had the opportunity to do that for parts of 20 years. So, being remembered as a Yankee is good enough for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SCHOLES: The Washington Nationals, they are heading to the post- season. Jordan Zimmerman wrapped up their regular season in style. He was on his game against the Marlins striking out ten. He was one out away from a no hitter when this ball hit deep to left center. Check this out, Steven Sosa, that amazing catch. That gave Zimmerman the no-hitter. I say Zimmerman owes Sousa a steak dinner for that. Post-season started on Tuesday on our sister network TBS.

Trending on bleacherreport.com this morning, last night's NFL game with the Cowboys absolutely destroyed the Saints. Tony Romo and his surgically repaired back looked just fine. He threw for three touchdowns and the league's leading rusher, DeMarco Murray. He ripped through the Saints defense like me with a beignet on Bourbon Street. Cowboys were to win this game easily, 38-17.

Now, Philadelphia Eagles, the NFC East rival, they are looking for a 4-0 start to their season yesterday. They took on the Niners. In the first half, they a blocked punt, interception and (INAUDIBLE) touchdown. When that happens, your team likely going to win. But their offense is nonexistent. They ain't touchdown all day. The 49ers came storming back and Nick Foles last second chance is picked off. San Francisco gets the win, 26-21.

Back to the Major League Baseball post-season, Christine, first time since 1993 that we're not going to have both the Yankees and the Red Sox or one of them in the playoffs. So, not sure how many people in New York or Boston are going to be watching this year.

ROMANS: I know, I know, I have to channel Berman. I don't know what he would say about the last hit from Jeter at Fenway.

SCHOLES: You know what he would say.

ROMANS: What an amazing, what a classy, classy response from the crowd.

SCHOLES: It was great. Red Sox fan, Yankee fan, everyone, standing ovation.

ROMANS: That was cool.

SCHOLES: Yes.

ROMANS: All right. Andy Scholes, nice to see you.

Twenty-six minutes past the hour. President Obama on the record about the mistakes his administration made during the rise of ISIS. We got that for you, next.

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