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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

ISIS Claims Responsibility for Texas Shooting; Clinton Ready to Testify on Benghazi, E-Mails; Huckabee Set to Launch 2016 Campaign; Obama Relaunches Mentoring Non-Profit. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired May 05, 2015 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:00] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news this morning. Just minutes ago, we learned that ISIS is claiming responsibility for the shooting in Texas, where two men tried to shoot their way into the contest of trying to draw the Prophet Mohammed. Again, this news breaking just moments ago.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman. It is Tuesday, May 5th. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East.

In new details this morning, about the attack on that contest in Garland, Texas. There is new information about the two men killed by police as they tried to shoot their way into the contest to draw cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Police say that even though the gunmen wore body armor and carried assault rifles, a local police officer was able to bring them down with his service pistol.

Officials say the two gunmen drove to Garland from Phoenix, Arizona, where they were roommates. There were also signs of a motive perhaps. Just before the attack, one of the gunmen posted a tweet linking himself to ISIS.

We're going to get more on the claim of responsibility by ISIS which just broke, but let's get the details from in the ground in investigation in Phoenix. Kyung Lah is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, this is the apartment where the two men were roommates. We are learning more about each of them.

Nadir Soofi is one of the gunmen, a Pakistani source with knowledge about the family speaks to CNN saying that Soofi has a Pakistani father and a mother described as a white American. When they divorced, he and his brother moved with their father to Pakistan. He went to a prestigious elite school in Islamabad. And then, suddenly, he and his brother decided to leave the country. We don't know exactly why.

We know from his mosque that Soofi had a pizza shop here. He also had a son.

We also know more about Elton Simpson, he is the other gunmen. He has a criminal record. In 2011, he was convicted of lying to federal authorities. At the time, the investigation tried to stick him with an international terrorism charge. That did not come to fruition.

His family is not Muslim. We hear from his mosque that he converted around high school age.

And even though he did have that conviction in 2011, the president of his mosque says that he didn't have any displays of violence. He didn't have any warning signs that he could see.

Investigators have now combed through the apartment. They have been walking out with box upon box of evidence. They are trying to make the connection between what happened with these men and how they turned into lone wolves -- John.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right. Our thanks to Kyung Lah for that report from Phoenix.

Before we move on, let me update you on our breaking news. ISIS in a report on their official radio channel has now claimed responsibility for that attack in Garland, Texas. The announcer on the radio station says two of their al Khilafa soldiers attacked the event in Garland. That is how ISIS often refers to its followers around the world, al Khilafa soldiers.

The broadcast on the radio station says these men opened fire at the direction of the exhibit. One security guard was injured. He was. In this ISIS radio report says the two brothers, as they say, died in an exchange of gunfire.

Again, the significance here, ISIS claiming responsibility for this attack in Garland, Texas, that took place Sunday night. Now, it is possible ISIS is claiming responsibility even though they had no direct knowledge before or during. Nevertheless, the international terror group is trying to draw connections with what happened here in the United States. Much more on that claim in moments.

Members of the phoenix mosque that both gunmen attended, they claim they are in shock this morning. The mosque president Usama Shami says that Elton Simpson was a regular until about five years ago. That's around the time the FBI arrested Simpson on a false statement charge. The mosque president also says that a few months ago, Simpson stopped going to services at all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

USAMA SHAMI, PRESIDENT, ISLAMIC COMMUNITY CENTER OF PHOENIX: You have, you know, two members that they didn't show any signs of radicalization or any signs of even thinking about those things in that manner. So, when that happens, it just shocks that, you know, how good did you know these people? That's a question that people ask themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: Simpson's family has released a statement that calls the shooting a senseless act of violence. The statement says, "As a family, we do not condone violence and we proudly support the men and women of our law enforcement agencies. We are sure that many people in this country are curious to know if we had any idea of Elton's plans. To that we say, without question, we did not. Just like everyone in our beautiful country, we are struggling to understand how this could happen."

[05:05:02] The organizer of the Texas event is defending the event. Pamela Geller compared the cartoon contest that they were holding to the French magazine "Charlie Hebdo". And she told CNN's Jake Tapper that the attack proved how necessary the event was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAMELA GELLER, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FREEDOM DEFENSE INITIATIVE: We held an event in defense of free speech. The objective was first to show depictions of Mohammed over the past 400 years, where they didn't slaughter people for drawing them in pieces of art work. So, we know that this is being used by Islamic supremacists who seek to impose the Sharia restrictions on free speech in the West.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Right.

GELLER: And it's working. It's working because the media won't run cartoons. If the media had run cartoons in 2005, if all the media had, there would never have been this power given to it. Now, anyone that runs cartoons is targeted.

TAPPER: OK.

GELLER: But if all the media had run it, you couldn't kill everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The keynote speaker at the event, the Dutch politician Geert Wilders. He is a long time ally of Pamela Geller. This morning, Wilders was already back in the Netherlands, where he has a history as a critic of Islam. At the Texas event, which was on Sunday, Wilders kept true to form, criticizing those who question the cartoon contest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEERT WILDERS, DUTCH POLITICIAN: They want to prohibit cartoons, books and films which they find insulting. And our answer is: don't mess with Texas.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

Don't mess with the free West and don't mess with our freedom of speech.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That was Geert Wilders who spoke at this event over the weekend in Texas. Again, our breaking news this morning, on their radio channel, ISIS is claiming responsibility for this attack.

I want to bring in CNN's Atika Shubert.

Good morning, Atika.

You know, ISIS claims responsibility, although I suppose we don't have direct evidence it was ordered by ISIS yet.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is obviously the question, whether or not they ordered it, or whether or not the two men who carried out this attack were aspiring to be members of ISIS and had now been accepted after what happened. I think what's clear is that ISIS essentially supports these lone wolf attacks. When you see an attack like what happened in Texas or against "Charlie Hebdo" in Paris, it's not clear that these attacks were ordered by ISIS.

But if the perpetrators say they swear allegiance to is, it is accepted after their death. Then ISIS claims responsibility. Unfortunately, these are the hardest attacks to stop, John.

BERMAN: Yes, it may be a distinction without a difference here, Atika, because if people are inspired by ISIS to commit attacks and do carry out these attacks. It may be completely irrelevant if they took direct orders to do it or not. The fact is the attacks are happening.

The target of the attack this time was the event in Texas, the keynote speaker, a man well-known in Europe, well-known to you, you know, Geert Wilders. A Dutch right wing politician who is apparently on the al Qaeda hit list.

SHUBERT: Exactly, and he's on the al Qaeda hit list because of his outspoken anti-Muslim statement. I mean, this is a man who has campaigned for freedom of speech and goes to events like the draw Muhammad event. But at the same time here in Europe, he is known for wanting to have the Koran, Islam's holy book, banned.

So, he is not exactly a proponent of freedom of speech, but against the religion of Islam. And this is what has made him famous, notorious if you will throughout Europe. In fact, he's been banned from entering quite a few European countries.

He is now back in the Netherlands and he is almost certainly going to be continuing with his very controversial schedule of speeches. He is a member of parliament. So, he has put out on his Twitter feed pictures of the event in Garland, Texas, clearly showing his support for that draw Muhammad contest that was happening there.

BERMAN: Yes, controversial, but as the administration points out, and so many have pointed out, controversy does not justify being the target of what really does seem to be now a terror attack.

Atika Shubert for us in London, thank you so much.

Other news right now, Hillary Clinton says she is willing to testify about the Benghazi attacks and her use of personal e-mail while she was secretary of state, but she is willing to testify just one time. Her attorney is taking issue with the request that the former secretary appear before a House committee twice -- once to focus on Benghazi and again to discuss her e-mails.

In a letter to the committee chairman, the attorney for Mrs. Clinton says there is no basis, logic or precedent for the double-dip request. Mrs. Clinton is prepared to testify as early as May 18th.

The State Department says there is no evidence that any actions taken by Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state, no evidence they were influenced by donations to the Clinton Foundation or speaking fees for former President Bill Clinton.

[05:10:08] The statement comes as a new book raises questions about Secretary Clinton being influenced by sizable foreign donation to the family foundation.

President Obama is expected to nominate Marine Corps Commander Joe Dunford to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Dunford will succeed General Martin Dempsey who is retiring. In his new post, General Dunford will be the top military advisor to the president and the secretary of defense. He previously commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan and was instrumental to overseeing the drawdown of U.S. troops there.

Former Governor Mike Huckabee will announce his run for president again. He will announce his candidacy this morning in his hometown of Hope, Arkansas -- also the home town of Mr. Bill Clinton.

Governor Huckabee ran back in 2008. He won the caucuses in Iowa. He actually won seven states total. He is the sixth declared Republican candidate so far for 2016. And his announcement comes a day after retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina enter the race.

Time now for an early start on your money. Cristina Alesci here with that.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Well, I've been watching futures fluctuate all morning, but they're barely moving right now. Yesterday, stocks rose for the second straight day. S&P added six points. It is less than 1 percent away from the record. Dow and NASDAQ are close to record territory thanks to strong manufacturing reports.

And we've got news out of McDonald's. It finally unveiled some details on how it's going to reverse that slide in sales. The company said it will cut costs by franchising more restaurants, and that, quote-unquote, "modernize" its brand. They will offer very few details. One note: it is testing out flavors like jalapeno and pico guacamole.

But investors weren't that impress with the plan. The stock close down 1.6 percent. Not only did it close down, John, it was down when they made the announcement, it was down when the CEO tried to clarify on the analysts calls, and it was down when they tried to clarify even more on the media calls. So, all attempts to spin this in a positive light fell flat.

BERMAN: Investors want to see some numbers turnaround.

ALESCI: Exactly.

BERMAN: Thanks, Cristina. Thanks so much.

Happening now, Baltimore's top prosecutor is defending charges against six police officers now accused in Freddie Gray's death. That happening as the president unveils a new plan to bridge the gap with young black men and police. The president went on David Letterman while you were sleeping. We'll tell you what he said.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:15:37] BERMAN: All right. Our breaking news this morning: ISIS is taking responsibility, claiming responsibility for the attack Sunday night on a contest in Garland, Texas to draw cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. On the official ISIS radio channel, an ISIS announcer said that two al Khilafa soldiers attacked the event. Al Khilafa is a term that ISIS uses to refer to its own fighters. The announcer described the shootout and said the two brothers died in the exchange of gunfire. Again, ISIS claiming responsibility. Whether they directed this attack, that still remains to be seen.

I want to bring in CNN's Nick Paton Walsh, who has spent so much time covering the situation surrounding ISIS. Nick joins us by phone this morning. Nick, I suppose it was only a matter of time before ISIS tried to claim some kind of direct connection to these attacks.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Absolutely. And, John, what is clear here, is that they do not have those kind of key details investigators would expect some details to have if they were involved in planning of this particular attack. That doesn't preclude them of having any fruitful knowledge of it.

But this is one of the factors about ISIS in the modern age of social media. They can be franchise these different operations to people, or they can simply never been in contact with the Texas gunman at all before this attack. And then afterwards, once that pledge of allegiance or claim to be working on ISIS behalf is out there from the attackers in posthumous recordings or tweets beforehand, they can say yes, that was one of our operations.

Now, chillingly in this, they do say there are potentially future attacks. I quote, "We say for the defenders of the cross, the U.S., future attacks are going to be harsher and worse. The Islamic state soldiers will inflict harm on you with the grace of god. The future is just around the corner."

Now, that obviously is part of their propaganda, designed to instill fear, as a speech point out, of course, this Texas attack, it failed quite remarkable. But in the statement they make, John, they refer to al Khilafa soldiers. Now, that soldiers of the caliphate. That's a self-defined, self-declared area of Syria and Iraq, which ISIS now declared to be their caliphate, headed by the Caliph Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, their leader.

Now, obviously, this is a statement from their official radio station, which is said to be headquartered in Raqqa or Mosul, depending on who you're listening to. And they say that two brothers died in the exchange of gun fire where the security guard was injured. So, sparse details but this just helps to add to that sense kind of bluster in social media around ISIS supporters, that this perhaps may have had involvement that ISIS command in planning.

But key here, John, no suggestion in the statements as yet that there is prior knowledge or specific details that point to them having had a hand in actually making this happen, claiming it as one of theirs -- John.

But that in and of itself, Nick, may not be relevant, because the model of terror in some cases over the last decade has changed from al Qaeda centrally planning centralized attacks to groups like ISIS calling on followers all over the world to take up arms independently with rocks, even if they have to. It could be that is what happened here. That the call, the ISIS call, was taken up by these independent actors -- who could be independent actors in Phoenix, Arizona, who took it upon themselves inspired by ISIS to drive to Texas to shoot up this event.

WALSH: Absolutely. That is one of the biggest challenges facing investigators and officials in the years ahead. But you used to have a model to plot leaders who had a network, who would communicate, who would give instructions, and you could intercept those and perhaps work out what happens next. Now, you simply have a number of individuals, some with previous brushes with law enforcement, like in this case, who may just simply take it upon themselves to read something on the Internet or the Boston marathon bombers perhaps find a magazine that teaches them how to make a bomb, even thought one of those bombers spent time in Dagestan, didn't seem to actually much successful contact with extremists.

You have this lone wolf model now which is extraordinarily hard to intercept. Even if you have previous contact with these individuals and they go to ground for years like we saw in the "Charlie Hebdo" attacks in Paris, one of the gunman having allegiance to ISIS in a posthumous video he left there, but going seemingly underground for a period of time before the actual attack.

[05:20:14] You have this very complex model now which is hard to intercept, which is hard to prevent and leaves very little trace to the attack itself that kept terror officials could latch onto -- John.

BERMAN: Our Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much.

Again, the breaking news coming in a few minutes ago this morning on their official radio channel in the Middle East. ISIS is now claiming responsibility for the shooting attacks in Texas which left both shooters dead. We will have more on this in just a few moments.

Baltimore's top prosecutor is defending charges against the six police officers accused in connection with Freddie Gray's death. We'll have her response, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. Developing this morning, friction between Baltimore's top prosecutor and the police department, when prosecutor Marilyn Mosby announced the arrest of six police officers, in connection with the death of Freddie Gray. Police officials in the city were stunned. They insist they were working around the clock on their own investigation. They accuse the state's attorney, Mosby, of a rush to judgment.

The Fraternal Order of Police also claims that the attorney has a conflict of interest. In an exclusive interview with CNN, Mosby brushed aside the criticism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARILYN MOSBY, BALTIMORE STATE ATTORNEY: My job is to seek justice and to apply justice fairly and equally to everybody -- no matter what their color, their creed, their religion, their ethnicity.

[05:25:07] SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do you think you can do that beyond the reasonable doubt, in perhaps the biggest case of your life?

MOSBY: Absolutely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: President Barack Obama says he is working to help America's most impoverished urban communities. He visited the Bronx to relaunch My Brother's Keeper, which is a nonprofit initiative that mentors young minority man. The president offered his thoughts on the chaos in Baltimore in his eighth and final appearance with David Letterman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You have a situation in which too many communities don't have a relationship or trust with the police. And if you just have a handful of police who are not doing the right thing, that makes the job tougher for all of the other police officers out there. It creates an environment in the community where they feel as if rather than being protected and served, they are the targets of arbitrary arrests or stops.

And so, our job has to be to rebuild trust. And we put forth a task force made up of police officers but also young activists who've been protesting in Ferguson or here in New York. They came up with some terrific recommendations about collecting data on what happens when there's a shooting involving police, what are we doing in terms of things like body cameras. And so, there are some very practical, concrete things we can do to make the system work better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The president says he is not interested in assigning blame for the mistrust between some citizens and police. He just wants to see results.

Twenty-six minutes after the hour. The breaking news this morning coming about 30 minutes ago: ISIS now claims responsibility for the shooting in Texas where two men tried to ambush a contest to draw cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. ISIS making that statement on their radio station. We will have all of the details for you after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)