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New Day

Mother Pleads With ISIS To Release Son; U.S. Looking For Partners In Fight Against ISIS; Ukraine Accuses Russia of Invasion; FBI Investigates Cyberattack on U.S. Banks

Aired August 28, 2014 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, another American allegedly killed while fighting for ISIS. This, as the mother of an American hostage makes a desperate please to his captors. The question is, will it work?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Also breaking, invasion. Ukraine alleges Russian forces are invading their country right now, rebel forces admitting that Russian soldiers are fighting alongside on them. We'll have the very latest.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Hacked. Hackers try to break into some of America's biggest banks. Authorities suspect Russian hackers might be behind it. How close did they get?

BERMAN: Your NEW DAY starts right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan, and Michaela Pereira.

BERMAN: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to NEW DAY. It is Thursday, August 28th , 6:00 in the East. A lot going on this morning. I'm John Burman along with Alisyn Camerota.

CAMEROTA: Great to see you. A lot of news to get to.

BERMAN: Yes. Chris and Kate both off today. We're going to begin with the desperate race to save the life of an American hostage, Steven Sotloff.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

BERMAN (voice-over): Last scene in this just awful ISIS video of James Foley's beheading. Sotloff's mother, Shirley, delivered a video message directly to the leader of ISIS, begging him to follow Islamic teaching and not hold her son responsible for what she calls the sins of others. This as we're now learning possibly that a second American has died fighting alongside ISIS terrorists.

(END VIDEOCLIP) BERMAN (on camera): Our Miguel Marquez following all the developments for us this morning from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Good morning, Miguel.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning there, John. This is a calculated risk at best. This is a very, very complicated situation, an all-out war on top of a revolution with several groups competing violently.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHIRLEY SOTLOFF, MOTHER OF STEVEN SOTLOFF HELD CAPTIVE BY ISIS: He's an honorable man and has always tried to help the weak.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): An impassioned plea from the mother of 31-year- old journalist, Steven Sotloff held captive by ISIS. Steven seen here in the same video after this sickening murder of James Foley.

SOTLOFF: My son, Steven, is in your hands.

MARQUEZ: Shirley Sotloff desperately appealing directly to the ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi eight days after the militant group threatened to execute her son. In the nearly 2-minute statement, Shirley demonstrates her knowledge of Islamic history, culture and morality.

SOTLOFF: I've learned a lot about Islam?

MARQUEZ: Trying to persuade Steven's captors to release him, appealing to the same religion ISIS says justifies its violence.

SOTLOFF: I've learned that Islam teaches that no individual should be held responsible for the sins of others.

MARQUEZ: She even addresses Baghdadi by his self-appointed title of caliph. A possible strategic move playing to this state of authority.

SOTLOFF: You the caliph can grant amnesty. I ask you to spare his life.

MARQUEZ: Sotloff hoping for a homecoming similar to Peter Theo Curtis, the American hostage released this week.

PETER THEO CURTIS, AMERICAN JOURNALIST FREED FROM SYRIA: Total strangers have been coming up to me and said, we're glad you're home. Welcome home.

MARQUEZ: Curtis now home with his mother in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after spending nearly two years in captivity held by a different Jihadist group in Syria.

CURTIS: I say a huge thank you from my heart, from the bottom of my heart.

MARQUEZ: This as we're learning about more Americans on the other side of the fight, reports that Douglas McArthur McCain, a Minneapolis native killed fighting for ISIS in Syria over the weekend, isn't alone.

According to a Syrian coalition fighting against ISIS another American also fighting alongside the group was killed. He has not yet been identified.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: Now it should be noted that McCain was fighting for ISIS when he was killed, that James Foley was killed by or at hand of ISIS, and Mr. Curtis who lives right down the street from here, he was released by an Al Musra front, which is a rival to ISIS, which gives you an idea of how complex this is and we can only hope that Mrs. Sotloff's plea ends well. Back to you, guys.

BERMAN: Such a hope that is. Miguel Marquez for us in Cambridge, thanks so much, Miguel.

CAMEROTA: Another top story, the U.S. is looking to countries around the world to join a military campaign to stop the ISIS surge. The State Department says humanitarian and diplomatic help are also needed, but with air strikes on the table big questions about whether other countries will join a coalition with the United States.

Michelle Kosinski is live at the White House this morning. How are those overtures to other countries going? Do we know?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: What the White House says it is doing right now is considering possible options, gathering information and in its words enlisting international partners to be a part of whatever this effort is moving forward.

We know that that includes not just the expected partners Britain and France, but lately the White House has also been emphasizing heavily the importance of regional partnerships, for example, encouraging Sunni tribes within Iraq to fight ISIS.

But then when you look at situation in Syria, of course, that is much more difficult and much different. Even at this point in identifying targets. Also that question of who do you work with there, and it's not as if the U.S. is going to be invited in.

Now the White House also insists that addressing the ISIS threat is going to have to include both Iraq and Syria, but they are not spelling out at this point at least that that must include military response. They say they are also looking at humanitarian needs and continue to work with the moderate Syrian opposition -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right, Michelle, thanks so much for that update. We'll check back in with you. Let's go over to John.

BERMAN: All right, thanks so much, Alisyn. We have a lot going on this morning. So we have this plea for a release from a mother to ISIS. We also have news of another American killed in the struggle fighting alongside ISIS.

So let's talk about this a little bit more. Let's bring in Patrick Skinner, a former CIA officer and Harris Rafiq, the outreach officer at Quilliam, which is a think tank dedicated to combating extremism.

Harris, I want to start with you here because we've been listening to this hostage video. This plea really I should say from the mother of Steven Sotloff, and it's remarkable from the get go, the language she chooses to use.

I want to listen to a part of it right now in how she opens and addresses the leader of ISIS in and of itself is fascinating. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SOTLOFF: I'm sending this message to you Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the caliph of the Islamic State.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: She calls him the caliph of the Islamic State, of course, that's how he wants to be known as right now, really only the people perhaps following him inside that region in Iraq, in Syria, believe that right now. Yet she uses that term. Why?

HARAS RAFIQ, QUILLIAM OUTREACH OFFICER: I think when I heard that for the first time that there were two reactions that I had. The first one was as a Muslim, I actually didn't like the fact that she used the word caliph, but, however, we have to understand that this is a mother who is using every tool available to her to try and get the release of her son.

She's appealed to his self-perceived status. She's appealed to the titles -- used all the titles that she's using for himself, and she's also trying to appeal from an Islamic perspective and also to try and say, well, you know what, you are claiming you're a Muslim.

Here is what Islam believes. Please be merciful in the name of Islam and release my son. And this is something that if he's a Muslim, he may well consider because that may give him some more propaganda and PR amongst other Muslims who may be thinking about joining ISIS or supporting them.

BERMAN: Let's talk about the propaganda and PR there for a second. Patrick, you know, is this a victory for Al Baghdadi right now, having someone whose image is being beamed around the world refer to him as caliph?

PATRICK SKINNER, FORMER CIA CASE OFFICER: I don't know if it's a victory. They have so much propaganda going on. I'm sure they will try to spin it, but it was the obvious move that she had to make.

I don't think it's a big deal that she called him the caliph because us in the media and the experts, we call them the Islamic State when they were neither Islamic nor a state. So I think it's just a desperate move and I understand it. I don't know if they are going to capitalize too much on it.

BERMAN: When you say you don't know if they are going to capitalize too much on it, what do you anticipate the response will be because it does seem in some ways as if it's begging for some kind of public response.

Leave aside the moment of whether or not it will actually work to have this Steven Sotloff released, but it does beg perhaps for some kind of public reaction from Baghdadi -- Patrick.

SKINNER: Yes. There's going to be a reaction. I have no idea what it is. He's probably making some calculations whether to be seen as merciful or to go the other way and to be more extreme than the other rival groups. It's a battle for the extremist sympathy.

They are not really worried about what we think obviously. They are appealing to that fringe element that is trying to decide to go with is or al Qaeda or just stay on fence so he's making a calculation and I don't know what that is.

BERMAN: Harris, you referred to some of the language there discussing Islamic themes, in some cases more than 1,000 years old. I want to listen to another part of that right now so you can complain exactly what we're hearing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SOTLOFF: Since Steven's capture I've learned a lot about Islam. I've learned that Islam teaches that no individual should be held responsible for the sins of others. Steven has no control over the actions of the U.S. government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Wow, that's interesting to hear the mother talk about that, about the heritage of Islam there.

RAFIQ: I think she's trying to use, as Patrick said, every available tool that she has. She's trying to plead to the fact that, you know, Islam actually does refer to the fact that people, individuals, don't carry the sins of the state.

But also I think what's really interesting here is that we have, as you mentioned, in the report earlier on, a hostage that's been released by a rival Islamist organization in the region, the Nusra front, which is actually al Qaeda.

And here we have two organizations, al Qaeda which is in the front and Qatar negotiating and acting as the intermediary, and I think there's an interesting dynamic playing out here where they are trying to attract other people to come and join them rather than the Nusra front.

And she is actually appealing to the Islamic self-perceived heritage and the beliefs that he claims he follows, and she's actually right, but it's whether he considers that interpretation to be right or not first to see.

BERMAN: We'll see if there's any kind of response. Patrick, I want to get to the other big development here, which is the word that another American was killed fighting alongside Douglas McCain and fighting for ISIS in Syria right now. So now that makes two dead American members of ISIS. What do you make of that?

SKINNER: I think it's quite disturbing now, and it's also an inevitable result of three years of civil war in Syria. The narrative that ISIS is putting out, it's also the narrative of al Qaeda. It's Bin Ladenism, and it's been going strong for 15 years.

And so after a while the numbers are going to start to add up. There has to be some kind of reaction. We have to counter that narrative. It is very disturbing that these people.

Some would suggest they knew each other in Minneapolis, which makes sense that they would kind of form their own cell. It's actually hard to do it by yourself staring at a computer.

BERMAN: I'm sure intelligence officials right now are pulling on those threads of that sweater tries to trace back anyone else that they might know as well. Patrick Skinner, Harris Rariq, thanks so much for the discussion this morning. Appreciate it. Michaela.

PERIERA: All right, let's take a look at some of your headlines right now. We have just learned that the death toll from the Ebola epidemic has spiked to more than 1,500 with more than 3,000 people sick.

Almost half of those cases that have emerged in just in the last three weeks. That's a shocking statistic. The director for the Centers of Disease Control says the Ebola outbreak is even worse than he originally feared.

In an interview with CNN, Tom Freeden says isolating West Africa is not the answer. A CDC employee has been flown back to the United States after being exposed to Ebola. The agency says he is not sick, but that they will monitor him for three weeks and watch for symptoms.

Breaking overnight, a new clue suggests that Malaysia Airlines flight 370, it may have turned south earlier than first believed. New information was obtained through data from a satellite phone call.

Ground crews tried contacting the plane after it fell off radar. Officials in Australia say further examination may help get a better idea of the plane's path.

Protests continuing today for Michael Brown, this time organizers. They are taking their cause to Washington. Demonstrators will gather outside the White House this evening and deliver a petition with nearly 1 million signatures urging the Department of Justice to fully investigate and prosecute all police officers involved in the fatal shooting.

In the meantime, authorities in Ferguson, Missouri, they have scaled back police presence. A small group of demonstrators took to the streets Tuesday and remained peaceful.

A pivotal ruling on immigration. A government immigration board now says that domestic abuse claims can factor into immigrants' request for asylum in the United States. This decision stems from the case of a Guatemalan woman who came to the U.S. illegally back in 2005. She successfully argued that her husband's abuse and the lack of police response should make her eligible for asylum. This is now up to an immigration judge to make a final ruling.

CAMEROTA: Immigration is getting more complicated, not more simple.

PEREIRA: More intricate.

BERMAN: It hasn't been part of the discussion for the last few weeks in a very public way because of everything that's been going on, but as we head past Labor Day the president likely to act. This will be front back on the front burner.

CAMEROTA: Crisis in Ukraine this morning. The country claims that Russia sending its troops in. What is Russian President Vladimir Putin planning? We're live in Moscow with this breaking news.

BERMAN: Plus Russian hackers may have hacked some of America's biggest banks. What information did they get? What does this mean for your bank account?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. Breaking this morning -- it's an alarming headline -- Ukraine says Russia is invading its territory right now. Officials say that rebel forces backed by Russian troops and equipment including heavy artillery are now entering a key town along Ukraine's southern coast believed to be rich with oils and minerals. Officials in Kiev are calling for an emergency session at the United Nations to address what the Ukrainian president calls a Russian military invasion.

The United States ambassador to Ukraine says Russia is now directly involved in the fighting. Some pretty serious accusations right now.

Phil Black is in Moscow for more.

Good morning, Phil.

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

Yes, the Ukrainian government has talked about Russian troops entering Ukrainian territory before but not like this, not on this scale. What they are describing is really a very large size military operation with Russian troops involved directly in the fighting in two key locations. Near the city of Donetsk, that major city in the region and also the southern port city near there, the southern port city of Mariupol.

The question, if true, is why, what do Russia's intentions here? This could support what has been an ongoing concern, that as the Ukrainian government has achieved military successes in driven back rebel forces looking poised for an outright military victory, with the chances of Russia disrupting that progress, the United States has feared those chances have increased significantly. There's also a concern, particularly around that city of Mariupol, that Russian forces may be looking to seize territory and form some sort of land bridge linking the Russian state, the mainland Russian state, with the Crimean peninsula, that territory that Russian annexed earlier this year.

So far from Russia itself, no specific comment on these allegations but whenever confronted with claims of involvement in Ukraine, the Russian government has denied it outright, insisting they are just bystanders to this conflict, John.

BERMAN: Though it is interesting, Phil, to get a no comment to the question are you invading another country right now?

Nevertheless, thanks so much. Phil Black in Moscow for us. Appreciate it.

CAMEROTA: All right, John.

For more, let's bring in Bobby Ghosh. He's the managing editor of "Quartz."

Bobby, great to have you here to walk us through all of this.

You just heard Phil Black say the Ukrainians believe this is happening as we speak. There's a full-fledged invasion they believe happening in two different regions, Donetsk, which we've heard that fighting before, and then this port city here, where suddenly they say that they are seeing Russian soldiers and weaponry.

What do we know?

BOBBY GHOSH, QUARTZ: Well, so what's been happening recently is that the Ukrainian forces have surrounded quite a lot of the pro-Russian rebels in Donetsk and in Luhansk near here. So, it looks for a while that the rebellion was going to fail. What we're seeing now seems to be an attempt at sort of strengthening the rebels in the northern part of Donetsk and maybe creating a diversion here, pulling away some of the Ukrainian forces here and then creating a little bit relief for the rebels and allowing them to reclaim their territory.

CAMEROTA: So, you see this as a diversion rather than an important acquisition of a port city?

GHOSH: Well, the bigger port is around here. It's called Mariupol. You had that there.

CAMEROTA: Right here.

GHOSH: Yes. Yes, that's -- sorry.

So, in any case, it would appear that they are going towards that port. If this is an invasion, then the logical progression is to go all the way here to the Crimean peninsula and hook up with other Russian sort of forces here. If this is simply a diversion, then basically this is where this

incursion will stop, and they will pull some forces away from the Ukrainian troops here and allow the rebels to essentially -- give them some breathing space and reclaim some of the territories they had lost.

CAMEROTA: You say if this is an invasion. The reason that Ukrainians say that is an invasion that we're watching happen in real time right now, they say that there are reports of columns of tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, multiple rocket launchers and Russian soldiers having come in. That's new.

GHOSH: There's been Russian soldiers fighting with the rebels for a while, but this level of hardware we have not really seen. That suggests something bigger, whether this sort of amounts to a full- fledged invasion depends on the ambitions of Russians. Are they trying to take and hold territory or are they simply trying to create some space for pro-Russian rebels to operate? That's basically --

CAMEROTA: Here's the evidence of Russian soldiers, Ukraine says that they have captured 10 of these Russian soldiers just recently, so they believe that they have been sent across the border to help the rebels fight.

GHOSH: Yes, and the rebels are saying, look, we've been -- there was a new statement from the rebels just this hour I think saying we haven't been hiding the fact that there are Russian soldiers fighting alongside us, but they claim, and this is to give Moscow some amount of plausible deniability.

They are saying, look, these are -- many of these are Russian soldiers on vacation, they are coming to help us because they believe in our cause and they are all Russians. And they are saying, some of these guys are retired soldiers and they look like soldiers and they are wearing uniforms but they are actually retired soldiers.

They are trying to say that these are not people sent from Moscow, but these people who are coming across the border just to help out of a sense of solidarity.

CAMEROTA: Bottom line, what do you think Putin is up to?

GHOSH: Well, he clearly wants to give the rebels as much space as they can get. He -- so far, he hasn't shown any inclination to claim this territory in the way he did with Crimea a couple months ago. That could change.

There is a lot of strategic stuff going on here. There are a lot of very important oil pipelines that travel into Europe through this region from Russia and that is both crucial for Ukraine and Russia.

So, follow the oil is what we always say in a conflict. Follow the oil, and you'll -- a pattern begins to emerge.

CAMEROTA: All right. We'll be monitoring this all morning. Bobby Ghosh, thanks so much. Did Russian hackers attack Wall Street? The FBI is investigating a

cyber attack which may have been revenge for sanctions against the federation. We'll tell you who was targeted.

Plus, a mother pleads for her son's life in a video she directs to his terrorist captors. We'll hear from a former FBI negotiator about what could happen next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: The FBI this morning investigating cyber attacks against U.S. banks allegedly coming from Russia. Hackers are believed to have targeted sensitive information from financial institutions, including banking giant JPMorgan Chase. Officials say the timing of these attacks raises suspicions that they could have been politically motivated.

Christine Romans here with more on that.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And what is timing? Maybe U.S.-Russia relations at a lowest we've seen in a generation?

U.S. officials telling CNN the location of the hackers still isn't clear, but given the sophistication of this, cyber security experts say the investigation centers on Russia. Hacker from Russia are often top FBI suspects.

And the timing of the hack has raised suspicion given U.S. sanctions against Russia, also, still a big question of motivation, was it a financial fraud? Was it politically motivated? Was it espionage? Banks have very tough security getting through that -- getting that kind of account information is not easy at all.

In response to this breach, JPMorgan said companies of its size experience cyber attacks every day. The bank has measures to protect itself.

But think about it, banks, JPMorgan and four other banks, these are the very banks that have to actually execute the sanctions against Russian entities. For example, if transfer of money has to be denied it would be one of these banks that would have to do it.

So, very clear here. Investigators are looking not at a 17-year-old in the Caucasus with a laptop trying to hack a bank, but a very coordinated attempt to do that. Cyber security experts also have said also in the past they have worried about Russia hacking into some of these systems or trying to get into some of these systems so they can get oil and gas trading desk information.

Imagine the kind of control and power you could have if you could hack into those systems.

BERMAN: But a whole lot of people looking at their bank cards, or ATM cards, Chase, consumer ATM cards thinking is this going to affect me? ROMANS: At this point, it doesn't look like any accounts have been

breached at this point. This looked like it was a big attempt to get in and get information, gigabits of information out. But, of course, that's what they will have to look for in the investigation.

CAMEROTA: OK, Christine, thanks so much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

BERMAN: Michaela?

PEREIRA: All right. Twenty-nine minutes past the hour. I'll give a look at your headline right now.

Israeli troops are on alert after Syrian rebels seized control of the border crossing between the two countries. They were helped by al Qaeda-linked militants taking control of forces backed by the Assad regime.

This races concerns of the conflict, widening in the region. Israeli military has closed the area around the border crossing.

Back here at home, a Texas father has been acquitted in the shooting death of a drunk driver who killed his son. David Barajas was accused of shooting Jose Banda in a fit of rage after Banda struck and killed his two sons in 2012. Attorneys for Barajas argued someone else shot and killed Banda after the accident. There were no eyewitnesses to the shooting, no weapon was found. Barajas could have faced life in prison if he had been convicted.

Overnight, an unruly passenger forced a Paris-bound airplane to land at Boston's Logan airport.