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Ebola is Top National Security Priority; Teen Arrested on His Way to Fight for ISIS; ISIS Advances Despite Air Strikes

Aired October 07, 2014 - 08:30   ET

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

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know that the American people are concerned about the possibility of an Ebola outbreak. And Ebola is a very serious disease. And the ability of people who are infected to carry that across borders is something that we have to take extremely seriously. As I've said from the start of this outbreak, I consider this a top national security priority.

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CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Now, according to polls, only about a third of you believe that there's a very good chance that you could -- or someone you love could get Ebola. But the numbers are moving and that's why President Obama is saying all hands are on deck against the virus. But is enough really being done specifically at the airports? There are now plans for additional screenings, taking temperature of certain passengers. We're not sure how they're going to do that yet. But what about just banning travel from the hot zones all together?

Let's bring in Congressman Tim Murphy, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. He's called a hearing on these very questions.

What are you look to find out, congressman? And thank you for joining us on NEW DAY.

REP. TIM MURPHY (R), PENNSYLVANIA: Good morning.

Well, we want to find out about what sort of things the CDC will really do to help protect the American public. Few years ago, the CDC actually asked for the authority to have some quarantines of travel from countries, specifically looking at the Ebola virus, and now they're backing away from that. It doesn't seem to make sense.

Recent investigations that I conduct with the CDC also looked at their sloppiness in handling the anthrax in their laboratories. And a couple years before that, they had actually said they were going to make some changes, and they didn't. So right now the public is very concerned about how CDC is handling this.

And I should say, Dr. Frieden has said that if we restricted flights to and from Liberia that would harm things. No one is saying that you shouldn't be able to fly supplies and medical equipment in, et cetera. But this idea they have of saying, if we just take people's temperature at the airport will be enough, well, that's not -- according to CDC's own information that it could be incubated for 21 days before you even see signs and symptoms. So simply asking people to tell the truth, have you been near Ebola and what's your temperature now, I don't think it's going to be enough.

CUOMO: All right, so let's unpack it a little bit. We know that Mr. Duncan in Dallas, we all want him to get better obviously, but he lied says Liberia on his form. So there's that factor that you have to deal with and the legitimacy of who you get to screen. It's all right. So we'll forget about it. Maybe they'll lie, so we'll look at passports. We don't do that well now. Oh, but then if we do identify them, we'll take a temperature. You mentioned the incubation.

So it does seem that screenings, while it's something, may be more a Band-Aid than anything else maybe at best, agreed?

MURPHY: Agreed. Well, that reminds me of the old way they used to screen you at the airport by saying, did anybody put a bomb in your luggage?

CUOMO: Right.

MURPHY: Have you been around any strangers? And that simply won't work. And let's face it, Chris, who can blame someone for lying to get into the United States to have their possible Ebola treated? Now, there could be more sophisticated verbal screenings, ask a few more questions. When you look at things, for example, the way the Israelis will interview you at the Tel Aviv Airport to get more information from you, do a little more screening and, in some cases, I think, if people have come from Africa, you have to put them in a holding period for a few days to check them on this.

CUOMO: Right.

MURPHY: Do some regular temperature taking. But once they come to the United States and trying to keep track of everybody you have had contact with, that's a more grave concern. And certainly that's something even the CDC says can be pretty daunting. So why put the American public at that risk? And we want to know what they intend to do.

CUOMO: Here's the pushback. The pushback will be from them, one, you're pretending that this is something that it is not, the chance of getting it is so small that you don't want to do something too extreme, especially if it creates more of a problem down the road, like isolating these West African countries. The risk doesn't justify that type of potential xenophobia and closing off of areas that we need to get to more than ever.

MURPHY: No one is saying - this a strawman (ph) argument. They set up a phony argument. No one is saying restrict travel and care into this country - into those countries. We're sending 3,000 American soldiers in there to help. We're sending health workers in to help. And we want to help and we should help because that's the place you need to really contain this. And the president has said, this is a security risk, it's very serious, this is the highest priority. So you can't say it's very serious on one hand and dismiss it on the other. But it's pretty clear by what epidemiologists tell us, that simply saying, take a temperature and ask them a question is going to be enough. That will not be enough.

CUOMO: So you've come out in favor of imposing travel restrictions from these countries that are suffering the outbreak right now. But what do you do about the fact that you don't have to come here directly from West Africa? You could go somewhere else and come here. How do you handle that because that's what people would naturally do, right, if they want to come to the United States for treatment or for whatever reason. It's easy enough to circumvent a direct restriction.

MURPHY: Well, there's technology available to ask people questions on more serious ways and train workers, our custom agents, et cetera, to do more serious verbal screening and I don't know if the CDC is discussing that or -- with borders and customs agents. We need to find out, of course. We know borders and customs agents traditionally have not been able to screen very well in the past too. So all these are questions to see what is the CDC doing. But for them to simply be dismissive and saying we can't isolate those countries, they're going down the wrong rabbit hole and trying to give the American public a false sense of security. The chance of getting this, spreading it across 300 million Americans, is certainly very small, but the American public is certainly also saying, we don't want this disease spreading at all and what if cases begin to appear in the U.S. now, like they did in Spain, where other people are picking it up.

CUOMO: False panic leads you to a slippery slope that Ebola is such a low threat, what about when it's something that's an actual threat, like the bird flu and H1N1 -

MURPHY: Sure.

CUOMO: And all these other things that come into the news cycle from time to time? If you're going to shut off Africa, does it lead to then shutting off Asia, shutting off this place, shutting off that place and putting us all in quarantine banks. Are you worried about that, that if you do too much too soon you wind up creating a basis for real extremism down the road?

MURPHY: Well, we want -- look, again, no one is saying quarantine an entire continent.

CUOMO: Right.

MURPHY: What we're saying is more sophisticated screening, look at travel restrictions for individuals, continue to send aid there. We're not saying isolate everything from that, but right now the CDC is saying it's OK for people to come and go, we'll just ask them questions, is not enough. I don't think the American public is comfortable with that. We need to know more about this. And I hope, in the next few days, the CDC is going to ramp up other ways of screening folks and having more restrictions on people coming out of Africa.

CUOMO: Well, congressman, I appreciate you being on NEW DAY and it's good to have you guys in D.C. doing the business of the people.

MURPHY: You bet. It's good to be with you, Chris.

Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Chris.

An American teenager busted for allegedly trying to join ISIS. How was he caught and what was he planning to do? We will give you all the details.

And intense fighting in gripping the streets of Syria. ISIS continuing its pushing for control over Kobani, as air strikes rain down on that region. We will discuss what's at stake.

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CUOMO: Welcome back.

An Illinois teenager faces up to 15 years in prison after he allegedly tried to join ISIS. He is 19-year-old Mohammed Hamzah Khan and he was nabbed at Chicago's O'Hare Airport on his way to Turkey after leaving a damning letter at his home. Now, we have CNN's Ted Rowlands live in the teen's hometown of Bolingbrook, Illinois.

What do we know, Ted?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Chris.

According to federal investigators, they found inside this house notes, drawings and that letter you're talking about, which spells out why this American teenager wanted to go fight with ISIS.

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ROWLANDS (voice-over): According to investigators, 19-year-old Mohammed Hamzah Khan was on his way to join ISIS when he was arrested over the weekend after going through security at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. In a three-page letter allegedly left for his parents and signed "your loving son" Khan, accordingly to a criminal complaint wrote that he was obligated to migrate to the Islamic state and that he couldn't bear the thought of his taxes in the U.S. being used to kill his, quote, "Muslim brothers and sisters." "The western societies are getting more immoral day by day," he allegedly wrote. "I do not want my kids being exposed to filth like this."

Investigators say Khan was expecting that a contact he met online would meet him in Turkey and take him to join ISIS in Iraq or Syria, but details about who bought his plane ticket and who he would meet were not revealed. Relatives declined to speak outside the family home in the Chicago working class suburb of Bolingbrook. Neighbors say Khan lived with his parents and a brother and sister and spent time at an Islamic center across the street.

TOMMY FERGUSON, NEIGHBOR: It's horrible, man, and it's in our backyard. You know, it's literally in my backyard and it's bad. It's bad.

ROWLANDS: Next door neighbor Steve Moore says he's known the family for about two years.

STEVE MOORE, NEIGHBOR: I was surprised. Really surprised. I mean the kid was polite, you know? I didn't expect anything like that in the least bit.

ROWLANDS: What's unclear is how the teenager was radicalized or if his family knew what he was planning. The criminal complaint mentions pro- ISIS writings and drawings found in common areas of the house, suggesting his views may have been known to members of his family. Khan made an initial appearance in federal court Monday. Members of his family were there in the courtroom, but had nothing to say after the hearing.

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ROWLANDS: And Khan is currently being held without bail. He has a detention hearing scheduled Thursday morning, Chris, in Chicago.

CUOMO: All right, Ted, and our understanding is, for all the intrigue about who this kid is, that the authorities are very tuned in to who he was talking to, where he was going, to try to understand the recruiting model that's being used by terrorists. Ted, thank you for the reporting.

Mic.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, here we go with the five things that you need to know for your new day.

At number one, three more possible cases of Ebola have emerged in Spain after a nurse assistant contracted the disease in Madrid. This come as the U.S. weighs tougher airport screenings to keep another case from entering the U.S.

Now, despite five overnight air strikes by the U.S. and allies around Kobani, ISIS fighters are close to capturing the Syrian town along the border of Turkey. A total of 13 strikes were launched overnight in Syria and Iraq.

Former CIA and defense chief Leon Panetta slamming President Obama in a new memoir. Panetta says Obama lost his way. He questions also his handling of troop withdrawal from Iraq and delayed intervention in Syria.

Four senior Veterans Affairs executives are now out of jobs. They were fired as part of a crackdown over veterans long wait times for medical care, a scandal first exposed by CNN.

And the Supreme Court with a surprise move that could spell the end to legal challenges of same-sex marriage. The court wont' hear challenges from gay marriage opponents in five states, paving the way for couples in those states to wed.

We do update those five things to know, so be sure to visit newdaycnn.com for the very latest.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Michaela.

Air strikes are pounding Iraq and Syria this morning, but ISIS keeps advancing. Does that mean the air strikes are not working? Our military analyst has that answer.

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PEREIRA: 13 coalition air strikes overnight against ISIS targets, nine of them in Syria, five of them around the town of Kobani alone. But despite these air strikes, ISIS seems to be moving ahead full steam as it attempts to take the town right on the Turkish border. It begs the question, is the coalition strategy against ISIS proving effective?

We want to put the question to Retired Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona, military analyst for CNN and a former U.S. military attache in Syria. You know the area well, you know the intricacies. Good to have you here. Let's start with Tal Afar, because we're learning word this morning of air strikes. Reports of 29 ISIS members killed. You look at the strategic placing of that attack, those air strikes over near Mosul near the border, overall is it helping the strategy?

LIEUTENANT COLONEL RICK FRANCONA (RET): Well, it does, I mean this is the main supply route between Mosul and where they're keeping a lot of stuff in Syria. They have a lot of supplies that are in Syria, they move them into Mosul as they need them. So, hitting Tal Afar is a good.

This is a good example of what we call armed reconnaissance. The British started doing this a few days ago, I think we're doing it as well, where you load up the aircraft and you just go out hunting for targets.

PEREIRA: Okay.

FRANCONA: When you see troops that you can actually attack without putting other people in danger, then you go ahead and take them on. So we're able to take out the small units.

PEREIRA: That brings us into Kobani, because that is an area where, and I'll get to that in a second.

FRANCONA: Yes.

PEREIRA: There are some civilians there that we're really concerned about. Kobani, right here on the Turkish border. We know that air strikes overnight there again, I almost can predict what you're going to say. Are air strikes enough here?

FRANCONA: No. Kobani, I believe, is going to fall. I'm surprised it has held out this long. That's only because of the tenacity of these Kurdish fighters in the city. But, they're outgunned, they're outmanned, they're surrounded. ISIS controls that whole area up there. This is the remaining pocket of resistance. I think it's only a matter of time. The air strikes can slow it down, but I think it's inevitable that they're going to take it.

PEREIRA: So the inevitability there, but what's really concerning is we're hearing reports of up to some 12,000 civilians trapped there. They're trying to flee to turkey. They're cornered.

FRANCONA: Yes. This is a humanitarian nightmare, and now the Turks are being very difficult in letting these people across. They're slowing it down, and unfortunately the holdouts in that town will probably be treated very badly, I'm being generous, by ISIS when they take it over. The Kurdish fighters, if they don't evacuate, will probably all be caught.

PEREIRA: Help us understand the Turks not wanting to assist in that, because that is concerning. They should open their border, most would say, open the border and let them in.

FRANCONA: Michaela, I wish I could make you understand. I don't understand. The Turks have signed up to be part of the coalition.

PEREIRA: Right.

FRANCONA: Yet we've not seen them really do anything. They have a lot of troops on the border, they've beefed up their defensive presence there, but they have not done anything. I don't know if they're waiting for ISIS to present themselves as a threat directly to Turkey.

PEREIRA: At the border, right.

FRANCONA: But, they certainly should be allowing these people to escape, because leaving them in that city after ISIS takes over is almost a death sentence.

PEREIRA: We're fighting this on several fronts here, or at least when I say I it's not me, but obviously coalition forces are fighting this on several fronts. I don't want to neglect Baghdad because, you know, we're paying attention to Syria, but Baghdad this is a front that is a real concern here, too

FRANCONA: Yes. This is a real problem because over the last couple of days, the Iraqi Army and Iraqi security forces have tried to dislodge ISIS from some of their strongholds, Ramadi, Fallujah, these cities that we all know very well to the west of Baghdad, Anbar Province. Even with American air strikes, even with Apache helicopter gunships involved in the mix, they just can't seem to dislodge it. I don't know what has happened to the Iraqi army.

PEREIRA: Where are they?

FRANCONA: Well, where are they? They're certainly not capable of doing this, and that presents a (inaudible) because now they're on the outskirts of Baghdad. They're within artillery range of Baghdad Airport, and we all know how important the airport is.

PEREIRA: Vital. FRANCONA: And they're even able to get mortar rounds into the green

zone.

PEREIRA: Mortar fire into the green zone is obviously a concern. The airport is key here.

FRANCONA: Yes, and I talked to some of my contacts at the Pentagon and they said the situation around Baghdad now is becoming dire. That's the word they used, dire.

PEREIRA: Okay, so overall, if we were to talk to you about your strategy, I mean, if you were brought in in charge. Let's just play. Since we're standing on the world here, what would you do? You've talked to me time and time again, talking about the limited capability of air strikes alone. You talked about the importance of ground troops.

FRANCONA: Go big, or don't go. These small numbers of air strikes puzzle me. Why aren't we putting more air power into this? I mean, five air strikes? We should be doing 50 air strikes. The problem I'm seeing --

PEREIRA: Seems sort of half-hearted to you?.

FRANCONA: It seems half-hearted, but maybe we don't have the targets that we need. Maybe we're not being able to designate the targets or find the targets. What I would do in a perfect world, is I would have some either U.S. Air Force or U.S. Army for air controllers on the ground to help guide these air strikes in. Air power can be very effective in this situation.

PEREIRA: But it's the key of guiding them in.

FRANCONA: If you get the weapons on the targets. We did this very effectively in Afghanistan in the initial phases of the war. We could do it here.

PEREIRA: Alright, Lieutenant Colonel Retired Rick Francona, always a pleasure to have you give us this perspective. We'll obviously be having you back a couple of times at least this week. Alright, Alisyn, I'll pass it over to you.

CAMEROTA: Alright, Michaela. Listen to this, a 5-year-old roaming around the back seat of a car, not in a car seat, while the car was moving, but it's what the responding officer did that's the story. That's the Good Stuff and it's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: We have a quick programming note for you. It's been seven months since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished. On Monday, they officially began the search of the floor of the Indian Ocean. So tonight, tune in for CNN "SPECIAL REPORT VANISHED: THE MYSTERY OF MALAYSIA FLIGHT 370, " that is at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

CUOMO: So with all the news about Ebola developments and when the only relief from that is a war that's going on against ISIS and terror, you know it is time for the Good Stuff. And in today's edition, protect and serve and action. Alright, so this cop goes above and beyond the call of duty for a child's safety, and for a family that's fallen on hard times. Here's the story.

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CUOMO (voice-over): Officer Ben Hall is in Michigan, makes a traffic stop, you know. Not one of my favorite experiences, I'm sure it's not yours either, but a good thing comes out of it. Something's not right in the back seat. Take a listen.

OFFICER BEN HALL, EMMETT TOWNSHIP PUBLIC SAFETY DEPT.: There was a young child that didn't have a car seat, and was standing around in the vehicle.

CUOMO: That's a ticket, but it turns out young mom Alexis DeLorenzo had a booster seat, but it was in her old car that had been repossessed. Needless to say, she could not afford another seat. So he gives her the ticket. No, he doesn't. What he does is he says hey, meet me at Walmart.

HALL: A ticket doesn't solve the situation. What solves it is the child being in a booster seat like she should be, it is the easiest 50 bucks I ever spent.

ALEXIS DELORENZO, MOTHER: I'm really almost at a loss for words because he really didn't have to do that. He did his job, and above and beyond that just to protect a little girl and to help a family that can't help themselves right now.

CUOMO: Good cop, protect and serve. DeLorenzo says she plans to pay it forward when she gets back on her feet.

PEREIRA (voice-over): Isn't that an interesting notion? A ticket is not going to fix the problem. So true.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA (on camera): It's a deterrent, we know, but still

CAMEROTA: It's a great point and, you know, we talk in the media about police bad behavior often. This happens every day, every day there are police officers doing God's work out there. It's great to talk about it.

CUOMO (on camera): Had a cop do you a solid ever when he could have given you a ticket in the interest of - -

CAMEROTA: Never get pulled over, I'm perfect, that's all I'm saying.

PEREIRA: I knew it.

CUOMO: Back to reality, there's a lot of news this morning. Let's get you to the "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello. Carol? Speaking of perfection. CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Sounded so dire, back to reality. Oh, I like that part. Thanks, Chris Cuomo. You guys have a great day.

"NEWSROOM" starts now.