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New Day

White House Reviewing Syria Strategy; U.S. and China May Sign Deal; Interview with Regina McCarthy; New Recordings of 911 Calls During School Shooting Released; Examining How ISIS Recruits Americans

Aired November 13, 2014 - 08:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: New war strategy, President Obama reportedly wants a review of the plan to defeat is in Syria. Is removing Syria's president now on the table again? And what does this mean for our fighting men and women?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri, is set to hear from a pathologist who performed an autopsy on Michael Brown and now the attorney general is speeding up plans to prevent a repeat of the summer riots. We will speak with Officer Darren Wilson's attorney.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Hacked. The main U.S. Weather Agency breached, causing a disruption in satellite feeds and key web sites. How serious was this attack and who was behind it?

CUOMO: Your NEW DAY continues right now.

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

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome back to NEW DAY, a beautiful view of the Freedom Tower there and no one dangling from it, that's nice.

CAMEROTA: That's a relief.

CUOMO: It's Thursday, November 13, 8:00 in the east, Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota here with news overnight of a possible new strategy in the war against ISIS. CNN has learned President Obama is asking for a review of U.S. policy in Syria, specifically a review of Syria's president Bashar al Assad and what to do about him. Will he have to be taken out before ISIS can?

CAMEROTA: But now a member of the White House security team is pushing back on the reports, saying that any review is just part of ongoing discussions. This news comes just as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey are set to testify at a House hearing today on ISIS. CNN's Elise Labott is live for us in Washington. Elise, what do we know?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, to be clear, we're not talking any type of military strategy here. We're talking about the political strategy in Syria. The Obama administration has being saying for three years that President Assad should go but until hasn't really linked a political transition in Syria to defeating ISIS. And the administration had hoped to go after ISIS in Iraq first, then take on Syria after these moderate rebels were trained up to go after ISIS and ultimately President Assad.

Officials tell me developments on the ground are making that untenable. The opposition could be obliterated by the time the U.S. pivots back to Syria from Iraq. Coalition allies really asking for more coherent Syria strategy. Diplomats tell me Secretary of State Kerry is trying to get everyone on board to redouble efforts on a political roadmap that ultimately will get rid of Assad. And basically there's also talk about expanding and training that program to equip for the rebels to make them trained up, train more of them, train them faster. White House pushing back a little bit on the idea that there's a formal review here. Take a listen to deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN RHODES, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: There's no formal strategy review of our Syria policy. What there is, is a strategy for degrading and ultimately destroying ISIL that requires us to take a hard look at what we're doing on a regular basis. And as you know we've had regular meetings that the president has joined with his national security team on this issue, and Syria been an important subject at those meetings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LABOTT: So somme officials are calling it a calibration. One calls it a vigorous reassessment. I think there is eight a realization, Alisyn, they need to rethink how they look at this strategy in Syria and how it face into the campaign against ISIS.

CAMEROTA: OK, Elise Labott, thanks so much for explaining that to us.

Congress meanwhile is back at work, and one of their first orders of business is that climate change deal with China. Republicans are already saying they think the U.S. got a raw deal, but White House officials say the president will hold firm on it when he returns to Washington. Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash joins us from Washington. So Dana, Republicans of course are now in charge of both chambers in Congress. So what can they do about this climate change deal with China?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Alisyn, Republicans when they come in, and are sworn in to control the Congress in January have already said that they are going to try to roll back existing regulations when it comes to the environment and greenhouse gases. And so if the president puts more on in keeping with this China deal, they're going to do the same. And this is one of the areas where we're going to see a lot more action from the Republican-led Senate. Mitch McConnell who will be the majority leader has already said he's going to use congress's Cower of the purse, the appropriations process, to try to beat back these regulations.

So what does that mean in real terms? That could mean a real showdown again when it comes to money that could, could if they really want to take this to the mat, end up in another shutdown, even though Republicans say they don't want to do that.

CAMEROTA: All right, Dana, in other news out of D.C., the Democrats are interested in putting Elizabeth Warren, that's of course one of the most popular faces in the Senate right now, in some sort of leadership role. What does that look like?

BASH: I was told this morning Harry Reid himself, the soon to be minority leader, the top Democrat in the Senate, wants Elizabeth Warren at the table, that he trusts her judgment, that he trusts her personally, and that this is something that he wants.

Now, would it require her to be elected by her membership? Probably not, because she wouldn't be one of the top leaders, but she would potentially have a seat at the table, which is very telling for a lot of reasons. First he said that she is certainly a rock star when it comes to the liberal base, but also maybe telling of where the caucus is. A lot of moderate Democrats were defeated so it's more of a liberal caucus which might not make for compromise very well.

CAMEROTA: It will be interesting to see what role she gets. All right, Dana, thanks so much for all that. Let's go over to Chris.

CUOMO: Climate deal is a big deal. Let's bring in Regina McCarthy, the administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency. Ms. McCarthy, it's good to have you. I know you go by Gina, but I must provide deference to your office, so I said Regina at first, but I know you go by Gina. Thanks for being with us. I want to talk to you about the deal, and we're going to talk about the China aspect. But they're not really your first problem, are they? You have a senator who is likely to take over as chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Senator Inhofe, who believes climate change is a hoax and who just said if god wants the place to be hot, who are we to stop it? How do you get past that to climate change?

REGINA "GINA" MCCARTHY, ADMINISTRATOR, U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY: I think the EPA is going to do what it's always done, which is focus on science and the facts. This isn't a belief system. This is about science, and we know our kids are at risk. We know our public health is at risk. And even more importantly at this stage, we know that there are affordable, reasonable, effective steps that we can take that will address this risk and continue to grow the economy and grow jobs. That's really what this joint announcement was all about. We've been taking climate seriously because the president has provided needed leadership on this issue, and we're going to make progress that actually sends the right market signals for the future of this country and to help promote this international agenda that we need to address this really significant public health problem.

CUOMO: But even if you get around the Senator Inhofe problem, which is that it's a hoax and that god doesn't want us to do this, then you get to the Senate majority leader. I know the president doesn't need the Senate to pass this deal. However, Mitch McConnell saying economically this will kill us and I'm not going to let it happen. Now what?

MCCARTHY: He just needs to look at the facts again. We are working with the president so that we utilize the executive authority that he has been given to actually make the kind of reductions we need to make to keep our kids safe and to move towards a clean energy future, which is really going to provide investment, not cost, needed investment in the market here in the U.S. to maintain our competitive edge and to keep our economy strong.

This is not about taxing the economy. It's about supporting it, and that's an important thing to keep in mind. And we don't always have that available when you're looking at some significant challenges like this. But we have worked hard to make renewables available, to double those renewables, to actually, to advance solar energy tenfold in this country. We've provided lots of funding for these clean energy technologies. Now is the time domestically to take advantage of that, continue to grow our economy, and keep our edge. That's what this is all about, but most importantly it's about protecting our kids and future generations.

CUOMO: That debate is going to be had about whether you're incentivizing things at the cost of punishing the things that we need right now and the fossil fuel energy. And then you get to the actual deal. Is it fair criticism of this deal that you're not really pushing China anywhere near as hard as it's going to push the U.S. in terms of what changes to be made, that they really don't have to do anything until 2030.

MCCARTHY: I think that's an incorrect way of looking at it. I disagree totally with that. These are both significant steps forward. What we're doing domestically under the president's leadership is sending a clear market signal on where the U.S. is heading. That will launch innovation. That will grow jobs.

Likewise, China is not going to be able to rest on its laurels until 2030. In order to change an economy like this, they need to make significant policy changes right away. They need to make huge investments in renewable energy in order to achieve those goals in 2030, and have made a commitment to actually try to escalate that before 2030, but when you have an economy as large as that, an economy that continues to have to grow to meet its own needs, they are going to have to make big changes right away.

CUOMO: Of course then you have the question of how do you make them do it if they don't, but that gets into a whole different part of the discussion of the relationship between the two countries. Gina McCarthy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, thank you for being with us this morning and explaining this situation. We'll be talking about it more, that's for sure.

MCCARTHY: All right, Chris, thanks so much for letting me be here.

CUOMO: Always. Alisyn? CAMEROTA: Chris. Russia is escalating tensions with the U.S. over

the conflict in Ukraine. Moscow says it plans to send long range bombers to patrol the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean near American waters. This as surging violence in Ukraine leaves at least four Ukrainian soldiers dead. Senior international correspondent Matthew Chance has the latest for us from Moscow. Matthew?

MATHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks so much, Alisyn. That's right. The criticism has been levied by the United States and NATO against Russia that it's supplying combat troops and equipment to the separatists across the border in Ukraine, has been categorically denied by Russian officials. The deputy U.N. ambassador in New York from Russia saying that this is propaganda, that it bears no reality to the situation on the ground reflecting the fact that Russian officials have always resisted these claims that they provided anything but moral and political support to those pro- Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine despite the fact that NATO, the western military alliance, and international observers on the ground both sighted military equipment coming from Russia into Ukraine, some of the military equipment spotted by the international observers, the OSCE, carrying artillery pieces and multiple rocket launchers as well, potentially of the kind that we used to shoot down Malaysia Airline MH-17.

And so very significant, very important military movements on the ground, all giving rise to this concern that the ceasefire that's been in force, the truce that's supposedly been in force since early September, is falling to pieces and the region could soon tumble back into full scale conflict.

CAMEROTA: So troubling. Matthew Chance, thanks for the update.

CUOMO: This morning we're also hearing Chinese hackers are going after the weather. They're being accused of breaching computers at the National Weather Service. Officials say four websites and some satellite feeds were compromised. Let's bring in CNN's Evan Perez. He has more for us on the response down there on Washington. Evan, it feels like we're getting beat up online all the time. It was Russia, now it's China. What's going on here?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is happening all the time, Chris. U.S. officials say that this cyber-attack targeted four weather- related websites and it forced them to shut down services to airlines, the U.S. military, and Wall Street firms. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, says that its systems are back to normal and that it's delivering forecasts to the public. But U.S. officials say the hack was traced back to China.

Now, earlier this week the U.S. postal service revealed that it also suffered a major attack that affected nearly 3 million customers and 750,000 employees. That attack also, Chris, came from China, they say. And with both these attacks, the government agencies waited weeks before they notified the public, and that's bringing criticism from members of congress.

Now the Chinese embassy, no surprise, says that there's no proof that the Chinese involvement in these attacks. A spokesman tells CNN that cyber-attacks are quite common and that jumping to conclusions on its origin without hard evidence is not responsible at all.

CUOMO: It's very interesting, Evan. It's like even when you have proof of at tacks the response to what they do to you online, what someone does to you, is different than if it happens like outside the Internet, you know. If there were any attack like this in real life, not the digital life, the response would be different. But I guess we need more information. Evan Perez, thank you very much.

It's a lot of news this morning. Let's get to you Michaela for the headlines.

PEREIRA: Good morning to you, and good morning to you once again at home. It's 13 minutes past the hour this morning. Navy officials are investigating an assault on three U.S. sailors caught on video in Turkey. Military officials say the sailors were attacked by members of the Turkish youth union, as you can see, placed bags over the sailors' heads, shouting anti-American sentiments. American officials tell CNN the sailors are now safely back aboard the USS Ross.

Chilling 911 calls just released in the deadly shooting last month at the high school in Marysville, Washington. You could hear a teacher begging for help as she watches a student gun down classmates before he takes his own life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have reports of gunfire.

PEREIRA: Chilling, newly released the 911 calls capture those terrifying moments during the Marysville-Pilchuck high school shooting, Students, teachers and staff flooding 911.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just left the cafeteria, guided students out the side door.

PEREIRA: As inside the cafeteria freshman Jaylen Fryberg shot five of his classmates, injuring one, another died on the scene. Three later succumbed to their injuries.

MEGAN SILBERBERGER, MARYSVILLE-PILCHUCK HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER: We have many injured at Marysville-Pilchuck high school. We need emergency right away.

PEREIRA: And we're now hearing for the first time the heroic teacher who tried to stop Fryberg.

SILBERBERGER: Blood is everywhere. I do not see the gun.

PEREIRA: Before the 15-year-old turned the gun on himself.

SILBERBERGER: I need help. I need help now. I'm standing here right now sitting next to him. He is a high school student. I don't know how old he is. I tried to stop him before he shot himself.

PEREIRA: As word spread quickly around the community, frantic calls from parents began pouring in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just got a phone call from my daughter from Pilchuck high school.

PEREIRA: Zoe Galasso's mother messaged her daughter, "Are you OK?" But the 14-year-old never responded.

MICHELLE GALASSO, MOTHER OF ZOE GALASSO: They finally -- finally had to tell us that our child had passed at the school. He took away the best things that I ever brought into this world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: That mother, Michelle Galasso, her daughter was one of the first to die in the cafeteria on that terrible day. What's amazing is that she forgives Jaylen Fryberg, the shooter. She says, quote, "I have to forgive because I cannot waste my life hating or being angry.

In other news, Russia and Qatar have been cleared of corruption in their respective World Cup bids at least for now. An ethics judge for FIFA says no proof was found of bribes or voting deals, but the decision will be appealed. The chairman of FIFA's investigatory chamber which led the investigation released a statement saying the decision contains incomplete and erroneous representation of the facts.

Outgoing Kansas, Arkansas governor, pardon me, Mike Beebe is expected to pardon his son for a 2003 felony marijuana conviction. Kyle Beebe, now 34 years of age, served probation after his arrest more than a decade ago. Governor Beebe, then the state attorney general, said at the time his son should be treated like any other criminal. The governor said he would have pardoned his son sooner if Kyle had asked, but Kyle apparently wanted to wait because he was embarrassed.

Governor Beebe said in an interview he granted over 700 pardons in his time as governor, mostly to non-violent criminals.

CAMEROTA: Why not include your son in that 700, that makes sense.

CUOMO: It does?

CAMEROTA: If it's all non-violent criminals, yes.

CUOMO: The standard is semblance of impropriety with public officials. You don't want to do things that look like you have conflict of interest. This clearly passes the test, that's why he's going to get heat.

CAMEROTA: We shall see about his prediction.

CUOMO: He's getting heat, that's why it's in the news, just saying.

CAMEROTA: I thought it was noteworthy.

CUOMO: You think so?

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: Tell us on Twitter.

CAMEROTA: Yes, there you go, weigh in on this, find us on twitter at #newday.

OK. Meanwhile, there's rare glimpse this morning into how ISIS recruits young Americans, investigators are digging into the minds of teenagers who want to join the terror group. How the teenage girls actually linked up with the extremists.

CUOMO: Plus, tensions boil over in Mexico as a top public safety officials nabbed, kicked and punched. Are any answers coming out about the missing 43 college kids?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: This morning an inside look at how ISIS recruits Americans. Investigators are digging deeper into the reasons why two Denver teens wanted to join the terrorists.

CNN's justice correspondent Pamela Brown has the story for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): CNN has learned hardened jihadists currently fighting with ISIS overseas had direct contact with three Denver teens: 15 and 17-year-old sisters and their 16-year-old friend, using social media to lure them to jihad.

DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS, FEDERATION FOR THE DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: These were role models to them and people they could be in contact with. And social media, which is both more immediate and allows you to immerse yourself in an extremist environment, being used as a recruiting platform.

BROWN: A law-enforcement official says some of the jihadist recruiters were Westerners fighting in Syria. They were encouraging the girls to join ISIS, even giving them a road map of how to go from Denver all the way to Syria and eventually link up with the brutal terrorist group.

GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: They can interact in real-time with other people through tweets, and this is very immersive to them.

BROWN: In October, the teens made it halfway to Syria before they were stopped by authorities in Frankfurt, Germany. After the teens didn't show up for school, their parents alerted authorities, who found a treasure trove of information on the teen's social media profiles.

RITZ KATZ, SITE INTELLIGENCE GROUP: It's literally a case study of radicalization through the Internet.

BROWN: The SITE Intelligence Group tracks international terrorists and analyzed the teens' online activity. KATZ: The same girl that was asked one day, "How many hours of music

you listen to on a daily basis," and she used to say, "I don't know. I can't count, but I dance and I listen to music hours and hours." Then a few months later she was asked how many hours of music you listen to. She said, "Music is forbidden."

BROWN: U.S. officials say this case is a unique opportunity to track efforts by terrorist groups to recruit Westerners. ISIS members have successfully played a role recruiting several Americans online. SITE Intelligence says the Denver teens were communicating with both men and women recruiters.

KATZ: The girls were in communication with ISIS Sisters Online -- women that are dedicated to recruit women.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Pam Brown joins us with a follow-up to all of this.

Are these three American teenagers anomalies or are others American teenagers that we know of that might be susceptible to ISIS?

BROWN: There are others radicalized similar to the three girls in Denver. They're not anomalies. They're extremely concerned, law officials are about this, a new phenomena, growing trend, underage people, juveniles who are being radicalized online in direct contact with ISIS militants overseas, a lot of them westerners who have actually made it over there, whose job is to reach out to Americans and other Westerners and try to get them over there, especially young people but it's really across the board and that's what's so frightening about this. It's the perfect storm of issues here.

CUOMO: And ISIS isn't, this isn't new to is. This has been going on online. The problem they have is the system, what do you do with these kids once you get them now, right? Because they are minors. So, can they charge them? I mean, it's hard enough on the state level, let alone the federal level.

What are they telling you?

BROWN: Well, they're telling me it's very difficult to charge them. That they really have their hands tied. I mean, terrorism charges for juveniles. It's really -- the federal system really isn't set up to handle something like this.

We just saw a recent case in Chicago where a 19-year-old was arrested on materiel support charges but two siblings who are with him attempting to go over to Syria allegedly, they weren't charged. So, it shows you how difficult it is and the Denver girls haven't been charged either, the case is ongoing. But I think that's part of the issue here, what do you do in this case, how do you handle this?

CAMEROTA: So crazy to hear about teenagers being -- wanting that kind of lifestyle.

Pamela Brown, thanks so much. BROWN: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: And while the attorney general is getting updates on Ferguson, Missouri's preparations for the grand jury vote in the Michael Brown case. Will chaos again consume the city if Darren Wilson, the officer is not indicted? We will speak to the officer's attorney about the latest developments.

CUOMO: Plus, more violent clashes on the streets of Mexico. Demonstrators are now going after government buildings. When will they get answers about the dozens of missing college kids who are now presumed dead?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Anger in Mexico as protesters take to the streets demanding answers about dozens of abducted students. Protesters set fire to a local government building Wednesday calling it a corrupt police system.

CNN's Rafael Romo has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR (voice-over): In the middle of a violent protest in Chilpancingo, Mexico, a mob drags away a police officer, kicking and punching him.

(on camera): There's an argument ensuing right now with some of the protesters saying, "Let's beat up the police officers." Some others say, "Let's not beat him up. Let's remain as peaceful as we can, because it's going to send the wrong message."