Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Al Qaeda in Yemen Claims Responsibility for Paris Attack; Does the U.S. Have a Strategy to Defeat ISIS?; Obama and Congressional Leader Meet at White House

Aired January 14, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: You're watching NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Welcome back, everyone. Let's take a look at your headlines at 31 minutes past the hour.

Al Qaeda in Yemen now claiming responsibility for the deadly attack on "Charlie Hebdo" magazine. A top leader of the group warns of more tragedies and terror, this as the magazine releases 3 million copies of its latest issue a week to the day after masked terrorists stormed its offices killing 12 people.

New video has emerged of the Kouachi brothers yelling, seemingly celebrating in the streets following the magazine massacre, seconds before engaging in a gunfight with police.

Breaking news: the fuselage of AirAsia Flight 8501 has been found. Indonesian officials say they have an underwater photo confirming this. They also report they have successfully now downloaded the contents of both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data record from that jetliner. Officials hope to have a preliminary report on the cause of the crash in the next few weeks.

We are learning more now about that deadly incident in the Washington, D.C. metro. Hundreds of rush hour passengers trapped inside a train car as it filled with smoke. Investigators are now focusing on the evacuation. The time it took to get people out. One person died, 80 more were treated at hospitals. The NTSB says the smoke appears to be the result of an electrical malfunction on the tracks. It could be months before they determine why the evacuation took so long.

Dramatic new video of a confrontation, a fatal one between a Montana police officer and an unarmed suspect. It captures the shooting and the officer's emotional reaction to what happened. We want to warn you the video is disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA (voice-over): This newly released dash cam video shows Officer Grant Morrison sobbing. After taking the life of an unarmed man during a traffic stop last April. The Billings, Montana police officer said he noticed the red Ford Taurus swerving suspiciously, stopping the vehicle because of an equipment violation.

Officer Morrison said he was on heightened alert after realizing one of the passengers was 38-year-old Robert Ramirez, a suspect in an armed robbery and shooting case that month.

OFFICER GRANT MORRISON, BILLINGS, MONTANA POLICE DEPT: Why are you moving your hands around so much? You're making me nervous, man.

PEREIRA: Listen as the officer repeats orders to Ramirez, who is reportedly high on methamphetamines at the time. Officer Morrison said Ramirez failed to listen to his commands to keep his hands up and instead reached for his waistband.

MORRISON: Get your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) hands up, I'm going to shoot you, I will shoot you! Hands up!

(GUN SHOTS)

PEREIRA: That's when Officer Morrison fires three shots.

(CROSSTALK)

MORRISON: Get down!

PEREIRA: His back-up arrives and reality sets in.

MORRISON: I thought he was going to pull a gun on me.

OFFICER #2: Maybe he was, maybe he was.

PEREIRA: Last week, a seven-person coroner's jury took one hour to decide the shooting was justified.

MORRISON: I wish I knew he didn't have a gun. But I couldn't take the risk.

MIKE MCCARTHY, INSTRUCTOR, MONTANA LAW ENFORCEMENT ACADEMY: Any officer knowing and feeling what Officer Morrison knew, would probably do the same thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Officer Morrison was placed on paid administrative leave immediately after the shooting and has since been assigned to a task force investigating prescription drug crimes. The chief of police in that area, in a heartfelt post on Facebook said, make no mistake there are no winners in this case. The Ramirez family lost a son and this officer's life will be forever changed.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: So important to see that perspective. I mean, sometimes they're depicted as callous after police shootings, or at least not caring and to see the toll that it took on him.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, sometimes it's really too often, because the problem is that many of the officers don't want to talk about it, they're afraid of the perception that it gives of them as being invincible. And they're afraid to reveal being men, you know, how frightening so much of this job is. Every day they go out, and they don't know who they're going to face and they feel that they are as much a target as anybody that they're policing.

CAMEROTA: The random traffic stop is never a random traffic stop. It's always possibly the most dangerous.

PEREIRA: Yes.

CUOMO: I feel for that guy.

CAMEROTA: Thanks.

Gosh, we do, too.

ISIS keeps growing, despite being the target of airstrikes in two countries. We will look at why it's happening. Plus, expert analysis of the latest shocking propaganda video released by the terrorists.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: There's a new ISIS video that show as child apparently executing two Russian hostages with a gun. CNN cannot authenticate the video and there's absolutely no reason to show it.

But the group does have a long history of recruiting kids. Using their images repeatedly for propaganda value. And this isn't just happening abroad, the mother of a Chicago teen is facing, the teen is facing terrorism charges for trying to join ISIS right here in the United States, right in Chicago.

The mother has a powerful message for the terror group.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZARINE KHAN, MOTHER OF TEEN ARRESED ON TERROR CHARGES: We condemn this violence in the strongest possible terms. We condemn the brutal tactics of ISIS and groups like it. And we condemn the brainwashing and recruiting of children through the use of social media and the Internet. And we have a message for ISIS and Mr. Baghdadi and his fellow social media recruiters -- leave our children alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: It's a really tough example, Lieutenant Colonel, of the two types of Islam. You know the moderates of Islam and those who are using the faith and perverting it into something else.

Now, the mother you just saw is going to be on Anderson Cooper tonight. That's, of course, at 8:00 Eastern.

So, the need to take on ISIS is clear. The success in taking it on with military action so far is not and that's why we have CNN global affairs analyst, Retired Lieutenant Colonel James Reese.

Always a pleasure to have you here. We can do this unfortunately pretty quickly. We're going to show you two versions of the map. OK, this is the area of action right now. OK, the orange shows presence, the red is where it's really bad.

You just saw the difference before and after the airstrikes, OK? You see almost no difference. It's like we've made no impact.

LT. COL. JAMES REESE, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: And they haven't made much impact, also, except out in Al-Anbar Province, which is in the Euphrates River Valley going west to Syria. And what you're looking at right here is what we call the front line trace of the combat operations right now.

CUOMO: What does that mean, front-line trace?

REESE: So, as you can see, it shows ISIS, where they are, it shows where the Iraqis and we are and the coalition and literally can show, here's -- it's a chess game. It shows the trace, everyone can start seeing where the influence is on the map.

CUOMO: All right. So, to the uninitiated, it looks like you're having no impact and if anything, they're growing. How can that be possible with the sustained military action, all of these people fighting on the ground, the airstrikes from the coalition, how no impact?

REESE: Actually, we are gaining some great ground. Remember in the desert, there's two things you're looking for --

CUOMO: So, does my map suck or is there some subtlety here?

REESE: Well, there's some subtlety. Remember, in the desert, you want to do one thing, follow the water. In Iraq, there's two places for the water, there's the Tigress River Valley going up north and the Euphrates River Valley going to Syria and the west.

Up north, we have gained some great movement up there with the Iraqis have worked their way up from Taji up to Baiji, all the way to Tal Afar. You still got the pocket Mosul which ISIS still has, but the Iraqis have brought those areas back, along with the Kurdish forces.

Now, in the Euphrates River Valley out in al Anbar, which is the Sunni triangle, you still have the influence of ices and they've stayed static out there, have just kind of ballooned out a little bit. But they haven't pushed towards Baghdad. I was just in Baghdad and Basra and Fallujah three weeks ago.

CUOMO: And?

REESE: And people are going to work, moving things, you wouldn't know anything is going on in Baghdad. But once you go out of Baghdad, then things get a little more tense.

CUOMO: You were there when it was all going down and heavy with the U.S. what is the difference, if any?

REESE: Sure.

CUOMO: With the feeling you used to have of we don't like you, from the U.S., we don't like you, we know you think you're here helping us out, we don't think so -- has that changed?

REESE: Here's the difference, you just don't see any -- you just don't see many Americans these days.

CUOMO: Right.

REESE: So, there's not the influence you used to see where all the American vehicles and the flags and all that.

I drove from Basra to Baghdad with my guys, stopped for lunch, get gas and these things. No one paid attention, you know? But --

CUOMO: Hopefully a good sign. Here's a bad sign, though. Let's look at the expansion of is influence across the entire region now. We'll take a global perspective. Show that one, all right?

All right. That's the world view flattened out for you, look at all the black flags, not just in Afghanistan, which is a concern, but you see them branching out.

How do you reconcile that?

REESE: Well, first off, I'm not sure we should worry about what, what pot we're pushing all these bad guys into, OK? I think a lot of places you're getting some radicalization, like take Afghanistan and people are just looking for, what's the flag, the black flag, the white flag of the Taliban. Which one can I grab that has the most influence?

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: You think it's hype?

REESE: It's hype. I'm a Redskins fan, you're a Jets fan. It's kind of the same thing. What fan do you want to follow?

But you can see ISIS, they have a following. And they have some influence out there, which is important.

CUOMO: So, you're not just an analyst, you're a warrior. Do you believe that the military action is working right now? Do you believe that it's being done the right way?

REESE: In Iraq, I believe right now it is working. Speaking with the Iraqi people, what I saw three weeks ago, we are letting the Iraqis do it. It's slow. It is a slow process.

CUOMO: Is it the right way?

REESE: Well, I think for the U.S., for the coalition, yes, it is. We have to allow the Sunnis and the Shia, here's what I think is great, Chris -- I mean, the Iranians, whether you like it or not, the Iranians, the Shia forces, are in Iraq helping and they're doing a great job.

CUOMO: They're definitely there.

REESE: They're definitely there.

CUOMO: No question.

REESE: I saw them. I literally saw them.

CUOMO: Because, that's a big point of discussion, the U.S. doesn't like to say that.

REESE: No, they don't want to work with them. But literally, you drive the street and there's the Shia militia right there and they're doing a good job.

CUOMO: Look, I'm glad you're back safe, and I'm even happier to hear you say that the fact that you got back safe is a sign of progress.

REESE: Thanks.

CUOMO: Good to have you, Lieutenant Colonel James Reese, thank you for the intelligence as always.

Alisyn?

CUOMO: OK. Gentlemen, thanks so much.

President Obama under fire by critics, questioning his strategy in Syria and Iraq. Can he and the Republican-controlled Congress see eye to eye on this war plans? We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back to you.

President Obama met with leaders of the new Republican-controlled Congress on Tuesday, they discussed authorizing military action against ISIS. And all this comes as the president's strategy against ISIS is being challenged on many fronts.

Just take a listen to Senator John McCain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: We have no strategy with which to degrade and defeat ISIS. The president may say it, but there's no one in the entire administration who can articulate anything approaching it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: All right. So, that's from Senator McCain, a very definite perspective there. And it's clear that fighting is will take the White House and Congress working in lock-step. The question is, is it even possible, let alone practical? Let's discuss. CNN political analyst, editor in chief of the "Daily

Beast," Mr. John Avlon. And CNN political commentator, Republican consultant, Sirius XM host, Margaret Hoover.

You are now at the limit of details describing who you are, Margaret. You may do nothing else with your life. You must do nothing else.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I can't add anything else. Nothing else.

CUOMO: Now, so, let's set the table here, shall we? The Congress is saying, Mr. President, give us the authorization for the use of force for further military action against ISIS, OK? He has not.

Let's start there, John, with the state of play. Why hasn't that happened? It's so obviously so clearly needed.

BERMAN: It's clearly needed constitutionally. But there's two issues. You remember, after the election, before the new congress came in, there was a decision to sort of punt, to kick it to the new Congress in effect. And, second of all, I mean, the recent history of authorizations for military force with presidents isn't so good this side of the Gulf of Tonkin.

But there's actually an attempt to do good faith by the administration and Congress is to try to get an AUMF in place that doesn't create the potential for mission creep, which is really difficult when you're dealing with five different terrorist groups in five different fronts.

But the administration seems to be saying, look, Congress, you take the lead on this, Congress is waiting for the president to take the lead, potential logjam.

CAMEROTA: Well, in fact, Margaret, I want to say is what John McCain went on to say, is that he believes we're going to need a lot more, that's his quote, U.S. soldiers on the ground in order to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Is Congress talking about that?

HOOVER: Well, they're going -- look, this is the time for Americans to have a really thoughtful and robust conversation about what is going to be required in Syria and Iraq and what does American public have a stomach to commit. We couldn't have an honest conversation before election, because it was silly season. It was electioneering, because this is what happens in our democracy.

I will say, there's an incredibly scattered approach to the authorization of military force from this administration, which I think contributes to this the state of play, the sort of are we going to do it? Who's going to start, the chicken or the egg.

Remember, back in June, July, Susan Rice sent a letter to Congress asking to repeal the authorization for military force and a month later when they found themselves needing to bomb in northern Iraq to protect the Yazidis on the mountain, they actually relied on the authorization of military force. So, the administration has a mixed relationship with this particular authorization of military force. CUOMO: Let's accept all of that is true. I know you don't want to,

John, but let's accept all of that as true -- constitutionally, this is not in the weeds. This is not sudden subtlety. You know you are at war with ISIS. You know, you know that you are airstriking them. Congress has a duty to debate and either declare or not declare.

By almost any reckoning, we're past that line. Why isn't it on Congress?

HOOVER: It is. I think you talk to senators who are leading this debate.

CUOMO: But they're not doing it.

HOOVER: They're about to start. I mean, that was John McCain was saying yesterday, we don't have a strategy, we need to talk about what our strategy ISIS. And as the new chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, you better believe that's what he -- he has his own smaller bully pulpit to drive that conversation, to drive what he feels the strategy should be. So, I think you're beginning to see what the debate is going to look like.

AVLON: The fundamental conflict, though, behind the strategy here, because, you know, is containment or defending Baghdad a strategy to destroy? No, it's not, that's one of the philosophical differences, ultimately where McCain will go, is boots on the ground.

Not massive amounts of troop, but that's a line in the sand the president has set, a big difference. One of the reasons, it's difficult for the United States to even measure our progress, because we don't have boots on the ground that can do so. That's a major division between McCain camp and Obama.

CAMEROTA: So, yesterday was the first meeting of the new Congress at the White House, with the president. Did they talk about this? What's on their agenda? What's top on their agenda now?

HOOVER: It appears they're talking about this. It appears they're trying to figure out where they can work together. Of course, there are divisions about the funding of the Department of Homeland Security, which is totally crazy, because the Republican Party now and the leadership in the House, John Boehner, is having to appease some of his right wing base, which -- you know, (a), looks terrible for Republicans and (b), it's not how you run a government. I mean, when you have --

CUOMO: Scattered leadership, you're just indicting the Obama administration, that's going to fall on Boehner's plate. Same criticism.

HOOVER: I don't think -- same criticism, it does carry a little bit different weight when you're the leader of the free world, setting military policy for your country, and when you are third in line and having to deal with the sort of the --

(CROSSTALK) AVLON: But the speaker of the house just can't keep saying it's really difficult to herd cats and I have to deal with my crazy caucus. You've got to do what's right and what's responsible. He should cut the crazy caucus lease on this. In the wake of Paris, to politicize DHS fund something dumb. It's dumb politically, it's dumb practically.

There are a lot of areas where there was -- you know, common ground between the president and Congress in yesterday's meeting. Cybersecurity is being one of them. There's some discussion of AUMF.

But the immigration executive order and Keystone are two major flash points and that could end up gumming up the works and a whole bunch of common grounds.

HOOVER: Just so people know, though, 85 percent of personnel for DHS, even if the funding lapses, are essential personnel, the people who are on the border. So, they would still show up for work.

So, it's not -- this isn't as draconian as maybe being played out in the press.

AVLON: It's dumb.

HOOVER: Exactly, it's just dumb. It's irresponsible. It's theatrics on the part of the Tea Party caucus, which isn't particularly useful for Boehner, frankly, or for the Republicans.

CAMEROTA: We're exactly where we were a couple of months ago. In that, there's not a lot of give and take, there's not a lot of common ground, there's still things being held up. No one is willing to give, pass what they claim is their comfort level.

HOOVER: I think it's a little better than that, though, Alisyn. I think the Republican crazy caucus has been contained to this one area and it frankly won't wreak real damage. I think what's going to be interesting and we should keep our eye on is the Senate, because the Senate is going to be the moderating body. They're not going do pass any of this crazy stuff out of the House, anyway. John Boehner has to say, OK, you kids had your day. And then they move forward --

CUOMO: I don't like crazy caucus, I'll tell you why -- because it's not a crazy caucus. This is a logical reaction to a lack of leadership. It happens.

I think what is odd is that -- and it does come out of that caucus, is the "us doing nothing in Congress, us judgment being obstructionists" is helping the American people, is doing our job. I don't get that logically and it certainly hasn't worked practically. But I don't think it's a crazy caucus.

HOOVER: We refer to it in terms of the tactics, right? Of course, these are elected members who have really truly sincerely-held beliefs about the president using executive action to pass immigration reform. By the way, the president himself didn't believe that he had the executive authority to pass that action. CUOMO: That's why he said pass a bill.

HOOVER: Precisely.

So, to your point, I appreciate you saying the guys are crazy. No, of course, they're not crazy. But the tactic isn't going to get them anywhere. And so, it's the tactic that I refer to as crazy.

AVLON: Look, but there is this kamikaze caucus, this landing (ph) caucus, that wants to make ideological stands and are willing to go off the cliff to do it. That by many definitions is crazy. It doesn't have any surface logic. It's driven by ideology. And it's less interest in governing than grandstanding. And that's been the problem with the past couple of years.

There is a window here. Look, both Congress and the White House recognize that we've got six months to get something done before silly season reasserts itself. And there are some issues of common ground, whether it's cyber, whether its AUMF, whether it's tax reform, or trade deals. Those can get done, but immigration and Keystone are hanging around the background, really politicizing in that level.

CUOMO: I think that the education, we're talking about it, yesterday. I think No Child Left Behind, finding a compromise on that, it's open since 2007. That should be low-hanging fruit. Leadership from both parties aren't saying they're going to work on it.

AVLON: Wait until '16 begins, because that's going to get even more complicated.

CAMEROTA: I like kamikaze caucus, just the alliteration.

CUOMO: He had some semblance going in there, too, at one point, like successors (ph).

HOOVER: He's a former speech writer.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Margaret, John, thank you.

AVLON: Thanks, guys.

CUOMO: All right. There is a lot of news this morning. We're following all of it. So let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Al Qaeda in Yemen now claiming responsibility for the Paris terror attacks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It would suggest AQAP is trying to push back perhaps into the jihadi spotlight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New video of the chilling moments immediately after the attacks. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're calm, they're cool, they're collected and

they go about their business.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unprecedented to see this type of urban warfare.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Walking out, engaging the police in a way that was very effective. This is a terror cell.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to NEW DAY.

This hour, we begin with breaking news for you.

Al Qaeda's Yemen branch claiming responsibility for the massacre at the "Charlie Hebdo" magazine. The terror group calling the Kouachi brothers, quote, "heroes of Islam".

CUOMO: A top commander says al Qaeda selected the target, planned the operation and financed it. The video message warns of more tragedies and terror to come. This as new video also emerges of these terrorist brothers in the moments after the massacre.

Let's begin our coverage with Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

Good morning, Barbara.