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ISIS Sends Photos Proving Death of American Aid Worker; Leaders Meet to Strike Peace Plan for Ukraine; Interview with Gen. Wesley Clark; U.S. and U.K. Closing Embassies in Yemen; Brian Williams Suspended 6 Months Without Pay; Jon Stewart Leaving "The Daily Show"

Aired February 11, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The world grieves with us, the world mourns with us.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I don't think it's accurate of them to say the United States government hasn't done everything that we could.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're hearing that sources from the White House will unveil a new authorization for the war on ISIS.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's not forget in whose hands this woman died.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you kidding me? Brian Williams just got suspended for six months?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Suspended for six months without pay.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did he say that might not have been accurate?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's revolutionized the news or satire or whatever it is in an unbelievable way.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jon Stewart is a more relevant news figure on the news landscape than Brian Williams.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For whatever reason you are tuning in for, I thank you for watching it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Accused of killing American Sniper Chris Kyle and his friend, Chad Littlefield.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not your usual murder trial. You're dealing with someone who had serious psychiatric issues.

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CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, February 11th. Just before 8:00 in the east. More than 20,000 would-be killers are headed to Iraq and Syria ready to do battle with ISIS, 150 of them American.

That is the word from U.S. intelligence officials. The news here is not just the bigger number, but including thousands of westerners and that it is growing at an unprecedented pace.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: So today President Obama plans to formally ask Congress to authorize the use of military force against ISIS. This as the U.S. mourns Kayla Mueller, the American killed after being held hostage by the ruthless terror group.

Our team coverage begins with Michelle Kosinski. She is live at the White House. It's a busy day there, Michelle.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Alisyn. We're hearing from top U.S. counterterrorism officials on this, saying it's unprecedented, this number of foreign fighters that even today continues to stream into Iraq and Syria to fight alongside ISIS and other groups. So we expect to hear this testimony today before the House Homeland Security Committee hearing bigger numbers than we've seen before, some 20,000 foreign fighters from 90 countries, 3,400 westerners, about 150 Americans who have either traveled there or tried to, and about a dozen of those thought to still be there.

The chairman of this committee called this the largest convergence of Islamic terrorists in world history. And, of course, foreign fighters have been a top priority because of the concern that they could come back home and launch attacks here.

Also today we do expect to hear from the White House putting out its formal proposal to Congress asking for authorization for military force specifically tailored to ISIS. It's expected to limit the possibility of using ground troops in combat which not all Republicans are too happy with, but expected to not set limits on location for where the U.S. can go after is. Chris?

CUOMO: All right, Michelle, thank you very much. That war is going to continue. We have to see what that debate yields. We'll follow it very closely here.

We're also learning about drastic measures to try and save hostage Kayla Mueller. U.S. officials reportedly tried to pull off a series of rescues. This is coming to light as her parents are still battling her captors, now the battle is to get her body back to America and bid their daughter a final farewell. We have Will Ripley joining us with the latest. Will?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chris, all of this of course is playing out behind the scenes. We didn't even know Kayla Mueller's name until recently, but there were so many attempts, so much frustration and desperation as her family and the U.S. government tried to secure her release, everything from a U.S. military operation that may have missed her by 24 to 48 hours to an attempt detailed by Arizona lawmakers where a man tried to pose as her husband and actually made it to the terrorist camp where she was being held trying to see if he could recover her, but that fell apart as well. Of course all of this kept secret until her family got the devastating news.

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LORI LYON, KAYLA MUELLER'S AUNT: She has done more in her incredible 26 years than many people can ever imagine doing in their lifetime.

RIPLEY: This morning Kayla Mueller's family and friends devastated, heartbroken over photos sent privately by the brutal militant group ISIS over the weekend. According to a U.S. official, the 26-year-old was shown in Muslim garb, another revealing her wrapped in a burial shroud. How she died still unclear.

LYON: Kayla has touched the heart of the world. The world grieves with us. The world mourns with us.

RIPLEY: The humanitarian aid worker held hostage by ISIS since August, 2013, captured while leaving a Doctor's Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria. ISIS sending proof of life nine months after her capture, demanding millions in ransom, communication cut off a year later after the ransom deadline passed. Then early this month ISIS claimed Mueller was killed in this building by a Jordanian airstrike. U.S. officials aren't buying it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ISIL is responsible for that death.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: They are responsible for her safety and well-being and they are therefore responsible for her death.

RIPLEY: President Obama calling Mueller's family to offer condolences.

OBAMA: She was an outstanding young woman and a great spirit, and I think that spirit will live on.

RIPLEY: Mueller in the trenches with refugees since 2009 working with humanitarian groups in northern India, Israel, and the Palestinian territories.

LYON: The world wants to be more like Kayla, and if that is her legacy and the footprint that she leaves on the world, then that is a wonderful thing.

RIPLEY: The activist family strengthened by her spirit.

LYON: In Kayla's letter to Marsha and Carl she wrote.

RIPLEY: Reading aloud a heartfelt letter sent by ISIS, written by Mueller while in captivity, words in stark contrast to the barbarous militants that held her.

LYON: "I have come to see there is good is every situation. Sometimes we just have to look for it." And right now that's what we're all trying to do. (END VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY: That letter revealing more about Kayla's time in captivity where she taught her captors about how to create origami peace cranes. She got by thinking about the family camping trips and she prayed, telling her parents that faith in God is what kept her going throughout all of this. She also said she had a lot of fight in her, Alisyn. Up until the very end she fought in her own way and she really has inspired so many people with her optimism, with hers her selflessness.

CAMEROTA: Will, what a remarkable young woman. Thanks so much for giving us all that background.

To another top story, the leaders of Germany, France, Russia, Ukraine meet today trying to strike a peace plan trying to end the violence in Ukraine. Let's talk about all of that with General Wesley Clark. He's a senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center, former NATO supreme allied commander, and author of "Don't Wait for the Next War." General Clark, thanks so much for being on NEW DAY.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK, SENIOR FELLOW, UCLA BURKLE CENTER: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: What do you think will happen with Vladimir Putin and these peace talks today?

CLARK: It's hard to predict. Obviously we'd like the cease-fire agreement to take place. We'd like the -- all of the provisions to be implemented and we'd like the fighting to stop. The question is whether Putin has met his objectives and wants a temporary pause in the fight or not. He's fine as he's driving the action. It's his war. It's his initiative, and it's his forces in there leading the fighting.

CAMEROTA: You said if he's met his objectives he might agree to it. What are his objectives?

CLARK: Well, as best as we can determine based on the Russian foreign ministry communication, he wants -- in the big picture, of course, he wants to keep Crimea. He wants to make it impossible for Ukraine to be affiliated with the European Union or NATO by keeping the conflict boiling, the government unstable, the economy weak and ineffective. In the near term he may be satisfied with taking a breathing spell because he's had a lot of losses on his side as well. This fighting is very, very significant.

CAMEROTA: But is that breathing spell enough for France and Germany and these peace talks or are they asking for him to cede some of the things that he's been gobbling up?

CLARK: Well, Ukraine has asked that the separatists move back to the line that was agreed in September, but that's one of the issues that's in dispute right now as to whether they will, in fact, move out. Normally the way these operations work is what you take on the ground creates facts that then become ratified in the peace agreement. So they're unlikely to want to move back, and Ukraine doesn't right now seem to have the military power to force them to move back.

CAMEROTA: OK. So what inducement gets Putin's attention more, sanctions or weapons?

CLARK: Well, he's under sanctions right now, but the sanctions, they may hurt, but they're not decisive. As long as there's a military option open for him, a lot of us believe that he's able to use the military to push and push and push. And the sanctions, they simply don't work in time. Four, five years maybe the Russian economy could be crippled if you tightened the sanctions much more, if the price of oil stayed down, if, if, if. But in the near term you've got to do something about Ukraine. I think it's going to probably take the United States and other western nations to provide assistance to Ukraine so Ukraine can fight its own battle and defend its own cease- fire line.

CAMEROTA: So you don't think that today there will be an agreement? You think that the U.S. and president Obama will have to send the weapons that Ukraine is asking for?

CLARK: I hope there will be an agreement, but there's no way of knowing from here whether there will be or not. It's really a function of Vladimir Putin and what he believes is in his best immediate interest.

CAMEROTA: You were just in Ukraine in November, and tell us what you saw on the ground. It sounds as though the fighting is worse than many of us have come to believe.

CLARK: Well, there's no interest in publicizing this fighting. Russia denies its people are there. The Europeans don't want to admit the Russians are there because then they'd have to do something, and the United States is focused on the Middle East and ISIS. And so no one's looking at this.

This is -- this is high intensity combat -- major rockets, tanks, artillery, in some cases fighter bombers. These are soldiers who are fighting in the conditions of the most modern warfare. Ukrainians asked me what do we do with the Russians when the drones fly over and they spot us and they fire these rockets on us? We're not fighting against drones anywhere else. We use the drones but we don't even have the systems to shoot down the Russian drones.

So this is the most modern, high intensity conflict anywhere in the world. It will be challenging for our own military. And the Russians are using it as a training ground and a proving ground. They're rotating the Russian artillery commanders through Ukraine so they can practice firing the artillery. The Ukrainians can listen on the radio and hear the Russians getting directions from the Russian headquarters inside Russia. All this is very serious combat.

CAMEROTA: Sure, while Putin says it's not happening. You were NATO supreme allied commander. If the peace process today doesn't work or falls apart, what should NATO do about Ukraine?

CLARK: Well, NATO is probably not going to do that much as NATO. NATO is a defensive alliance. NATO is in eastern Europe because the nations in eastern Europe were afraid of Russia. But we don't need NATO to move into Ukraine. We need NATO to strengthen its deterrence of Russian actions against NATO members.

This is more of a matter for individual nations, and it's really a matter of Ukraine. So what happens in Ukraine affects the sense of security and the ability of these individual NATO members, like Bulgaria or the Baltic states, to attract investments, because what happens in Ukraine, if it falls apart there, Russian forces will then put pressure through the media, through the mafia, through covert operations in these other countries in an effort to disrupt NATO. So NATO's first line of defense is actually Ukraine even though it doesn't involve NATO directly. It's up to the individual nations. The United States, Poland and other countries probably will end up having to give military assistance to Ukraine.

CAMEROTA: World leaders watching what happens in Minsk today. General Wesley Clark, thanks so much for being on NEW DAY. Good to see you.

CLARK: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Michaela?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you so much, Alisyn.

And a lot of eyes on this as well breaking overnight, the United States and U.K. embassies evacuated Yemen as violence in the troubled region escalates. In fact, the French embassy also, we're getting word that it is shutting its doors, perhaps temporarily, we don't know. For the latest let's get right to Jomana Karadsheh about the situation there in Yemen.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michaela, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France all announcing this morning that they have pulled out their diplomatic stop from the Yemeni capital Sana'a. They have shut down their embassies for now, and they're asking all of their citizens to immediately leave the country, this as the political and security situation there has really worsened over recent weeks. And there are lots of concerns about the country being on the brink of civil war.

Now the United States State Department in its warning really noting here the reasons behind this decision -- deteriorating security situation, terrorist activities, and civil unrest. They also mentioned concerns about demonstrations that we have seen taking place across the country, concerns that these demonstrations could turn very violent very fast.

Now, over recent weeks the real concern there has been with that -- the ouster of the U.S. ally, that government that was in place helping the United States in its war on terror there and what this political instability and political vacuum means for the presence of one of the most powerful Al Qaeda franchises in the world, AQAP, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, that has a foothold in Yemen. Its base is there, and there are concerns that it could really use this political instability to grow and become further -- a bigger threat -- a further threat. Back to you, Chris.

CUOMO: And to be sure now we have major allies that will not be able to keep as close an eye on the situation. Thank you for the reporting.

Let's go to Sydney, Australia, now, where two suspects are facing charges after allegedly plotting a terror attack. Police seizing a number of items including an ISIS flag and a machete. You remember Sydney was the site of that cafe hostage situation back in December. The suspect in that attack demanding an ISIS flag.

CAMEROTA: A 46-year-old man arrested for allegedly killing three young Muslim students, reportedly execution style. Police say Craig Steven Hicks shot the victims inside their condo in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. We're told two of the victims were in their 20s, the other just 19. At this point it is not clear what led up to this shooting.

PEREIRA: And breaking overnight from San Diego, a suspect has surrendered now in the shooting of a TV sports anchor in San Diego. Police surrounded the home of 54-year-old mike Montana. He is suspected of shooting Kyle Kraska Tuesday as he pulled out of his driveway in the upscale neighborhood of Scripps Ranch. A neighbor described seeing someone driving a white van, peppered Kraska's vehicle with gunfire before speeding off. Kraska is expected to survive.

CAMEROTA: Brian Williams suspended from NBC, Jon Stewart leaving his show. Do both moves mark the end of a particular era in television?

CUOMO: And we have new information about attempts to free an extraordinary young woman from ISIS murderers. The lengths that the government, the media, and Kayla Mueller's family went to keep her alive and ultimately to rescue her, the details ahead.

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PEREIRA: Two big decisions in television that will have lasting impact. NBC announcing the suspension of Brian Williams, unpaid suspension, for six months. Jon Stewart stepping down from "The Daily Show" later this year.

No worries, we saw you back there. Let's bring in CNN senior media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES", Brian Stelter. It's TV. It's live, people.

We also have with us, CNN presidential historian and author of "Cronkite," author of many books, but "Cronkite" particularly comes into relevance here, Douglas Brinkley.

Always good to have you with us, gentlemen.

Douglas, I want to talk about this great article that you wrote on CNN.com. You make a point at that Williams should really have heeded Cronkite's golden rule for war reporters. Never self-aggrandize when it comes to being in the battle zone. Being solemn is better.

Do you think he fell prey to that celebrity culture?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Yes. You know, look, Brian Williams goes on talk shows and he's been very funny, but when you start exaggerating your war record and you start acting like you're an Ernie Pyle figure because you're flying over for a few days to Iraq, gets you into big trouble.

But what doom Brian Williams in the end was when he crossed American forces. The country loves our soldiers. You know, journalists aren't that respected anymore. And when Cronkite was in, you had a 70 percent approval rating for journalists. Today, it's 50 percent.

But our country loves the armed forces. And that started the snowball effect of trying to discover other mistakes and exaggerations Williams has made.

CAMEROTA: Brian, do we know if they've come up with other exaggerations and mistakes?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are have been questions raised about his hurricane Katrina reporting, that Douglas knows very well about. And there are other ones that we're curious about, and NBC seems to be investigating. I don't want to go too far here, because it's unclear, but there's questions about the Israeli-Hezbollah war.

CAMEROTA: I mean, I guess what I'm asking if this is just one infraction, a six-month suspension without pay for one infraction, is that over the top or are there other things that maybe we don't know about?

STELTER: Surely, Williams' fans are saying that. They're saying this is far too severe and they want him back in the chair.

The question is how many of those people are there out there? You know, imagine for a moment being Brian Williams. This is what he's waking up to this morning. The cover of "New York Post" saying Brian shot down.

The press is going to be pretty unsparing, pretty unforgiving in a situation like this. It's very sad on a human level.

It's very disappointing. Brian Williams one of the single most popular news reporters in the United States brought down by this, of his own doing, his own exaggerations. It's disappointing for a lot of journalists who look up to him for years.

PEREIRA: And it adds to it. You talk about the financial impact. If he's paid $10 million a year, that amounts to a $5 million penalty.

STELTER: Yes, we can talk about the journalism you want, but this is a business decision and business calculation by NBC. It's owned by Comcast, which is in the midst of a very complicated merger with Time Warner Cable. The last thing they want is distractions.

I know what Comcast CEO Brian Roberts is thinking. He's thinking I don't want NBC News to embarrass me. Right now, it's embarrassing him.

CUOMO: Mr. Brinkley, let me bring you back in here. Everybody is using the word accountability. It seems to be an awkward fit here right now.

What is the chance that nobody knew that Brian Williams was doing this, that other people were there, other people were there with him on location, other people were available to check this story and make sure it didn't get repeated? What about those people?

BRINKLEY: That's a very good question. Look, Brian Williams was -- I think a fine anchorman, excellent journalist. I still believe that.

He was also a show man. Everybody liked talking to Brian. He's the water cooler guy. He could go into a Starbucks and tell a little story and you'd be riveted.

He added all of this colored detail, but at some point his embellishment, he started believing his own BS, if you'd like. People went along with the ride because he was Brian Williams. He was the managing editor running NBC.

I mean, he's a powerful person over there. It became a quirk. That's just Brian's story telling. But it caught up with him when he, again, took that on our armed forces and made up a story about being under fire.

CAMEROTA: You know, Brian, it was interesting. I was thinking about we've been through the apology tour with politicians, with actors, musical acts, et cetera, it's a little different proposition when you think of what he has to do to redeem himself. It's not the same kind of proposition of getting that trust back.

What do you think he has to do?

STELTER: Yes, it's harder than it is for -- just random names like Paula Deen.

PEREIRA: Sure.

STELTER: If they don't have that journalism background. A lot of people --

PEREIRA: It's not based on credibility, it's based on cooking.

STELTER: Exactly, or anything else, or comedy.

A lot of people tell tall tales on Letterman show. But those people aren't journalists, and they're not held to the higher standard.

Because Brian Williams is so successful, and is so well-known and is so important, that's why he's held to the highest bar we have.

PEREIRA: Some have suggested just taking away the managing editor.

CUOMO: I don't get that. I heard that early on. PEREIRA: You don't think that's interesting --

CUOMO: I don't understand. You're in the chair or you're not in the chair. I don't know managing editor is a distinction that the audience gets.

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CAMEROTA: You're making all the decisions.

CUOMO: I understand what the job is. I'm saying, I don't know that it matters to the audience.

STELTER: The other title is anchor and he needs to be the anchor. Whoever is in charge of that show needs to be the leader. There hasn't been a lot of leadership in the past week. You know, we haven't seen NBC's investigation. We're not sure if they're ever going to make it public.

But maybe Brian Williams could have interviewed the soldiers and figured out what happened. We haven't seen that kind of leadership and that's one of the things he's been criticized for.

CAMEROTA: Should we turn?

PEREIRA: I have one more question. I think the idea of what comes next for NBC is important and then we're going to talk about Stewart because I know you're dying to hear about this, too, because I want to get inside both of your minds.

Going forward, it's not only going to have an impact on how NBC does business but also I'm wondering what kind of trickledown effect it's going to have on the other networks.

STELTER: This is the worst crisis for NBC News since the early 1990s. They had a string of journalistic lapses back then, it came --

CUOMO: You think this is as bad as the "Dateline" van?

STELTER: It culminated in that, the "Dateline" van, that was the staged explosion of that truck. I think this succession of problem is as bad as those succession of crises in the 1990s. What the outcome is, I don't know.

But it's a bad day for journalism whenever an A-lister like Williams falls into trouble or puts himself in trouble. It's bad for the whole industry. There might be some winners out of this and some losers. It's bad for the whole industry.

PEREIRA: All right. Now to the most trusted news name for a younger demographic. I mean, think about that. You know, it's important to talk about that, Douglas. The fact that Jon Stewart's resignation or his retirement, it seems so crazy because he's such a young man, this is going to have an impact on a lot of young people, because you think of the fact that a lot of young people, the Twitter generation, they look to him for analysis and perhaps even conversation about news. They got their news from him for better or for worse.

BRINKLEY: Absolutely. And, you know, Jon Stewart is really a historic figure. He's a sustainable comic hero. In many ways, he's like Lenny Bruce or Dick Gregory or something. He matters. He's a satirist of our age.

So, people are going to deeply miss him, particularly young people, who got so sick of other kinds of news formats and believed in him. But he's also going to hurt, I think, Democrats. He went after everybody but by and large Jon Stewart was a master of obscuring FOX News and going after conservatives. I don't know who's going to fill in that role. But he was -- is -- was and he is a giant of comedy.

CAMEROTA: Brian, where is he going? Why is he leaving?

STELTER: He hasn't said. He says he has no specific plans. He has gotten tired over the years.

He admitted to being a little bit restless last night on the job. He's been doing it for 16 years. That's a long time to do anything especially a job like that. He may make more films. Maybe he'll look for a more serious role.

You can imagine him doing essays at the end of "60 Minutes." You know, that spot that has not been filled after the death of Andy Rooney. I think Stewart is a logical person there. A lot of different options for him, he does have a unique voice and we're going to want it somewhere on television.

PEREIRA: Two names you think as possible contenders?

STELTER: As replacements?

PEREIRA: Yes.

STELTER: Go ahead. Come on.

PEREIRA: I love Amy Poehler. I'd love Tina Fey.

CUOMO: No, no, the other guy. Who have you been saying, although you're a little half prognostication, you know?

STELTER: Well, I'd watch "The Daily Show" with Brian Williams.

CUOMO: Brian Williams you think would take that job.

STELTER: I'd watch it. He's very good as a guest.

PEREIRA: Wow.

CAMEROTA: The real news man in trouble for faking a news story, and fake news man lauded by real news journalists.

(CROSSTALK)

STELTER: Kind of like raucous water, right? CUOMO: Stewart's legacy as a comedian is solid, but, Douglas, let me

come to you for this last shot on this. What's the dilemma? The dilemma is that people went to him for a serious take on situations that actually matter, and that's not really what he was giving them. What do you think his legacy will be from the value of social -- you know, society? What do you think it is?

BRINKLEY: Well, look, I've interviewed Brian Williams when I did my "Cronkite" book. He wanted to be Walter Cronkite. He wanted to be the most trusted man in America.

And look how far he came, but he blew that. What he needs to do now is regroup and try to get back in the game, reclaim his anchor spot, hope that the American public is going to give him a second chance and stay off the comedy shows for a while. Be what he really is so good at and that's anchoring a news broadcast and be a serious journalist and not the comedian.

Walter Cronkite went on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" once and it got a lot of buzz. You've got him going on a lot of comedy shows and it didn't work in his favor in the end.

STELTER: But I think there's an important point you're making, Chris -- Stewart and Williams, Williams had a much harder job. Williams had a much harder job.

Stewart gets to make fun of the news. He can't exist without the CNN's of the world. I'm glad he's there. But he can't exist without the CNNs of the world.

Williams on the other hand had a serious news job that's now in jeopardy. That's a much more significant job at the end of the day.

PEREIRA: Gentlemen, leave it there, Brian Stelter, Douglas Brinkley. We are about second chances here.

So, folks at home, let us know what you think. Willing to give him a chance? Tweet us or go to Facebook.com/NewDay and sound off as well.

CUOMO: The so-called "American Sniper" murder trial is getting underway in Texas. Eddie Ray Routh, he killed two men -- men wanted to help him. The question is why? We're going to get some insight from someone who may know.

Stay with us.

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