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U.S. Eyes Military Cooperation with Russia in Syria; Security Stepped Up Ahead of July 4th Holiday Weekend; Pentagon Lifts Ban on Transgender Troops. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired July 01, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:31:18] JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, the Obama administration is considering a proposal to team up with Russia to defeat terrorists inside Syria.

CNN's Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon with the details.

Barbara, I can foresee loads of problems with this, one being that they have diametrically opposed goals in Syria it seems. How are they going to make this work?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, that would be the big question right now and no real answer yet. What we know is that the U.S. discussing inside the Obama administration, offering a plan to Russia to try and agree to coordinate intelligence and coordinate on air strikes inside Syria.

But the big if, as you say, Jim, is whether Bashar al Assad will agree to stop bombing rebel groups, stop bombing U.S.-backed rebels. That's a big question on all of this.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter expressing some great deal of skepticism at the Pentagon. Have a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASH CARTER, DEFENSE SECRETARY: If the Russians would do the right thing in Syria, and that's an important condition, as in all cases with Russia, we're willing to work with them. That's what we've been urging them to do since they came in. That's the objective that Secretary Kerry's talks are aimed at. If we can get them to that point, that's a good thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: Underlying all of that, Secretary Kerry, this is a plan that the State Department by all accounts is advocating. The Pentagon remains skeptical.

But what's really in play here? Well, Carter also talked about the U.S. wants to get rebels to Raqqa. ISIS's self-declared capital in Syria, as he said, as fast as possible. That's something that they want to make happen, with more rebels on the ground, more U.S. military advisers on the ground. They don't want any mistakes from the Russians accidentally bombing any U.S. troops accidentally bombing any U.S.-backed rebels -- Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOIR: Yes, that would be a huge problem.

Barbara, thank you very much for all of that reporting.

Well, if you're headed to the airport for the Fourth of July weekend, what extra security measures should you expect? We've got the answers next.

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[16:37:26] CAMEROTA: If you are traveling for July 4th, expect the airport to look a little different. Because of the Istanbul terror attacks, most U.S. airports are boosting security, and police in some cities are asking for more fire power to fight terrorism.

Here to discuss is CNN national security analyst and former assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, Juliette Kayyem. She's also the author of "Security Mom".

Juliette, good morning.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: What changes will we see at U.S. airports?

KAYYEM: So, you're going to see several changes, and some you won't see. There's just a commitment to what we call layered defense. So, more dogs, roving patrols, surveillance, random check points, undercover cops.

It's that sort of layered aspect of this. You don't want to just focus on one thing as a solution. So people, the traveling public will see that today.

There's also on the backside, what we don't see, increased intelligence sharing, other aspects of unknown and not public aspects of security that will be going on too, to protect the airports and, of course, to protect the traveling public.

On the national side, I know the national incident command center is being stood every, what's called -- you know, transportation security officers is being briefed. You know, you just want people to travel without too much anxiousness this coming weekend.

CAMEROTA: But, Juliette, isn't this the complaint about our entire security apparatus, including certainly at the airport, which is, that it's always reactive instead of proactive? After a shoe bomber, well take off our shoes. After somebody trying to sneak on explosive liquids, we have to get rid of our water. That it's not sort of forward looking. It happens after attacks.

KAYYEM: Well, that's often true, but that's because we learn after a attack sort of the tactics what the terrorists are going to do. So, you -- we should never view safety and security as a permanent state that once we get it, everything will be fine. It has to constantly adapt to what the changing threats are.

So what we're seeing now, of course, between Brussels and Turkey is the open public areas are very, very vulnerable. So you're going to begin to put more assets in those areas. So there's not like some fixed point where, you know, everything is fine, especially with airports or any soft target or open target where you want people to flow.

That's what I want to say to the audience. People are nervous, but keep traveling. You can't just sort of respond by saying, oh, if I only stay home, everything will be fine. It's just, we have to keep engaging with commerce and flow and travel, not because, you know -- not to make a statement, but that's who we are.

[06:40:06] CAMEROTA: Yes. No, I mean, look, it is unsettling. This is our new -- we've talked about this being our new reality.

The sad irony, one of them, of what happened at the Istanbul airport is that Istanbul had beefed up its security. It had moved its security to curbside. OK? So much further outside of the airport than what we have in the U.S., there were -- you know, you had to go through the metal detectors at the curb, and yet these three attackers, one blew himself up in the parking lot, one there at curbside, and then one was able to run through the metal detectors and security and detonate himself inside the airport.

So it seems as though, Juliette, some things are futile, you know? Wherever you move your front line of security, that's still the soft target where the lines are waiting.

KAYYEM: It is true. With a system as big as an airport, right, and -- just domestically, millions of people traveling a week, this idea that you can get the vulnerability to zero is just a fiction. People in security know that.

So, what they're committed to or what where need to invest in is a capability of minimizing the risk and maximizing the defenses, knowing you're not going to get that vulnerability to zero. The other aspect of this is, of course, engaging the public.

Now, I'm willing to admit people in my field have a way of talking that either makes people tune out or freak out. So we have to be better at educating the public about, you know, see something, say something, what are active shooter protocols, and empower people so that they also feel like they own their own safety and security.

Those are sort of, you know, the best way that we can engage in flow and travel and everything we want to do this weekend and minimize the risk as we're doing so. It's not that it's futile, but we just -- we have to accept a level of vulnerability given the society that we live in.

CAMEROTA: Well, nobody tunes out when you're talking, Juliette Kayyem. We pay rapt attention.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: So thank you very much for all of that and have a great weekend.

KAYYEM: Thank you. You too.

CAMEROTA: Let's go over to Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, big trouble, thousands of feet in the sky when a man's parachute doesn't deploy. Wait until you see the heart-stopping free fall. That's right after this.

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[06:46:17] CAMEROTA: A couple headlines for you now. The U.S. and Israel condemning the brutal stabbing of an Israeli-American girl, killed while she slept in her home on West Bank. Security shot and killed at attacker, a Palestinian teenager. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promising strong and determined action against terrorism, saying, quote, "you will not break us."

SCIUTTO: Well, the Pentagon with a landmark policy change, lifting the ban on transgender military members. Effective immediately, transgender troops will no longer be considered medically unfit for military service. They can serve openly now. Also, health benefits for current troops will include coverage for hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery if doctors determine they are medically necessary.

CAMEROTA: Here's a terrible story. An 8-year-old boy is fighting for his life this morning. The child found unresponsive in a pool aboard Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Sea cruise ship. The Coast Guard says the boy spent eight to ten minutes under the water. He received CPR onboard the ship and was airlifted to the hospital. He is reportedly on life support. The ship was headed to the Caribbean. It returns to port in New Jersey.

SCIUTTO: And a heart pounding moment for professional sky diver captured on his go pro. Everything seems fine. You got to watch this video. It's incredible. He jumps out of the plane. There he is going down.

Moments later, though, you can hear him and see him struggling as his parachute opens. Somehow he gets tangled in the cords. Remember, he's falling fast. Somehow how he finds the presence of mind to use his reserve chute.

CAMEROTA: Oh, thank God.

SCIUTTO: He landed safely. I want to make that clear to you. This story has a happy ending. He ends up landing in a stadium.

CAMEROTA: Oh, for the love of God.

SCIUTTO: Imagine the presence of mind. That's happening -- I mean, you're dropping like a stone through the air.

CAMEROTA: A spinning stone, yes.

SCIUTTO: Flipping around. You have the presence of mind to pull that reserve. I've never jumped. I mean, I dreamed of jumping.

CAMEROTA: I don't think you should given the story that we've just done.

SCIUTTO: With three kids, it's off the table. But watching that, that would be enough to keep you off.

CAMEROTA: All right. Meanwhile, should the Obama administration enlist the help of Russia in combating the terror threat in Syria? We'll look at the pros and cons of that.

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[06:52:14] SCIUTTO: After years of acrimony, the U.S. could be looking to Russia for help in the war on terror. The countries weighing a plan to coordinate strikes in Syria. That is, if Moscow agrees to get Syrian President Bashar al Assad to stop targeting U.S.- backed rebel groups there.

CNN military analyst, retired major general, James "Spider" Marks, joining me now.

Spider Marks, so I read this report. You and I know, everyone knows, the U.S. and Russia are basically on opposite sides of that war, right? Russia is supporting Assad. The U.S. on the other side, granted there's ISIS, who makes it a little messier there.

But how is this going to work? How are you going to find some overlap of interest to make cooperation there work?

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: You know, Jim, I love what you said. You know, ISIS makes it a little messier. Just a little messier.

The issue is if you start at the top, you realize there is no convergence of interest between the United States and Russia, or you could say more precisely, there's precious little convergence of interest. In other words, we can probably find a few things we can do together. But Assad is not going anywhere.

The United States has stated all along, that one of the preconditions is that he's got to go. Russia has said, no, he's our ally in the region. He's going to stick around. So, if you start there, you have an immediate barrier that you have to find your way around. That becomes the real sticking point.

SCIUTTO: So, let me ask you this. I mean, you're on opposite sides with Assad, the U.S. and Russia, but at least both Russia and the U.S. don't like ISIS. They're alarmed by ISIS. The folks who carried out this attack in Istanbul, they came from Russia into Turkey.

Let's say you agree on that. Would you as a military commander trust Russia to follow through on whatever you agree on, whatever kind of limited intelligence sharing or I won't bomb you, you don't bomb us kind of agreement?

MARKS: Yes, that's the point. If you can get beyond -- if you could establish some basis for cooperation, which is the first point, and then you get into the tactics of cooperation, we have no experience working with the Russians at that level.

You know, the magic occurs at the tactical level between noncommissioned officers and young officers that have rules engagement. And cooperation and tactics, techniques and procedures that we've never rehearsed with the Russians.

So, simple deconfliction of aircraft, how do you move into a certain area, how do you own battle space, how do you coordinate and move somebody away if you're out to do something? How do I get a convoy to go in a certain direction, not be attacked by one of the rebel forces that might be loosely aligned to an anti-Assad type of role.

That is what concerns me most. It's the trust factor you've talked about.

[06:55:01] And trust is a derivative of sharing power. And we've never shared power in that region, certainly not with the Russians.

SCIUTTO: And this is trust with lives on the line, right?

MARKS: You got it.

SCIUTTO: Let's move to another topic. We remember this incident several months ago when the Iranian navy in effect captured for about 24 hours U.S. sailors in the Persian gulf. The Navy report has come out and found a failure of leadership from the top, all the way down. You commanded forces in the field in Iraq and elsewhere. How bad is this report? How bad are these findings?

MARKS: Yes, it's very, very troubling for the navy. Very troubling for the -- for our presence in the region. The way I would view this is that certainly the United States Navy commands its presence around the world, does absolutely incredible work.

In this region, you know, the United States essentially is the super power that conducts with levels of impunity that nobody else does operations in the Persian Gulf. We've done that forever essentially.

When you're that good and you're that precise and you're that unchallenged in the region, there is an issue of discipline and freedom of action. I think that's what happened.

Let me tell you, the navy knows exactly what it's doing and is going to fix this problem, but you can see where you can have levels of discipline that might be decreased simply because you've been able to do it with impunity for so long.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you, as we see those pictures again, the horrible pictures of U.S. sailors on their knees, in the report it does fault the leadership at that level. It says, for instance, they sailed through Iranian waters, they were basically taking a shortcut. They shouldn't have done that.

They were trying to repair their boat as their engine stopped inside those waters. They should have had a plan. But as you watched this -- we also know from the report, they had less than 24 hours to prepare for this. They were kind of rushed into this mission.

Does the fault -- does most of the fault lie with the sailors on that boat there or with senior leadership?

MARKS: That's a great question. Leadership exists at multiple levels. You have command leadership. You have leadership at the group level. You have individual leadership.

So, if you start at the bottom, every sailor, every soldier, every service member has an obligation to remain at levels of readiness 24/7. That then percolates up to that command level that says, within my purview, I own this boat, I own these men, I own these women. We have to be able to execute tasks at the drop of a hat, what must we do?

What are those preconditions that have to take place? That has to happen without any direct orders. That's like breathing air. Then you take it to the next level. Is this the level of readiness this organization has maintained and can I put them in that -- on this mission? So, everybody's got ownership.

SCIUTTO: A lot of careers probably going to end over this.

Final question. We had the announcement from Ash Carter yesterday ending the ban on transgender soldiers from serving in the military. It was noted, for instance, by our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr that the joint chiefs were not present for that announcement.

Is it your sense that he didn't have the full backing for this, that there was some opposition?

MARKS: I would tell you behind closed doors, there's going to be opposition, absolutely. The one thing that's wonderful is that in the military, you want to make sure that your voice is heard. So, there's got to be a loyal opposition to any one of the -- any discussion point, any significant effort like this.

So, there may have been behind closed doors disagreement, but at the end of the day, everybody on the joint chiefs is going to say, boss, we got it. This is a decision. It's not illegal. We may have disagreed. We voiced our concerns. But we're going to follow these directives and we're going to make it work.

Yes, that could have been the issue.

SCIUTTO: General "Spider" Marks, always great to talk to you.

MARKS: Jim, thank you very much.

SCIUTTO: Thanks very much.

Well, we're following a lot of news this morning. Let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Our people should have more pride in buying made in the USA.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Trump ties are made in China. Suits in Mexico.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's make America great again by protecting America from the global economy. That's just not realistic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He accused my best friend's father of conspiring to kill JFK.

TRUMP: It was a rough primary. They got beat up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very likely these individuals would have fought together as a part of ISIS.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The three men came from the is stronghold of Raqqah.

CARTER: It's important to destroy ISIL.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over 40 million Americans traveling this weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Security is being ramped up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Something doesn't make sense here in this case.

CAMEROTA: A new trial for serial Adnan Syed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to keep fighting until he's out of jail.

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

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: All right. That does it. I've got to start listening to the serial podcast.

SCIUTTO: I've told her to. I've listened to it. She's got to catch up.

CAMEROTA: I thought I was going to be able to avoid it, but there is news about it this morning. And we'll bring that to you.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to NEW DAY. Jim Sciutto joins me.