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President Obama Answers Questions at G20 Summit; President Obama Discusses Issues of Russian Cooperation with U.S. on Middle East Policy; Philippines President Says He'll Stand Up To Obama; CNN Obtains Trove Of Documents On ISIS Terror Attack. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired September 05, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But I'd rather have young people who are engaged in the argument and trying to think through how they can be part of our democratic process, than people who are just sitting on the sidelines and not paying attention at all.

[08:00:09] And, you know, my suspicion is that, over time, he's going to refine how he's thinking about it and maybe some of his critics will start seeing that he has a point around certain concerns about justice and equality. And that's how we move forward. Sometimes it's messy but, you know, it's the way democracy works.

All right. Last one. Angela Greiling Keane of Bloomberg.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. The G20 group today discussed the importance of tax fairness and consistency among countries. For you, how much of that discussion was centered on the Apple case and the E.U.'s decision? And how do you balance your efforts here to ensure global tax fairness with your need and desire to protect U.S. companies and their shareholders?

And if I may on one other business topic, how would you assess the likelihood of the actions taken on steel today of making a difference in overcapacity?

OBAMA: Those are both great questions. This issue of tax avoidance and tax evasion is something that we have actively promoted as an issue for the G20 to tackle. We've worked with not only the G20 countries but also some of multilateral organizations to -- like the EOCD -- to refine how we approach these problems.

It's a complicated piece of business. We did not bring up the specific case of Apple because, as a general rule, I don't want to bring up a single case in a forum like this where we're trying to shape broader policy. But at home we have been focused, whether it's on the inversion rules that we put forward, the proposals that we put forward to define who the beneficiaries are behind the, you know, the veil so we can catch people who are avoiding their taxes. You know, we're doing a bunch of stuff at home and we want to coordinate better norms internationally.

The one thing that we have to make sure we do is to move in concert with other countries because there's always a danger that if one of us acts unilaterally, that it's not just a matter of a U.S. company being impacted, but it may also have an effect in terms of our ability to collect taxes from that same company. So you might end up with a situation where they pay into Europe and the U.S. treasury is short changed. So if there's not some coordination between various tax authorities, you get a problem there. In the same way that we think there has to be coordination about even some of our closest allies racing to the bottom in terms of how they enforce their tax policies in ways that lead to revenue shifting and tax avoidance in our country.

So this is not something that I think is going to be sorted out overnight. I do think that if we are to regain the trust of ordinary people that the system is not rigged and deal with these trends of inequality that have risen out of globalization and technological change, that we've got to make sure we tackle this issue in an effective way. And we've made some progress but not as much as we need to. And my hope is that it's recognized that it's in the interests of all countries, whether they're developed countries or developing countries, to work together to put a stop to this. Because developed countries are losing revenue and that erodes their tax base and their ability to educate kids and build universities and build infrastructure.

[08:05:06] But it also wallops developing countries because oftentimes tax avoidance can go hand in hand with corrupt practices that impede development.

In terms of excess capacity, this is an issue that we wanted to get on the agenda. We got it on the agenda. In my bilateral conversations with President Xi, there was an agreement that we would make progress on dealing with steel overcapacity which, by the way, is consistent with the plans that President Xi himself has had to reorient the economy so that it's not so heavily dependent on state-owned enterprises and an export model.

So we've made some progress, not as much as we'd like to see, but some progress on that front bilaterally. Multilaterally, the way this was resolved was the G20 agreed to put together an intensive process of gathering all the data, determining what the best steps are, which will then be reported in the G20 in Hamburg next year. And I think there was a validation of the basic principle that, to the extent that overcapacity is the result not just of market forces but specific policy decisions that are distorting a well-functioning market, that that needs to be fixed.

And so it was one of a number of examples that aren't always sexy and don't attract a lot of headlines of where issues that we've raised in the G20 get adopted and then a bunch of work gets done and the following year you start seeing action and slowly we strengthen and build up international norms.

If you look at the issue of I.T. and the digital economy, we were able to get the G20 to adopt a range of principles about an open Internet, net neutrality, making sure that, you know, businesses and vendors and providers aren't discriminated across borders, reflecting a lot of the foundational principles that have led to this digital revolution over the last several years. And that will in turn generate a bunch of new work and there will still be conflicts about how people deal with censorship or how they deal with cyber security issues, but we chip away at it. And over time what you get is sturdier international norms that everybody abides to and will help all countries grow and help people prosper.

So I'm -- my parting words at the G20 were, having watched this process over the last eight years, I think we all to have recognize these are turbulent times. A lot of countries are seeing volatile politics. Sometimes you read the headlines and you can get discouraged about whether the international community and leadership are able to shape solutions fast enough for the scale of the problems, whether it's migrants and refugees, or climate change, or terrorism, or making sure the international economy is working for everybody. But then when you look back over the course of eight years, actually you find out things have gotten better. Not always as fast as we'd like, but in significant ways. You look at the progress we made on the financial system -- the American banking system now has $700 billion more in capital. It is much safer, much sturdier. But it's not just us. Because of the G20, you also have a Basel III agreement in which all countries are having to strengthen their capital requirements and put in place some basic safeguards to prevent what happened at Lehman's. And that's true across the board.

So, as always, I'd always like to see even more get done but I'm cautiously optimistic about the progress we made.

[08:10:06] I tell my staff when they feel worn out sometimes that better is always good. It may not be everything that needs to get done, but if it's better than before we started, we'll take it.

All right. Thank you very much, everybody.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. That was President Obama wrapping up a press conference after the G20 summit in China. The president addressing several issues ranging from his 90 meeting with the Russian President Vladimir Putin to the 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Interesting words there. But first, President Obama called his meeting with Vladimir Putin all business. He talked about Syrian. They said they couldn't come to an agreement on cessation of hostilities there. They also discussed Ukraine and cyber security as the president said just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: We have had some productive conversations about what a real cessation of hostilities would look like that would allow us both the United States and Russia to focus our attention on common enemies like ISIL and Nusra. But given the gaps of trust that exist, that's a tough negotiation, and we haven't yet closed the gaps in a way where we think it would actually work. But my instructions to Secretary Kerry and Mr. Putin's instructions to Mr. Lavrov were to keep working at it over the next several days. We did talk about cyber security generally. I'm not going to comment

on specific investigations that are still live and active, but I will tell you we've had problems with cyber intrusions from Russia in the past, from other countries in the past. And, look, we're moving into a new era here where a number of countries have significant capacities. And frankly, we have more capacity than anybody both offensively and defensively. But our goal is not to suddenly in the cyber arena duplicate a cycle of escalation that we saw when it comes to other arms races in the past, but rather to start instituting some norms so that everybody is acting responsibly.

We're going to have enough problems in the cyber space with non-state actors who are engaging in theft and using the Internet for all kinds of illicit practices and protecting our critical infrastructure and making sure that our financial systems are sound. And what we cannot do is have a situation in which suddenly this becomes the wild, wild west.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: We want to bring in our political panel now to get their take on all this, CNN political analyst and Washington Bureau chief from "The Daily Beast" Jackie Kucinich, and Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst and senior editor of "The Atlantic."

Ron, I'll start with you. What we heard there, that little cut down was President Obama responding to our own Michelle Kosinski's question about the meeting with Vladimir Putin and questions of Russia possibly hacking into the DNC computers came up. What jumped out at you from his response?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think my ears perked like everyone who was listening at what President Obama as a baseball fan would recognize as a brush back pitch toward the Russian government. Those remarkable words, frankly we have more not only defensive but offensive capacity, and then kind of analogizing to the cold war arms race and perhaps the idea of mutually assured destruction, implying that the answer to Russian cyber intrusion into U.S. institutions, which is what we are talking about here, a potential massive Russian incursion against American institutions like North Korea with the Sony studio, the response might not only be stronger defense but stronger offense. And I thought that was something that was very noteworthy and strikingly different in tone than almost everything he said during that very measured press conference.

BERMAN: It was remarkable. Presidents don't just happen to say we have more offensive and defensive capabilities than you unless they want you all to hear it.

Jackie, one of the really interesting points in the news conference, President Obama was asked about Colin Kaepernick, who is not standing for the National Anthem right now.

[08:15:00] And after saying he hasn't been paying attention, after saying he hasn't been paying attention to what's going on in football in the United States, he proceeded to give a very well thought out answer to the Kaepernick situation where he said essentially that Colin Kaepernick is exercising his constitutional right not to stand up, there's a long history in athletics of athletes doing this.

The president also said he understands that for some people when it comes to the national anthem and the flag, you know, protests are a nonstarter. He understands that people just can't get beyond that.

However he said that Kaepernick is bringing up an important discussion. He said that overtime Kaepernick may refine his position, but the critics may come to understand and appreciate what Kaepernick is saying. It was really interesting.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, it really was. He wasn't exactly praising the actual protest because it has do with the national anthem, but he was praising the fact he was speaking out. He said also that he prefers an active citizenry than someone sitting on the sidelines, no pun intended, in this case.

But he wants people speaking out, not being complacent and that part he really did praise and he said that he was keeping his conversation going without saying that what the thing that he -- that Kaepernick decided to protest was OK. He really did seem to encourage him and praise him for speaking out in the way that he did.

CAMEROTA: Ron, I want to ask you about the whole purpose of the meeting as we were told by Vladimir Putin and President Obama and that was to figure out what to do about Syria and the ongoing bloodshed there.

And the president used interesting language. Michelle Kosinski asked him speaking of colorful men, what about Vladimir Putin, and he said I wouldn't describe him as colorful, but I would describe our conversations as candid and businesslike, he said.

And then he also talked about how he hoped that Secretary Kerry and Sergei Lavrov would continue the conversations about the cessation of hostilities, but here's the quote, "given the gaps of trust that exist between our countries, that is a tough negotiation."

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: What did you think about that language?

BROWNSTEIN: It's like we were talking about earlier in the hour the famous quote gray is the color of truth. This is an enormously frustrating relationship because it is increasingly adversarial on many fronts.

But as the president of the united states you cannot simply walk away from it because you need to explore where if at all there's overlap in your priorities and goals and certainly they have felt there is the colonel of that on ISIS and on action against ISIS.

But they have never been able to truly get past the fundamental conflict that Putin wants to preserve the Assad government in Syria and has focused most of its efforts there on that goal.

And they've never truly come to a point of agreement on the point where they theoretically can come together on ISIS. One thought on Colin Kaepernick and the president. I thought what he was suggesting in a classic President Obama kind of way, I'm sympathetic to his ends but not to his means.

And in that way I thought it was an extension of his convention speech where he was trying to redefine what patriotism meant in an increasingly diverse country as questioning where America is and pressuring it to live up to its ideas.

So I thought it was consistent with the argument that he's made this campaign season.

BERMAN: I want to bring in Michelle Kosinski who is live with us from China who got to ask a question at that news conference. Michelle, it was interesting as the president navigates this meeting with Vladimir Putin and Colin Kaepernick.

And then the issue with the leader of the Philippines, who just a short time, the president of the Philippines, Duterte, essentially said if President Obama, and he's scheduled to meet with the president over the next 48 hours.

If the president brings up certain issues about the Philippines, extrajudicial killings and killings that are happening outside the police force, the president of the Philippines just said he would call President Obama a son of a bitch.

And the president was asked about that and he tried to sort of tip toe through whether or not he still plans to meet with the Philippine leader.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I know we heard some other colorful language too said to be coming from the new Philippine president. President Obama said the timing has to be right that if and when we meet, so he left the possibility that he won't meet with him.

He want to make sure that they are going to be able to have a constructive conversation at all. The reporter pressed him on that and said does that mean you might not meet with him and the president said he intends to have a constructive conversation.

He didn't seem too happy about those comments even though he said I've been in meetings all day. I haven't seen everything that was said. But Duterte isn't exactly a person who shies away from making these kinds of statements. He's been called a fire brand.

[08:20:06]He's made controversial statements not just about those killings in the drug war that's going on in the Philippines, but in other ways as well. But you know, it's important to note that President Obama, he wanted to point out that this is a NATO ally. It's a treaty ally of the United States. So he wants to make sure that he's respecting that relationship at all. It's a difficult thing for the United States and having to sit down with this person who just called him vulgar name and trying to make progress when both sides are willing.

I mean, there has been that foundation laid there just in the last year as President Obama has traveled to the Philippines, we've seen progress made, but things like this happen and it makes it more difficult just as other countries are looking at the American elections and wondering who is going to fill that seat next and what that means for their relationships.

CAMEROTA: I mean, obviously diplomacy is hard. It is not easy, Jackie, but maybe he should skip that meeting.

KUCINICH: Speaking of diplomacy he made an interesting comment. He didn't address the U.S. elections directly, but he said this is about forging consensus instead of dictating terms. That's how it's always been and that's how it will be in future.

That was an interesting comment by him because the dictating terms in particular considering the conversation that's been going on in the U.S. about globalization and diplomacy going forward so I wanted to mention that because I thought it was a hint to the broader conversation we've been having throughout the last couple of weeks.

BERMAN: Ron, quickly, the president also said that he still needs to sell TPP here in the United States. It's a tougher sell here than it is overseas and he said it's going to all happen after the election indicating we're going to have a busy November and December here.

BROWNSTEIN: That was striking. He was still all in for pushing for TPP in November and December at a point where whoever gets elected president has already indicated they are opposed to it. Perhaps Hillary Clinton might quietly not mind if it got done before she is sworn in if she's the winner.

But as I said, she has indicated she will not move forward with this so that's going to be a difficult sell for the president to convince a lame duck Congress to do it. He will have the business community with him, but it's going to be a hard movement for him at that point.

BERMAN: All right, Ron Brownstein, Michelle Kosinski, Jackie Kucinich, thanks so much guys.

Up next, we have new details about ISIS planning attacks in Europe including the deadly assault in Paris. The evidence pulled from cell phones of suspected terrorists that shows the attack could have been worse. This is a CNN exclusive you don't want to miss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:25:20]

CAMEROTA: We have exclusive new details this morning about the way ISIS plans and carries out attacks against western countries. CNN has obtained tens of thousands of pages of documents in the investigation of the ISIS attack in Paris last November and these reveal ISIS operates a sophisticated organization throughout Europe, which helps would-be terrorists plan and carry out those attacks.

BERMAN: It also include photos that have never been shown to the public before, interrogations and actual communications between the ISIS attackers and their handlers back in Syria and they name an ISIS operative who was on the loose for months.

CNN senior international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, she spent months reporting this story. This is her exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): November 13th, ten ISIS operatives attacked Paris targeting bars, restaurants, concert hall and the stadium shooting as many people as they could before blowing themselves up. By the end of the massacre, the worst terrorist attack in Europe in a decade, 130 people were dead.

Now, for the first time, CNN has gained access to thousands of pages of documents and photos from the internal European investigation, which shed new light on the sophisticated network ISIS uses to coordinate terror attacks across Europe.

The documents reveal another suspected terrorist never before made public who investigators linked to the cell that carried out the Paris attacks. He was on the loose in Europe for more than six months.

Other ISIS operatives are right now believed to be living among ordinary citizens in Europe plotting other strikes directed by senior ISIS handlers in Syria according to multiple sources.

Within days of the rampage in Paris police learned that two of the three suicide bombers at the Stad de France Stadium entered Europe by posing as Syrian refugees.

These surveillance photos never seen before publicly show the bombers as they approach their target. This is the moment they detonate their devices. But according to the document two more men were part of the ISIS cell.

They traveled the same refugee route as the suicide bombers, blending in with thousands of people from wore-torn countries. Their names are Adul Hadadi (ph) and Mohammad Ozman (ph).

They were eventually arrested and records of their capture and interrogation obtained by CNN show how ISIS supported the attackers throughout their mission, this is their story based on multiple interrogations.

Early October, six weeks before the Paris attacks, their documents show their journey back in Raqqah. The men didn't know each other's real names or what their mission would be. According to the documents one tells investigators he only knew they were being sent to France to do something for the good of God.

Much of their journey was directed by a shadowy ISIS leader in Syria who arranged meetings, cell phones and transportation for them. We asked an expert on terrorism to analyze the documents obtained by CNN.

JEAN-CHARLES BRISARD, FRENCH CENTER FOR ANALYSIS OF TERRORISM: He is clearly an ISIS operative. He's key in sending those individuals, these foreigners, into the Paris attacks because he's the one who recruited them, who funds them, who trained them, who provided electronic devices to them, he was always in contact with them.

WARD: According to the transcripts of interrogations the men traveled from Raqqah across the Turkish border onto the a coastal city of Izmir, switching vehicles, picking up cash, passed from one smuggler to the next on the way. They receive instructions from their ISIS handler in Syria through encrypted apps such as Telegram and WhatsApp. Throughout their journey they're only given enough money and information to get to the next stop.

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: ISIS is accelerating its international attack and planning. It's increasingly sophisticated in the way it does this. It set off an intricate, a logistical support system for these terrorist cells throughout Europe.

WARD: In the middle of the night the team makes the treacherous crossing to Greece in a boat filled with dozens of refugees. They picked up by the Greek Navy along the way.

The two bombers who would eventually attack the Paris stadium make it through and start moving steadily north toward their target, but the men's fake Syrian passports are discovered.

They're arrested and they're money is taken. They are held in Greece for about a month.