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Pope Francis Opening An Historic Vatican Summit On Clergy Abuse; Zion Williamson Forced To Leave Last Nights Game; Saddam Al- Jamal A Mid-Level Syrian ISIS Prisoner On Death Row Says He Never Saw Al-Baghdadi But Was Close To Those Who Did. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired February 21, 2019 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL)

BERMAN: New this morning, Pope Francis opening an historic Vatican Summit on clergy abuse. The Pope telling senior church leaders to, "listen to the cry of the small who are asking for justice".

Bishops from around the world are attending the four day conference. The Pope says Catholics are not looking for mire condonation (ph), but concrete actions to confront the scandal of pedophilia.

CAMEROTA: President Trump refusing to allow an Alabama woman who traveled to Syria to join ISIS to return to the United States. The President says that he instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to block Hoda Muthana from returning to the U.S.

Muthana left America five years ago to join ISIS and she recently made a public plea to come back and stand trial in America. Pompeo says Muthana, who is detained at the moment in a Kurdish refugee camp is not an American citizen.

Her citizenship is now in dispute.

BERMAN: A huge scare for Duke Basketball fans - college basketball fans in general. We're talking freshman sensation Zion Williamson forced to leave last nights game against North Carolina because of this.

He had a knee sprain. Look at how what happened. He went down when his shoe sort of exploded and ripped as he was playing and it was a Nike sneaker, the sole torn loose from heel to toe.

[06:35:00]

Duke's coach, Mike Krzyzewski says Williamson's knee is stable and that a time table for his return will be determined later today. In a statement, Nike expressed concern for Williamson and said they are looking into the issue.

This was the most anticipated college basketball game of the year. Duke is number one, North Carolina is number is eight. Former President Barack Obama was there. I think we have video of the

former President when this happened. Well there's Obama at the game, when the shoe broke you can actually see Obama mouth the words, "his shoe broke".

He saw it happen and he gave the play by play as it was happening. This was in like the first minute...

CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh, really?

BERMAN: ... of the game. Yes and I can not stress to you what a star Zion Williamson is expected to be. He could be the next Lebron James, people think.

CAMEROTA: Well I mean the evidence is right there, even I can see it. It's - the sole peels off.

BERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: I hate when your sole comes loose.

BERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: If you know what I mean.

BERMAN: Yes. I've been there.

CAMEROTA: Yes, me too. All right, is another top Trump administration official on the way out? We'll tell you who may be getting the boot soon. Get it?

BERMAN: The boot - the shoe, I see what you did there.

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[06:40:00]

BERMAN: Moments ago, "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett we learned is now under arrest and in the custody of detectives in Chicago. He's facing a felony charge for allegedly filing a false report.

Police - he claimed that two men attacked him last month. Let me read you the statement, actor Jussie Smollett is under arrest and in custody this morning according to Chicago police, there will be a briefing later this morning at 10:00 a.m. eastern time.

A bail hearing is set for this afternoon.

CAMEROTA: Just remarkable how this story has turned around. All right now to this, President Trump says the Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats' job is safe. But sources tell CNN that there are preliminary discussions in the White House about replacing him.

We're back with Lisa Monaco. Lisa, this is troubling because this is not just the president souring on someone, on his staff as he sometimes does, this isn't just the president getting rid of somebody in a fit of pique, this is because he does not like hearing that ISIS and North Korea are still threats.

That is different than the president's narrative, and of course the director of national intelligence, that's his job to give the national intelligence. So here are examples of how the president would like to spin it versus what DNI Coats has said. Watch this.

BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have won against ISIS, we've beaten them and we've beaten them badly.

DAN COATS, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, TRUMP ADMINISTRATION: ISIS is intent on resurging and still commands thousands of fighters in Iraq and Syria.

TRUMP: Kim, we have a great chemistry, and we're well on our way. You know, we signed an agreement, it said we will begin the immediate denuclearization.

COATS: North Korea will seek to retain its WMD capabilities and is unlikely to completely give up its nuclear weapons and production capabilities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Lisa, if they get rid of DNI Coats, what does that tell you?

LISA MONACO, HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISOR, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: Well look, Alisyn, if the reporting is true and they get rid of DNI Coats because he has given his unvarnished intelligence assessments based on the work of career professionals across - who serve without fear or favor across the political spectrum, that is another blow to the intelligence community which frankly has had to endure a daily pummeling from the president who seems to agree with Vladimir Putin's assessments instead of his own intelligence community.

The other thing is, you know, people need to remember DNI Coats and others who serve in political as well as in career positions take an oath to the constitution and to the country. They do not take an oath to any individual president, and DNI Coats' job is national security and unvarnished intelligence assessments, not policy.

BERMAN: Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright who is no fan of the president of the United States at this point told me I worked for a president who actually wanted to know what was going on.

What is the impact of this, Lisa, even having this discussion a week before the president is scheduled to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un?

MONACO: Well what it does, John, is it sends another signal of chaos in the administration, and it sends a very bad signal, of course, to the intelligence community. You know, when I served as the president's homeland security and counterterrorism advisor, I spent every morning in the - in the president's daily brief, the morning intelligence briefing with the DNI as well as the rest of the national security team.

And often times, the president would get uncomfortable assessments, meaning assessments that weren't great for - for policy decisions, but presidents should want to hear the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

CAMEROTA: Right, it means that for the American public, they will only be able to get the truth from our Clarissa Ward and Arwa Damon and Nick Paton Walsh who are on the ground and bring us stories, thank goodness, of what's happening where - in places - in pockets where ISIS is still trying to be victorious.

And so, I mean, if they get rid of DNI Coats and find somebody who is more in line with the president's thinking that everything is rosy, what does that do for the country?

MONACO: Well it's very dangerous, Alisyn, because what it does is it only gives one perspective or ones - you know, one vantage point. As good as reporting can be, it's not everything, right. Hopefully the intelligence community has a lot more information than can be acquired in the public realm.

And it's all of that information that needs to be compiled and put before policymakers including the chief policymaker, the president, so he and the rest of the team can make informed judgments.

And without that full spectrum of analysis, it's going to make things more dangerous and really hurt our ability to make those good decisions.

BERMAN: Lisa Monaco, thanks for sticking us - sticking around and helping us understand this.

[06:45:00]

We're watching this also very, very closely. He has been hunted for years, but that might all change soon. Are the intelligence agencies finally close to capturing the illusive leader of ISIS? We have a CNN exclusive next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

New this morning is CNN exclusive, senior Iraqi intelligence sources tell CNN they may be close to capturing the illusive ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. But Al-Baghdadi has slipped through their fingers before, CNN's Arwa Damon on this story in Erbil in Iraq with this exclusive reporting. Arwa, what have you learned?

ARWA DAMON, INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN NEWS: Good morning John, well in trying to track some of Al-Baghdadi's locations, we've managed to get some insight into how it is.

At least up until now, he has been able to so successfully go to ground.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAMON: Reverberating through the streets of the old city during this Friday's sermon are words about the true meaning of freedom and Islam, but it was also on a Friday in July of 2014 when Mahmoud Dawoud and Imam (ph) says his cell phone suddenly lost reception.

[06:50:00]

MAHMOUD DAWOUD, MOSUL RESIDENT (through translator): I saw masked men all over the neighborhood and on rooftops he tells us. The cars came, it's the first time I see them, more than 200 with tinted windows. And then Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi showed up, declared the caliphate, himself it's leader and ordered all Muslims to obey him.

DAMON: And that's exactly where Al-Baghdadi gave his address. Mahmoud says, he know in that moment that Iraq would be demolished. It's the only one of Al-Baghdadi's locations that is fully confirmed. Since then, despite being hunted by the best intelligence agencies, there has been little more than brief sightings, spotty intelligence and conflicting information.

Saddam Al-Jamal, a mid-level Syrian ISIS prisoner on death row in the Iraqi capital, says he never saw Al-Baghdadi, but was close to those who did.

SADDAM AL-JAMAL, MID-LEVEL ISIS COMMANDER (through translator): About a year and a half ago, he tells us, there were attempts by foreign fighters to overthrow Baghdadi, but he had them all killed.

The decent with an ISIS leadership ranks have even further shrunk the entourage around Baghdadi. The sprawling town Shivgot (ph) is one of the areas where an intelligence source says Baghdadi moved through in 2015, holding meetings with senior commanders in safe houses.

We've been talking to residents here and none of whom will appear on camera, but they were telling us that they say ISIS' top military commander coming in and out of this house and numerous sources say that this is where he was killed in 2015. And an Iraqian intelligence source tells us that this house is one of the places where he would meet with Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.

There were also reports that we cannot confirm, that Baghdadi was wounded in that same airstrike. A senior Iraqain intelligence officer says that on at least three occasions, two in Iraq and one in Syria, they called on strikes that came close to taking him out.

For insight into how the ISIS leader may be moving around, we head from Shivgot (ph) to the edge of Baghdadi's former hideout, the foothill of the Hamrin Mountains. To the west of here lies vast stretch of desert that leads into Syria. Exclusive images obtained by CNN show what we are told are ISIS spotter hideouts, masquerading as nomad tents.

Photographs of the tunnels inside the mountains, how their entrance is hidden, life inside the caves and a brief video where one fighter discusses his injury and they all cracked jokes. This is where ISIS is training it's strike force and still carries out

sporadic attacks. If you look at the landscape, it's actually a very good illustration of how ISIS is now being forced to move around. They take advantage of these gorges that exist throughout this entire area. And in fact at one point they were actually able to, while moving through these gorges, come up and attempt to plant an IED right here on the road.

Out here ISIS still rules the night. Coming down in small groups to murder, plant bombs and steal. The Iraqis believe they are closing in on Baghdad, but he has eluded them more than once, disappearing into the shadows of these lawless lands.

BERMAN: Seeing the terrain and the landscape there Arwa is so important. What would the capture of Al-Baghdadi actually do the strength of ISIS?

DAMON: Well, it really depends. They may struggle to try to find a leader who is potentially going to be as charismatic and there are all sorts of divisions that do exist within ISIS, John, especially at the leadership level.

But then there is also the fact that, at least according to one Iraqi analyst we spoke to who has been studying ISIS for years now, that the networks that exist in Syria and Iraq, even though they are the best known and most notorious perhaps, ISIS has planned for this, ISIS has networks in North Africa, in Europe and in South East Asia and they operate independently.

They're called the foreign or outside bureaus. ISIS also has this very vast financial infrastructure and these other networks and the cells that exist that ISIS still has right now, they operate on their own so they don't necessarily even need Al-Baghdadi to be able to function.

CAMEROTA: Arwa, we would not be able to understand this as well without your reporting. Thank you so much for bringing us the reporting and the video and showing us what it really looks like on the ground.

All right, we are following breaking news for you this morning. Empire actor, Jussie Smollett is now under arrest. He is facing a felony charge for allegedly filing a false police report. We have all of the breaking details for you next.

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[06:55:00]

CAMEROTA: All right, good morning everyone, welcome to your NEW DAY. We do begin with breaking news. Empire actor, Jussie Smollett is now in custody in Chicago. He is facing a felony charge for allegedly filing a false police report, claiming that two men attacked him in a hate crime last month.

BERMAN: And we learned this just moments ago, police sources tell CNN that Smollett paid the two men to orchestrate the attack. Chicago's Police Chief will brief reporters later this morning ahead of Smollett's first appearance in court this afternoon.

Our Ryan Young is live in Chicago with all the breaking details, Ryan, now in custody.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, such a strange story. The last time we joined you in the 5 o'clock hour who knew that this was going on. In fact, he turned himself in. I'm told from sources that he will have to talk to detectives first before being brought to this court house. What a strange ending to this entire story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Jussie Smollett going from an alleged victim to a suspect in a possible felony with Chicago police saying that the Empire actor filed a false police report when he claimed these two men attacked him last month.

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