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New Day Saturday

ISIS Seizes Town Near Base With U.S. Troops; Pentagon: ISIS Attackers Wore Iraqi Uniforms; Will Ukraine, Russia Honor Ceasefire?; Boston Braces For Fourth Snowstorm In Weeks; Deadline for Ukraine Cease-Fire Looms; Monster Storm; ISIS Advances

Aired February 14, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Helicopters battle ISIS near an air base in Iraq. Where U.S. troops -- were they in danger? And is the threat over this morning?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: The clock is ticking in Ukraine to ceasefire between Ukraine and rebel troops, but this morning the shelling continues resulting in even more deaths.

PAUL: Yes, I am so sorry to say, another monster storm is about to hit the Northeast, 60 million of you impacted by this one. Boston getting hit the hardest. They're under a blizzard warning, but they're not the only ones.

Can you believe it again? Happy Valentine's Day to you, by the way. On that note, I'm Christi Paul.

SAVIDGE: And I'm Martin Savidge. Thank you. Thank you very much. Boston, please be careful out there. First thing, though, this morning --

PAUL: Yes, U.S. helicopter gunships battling ISIS fighters in Iraq. That's what we're talking about because ISIS suicide bombers attacked a critical military base and that base is housing hundreds of American troops.

The Ayn Al-Assad Air Base is just nine miles from the Iraqi town of Al-Baghdadi. You see it here on the map. ISIS fighters grabbed control of the town on Friday in an intense assault. That 90 percent of it, we understand, is under ISIS control.

Now, as the ISIS fighters battled inside Al-Baghdadi, suicide bombers wearing Iraqi military uniforms that they had stolen obviously trying to rush the perimeter of the air base.

CNN's Phil Black is in Northern Iraq right now. So Phil, what is the latest on the situation first of all at the base?

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, at the base, Christi, so far no further threat that we are aware of. No further attacks not since yesterday when that very large orchestrated attack took place involving some 20 to 25 ISIS militants dressed in Iraqi military uniforms as many as eight of them were suicide bombers.

They were dealt with by the Iraqi security forces on the ground with the assistance of those Apachi American attack helicopters. Did not fire any rounds, but seemed to have played some sort of surveillance role in that operation.

That was dealt with for the moment. Nearby at the town of Al- Baghdadi, the Iraqi security forces and their efforts to retake that town have not made a lot of progress. We understand they are still at the perimeter of the town.

The ISIS militants still very much control the center and the heart of the town and the vast majority of the land there, but the Iraqi security forces are still trying to take it back.

PAUL: So how threatened are U.S. Marines at this base? Is there a gauge?

BLACK: Well, in this case, the attack got close to the base itself, to the perimeter on one side, but we are told not close to the U.S. personnel within. That's because they were several miles away. The base is large. It's sprawling. It is city like. So several miles away not involved, not under any threat, according to

the Pentagon, but this is a base that's been attacked before although not seriously, some indirect fire, rocket fire, mortar fire, nothing serious and nothing damaging.

But given that ISIS is expanding its control in this province of Anbar in the west of Iraq, it now controls the majority of it. It has now established this foothold in the town of Al-Baghdadi just nearby. The U.S. military does expect this facility to come under further attacks in the future.

PAUL: All right, I know that you're in Northern Iraq, you and the crew do take care there. Phil Black, we appreciate it. Thank you.

SAVIDGE: The Ayn Al-Assad Air Base is roughly the size of Boulder, Colorado.

PAUL: Yes, it has a team of 300 strong U.S. forces there training Iraqi soldiers to take on ISIS. We want to go to CNN chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, now who has more on that -- Jim.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Christie and Martin, the ISIS attack on that base serious enough that the U.S. deployed Apache attack helicopters. Now Pentagon officials saying that the U.S. and coalition military personnel were never under danger.

That they were some distance from where the attack took place, but with ISIS now controlling the neighboring town of Al-Baghdadi, Pentagon officials say the threat to Al-Assad and those coalition military personnel is ongoing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SCIUTTO (voice-over): Coalition war planes flying over the western Iraqi town of Al-Baghdadi. This after ISIS militants seized the town and launched a separate assault on Iraqi base housing U.S. military personnel.

At 7:20 in the morning, a small group of ISIS fighters dressed in stolen Iraqi military uniforms attacked the Al-Assad air base where more than 300 American military personnel are training Iraqi forces. Iraqi troops fought back killing eight suspected suicide bombers with the help of American surveillance.

(on camera): Did the attackers at any time breach the base security?

REAR ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON SPOKESMAN: We're still looking at this and it's hard to say, you know, whether they breached the perimeter or not. But they certainly got, you know, to the perimeter level at the very least. They were immediately engaged, I think it's important to note, by the Iraq security forces right away.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): U.S. forces stationed at the base where the Pentagon says kilometers away from the assault and under no threat, but they were clearly closer to combat.

(on camera): Isn't it fair to say that these military personnel particularly in Anbar are in combat if not in combat troops considering the threat that's around them.

KIRBY: There's no question that they're close to danger. I mean, there's no question about that. There's not going to be a return to combat mission on the ground. These individuals are not in a combat mission.

Now, again, as I said, they have the right to defend themselves and should they ever feel under threat, they certainly have the right and responsibility and obligation to shoot back.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): But Rear Admiral John Kirby told us the U.S. does have contingency plans to evacuate U.S. military personnel if necessary. ISIS is also on the offensive in the north. Here the terror group is parading, what it claims, are Kurdish forces in cages after capturing them in battle.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: U.S. forces are now deployed in four places outside of Baghdad, at Al-Assad, in Anbar Province, also in Taji, in Erbil, and just to the south of Baghdad. U.S. officials say, of course, that they're not combat troops, but they're closer to combat, and U.S. officials acknowledged as a result of that, they are closer the danger -- Christie and Martin.

PAUL: All righty, Jim Sciutto, appreciate it so much. Thank you.

SAVIDGE: I am joined by Peter Neumann. He is a professor of Security Studies at King's College in London. He is also the director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence. Good morning, Peter.

PETER NEUMANN, PROFESSOR OF SECURITY STUDIES, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON: Good morning, Martin.

SAVIDGE: I want to start off by showing you this map and basically what it does is show us clearly the distance from ISIS-controlled Al- Baghdadi to the Al-Assad Air Base. And I am wondering are you concerned that just 9 miles now divides ISIS from the U.S. and Iraqi forces?

NEUMANN: Well, of course. It kind of vindicates the argument by those who have always been against putting American troops on the frontline. American troops have always been on the ground. Boots on the ground was never the question.

The question has always been how close should they be to the frontline? Now they're 9 miles away from it. I think ISIS is very much aching for this kind of confrontation. It wants to kill American soldiers.

It wants to be in a conflict directly with American. It's the kind of confrontation that they want to have. They're seeking it out in this particular case.

SAVIDGE: And as this fighting on the ground continues, ISIS also posted a video allegedly showing them parading captured Peshmerga fighters through the streets of Iraq in cages. Your reaction to that video?

NEUMANN: Yes, I mean, it is this sort of shocking tactics that they have used with the Jordanian pilot in the past. I think what they're desperately trying to do is to regain the sense of momentum that they had last summer when they were capturing a lot of towns and they were having a lot of military victories.

If you look at what is happening right now you can see that the relatively small military victories that ISIS is making right now do not compare to what happened last summer. They're small victories, but yet they're still trying to regain that sense of momentum.

That is so important for ISIS. They want to attract foreign fighters. They want to keep their reputation of being this ever expanding caliphate, and for that they need military victories.

SAVIDGE: It's sort of the PR that they really benefit from and as far as the Kurdish officials, what options do they have?

NEUMANN: Well, it's very difficult. I mean, the Kurds are very heavily supported by the west. They are the good guys in all of this. They're our favorite people and they will get all of the help they need and they request from the Americans and from the western coalitions. I am sad to say that these fighters and these Peshmerga, who have now been caught by ISIS I see relatively little hope for them based on precedent.

SAVIDGE: Right, we know how the story goes. I want to ask you real quickly before we leave, going back to the attack on the air base. It was that the attackers were wearing Iraqi uniforms, stolen or at times, I guess, you could buy them almost anywhere depending. How troubling is that and does it suggest in any way inside help?

NEUMANN: I don't think it necessarily does. This is a tactic that we've seen practically everywhere. In Afghanistan for example, quite often, Taliban were going into air bases and they were wearing Afghan military uniforms.

In the case of ISIS, it's even easier because ISIS has been able to capture lots of Iraqi military bases. They are running around with Iraqi military uniforms even when they're not trying to disguise themselves.

And so in that sense, they're using a lot of Iraqi military equipment that has unfortunately fallen into their hands and I think we will see more of that unfortunately.

SAVIDGE: Peter Neumann, thank you very much for joining us this morning.

And just how much of a threat is ISIS to the U.S. homeland? One U.S. senator says that we're facing a dangerous situation because there are people in America today, who fight and trained ISIS in Syria. We will have details on that coming up in the next half hour.

Let's more on now to the crisis in Ukraine and reports this morning that a deal to end the war is in great danger, this as a cease fire deadline is quickly approaching and fierce battles continue to breakout.

PAUL: And that monster storm heading to the northeast, 60 million of you will be impacted we're told. Boston is the target. Ivan Cabrera is tracking the storm because Boston is not the only one that's going to be knee deep.

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SAVIDGE: Of course, you know, at this hour, the clock is ticking toward that ceasefire deadline in Eastern Ukraine, but with just under 11 hours to go, sounds of shelling and gun fire can be heard in the eastern cities Mariupol and Donetsk.

CNN's senior international correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, is live now from Donetsk. And Nick, what are you seeing on ground right now?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We have been hearing shelling much of the morning. We've been to two sites where the shells landed. In fact, one was a base used by the separatist was destroyed.

And nearby, what looked like what must have been a heavy missile landed, disrupting a huge amount of earth and leaving a big crater behind causing much chaos and fear in neighboring civilian areas.

This is really part of the issue here, Martin, as we approach the ceasefire ahead of us. It's quiet clear and you can see pictures of it here that the convoys are moving in particularly on the separatist side moving in around positions solidifying gains perhaps or as we speak now launching more intensive assault it says on the town.

Both sides want it as separatist claims it's already theirs. The underlining issue is there's so much hatred on both sides because of the casualties caused by shelling that it's going to be hard for many of the separatist fighters we've spoken they say to lay down their arms.

The same I can say most clearly on the Ukrainian side. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko saying that a recent attack to north of where I am standing in which two civilians at least including one child were killed may have been a potentially a reason that the Minsk agreement, the ceasefire may not go ahead.

But we heard ourselves here from speaking to a mother who lost all three of her children from a must have been stray shell that landed in the separatist held town quiet the level of loathing that people obviously feel confronted with such losses. This is what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I went to get the metal in the other room. The lights went out. Everything flew into house. What ceasefire? I curse everyday those who killed my children and all of those of the country. People who want to live peacefully. We lived, grew up and took our children to school. These are not people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: Now, those children will be buried or were buried today, a 2-year-old, 7-year-old and 14-year-old. One family completely destroyed by the shelling, and both sides appear equally guilty to a disregard for civilian life in this conflict.

And it's that which is on everybody's minds as just over 10 hours from we lurched towards a ceasefire. I have to say there are very few people here involved in the fighting who think it's going to stick at all -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: All right, Nick Paton Walsh, we will watch as that countdown continuous. Thanks very much from Eastern Ukraine.

PAUL: Let's bring in CNN military analyst, Major General James "Spider" Marks. General Marks, we just heard Nick say that there's so much hatred on both sides that they do not think that a ceasefire will actually work. Has this gone beyond the leadership of either Russia or Ukraine?

MAJ. GENERAL JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, it certainly has, Christie. What has to take place in a situation like this is if there's a frame work for a ceasefire. It has to percolate all the way down through the various leadership ranks that are in place with the forces. And it has to be enforced from the very top all the way down. You can't sign a document, do an about-face, and expect it to be followed. It has to be enforced from the top all the way down and there's so much hatred.

And there's so much uncertainty and also at that very pointed edge of an engagement, so many things can go wrong and clearly we have seen what that looks like.

PAUL: So we know that some of the agreements most important provisions such as holding elections and granting amnesty to those involved in the conflict, releasing all prisoners, do you see any of that moving forward and what will it take to do so?

MARKS: Well, yes, and it has. In fact, there needs to be a level of optimism that if the leadership can get together and essentially agree to what looks like a framework with some underpinning requirements, that it will take place.

But again there has to be a mechanism by which these will be put in place and there should be a timeline associated with each so that you can have some confidence building steps.

Start with one, get it accomplished over a certain amount of time that allows you to move to the next level. Clearly Christie that's the only way this is going to take place. Again, it takes place at the very, very lowest levels.

PAUL: All right, General "Spider" Marks, we appreciate your insight. He is going to stick around with us as well as we discuss ISIS here in a bit and get his perspective on that as well. Thank you, sir.

MARKS: Thanks, Christie.

SAVIDGE: Still ahead, it is a race against time for Bostonians, this as the preps wind down ahead of another major snowstorm. We will track the latest of the storm and its potentially devastating effects.

PAUL: And President Obama speaking out about the three Muslim students killed at the University of North Carolina this week. Their family insists they were victims of a hate crime. Ahead, HLN legal analyst, Joey Jackson weighs in on that.

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PAUL: OK, now look at this, mounds of snow like this all over Boston. It looks like a mountain. This morning, they're getting ready for even more. They're not the only ones. This is across the northeast here.

Crews are racing around to get ready for blizzard. I believe this would be blizzard number two for Boston, which has never happened. That's the story.

SAVIDGE: Yes, it's interesting the consistency of these storms. This new storm is expected not only to affect, of course, Boston but some 60 million people in the Northeast. The governor of Massachusetts spoke last night about how they're going to deal with this latest winter blast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHARLIE BAKER, MASSACHUSETTS: We will have the support and assistance from you crews across about eight different states throughout New England and the northeast. They have signed up to spend time working literally on a 24/7 basis here in the common wealth to clear snow away, remove of snow and dispose of snow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: CNN's Ivan Cabrera only got a couple of hours sleep because he is working so hard to try to make sure that this thing is going to take care of everybody, and that everybody is going to be OK, but it's nasty. It's wide spread.

IVAN CABRERA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's totally wide spread, and I am a terrible skier, but I saw those mounds of snow that's probably too high at this point for me to do down those things. It's unbelievable.

PAUL: Poor people.

CABRERA: They're having to melt snow. This is how bad it is and we are talking about blizzard warnings now that extend. This is new. If you're waking up we are now including the blizzard warning from Islip to the tip of Long Island.

That means that we are talking about sustain winds 30 to 40 miles an hour and wind gusts at 65. And of course, the rest of New England here including Boston here, and yes, as Christies, was mentioning, we have never had two official blizzards in any winter season since we have been keeping records back in the 1870s. So this is a big deal.

As far as the snow, this is just part of the story. If this was the only issue I think that we would be OK. It would be a nuisance and we would get four to six inches and just deal with it here. It's the way that the snow is coming down.

It's going to be coming down with winds sustained between 30 and 40 and look at the wind gusts. In fact offshore and off Boston harbor we actually have hurricane forced wind warnings. That just gives you an idea of what we're talking about here.

Boats have to be in. If you're out, you're going to be in trouble in the next several hours. Now, because the temperatures are so cold this is going to be life threatening wind chills. If you're outside, not a good idea, 20 to 30 below zero that's how it's going to feel.

Exposed skin, you're going to freeze in about 15 to 20 minutes. Frost bite sets in pretty quickly here. This is Saturday morning wind chills. There you see them, 10 to 20 below and then again on Sunday. We're going have to snow and the wind and we're going to have the arctic temperatures. That's going to be just a mess here. There goes the snow. If you have anything to do, you have to do it right now because by the time that we get into the afternoon and into the evening, my goodness, if you have Valentines evening plans cancel them if you're in Boston because we're talking of this thing. By the time you get out of dinner, you're not going to be able to see outside. We're talking white out conditions.

PAUL: You just let a lot of men off the hook.

CABRERA: Yes. If you just got a card you're fine this year.

PAUL: This year.

CABRERA: Yes.

PAUL: You have to make up for it the next day.

SAVIDGE: They should re-book because there are a lot of people who count on the business. Ivan, thanks very much. Stay tuned because in a few minutes we're going take you to Boston and get a live report from the situation there.

PAUL: So ISIS propaganda is taking a new twist here. The Islamic militants show off their brutality in a horrifying new way. A lot of people are wondering if this will encourage even more would-be Jihadist to join their ranks.

SAVIDGE: Plus an inside look at the Iraqi military base ISIS tried to raid. "NEW DAY's" very own associate producer, Joey Hurst, is a former Army specialists and he was stationed there back in 2003. I will talk to him about what it was like.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: As the deadline for the Ukraine ceasefire looms, the sounds of gunfire and shelling can still be heard in the Eastern cities of Donetsk and Mariupol. Ukraine's president says that the ceasefire is "in big danger after fighting increased in the days after the peace plan was agreed upon.

PAUL: And that's just one of the couple big stories that we're following this morning. Also watching what is in store for Boston and the northeast. 60 million of you could be impacted by this monster storm that's coming your way. We know Boston already under a blizzard warning, could get hurricane force winds at some points today. Will keep you posted. But right now we do want to move to a critical Iraqi town that's the gateway it seems to an Air Base filled with hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi troops right now.

SAVIDGE: The town is now mostly in the hands of ISIS fighters. They grabbed 90 percent of it Friday.

PAUL: ISIS suicide bombers also attacked the al-Assad air base, which is just nine miles away. Iraq forces were able, though, to shove them back. SAVIDGE: And ISIS is now posting this chilling video that's showing

captured Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in cages. Senator James Risch told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, make no mistake, ISIS is a threat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JAMES RISCH (R), IDAHO: This is a group that as you have seen has been very, very successful in a really short period of time. They're involving, they are moving as we saw today against a base that contains U.S. Forces. These people are very bold. Their preferred targets is the U.S. homeland.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Are there ISIS terrorists' sleeper cells plots in the United States right now?

RISCH: You know, as far as I am going to go with that, what he wrote (ph) just to tell you that there are people who have traveled to Syria, fought with ISIS and have returned to the United States. I think people can draw their own conclusions from that as far as - what that means for us here in the homeland. It's a dangerous situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Clearly the senator knows more but cannot say because of security. Joining me now for more inside, CNN military analyst Major General Spider Marks. And Major General, do you believe that there are people in the U.S. as we have just heard who were fought and trained by ISIS?

MAJ. GEN. SPIDER MARKS, U.S. ARMY (RETIRED): Martin, absolutely. Clearly, there's been a migration over to Syria. There's plenty of violence and brutality that has its appeal to a number of folks. That are going to get involved. Training occurs over there and engagements occurred over there and then a return to the United States to begin recruitment and to try to, you know, just from recruitment, and then to try to institute some type of attacks here in the homeland, so the short answer is absolutely. We have to assume that and then clearly, the Department of Homeland Security local law enforcement really becomes a local issue to determine what the key indicators are, what are the behavioral traits that we are seeing that would lead us to those folks and will allow us to break it up.

SAVIDGE: Yeah, absolutely. The senator would not go as far as to call them sleeper cells, and I'm wondering, how would you classify these alleged ISIS-trained fighters in the U.S.?

MARKS: Yeah, you know, that's a great questions. The issue really is, the term sleeper cells has a Cold War connotation to it where there was some deep burial of folks, deep burial in terms of total integration in the U.S. society, maintaining a total appearance of being a part of society, which was a sleeper, and then upon command would then execute some tasks. These folks when they come back to the United States clearly are trying to blend in as best as they can, but they're not sleeping. They're actively engaged not only in recruitment efforts, but also trying to further what their activities might be in terms of moving folks back to the Mideast and to try to execute tasks and missions here in the United States, so nobody is sleeping.

SAVIDGE: If they're here, though, how can they be stopped?

MARKS: Well, it's clearly. You know, in fact what it really means, most of these folks will reveal themselves through behavioral traits here in the United States. In fact, most folks give them - give themselves up, behavioral on line, behavior in communities will allow you to see and come away with enough indicators that would allow you to then move law enforcement in the right direction. So I think that's primarily what happens. But the really well trained ones can disappear for years and they're not sleeping, they are activity engaged and then they - then they execute their missions.

SAVIDGE: Major General Spider Marks, thanks very much for joining us this morning.

MARKS: Thank you, Mark.

PAUL: So, as we mentioned the suicide bomber attack on al-Assad air base in Iraq is so troubling because this is a key base. It's just nine miles from the town of al-Baghdadi where ISIS fighters have taken control now in an intense assault on that city. Well, "NEW DAY'S" very own Joey Hurst is a former Army specialist who was stationed in Iraq back in 2003. And I sat down with him yesterday to talk about his time at the base before launching his career here at CNN as an associate producer.

JOEY HURST, FORMER ARMY SPECIALIST: It's literally only a few miles away from al-Baghdadi, and it was the bases west of Baghdad. It's - I am not sure the exact mileage, but it's not too far away. It's not - it's not - because I remember when we were flying in a black hawk it took us less than an hour to get from our base to the Baghdad airport.

PAUL: Knowing what you know about the security of the base, would you fear ISIS would have -- it would be plausible for ISIS to break it?

HURST: I think so. And again, I don't know the weaponry that the Marines have there. But if they were only there to help train the Iraqi forces, I am sure they don't have the same amount of weaponry that we had when we first went over there as the war was beginning. And so, it's going to be hard to defend that with just a handful of Marines. And I mean, you know, Marines are tougher than anybody. So, you know, it's going to be hard to seen.

PAUL: But you would think that if reinforcements needed to be sent in, would it be easy to get reinforcements to this base?

HURST: I think it would be. It depends on if the military has the air superiority that it does, because, again, al-Assad was an abandoned Iraqi Air Force base, so there's runways there. And we use that base as a helicopter landing pad for all the medics and many other helicopter missions that anybody went on all came from that base. So there's tons of room for that type of aircraft. And if they have that there, then it definitely would - would definitely help them in the fight. And I had a good friend of mine that was killed while we were there on the base, and it's really disheartening when you - it's like what was his sacrifice for if everything that we did right over there in 2003 is all going back to enemy hands again?

PAUL: Yeah. But this is a different threat than anything you have fought.

HURST: Right. Yeah, it's yes, not this, not the Saddam forces that it is. I mean ISIS is definitely more brutal than any organization or Army that, you know, probably in history with their barbaric tactics and everything. And just seeing how close they're coming to that base, I mean it takes me back there. I mean it's been over a decade since I have been there, but yet I still know all the places and can still picture my bunk and where my cot was set up and everything.

PAUL: And you could see he was so gracious, you know, to share his pictures of the base with us. So, we did get a good sense of how expansive this base is and the fact that there's nothing around it. So, that's one thing that's good about the base too, that you really cannot count on a surprise attack, so to speak, because with the watchtowers and the bare end dessert around it, you would spot something.

SAVIDGE: You would still get a sense of isolation, though.

PAUL: Yes. And thank you so much to Joey not just for sharing that with us, but for his service as well.

SAVIDGE: Coming up. 60 million people and you know who you are, are in the path of the next winter storm. Blizzards warning for the people of Boston. And that is the city that is still digging out from the last storm. And this morning the crews are working hard to get the city ready for another foot of snow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: All right. We are hearing a blizzard warning that I was reading not just in Massachusetts, but in Maine and New Hampshire and Michigan right now. And look at what they're dealing with in Boston. This is the fourth major snowstorm that's getting ready to pounce on them as they're trying to dig themselves out and we mean that literally, literally. Six feet of snow has piled up there in the last two weeks.

SAVIDGE: You see what they were doing. They were shoveling a roof there. And that's clearly, the concern is for structures not collapsing. Some already have. Following this record snow fall Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker addressed the hardships that this new storm could very well bring.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHARLIE BAKER, MASSACHUSETTS: There's no doubt that this storm will bring significant challenges for all of us. In part because if it's on significance, but also because it comes on the heels of so many others.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: CNN's Ryan Young is in Boston following the latest on this storm for us. Good morning, Ryan.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christi and Martin, the temperature is already starting to drop here in Boston. And look, this area has been hit already with nearly six feet of snow, and they believe another foot could hit today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG: It's a race against Mother Nature and time. One blue tarp and plenty of heavy lifting. The men here push, pull and haul massive amounts of snow from the top of this high school where eight foot snow drifts become mascots. Record snow fall has Boston facing a serious challenge causing one mayor to shut all of these area schools down.

MAJOR JOSEPH CURTATONE, SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS: Anything over 18 inches you should really be moving. You shouldn't - with the kids in the school. As I said before, can I guarantee you that a roof was going to collapse? We're not willing to take that risk.

YOUNG: A risk no one is willing to take, especially with the youngest, but here in the city that's faced snowdrifts the size of trucks and more than 70 inches of the ground, the forecasters believe that next round could drop another ten to 14 inches.

Now under way a record response after three major storms left this area snow weary. Building inspectors are worried about the load from the punch of another heavy snow fall.

WILLIAM CHRISTOPHER, COMMISSIONER BOSTON INSPECTIONAL SERVICES: You can see the snow banking up against it. I am a little more concerned about that.

YOUNG: Crews now running the streets looking to find any weak spots especially, neighborhoods where more snow could mean disaster.

CHRISTOPHER: We don't want to see mom and pop get out on the ladder and try to clear the ice themselves. We're being very proactive in having to go after professional contractors to help remove the situation.

YOUNG: Dropping temperatures, rock frozen neighborhoods, and plenty of good people wanting the winter wonderland here to grind to a warmer halt.

CURTATONE: My wife and I, we have four children, 11, 9 and six, and I can tell you, Ryan I am begging for them to go back to school last week. I mean cabin fever is at the extreme here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG: And that's why the operation to move so much snow off the roofs here is so important. They also believe they could get hit with hurricane force winds. This will make for (INAUDIBLE) Valentine's Day. Christi and Martin.

SAVIDGE: All right, Ryan, thanks very much. We will be watching. Now, this question, was the shooting of three Muslim students at the

University of North Carolina a hate crime? Relatives insist it was. And now President Obama is weighing in. HLN legal analyst Joey Jackson joins us next.

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SAVIDGE: Power officials say an accelerant was used at a Houston Islamic Center that went up in flames Friday morning. The assistant imam tells our affiliate KTRK that earlier, someone had driven by screaming mocking chants. The Council on American Islamic Relations wants authorities to investigate it as a possible hate crime. The cause of that fire still under investigation, fortunately no one was hurt.

PAUL: Well, the Justice Department has opened what it's calling a parallel preliminary inquiry in the investigation of the three Muslim students who were shot at the University of North Carolina this week. The suspect, Craig Hicks, is in custody and police say, he killed the students because of an ongoing parking dispute. Their family is not buying that. They call this a hate crime.

In a statement Friday, President Obama said "The FBI is taking steps to determine whether federal laws were violated. No one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like or how they worship." I want to bring in HLN legal analyst Joey Jackson for us now. So, Joey, I think a lot of people are wondering, how is a hate crime defined and proven in this country?

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Sure, Christi. Well, first of all good morning to you. What happens is that remember that the federal government is doing, as you mentioned, the parallel investigation. And what that means is that the state, of course, has charged this person with murder for the three deaths that he committed and otherwise caused. And so the federal government is doing its own independent investigation into a federal hate crime.

So, what is that? When you take an action against somebody else because of their actual or perceived, Christi, actual or perceived issue relating to national origin or relating to race, relating to religion. If the act that you engaged in was precipitated by that, was because of that, then, of course, it would constitute a hate crime.

And then the next issue becomes, all right, well, how do we prove that you acted because of your perceived hate as a result of religion or anything else?

And what I would say with that is like anything else in criminal law, you look at the mental state and intent. And, of course, you can't look into somebody's mind and as a result of that what you do, is you exam in the surrounding circumstances, and in looking at that and you see that there, you know, a traditional offense like murder, arson, vandalism, was an added element of bias. It is that bias. Did you act because of that? So, what you do is you look at the facts. Now, there's a question as to whether or not it's a parking space dispute.

PAUL: Right.

JACKSON: How many people get shot, you know, in the head based upon a parking dispute? Now, certainly people lose their cool, and, you know, for various reasons.

PAUL: Right.

JACKSON: So we cannot jump to any conclusions.

PAUL: Well, yeah, but losing your cool is one thing.

JACKSON: Exactly.

PAUL: Shooting somebody execution style is another.

JACKSON: Exactly, Christi, and so they're going to analyze that and it relates to common sense. The other thing they're going to look at, of course, has been spoken about a lot, is the Facebook postings of this person. Apparently he had some Facebook postings that related to the hate of religion in general.

That it and of itself is not enough, and so they will go further. Was there any past history between him and his neighbor? If so, what was the nature of that past history? Where there issues relating to, and that's one of the postings we're talking about, antitheism, and going on about his Facebook page and then, of course, what is - what if any history was that with the neighbor. What did they talk about? Did he say or otherwise suggest that he did not like the religion?

PAUL: Yeah, you know, Joey, real quickly, I just wanted to say, we have some sound from the father to the victims, and he said that his daughter was shot execution style and that she had come to him before expressing some fear that she had felt hate from the suspect. I have to assume that that could come into play here, yes?

JACKSON: Absolutely.

PAUL: OK.

JACKSON: And so, that's what you do, Christi. You examine all of those surrounding circumstances and if they point to the unmistakable conclusion that his action was based upon his hate, as a result of their religious beliefs, then, of course it could be pursued as a hate crime.

PAUL: OK.

JACKSON: And exactly as we're discussing this, Christi, is exactly as you would discuss it with any jury. You use your common sense and you look at. We cannot see his mind, but look at everything that points to the state of mind and does it point to the element of bias, to the point of hate? And if so, of course, then he would be guilty of that offense. PAUL: Already. Joey Jackson, thank you so much for breaking it down

for us. We appreciate it. We are going to talk to Joey next hour as well, Martin.

SAVIDGE: All right.

JACKSON: My pleasure, Christi.

SAVIDGE: Next hour on "NEW DAY" as well, another Iraqi city falls to ISIS fighters. Can the United States do anything about it?

Plus this, stranded in thick ice. Details on a dramatic rescue of 27 fisherman 900 miles off the coast of Antarctica.

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SAVIDGE: A scary situation for some schools kids in Minnesota. This police dash cam shows what happened after their bus driver had a medical emergency of some sort, and the bus weaved in and out of lanes of traffic, even on the oncoming lanes. A deputy noticed that the erratic driving - or did notice it, and eventually was able to stop the bus by deflating the tires with stop sticks. No students on the bus were hurt, and the driver rushed to the hospital and now in good condition.

PAUL: Thank goodness. Listen, the U.S. Coast Guard is in a middle of a dramatic rescue mission to save 27 fisherman, 900 miles off Antarctica. The Coast Guard says subzero conditions, snowstorms and the extremely thick ice are making this a really difficult situation. But they're making some head way. The Australian fishermen became stranded earlier this week when they hit thick ice and it damaged the ships propeller. Best of luck to them now getting home.

There's a lot of news to talk to you about this morning.

SAVIDGE: The next hour of "NEW DAY" starts right now.