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Why We Lost in Iraq, Afghanistan; Why Teenager Fights for ISIS; Will U.S. Shift Focus from ISIS to Assad; Serious Clashes Set for Republicans, Obama; Governor of Arkansas to Pardon Son; A Tiger Lose in Paris.

Aired November 13, 2014 - 13:30   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: So I'm not very encouraged based on what I see right now, but you have a different assessment, right?

LT. GEN. DANIEL BOLGER, U.S. ARMY, RETIRED & AUTHOR: Well, I'm looking at the fact that you can't build an army overnight.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: The U.S. has been -- the U.S. was building that army for 10 years and spending billions and billions of dollars to try to establish a credible Iraqi military that, in the face of ISIS moving in from Syria, that Iraqi army just ran away.

BOLGER: It takes more than equipment, Wolf, and it takes more than 10 years. You can quickly train a person to fire a rifle, how to march or fix their truck. To train a senior sergeant, to train the equivalent of a Marine corps gunnery sergeant or major or lieutenant colonel, that takes decades and change in leadership and mindset that will take a while to impose. The example of the U.S. trainers and advisors is critical to that. And that's why I think it's wise of the current administration to put in those key trainers and begin that long-term process to build that leadership cadre that will be effective the next time they fight. That's what went wrong --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: One final question, General, before I let you go. Who trained these ISIS soldiers? Why are they so good right now? Why are they eating up so much of Syria and Iraq? Why are they so motivated to get the job done? They haven't had a lot of training. They do what they want to do.

BOLGER: You hit the key word. They're motivated but not well trained. Every time we came into contact with their predecessors -- these are the same people that we fought. Al Baghdadi was their leader when we were there, one of their leaders. They're mot that good as far as soldiers, but they're motivated. And what the Iraqis need to do is find their national will and spirit and we're basically counting on them to lead the way in this phase.

BLITZER: Let's see if they step up to the plate. I have my doubts based on what we've seen so far. It would be good if the Iraqi military could take charge do what the U.S. military wanted them to do, trained them to do, financed them to do, but have not shown inclination to do what they need to do for their country.

The book is "Why We Lost." It's an excellent read. Recommend it to all of our viewers out there here in the United States and around the world. You don't often hear a U.S. military commander acknowledge that United States lost in Iraq and Afghanistan.

General, thanks very much. Because if we don't learn the lessons from the pasts we're bound to repeat those lessons down the road. We don't want to repeat those mistakes down the road.

Thanks very much.

BOLGER: Thank you.

BLITZER: Up next, you're going to meet a teenager fighting for ISIS, and hear how and why this teenager joined the terror group.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer, reporting from Washington.

The U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel; and General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have been on Capitol Hill today trying to clarify U.S. battle plans to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria. They're testimony comes a day after we learn some new information about a possible shift in strategy against the terror network. Senior U.S. officials and diplomats telling CNN President Obama's national security team is reviewing the overall strategy of policy to determine if more focus should be placed on the ouster of the Syrian president, Bashar al Assad.

Today, the secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel, told the House Armed Services Committee the emphasis is on taking out ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHUCK HAGEL, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: It's a comprehensive strategy. It has to be. Many of the questions here this morning have gotten into that, one being the funding, cutting off their funding, coalition partners, all the partners of the region involved, and strengthening the Iraqi security forces, doing everything we can to support a new Iraqi unity government that reaches out to everybody, the Sunni, the Shia, the Kurds, and all the minorities, giving everyone some participatory power in their government, which elicits confidence and trust in their government. So that's our strategy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Just moments ago, here in Washington, the U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department is sending lawyers to 14 countries in North Africa and the Middle East. The goal is to try to help improve those countries' capabilities to prosecute fighters who return after being involved in terrorism in the Middle East. It's unknown exactly how many fighters ISIS has in Syria and Iraq.

What is known, is that ISIS is using children in the battle, some of them as young as 12.

Arwa Damon spoke to one teenager recruit to find out what led him to join the terror group.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED ISIS RECRUIT: (through translation): The bomb has fertilizer, explosives and TNT and has a detonator cord on the side.

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Those are not the words of an adult. Underneath the scarf worn to conceal his identity is a 15-year-old, an ISIS child soldier.

On a daily basis, Yassid, not his real name, was strapped in an explosive belt, issued a pistol and A.K. Yassid joined willingly. He and his father were with the al Qaeda-linked Nusra front. And when ISIS took over their area, they swore allegiance.

For a month, Yassid said he, and another 100 child recruits were isolated from their families, forbidden from seeing or speaking to them. They underwent intense religious indoctrination, embedding their young impressionable minds with the ISIS radical and violent interpretation of Islam and rigorous terrifying military training.

UNIDENTIFIED ISIS RECRUIT (through translation): We crawled under webbing. There was fire above us. And we would be firing our weapons. Then we jumped through large metal rings as the trainers fired at our feet telling us if you stop you will be shot.

DAMON: With his training complete, he was assigned guard duty. His mother begged him to leave.

UNIDENTIFIED ISIS RECRUIT (through translation): I would tell her this is jihad and all of us must do it.

DAMON: Two weeks ago, his father decided to defect and tricked his son coming with him bringing him to turkey.

UNIDENTIFIED ISIS RECRUIT (through translation): I was asking him, why are you doings this? What happened? My father turned to me and said that they are not on the right religious track.

DAMON: He admits he was afraid the explosive belt he wore would accidentally detonate. The first time he witnessed a beheading, he did not eat for two days. He appears to have a gentle demeanor and seems lost in a twisted mental maze, initially saying he wants to go back to ISIS.

UNIDENTIFIED ISIS RECRUIT (through translation): My friends and buddies are all there and they would pay me $150 a month. My father, $1,000.

DAMON: Later, he tells us, he regrets having joined them. Yassid has a chance to go back to the Arabic and math-loving schoolboy

he was.

(SINGING)

DAMON: That might not be the case for others trapped in the grip of is terror.

Arwa Damon, CNN, Turkey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Just ahead, the new Congress here in Washington getting ready to take office in January. But Republicans and President Obama are already over at serious odds at major issues. So what happened to the talk about cooperation and compromise? Gloria Borger is standing by. We'll assess what's going on.

And a governor plans to issue a pardon for his son. Why he says it's personal, not political.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Congress has returned to Capitol Hill in Washington with the Republicans still riding high from the midterm election victories, and those victories were impressive. Already, though, the stage is set for serious clashes with the White House and President Obama. Republicans oppose, for example, the president's plan to issue an executive order on immigration reform. Some are blasting his proposals for tighter Internet regulations, so-called net neutrality. Top Republican leaders are already criticizing the new agreement with China to combat climate change. They're also threatening to kill any nuclear deal with Iran if it were to emerge, other issues involving the Keystone Pipeline.

Let's bring in our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger.

Gloria, whatever happened to that bipartisan --

(LAUGHTER)

-- and all that goodwill, the honeymoon, if you will?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: There wasn't any honeymoon or bipartisanship. There was an interesting poll released yesterday, Wolf, a Pew poll, that said that 66 percent of the people who voted and identified themselves as Republicans, said that they want the Republicans to stand up to President Obama, even if that means no compromise and things don't get done. So there's no hell to pay for this. And the president, for his part, is effectively saying, OK, guys, I've got 26 months left, I'm going to do what I want to do. He's sticking his thumb directly in the Republican eye and he's saying, I'm going to do what I was elected to do and you can fight it any way you want. And he feels he clearly owes something to the Hispanic community on immigration and he wants to deliver. So they're living in alternate universes. BLITZER: He says, the president, he has said bluntly, unless Congress

passes legislation on immigration reform between now and the end of this year --

BORGER: Which they won't. They won't.

BLITZER: -- which is not a lot of time between now and the end of the year.

BORGER: Right. Right.

BLITZER: Unless they do so, he will sign an executive order that will change the status, if you will, of millions of immigrants here in the United States who are undocumented.

BORGER: That's right. And look, we know that the Senate passed an immigration bill and it went over to the House and it sat there. And the White House knows full well that the House is not going to pass any kind of immigration legislation. Now what they could do, if the president issues his executive order -- and Mitch McConnell, the new Senate majority leader, has made it very clear that he's going to use the power of the purse to fight these things. So if the president declares executive orders on any range of issues, they can say, we're not going to fund it. And they can get away with that because it's on the budget, and it requires majority vote, no filibuster allowed. So there is going to be this tug of war. And I think what the president is doing, is saying, I have substantial power, these are my legacy items, fight me on it if you will, but I'm going to leave this as a legacy to the 2016 candidate.

BLITZER: If the House and the Senate, bipartisan votes, pass legislation authorizing the establishment of the Keystone Pipeline, will the president sign that into law --

BORGER: I don't - that --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: -- or will he veto that legislation?

BORGER: You know what, Wolf, that is the sort of the gazillion-dollar question, as my kids would say. Senator Portman has proposed a compromise, which would approve the Keystone Pipeline and do something on carbon emissions, which, as we know, the president wants to do anyway, and maybe there could be a deal on that front. But I don't know whether a lot of his Republican colleagues are willing to do that at this point. I think each side is retreating into its own corner and it's business as usual. In fact, it might even be worse than business as usual. The question that I have, Wolf, you have all these issues, we know they disagree on, can they put those aside, compartmentalize, and say maybe we agree on corporate tax reform, maybe we agree on trade legislation, let's actually try to get that done, while we're stuck on all these other items.

BLITZER: The president will be coming back from Australia -- he's in Myanmar, China -- and he's going to have his hands full over the next few weeks before Christmas and New Year's.

Thanks very much, Gloria.

BORGER: Thanks.

BLITZER: Still ahead, a controversial pardon by the governor of Arkansas for his son. Was it favoritism? Just forgiveness? What happened? We'll update you on that and more when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: It's not unusual for a governor of a state in the United States to issue a pardon but, in this case, it involves a member of his own family. The governor of Arkansas plans to pardon his son from a drug charge.

Reporter Alicia Dover, of our affiliate, KATV, has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALICIA DOVER, REPORTER, KATV (voice-over): In his final months as governor, Mike Beebe plans to pardon his son from a felony drug charge.

MIKE BEEBE, (D), GOVERNOR OF ARKANSAS: He was embarrassed. He's still embarrassed. And frankly, I was embarrassed and his mother was embarrassed. All of the families go through that. It's tough on the family. The kids -- hopefully, the kids learn.

DOVER: His son now 34 says he learned from his criminal past. In his pardon plea, Kyle Beebe wrote a letter to his father asking for a pardon. "Mr. Governor, I'm asking for a second chance at life. I'm asking for a second chance to be the man I know I can be." Also writing, "I'm asking for a chance to be a better son to my parents and prove to them I'm the person they raised me to be."

BEEBE: Well, he's grown up a lot. You know, kids, when they're young, do stupid stuff. He was no different. He like to have broke his mother's heart.

DOVER: According to reports, in 2003, Kyle Beebe was charged in White County with felony possession of marijuana and intent to sell. Then- Attorney General Beebe said, "He needs to be treated like everybody else. No better. No worse." That's exactly what Beebe says he's doing with the pardon.

BEEBE: If they have straightened up to get their life back on track and have a second chance, and so this is no different. It's just different because it's my son.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Our report from our affiliate, reporter, Alicia Dover, of our affiliate, KATV.

Governor Beebe has issued more than 700 pardons in his time in office, most often for nonviolent offenders. So is this more about forgiveness, redemption, or is this showing favoritism for his son? Let me know what you think. Tweet me, @Wolfblitzer.

When we come back, there's some unease in a suburb of Paris. There's actually a lockdown. Residents are being asked to stay indoors as a search ensues for a tiger. Yes. A tiger in Paris? What's going on? Jim Bitterman is standing by in Paris.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Locals are being asked to stay indoors as police and firefighters conduct a frantic search in the suburbs of Paris. They're looking for a tiger. Yes, a tiger that was spotted near Disneyland, Paris. A tiger is on the loose.

Jim Bitterman tells us how the story unfolds.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BITTERMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This all began around 8:30 this morning in a suburb to the east of Paris. When a supermarket manager, Jean-Baptiste Berdeaux, and his wife arrived for work, his wife spotted an animal in a grassy area near the supermarket. She thought it might be a lynx but it later identified as a tiger. That triggered a tiger hunt all day long in the suburbs, involving dozens and dozens of police and firemen and animal control officers, who are armed with rifles that can shoot darts to put the animal asleep if they came across it.

Mr. Berdeaux described what happened when he arrived for work.

JEAN-BAPTISTE BERDEAUX, WIFE SPOTTED TIGER (through translation): We were a little scared at the beginning, in particular as we were crossing the parking. We are not used to seeing a tiger in the morning when we go to work. The animal was in the middle of the mound. We estimate it was five or six meters away from her when she got out of the car.

BITTERMAN: Authorities have taken this whole thing very seriously, advising parents to pick up their children from school, and for residents to stay inside and avoid any kind of contact with the animal.

They believe it's in a grassy area and they think now they've localized it, but they haven't yet caught the tiger by the tail.

Jim Bitterman, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: I hope they find it.

That's it for me. I'll be back 5:00 p.m. Eastern in "The Situation Room."

For our international viewers, "Amanpour" is next. For viewers in North America, "Newsroom" with Brooke Baldwin starts

right now.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf Blitzer, thank you so much.