Return to Transcripts main page

Wolf

On the Front Lines Against ISIS at Tikrit; U.S. Admiral Worried about Russia Military Build Up; Secret Service Director Last to Find Out; Netanyahu Losing Ground in Israeli Election

Aired March 13, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Secretary of State John Kerry is in Egypt. He's there to discuss economic and regional issues, including the growing threat from ISIS. Egypt is one of America's most important strategic partners in the Middle East. Recently, the country's president called on Washington to increase its aid to combat ISIS terrorists. Last year, the Obama administration froze part of the money in military assistance to Egypt over concerns of political repression.

Iraqi joint forces are attempting to take back the strategic city of Tikrit, best known to Westerners as the birthplace of the former dictator, Saddam Hussein. But retaking Tikrit is an important step for the Iraqi government and the Iraqi military. ISIS has occupied that city since last year. Its close proximity to Baghdad threatens Iraq's security.

CNN's Ben Wedeman shows us what it's like to be on the front lines of the fighting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what victory looks like in the war against ISIS. Iraqi police, soldiers and paramilitaries flash the sign, but there is no fanfare for the victors in the newly conquered town of al Dour (ph) outside of Tikrit. A drive through al Dour (ph) passing by ISIS' logos painted on the walls is an eerie experience.

(on camera): ISIS has been driven out of this town and probably will soon be driven out of Tikrit but what they leave behind are ghost towns. Almost all of the local inhabitants have left. It's dangerous. There are hundreds of IEDs left behind.

(voice-over): Civilians have been told to stay away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

WEDEMAN: "In one day," says this brigadier, "we found 511 improvised explosive devices, an unbelievable number." He was injured by shrapnel from one of those IEDs.

These soldiers say ISIS fighters, they describe them as sewer rats, and say they are hiding out. But taking prisoners doesn't seem to be in the cards.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

WEDEMAN: "They won't get away," this soldier tells me, "we'll kill them."

Almost 30,000 mostly Shiite troops have flooded into this Sunni- dominated Arab area, raising fears of sectarian tensions and revenge killings. There are, however, Sunnis who have joined the fight against ISIS.

Last spring, ISIS fighters attacked the home of a Sunni tribal leader. They killed his wife, two sons and two grandsons. He soon took up arms against the group.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

WEDEMAN: "I know the people who killed my family," he says. "I want to fight these terrorists, drive them out of this area and never see them again."

In another location outside Tikrit, an ISIS flag flutters atop a communications tower in the distance. These Sunni fighters have made common cause with Shia troops to retake Tikrit.

Proudly showing me his new Iranian sniper rifle, this fighter is confident ISIS' days are numbered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

WEDEMAN: "Now they're trying to escape, but they can't," he says. "This will be their graveyard."

(SHOUTING)

WEDEMAN: With no crowds to cheer them on, the soldiers cheer themselves. They may be winning this battle, but the war is far from over.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And Ben is joining us now live from Baghdad.

Ben, really an incredible story. You were there on the edge of Tikrit in a hospital earlier. Tell us what happened there. Fortunately, you got back safely to Baghdad.

WEDEMAN: Now what happened is we showed up at this hospital. It's just south of Tikrit. As we came in, we saw staff were mopping up blood from the entrance. We went inside and saw several doctors working on a man who had been wounded, shot in the head, shot in the chest, shot in the leg. They were doing everything they could to resuscitate him. But we saw that he was slowly fading away. They moved him to another room where they tried to pump air into his lungs, do CPR, but he died. The fact that we actually were there to catch with our camera his last moments apparently upset some of his comrades. And shortly afterwards, there was a very tense standoff between us and dozens of these militiamen, many of them heavily armed and very angry at us. They wanted us to -- they basically wanted to take our camera away. After really long and difficult negotiations, eventually, they said they would let us go if they could wipe off our cards where the pictures are stored, those scenes from the hospital. So we eventually got away. But it was very tense for a few moments.

BLITZER: I'm sure it was.

Ben Wedeman is one of our courageous CNN journalists on the scene for us.

Be careful over there. Worries me a lot, all those IEDs that have been planted throughout Iraq. It's a serious, serious problem.

Ben, be careful. Thank you.

Just ahead, a top U.S. military commander says Russian warplanes are testing Western defense more seriously than in many, many decades. Is North America at risk right now? Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, is standing by with the latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The Russian military is probing Western defenses to a level not seen since the end of the Cold War. That, according to U.S. Navy Admiral William Gortney, commander of the U.S. Northern Command. In a written statement yesterday to the Senate Armed Services Committee, the NORAD chief said this -- let me read precisely: "Russian heavy bombers flew more out-of-area patrols in 2014 than in any year since the Cold War. We have also witnessed improved inoperability between Russian long-range aviation and other elements of the Russian military, including air and maritime collection platforms, position to monitor NORAD responses." I should say interoperability. That's an important word I connection with what's going on right now.

Let's bring in Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr.

Sober words from the NORAD chief. Are we drifting closer to a new Cold War? Is that the assessment over there?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think that's definitely the worry, Wolf. Admiral Gortney is a pretty cool, calm customer. He doesn't speak unless he knows what he's talking about. And what he's really saying here is, you think you're worried about these Russian air patrols. Marry that thought up with the fact that the Russians are also modernizing the weapons that they are going to be carrying in the coming months and years on their aircraft and their submarines and surface warships. Admiral Gortney talking in detail about these advanced long-range cruise missiles that the Russians are developing and talking about those air patrols and what it all means.

I want you to have a little listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADM. WILLIAM GORTNEY, HEAD OF U.S. AEROSPACE NORTHERN COMMAND, NORAD: The long-range aviation, Russian long-range aviation, it's a pretty significant increase in numbers. And what concerns me more are two things, it's the -- where they're flying, even down the English Channel, to where they're flying that has not been what they've done in the past even back with the Soviet Union. And the development of the cruise missiles that they have that have a very long range. From eastern Russia, they can range critical infrastructure in Alaska and Canada that we rely on for homeland defense missions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: What he is talking about is a new advanced Russian cruise missile under development, could be in the field within months. It has a 2,000-mile-plus range. It flies low. It is difficult to detect. And it is very precise and very accurate. Marry that up, again, with the deployment of the bomber aircraft, the submarines, the warships that could carry this type of weaponry and this is the concern.

Look, nobody thinks that Vladimir Putin's about to attack the United States. But you marry all of this up and you have a new conventional deterrent and an uncertainty about Putin's intentions that is causing an awful lot of concern across Washington -- Wolf?

BLITZER: It has really escalated since the Russian moves on Ukraine and the very angry Western response.

Barbara, thanks very much.

Still to come, you'd think that potential DUI incident at the White House would attract attention from higher-ups. But apparently higher- ups didn't know about it for days. That's drawing a lot of attention.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We're getting more details and they're pretty disturbing regarding that incident at the White House involving two U.S. Secret Service agents. They're being investigated for allegedly driving under the influence near an active bomb investigation. But we have learned that someone who should have known what happened did not find out apparently for several days.

Let's go to our White House correspondent, Michelle Kosinski. She's standing by with more on this investigation.

What's going on? What are you learning about the Secret Service director? Was he kept in the dark? What happened?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right. He is the new director. He was appointed to try to clean up problems within the Secret Service. But now it turns out, according to law enforcement sources who are familiar with the investigation, that he didn't know about this until about five days after the fact. Our sources say that should not have happened clearly, that there was communication up the chain of command but somewhere along the line that failed. It's also possible that White House staffers knew about what had happened even before he did.

We're also getting some major pushback from our law enforcement sources on this about some of the details that have come out, that this was a crash into a White House gate or barrier, that these agents crashed through crime scene tape and tore through this scene, maybe even running over evidence. Well, they are telling us, doesn't seem to have happened quite like that. They say these two agents who were in the same government car drove under part of the scene, yes, under some crime tape, but say they were going literally one mile an hour and nudged one of those big, orange barrel barriers out of the way with their car a couple of feet so they could approach the first checkpoint. They showed their badges, unrolled their window. That lasted about 25 seconds and then went on to a second checkpoint and there was no incident. They just went on.

These sources are saying this whole thing lasted about one minute. There was no crash, no damage, and that these two agents never got out of their car. Ad they are now casting doubt on the part of the story that says that there was at the scene this controversy over whether these two agents should have been given a sobriety test and that a supervisor supposedly ordered that they be let go. They're not able to really saying that from the scene. This is a question of really of how bad was this and how much of the story up to this point might have been disgruntled people within the Secret Service, which has been a problem, talking about it after the fact -- Wolf.

BLITZER: I know that the Secret Service director is going to be testifying next week before Congress, and they're asking -- these members of Congress are upset about what happened. They want video tape and all sorts of evidence.

KOSINSKI: Right.

BLITZER: We will see if they're able to make that available to these concerned members of Congress.

Michelle, thanks very much.

One of the men that exposed lapses in Secret Service security at the White House is expected to take a plea deal in federal court today. Omar Gonzalez is accused of jumping the White House fence making it all the way inside the White House, into the East Room with a knife before being stopped by Secret Service agents. This December 19th incident ultimately helped lead to the resignation of Julia Pierson. Gonzalez is a U.S. Army veteran from Texas.

The election is four days away and the latest polls show the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is losing ground. Is his Likud Party heading for defeat? We're going live to Jerusalem for the very latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: Next Tuesday in Israel could be a stunning set back for the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party. The most authoritative polls just being released show Netanyahu trailing, with the rival Labor Party projected to pick up four more seats than the Likud.

Our global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott, have more on Labor's surprising surge.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Less than a week before the election, Benjamin Netanyahu is on the ropes. The latest polls show the prime minister running behind a little- known, mild-mannered politician.

(MUSIC)

LABOTT: Now the prospect of a major upset at the hands of Isaac Herzog.

(APPLAUSE)

ISAAC HERZOG, CHAIRMAN, ISRAELI LABOR PARTY: There's a lot of disappointment for Benjamin. I think the era is over.

LABOTT: Focused more on his current job, Netanyahu has done little glad handing but has been quick to blame, today pointing to quote "world wide effort to unset him."

Campaign officials say that money from around the world, much of it from the U.S., I funding a grass roots get-out-the-vote drive, called V15, with one goal, get rid of B.B.

After six years, Netanyahu's relentless focus on security seems to be falling flat among many Israelis who want a leader to keep them safe but deal with rising food and house prices and health care and welfare reform.

DAVID HOROWITZ, TIMES OF ISRAEL: In the increasing inequalities within Israel and the emergence and the widening of the gulf between the haves and have-nots, there he where is vulnerable.

LABOTT: Tens of thousands filled to Raven Square (ph) in Tel Aviv this weekend to drive home that message at an anti-Netanyahu rally.

(SHOUTING)

LABOTT: In his final push before Election Day, the prime minister has doubled down on the security platform with a major speech to the U.S. Congress on the threat that they face from Iran.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAEL PRIME MINISTER: I feel an obligation to speak to you about an issue that could threaten the survival of my country and the future of my people.

LABOTT: And hedging on his commitment to a peace deal with the Palestinians leading to a "Two State Solution."

Herzog says that Netanyahu has an empty brand and warning about growing tensions with the U.S. and Israel's closest ally with the leadership.

HERZOG: I think that he failed, and I am trying to call his bluff on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And Elise is joining us live from Jerusalem.

I know that the polls are out, one more is coming out shortly, but it shows Labor ahead of Likud. It does not look like the prime minister got a bounce from the visit to Washington and the speech before Congress. And his critics in Israel were always saying that he was coming to Washington to deliver the speech to try to score political points back home. And now in a campaign commercial, he is referring to that and showing pictures of that speech before the joint meeting of Congress.

Let me show the viewers a little bit of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NETANYAHU: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So a commercial, a campaign commercial like that, you know, back in Israel they're saying underscore is why he really came to Washington, not because he was concerned. Although, he is concerned about Iran's nuclear program.

LABOTT: Well, Wolf, his aide says that he was going to Washington to deliver the speech whether he was running on not. But Likud campaign officials recognize that they did not get the bump that they hoped for from the speech. He came back in the polls and maybe was up another seat or too, and then fell back down.

But what is interesting about these latest polls is that Labor and the Zionist camp have not really surge in the polls. It's just that Netanyahu continue to dip in the polls, and he is -- Likud is bleeding right now. Those votes are going to a lot of different parties. A couple of them are going to the Zionist camp of this team and a couple are going to some other center left and right parties and even far left and far right. So I think what you see here in the polls is a real disaffection and a growing frustration with Prime Minister Netanyahu, his relentless focus on security to the expense of some of the economic issues, but they have not really narrowed down on Herzog yet. I think he -- Herzog, although he is doing well, is still vulnerable in the election -- Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Elise, we will be watching with you on Tuesday, the results coming in.

Thanks very much.

That's it for me. Thanks very much for watching.

For our international viewers, "CNN News Center" is coming up next.

For our viewers in North America, "Newsroom" with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.