Return to Transcripts main page

Wolf

Fourth Teen Arrested In Great Britain, Suspected Of Preparing To Join ISIS; How Can We Gauge Threat Of ISIS's Teenage Recruitment?; A Vote Of Confidence Today For Secret Service Director of the U.S. Secret Service; Washington Politics; President of Vanuatu Asking For The World's Help; Vladimir Putin Reappears. Aired 1:30-2p.

Aired March 16, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting from Washington. A fourth teenager has been arrested in Great Britain on suspicion of preparing to travel to Syria to join ISIS. This follows the weekend arrest of three British teens the police also believe were headed for Syria. Turkish officials say they landed in Istanbul on Friday night on a flight from Barcelona, Spain. The three young men have since returned to London where they face terror charges. They are now free on bail.

Atika Shubert is following the story in London for us Atika is joining us live. What are you learning about this fourth arrest, Atika?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the most recent arrest actually happened in Birmingham. A teenager there was arrested around 7:00 in the morning before he even had a chance to get on the plane to go to Syria.

So it clearly shows that police are being much more proactive about this communicating very well with Turkish authorities for example in stopping those three teenagers over the weekend. And perhaps most importantly, communicating with families and the community.

In fact, the police today have launched a campaign specifically reaching out to mothers and families asking them to keep watch over their sons but especially their daughters. There's a lot of concern about young women and girls traveling to go join ISIS. So it really is a community effort that British police are hoping will come together to stop more young people from going to Syria, Wolf.

BLITZER: What's the latest, Atika, on those three young men who were caught in Turkey supposedly on their way to meet up with ISIS in Syria?

SHUBERT: Well, all three were deported over the weekend here to the UK. They have now been released on bail. They will in about a month's time need to return for questioning. But as you can imagine, police will be keeping a watch over them.

In addition to those three teenagers of course, there's the three teenage schoolgirls that did manage to cross into Syria. According to activist in Syria, those girls are believed to be in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, but police still investigating exactly how they were able to flip through and cross over to join ISIS.

BLITZER: Atika Shubert in London for us outside Scotland Yard. Thanks, Atika, very much. So is the situation of teens going to ISIS in Syria getting worse? Our national security analyst Peter Bergen is here with me.

Peter, we just heard about those three British boys who were arrested. There was a fourth arrest in the U.K. Now, a California man is being arraigned today after allegedly attempting to go to Syria. We have the story of three Brooklyn men facing terror charges, a teen in Minnesota who plead guilty in trying to support terrorism.

How do we gauge this threat from teenagers potentially trying to get into Syria to hook up with ISIS?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think there's two things, Wolf. One is the biggest threat that these teenagers face is going to Syria themselves. I mean, they don't know, these are kids, they don't know anything about being in the most violent country arguably in the world right now. Some of them will end up dead if they get on the front lines.

The second point is that we've seen the foreign fighters "take leadership roles" in ISIS. So the most brutal people in ISIS on this are Brits who kidnap and beheaded American and British hostages several of them over time.

[13:35:04] So these foreign fighters are attending to be the most virulent ideologically, which is another problem.

I think it's not so much of a problem for them coming back because we, you know, the authorities are keeping pretty careful track of who these people are. If they come back, they will get arrested whether they come back to Denmark, Britain, or the States.

But it is a problem, you know, I think I've had some parents say to me, you know, I'm grateful that the FBI arrested my kid before they could get to Syria because they know that it's very dangerous over there.

BLITZER: Once they get to Syria it could be the end of that 15, 16, 17-year-old kid or 20-year-old for that matter as well. And John Brennan, the CIA Director last week said there were 20,000 foreigners from 90 countries who have gone to Syria and Iraq to join forces with ISIS. That doesn't include the Syrians and the Iraqis who are fighting with ISIS. These are the foreigners.

BERGEN: Well, I think just to be clear. I think Brennan, the 20,000 figure doesn't refer to not everybody joined ISIS. Although the majority are joining ISIS, some are joining Al-Nusra which is another Al-Qaeda affiliate, and some are going to join the Free Syrian Army or other groups.

So, not all the foreign fighters automatically join ISIS but the majority do.

BLITZER: What do you make of the commotion now in the past 24 hours that Secretary of State John Kerry saying the U.S. is willing to negotiate with Bashar al-Assad for some sort of peaceful resolution to the civil war in Syria? He's getting a lot of pushback, Kerry, for this including from the French government who say that they're not ready to negotiate with Bashar al-Assad. He must go.

BERGEN: Well, you know, you know, a gap in Washington is telling the truth in public, right? And so, I think this is just a fact. I mean, the country's seriously controlled by three entities, Assad, ISIS, and Al-Qaeda. So if you're serious about a solution, unfortunately, you're going to have to deal with Assad who is the least kind of unpleasant of these entities from an American strategic point of view even though he's killed a lot more people than others.

BLITZER: He's got the blood of 200,000 fellow Syrians on his hands.

BERGEN: We dealt with Stalin who had the blood of millions of people. I mean, I'm not sort of defending this, but I mean we have dealt with some very bloody people in the past when it suited our interest.

BLITZER: And the U.S. is dealing with Iran right now which if the U.S. still says that Iran is a country that supports terrorism. It's on the state department list as a terrorist evasion.

BERGEN: Right. And we're engaged in a long-term seemingly pretty constructed negotiation about their nuclear weapons.

BLITZER: The negotiation is in Switzerland underway right now. We see John Kerry shaking hands with Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Foreign Minister of Iran, almost everyday now as we try to reach -- meet that end of March deadline. So basically we're just saying even though the U.S. regards Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism, regard Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism, it would be OK to negotiate with terrorist regimes.

BERGEN: We've also said that Cuba is a state sponsor of terrorism, you know, I mean there is a, you know, we are normalizing relations with Cuba, right? You know, I think that we live in a world where things change.

BLITZER: Peter Bergen, thanks very much for joining us.

BERGEN: Thank you.

BLITZER: I want you to take a look at this video. It's what remains of the once opulent tomb of the former Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein. The mausoleum is just outside Tirkiti, his birthplace, the site of a major military offensive underway by Iraqi forces against ISIS backed by Iranian, backed Shiite forces. Saddam Hussein is a Sunni Muslim, the same as the ISIS leaders, Iraq's leaders and their Iranian counterparts are Shiites.

Saddam Hussein's body was removed from the tomb last year by Sunni residents. It's not known where the remains are now. Up next, a very different story we're following here in the United States, how our vote on abortion could hold up a confirmation of President Obama's choice to become the next Attorney General of the United States.

We'll take a closer look at what's at stake when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: A vote of confidence today for the Director of the U.S. Secret Service. Last hour the secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson spoke about Joe Clancy, the Secret Service director, saying he knows the Secret Service Director is committed to help them fix the agency. These are the first comments from Secretary Johnson after an embarrassing incident at the White House earlier this month when two agents supposedly crashed into a little barricade while allegedly driving drunk. Clancy wasn't informed about the incident for at least four days.

President Obama meanwhile may have thought to wait even longer to get his new attorney general. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the vote (inaudible) confirmation won't happen until Democrats sign off on a human trafficking. They'll he spoke about it with Dana Bash on State Of The Union yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It sounds like you are threatening to hold up Florida Lynch who has been in limbo for months and months.

SEN, MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY) MAJORITY LEADER: It's not a threat we need to finish this human trafficking bill it came out the of the judiciary committee unanimously that's the next time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, let's bring in our chief political analyst Gloria Borger. Gloria the Democrats as Mitch McConnell points that they did vote for this bill earlier that language -- same old language opposing abortion benefits for women in part of this human trafficking vote, they voted for it later but then they discovered that language was in there so now they're fighting it.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. That no money appropriate for this bill could be used to fund abortion in anyway shape or form. The Democrats say they were shocked that this was in the bill they didn't know it.

BLITZER: They didn't read at the first time they voted for it.

BORGER: Some people said they did, they thought it wasn't in there, other people said wait a minute you try to sneak it in there, you use the language where we have wasn't clear enough, whatever reason Wolf and we'll never know kind of what the truth is here. Whatever reason it remained in the bill and Mitch McConnell this is one of the reasons people hate Washington I might add Wolf because Mitch McConnell says OK we have to pass this bill in order to get take up the nomination for the attorney general of the United States Loretta Lynch.

So she is being held up because of a human trafficking bill that there is a partisan dispute on and by the way the notion of trying to stop human trafficking is a bipartisan idea and measure and so people might be scratching their heads and say why couldn't Congress couldn't get together to pay a set and why is it holding up the attorney general?

BLITZER: Let's say they worked out the human trafficking bill...

BORGER: Right.

BLITZER: ... is it a done deal that she will get confirmation?

BORGER: No, no, it is not and, you know what often happens with these nominations, is the longer they hang out they are the more controversial they get. And the controversy that's hanging around her now has rally nothing to do with her but it has to do with her reaction to President Obama's executive order on immigration.

She testified before the committee that she thought it was perfectly legal and that it was appropriate.

[13:45:00] I might add she was approved by the judiciary committee with three Republican votes, but Wolf when she does get voted on. No matter how that plays out when she does get voted on it could come down conceivably to a tie vote in the Senate that would have to be broken by Joe Biden. She clearly has all 46 Democrats, the question is, how much can she get among the Republican.

BLITZER: Mr. Joe Biden, the Vice President of the United States, according to the Constitution as the President of the Senate.

BORGER: Right.

BLITZER: If it's a 50-50 tie, the Vice President could come in and break that time even of course vote to get her...

BOGNER: Exactly.

BLITZER: ... confirmed. But she has such a distinguished career as the U.S. attorney in New York, she came in highly regarded. Eric Holder is staying on until she is confirmed, he is the outgoing attorney general.

BOGNER: She does. And like many things in the Senate, these things get twisted off and bogged down over very ancillary reasons that have nothing to do with her nomination. Now, again, Republicans are so opposed to the executive action on immigration. They have taken it to the court. They have won one round in the court. They didn't like it when they ask the attorney general and she said she thought what the President did was absolutely legal, after all she is the President's nominee.

So, you know, it gets caught up in all of these other things and she is held hostage not only by what the President did but also on a human trafficking bill which has nothing to do with her nomination.

BLITZER: With the attorney general of the United States.

BOGNER: Right.

BLITZER: There are 54 Republicans in the U.S. Senate. You need 51 or 50 if it's a tie to pass. We'll see how many Republicans are willing to vote and support her confirmation.

BOGNER: Three did in committee.

BLITZER: One step vote comes up. Let's see what happens. It could be tied. All right, thanks very much Gloria for that.

BOGNER: Sure.

BLITZER: Still ahead, a holiday destination is battered by a monster cyclone. We have details when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:50:17] BLITZER: The president of Vanuatu is asking for the world's help in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Pam. The storm battered the country, made of a group islands in the Pacific. The extent of the damage unknown but the pictures show just how powerful Pam was. 24 people are now confirmed dead. That number is expected to rise.

Our senior international correspondent Ivan Watson has the latest from the island nation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The first cargo flights carrying emergency help flying into an island nation battered, and in some places, flooded by the worst storm seen here in generations.

MARIA YAWIAM, STORM SURVIVOR: We have no food, but now we have no food, no houses. House fall down.

WATSON: Your house is destroyed.

YAWIAM: Yes, yes.

WATSON: Vanuatu is a highly-price destination for adventurous foreign tourists. But it's also one of the poorest countries in the Pacific, a place where many rely on subsistent farming to feed their families.

These tough islanders haven't wasted any time. Clearing debris and reopening roads, but even their resilient spirit is clearly been shaken.

This was the bathroom

JINITA SANDY, STORM SURVIVOR: Yes.

WATSON: The terrifying wind ripped away the walls of Jinita Sandy's house, leaving her family homeless.

SANDY: No house, we got no -- we don't know how to -- what we're going to do next. We try -- we live it like this. Just clean up.

WATSON: It's not for preparation and training, some here say it could have been even worse.

THOMAS NANGOF, COMMUNITY DISASTER COMMITTEE: Everybody was inside the evacuation center. Of course, always part of the plan which we -- to train them ahead and the churches is like our main evacuation center (inaudible) happening.

WATSON: Three days after the storm, this church is still serving as a temporary shelter for dozens of families. There's still no electricity in this community, no running water, and locals tell us it'll probably take them years to rebuild.

The natives of Vanuatu are sometimes called the happiest people on earth. It's hard to imagine what they could have done to deserve this. Ivan Watson, CNN, Port Vila in Vanuatu.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: If you want to help those people, go to cnn.com/impact, cnn.com/impact. You can impact your world. Ivan Watson, thanks for that report.

When we come back, Vladimir Putin, he's back after being out of the public eye for 10 days. The Russian president has now reappeared but that hasn't end the speculation about where he's been and what he's been doing. We'll go live to Moscow when we comeback.

[13:56:56] BLITZER: Russian president Vladimir Putin has finally reappeared in public. Speculation had been swirling about his health and even his personal life after he hadn't been seen in 10 days. But his appearance hasn't entirely calmed all the rumors our there about where he's been, what he's been doing.

Our senior international correspondent Matthew Chance is joining us live from Moscow right now. Matthew, did the Russian president addressed his absence in any way today?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, he didn't explain it. He simply made light of it. He appeared with the president of Kyrgyzstan, looking very healthy, putting pay to some of those rumors that he'd been seriously sick. There's been speculation that he either had cancer, that he had suffered a stroke. There's even been speculation that he died, obviously. So that's been put to rest finally.

But he didn't explain why he was away for 10 days which is an extraordinary absence for a leader that's usually so present as this, particularly an absence without explanation. You can imagine that the U.S. president was away for 10 days and nobody knew where he was. It would be an utter chaos, I expect. But he did make light of it. He said, "Look, you know, I'm not going to explain it but things would be very boring," -- I'm kind of paraphrasing him. Things would be very boring without gossip. And so, you know, you got the sense -- he was smiling. He was quietly enjoying all the attention that he was getting.

BLITZER: Over the weekend, there was a documentary, as you know, Matthew, that aired on Russian T.V., in which Putin supposedly claimed he was ready to put Russia's nuclear forces on alert over last year's crisis in Crimea, in Ukraine. What do we to make of this?

CHANCE: That's right. So, I mean he said this in this documentary to mark the years since the annexation of Crimea by Russia. That was broadcast on Sunday night here, local time, it's a three-hour document. It' begins with Vladimir Putin. In it, he did make that suggestion, that he had actually considered putting Russia's nuclear forces on a higher degree of alertness if the situation developed where other countries, whether Ukraine, the Western countries had attempted to seize back Crimea from Russia after they've taken it.

I think he was just trying to underline how important Crimea is to Russia, they were prepared to go -- he's saying, all the way to defend that and to keep it as part of Russia. And so that was the base of what's he's talking.

I have to say, the nuclear footing of Russia's -- the footing of Russia's nuclear arsenal was not changed. It was just something they considered doing if the situation deteriorated.

BLITZER: Fascinating material. His approval ratings inside Russia right now, they remain sky high for some reason despite all the setback economically that the Russian people have been suffering since that invasion of Crimea a year or so ago.

All right, Matthew, thanks very much for that.

That's it for me, I'll be back 5:00 p.m. Eastern in the Situation Room for our international viewers. CNN News Center is coming up next.

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