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Blog Posts by Terrorist; Tenn. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann Talks Terror Attack, Security; Homeland Security Chair Speaks on Chattanooga Incident, Terrorism; McCaul Says Terrorism ISIS Inspired, But on What Evidence. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired July 17, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:31:18] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. I'm Wolf Blitzer, in Washington.

Look at this. A live picture coming in from Tampa, Florida, the McDill Air Force Base. That's the home of the U.S. military's Central Command, which oversees the Middle East Special Operations Command.

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Mike McCaul, he's getting ready to make a statement, answer reporters' questions. He's being briefed on what happened in Chattanooga, Tennessee, yesterday. He'll be speaking on that, what he describes as domestic terrorism, encountering violent extremism. We'll have live coverage of the chairman of the House Homeland Security committee Mike McCaul once he steps up to that microphone.

While no official motive have been declared, a blog purportedly written by the killer is providing us with a closer look at what may have led to the attack.

Here's how Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez's former martial arts coach described him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT SCHRAEDER, FORMER MARTIAL ARTS COACH OF ABDULAZEEZ: He seemed like the all-American kid. He -- never got out of line, hard worker, seemed to enjoy the training and got along with everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: But two blog posts possibly point to something sinister.

Let's discuss what's going on. Joining us is Mubin Shaikh, a former jihadist-turned-counterterrorism operative.

Mubin, thanks for joining us.

I know you're a specialist in this area. I want to get your insight in these two blog posts. We start with parables about Islam. One says, "Brothers and sisters don't be fooled by your desires. This life is short and bitter and the opportunity to submit to Allah may pass you by."

Mubin, what does that say to you?

MUBIN SHAIKH, FORMER JIHADIST-TURNED-COUNTERTERRORISM OPERATIVE: That blog post you're referring to, he uses -- he quotes the -- he uses the famous prophetic statement by the prophet, Ali Salaam, that the world is a prison for the believer and a paradise for the disbeliever. And this idea of don't let your desires fool you, this indicates he's stressed out about something, nothing is not working out in his life. I'm reading a lot into that post but people who site that feel they constrained or restrained.

BLITZER: The second blog post urges Muslims to study Islam, companions of the prophet Mohammed who fought jihad for the sake of Allah. He writes, "We ask Allah to make us follow their path and to know what role we need to play to establish Islam in the world."

What is he inferring here?

SHAIKH: What he's done here is he's taken the militant and try and drafted it to the Muslim identity. What he's saying that -- and it's true -- there were wars being fought in the early years of Islam and he's saying in that blog post that the canyons were not like monks in monasteries so he's very clearly sis associated himself from the peaceful tolerant ways that Muslims are, generally and bringing on this militant self-identity. The fact that those blog posts are like very the only two blog posts, I think there was some kind of indoctrination he went through and this is not a way to manifest his ideas but to keep him straight on his mission as he conceived it.

BLITZER: Because a lot of reading into it that he grew this beard and became more devout after returning from the Middle East. He seemed to have changed. Even though he was a happen hi young man, had a good outstanding education, was very popular and suddenly he went through this change. Can you relate to that?

[13:35:20] SHAIKH: I can definitely relate to that. Something definitely happened in his life that made him change like this. People don't just out of the blue decide to get religious. It's usually at the behest of something in their life. I think like your other guests were saying, the Jordanians were very good at this. The FBI would have known if he met with people but maybe not. Maybe he met with somebody and it wasn't picked up. Maybe he was becoming radicalized but didn't outwardly manifest it. He's an MMA fighter. There is some level of strategy that goes into it, planning, calculation. These are things also to look at.

BLITZER: We also had to look at the fact that he had a DUI charge in April and was about to go before a judge on July 30. That may have played a role in all of this as well, don't you think, Mubin?

SHAIKH: I agree. We see this in a lot of these ISIS foreign fighter cases. A recent British foreign fighter, who was killed, was supposed to be in court for stabbing someone in the face. It's possible. Also if you look at the blog posts he talks about immigrating to the Muslim lands. This is ISIS speak. So I think you will see some level of if not inspiration than direction from someone. I'm sure we'll find this out later.

BLITZER: Mubin Shaikh, thanks for joining us.

SHAIKH: Thank you.

BLITZER: Are the nation's military recruitment centers here in the United States truly safe? We'll take a closer look at renewed calls to beef up security at these centers.

Plus, U.S. Congressman Chuck Fleischman, of Tennessee, is standing by live to discuss what's going on. He represents this Chattanooga area where these tragic events have occurred.

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[13:41:22] BLITZER: Continuing our coverage with the Chattanooga, Tennessee, shooting. Thursday's attacks left four U.S. Marines dead and a community deeply shaken. Let's talk about what's going on.

Joining us, United States Congressman Chuck Fleischmann. He represents this area in Washington in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Congressman, thanks for joining us.

I know you're being briefed by federal, state, local authorities. What can you tell us about the motivation of this killer?

REP. CHUCK FLEISCHMANN, (R), TENNESSEE: Right now, all of the investigators are keeping this close under wraps. There's going to be a press conference at 3:00 o'clock today where some additional information will be disseminated. But it's very important for the American people to know that so many resources are being used, Wolf, to make sure we get to the bottom of this and to get to the bottom. During the course of investigation, investigators are being careful about how they go about this process. We're cooperating, seeing great cooperation, local, state, and federal agencies. Secretary Johnson called me yesterday to offer his condolences. Everyone is working together, sir.

BLITZER: Secretary Jeh Johnson is the secretary of Homeland Security here in the United States. Based on what you know without getting into a lot of the specifics, we'll await what the authorities say at 3:00, an hour or so from now, does it look like this individual, Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, was inspired or was actually ordered to undertake this kind of terrorist attack?

FLEISCHMANN: I have no personal knowledge of that but what I can say, if you look at his posts in his high school yearbook, if you look at some of the rhetoric that he had out there, this is a bad actor, this is someone who, sadly, had a very deranged plan and carried it out. Much to the loss of our Marines, our Chattanooga community, this is someone who was bad. The worst part about it, Wolf, it looks like he was off the radar, that he was not picked up until it was too late. So when I go back to Washington, we'll sit down and work very hard to figure out what went wrong, how we can prevent these attacks in the future. Right now, the Chattanooga community is in mourning over this great loss.

BLITZER: We know he spent time in Kuwait. He was born in Kuwait. His parents were Jordanian citizens. He was born in 1990. The family moved here to the United States after the first Gulf War in 1990 so he was an infant. He grew up in the United States and a good high school record, was on the wrestling team. He graduated from the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, engineering degree. He had no real record at all. So I guess it shouldn't be that surprising, Congressman, that he was not on any terrorism watch lists, other than the fact he had a DUI arrest in April.

FLEISCHMANN: I think folks are looking at some of his posts, I think his yearbook post is out there but let me say this, we'll have to learn from this tragedy because we want to keep the American people safe and keep our men and women in uniform safe when they are here on American soil. The rhetoric that we hear from some of these groups that do not like the United States, that condemn us, is very real, and they are reaching out to people in this country. We know this and we have to work to quell this, to stop this, because they are serious about their bad rhetoric towards us and our allies. I've spoke to the Canadians today, to the people all over the world, extending their condolences. These enemies spewing this anti-American rhetoric and reaching an audience are real and we need to deal with it.

[13:45:29] BLITZER: Representative Chuck Fleischmann, of Tennessee, joining us. We'll stay in close touch with you. Thank you very much.

FLEISCHMANN: It's a pleasure, Wolf.

BLITZER: House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul is speaking in Tampa, Florida, right now, the home of the U.S. military's Central Command, which oversees Middle East as well as the Special Operations Command. I want to briefly listen in.

REP. MIKE MCCAUL, R-TX, CHAIRMAN, HOUSE HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: I came here initially to get a briefing on our counterterrorism efforts from a military perspective in the war against terror. Little did I know on the flight down here that terror would strike America in the heartland. And my heart goes out to the families of the victims, the four Marines and the wounded. And what happened yesterday, can happen any time, any place anywhere in our environment. Now see four U.S. Marines killed at one of our training centers to me is unacceptable. And this fight against ISIS and the terrorists must escalate and we must win. We must prevail and defeat them.

I can talk a lot about the case and I know we'll go into a Q&A, but let me give you the threat landscape and environment. If it can happen in Chattanooga, Tennessee, it can happen anywhere. And the stats prove this. Over the last year, we've had over 60 ISIS-related arrests in the United States. That's more than one ISIS follower arrested in this country, more than one per week. We have thwarted over 50 plots against the West. So I commend the FBI and Homeland Security and our state and local law enforcement for the good work they've done in stopping these terror plots.

People ask me what keeps me up at night. What keeps me up at night is the one case we don't know about, because we do know about a lot of the plots. We know a lot about the individuals and the communications going on in the United States but this one we did not. This is the one that we worried about. This is the one that unfortunately happened yesterday resulting in the death of four of our United States Marines.

The threat is real. And it comes from the Internet. This is a new generation of terrorists. This is not bin Laden in caves with couriers anymore. This is what the new threat of terrorism looks like. And it comes from the Internet, it comes out of Syria, it comes from ISIS followers, ISIS recruiters, ISIS operators out of Syria, with directives into the United States to activate individuals in the United States. They don't have to travel to Syria and Iraq. They're already here. To activate them to commit acts of terror.

And what have been their mi missives? Over the course of the past six months, we've been intensely trying to stop these directives, these missives from activating in the United States. Many of you recall the Fourth of July. There was a serious plot in New York that the FBI and Homeland Security stopped but we can only be lucky so many times. We can only stop so much. They only have to be right one time, 1 percent. And unfortunately, I believe yesterday they were. This will no doubt be proclaimed as a victory for them. But we will have the final word in this war against them.

These directives call for multiple things, but primarily they call for the attack of military installations in the United States. And they also call to kill military personnel and to kill police officers. And we've seen these missives time and time again. There are over 200,000 tweets, ISIS tweets, per day that we are trying to monitor, but the volume and the chatter is so high and so intense that it's hard to get a handle on it. It's very difficult for the FBI and Homeland Security to stop and disrupt every one of these. And I believe one of those was yesterday that got through.

[13:50:29] I have a lot of emotions about what happened yesterday. This is the event we've been most worried about, and then it happened. I don't know how many more of these could happen, but I can tell you there are ISIS investigations in all 50 states across the United States of America. They are permeating our society and this country through the Internet and through social media. It's very, very difficult to stop it. And I believe yesterday, unfortunately, we couldn't.

Again, I pray for the families. It's extremely tragic to see an American soldier killed on American soil. It should never happened. It should never happen.

As I get my briefings today at McDill Air Base, we want to take the fight over to them in Syria and Iraq to stop them from doing what they did yesterday. We need to drain the swamps so we don't have to swat the mosquitoes over here. That is a threat to the homeland.

And so with that, I'd like to turn it over for questions.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are you confirming that Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez was either inspired or directed by ISIS?

MCCAUL: I just got off the phone with the FBI, had a very good briefing with them. I can tell you this, they have opened this case now as a terrorism case, which is very significant. Right now, the -- his communication devices are on an airplane as I speak going to Washington. They will be looked and combed over very closely for any information regarding any foreign direction about these tweets as I'm telling you about. The forensics will be done on the computer devices. And I know we'll know a lot more in probably the next 12 hours as to what information is contained on those devices. My assumption is, based on my experience, both as a federal prosecutor and as a chairman for Homeland Security, and that is, we've seen too much of this traffic. There are too many warning signs. The targets are identical to the targets called by ISIS to attack. So my judgment, in my experience, is that this was an is-inspired attack. And it has been open as a terrorism investigation by the FBI, which is a very significant event in this case.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) -- set off by any particular social media interaction -- (INAUDIBLE)?

MCCAUL: I can't confirm that until we've done a full forensics of his technical devices, his computers, cell phones. One aspect that concerns us and the FBI and Homeland as well is the ability of these terrorists and ISIS to go into what is called dark space. They communicate over Twitter accounts with Americans in the United States. They can rapidly jump from one Twitter account to the next. And the other phenomena is they can jump out of normal communications that we could see to what is called dark space on platforms that, even if we have a court order, we cannot see these communications at all. If that is the case here, then I think we need to change the way we look at this, maybe change some policies. I think that's the greatest concern that the intelligence community and FBI and Homeland has, is that they may be communicating in this dark space and there's no way we can stop it.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are you -- (INAUDIBLE) -- the encryption?

MCCAUL: I think there's a legal way to do this but there is also -- I have been turning to the technology companies to see if there's a technology solution to this, a creative technology solution.

BLITZER: All right. We're going to break away from the chairman of the Homeland Security.

Michael McCaul is making news, breaking news. He is now working under the assumption, he says, this was, in fact, what occurred in Chattanooga yesterday an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack. There were no indications that this young man, Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, was in fact, plotting anything along these lines.

Tom Fuentes is with us, our law enforcement analyst, the former FBI assistant director.

He's very blunt. He's not speculating. He says based on everything he's heard so far, he's spoken to the FBI, he's getting briefings from the military Central Command, this was a formal terrorist plot. This individual was at least inspired to go out and target two U.S. military installations and kill as many U.S. military personnel as possible. That was the goal.

[11:55:39] TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, if the FBI, in examining the computers of this guy and his e-mail and phone traffic, if they discovered that that type of propaganda was on his computer, that he was communicating with anybody not only just favorably supporting is and the objectives of ISIS to commit attacks or being inspired to follow their orders and just go kill, if you're capable of doing it, as opposed to a directed plot, yes, he could be ISIS inspired and they could be finding what information supports the fact that it was inspired by his belief to support ISIS.

BLITZER: Because he's going further -- Mike McCaul, chairman of the Homeland Security, he's saying that this was, in fact, an ISIS inspired attack.

FUENTES: I'd like to know what was leading to the conclusion that it was absolutely inspired, unless he expressed the belief to others that he supports it and believes in it and establishing a caliphate and killing Americans, soldiers, particularly police officers, then, yes, you could say it's an is-inspired plot and he may have already heard that.

BLITZER: Walk us through what they are going to do. His cell phone and computers are being flown to Washington right now.

FUENTES: They will do the complete examination and have specialists try to break as much encryption as they can. Now, if this guy got on one of the dark apps, as they refer to it, and was communicating, that encryption is not able to be cracked. That's what the FBI director has been testifying to, that when these individuals make a social acquaintance through Twitter and Facebook, through one of the jihadi websites and then agree to go to an encrypted site, it's over. They can't trap the content of the discussion. They can't tell what they are saying.

BLITZER: But they can tell that he's gone to the so-called dark app even if they can't break the encryption?

FUENTES: No. They may not know. They won't see any electronic trail telling him to do it. So that's the fear the bureau has had and they have said all along here that they can not read people's minds. If there's not an indication from a friend, a neighbor, a posting that goes out that they are made aware of, they may not know until after the fact and try to piece it together.

BLITZER: Mike McCaul, the head of the House Homeland Security Committee, he's saying that he believes this was, in fact, an ISIS- inspired plot, an attack against the U.S. military.

Tom Fuentes, we'll have much more on the breaking news, coming up.

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

The news continues here on CNN in 60 seconds.

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[13:29:36] PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Pamela Brown. This is CNN's special live coverage of the attack in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

We are waiting for a press conference from investigators where we are expecting to get more details on that deadly gun battle between the shooter and the police.