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CNN TONIGHT

Pentagon Will Send 130 Additional Military Advisers To Iraq; Shooting Death Of Michael Brown Traumatizes Missouri Community

Aired August 12, 2014 - 23:00   ET

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


ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everyone. Top of the hour. This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: And I'm Alisyn Camerota. We've got much more tonight on the death of Robin Williams and how his co-stars are reacting.

Also, the death of Hollywood icon Lauren Bacall in New York today.

LEMON: Plus, our breaking news out of Iraq. More than 130 additional U.S. military personnel being sent to deal with -- help deal with the humanitarian crisis.

CAMEROTA: Meanwhile, the sixth air drop by U.S. military plans near Mt. Sinjar was conducted tonight. Are we on the verge of getting in deeper in Iraq?

LEMON: And in the wake of a shooting death of an unarmed teenager Michael Brown by a police officer, what will black parents tell their sons, and how will we all keep them safe?

CAMEROTA: All right, Don. But we begin with reaction to the death of Robin Williams from two of his best loved costars. We talked about this last night. He teamed up with Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg, you remember, to raise some $80 million for people in need with a series of those comic relief specials.

Billy Crystal tweeted these words, which were simply no words. And then Whoopi Goldberg, she agreed, tweeting Billy Crystal is right there. There are no words. We will have much more tonight on "CNN SPOTLIGHT, Robin Williams" with Nischelle Turner. That's tonight at 11:30 eastern.

LEMON: Right after this broadcast.

And we are going to begin, though, with breaking news now out of Iraq. The Pentagon is sending 130 additional military advisers to the northern part of the country. The group is made up of marines and special operations forces, and they will assist in the rescue of thousands of Yazidi refugees fleeing the violent is militants.

Defense secretary Chuck Hagel says this is not a boots on the ground combat operation, Alisyn. CAMEROTA: Well meanwhile, the U.S. launched more airstrikes against

ISIS more positions today. But the militant group remains a powerful threat. And it's led by an extremely violent and mysterious man.

Here is CNN's Jean Casarez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEAN CASAREZ, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, IN SESSION (voice-over): Is this the most dangerous man in the world? Rising from the shadow of Al Qaeda, the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. This recent video reportedly shows the reclusive leader at a mosque in Mosul in northern Iraq. It's the first time even some of his followers laid eyes on him.

RICHARD BARRETT, INTELLIGENCE EXPERT, THE SOUFAN GROUP: He is Iraqi, of course, and he came from a relatively poor family. He studied Islamic law.

CASAREZ: Baghdadi, who is in his early 40s has not always been thought of as the terrorist leader he is today. In fact, U.S. forces captured him in Fallujah in 2004 and held him in camp Bucca. A skilled former amateur soccer player and a former student at Baghdad University, he was considered a low level Al Qaeda member. According to a Pentagon spokesman, a review board recommended his unconditional release.

BARRETT: So he came really pretty quickly up to the top. And having got to the top, he then showed himself to be quite an able leader in an extremely ruthless and really good organizer.

CASAREZ: So what happened? Terrorism expert Richard Barrett believes al Baghdadi's time in U.S. captivity motivated him to build his base.

BARRETT: I think two or three other people who are now in the very, very senior ranks of the Islamic state who were in camp Bucca at the same time. So clearly, they have got to know each other.

CASAREZ: Al-Baghdadi claims to be a direct descendant of the prophet Mohammad. And even tries to emulate his mannerisms by praying like him. But others he is a lure comes from promoting brutality.

Images like this, mass executions, advertising propaganda videos have thousands of Iraqis fleeing for their lives. Baghdadi himself is living in the shadows, often appearing in disguise.

BARRETT: Prepared to work with closest but keep everyone else unaware of his existence or his identity at least. And he slowly sort of annihilated or assassinated his rivals and built (INAUDIBLE).

CASAREZ: Intelligence experts believe al-Baghdadi has done a good job of organizing his forces.

BARRETT: He certainly has expressed in the past that his ultimate target is going to be the United States.

CASAREZ: Now they fear ISIS may even be more dangerous than Al Qaeda.

Jean Casarez, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: We're joined by retired army general Peter Mansoor, a former aide to general David Petraeus and author of "Baghdad at sunrise: a brigade commander's war in Iraq" and by Rita Katz. She is the director of site intelligence group.

Thanks so much for being here.

Rita, I want to start with you. How did this guy Baghdadi become the head of these 20,000 terrorists?

RITA KATZ, DIRECTOR, SITE INTELLIGENCE GROUP: Well, Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi was the head long before he joined Al Qaeda, as it used to be Al Qaeda in Iraq before it changed its name to ISIS and then the Islamic state. He used to be a head of Sharia committee, the religious committee of the group, local group in Samarra called (INAUDIBLE). After Zarqawi is dead, the al Qaeda in Iraq created the Mujahideen Shura Council consul. And we really have to remember that the whole idea of creating an Islamic state or a more general organization is an idea that has been within the group since the beginning, since it was created by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

And the bottom line is that after Zarqawi was killed, one of the successors was (INAUDIBLE) Baghdadi. And after that individual was killed, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi became the head of the group.

However, it is important to mention that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's background for that whole time since 2003 or 2004, until the day he became the leader was in the religious committee. He was not in any military position or strategic position. He was the head of the Sharia, the religious committee.

So it is pretty surprising that after he became the head, here we are finding him as the person who is leading the largest probably the most intimidate organization right now in the area.

CAMEROTA: Yes. You make a great point.

Colonel, I want to talk to you of the news of the day that is the U.S. is sending these other 130 advisers to Iraq. What are we to make of this?

COL. PETER MANSOOR, (RET.) U.S. ARMY: I think what we're going to make of it is that the United States is going to rekindle its alliance with the Kurds. They're a long-standing ally and protector of the United States. We wanted to funnel all aid and support through Baghdad. But when the Kurdish region was directly threatened by ISIS fighters recently, I believe that this administration has decided that it's incumbent upon the United States to send aid directly to Erbil. And that is in the form now of weapons and ammunition, and now advisers and air power as well.

LEMON: I want to follow up on that, Peter. I want to ask you. Is ISIS, then, in your estimation more dangerous than al Qaeda?

MANSOOR: Yes, because it's better financed than al Qaeda now. It's the best financed terrorist group in the world. It has -- it's the best armed terrorist group in the world, all the weapons it seized in Mosul. And it's the most experienced terrorist group in the world with all the combat experience it's gained in Syria and now in Iraq.

LEMON: So then the question is how did it get to this point where now we're having to send these specialists in and all of these people in all of the sudden? Shouldn't our intelligence have known about this?

MANSOOR: Well, it did know about it. But intelligence requires a willing receptor on the other end. And I believe the administration overlooked the reports it was getting that this group was metastasizing in Syria and growing stronger. And we also overlooked the capability of the Iraqi security forces to defend against it. And so even though they might have thought that ISIS was gaining strength, they thought that the Iraqi army could deal with it. And that clearly was not the case.

CAMEROTA: And Rita, it's interesting because obviously when the U.S. wanted to get al Qaeda, we went after the leadership. But it sounds like we're taking a different tact with is.

KATZ: I mean, look, it's important to mention that ISIS has always been a problem, a real problem that unfortunately was pretty much ignored by the administration and other countries. Especially the warring in Syria made the group much stronger, and it was able to definitely create much more better momentum in recruitment and training to become really one of the most powerful terrorist organization in the Jihadi world, more powerful than al Qaeda to the point that it was able to even dismiss al Qaeda's being part of al Qaeda and distance themselves. And to the point that currently their recruitment process within the online community is something that has never, ever seen before.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

KATZ: So this is a group that we cannot -- we cannot describe or see as a problem of the Iraqis, a problem that the Iraqis and the people in that area has to face. But it's a problem that the west in general need to understand that must take part in order to dismantle. It has to be dismantled. There is no doubt that it's more dangerous. I mean, thinking about the fact that we're calling it even more dangerous than al Qaeda.

LEMON: Yes.

KATZ: This is a joke.

LEMON: Rita, we've got to run.

CAMEROTA: It's so true. And we've shown some of those recruitment videos. And they are hideous. Rita Katz, Colonel Mansoor, thank you for that information. LEMON: And when we come right back, outage growing over the shooting

of unarmed teenager by a cop in St. Louis, in the suburb I should say. And now black parents (INAUDIBLE) are agonizing what to say to their sons. We'll get into that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The shooting death of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown at the hands of a police officer has black parents across this country agonizing over what to say to keep their sons safe.

CNN's Stephanie Elam has more now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LASHION SPICER, MOTHER: As a parent, you have to worry about everything that happens once your kids step outside.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Regardless of wealth, education, or shade of Brown, parents of black children across this country are worried.

BRENT PAYSINGER, FATHER: It makes me think about one of my own.

ELAM: Trayvon Martin, now Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, another unarmed black teen dead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here we go again.

ELAM: How to keep black boys safe. I spoke with several parents, all of whom say there are unwritten rules for raising black boys. Make sure they understand they may be judged for color of their skin rather than the content of their character.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Appearance is big.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You show me your friends, and I'll show you your future.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pull the pants up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do not have more than three males -- you know, friends in your car.

ELAM: Brent and Andrea Paysinger are constantly talking to their sons about staying safe. Isaiah is 15-years-old. Sometimes staying safe means knowing how to act around the police, a conflicting notion for Isaiah.

ISAIAH PAYSINGER, 15-YEARS-OLD: They are supposed to be the people that protect us and keep us safe. But these actions and all these gestures that they do is making a horror for us like who do we ties to if the one who is protecting us are hurting us, where do we turn to?

CHRISHAWN SPICER, 15-YEARS-OLD: Why should I be afraid to walk down the street and get discriminated because of the color I am or the way I'm dressed or the way I looked.

ELAM: It's a lesson that can rob them of their childhood innocence. Lashion and Robert Spicer also talk with their 15-year-old son Chrishawn about racial profiling.

ROBERT SPICER, FATHER: We worry all the time. It is going to happen more and more often as he goes on in life no matter what he does.

ELAM: Steve Perry is founder of Capital Preparatory Magnet School.

STEVE PERRY, PRINCIPAL, CAPITAL PREPARATORY MAGNET SCHOOL: If you have a black son and you are not taking the time to explain to him what he needs to do when he is out in the street, how he needs to dress and how he needs to act and explain to him that he actually does have a target on his back, then you are not doing your job as a parent.

ELAM: Kelli Knox's son is 26, and she still reminds him of her rules for survival.

KELLI KNOX, MOTHER: I've had these conversations with my son since middle school on how to behave, when the police come, this is what you do, this is how, you know, speak to them. Do not be in a power struggle. It is just not worth it.

JOSEPH KNOX, 26-YEARS-OLD: I think she has a right to worry. She is a little bit too worry but I mean, I don't blame her.

ELAM: Kelli's son Joseph was at first reluctant to speak with me. What made you change your mind?

J. KNOX: Well, I figured I would like to give a perspective of a kid who you know, I don't look like trouble, I don't dress like it. I went to college and graduated. And I still have problems like the next kid. I've gotten harassed by cops. I've gotten a gun pulled on me. I've been told to crib walk and I never gang baited them in my life.

PERRY: Black males are criminalized from the time we enter into the quote/unquote "system." And I'm talking about school. For the time children in to the system, African-American males are the most suspended, most punished of any group, period.

ELAM: As for the teens, Robert tells his son to keep pursuing his education.

R. SPICER: Once you to get out there to the real world, it gets harder and harder every day. And the challenge is they don't stop. So for right now, you will be 15, let me be the dad. I will take care of it.

ELAM: A hope that their sons can just be boys for a little longer.

Stephanie Elam, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE) LEMON: Question for you. Do you have to have that talk with your kids?

CAMEROTA: Absolutely not. This is the world that I did not know about. And I certainly didn't know how widespread it was until I just watch this is.

LEMON: My parents have to talk with me. I don't have kids. I planned to have a talk with my nephews, my great nephews. When they grow up, I'm sure they are grandfather will as well. But we are going to talk to the experts about it right after this. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: So welcome back, everyone.

Every parent worries about the well-being of their children. But the parents of young black men face special challengers. So joining me now to talk about this is Mr. Charles Blow and political commentator in "New York Times" albeit columnist, Sonny Hostin, CNN legal analyst and a former federal prosecutor and Mississippi rapper, David Banner who have some pretty controversial things to say on twitter in the wake of the shooting of Michael Brown.

David, let's start with you. Let's get this out of the way. I would like to address something that wrote on twitter. They got a lot of attentions saying that it is not only cops who seem to de-value black right. You wrote this. You said, our situation is more psychological than people will admit black kids kill black kids, for the same reason cops do. They see no value. And then that was retweeted about 5,000 times or more.

And you also tweeted this. You said black man have to watch what color we wear, what hood we are in, the cops, white and black, no hoodie, no white tee, no love radios, damn.

So many took you to task for that. Do you think that what you wrote was taken out of context? Explain what you meant by it.

DAVID BANNER, MUSICIAN: Well, if was definitely taken out of context. And first of all, on Sundays, I always dialogue with my fans. I always push my fans to think. And at the time that had nothing to do what was going on in Ferguson. So -- but it still applies.

What I was saying is, is that, white cops do not see value in young black men. And the reason why a lot of young black men, not all black men, kill each other is because they don't see any value either.

So many people have vault in to this Americanize system. And America historically has always tortured, killed and enslaved black people. And I have not forgot that. So when you are saying it, there is a reason why we don't see value, but it is different because cops are paid to protect us.

LEMON: All right. So then, I want to keep this to parenting. So let's talk to some parents now. So Charles, you have three kids. Do you warn them, you know, that

they will be treated differently because of their skin color? I'm sure you do.

CHARLES BLOW, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, yes. And -- but, I mean, I think you have to be do this issue want to give them enough information to keep them safe, but you don't want to over burden them with so much that I breaks their spirit. And like any other parenting role that you play, there is no room backing. You don't exactly how to do it. You ask around, you go to (INAUDIBLE) barber shop or you talk to your parents about, you know, how do I deal with this? But it is a very delegate thing because it can rob a child of that experience, of being a child.

LEMON: But do you feel that your child is devalued by the system as well, not just police officers? And if you didn't have a talk with your kids, do you feel that you would be not be a good parent by doing it, were missing not doing it?

BLOW: Well, I think that there is an important distinction to be made here which is that you have to look at these problems, looks at the tree and see, not just see the fruit, but see the root. Meaning, you have to look at the system around what is happening and the context in which the violence is occurring, whether the intra racial or extra racial and how that is happening, whether that be community violence and whether that be structural violence coming from authority figures. And I think that that is part of what David is getting at. And I am not trying to speak for him.

And I think, you know, that is a very, very important to put it to context because on hand, on the community violence level, you can teach a child to say avoid this tough neighborhood. Avoid that group of friends because that -- I think those guys are up to no good. Avoid behaving this way. Comfort yourself this way. And it can make a difference.

However, the skin that you are born in to is in a mutual trait. It cannot be change nor should it be change. And that means that there is where the frustration comes when you say that there is an architecture that looks just at the skin and people in authority can then take that and profile you based on. And that is something you cannot change.

CAMEROTA: And Sunny, I want to bring you in. You are a mom. You have a son. What conversation do you have with him?

SUNNY HOSTIN, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Well, you know, I think we can make this pretty simple. Because the bottom line is we are living in a post-Trayvon Martin, post-Zimmerman trial world. And any parent of color -- Latino or African-American parent must have these conversations with their children. It is just really reality. It is the same conversation I think that many parents have about to stranger danger, the same conversation that parents have with their children about look both ways before you cross the street.

CAMEROTA: I mean, because I am having a conversation about strangers danger with my kids. And I say don't get into any cars, don't go with somebody --

HOSTIN: Yes. But my point, Alisyn is, when you are a parent of color, the conversation that you had -- you do have those conversations about stranger danger. But you also must have the very normal conversation that we must have which is you have to realize that people will see the color of your skin before they see the content of your character. You got to realize that you have got to make sure when you have this police encounters, if you are going to have them, and probably will have them, that you have to make them as short as sweet as possible.

Yes, show your hands to police officers. Yes, be very reserve. And unfortunately, I don't think that white parents have to have those conversations.

LEMON: I want to ask this because, Sunny, Listen. Let's have a very real moment here. Do you remember the Michael Dunn verdict and you remember we were talking about Jordan Davis and we were so upset by it?

HOSTIN: I'm still upset.

LEMON: Yes. And most -- a lot of people in our audience understood, a lot of people did it. And I was coming at it as a journalist and also -- but as a human being, as a black person. And you are coming at it as a black Latino mother.

HOSTIN: Right.

LEMON: Many people didn't understand that. And I got to talking to by some people.

HOSTIN: Yes, I did too. And the bottom line is that I see my child, I see my son when I see Trayvon Martin, when I see Jordan Davis, when I see Michael Brown. I feel their pain. I empathize. And I realized that there but for the grace f God goes my child. And what do I do to protect my child? I got to have those discussions.

LEMON: If you ask if Robin Williams can affect me on the air, so can the death of Michael Brown or Jordan Davis or any -- yes.

CAMEROTA: And so, David, it sounds like what you are saying is that there is some level of personal responsibility and it is not fair because white kids don't have to this, but you do have to look at what you are wearing and you have to look at how your walking and that is the reality?

BANNER: Well, honestly, I disagree with it. Because you tell me, what didn't Trayvon Martin do that our parents teach us? He did everything that he was supposed to do. He acknowledged that he was bare, he got on the phone, he calls somebody, he say you needed to get away from me, he ran away. It is like what are you suppose to do? Like you put your hands up and you tell them that you don't have a gun.

The thing that America is telling our children, and this is the sad part, that black folks, if you don't make me comfortable, we will kill you. That is the point.

HOSTIN: But as parent, you have part -- as a parent, and it is sad. And it is sad that as a parent, you do have to in a sense trample upon their innocence. But your job, your duty as a parent is to make this -- to protect your child. And one of the ways in my view that you do that is having this very real --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Hang on everyone. Now, we have a very few seconds left. Charles, can you wrap this up? We were talking about Michael Brown.

BLOW: Right. I also think, though, that it is a very dangerous message for us to send to our children and for America to send to any child who lives in America that your skin can emit a threat response in another human being. And they can fell justified in taking your life.

LEMON: We have to wrap it there.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: We will continue this conversation but we have to get off the air.

Thank you, David. Thank you, Sunny. Thank you, Charles.

That was an important conversation.

That is it for us tonight. I'm Don Lemon.

CAMEROTA: I'm Alisyn Camerota. We will see you back here tomorrow night.

CNN Spotlight, Robin Williams with Nischelle Turner starts right now.