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American Pleads Guilty to Aiding ISIS; President Obama to Lay Out ISIS Strategy

Aired September 10, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me here on this Wednesday.

We have to begin with the critically important moment in President Obama's time in office as commander in chief on the eve of the 9/11 anniversary. The president is right now preparing to address the nation and really the world and what could potentially become a new war for the United States and, at the very least, a commitment of more U.S. bodies in the Mideast to wipe out ISIS militants.

The president is expected to expand airstrikes on ISIS targets in Iraq, which have been going on just about a month now, and possibly a new approach to ISIS inside of Syria, a country where the U.S. has really been thus far keeping its distance.

Joining me now, Michelle Kosinski, our White House correspondent.

And, Michelle, here, a couple of hours away from this prime-time address, the president is open to conducting airstrikes against ISIS targets in Syria. What else should the world expect to hear?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we're waiting to see really how much he mentions about the Syria piece, because you could see as one big problem essentially, and everybody, both sides of the aisle, to see the Iraq/ISIS problem as being pretty much one and the same as the Syria ISIS problem.

But the situations in each and what is required in each are so different, so how much will the president look forward is one of the things we want to know. Here's what we expect, though. He will lay out the scope of the problem, why ISIS is a threat to the U.S., what are the risks and, what are priorities, basically painting a picture of how he sees that threat.

Then he will lay out his strategy. A lot of this we have heard from the administration and from the president over the last several weeks. We're waiting to see what kind of detail he goes into in this strategy. Is it going to be more specific, more detailed?

Then we expect the president to also look at proposals for moving forward and this, of course, is the interesting part, how much he gets into Syria. And also we heard the White House yesterday put out a statement saying that the president told congressional leadership yesterday in their closed-door meeting that he had the authority necessary to move forward with a plan as it stands and that he will lay out in that speech tonight.

So the big question is, does that include airstrikes in Syria? We don't think that it's to that point yet. We don't think he's going to announce that yet. We do know, according to administration officials, that he's prepared to do that. Maybe he will talk about it, but not take that step just now.

But we also know that the president had asked for further authorization from Congress in dealing with Syria. He's asking for more money, which is $500 million. This has come up before. In June, he asked for it. And he's asked Congress for specific authority for the U.S. military to further train and equip elements of the moderate Syrian opposition.

So, it's similar to what's being done in Iraq. It's taking it a step further from what has done as regards those elements of the opposition in Syria. But we don't know that he's going to really go there in his speech tonight because the White House already said he already has authorization he needs for now. It looks like this is going to be an element further down the road, Brooke.

BALDWIN: We will be talking though about the pennies, nickels and dimes that the president will be asking of Congress. Josh Rogin writing about this blank check he's asking. We will talk to Josh about that point.

Michelle, thank you so much, Michelle Kosinski at the White House for us.

And the president's speech on ISIS comes as we continue to mention the day before the anniversary of the worst terror attack on U.S. soil, September 11. And there are some who are concerned that ISIS is using a tactic similar to that of Osama bin Laden trying to goad the United States into war and trying to get the U.S. to react.

Just this morning, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid urged support for the president's plan, but he also urged caution when it comes to U.S. military action against ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: For now, it's critical we support our commander in chief as he takes this decisive action. I'm amazed, Mr. President, amazed that some members of Congress want to rush to war, because that's what they're talking about, is war. How did that work out for us last time? Not so well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Matthew Hoh is a former Marine Corps captain who fought in Iraq and as a civilian served as a State Department official in Afghanistan and he is now a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy.

Captain, welcome. Nice to see you again.

MATTHEW HOH, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Hi, Brooke. How are you?

BALDWIN: I'm doing all right. But let's talk about you and your opinions here.

It seems to me, everything I have read, you are a dove in a sea of hawks. You write about how the Islamic State is a parasite of war. So, then why are you against military action there?

HOH: Well, I think, Brooke, if we dive right back into the middle of an Iraqi civil war, if we jump right into the Syrian civil war, we're giving the Islamic State exactly what they want and, more importantly, what they need.

As you said, I described them as a parasite of war. It's a relatively small group of people numbering in the tens of thousands in a Sunni community of about 20 million in that region. And they need violence. They need chaos. They need war to survive and prosper.

By jumping into the war -- they need the United States to be a villain. By jumping into this war, we become that villain for them. Further, by jumping into the middle of a civil war, by taking one side of the conflict, by, say, coming in on the side of the Shia and the Kurds and becoming their air force, so to speak, we're further pushing the Sunnis into a corner.

We're further forcing them to align with ISIS, just as the Sunnis aligned with al Qaeda in Iraq 10 years ago in Iraq. It's very disturbing to me that we're not learning from our own past mistakes.

BALDWIN: OK. I hear you loud and clear. This is what the other side would say, to your point of them being small, 17,000 or so strong and growing. When you look at territory gained in the last six months, it's huge. Even the administration itself has said in the past they have been surprised by how quick and how swift they are.

And to your point about them being a parasite of war, let me phrase this to you. Back when we were watching the crisis atop Mount Sinjar, tens of thousands of those religious ethnic groups basically forced on top of a mountain surrounded by ISIS, you can't -- you couldn't solve that situation with politics.

So just using your argument, would you just leave them there to die if the U.S. didn't intervene?

HOH: Well, I think, unfortunately, the calls -- the cries of genocide were overblown. By the time the American forces got there, they found only a few thousand Yazidis on that mountain, and they were the residents of the mountain.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: They were dying. They were dying. They were forced to either leave or be killed. HOH: Not according to the U.S. military, Brooke.

But here's the other point of this, too, though. This is nothing new in Iraq. This cycle of violence has been going on for 11 years. You have had a half-million people have been killed in Iraq. Right?

BALDWIN: True.

HOH: And so for every Yazidi who has been prosecuted, there's a Sunni who was prosecuted before him. The Yazidis, if we don't find a political solution to this conflict, right, if we don't find a way to stop that cycle, the Yazidis will just be replaced by another group.

By no means am I saying just walk away from this. But there are other options. Military force is not going to work in this situation because we are picking and choosing sides in a civil war. Right? And so in the sense of what you're talking about with the territorial expansion of Islamic State, that didn't occur because the Islamic State is so powerful.

That occurred because corrupt army of Iraq, which is Shia-dominated, collapsed, and you had this vacuum in the north that allowed both Sunnis and Kurds to rush and fill the vacuum. That's what we saw happen over the summer.

The Islamic State, similar again to al Qaeda in Iraq 10 years ago, is a relatively small player in this overall much larger Iraqi civil war that has been brutal. It's been barbaric. There's been atrocities on all sides. Atrocities are continuing on all sides. Last weekend, Amnesty International issued a report about Kurds killing Sunnis in Kirkuk.

Reuters had a report yesterday on Shia and Kurds killing Sunnis in Diyala Province. So this cycle is going to continue. So, unless we find a way to answer the political grievances of Sunnis -- and we have to understand what these political grievances are. For the last several years under the Maliki administration, the Maliki regime, they faced mass arrests. There were mass killings. There were disappearances. They have been kicked out of the security forces. They were kicked out of their share of the oil revenue and they were kicked out of government.

So that's what caused them to align with Islamic State. It's not that the Sunnis don't realize how barbaric and atrocious the Islamic State are. They are aligning with them in spite of that. That's how bad off the situation they are. So...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: And that's why this new formation of this new government this week in Iraq is so key as part of the solution. But what that looks like down the road and their inclusivity or not really has yet to be seen.

HOH: Yes.

BALDWIN: Matthew Hoh, Captain Hoh, thank you so much for coming on. I really, really appreciate it.

I want to just make sure you and everyone else watch the president tonight, 9:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.

Coming up next, an ISIS supporter in an American courtroom today. Take a look at what the person who pleaded guilty to helping the terror group looks like. This 19-year-old American teenager lived in a Denver suburb. Her case Is now raising warning flags of other Americans like her who may try to support ISIS to join this growing group.

Plus, Ray Rice's wife standing by her man, standing by her husband. She's calling out the NFL and the media. And Nancy Grace today is weighing in. No surprise, strong opinions from her here. We will ask her, if Ray Rice's wife doesn't want jail time for him, why should he be charged? That's coming up next.

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BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

An American woman has just pleaded guilty to conspiring to helping the terror group ISIS. She's all of 19 years of age. She's Shannon Conley, who calls herself Halima. She appeared in a court in Denver, Colorado, just a couple of hours ago.

And CNN's Ana Cabrera was there.

Ana, who is she?

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Shannon Conley, Brooke, is a practicing Muslim. She's from Colorado and she's also a certified nurse's aide. She admits she met a man on the Internet. The two shared extremist Muslim beliefs and he told her he was with ISIS. They hatched this elaborate plan that they would get married and she would go to Syria and she would become a nurse in an ISIS camp.

Now, they were not able to follow through with this plan because the FBI arrested Shannon Conley as she was trying to board a flight back in April. She was going to go to Germany and then Turkey, where she would await this suitor. Now, that suitor has been identified as a man named Yusur Molgi (ph). He's believed to be a 32-year-old Tunisian man, according to the criminal complaint.

We know that Conley has been talking with the FBI for several months. Prior to her arrest, they were first alerted to her by a pastor and by a security guard at a local church who said that she had been acting suspiciously and the FBI investigators say Conley admitted and talked very openly about her Muslim extremist views, that she even talked about waging jihad against the United States and enrolled in the U.S. Army Explorers in order to receive training in U.S. military tactics and firearms, so that she could use that training if necessary to fight alongside ISIS.

Again, she pleaded guilty to all of this today in a federal court. We heard from her attorney right after that court appearance and he said she was led astray, that she now realizes the brutality of ISIS and it's something that she never wants to be part of.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT PEPIN, ATTORNEY FOR CONLEY: She would like everyone to know that her heart goes out and her prayers go out to those who have lost those who have -- the families of those who have been killed and to anyone who has been oppressed by those forces. Finally, Halima is fully aware that the fact that she was arrested may very well have saved her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Also worth mentioning, her parents were in court today. They didn't want to comment after the hearing. But I spoke with her mother just a couple of weeks ago, who tells me that her daughter was clueless. She says she's just a teenager with a big mouth and she now realizes she made a horrible mistake -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: So then what punishment does she face, mistake or not?

CABRERA: Well, she faces a sentence of probation up to five years. Ultimately, it will be up to a judge to decide. He did not sentence her today. He in fact set the sentencing date for January 23 of next year. Before then, there's going to be a probation court that will do an independent investigation. He also ordered a psychological evaluation and a personality assessment of Shannon Conley -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Ana Cabrera, thank you so much live in Denver for us this afternoon.

Coming up, the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, says Ray Rice may play in the league again. You heard me, may play. What does Nancy Grace think about that possibility and a lot of other questions we're going to ask of her next?

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BALDWIN: Fired from his team, suspended indefinitely from the NFL, that's the reality today for Ray Rice after that video of him knocking out his now wife went viral.

The former Baltimore Raven isn't even eligible to play Canadian Football League because they honor NFL bans. Did you know that? But if you think Ray Rice's career is over, hang on a second, because we have now heard from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. He talked to CBS News and said he's not ruled that out. That obviously did not sit well with some people because some believe Rice's original two-game suspension was a weak punishment to begin with.

You add the visual element to this story now, the elevator surveillance video, and now people want him arrested again.

HLN's Nancy Grace joining me now.

Nancy Grace, I got a lot to ask you about. I have been wondering what you're thinking. But, number one, can we just talk about as a former prosecutor, you prosecuted domestic violence cases -- even under the eyes of the law, throw out the NFL for a second, based upon his charge, he could have, if he were to have been convicted, gone to prison for three to five years. Instead, there was some sort of pretrial intervention, counseling, and there you have it. Can we begin there?

NANCY GRACE, HOST, "NANCY GRACE": Yes, I will start right there.

Number one, if I had handled this case, I would absolutely have taken it to the grand jury myself. This could have been indicted as aggravated assault with fists. That's like if Mike Tyson breaks into your set right now and gives you the K.O. punch, his fists -- this is an NFL player, and I handled cases where fist and feet were the weapons, like you would consider a gun or a knife or a vehicle if it ran you down.

Anything can be a weapon if it rises to the level of an aggravated assault. Let's just start with that, which carries a penalty in many jurisdictions of 20 years. All right. But let's go with your scenario of three to five years. What he did, the first failure, the number one failure, was with the justice system, and that pains me because that's my life outside of my family, is the justice system.

He got diversion center. You know what that is? That's like a little class you go to for about three, six months-ish, and then when you get your pretend diploma, like when my twins got their pre-K diploma, that's what that is.

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: You're free. You get your diploma from diversion and you're free. You're not on probation. You're certainly not in jail. You're not answering to anybody. Nothing.

All right, let's start right there. Number two, let's talk about the commissioner. You know how much he made in 2012? -- $42.million. To do what? Do the right thing. Did he do the right thing? No, he didn't. He says he or anybody else in the NFL didn't see the video. According to the casino, they never even asked, so TMZ got it?

And all of the millionaires in the NFL, they can't get it? Why? They didn't want to know. They stuck their head in the sand, and their butt, excuse me, in the air. So they didn't have to know. They didn't want to know.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Listen, I know there's much to this story. But I do know that the casino couldn't actually officially comment on whether or not the NFL reached out. We know the prosecutor's office, we know Atlantic City police, we know the defense attorney all had the video.

The casino isn't saying yesterday whether or not the NFL reached out. Just pointing that out. But continue, please, ma'am.

GRACE: Long story short, you say tomato, I say tomato. If the NFL -- forget the casino. If the NFL wanted that video and TMZ

can get it, I'm sure the NFL can get it.

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: If they wanted to look at the prosecution's folder, I would have been happy to share my folder. There's nothing to hide in my prosecution folder with those that are connected to it.

Here's the other end of the spectrum. And I'm not defending Ray Rice, all right, because I think he should go to jail. But everybody else in America that does a serious crime and they do time, they get to go too back to work. So, what, we're not going to let him work?

BALDWIN: You think -- well, what's the time he would need to do? He's suspended indefinitely. He's kicked off the Ravens team. At what point do you say, as Roger Goodell sort of said, maybe he goes back? Maybe he even appeals...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: When I said go back to work, I didn't mean as a role model for little children. My little son is already asking me about football. Do I want him to be patterned after Ray Rice? Yes, no.

So when I say go back to work, I don't mean as a role model with the NFL. I mean, you know, maybe cleaning the streets. Yes, he can go make a living and his wife can go to work too. They can all work, just like my family. We all work.

BALDWIN: Nancy Grace, thank you so much.

Nancy Grace on every night 8:00 eastern on HLN. Do you not miss her show.

Nancy, thank you so much.

And coming up next, President Obama, he will be laying out his plan to attack ISIS for the American people tonight prime-time address 9:00 Eastern. You can watch it here on CNN. How much money is the United States prepared to spend to battle terror groups around the world? My next guest says that number is $5 billion. But the administration has no plans on how to spend it.

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