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CNN NEWSROOM

Protests, Calls for Unity in Muslim Nation;; Jordan Retaliates by Executing Two Prisoners; 20 Missing in Taiwan Plane Crash; Six Killed in Metro-North's Deadliest Crash; Senate Begins Hearing for Obama Defense Pick

Aired February 4, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, a vow of earth-shaking retaliation. As ISIS finds a depraved new way to get the world's attention. A hero pilot burned to death.

SAFI AL-KASASBEH, FATHER OF JORDANIAN PILOT (Through Translator): I demand that this criminal organization Daesh to be annihilated.

COSTELLO: Jordanians furious.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's truly horrifying when you watch the video that's meant to inflict terror.

COSTELLO: Will this new level of brutality back fire?

Also, a rush hour nightmare in New York.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: This is a truly ugly and brutal sight.

COSTELLO: People killed when a commuter train hits an SUV stuck on the tracks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People were pulling the windows off, trying to get out through the emergency windows.

COSTELLO: The tracks buckle, the front car catches fire, commuters scramble for safety.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But we're able to get off in time, but it was scary.

COSTELLO: Plus, disaster unfolds up close. A dash cam capturing a plane falling out of the sky, clipping an overpass and careening into a river.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Incredible that survivors walked out in some cases from this plane.

COSTELLO: What went wrong and how rescuers got to the survivors.

Let's talk, live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

We are following breaking news this morning. Jordan taking action overnight executing two jailed al Qaeda terrorists, one of them Sajida al-Rishawi. That in retaliation for the horrifying murder of that captured Jordanian pilot. ISIS burning him alive inside a cage and then posting the video online. His father demanding revenge and calling for the end of ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AL-KASASBEH (Through Translator): I demand that the government of Jordan avenge the blood of Moaz. These were criminals and there's no comparison between them and Moaz. His blood is more valued than Sajida al-Rishawi and Ziad Karbouli. I demand that revenge should be bigger than executing prisoners. I demand that this criminal organization Daesh to be annihilated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Many experts are calling this shockingly barbaric act a tipping point for ISIS and maybe it will be.

I watched the video of the pilot's death and I wish I had not. It did strike me how cowardly this act by ISIS was setting fire to a man locked in a cage with your faces covered? That's cowardly. What was courageous was this pilot. He accepted his fate without cowering to the terrorists, clasping his hands in prayer as flames engulfed his body. He stood strong in the face of ungodly cowardice.

And that's where we want to start this morning.

All over the Arab world, this is what we're seeing. #weareallmoaz. Jordan's Queen Rania even joined the Twitter campaign for solidarity tweeting the phrase in Arabic. Now it's trending heavily across the Middle East.

CNN's Atika Shubert is live in Amman, Jordan this morning where there were protests vowing revenge for this pilot's death. But what's next for Jordan?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. There are protests overnight, but this morning we saw shows of solidarity. People showing up at the airport waiting for King Abdullah's arrival to show their support for Jordan being involved in the fight against ISIS.

We were also at a prayer earlier today where they decried ISIS as mercenaries, killers, and murderers. And that the Jordanian pilot, Moaz al-Kasasbeh, to be a hero and a martyr. And so there is clearly support for the Jordanian government as a result of this murder.

It's such a brutal killing, as you point out. And the way that it was done, so highly choreographed, so horrific, has really struck home, not only with Jordanians here but across the Arab world.

Now the key question is, does this mean a turning point? Here in Jordan what we are seeing is calls for the Jordanian military to step up airstrikes to, in the words of some people here, annihilate ISIS. Is that going to be the same across all of the Arab members of the coalition and other Arab nations? We don't know yet. That's what we're waiting to see over the next few days.

COSTELLO: All right. Atika Shubert, reporting live from Amman, Jordan this morning. Thank you.

Within hours of the videotaped murder being made public, President Obama welcomed Jordanian King Abdullah to the White House for a hastily arranged meeting. Mr. Obama extending his condolences and vowing that the United States will stand alongside Jordan and the global coalition to destroy the group.

The king was already in Washington for a visit that had long been scheduled. Cut the trip short and arrived back in Jordan just a few hours ago.

So what does this latest act of brutality mean for the global fight against ISIS? Joining me now is Amal Mudallali. She's a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center and adviser to the former prime minister of Lebanon.

Welcome.

AMAL MUDALLALI, SENIOR SCHOLAR, WOODROW WILSON INTERNATIONAL CENTER: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Thank you for being here. Jordan vowed vengeance -- we're glad you're here. Jordan vowed vengeance and it meant it. It executed two terrorists in retaliation. But some suggests that really achieves very little. Do you agree?

MUDALLALI: You know, we saw all the calls in Jordan for revenge, and I think the pressure led to these executions tonight. But I think what you see around the -- in Jordan even and in the Arab world and the Muslim world, a call for a bigger strategy, a strategy that's more comprehensive that deals with the real problem.

I don't think this problem you can solve it only by the airstrikes alone. I think there has to be a political component for the problem. But this latest act by the -- by ISIS, I think the brutality of it, I think it woke up people for this. I think, yes, this could be a turning point. I think with the flames of the -- the flames of the Jordanian pilot, the model that ISIS was presenting to lots of people in the region, it went down in flame with them, too.

I think we're going to see change. We're going to see people more against ISIS. And you saw in the streets of Amman demonstrations and this is new against ISIS and against this brutality. I think this will be the norm now.

COSTELLO: Well, I'm glad you say that this could be the tipping point, but I want to -- I want to ask you about something else that kind of shows it may not be. The United Arab Emirates, according to the "New York Times," pulled out of the coalition's fight against ISIS because this Jordanian pilot was kidnapped. What do you make of that?

MUDALLALI: You know, the UAE is asking for improvement in the search and find -- and rescue after something like this happens. And this is legitimate. I think there has to be a more robust strategy. There has to be more effort to guarantee that what happens on the ground that if these people if they fall or something happens, that they are saved. I think they have legitimate concern.

But this can be done. This can be rectified if there's any new plan, new strategy that's more robust, it has more component that addresses the problem, the political transition in Syria has been on hold for a couple of years now. I think this is one of the main problems that we see now that's leading to this.

COSTELLO: But well, here's the thing, all military analysts I have spoken to say the only way you can really defeat ISIS is by fighting them face-to-face, as in boots on the ground, so will one of these Middle Eastern countries put boots on the ground to fight ISIS?

MUDALLALI: Well, you know, we'll see now. I think this -- what happened yesterday is going to have an effect on people and I think people are going to rethink their strategy. And I think people are going to look at the many options, and this is one of the options. I think this is the challenge now, how you're going to go to the next step and what kind of strategy you're going to have because so far this strategy hasn't succeeded as was hoped.

COSTELLO: Amal Mudallali, thank you so much for being with me this morning.

MUDALLALI: Thank you so much.

COSTELLO: I appreciate it.

MUDALLALI: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a shocking scene in Taiwan as a passenger plane crashes after takeoff hitting a bridge and the water below.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Right now 20 people are still missing after a passenger plane crashes into a Taiwan river. These pictures are unbelievable. This TransAsia plane carrying 58 people -- oh, my gosh -- it went down shortly after takeoff from Taipei.

CNN affiliate TBBS got ahold of this dash cam, and as you can see, the plane clipped a bridge. It hit a cab and then it plunged into the river. The flight was carrying Taiwan and Chinese passengers to a Chinese island when it crashed.

CNN's David McKenzie is here to tell us more.

Hi, David.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Morning. Well, certainly very dramatic footage on a horrific crash of the TransAsia plane in Taipei which early in the morning literally dropped out of the sky.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCKENZIE (voice-over): This dash cam footage from Taiwan is as incredible as it is horrifying. The extraordinary scene from CNN affiliate TBBS shows the TransAsia ATR 72 shortly after takeoff. Then the unthinkable. The plane cart-wheeling over an elevated highway slamming into a barrier and then crashing the passing taxi, ditching into the Keelung River below.

Fifty-eight passengers and crew were on board the flight. Aviation authorities say that more than a dozen lost their lives. Incredibly, they say, there were survivors of the crash escaping the sunken fuselage.

And the dramatic rescue scenes played out on live TV with more than 100 first responders rushing to the scene desperately searching for more survivors. TransAsia officials say the plane was new and recently serviced. This is the second deadly TransAsia crash in just seven months.

CHEN XINDE, CEO, TRANSASIA AIRWAYS (Through Translator): I would like to express our deep apologies to the victims and our crews. Again, we express our deep apologies.

MCKENZIE: Family members were left angry and distraught.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Through Translator): We had to contact the airline first. The airline didn't pay attention to us. They're busy confirming information. Their attitude is terrible.

MCKENZIE: The reasons for the crash are unclear, but the recovered flight data recorders should help investigators understand just what went so horribly wrong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCKENZIE (on camera): Well, searchers, as we speak, Carol, have been looking through that debris trying to find any sign of survivors.

It's quite extraordinary. As the plane cart wheeled over and landed in the shallow water, it landed on its back or on its top in fact so the passengers would have been totally disoriented, terrified, upside down and still some of them managed to effectively walk away from the wreckage.

Tragically, some five bodies have been identified by forensic investigators. They've given three of those bodies to the family members, but anxious minutes ticking by while they try to find anymore survivors -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. David McKenzie reporting live for us this morning -- thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM: terror on a commuter train, as passengers desperately try to escape from a burning car. We'll tell you what's happened, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A fiery nightmare for hundreds of commuters in New York. NTSB investigators heading to the scene in Valhalla, that's north of New York City. That's where Metro-North commuter train slammed into an SUV at the height of last night's rush hour. The SUV's driver was killed. A fireball then ripped through the train's first car. Five people died aboard the train.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo tells CNN there will be a thorough investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: It's hard to say why the car was on the tracks, and I think we'll wait for a full investigation before that's reached. If there's anything to learn from it, certainly the MTA wants to learn from it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Deborah Feyerick is in Valhalla doing some investigating of her own.

What did you come up with, Deborah?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, Carol, we can tell you that it appears that this tragic accident was really part of a chain of events. There had been an earlier accident on the highway. What that means is that there was a lot of heavy traffic especially on the back roads.

We're told by a county official that the cars were sort of nose to nose and at one point the woman in the Mercedes SUV pulled onto the tracks and when the gates began to close she simply couldn't get off in time. All of that is part of the investigation that the NTSB is going to be undertaking. They're looking at not only human error but medical records of the driver, how the fire spread, the crossing gates, signals.

It appears that after the train collided with that vehicle and pushed it down the tracks there was a huge explosion and the third rail of the rail tracks pushed up through the first train car, sending a surge of electricity and that proved fatal to some of the passengers in that first car. All of this under investigation. The NTSB on its way. They should be

here in the next few hours, certainly. But this may have been human error. That's what those investigators will find out.

If it was some sort of a safety issue that triggered this, then clearly they will recommend certain changes, but it appears that the woman simply pulled onto the tracks right now and once those gates came down, it was difficult for her to get off in time, Carol.

COSTELLO: So help us understand. It's a traditional railroad crossing, right? So, would the lights have been flashing when she tried to cross the tracks and then the arm came down? Is that what they think happened?

FEYERICK: Well, that's what it sounds like. What the county officials are telling us is that really it's bumper to bumper traffic here because everybody was trying to avoid the highway where the first accident occurred. So, bumper to bumper traffic and what ends up happening is that she pulled forward anticipating that she could get off in time because the gate, it appeared, had not lowered. So, once, however, those gates came down, she got stuck.

COSTELLO: And then, you know, I just can't believe the panic on board that train in that first car because it's -- why did the train catch on fire? Because of the leaking gasoline from the SUV? Do we know?

FEYERICK: It could have been a number of things. What happened after the train collided with the car, it pushed the Jeep Cherokee about 10 train car lengths, so quite a distance, quite a distance. And there was a huge explosion, it caught fire. You see the huge plumes of dark, black smoke. The explosion caused the third rail to effectively come up and shoot through that first train car.

That is what we're being told by a county official who the mayor, the high official in town. That's what we are being told. It was just a series of tragic events that began when people leaving the city wanted to avoid one accident and unfortunately a second accident occurred.

COSTELLO: All right. Deborah Feyerick reporting live this morning. Thanks so much.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The president's pick to lead the Pentagon on Capitol Hill today. The confirmation for Ashton Carter to start in just minutes. The Senate Armed Services Committee spearheading it.

Carter, the former deputy defense secretary, has served in the Pentagon in two administrations. He's also a Rhodes scholar who received his PhD in theoretical physics. Carter is known as an expert in managing budgets as well as weapons acquisitions. We'll keep you posted.

But if confirmed as defense secretary, handling the threat from ISIS will likely top the agenda from Ashton Carter. The terror group still has one remaining American hostage. We still don't know much about her, only that she is 26 years old. She worked for an aid group and that she was kidnapped by ISIS in August of 2013.

So, let's talk about that with Fran Townsend. She's a CNN national security analyst and former homeland security adviser.

Good morning, Fran.

FRAN TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Do you think this woman is still alive?

TOWNSEND: You know, hard to say. We haven't seen any recent proof of life, but that's not to say that they don't still have her. What we know now is that ISIS tends to make ransom demands however unreasonable they are, and they seek publicity. The one hopeful sign is having seen no evidence of her death either, that she -- which ISIS is prone to be putting out as we saw from the horrific video they disseminated yesterday, the murder of the Jordanian pilot, maybe she is still alive.

But if she is, ISIS ought to expect that American military forces are looking for the intelligence that would permit them to launch a rescue operation.

COSTELLO: Well, let's -- I want to hold off on the rescue operation for a second and go back to something that you've said. Since there's been no video evidence put out by ISIS that this woman is even in captivity, you're saying that's a positive sign?

TOWNSEND: It is, Carol. I mean, look, what you would hope for is a positive sign proof of life. That is some video or photograph that would confirm that she is still alive, but absent that, the next thing you look for is there such evidence that she's been killed? And the answer is, we don't have either. And so, U.S. intelligence, law enforcement, military will presume she's alive until they can gather intelligence or some sort of evidence one way or the other.

COSTELLO: Of course, some might believe because she's a woman that's one reason she's still alive, but when you witness the brutality of that Jordanian pilot's death, it's hard to believe that, you know, ISIS has any principles at all.

TOWNSEND: No, that's right. I mean, the notion that they're going to act chivalrously to her because she's a woman is sort of fantasy. I mean, I -- look, this is brutal, brutal group. They don't treat human beings as human beings, much less showing some courtesy to her that she's a woman.

COSTELLO: So, you said some sort of rescue operation may be underway. What would that look like at this point?

TOWNSEND: You know, Carol, you don't know. As we -- as we've discussed before, these rescue operations require very good tactical intelligence. That is real time information about where an individual is being held, the conditions of captivity, the sort of what are the opportunities that may exist that the U.S. military special forces or other special forces can exploit and we don't know. We just don't know enough, but that's the sort of information they would be looking for to be able to launch a rescue mission.

These are high risk operations, as we saw when they went into Yemen to try and launch one. Both the captive and the captors were killed. So, you know, you just -- these are high risk operations and often are not successful.

COSTELLO: All right, Fran Townsend, thanks for your insight. I appreciate it, as always.

TOWNSEND: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: The brutality of ISIS has sparked a debate for media outlets around the world. Should any portion of these videos be shown on television? We at CNN are not showing pictures of ISIS killing the Jordanian pilot. There's no need to spread such ugly propaganda and we figure you pretty much get burning someone to death is brutal without us having to show you any pictures.