Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

FBI Warns of Domestic Right-Wing Terror; Three British Teens May Be En Route to Syria; Police Searching for Second Suspect in Road Rage Case; Venezuela President Accused Mayor of Coup

Aired February 20, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM.

As ISIS carries out gruesome attacks over there, is there a bigger threat here at home?

And America's mayor not backing down. No, he's doubling down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, FMR. NYC MAYOR: I'm right about this. I have no doubt about it. I do not withdraw my words.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The mayor can speak for himself. I'm not going to comment on what the president thinks or not; he can speak for himself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Rudy Giuliani standing by his comments that the president doesn't love America. Does that put potential Republican presidential candidates in a bind?

And a surprising twist in an apparent road rage case. What we now know about the suspect and the woman he's accused of killing.

Let's talk live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We begin with breaking news and grave new concerns about the recruitment of teenagers to terrorism.

Three British girls have gone missing. And investigators in Scotland Yard -- Scotland Yard actually said these girls may be en route to join ISIS in Syria.

Nima Elbagir is in London with the latest on this.

Tell us more.

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, Scotland Yard has said that these girls. three teenage girls, two 15-year-olds and a 16-year-old, left London's Gatwick Airport on Tuesday morning. They arrived in Istanbul on Tuesday evening. They are believed to be on their way to Syria.

The latest that we have on that initially police -- initially authorities had told CNN that they had no information regarding as to what they would be doing in Syria. But now they know that another girl who in December managed to slip through the authorities' net on her way to Syria, on her way to Istanbul and disappeared. She was a friend of these girls.

The bigger concern is this growing trend, not only of young girls being able to get into Syria, Carol, but continuing to recruit others of their friends back here in the United Kingdom.

COSTELLO: And what more do we know about these girls? Two are 15. One is 16, correct?

ELBAGIR: Two are 15 and one is 16. One of the 15-year-olds was traveling on the passport of her older sister who is 17. So already huge concerns about how that could happen at Customs here in the U.K. They're -- they're at school together in east London. One is believed to be of Ethiopian background. All three are British, all have British accents.

The authorities for them -- they say for them and the families the concern is that this is the window of opportunity. Once these girls get out of Turkey and get into Syria, then they are in the clutches of ISIS. They're under the control of ISIS fighters and the families believe that they will not then be allowed to return even if they wanted to -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Nima Elbagir, thanks so much.

ISIS recruiting teenagers and young adults in America is exactly what the Muslim community is trying to stop. Earlier today CNN's Brianna Keilar talked with Imam Mohamed Magid. He says he's intervened in several cases where young men were on the verge of joining ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IMAM MOHAMED MAGID, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALL DULLES AREA MUSLIM SECURITY: Most of the cases that I dealt with, the parents who are the one who came to me and says we realized that our child being recruited or being talked to about violence extremist ideas.

What ISIS does is use the Internet and try to isolate children from their mosque, from their parents, and to try to project itself as the only legitimate source of Islam. And as we have heard many times, that ISIS does not represent Islam in any way or form. It is the ideology that preach hate and Islam is the theology of love, and it is the ideology that preach death and Islam as a theology of life.

And therefore when we talk to young people, we explain to them that what you've been hearing is not true message of Islam. And we help parents as any pastor or rabbi might talk to a child being recruited for the gang violence group to try to integrate that child back into the community.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

MAGID: In every religious texts there's passages that can be taken out of context. And when I teach young people, when I share with them the message of Islam, I said to them look to the model of the Prophet Mohammed. The prophet of Islam. His message was message of love and God said we'll send as mercy to the whole world. And see how he dealt with his neighbor, how he forgive other people who wronged him.

How he engaged the entire community around him in the message of peace. Therefore when ISIS or anyone who tried to teach the ideology of hate to young people caught in the Holy Quran to them to try to legitimize violence we deconstruct those ideas by using the same text.

KEILAR: Yes.

MAGID: The only way to address this issue from the ideological perspective is to use the same text.

KEILAR: Exactly.

MAGID: To preach the message of love and peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: But ISIS isn't the only threat for Americans. According to an intelligence report by the Department of Homeland Security, authorities are also concerned about right-wing citizen extremists right here in the United States. That may be in some cases more dangerous than foreign Islamic terror groups.

Evan Perez has been looking into this. Tell us more.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. We're talking about sovereign citizens. These are people around the country who believe that the federal government and even state government doesn't have any authority over them.

There was a case in 2012 in which a father and son were pulled over for a traffic infraction and decided to start shooting against -- at police officers. There was later a shootout in which two police officers were killed.

We have pictures of a couple of the suspects here, Brian Smith and Kyle Joco are their names in Louisiana, Carol. And this is something that, you know, law enforcement around the country is worried about simply because, again, they never know when they might encounter these people. Just simply by doing their jobs, for example, enforcing traffic laws or serving a warrant and this is something that the FBI has been focused on.

Here's Michael Steinbach, who's the head of counterterrorism, talking about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL STEINBACH, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, FBI: We've been talking about the international terrorism threat, but there's also domestic groups that are just as concerning that we worry about here in the United States. So you have to look -- the FBI and the counterterrorism division in particular looks across the landscape and we spend sufficient resources and spend a lot of time on a variety of threats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREZ: And, Carol, you know, for local law enforcement, this is -- these are the types of terror threats that they are more likely to encounter.

COSTELLO: All right. Evan Perez reporting live from Washington this morning. Thanks so much.

PEREZ: Thanks.

COSTELLO: Rudy Giuliani says President Obama does not love America and he's not apologizing. The former New York City mayor thinks the president's plan to combat ISIS and other extremists falls far short especially when it comes to labeling the terrorists as radical Islamist.

This week President Obama declared the West was not at war with Islam. In an interview with FOX News Giuliani outlined his problems with the president's actions and words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: I'm right about this. I have no doubt about it. I do not withdraw my words. If the president goes and makes a speech and talks about what a great country this is, if the president could complete the following sentence, during the crusades, the Christians were barbarians and so were the Muslims. If the president could say Islamic fundamentalist terrorism is our enemy, I will applaud the president.

But until he does that, I will have doubts about his emotions, his feelings, his attitudes and the way in which he developed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So will Giuliani's comments cast a shadow over Republicans who want to retake the White House in 2016?

Here to talk about this and more is Errol Louise, CNN political commentator and political anchor for "New York One."

Hi, Errol.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hello.

COSTELLO: Hi.

LOUIS: That's our Rudy.

(LAUGHTER) COSTELLO: Just going to ask you, why is he coming out so strongly on this issue?

LOUIS: Well, you know, Rudy is clearly trying to figure out what role he's going to play in national Republican politics. Now he ran in 2008. Could not get to first base. Did not win any caucus. Won exactly one delegate after spending $50 million. He clearly wants to try and play a role on the national stage. He wants to try and be of some use presumably to the Republican ticket and I guess he's chosen the role of -- sort of bulldog.

Kind of, you know, go after the president. Attack him. Make wild accusations, you know, sort of spout a lot of rhetoric and then perhaps the more realistic candidates can come in and maybe sort of take advantage of that somehow. I think that's the idea.

COSTELLO: I mean, he puts the more realistic candidates in a tough spot, and I'm talking about the Wisconsin governor who may run for president.

LOUIS: Scott Walker, yes.

COSTELLO: He kind of like --

LOUIS: Sure.

COSTELLO: He kind of like didn't really condemn it, but he kind of did. I mean, you can see Giuliani has put him in a tough spot.

LOUIS: Look, the problem with the kind of tough language that Rudy Giuliani has chosen to use these days is that it does put other candidates in a tough position because that footage is going to live on. And they're going to have to answer. Do you believe that? If you don't believe it, why didn't you sort of distance yourself from it? You know, do you have any reservations about what Rudy Giuliani was saying?

And years from now or next year really when the presidential campaign is really hot and heavy under way, Rudy Giuliani will be off doing something else and those candidates will have to answer for some of those words. That's not necessarily going to be that helpful. What looks like it might be helpful in 2015 might be a real problem halfway through 2016.

COSTELLO: OK. And of course something the Democrats can also put up, you know, to combat Rudy Giuliani's comments is President Obama has in the past expressed his love for the United States. Example. Play it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let me be clear. I will let no one question my love of this country. I love America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Although you have to wonder, do presidents have to proclaim their love for country like every few weeks or so?

LOUIS: It just doesn't make any sense honestly. This is -- this is a very complicated, very dangerous world. Your earlier report I think underscores that. This is not something you do on emotion. You don't find and kill Osama bin Laden based on emotion. It takes sort of a cool, thoughtful approach.

I think Rudy Giuliani actually understands that. But I think he misses the campaign trail perhaps. He really wants to get out there and do a little rock them-sock them campaigning and you know, whether he does it for himself or for somebody else, we can expect to hear more of it.

COSTELLO: All right. Errol Louis, thanks for stopping by. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, murder charges in a Las Vegas road rage case and now police are searching for a second suspect.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Las Vegas Police say they are searching for a second suspect in a road rage incident that left a mother dead. Yesterday police took suspected shooter 19-year-old Erich Nowsch into custody, following a dramatic standoff outside of his house. In a bizarre twist, Nowsch lived just one black over from the woman he's accused of killing. That woman's husband saw the standoff happening live on television and walked over to confront police and the media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT MEYERS, ROAD RAGE VICTIM'S HUSBAND: Are you all happy you made my wife look like an animal? And my son. There's the animal a block away. Are you happy?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Ana Cabrera is following the story from Las Vegas.

Tell us more, Ana.

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Really what a strange turn to find out the victims and suspect knew each other prior to this alleged road rage incident. Now you mentioned that police are still looking for another person who may have been involved but they also they believe Nowsch is the one who fired those fatal shots that killed 44-year-old Tammy Meyers, a mother of four, after they had a confrontation on the road.

Now remember this all follows a driving lesson. Tammy Meyers was out with her 15-year-old daughter that evening, they were headed home when they apparently had some kind of -- a scuffle of sorts on the road with another driver. There were words exchanged. Horns were honked and when Tammy Meyers got home, she dropped off her daughter and 22- year-old son and then got in a car with her. And he was armed. They left house. Police say they believe that

Tammy Meyers was going out to look for this other driver. While her husband argues that in fact she wasn't trying to cause any trouble, she was trying to flee the home to hide the car because she knew the assailant, this troubled teenager are troubled teenager whom he says she tried to help. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEYERS: My wife spent countless hours at that park consoling this boy. And he's probably watching this right now. And I know he's got to feel bad because she was really good to him. She fed him. She gave him money. She told him to pull his pants up and to be a man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: So that relationship just adding more mystery, more heartbreak to this story. Now Nowsch is expected to be in court on Monday. He's facing three charges of murder, attempted murder and discharging a firearm in a prohibited area -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And we don't know who this second suspect is?

CABRERA: No. Police are being very tightlipped right now. They'll only say they believe this other person was involved in the incident somehow. We know at one point they have reported that they believe there could have been two other people in the suspect's vehicle. We don't know if Nowsch was the one driving, if there was somebody else driving. But again they still believe that Nowsch is the one who fired those fatal shots.

COSTELLO: All right. Ana Cabrera, many thanks.

Let's talk about this very strange case some more with CNN legal analyst Paul Callan. Paul is a former deputy chief of homicide for the Brooklyn D.A.'s office.

I just want to get that in because you know what you're talking about. This is such a strange case. It doesn't make sense.

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It's totally bizarre. And what I picked up yesterday from the law enforcement press conference, the cops are being very closed mouth about the details of the case because another suspect is being investigated. Who might that be?

And also a couple of things to put on your plate. Number one, Las Vegas is a Stand Your Ground state. So if the suspect now in custody says, you know, they pulled a gun on me first and I fired in self- defense, we're going to have Stand Your Ground pop up in this case in a big way. And of course the facts are very, very mysterious to begin with.

COSTELLO: Well, as it well could because, well, a lot of things confuse me about this. Why did the family initially lie to police? Because if they knew the kid who supposedly was in this road range incident with the daughter and the mother, if they knew this kid, why didn't they call police and say hey, this guy lives, like, down the block?

CALLAN: And --

COSTELLO: And?

CALLAN: The mother goes home and gets her son who is carrying a .9 millimeter automatic weapon apparently. Why are you carrying a weapon involving a neighbor who lives down the street without calling the police?

There are some really serious questions. Background questions that have to be answered before we see how this is going to play out.

COSTELLO: Well, the husband says that the mother was worried about the safety of her daughter and that's why she went home and got her son and he got his gun and they went out looking for -- I guess this guy who was in the road rage incident, right?

CALLAN: Pardon my skepticism, but if you are worried about an armed gunman attacking your daughter at your home, you don't get in a car and go randomly searching the streets. You go to the police precinct, put your daughter in the car if it's a legitimate safety concern. Now I haven't heard that that happened. Maybe it did. Remember, we don't know the whole background. So, you know, I don't want to be criticizing anybody. But all I'm saying is these facts look very strange and very incomplete at this point.

COSTELLO: And the husband's reaction to the media and to the police arresting this young man was a little off to me, too. It just didn't make much sense.

CALLAN: Well, you know, I'll cut him some slack. Obviously he's a grieving husband.

COSTELLO: Right.

CALLAN: He's lost his wife. And I think it's always a mistake to put any emphasis on how people grieve. We all grieve in different ways. So -- I mean, his reaction was quite hysterical and it was unusual, I would say, to say the least. But given the death of his wife --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Well, I guess what I'm saying is it was -- it was offensive.

CALLAN: I don't think we can draw inferences. Yes.

COSTELLO: As if, you know, he knew that people were accusing his family of lying about what happened.

CALLAN: It was very defensive and as well it should be because, obviously, you know, his son was carrying a gun. And I'll tell you, let me just add one other thing is going to be -- when defense attorneys pop up in this case, you can be sure that they're going to say that the suspect in custody did not fire the first shot. That he was firing in self-defense. And how do we know who fired the first shot? Who are the witnesses to this? Are there surveillance cameras maybe from surrounding houses? A lot of things we don't know.

COSTELLO: All right. Paul Callan, many thanks. I appreciate it.

CALLAN: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Venezuela's president says this man plotted to overthrow his government and he says the U.S. conspired with him.

We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Checking some top stories for you at 24 minutes past.

Police and rail officials in Switzerland are trying to figure out how two passenger trains collided early this morning. Authorities on the scene say many people were injured. No deaths reported, though.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF THOMAS JACKSON, FERGUSON POLICE: Just thinking about calling CNN to see if I could get more details. This thing came out as a surprise to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Following a tension filled summer, Ferguson, Missouri's police chief was taken aback after learning information about the federal investigation into the shooting death of Michael Brown had been leaked.

Sources tell CNN that the Justice Department is prepared to sue -- is prepared to sue his department if it doesn't end ongoing patterns of racial discrimination.

Bill Cosby publicly thanking Eddie Murphy for not making fun of him during "Saturday Night Live's" 40th anniversary. Murphy apparently refused to do a Cosby impression during a sketch. Current cast member Keenan Thompson ultimately stepped in and he did the skit.

Imagine if President Obama had John Boehner thrown into jail. As crazy as that would be here, that kind of political drama is playing out in Venezuela. Watch this video.

That's the mayor of Caracas under arrest in the middle of that police scrum. Venezuela's president says his political opponent conspired with the United States to overthrow the government.

CNN's Rafael Romo is our senior Latin American Affairs editor. He joins us now for more.

Good morning. RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SR. LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Carol, good

morning. You just saw in the video, the mayor's arrest seemed like a military operation. Witnesses, including his wife, say as many as 150 heavily armed intelligence agents burst into his office, breaking the door with a sledgehammer.

There was a lot of pushing and shoving before the opposition Mayor Antonio Ledesma was taken away violently. It was hours before the Venezuelan socialist government acknowledged the arrest. At a public event broadcast on national TV, President Nicholas Maduro said the mayor will be prosecuted so that he answers for all the crimes committed against the peace, security and constitution of Venezuela.

Carol, last week the president accused the Caracas mayor of being involved in a plot -- listen to this -- to overthrow his government and that's where the problem started.

COSTELLO: I thought we're going to hear from that person but we're not so please continue, Rafael.

ROMO: Yes, and another thing that I wanted to mention about this, this case is generating attention not only in Venezuela but also internationally. World leaders like President Clinton are calling for the release of other political prisoners in Venezuela. There is another political prisoner, former mayor, and former presidential candidate by the name of Leopoldo Lopez.

President Clinton yesterday publishing this message on Twitter saying, Leopoldo Lopez and the political prisoners in Venezuela should be released without delay. The opposition says that this latest arrest of the mayor, Mayor Ledesma, is also politically motivated and they're asking for his release immediately, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Rafael Romo, reporting for us from Atlanta. Thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, cannibals, drugs and a Mexican mafia. According to a psychiatrist, those were just some of the things accused "American Sniper" killer Eddie Ray Routh mentioned after Chris Kyle and another man were gunned down at a Texas shooting range. Now the defense rests.

We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)