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Law Enforcement Ramps Up Across the U.S.; ISIS Recruiting Success Stoking Fears; Report: Matt Wrote to Daughter Before Escape. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired July 3, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:06] PEREIRA: Well, that's it for us. Happy Fourth of July to everybody. Time for "NEWSROOM" with Poppy Harlow in for Carol Costello.

CAMEROTA: Have a safe weekend.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, guys. Happy Fourth. I will be working this weekend. But I hope you will be at the beach. Enjoy.

CAMEROTA: And watching you.

PEREIRA: Yes, of course.

HARLOW: Yes. Please don't spend your weekend doing that, but everyone else can.

Thanks, guys. Have a great Fourth.

PEREIRA: You too.

CAMEROTA: You too.

HARLOW: Happening now in the NEWSROOM.

Authorities bracing for the holiday weekend, beefing up security over terror fears. We have the details on what is being done right now.

Also, "I always promised I would see you on the outside." Those are the words from killer Richard Matt that he reportedly sent to his daughter before he broke out of that maximum security prison. Details on that.

Also, it is not just Democrats dumping on Trump, more Republicans ripping him for his controversial comments about Mexican people. How will this impact the party?

Let's talk in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Good morning, everyone. Happy Friday. Poppy Harlow in today for my friend Carol Costello. Thanks so much for being with us.

And this morning we begin with this, millions of Americans are waking up to a long holiday weekend. But there will be no rest for the nation's law enforcement. From the iconic landmarks of New York and Washington, to the smallest cities and even state parks, first responders are on alert. The possibility of a homegrown attack inspired potentially by ISIS hangs like a cloud over this year's Fourth of July celebration. The concerns even rippling overseas. A British air base in eastern England cancelling its Fourth of July festivities for the U.S. airmen and women that are based there.

CNN's Boris Sanchez is live with us this morning at Penn Station.

Boris, obviously you look at a major hub like New York City. You look at a Penn Station, all the people heading out of town. I assume you've got a lot of police in uniform and also plainclothes officers there, right?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. A heavy law enforcement presence here at Penn Station. Tens of millions of Americans set to travel this weekend. So places like Penn Station are getting extra attention from law enforcement. They're aiming to make sure that everyone has a safe and secure Fourth of July.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're reaching out on social media, telling people it's a holiday, we ought to kill people.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): Police and FBI on heightened alert as nearly 42 million people will travel this holiday weekend. According to AAA, the most in eight years. This amid social media chatter by ISIS supporters and calls by the terror group to strike in the West.

REP. PETER KING (R), NEW YORK: I don't think they are capable of a large scale attack, but certainly an attack which could kill, maim or wound hundreds of people.

SANCHEZ: Police departments in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston and Atlanta tightening up security measures.

WILLIAM BRATTON, NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER: We're constantly seeking to be creative, to be proactive. The name of the game is to prevent it.

SANCHEZ: At the Washington Mall they're preparing for all possibilities. New York City taking the greatest security measures in years. The city swept for explosives even out at sea where hundreds of boaters will be watching the fireworks. Snipers will be strategically placed, spotters will be inside the crowds, and 100 mobile cameras will capture the activities on land and in the air.

JAMES WALTERS, NYPD CHIEF OF COUNTERTERRORISM: There's no credible threat to this event or to New York City in particular, but our operating premise is that we are the target in New York City all the time.

SANCHEZ: On Thursday within minutes of the first report of shots fired inside Washington's Naval Yard, the entire complex was locked down as hundreds of police, SWAT teams and federal investigators swarmed the scene, blocking streets as helicopters hovered overhead. The threat a false alarm. But it reveals that law enforcement is at the ready this holiday weekend.

JOHN MILLER, NYPD DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF INTELLIGENCE: Bring your family, have a great time. You're going to be at the most well secured event in the city.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: And already this weekend in Fayetteville, North Carolina, a man arrested at a mall for carrying around an AR-15 rifle, a Kevlar vest, and ammunition.

Poppy, this clearly will be a very busy weekend for law enforcement.

HARLOW: It absolutely will. But they have been training and training for any threats that may occur.

Thank you so much, Boris. Have a great Fourth.

In a sign of just how seriously, as Boris said, law enforcement across the country is taking these terror concerns, that scare earlier this week at the Navy Yard triggered a swift, swift huge security response even at the White House just a few miles away. Police and Secret Service shooed tourists off -- out of the area. Lockdown immediately. Some law enforcement expects described yesterday's response as a valuable dress rehearsal just in case.

[09:05:05] Let's go straight to CNN national correspondent Sunlen Serfaty who joins me now in Washington, live outside of the White House.

What are they talking about today? Obviously they've got the most security there. Any concerns?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, no fresh concerns today, Poppy. We do know that hundreds of thousands of people are coming to D.C. to watch the fireworks displays tomorrow. All that's taking place from the National Mall just steps away from the White House. We do know that D.C. Police have boosted their security in, according to authorities, both seen and unseen ways.

And I think that was a big indication yesterday of their quick and huge response to the potential shooting at the U.S. Navy Yard. Within minutes that building had been evacuated, hundreds of police on the scene boosting up security at the capitol and here at the White House. Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House being evacuated. No tourists allowed to come in. And White House tours even called off for the day.

Now the D.C. police chief, although that ended up being nothing at the Navy Yard, she said that's an example how this massive response is preparing and she says that means they're ready in case something happens tomorrow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF CATHY LANIER, WASHINGTON POLICE: We're aware of what -- you know, the -- you know, discussion and chatter is around the Fourth of July events and all those threats. And we take those into account. We change our tactics up for different events but we never lower our posture. We always maintain a very high posture.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And all this comes at a time when there has been a change in security here at the White House. Just this week the U.S. Secret Service installed the new spikes on the top of the White House fence to deter, of course, any White House fence jumpers that's been a constant problem here at White House -- Poppy.

HARLOW: All right. Sunlen, thank so much for the report. We appreciate it.

Let's talk more about this and get some analysis because when you talk about the terror threat and you talk about the right of ISIS, this all fits together. ISIS' yearlong surge, it's stunning success recruiting people online through all of that propaganda make the threat even more real than ever.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MILLER: This may be potentially the most complex counterterrorism overlay for this event ever. Again, that is not driven by any information or particular threat as much as it's driven by the unfolding world events.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. Let's talk about it with Phil Mudd, former counterterrorism official with the CIA, also now a CNN counterterrorism analyst.

Phil, I want to take a listen to this.

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: All right.

HARLOW: This is an old buddy of yours from the agency. I want to hear what -- have you hear what he said on CBS this week. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL MORELL, FORMER DEPUTY CIA DIRECTOR: I wouldn't be surprised if we're sitting here a week from today talking about an attack over the weekend in the United States. That's how serious this is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. That's Michael Morell, former deputy director of the CIA.

MUDD: Yes.

HARLOW: You say wait. That is way overblown. Why? MUDD: Look, hold on for just a second. I understand why he's saying

this. I disagree with him. We faced an adversary in the first decade of the century that initially after 2001 we didn't fully understand. We had threats that I thought were significant in those first couple of years, 2002-2003, we had a major airline plot in 2006. That's why you can't bring liquids on airplanes anymore.

HARLOW: Right.

MUDD: I thought those were more significant that we see today because they were real and they were plotted by an organization that had been the architect of 9/11. I think what you see happening today is an uncertainty principle. That is people saying, we see an adversary, we don't understand, this recruiting by social media, these attacks that are independent and therefore we think the risk is higher. That therefore makes me more uncomfortable.

HARLOW: How is that not more dangerous? You say we see an adversary that we don't understand, that has carried out or attempted to carry out some of these smaller scale attacks but still significant like in Garland Texas, right? Why isn't that more dangerous? An adversary we don't understand.

MUDD: A couple of reasons. First, when they faced al Qaeda they spent years trying to organize attacks like this. Successful attacks we saw against the London subway. Remember, it wasn't just New York. Now we have an adversary, ISIS that we focus on because of isolated attacks here in America, we see them in Europe as well. I'd say 95 percent plus of the energy ISIS spends, though, is not on terror attacks.

They're trying to fight for territory in Iraq. Remember, al Qaeda didn't have to do that. They just worried about us. They don't sit there and try to figure out how to take down four airliners like what we saw on 9/11. So I think I'd be worried about (INAUDIBLE), I'd be avoiding the phone like it had a disease. I hated phones on holidays like this. But at the same time I think we have to step back and say this is an adversary we're getting our hands around. We've had some success against them and they have not been terrifically successful in the United States except for recruiting.

HARLOW: We've had DHS, FBI, National Counterterrorism Center, all jointly issuing this warning about the Fourth of July holiday.

MUDD: Yes.

HARLOW: But again emphasizing this isn't pegged on one known potential attack.

MUDD: Yes.

HARLOW: You've talked about going black and this issue of point-to- point encryption between terrorists overseas.

MUDD: Yes.

HARLOW: And any of their allies here. How does that complicate the mission of all of law enforcement especially this weekend?

MUDD: There's a couple of complications that I think are significant. Just over the past few years, one you just mentioned, going black. That is the terrorism business and counterterrorism business is cat and mouse. The cat, that is the FBI and the CIA, usually catch the mouse but the mouse learns overtime.

[09:10:10] One of the things they learn is that the -- the counter encryption which the FBI has talked about is a very effective. So this is harder than people just saying, let me call my friend in Denver, Colorado. They're talking about let me call them but let me encrypt along the way. It makes the job a lot tougher. The other thing I'd mention is crowd sourcing by ISIS. Al Qaeda would never have done this.

HARLOW: Yes. This has been stunning to see.

MUDD: Stunning.

HARLOW: They're trying to get people to raise money online.

MUDD: Correct. Al Qaeda would have said we've got three guys, we can never reveal anything, we're going to isolate it, because if they're ever caught the plot will disappear. ISIS clips that on its head and says hey, we're going to send out tweets if 1 percent of the followers sign up, that's a huge success.

HARLOW: Right.

MUDD: We don't care if the other 99 percent get caught.

HARLOW: So take us behind the scenes.

MUDD: Yes.

HARLOW: You're running NYPD. You're running police in Boston ahead of these big celebrations. What are you doing in this sort of final 24 hours?

MUDD: Well aside from the doing the site security which Don Miller here in NYPD has talked about. A couple of things you're doing. You're following a bunch of cases. I assume they're looking at dozen of cases. One of the reasons you change activity around July 4th is you might step back and say, are there any of those we want to disrupt preemptively. In other words if this is June 25th, you might say, let me just watch that girl, let me see what this guy does.

Are there any of those you want to move prematurely on? The other questions you might have would be, do we have to watch some people more than we might otherwise watch? And then you've got to do the dirty admin work. Administrative work. Sitting back and saying, a lot of social media we want to be watching. Who's on over the weekend? They're not going to spend time with their family because they've got to be watching those intelligence feeds coming in.

HARLOW: And you know what's so interesting, I think the last six months we've clearly seen law enforcement more willing to make aggressive arrests with --

MUDD: Yes.

HARLOW: With less information and be wrong on the backend.

MUDD: Yes.

HARLOW: Than miss it on the front.

MUDD: I think that's because they face a volume problem.

HARLOW: Yes.

MUDD: You can't sit on them like we used to sit on them 10 years ago.

HARLOW: All right. Phil Mudd, thank you.

MUDD: Thank you.

HARLOW: Appreciate it.

Coming up next, wait until you hear this, a message an escaped killer sent to his daughter days before he broke out of prison.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:16:14] HARLOW: All right. We have new details this morning about the New York prison escape including a letter and a promise made by now dead escapee Richard Matt to his daughter. According to "The Buffalo News", Matt reached out to his daughter before the prison break vowing to, quote, "see you on the outside."

Jean Casarez is live in Dannemora with the details.

Jean, quite a revelation here, especially given the timing of this letter that he apparently sent.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. "The Buffalo News" is reporting through an unnamed law enforcement source that the daughter of Richard Matt received this letter on June 9th. So that would have been after the breakout, but that it was sent before the breakout.

And here's the pertinent part we want to show everybody. It says on that letter, by Richard Matt to his daughter, "I always promised you I would see you on the outside. I'm a man of my word."

Well, according to "The Buffalo News", she immediately took that letter to law enforcement. She did not know anything about the breakout at all. She actually received security while her father was on the loose. But that is the information.

And we also looked into the protocol of the prisons in New York. And here was the protocol, because it's interesting -- they do not search outgoing mail unless the superintendent with written authorization believes there is a security risk and there is information in one of those correspondences that they need to know. So, obviously, that is the protocol, out going mail not searched.

But we're also learning a bit more about the last few hours of Richard Matt's life. It was one week ago this afternoon. I think we've got pictures of a trailer. It is a trailer that was abandoned. The registration says 1998. This was the trailer that Richard Matt was in when those shots were heard, because this is the trailer so close to the road that she shot -- he shot out of with that 20 gauge shotgun that shot the camper as it was driving by. As you can see, it's old, it's dilapidated, there's cobwebs, it probably hasn't been in for years.

But it was after that that the tactical unit of Customs and Border Patrol flew in and started doing that ground search. When they approached Matt and asked him to surrender he picked up the shotgun and aimed it at law enforcement. They then shot three times, shooting and killing him in the head -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Jean, I know there's been a shake-up at this prison, 12 people either taken out of their position or put on leave. Have we learned anything just more broadly about the prison system across the state of New York and bigger changes that may be implemented in the wake of all of this?

CASAREZ: Well, so many changes this week. I mean, the prison behind me, they got a brand new superintendent this week that was the first deputy superintendent at Elmira correctional facility. We also know that others of the executive staff are being switched out, and also that nine of the security guard detail, correction officers, but also those that aren't correctional officers are coming in. Our own Deb Feyerick found a little more information, that there were watch guards that weren't normally on that shift that night were part of those that were dismissed and also a female officer that was just transferred to Clinton correctional.

You know, I spoke with a Clinton officer that was on his way to work yesterday to get a response to all of this, because they believe that they were targeted. They believe that they were just singled out. They had nothing to do with the escape. And they were the scapegoats you could say. So, now, I think we need to know if that paid administrative leave results in them being reinstated.

HARLOW: Right, right.

CASAREZ: Right, Poppy?

HARLOW: Jean, I know we're learning a little bit more about what's happening to Richard Matt's body.

[09:20:01] What is that?

CASAREZ: I just got off the phone with the funeral home near Buffalo, New York. They confirmed with me that they do have the body. They also said that the schedule shows there would be no public or private services for him.

But originally the family was not going to claim his body. It would be a county burial right here in the area. But then that turned at the last minute and his body was transported up to Buffalo where he originally is from.

HARLOW: Right.

All right. Jean Casarez on the story throughout for us -- thank you, Jean. Appreciate it.

Let's talk more about this investigation and just bigger changes that may happen. Ed Davis is with me. He's the former commissioner of the Boston police department.

Thank you for being here, sir.

ED DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: Good morning, Poppy.

HARLOW: Let's talk about what Jean just said and that is that she said, look, it's policy in New York state prisons that they do not search outgoing mail unless the superintendent of the prison deems whoever it's coming from to be a security risk.

Richard Matt killed two people, escaped from prison previously, writes a letter to his daughter days before his escape saying I will see you on the outside. Is that mail that should have been searched?

DAVIS: Well, certainly, in looking back you find these problems. Clearly if someone had seen that it could have changed this whole scenario. But one of the problems that we have is there is a fire hose of information coming out of these institutions. We've worked with the internal physical security people here in the prisons and jails in Massachusetts. And they're usually very good and up on what's happening.

But when you have hundreds, sometimes thousands of prisoners in an institution, just the volume of data coming out of there is very difficult to manage.

HARLOW: Do you think a policy change is warranted given of what we've learned in terms of perhaps searching more of the outgoing mail? It's not to say that this would have stopped something, but it could have at least been an indication.

DAVIS: There's no question, Poppy, that we need to change policy here.

When you look -- my firm does these after-action investigations. And when you look at them, you find that these issues are a result of bad management. So someone has dropped the ball here. When you have things being smuggled into the prison, when you have prison guards having sex with inmates, there's clearly a break down in supervision. But a lot of times those things stem from cuts in funding that have happened over the recession. So, all of that stuff is important to look at.

HARLOW: Interesting point, I interviewed Governor Cuomo on Sunday right before they captured David Sweat and asked him about the budget cuts. He said, look, there's really no indication at this prison. He says the budget cuts have affected one position. Just to be clear in this situation.

Let's talk about the honor block and the fact that these guys were on the honor block, Richard Matt, for example, who has killed two people. I mean, should privileges like that where they have a lot more loose access to things, more interaction with guards -- should prison access be suffered to less people, frankly, that are in these prisons?

DAVIS: Frankly, I think that's something you have to look very closely at. That's a really important point you've brought up.

You have to look at the conduct of the individual when they're outside. Once they get sentenced and they're inside, they're in a whole new society and they begin to play people and to con them, quite frankly. And if what they did was so serious that they should be kept in a certain high security area, then that's the way it's got to be.

HARLOW: Let me ask you before I let you go since you did run one of the biggest police departments in this nation. Security prep, sir, ahead of the Fourth of July holiday. We know this nation is on high alert.

Walk us through what the police are doing right now ahead of the beautiful Boston pops celebration you guys always have.

DAVIS: Sure. They're scrubbing all of the data. They're looking at everything that's happened. It's troubling there have been eight arrests in three separate cities in the last month. So, there are individual out there that want to harm us. And they're taking that to heart.

There will be significant security at the Boston pops. I'll be there myself with my family, looking forward to it. But we all have to be vigilant in this day and age.

HARLOW: Yes, absolutely. Well, have a great time. It's one of the best celebrations across the nation.

Ed Davis, thank you so much.

DAVIS: Thank you.

HARLOW: All right. Still to come here, forget shark week. Seriously, are we lacking at shark year? A number of attacks, especially in North Carolina. Should we expect them to keep oncoming?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:29:06] HARLOW: Welcome back. I'm Poppy Harlow, in today for Carol Costello. Thanks so much for being with us.

Checking your top stories now. A scary incident for shoppers at a mall in Fayetteville, North Carolina. A man carrying an assault rifle and ammunition walked through Macy's department store there. Witnesses, of course, contacted police. The man is now under arrest and an investigation is underway.

In eastern Tennessee, thousands of people who were evacuated from their homes may get the all clear to return home. Five thousand people were evacuated early yesterday, after a freight train caught fire and derailed there. The train was carrying a chemical compound used to make plastic. And the flames released toxic fumes into the air.

And a powerful earthquake has killed at least four people in western China. The 6.4 magnitude quake injured at least four dozen people. It also damaged homes there, walls, cracked at a fire department headquarter seeing right there.

Well, the backlash against Donald Trump for his comments on Mexico and immigrants continues to grow, not just with retailers but also with his fellow Republicans.