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President Obama Left Paris Just Minutes Ago; Russia Activates Advanced Missile System; Defense Secretary and Joint Chiefs Chair to Testify on Syria; Campus Threat Arrest in Chicago; Jury Selection in Freddie Gray Trial; U.S. Sending Special Forces to Syria; Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired December 1, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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


[10:00:04] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Right now on Capitol Hill, the U.S. strategy in Syria front and center. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Joint Chiefs chair, General Joseph Dunford, are about to testify before the House Armed Services Committee. Of course, we'll keep an eye on it and keep you posted.

One of the biggest gatherings of world leaders in history meeting in Paris to discuss global warming but with fresh terror attacks erupting in the city just two weeks ago, ISIS has shoved its way into the spotlight.

On the sidelines of the summit President Obama met with allies and Russia's president to rally a unified strategy against ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Continue to be a serious threat for some time to come. But I'm confident that we are on the winning side of this. And that ultimately Russia is going to recognize the threat that ISIL poses to its country, to its people, is the most significant and that they need to align themselves with those of us who are fighting ISIL.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta is in Paris. He joins us with more.

Good morning, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. President Obama is on his way back to Washington after attending this climate summit here in Paris and then a news conference wrapping up his participation at this summit. The president sounded like he hasn't made much headway with Russian president Vladimir Putin over what to do about ISIS in Syria.

President Obama told reporters during this news conference that he believes Russia will continue to bombard targets other than ISIS, namely those moderate opposition forces that are trying to fight against Syria's leader Bashar al-Assad, and the president said Putin still is backing Assad in that bloody civil war. But the president went on to say during this news conference that he believes that he has hope that Putin will eventually change his mind, change his calculus in that crisis. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Mr. Putin recognizes there is not going to be a military resolution to the situation in Syria. The Russians now have been there for several weeks, over a month. And I think fair-minded reporters who have looked at the situation would say that the situation hasn't changed significantly.

In the interim, Russia's lost a commercial passenger jet. You've seen another jet shot down. There have been losses in terms of Russian personnel. And I think Mr. Putin understands that with Afghanistan fresh in the memory for him to simply get bogged down in an inconclusive and paralyzing civil conflict, is not the outcome that he's looking for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now on the climate talks that are taking place here in Paris, the president sounded much more confident than he is about ISIS, about reaching an agreement with the other countries of the world for some sort of bond on reducing climate emissions, carbon emissions that cause global warming over the coming decades.

But, Carol, when he was reminded at a news conference that some of that would be determinative by the next president, that the next president could scuttle essentially any climate deal that is reached here, he said that he was confident that Democrats will retain the White House and that any climate deal that's reached here in Paris will continue to live on -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Jim Acosta reporting live from Paris, thank you.

The crisis in Syria might have just gotten more complicated because Russia has now activated one of the most advanced air defense missile systems in the world. Meet the S-400, a massive weapon system that has the potential to take out targets flying almost anywhere in the war-torn nation.

Russia has also reportedly armed bomber jets with air-to-air missiles, meaning they can now take out warplanes in the sky. Of course, this is in response to Turkey's downing of their warplane. But it's also leaving the United States trying to figure out what to do next.

Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon with more on that. Good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. As Russia ups the ante with this new weapons systems in Syria, the Pentagon looking at how to deal with all of this. It's not that they believe the Russians are aiming for them, that the Russians are going to shoot down any U.S. aircraft, but it does put a new Russian military capability into the air, on to the ground, that U.S. pilots simply are going to have to be aware of and decide how to cope with.

So it is a very complex situation, getting even more complex. At this hour, Defense Secretary Ash Carter, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joe Dunford, testifying at the hearing about to open on Capitol Hill, the House Armed Services Committee, to hear from both these men.

[10:05:10] What Secretary Carter is going to have to accomplish at this hearing may be very significant. He is going to have to lay out some new initiatives. Some so-called accelerants, if you will, for U.S. military policy to try and show additional progress against ISIS. So one of the key things to be listening for in the coming minutes will be what Carter has to say about the possibility of putting even more U.S. Special Operations Forces into Iraq, in Syria, to go on raids, to go after high-value targets, to collect intelligence, to be outside of those sheltered military bases right on the front lines. Carter testifying now, expected in the coming minutes, actually, to talk about all of this -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And I know you're listening to that hearing so we'll get back to you.

Barbara Starr, thanks so much.

Want to talk a little bit more about what Barbara was talking about. With me now chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto and the former undersecretary of state for political affairs for President Obama, Wendy Sherman.

Welcome to both of you.

So, Wendy, when Barbara says that Secretary Carter has to come up with these new initiatives and he's going to set these new initiatives before this committee, what is she talking about?

WENDY SHERMAN, FORMER UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS: Well, I think what she's talking about is what President Obama has also talked about, and that is the intensification of the use of our special forces to provide advice, to help create the targets for American, French and perhaps British action in the air because our progress on the ground is only as good as the targets we have. And it's very difficult to ascertain those targets, unless you've got somebody on the ground who knows what they're doing.

And the opposition has made some progress, but they don't have the skill set that the American military has. So we're not talking about ground troops because there really is very little support for doing that. But I think we'll hear a lot from Secretary Carter and he's actually going to be up here at Harvard at the end of the day, speaking at the Kennedy School Forum. And I'm sure he'll elaborate and answer a lot of the questions that you all have about how we're going forward.

I think it's also important to really focus on all the other things that we have to do to deal with what's happening in Syria. And the president addressed some of those in his press conference today in terms of dealing with foreign fighters, finance, recruitment, taking care of our visa waiver system to make sure that our borders are secure. And to really look at this in a holistic way. This is not just a military effort that we're waging. It is a multifront effort that includes the deal that was made between Turkey and the European Union, that helped them with their refugee and migrant crisis.

COSTELLO: Well, here's the thing, though, Jim. So you're going to maybe send more Special Ops troops in, right? But Russia is still sort of going rogue, so isn't -- doesn't that present a danger to the American troops that may go there to gather intelligence on the ground?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is a danger. The U.S. is concerned about the confliction on the air. They're concerned about this new weapons system. And the president said in his comments today that there's not going to be no massive expansion of the U.S. ground presence there. He said there's no military solution to the problem and he also said even more broadly that leadership in Washington is too often defined by the president sending troops into harm's way.

That said, the U.S. has been gradually, incrementally expanding the role of ground forces in both Iraq and Syria over the course of the last year. I mean, you remember when they started, they said there will be no ground troops. The fact is, there are some 3,000 troops on the ground, though not combat troops, but they've gone outside the wire. They're now in Anbar Province. We now have special forces on the ground in Syria, a place where there were no boots on the ground.

On the table is a more aggressive posture for those forces, closer to the front line, calling in airstrike. And the fact is, they've already been in that position. We saw a little more than a month ago U.S. Delta Force, special operator killed when he went to assist his Kurdish partners who were in a ground fight. I mean, that's combat by -- by any other name. It won't be a big ground presence, but the fact is they're closer to harm's way and they've been getting closer over the last several months.

COSTELLO: OK. But, still, Wendy, I mean, Russia is bringing in those missile defense systems, it's kind of like flexing its muscle, isn't it? So who knows what Vladimir Putin will do. And how do you reign them in if you're President Obama? I know they had a chat on the sidelines of this global warming conference, but do you think that was enough?

SHERMAN: I think there will be ongoing conversations. We've seen the conversations between Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama intensify in the last weeks, so I would expect that to continue along with Secretary Kerry speaking with Minister Lavrov on a regular basis. And the president said that at the same time that we're going to deal with these military issues, and of course trying to de-conflict, as Jim pointed out, we also want to make sure that we try to give diplomacy a chance.

[10:10:10] And so I would expect that Secretary Kerry will use his presence at the climate talks, which will be quite intense, particularly in the last week of the climate talks, to have sideline meetings to try to move the diplomatic solution forward. And as the president pointed out, that will mean resolving what happens to Assad, but it also means creating a transitional governing council, it means a new constitution, it means bringing all of our coalition together to try to end this civil war in Syria so that all of our resources can be focused on dealing with ISIL, with Daesh.

There's a lot at stake here. And as the president pointed out, we have to walk and chew gum. That's why he's at the climate conference in Paris because quite frankly if we don't deal with climate, we're going to have a lot more conflicts around the world as people try to get scarce resources. And we will have many other points of conflict and need for our military troops, which American people do not support.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Wendy Sherman, Jim Sciutto, thanks to both of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a Baltimore cop soon to be on trial in the death of Freddie Gray. How much longer will it take to find a jury that's impartial?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:28] COSTELLO: The second day of jury selection is under way for Officer William Porter. Porter is the first of six officers on trial for Freddie Gray's death. Court sketches show him appearing for the first time yesterday as protesters chanted outside.

The first jury pool saw roughly 75 potential jurors questioned, 40 people in that group were African-American. All interviewed say they are familiar with Gray's death and the financial settlement his family reached with the city of Baltimore.

Will the judge have more luck finding unbiased members today or at least uninformed maybe?

Jean Casarez live in Baltimore with more. Good morning, Jean.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. You know, Carol, it's really raining today, very hard, and so there are no protesters outside at this point. But there's a lot going on inside the courtroom. We understand that 75 new potential jurors are seated in that courtroom right now and the judge is asking them general questions that they will raise their hands to. Such as, do they know about the trial? Just like you said, yesterday, 100 percent of them did. And do they know about the civil settlement? 100 percent of them did yesterday.

And, you know, I have covered many, many high-profile trials throughout this country. I've never seen an entire jury pool know about a case. But remember, it was only seven months ago. A very short duration of time, really, that Baltimore went through so many things.

Another question they'll be asked is if they have been a victim of crime or associated with crime at all. Yesterday, 38 out of the 75, which is about half, said that they had been a victim of crime, investigated by law enforcement, charged by law enforcement, convicted, incarcerated or have current charges. That's a lot. Almost 50 percent of that jury pool.

Also want to talk about William Porter because yesterday when I sat in that courtroom, I saw him very engaged with his attorneys. They would talk with him. He would talk with them. Now this is at the end of the day when they came out of that conference room where they had the individual questioning. But he was very involved, very interested. And this afternoon is when they will have that individual questioning again where everyone outside of the ear shot of the general public and the media asks the particular questions. What's your opinion? Do you have an opinion you can't set aside in this case?

And remember, the defendant will be right there, listening to every single potential juror's answer in that conference room. At the end of the day, we'll hear probably that some will not be coming back, some will be joining those from yesterday tomorrow. Once again so Wednesday, I think, is the first day we could have a jury -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Jean Casarez reporting live from Baltimore, thank you.

The Chicago officer who shot and killed Laquan McDonald is out of jail this morning. A barrage of media on hand as Officer Jason Van Dyke posted bond. And while Van Dyke's out, another man is in. 21-year- old Jabari Dean. Police say Dean posted that online threat, targeting the University of Chicago, forcing the campus to close. Dean's threat was apparently to avenge Laquan McDonald's death.

CNN's Ryan Young live in Chicago with more. Good morning.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Look, a lot of questions about this. We were on that campus and reported to you live yesterday. We were on that campus when it was absolutely silent because people were worried about these threats. We were wondering what the specific nature of the threats were. Now we have an online posting that we can read to you that Jabari Dean apparently posted online, a popular Web site.

It says, "This is my only warning, at 10:00 a.m. on Monday morning, I'm going to the campus quad at the University of Chicago. I'll be armed with an M-4 Carbine and two Desert Eagles all fully loaded. I will execute approximately 16 white male students and-or staff, which is the same number of time McDonald was killed. I then will die killing any number of white policemen that I can in the process. This is not a joke. I am to do my part to rid the world of the white devils. I expect you to do the same."

Now Jabari Dean was in court just yesterday. His uncle spoke to people outside saying, look, he is a cream puff and he is a nerd. He would never do anything like this. The FBI went to the house, did not find any weapons inside that house, and we're told, because of these charges that he's facing, he could face five years in prison, there will be a 1:00 bond hearing this afternoon here in Chicago. And they believe he may be released to his mother, who he lived with. But, obviously, these were serious threats that closed the campus and the Hyde Park neighborhood -- Carol.

[10:20:03] COSTELLO: Ryan Young reporting live from Chicago. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Donald Trump says some Muslims, thousands and thousands of Muslims in New Jersey, celebrated after the 9/11 attacks. Does the former New York City mayor, Rudy Giuliani, agree? We'll hear from him next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

COSTELLO: All right. We've been telling you the House Armed Services Committee is meeting in Washington. The intent for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defense secretary to lay out the strategy when it comes to ISIS in Syria. Ash Carter is now testifying. A short time ago he said something very interesting. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASHTON CARTER, DEFENSE SECRETARY: To build on that momentum, we're sending, on President Obama's orders, and the chairman's and my advice, Special Operation Forces personnel to Syria to support the fight against ISIL.

[10:25:03] American special operators bring a unique suite of capabilities that make them force multipliers. They will help us garner valuable ground intelligence, further enhance our air campaign, and above all, enable local forces that can regain and then hold territory occupied by ISIL. Where we find further opportunity to leverage such capability, we're prepared to expand it.

Next, in the south of Syria, we're also taking advantage of opportunities to open a southern front on ISIL by enabling fighters trained and equipped by us and other coalition partners to conduct strikes inside Syria.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Interesting, right? Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins us now.

So when Ash Carter says he wants to send more special ops forces into Syria, how many is he talking about?

STARR: Good morning, Carol. Well, first up, he's talking off the top there about the 50 or so Special Operations Forces that are scheduled to arrive in northern Syria really at any point now. This has been in the works for some weeks. But Carter does go on and he talks about the establishment of what he calls an expeditionary force. Very important bureaucratic words, but very important military words. Expeditionary. That means what he is talking about are even more forces on the ground, mobile.

Expeditionary, it means they can go from point A to point B, and these will be Special Operation Forces, in addition to those 50 or so in Syria, that will be able to go on very dangerous missions, go on raids, go on missions looking for high-value ISIS targets, free hostages, go on intelligence-gathering missions. They will be outside the wires, so to speak, and not just sitting on bases in Iraq. They will be able to operate with Iraqi and Kurdish forces in Iraq. They also -- these additional forces could be sent into Syria.

So all of this adds up to a significant step forward today. Not about the number of troops that are going to be put on the ground, but what they're going to be doing. This is further expansion of what the Pentagon and the White House have been talking about. What Carter is really trying to accomplish here today is list a number of initiatives to show forward movement. They have been facing some withering criticism from Republicans and Democrats that they're just simply not doing enough -- pardon me -- to fight ISIS now today, giving us this list of initiatives, this list of what they're calling accelerants, to try and show some really rapid forward movement.

It will come with U.S. boots on the ground, U.S. Special Operations Forces, going out there, engaging. There's really no other word for it, in combat, risky missions -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, the president said earlier when he spoke in Paris that the problem was a lack of intelligence on the ground and that's why the United States isn't conducting more airstrikes over Syria.

STARR: Well, I think that's right. What they are looking for is that fine, granular intelligence, on a given day if you have aircraft flying over Raqqa, Syria, where are the civilians? Where is the ISIS leadership? Where are the ISIS weapons? If you're flying over Iraq and you see vehicles on the road, do you know if those are ISIS fighters coming into Iraq from Syria? Do you know if they're civilians on the run?

And the only way you can really know this is to have those eyes and ears on the ground. It's been an inhibiting factor. Look, this is going to be a small number of Special Operations Forces to start with. We're not talking about large combat formations, but I don't think there's any way around it. This is an acknowledgment, they need more eyes and ears on the ground. They need to find out where ISIS really is. With all of the airstrikes that have been happening, intelligence officials will tell you that ISIS is dispersing.

And as they disperse, as they move around, it can be very difficult to track them and figure out who down on that road from 30,000 feet in your aircraft, who's ISIS and who's a civilian. This will help, they hope. But still, quite a long way to go. This is really just a beginning step. It will be, we're told, a small number of U.S. troops, but they will be out there -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Barbara Starr reporting live from the Pentagon. Thank you.

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

In the face of sharp criticism for his claims of seeing Muslims in the United States celebrating after the September 11th attacks, Donald Trump is standing firm. This morning Rudy Giuliani, who was the mayor of New York City on that fateful day, weighted into the debate himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: We have some attacks and we did have some celebrating, that is true. We had pockets of celebration. Some in Queens, some in Brooklyn.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How many people?

GIULIANI: Ten, 12, 30, 40.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And those --

(END)