i'm brianna keilar reporting from washington. wolf blitzer has the day off. to this bombshell from the justice department. attorney general eric holder is stepping down after nearly six years on the job. holder is america's first african-american attorney general and one of only three original members of president obama's cabinet still in office. the president will formally announce holder's resignation this afternoon. let's bring in our white house correspondent michele kosinski. the thing you wonder at this point is, holder has served so long, what's with this timing? why now?

>> there's so much going on, so much they're working on. we don't expect to hear any more detail from the white house until the president speaks at 4:30 this afternoon saying good-bye and thank you to his good friend and long-time attorney general. he served nearly six years. but it seems like a surprise, but those close to him are saying hey, he's been thinking about this for a while, he had a long conversation with the president very recently, he's been wanting to move on and not wanting to sort of get roped in any further to serving the entire eight years of his tenure. you look at that tenure and he's definitely tangled with some truly thorny areas of law, from obama care, civil rights, gay marriage, marijuana, immigration, and in some of those areas, the administration has effectively chosen not to enforce certain laws with executive actions and executive orders wrangling members of congress. at one point holder was held in contempt by house republicans for not turning over documents

related to the fast and furious gun tracking scandal, remember that? he's definitely faced his share of tumult during this time. because he's decided to stay along until his successor can be confirmed, which could be a considerable amount of time, we don't expect it to delay or disrupt any of the ongoing projects they're working on, mainly the michael brown civil rights case, and the impending action on immigration that president has promised but that's taken a lot of wrangling and vetting behind the scenes. for many of these actions that administration has taken, congress has said, you're overstepping your bounds. holder sometimes has been at the center of that. it has been an eventful nearly six years, brianna. >> it sure has been. michele coskin ski at the white house, thanks so much. eric holder has been a favorite target for republican critics of the obama administration. you heard michele say that. joining me to talk about this

resignation is chief political analyst gloria borger. gloria, some people might be surprised that holder stayed this long, but now a lot of people are wondering, who's next? >> right. >> let's look through some of the names here. we have donald verilli u.s. solicitor general who a lot are familiar with because of the obama care case. pathe rebarrar. jay johnson, secretary of homeland security, deval patrick, governor of massachusetts, kamala harris, well-known california attorney general loretta lynch a two-time u.s. attorney general and kathy rumher, the former white house council. there are a couple things you have to keep in mind. one is they have to get somebody who can get confirmed and in this political environment even after the election will not be easy for this president and secondly, i have sources who said do not underestimate the importance of the president's comfort level with this person.

second term president going into his last two years, wants somebody he kind of knows and somebody he can go to. don't forget eric holder, a very close, personal friend of the president. the person i think about in a couple ways is kathy rumler, just left as white house counsel. very well respected. i was told, quote, no one made a decision in the white house without her. the problem for her would be, of course, once you've been the president's counselor, when you go over to the justice department, there's supposed to be a wall. you don't respect the president anymore, you respect the people of the united states and there's a feeling that there could be some kind of a conflict there. also her role in irs. the irs controversy. so that could be a problem. but there are a bunch of these names, donald verrilli gave our colleague jeffrey toobin did not think he argued the obama care case well. >> many people did not. >> right. but he gave justice john roberts

the hook, the tax issue, upon which to keep obama care constitutional. so, you know, there are people that we're not really familiar with, this u.s. attorney in brooklyn, loretta lynch, highly regarded. >> does it strike you that -- and i wonder if this makes the position any less controversial, holder while controversial in the first term, he was sort of working on different issues maybe that were less controversial in obama's second term. >> i think he was working on his own legacy in a way. you and i got something in our e-mail from darrell issa who is the chairman of the house oversight committee who does not like eric holder. called him the most divisive u.s. attorney general in modern history and reminded us that there is a contempt of congress vote against him. his first term was sort of like try khalid shakih mohammad in new york, fast and furious controversy, the gun trafficking issue, obviously, was a problem

for him, being held in contempt. second term, he sort of took a turn, voting rights, criminal justice reform, trying to tie up these financial cases that started in the 2008 collapse of the economy, so you see him looking towards his own legacy in many ways. >> one of his roles was that he sort of spoke out on race if a way that president obama could. >> exactly. >> we saw him go to ferguson, missouri, and a lot of people there felt they weren't being listened to, felt a tremendous amount of comfort from the fact he was there, in a way a proxy for president obama. what happens with some of those issues, do you think, if eric holder is gone? >> i think they're still really important to the president of the united states. whom ever he appoints is going to have to continue what eric holder was doing, particularly on voting rights an the civil rights issues. i agree with you, i think eric holder spoke in a way that perhaps the president of the united states felt he was

restrained from speaking and eric holder going to ferguson was really a statement that i think he personally wanted to make and i think it's clear he would not have done that if he hadn't spoken with the president about it beforehand. >> yeah. definitely. gloria, thank you so much. >> sure. >> great insight. >> coming up this hour, life under isis' control. we are going to take you inside of isis' capital city with a hidden camera. and syria rebel groups team up to take on isis as well as syrian president bashar al assad. we have exclusive details of the historic agreement straight ahead. ♪ ♪ fill their bowl with the meaty tastes they're looking for, with friskies grillers. tender meaty pieces and crunchy bites.

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pound new isis targets in syria and iraq. the latest round of air strikes taking aim at mobile oil refineries used by isis to help fund their terrorist operations. the military at this point still assessing the damage from overnight air strikes and besides the oil refineries they're targeting an isis headquarters and training camp. france carried out a new wave of strikes against isis targets today. french planes taking part in strikes in iraq before the coalition started bombing targets in syria. a radical british cleric is said to be among nine people arrested in the u.k. on suspicion of terrorist offenses. told cnn last month he believes isis which calls itself the islamic state will spread across europe to the u.s. isis fighters are making gains inside of iraq. this week they overran iraqi troops on a base outside of

fallujah west of baghdad. there are reports as many as 300 iraqi troops were executed by isis. survivors say the iraqi government failed to respond to calls for help during the invasion. cnn learned syrian rebel groups are formsing an alliance to take on isis. senior investigative correspondent drew griffin joining us on the phone with exclusive details here. drew, how did this come about and how significant is this? >> it's significant in what they say is -- what they are calling is somewhat of a historic agreement because for the first time this brings in the syrian military council and syria military council, the christians groups that are fighting both assad and the isis group under one kind of allowance. although they've been fighting side by side, they are saying to the world and specifically to the west, we are forming this

alliance to show you that we are aiming for a more inclusive syria, once this fight is done, but they are trying to stress that the fight is going to be over with soon if they don't get rearmed, resupplied quickly and some of the weapons and the money that's been promised to them gets them to the front lines. i should add that this is not all of the rebel groups. the islamic groups were left out of this group that met in turkey just about a few hours ago. >> so they need more than just the air strikes. they need the support these rebel leaders do that allows them to capitalize essentially on the air strikes. are they saying anything else, drew, and are there any concerns ability civilian casualties? >> they are very concerned. in fact, i was talking to the military council's leader, abdul bashir on the ground there, i talked to about a dozen of these

groups today, very concerned about the lack of any coordination that they have had on the ground with the air strikes coming from the coalition. the general did say that free syrian army locations or areas were struck by some of these and some civilians were killed, according to him. they are very frustrated that the lack of cooperation with the coalition, they think it would be much more effective if they worked together and not separately, and they are also very concerned that the coalition is only striking in syria, isis targets and not striking assad who they believe, of course, is the real problem in syria and the person they believe actually facilitated the founding of isis within syria. >> very interesting point. we will be talking about that coming up in just a moment. drew griffin from inside of syria, thank you so much. we want to talk more about these air strikes. the new targets are aimed at

striking isis financing in particular. their growing oil trade. let's bring in the former secretary of state for political and military affairs. you know, many have said that cutting off financing is certainly key to all of this and certainly it is. we're hearing a lot of concerns coming from rebels there on the ground. what i really want to talk to you about is how this all plays out. that's what so many americans are wondering. does this play out to look like an iraq, does this look like libya some how does it end? >> well, and again, this notion of what are we going to do about syria, may be the fatal flaw in the president's strategy. because we don't really have that clearly articulated. we would somehow like assad to go away tomorrow but if we let the rebels take over is it going to look like libya after gadhafi. i think what we're going to see is something as we saw in iraq after the first gulf war. when we ran operation northern

watch, operation southern watch, there was a rump baghdad that was in charge but wasn't able to go after the people. kurdistan wasn't able to go to the shia in the south. it may well be whether it is by design or consequence that we actually end up with an area inside of syria, the protection of the no-fly zone, which would be helpful for the turks by the way, and assad in charge of a rump syria, but still an area that coalition protects for the people of syria that don't want to belong to an assad government anymore and ensures he can no longer slaughter his people through the use of his aircraft, his barrel bombs and artillery. >> is that the direction you see this going when we heard drew reporting that rebels leaders in syria are very frustrated that the targets are all isis and not assad? >> well, i think that's a legitimate concern on the part of the rebels, but it may be indicative that we still don't yet have the confidence that the rebels are truly going to give us an outcome in syria that is

in the best interest of all the people of syria. is syria going to look like post-assad? is it going to look like libya? what's it going to look like? there are many that would suggest that keeping assad still in power, with his power significantly reduced, significantly mitigated, in charge as the mayor of damascus, may be the best outcome. >> the letter of two evils. >> lesser of a lot of evils. >> you heard drew talk about how rebel commanders are upset that the u.s. and its allies participating in these air strikes in syria are not coordinating with them. he reported that they are saying there have been civilians killed. talk about that. >> sure. >> how that should be perhaps different if you think it should be, and does that run the risk in a way of creating backlash against the u.s. and allies? >> it does. i would say there are two parts to that question. clearly right now, the khorasan group and isis --

>> the al qaeda veteran s which the u.s. went alone to target in addition to isis in syria. >> they are a danger because of their capabilities in the region and western targets. that has to be our first priority. similar to world war ii we made a decision germany first, japan second. what this administration is suggesting we'll take care of isil and the khorasan group first and then assad will be the second problem. now, of course, rebels are saying, by doing isil first, it's actually playing to the strengths of assad. he can take advantage of our operations and go after them as well. that's a legitimate question. because still, the rebels don't have the anti-tank or the anti-aircraft weapons needed to take care of assad's barrel bombs, his fighters and his artillery. that's what they're asking for. >> how does the administration square the idea of letting assad stay intact with the fact that for years now, officials have

said, assad has no legitimacy, assad has to go? >> in many ways that's what we said in 1991 after the first gulf war. saddam hussein has no legitimacy, saddam hussein has to go. until that event happened, eight years later, there was a no-fly zone in the north and the south but at least during that time period, protected the kurdss, protected the shia who saddam at that point was practicing genocide upon. >> thank you so much. really appreciate you being with us. general brigadier general kimette, thank you so much. the uae has confirmed its first woman fighter pilot took part in u.s.-led coalition air strikes against isis targets in iraq and syria. captain mariam mansouri told cnn she wanted to be a fighter pilot after high school but had to wait ten years to get the training. becky anderson caught up with the fighter pilot who started flying in 2006. >> we have to prepare every

citizen in this country to be ready to defend uae. everybody is responsible for defending their country, male or female. when the time will come everybody will jump in. nobody will hesitate to defend their country. >> mansouri says she had to prove herself and see women entering more fields once only open to men. iran's president says terrorism is not a regional issue, it's a global one and more on hassan rouhani's speech to the united nations and also next, a hidden camera on the streets of raqqah as we see what life is really like in the isis capital city. [ male announcer ] some come here to build something smarter. ♪ some come here to build something stronger. others come to build something faster... something safer... something greener. something the whole world can share. people come to boeing to do many different things.

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we are getting a fascinating look inside syria today inside the capital city of isis controlled cities in syria and iraq. video secretly shot by a woman walking through the heart of raqqah. jim clancy has been looking through this footage and joins us now. this is a unique view. >> fascinating look. a young woman in her 20s. we know her name, not going to release it. she grew up in raqqah, she left when the free syrian army had the control of that. the u.s. ostensibly supports the free syrian army as one of the moderate groups. she returned when isis took control back in march and she shot video, incredible video, showing the fighters. here she's getting into a taxi to go into an internet center. she breaks some of the

stereotypes people have as he eavesdrop on women's calls back to their loved ones back at home in france. they're speaking fluent french. you would think that with all the dress code restrictions and everything, women wouldn't like it here but listen to what this one is telling her family member. >> translator: i don't want to come back. because i feel good here. it's not a question of coming back or not. if i want, i can come back. i just don't want to come back because i feel good here. >> clearly the woman's family members are not convinced by this at all. in fact, they're rattled by what she's telling them. and the conversation continues. listen. >> translator: stop it. it doesn't help me if you're scared or if you cry. do you hear me? i'm telling you. there's no point to you crying or being scared.

what you see on tv is wrong. do you understand? they're exaggerating everything on tv. they amplify everything, everything, everything. >> who are these young women? young women who have left, gone with their husbands, you know, boyfriends, whatever, gone back into syria with isis. some women that are coming on on their own to get married to isis fighters. some caring for many of the orphans that are there. it's not the scene, it's not the point of view that we normally hear. and it's indicating that there's a lot of young women willing to stand along this islamic state. >> and we've heard a lot about many of them being really an integral part of isis as well, jim. this was taken several months ago, i think. >> back in march when isis -- >> when isis first took over. so what is the situation now? is it any different? >> it's certainly different. after president obama gave his speech, after the air strikes began, we're told by activists

who have visited there as recently as this week that many of the families, many of the women and children have left that central area of the city, some of the administrative offices have been abandoned by isis, some of their leadership we were told by an activist a matter of 48 hours ago have left the city and they're seeking safety because they really fear that they could be caught in the crossfire with all of these air strikes which are described as more powerful, of course, than what the syrian regime itself is doing. but at the same time, they're still there. they're still inside syria. they're still standing by this islamic state. >> isis has found a toe hold and we're seeing it play out in the hidden video. thanks so much. now sounding the alarm for west africa and the world, the president asks for help on the front lines of the ebola outbreak. but up next, congressional reaction to the air strike strategy in syria and hope for america's arab partners in the

fight against isis. big day? .

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welcome back. i'm brianna keilar reporting from washington. wolf blitzer is off today.

days after getting congressional approval to train and arm syria's moderate rebels president obama ordered air strikes and we are now three days into the air campaign if syria and pentagon officials say it could be a year's long battle. >> i can't tell you it's three, five, six, but it's probably several years at the very least and we're going to be prepared for that. hopefully it won't take that long. they have a radical disastrous ideology that is increasingly being rejected. is that the answer. good governance is the answer in iraq and syria. if good governance gets started in iraq and we think the vectors are in the right direction and get rid of the assad regime or the regime will go in syria, then there's a chance there, too, but it's going to take a while. >> joining me now is california republican congressman ed royce, the chairman of the house foreign affairs committee. chairman, thanks for being with us. >> thank you, brianna. >> you have been, i guess you could say frustrated, critical

of president obama really with the pace of how he's dealt with isis. now we have these air strikes in syria. what do you think of this? >> well, i have been in contact with the kurdish foreign minister and those representing the kurdish communities and yes, the frustration is that we had these kurdish battalions, men and female battalions, holding off isis without the air support that they felt they needed. now that air support is coming forward and that's very positive. but it's the pace. 116,000 air strikes in the first gulf war when kuwait was invaded were done in a matter of several weeks, six weeks, and, you know, it defeated the fifth largest army in the world at the time. in this particular case, you have a situation where it has been so long in coming, that isil has been able to take over a lot of territory and frankly practice a tremendous amount of cruelty on the ground, including especially to, you know, the

women and girls of those who they have defeated. it was necessary to allow them to take this much ground against such a vast population and i'm glad to see the air strikes. >> the pace of the air strikes as they are now, you may have wanted to see this sooner but are you happy out in with what you are seeing? do you think this is the right move in what you're seeing now? >> i think it's encouraging to see the saudi air force in the air, the uae including this female pilot you referenced, the fact that you see the jordanians involved in the air campaign, from bahrain as well, this is the type of coalition in the region you want to see in the air. what we need to see next is the transfer of the types of weapons needed by the kurdish forces and not just the kurdish forces in iraq, buts also the kurdish forces that -- over the last two days were fleeing from syria.

it's high time we gave them the assets they need. >> you heard the pentagon spokesman there really i think managing expectations. the obama administration is now telling the american people this is going to be a year's long battle. you need to prepare for that. what's your reaction to that? >> seven months ago, the request was made to start hitting these isis columns as they were coming out of syria into iraq. when they were on the open desert and they were easy targets. now, if you wait for a year or two years and you dribble out a strategy, you won't put a

decisive end to an organization like that. but on the other hand, if you have a very robust air campaign and you put together the coalition partners and you go in and arm the arabs and the kurdish forces that want to fight them, and remember in the past we were successful in getting the sunnis in an bar province to rise up against, you know, al qaeda and to defeat them, and -- but to do that it takes a strategy. and it takes a robust effort. now we don't want to see u.s. troops in there. we don't want to see the 82nd airborne put into this cauldron, but we certainly want those who have been fighting isis now for a considerable length of time to get the weapons, pick up the pace here. and i think if we pick up the pace, we're going to see a lot of discouraged young men who may want to take their western passports right now and get on a plane because they think, they

think isis is winning. when they see that fortune reversed on the ground, the female battalions of kurdish weapon defeating isil units as happened last week i think some of the young men will reconsider flying in to join that effort. >> i guess i'm asking you sort of the political question of this, though. president obama is -- he's doing something that i would say republicans are much more comfortable with than democrats and i'm sort of trying to get -- i'm trying to get to the point here of does he deserve credit for that in your view? >> well, i think his national security team is sort of pushed the president into this position. as we remember, you know, well over a year ago, general petraeus, cia director along with his secretary of defense, secretary of state, hillary clinton at the time, came to him and said, you need to have a decisive plan to deal with this.

you need to support the free syrian forces and so forth. and the president vetoed that plan that was pushed. it was a very long process to get the president to the point where he could endorse the idea of responding with air power against isis and as i mentioned, it cost on the ground 16 cities that were taken by isis as that process laboriously went forward. so what we need are decisions quicker that are decisive and i think the president has made the right decision here in terms of the coalition, but it is important for us and certainly in congress as chairman of the foreign affairs committee i've been talking to the ambassadors of these countries pressing this case, we're all in this together. the president, the members of congress, the american public, we all need to get behind an

effort here to extinguish this, destroy this isis campaign -- this isis effort over there as soon as we possibly can in order to discourage the continued development of this jihadist activity. >> chairman ed royce, thanks for being with us. appreciate it. we'll be right back after a moment. when you compare the top speed of dsl from the phone company

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this is cnn breaking news. >> we are following breaking news about the isis militant in the video of journalist james foley's killing. we now i understand pamela brown joining us from the fbi right outside the fbi building, what have we learned? this executioner has been identified? >> that's right. we learned from fbi director james comey that u.s. officials are confident that they have identified the executioner, the you isis executioner we've seen in several hostage videos and officials believe that, in fact, it is the same person. now we did report this a couple weeks ago that officials believe that they have the guy who they believed committed these horrific crimes and now we're hearing from fbi director james comey that, in fact, they believe they know who this person is. he would not talk about the identity of this person, a name

or anything like that, but we've learned from officials that it's someone who is from great britain and from london with ties to extremists who are living in london. we've reported that previously and now we're hearing confirmation from james comey that officials have i.d. the executioner. >> this is one of the more chilling things about this, this executioner had a distinct british accent, from south london, some believe just from listening to him. this is part of the propaganda put out by isis, that it is someone in a way sounds very much like someone next door in particular we've heard as well from an isis representative recently who appears to have maybe an american accent? >> right. and i think that was what was so alarming when the video first surfaced and immediately they started voice afannuaalysis and

able to trace this man's accent to london and from there i believe it was a combination of factors not only with the analysis but metadata and human sources played a role in officials being able to identify who this person is. >> all right. pam, there at the fbi building for us, i want to bring back in the chairman of the house foreign affairs committee ed royce, joining us from california. chairman, this is very significant, right? give us your reaction to this? >> well, the reason this is so important is that there's close to a thousand young men like this one from britain who are fighting with this isis organization today, as well as 300 from the united states, approximately and they hold these passports. just as this young man holds this passport. the fact that athey're willing o commit this kind of mayhem and murder and at the same time advocate coming back to europe

and coming to the united states and carrying out these attacks is the very reason why interpol, why the british intelligence agencies and the united states, are working right now to track who these young men are. >> back in. going into turkey over the border in syria and involved in these kinds of operations with auto isis. >> this man be the tip of the iceberg in way and that was -- it's -- it's important to note that if u.s. authorities have identified this man who had a british accent and we understand that this -- that's all we're being told, he is british, explain why his name isn't being made public if he's the tip of the iceberg.

i'm assuming it has something to do with the fact that authorities don't want to give away their lead here? >> that is exactly right. remember, he is recruiting just as the australian who is putting out the videos and sending back the message, he's there with his 9-year-old and 7-year-old son, an australian isis leader along with about 300 australians who have been recruited into this effort. he's trying to recruit more. and the australian service just managed to put down an attempted attack in the homeland. the fellow who put out the video, in fact, carried out a previous attack and attempted bombing of a government building in australia. he served time for it. clearly these individuals have the capability of carrying out these attacks. the question is can we intercept them and one of the reasons you don't give him a lot of publicity unnecessarily is because yes, they're following up on his other contacts back in

britain. they are also making certain that this isn't used for recruitment purposes. >> certainly. chairman ed royce, thanks so much for your insight on that. we'll be back after just a moment. sfx: opening chimes sfx: ambient park noise, crane engine, music begins. we asked people a question, how much money do you have in your pocket right now? i have $40, $53, $21, do you think the money in your pocket could make an impact on something as big as your retirement? not a chance. i don't think so. it's hard to imagine how something so small can help with something so big. but if you start putting that towards your retirement every week and let it grow over time, for twenty to thirty years, that retirement challenge sfx: crowd cheering

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terrorism is becoming globalized as he addressed the united nations general assembly just hours ago. he blamed the west for making what he called strategic blunders in the middle east turning the region into a haven for extremists. >> extremism is not a regional issue that only the nations of our region have to grapple with. extremism is a global issue. certain states have helped in creating it and are now failing to withstand it. currently our peoples are paying the price. today's anti-westernism is the offspring of yesterday's clonali clonalism. >> let's get some analysis on this. we'll bring in fareed zakaria, the host of cnn's "fareed zakaria gps."

i wonder as you watch this speech and something that so many people were paying close attention to, what struck yous most about it? >> it wasn't a particularly interesting or dramatic speech. it repeated themes that the iranians have been saying for a while. rouhani has been more forthcoming in interviews he's done. i had an opportunity to do one of them. in those what becomes clear is the iranians believe that they can be part of the solution in iraq, in syria, with regard to isis, even in afghanistan but first the nuclear deal has to be achieved. they are putting a lot of hope and a certain amount of pressure on the west to produce a nuclear agreement, a compromise that everyone can live with and then they say they could be helpful for issues of shared interest, common interests in the fight against isis.

>> certainly coupling issues that the west that the u.s. does not want to have coupled there, fareed. you had an interview with the iranian president yesterday. he's critical of these air strikes in syria. what did he tell you? >> well, he's critical of them but i think it's important to note the criticism is very muted. it's of two forms. one is what you heard in the speech. this is all the west's fault. you invaded iraq. you created instability. you created a haven for this kind of activity. the second is rather technical grounds which is that it's technically not something that can be sanctioned by international law because it doesn't have u.n. approval and it didn't have the syrian government's approval. he moves off that pretty quickly. he's in favor of battling isis. he does not -- there's no condemnation of u.s. air strikes. i think that they would very much like the iranians that is,

have the united states take an active part in the struggle against isis. they want to make sure they get the nuclear deal. >> let's listen to part of fareed's interview with rouhani. >> when you say you don't want the united states to fight isis but in the fighting of it to create another terrorist group, what group are you thinking of? >> translator: the american authorities themselves have announced that they wish to train another terrorist group and equip that group and send them to syria to fight. >> you mean the free syrian army? >> translator: you can call it whatever you wish, sir. be that as it may, it is a group -- it is another group that as they announced i'm not sure what their plan is, they say we wish to train these folks in another country, military training and they even announced a time frame. with whose permission and with

whose authority, with what mandate according to what international laws and new orleans are they doing this? >> that was fascinating, fareed. he was smirking at the suggestion that the rebels that the u.s. is now overtly arming are a real ally when it comes to combatting isis in syria. >> exactly right. remember, the iranian government supports the syrian government so it takes the syrian government's position that those rebels, the free syrian army, are a bunch of terrorists. it highlights what is going to be the thorniest aspect of president obama's strategy against isis, which is that in syria, the president is saying he's going to fight isis but then he's going to somehow not let that benefit the main adversary of isis, that's the assad government, by helping the third group, the free syrian army that's weak, disorganized and so far has not been able to hold significant territory and

so if the iranians push very hard against that free syrian army, it's going to make it much, much harder and somehow it feels to me the united states has to get engaged with iran in a conversation about what syria is going to look like politically because if everybody from the outside is supporting another one or the other group, you have a civil war and maybe we won't defeat isis and certainly we will create a hell of a lot of chaos in syria. iran has more influence on the syrian government than any government in the world. it feels to me like the path to some political progress in syria is going to have to run through tehran. >> certainly will. fareed zakaria, thank you so much. great to share your interview with us. i want to share this programming note with you. be sure to watch "fareed zakaria gps" sundays at 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. eastern only here on cnn. that's it for me. i'll be back at 5:00 eastern in "the situation room."

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good afternoon. i'm anderson cooper. this is cnn's special live coverage of two stories. the fbi believed they identified the masked man with the british accent seen in the video of the beheading of james foley. let's get to reports of a terror plot by isis militants to attack subway systems in the u.s. and in paris. the news first came from the mouth of iraq's new prime minister who told journalists gathered outside of the u.n. about his apparent intelligence on this "imminent attack." the u.s. is scrambling all departments, white house, new york police department, saying they have seen the reports by the prime minister but they cann c