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tv   The Situation Room  CNN  November 6, 2014 2:00pm-4:01pm PST

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look at the case of the so-called kissing congressman, vance mccallister making out with his scheduler but then had his wife appear by his side who said she was blessed to have a husband who owns up to his mistakes. jake, he came in fourth. i have a question for you. do you think if any of these candidates were women, that they would have been forgiven? >> i don't know but i need a shower after that. i'm turning you over to wolf blitzer. wolf? happening now, bomb maker killed, apparently taken out in a u.s. air strike in syria. does the terror group from his threat remain imminent? i'll speak with mike rogers. bin laden bombshell. a former u.s. navy s.e.a.l. says he fired the shot that killed the world's most wanted terrorist. why is his claim sparking a huge controversy right now? kidnapping nightmare. we're learning new details of a
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young woman's horrifying ordeal and the combination of high-tech tools that led to her rescue. and dna link. a new report says that jesse matthew, the man accused of abducting hannah graham, is now being tied to an earlier assault by forensic evidence. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." we're following the breaking news. the apparent death of one of the most dangerous operatives in the entire al qaeda global operative making explosive devices that could get through airport security. a source telling cnn that david drugeon was killed in a u.s. air strike in syria. our guests and including the chairman of the house intelligence committee mike intelligence. let's begin with our pentagon correspondent barbara starr. she's breaking the news for us. what are you picking up there,
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barbara? >> good evening, wolf. david drugeon, a french jihadist, a member of the khorasan group, was killed in a series of air strikes. five targets were hit but drugeon was in a vehicle traveling down a road in syria when he was hit by a missile from a u.s. military drone. so what does this tell us? it tells us that they had very specific intelligence about where he was going to be and when he was going to be there. that's why they went against that vehicle firing a missile at it. is it 100%? no. but several officials now tell us there is every reason to believe that drugeon is dead. khorasan is one of the most dangerous operative groups for al qaeda. experts in those bomb-making techniques, bombs that can get past western and u.s. airport security screening measures.
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that's why they've been called an imminent threat. no one thinks that khorasan is down and out with this strike but they managed to take out a very key operative. wolf? >> there's no doubt that the president of the united states has authorized the u.s. military to engage in these targeted killings of terrorist leaders, right? >> that is correct. that is something that has existed for many years now. a lot of talk in washington about updating those authorizations. but the u.s. military, the central intelligence agency has the authority with the president's orders to go against what you're calling very targeted killings and this gets back to the intelligence. to do these targeted killings legally, they have to have the precise intelligence and be able to demonstrate who they think is at that point in time, that point on the ground and that that person.other way to get - wolf? >> barbara starr at the pentagon, thank you very. . let's get more breaking news right now.
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nick paton walsh is on the ground in turkey near the syrian border. what's the latest that you're hearing about that strike? >> reporter: well, certainly while it's clear that the u.s. believed that khorasan is a threat to the united states, they also hit al nusra, an al qaeda affiliate considered a terrorist organization by the united states under which khorasan functions. they also hit, more confusingly, another group that had a building involved in these stre strikes. the organization is conservative by ideology but moderate. they are not described as a terror organization or linked to al qaeda by any real observers. so many are asking why precisely do they find themselves on the crosshairs last night and it's causing many syrians dismay to
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grow. many syrians consider al nusra to be an issue, too, because they are fighting effectively. women and children are being killed in these strikes and they are asking syrian rebels to unite at this point. we'll have to see if they stand by that statement. but this has caused the impression that the u.s. air strikes are not helping the syrian regime. >> nick paton walsh between the border of turkey and syria. sources now telling cnn president obama is reaching out to iran. iran about military action against isis. our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto is working the story for us. it's pretty amazing what we are hearing right now. tell our viewers what you have learned. >> the u.s. has opened
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communication signals with iran regarding military action against isis, a senior military official in the senior western diplomat tells cnn. this does not include coordinated isis targets, the sources said, but is necessary to deconflict u.s. and iranian military operations. these channels are informal, i'm told, conducted on a case by case basis via the iraqi military. the channels, however, have become necessary because the u.s. and iran are operating in the same spaces. as a result, accommodations must be made indirectly, this official said. and this includes air space management. the u.s. and iranian aircraft do not conflict while carrying out military operations in the same air space. it's interesting to have this because i asked about this general lloyd austin, from central command, he was denying any coordination with iran but we're told that there is indirect coordination via the
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iraqi military to avoid such conflict of u.s. and iranian military assets in the region. this happens as the president also sends a letter to iran's supreme leader as the campaign targets isis and the khorasan group. bomb maker david drugeon was central to administration concerns about the khorasan's plan to attack the u.s. and those fears helped spark u.s. air strikes in syria. with the overall air campaign now three months old, president obama is moving ahead with plans to seek further authorization from congress. >> it is beneficial to the broader effort if we send a very clear signal to the international community, both to our allies and enemies, that the executive branch and the legislative branch are on the same page when it comes to the strategy. >> reporter: democratic
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congressman adam schiff, long a proponent of the authorization, the authority passed after 9/11 and directed specifically at al qaeda is weak and outdated, a change from the administration's position to date, which is that it has sufficient authority. >> this was a president who was a constitutional scholar and i think has a very deep conviction that he doesn't want to leave to the next presidency an unbridled authority to make war. >> reporter: a new authorization would specifically target isis. and a democratic source tells cnn it might also leave the door open to deploying u.s. ground troops, an option the president has ruled out but republican lawmakers will not. >> i'd like to see an authorization that, frankly, does not restrict the commander in chief. >> reporter: as the president prepares to go to a gop-controlled congress for help, he's also reaching out to
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iran. he reached out and the prospect for corporation hinged on the new cooperation as well. on working with iran, republican leaders are decidedly less open. >> i don't trust the iranians. i don't think we need to bring them into this. and i would hope that the negotiations that are under way are serious negotiations but i have my doubt. >> reporter: the deadline for a nuclear agreement is nearing. it's november 24th. you'll remember, it was already an extension of the original deadline in july. secretary kerry will travel to vienna to help push a final deal. the letter, as first confirmed by elise labott, he is, in effect, connecting these two issues. cooperation with iran on isis and cooperation with iran on a nuclear agreement. yet, you see these two long-time
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adversaries with the shared interest and a deal is possible and we're already seeing unusual military coordination regarding isis. >> yeah. this is a big deal. it's not every day that the president of the united states writes a letter to the supreme leader of iran. it's a major deal indeed. thank you for that news. jim sciutto reporting. let's talk about all of the breaking news and there's lots of it with the chairman of the house intelligence committee. mike rogers of michigan. congressman, mr. chairman, thanks very much for joining us. i want to get through all of these points so we've got a lot to discuss. let's talk about this french bomb maker who works with isis, david drugeon as he's called. can you confirm that he's a target of a u.s. air strike and is now dead? >> we don't have confirmation yet. i can tell you that the united states has targeted al qaeda elements operating in syria as well as isis organizations that operate in syria as well.
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>> is he a big deal, this guy? >> he is a big deal. he's part of this infrastructure that al qaeda has built and we get caught up with the khorasan group. these are senior al qaeda affiliate members in syria at the behest of zawahiri, the leader of al qaeda. this is a pretty large, well-structured cell of al qaeda. so they are operating and we're operating in syria. this individual is important because he was bringing and trying to foster the technology that we know existed in other parts of al qaeda affiliates, mainly al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. we know that they were having at least discussions about sharing technology that was really, really very concerning. i think this was an important step to try to continue to disrupt and dismantle al qaeda's ability to launch an attack on the west.
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>> and you don't have a problem with the president's decision to go ahead and continue and deis escalate the targeted terrorists? >> this is a combatant of the united states. the president has authorizations on al qaeda still in standing, authorized by congress. just because we have gotten some of their leadership doesn't mean that we've gone away. this is still a viable organization that is constructing itself in places that are not governed space to plan and finance and train for operations against the west, including the united states of america. so i will believe the president is on solid ground in continuing to engage and disrupt these activities. wolf? >> very quickly, before we have to take a commercial break and continue this conversation, you heard nick paton walsh there on the border between turkey and syria say one of the latest u.s. strikes hit a building where
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there were syrian rebels but that some syrian moderates, who oppose the regime, bashar al assad in damascus, they were killed in that strike. have you heard that? >> i haven't seen anything that would indicate that there was any strike on moderates in syria. and certainly we'll go over that data. i would just be cautious that there are al sham interests in syria working with both al nusra and others who are a proclaimed al qaeda affiliate and interested in engaging attacks against the west. >> isis is a terrorist organization, this other group al sham, is that formally considered a terrorist group linked to al qaeda. >> there are elements of al sham that has been in association with al qaeda affiliates. we know that much. >> stand by, mr. chairman. we have a lot more to talk
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about, including this letter that the president of the united states wrote to the supreme leader of iran. what's going on? stay tuned. more breaking news right after this. turn the trips you have to take, into one you'll never forget. earn points for every flight and every hotel. expedia plus rewards. [car revving] [car revving] ♪
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we've got more breaking news. abc now reporting a destructive what they call trojan horse malware program is poised to cause what abc news is calling an economic catastrophe. it was inserted by hackers believed to be sponsored by the russian government and represents a very serious threat. let's bring back the chairman of the house intelligence
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committee, mike rogers. what do you make of this report, mr. chairman? >> well, unfortunately, it's not surprising that a nation state has been working to insert m ac malware. i can't talk about the case that you just mentioned. the russians, the chinese, we've seen activities from the iranians that are using cyber to conduct cyberattacks and the threat is real and it's serious and unfortunately the government hasn't configured itself quite yet to deal with this threat. there is a report that came out maybe about 18 months ago by a company called mandiet who has now changed but it put out a report that showed the nation state of china had successfully penetrated our critical infrastructure. if china, who doesn't have the
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same capability of russia does when it comes to cyber, you can bet that these other nation states are going to find their way into these systems, which is why most of us are saying that we're going to have to deal with this in a real and meaningful way, including allowing the government to share information with our private sector to protect their own networks. >> more on this breaking news coming up. it's a disturbing development. i want to get your thoughts on these reports that we've confirmed the president of the united states has now written a leader to ayatollah. >> i think now the administration is working its way up and they've proved themselves to a confusing situation in iraq. it's dangerous that they are participating in this sense. we've got a sunni-led nation
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that is real and concrete and it's getting depth that have i haven't seen in years. this is undermining our ally and friends at a time that we don't need it. so think about where iran is today. there are bad actors in yemen, bahrain, there are bad actors in iraq. they have u.s. soldiers' blood on their hands during the time that we were in iraq and department of defense has certainly confirmed that. this is not -- this is not a nation state you want to get in bed with. if you do that, somebody is not going to get a good night's sleep. this is dangerous stuff that they are doing and i hope that the administration rekconsiders. i argue that it's almost dangerous. >> the united states, the permanent member of the united security council, germany, they are trying to work out a deal to restrict or limit iran's nuclear
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weapons if they have a nuclear weapons program, the nuclear program in general, are you encouraged that they might get a deal? are you worried about this? what's your assessment? >> they started those negotiations in secret which caused real strains with our arab league partners. again, remember, our biggest fear, the whole reason we set up sanctions and the president wasn't for that but he came along, thankfully, the bipartisan effort to put sanctions on iran to stop their development of a nuclear weapon, because if they get it, it triggers a nuclear arms race in the middle east. sunni nations are not going to stand for a shia nation having a nuclear weapon given their bad actors, how aggressive they are with their intelligence sources in and around the region causing bad things to happen. they are still very aggressive in doing that. you see a bad actor doing bad things in the community and the united states is rewarding them
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for it. this is why we're having a hard time understanding the administration's position on this. they are going to have to come to congress as soon as they can, number one, and number two, this december 24th date is important. the last meeting, what they did is they gave iran cash and gifts so that they could continue to negotiate. we got nothing for it. and so when you see that kind of pattern of negotiating, you start to believe that maybe they just want a deal and don't want to get the deal right. >> all right. >> and that's what i'm concerned about. >> and when you say cash, an easing of the sanctions? >> and then freed up billions of dollars in cash for them so that's the one thing that they needed more than anything. >> mike rogers, chairman of the house intelligence committee, thank you for joining us. >> thanks, wolf. more breaking news coming up including a claim by a former navy s.e.a.l. who says he fired the shot that killed osama bin laden. and details on breaking news
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. we're following breaking news here in "the situation room." live pictures coming in. a boat fire off south florida. our cnn affiliate wsvn said a good samaritan pulled people to safety after their boat caught fire off the keys. the fire may be burning for a while because the boat had 400 gallons of fuel onboard. fortunately everyone is okay. more breaking news ahead. first, the dust has not settled from the midterm election and
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new battle lines are being drawn. listen to the house speaker john boehner and what he had to say about potential executive action by president obama on immigration reform. >> i believe that the president continues to act on his own, he is going to poison the well. when you play with matches, you take the risk of burning yourself. and he's going to burn himself if he continues to go down this path. the american people made it clear election day, they want to get things done and they don't want the president acting on a unilaterally basis. >> republicans now gained recontrol of the senate and picked up new seats in the house of representatives and won two dozen governorships, including the state of arkansas. let's get more from the governor elect of arkansas, great to be with you. >> good to be with you, wolf. >> let's talk about what happened in arkansas. the democrats, the big losers in your state, republicans now
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control every congressional seat in your state. right? >> that's correct. it's been a long time in waiting. we've had really lagged behind the rest of the south in joining the republican wave but i think it caught autopsy this year and we've had a clean sweep of our officers gained in the legislature as well as the federal congressional delegation. >> what were the biggest reasons, in your opinion, that the democrats were crushed in arkansas? >> well, i think it's two-fold. i mean, all politics is local as tip o'neil has always said here in arkansas, i mean, our race hinged upon growing the economy, computer coding in the high schools, a tax cut that's so important to our middle class. at the same time, it was a combination of the strength of the republican party and how we've grown and recruited very good candidates this year.
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secondly, obviously the sentiment that washington, the federal government has overreached, that has extended into every area of our lives and it was a vote to say, government is not the solution in every arena of life and politics and so the people pushed back on that and resisted what the federal government is doing. >> because republicans didn't only win the governorships of states like yours but in largely democratic states like maryland, massachusetts, illinois. here's the question. governor christie is the chairman of the republican governor's association. how much credit do you give him? >> he gets a lot of credit because, one, he helped raise a lot of money that was very important in the governor races and it was a great team effort that they did as to how they used those resources and so he gets credit for that.
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of course he was in and did a great job in campaigning here. those things don't make all the difference but they really boost the campaign and the fundraising and ad campaign was very helpful as well. >> you think he would have made a good president, governor christie? >> well, i think we have a lot of candidates on our side that would make good candidates for president. he gets accolades for the way he led the rga. other good candidates, as you know, are out there. so the competition will be there and that's what the process is about, is to see whose ideas match the needs of the american people and lead our country in the right direction and i think he's been a strong voice in new jersey. i talk about a conservative being elected to new jersey. he ought to have his hats off to him for that. >> your fellow southerner lindsey graham was with me 24 hours ago in "the situation room" and said this election
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would not be a necessarily major mandate for republicans but they were running away from democrats and that hurd could turn against republicans very quickly. you've got to be worried that if you don't do the right thing in office, that herd, as he said, could go back to the democrats? >> of course that's the case and republicans gained control here in arkansas of the executive branch, legislative branch, and we have to perform. that's true nationally as well. you balance the power with the president. but, you know, the voters expect for you to fulfill what you campaigned on and, secondly, that you work not just within the republican side but to reach out to democrats and that's really what we've been doing the last few days, is ibuilding our transition team and communicating with our democratic colleagues in saying
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we want to work together. i hope that washington can learn from that as well and that there's a lot of soul searching as to what the voters are trying to say. i think. >> governor-elect, thank you for joining us. >> good to be with you, wolf. >> great state. spent some quality years over there as well. up next, dramatic new details of a woman whose abduction was caught on video. we'll hear from the federal agent who arrested the man that police are calling a thug. also, conflict as a former navy s.e.a.l. prepares to step into the spotlight claiming to be the man who killed osama bin laden. when you obsess over elevate form,
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we're learning dramatic new details about the high-tech tools and old-fashion detective work that led to the arrest of a kidnapping suspect that police are now describing as a thug. it helped rescue a woman whose horrifying capture was caught on camera. alexandra field has more. >> i'm taking my baby home. thank you. >> reporter: philadelphia nursing assistant carlesha freeland-gaither is now safe at home. the 22-year-old was on her way home after visiting her godson. tips poured into the philadelphia police department. one tipster recognized the suspect in another surveillance
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video taken at this atm and alerted law enforcement of his identity. but it was one tip from investigators in virginia that helped crack the case. they say the man seen in the video is 37-year-old delvin barnes, the same man wanted in connection with a separate abduction case in virginia. authorities tracked barnes' car seen in the video using a gps installed by the dealership where he bought the car and on wednesday they found freeland-gaither in barnes' car more than 100 miles from where she was abducted. >> he's a vicious predator, he's off the streets, and hopefully he'll be in jail for the rest of his life. >> reporter: philadelphia police say she has minor injuries. her mother giving all the credit for her daughter's rescue to philadelphia detectives. >> he sat in any kitchen in front of me and told me, i'm
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bringing your daughter home. i'm bringing your daughter home. i said all right. he said, no, i'm bringing your daughter home. and he brought my baby home. >> reporter: barnes will face federal charges in this case but he's being extradicted to virginia to answer charges of the abduction of a 16-year-old last month. >> alexandra field, thank you for that. joining us now is tim jones. thank you for coming in. how did you guys do it? >> basically, we received a lot of good information from the atf office out of richmond. so based on their police work and their cooperation with the local authorities down there, they were able to get a location utilizing a gps. as soon as that information was obtained, they sent it to us at the baltimore field division with atf and passed it on to me. fortunately, we hadden a agent from our group who just happened to be five minutes from the
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location where we believed the car was and i was able to dispatch him to that spot and he was able to locate the vehicle. >> this wasn't just a matter of luck. this was a lot of hard work. >> it was a combination of all three, i believe, because you had the partnerships that atf richmond cultivated with the local authorities down there. they were able to put the pieces together, provide that information to us. thankfully we were in a position to act on it as soon as we received it. and then we had the agents in my group that had the experience and ability to do the right thing once they located the vehicle. >> what can you tell us about the suspect, delvin barnes, who has been described as a verb sho vicious predator? >> i would agree with that. he had outstanding state warrants on him for a series of violent offense to include attempted murder and some sexual assaults and then once they were able to piece that together or put that combination together that it could be related to the abduction out of philadelphia as well, we knew we were dealing with a very serious and violent
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individual. >> have you ever seen a kidnapping like this all caught on videotape? >> i haven't. and i've been in law enforcement for 20 years and the last 16 i've been with atf and a lot of times we focus so much on dealing with those violent offenders and you can see the aftermath of what they do but we were so fortunate in this instance to intervene before it got to that culmination and allow the victim to be reunited with her family. >> was she just randomly targeted by this suspect? >> i don't have any information on that at this point. i have been in touch with the philadelphia police detectives, actually was speaking with them when we were approaching the vehicle to determine who was inside the vehicle. they have been great to work with but they would have the best information. >> and the gps technology attached to his car, that was critical, right? >> it was. but it was just a tool we utilized. the gps allows us to be in the ballpark but it still takes the agents on the ground to get in that area, locate the item we're looking for which in this case
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was that vehicle and once we found the vehicle, take the appropriate action to intervene and save the woman. >> congratulations to a job well down. thankfully this woman is okay. thank you for joining us. timothy jones. the raid that killed osama bin laden now back in the news. the huge controversy erupting over a former navy s.e.a.l.s' claim that he shot and killed the leader. he a the man accused of kidnapping the university of virginia student hannah graham. not to be focusing, again, on my moderate my goal was to finally get in shape. to severe chronic plaque psoriasis. so i finally made a decision to talk to my dermatologist about humira. humira works inside my body to target
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we're following breaking news. about the raid that killed osama bin laden. it's touching off a huge controversy right now. cnn's brian todd is follow thing story for us. >> a former s.e.a.l. named robert o'neil is claiming to be the s.e.a.l. that fired the kill shot that killed osama bin laden. it's being reported in "the washington post." but tonight, there's also serious and credible doubt being cast on his claim. a former navy s.e.a.l. comes forward, saying he's the man who killed osama bin laden. sources in the special operations community tell cnn national security analyst peter bergen, he claims to be the shooter. o'neal is a decorated former s.e.a.l. from montana who now works as a motivational speaker. >> my name is robert o'neil.
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i was a navy s.e.a.l. for almost 17 years. >> reporter: he said he fired a shot that struck bin laden in the forehead. theleader died instantly. but sources say another s.e.a.l. fired the fatal shot from the area of the stairs leading to bin laden's floor, as bin laden peered out the door of his bedroom. >> most of the people in the s.e.a.l. community i've spoken to say that the night that bin laden was killed, somebody called the pointman, who is never going to identify himself, is the guy who took the first shot and winged him and bin laden collapsed on the ground and finished off by two other s.e.a.l.s. >> reporter: separately, a u.s. military official told cnn's barbara starr there was a s.e.a.l. named robert o'neil on that mission but don't know if he fired the kill shot.
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bergen acknowledges the scene was confusing. >> it was a night with no moon, no electricity in the house. a helicopter had crashed. there were two or three firefights. these guys were wearing night vision goggles and the whole event of killing bin laden my guess took place in ten seconds. >> reporter: the head of the s.e.a.l. command sent a letter reminding s.e.a.l.s not to break their code of silence. former s.e.a.l. john mcgwire said neither should have spoken about the raid. >> everybody wants to know how special operations folks do things. our enemy wants the know more than we do. we've got to protect future missions. >> reporter: we tried to reach robert o neil but we could not get him to comment. he told "the post" the s.e.a.l.s expected bin laden's compound would be heavily guarded and booby trapped and was the first mission where he thought he
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would be killed. >> thank you very much. there's also breaking news in the case related to jesse matthew. he's the man accused of kidnapping the university of virginia student hannah graham. court documents say dna evidence links matthew to another case near washington. let geese in depth with investigative journalist coy barefoot. coy, this link had been made between matthew and the victim of a 2005 fairfax county rape just outside washington. the rape victim they found some dna underneath the victim's fingernails. apparently dna match mag thousand. what are you hearing about this? >> reporter: it's explosive news, wolf. today for the first time we're getting a look inside the case in fairfax. the case prosecutors have against jesse matthew in this september 24, 2005 rape and attempted murder. likely his blood cells, skin cells found beneath the
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fingernail of the victim, so that is solid, reliable, scientific evidence that says jesse matthew is guilty. it's not only that, prosecutors have a living witness, the victim herself who is ready to come into court to share her story, her harrowing, gruesome tale and she's ready to say that's the man who grabbed me, that's the man who raped me and choked me and beat me and left me for dead. so at this point, we're asking what is a defense attorney to do? no source thinks jesse matthew will get the insanity defense. it's really high bar in virginia. it's not like the o.j. case where somebody just stumbled across blood on a sock lying on a floor. if they are smart, and i think they are, they are giving serious thought right now to how
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to negotiate an outcome for a guilty plea. that's likely what's going on now. >> in other words, if he mads guilty, he might not be subject to the death penalty but could spend the rest of his life in jail. remember, he's innocent until he's proven guilty. but that's presumably -- would you think the prosecutors would be willing to go along with that kind of a plea deal? >> the minimum charge, wolf, if he is guilty of all three of these felony charges of abduction, of rape, and of attempted capital murder, the minimum charge in virginia would be 35 years. so it's 35 years to life. the prosecutors want to get as much as they can, and the defense will try to -- if they come with a guilty plea, will try to negotiate as close to that 35 years as they can. >> coy barefoot, appreciate it very much. thank you for joining us. coming up, new battle lines between president obama and the
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new republican-led congress. we'll talk about it with the senior adviser to the white house. and a terrorist bombmaking genius believed to have been killed. oes and titans. for respawn, building the best interactive entertainment begins with the cloud. this is "titanfall," the first multi-player game built and run on microsoft azure. empowering gamers around the world to interact in ways they never thought possible. this cloud turns data into excitement. this is the microsoft cloud. we asked people a question how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to like, pull it a little further got me to 70 years old i'm going to have to rethink this thing it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more. so maybe we need to approach things differently,
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>> after fighting words like that, does the obama white house have any hope of working with the new republican controlled congress. i'll ask adviser to the president. plus, we have an exclusive look at the deadly work a terrorist bombmaker was doing. plus, vans and cars used as weapons of terror. could it happen here in the united states? new fears that protests will turn violent again in ferguson, missouri, when a grand jury decides whether to indict the officer who killed michael brown. that could happen soon. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >> this is cnn breaking news. >> the breaking news this hour, a secret move by president obama in the war against isis. sources say he recently sent a let tore a long-time adversary iran's supreme leader suggesting the two countries might work
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together against isis if they resolve their dispute over iran's nuclear program. this as the president faces new hostility at home. the house speaker john boehner speaking out today about the republican's election sweep this week and offering some tough worlds for the white house. i'll ask the president's senior advis adviser dan pfeiffer about those stories. first, let's go to dana bash. dana? >> reporter: wolf, i was expecting a little bit more kumbaya today, but bipartisan and a divided government is what everybody is talking about but clearly not so easy in these times. house speaker john boehner minced no words, warning the president not to use his executive power to change the broken immigration system without congress. >> when you play with matches, you take the risk of burning yourself. and he's going to burn himself
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if he continues to go down this path. >> reporter: surprisingly confrontational. quite different from the post election talk of compromise and getting things done. what was supposed to be a let's work together op-ed from boehner and incoming republican senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, included "renews our commitment to repeal obamacare." republicans know that's not going to happen while president obama is in office. how do you expect the president to trust that you really want to work together when out of the gate you say you want to repeal his signature law that you know has no chance of getting a veto proof majority, how do you expect him to trust you? >> my job is to listen to the american people. the american people have made it clear, they're not for obamacare. ask all those democrats who lost their elections tuesday night. a lot of them voted for obamacare. >> reporter: but he's not right about what americans think about obamacare according to polling. 57% of americans actually either support obamacare or say it
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doesn't go far enough. infuriated by the president's plans to issue executive orders on immigration, one he delayed until after the elections. >> i feel obliged to do everything i can lawfully to make sure that we don't keep on making the system worse. >> reporter: boehner personally wants immigration reform but always been up against deep pocketed conservative groups and rank and file republicans who don't. that, plus what republicans view as the president's defiance at his own post election news conference a day earlier fueled boehner's combative tone. >> if he acts on his own outside of his authority, he will poison the well and there will be no chance for immigration reform in this congress. it's as simple as that. >> reporter: boehner added he
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doesn't just see his job as getting along with the president. this may be just bravado from both sides, but when we're talking about poison wells and waving red flags in front of bulls, it's not a good sign everybody got the message, which is washington needs to work. >> washington certainly does need to work. after the speaker's fiery comments, you have to wonder what will happen tomorrow when president obama meets with congressional leaders of both parties over at the white house. let's bring in our white house correspondent michelle kaczynski. michelle? >> reporter: we can all use a bourbon summit. after hearing these warning shots over the last days, when this is all supposed to be presented as this new special of cooperation. we did hear the white house say that the president is open to doing things differently, that he sees places to make changes that he will make changes in order to move things forward. the white house says that
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cooperation starts now, with this big meeting tomorrow over lunch, 16 top congressional leaders. and the white house said this is a starting point, a way to dig down and find those areas of common ground. work on that now. some obvious beginnings would be infrastructure, forging a new authorization for the use of military force in iraq, more ebola funding. so the view that's been put out there is now is the time for us to really work together. the reasonable question would be, why didn't all this happen before? here's how the white house responded. they acknowledge that, yes, there is more that could have been done, even on the part of the president. we asked the question -- from both democrats and republicans was that he didn't reach out enough, that he didn't engage enough. the white house acknowledged that, okay, yes, more could have been done, but they're putting the onus on republicans saying that in the past, republicans
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saw a political gain and opposing everything the president wanted to do and now, just maybe they might see some benefit in finding that common ground, wolf. >> michelle, thank you very much. she's going to be very, very busy. let's get some more. joining us here in "the situation room," dan pfeiffer, the assistant to the president, senior adviser to president obama. dan, thank you very much for coming in. >> thanks for having me. >> what's your reaction to what we heard from the speaker? he was tough and blunt. if the president does something unilaterally through executive action changing the immigration system, he's playing with matches and there will be fire. he said don't do it, mr. president. >> look, the president has worked hard to pass immigration reform. he's held off, he's been patient on this. and he feels rightfully so that the families who will be affected by this cannot wait on the hope congress will do it. i believe the speaker was asked, can you guaranty you would bring
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it up if the president did not take action, and he could not guaranty that. >> let me interrupt for a second. you're saying if the congress does not consider comprehensive immigration reform in the coming weeks before the end of this year, the president will sign an executive order changing the rules. >> as he said, he will do what is -- by the end of the year, what options are legally available to him to fix our broken immigration system. there's no reason that congress can act after the president and the second they do that, they will supersede his order and get what they want. >> the speaker says, mitch mcconnell, they see this as a poke in the eye. they think that would be terrible. >> we have to understand, we live in a world of divided government. we have a very conservative republican congress in the house. they're going to pass bills that we are not going to sign.
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and we're going to take executive actions they're not going to like. what we can't do is use those things as an excuse to not work. what if the president came out and said, if the house of representatives passes repeal of obamacare, they're going to poison the well and not work on them with anything. that doesn't make sense. let's find the things we can agree on and work. the president is realistic about the challenges we have, but he wants to use the meeting to make progress. we have to deal with ebola and authorization for military force for isil. >> so between now and the end of the year, millions of undocumented residents of the united states will have a pathway to some legal status, based on what the president signs into law? >> i'm not going to get into specifics of what the president is going to do, but he will use what authority he has to do what he can do fix the broken immigration system.
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it's an important thing to do. these families have waited too long. >> that will be a huge issue at this luncheon tomorrow. mitch mcconnell, the new -- he's going to be the majority leader in the senate, and the speaker, they were very, very blunt in their comments. they said, mr. president, don't think about doing that. there's a legislative process, go through the congress. >> we've been waiting a long time. the senate passed a bill with 69 votes. the house has never begun to act on it. so the president has to act. it's the right thing to do. he made a commitment. but let's not make that an excuse to not work together on the things we can agree on. >> what do you say to those who argue, the democrats suffered a huge, huge political setback this week. those who went out and voted, they voted by and large for republicans and say, mr. president, hear what we're saying. >> as the president said yesterday, the voters sent a message. he's listening to that.
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and the 2/3 of voters also sent a message. they are so frustrated they didn't think it was worth the effort to vote. the president is going to work hard to address that, that means doubling down our efforts to work with republicans, we're realistic, but people expect results. so the things we can do on our own, we're going to do that, as well. >> if the congress passes legislation, major changes or tingering with obamacare, will the president sign those into law, veto those pieces of legislation? they're going to have the votes in theous and the senate. >> we've always said if people have good improvements, we will listen to those, whether they come from republicans or democrats, from the business community or elsewhere, we will do that. what we're not going to do is undermine the core promise of the affordable care act. if they send those bills in, we
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will veto them. >> here's the bottom line question, we've got a lot more coming up. the president is not only the commander in chief, the leader of the united states, he's also the leader of the democratic party. did the democratic party, did the president going into this most recent election screw up? >> look, this was a very tough night for democrats. the president and his team take responsibility for the role we played in that. but where we can improve and see how we can do better in governing, we will take those steps. it is a process we'll go through. >> how many people think the country is moving in the wrong direction, if the economy and growth is improving, millions of jobs are being created. tomorrow morning, more new jobs having been created. the stock market has gone from 7,000, the dow jones to 17,000, unemployment has gone down. it seems that most americans, rich people have felt it, but middle class americans don't think the country is moving in
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the right direction. >> you have two elements here, but it's been about ten years since americans thought the country was moving in the right direction. we had 9/11, the war in iraq, the financial crisis, now ebola, isil. there's been a lot of tumult in society and american people feel a lot of institutions have let them down, congress, the federal government, business, media. so we have to address it. that is not something only one party can address, but also you raised the point about the economy. we're making a ton of progress. we have more work to do, and for individual people, because wage growth has been stagnated for so long, aren't feeling enough of the recovery we've had. we have some ideas on how to do that. we were pleased that five states passed the minimum wage. >> we have a lot more to talk about. i just want to be precise, you're saying if congress doesn't pass comprehensive immigration reform between now
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and the end of the year, the president will take unilateral action? >> correct. >> and the deadline is the end of the year? >> correct. >> we've got a lot more questions coming up, including a letter the president supposedly wrote to the grand ayatollah of iran. stay with us.
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we're back with dan pfeiffer, president's senior adviser. thank you very much for joining us. did the president write a let tore the grand ayatollah of iran urging cooperation, not only in the war against isis, but also in iran's nuclear program? >> wolf, as you know, as
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somebody that has covered the white house for years, we never comment on the private correspondence of the president. our position on how -- on the role -- on how iran would be involved in isil has been clear for a long time. josh earnest fielded a lot of questions earlier today. >> josh earnest, the white house press secretary. you're not denying this was written? >> i'm not confirming or denying anything. >> all right. let's talk about something involving iran, our national chief correspondent jim sciutto reported earlier that the u.s. has opened what is being described as an informal communication channel with iran through the iraqis in order to avoid conflict between the u.s. and iranian military operations under way against isis in iraq right now. is that true? >> look, i don't have anything on that specific report, wolf. we work very close with the iraqis and the iraqis have a relationship with the iranians.
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>> so there might be something indirect? >> i haven't seen that direct report, so i don't want to comment on it. >> you don't want u.s. and iran by accident, if they're flying in the same place, to have their aircraft collide or anything like that. >> most importantly, i don't want to give you or your viewers wrong information. >> but there's something going on, in terms of at least indirect channels through the iraqis. >> we're working with the iraqis very closely in this. >> it's a serious problem right now what's going on in iraq and syria, it gets so murky, who's on what side in syria for example. now there are reports the u.s. bombed some targets that killed so-called moderate syrians opposed to bashar al assad who may have links to these terrorist groups. you heard of those reports? >> right. what's important to understand is we have a very aggressive campaign against isil. there's a group of al qaeda veterans using syria as a base
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of operations to plot strike against the united states and we'll do whatever we can to protect the american people from that. >> clarify what the president wants to authorize congress to do to authorize force in syria and iraq. >> we have the authority that we need to do that. however, it is better for our effort and shows the world we are stronger if we are united in asking congress to work with us on a tailored authorization use of military force. so it's a good thing we can do to show isil and the world that we are united. >> what about ground forces, would that be part of that legislation? some members of congress, including some republicans, want that broader option, if necessary. >> the president has made it very clear. we're going to talk to the leaders in congress about this tomorrow, and our hope is they
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can begin working on it in the coming weeks and we can use the remainder of the year to make progress on this. we know it's going to take some time. >> is isis weaker today than it was a few months ago when this war against isis started? >> yes, we have made real progress here. there's a lot of work to do. we always said it was going to be a long-term effort, but in many places advances have been stopped, but this is a long-term proposition. >> months, years, decades? >> in dealing with isil, it's something that is going to take potentially years. >> this new iraqi government, are they doing anything is >> this is a real improvement over what we had with malaki. we're making progress. there is work to do. they're saying the right things. we have to make sure they follow through, but we've been impressed by some of their efforts. >> tell us about the luncheon tomorrow. the president invited the new republican leadership, the democratic leadership, as well.
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what's going to happen there. >> we want to begin to have a conversation about the things we need to get done right away, funding, we need this soon. we're going to prepare people for -- prepare our infrastructure here in america for ebola and stop it in africa. and also begin working on this use of authorization of military force. so let's work on what we can and send a message to the american people that our politics can work. that we can work together to deliver on the things that people care most about. >> the speaker today outlined five areas, tax code, debt relief, reform the regulatory system, have school choice, are those areas that you want to work on? >> we're going to have disagreement in a lot of those areas, but the president would hike t like the republicans to say out their agenda.
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now that they control congress, they need to be partners. our agenda is clear. let's look at the potential areas of compromise and work on those. we're not going to agree on everything, but if there's places where we can get something done, let's do it. >> the president referring to the fact that the incoming majority heeder is from kentucky. he said maybe they'll have a little kentucky bourbon tomorrow. >> i don't know that this will be a liquid lunch tomorrow, but hopefully they'll do that sooner rather than later. i think we'll have a time for them to get together. we're going to have to spend a lot of time working with senator mcconnell. >> the criticism is the president hasn't schmoozed enough with these guys. he's going to do a little more schmoozing? >> yeah, look, we can certainly do a better job and try to build a relationship with senator mcconnell. >> six years in, does he still
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like being president? >> he loves being president. never in his life or any of our lives have we had a greater opportunity to do more good for people than we have right now and we have to take advantage of it, and as he said, try to get every last drop of opportunity out of these last two years. >> good luck. >> thank you, wolf. >> the whole world is counting on some good cooperation here in washington, because it's so critical. dan pfeiffer, thank you very much for joining us. just ahead, u.s. air strikes fake out a wanted terrorist who was developing new kinds of bombs. we'll show you what he was working on. vans and cars being turned into deadly weapons. new information about this kind of attack happening not only in canada and israel, but right here in the united states. turn the trips you have to take,
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new u.s. air strikes targeting terrorist factions in syria have scored a critical hit, saying a key bombmaker for the terrorist group khorasan was likely killed. khorasan is believed to be plotting attacks here in the united states. what have you learned, barbara? >> reporter: this is a bombmaker the u.s. had been looking for, for a very long time. the u.s. had painstakingly put
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together critical intelligence about where this man, 24-year-old french jihadist david drugeon, might be riding in a vehicle in northwest syria. according to u.s. officials, after tracking him, a u.s. drone fired a missile, striking his car. u.s. officials believe david drugeon was killed, but they are still trying to confirm that. drugeon was a key leader in the khorasan group, a cell of hard core al qaeda operatives who moved to syria from pakistan. the u.s. called them an imminent threat, finding and killing their leaders an urgent priority. >> the united states has very good intelligence about the movements of khorasan operatives, particularly of david drugeon, suggests they either have a guy inside the group or near the fringes of the group or they were able to pick up specific electronic transmissions indicating their
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movements. >> reporter: drugeon was believed to be working on bombs thagd potentially get past airport screenings and facilitating the movement of fighters in and out of europe to syria, and possibly back to the united states. in addition to the strike believed to have killed drugeon, a b-1 bomber and f-16 aircraft hit other cars, as well as bombmaking facilities, and training areas according to the u.s. military. the u.s. has been franticly hunting for drugeon since september 22, when an initial round of u.s. missile strikes failed to kill him, as well as the khorasan leader. the latest strike, an intelligence coup, but the khorasan group may be far from down and out. >> this does not remove the threat of that khorasan poses to the united states. they're likely to have other bombmakers in the group. this is al qaeda's a-team.
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>> reporter: big worry there may be more khorasan operatives out there and the u.s. may not even know who they are and where they are. wolf? >> barbara, thank you very much. let's take a closer look at where that khorasan bombmaker was such an important target and the kind of devastating devices he was working on. pamela brown has this part of the story. >> reporter: u.s. officials considered david drugeon one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world. sources say he was working on a variety of techniques and if he was able to succeed getting the bombs past the airport security, it would cause a great deal of harm. this is the type of bombs, sources say, the khorasan group and one of its key bombmakers david drugeon were trying to create. a nonmetallic explosive similar to this printer cartridge bomb that could be hidden on u.s. bound planes. >> you can get chemicals to make the explosives and put them in
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disguised containers, something that looks innocent. they can bring a number of these innocent looking containers on an airplane and assemble the device on the airplane and no one would know. >> reporter: tonight cnn learned that david drugeon was considered to be one of the most active bombmakers in the khorasan group, working on a wide variety of bombs, some small enough to fit in the palm of the hand. their efforts led to increased security and overseas airports this summer, including asking passengers to turn on electronic devices at check points. >> as long as they keep changing things up, they know the terrorists are probing their actions. it keeps them off step. >> two, one. >> reporter: cnn correspondent nic robertson got a look at how these types of bombs are made. >> how easy is it for an al qaeda bombmaker to do what you are doing in your lab? >> if he has some chemistry, it
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would be easy. >> reporter: a well-placed bomb could puncture the skin of a plane. >> it doesn't take a lot of explosives to bring down an airplane. >> reporter: u.s. officials say david drugeon's death would be significant, because in addition to being a skilled bombmaker, he's a french native with western passport and seen as a recruiting magnet. >> very chilling stuff. thanks for that report. let's bring in our terrorism experts, the former cia operative robert bear, peter bergen and lieutenant colonel james reese, retired. thank you very much for joining us. how key of a target was this david drugeon? >> was, as was made clear in the piece, he was very important. at the end of the day, he wasn't the brains of the al qaeda bombmaking operation.
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that is another guy believed to be in yemen towards the saudi border. he's been making these very hard to detect devices and he's prop da gated his skills to other people. >> what do you make of what's going on, that they can potentially put a bomb that could take down a plane with the size of a cell phone? >> well, wolf, these planes are all vulnerable. and as peter said also, you need to get and put the bomb against the skin of the airplane. so you have to get somebody willing to do that. you can't check your luggage and expect that to happen. so you have to have a suicide bomb we are a high explosive. you put it against the skin, and you could puncture a hole in an airplane and bring it down. that's what happened with pan am 103. they can do it and the technology is fairly widespread.
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siri is the main guy here. you just need somebody with a passport that doesn't need a visa. no secondary check. >> why can't they find this guy, assuming he's in yemen, how difficult is it to find him? >> wolf, you know, through the years now, it's very difficult to find some of these folks. we had this persistent intelligence that's going on, both up in the air, on the ground, we call it the unblinking eye. but these guys get out in the hinter lands where they try to friend in with society because they know the united states is hunting them down. >> have they changed their techniques of communications with all the publicity how the u.s. can use smart technology to intercept communications? >> he's not communicating by anything electronic. you don't have to be a genius to
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recognize the united states' ability in this. >> how does he communicate in >> by courier. if you can get inside the courier network, you can get him. >> i assume they're working as hard as they can to find this guy, that this is a major objective of the u.s. >> oh, absolutely. they would love to go after him. they would use a drone, missiles any way they could. he's truly dangerous. he came very close to bringing down airplanes with these printer cartridges and he's probably the most inventable in taking this whole technology and making it better. but as peter said, they've gone off the grid. no e-mails, no cell phone calls, couriers or mobile wi-fi, which is impossible to intercept. >> colonel, here's a dilemma. let me get your thoughts on what would happen. this guy is wanted by the u.s.,
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the u.s. would like to target and kill him. if he's surrounded by a bunch of civilians, what does the u.s. do then? >> there's a collateral damage assessment made by the commander who gives the execute authority on that missile. one oh of the beauties is, especially with our drones, they're very surgical. if they get into a car, we've done it in afghanistan and iraq, throughout the middle east. we get the drones up there and we can see him get into a car, that's a surgical weapon and we don't have that much of a collateral damage. when the jets come in, the gbus, that's when the collateral damage begins to effect. >> this is a real dilemma for the united states? >> it's a real dilemma, but the drone program has become a lot more discriminatory. but mistakes are made. last year, on december 15, what turned out to be a wedding party
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was attacked by a u.s. military drone. you're always going to make mistakes. >> i want everybody to stand by. we have a lot more to talk about, including a new threat that is apparently out there, attackers using vehicles to plow into innocent bystanders. new information coming into "the situation room" about that. stay with us. wouldn't it be great if hiring plumbers, carpenters shopping online is as easy as it gets. and even piano tuners were just as simple? thanks to angie's list, now it is. we've made hiring anyone from a handyman to a dog walker as simple as a few clicks. buy their services directly at angieslist.com no more calling around. no more hassles. start shopping from a list of top-rated providers today. angie's list is revolutionizing local service again. visit angieslist.com today.
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due to your first accident. switch to liberty mutual insurance and you could save up to $423 dollars. call liberty mutual for a free quote today at see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance. we have new details on the back-to-back attacks using vans to smash into people on the streets of jerusalem. a palestinian turned himself in to authorities today saying he was responsible for one of the incidents that police are calling acts of terrorism. pamela brown reports that u.s. officials are worried about this kind of attack happening here in the united states, as well. one law enforcement saying
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terrorist leaders encourage methods like this, that are easier to execute and grab the attention of the world. we're back with our national security analyst robert baird, peter bergen and lieutenant colonel james reese, retired. peter, there was an article that came out last year, in english, the ultimate mowing machine it's called. one idea it says of how an individual muslim may do so. there's a simple idea and not much involved. all what is needed is the willingness to give one's live for allah and says, get a car or a truck. go to the most crowded locations and go after and start killing people to achieve maximum carnage. and it goes on and on and then it says, you should do this in countries like israel, the united states, britain, canada, australia, france, germany, denmark, holland and other countries. it's happened in canada now.
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it's happening in jerusalem, the west bank and israelis have been injured in this. the question is this -- is this going to happen here in the united states? >> i don't know, but it's impossible to prevent. it's illegal to buy the indpr d indpreed -- ingredients. this is not the first time that they've encouraged people to do this kind of thing. back in 2011, they did the same thing. bin laden said this is a really stupid idea, this is almost a dishonorable way to kill people, al qaeda should do something more dramatic. but it's very easy to execute. >> bob baird, a few weeks ago in terrorist, the canadian government branded him a terrorist, used a car to drive over two canadian soldiers, killing one of them. i know, pause i've spoken to u.s. homeland security people,
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they're worried about that coming to the united states. >> exactly. there's nothing we can do to prevent it. a car going down 5th avenue down the sidewalk would do amazing carnage. the question is, why aren't people reacting to these messages? why in canada did they? i've been talking to u.s. intelligence officials and they just don't know. it's what they don't know that scares them, because these rogue, lone wolf attacks, everybody is expecting them but they can't tell you why they've occurred so far. we're pretty much in the dark, the speed that this jihad is moving. >> what do you do, colonel reese, about something like this? >> well, wolf, a vehicle is a heck of a weapon. other than a gun, it can make mass carnage. what people have to do is be aware, especially in these public places. the malls, festivals going on. you always got to be looking around. we try to teach people, hands
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don't lie. so if you look at people, look at their hands. if you see a car coming fast, get out of the way. you have to react. we have to teach our people to react and unfortunately it's a new day and new world and these are the threats out there. >> it's pretty frightening. this article by the way, very slick in this magazine, entitled "the ultimate mowing machine," the same publication that had an article how to build a bomb in your kitchen. quickly on bin laden, this former navy s.e.a.l. says he did it. you read the book. what do you make of this latest controversy? >> his name is robert o'neil, he's outed himself in "the washington post." his account, no one is go to know for sure. there was no moon that night, no electricity in the building. it was a firefight, a helicopter was down. but anybody in the special
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operations community is pouring a certain amount of skepticism on this guy's account. it's very heroic account. at the end of the day, there was a pointman who took, in most people's views, took the shot that gravely wounded bin laden. >> if you identify yourself, don't you put yourself in danger of revenge by these terrorists? >> maybe. we haven't seen any revenge attacks for bin laden anywhere in the world? >> why is that? >> there's a lack of capacity. bin laden died in a suburban compound surrounded by his family and kids. he wasn't going out in fields of jihad and taking out the infidels. it was a very unheroic ending. he just went out with a wimper. >> bob baird, what's your take? >> special-ops are mad at this
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guy for going public. they're mad at the other guy. their creed is don't talk about these things, serve in silence and they're going to have a rough time. i think it's unfortunate that he's gone public for an event that's been so recent. what can i tell you? >> colonel reese, you were a former delta force commander. what is your appreciation of what's going on here? >> you know, wolf, this is worse than the kardashians in the special operations community sometimes. i think there's problems on both sides. i truly believe that these guys need to have their story told. and we keep them in the shadows. but at the same time, the pentagon and the department of defense keeps these instructions down on them. maybe what it's time to do is go out to a peter bergen or the other guys that know how to write a story, because our chain of command puts it out. let them come in, tell the story, match the operators up. let the operators tell their
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story. they get it told and let someone who knows how to tell a story correctly do it. it makes both sides happy. >> james reese, bob baird, peter bergen, thank you very much for joining us. lots to digest. just ahead, the grand jury report on the michael brown shooting. possibly only days away. we have details of that. protests, the arrests that are under way. in this accident... because there was no accident. volvo's most advanced accident avoidance systems ever. the future of safety, from the company that has always brought you
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ferguson, missouri on edge as we are waiting to learn whether the officer will be charged with the death of the
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unarmed teen-ager. and joining us john lemon and john gaskon and jeffrey tubin. john, what are you hearing ore there because there are rumors that this decision by the grand jury could come outs early as november 9th? >> right. and so many people have been throwing various dates around but the latest information that i would consider the most reliable is what prosecutor and attorney bob mccullough mentioned this week, it could be that the grand jury is still hearing evidence and it could be two more weeks. so possibly mid-november to the end of late november, which is what he said from the beginning. >> you know the old saying, jeffrey, that a prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich if they want. what is going on here? >> i think prosecutors have a lot of influence. prosecutors use grand jurys as a
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fig leaf to cover up what they want to do. you can be sure if this grand jury votes not to indict wilson, the prosecutor didn't want to indict him. if there is an indictment, it will be because the prosecutor wanted one. that saying in my experience is correct. these decisions are dictated by prosecutors far more than a grand jury. >> and don, you've spent time in ferguson, we don't know if he will be indicted, not indicted but the community is on edge, right? >> the community is on edge. but i think the media sometimes is a disservice to ferguson because the couple of days i spent there last week, every day does not look like the rowdy protests. the two days there there were no protests. we went looking and none were found. by saying they are on edge,
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everybody is anticipating something will happen. most people have realized that the officer darren wilson may not be indicted and they are trying to figure out what to do after that. i think most of the people in ferguson are pretty level-headed and much of the unrest is by outsiders or people on the internet. >> troublemakers if you will. is there a game plan in place? because there is one report that they want the rules of engagement 48 hour in the before the decision of the grand jury comes out, how the police should deal with this. what are you hearing? >> well, really within the next two weeks, community leaders will be meeting with law enforcement and i think don makes a very good point. people are very level-headed at this point, especially the community leadership. and they are moving in the direction of working with law enforcement to develop a plan, they are asking that they receive 48 hour notice prior to an announcement, whether there is an indictment or not an indictment.
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and i think it is a good thing. it allows people to come to a table and develop a sensible, measurable plan where people won't be hurt and where people have an opportunity to protest and protest in a safe manner. but people are beginning to have those meetings and those conversation so that a plan can be put in place so no one is hurt and so that obviously hopefully cooler heads will reveil. >> and jeffrey, a totally different subject, while i have you, we are learning about a federal court decision saying that four states that have banned same-sex marriage, that is fine with this court. what does this mean? >> this is a very important decision from the federal court of appeals in cincinnati which disagreed with every other circuit court that has decided this so far. the court in cincinnati said there is not a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, and
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the supreme court has ducked it so far and probably by this june we'll get a decision from the supreme court whether there is a right for same sex marriage or it is a state by state decision. >> any idea how they will rule. >> many believe that this will be a 5-4 decision and anthony kennedy will be the decision maker. most people think he will vote in favor of a right to marriage, but predictions are difficult as i have learned. >> as we all know. >> to my dismay. so we'll see what happens. >> that was a good hedge there, jeffrey. good edge. >> i've learned to henl. >> predicting what the supreme court can do. and tonight a special cnn tonight, a prime time interview
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with the ebola survivor, amber vinson. i've seen part of the interview, it is compelling and i know our viewers want to catch up with that. thank you for joining us. you can follow me on twitter. in the mean time thanks for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room," erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. "outfront" tonight, breaking news, the united states now working with iran. cnn has learned that president obama sent a letter to the ayatollah about isis and the news about the major development next. and the navy sale claiming he took out osama bin laden, speaking out, and new details on what happened that night. and a man arrested for kidnapping a woman on a philadelphia street, how a used car salesman and gps brought him down. let's go "outfront." and good evening. i'm