the president goes on to say abdul-rahman was taken in an act of pure evil from a terrorist group that the world rightly associates with inhumanity. like those before him, his life indeed stands in stark contrast to everything isil represents. while isil revels in the slaughter of innocence including muslims and is bent only on sewing death and destruction, abdul-rahman worked to save those injured. isil's actions represent no faith, least of all the muslim faith, which abdul-rahman adopted as his own. fred, we also just got in a new statement from secretary of state john kerry, and i want to read part that have statement to you as well because he provides some new context to this. he says during his time in captivity his family and the entire government including his home state senator joe donnelly worked to avoid this tragic outcome. his mother's searing plea directed to his kaptors is

unforgettable. you may remember a month or so ago his mother took to twitter and really appealed to isis to not do this so her son can could go on doing what he was doing overseas. john kerry goes on to say the fact her appeal went unheeded is only further testament to the wicked inhaw mant of the isil terrorists who have taken her son from her. just as we witnessed with jim foley, the sincere efforts of so many to bring home innocent hostages have been met with blood and barbarity. fred, the last thing i would point out, martin dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, have been in iraq this morning meeting with commanders, u.s. troops on the ground, as well as the prime minister in iraq and he will be report iingo the president on his findings and whether he thinks that u.s. and coalition forces should do more. that could be committing combat troops. we will have to see over the coming weeks what he says to the president, fred. >> all right, erin mcpike at the white house. we are joined by phone now from

spain. carl, help us kind of best understand the messages from this video. it was done quite differently than what we've seen in the past. >> reporter: it certainly was a very different format from the past, fredricka. it was a much longer video than the previous videos. we don't hear any final plea or any final message from peter kassig himself. the first time we see him is right towards the end of the video and we see the man clad in black speaking with a london accent, that they have dubbed jihadi john, standing over what appears to be peter kassig's head and at that point jihadi john points his characteristic knife and says to president obama, describing the president as the dog of rome, saying kassig is the first american crusader that isis is burying. remember, according to his family, kassig did convert to

islam during time in captivity. but the fact that jihadi john refers to him as a crusader seems to be an indication that isis just simply did not buy the sincerity of that conversion. jihadi john then goes on to taunt the americans saying we eagerly await the rest of your army to arrive here and that seems to be a taunt playing into the debate that now seems to be opening up in the united states as to whether u.s. ground troops should be sent in on the ground to fight isis head-on. there also is another message from this man we know as jihadi john. he says that he hopes once isis has fought american crusaders in syria and in iraq, then isis fighters will go on to fight on the streets of foreign countries including the united states and the united kingdom. that's certainly a threat there that isis could be readying to take its fight further afield.

and certainly all of this comes within the context of coalition air strikes on isis positions, and the fact that for the first time isis indicates this video was shot in a town northeast of aleppo seems to indicate that peter kassig, who we understood had been held near the isis strong hold had been moved 125 miles west at this point where he appears to have been ex caughted, fredricka. >> all right. karl penhaul, thank you so much for that. our next guest thinks the focus is not the beheadings. jeremiah o'keefe joins me from dallas, a former white house middle east adviser. jeremiah, explain that for me. >> good afternoon, fredricka. the video is approximately 16 minutes long, and only one minute of the video is the beheading of the american. the other 15 minutes is talking

about the allegiance or alliance, i should say, that has been created with other jihadists in sinai. what is not in it is the same alliance that was created in lebanon this past week. it talks about north africa. and then what's fascinating is the map. they show rome falling. they show the spread of isis throughout europe. they show it to the you states. they show it spreading into china. the reason why there was no conclusion 0 to it, it's more of a declaration of international war and unlike the other vides s before this one focuses on christianity. >> the spread of its message of its intent, clear hi designed to spread fear but how seriously

should western countries, or even china as you mentioned, be taking this kind of message in terms of it being taken to be a real threat or is this just kind of fear mongering? >> listen, we've seen this movie before with al qaeda out of a haven like afghanistan. that is what we're facing right now. unlike al qaeda, isis has tremendous wealth from the oil fields it has captured and the routes of that product to the marketplace. so it's sad in this day and age as we move along the time line here. the possibility of isis acquiring weapons of mass destruction that would make 9/11 look like child's play gets closer every day. >> so how do countries that have a true anti-terrorism effort try to rout out isis by attacking them at the core of their financial face because this

money is helping to finance, you know, its philosophy and reach, how does the u.s. or any other western nation tray to tackle that? >> this is going to be a multipronged strategy, if you will, and the sad point is is that it's going to take years to solve this. we have a second isitarian war that's occurring within islam. that's something that has to be fleshed out on its own. but the united states cannot rely upon the players in the region. >> what do you mean? >> i firmly believe -- well, i strongly believe that the sunni nations like the saudis are actually allowing isis to do what it's doing, which is the dismantling the shia nationses th that are alig with iran. and that has not been talked about much if at all on the air or in writings.

they welcome the dismantling of iraq, of syria. isis has created an alliance with jihadists in lebanon, in sinai, and the saudis might very well wait for this to play out, have iran's position in the region weakened and then strike a deal with that new islamic caliphate themselves. they're a lot smarter than ourselves. we've had two presidencies in a row that have made a mess of the region and, unfortunately, this problem is not going away for the next 10-20 years. >> all super fascinating information you've given us today. jeremiah o'keefe, thank you so much. >> you're welcome. still ahead, america's top marine raising a red flag about the troops under his command. why he says more than half of them are not ready.

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a startling revelation from the commandant of the u.s. marine corps, general joseph dunford says he doesn't have enough manpower or equipment and hatch of the forces stationed in the united states are not as ready as he wants them to be. cnn pentagon correspondent barbara starr is in los angeles after moderating a national security conference at the reagan library in simi valley. you spoke with general dumford at the conference. this is rather alarming, isn't it? >> reporter: it was a very interesting revelation by the commandant. i just left that national security conference at the ronald reagan presidential library where tough administration officials and military owe 0 figureses gathered. as you would expect the war on isis was a top issue but also how is the military faring during the budget crunch and mandatory spending cuts that may be coming from congress. the general has just been on the jop heading up the marine corps about a month, but he was

exceptionally blunt. what he had to say may surprise you. >> in 50% of our units that are at home stationed today, they're at the greatest state of readiness, we are in personnel shortfalls. the high tempo we have today. >> reporter: that tempo, the number of things the marine corps has to do and the rest of the military as well, general dunford doesn't see any of that going away, getting better anytime soon. he has a lot of concerns about this, fred. >> it's concerning to hear that being made public. it seems it would make the y united states that much more vulnerable. i know you spoke with homeland secretary jay johnson. any comment from him about those comments or other things? >> reporter: well, you know, secretary johnson, the head of homeland security, is following the issue of isis, fighters that

may be inspired by isis operating here in the united states. and he is saying that type of lone wolf attack, someone inspired by isis in the united states, a lone wolf attack could hit with almost no warning. i want to you listen at some length what he had to say about this point. >> the new phenomenon that i see that i'm very concerned about is somebody who has never met another member of that terrorist organization, never trained at one of the camps who is simply inspired by the social media for literature, propaganda, the message to commit an act of violence in this country. and our government has become pretty good at detecting terrorist plots overseas against the homeland at the earliest stages. >> so think about what he's saying there. this is not like al qaeda in the old days going to training camps and then coming back and

plotting and planning attacks. what he's talking about are faters that could be inspired. they never have to step foot in an isis training camp. they could just simply be in this country inspired by isis and carry out an attack. secretary johnson told mes a the holiday season is approaching, he thinks americans should travel. they should go about their lives but as he always says, they should still be vigilant. fred? >> all right. thank you so much, barbara starr in los angeles. the attorney for michael brown's parents reacting to the revelations involving the shooting death of their son. >> what are the local authorities trying to mislead this community? >> so how does the public reaction to this new information impact the grand jury potential willy? we ask our attorney who has handled high-profile cases next.

ferguson, missouri, is a town on edge in anticipation of a grand jury's decision on whether to indict officer darren wilson for shooting and killing unarmed teenager michael brown. newly released police dispatch audio indicates the deadly encounter happened quickly and shows wilson leaving the police

station. earlier i talked to a brown family attorney benjamin about what the video might mean for the case. >> at the beginning they said that the police officer suffered a blow-out fracture to the eye and when you look at this video, that seems to be a big exaggeration. why would you exaggerate his injuries unless you were trying to justify the excessive force of the unarmed killing -- i'm sorry, the killing of this unarmed teenager. >> mark oo'meara, good to see you. so, i wond 0 ewonder, will publ reaction to these newly released materials have any impact on the grand jury? clearly the grand jury might have seen this material already.

is it influential? >> i'm hoping that they've seen every piece of evidence that the prosecutor can bring to them. i'm hoping they're not going to base any of their decision on potential community reaction or pressures being placed on them. i'm continually frustrated once again that another sliver of information is coming out 0. everybody wants to offer significance to it and a picture of a puzzle when we have no idea what the global view is going to be of all the evidence once it finally comes out. >> and what is this all about? this trickle, trickle of information and it seems particularly on the eve of what could be the release of a decision. >> well, my understanding is that this piece of information was leaked by us, by the media, because the local paper had gotten hold of it pursuant to a records demand. when they got it, they let it

out. the federal government may have let some out. the local government let some out. even media, though i understand their rights. my frustration is that with such a national event that the mike brown case is that if we're not careful to do this properly it's going to be much worse than it otherwise would be. >> and what do you suppose officer wilson's attorneys are doing right now? how are they preparing for a decision as to whether he would be indicted or not? >> well, i think they're preparing for a number of things. indictment or not, officer wilson's life has completely changed. he will not be a police officer again, in my opinion, and he's going to have to live with the reality of having killed a upping young man no the matter what and, also, that man happened to be mike brown and a national focus on that. in that sense, i think they're manage or prepping him for that. they're also prepping him are for the fact that he might get indicted and if he gets indicted he's going to jail and for the next two years he's going to have to be a criminal defendant

with the nation's focus on him and him alone. >> and then when you are preparing for a high-profile case, you were involved in the trayvon martin case, you're very involved in that territory, what does an attorney do differently in the preparation for an impending case? >> well, there are two cases. there is the case in the criminal courtroom and then there's the case in the court of public opinion and now in 2014 if you're not a good lawyer in both, europe not serving your client well. so they're going to have to get ready for a very intense criminal case. they're going to have to realize every step they make and every potential misstep, every sentence that they say is going to be evaluated, analyzed and they could make a misstep if they're not he very, very krfl. >> mark owe m careful. >> mark o'meara, thank you for your time. it was supposed to be a vacation. instead it turned into a nightmare. over 100 people sick at sea. the fastest growing musical

genre in the world, believe it or not, is electronic dance. this week we continue our series ones to watch with the profile of one of the biggest names in the business. >> reporter: the popular dutch deejay van buren was voted the world's number one deejay a record five times producing his own songs and now owns his own record 0 label. >> it is very difficult to break through because there are so many other deejays trying to be popular. your quickest way to the top, ironically, is to make your own music. not the deejay, actually, but to make electronic dance. >> reporter: his influence is such that he can boast 8 million facebook friends, 1 million spotify subscribers and 1 million twitter followers. dressed in a t-shirt, jeans and trainers, you might not notice him walking down the street but he commutes to work by private jet and can command a crowd by

the mere raising of his arms. >> i have to pick two to watch. first of all, i chose the duo from argentina who have their own distinct sound. they have a very energetic but m melodic sound. the second is from moldova and he had this classical influence in his tracks. he's a very young, very talented guy who sits in his little studio creating wonderful pieces of art. (receptionist) gunderman group.

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saying in part today we offer our primaries and condolences to the parents and family of be a daal-rahman kassig known as peter. we cannot imagine their anguish. abdul-rahman was taken by a terrorist group the world rightly associates with inhumanity. isis release add new video that reportedly shows kassig's beheading. it shows the aftermath of the victim. kassig was serving as a medical worker in syria when he was captured more than a year ago. the former u.s. army ranger and iraq war veteran converted to islam during his captivity taking the name abdul rahman kassig. kassig's parents now have the news that they certainly didn't want to hear. cnn's alexander field joining me now. alexandra, are they issuing any new statements? >> reporter: we are being told

to expect another statement that should be forthcoming at some point this evening. they did put out a statement earlier today expressing the importance, they said, to wait. they were well aware of the reports that had come in but they wanted to wait for confirmation from the u.s. government before saying anything further, asking people to give them the time and space they clearly needed today. paula and ed kassig asking for privacy and asking for their son peter kassig to be remembered for his important work and the love he shared with friends and family. last month the parents publicly pleaded for mercy from kassig's captors. >> most of all know that wei loe you and our hearts ache that you be granted your freedom. >> reporter: their 26-year-old son saying i'm scared to die. i wonder if i should even hope at all. >> i think he wanted to return

back to the middle east and contribute in a very different way, in a more constructive way, helping people directly. he didn't want to be another guy with a gun. >> reporter: he had roots from far from syria and turkey's border. back home in indianapolis he graduated from north central high school, later took classes at butler university n. a statement the school's president says isis has accomplished nothing to act to support the violence. >> peter really believed that an individual can make a difference in the world. through their love and compassion and their init tell generals and their willing to give back, that is the message i think peter would want me to convey. the world has lost a bright light and a compassionate heart. and as we mourn him, i would hope that we all can recognize that the violence must end.

♪ >> reporter: on campus students held a vigil during kassig's captivity n. his hometown local muslim groups embraced his parents. >> there are no words for somebody with so much courage that was willing to risk his life, risk everything. >> kassig took on the name abdul-rahman. he converted to islam months before his captivity, his parents say. in the letter he says he's in a doi dogmatically difficult situation. you and mom love me more than the moon and the stars. speaking on behalf of paula and ed kassig, the kassig family spokesperson says the parents are greateful for the words of support and the prayers they continue to receive from people all over the world, fred. >> all right, alexandra, thank you so much. and now some of the other headlines that we are following.

there were two rare terror attacks near baghdad international airport today. isis claiming responsibility for one of them. a suicide car bombing saying it was meant to hit americans leaving the airport. iraqi police have not released details on possible casualties. and another explosion hit a u.n. convoy, rather, as it was leaving the airport heading for the green zone. no one hurt. new amateur video shows the immediate aftermath of the crash of malaysise aerolines flight 1 obtained by a russian tabloid. it was shot down in july in an area of eastern ukraine controlled by pro-russian acc t separatists. dutch officials are finally collecting the wreckage today. it will be shipped to the n netherlands for investigation. cnn's phil black spoke to me earlier from ukraine. >> reporter: the section they were today is from the area there you are witnessing burning on that tape as it took place around four months ago, fredricka.

>> all 298 people onboard were killed. 170 passengers were sickened by norovirus on a nearly month-long crown princess cruise from los angeles to hawaii and tahiti. the ship docked in l.a. this morning where it was disinfected using protocols from the cdc. the cdc is sending a specialist onboard to do an environmental health assessment. more than 4,000 passengers and crew were onboard that cruise. students at west virginia university are mourning the loss of their friend, 18-year-old nolan birch. he was found unconscious in a fraternity house wednesday. he died friday at a local hospital. now the university has suspended all the greek activities on campus. >> this doesn't define at all whatever happened. it does not define him. >> officials are not giving out details about the incident as they continue to investigate. all right.

health care, obamacare may still be a point of controversy but healthcare.gov is running much more smoothly than this time last year. 2015 enrollment kicked off bright and early. health and human services secretary sylvia burwell says about 23,000 people applied in the first eight hours. and 1.2 million people shopped for plans over the past week. all right, next an american doctor who recovered from ebola is now back home. but the fight over the cost of his treatment is not over. wait until you hear what one lawmaker is demanding he pay back. but first, once our veterans return home from the battlefield, a lot of them face a different and very private fight. according to the v.a., an average of at least 22 veterans commit suicide every single day. now former marine is trying to

change that number and impact your world. my name is mike scottie and i'm a former marine and fought in the initial invasion in iraq in 2003. i just happened to have a video camera with me. the car ran the roadblock and the marines had no choice but to light it up. it turned out to be a father and his baby girl. when i first got home i just went down a hole. i started spiraling down and just wept almost all the way. the first couple of months was garden variety depression and then i started to get angry. you're angry that your friends are getting killed or wounded over there. angry that the country you sacrificed is fighting a war. you start having a thoughts, what are you going to do? am i going to kill myself? am i going to join up and go on active duty and go back to the war and try to get myself killed? when it started to come together as a film, it was a rough cut and i saw other veterans see it and i watched them watch it.

it really started to click for me that this wasn't just my story. this was, you know, everybody's story. every veterans story. you feel it's impossible. you live in a sort of limbo where everything gravitates towards the certainty, chaos and disorder. >> i realized that there was a lot of people out there who were sad or suffering or keeping these feelings inside of them. the advice i would give to veterans, call your buddies. write about it. do something creative. if you think you need help, ask for it.

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all right. well, the president just moments ago confirming the beheading of an american, and now a statement from the kassig family. let's go straight to alexandra field with more on this. >> reporter: fredricka, that statement coming in right now. we'll read it for you. this is from ed and paula kassig. they say weigh are heartbroken to learn that our son, abdul-rahman, peter kassig, has lost his life for his desire to ease the suffering. our heart goes out to the families of the syrians who lost their lives along with our son. fed by a strong desire to use his life to save the lives of

others, abdul-rahman was drawn to the camps filled with displaced families and to understaffed hospitals inside syria. we know he found his home amongst the syrian people and he hurt when they were hurting. as he wrote in march 2012 in a letter announcing he was taking a leave of absence to serve the syrian people, quote, near this land i have found my calling. i do not know much. every day that i am here, i have more questions and less answers. but what i do know is i have a chance to do something here, to take a stand, to make a difference. the statement goes on to say, we are incredibly proud of our son for living his life according to his humanitarian calling. we will work every day to keep his legacy alive as best we can. we remain heartbroken also for the families of the other captives who did not make it home safely. the families of james foley, david haynes and allen henning. weigh pray for the safe return

of all remaining captives held on all sides of the civil war. we remain grateful for the many, many words of support and prayers from all over the world on our son's behalf. we ask people to continue to pray are for the safe return of all captives being held unjustly and all people being oppressed around the world and especially for the people of syria, a land our son loved. heartbreaking words right now, fredricka, from the family of peter kassig. obviously they learned this news today. they had waited for the confirmed reports from the u.s. government to come forward and make this statement. we do at this point know that we will hear from paula and ed kassig tomorrow. they are planning to go on camera, to make a statement. we're told they won't be answering questions but they do want to come forward and speak. >> prayers going out to them indeed. thank you so much, alexandra. doctors say a surgeon being treated for ebola in the u.s. is extremely ill. they say dr. martin salia may be the sickest ebola patient the

u.s. has seen. he was flown in from sierra leone today, being treated in nebraska where two other patients were successfully treated. so far ten people have been treated for ebola in the u.s. one of them was this man, dr. craig spencer from new york. right there. senator chuck schumer spoke out today about the huge cost of that doctor's treatment. >> now as everyone knows, the president requested $6 billion in funding for ebola. well, i think congress can afford to send $20 million plus future expenses to new york city and other localities who are on the front lines in protecting the citizens of this region and the citizens of the country against ebola because what new york city does not only action our city but helps protect the whole kcountry. >> schumer says bellevue hospital where dr. spencer was quarantined should be included in that compensation.

all right. this is your last weekend to vote for your cnn hero of the year. the family of this week's honoree ran a mortuary business that has been a staple of her baltimore community for three generations. now she helps those in grief focus on getting past the trauma. meet annette greer. chicken nuggets, french fries, honey mustard and a milkshake. my daddy ordered the same thing as me. that is my daddy. >> my son's father, he was murdered. their bond, it was just a bond that a the lot of kids don't have with their father. i love my city. i have lived here all of my life, but people here are having crisis after crisis. i believe that the violence in this city and grief are directly connected. >> i feel sad somebody hurt my

dad. >> a child's grief can be very different from an adult's. they can easily lose their identity and their security and that shift can be very dangerous. >> there you go. write your feelings. how are you feeling today? our program provides that safe place for a child to rekocover. >> hello. how are you doing? >> our volunteers help the children explore their feelings. why did you choose red? >> i was angry that my dad passed away. >> and talk about healthy ways of coping. >> get that anger out. we teach our children it's okay cry. had his brother died so he's feeling really sad. grief is truly a public health problem. we've got to begin to address t it. coping is how we deal with our feelings. we're giving families a sense of hope. ♪ >> we're helping to heal wounds and bring families back together

again. all right, still ahead the president arrives back in washington later on tonight. but he's flying into a political headwind. can he avoid becoming a lame duck? ♪ there it is... this is where i met your grandpa. right under this tree. ♪ (man) some things are worth holding onto. they're hugging the tree. (man) that's why we got a subaru. or was it that tree? (man) introducing the all-new subaru outback.

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president obama is heading home after his weeklong trip to asia. when he lands back in washington he'll have a number of battles awaiting him from fighting isis, dueling with congress, to getting a nuclear arms deal with e iran. candy crowley is chief political correspondent and anchor of "state of the union." the president's signed a climate change deal with china, is pushing trade with asian countries, candy, and forging ahead with his domestic agenda. is it too early to call barack obama a lame duck president? >> well, technically if it a lame duck is someone who is not going to take office the next

time that office is open, he's a lame duck, but i think you answered the questions in the intro. i sort of while wait iing for y wrote down what the president has done since the electionses. he's decided to send 1,500 more traps to help train in iraq. he has come out and pushed the fcc for net neutrality to deal with the internet and internet servers. he is putting the final executive order on immigration, refusing to back down on the keystone pipeline. he got business done in china, went to myanmar and he went to australia. so he may be a lame duck, but he's running pretty fast. >> he sure is. let's touch a little bit more on immigration. you mentioned immigration reform among those things on his plate. the president says he is going it alone, but you spoke with the number two man in the senate on your show today, illinois senator dick durbin. what's the sentiment about obama using executive action from his point of view? >> well, from dermott's point of

view he thinks it's fine. number one, you know the republicans have said this is going to -- he shouldn't do it. so much for the air of bipartisan shop. durbin said this is neither fast nor is the president alone because durbin, among many democrats, supports him. >> the republicans can't have it both ways. for over a year and a half we have left on their table in the house of representatives a bipartisan immigration rae form bill to address our broken immigration system. they refuse to call the bill. now they say to the president, we don't want to you lift a finger to solve the problem. this president is not going to go gently into his last two years. he's going to lead as he is expected to as our president. >> so there's a little bit of room here, fred. i've talked to a couple of people who said maybe there's some time in there if the house would say we will deal with this by date certain, perhaps the

president would back off of this. right now it seems set this president is going to go ahead and issue that executive order. >> all right. we'll see how the week pans out, candy. thanks he so much. the president back overnight and we can always watch you every sunday morning on "state of the union." >> thanks, fred. all right. one high school senior applied to 56 different colleges to make sure that she got accepted, and she's not alone. "the new york times" reports that anxious seniors are aplague to more schools than ever because they're are worried about the competition. and then there's the cost of college which keeps going up. but there's one program that actually pays students to go to school while training them for manufacturing jobs. here's chief business correspondent christine romans. >> reporter: some universities are starting to look like resorts with pricey amenities like spas, rock walls, and swimming pools. and they're passing along the bill to students.

tuition expenses have risen more than 1,200%. blackburn in i willinois is keeg tuition costs low thanks to a little thrift. they are he cexpanding with stu work crews. >> we can see where students for years have been literally laying the bricks. we do maintain a pretty lean organizational staffing structure, and that is done with using students to supplement those labor needs. >> reporter: and it's not just construction jobs. 90% of the student body works ten hours per week on campus in everything from gardening to security to administrative positions. in exchange they get tuition credit. what do you say to parents who say i don't want my kid to go to school to work, i don't want

them to be distracted. >> we do have that. we have parents that question that piece of it. what we explain to them this is an enhancement. an enhancement to their overall portfolio that will make them more marketable upon graduation. >> can you grab me 431? >> reporter: this sophomore manages the motor vehicle fleet. they call your generation, generation debt. does that are worry you? >> with the decisions i've made, not really. going to blackburn, i know i'm saving money. with baseball and school and a job i wouldn't have time to get distracted by video games or going out to parties. i actually went to michigan state university. they had big pools, nice buildings, newer dorms. but it was a distraction. i'm here for an education. all right. you can see more about the cost of college at the premiere of "ivory tower" at 9:00 p.m. thursday. thanks for being with me this afternoon. the news it continues right after this break.

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good evening, everyone. you're in the cnn newsroom. isis militants in syria have release add new video that shows the aftermath of yet another beheading. president obama has