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tv   Wolf  CNN  June 8, 2015 10:00am-11:01am PDT

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hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. in washington 7:00 p.m. in munich 8:00 p.m. in baghdad. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. we start with new details and new pictures out of iraq. isis forces are moving east from the captured city of ramadi. their next target is a key iraqi military base where iraqi forces mass and plan their next move against the militant group. our senior international correspondent nick paton walsh is joining us live from baghdad. nick you're just back from the area. what can you tell us about the fight and the importance of that iraqi military base? >> well, talking about the military base habbaniyah. this is between the two isis-held towns of ramadi and fallujah and is where for the past weeks since they declared the beginning of the operation to free anbar of isis iraqi security forces and fighting groups shi'a and sunni across the sectarian divide here in iraq are supposed to have been
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amassing to lead their counterattack. now, they say there are in evidence around the city we didn't see that. the furthest they would take us first western television to get there, into s this this base habbaniyah and we did not see, frankly, a large massing of soldiers there or fighters or, frankly, the preparations you would expect to see in the effect of a large counterassault being larged. what is clear there, and you can see the pictures here they are in a daily cat-and-mouse game with isis. isis are across the river from their north. the river runs the entire north of that main base and they exchange fire on a pretty regular basis there. so many of the iraqi security forces on that base caught up in the defense of it from its north and i have to say from being there not a major sense of some enormous offensive being imminent wolf. >> well you're an eyewitness account that you had. at the g-7 summit in germany today, both president obama and the visiting iraqi prime minister haider al abadi, they
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mentioned the importance of the iraqi city of ramadi, they said the loss of the city to isis last month was just a temporary setback. where does the fight to retake ramadi actually stand right now? >> well it's supposed to be happening as we speak. when we were there there was suggestions that the town closest to ramadi on its outskirts was seeing some sort of clashes. as i said earlier, there was supposed to be a semi circle of iraqi forces pro government iraqi forces around the south of that city but we haven't seen a substantial move in yet and the condition off that base we were at where this counterassault was supposed to be being prepared certainly in my eyes made that look questionable as a massive imminent move. one of the details that stood out, wolf, we're looking very much the u.s. certainly is, to see how many sunni fighters can get put into this operation. anbar being the sunni heartland in iraq isis a sunni group but
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there are many sunnis who wish to kick isis out of their area. it's vital for baghdad's government to get them on board. the key question is how many sunnis are involved in this counterattack. we asked that question. we were told on paper by one iraqi official there are 2,000 but in reality there may be 500 or so. we didn't see them ourselves, that's a much smaller number and they're said to be out in the field. but if that's the case they're significantly outnumbered by the shi'a fighting groups we saw in that particular base and its outskirt wolf. >> and very quickly, the effort to get the baiji oil refinery where does that stand? that's critically strategically important, obviously. >> well mixed reports if you listen to washington they sound more pessimistic than the iraqis for obvious reasons. the iraqis announced they had taken the city of baiji and outskirts around it. that's all fine and well but the key strategic issue of baiji is it is home to a massive oil refinery energy infrastructure. that's still in isis hands, perhaps a very small number of
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them. but they have threatened ecological catastrophe if they are forced to retreat from there by using bob bioby traps they set up around the structure. but according to iraqi official they have the area around there and that could be a very effective southern buffer for them if they do as was supposed to be happening about now but is being delayed by the violence in anbar. if they do later try and launch an operation to the north to liberate the city of mosul where isis moved in nearly exactly a year ago now. wolf? >> it's been a year already, indeed. lots of iraqi talk but based on your eyewitness account, at least so far limited iraqi action. nick paton walsh on the scene in baghdad. president obama points to progress but also the problems in the war against isis. he says the pentagon is now working on new plans to try to speed up the training of iraqi forces but he concedes in his words there's no complete strategy yet. the president met with iraqi prime minister haider al-abadi of the sidelines of the g-7
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summit in germany and in a news conference just a little while ago the president gave a rather candid assessment of the effort to degrade and defeat isis. >> we have made significant progress in pushing back isil from areas in which they had occupied or disrupted local populations. but we've also seen areas like in ramadi where they're displaced in one place and they come back in another. and they're nimble and they're aggressive and they're opportunistic. so one of the areas where we're going to have to improve is the speed at which we're training iraqi forces. >> let's get more now on the president's assessment of this fight against isis. his meeting with the iraqi prime minister our senior white house correspondent jim acosta is traveling with the president. jim, the president's critics, clearly they're likely to pounce on his comment that there's no complete strategy yet for
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training iraqi forces. why is there no complete strategy? the u.s. has been at war against isis for a long time. >> that's right, wolf. roughly ten months now and keep in mind the linchpin of the u.s. strategy for defeating isis is to conduct air strikes from the air and to train and arm iraqi security forces on the ground. so if the cornerstone of this strategy is training iraqi security forces it is a curious comment to hear from the president "we don't yet have a complete strategy" because it requires commitments on the part of the iraqis. as of right now, i suppose they don't have those commitments and it's interesting to point out, wolf later on in those comments the president said that while they do have the training capacity in iraq they don't the trainees essentially. i'm paraphrasing there but that's what he said. soez so those two comments seem to be in contradiction. the president says he's waiting on a plan from the pentagon to present to the american people to ramp up this training of
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iraqis but yet at the same time he's saying almost in the same breath they don't have the proper number of trainees. so this is obviously going to feed a lot of the criticism in washington and it harkens back to what the president said last summer you will recall wolf when he said "we don't have a strategy for dealing with isis in syria." that set off another round of criticism of the president's strategy and it comes at a time just remember last week, cnn/orc poll nearly two-thirds of americans don't approve of the president's handling of the battle against isis. so all of this is not coming at a good time for this president. i will say though that it seemed as if he patched up that relationship somewhat with the iraqi prime minister haider al-abadi. they met on the sidelines of the g-7 summit and you heard the president praising the prime minister saying he's doing a better job of uniting the country than his predecessor nouri al-maliki and the president said there's going to be more support coming his way. for the prime minister's part wolf, he did say, look he wants
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to see more support, that's why he came to the alps here to ask for support from the g-7. but he's not getting any concrete laundry lists of weapons and training and that sort of thing just yet. as the president said in his own words, the pentagon has not presented him with a plan yet, wolf. >> jim acosta traveling with the president. thank you. up next, we'll have much more on the president's anti-isis strategy that's emerging. right now we'll take a closer look at what's standing in the way. and they call it little siberia because of its remote location. it's also one of new york's highest-security prisons. yet two convicted killers still managed to pull off a spectacular escape. how did they do it? the hunt to track them down. we have new information. stay with us. wish your skin could bounce back like it used to? new neutrogena hydro boost water gel. with hyaluronic acid it plumps skin cells with intense hydration and locks it in. for supple, hydrated skin. hydro boost. from neutrogena.
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>> we don't yet have a complete strategy bauds it requires commitments on the part of the iraqis as well. the political agenda of inclusion remains as important as the military fight that's out there. >> more of what have the president had to say at his news conference at the g-7 summit in germany just a little while ago. he was answering questions shortly after a meeting with the iraqi prime minister haider al-abadi on the sidelines of this summit. joining us from new york is bobby ghosh, he's managing editor of quartz. here in washington, the former state department official aaron david miller vice president of the woodrow wilson international center think tank here in washington. president says he's waiting for a commitment from the iraqi government, that's why there's no complete u.s. strategy to deal with the iraqi military to
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arm them to train them. were you surprised to hear that from the president? >> again, given his earlier comment about no strategy for dealing with the syrian crisis it's fodder for his opponents. part of what he has to say is right, there has to be a large degree of political inclusion to deal with signsunnis on the part of a shi'a-dominated government, to empower local elements in anbar with more weapons, more training more of a mandate. but to say we don't a strategy three years after the what the pentagon and others have identified as a threat to the continental united states not a great comment. >> what did you think about that "no strategy" comment, bobby? >> i'm inclined to cut the president a little bit of slack. i don't usually do. but in this case he was basically communicating the fact that our partners supposedly, in this fight, the iraqis haven't got their strategy in order. so we can have a military strategy from the american point of view but the iraqis are responsible for the political
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piece and if they don't have that as i said, if they don't have a plan that includes the sunnis for the political space and bringing the sunni tribes in from the cold there's not a whole lot that washington can do without baghdad bringing its game to this. >> i think bobby makes a fair point, aaron. the president is trying to put pressure on haider al-abadi and the iraqi government. get your act together bring in the kurds, bring in the sunnis. go ahead, have a strong military go out there and fight, show a will to fight if you will then you'll get adequate u.s. support, training even -- maybe even more ground troops 3,000 troops are on the ground in iraq right now. he's trying to put pressure on the iraqis right? >> he is. but you're dealing with a dysfunctional government which is going to be hard pressed to empower sunnis. the iranians clearly are playing a much greater role they're not going to support a policy by which their shi'a constituents
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are disenfranchised. i think it's not one hand clapping wolf. the reality is 14 years after 9/11 we still haven't ultimately defeated al qaeda and its derivatives so we have to be real i think, about what's possible here in the long-term against this organization. it's not a terrorist organization only, it's now a infrastructure. it's got a polity it's got a caliphate. and it seems to me the problem is we're seeing it will ultimately present a threat to the security of the continental united states. >> what do you think, bobby? is the iraqi prime minister and his government going to do what the u.s. wants them to do -- get the job done? or is it going to be nice words but not much action? >> well i'm afraid it's probably going to be more of the latter. i don't get a sense from prime minister abadi's statements or the statements from other members of his government that they feel an existential threat. they seem to think of isis as a problem in the west and anbar, that's anyway mostly a sunni
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province a little to the north near mosul, that's also mostly sunni. it's a problem among the sunnis. as long as we keep them away from baghdad, we're okay. that seems to be the attitude right now and they need to face the fact that this is an existential threat to the state of iraq. and i don'ter that sense of urgency in the tone of voice and until that comes in as aaron said this is one hand clapping. unless the iraqis feel that they need to take this threat absolutely seriously, not simply to protect baghdad and the shi'a-dominated south of the country but to retake the rest of iraq and restore the country as a political whole. until that day comes, this is -- there's not a lot the u.s. and other coalition members can do. >> i mean retaking is going to involve a much deeper american military commitment. 3,000 to 5,000 special forces
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not just providing advice and training but as spotters coordinators with battalions and brigades and that poses a huge risk for the administration. i mean, do we want prisoners of war? do we want isis captures of americans? this administration is willfully risk-averse on this question. and it's understandable. but we ought to drop the notion that somehow we're engaged like we were in world war ii and ultimately defeating the japanese and germans. not going to happen until you get good afternoon nantz and some governments that fill up empty spaces and pursue an inclusive policy. >> aaron miller "five reasons the u.s. cannot defeat isis." we heard some of those reasons just now. thanks very much for joining us. bobby ghosh, always important to have you on our program as well. thank you. just ahead, newly released video shows a deadly confrontation between police and a terror suspect in boston. we'll go there live for an update on the investigation. and we'll show you the video. ugh! heartburn!
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we have breaking news for you. boston police releasing surveillance video of a deadly confrontation between the terror suspect usaama rahim and police in a parking lot last week. investigators say they had been tracking rahim and moved in when he called to say his good-byes and indicated he was going to attack police. he had purchased three military-style knives. alexandra field is joining us from boston today. alexandra, let's show our viewers the video the boston police have just released. walk us through what we're
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seeing. >> sure wolf. this is surveillance video shot from some distance so it's somewhat grainy but you can see the course of events. usaama a himrahim is approaching a bus stop. three officers move toward him and two more officers rush toward him. we're told in the interim three officers spotted a knife, they shouted "knife" and that's when you see the two other officers rush in. the officers seem to crowd around him, you have a number of fbi agents and one boston police officer. wolf i can't make out the knife in this video because it's, again, shot from a far distance and it's grainy. but what you see is the officers get close to him then retreat and then you see the shots fired. rahim then falls to the ground. what's interesting about this video, wolf it was hugely anticipated. a lot of questions about what happened in the cvs parking lot, why the police would confront a terror suspect in such a public
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place. you're in a relatively busy area. this happened at 7:00 on a tuesday morning. you even see a school bus that drives by as the confrontation as unfolding. we're told from law enforcement officers who showed the video that one of the officers who fired one of those deadly shots did, in fact see the bus and reserved fire waiting for the bus to pass before firing the shot wolf. >> alexandra, at the press conference with the authorities just a little while ago, was there any update on the investigation? i know there's a second person second suspect, maybe even a third suspect. how broad of a conspiracy do they think occurred? >> well you've got these two different investigations that are going on at the same time wolf. as you point out, the investigation into the alleged terror plot. we know they have already netted one arrest as a result of that investigation that they are continuing to talk to another person. but the focus of the press conference today with the district attorney had to do with the investigation into the officer involved shooting of
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usaama rahim. because this is an officer involved shooting it is under the purview of the suffolk county d.a. it's his job. he's charged with investigating this shooting and determining whether or not there are any charges that would be applicable to officers involved or whether or not that shooting and that use of lethal force was justified. this is an investigation that will take some time. the file at the end would be some 1,000 pages. typically, wolf, we would haven't seen this surveillance video until the investigation was complete. in the interest of transparency and accountability law enforcement officers and the district attorney's office thought it was important to bring this out, put it in the public view because it's been so heavily discussed, wolf. >> alexandra, thanks very much. alexandra field reporting from boston. still ahead, in 170 years, no inmate has broken out of the maximum security prison in new york's clinton correctional facility in upstate new york. at least until now. you won't believe the escape route two convicted killers took to freedom. plus new images that could possibly help track them down.
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[ male announcer ] after john huntsman was diagnosed with cancer, he founded huntsman cancer institute. to fight cancer in new and different ways like combining 300 years of family histories with health records to treat, predict and in many cases, prevent, cancer. with the vital understanding that cancer moves fast. and we have to move faster. to learn more or support the cause, go to huntsmancancer.org. welcome back to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer reporting from washington. there are new developments in a major prison break in upstate new york. these two convicted killer richard matt and david sweat, they are still on the loose after disappearing some time late friday night, early saturday. new york state police have just released these pictures of their distinctive tattoos. they're hoping it will help the
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public identify the escaped convicts if they're spotted. right now hundreds of local, state, and federal law enforcement officials are conducting a massive international manhunt ff. >> the first order of business is getting them back. these are dangerous, desperate men. they are literally killers. we have all sorts of personnel deployed. we're offering a $100,000 reward 1-800-give-tip for the arrest or apprehension of both of these gentlemen and we want them back. then we'll piece together how they accomplished this. but there's no doubt in my opinion that they needed equipment that they wouldn't have had and they had to have the assistance of someone. >> a female employee at the clinton correctional facility is being questioned as a possible accomplice. cnn's polo sandoval is on the ground in den mortarannemora in upstate new york. tom fuentes is here with me in
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washington. polo this escape seems right out of a hollywood movie. tell us about it, the possibility of an accomplice. . that's what we're hearing from a law enforcement source telling cnn this new information confirming authorities here in upstate new york have spoken to this woman. they tell us she was a female employee of the prison here. not necessarily a guard but an employee here. a main question is how she was able to help these two individuals make their way out according to this information we're getting right now. they have not released those details. officials have not confirmed that information. but the sources confirming for cnn that this woman being questioned as a possible accomplice. we can look back to the last several days and the information revealed that these two individuals are suspected of having used power tools to cut out of their steel cell and cut into an intricate network of
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underground vapor steam pipes and so eventually they followed that route underground and ended up coming outover one of these manholes not far from where i'm standing. so now that search continues at this hour. the people in this small town on alert as officials are asking them to be on the lookout for these two individuals who may or may not be in the area anymore. >> tom fuentes, when you worked at the fbi and law enforcement you've dealt with escapees, if you will these incidents. what what strikes you the most about this particular escape? it seems pretty sophisticated. >> exactly, wolf. what separate this is is the planning they had and the effort to get out of prison. they makes you assume they had planning of what to do once they got out. many of the prison breaks in fugitive situations, the person takes advantage of a person being left -- a gate being left open or overpowering somebody in the hospital and not
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pre-planned. now what? they can't use credit cards, they have difficulty with transportation clothing cash other issues. in this case they had month, maybe longer to plan this event. somebody else to help them on the outside provide transportation and money and the fact they set this up to not be discovered missing for the complete overnight hours, they were already out of state by the time this fact was discovered in the morning saturday morning so they could have been in canada which is only 25 miles from the prison. >> and by now they could have been almost anywhere if they had outside assistance, a vehicle or whatever money, credit cards, they could be almost anywhere. >> they could be all over. and it's been how many hours since they went? but if you calculate driving time at 50 miles an hour they could be two-thirds of the way to chicago before they know they're missing, before they could put an alert out to be looking for the guys and they have no vehicle description to go on. the fearful thing is they're
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desperate. they're already in prison for murder bot of them and it would be nothing for them to break into a home somewhere, do a home invasion rob the people take their weapons if they have one, take their cash take their car, kill the family and take off they need to do a hassan rouhani to house search to see if that happened. >> and they could be in canada because this prison is on the border between the united states and canada. polo, what's been the reaction in the community where you are? >> what's interesting here wolf, is this major manhunt continue bus it's business as usual. folks are still driving in and out of this community. we watched several school buses make their way past checkpoints. we had to stop at several checkpoints being manned by heavily armed guards also police officers checking out our vehicle. that's the ways whether you live here or not, getting close or driving away from prison that's happening, but, again, it's business as usual at this point. what's interesting, though, in
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speaking to the law enforcement personnel on the ground and what's different about today compared to the last several days is that today is really a work day. it's a monday and so now investigators are confident that this could lead to more evidence. that's because if for whatever reason someone in the community does not show up to work, that could raise questions. if for whatever reason there's an individual that is now learning more about this case and learning forward, that could also be another red flag. so while they have received dozens and dozens of leads, all of which are being followed up on officials here on the ground are confident that even more information will come in the last several days because they are comfortable in saying they will find these two individuals eventually. the concern now, though wolf, is what are these two desperate fugitives on the run willing to do to stay out of this prison? >> i just want to remind our viewers in the united states and around the world, these two convicted killers could be almost anywhere by now. remember these are both
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convicted killers. they are very very dangerous. if anyone sees them obviously, don't get near them but call the police immediately. still to come his shooting death was caught on video. now a grand jury has handed down an indictment against the police officer who killed walter scott. we have new details. stay with us.
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breaking news in the shooting death of walter scott. you may recall the video of scott being pulled over in south carolina for a faulty break light. short time later he took off on foot. the next video you're about to see is disturbing. these images were recorded on a cell phone. scott is seen running away from a police officer, then shot and killed. a grand jury has now indicted the former north carolina police officer michael slager on murder charges. this case in south carolina has caused a huge uproar in the united states. what do prosecutors say? >> a lot of protests as well. this happened very quickly, wolf. the grand jury was presented this case today and returned the indictment hours later. the indictment is for murder for the unlawful killing with malice or forethought, that in the state of south carolina. the judge has been named but not the date of when this is going
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to go to court. this indictment unlike these other cases that we've been following involving police shootings, it was expected. now, the reason why is because the video, essentially, that went viral showing this incident just a few days later and the fact that officer michael slager has been sitting in jail ever since having been quickly fired from the department arrested and charged with murder back in april. so just to remind our viewers, it was the cell phone video showing the officer, slager chasing walter scott who had been initially pulled over for a faulty brake light seen firing his gun eight times, five of which hit scott, who was pronounced dead on the scene. the reaction now swift from all sides today. this is from chris stewart, he is representing the family of walter scott. >> today was just an example that if you keep the faith, even in the darkest times, you'll see the light. this is just step one. we're going to patiently wait for the criminal trial in this
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case and the family is going to patiently wait to see if the city and the police department and the chief is going to accept responsibility in the civil suit because this entire situation never should have occurred with officer slager. >> slager's attorney andy savage is also responding this morning. a statement saying here "we have yet to be provided with the discovery, the state's investigation material that we requested some time ago so we remain at a disadvantage in addressing any questions at this time. time. the grand jury is a formal step but just another step in the criminal process." you might recall walter scott was a 50-year-old father of four whose death sparked peaceful protests in north charles son. but his case being closely followed like all of the others of police shootings of black men around the country. if slager is convicted, he face 30s years to life in prison without the possibility of parole wolf. >> we'll see what happens. obviously a disturbing case in the united states.
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thanks very much. another rescue of migrants is happening right now in the mediterranean. we're going live to italy. we'll hear more on the fate of thousands of people trying to make it safely to european shores. here's a little healthy advice. take care of what makes you, you. right down to your skin. aveeno® daily moisturizing lotion with 5 vital nutrients for healthier looking skin in just one day. aveeno®. naturally beautiful results® for the millions of americans suffering from ringing in their ears, there's no such thing as quiet time. but you can quiet the ringing with lipo-flavonoid, the number-one doctor-recommended brand. relieve the ringing with lipo-flavonoid.
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you total your brand new car. nobody's hurt,but there will still be pain. it comes when your insurance company says they'll only pay three-quarters of what it takes to replace it. what are you supposed to do, drive three-quarters of a car? now if you had a liberty mutual new car replacement, you'd get your whole car back. i guess they don't want you driving around on three wheels. smart. new car replacement
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is just one of the features that come standard with a base liberty mutual policy. and for drivers with accident forgivness,rates won't go up due to your first accident. learn more by calling switch to liberty mutual and you can save up to $423. for a free quote today,call liberty mutual insurance at see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance. a shakeup could be coming in turkey as a result of this weekend's parliamentary elections. the current ruling party of president erdogan failed to grab a majority which will lead to a coalition government. plenty of questions about turkey a nato ally in its
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future. our senior international correspondent arwa damon is in istanbul. >> wolf these parliamentary elections are most definitely bringing with them a period of historic change. one that is going to be fraught with political challenges and possibly even a very protracted period of political and instability as the various parties attempt to form some sort of coalition and that is going to be of concern if it does end up impacting turkey's stability. turkey has, of course been an at times difficult but key ally to the united states. at times taking significant measures to try to stop the flow of foreign fighters through turkey on to the battlefield in both syria and iraq. it is fairly accepted that those measures will continue to be
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implemented. national security is everybody's utmost priority. but what sort of specific role the next government will be willing to play what sort of direct actions, military or otherwise, they will be willing to take all of those are unknown factors at this stage that is causing some concerns especially given the type of enemy isis is wolf. >> arwa damon in istanbul thank you. staying overseas another 1200 refugees rescued in the mediterranean by the british royal navy. they're the latest of 6,000 migrants rescued while fleeing the violence in libya heading toward italy. and that is just this weekend alone. our senior international correspondent nic robertson is joining us now from italy in front of one of the migrant ships. what's the latest over there, nic? seems like tens of thousands of people are trying to flee north africa for italy and elsewhere in europe as we speak.
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>> wolf if you compare this time this year to this time last year it's almost double the number of migrants that have come across the mediterranean. close to 100,000. as we look they're still coming off down that gangplank there off the hms "bulwark." that's a british naval assault ship that rescued close to 1200 migrants. i talked to the captain earlier, you can see a couple more men coming off there. i talked to the captain earlier, he told me he felt sure if he hadn't taken his vessel there to these tiny rubber inflated dingies that he felt sure the migrants would be dead today. if we look in this direction here you can see the migrants lining up there. they get screening, medical screening and then they get processed by the immigration services here in italy. on board this ship there have been air trayians egyptians,
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libyans, nigerians, pakistanis as well. so these people are very lucky according to the captain of this ship. there were 10 pregnant women on board. i asked the captain about those women as well. he told me one of the women when they rescued her her waters broke, they decided that her pregnancy and the birth wasn't going well. they put her in a helicopter flew her to malta and the captain said she had a very safe birth, gave birth to the a son, wolf. >> nic robertson joining us from italy. obviously a critically important story. we'll stay on top of that. thank you. up next he''s attracting large enthusiastic crowds on the campaign trail in the united states. now senator bernie sanders making a strong showing in a democratic straw poll. our political analysts are standing by. what's going on with bernie sanders? stay with us.
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. let's get to american politics. hillary clinton wins the straw poll of wisconsin democrats but the big surprise was the very strong showing by her challenger senator bernie sanders. he took 41% of the votes and finished in second place behind hillary clinton who took 49%. the other democrat tech candidates of possible contenders were far behind in the single single digits. let's bring in our chief
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political analyst gloria borger and cnn analyst ron brownstein. >> look it's clear that with the base of the democratic party there's a lot of resonance for bernie sanders who is to the left of hillary clinton who is growing to the left of herself every day and if you look at wisconsin, there's an element of mad sob madison, wisconsin, of liberal left leaning democrats. so they were supporting bernie sanders. but it shows you where a lot of the activity is in the democratic party. >> he's drawing huge crowds relatively speaking wherever he goes. >> i don't think 41% of the democratic attendees were expecting or preferring bernie sanders to be the nominee. look they want to make a statement that we're here and you have to listen to us and i think that bernie sanders is
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very unlikely to be the democratic nominee but speaks for a portion of the base and i think above all of that base wants to make sure that hillary clinton knows that they are there. i think he can be an effective vehicle for that. whether he can be an effective vehicle for anything more substantive than that we will see. >> is he pushing her further to the left? >> yeah, i think he is. i think it's elizabeth warren. i think this started before bernie sanders officially got in the race. look the democrat tech party has shifted since bill clinton ran for president. he was kind of the centrist. it won't work to be the centrist because it's moved so far to the left. >> i would say the party has moved on cultural issues and hillary clinton has followed that on things like immigration, gay marriage. we've seen her take a position. on the economic side it's really unclear where she's going to land. she's not shown a lot of her -- it's likely she will be somewhere to the left of where bill clinton was with welfare
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reform and balanced budget. >> trade? >> she has not followed them in opposition and opposition and on some of the spending issues. >> hillary clinton, as secretary of state, disagreed with the president because she wanted a more muscular intervention in syria, for example, which she wrote about in her book and she's going to have to balance that with the party who is still smoul smoldering over her vote. >> republican governor scott walker is doing well in iowa. i want you to listen to this clip about the possibility of sending troops back to iraq. >> i don't think we should ever send a message to our foes as to how far we are willing to go. >> so you wouldn't rule out a full-blown -- >> i wouldn't rule out boots on the ground. >> would you rule out a full-blown boots on the ground in iraq? >> if the risks here in this
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country are broad, to me that's the standard we do for military engagement. >> what do you think gloria? >> i don't think he's the first republican candidate we've heard that from. the republican candidates aside from rand paul who now stands out as the exception, are growing increasingly more hawkish, i would have to say, in terms of the possibility of combat. >> hold your thought. i want to get to another story we're following right now. i want to get your reaction to this. the united states supreme court ruled today that americans born in jerusalem cannot list israel as the place of birth on their u.s. passports. the vote by the supreme court justices 6-3. for the past 60 years, u.s. policy has been not to recognize any state as having sovereignty over jerusalem. so the decision is a victory for the executive branch of the u.s. government affirming its power to recognize foreign states and governments. the case was brought on behalf of a 12-year-old boy whose parents tried to have israel listed on his u.s. passport as
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his place of birth. ron brownstein what do you make of this 6-3 decision in the supreme court? >> i think it's executive authority over congressional prerogative, including anthony kennedy as one of the six votes. they may not get six votes on the other issues that they are facing but on the epa of regulation of carbon and the un latter immigration, both of those issues supreme court will be ruling about executive authority and the white house will take some comfort in the fact that there was a majority of vote supporting that in this case. >> yeah i think that's definitely the read on it. they believe, particularly as you head into the debate over immigration, that what they did was legal constitutional et cetera because they had the authority under the executive branch. and so this says yeah you do have the authority to make diplomatic relations with another country. congress cannot do that. only the president and the state department can do that. >> it's good for the executive
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branch decision not so good for the legislation. because the legislative branch passed a law saying if you're an american citizen, have a kid born in jerusalem you could list on the pass board jerusalem. the administration -- republican administration and democratic administrations have said that is not the case. >> and we've talked about this before, this is the central conflict we're heading for. it's more the case than not now and i think we've seen president bush on national security and now president obama on domestic issues pushed the power with executive power and that means that the supreme court matters more as the voice to say how far can you go? we're learning congress cannot stop a dedicated president but the courts ultimately can. >> and the future of this president's legacy in the end may be more determined by john roberts than john boehner. >> major decisions coming up on obamacare, for example, on immigration, a lot of substantive -- gay marriage and important issues coming up.
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that's it for me. i'll be back at 5:00 p.m. in "the situation room." amanpour is coming up next. for our viewers in north america, newsroom with brooke baldwin starts right now. here we go. top of the hour you're watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. thank you for being with me. we want to begin with this international manhunt. two cold-blooded killers, one who dismembered his boss the other who killed a sheriff's deputy now on the run. they just broke out of one of the united states' most inescapable prisons, like an escape from alcatraz. the pair sawed through a wall and tunnelled their way to freedom. leaving behind makeshift dummies in their beds. like i said out of the movies. by the way, this post-it note as well with the words "have a nice day." new york governor