, raqqah is in syria, right? whole host of problems that we don't have in iraq, right? so, mike, i ask you, what more can the united states do or should do within syria? >> so one of the things that our special forces community has been concerned about is this advise and consent. they believe they need to have that next step added to their mission set, which would mean that they could actually engage the enemy with our allied forces there, which gets, candidly, better success on the battlefield. but in raqqah most of the military planners will tell you if you have a multinational force that moves in, not a u.s.-faced force, because you don't want u.s. troops going door to door in raqqah trying to clean out that town -- that would be i think a disaster -- but we can leverage up the success of a multinational force that begins to put real pressure on raqqah. if we don't do that, we're going to continue to see that's their center of gravity. that's where they're running all their propaganda operations that take adva

as they see forces encircling raqqah, russian-backed syrians, u.s.yrian rebels, they don't see a way out. the syrian isis members can change their uniform and melt back into the population. for the foreigners, this is a death sentence. so why not carry out a suicide attack? >> david, kimberly, great to see you, thank you very much. >>> coming up, we'll turn to politics once again. we're less than three weeks away from the republican national convention, and the democratic national convention as well. but donald trump is facing pretty big problems in his own party. why then is he ripping fellow members of the gop, saying they should no longer be able to hold office if they don't get behind him? that's next. think big. or demand your own space. don't you dare leave it all behind. don't you dare ask what's next. introducing the first-ever cadillac xt5. ♪ and i quit smoking with i'm chantix. i had a lot of doubts going in. i was a smoker. hands down, it was, that's who i was. after one week of chantix, i knew i could quit. along with support, chantix (va

russia, uzbekistan, kyrgyzstan all by way of isis-controlled raqqah in syria.

and may i also ask you about raqqah. as the world has watched what's happened in istanbul, how urgent now are you beyond the usual discussion of accelerants to see the syrian air coalition and the other fighters get to raqqah, because -- >> oh, very, very eager to get them to raqqah. this is the same group that we've been working successfully, as they have been successful, we've been enabling and supporting them, in to envelope and take, which they will, from is isil, the city of manbidge, which isn't as well known as raqqah, but it's a city from which external plotting has been conducted by isil into europe and into the united states as well and was part of the transit hub from the turkish border down to isil in syria. so that was an important objective. those same forces and that same approach, or really, the same approach and some larger forces, actually, are the ones we planned, and i was just discussing this with the judge the other day along with general dunford, those are the forces that we are going to position t

the attackers coming from raqqah, about a month ago. rented an apartment in istanbul, and one of them left their passport behind. the attackers' nationalities, turns out one of them came from russia, black sea region. another from uzbekistan, and the third suicide murderer hailed from kyrgyzstan. there's a call for swift arrests and raids. senior international correspondent matthew chance joins me from moscow. the story got more complicated with the nationalities coming out and these are caucus regions that have been troublesome before and are troublesome in connection with isis. >> reporter: that's right. there are thousands of people from russia alone, according to the government's own statistics, particularly from mainly muslim areas where there's been a lot of islamic insurgency in decades gone past. thousands from that region joined isis. this is a poignant reflection of how infiltrated russian nationals have become inside isis hierarchy. same in the form of soviet republic of central asia. kurg stan, use beck stan. they've both go

there is strong evidence they entered turkey from the strong hold of raqqah and syria. counterterrorism troops have detained 22 people, including several foreign nationals, just around dawn, the raids swept across the capitol and coast. video that shows one of the airport tackers shooting a police officer. according to the newspaper, the officer had stopped the terrorist and asked for his i.d. and the death toll climbs to 43, after two of the wounded die of their injuries. nearly 100 people remain hospitalized this morning. we're following all the major developments this morning and breaking them down with our correspondents and experts. let's begin our coverage with matthew chance in moscow. hi, matthew. >> reporter: hi, that's right. turkish officials are saying the identity of the three suicide bombers and attackers have been made public. there is somebody from kyrgyzstan, soviet republics. the kremlin said they can't release or confirm what the authorities have already made public, but not expressly ruling out that a rsh shussian nationa could have been described in

they're worried about their citizens going to raqqah.e, chris, simple and it relates to america. when you look at the tradition thatle it error organizations, it takes a lot of effort for a terror organization to say i want to use foreign fighters coming in, not to serve an cannon fodder here, but to train them over the course of time go home. what this is telling us is the foreign fighter element of isis is focused on saying these guys might be helpful in a fight in raqqah, they're more helpful if they go to paris, turkey, maybe america. >> raqqah, why does matter? >> a message from isis to turkey, stop cooperating with the united states. turkey has started tightening up its borders, built fences, turned some people back who are trying to reenforce isis's ranks. isis is under pressure by u.s. backed rebels from the north and by russian backed syria forces coming in from the west. this is a way to distract attention from those imminent military losses on the battle field. >> kimberly, let's let people in on a conversation before. when th

>> signifies open level between raqqah, isis leadership in turkey. turkey has been somewhat ambivalent warrior against isis. they have other fish to fry, including the kurdish rebels and syrian government, but at this point because they're supporting our efforts against isis and those efforts are having success, isis decided to go against turkey. it will pull turkey into the war against isis more, that's a good thing. >> we hear this criticism that the strategy of being just an air campaign is too limited. when you talk about as many as 250 fighters killed in very dramatic attack by u.s. and iraqi fighters jets on the convoy from fallujah, how significant is that number? >> very significant. we have to realize we're dealing with sort of two dimensions of isis. you have isis, conquering military government on the ground, broken up in syria and iraq with iraqi military and air campaign, then isis, the terrorist organization that's not necessarily dependent on control of territory on the ground in iraq and syria. i think as isis begins to unravel in ira

can mosul be taken down as well and what kind of pressure can you bring on raqqah? again, you just can't focus on this, you have to keep the pressure on the islamic state elements in libya that became quite worrisome and troublesome. you can't let the islamic state in afghanistan develop any critical mass. keep an eye on yemen and all the rest. by and large, there's a pretty coherent effort that is now ongoing and it is starting to bear fruit. >>> the cbs overnight news will be right back. why are you deleting these photos? because my teeth are yellow. why don,t you use a whitening toothpaste? i'm afraid it,s bad for my teeth. try crest 3d white. crest 3d white diamond strong toothpaste and rinse... ...gently whiten... ...and fortify weak spots. use together for 2 times stronger enamel. crest 3d white. moisture so i can get into it ao enhance mbit quicker. ral and when i know she's into it, i get into it and... feel the difference with k-y ultragel. beautiful day in baltimore where most people probably know that geico could save them money on car insurance, right? y

can mosul be taken down as well and what kind of pressure can you bring on raqqah?, you just can't focus on this, you have to keep the pressure on the islamic state elements in libya that became quite worrisome and troublesome. you can't let the islamic state in afghanistan develop any critical mass. keep an eye on yemen and all the rest. by and large, there's a pretty coherent effort that is now ongoing and it is starting to bear fruit. >>> the cbs overnight news will be right back. sometimes we use k-y ultragel to enhance my body's natural moisture so i can get into it a bit quicker. and when i know she's into it, i get into it and... feel the difference with k-y ultragel. which means that most nights, this is the potty. these robot sheets, they needed more than detergent could handle. they needed a rescue. otherwise, we might have had to say bye-bye to our favorite robots ya. so we added tide rescue to the wash. it cleans super deep down where detergent just doesn't. daddy, i've got to go potty! progress! go, go, go! eww stinky. introducing tide rescue. eliminate

to turkey, that's the syrian isis headquarters in raqqah to turkey just a month ago. turkish media releasing this photo reportedly showing the terror suspects captured on the airport's cc tv camera. this new video posted online by a turkish newspaper taken from another airport secu camera purporting to show one of the attackers shooting a plain-clothed policeman who challenged him in the terminal. the police officers are being hailed as real heroes for their actions to try to stop the attackers. and today an emotional memorial earlier this the morning at theithe i istanbul airport for 44 victims. many people attending were airport employees. joining me is kelly cobiella in istanbul. an ammon mohyeldin in new york. kelly, this investigation moving relatively quickly but break down what you know about the russian-speaking ethnicity, if you will, of the suicide bomb s bombers. >>> turkish officials will saying one of these suspected attackers was a russian national from the caucuses region of russia. a chechen jihad if you will. we don't have the exact name of this perso

-backed kurdish and arab militias cut off a key supply route between raqqah and mom beesh, another isisd city. and the first city to fall to isis may soon be retaken. militias stormed a neighborhood in southern fallujah saturday. >>> at the same time, u.s. and coalition forces are stepping up their aerial assaults against isis. 23 new air strikes were launched against isis targets on saturday. in syria, most of the strikes took place near mambij. warplanes also targeted six cities in iraq including fallujah and mosul. >>> the accelerated bombing campaign has prompted a u.s. carrier to move closer to targets in syria and iraq. syria was one of the few teams taken on board to see the operations in action. frederick pleitgen spoke to the pilots conducting the strike missions. >> reporter: high intensity operations on the uss harry truman. jets taking off every few minutes to hit isis. now from a better position than before. the truman just moved from the persian gulf to the mediterranean sea, much closer to syria. we spoke to pilots flying one of the first strike missions. >> it was a clos

city of mosul in northern iraq. >> okay, so let's talk about raqqah and syria.ssia conducting air strikes. russia is conducting air strikes. they don't exactly see eye to eye about bashar assad. so president obama called the turkish president today. what do you think his goal is? >> what president erdogan wants is some sort of solution. between the assad government supported by iran and russia, against much of its population, and turkey is on the side of the population. and it wants more help in the fight against isis in syria as well as in iraq. it's a three-sided, at least a three-sided war we have going on. it's very complicated. if all of the major players focus on a cease-fire in syria with the assad government on the one hand and doubling our efforts against isis on the other, we might see an end to this thing. >> i was just going to ask you how the u.s. should respond. when you say doubling our efforts, what do you mean? >> we need to show sympathy to our turkish allies. make sure our intelligence channels are open. and functioning effectively. we have to

we have seen them very close to the isis capital of raqqah and now with syrian and kurdish forces onurkey, arguably an equally important target, the main entry point for fighters in syria for isis. these are u.s. backed syrian forces taking on isis in a critical new offensive. the target, the area that is isis's critical supply route to get arms and fighters and terrorists to europe. >> once you cut off the supply line isis has, you make it very hard for isis to sustain recruitment efforts and ability to carry out attacks. >> reporter: some 4,000 kurdish and arab forces are joining the fight, backed by u.s. forces. the offensive is part of a larger strategy to isolate the terror group in preparation for retaking isis' capital in raqqah. u.s. special forces seen in rare video are now embedded with kurdish forces on raqqah's doorstep. >> the special forces working with kurdish and free syrian army and similar organizations are basically teaching them how to stand and fight as well as providing them with tactical wherewithal and how to prosecute these kind of counter insurgency campaign

are trying to regain the raqqah province.t very difficult. the thing that the united states and the u.s. led coalition is trying also to put in place, is a number of assets that will help with intelligence surveillance and recognizance so we can go into the urban area and flesh out the targets and make sure that we not only act effectively but quick as well. >> we thank you for your comments and perspective on this. as you know once we get into those areas we can hopefully change the hearts and minds and political will is there. thank you so much. >> absolutely. you bet, kelly. >> good day to you. >>> tragedy in texas. rescue crews recovering the bodies of nine ft. hood soldiers who died in the raging floodwaters. there's a state of emergency in 31 texas counties as devastating rain and floods continue with no end in site. will carr is live in rosenburg texas with the latest for us. >> hey there, we'll start with the good news. throughout the course of the day a lot of the waters have been receding, there is still a number of

isis made raqqah the de facto capital.battles on four fronts in syria and iraq. i'm jackie ibanez. >> when you say the greatest of all time is in the room, everyone knows who you mean. it's quite a claim to make, but as mohammed ali said it is not bragging if you can back it up. >> president bush one of the diggingnaitaries from around the world shared their feelings about the champ's sad passing on social media. former president clinton and billy crystal and writing good bye my friend. you were great in see many ways. his wife tweeted mohammed ali was greatest and unmatched not only in power and skill but in courage and conscience and thinking of his family. my next guest donald trump and i have shareded ring side memories. mr. trump, thank you for being here. did ali teach you how to do your oppons. >> maybe be he did. he was a fantastic dpie and really two different people. nicest guy in the world as you know. you anyhow him well. and outside of the ring and inside of the ring. he was an incredible competitor. and very

where russian and pro assad troops are moving on raqqah. chris? >> connor powell thank you. today more of the 49 victims of last weekend's massacre at the pulse nightclub in orlando were laid to rest. as loved ones pay tribute to the lives lost we're learning disturbing new details about the killer's past and what he did in the months leading up to the attack. correspondent steve harrigan reports from florida. >> i need a big house. that's for sure. >> after being shot three times by the killer at pulse nightclub sunday morning. angel cologne had one wish, he wanted to thank the police officer who pulled him through broken glass and blood to safety. >> i've been wanting to see you, the man, that took me out of that horrible place, that was filled with craziness. and i was so happy. >> officer omar delgado was one of several first responders who entered the club while there was still an active shooter. he pulled out four people. >> you only get one life. and i'm glad now he can be with his family and continue living his life. and all because we all assisted him. and getting h

i just wouldn't rule out raqqah i guess, because you could see some kind of perhaps collapse at some point when they are cut off from their turkish supply lines, encircled more. wouldn't rule that out. fallujah is going to go down on this president's watch, can mosul be taken down as well and what kind of pressure can you bring on raqqah. again, you just can't focus on this. you have to keep pressure on islamic state elements in libya that became quite worrisome and troublesome. you can't let the nation islamic state in afghanistan develop any critical mass keep an eye on yemen and all the rest. by and large, there is a pretty coherent effort that is now ongoing, and it is starting to bear fruit. >> he believed that the president has ratcheted up things. they clearly want to have specific objectives achieved before they leave office. >> stop isis in its tracks. really interesting. thank you. >>> a 7-year-old boy survives a week on his own in a remote japanese forest. ahead, how his emotional >>> an autopsy shows prince died from the same painkiller blamed for a wave of deadly overdos

they've got to go to raqqah. we got to have ground troops, we kept saying it's not our fight. it's now our fight because they're coming here. the reality, the reality is, we're going to have american troops in there we've got to prove isis wrong. the whole point of the islamic state is to establish it in raqqah and i can't remember the name of the other place. it's in the koran. if you prove them wrong, it's going to be humiliating. the whole point of this is to prove them wrong so they go away. >> we have to destroy them so they're not attracting you know, jihadists from all over the world and other groups declaring allegiance. for guys like mateen. >> you have to destroy and humiliate them, then they're no longer cool jihad. so they won't be so attractive to these other islamist jihadists around the world. >> i think 400,000 people are dead. it's just, it's a tragedy. now eric says people are dying, but people are dying in lots of theaters around the world. do you want the united states going in all of them? i don't think so. you got to make a choice, the key thing here in t

they will take this in raqqah, syria, process that information and get it through their social media work and it's extensive and very good, very slick. so they're wise at tempering the kinds of information his own words that they're releasing. you'll get a sense what those motives are by the information they release. you'll also get a little sense of his mind-set going through -- remember, this is realtime, this is during the commission of a mass murder. you'll get some of that flavor of his mind-set in those tapes but they don't want to give too much for purposes on both ends of that. one for the isis recruiting tool they don't want to give them and, two, you still have literally thousands of families who are grieving through this process and you don't want to interrupt that either with something a little more roes. >> it will be a horrendous reminder of this. listen, you have enormous experience with this kind of crime, these kinds of attacks. based on the information you know now and we know now, what's your best guess as to what the motivations were? multiple motivations driving

where russian and pro assad troops are moving on raqqah. chris? >> connor powell thank you. today more of the 49 victims of last weekend's massacre at the pulse nightclub in orlando were laid to rest. as loved ones pay tribute to the lives lost we're learning disturbing new details about the killer's past and what he did in the months leading up to the attack. correspondent steve harrigan reports from florida. >> i need a big house. that's for sure. >> after being shot three times by the killer at pulse nightclub sunday morning. angel cologne had one wish, he wanted to thank the police officer who pulled him through broken glass and blood to safety. >> i've been wanting to see you, the man, that took me out of that horrible place, that was filled with craziness. and i was so happy. >> officer omar delgado was one of several first responders who entered the club while there was still an active shooter. he pulled out four people. >> you only get one life. and i'm glad now he can be with his family and continue living his life. and all because we all assisted him. and getting h

i wouldn't rule out raqqah i guess because you could see perhaps some collapse at some point. when they're cut off from their turkish supply lines, where they're encircled a bit more. we never rule that out, but -- certainly would fallujah's going to go down on this president's watch. can mosul be taken down, as well, and what kind of pressure can you brooklyn bridge -- you can bring on raqqah? you can't just focus on this, you've got to keep a focus on the islamic state in libya that became worrisome and troublesome. you can't let the nascent islamic state in afghanistan develop critical mass. keep an eye on yemen and the rest. and by and large, there is a pretty coherent effort that is now ongoing, and it is starting to bear fruit. >> now, he believed that the president has ratcheted up things. and they clearly want to have specific objectives achieved before they leave office. >> stop isis in its tracks. >> right. >> interesting. thank you. >>> a 7-year-old boy survives nearly a week on his phone a remote japanese forest. ahead, how his emotional parents are responding afte

they don't want to stay in raqqah and face the bombings.out, come back through turkey, come back any way they can. the migrant trail is once again moving, not on the scale that it did last year but still is under way. and that is also concern. that as you smash them in iraq and syria, they spread out. or they just inspire the ones like this, this awful shooter in orlando who was clearly full of hate. and i think you're absolutely right to focus on these reports about him going to that club. you don't go to a club a dozen times, sit down, dance, and drink your head out to case a joint. there's something much more profound going on there. >> there's something going on there that is very at this point puzzling and it's going to end up being an important part of understanding this. richard engel, nbc news, chief foreign correspondent, up well before dawn in istanbul, appreciate it. >>> we have confirmed that experience the thrill of the lexus is f sport. because the ultimate expression of power, is control. this is the pursuit of perfection. i

it advancing through raqqah province towards the de facto capital raqqah city.of iraqi military, police station shia led units and sunni fighters have been closing in on the isis stronghold of fallujah. >> this will take weeks, it's not going to be fast. again, they have to go block by block clearing ieds. >> reporter: mcgurk says it's shrunk. >> morale is plummeting. we're seeing them execute their own fighters on the battlefield. we're seeing them unable to move around the battlefields and the recruits paul up precipitously. >> reporter: isis is under severe stress from within. jonathan mann, cnn. >>> there is possible new evidence in the search for lost malaysia airlines flight 370. we will have the details on that coming up. >> plus, why brazil's new health minister downplays the risk of catching zika during the olympics. stay with us. if you have medicare parts a and b and want more coverage, guess what? you could apply for a medicare supplement insurance plan whenever you want. no enrollment window. no waiting to apply. that means now may be a great time t

to turkey, that's the syrian isis headquarters in raqqah to turkey just a month

to raqqah. and i think it is not a rumor, but it is an established fact that some of the weapons were dropped to the terrorists earlier on, really, and not only once, more than once. i believe that the space for terrorism between raqqah and mosul is the same space, and therefore, we should fight it together. and that's why i said i can't see why the russian federation and the united states cannot join hands in fighting terrorism both in syria and iraq. this would be the best way if we honestly, if everybody honestly believes in fighting and defeating terrorism. the problem that i face and the problem that we all face, and now it is confirmed to me by the questions of the respectable audience, is that there is no honesty in handling this issue, and there is a lot of rumors that are taken as a fact. unfortunately, investigative journalism is no longer here, and i can see that rumors are making up the minds of so many of the respected journalists, which is a shame, which really is costing us blood

the city of raqqah is an isis stronghold. the syrian observatory for human rights says six of the victims were children, but it's not clear who carried out tuesday's raid. >>> overnight, firefighters out west worked to control a series of wildfires. hundreds of homes remain at risk. the san gabriel complex fire, two adjacent fires that started yesterday, has burned 7.5 square miles and is 10% contained. the foothills northeast of los angeles are ablaze. flames broke out within feet of residential streets. residents in over 750 homes have been forced to evacuate. some may be able to return today, though. near the u.s./mexico border, southeast of san diego, the border fire has destroyed over 6,000 acres and several outbuildings. residents in about 600 homes were ordered to evacuate, but some simply refused to leave. >> we know when to leave. we don't evacuate just because. we evacuate pretty much when the flames are on our heels. we're pretty hard core out here. >> in new mexico, out of abkerry, a wildfire -- albuquerque, a wil

special forces are making preparations to retake isis key strongholds in mosul and raqqah. we have killed some 25,000 isis fighters and more than 120,000 key isis leaders. we have cut isis funds by a third or more. we literally destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars in cash that they were hoarding and reduced by a dramatic amount their ability to realize profits from oil reserves and resources in that part of the world. we have drastically slowed the flow of foreign recruits from a high of about 2,000 a month in 2014 to 200 a month today. and there also goes for young americans who have sought to travel or join isis. one year ago about every month about ten americans were leaving this country to join isis. today that number is one per month. and at home the fbi is cracking down on recruits as well. over the past two years, the fbi has arrested 88 individuals on isis-related charges. i was a naval flight officer for 23 years. combined active and reserve, i served five years in a hot war in southeast asia. i know a little bit about fighting wars. another 18 years up to the

at least one arrived in turkey a month ago from the isis stronghold of raqqah in syria. turkish media saying the three attackers rented an apartment on this busy istanbul street paying for three months up front in cash, adding a security door, keeping the windows shut and curtains drawn. inside a strong chemical smell, according to one neighbor. turkish officials say the explosives used in the attack were military grade. this is the heavy security door, and neighbors say the bomb squad, forensics and special forces have all been here. one of more than a dozen raids across istanbul and the coastal city of izmir. turkey's interior minister said 13 are in custody in connection with the airport attack. the fight against isis in this country and on the frontlines intensifying. coalition bombs rained down on an isis convoy south of fallujah, wiping out hundreds of militants fleeing the city. in turkey today, memorials and more funerals. these workers were on their way to bury a friend. how do you feel today? "still in shock" they told me. among the dead, cab drivers, cater cat

concurrent activity towards mosul, up the euphrates valley to try and isolate supply routes into raqqah and syria, i think it's important that we view daesh as a wider network and that we tackle it across its depth and its breadth which includes overwhelming it with a degree that it's confronted by. because they will find it increasingly difficult to allocate resources against these pressure points, particularly when their own command systems are being effectively derailed. >> so, you want to come in on that particular point. >> general, i'm sorry. can i clarify something you said. you said troops, because of the threat from daesh, the iraqi troops heading back to baghdad, when we were there, there was already a concern that there were too many troops in baghdad and they weren't be deployed elsewhere? are we seeing more troops returning from the iraqi army to protect baghdad? >> no, what i was saying the daesh strategy in terms of mounting a suicide bombing campaign in the capital will be designed to fix an excess of troops focussed on the security of the capital and therefore to the co

. >>> and raqqah also. >>> our own ben wedeman reports now has more. we want to worn you some of the video may be disturbing. >> iraqi army carriers rattle through the edge of the town. iraqi officials announced saturday they had taken control of most of the town. the short drive from the besieged isis strong hold of fallujah. the battle rages on however as a combination of the iraqi military, police, and fighters prepares for the next phase. these locally made rocket launchers have been brought up to the front for the eventual offensive to retake fallujah. they have a range of about 2 1/2 kilometers. fallujah itself is about 4 kilometers from here. fighting has been intense, but this veteran of many battles with isis senses an enemy beginning to wither away. their forces have dispersed he says. some have retreated to the center of fallujah. others have pled into the -- fled into the desert. nearby the half buried corpse of an isis fighter rots in the sun. in the areas we drove through, the damage was extensive. not a civilian in sight. where are they

in northern iraq to move against mosul and syria against the capitol, raqqah.s on the ground are you thinking? >> this is in the few thousands. we already have some 6,000 troops in iraq and in syria. they're just not able to be used the way they should be used, the way they've been trained with those troops and some reenforcements, i think we do this quickly. >> why aren't they being used? >> there are concerns in iraq, and this administration simply is very reluctant to commit american troops and to take casualties for almost any cause. >> have you shared your feelings with the administration? >> many, many people, including i have shared our feelings with the administration over the past two years, including many people on the ground trying to do this job. >> what has been the response? >> the response has been a considerable increase in the forces committed, and the liberalzation. we've employed people differently. we're moving towards that now. we need to move towards that even quicker, because attacks like this can have a tremendous destabilizing effect on

we know cells in raqqah directing training and operations very specifically charging against americans in real life. why doesn't the internet shut down a rocket. why did we not have operations two years ago going against their commanding control as part of our centers of gravity and using all elements of military power to take them down? >> i know they'll get more into this in the closed hearing later today. the fact is we may have been going after them but we didn't necessarily use cyber activities to do thachlt there's also balance between collecting information and shutting it down. and certainly going after specific nodes to hamper and stop the use of the internet by isis is important, but we also have to respect the privileges and rights of citizens to have access to the internet as a whole and as a country. so it's a careful balance even in raqqah or mosul or anywhere on how we balance the need or the rights to have access to the internet versus the use of the internet illegally by folks like isil. >> i'd like to follow up for sure in the classified setting with a little more det

, well, of course, the city of raqqah, city's defacto capital is located.lsewhere in the western part of syria, the u.s.-backed syrian democratic forces have surrounded the town northeast of aleppo pressing the offensive there. the worry is that as isis loses ground and territory, it's striking back. in syria two massive bombs in damascus, killing more than 20 people, on thursday there was a suicide bomb and a car bomb in baghdad. all of them claimed by isis. that clearly sees as it loses on the battlefield, it will resort evermore to terrorism in the cities. cnn baghdad. >>> thank you. the director of the cia says there's no evidence that the saudi government supported the 9/11 terror attacks. in an exclusive interview with the saudi owned network, 28 pages have been withheld from the commissions report. brennan says those pages will show conclusively there was no backing by the saudi government or by senior sawed -- saudi official. >>> protests about food with becoming a daily event in venezuela. that country has been hit hard shortages. amid all the unre

i can go in to raqqah and destroy them, but where do i have to stop? do i have to go to libya next? the point of that comment is this is how far behind we have gotten as a country in nine years. >> eric bolling. >> i wonder why that would be a needle in a hay stack when you have co-workers complaining about this guy being radical. you have an ex-wife complaining he was dangerous. you have friends from earlier in high school saying he jumped up and cheered the world trade center bombings saying america deserved it. i wonder what it takes to be taken off the fbi terror watch list where you can do something like this. here is my question, do you think president obama is premature by saying that there is apparently no ties to a greater plot so far? we are only 48-52 hours outside of this thing happening. >> reporter: if that. eric, the president and director said it as well. we don't know what all the loose ends, how they are going to fill in yet. i'm urging caution on this. we don't know where it goes. yeah, a needle in a hay stack, but certainly there were signs. i agree with you on t

if they are in retreat, if they are driven out of their headquarters in raqqah, that's the beginning of the end of that movement. in the end you can harden all the soft targets you want in america, turn this into an armed camp. you can keep all the muslim immigrants you want away from our shores, it will make no difference. in the end the only thing that will work as it worked to a large extent with al qaeda, is you have to go after them where they live. and drive them out. >> do you agree with that, that if we were able to degrade and destroy, use the president's term, isis in its headquarters in iraq, syria, that that would shrink its appeal or eliminate its appeal, to the omar mat tooens of the world and the country? >> i think it would help. i would also say we can't lose sight of the growth of the global jihadist movement beyond isis. isis is a considerable threat, probably the greatest threat right now with respect to jihadist movements, but al qaeda hasn't just gone away, al qaeda has disbursed power. if you talk to some of the intelligence officials i've been speaking to, the

individuals generating the e-mails, the twitter messages, the facebook messages, whether it is coming from raqqah or libya or any of their strongholds. they send that out worldwide, several thousands per day. it goes to tens of thousands of zombie-like people around the world who that may be enough to trick them into taking action. to say this is strictly a lone wolf, he self-radicalized. no. he had help. that help starts with these messages that go out. until we stop the flow of those messages, we are not going to reduce the flow of terrorists. >> it is a hard thing to stop. the innet is a big thing. >>> donald trump's rally is not set to stop for another three hours. police are preparing for protest. protesters have started gathering. several streets shut down around the event site. >> to get a sense of what the climate is like, i want to show you this inflatable donald trump that's been erected there. you might notice that it shows donald trump wearing bha appears to be kkk style robes featuring a swastika. cnn's anna cabrera is there. do we know who put up this sign? this inflatable donald tr

. >> reporter: and by that you mean bomb raqqah, take more aggressive action against the islamic state>> definitely take more aggressive reaction against the islamic state. i have more detailed descriptions which i share with our american allies and others. >> and those are? >> share it with our american allies and others. >> we'll have more of the interview with the israeli prime minister monday, july fourth. >>> on capitol hill today, texas senator and former republican presidential candidate ted cruz asked homeland security secretary jeh johnson whether his department had scrubbed its literature of all references to radical islamic terrorism. >> is it accurate that the records were changed -- >> same answer i gave you before. i have no idea, sir. >> would you concern you if it was accurate? >> i find this whole debate to be very interesting. but when i was at the department of defense, giving the legal signoff on drone strikes, i didn't care whether the baseball card said islamic extremist or nonextremist. >> john said giving the islamic state credence will harm efforts to build bri

. >> we got in touch and received sums of money in exchange for information about raqqah.t captures and pinpoints locations. >> the three were put in a car and blown up according to this video translated by the group. recently according to an opposition group with forces in syria, isis' suspicions turned inward to their own ranks, head of the observatory for human rights tells cnn isis executed 21 suspected fighters in an internal purge in april after one top commander was apparently killed by a coalition strike. >> translator: the islamic state does not fully trust its leaders. there could be those which belong to an international intelligence agency. >> reporter: a russian female helped kill these and others before she was caught and executed, the push to root out internal spies may be accelerating, targeting several top militants. >> that has to drive paranoia. how is the coalition able to target and kill all these isis operatives and based on interviews i conducted with people that defected from the group, there's a complete and total sense of paranoia, that they're be

they are circling and trying to put a strangle hold on raqqah. but these operations are taking time. they involve hundreds of special operations forces not thousands or even more. the administration will emphasize there have been more airstrikes and the process of working with troops on the ground is working. they are doing other things to try to strangle and cut off isis's financing. they have more to say they have made progress e destroying millions of dollars in cash and cutting off access to foreign markets. these attacks are happening again and again. there's a a meeting where the leaders of turkey, france, belgium and others along with the united states will meet and again this will be the issue that is the focus. what is nato and turkey is a nato member. the relationship between the united states and turkey is a bit strained. mostly having to do with the kurdish dimension of this complicated conflict. the kurds are leery of the populati population. they want to form a separate state within turkey or separate from turkey. the united states

we know cells in raqqah directing training and operations very specifically charging against americans in real life. why doesn't the internet shut down a rocket. why did we not have operations two years ago going against their commanding control as part of our centers of gravity and using all elements of ilitary power to take them down? >> i know they'll get more into this in the closed hearing later today. the fact is we may have been going after them but we didn't necessarily use cyber activities to do thachlt there's also balance between collecting information and shutting it down. and certainly going after specific nodes to hamper and stop the use of the internet by isis is important, but we also have to respect the privileges and rights of citizens to have access to the internet as a whole and as a country. so it's a careful balance even in raqqah or mosul or anywhere on how we balance the need or the rights to have access to the internet versus the use of the internet illegally by folks like isil. >> i'd like to follow up for sure in the classified setting with a little more deta