Transcripts For CNNW Wolf 20141006

19yearold. His name is Mohammed Hamzah kahn. Tw what do we know about him . The fbi showed up at his house, conducted a search and was able to get some documents, handwritten documents they say they believe was written by him or someone else in his in this conspiracy. Documents in his apartment . In his apartment. In his parents house. He lived with his parents, apparently. According to these documents, he was planning to join isil. He left a letter for his parents. It says, my dear parents, there are a number of reasons i will be going to the blessed land of shaam and leaving my home. He said there was reason to join the caliphate and as an adult he has to pay taxes that are used to kill his muslim brothers and sisters. He was in touch with people, had very detailed plans not only to travel to istanbul but also to take buses and people that he was going to get in touch with once he got to syria. Do we know how the fbi got tipped off that this individual was planning on not only supporting but getting involved in a Terror Organization . The affidavit does not say. We know that they are watching a lot of online forums where people are talking about this type of thing. So it may well be that thats the case. We may find out down the line when this case goes to trial. This 19yearold, jeffrey, is in a lot of trouble right now. This potentially covers, according to this document, maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a 200,000 fine simply for expressing an interest in going over there to support isis. Well, the charge is that he attempted to provide Material Support. Thats the key phrase here. Material support can be an individual volunteering for service in the military. But in his defense, as we can say, in advance, he never left the United States and one of the peculi peculiarities of the complaint is he that he purchased a round trip ticket which meant that he was probably coming back. Thats one fact that his defense attorney will be arguing. It may have been a fictitious round trip ticket. Maybe he was never going to use that second part of the ticket. Thats a good argument as well. We know one way for you to avoid detection is to not buy a oneway ticket. It will flag you every time, especially if youre going to that region. I havent read the full complaint. I just read the brief summary that the department of justice put out. Does it say how much he paid for the ticket, who may have funded that ticket . Right. Its not very specific. It says that the ticket cost 4,000. Thats a lot of money for someone who is 19 years old. So we dont know. There are hints in here that the fbi was watching other people he may have been in touch with. Thats one of the keys here that they are trying to figure out who is recruiting these young men to take him over there and to draw them over to syria to join the fight. Because sometimes they try to they have somebody who is pretending to be an isis recruiter. Is there any indication that that is going on in this particular case . Certainly the use of confidential informants is common and one of the effective ways to identify people in criminal organizations. Sometimes in a complaint you will see a reference to a confidential informant. Theres no reference to one in here. That doesnt mean there isnt one there. As you point out, sometimes when theres confidential informants, the argument can be made that the individual was entrapped, was sort of encouraged to commit a crime. But thats getting way ahead at this point. Theres no indication that anything like that took place. This kid is in a world of trouble. Hes not going to get out on bail and certainly the Justice Department will prosecute him to the full extent that they can. Im sure they want to set an example for others who may be thinking about doing this. You get caught, youre going to jail. Thats right. And to jeffreys point, the government has had Great Success with these types of cases, even in cases where the judges expressed some concern that people are being drawn in or entrapped, they still manage to get convictions. The government is successful in bringing these Material Support cases over the last few years, a few dozen of them. You can be convicted of helping isil in chicago. Chicago is plenty enough to wind up in jail. This is the breaking news. Were getting more information on this 19yearold Mohammed Hamzah kahn, kahn. Stay with us. Theres other news that were following. Lets go to the syria turkey border. Isis are about to capture the important syrian city of kobani, a city right on the border of turkey. Isis has been pounding away with tanks and heavy artillery. The kurds appear to be totally outgunned. Isis flags were spotted on top of buildings inside the eastern part of the city. Coalition forces have conducted air strikes around kobani taking out two isis tanks. Kobani has become a strategically important city. If isis takes control of kobani, it would give them an uninterrupted stretch of land between the Turkish Border and the selfdeclared. Just in the last few minutes, alarms have been sounded in baghdad as an unknown number of mortars continue falling within the citys socalled green zone. Thats where the u. S. Embassy International Diplomats are basically housed. Ben wedeman is joining us from baghdad. What is the shelling all about . What is the latest, ben . Reporter wolf, this happened about 25 minutes ago. We heard this alarm coming from the area of the green zone or the International Zone where, as you mentioned, not only the u. S. Embassy is located but also important iraqi ministries. We know from several sources that several of those mortars landed within the International Zone. No word yet of any casualties or damage. The same thing happened six days ago at about this time in the evening, a similar event occurred. Now, its not altogether clear who is behind them but we have spoken with several wellinformed people who believe that perhaps these are shia militias who believe that the United States, in supporting the Iraqi Government and becoming much more involved in the Iraqi Affairs is trying to essentially get its hands back into basically to control iraq. That seems to be the explanation, although nobody, to the best of our knowledge, has been apprehended for these mortar attacks, which seem to have come to an end. Now, as far as the situation in baghdad is concerned, wolf, we were out on the western front, the socalled defensive perimeter of baghdad in anbar province, which is more or less almost completely under the control of isis. The last few days weve seen the fall of the town of northwest of here. Basically, isis controls the entire stretch of the border of fallujah, which is only about an hours drive from here. As far as the situation on the western perimeter of baghdad goes, it seems as if isis is being kept at bay. And the enemy was advancing but they were complaining yet again that theres not enough air support from the coalition as far as keeping isis at bay, away from baghdad. Wolf . Ben wedeman, be careful in baghdad. I know there are 60 to 90 u. S. Military personnel in baghdad and erbil and hundreds, if not thousands contractors in the socalled green zone thats been shelled over the past half hour or hour or so. Well stay on top of this story for our viewers. Thanks very much. Just ahead, much more on the chicago 19yearold now accused of trying to join isis. Were going to get some insight from our Law Enforcement, our National Security analyst about what this new development means. Stay with us. Do you have the coverage . You need . Open enrollment ends december 7th. Dont put it off til later. Nows the time to get on a path that could be right for you. With Unitedhealthcare Medicare solutions. Call today to learn about the kinds of coverage we offer, including aarp medicarecomplete plans insured through unitedhealthcare. These Medicare Advantage plans can combine parts a and b, your hospital and doctor coverage. With part d Prescription Drug coverage, and extra benefits. All in one complete plan. For a low monthly premium, or in some areas no plan premium at all. Unitedhealthcare doesnt stop there. Youll have 0 copays for preventive services. Like an annual physical and most immunizations. 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The arrest of a 19yearold american citizen who is allegedly thought to leave the United States to join the isis terrorist group. Mohammed hamzah kahn was taken into custody over the weekend at Ohare International airport. Joining me is tom fuentes on the telephone. Tell me what is going on over here, tom. Theres been a lot of fears that some people residing in the United States could go over to syria or iraq and join isis. It being loolooks like the fbi arrested someone allegedly planning to do so. Wolf, this is yet another person. You recall that the fbi arrested a woman boarding a plane at the denver airport. A lot is made of individuals who return from syria or iraq and return from the terrorism and could pose a threat when they return here but the fbi has its hands here and trying to determine when people here are discussing joining, do they mean it . Are they really going to do it or just dragging and talking to friends and once they get the airfare and decide to go, literally the fbi is walking them down the jetway before they put the cuffs on them to show that they really did mean it, they were really on their way to do it. So this is not the first time and it wont be the last time and its the fear of the fbi that they cant track every individual with aspiration to join or to return and engage in terrorism here. And as you well know, in these kinds of criminal cases, authorities usually do what they have been doing for a long time. They follow the money. This individual bought a round trip ticket from chicago through vienna and then to turkey and back to chicago for 4,000. They are going to try to figure out where that money came from because its a lot of money for a 19yearold kid. The fbi has two offices in turkey. The capital and istanbul, where he was apparently going to fly to. And the fbi has had a great relationship with the intelligence and Law Enforcement services in turkey over the years. A lot was made about whether they were going to fight and join the battle with their military but i can tell you behind the scenes theres been a great deal of intelligence shared and it would include also the authorities in austria because he was going to connect there. There was a great effort behind the scenes right now and has been ongoing behind the scenes to try to determine the source of the money, as you said, but also who was behind this . Who are the logistical individuals who arranged for transportation and hooked them up with the fighters in syria or iraq. Theres a lot more going on than just the fbi intercepting email in chicago. This 19yearold was about to board a flight out of chicagos ohare airport. That was a very sensitive decision because i assume they were monitoring him, watching him for a while. To go ahead and arrest this individual, that presumably would prevent them from following up on other leads, right . Well, i would think that there would be a general lack of confidence that even with the help of the turkish authorities, its still going to be very easy, once he gets there, to be able to be smuggled into syria across that porous border and, you know, we dont know if there may be some border authorities in turkey so its a nobrainer. They cannot trust the ability to monitor him once he leaves the u. S. So the best thing is to keep him off the airplane. In other words, if he had been allowed to fly to istanbul, lets say, and you dont think turkish authorities would have been trusted enough to monitor this guy, to watch him, to see who he is in contact with, see if he allegedly makes his way to the Syrian Border and attempts to cross into syria as hes about to leave turkey but see who his contacts at the airport and elsewhere in turkey might be, you dont think theres enough trust between the u. S. And turkey to undertake that kind of Surveillance Program . No. I wouldnt characterize that as a lack of trust. It would be so difficult for any authority to keep somebody under wraps 24 7. Look at isis. They are right at their border now. Thousands of refugees coming in from syria and hundreds or more going into syria. And this may exceed their capacity no matter how cooperative they might be to do so and might not be able to do it. I wouldnt characterize it as we dont trust them. We just dont believe that they would be able to keep track of every individual that arrived in their country. Thats a good point. Tom fuentes, thanks very much. Well stay on top of this story for our viewers. Mohammed hamzah kahn arrested at chicagos ohare airport, allegedly for attempting to go ahead and support the isis organization. Just ahead, the Prime Minister of turkey talks to Christiane Amanpour that is about to approach turkeys doorstep. Youre going to hear what he has to stay coming up next. The conference call. The ultimate arena for business. Hour after hour of diving deep, touching base, and putting ducks in rows. The only problem with Conference Calls eventually they have to end. Unless you have the comcast business voiceedge mobile app. It lets you switch seamlessly from your desk phone to your mobile with no interruptions. Ive never felt so alive. Get the future of phone and the phones are free. Comcast business. Built for business. As isis fighters shelled the Northern City of kobani, the turkish Prime Minister says nearly 200,000 refugees have crossed in the country. They have not engaged isis directly across their border even though kobani sits on isis doorstep. He says they dont have an integrated strategy about how to stop isis lurching from one to the other. Christiane amanpour is joining us from london. Turkey is a member of nato and a lot of people are asking why hasnt turkey played a more prominent role in this war against isis, which is really right on turkeys border. Exactly. Thats precisely what i asked the Prime Minister. Ive just come back from istanbul. I sat down with him last night for an indepth interview about this problem. I remember when we were discussing the air strikes on syria, everybody said, hey, wheres turkey, natos ally. The Prime Minister is well known and he said, one, turkey has been doing a huge amount, as we all know, 1. 6 million refugees in the three years of the brutal civil war that assad has been waging. Now, as you just mentioned, they are getting hundreds and thousands of them from kobani practically on a daily basis. But he says they fundamentally disagree with whats right now the u. S. Strategy, which is just to go after isis and not to go after assad. He said that they are absolute willing, able, and determined to be what he called coalition of the willing but very clear red line. First and foremost, obviously turkish troops would be the most plausible boots on the ground but only if the strategy is to go after assad as well. Because he said, unless assad is defeated, then this will continue over and over again as it has over the last few years. He also said that they are going to bargain very, very hard about joining. Heres what he said when i asked him about what he wants in return to joining the military campaign. We want to have a tofly zone. We want to have a safe burden on our border. If you dont get that, what will happen . Those who request something from us should understand our needs as well. There you go, wolf. He said its a twoway street. And he spelled out why they need a nofly zone and safe havens. Because, he said, if there isnt such, no matter what town is saved or what town falls on the border, president assad can keep the assault up as hes done and this war will continue and refugees will continue to go inside turkey. So its a big deal for them and they believe, as he said to me, you cant just leave one satan in place in order to try to defeat the other one because the result will not change. Turkey a critically, critically important country in this entire crisis. An Important Note for our International Viewers, you can watch the entire interview on Cnn International in the next hour. Just ahead, police are searching for a suspected cop killer in rural pennsylvania may have gotten an important break in the case. And also, the breaking news of an arrest of a 19yearold on suspicion of aiding isis. Ture. Thank you for being my hero and my dad. Military families are uniquely thankful for many things, the legacy of usaa Auto Insurance could be one of them. If youre a current or former military member or their family, get an Auto Insurance quote and see why 92 of our members plan to stay for life. You raise her spirits. We tackled your shoulder pain. You make him rookie of the year. We took care of your cold symptoms. You take him on an adventure. Tylenol® has been the number 1 doctor recommended brand of pain reliever for over 20 years. But for everything we do, we know you do so much more. Tylenol®. But for everything we do, we know y u do so much more. train horn vo wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. Norfolk southern. One line, infinite possibilities. Sea captain theres a narratorstorm cominhe storm narrator that whipped through the turbine which poured. Surplus energy into the plant which generously lowered its price and tipped off the house which used all that energy to stay warm through the storm. Chipmunk theres a bad storm comin narrator the internet of everything is changing how energy works. Is your Network Ready . Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer reporting from washington. We have breaking news out of pennsylvania. Theres a possible break in the search for a suspected cop killer. The suspected cop killer being eric frein. Authorities say they have now found a letter they believe was written by frein with details of what happened last month when one Pennsylvania State trooper was shot to death and another state trooper was wounded. Cnns alexandra field has been following the manhunt. Shes joining us from new york. What did he say in the letter and why do they believe its authentic . Sure. Its being considered a significant development. Were hearing from a senior Law Enforcement official who has confirmed the details of this letter that this letter is being considered a confession. In it, the suspect, the author believed to be eric matthew frein, details the shooting of two Pennsylvania Police officers. He then goes on to talk extensively about the escape. In this letter, authorities are reading everything about how he got away, how he managed to stash various items in the woods and maybe most importantly how hes managed to evade police who have been surrounding him in the woods for the last 3 1 2 weeks. He talks about hiding out and getting around the checkpoints. Authorities have been looking for eric frein since september 12. This letter doesnt give any details outlining a motive for the shooting. It doesnt talk about why he has pursued this elaborate escape plan but it does indicate, again, hes been leaving these items in the woods. This is not the first thing that the officers and investigators have found. They also found an ak47 which they believe belongs to frein. They have found various belongings that the suspect has left. Its not clear if hes intentionally leaving these things behind or if hes managed to lose them on the trail. Police continue to believe that the suspect is playing some kind of game with them. He wants to be on the run and he wants them to continue to pursue him, wolf. And they are pretty convinced, i assume, based on what were hearing and our other reporters have hearing is that this letter is in fact genuine. Its not just somebody pretending to be frein. They are not telling us when or where they found this letter but the details are so specific it has led them to believe that it is the suspect frein himself, that it isnt some kind of imposter who has left the letter behind. It goes into extensive details not only about the escape but the shooting which prompted this manhunt. Its concerned a lot of folks not only around pennsylvania but around the country. Thank you, alexandra field, for that report. Air strikes near the Turkish Border but kobani remains under siege. Are those air strikes enough . Were going to ask a former nato commander when we come back. For over a decade, doctors have been prescribing nexium to patients just like you. For many, prescription nexium helps heal acidrelated erosions in the lining of the esophagus. There is risk of bone fracture and low magnesium levels. Side effects may include headache, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. If you have persistent diarrhea, contact your doctor right away. Other serious stomach conditions may exist. Avoid if you take clopidogrel. Nexium 40 mg is only available by prescription. Talk to your doctor. For free home delivery, enroll in nexium direct today. That selsun blue is tough on dandruff. And shell love that its gentle on your hair. Selsun blue invigorates your scalp and moisturizes your hair. Bring on the blue. Thank you. Ordering chinese food is a very predictable experience. I order b14. I get b14. No surprises. Buying business internet, on the other hand, can be a roller coaster White Knuckle thrill ride. Youre promised one speed. But do you consistently get it . You do with comcast business. And often even more. Its reliable. Just like kung pao fish. Thank you, ping. Reliably fast internet starts at 89. 95 a month. Comcast business. Built for business. Lets get an update now on the breaking news. An american teenager, a 19yearold, has been arrested for allegedly attempting to join the terrorist group isis. The 19yearold from the chicago, illinois, area was taken into custody over the weekend at chicago ohares international airport. He appeared in court this morning. These are sketches from that first court appearance. Mohammed hamzah kahn was charged with attempting to provide Material Support to a foreign terrorist organization. Federal agents found documents of kahns home expressing support for isis and a lot more. Were going to stay on top of this story. A very worrisome development, indeed. Meanwhile, isis fighters are on the verge of fighting the important city of kobani right on the Turkish Border. Just within the last two hours, at least two different isis flags were spotted on top of key buildings inside kobani. Kobani has been at siege for days. Kurdish fighters are trying to hold off the tanks and heavy artillery. Joining me is a retired u. S. General army fellow nato supreme allied commander. These air strikes that the u. S. And other countries, uae, bahrain, jordan, are they having much of an impact . They are moving to kobani and maybe elsewhere in iraq as well. Were learning a valuable lesson here. Without some followup on the ground, its hard to see how effective those air strikes are. What has to happen here is where, in this case, turkish or kurdish or some other ground force, iraqis in iraq need to follow up. The isis forces, the al nusra front, a terrorist organization deemed that by the u. S. State department and the Free Syrian Army, which are moderate syrians opposed to Bashar Al Assad who want to work with the u. S. But have very limited capability right now. What is that going to do . Well, i really think the key to this and youve been saying it all day today is turkey. Turkey needs to get involved. Ive watched them go across particularly in Northern Iraq against the kurds, and if they feel threatened and i think they do feel threatened, thats why the nofly zone has come up. The turks could be very helpful here. I dont think were going to find what we need in the Free Syrian Army but i think its going to have to be turkey. Turkey is a key member of nato. It has a huge military right now. If they wanted to send in a few divisions, they could go in and clean out that area around kobani without a lot of difficulty, right . Right. But what i think we need to do is have a political and diplomatic and economic strategy. Youve got to work the diplomat tech and political side with turkey. Thats extremely important. They are a member of nato. Theyve been a very productive member. They helped when i went into the balkans as did the russians, by the way, and thats another problem. But i would include the russians in trying to stem a threat thats equally dangerous to them as it is to us. But turkey, i believe, when they want a nofly zone, i believe turkey can be brought into the team to take on isis. When i was at the u. N. , i interviewed him and asked him why isnt nato, 28 allies, why as an organization, involved in dealing with this threat . Nato got involved in dealing with the threat against al qaeda and taliban. Why isnt nato getting involved . It won 16 nations when i was there. Its now 28 nations to get consensus to do that. That takes an enormous amount of effort and the u. S. Must lead. We must lead that alliance to that consensus if thats the outcome we want. I think it can be done and i think sooner rather than later before isis continues to get this momentum, how to stop the momentum. And thats what i think the air strikes are about but you need to have some sort, i think, of ground presence on the ground by some nation thats willing to follow up. I dont see nato getting involved in syria as an organization or in iraq, for that matter. Unfortunately, correct me if im wrong, the iraqi military, personnel, they basically have gone mia in this fight against isis, at least so far. The other thing about this, though, it turkey, there is an air base which is less than 100 miles from where kobani is. And there you have turkishamerican nato aircraft that can be brought into the fight quickly. So i really think as a former commander, youve got to look at all of those assets and say, how do you create the best conditions for success . Turkey is key to that but you need to have a strategy thats more inclusive than we have now. And theres a limit to what air power, though, can do. Exactly. Every day i read those releases, the you be approximpu announcements saying that more u. S. Planes went in, uae planes, saudi planes and then i read what they destroyed, a car here, a tank there, thats a lot of air power to destroy a vehicle or an armored personnel carrier or a tank. We need to weigh the effectiveness on the ground. There needs to be a success for whatever forces are going to be involved. The iraqi for forces in iraq, forces of some sort in syria, turkey could be a game changer here. They are they are threatened here and we need to help them. If they need a nofly zone, we ought to consider that. As christiane pointed out, turkey has absorbed a lot of refugees. Weve got to work the diplomatic and political side as well. By the way, ill come back again and i think russia needs to be brought into that equation even though we have a problem with ukraine, russia needs to be brought into that equation. That would be awkward but well see about that. General george joulwan, thank you. The Vice President of the United States, get this, he has apologized now to two key allies in the fight against isis. Well hear what he said that got him in trouble. But was he actually right in what he had to say and why did he need to apologize . Stay with us. [ female announcer ] we lowered her fever. You raise her spirits. We tackled your shoulder pain. You make him rookie of the year. We took care of your cold symptoms. You take him on an adventure. Tylenol® has been the number 1 doctor recommended brand of pain reliever for over 20 years. But for everything we do, we know you do so much more. Tylenol®. The Vice President of the United States joe biden certainly known for his blunt talk but recent comments about the fight of isis rattled two key u. S. Allies and now the Vice President has apologized publicly to the leaders of turkey and the United Arab Emirates when he made a speech to students at Harvard University. They were so determined to take down assad and essentially have a proxy sunni shia war. What did they do . They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against assad. Except that the people who were being who were being supplied were al nusra and al qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world. Lets bring in our chief National Security correspondent jim sciutto. Hes been doing some checking. Maybe politically he shouldnt have said it but factually i think there was a lot of substance to what he was saying. There is some truth to it, with some caveats. One, the money and two the fighters. Lets start with the money. Theres certainly a lot of money coming from arab nations to the extremist groups in syria but its private money but the accusation is that the governments are not doing enough to stop it, they are turning a blind eye. Again, you have countries doing a much better job than others. Kuwait has come under a lot of attention for being a key transit point for some of this financing. And many circumstances by some of its own gulf allies pointing the finger and saying, hey, were doing our best to stop it and these other guys are not doing much to stop it. Then you have the flow the fighters. You look at a country like turkey, right on the syria border and turkeys agenda was to get rid of assad. The accusation there is that they let a whole bunch of fighters go in not distinguishing which group they were going to fight for, whether it was a moderate group like there is the impression from people ive talked to that they are Getting Better at policing this kind of thing but theres some truth to the fact that these countries at a minimum werent doing enough to stop it. They were so interested in getting rid of Bashar Al Assad they wanted to help the opposition and turned out some of the opposition were terrorists like isis or other elements of al qaeda. Even if the money or weapons started with one of the more moderate groups, say the Free Syrian Army, theres lot of movement between these groups. Theyre not signed on for life. If one group does better than it the other, they are moving around and changing allegiances. You can fund one group and that money and arms can go to other extremist groups. Thats one of the reasons the Obama Administration was reluctant to arm these rebels because they had real questions as to where those weapons would end up. The turkish president took bidens comments at Harvard University very, very seriously. He was threatening biden is toast or history if in fact he said those kind of things about turkey. Its a really difficult and damaging thing to say particularly when youre at war alongside some of these countries. There are jet planes from qatar and from United Arab Emirates and from jordan in the air right now. Pilots risking their lives like american pilots are attacking isis positions. So timingwise, its just about the worst timing you can Say Something that frankly officials have been talking about privately for some time. Whatever biden said at harvard, i have heard from other u. S. Officials for not just weeks but months but to say it publicly to irritate allies is a problem. At a dangerous and sensitive time. Thanks very much. Other news were following here in washington, the United States Supreme Court makes a major decision today not to take on the issue of samesex marriage. Well tell you what it means. Were taking a closer look at when samesex couples could have legal weddings now in a majority of the United States. Stay with us. At tmobile get 4 lines for a hundred bucks. With unlimited talk, text and now up to ten gigabytes of 4g lte data. Plus hook up the family with the Samsung Galaxy s5 for zero down before we craft it into a sandwich. The tender, slowroasted turkey, the zesty cranberry mostarda, the freshly baked flatbread paired perfectly with our autumn squash soup. A delicious meal made just for you only at panera bread. A delicious meal made you know. Theres a more enjoyable way to get your fiber. Try phillips fiber good gummies. Theyre delicious and an excellent source of fiber to help support regularity. Mmmm. These are good the tasty side of fiber. From phillips big day . Ah, the usual. Moved some new cars. Hauled a bunch of steel. Kept the supermarket shelves stocked. Made sure everyone got their latest gadgets. Whats up for the next shift . Ah, nothing much. Just keeping the lights on. laugh nice. Doing the big things that move an economy. See you tomorrow, mac. See you tomorrow, sam. Just another day at norfolk southern. This is charlie. His long day of doing it himself starts with back pain. And a choice. Take 4 advil in a day or just 2 aleve for all day relief. Honey, you did it baby laughs the United States Supreme Court here in washington has now decided not to hear appeals on samesex marriage which in effect means at least for now samesex marriage is legal in 30 states in the United States as well as the district of columbia. Todays delay affects five largely conservative states, virginia, oklahoma, indiana, utah and wisconsin, where the way is now clear in those states for gays and lesbians to have legal weddings. Lets bring in our senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin. By not deciding to hear those appeals is a major decision by these nine justices of the u. S. Supreme court. When the Supreme Court decides not to hear a case thats always very important meaning the Lower Court Rulings stand and Lower Court Rulings in all five of the states said that those states have to allow gays and lesbians to get married so as of today, these states are going to allow gay marriage. We got word that for example in utah and oklahoma, samesex marriage now for all practical purposes is legal. People can start getting married in utah and oklahoma. Also in virginia as of an hour or so ago, samesex marriage is legal and they say that the federal Appeals Court for indiana and wisconsin is going to allow samesex marriage in those states as well even though the legislatures in those states rejected samesex marriage, the federal courts rule that those laws were unconstitutional because they violated the rights of samesex couples and said you have to let these people get married and now the Supreme Court by not overruling those decisions say those courts were right. The legislatures were wrong. The facts on the ground start to matter. Now we are in a situation where 30 states have samesex marriage. Approximately 60 of the American People live in a state with samesex marriage and it just the momentum when you have that many People Living in a world where samesex marriage is legal makes it inevitable it seems that the rest of the country will follow. Now when that is we dont know. Its hard to imagine anything going backward. The only way to turn it around is if there were a constitutional amendment banning samesex marriage but thats for all practical purposes impossible. Some of the other circuit courts including the sixth circuit which is a more conservative court have cases pending. It may be that the sixth circuit says states may ban samesex marriage and then there would be a conflict and then the Supreme Court may yet take this case probably next year but it could even be this year. It could be this year if they were to hear that argument. Late in the term possibly. You know all nine of these justices. Is it likely they would take this case . They almost have to. If theres a split in the circuits with differing views they would probably take that case although given the way the circuit courts work, it could be not until next october. Almost a year from now. Almost a year from now which would mean again more states having samesex marriage and it becomes more difficult to enforce a ban on samesex marriage if that much of the country has it. At least for now in these states not just new york and california about or maryland which has samesex marriage but in these new states like utah or indiana or oklahoma, its going to go on. These couples are going to get married . Theres nothing standing in their way unless the Supreme Court takes a case and overturns it, which is clearly many, many, many months away. The right to samesex marriage is now solidly in place in all 30 states and will remain that way for the foreseeable future. Well see what happens to the other 20 states and well have more news obviously. Well watch this story. Major decision by the u. S. Supreme court today by not deciding major decision of not taking up the appeal. Thanks very much. Thats it for me. Thanks for watching. Ill be back 5 00 p. M. Eastern in the situation room. For our International Viewers Christiane Amanpour is next and for viewers in america, newsroom with Brooke Baldwin starts right now. Wolf, thank you so much. Hi there. Im Brooke Baldwin. We have to begin with breaking news here into cnn. Let me tell you about this 19yearold american who has been arrested in chicago moments before the u. S. Government says he was preparing to board a flight overseas with plans to join isis. Heres an artist sketch of his first appearance today in federal court. Lets go straight to washington to get details from our justice correspondent, evan perez. Who is he . How much do we know about why he was headed to syria . We know that the