Transcripts For CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 20170407 : vimarsan

CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 April 7, 2017

And when you talk about multiple youre approaching millions of dollars for each warhead. One of the other things it has to do well is to make sure what we do Going Forward is consist with the other battle were fighting in syria and iraq, and thats against the islamic state. It has to make sure it takes steps to prevent russia from interfering with the efforts of our pilots in that conflict, that it doesnt paint our pilots with their very many air defenses. At the same time as were dealing with resources to deal with al assads use of biological and chemweapons that those resources are not diverted for too long. So thats one of the challenges for the administration. Just a factual issue, tony, youre on expert in this area. Isis suspected targets or whether elsewhere in syria, this is the first time the u. S. Has launched air strikes against the syria targets, is that right . Yes. Tell us why. Usually you have to have the u. N. Security council give you the authorization. Or we would have to be invited in by syria itself, which wasnt going to happen. Then there was the concern about getting ourselves into some kind of escalation that would lead us to basically have ownership of all of syria. Thats something that even as we were working to support the syrian opposition, even as we were working to try to protect the syrian people, we didnt want to own it. I want everybody to standby because we have a lut more coming up. Our breaking news right now, President Trump orders u. S. Military strikes on syria. This is cnn tonight im don lemon. And im wolf blitzer. Youre looking at the missile strike on syrian target. The strike in retaliation for syrias chemical weapons attack on civilians earlier in the week on President Trumps orders u. S. Warships launched 59 Cruise Missiles where the war planes that carryied out that attack were based. The missiles were launched from warships based on the mediterranean. Wolf, we have a lot to get to, this operation happening at 8 40 p. M. Eastern time. I want to get right now to ryan brown at the pentagon. Ryan, you have some new information for us. What can you elus . Thats right, don. The military is telling us they did indeed have some conversations with the russians using a preestablished channel called the deconfliction channel, which was initially setup to help the planes avid any accidental interaction. So they used that channel to inform the russians these strikes were going to occur. And the they really underscored that point that they knew there were russians at this base, but they undertook extra efforts they didnt strike any personnel or any of the areas they believed russians were operating. In addition, this site was believed to be used as a chemical weapons facility. And so they also did not strike sites that were believed to be storing chemical weapons. We heard that from Lieutenant General mcmaster, Donald Trumps current security advisor. We know that the russians are expressing anger about this tonight. Do u. S. Officials believe any russians were killed . They do not believe any russians were killed. They took these measures to strike, and they actually communicated with them beforehand. That beinged said, there are a lot of u. S. Troops in syria participating in the fight against isis, some numbers as high as 1,000 u. S. Troops in the battle. So they are constantly taking precautions, understanding they could potentially be a target in some kind of retaliation. Now, were told theyre not taking any extra precautions at this time but theyre definitely keeping an eye on it given the situation. Talk to us about the military assets that were used. Thats right. There are two ships that were kind of delivering the tomahawk strikes. Of course, this allows you to kind of have a little bit of whats called a standoff distance away from any potential antiaircraft weapons that could shoot down manned planes, manned aircrafts. So its a useful tool that kind of protects the deliver of the weapon. And also the weapons, it kind of hugs the grund, the tomahawk mishal takes a low approach avoiding any antemissile Counter Measures that the regime might employ. So a very effective weapon for this situation. Wolf, the entire world is watching this. And reactions from around the world coming in through. Its coming in very, very quickly. Some initial reaction coming in from russia as well. Christian its the middle of the night here on the east coast of the United States. But much of the rest of the world is now waking up to a brand new reality. What do you anticipate the reaction will be . Well, you can already see some of it coming in fast and furious. There are criticisms from the usual suspects. Obviously russia and the syrian regime. But the obvious of what you had been reporting is the u. S. Had been talking to russia before they launched this attack. And yes were going to be seeing in a few days, a few weeks how to go forward from this. But obviously this is very significant. It is a one off for the moment. It was done in proportion raeksz by the violation of International Law by using its the first time to prevent it by the lujeem is very important. People mixup the fight against terror with the fight against assad. Assad is the reason for the rise of isis. So trying to fight isis without making sure that assad doesnt compicate the picture along with his allies, raugsa, and iran has always been something thats been very hard for the u. S. Administration to get their heads around. So so many people around the rest of the world believe that assad and his use of targets that destroy civilians and including the use of banned international substances like chemical weapons is part if not the main problem in syria and has been for many, many years, wolf. Christian its top of mind here montana United States and our relationship with russia. What does this conflict mean for the relationship with russia. For years the president has been saying wouldnt it be great if we had a better relationship with russia . That was already an unlikely prospect. What about now . I think you have to go back several years to find out that having a better relationship with russia is something all administrations have tried to do. President bush, h. W. Bush tried to do it. Row you remember very famously he looked into his eye and saw his soul. There was that big eruption. The Obama Administration tried to reset. And then russia decided to violate International Law itself and invade crimea and annex it and then to interfere with ukraine. And that has put russia on the wrong side of International Law and history at the moment. So it is an incredibly complicated situation no doubt about it. Its very interesting to hear the read out through this deconfliction channel. We dont know any others, but they werent in the way as far as we know. And were going to see how they work this out because this is real issue, now, that all sides have to deal with. The secretary of state Rex Tillerson is supposed to be in moskow next week. I assume that visit will continue unless its cancelled in this late minute. Its taken a very surprising, very negative turn. Lets just see what happens. The United States has the most powerful military in the world. It is the richest country in the world. Russia has by no means theuble to counter the United States under the conventional weapons capability it has. It just doesnt. It is true in syria it is incredibly potent and poufral of the newest range antiaircraft systems. The syrians do not have the capability to deter the United States military. They just dont. They have been degraded. They dont have that capability, and that is why this was, you know, able to be done. And actually i think whats going to be fascinating is to hear what President Trump and president xi talk about. And there in florida weve got the two most powerful leaders in the wrushld the president of the United States and the president of china, about to sit down and continue their conversations after this strike. Thats going to be really interesting because President Trump has also on his plate how to deal with north koreas Rising Nuclear threat. So all of this comes at a very, very crucial mome. Christian youre right about that because the two men are meeting right now. As this was happening they were having dinner in maralago at the president s compound there. Our jimmy costa was traveling with the president and immediately after this the president was affected by these images of dead children. This conflict has been happening for some time now, we heard the president speak about that statement tonight. Those photos clearly had an impact on his think. Oh, i think absolutely. I was really struck, and i said it that this seemed to be a much more a very changed and very shaken president. Trump is a very determined trump. You heard him say it basically had changed his view of syria and al assad. And all of this was ampified biez the rest of his administration. You had the u. N. Ambassador at the u. N. Just shortly before the president saying this is unacceptable that the u. N. Needs to be respond. I mean you kn even get the u. N. Along with russia and china to agree to a rezilation condemming an act of war by a government that signed on tonight you couldnt even get them to condem it. You had Rex Tillerson confirming they had no doubt assad had launched this chemical attack. And you had the rest of the evidence coming out yesterday as the pentagon confirming that these planes, they had tracked them with the radar and infrared figuring where they had come from and how they had launched this attack inland. And the product changed on that very important dime of International Law. I dont think anyone believes this is an ongoing attack, that this is a precursor to an invasion of syria or anything like that. I think theyve said it, that this is it for the moment. Lets see what happens next. But this is designed to deter a tyrant who has for six, now going into the seventh here been responsible for deaths of nearly half a Million People, 12 million refugees, many of them in outside syria putting pressure on allies like turkey, like jordan, not to mention lebanon and all over politics on the rest of the world. This is massive, massive crisis that the west has not dealt with in the last seven years. And it still needs to be dealt with. You think its too farfetched christian to think that these air strikes, it obviously sent a powerful message to the Trump Administration and people in syria and the middle east, but is it too farfetched to think it also sends a message to north korea . Thats what i was saying, i think its very important the action that was taken if youre talking about also having north korea, try to figure out how to deal with north korea. Now, there has been some loose talk about a militaryau or well take care of it ourselves or whatever it is, north korea is a complex situation because it actually does have Nuclear Weapons and is trying to develop a system. Theyve been firing missiles and most of them have been landing in the sea of japan, threatening american bases, threatening American Allies and then threateni threatening could threaten the United States. So the policy of the United States so far and the rest of its allies, has chaelg not worked. The policy of trying to outsource it to chooena, has actually not worked. Objectively speaking it hasnt worked because now north korea has nuclear devices, and as i said, is trying to perfect the delivery system. So a new policy has somehow to be devised. And that is why the meeting between President Trump and president xi right now today in maralago is going to be of vital significance. All things like the trade surplus and unfair practices, et cetera, et cetera its coming at a time when the National Security aspect of it is now center on the table. It certainly is. Christian amanpour, thanks so much for joining us. Son it reported thats what president obama told President Trump that neek, the biggest threat to United States because of that capability or because they were such wild play, such a wild card . Yes, theres no doubt that President Trump emerged from his final conversations with president obama, president obama warning him that the gravest National Security threat facing the United States right now was north korea because of its nuclear capability, Ballistic Missile capability, and the unpredictability of the leader kim jungun. And i think it sort of had an huge impact on President Trump. Well standby. Everybody standby. Well be right back with our breaking news. Well have the latest live on the ground in the middle east. And seconds. How about adding a third . We think theres a bajillion ways to measure success. And whether you have hundreds or millions. We think you deserve the Financial Freedom to sleep like this at night. This is the new success story. And at tiaa, were with you. Start today at tiaa dot org. Then youre a couple. Think of all youll share. Like snoring. Does your bed do that . 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Our breaking news President Trump launches a military strike on a Syrian Government target in retaliation for their chemical weapons attack on civilians earlier this week. I want to bring in our cnn chronant jeff zeleny who was traveling with the president in maralago. Looking forward to tomorrow, what should be expect . Well, don, i think that, you know, the summit with president xi xiping is going on today. And the president still has the same issues, but you can be sure the military stieks in syria certainly create a whole new light for this conversation. In fact the president were told met with his advisers before dinner last evening and ordered these strikes. So all of this happened in realtime has they were having this formal dinner in maralago. But it certainly cast President Trump in a different light. I mean these are the two most powerful leaders in the world. Theyve been following President Trump to the Russian Investigation happening here in the u. S. To other things. So this certainly makes President Trump look stronger and more decisive than he has looked in the first 77 days of his presidency. And of course the two big issues that are on the table are the economy and National Security. But the National Security focus, the president actually said earlier when he was flying down here to florida on thursday afternoon, he said, look, we need to talk about north korea. So the north korea threat there is front and center on this agenda at this meeting later today here. But the whole, you know, backdrop cloud of syria over that certainly is interesting. Because, don, its important to put in context. I mean this has just happened in the course of really 48 hours or se. It was really less than three days ago when the president said thats not our fight in syria. And thursday he addressed the nation and said, look, this is National Vital interest. Everything we gleaned from this that he was moved by those pictures and he indeed thought the United States had to act. And hes getting a little blow back from some people in congress, senator tom cane, a damning in virginia called it unlawful, that the president is not under authorit

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