Welcome to early start. Im john berman. Christine romans is off today. And happening now, the Obama Administration is fine tuning its isis strategy in iraq. Pent goneagon officials are looking to bring sunni tribes into the fight. One possibly under consideration, the u. S. Could arm sunni fighters directly. That would supplement the Current System going through the shiite government in baghdad. This is happening as they are trying to exhume 499 bodies in tikrit which isis claim it is killed last year at a military base. Iraqi officials and foreigners stayed in a hotel where bombs hit. We have our correspondent arwa damon with us. The idea of arming the sunnis directly is not without controversy. Reporter it is not. Thats because of the ongoing secretarytarian issues here. They have yet to do that. Then of course you have the various different dynamics of the battle field where you end up with more unconventional forces armed fighting alongside each other in the battle against isis. At the end of the day, this is iraq and not many things go to plan. The sunnis have been asking for weapons for over a year wanting to take on the battle against isis themselves. Bearing in mind that these are sunni fighters that the u. S. Allied within the past. They were the ones that turned against al qaeda back in the day and created the awakening council and fought alongside u. S. Forces. At the same time there are people who feel america betrayed them and left them at the mercy of the shia government. Back then, the government of nuri al maliki. They feel the current government betrayed them by not providing them with the support a year ago and not providing them with sufficient air support to prevent isis from taking over Anbar Province. We reached a stage where the sunnis will take weapons from anyone who will provide them. The concerns right now as we are talking about the offensive happening in anbar and ramadi is the civilians that are trapped inside the city. We were at a refugee camp and many of the individuals whom we met have relatives and they are trapped in the areas that isis took over a year ago. They are unable to flee. When they try to reach their relatives, they keep telling them they keep trying to leave the neighborhoods, but isis stops them at gunpoint and takes the young men and the young men to pledge allegiance to isis. In all of this you have the growing plight of the civilian population that many of the relatives whom we met claims isis is using as human shields. With so many internal visions in iraq, not place to go. Arwa damon, thank you. New questions about federal grand jury indicting former speaker Dennis Hastert of misconduct and lying to the fbi. He restructured Bank Withdrawals to provide indictment. He paid 300 million to hush money to keep misconduct dating back as far back as his days as a High School Wrestling coach. No response when cnn knocked on the hastert door in illinois. Former colleagues announcing to the statement. Im surprised that dennis found himself in a position he had to do something this drastic. Obviously, he must have known it was illegal to do it in the way they structured it. So on a personal level shocked and dismayed. I hope they get it worked out. From the fbi perspective. Lots of questions. Was he extorted likely the way they wrote the indictment . It means likely to cooperated with the fbi at some point. I think there are a lot more to be told here. A lot more story. Hastert one of the most liked and low key speakers in the last several generations. The 73yearold resigned his position as a lobbyist yesterday. Thats a job he held since leaving congress in 2007. This morning, less than three days remain before major u. S. Intelligence programs shutdown unless lawmakers find a compromise to reauthorize them. The white house says there is no plan b if the nsa expires. This does put pressure on congressional leaders who are scrambling for a solution before sundays deadline. We have Michelle Kosinski with more. Reporter the white house is continuing this push to try to get the senate to act before deadline to keep the parts of the patriot act up and running. Failing to do so is like playing russian roulette. And the fbis work is going to be severely impacted. Here is the press secretary. What our National Security professionals have told us these are programs that provided valuable information in the past. Critical tools to keep the American People safe. They use these tools to collect information that has not been otherwise available to them and used to prevent individuals from carrying out acts of violence and round up people who wished harm on the United States. Reporter thats what they have been saying. The thing is u. S. Officials cannot point to a single case where these programs saved the day and thwarted terror. When you look at the programs besides the bulk phone Data Collection that will expire collecting bank and business and Hotel Records on individuals. It is used about 200 times a year. Officials say there are other ways to get that information, but those ways are limited and lessee secret. Also roving wire taps on people who use multiple cell phones. Officials say the patriot act is the only way to do that. Effectively and quickly track those people. Especially when you consider potential isis types. And lastly wire taps are lone wolves. People not connected to any known terror group. We found out that has never been used before and it only applies to people outside the u. S. , not american lone wolves. This big question is our National Security really going to be at risk . Depends on whom you ask. The white houses take is why allow any risk especially when the privacy concerns can be addressed with the bipartisan bill that the house passed and the white house wants the senate to do the same. Michelle kosinski for us. The death toll is rising from the storms in texas and oklahoma. At least 23 people have been killed by tornadoes and flooding. This morning, crews are scouring the wreckage of homes and cars in hays county houston and elsewhere. Searching for nine people still known to be missing. With rain pouring down this morning and more in the forecast today, Officials Say the danger has not passed. I dont think so. I would like to say that it is but im not sure the worst is over because of the way the weather is running and we are so saturated in almost all parts of texas. Eight of those still missing from texas are from three families whose vacation cabin was swept away on the blanco river. Michelle sharbas body was identified on wednesday. And we have more on the rest of the hunt. Reporter families are waking up on the sixth day waiting for answers. Eight people still missing that were swept away by the blanco river. Over the weekend, three people have been identification. Of course michelle was found. She is the latest to be identified. Unfortunately, the rest of her family her husband and son, as well as parents, are still missing. We have been hearing so much about jonathan mccomb. He actually was okay. He is in the hospital recovering. He has serious injuries. He is expected to make a full recovery. The rest of his family are still missing. It has been a gutwrenching couple of days for the people here in wimberley as crews continue the clean up along the banks. We are anticipating more rain possible today and through the weekend. Crews are out and they will not give up until they find the rest of the missing eight people. They will search by foot boat and by air and they will not stop. In fact 40 to 50 crews out there at least with nine canine units searching debris piles along the banks of the river hoping for any sign of those missing eight people as their families wait to hear answers. Jennifer gray along the blanco river. The weather pattern is hitting the town hard where 4 inches of rain fell in oklahoma. The Weather Service says water reached the top of car tires. You can see it. The water reaching the top of car tires in the storm. There is more Severe Weather in the forecast. All the way through the weekend. Meteorologist derek van dam has more. We have received so much rain across the plains, it is visible from space. Taken from nasa satellites. This is the Arkansas River flowing to the mississippi river. Notice how it flooded its banks and continuing to expand past capacity. It continues to flow downstream to the mississippi. There is the potential going forward. We have 157 locations along various rivers and streams reporting flood stage conditions. We have flood watches and flood warnings ongoing from oklahoma to eastern portions of texas with more rain in store. There is some improvement in store for early parts of next week. Showers and thunderstorms forecast into the weekend. That includes saturday and sunday. Oklahoma city to austin and the possibility of Severe Weather through the northern great lakes. Derek van dam, thanks. Time for an early start on your money. Markets in asia and europe are mixed. Wall street is waiting for the Economic Growth during the first quarter. That number is expected to turn negative. The economy shrank at the start of the year. Auto makers are adding millions of cars to the recall list after the takata recall last week. Mitsubishi and ford and chrysler have touchedurned in numbers to the ntsb. With automakers identifying which cars need to be fixed, dealerships can replace the faulty part. That will take a long time here. We are talking years. There is controversy surrounding a new contest in the United States to draw the Prophet Muhammad. Are organizers of the event trying to instigate violence . What they are telling participants to bring to the event. Police in phoenix, arizona are bracing for potential violence stemming from an antiislam rally today outside of a mosque that will feeature a Prophet Muhammad contest. Two shot dead in texas after being assaulted with rifles. Sara sidner has more. Reporter they are calling it round two because this is the second time they held a rally like this. Before the rally here in phoenix, they are planning on doing what is a Prophet Muhammad cartoon drawing contest similar to the one we saw in garland, texas. You remember what happened there. They say this is in response to what happened in garland when two men here in phoenix went to a mosque and went to try to gun police down. They ended up dying themselves at the hands of the officer who stopped them from being able to get into the rally. Police believe they were trying to get into the contest in garland. As far as this one, it will be peaceful. They are holding it here to send a message. They put something on their facebook they have not had in the past. I want to read that. Quote, people are also encouraged to come to the rally to utilize their Second Amendment rights just in case the First Amendment comes under attack. The Second Amendment is the right to bear arms. The first, freedom of speech. There is concern from those who go to the mosque. They are holding it on friday when they are having evening prayers. Rally will be outside of the mosque itself. People are concerned. Some folks will not show up. We were able to interview someone who spoke on behalf of the community here about the concerns that those who come to the mosque and frequent the mosque have. Recently the mosques here in phoenix received threatening letters. Specific threats saying we will massacre your congregation. This is happening within the last week. This adds to the intersection of islamaphobia. When we see this intersect, we see this is a concern. Maybe we should not go. We are advising people from our organization it is better to stay clear from the event and dont engage with the people. Reporter the counsel on Islamic Affairs says there is a threat to the imam and the mosque. There is a concern for those who come to the mosque especially on friday on the day of prayer. There will be security. The Phoenix Police have surveyed the area and will be here. Sara sidner thank you. What do you do if your organization is accused of widespread corruption . 150 million worth of bribes and unseemly activities . Why, you run for reelection. That man, perhaps about to be reelected as the leader of the worlds most prominent soccer organization. We are live as the drama unfolds next. Headache . Motrin helps you be an unstoppable, letsrockthisconcert likeits1999 kind of mom. When pain tries to stop you, theres motrin. Motrin works fast to stop pain where it starts. Make it happen with new motrin liquid gels. Pretty shocking. Fifa forging ahead with the election in zurich despite the scandal. Sepp blatter, the head of the governing body he is expected to easily win the fifth term as president. He is speaking out vowing to protect fifas reputation and distancing himself from the scandal. I know many people hold me responsible for the actions and reputation of the Global Football community. We or i, cannot monitor everyone all of the time. Monitoring someone some of the time . Lets go to zurich and bring in Sports Correspondent alex thomas. He is likely to cruise to a fifth term today, correct . Reporter john a potentially historic day for the worlds most popular sport. Even a watershed moment in the way the Salt Lake City scandal for the Olympic Movement or the Lance Armstrong doping confession for cycling. Despite the lurid and controversial headlines that made news across the globe for fifa the governing body of soccer it is business as usual. Sepp blatter in charge since 1998 has opened the congress in the gray building behind me and given his opening remarks. He wants to continue the reform process and he wants to be the favorite for the challenger prince ali hussein of jordan. And with a population of 80,000 gets one vote as does the United States with a population of 310 million. For those outside scratching their head saying why is blatter still popular . One delegate said he makes the tiniest country feel special just like germany and brazil. So it is up for the world soccer leaders to decide the future of the organization but it sounds like they will stick with more of the same. John. I was reading and officials in england said if he gets reelection, they will consider boycotting future world cups. Extraordinary. Thanks so much. New information on the espionage trial of Jason Rezaian in iran. The application submitted in 2008 has been introduced into evidence in court. Rezaian was a freelance when he applied. He has been in prison in iran for ten months charged with spying with antigovernment propaganda. New surveillance images shows china positions weapons on the artificial islands they are developing in the south china sea. The photos show two motor artillery units capable of firing on other islands. The white house says those islands are in international waters. New spectacular footage of a volumecano erupts on the Southern Japanese island without warning. About 140 people were forced to evacuate when mt. Shindaki erupted. The Meteorology Agency in japan raised the level to five. No reports of damage at this hour. Several people are unaccounted for. The u. S. Fine tuning strategy to fight isis as the Iraqi Military tries to take back territory seized by the terrorists. We are live in baghdad next. Is the u. S. Shifting strategy it fight isis in iraq . The new fine tune plans as iraqis try to take back territory. We are live in baghdad ahead. Former House SpeakerDennis Hastert indicted accused of lying to the fbi of hush money withdrawals. New details ahead. New storms targeting texas. State already devastated by historic flooding and its not over. Welcome back to early start. Im john berman. 31 minutes past the hour. Christine romans is off this morning. Happening now, the Obama Administration is fine tuning the isis strategy in iraq. Pentagon officials are trying to bring sunni tribes into the fight against Islamic State militants. One possibility, the u. S. Could begin arming sunni fighters directly. That could supplement the system now. This as iraqi forensic teams begin to identify nearly 500 bodies exhumed from the complex in tikrit. They believe they are military cadets that isis claimed to have killed last year. Overnight in baghdad at least nine People Killed and 14 injured in twin bomb blasts at Luxury Hotels that is popular with officials and foreigners. Standing by is Senior Correspondent arwa damon. Arwa how significant is it to arm the sunnis directly in the fight against isis . Reporter john if it just stays an an idea, it is not significant at all. If it materializes, this is an important development. Doing it directly and not through the Iraqi Government may cause some tensions between washington and baghdad. The sunni tribes have been begging for weapons for over a year now. There have been many promises made by the predominately shia government they would be armed. So far, that has not materialized. One must also remember the u. S. Has fought alongside the sunni tribes before. They did it back in the days when it was isis predecessor al qaeda in iraq. It was the key enemy in Anbar Province and the americans and their whole strategy back then did manage to convince the sunni tribe