Transcripts For CNNW The Situation Room 20141029 : vimarsana

CNNW The Situation Room October 29, 2014

U. S. Airstrikes have kept isis from overrunning a Syrian Border town. Now the hardpressed defenders are getting some help on the ground. A convoy of british fighters from iraq armed with heavy weapons are poised to enter kobani from turkey and dozens of Syrian Rebels have arrived bringing mortars and machine guns, but in iraq, isis is committing more atrocities and the terrorists are boasting of the slaughter of 45 iraqis after a u. S. Air drop to their tribe. The state Department Deputy spokesperson marie hart is standing by with our analyst. Lets begin with our pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr. Whats going on . Wolf, it just becomes more and more unspeakable day after day. The latest, a couple of days ago the u. S. Air dropped supplies about 7,000 meals to members of a tribe in western iraq that were beginning to turn against isis and take up arms against them. We learned today no direct connection of the u. S. Air drop and 45 men from that tribe were brutally murdered by isis. Pure retaliation for the tribes move to try and turn against ice toys move away from them as you say, unspeakable brutality and it still is continuing, wolf. Whats the latest with kobani, barbara . Kobani, this border town in Northern Syria near the Turkish Border, weve all been watching for so many weeks and they appear to be getting help of these peshmerga fighters and some from Northern Iraq coming around through turkey now and entering kobani with their weapons and with their fighting expertise. A very experienced force. It may help, but the fighting on the ground in kobani is still very tough, block by block, the u. S. , of course, as you see still conducting air strikes there. And if that were not enough amid all of this, nato is now closely watching russian air activity over europe. Whats going on there . A very startling announcement from nato today, wolf, that they are concerned about some stepped up russian air activity over european airspace where thousands of commercial airliners fly. Let me put up a map for a minute and lets leave it up there and walk through what is happening between nato and the russians. Over the last two days, nato has monitored an increased number of russian flights. They have been over the north atlantic, the balkans, the baltic and to the east in the black sea. A number of European Air Forces have responded and they are intercepting these flights and they are generally russian bear bombers with refueling aircraft in groups of eight. Now heres the problem. Theyre not doing anything particularly illegal. Theyre not violating airspace. They are being intercepted. There has been no startling military move, but the problem, they are not filing flight plans. They are not using their trance ponders and they are not in radio contact with civilian air Traffic Control over europe. This is raising concerns. The civilian air Traffic Controllers, the commercial aircraft that fly all over the european continent, those air Traffic Controllers need to know what is out there and the russians are keeping silent. It can be a very dangerous situation. Certainly can be. Very, very disturbing situation at least for now, stand by, barbara, thank you. Theres other breaking news were following. The white house has been hit by hackers and the Cyber Security breach is thought to have originated in russia. Lets get some details now. Our justice correspondent pamela brown is standing by. Pamela, what are you learning . Wolf, we are learning that two u. S. Officials with knowledge of the breach are saying that this early indication is that its believed to be emanating from russia given the complexity of the breach. Officials say it would arent be surprising if it was backed by the government and theyre still investigating this and according to the washington post, it appears the white house may not have been the ones to actual three detect the Computer Systems and instead an ally then alerted the administration. The white house official says for security reasons we are not saying who is responsible, but that is not to say we are not aware and what White House Press secretary john earnest had to say today. Our efforts are ongoing and by publicly revealing what we know it might affect our ability to know more. The Cyber Security teams initiated temporary outages to the network to defend the system. Officials say it appears the breach was relatively well contained, but it was so concerning because it was able to penetrate what is supposed to be one of the most secure systems in the u. S. And that is something the fbi and the department of Homeland Security are investigating as we speak. Amazing stuff indeed. Thanks very much, pamela for that. Meanwhile, there is a stunning new report out there that suggests the apparent rift between the United States and israel, at least some of the leadership is deeper than a lot of people thought. The Atlantic Monthly quoting Obama Administration officials as making crude comments about the Prime Minister of israel n benjam Benjamin Netanyahu and suggesting hes cowardly followed by a top israeli official. Lets get the latest from our white house Senior Correspondent jim acosta. Whats going on with the u. S. Israeli relationship. The white house quickly jumped into white house damage control after offensive comments directed at Benjamin Netanyahu from an unnamed senior Obama Administration official on the strained relations between the u. S. And israel. Using a nickname for netanyahu and saying the thing about bibi is he is a chicken [ expletive ] and he offered some heated comments of his own in a speech in israel saying, quote, i have been on the battlefield many times. I risked my life for the country, and i am not willing to make concessions that would endanger our country. Now many of these disagreements between the Obama Administration and netanyahu are well known and center around Irans Nuclear program and expansion of settlements like East Jerusalem when asked whether the president should personally reach out and apologize to netanyahu, the white house declined to say whether that would even happen. Heres what josh earnest had to say. Called Prime Minister netanyahu and apologized on behalf of this official who made this comment . I dont have any calls on the president s schedule to tell you about, but i think i can confidently say that based on the numerous conversations that president obama and Prime Minister net net ha minister netanyahu, that the value that he personal places on the strength of the relationship between the United States and israel. John boehner suggested the president should fire somebody over the comments in the atlantic saying and we can put this up on the screen, the president sets the tone for his administration. He can either condonees the profanity by the most senior members of his administration or he does not. He has a pension for salty language and we should point out back in 2008 the speaker was quoted as saying he was chicken [ expletive ] for being voted for so many times. Joining us now, the state Department Deputy spokeswoman, marie harf. Happy to be here. Pretty ugly word, chicken [ expletive ], is that what the Administration Believe he is . Not at all. They do not endorse this use about the Prime Minister. The secretary speaks to him on a regular basis and the president has met with him more than any other leader. Our relationship is unshakeable and we have a Strong Security relationship and stand by them, and weve stood them at the u. N. And its an interesting story and a headlinegrabbing quote, but that does not in any way represent the and there is no two allies agree on every single issue. You could say that about everyone one of our allies in the world and when we disagree we raise it as friends do, but we believe the best place to do that is privately, thats the most constructive way to raise these kinds of issues when we do disagree and thats what we do and thats what we hope happens Going Forward. The Israeli Defense minister was here last week and met with the defense secretary, john, and chuck hagel, excuse me, and he wasnt invited to meet with your boss, john kerry. He was invited to meet with susan rice, the National Security adviser and samantha power, the Vice President joe biden and his predecessor ehud barack when he was defense minister, he used to meet with all of them when he came to washington. What happened . Was this a deliberate snub because of what the Israeli Defense minister said about john kerrie . The defense minister of israel met with his counterpart here and hes met with a wide range of officials in the past including john kerry, my boss and others and we have a wide ranging relationship with the israelis and the closest security relationship weve ever had and we have stood by them throughout this whole administration and this article is in no way representative of how my boss, secretary kerry, looks at the situation and how the president does. Its not how we all do. Is the secretary, secretary of state deeply o febdzed by the Prime Ministers comments about him, when he was trying to advance the Peace Process between the israelis and palestinians. The term i would use is more disappointed. The secretary has worked tirelessly on the Peace Process because we know thats in the best interest of israels security to advance a twostate solution. He has traveled there, as you know, numerous times and numerous phone calls and hours and hours, working very hard to see if we can provide israel more security through a twostate solution. We believe both sides should not resort to personal name calling and keep the relationship constructive. We have a lot more to discuss including this state Department Memo that seems to be circulating thats causing a lot of buzz out there and a lot of concern and maybe its time that some officials in the state department believe to start bringing ebola patients to west africa to the United States. 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And start bidding today theres a report out there that the United States may commit to treating professionals from other countries, not american, who become infected with ebola in west africa. We are back with marie harf. Youve seen this report that there is an internal memo sushg lating and some of these people may have come down with ebola in liberia, new guinea and sierra leone and may be brought to the United States for treatment. Is that true . Not at all. Not at all. We are not considering bringing nonamericans who have ebola to be treated. This memo is an internal draft from weeks ago and it was never cleared by anyone at the senior level and has no basis if what we are actually going to be doing. What would be wrong if you have someone from britain or france or other volunteer doctor or nurse over there who has ebola and needs u. S. Help. What would be wrong with bringing them to nih or Emory University hospital. Well, in practice, the reason the memo was written at that time again, several weeks ago is that this was when western European Countries were in discussion, what would happen if as you said one of their Health Workers were to get sick. Youre right, if someone gets sick and needs treatment we should look at all of the options, but to be very clear at this point we do not have plans to bring nonamericans to the u. S. For treatment. Could not be more clear than that. Is russia trying to hack the cyber the Computer System over at the white house . I know my white house colleague spoke to that today. We know there are a number of actors working to see if they can penetrate our system, when there are things concern, theyre looking into it. The russians spy on the United States, i assume this kind of stuff goes on all of the time. I wouldnt assume that this kind of stuff goes on all of the time, but look, we know people are trying to get into our systems and we dont think its acceptable and our systems are protected for a reason and if we see something, well address it. Lets talk about the war against isis and syria in iraq. There are reports that isis has been using this chlorine gas, poison gas against kurds whether in syria or iraq. Against iraqi forces inside iraq. Is that true . We are still looking into those reports. Weve seen a number of them at this point and we think there may be some validity and we cant confirm it for certain yet. Obviously, it would be incredibly concerning and this is why we wanted to get the chemical weapons out of terrorists so they wont get into the hands of terrorists or assad would use them. As you know, there were plenty of stockpiles left over at various places not only in syria, but presumably in iraq, as well. Thats true. In syria weve made great steps here in getting the delaired chemical weapons and chlorine isnt always classified as a chemical weapon, but it can be used as one and these reports are concerning and it shows against barbaric actions that this terror is willing to take against anyone in their way. The situation in kobani, whats your analysis . Whats going on right now because isis claims they basically have it under control. We saw the video they released the other day. Whats your understanding . Well, still fighting as Barbara Starr said, block by block and this will be a tough fight. We have supported the forces on the Ground Fighting isil in cob any and thats important to do, because isil has put more resources in it and put more focus on it. Weve supported it with air drops and it will be a tough challenge and no one town will define this entire effort. Are you satisfied with the level cooperation youre getting from the nato allies, and turkey. We are and we know this is a topic of constant conversation with people in washington, but we are. Theyve played a very key role, obviously, they are affected by isil more than almost anyone in the region given their proximity geographically. Marie harf, thanks very much for joining us. Thank you. Coming up, president obama lashes out at what he sees as the disrespect being shown to americas ebola heroes. Our dr. Sanjay gupta was there in the room when the president met with doctors and nurses fighting the virus in africa. New details from those who know the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham. Stay with us. Youre in the situation room. And were here. To help communities recover and rebuild. Their roads, their schools, their buildings, their offices. Were a leading global Insurance Company based right here in america. For everything from Loss Prevention to cybersecurity. Were here to stand behind our commitments that weve made to our clients, our customers. Were aig. 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