The president says the United States is working with other countries to stop the horrific acts carried out by isis. Mothers, sisters, daughters have been subjected to rape as a weapon of war. Innocent children have been gunned down. Bodies have been dumped in mass graves. Religious minorities have been starved to death. In the most horrific crimes imaginable, innocent human beings have been beheaded with videos of the atrocities being distributed to shock the consciences of the world. No god condones this terror. No grievance justifies these actions. There can be no reasoning, no negotiation with this brand of evil. The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force. So the United States of america will work with a Broad Coalition to dismantle this network of death. That network of death, strong words by the president. Lets bring in jim sciutto. Whats been the reaction so far, how did he do . This is a president who clearly wants to lead. We didnt hear any of these phrases weve been talking about recently like, dont do stupid do or lead from behind. This is a president making a very ambitious call to arms and call to action with the u. S. In the lead. He talked about coalitions that we can do more when were doing it together, et cetera. But he was taking leadership and connecting the dots on a number of world crises as he did that. Certainly a lot of talk about isis, the threat from al qaeda, no question thats a focus. Theres a war under way. But not just there, russia and ukraine, threats from ebola, urging the world to come together to meet these challenges together. And also framing it this way, saying there are multiple forces out there beyond isis who are challenging the International Order. And the way you have to respond to that is to return to that order, defend it, saying that russia is challenging that International Order in ukraine, isis and al qaeda certainly but even a reference to china in asia. Its a very ambitious speech. Certainly was. He made a specific appeal to moderate muslims. I want to play a little clip. It is time for the world, especially in muslim communities, to explicitly, forcefully and consistently reject the ideology of organizations like al qaeda and isil. How is that likely to play in the muslim world . Its a difficult message to come from an american, from a foreigner to the muslim world. You and i have spent a lot of time there. You know they dont like to be preached to. That said, there are voices in the region saying that we as muslims have to speak up against this violence. And thats something that we know that past american president s have considered doing. George bush among them. But its a risky thing to do, to, in effect, scold from afar. But anybody who deals with islamic extremism whether inside the region or out of it knows you need voices in the community to stand up and challenge it. The sad fact, those voices havent been loud enough. Thank you, jim sciutto, very much. Coming up, the president will convene a special meeting of the United Nations. He wants a resolution passed to prevent foreigners from going over to syria and iraq and supporting these terrorist organizations. As promised the United States launched more air strikes against isis targets in syria today. One strike in syria was carried out by the u. S. And one of the Coalition Partners designed to hit isis targets. There were targets near baghdad as well. In an interview with our own christiane amanpour, the secretary of state john kerry talked about the role of airpower in syria and iraq and the imminent effect from an al qaeda splinter group. Airpower has been effective. And now has their supplies begin to get hit and other things begin to happen, i believe there is the possibility of a slow degrading that ultimately i say ultimately because the president s been clear, this will take time. You and others should not be looking for some massive rhee tote within the next week or two. We believe that with the open effort against isil from many different players in the region, theres going to be much greater confidence in this possibility of the opposition. And there will be more recruits, there will be the morale will go up, people are going to be more willing to fight. The khorasan plot, can you confirm precisely what it was and the imminence of it . These are remnants of al qaeda, core al qaeda, as we called it. These are people who were definitively plotting against the United States and the west. We have been tracking them for some period of time now. And it is true that we didnt put a lot of public focus on it because we really didnt want people didnt want them to know that we were in fact tracking them as effectively as we were. So this would have happened with or without isil. We were focused on them and the moment actually was ripe, there were active plots against our country. We knew where they were and we did what we needed to do. Can you tell us what the plots were precise . No. I cant. Im not going to go into that. But suffice it to say that we knew that there were active plots against the country. Those specifics from secretary kerry or the Obama Administration other than to say the threat from khorasan was serious and active. Joining us now, Cnn National Security analyst julia chiyem. When they use this word eminent, what do they mean by that . How imminent are they talking about . They definitely mean there was motive. The people were actively organizing it. They probably had the resources and the money. What they didnt mean by imminent is we knew exactly where an attack was going to take place and when it was going to happen. Where i might disagree with secretary kerry is one of the factors of our bombing in isis is that it was clearly going to both dispose and disrupt our areas of surveillance of al qaeda and its remnants. So whats very likely is our capacity to know what was going on with khorasan or any of the al qaeda splinter groups was going to be disrupted because of the bombings and we wanted to get in simultaneously. So thats probably what imminence means. It does not mean on october 12th, we knew this was going to happen. As you know, juliette, theres the real possibility of what are being called retaliatory attacks in the United States because of attacks against isis targets in syria and iraq. Bulletins have gone out to authorities. How is it being handled . This is how the department of Homeland Security generally works in instances like this. It is what i call its sort of a consumer of the intelligence community. It is getting information and then its job is to get that information out to local and state police, Law Enforcement political apparatus. One would anticipate just by logic that because of the air strikes there are crazy people, people who identify with an organization like al qaeda or even isis who have no affiliation with them who might be lone wolf attackers. So this is sort of a call to vigilance. We are in a heightened alert period and its sort of a reminder to the homeland, which i put in quotes, to keep up their guard. We do this the department did this all the time in response to increased tension internationally. So the u. S. Sent its Coalition Partners, five moderate sunni arab countries. They launch air strikes against isis targets in syria. Then the u. S. Separately launches a tomahawk Cruise Missile strike against this courseKhorasan Group, this al q spinoff, if you will. Would that have happened even if the u. S. Had not gone after these isis targets in syria, would the u. S. Still have gone after this Khorasan Group . Or was that simply the timing was coincidental . Its hard for me to believe the timing was coincidental only because we entered the sovereign nation of syria to do these attacks against isis. We notified the syrians as the administration has said and that the capability to go after both simultaneously makes a lot of sense. People know isis and al qaeda and its remnants are at odds with each other. These terrorist organizations are vying for the same people, the same money, the same relevance. Theyre in competition. So to take out both sides of the competition makes a lot of sense. We went into a sovereign nation. Syria has been remarkably quiet, which is good news. And to do it in all one fell swoop is probably was the smartest and safest approach right now. Juliette, thanks very much for that analysis. This disturbing note just coming in to our cnn studios here. Were at the United Nations. In an apparent retaliation for french air strikes against isis targets inside iraq, a french hiker now appears to have been beheaded in algeria. A group saying they are aligned with the views of isis released the tape purportedly showing the killing just a little while ago, the French Foreign minister confirmed its authenticity to a french radio reporter. The video is entitled a message of blood for the french government. Herve gourdel was kidnapped on sunday, now apparently has been beheaded. Still ahead, the president asked the world the join the effort to defeat isil but will they respond . Well ask a former u. S. Ambassador to the United Nations. And thousands more refugees have fled the brutality of war in isis and crossed into turkey. Were going live. Well have a report on the worst conditions at the border. [door bell rings] [phone rings] hello. Heh. Heh. Hehhehe. Tmobiles is the First National network to give you wifi calling. Now every wifi connection works like a tmobile tower. Its wifi unleashed. In the country. We operate just like a city, and that takes a lot of energy. We use natural gas throughout the airport for heating the entire terminal, generating electricity onsite, and fueling hundreds of vehicles. Were very focused on reducing our environmental impact. And natural gas is a big part of that commitment. President obama today called on the world to join him and the United States in the effort to degrade and ultimately destroy isis. Theres definitely a second day and there will be a third and more. This is going to go on. The president s been very clear that were going to do whats necessary to get this job done. That was obviously the secretary of state john kerry. He spoke to our own christiane amanpour. Well have a little bit more of that interview later this hour. Also well hear directly from the president of the United States. Hes getting ready to deliver a toast at a u. N. Luncheon this hour with the u. N. Secretarygeneral ban kimoon. In the meantime, lets speak with a former u. S. Ambassador to the United Nations, the former governor of new mexico, bill richardson, whos joining us. Governor, thanks for joining us. I notice the president in the speech today before the General Assembly once again said the u. S. Has no intention of deploying Ground Troops to occupy foreign lands. What did you make of that . As you know, hes being criticized by some for saying, why do you keep telling the enemy, in this particular case, isis, what you wont do . Why cant you leave that open to have that hovering over their heads . Well, look, this president was elected and reelected on the grounds that were moving out of wars in iraq and afghanistan. So his first audience and responsibility is the american people. The second reason is that eventually, if there are going to be Ground Troops and there will this is going to be arab countries that are going to have to do this. This is their backyard. This is their interest. These are their territories. America is doing a lot. A majority of the air strikes, a majority of the intel rallying the International Community together. I think whats most significant, wolf, is that the countries that are rallying helping us with the air strikes, not as much as us, are those four arab countries that have had differences with each other. The saudis, the united arab emirates, jordan, the qatars, the infighting taking place within them has now dissipated and theres a united arab front. And the next message is after they, the arabs, provide some of the help with the military air strikes, et cetera, we ask our european friends, were going to need the french, were going to need the brits. So i think the president was successful. It was the strongest speech that ive ever seen him do in Foreign Policy where he said, americas back, were leading, were going to be responsible and this is what were going to do. I thought the president was very good today. A lot of people agree with you, although he didnt mention specifically whats called the Khorasan Group, this al qaeda spinoff in syria. They have a sanctuary there. The pentagon said it was in the final stages of plotting imminent attacks against western and u. S. Targets. How significant if at all do you think it was that he didnt mention the Khorasan Group specifically . Well, this was a big success, the fact that we were able to demolish possibly the leadership of khorasan, that we were not telegraphing that we were going to do it. This is a very dangerous group also, tied to al qaeda, possibly planning an attack on the United States. Apparently they have been hurt very badly and i think the utmost secrecy was required. So he wasnt going out and bragging. He was stating a fact that we had two targets. We had the isis target and we had the khorasan target, which shows the superiority and strength of American Military and airpower and the initial success of this campaign. But i think the key is going to be to get some of the sunni dissident groups to join us. Theyre kind of sitting on the sidelines. We need stronger participation by many arab and sunni groups in the region still. There are some who are already suggesting maybe the president went too far in lecturing muslims, what they need to do to get their act together, rejecting the ideology of al qaeda and isis, calling it a cancer. Did he go too far in sort of lecturing muslims, arabs and other muslims . I dont think so. I think he was very strong and he stated the facts. Look, this arab spring the arab world is going through dramatic change. And there are factions splitting up, some very negatively. I think he had to be very blunt and he was blunt. And he had to shame some entities. But at the same time, i think the results have been bringing those key arab groups that have money, resources and military strength like the saudis, the qataris that have been fighting with each other in syria for influence, bringing them together behind us in this air Strike Campaign has been successful. But i think another message is the u. N. Is a good institution. Look at the timing, the fact that we had 120 or so leaders there. And i think also on other issues like Climate Change i think ban kimoon deserves a lot of credit for that session he held yesterday where a lot of countries made some very strong commitments towards Climate Change. And it shows the u. N. Is a useful instrument for the International Community, especially in a time for crisis like this. Well see how useful it is. Youre right in this time of crisis, it is a time of crisis. Bill richardson, the former u. S. Ambassador to the u. N. , thanks very much for joining us. Still ahead, the head of the Syrian Opposition has a special message for the world. Hes standing by to join us right here at the United Nations. [ male announcer ] some come here to build something smarter. Some come here to build something stronger. Others come to build something faster. Something safer. Something greener. Something the whole world can share. People come to boeing to do many different things. But its always about the very thing we do best. Could mean less waiting for things like security backups but its always about the very thing we do best. And file downloads youd take that test, right . What are you waiting for . You could literally be done with the test by now. Now you could have done it twice. This is awkward. Go to comcastbusiness. Com checkyourspeed. If we cant offer faster speeds or save you money well give you 150. Comcast business built for business. Later today the Syrian OppositionCoalition Leader will address the u. N. General assembly. He will join us here at the United Nations today. Youll be speaking at the u. N. Later today, did i get that right . Yes. Are you satisfied with the support youre getting from the International Community . We are very optimistic about it. We are very glad that the International Community has awakened finally to the danger and threat of terrorism and extremism in the area. Its no more a syrian problem or a regional problem. Its an International Problem right now. Because we see the United States and five arab countries going after isis targets in syria. You want them to go after Bashar Al Assad targets in syria as well, right . Dealing with the root cause of the problem. The root cause is the assad regime itself. It is the main incubator of the terrorist organization in syria and even the world. We see the u. S. Going after isis targets in syria, al nusra targets in syria, khorasan targets, this Khorasan Group. But i see no inclination that the