Allowed access to the white house. Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. Fair, balanced and unafraid, greta goes on the record right now. This is a fox news alert. An Al Qaeda Group ready to strike the u. S. A u. S. Intelligence officer says khorasan was operational and in the final stages of plans to attack the u. S. Homeland or europe. And last less than 24 hours ago, the u. S. Launched air strikes in syria, bombing eisis targets inside syria first, john kirby, just moments ago, we spoke with him about the latest u. S. Military action. Admiral, thank you for join being us, sir. Thanks for having me. What did khorasan have 24 hours ago that it doesnt have right now . Were still assessing the effects of the strikes that we took against the Khorasan Group in syria. We do know we hit what we were aiming at. Some of it was their weaponsmaking capabilities and commandandcontrol. Were still assessing the effectiveness, the thoroughness of those strikes, and well know probably in the next day or so. How long have they been on our radar screen . I thought isis was our target in iraq and in syria. Now im hearing about khorasan. How long have they been on our socalled radar screen . Weve been watching this group khorasan for quite some time now. Weve been aware of them. Theyre a derivative of al qaeda, an offshoot of al nusra. While it may be a new name to many americans, its not a new name to the defense department
or intelligence community. We know what theyre planning, and thats what led to the urgency of the strikes last night. What were they planning and has it been thwarted . They were planning attacks against western targets, either in europe or in the u. S. Homeland. We also know they were very close to the end game on those efforts, and they getting close to the execution. Its hard to pinpoint exactly how long, but we know they were getting near the end just based on intelligence we were able to collect. Im not at liberty to go into too much detail about the attack itself, but i can tell you they were getting close. If we were fully successful in these strikes we believe we will have been able to thwart those attacks, but, again, we still need to wait and watch and take another look. Okay. I note you use the word targets, i dont want to push you any further i know you dont want to tell me, and i got that. But does the pentagon know what the targets are or were . Theyre very specific . We have specific intelligence, specific information about the nature of the attack. Thats really as far as im able to go. Now turn to isis. What did isis have 24 hours ago that it doesnt have right now in syria . We hit targets that get right at isils community, excuse me, targets that fwekt their ability to commandandcontrol, to sustain themselves, to train themselves to recrete. We know that we hit hard targets that they have been using to sustain themselves in the fight in iraq and frankly, in syria. And this is not just like any other terrorest group. This is a dwrun that tries to grab ground. They have governing expectations. Youve seen some of the video and images. We know we hit what we were aiming at. We will be assessing for quite some time to get a better sense
of how effective we were. But we know these strikes were at the very least successful. Have we heard from the assad regime, president assad of syria since this happened . Weve been, from the military perspective, greta, weve not been in any communication with the assad regime, before, during or after. Do you know of others within the government that has been in contact with the assad regime before, during or after . Through, through our u. N. Ambassador the assad regime was notified of our intent to conduct air strikes in syria, but there was no deeplevel coordination or communication about that, and certainly, again, from a military perspective, we have not and have no plans to coordinate our activities with the assad regime. We have been told that this is going to be a long, sustained effort to get isis. How do you define lock and sustained . Is that a day . Week . Years . Can you give me a little
more of a time frame . Sure, i think to put it simply, we need to steel ourselves for an effort that could take years, greta. Everybodys here at the pentagon about the scope of this challenge and how significant it is to our interest, to our people in the region, but also to the interest of our partners and allies. And i think that you saw arab nations, sunni arab nations participate in air operations last night. Thats a real statement. It speaks volumes of how they, too, share the significance of this threat. I think were very, very honest with ourselves about the challenge here and were prepared to be at this for a while. But in terms of scope, i would say, yeah, probably years. No matter which way you fall on any of this, i think we can all be proud of our military for executing a plan well done. No one has heard, at least not on our side. Thank you very much for joining us. Thanks for having me, greta. Why now . What maid the unit decide to strike in syria right now . Jennifer griffin live at the pentagon with the latest. Reporter weve just learned that there were two Additional Air strikes carried out this morning at the end of the third wave of air strikes, raising the number of targets hit to 24. The president authorized the air strikes last thursday after visiting centcom. The Arab Coalition came together in the past four days. Thats when the u. S. Decided it was ready to strike. Centcom commander lloyd austin gave the command on monday and they began at 8 30 eastern last night. The first missiles fired came from the uss army burk and the uss philippine sea. 47 tomahawk missiles were fired at command and control headquarters of the Khorasan Group, a group made up of pakistani and afghan fighters that u. S. Officials claim was plotting against the United States. This group is a rival of isis. Pentagon Officials Say the mission to defeat isis could take years. The significance of saudi and emiraty and jordanians cannot be understated. Five nations joined this mission including qatar which flew but did not drop bombs. They targeted this group of pakistan and afghani fighters. They are a rival to isis. It was suggested they had entered a new phase of plotting against the u. S. And the west, possibly the homeland. Jennifer, were now, u. S. Intelligence official says that khorasan was operational, was operational. Is it still operational . Because you know, we hit a lot of buildings and everything, but what makes everyone think that
it is not still operational . What we know from pentagon officials that we talked to today is that they were not targeting highvalue targets, the leaders of these groups. They were not going after any big names. And in fact, we know that the leader of khorasan, there was a tweet this morning suggesting hed been killed, but pentagon and intelligence Officials Say they have no indication he was killed. So in essence, the leaders of eye significance and the chore son group survived. The question is, will they try to target them. Right now that does not seem to be part of this mission. And also, without boots on the ground, remember, greta, it is not that easy to, you need to be able to capture people, interrogate them to get the top leadership. It may not be mission, but everyone is wondering whether khorasan is operational still and whether they still plan on fulfilling their latest terrorism threat. Anyway, jennifer, thank you. And the pentagon insisting the Obama Administration did not coordinate with the assad regime, but the u. S. Did inform syria through our u. N. Ambassador of our intent to take military action. So is thebama administration walking a fine line here . John bolden joins us. Its looking at the reports it doesnt look like assad is seriously upset because we helped kill his enemy. Thats correct. But the difficulty here that the administration doesnt fully realize is that weve got multiple enemies sitting right next to each other. And certainly the strike against isis was warranted and long overdue and presumably against khorasan as well, but that doesnt mean that its to our advantage to see the assad regime encouraged or built up or given any sense that the United States is now prepared to accept its continued existence. And iran needs to know that even more directly. Well, what gave us permission to do this . Or gave us, you know,
justification was the fact that at least the white house is saying is that iraq invited us in to help, and that iraq was being attacked by groups in syria, meaning isis. We, then, of course went on to go after a group thats threatening us which was not part of article 51, but im curious if theres been any sort of backlash by the u. N. , whether or not that we do have, that we were justified by article 51. I dont think we have to be justified by article 51. I couldnt care less in a sense. The United States has an inherent right of selfdefense, whatever the u. N. Charter says. That would be against khorasan. Would that be against isis as well . Of course. What the Obama Administration is saying is they did it for iraq. Well, of course thats what theyre going to say, because they dont want to be involved at all. They dont have their heart in it. The administration wishes they werent going through this. But if you have to construct a legal definition, thats what article 51 says, that every nation retains the right of
selfdefense. But the United States has a right of selfdefense independent of the u. N. Charter. It didnt arise in 1945. Is it not significant that we did get a coalition of five nations going alongside with us . Is that not hugely significant . Heres why its newsworthy. Not that the five arab nations joined us, but that we finally got off our posterior and joined them. Theyve been allied with the United States. Im going to leave qatar aside for the second, but the other four have been tearing their hair out at the weakness and the threat that isis poses to them. I think they were delighted to fly with us and wished they could have done it six weeks ago. Ambassador, thank you. And the pentagon warning that the battle will not be a quick one. We are striking through the depths of isils formations because we are trying to disrupt
their support bases. While we enable in iraq their Iraqi Security forces with the help of partners to dislodge and ultimately remove isil from iraq. Could this take years . I would think of it in terms of years, yes. And nice to see you, sir. Thank you, greta. A u. S. Official says khorasan was operational and in the final stage of plans to attack the u. S. Homeland or europe. Thats why we attacked. Right. What i dont get from anyone, is khorasan now handled . Are they still in the operational stages . Nobody knows. The taker of khorasan is that they bring two things to bear that are still out there. Number one is the technology to develop secondgeneration bombs. This is nonmetallic bombs that cannot be sniffed out by dogs. The second thing they bring since theyre in syria is the
ability to get a u. S. , western passport holder. We say you can shoot at 50 meter targets. Khorasan is a 50meter target because all they had to do is put those two elements together, put this guy on an airplane and the results would have been a disaster. Any idea why they didnt drop any bombs . Whats so interesting is they from flying mirage 2,000s. I guess they were just up there boring holes in the sky. You think its peculiar . I think its weird. But its a good thing that the other four states dropped bombs. The idea that they could put together these coalitions and strikes and the idea that they had intel jengs, good intelligence is pretty impressive by centcom. Whats next, tonight . No. Were going to continue this drip, drip, drip. Their is a Bombing Campaign thats more of an aggravation than decisive. And its going to last for years. And until were able to put eyes on the ground, special forces into syria to start killing the middleman and the leadership in syria, the longterm effects of these periodic bombing strikes are not going to be decisive. All the attention has been on isis and this little group of khorasan that we have heard about. Its like that sort of a real and new threat that i think many of us woke up to today. Absolutely. And what scares me, the bottom line is, these people are still there, and they have a sanctuary in syria, and they have the syrians looking the other way. And now they have the technology to start this all over again. It scares me to death. Thank you, sir. Thank you, greta. This is a fox news alert. Police issuing an arrest warrant in connection with the
disappearance of university of virginia student hannah graham. Just minutes ago, the police chief announced the development. This afternoon we reached that point where the commonwealth felt we had sufficient probable cause to seek an arrest warrant. So we appeared before a magistrate, detective Sergeant Mooney did, late this afternoon and obtained an arrest warrant for Jesse Leroy Matthew junior of charlottesville, charging him with a class two felony of abduction with the intent to defile. Now ive learned and on the record is investigating this case. We went to the home of Jesse Matthews grandmother. Well show you what we found coming up. And new information about the chor son terrorists. They were ready to attack, having gone from the plotting and Research Phase to the carrying out phase. So you can enjoy that second home sooner. Know the right Financial Planning can help you save for college and retirement. Know where you stand with pnc total insight. A new investing and Banking Experience with personalized guidance and online tools. Visit a branch, call or go online today. Introducing a pm pain reliever that dares to work all the way until the am. New aleve pm the only one with a safe sleep aid. Plus the 12 hour strength of aleve. Iwith something terrible to admit. I treated thousands of patients, risked their lives, while high on prescription drugs. I was an addict. Im recovered now, but an estimated 500,000 medical professionals are still out there, abusing drugs or alcohol. Police, airline pilots, bus drivers. Theyre randomly tested for drugs and alcohol. But not us doctors. You can change that vote yes on proposition 46. Your lives are in our hands. This is a fox news alert. It is not just isis. Most of us were stunned to find out today that u. S. Air strikes in syria also targeted another terror group, an Al Qaeda Group who the Obama Administration says was nearing the execution phase here or in europe. Kathrcatherine herridge joins u. I get it today who they are. Whats the story . The Khorasan Group is really like the Old Boys Club of al qaeda. These are folks that go way back with osama bin laden. They have family ties with him, and they trained in the camps in the 90s before 9 11. So this is kind of al qaeda seen ro Senior Leadership in syria. Apparently the reason why the pentagon and the white house says they struck is because theyve gone from the plotting and Research Phase into the operational phase. What i dont get though, is if we did last night eliminated them or is the operational phase still in tact. Where are they . One of the reasons that we went when we did is because we had updated Location Information for the leadership of the Khorasan Group. So we knew they were moving towards executing a plot. Can you know that, but if you dont have good information about where they are, theres no point launching strikes. Number two, just because you put them under pressure or take out some of the leadership, youre
not really getting at the cancer at the heart of this, and these are the bomb makers whove been trained to use the nonmetallic bombs such as the underwear bomb. You cannot drone this group out of existence in simple terms. We dont have confidence that they have been finished. They have been hit, but thats all. They are under pressure. And theyre going to go to ground. But you cant have confidence that the operation is over, because its bigger than just a single individual. Cathrine thank you. We heard about the threat of khorasan, but it was not long ago that president obama said this. Al qaeda is on the run, and we have decimated their leadership. Al qaeda is on the run. A new tower rises above the new york skyline. Al qaeda is on the path to defeat. Al qaedas on the run, al qaedas on the run. Today, al qaeda is on the run. The war in iraq is over. The war in afghanistan is ending. Al qaeda is on the run. Osama bin laden is dead. And joe trippi joins us. Do you want to respond to all that . It looks like al qaeda is not on the run. Well, they are. Theyre not gone. These guys were with osama bin laden. Hes dead. Now theyre in syria, and they just got hit again. And theyre running begin. As kathryn said, youre never going to extinguish every single one of these guys. You have to know where they are and monitor them and our intelligence said now is the time. Theyre trying to get operational, and we hit them. When he was at the Democrat Convention in 2012, he said al qaeda is on the path to defeat. I would not use that description. Today we spend more of our
time worrying about isil and thats wrong. There are other cells out there like this one that can be a much bigger threat to the unit today than isil is today. Is the president s commencement of operations in syria, does that have any impact for democrats in the midterm elections . I dont think so. Look, i just dont think that his Approval Ratings or anything else, any action he takes right now is really going to change the dynamic of the low Approval Ratings he has in terms of how it impacts democrats. Theyre all fighting their own races out there, staying competitive. Hes going to be an anchor on them, and thats not coming off, no matter how successful these raids are. How about the impact on secretary of state H