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Paris Seals Off Area of Found Suicide Vest, Belgium Remains on Lock Down; U.S. Central Command Investigated on Manipulated Reports on ISIS War; Kurdish Troops Preparing for Massive Assault against ISIS; Washington Post Journalist Sentenced to Prison in Iran. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired November 23, 2015 - 13:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[13:30:16] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We are following all of the breaking news.

We are following a couple of new developments emerging. Paris police tell CNN -- I want to be specific -- that in the Paris suburb, they are sealing off an area where they have discovered an article resembling a suicide vest in a garbage can, and they are analyzing it now, and a bomb disposal team has gone there.

Meanwhile, in Belgium, they have announced they have arrested a suspect last night in Belgium, in Brussels, for participating in the activities of a terrorist group. And -- these are the key words -- in connection with the attack on Paris.

Spider Marks, these are fast-moving developments right now, and very worrisome developments. And you have heard the Belgium prime minister say they will be in the lockdown situation until next Monday.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It is worrisome, and good news. They have are good intelligence, and following up. Obviously, sufficient evidence for them to go after this type of the intelligence to bring it to the surface, and saying we can make some progress here, but they won't be clearly in a lockdown situation, unless there was real fire or the smoke. Maybe some intelligence where they say that we have to stay in the posture.

BLITZER: And speaking of intelligence, Kimberly, in a story in "The New York Times," there is word now that the Central Command is being investigated by the inspector general if they were delivering overly rosy intelligence reports.

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, we have heard 50 analysts saying you took our raw material, and rewrote it. It is being investigated, but the Pentagon is going to say, look, it is the job of the guy's job in charge to take that wide view and couple it with the other agencies to produce a report that will give the commander in chief ammunition to make decisions. The jury is still out on that. And in the meantime, we are hearing from former Pentagon intelligence officials though that they believe what is going on, on the ground is not moving fast enough to keep up with the growth of the ISIS network. The former top Pentagon defense chief, intelligence chief, Mike Vickers, wrote an article over the weekend saying he wants to see something like Afghanistan in 2001, where you send in more U.S. Special Operations forces and intelligence officers to go to lead and guide the fight against ISIS more sharper.

BLITZER: Phil, how unusual for the inspector general to look at the reports and whether they were cooking the books to make it look like the war against ISIS in Mosul is better than it seemed to be.

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: The report of the inspector general is not, but there are two things going on, the inherent problem of the intelligence reports. The fact that the folks went public is telling me that it is not a substantive problem, because management problem. This is not going outside of the door unless you have a bunch of analysts saying that we are managed poorly, and that is what you will find.

BLITZER: In this review -- and President Obama says he wants a full review. And he does not want any sugar coated reports of intelligence, and so when ISIS took over Mosul, the second largest city in Mosul, the Iraqi forces ran away. They fled. Originally, that was in the intelligence report. Then there was later documents that said they re-deployed. That's a significant shift.

MARKS: It is unfortunate to have something like that to reach the highest level. So you take raw intelligence and a very discernable result and turn it into what has been made. And to the point that have already been made, having been one of the guys at the low level intelligence in uniform, and then to the top levels, the senior intelligence individual must reach into the command to make sure that everybody has what they need so that you can have a consistent view that is going forward. You encourage the competitive an analysis, and intelligence at some point, but at some point you have to go to the boss to say, to Phil's point, so that he or she can do something about it. Intelligence leads to operational decisions. That is what is key. But if you put your finger in it, and end up messing with it, you will have what Kimberly was saying, the analysts are saying that our voices are not being heard.

[13:35:11] BLITZER: Phil, you remember, in the Vietnam War, the overly rosy assessments of the number of Vietcong killed and the Vietnamese killed, and then, in the end, we know what happened.

MUDD: That's right. As an intelligence professional, you want to tell the president what he wants to hear. We knew what the White House needs so you have to balance with the pressure to ensure you report accurately what's on the ground, and it looks like a problem in this case.

BLITZER: Very quickly.

DOZIER: And the same thing in Afghanistan where the CIA had one intelligence report saying that the Taliban is coming back, but the military intelligence was entirely different. And the CIA was accusing the general in charge of cooking the books to make it look like his campaign was winning.

BLITZER: It is a serious problem. We will see what the inspector general at the Department of Defense coming up with. We will watch that.

Guys, thanks very much.

Still ahead, the U.S. troops are preparing for a massive offensive against ISIS -- I should say Kurdish troops preparing for a massive assault in Iraq and Syria, and not U.S. troops, but Kurdish troops. We will have a live update from Nick Paton Walsh.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:40:48] BLITZER: Kurdish fighters in Syria are within sight of the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa. They are 20 miles away and close enough to hear the bombardment of air strikes. Coalition forces are now giving them training and equipment as they prepare to advance.

Our senior international correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, travelled to the Kurdish front lines to see the situation first hand.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After Paris, the Sinai in the crosshairs is here, Raqqa. Lost in the haze, yet they can hear it, loud thuds, heaviest at dusk.

"Three days ago," says Bahas (ph), "we saw 14 air strikes suddenly hit just nearby. Then the French said they'd started bombing. We'll do our best to avenge Paris."

He, like the other young Kurdish fighters here, have lost friends, but say fighting ISIS is a duty for humanity, rather than vengeance as they man a series of trenches and outposts about 20 miles from the city.

(on camera): We have heard distant thuds of what could have been air strikes. From where we're standing, here is the Kurdish front line, a trench dug as far as we can see. All in this direction, flat, open land until you reach the outskirts of Raqqa, the capital of ISIS's self-declared caliphate.

(voice-over): Four Russian missiles hit ISIS in this day, activists said, but otherwise, it's the silence stalemate in the desert.

Weapons here are scant. This man carries the A.K.-47 of his friend who died eight months ago.

Out here, in the flat, open ground, with ISIS in the next village, they still scorn ISIS's leaders and welcome help.

"If French, Russian or American fighters," this commander says, "come here to fight, we'll cooperate with them as we're all fighting to clean the area of is for humanity."

ISIS left their mark on nearby Annalisa (ph), as has the fights for it. Even the mosque littered with mines.

(on camera): The silence here is breathtaking. This is directly the road down to Raqqa. You can just hear the complete absence of human life.

(voice-over): There is little in victory left to fight for.

On the way out, we meet these guys. They don't look much like white knights but that's what the Pentagon hopes they are. The Syrian Democratic Forces, getting American aid, who explain they've secured the major defection of Sunni tribes inside Raqqa to fight ISIS.

"We weren't expecting this large number to join, but there are now 4,000 tribesmen," he says. "When we want to move, all of them are ready and we've already managed to sneak weapons to them. We're moving forward."

Western leaders call this a global fight, but here, alone, you feel the dust, death and determination.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Nick is joining us live from Irbil in northern Iraq.

Explain to the viewers around the world, Nick, why retaking Raqqa is so critically important.

PATON WALSH: Well, it would be a massive symbolic blow to the ideology of is. It is a vital city in the ideology, and what they call the capital of the self-declared caliphate, and a place where so much of the infrastructure and policy is coming out of. There are groups that can move around with ease. But the mere fact that we deprive them of one of their two key population centers, the other being Mosul in Iraq, would be a staggering blow to their recruitment. It is a massively complicated task, Wolf, because it is a huge urban sprawl, and tens of thousands of people, already damaged and well prepared to propel the invaders, so a very complex task ahead.

BLITZER: You know the Kurdish fighters, and you were with them, courageous fighters and they have limited military equipment, but without the imminent arrival of coalition troops, ground troops, can they get the job and liberate Raqqa?

[13:45:00] PATON WALSH: Well, they have air power in their favor, so the troops can hold those trenches, because otherwise they will be hit from the skies. But, yes, they need much larger numbers to move forward. What you heard from the report of one of the members of the revolutionary army of Raqqa that they may have thousands of Sunni tribesmen who are willing to defect and fight against ISIS. And if that is true, and we couldn't corroborate it, that is a huge blow to ISIS, because they have by this stage given the repressive nature of the community they've created inside Raqqa, alienated many of the locals. That could be a game changer to get the local people to rise up, and given that the locals are Sunni Syrian Arabs, but there is a long series of moves ahead of them, Wolf, they're up against.

BLITZER: Nick Paton Walsh on the scene for us. Nick, very courageous reporting.

Do the Kurdish fighters have the land mine sweeper, because ISIS has planted the roadside with improvised bombs all over the place, and I presume they are very concerned about it.

PATON WALSH: Yes, it makes the movement almost impossible. We saw in Sinjar as they were searching for them with a metal detector, and they need more equipment like that. And in places there that you saw, it is incredibly hard and slow and incredibly dangerous work -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Nick Paton Walsh on the scene for us. Thank you so much.

Still ahead, his trial was held in secret, the length of his sentence is unknown and the now the family of "The Washington Post" journalist, Jason Rezaian is left with more questions than answers. We will speak to his brother, Ali, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:51:00] BLITZER: The Russian President Vladimir Putin is in Iran today. He met with Iran's president and the supreme leader to discuss the Syrian crisis and an international peace plan designed to end the conflict. The supreme leader told Putin that U.S. policies in the region pose a threat to Iran and Russia and called for closer ties between their two countries. The visit comes as U.S., France and Britain discuss joint action against ISIS in Syria.

Meanwhile, an Iranian court has sentenced "The Washington Post" reporter, Jason Rezaian to prison. Jason Rezaian was detained in 2014. According to "The Washington Post," an indictment cited by the media calls him an American spy, accuses him of gathering information about people and companies inside Iran. The indictment accuses him of providing information to the U.S. government. Both "The Washington Post" and the State Department here in Washington deny all of these charges. His trial was held largely in secret. No details have been released on what exactly the verdict is or the sentence.

Jason Rezaian's brother, Ali Rezaian, is joining us.

Ali, thanks very much for joining us.

Tell us how you and your family reacting to the latest news about your brother?

ALI REZAIAN, BROTHER OF JASON REZAIAN IMPRISONED IN IRAN: It's just one more time that Iran has come out and given us information, only part of the information and not anything to go from. We know they are saying that he was found guilty. We don't know what he was found guilty of. They are saying he has prison time he was charged with and now we don't know what that is. It's just stringing out and torture for all of us to figure out where we're at and where we're going.

BLITZER: Has your family been in touch with Jason? Has he been told what his prison sentence is?

REZAIAN: No one has spoken to him since the spokesman said that. We should have access to him within the next couple hours. Hopefully, we'll hear from him then.

BLITZER: What is the U.S. government told you? REZAIAN: I haven't spoken to the State Department since the news came

out. What we do know is the State Department has been speaking with the Iranians and having communications because of the talks for the nuclear agreement. But also because of the talks. We know they are having talks on the sidelines around that. Our hope is that Iran will finally realize this isn't good for public opinion or good for their opinion of the world and it will help them to become a closer nation with everybody else if they let Jason out.

BLITZER: The Iranians publicly, the foreign minister among others raised the possibility of some exchange. Your brother and other Americans held in Iran in exchange for Iranian prisoners in the United States. What, if anything, is happening on that front based on what you're hearing?

REZAIAN: You know, I really don't know. What I know is Jason is innocent. They have some folks here that have been convicted of charges and went through a fair and open process. Jason has been in jail now for 488 days. He had a total of 8 hours of court time. He met with his lawyer for one and a half hours outside of the court. You don't see any equivalency there. I don't know how anybody in their right mind would think there's an equivalency there.

BLITZER: He should be released. What can our viewers around the world do to help?

REZAIAN: Thanks for asking. You can go to change.org/freejason. There's a petition there that over half a million people have signed. You can go to freejason.net. There's information about how to contact the Iranian mission at the U.N. and send them letters and let them know this is important. We have people that over 150 countries that have signed the petition. We want more. We are going now into a period where the U.N. has the working group on arbitrary detention. It's important they know this is wrong and that's going to flow over to the Iran and how they are treated in the U.N.

[13:55:13] BLITZER: Good luck to you, Ali, and your brother, Jason, and your entire family. Thanks very much for joining us.

REZAIAN: Thanks so much, Wolf.

BLITZER: In addition to Jason Rezaian, three other Americans that are currently being held in Iran. In October, the "Wall Street Journal" and "The Washington Post" reported that Samak Hamazi (ph) was detained while visiting relatives. Pastor Saeed Abedini was arrested in 2012 and later sentenced to eight years in prison. Former Marine Amir Hekmati was detained in 2011 and later sentenced to 10 years in prison. And retired FBI agent, Robert Levinson, went missing in Iran in 2007. Presumably, he's still being held there somewhere as well.

That's it for me. The news continues right now on CNN after a quick break.

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