Two White House Security Lapses in 2 Days; Hostage's Wife Begs ISIS to Free Him
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: "Release my husband," a desperate plea from the wife of British hostage Allen Henning as fears of the terrorist group ISIS could make him their next target.</s>VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: An almost unbelievable breach of security and what's supposed to be the most protected home in the nation. How did a man with a knife barge through the front doors to the White House? This morning's scrutiny of the Secret Service and the changes they're making.</s>ROGER GOODELL, NFL COMMISSIONER: I got it wrong in the handling of the Ray Rice matter.</s>PAUL: But did Roger Goodell get it wrong by not stepping down? Millions are tuning in for today's big games. And as they do, there are more calls for the NFL chief to bow out. Early morning on a Sunday and so grateful for your company. I'm Christi Paul.</s>BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. 6:00 here on the East Coast. And this morning security is understandably tight at the White House because there have now been two -- two security breaches in two days. The Secret Service says a teenager identified as Kevin Carr tried to enter a barricaded area, the entrance there, to the White House yesterday. He was in his car. He's been arrested and charged with unlawful entry. And we're now learning that the person who jumped the fence Friday night had been carrying a folding knife in his pocket.</s>PAUL: "The Washington Post" reports 42-year-old Omar Gonzalez is an Iraq war veteran. That's the one who ran across the lawn you see there. He served 18 years in the U.S. military including three tours in Iraq. Well, former Secret Service agent Daniel Bongino is joining us on the phone from Washington. Daniel, so glad to you have with us. Thanks for getting up with us here this morning. I know that there have been, you know, the fence jumpers in the past. But none of them actually got into the White House as Gonzalez did. Have they?</s>DANIEL BONGINO, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT: No. And that's why you heard the Secret Service director and their public spokesman say that the location of the arrest was what really had troubled them. To have -- to arrest someone inside the north portico with now what seems to be a weapon certainly makes the situation grave. And as I said, I think on your show yesterday with you, Christi and Victor. This is a -- this is a really big deal. And the Secret Service does not try to put lipstick on these types of things. I think they're going to come out and do a very exhaustive review and hopefully we'll never see anything like this again.</s>BLACKWELL: So two breaches in two days. It is easy to jump to a conclusion that maybe there is some new variable, there's some new reason why this is happening and the possibility that they are connected. What likely are the agents doing now to determine if that's so?</s>BONGINO: Well, I don't think the two incidents are connected. Now I'll tell you why. The second incident, that's actually, you know, quite common. People showing up at the vehicle checkpoint locations. And the system did work in the second incident. Showed up, didn't want to leave. Was in the vehicle. Trapped. There is nowhere to go. Check the vehicle, no explosives and the person was then arrested. So in the second incident, although it wasn't something they certainly wanted to happen, it worked as planned. I don't think they were related. Most of my contacts are telling me that they're not. But you have to remember, the White House was not built with security in mind at all. The White House was built as the people's house. It's an old building. It just wasn't built for. The demands being placed upon it are really -- they're incredible. I mean, they have to keep open access to the president without putting him in some insulated iron box. And I think now we're seeing some of the ramifications of that with the fence in the front and North Lawn just not being designed to really keep people out. It's not very secure fence.</s>PAUL: You know, "The Washington Post" was reporting there weren't any guard dogs or canine teams released to chase that man down on the North Lawn and that that is standard procedure. Why do you think that didn't happen?</s>BONGINO: Yes, that's really got me a bit flummoxed here. I think a lot of security professionals from the Secret Service are started to wonder that as well. The dog -- keep in mind, we use a Belgian Malinois. And these dogs are -- when you get hit by the dog, if you were to make it across the fence and start running, you get hit by that Malinois. It's almost like getting hit by a car. And it's trained to knock you down. Why it wasn't released, I don't know. And I think the Secret Service is wondering that same thing. Having spent five years working on that 18-acre complex, you know, that's almost a fail-safe. And keep in mind, it's one of many layers of security that seem to have failed us. If it's not just one, there are things seen and unseen there. And this man seemed to have cracked them all. That's why this is the first time this happened. We're all shocked.</s>PAUL: All right. Well, Daniel Bongino, we so appreciate your insight because, you know, you just really give us such great information and things that we didn't know before. So we appreciate again you taking time for us this morning.</s>BONGINO: No problem. Thanks for having me.</s>BLACKWELL: Thank you, sir.</s>PAUL: Thank you.</s>BLACKWELL: And just one other note, "New York Times" is reporting that the Secret Service spokesperson, Ed Donovan, says that the man in the car, Kevin Carr, had attempted to gain access to a separate location on foot a short time earlier. So before we expect this was just a wrong turn.</s>PAUL: Right.</s>BLACKWELL: This was a man who tried to get in. This was his second attempt.</s>PAUL: This is the second. Right. Second attempt.</s>BLACKWELL: We want to pass on to you the really emotional words of a wife of this British aid worker held hostage by ISIS. She's now begging the terrorists to spare his life.</s>PAUL: We're talking about Allen Henning.</s>BLACKWELL: Yes.</s>PAUL: He was taken captive in December back in Syria. ISIS is threatening to kill him. His wife says the 47-year-old is a father of two, was driving an ambulance giving out food and water and that's when he was kidnapped. In a written plea to ISIS, Barbara Henning said, quote, "Alan is a peaceful, selfless man who left his family and a job as a taxi driver in the UK to drive in a convoy all the way to Syria with his Muslim colleagues and friends to help those most in need." She adds, "When they hear this message, I implore the people of the Islamic State to see it in their hearts to release my husband, Alan Henning"</s>BLACKWELL: A volunteer doctor and friend of Henning was just a few miles behind him whether he was kidnapped. And she's also begging ISIS to let him go and go home to his family.</s>DR. SHAMEELA ISLAM-ZULFIGAR, ALAN HENNING'S COLLEAGUE: Please do not make him pay for the actions of Western foreign policy. This is not his crime. And killing him will not change this. It will only undermine you and your cause. Please let him go and release him back to us and his family, his friends, and his children who are waiting for him.</s>PAUL: All right. Let's bring in Peter Neumann. He's the director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence. Peter, thank you so much for being with us. I want to ask you right out of the gate, do you think these latest pleas are going to have any effect on ISIS?</s>PETER NEUMANN, DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF RADICALIZATION AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE: Well, it's very hard to say. I mean, so far they haven't executed him and there are signs that perhaps they are thinking about exactly what to do with him. What's really important about these messages is that they are coming from within the Islamic community. Alan Henning was part of an Islamic humanitarian convoy into Syria. He was very much in line with the objectives of the opposition in Syria, even with the objectives of the more extreme opposition in Syria. So a lot of people are saying, why are you punishing this guy when he was, in fact, more or less agreeing with your objectives? And so perhaps, just perhaps this is making people in ISIS think.</s>BLACKWELL: You know, Peter, what was interesting about this to me is that it was released through the UK's Foreign Service Office. Now is that, I wonder, typical protocol? Because from what we've seen in other instances, there has been no official word through the government from the family.</s>NEUMANN: Yes. We had a similar case about 10 years ago in the UK. There was British construction worker who was being kidnapped. And the British Foreign Office convinced an Islamic cleric, an extreme Islamic cleric who was in prison in the UK to record a video statement very similar to the one that we just saw. It didn't work in that case 10 years ago. And I think the chances that it might work now are pretty slim. But they are trying what they can. Their options are very limited. The only thing that they could do short of paying the ransom which is not what they would do anyway would be a special forces operation. But that would require them knowing exactly why Alan Henning is being held and I don't think they do. So all they can do is really to plead with the hostage takers.</s>PAUL: You know, former President Bill Clinton spoke to Fareed Zakaria about the ISIS threat as well. Listen to this.</s>FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST, FAREED ZAKARIA GPS: So I've got to ask you about ISIS. I saw you on "The Daily Show" say that you thought we have to respond to this brutal executions of Americans. But I want to press you. Isn't that what ISIS wants? Isn't -- wasn't the purpose of the executions to bait us?</s>BILL CLINTON, 42ND PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No. But there's a difference and, for example, using targeted drones and air strikes as we did against al Qaeda effectively for years to try to take down their leadership and infrastructure and let them know they can't just decapitate people for the cheap thrill of the global media response and horrifying people, and get away with it. And getting bogged down in the kind of war they would like us to get bogged down in that would cost us a lot of lives and a lot of treasure and inevitably lead to greater civilian casualties, which is why I think the president's strategy has a chance of succeeding because the Iraqi government is now more inclusive than it has been since the fall of Saddam Hussein. And that seems to be awakening, if you will, the willingness of the Sunni tribal leaders to participate in fighting.</s>PAUL: By the way, you can see that full interview on "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS" a little later today. But he went on to say the President Obama strategy of U.S. airstrikes combined with fighting on the ground by Iraq and Syrian rebel forces will prevent the U.S. from getting bogged down and, you know, I think what some -- most fear this never-ending war, this idea of one. Do you agree with that?</s>NEUMANN: I think President Clinton is exactly right. I think it would be completely wrong to overreact to these executions which are horrible. But we shouldn't prompt us to be involved in a war including boots on the ground which exactly what ISIS is aching for. They want to fight Americans on the ground because that will allow them to claim that there is an occupation going on and they're fighting against the West. Clearly what should happen is exactly that. Identifying the people who are responsible, trying to find out where they are, bringing them to justice. No overreaction but very finely calibrated action in going through with the plan. That's what's important now.</s>BLACKWELL: Yes. And that's the important conversation happening in Washington as well. Peter Neumann in London, good to have you back.</s>NEUMANN: Thank you, Victor.</s>PAUL: Thank you, sir. OK. Here's the question so many people want to know right now, where is 18-year-old Hannah Graham? Police trying to answer it this morning a week after the UVA student vanished. Now new developments in the case this morning.</s>BLACKWELL: And a safety warning for more than 200,000 drivers. What you need to know about a massive recall by auto giant GM.