U.S. Reports Only 60 Syrians Trained to Fight ISIS
CURNOW: Welcome to the INTERNATIONAL DESK. I'm Robyn Curnow. Here are the check of the headlines.</s>CURNOW (voice-over): Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has requested a third bailout from European creditors but those creditors are demanding concrete proposals from Greece by Friday and a final deal on Sunday. The president of the European Council says everyone will lose if an agreement isn't reached by then. A huge selloff in Chinese stocks continued Wednesday with the benchmark Shanghai composite index plummeting about 6 percent. Investors are in panic mode and the Shanghai market has lost about a third of its value since mid-June. However, it's still up about 10 percent for the year. United Airlines has ended its ground stoppage of all U.S. flights. It lasted more than an hour after what the airline called a computer network connectivity issue. The cause is not yet known. A few flights have started moving, but the glitch could have a ripple effect on travel throughout the U.S. throughout the day. And Pope Francis is wrapping up his trip to Ecuador. He will visit a nursing home and meet with local clergy in Quito before heading to Bolivia. The pontiff has drawn immense crowds during the first part of his South American tour. Estimates of up to 1 million people attended a papal mass on Tuesday.</s>CURNOW: The U.S. plan to train Syrian rebels to fight ISIS is off to a very slow start. Officials had hoped to instruct thousands of fighters per year. But right now they've only trained -- wait for it -- 60. Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins me now from Washington. Hi, there, Barbara, Very low number, a bit embarrassing, isn't it?</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Robyn, it certainly is and it put the Secretary of Defense Ash Carter in a very difficult position when he testified before Congress.</s>STARR (voice-over): With ISIS still in control of many parts of Syria, a stunning revelation from the Secretary of Defense on just how slow U.S. training of moderate Syrians to fight ISIS is really going.</s>ASH CARTER, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: As of July 3rd, we are currently training about 60 fighters. This number is much smaller than we'd hoped for at this point.</s>STARR (voice-over): The U.S. had wanted to train up to 5,000 per year. But a major problem: getting fighters willing to promise to only fight ISIS in Syria, not Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Senator John McCain furious at the Pentagon for what he views as a failure to protect the Syrians.</s>SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZ.: Mr. Secretary, this is not a very pleasant exchange. I'd like to have answers to questions. Will we tell them that we will defend them against Bashar al-Assad's barrel bombing?</s>CARTER: I think we will have an obligation to help --</s>MCCAIN: Will we tell them that?</s>CARTER: We have not told them that.</s>MCCAIN: Not told them that.</s>STARR (voice-over): A Joint Chiefs chairman leaving the door open for a small number of American troops working as forward air controllers to assist in calling in airstrikes to help Iraqi forces.</s>GEN. MARTIN DEMPSEY, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: I agree that there are points on the battlefield where the presence of forward observers, JTACs, embedded SOF forces, would be --</s>DEMPSEY: -- would make them more capable.</s>STARR (voice-over): The administration says there are no plans for more U.S. forces.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In order for us to succeed long-term in this fight against ISIL we have to develop local security forces that can sustain progress.</s>STARR (voice-over): But almost one year into the American involvement, questions about whether the U.S. can afford patience.</s>DEMPSEY: If you're suggesting that ISIL's threat to the homeland could increase because of this patience I concede that risk. But I would also suggest to you that we would contribute mightily to ISIL's message as a movement were we to confront them directly on the ground in Iraq and Syria.</s>STARR: Now many top commanders will tell you behind the scenes that they think one of the big measures of success is when the Iraqi forces and some of those Syrian rebel fighters can take and hold territory and make sure that ISIS doesn't get it back -- Robyn.</s>CURNOW: Indeed. And that's a very good point. But I think the issue around these 60 men that -- perhaps women -- trained by the U.S., I mean, isn't this about an abundance of caution, about a vetting process, that is justified?</s>STARR: Well, indeed. There are several issues that have been making this go very slowly. That is a major one. They are being very cautious about who they bring into the program. They want to make sure that these people are genuine, that their loyalties are genuine and that they're not going to have the so-called green-on-blue incidents where they suddenly find out that people they're working with may have other loyalties to ISIS or other militant groups. So yes, that is absolutely a critical issue. Also one of the big issues is the U.S. wants an assurance these fighters will return home and fight ISIS, not the regime of Bashar al-Assad. And let's face it, a lot of them really are oriented to fighting Assad. So for now, it's very slow going. They are going through the process of looking at thousands of additional people who've applied to the program. But they haven't gotten them into the training yet -- Robyn.</s>CURNOW: I'm just underscoring how incredibly complicated this all is. Barbara Starr, thanks so much, as always, for your analysis, thanks. Now U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and others are staying put in Vienna, trying to reach a final deal on Iran's nuclear program. The ongoing talks between six world powers and Tehran are now extended to Friday. Both sides say they want an agreement to happen but insist on making sure that it's one that works for everyone. Something a little bit letter. A bear vents his boredom in his exhibit space with some shattering consequences. How zoo goers reacted. That's after the break.