Battle Against ISIS; ISIS Gaining Ground Despite Airstrikes; President Speaks on Ebola Threat
TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. Turning now to our world lead, the American-led coalition dominates the skies over Syria and Iraq. But despite two weeks of steady bombing, ISIS terrorist forces are advancing on the ground. In the south, ISIS mortar fire landed in Baghdad today, while in the north, the terrorist group raised its flag over sections of Kobani on the border with Turkey. And ISIS is allegedly doing this with weapons originally meant for American allies to use. An E.U.-funded group named Conflict Armament Research says that ISIS often focuses its attacks on ammunition storage facilities and then ISIS uses the weaponry it captures for its own assaults. So ISIS is often firing American bullets at America's allies. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is following the fight and he joins us live from Beirut -- Nick.</s>NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jake, as you mentioned, it seems though in the search for Kalashnikov rounds for AK-47s, yes, ISIS are targeting Iraqi army facilities, but of course those are facilities supplied by that massive American effort to build the Iraqi army up not so long ago. But this is one small, more historical perhaps part of the many problems appearing now three weeks in to the United States' more concerted effort against ISIS in Syria, where we're seeing many cracks already appearing.</s>WALSH (voice-over): It was never about perfect options. But after the world waited so long for U.S. action against ISIS, and in Syria, there's a lot of imperfect to go around here. Airstrikes without ground troops were a bomber's only option domestically. But after nearly as many airstrikes as during the entire Pakistan drone campaign, things are going the wrong way on the ground. ISIS raised their flag in part of Kobani Monday, pressing against a vital part of Syria's border with Turkey. In Iraq, they're pushing into the city of Ramadi. That brings them closer to the capital where Secretary Kerry's excitement to the new prime minister hasn't translated yet into Iraqi security forces taking back their towns from ISIS. In fact, one armed control group said over the weekend a lot of the bullets fired by ISIS used to belong to Iraqi security forces who are probably overwhelmed. And even diplomatically, the good news has soured. A delicate coalition of Sunni Arab countries joined U.S. aircraft against ISIS. But Vice President Joe Biden offended many of them in this Harvard speech.</s>JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our allies in the region were our largest problem in Syria. They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens -- thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad. Except that the people who were being supplied were al Nusra and al Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadists coming from other parts of the world.</s>WALSH: Vital ally Turkey whose troops are now at the border near Kobani and the Emirates were publicly outraged. And Biden's weekend was spent in damage control.</s>WALSH: Jake, there's another issue, too. There's unfortunately, one of the side effects of this bombing campaign, particularly given some of it's focused on al Nusra's front, I think to al Qaeda, yes, but in the eyes of many Syrians, the most effective Syrian rebel force fighting the Syrian regime, well, that's made many sympathize with Nusra and in turn Nusra sympathizing potentially with ISIS. We're seeing Washington's attempt to change the battlefield ground in Syria actually making some Syrians, a small number, but some Syrians sympathize more with those who a few months ago they had deep enmity towards -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much. It is nearly the sixth year of the Obama administration and the memoirs are piling up on bed stands across Washington, D.C. and the country. The latest comes from former CIA chief and defense secretary, Leon Panetta. His book, "Worthy Fight: A Memoir of Leadership and Peace", will be available tomorrow. Panetta in the book is sharply critical of President Obama, writing that some of the president's decisions have made the situation in Iraq worse. Another person with his own memoir is Ambassador Christopher Hill, who joins us now. He spent 33 years with the U.S. State Department. His book "Outpost: Life on the Frontlines of American Diplomacy." Hill's final posting was as ambassador to Iraq. Ambassador, thank you so much for joining us. I should say I read the book over the weekend. I enjoyed it very much. I am going to focus on the last few chapters about your posting in Iraq but people should read it because it is a very interesting life you have lead. Ambassador, Leon Panetta told "USA Today" about the Islamist threat. Quote, "I think we're looking at kind of a 30-year war." Do you agree?</s>CHRISTOPHER HILL, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ: Well, I don't know if we're looking at a 30-year war, but we're certainly looking at something that's not going to be over in a couple of months. I mean, this is a long time in brewing. I think we've really had some troubles dealing with it. After all, we go into Iraq in 2003 and for many countries in the region, what we did was to flip a Sunni-led country into a Shia-led country. And it's still, I think, a very open proposition where the Sunni world, and the Sunni world and the Arab world is every other country besides Iraq, basically. And the real question is whether they will accept a Shia- led Iraq. So, certainly, this is a long-term proposition and I think the administration has its hands full.</s>TAPPER: In your book you write throughout about attempts of the United States to do something and it doesn't necessarily work out according to plan. You talk about that specifically in the Iraq posting when it comes to whether or not the U.S. should back Maliki or not. Now, we hear -- you just heard how sentiment on the ground, a small group of Syrians and Iraqis are finding sentiment and finding favor with al Nusra, the leaders of the Pakistani-Taliban, a group that includes roughly 100 jihadi organizations. Now, they say they're supporting ISIS. Did you think when the American-led air strikes began that they would have this affect that we're starting to see of uniting all these Islamist groups that had been fighting until now?</s>HILL: Yes. I think some of this may be the reason why the vice president kind of undiplomatically -- if I can use that term -- spoke about some of the problems in the region. Clearly, the Obama administration was concerned about this. And that's why they made Maliki sort of a linchpin of the whole problem, going after the situation in Baghdad. Part of that was to assure the Sunnis in the region that we were onto the fact that Maliki was not God's gift to Iraq. So, we tried to do that. But I think as this latest headline suggests, we have some problems convincing the Sunnis that they need to do something about their own Sunnis. And that has been a huge problem ever since this civil war erupted in Syria. I think in the United States, there was much too much of this notion that somehow you have on the one hand this evil dictator and on the other hand, you have these wonderful people interested in democracy -- when in fact to a great extent, to a great extent, what we've seen in Syria is a sectarian knife fight and it has been a knife fight for some time.</s>TAPPER: Speaking of what Joe Biden had to say, the vice president, he faulted Turkey, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, for letting fighters go into Iraq and Syria, especially into Syria. I guess first of all, is what we said true? And second of all, how big a diplomatic problem did he create?</s>HILL: Well, on the latter point, I think as your piece suggested, he has some damage control to do. How true it is, how central it is, that's another question. Certainly, we'd like to see more from all of these countries in terms of dealing with this ISIS threat. And yet, they've all been very reticent. They all have their reasons for being careful about it. But I think really an important element of our diplomacy needs to be to get these countries on board. But often when you sort of call out countries in public, I'm not sure that's probably the best way to do that.</s>TAPPER: But I'm kind of reading between the lines here of what you said, that it wasn't necessarily wrong what he said in terms of just -- as a factual matter?</s>HILL: I think you can read between the lines quite correctly there. It wasn't necessarily wrong. But we need to do something about it. And the question is whether calling them out publicly is the best way to do something about it.</s>TAPPER: All right. Ambassador Chris Hill, thank you. And good luck with your book. It's a good read. Ahead on</s>THE LEAD: a nurse testing positive for Ebola in Spain after treating an infected priest. How many health care workers in the U.S. are similarly at risk?