U.S. Terror Threats; The War on ISIS: New Help on the Way?; Late Night Protests in Ferguson, Missouri; Obama Sounds Urgent Alarm on Ebola
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: New help could be coming in the war on ISIS. In just hours, Britain will vote on whether to assist in U.S.- led air strikes in Iraq. Those airstrikes now hitting ISIS where it hurts most -- mobile oil refineries. This as thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing ISIS, line the Turkish border desperate to escape. Live team coverage, ahead.</s>JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Terror threats here at home. Americans assured that the subways are safe, but the FBI still has one big concern this morning. We'll explain.</s>ROMANS: Breaking news overnight. Late night protests again in Ferguson, Missouri. Just hours after the town's police chief tells Michael Brown's family. "I'm sorry".</s>BERMAN: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.</s>ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans.</s>BERMAN: It is Friday, September 26th. It's 5:00 a.m. in the East. And we do begin with terror concerns here in the United States. Federal, state and local officials are scrambling to reassure Americans that subway systems are safe to ride. This is after really getting blindsided Thursday by a warning from Iraq's new prime minister that ISIS, he says, has been planning a terror attack on American transit. While officials are confident the subways are safe for now, they have seen no credible threat at all on the subway. It doesn't seem like the Iraqi leader knows what he is talking about. Officials do say that Khorasan, the al Qaeda cell offshoot in Syria, may still be a danger. The head of the FBI says there is no indication that the airstrikes this week disrupted Khorasan's plan to attack the United States. CNN's Jim Acosta has more now from the White House.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, this all got started when the new Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told reporters gathered at the United Nations that Baghdad intelligence services had information about what he described as an imminent terror plot aimed in the subway systems in both the U.S. and in France. That obviously sparked a lot of concern inside the Obama administration. But senior administration officials said all day long that they had no credible evidence of any sort of plot. And then late in the day, a top State Department official Brett McGurk, he actually went back to the Iraqi prime minister, went back to Haider al-Abadi, talked to him and the prime minister told Brett McGurk that he was only speaking in general terms, that this was not an actual imminent terror plot posed by ISIS against these subway systems. That obviously is going to be reassuring to people in New York City. The mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, went out in front of the cameras to reassure New Yorkers that it was perfectly safe to ride the subway system there. But it is important to point out what senior administration officials have been telling us for weeks, and that is that they don't believe that ISIS has the capability to carry out terror attacks on the U.S. homeland. They are much concerned about this new terror group Khorasan, which is comprised of former al Qaeda members. They say, and so does the FBI director, that that group is capable of carrying out terror attacks. It's something they'll be watching for -- John and Christine.</s>ROMANS: All right. Jim Acosta, thank you for that, Jim. Air strikes against ISIS on Thursday focused on cutting off the terror group's income from oil sales. The Pentagon says U.S.-led airstrikes hit mobile refineries in remote area in eastern Syria. In Iraq, French planes hit near Fallujah. Meantime, no relief in sight for the tens of thousands of Kurdish refugees making a dangerous trip through the Syrian desert. They are fleeing advance of ISIS troops. When they arrive at the border, they are trapped in a no man's land between Turkey and Syria. Now, Turkey says it is prepared to accept more refugees, but its resources are stretched thin. CNN's Phil Black is live now on the Turkey/Syrian border.</s>PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, the Turkish authorities have been thrown up here recently, and this is the result. I want to show you what we are seeing here this morning with the latest wave of refugees who just arrived. In this holding pen, which is where they are processed upon being allowed to enter, there are hundreds. You will see mostly women and children. They are tired, they are dusty, they are hungry, they are thirsty. They are carrying sacks, some suitcases and really stuffed to the brim with whatever they could grab and move on. There are men in this number as well. They're at the mobile office just close by going through the process of registering their families, registering them here in Turkey as official refugees. While the women, the children, sit and wait and rest. The reason these people are still coming, it reinforces what we are hearing from fighters, local fighters across the border in Syria. That is ISIS is continuing to advance. While ISIS forces may be recoiling from international air strikes in other parts of Syria, in Iraq as well. What they are doing here in Syria is advancing and taking more territory. The fighters on the ground are holding them back, as best they can, but they are outgunned, outnumbered. And they say that the airstrikes and other parts of Syria are actually driving more ISIS to this location, increasing the number that is bearing down on them. And so, the result is what you see here around me. This tired group of humanity, really. These people who have effectively lost everything, who is telling us they decided to move on in the last 24 hours because they say the fighting and noise of war was getting so much closer to their homes, which proves that ISIS is making ground. ISIS s taking territory and despite the fact the fighters which stayed behind to fight the ISIS advance, what they are calling for the international strikes to assist them and strike ISIS in this region. Just over the border here. Christine, they are saying that has not happened yet.</s>ROMANS: All right. Phil Black for us on the border -- Phil, thank you so much. And again, a reminder, ISIS is making advances and pushing those people to that border. All right. British and American intelligence officials believe they have identified the masked man who speaks in the ISIS beheading videos. They decline to name him. Since August, ISIS has posted the gruesome video showing Americans James Foley and Steven Sotloff, along with Briton David Haines being killed. The FBI believes the same militant with the British accent dressed head to toe in black is the same militant speaking in all three videos.</s>BERMAN: Eric Holder, the first African-American attorney general, is stepping down. He calls his six years at the helm the greatest honor of his professional life. His tenure, not without controversy. House Speaker John Boehner says the resignation is long overdue. But the attorney general is not going anywhere yet. He does plan to stay on the job until a successor is confirmed by the Senate. The White House says they are just beginning the process of deciding who the president --</s>ROMANS: Six years, that's a long time for an attorney general?</s>BERMAN: It's a long time for any cabinet. There are only three of President Obama's cabinet in his positions, Arne Duncan, you know, the secretary of education. Also, Tom Vilsack, who is still the secretary of agriculture.</s>ROMANS: That's right. Interesting. All right. Tens of thousands of families crossing the border this year failed to show up for required follow-up meetings with immigration agents. This is according to the Homeland Security Department. Nearly 60,000 immigrants were released into the U.S. by government officials. They gave them instructions. They released them and then they say come back in 15 days to the nearest immigration office. Tens of thousands of people did not do that. Meantime, for the first time in decades, a new Department of Defense policy will allow a small number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. to have the opportunity to join the military.</s>BERMAN: The FBI director raising concerns about Apple and Google's new privacy features on smartphones. James Comey accuses the two companies' marketing products that make data inaccessible to law enforcement. But Google and Apple announced that their new operating system will be encrypted and will require a pass code.</s>ROMANS: And, of courses, a lot of people unhappy with NSA collection techniques are saying, well, this is what we are asking these companies to do. We don't want anybody to be able to come in and get our data. So, it's a privacy move by some of these companies to have better encryption. Something apparently the FBI is not keen about. All right. Eight minutes past the hour. Time for an EARLY START on your money. European shares mostly lower. U.S. stock futures are barely moving so far. But, you know, yesterday was pretty ugly out there, folks. It was the worst day for stocks in about two months. The Dow fell 265 points. It's about 1.5 percent. Tech stocks fueling the plunge. Apple leading the way. Apple shares, 4 percent bite out of the Apple. The company has made headlines for glitches with the operating system and the iPhone 6 bending, #bendgate. Stocks not far from records. Half of the stocks in the NASDAQ are down 20 percent from their peak. So, a lot of people looking inside in the internals of the market and saying it looks like a bit of the tech bubble. The venture capitalist, he says the tech startups are spending too much money and they may fail when the market turns. He had a series of tweets that was scathing about some of these startups.</s>BERMAN: This guy knows a bit about starting tech companies.</s>ROMANS: Starting tech companies. All right. Nine minutes past the hour. Breaking news overnight. New protests in Ferguson, Missouri. Demonstrators arrested following the police chief's apology to Michael Brown's family. But does it mean he's ready to resign? What he told CNN, ahead.</s>BERMAN: And Britain will vote in just hours whether to join in on U.S.-led air strikes in Iraq. The prime minister minutes way from making his pitch. It is always exciting on the floor of the British parliament. We will take you there live next.