U.S. Officials: Ten American Sailors Held by Iran; Interview with Sen. Tom Cotton.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: The State of the Union is just a few hours away. What does the president say about this? National security likely to be a central theme of the president's address. This urgent development could change what the president says tonight. That's it for THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. I turn you over now to Wolf Blitzer and</s>THE SITUATION ROOM. WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news. U.S. sailors seized. Ten U.S. Navy sailors, they are now in Iranian custody after two small U.S. Navy vessels entered Iranian waters. Urgent high-level efforts are underway now to try to secure their release. Suicide blast. ISIS is blamed for a bloody attack on a U.S. ally. A bombing in Istanbul's tourist district kills at least ten foreigners. Turkey says the assailant recently arrived from Syria. Russian missile move. Moscow says it will create new army divisions based in Europe and make five nuclear missile regiments ready for combat. President Putin says it's possible they could give Syria's president asylum. Are we now in a new cold war? And President Obama's big night. The president puts finishing touches on his last State of the Union address. He'll speak just hours from now. Can he get his agenda on track or is he already just a lame duck? We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in</s>THE SITUATION ROOM. ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>BLITZER: In the breaking news, ten American sailors are now being held by Iran after their two small U.S. Navy vessels apparently entered Iranian waters. U.S. officials say they hope the matter will be settled quickly. The secretary of state, John Kerry, has already made an urgent call to his Iranian counterpart. A shattering blast ripped through historic district in Turkey's ancient city of Istanbul today. The area is popular with tourists. And at least ten foreigners were killed, most of them Germans. NATO ally Turkey is blaming ISIS for the suicide attack and says the bomber had recently arrived from Syria. And beset by crisis after crisis, President Obama's now preparing for his final State of the Union address, only four hours from now. Aides say he'll strike an optimistic tone, trying to portray a nation on the rebound, and he'll seek to draw contrasts to the negative messages coming from the Republican presidential campaign trail. I'll speak with Republican Senator Tom Cotton of the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence Committees. And our correspondents, analysts and guests, they will have full coverage of all the day's top stories. Let's get straight to the breaking news. Ten American sailors held by Iran right now after two small navy vessels apparently entered Iranian waters. U.S. officials are scrambling to get them released as quickly as possible. Let's go to our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, for the very latest. Barbara, what are you learning?</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, just a short time ago, a senior U.S. official told me these sailors may be spending the night in Iran, at least the hours of darkness at this point. It is not expected that they will be released, put back out to sea, on their boats until the daylight hours. Two U.S. Navy Rivering small patrol aircraft equipped with .50 caliber machine guns and 10 U.S. Navy sailors, at this hour still believe to be pier side on Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf, an Iranian island. The two boats were transiting, making a trip from Bahrain to Kuwait. We are told that right now, what the U.S. thinks may have happened is that one of the small boats experienced a mechanical problem, perhaps losing propulsion, perhaps beginning to drift, and of course, the other Navy boat would not leave those sailors behind. It was at that point, the theory goes right now, that they drifted into Iranian territorial waters. It is believed they were picked up by Iranian naval personnel from Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps which operates around Farsi Island. This is one of the most aggressive elements of the Iranian military and national security apparatus in that country. Right now, Iran has assured the U.S. that all ten U.S. sailors are safe, that they are being treated accordingly, and that they will be released, they will be allowed to continue their journey up to Bahrain, one ship, a boat, disabled. We don't know the status of that. But this could go on for several hours, Wolf, before it is finally resolved -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: This comes on the heels last year of several incidents, as you well know, in the Persian Gulf in the same very region where the U.S. suspected Iran was engaged in aggressive behavior. In December, U.S. Navy revealed video of Iran firing rockets near warships. That was in December back in July. Iran flagged ships targeted. The U.S. -- some U.S. Navy vessels with lasers. In May five Iranian boats fired shots in the Persian Gulf not far away from U.S. ships. A U.S. flagship in April that was intercepted by Iranian patrols. It looks like there's a pattern going on here, but obviously, it's been a long time since Iran has taken U.S. military personnel under arrest, if you will. That's what the Fars news agency is saying: these ten American sailors are under arrest by the Iranians right now. This is a big deal.</s>STARR: Wolf, this is a very big deal, and it is substantively, militarily quite different than the incidents you're quite accurately recounting. Because what you're talking about in this case is small, vulnerable U.S. Navy craft in these very tight, very tense waters. They are quick with .50 caliber machine guns. But consider this. These are not big warships. They have a very limited ability to defend themselves. And if the Iranians come alongside and essentially say, "You're coming with us," the prospect very dismal of seeing U.S. Navy sailors potentially -- and I'm just saying potentially -- with the -- surrendering their weapons with hands up is a very dismal prospect. But this has happened in the past. It happened to the British navy, several years ago during the height of the Iraq War in the Persian Gulf. Some small boats were boarded by the Iranians. The British naval personnel were taken to Iran for several days. A lot of propaganda value for the Iranians out of that incident. The British, not able to defend themselves. And a very little-remembered incident in the very opening days when a very small U.S. naval craft also, its personnel drifted into contested waters, and a small number of U.S. military personnel were taken into Iran overnight. They were later released. That's an incident very few remember. But the issue is on these small craft, very limited ability to defend themselves. The military, U.S. military always says everyone has the right to defend themselves. No reports at this point that shots were fired. That's a very difficult prospect in the face of Iranian naval authorities -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: These were small vessels, indeed. But the U.S. has some big vessels, the Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf headquartered in Bahrain. These two little vessels were going from Kuwait to Bahrain. The U.S. has some major fire power in that region. Let see what the Iranians do next. Stand by for more. I want to bring in our chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto. What are you hearing, Jim, because this is pretty alarming?</s>JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, I've just been in touch with a senior administration official just in the last few moments who tells me there is nothing to indicate anything hostile on the part of Iranian authorities in the detention of U.S. sailors and repeat the point that you mentioned earlier, Wolf, and that is that the U.S. has received assurances that these ten sailors are in good health and that they will be released very soon. Whether that's tonight or possibly several hours until daylight, that is what the administration is saying right now. Keep in mind, the U.S. and Iran wouldn't have this kind of contact, for instance, Secretary of State John Kerry reaching out to his Iranian counterpart. A couple of years ago, that didn't exist, so they have channels there that didn't exist before. I'll tell you this. The version of the story that is being presented to the Iranian public tonight is very different. The Fars news agency -- this is a state news agency in Iran. It is reporting that these ten sailors and in fact, it has this detail, Wolf -- and this is just the Iranian news agency -- that it is nine men and one woman, that they were arrested. It also goes on to describe in great detail the weapons that were on these American boats. It says there were .350 caliber machine guns on the weapons. It says that the GPS detectors on the boats were confiscated by the Iranians. And keep this detail in mind, as well, because this is very key. The Iranians are reporting that this was an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel who picked up these U.S. sailors. That is key, because the Revolutionary Guard Corps, certainly very much from the hardliner camp in Iran. In fact, Iranian hardliners, they -- they have their own military. They have their own ground forces and naval forces. And often in the past, those other cases you mentioned, Wolf, of firing rockets near a U.S. ship, chasing and detaining for a while a U.S. cargo ship, that was done by the Revolutionary Guard Corps. That shows a division in Iran. The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, who, in effect, negotiated this deal, a different camp from the Revolutionary Guard Corps. They have a different agenda. It could be a key detail as we watch this play out going forward. I would just make this note based on Barbara's reporting there, that if those sailors are held until daylight in Iran, we're talking about six, seven hours from now, with the time difference, keep in mind that would bring those sailors to be in Iranian detention during the president's final State of the Union speech tonight, when he is almost certain to mention the Iranian nuclear deal negotiated with Tehran.</s>BLITZER: And as you well know, U.S. officials have long said there are two Irans out there, the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, which operates on the one hand, and the other government that the U.S. has been dealing with, Kerry has been dealing with, the foreign minister, the president. On the other hand, it's the ayatollah, who's the supreme leader. He makes the final decision, if the Revolutionary Guard wants to parade these American sailors in front of cameras, show that they were arrested. They can do that.</s>SCIUTTO: That's absolutely right. The other key piece of timing here. The State of the Union address tonight. The Iran nuclear deal, it looks like, will be implemented in the next several days as soon as Friday, I've been told, by administration officials. But sometime this month. And when that happens, implementation means the lifting of these punishing economic sanctions on Iran. So the timing of this, even if it was an accident, if it wasn't planned, impossible not to make that connection between those two. Not to say that was the motive but that timing certainly does not look good for the administration.</s>BLITZER: Yes. We're going to find out from the U.S. Navy what those two small vessels were doing. We know they were en route from Kuwait, where the U.S. has a major naval facility, on their way to Bahrain, which is the headquarters of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet in the Persian Gulf. We're going to find out exactly what they were doing, these two small Navy vessels, with ten sailors on board. Stand by. I want to bring in Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas. He's a key member of the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committee. He's also a combat veteran who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Your reaction, Senator, to the fact that Iran is now holding ten Americans. They say they've arrested these ten American sailors, and they are in Iranian custody, together with those two small vessels.</s>SEN. TOM COTTON (R), ARKANSAS: Wolf, this kind of openly hostile action is not surprising exactly what I and so many others predicted when President Obama was negotiating the nuclear deal with Iran, that it would embolden their aggression towards the United States and our allies in the region. Also want to react, though, to something Jim Sciutto said just before I came on. He said, according to a senior administration official, there's no sign of hostile intent by Iran. Think about that for a second. Senior members of Barack Obama's administration are apologizing for Iran, seizing two U.S. Navy vessels and holding ten sailors hostage. The White House, tonight, is a hotbed of cold feet.</s>BLITZER: It comes just before, four hours before the president's address, before a joint session of the U.S. Congress. And in that speech, we were told the president would mention the Iran nuclear deal as a very positive step you, together with all the Republicans, voted against it. It's about to be implemented, as Jim Sciutto said. Billions and billions of dollars in sanctions are about to flow to Iran. Is there anything you can do to stop that?</s>COTTON: Wolf I don't think the timing of this intercept of our two naval vessels in the Persian Gulf is coincidental. Rarely are matters coincidental when you're dealing with the ayatollahs in Iran. First off, it's humiliating to Barack Obama and, therefore, the United States to have American sailors held hostage during his final State of the Union. Second, as you say, the nuclear deal is about to be implemented, maybe as early as this week, in which Iran is going to get over a hundred billions of dollars to continue its campaign of terror and aggression throughout the region and around the world. This is the ayatollahs trying to inflict maximum humiliation on the United States and on President Obama. Unfortunately, that's been the story we've seen since the nuclear deal was signed in the summer, and it's what we can expect to continue for the next coming months. It won't be the final humiliation. It's just one more sip from this bitter cup that we'll be offered again and again.</s>BLITZER: You used the word "hostages," Senator. A lot of us remember, 1979, 1980 when American diplomats at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, they were taken prisoner. They were held hostage for 444 days. When you used the word "hostage," are you referring to that experience? Because that would be awful, obviously.</s>COTTON: Well, Iran has a history of holding American hostages and trying to kill Americans, whether it's in Iran or Iraq or Lebanon. And now, they've seized two U.S. naval vessels. I would say put the map of the Persian Gulf back up on the screen, Wolf, and your viewers can see how improvable it is that those naval vessels go in from Kuwait to Bahrain along the Saudi coast would have ventured into Iranian waters. It would seem to me much more likely that Iran waited the time when they would have maximum leverage to conduct this operation, as Jim Sciutto noted by the Revolutionary Guard Corps, the shock troops of the Iranian regime.</s>BLITZER: Because I've always suspected -- and I know U.S. intelligence analysts have always suspected that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, in this particular case much more hostile to the United States than the government, per se, the foreign minister, Jivad Zarif, or the president, Rouhani, that there are, in effect, two Irans. One supports the Iran nuclear deal. They're trying to make it work. But the Revolutionary Guard Corps has always been skeptical, opposed, but they've been forced to go along, because the ayatollah says they should go along. How do you see that division within Iran?</s>COTTON: Well, Wolf, there may be two Irans, but the division isn't between moderates and hardliners. It's between hardliners and harder liners. The Revolutionary Guard Corps is intent on spreading the Islamic revolution around the world. That's the founding principle of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Revolutionary Guard Corps is the keeper of that revolution, and they are largely responsible for killing our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's not surprising now that they're boasting on Iranian TV that they intercepted two small naval vessels and are holding 10 American sailors hostage.</s>BLITZER: Stand by, Senator. We have a lot more to talk about, including some suspicion out there, already out there that this Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, they would like to scuttle this Iran nuclear deal for whatever reason. Stay with us. We're following the breaking news. Ten American sailors now being held by Iran, as well as their two small Navy vessels. We'll be right back.