President Obama Admits His Team "Underestimated" ISIS in Syria
WHITFIELD: All right, we have been telling about additional coalition airstrikes this weekend in Syria and Iraq. And some of the most recent strikes hitting its oil fields and ISIS compound and areas of fighting between ISIS and Syrian Kurdish forces. Well, as the coalition works to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIS, questions remain, how did ISIS grow so fast? In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes," President barrack Obama admits the U.S. intelligence community underestimated the situation.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think our head of the intelligence community Jim Clapper has acknowledged that I think they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria. Essentially, what happened with ISIL was that you have Al-Qaeda in Iraq which was a vicious group. But our marines were able to quash with the help of Sunni tribes. They went back underground. But over the past couple of years during the chaos of the Syrian civil war where essentially have huge</s>WHITFIELD: Joining me right now is CNN's Erin McPike at the White House. So Erin, what is the White House saying about, you know, this early coalition effort thus far against ISIS?</s>ERIN MCPIKE, CNN GENERAL ASSIGNMENT CORRESPONDENT: Fred, certainly they're pleased with how it's going in Iraq, and they're stressing patience with respect to Syria because of what President Obama just said in that interview. And that idea of taking advantage of a Middle Eastern country that is in chaos for a terrorist organization to set up its operations is the context for his resolve in handling terrorism in the future. I want to listen to -- I want you to listen to more of that interview. Here it is.</s>OBAMA: This is one of the challenges that we're going to have generally is where you've got states that are failing or in the midst of civil war. These kinds of organizations thrive. That's why it's so important for us to recognize part of our solution here that's going to be military. We just have to push them back and shrink their space. And go after their command and control and their capacity and their weapons and fueling and cut off their financing and work to eliminate the flow of foreign fighters. But what we also have to do is we have to come up with political solutions in Iraq and Syria in particular, but in the Middle East.</s>MCPIKE: Now, Fred, the big question there, though, is that he continues to say that the U.S. with help of Sunni tribes was able to quash Al-Qaeda. But then taking advantage of Syria, Al-Qaeda was able to reconstitute itself as ISIS. Well, what is to say after airstrikes and potentially ground troops from some nations going in that Syria wouldn't descend into chaos again and another terrorist group wouldn't be able to come in and reconstitute itself again and pose another threat. And I think that's what we're seeing President Obama sort of reflect on right now in this interview, Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: So meaning, is this a prelude to another plan or strategy change if those things seem possible or probable?</s>MCPIKE: Well, essentially Fred, we are looking to hear more from the administration on what these political solutions are. Obviously, we have heard that as far as Iraq is concerned, they are interested in this inclusive government. But as far as Syria, there's a lot left to be uncovered there. And what we do know is that national security advisor, Susan Rice, met with a delegation from the Syrian opposition coalition on Friday here at the White House. But obviously, there will have to be more coming forth about what is going forward in Syria.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, Erin McPike at the White House. Thank you so much. All right, violent weather. Here's a section of roofs off the Phoenix airport. What's the impact on air travel there? But first, let's take a look at the future. Our tomorrow transform series shows how technology is helping to make cars safer. Here's Richard Quest.</s>RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (voice-over): No sooner had we taken to the roads in cars that we became all too familiar with the car crash. Before long it became clear making road travel safer was essential if the motor car wasn't to become a menace.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you go back into the mid 1960s you will find that the fatality rate per hundred million vehicles miles travelled was about 5.5. If you compare that to today, you would see that the fatality rate has dropped to only 1.04.</s>QUEST: Getting that number down in the U.S. required a rethink on vehicle safety to understand what happens when cars crash. Today, testing is being taken even further at the Texas A&M transportation institute they're able to scan vehicles part by - part to simulate crash tests. Now, we know more about what happens during car crashes than ever before. Tomorrow's goal is to avoid a crash in the first place. Picture cars that talk to each other. It's called vehicle to vehicle technology, and it's already being tested in some cities. Technology is making our cars smarter. It means human and machine can work in harmony. This insures tomorrow's roads are safer for everyone.