U.S. Decision on Iraq Pending; Obama to Take Podium After Meeting with National Security Team
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Is the United States ready to take action in Iraq? President Obama is about to take to the podium as soon as he wraps up a meeting with top-level national security team members. Wait till you hear of the list of the people he is in a room with at this moment. We're going to take that live as it happens. And also this hour, two men living in the middle of Texas and accused of conspiring with Middle East terrorists, both under arrest this hour, preparing to face a federal magistrate. Who are they? What were they up to? And better question, why? Hello, everyone, I'm Ashleigh Banfield. It's Thursday, June 19th. And welcome to LEGAL VIEW. Combat troops, no. Special forces, well, that's a big maybe. A very big decision on the United States' involvement in the bloody upheaval in Iraq is expected to come this hour, just about 30 minutes from now in fact, from the president himself. CNN has learned that the Pentagon has drawn up plans to send as many as 100 special ops, green berets, Army rangers and/or Navy SEALs, all in the effort to help shut down the onslaught from ISIS in Iraq. ISIS, of course, the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, which has blasted its way from the Syrian border to the far outskirts of Baghdad, all in barely a week. The president is said to be meeting with his top-level national security team members as we speak. And, of course, we're going to bring you his public comments live at the bottom of the hour just as soon as he takes to the podium. In the meantime, I want to bring in my CNN colleague, Nic Robertson, in the Iraqi capital. We're also joined by CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr and White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski. And joining me here live in New York, CNN military analyst and retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona. He also worked for the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency. And also with me from Denver, Christopher Hill, the former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, now the dean of the Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. First to you, Barbara Starr. More on this plan, more on this idea from the Pentagon of 100 special ops potentially en route just as soon as the president gets a signature on the documents. What is the likelihood of that?</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's be clear, the president still has to -- we don't know if he's decided, but if there is a decision, it would still have to be made public. Let's try and sort this all out. What we do know is the Pentagon now is ready to send up to 100 special forces. That means green berets, Army rangers, Navy SEALs. Not the more covert type like Delta Force and SEAL Team 6. These are going to be, if it happens, small teams, 12-man teams of military advisers that will go to Iraq, and they will be placed, we are told, in Iraqi brigade headquarters around the country. They will advise Iraqi forces, but they will do more. They will help gather intelligence about what ISIS is up to, where it is, how it's moving, what weapons it has. I think it's safe to say this is one of the reasons we're not seeing airstrikes. The U.S. just simply does not have that fine granular intelligence to understand fully the ISIS picture. You look at the videos, the tape, the pictures, you see that ISIS moves around in vehicles, individuals with AK-47s and machine guns. Very difficult to target from the air. So the big question now, if this plan proceeds, if you start seeing military advisers around Iraq in brigade headquarters, does that mean ground forces? Are they ground forces? Are they in combat? Well, it's not like it's a maneuver force. It's not like it's an armored division or an infantry battalion -</s>BANFIELD: Sure.</s>STARR: But these guys are special forces and they've -</s>BANFIELD: Yes, and they're in harm's way. If they're on the ground, Barbara, they are in harm's way. No matter what you call them, they're in the line of fire. You know, can you hold that thought for a second, because I want to go to the line of fire, to where Nic Robertson is standing by, live in Baghdad. Nic, there's some mixed messages, it might seem, if you're hearing it from your perspective and what the Iraqis are hearing. Number one, the Americans might be considering sending help. Number two, the Americans are also saying, we're not so crazy about your government and we really want to change. How is all this settling on the ground there?</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that line about wanting to change the government is not settling well, as you can imagine. We had a statement from Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki's office saying they have not received an official statement from the United States saying that Nuri al Maliki should step down as a condition to providing troops or airstrikes or whatever. So there's a very strong pushback there. But talk to many of the politicians and quietly to diplomats here, they will tell you Maliki is a spent force. He's the one that created the sectarian tensions. His response to the current crisis has alienated any potential political partners. The question is, how do you get rid of him? It won't be the army. They support him. It won't be his own political party, even though they're the most popular, because they're not powerful enough. You have the politicians internally. They say it would have to be the religious leaders here. And, frankly, we're not seeing any hint of that coming at the moment, Ashleigh.</s>BANFIELD: So, again, the breaking news, I just want to remind our viewers if you're turning in, we're waiting for the president to take to the podium for a live address, fresh out of a meeting with his top- level security -- national security advisers. All of this on the news that somewhere around 100 special ops forces are, you know, drawn up at least and ready to go according to the Pentagon, if the president puts his signature to it, at an advisory and an intel-gathering capacity. Our Michelle Kosinski is live there at the White House. And, Michelle, I'm just getting this list of the people that the president is -- I'm assuming still in a meeting with. And it is -- and they don't get bigger or more important than this. The vice president, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, the chief of staff, the national security adviser, the U.N. representative, America's U.N. representative, the director of national intelligence, the director of the CIA, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. I just hit half of them, Michelle. It sounds big. Is the announcement going to be bigger than just yes or no to the Pentagon's plan?</s>MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is a big deal. And when you look at that plan that Barbara Starr laid out, that would be or would seem to be at least a logical step to what has been discussed behind the scenes over the last several days. That, yes, we know publicly that airstrikes have been an option, but Department of Defense officials saying kind of out of the spotlight, well, we don't have the intelligence, we need that first, if that is to be an option. So this would not be a big surprise. But this is a big announcement. It is essentially U.S. boots on the ground if that's what comes to pass. But the White House keeps emphasizing they would not be in a combat role. So yes, this is a big deal, this meeting. It's been going on for about a half hour now. You could say, well, if this was not going to substantially change the footing of the U.S. role in Iraq at this point, why would the president be coming out at 12:30 and making an announcement?</s>BANFIELD: Sure.</s>KOSINSKI: However, you know, you look at this meeting that he had with the four top congressional leaders yesterday. And when they came out, they said, well, actually, no, even though it had been speculated for days, this wasn't an opportunity for the president to lay out these specific options and to start to discuss them, pick them apart, start to make a decision. They said it was more an assessment, an update of how the president views the situation. Nancy Pelosi said it was informative and interesting. But they're saying there wasn't news there. There wasn't something along the lines of leading up to the brink of making a decision.</s>BANFIELD: So, Michelle --</s>KOSINSKI: So could this be simply an update? That's what we're waiting to see.</s>BANFIELD: And a lot of people are going to really hinge (ph) much of what they hear on boots on the ground. And effectively what we're learning is that these special ops teams aren't just going to the green zone, they're not just going to Baghdad, that they would be placed in the headquarters of Iraqi military brigades all around the country gathering intel on ISIS and then advising the local forces as well. I want to bring in the former ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill. Ambassador Hill, I have to ask you - I think a lot of people listen to this. They are frustrated. They are annoyed. They are fatigued by everything they hear that has to do with Afghanistan and Iraq, quite frankly. And at the same time, they're saying no one's burning effigies of President Obama in Iraq right now. Why draw attention to Americans again?</s>CHRISTOPHER HILL, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ: Well, I think the president and his advisors have looked very carefully at the situation. They seem to have concluded that there's not real scope for air operations, but they want to stabilize it. I mean, after all, we have this ISIS horde, in effect, coming in. They've used all kinds of sundry other people to move. And I think the potential for huge number of civilian casualties is very much there. And so I think, understandably, the president is looking around for some options. And he's settled on a fairly low-profile option, that is a few soldiers who presumably have a lot of experience in Iraq from before, working at the brigade level in the Iraqi army, which seems to be the real point of the spear there, and seeing if they can stabilize the situation. Of course, the other issue is the political issue, where Maliki has clearly had problems engaging the Sunni community, although I would say the Sunni community has clearly had problems engaging the fact that there's Shia rule in that country. So a lot of things going on, and I think the president has tried to thread a needle and it's not been easy.</s>BANFIELD: And that needle, for a lot of people, still I come back to it is, let them deal with their own needles and perhaps keep a better eye on who the victor is. When we come back after the break, I want to have Rick Francona weigh in on what's next then. Maybe it's 100 special ops now, but then what? What if they need help? Something called mission creep. We've been there before. We've seen it before. The president is about 20 minutes or so away from his big announcement. We are assuming it has to do with the proposal from the Pentagon to send these special forces. Will he? Won't he? And is there more to it? And our own Anderson Cooper is also standing by live in Baghdad. He's going to give us a special report in just a moment as well. We'll be right back.