CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript:

Interview

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BLITZER: All right, Jim Sciutto, thanks very much.

Let's talk about all of this with Democratic Congressman John Garamendi of California.

He's a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

Congressman, thanks very much for joining us.

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D), CALIFORNIA: Certainly.

BLITZER: Do you know if this increased alert at these U.S. military bases in California and all are over the country, for that matter, that the new alert was issued as a result of that terror attack outside of Dallas this part weekend?

GARAMENDI: Well, I do have two major air force bases in my district. And they did, indeed, ramp up their protection and their carefulness.

Yes, certainly, the situation in Dallas, Texas. But then also the increased traffic over the social media, particularly beginning with Twitter, which obviously ISIL will monitor that, as well as the FBI. And then from there, they move in more closely, probably getting a court order to monitor these folks very, very directly.

But I'm very pleased that the military has done what it does, take care, be cautious, protect your base.

BLITZER: So what does it mean for the two air bases in your district specifically, on a day to day basis?

What's going to be the difference?

GARAMENDI: Well, what they're going to be doing is it's going to be harder to get on the base -- 100 percent ID checks, random checking of cars, not every car, but randomly checking the cars, and quite possibly some of the more secure and more sensitive places on those bases will have ramped up security around them and probably people not being able to get even close to some of those very specific places that are on the base.

One base is the big air mobility base at Travis. The other is intelligence surveillance reconnaissance at Veal (ph).

So, yes, there's a concern. But fortunately, the military is on top of it doing what they're doing, which is protecting their base and protecting their people.

BLITZER: The FBI director, James Comey, who's a very serious guy, he says the attack in Garland, Texas highlights the danger of these kinds of attacks throughout the United States. He said -- and I'm quoting him now. Let me put it up on the screen. He said, "I know there are other Elton Simpsons -- Elton Simpson one of the gunmen out there. "It's almost as if there is a devil sitting on their shoulder saying kill, kill, kill, kill all day long. They are recruiting and tasking at the same time."

Comey also says there might be thousands of ISIS supporters or followers or sympathizers already in the United States.

There's no way the U.S. can monitor all of these people, is there?

GARAMENDI: Well, I think, actually, there is a good way to get a handle on it, and that is for the police agencies, the FBI and the local agencies to work very, very closely with those communities from which these would-be terrorists are coming from.

We have a fairly good idea where they might be coming from, work closely with those communities. We have a couple examples in California over the last several years where the Muslim community actually reported an FBI agent who was trying to find out -- he was pretending to be radicalized. And the mosque threw him out and reported to the FBI.

So work closely with the communities.

[15:10:00] And, also, the FBI and others have ways of, as I said, monitoring

the Twitter accounts before they go private and then getting an appropriate court order to monitor the private communications on Twitter or any other social media. That's how they get started on this. And frankly, it seems that's how the ISIL begins its work. They watch the Twitter. They're familiar. It's -- anybody in the world can pick up a public Twitter account. And then they begin working with that individual, trying to radicalize that individual. So we've got countermeasures. We need to pay attention.

BLITZER: Are you getting cooperation from the Muslims in your community that you clearly are seeking?

GARAMENDI: I believe so. The communities in California and throughout this state are very much American. They just -- they have a Muslim faith. And they are as good American as anybody else is. And they're concerned about the community. They love this country as much as anybody else does. And so they are very -- they have been very cooperative. And I suspect they will continue to be so.

But the police and the agencies need to reach out and work closely with those communities.

Now, let's keep in mind that Timothy McVeigh was not a Muslim at all. And so we have other kinds of terrorist activities in the United States beyond anybody connected with ISIS.

BLITZER: And you've also got to remember that there could be a problem on the base already, not somebody trying to sneak on the base, but there may be a military personnel or there may be a soldier or there may be an airman, there may be someone already on the base who is recruited and becomes a sympathizer. Those individuals, like the -- the case of Major Nidal Hassan as Fort Hood, Texas -- he wound up killing a lot of fellow soldiers, that could be a huge problem, right?

GARAMENDI: Well, it certainly has been. And it could be in the future. But that's one of the things that the military has taken, I think, a much higher degree of attention to, paying attention to those signs that someone may have some psychological problem or may be radicalized in one way or another. And as, I say, it doesn't have to be radical jihadism. It could be other kinds of radical activities that do happen and are part of the American fabric.

So we all need to be aware. And it's our responsibility as individuals to reach out when we see something that isn't the way it should be, to reach out to the appropriate authorities and report it. And I know that that is taking place on the military bases. It's part of the new way of dealing with what happened at Fort Hood, that great tragedy there.

BLITZER: We have some more questions for you, Congressman, if you can stick around here.

GARAMENDI: Sure.

BLITZER: We'll take a quick break. Much more with Congressman Garamendi right after that.

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BLITZER: We're following the breaking news. All U.S. military bases now in a heightened state of alert as ISIS actively prompts the Pentagon to order increased security around the country.

[17:17:34] We're back with Democratic Congressman John Garamendi of the House Armed Services Committee.

Congressman, as you know, ISIS has a very strong, powerful online recruiting message out there, very different, their strategy than al Qaeda used to be. Al Qaeda wanted to just organize plots like 9/11, get people involved. It looks like ISIS wants to inspire people to go out there and kill Americans. Why has this ISIS strategy and recruitment worked so well?

GARAMENDI: I think it's appealing to a certain part of the population in this country and around the world that is disaffected for one reason or another, and to see something exciting. I guess most young people look for something exciting, and I guess a war in the Middle East, or an order to do some sort of violence in your own community, they would find to be exciting. Frankly, it makes no sense to me.

ISIS in the Syria and Iraq is a very dangerous and inhumane bunch of folks that are carrying out terrorism on their own people and their own community. We've seen the beheadings, but that's just part of the picture of ISIS, but there are people that somehow find this to be attractive and want to listen and participate in it.

They ought to be taking a look at what's positive in our own nation. Sure, we have troubles here, but this is -- you know, all the positive opportunities that exist in America, compared to the kind of terrorism that these folks are launching on their own community in the Middle East is -- not -- just doesn't make sense to me. But apparently, there are some folks, one or two of them, that did this attack in Texas.

We're probably going to see more, but we need to be aware. We need to counter with our own hope and opportunity in our own country, and we also need to take to ISIS the battle in the Middle East.

To go out there, launch strikes against them, when the U.S. is doing by air both in Syria and Iraq. The FBI director, James Comey, says that tracking these terror suspects here in the United States, he says it's like looking for a needle in a haystack, but in his words, increasingly the needles are invisible.

How difficult is it to identify and stop these so-called lone wolf terrorists who are inspired, if you will, by ISIS?

GARAMENDI: Well, I think there's a couple of methods that you could go after. If you're going to look for a needle in a haystack, get a magnet. That's probably the best way to find it. [17:20:07] In this case, how do they become radicalized?

Probably starting with Twitter or some other social media. Probably on the public sites. Some sort of communication. We can monitor that. It's not an NSA issue. We can monitor those kind of public interactions, and then from there hone in on those people that seem to be more engaged in that kind of social interaction.

And from there, reach out into the -- the police operations around the country. Notifying the police that this is something they should be aware of in the local communities as well as the local and regional FBI.

And then as I said earlier, you've got to work with the communities that seem to be the most affected by this propaganda. Probably the Muslim community more than others, but not only that community, because there are clearly others that are not Muslim that somehow find this to be attractive.

And so work with those communities. Those communities are good law-abiding Americans as much as anybody else, and they don't want harm to their community, and they certainly don't want to be drugged -- dragged down by someone that is in their community acting out in a terrorist way.

So we can do a lot to identify, and I think we are, and the FBI and the local agencies are, and each and every one of us also has a responsibility to keep our eyes open to watch and to be good citizens ourselves.

Today marks the tenth month, the start of the tenth month of U.S. military engagement against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Some calling it a war, and there's no congressional authorization for the use of military force against these ISIS terrorists. You're leading for calls for congressional action. Do you expect formal authorization anytime soon?

GARAMENDI: I'm forever hopeful. But in recent days, I think I have to be realistic. The House of Representatives, the leadership of the House and various committees, do not seem to be interested in moving a specific authorization.

On the other hand, the Senate has more activity and seems to be more willing to move a more precise -- right now the U.S. government is operating under the authorization to use military force that originated with 9/11, and that was specifically for Afghanistan and related terrorist activities in that area.

It's now been applied in Syria and Iraq. They're also using the 2003 Iraqi AUMF to justify the current activity. I think neither are appropriate. I think we ought to do away with the 2001 Afghanistan authorization to use force and be very -- very, very specific.

And we ought to put a time frame on it so the next president and probably ought to be debated in the presidential elections, as to how and which way the United States should deal with these kinds of problems. But an unending authorization to use military force is really an abdication of the constitutional authority only given to Congress to wage war.

BLITZER: Congressman Garamendi, thanks very much for joining us.

GARAMENDI: My pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for the issues.

Blitzer: Thank you.

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