CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: On the Death of Hostages and Terrorist Attacks against Christians

Interview

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BLITZER: All right, Sunlen, thanks very much.

Sunlen Serfaty reporting from the White House.

Joining us now, Republican Senators James Rich of Idaho.

He's a member of the Intelligence and Foreign Relations Committees.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

Have you, first of all, been briefed on these American deaths?

And if you have, how long ago did you hear about all of this?

SEN. JAMES RISCH (R), IDAHO: Well, the answer to the question, Wolf, is yes. How long ago is classified at this point. What we're about to talk about here is one of the most sensitive -- one of the most classified, one of the most difficult issues that America is facing today, as far as defending this country. So it's deeply classified and you're going to have to cut me a little slack here as we go forward.

But in general terms, we can certainly talk about it, to some extent.

[17:10:00]

Look, this -- there are lots of people involved in this. This is not a cavalier thing that happens. I can't tell you, obviously, how it's done or what we go through to get to this point. You saw the anguish on the face of the president. And I think that conveys a lot as far as what goes into this and what happens when things go wrong.

BLITZER: Yes, because an Italian hostage was killed, an American hostage was killed.

I guess the bottom line question, without breaking classified information, is do you have faith right now in the way the intelligence community prepared this operation?

RISCH: You know, Wolf, I really do. This is something that's been going on for quite some time. Like I said, this is not something that's taken on in a cavalier fashion. It's not something that one person just makes a decision based on a little bit of information. This is well vetted, with people who are very professional, people, who have been working at this for a long time.

And no matter what happens, when you're involved in counterterrorism operations and there's lethal force being used, sometimes things are going to happen that you don't want to happen.

Having said that, these are things that nobody wants to do, but are absolutely necessary for the security of the American people. Look, this isn't -- this is a -- this is not a partisan issue. The people who work on this are Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives. And everyone has input into how this is done. And it is difficult, but it is, in my judgment, after watching this over the years, it is well planned, it is well executed, it is well thought out. And there are excellent protocols in place before this is done.

Again, having said that, when you're dealing with lethal force, things can go awry from time to time. And it's a tragic situation. Again, that picture of the president of the United States when he had to talk about this tells it all.

BLITZER: Yes, it certainly does.

Let's talk a little bit about Adam Gadahn, the American who -- a convert to Islam, who became a mouthpiece, as all of us know. We just saw Sunlen Serfaty's report of al Qaeda.

He now is gone.

How did the U.S. officials, based on what you know, confirm that he is, in fact, dead?

RISCH: Wolf, that's classified. I guess all I can do is get to the bottom line and say that, with a high degree of confidence, we can say that he is dead.

BLITZER: Is that the best you can do, a high degree of confidence?

You don't know for sure?

RISCH: Well, for sure, unless you actually have the body it's about impossible. But a high degree of confidence in the intelligence community is about as good as you can do under those circumstances. But it is very, very good.

BLITZER: And what's your confidence level as far as the death of Warren Weinstein?

RISCH: Well, again, I think when the president of the United States stepped up and said what he said, he expressed that there was a high degree of confidence that that also happened.

BLITZER: But as I say, you don't have DNA?

You don't have the actual body, is that right?

RISCH: You know, Wolf, I really can't go into those things. These are -- this is deeply, deeply classified as to how it's planned, how it's executed and the aftermath. And I j in the -- in all fairness to the American people, we really can't go there.

BLITZER: All right. I understand completely.

RISCH: Thank you.

BLITZER: Senator, I want you to stand by.

We've got a lot more to discuss, including these new reports coming out of Italy and elsewhere that al Qaeda is now directly targeting Christians, including an attack on the Vatican and the Catholic Church.

Stay with us.

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[17:18:51] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Take a look at the breaking news we're following right now. Ominous pictures, these are live pictures just outside of Oklahoma City where there is now a tornado warning. Look at those clouds. We're going to monitor the situation for you, get an update as soon as we can. But those are pretty ominous pictures right now Oklahoma City right now.

But let's get back to the other news we're following.

Republican Senator James Risch of Idaho, a member of the Intelligence and Foreign Relations Committee is still with us. Senator, there's a lot of fear about this fanatic Islamic terrorist

war against Christianity right now, Christians in particular. First of all the news out of Italy today that there was an al Qaeda plot to go after the Vatican.

How serious do you believe this was, because they rounded up a whole of bunch of people in Italy today?

SEN. JAMES RISCH (R-ID), FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: Wolf, this is really serious. It shouldn't surprise anyone. This is coming out of Europe. Europe is much different than the U.S. in a lot of ways, not the least of which it's a much softer target. It is easily penetrated and there are large groups of radical people that are moved into Europe and can move in and out of there fairly easily.

[17:20:02] We're probably going to see more of this in the future. The intelligence agencies over there and the law enforcement agencies move a lot more publicly than we do here in the U.S., and as a result of that, you saw this rollout today that actually caught the attention of a lot of news agencies and they intended it to be that way.

BLITZER: You hear about an al Qaeda plot against the Vatican, against the pope. That's serious obviously, but in recent weeks and months, but we've seen these terrorists behead Ethiopian Christians, Egyptian Christians, we've seen Christians being beheaded and thrown overboard on these ships that are trying to escape North Africa or Middle East, heading to Europe.

Is there, based on the intelligence you're privy to, some sort of direct war on Christians right now by these terrorists?

RISCH: Wolf, I don't think you need to rely on intelligence for that. They say so publicly. If you look at what they've put on the Internet and everything else, it's both Christians and the Jewish populations that they target.

And there is good reason to believe that these radicals -- they are the radical edge of Islamic culture that have targeted and will continue to target Christian people for the reasons that they state in these deep philosophical things that they publish on the Internet about why they're doing this and that they're going to continue to do it.

BLITZER: Let's talk about Yemen for a moment. ISIS just released some training video claiming to be shot in Yemen, showing militants in desert fatigues. The video was release as a threat to the Shiite Houthis there. CNN has not confirmed the authenticity of the video. There is some Yemeni dialogue in the video.

What does this mean, the presence potentially of ISIS in Yemen? We know the Houthis are there. We know AQAP, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is there. But as far as you know, is there a serious ISIS terror presence in Yemen now as well?

RISCH: Well, ISIS has gotten such, Wolf, that their tentacles go out and reach everywhere. I would say more than Yemen, Libya has been a target of theirs for establishing these training camps and for expansion. But they're going to expand all over the Middle East because of the deteriorating conditions there, the loss of any ability of the Yemeni government to take control of its country, just as happened in Libya.

So, this is going to permeate in a lot of different areas in the Middle East, as you recall about the time in 9/11. It was pretty much concentrated in Afghanistan because it was so lawless. Well, there's becoming more and more lawless areas in the Middle East and as a result of that, they're able to move more freely and they're able to establish beach heads in these countries that are broken, that have failed governments.

BLITZER: Yes, these are failed states right now whether it's in Libya or Yemen or Somalia. Unfortunately, there's a whole bunch of them right now.

Senator, thanks very much for joining us.

RISCH: Thank you, Wolf. Glad to be here.

BLITZER: Thank you, James Risch, of the Senate Intelligence and Foreign Relations Committee.

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