Your hamburgers. Theyll cost more for the labor day barbecue. Wahwah. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. The newsroom with Carol Costello begins right now. Good morning, carol. Good morning. Have a great weekend. Newsroom starts now. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com and good morning. Im Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. The white house under fire and on the defensive after a stunning admission from the president. How should the United States deal with the isis terrorists who are growing stronger in syria . I dont want to put the cart before the horse. We dont have a strategy yet. And on this morning after the white house back pedaling continues. We do have a comprehensive stat gee for dealing with isil. The president is waiting on military options developed by professional at the department of defense. Also developing overnight, new causes for concern, reporters from Foreign Policy magazine gain access to what they call the isis laptop of doom, buried in hidden files preps to unleash a biological weapon attack. The Army Psychiatrist who killed 13 fellow americans at ft. Hood from death know, nadl hassan writes from the leader of isis asking to join. And federal investigators step up their monitoring of extremist websites and chat rooms. Intel identified nearly a dozen americans who have traveled to syria to become isis fighters. Lets take a closer look especially at that laptop of doom and its hidden secrets according to Foreign Policy magazine there was a 19page document that included efforts to develop biological weapons and weaponize the bubonic plague. It suggested using grenades to help disperse the bioterror and targeted closed areas like stadiums and subways where people would be trapped. Lets turn to cnn terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank on the phone with me. Good morning, carol. Paul, how likely is it isis could successfully carry out a biological attack . Obviously this news has caused a concern and this guy was a chemistry graduate but theres a different between aspiring to make these sorts of weapons and having any capability. Al qaeda for example had researched this kind of stuff for the last couple of decades but theyve never come close to developing biological or chemical weapons. The Distribution Systems for these kind of things particularly are difficult but whats also concerning now is that were kind of in unchartered territory with isis because they control a large degree of territory, and also they have deep financial pockets, theyre raising millions of dollars a day and theyre also attracting foreign fighters from across the middle east. Now the worry is that some of those could have scientific knowledge, but theres no evidence yet that isis is developing a program for this kind of thing. This seems to be one individual doing some research into it, carol. Well i know there is concern, because isis operates in syria, and we know syria has chemical weapons or had chemical weapons. So is it possible that isis managed to get a hold of some . I dont think there is any evidence of those chemical weapons, they are under lock and key when it comes to the regime. I dont think anybody is suggesting that isis is about to get hold of chemical weapons in syria. Obviously theres always theoretical concern about that but no evidence of that yet, carol. We also know isis controls some major cities, moerks, mfor mosul in iraq, it has a university and Medical College with laboratories. Should that be a concern . Yes, that is an obvious concern that they may have access to some scientific facilities, where theyre able to sort of experiment on this kind of thing. When it came to al qaeda, they were experimenting in sort of Training Camps in afghanistan in the 1990s, far away from modern civilization. If you control scientific medical facilities in an actual city, that obviously gives you a better chance of going further down the road of developing these kind of things, carol, thats true. All right, Paul Cruickshank, thanks for your insight. We appreciate it this morning. The man responsible for killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others in a shooting rampage at ft. Hood in 2009 is now asking isis for citizenship. Nadal hassans daughter provided a copy of the letter to fox news he formally and humbly request to be made a citizen of the islamic state. It would be an honor for any believer to be an obedient citizen soldier to a people and its leader who dont compromise the religion of the Almighty Allah to get along with the disbelievers. He signed his signature and ableefgs soa or soldier of allah. Authorities want to know how young men are being recruited to fight in syria. Today they learn the family of aberham mohammad says he was killed over the weekend in syria while fighting for isis. People who knew him are trying to figure out why he decided to join ted t b join this brutal terrorist group. Ted rowlands is live in minneapolis with more. Reporter good morning, mohammad is the latest in a group of young men from this minneapolisst. Paul area that have gone on to fight for extremist groups. He joins two men that went to high school together, both here from minneapolis. According to a friend, abu rakman mohammad is the latest socalled minnesota martyr, an american giving up his life to fight with the ruthless terror group isis. He was in the community, involved in politics. For some reason down the road he changed allegiance to a different set of philosophies. Reporter he was killed in syria, where he was fighting along with another american jihadist from minneapolis, Douglas Mccain. While its still unclear how well mccain pneumomad, mccain knew the man in this terrorist recruiting video very well. If you guys only knew how much fun we have over here, this is the real disneyland. You come here and join us. Reporter troy kastagar and Douglas Mccain were high school friends. Kastagar who appeared in this training video died in 2009 fighting with al shabaab in somalia. Kastagaras mother tries to explain how they went from basketball buddies to terrorists. This was like wanting to have, you know, wanting to have a purpose, wanting to be a valuable human being and not finding that, and then i think, you know, some of the things they were told were lies and some things were truths. I think they felt they could go help some people who needed help. Reporter the fear that a minnesota terror recruit will someday attack america is a real concern for the fbi. Theyre investigating exactly how isis has been able to recruit. How are people being radicalized, what methods are being used and what are the logistics behind the travel of some of these young men. Reporter and carol, the fbi here in minneapolis believes there are a handful of other young men that grew up in the twin cities that are now in syria fighting for isis. Carol . Ted rowlands reporting live from minneapolis this morning. When it comes to the hostages being held by isis, were learning more about the brutal treatment they received while in captivity. The Washington Post citing unnamed sources familiar with the treatment of abducted westerners reporting that four hostages including that american journalist james foley were waterboarded. Foley was later beheaded and what isis claimed was retaliation for u. S. Air strikes. In a statement to cnn, a Senior Obama Administration official would not confirm the report due to sensitivity to the families aento protect intelligence and how it was gathered. Owe fishes repeated calls to isis to release all hostages. I know what youre thinking, wasnt it just last week president obama called isis a cancer worth rooting out . Wasnt it just a few days ago that he promised justice for james foley . But our message to anyone who harms our people is simple. America does not forget. Our reach is long. We are patient. Just will be done. So what gives . Because the president just yesterday says that his administration, the Defense Department doesnt really have a strategy to deal with isis in syria. So lets talk about that. Josh rogen is a cnn political analyst and Senior National security correspondent for the daily beast. Youve also written extensively on this topic and you have Insider Information so im glad youre here this morning. Glad to be with you. I must say when the president of the United States says we dont have a strategy to deal with the terrorists who kill americans, its unsettling to say the least, so what gives . Yes, its really amazing, especially after seven days of not just president obama, but john kerry, chuck hagel, joint chiefs chairman Martin Dempsey all saying that its an eminent threat, we have to confront them, both sides of the border, and then president obama saying basically were going to wait, were going to check it out. I believe him, the aadministration doesnt have a strategy and that raises two big questions, one, what are they waiting for and two, is it really a good idea to tell isis we dont have a strategy, how does that impact their actions, and what does that mean for the safety of us . Well, along those lines, in your daily beast article you quote a former pentagon official who says its not just demoralizing to those who want to stop ice this its tracks but isis is going to act with greater impunity, now they believe theyve been given a free pass. Every single isis leader was watching the president as he made those comments yesterday. So has the president made things worse with his own rhetoric . Its hard to say. We can say that by deciding not to decide, that has were indications. So isis is doing lots of things. Theyre expanding across iraq, across syria. Theyre fighting the syrian rebels, and theyre going to continue to do those things, whether or not we react. So if we dont react, if we wait, if we study the issue, we can be sure that the problem will get worse and worse, and when they hear were about to weigh in, that factors into the calculations. So i guess the obvious question, where does the administration go from here . So john kerry will go to the region this weekend. Hell try to coalesce some International Support around whatever it is they ultimately decide to do, and theyre going to have more debate inside the administration. The white house doesnt want to intervene in syria. Theyve been very clear about that. There are a lot of people in the administration that say we have no choice. They havent convinced the one man whose vote is the most important, his name is barack obama. Until hes convinced, were not going to see any movement. Are the will, josh rogin, thank thank you for your insight. Check out his article why obama let isis off the hook at dailybeast. Com. Nato released images it says shows Russian Forces inside ukraine. Russia says thats not us. Thats quite an unusual explanation, as a matter of fact. Cnns Matthew Chance is in moscow. Good morning. Reporter thats right, and from the russian capital, the u. S. Steps up its allegations about Russian Military involvement in ukraine, ill bring you all the latest kremlin denials. Narrator summer. You know it cant last forever. But thats okay. Because a fresh start awaits. With exciting worlds to explore, and challenges yet unmet, new friendships to forge, and old ones to renew. Its more than a job. And theyre more than just our students. So welcome back, to the students, and to the educators. Ready to teach. And ready to learn. World leaders are condemning russian troop movements into Eastern Ukraine in what one Ukrainian Army officer calls a full scale invasion. Following todays emergency meeting of nato ambassadors, the secretarygeneral accused russia of a serious escalation of aggression. It released satellite pictures of Russian Troops inside ukraine. Kiev says rebels backed by russian tanks and armored personnel carriers have been fighting Ukrainian Forces on two eastern fronts. Cnns diana magnay has more for you. Reporter proRussian Forces gaining more ground as the fighting rages on. In rebelheld donetsk, heavy shelling killed 15 civilian as ukrainian troops tried to push back forces. Town seized after rebel forces backed by russian tanks and artillery battled Ukrainian Military for control. This morning Vladimir Putin opened a socalled humanitarian corridor. The order have prorussian separate is release are you cranetroops trapped in the battle zone and provide medical assistance to the injured. On thursday, as many as,000 Russian Troops with heavy weapons crossed the southern border to fight alongside prorussian rebels according to nato. The fear in ukraine that Russian Troops might march as far as the coastal city of mariopol but this opened a third front in the fighting beyond the other separatist stronghelds holds in donet donetsk luhansk. They say Russian Forces are on the move inside the ukrainian territory over the last serl days. These show a convoy of selfpropelled artillery units. They are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the overall scope of russian troop and weapons movements. Reporter carol, 1,000 troops is still a small troop presence spread across a very large area, all along the russian border. If this is an invasion, then it is a very small one. Carol . Diana magnay reporting. Russia has a unique response to those nato satellite images of troops in ukraine. They may be from Computer Games. Thats what theyre saying. Cnns Matthew Chance is in moscow with that part of the story. Seriously, they expect everybody to believe them . Well to be honest, there have been incidents in the past, carol, where images that have been shown to be images that were meant to be satellite images, not from nato obviously but from other quarters have been found to be bogus images and thats what the Russian Foreign minister is referring to when he said this could be from video games. Look, the general point is that despite the mounting, the genuinely mounting evidence thats being gathered now, that there are Russian Forces that are operating inside ukraine, we saw ten russian paratroopers arrested by the Ukrainian Government and displayed on television in that country that gave interviews as well, that was explained by the kremlin saying they accidentally went to ukraine. Theres been other incidents as well which is sort of building this case, that there is a real presence in ukraine of Russian Regular service personnel, despite that, the kremlin is categorically denying it. Take a listen to what sergei laugh love had to say about this a few moments ago. Translator from the very beginning of the crisis, we have been blamed for everything. There have been reports that there are photographs from space showing movements of Russian Troops but as it turned out, it was Computer Games and the images were taken from there and the latest allegations are more or less the same kind. All right, so again, that categorical denial coming from the kremlin. The only sort of chink in the armor, if you will, that weve seen so far in terms of the message is prorussian rebels in Eastern Ukraine confirming that there are russian soeltdiers fighting alongside them in the insurgency but saying unofficially, during their leave time theyre choosing to fight alongside their ukrainian brothers in the battle against the government of ukraine. Matthew chance reporting live from moscow this morning. Some breaking news to pass along to you, britain has raised its Terror Threat level to severe. That means a terrorist attack is highly likely, but theres no information to suggest an attack is eminent. This decision comes against a backdrop of increasing concern about hundreds of aspiring british jihadis traveling to iraq and syria to learn terrorist tradecraft and the murder of american journalist james foley by an apparently british killer. Well take to you london to talk more about this. Were getting a reporter in place. The Terror Threat level in britain raised to severe. Ill be back with more information on that after this. Ben well, that was close you aint lying let quicken loans help you save your money. With a mortgage thats engineered to amaze is caused by people looking for parking. In a city thats remarkable that so much energy is, is wasted. Streetline has looked at the problem of parking, which has not been looked at for the last 30, 40 years. 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