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Quest Means Business
ISIS Claims Second American Journalist Beheaded; US Responds to Sotloff Beheading Claim; ISIS Blames Obama for Sotloff Execution; Reaction in Iraq; Urgent Pleas for Action on Ebola; Human Trial of Ebola Vaccinations Beginning; Liberia Hardest Hit by Ebola; Apple Admits "Targeted Attack" on Accounts
Aired September 02, 2014 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE CLOSING BELL)
RICHARD QUEST, HOST: The New York market has closed. The Dow Jones Industrials are down some 34 points. It's been an extremely grave and busy
day. Today is Tuesday, it's the 2nd of September.
Murdered at the hands of ISIS. A second American hostage is believed to have been beheaded.
There's an urgent plea for action on Ebola. Liberia's president is telling CNN the situation is now desperate.
And Apple has revealed how its celebrity customer accounts were hacked. We have a report.
Good evening from New York. I'm Richard Quest.
Good evening. Tonight, we begin with the shocking news that ISIS militants claim to have beheaded another hostage. The terror group has
published a video that appears to show the murder of the American journalist Steven Sotloff. CNN cannot confirm the authenticity of the
video.
The 31-year-old man was captures in Syria a year ago. Speaking to the camera before his apparent killing, Mr. Sotloff said he was paying the
price for US intervention. We don't know if his words were scripted for him.
This, of course, follows the murder of the fellow journalist James Foley at the hands of ISIS two weeks ago. At that time, ISIS said Mr.
Sotloff's fate depended on the US president's next move in Iraq.
So, the new video, titled "A second message to America" also threatens the life of another hostage, the British journalist David Haines. As you
can see, there have been serious and grave events of the day. Our correspondent Karl Penhaul is in London and joins us with the latest.
Karl, I believe you have had to witness and stomach this video. And - - what more can you tell us? Let's leave it at that.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Richard, of course it is tough to look at these videos, but also it is important.
These are, of course, ISIS propaganda videos, and as any propaganda video, ISIS is trying to give it some signposts and some pointers to give us and
send us some kind of message.
It's a 2-minute 45 video, and in that, as you say, Steven Sotloff, the 31-year-old American says that he is paying the price for Obama's campaign
against ISIS, and he also says -- as you rightly point out, we don't know whether his words were scripted for him -- but he asks Obama, "What is the
point of reigniting this war in Iraq and Syria?"
We see this man again with an apparent British accent, apparent London, multicultural accent waving a combat knife in his left hand, the
one that also appears to execute Steven Sotloff. He looks very much like the man that appeared in the James Foley, the other American journalist who
was executed --
QUEST: All right.
PENHAUL: -- two weeks ago. Seems to be the same man, and he sends a chilling message at the end. He says, "Obama, back off and leave us
alone," Richard.
QUEST: Karl, war is grim and unpleasant. You've seen much more of that than most of us will ever hope or wish to ever see. But this is in a
different league. This is in -- this is inhumanity writ large. Who are ISIS?
PENHAUL: ISIS, of course, in these kind of videos appear to be in a different league. That said, if one turns to Latin America, the Mexican
drug cartels, they also have a habit of posting online very brutal execution videos where they mutilate, where they behead their victims and
then go to brag about it online and in the social media.
They, like ISIS, are clearly using terror as a tactic, terror so that they can punch above their weight. They might not have so many fighters on
the ground, as is the case with ISIS, but they're inflicting terror on their enemies, and that is sending a severe warning.
But of course, ISIS as it is now, is really a second generation. It started off in Iraq as al Qaeda in Iraq and has now transmuted into ISIS,
Richard.
QUEST: Right, but what is still disturbing, as the US president works out what the strategy is, David Cameron's comments tonight, they are little
rewriting the strategy tonight as we're talking, but this group came from nowhere, apparently, managed to overtake large parts of northern Iraq,
managed to take over parts of Syria, or at least wage war in Syria, manages to commit these atrocities. So how big is ISIS, do we believe?
PENHAUL: Well, the estimates really vary. We've seen estimates as low as possible 1500 fighters, ranging right up to 10,000 or more fighters.
What it is clear ISIS is trying to do, much as al Qaeda in Iraq did, the first version of this, the first incarnation, was to try and get tribal
elders on side, to try and get other groups to ally, either because they're ideologically allied or because they pay them money.
Get them on side, and effectively, that means that they can go into certain towns and villages not fighting but buy their way in to create some
alliance, and that way gain more territorial control. And then when they need to fight, they will fight, but if they can alliance-build, that's what
they're also doing, Richard.
QUEST: Karl, thank you so much for putting a bit of perspective into all of this on this dreadful day of news. Thank you, sir. Thank you.
Now, the Sotloff family has released a statement saying it is awaiting verification of the video and is grieving privately. You'll remember, of
course, that Steven Sotloff's mother did do a plea for his life, a plea which has clearly been ignored.
Speaking to reporters earlier in the day, the State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki expressed her condolences to the family.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEN PSAKI, SPOKESPERSON, US STATE DEPARTMENT: We've seen reports of a video that purports to be the murder of US citizen Steven Sotloff by ISIL.
The intelligence community will work as quickly as possible to determine its authenticity.
If the video is genuine, we are sickened by this brutal act taking the life of another innocent American citizen. Our hearts go out to the
Sotloff family, and we will provide more information as it becomes available.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Athena Jones is at the White House and joins me now. Obviously, the statements express the horror at the brutality, but we need
to know, what's the president going to do about this?
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Richard. That's exactly what people want to know. White House press secretary Josh Earnest echoed the
sentiments that Jen Psaki, the spokesperson for the State Department shared.
They're still waiting to authenticate this video, but of course, we've heard the descriptions of it, it sounds and looks a lot like the video we
saw a couple of weeks ago with that first beheading of a journalist, James Foley.
So, since then, and now a growing number of people are asking the White House, well, what are you going to do? Republicans and now Democrats
also want to see the president put together a plan and act quickly. We heard from senators like John McCain, Lindsey Graham, who want to see
airstrikes in Syria.
We've heard from Democrats saying, well, first we've got to make sure we gather the necessary intelligence. We know that there are some
overflights going on over Syria, gathering some of that intelligence.
But notably over the weekend, we heard from Senator Dianne Feinstein, who's a Democrat, she's the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence
Committee, and she said that she's learned that this president is cautious, perhaps too cautious when it comes to formulating a strategy to deal with
ISIS and not just in Iraq, where we know they're doing airstrikes, but also in Syria.
And now, this latest video may not be authenticated yet, but as soon as it is, this is certainly already putting pressure -- more pressure on
the administration. Richard?
QUEST: The reaction and the range of reaction, Athena, really comes down to how much more firepower the US is prepared to commit here. And I'm
not talking about tens of thousands of troops on the ground here, but I am talking about the sort of surgical strikes that they've done so far. Is it
the feeling there tonight that there's more of those to come?
JONES: Well, that's the question. That's the question that people want answered. The White House is asked about this every day, several
times a day, and they say that they're -- the folks at the Pentagon are putting together a strategy, putting together a plan.
But certainly, part of that strategy is going to have to do with building a regional coalition. That's something that Press Secretary Josh
Earnest talked about today.
We know the president just left for Estonia, but later in the week, he'll be going to that NATO summit in Wales, where the topic of ISIS will
come up, talking to NATO partners, talking about building a regional coalition to deal with ISIS in Syria, ISIS in Iraq, and not just a military
strategy, but other means as well.
And we know that later this month, the president will be hosting a special session of the UN Security Council at the UN General Assembly
Meeting in New York later this month to talk about the foreign fighters who are fighting for ISIS.
So, this is a big topic, and the question that's on everyone's mind is, when is there going to be a decision by this president?
QUEST: Right.
JONES: And that's the answer that we don't have yet. We have no idea of the timeline of when we expect some sort of decision on strategy in
Syria from this White House. Richard?
QUEST: Well, when it does happen, you'll be there to tell us all about it and will hopefully come to us first. Thanks very much, Athena
Jones at the White House for us tonight.
We'll have a lot more on this developing story after the break. US officials are working to confirm that ISIS is behind the killing. We're
going to be live in Iraq with the latest.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: We continue our coverage of our top story and the apparent murder of the American journalist Steven Sotloff. In a disturbing video,
ISIS militants have threatened President Barack Obama with further executions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because of your insistence in continuing your bombings and armed meddling involved in the Mosul Dam despite our serious
warnings, you, Obama, have yet again through your actions forget another American citizen. So, just as your missiles continue to strike our people,
our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Our correspondent Anna Coren is in Erbil in northern Iraq this evening. Anna, you listened, you heard. The reaction in Iraq tonight?
ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly there is disgust and outrage that this has happened once again. We heard from the
Kurdish regional government, the foreign minister here, saying that he condemns this act of -- this inhumane act. He calls it barbaric.
He also says, Richard, that this more than ever is a time when the world needs to unite to fight ISIS, that there is no place in the world for
this terrorist organization. Obviously, a message directly to the Obama administration as well as to the international community.
But as we heard from that executioner, who we believe is the same man that executed James Foley in that video on the 19th of August, he makes
reference to the bombing campaign, the US bombing campaign around Mosul Dam and also around the township of Amerli.
Now, we spent a lot of time up at Mosul Dam. We were there with the Peshmerga when they were able to claim it back after ISIS took it earlier
this month. And we saw that the US airstrikes taking place, 123 today, Richard, according to US central command.
They are obviously making a big difference on the ground. They're allowing those ground forces to push through and to push back ISIS
militants. The US airstrikes taking out those key enemy positions, that artillery, the mortar. Also, those convoys of militants that were driving
across theses plains and really terrorizing these communities.
QUEST: Right, but if the US is able to slow or stop the advance, it's going to be up to the Peshmergas and others to do the, if you like, the
hard work of either pushing them back, or the Kurds -- to Kurdistan, to annihilate them. And that's going to be the long, hard, boots on the
ground slog.
COREN: Yes, absolutely, boots on the ground, hard, long slog. But Richard, I don't think anyone here believes that the Kurdish forces are
ready to do that, nor are the Iraqis. Yes, they were able to claim black Mosul Dam, this vital piece of infrastructure where we saw Iraqi commandos
working with the Kurdish forces.
But they don't this. They independently -- they operate very independently. Yes, we saw the Iraqis in full swing down at Amerli, but
we're talking about a small town -- farming community of less than 20,000 people, out in the open plains where those US airstrikes are extremely
effective.
When they want to go after ISIS in their strongholds, those major cities, like Mosul, Fallujah, Tikrit, it's going to be a completely
different ballgame, because you're talking about urban warfare. Well, I can tell you know, the Kurdish forces aren't going to be doing that.
And we certainly aren't hearing anything from the Iraqis that suggest that they will be taking the fight to those ISIS militants, either. So,
the strategy -- no one really knows. And I guess everybody is waiting for some direction --
QUEST: Right.
COREN: -- from President Obama.
QUEST: Anna Coren in Erbil in northern Iraq. Thank you for putting it into perspective tonight. Thank you very much.
Other serious news that has happened over the course of the last few hours, we've heard two urgent pleas for immediate action on Ebola today.
The first is the warning from the medical group at the forefront of the Ebola battle in West Africa, Medecins Sans Frontieres, Doctors Without
Borders.
The group says the world is losing the battle to contain the virus and is calling now for more people, more beds, and more resources to be sent to
the affected countries. The second plea comes from the US Centers for Disease Control and prevention.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM FRIEDEN, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL: The number of cases continues to increase and is now increasing rapidly. And I'm afraid
that over the next few weeks, those numbers are likely to increase further and significantly.
There is a window of opportunity to tamp this down, but that window is closing. We need action now to scale up the response.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Now, part of that response not only, of course, more resources, more people. It's also the use of the human trials of
experimental Ebola vaccines. The first one is getting underway this week in the United States.
GlaxoSmithKline and the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases are developing it. Unlike the experimental drug ZMapp,
designed to treat an existing infection, the vaccine is preventative by nature.
Twenty people between 18 and 50 will be given the vaccine to see if it is safe and if it prompts an immune response to protect against Ebola.
Initial results are expected later this year. It's worth also mentioning, those involved are not being given live infected vaccine, of course. A
vaccine that's going to stimulate the immune response.
Liberia's president says she's well aware of the desperate situation that now faces her people and knows the country's health system is severely
overtaxed. In an interview with CNN's Nima Elbagir, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf says she remains optimistic they can survive the current outbreak.,
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What is the situation right now?
ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF, PRESIDENT OF LIBERIA: The situation remains grave. Our health delivery system is under stress. Our primary health
hospitals have had to close because they became incubators for the disease. And Ebola has been spreading quite rapidly.
For Liberia, what has disturbed us most is that it entered the capital city, where one-third of our population reside. And so, what it comes to
is that our main concern is not only the Ebola crisis and what it will do to the lives of people, but the livelihoods of people. And so, post-Ebola
is going to be a very major challenge for us.
We've made great progress here. I don't want to enumerate where we've come from from 2006 to where we are now in rebuilding the country. But all
of that today isn't a question. It's not a question because of the Ebola crisis.
But I tell you, I'm still proud of the Liberian people and what they're doing. Like I say, you had initial resistance. This is something
they didn't know. But so far, you've got a lot of heroes, unsung heroes out there. The nurses, many of whom have died. The doctors, they have
been saving lives, people have been walking away free from this disease because of them.
And I think if we can just get more training, with more Liberians to take control of this. Yes, we need international support and international
assistance, but our own people have not only paid dearly by their lives and whatnot, but they are out there working. They are trying to control this
disease.
ELBAGIR: Are you hopeful?
SIRLEAF: Very hopeful. I'm very hopeful that we'll beat this. We have to. We have no option but to succeed in this.
ELBAGIR: The worry was, of course, that Liberia as a whole was being isolated. Did you feel that way? Did you feel Liberia was being
abandoned?
SIRLEAF: Well, in a way, we feel saddened by the response. I've spoken about it. Like I say, we see some improvement. I guess people now
see this not only as a Liberian or a West Africa crisis, but it could easily become a global crisis. And the response is coming. But still --
still, we could use a much bigger response.
ELBAGIR: If there was one message you would want the world to hear from you, what would it be?
SIRLEAF: Please work as partners with us. Give us hope by joining us in this fight. Don't instill fear. We need that hope, we need that
assistance. We need for Liberians to know that this fought -- this war can be won. That's our message to the world. And so, we need you to join us
in this effort.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: That's the president of Liberia. Now, other stories. And Apple has admitted that the celebrity iCloud accounts were hacked. The
company says iCloud itself remains secure. We'll talk about it after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Apple has admitted those nude celebrity photos that were leaked online are the result of an attack that compromised the accounts of
Jennifer Lawrence and other female stars.
Apple claims hackers targeted user names, passwords, security questions through the iCloud, but did not breach the system itself. In
other words, there was no flaw -- well, there was a flaw, perhaps, but there was no bug in the system and that iCloud remains secure. The FBI is
investigating.
CNN Money's technology correspondent, Laurie Segall is here. Apple basically, as I understood it, said hey, nothing went wrong with our
system.
LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Right.
QUEST: There wasn't a bug. There wasn't a failure.
SEGALL: Right. The statement they've put out has said that iCloud was not hacked, hands down. But the larger issue and the leading theory
here is what these hackers could have done is tried to figure out passwords and then gone to iCloud and just kept trying and trying.
And there's actually a system that hackers have used, someone published the code online, that enables them to generate random passwords.
And up until recently, iCloud didn't lock you out if you were trying to guess more than one -- more than two, three, four times, is just allowed
you to guess and guess and guess.
So, there's a lot more at play than iCloud wasn't hacked. It's very simple to say iCloud wasn't hacked, but was there a vulnerability? There
could have potentially been a vulnerability.
QUEST: Up to a point, people -- myself -- we don't -- we face this battle between yes, you say they could have locked you out after three or
four attempts.
SEGALL: Right.
QUEST: But people like me don't like being locked out after three or four attempts because I'm stupid and forget my password. And frequently go
through -- I suppose you could say, 10, 20, 30 attempts.
SEGALL: Well, look. We're actually reaching a certain point, and I think it's because we keep hearing about hacking more and more, there are
more social networks than ever, more ways for you to sign in, so a lot of people don't want to have a bunch of different passwords. That being said,
what we're seeing is that's very important.
Now, I will say one thing you can do, because I have a password that's very, very long and extensive, but who can remember that? You can have
something called a pass phrase. Think of a sentence and remember that sentence and type it in as your password, then you have a 10 to 15
character password, and that could suffice.
QUEST: So far, so good, but you've then got to put in sometimes numbers.
SEGALL: Sure.
QUEST: And then you've got to put in symbols. So, one password doesn't suffice. And nor should it. What I'm -- especially what I'm
saying here is, this is a terrible breach of privacy.
SEGALL: Sure.
QUEST: But it's some that we're going to have to get used to.
SEGALL: This is a larger issue besides just this breach, the idea that because there's so much information out there on us, on social media,
what these hackers could have likely done is figured out security questions or been able to reset a password or do any of that kind of thing because
they're able to guess.
So, maybe something larger -- we need to have a larger conversation about passwords, about how we actually sign in. And I will say this. One
of the more interesting things about this story is the dark web. And we don't talk about this as much.
There's a dark web where these celebrity photos go for a lot of money. I actually spoke to Michael Gregg. He's an ethical hacker, and he deals
with celebrities who've been hacked, and he talked about the value of these images. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL GREGG, COO, SUPERIOR SOLUTIONS: A lot of times, these things might be privately traded. Think of them as baseball cards. You've got
one, I've got one, and they're traded in these groups, and we may never even hear about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SEGALL: And what Michael basically said to me is these images -- there could be celebrity pictures online that just haven't even surfaced
that are being traded back and forth that might never surface.
So, there's a lot of value here, but we do need to take a step back and say, hey, you've got this dark web, where you can sell this kind of
stuff, and this is becoming a huge problem.
QUEST: Thank you. Thank you very much.
SEGALL: Of course.
QUEST: Now, in a moment, we return to the breaking news of the hour and this evening. It's the brutal murder of the journalist Steven Sotloff.
This is CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest. There's more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in just a moment. You're watching CNN, and on this network, the news
always comes first.
The ISIS terror group has published a video that appears to show the murder of the American journalist Steven Sotloff. This follows the murder
of journalist James Foley by ISIS two weeks ago. The new video is called "A second message to America" and threatens the life of another hostage,
the British journalist David Haines.
The prime minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, has called the latest video "disgusting and despicable." The man in the tape is again
heard speaking in what sounds like a British accent.
Elsewhere in Iraq, furious relatives of missing soldiers stormed parliament on Tuesday, demanding information about their loved ones. The
troops and cadets have not been accounted for after an ISIS attack on their base near the city of Tikrit in June.
An American doctor working in Monrovia has tested positive for Ebola. He was not treating Ebola patients when he contracted the virus. The
director of the US Centers for Disease Control says the Ebola outbreak is spiraling out of control and is much worse than the official numbers show.
Apple has admitted that the nude celebrity photos that were leaked online are the result of an attack that compromised the accounts of
Jennifer Lawrence and other female stars. Apple claims hackers targeted user names, passwords, and security questions. It says its services remain
secure. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, is investigating.
The U.S. State Department says it is sickened by the apparent execution of the American journalist Steven Sotloff. CNN's Christiane
Amanpour spoke to Brett McGurk, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq and Iran and asked when the U.S. was going to lay out a clear strategy
against ISIS.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
BRETT MCGURK, DEPUTY U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR IRAQ AND IRAN: It's going to require a broad international coalition. There are
many different elements to defeating a group like this. There is a military component and that will require an international coalition. The
NATO Summit is coming up this week. There's the issue of foreign fighters. Most of the suicide bombers and most of the most aggressive fighters of
ISIS are foreign fighters. Those foreign fighters come from all over the world, they come in to Turkey and then they come in to Syria. There's the
issue of financing and cutting off their financing. There's the issue of counter-legitimacy and delegitimizing this organization in every aspect.
So there's a number of elements that we are going to be working over the coming week, heading all the way into the U.N. General Assembly later
this month to organize a broad international coalition to degrade and then ultimately to defeat ISIS.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN's CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR OF "AMANPOUR" SHOW: ISIS took its first territory several months
ago in Iraq when it seized Mosul. And it now as we all know - we've been reporting - has a massive swath of territory between Syria and Iraq. Now,
there have been U.S. airstrikes and humanitarian air drops, and they've made a bit of progress as we've reported. But many, including the top
members of the U.S. military, including General Dempsey have said that ISIS cannot only be targeted in Iraq, it must be targeted in Syria as well. Has
the President, has the U.S. government come any closer to taking the fight to ISIS where it has its safe havens inside Syria?
MCGURK: Well, Christiane, we had about a two-hour National Security Council meeting with President Obama on Thursday night. It was after that
meeting that he ordered the operation in the town of Amelie which you mentioned in your lead-in which is a very successful humanitarian operation
with us, the U.K., France and Australia dropping humanitarian assistance in with our Air Force conducting target airstrikes to ensure that that
assistance could be delivered effectively. We're also actively discussing how we will help a new Iraqi government, and we are actually in the final
stages here of standing up a new and inclusive Iraqi government which will work to harness all the resources of the state of Iraq. And it's a county
with vast natural resources - harness all of those resources against the fight - to take the fight to ISIS. And that means Sunnis, Shia, Kurds -
everybody working together in a common plan to fight ISIS. And I am confident that that government will likely ask us for some help, and if
they do, we will engage in a conversation with them about how we could help implement their national plan, their national strategy to defeat ISIS.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
QUEST: Now besides murdering large numbers of people, ISIS is also captured attention because of its use of social media. The group uses the
internet to recruit and radicalize Westerners, and as we've seen today, of course, it uses it to put out its propaganda and its awfulness of videos.
The U.K. estimates around 500 people with links to Britain have joined ISIS to fight in Syria and Iraq. Samuel's in London - our technology
correspondent. Samuel, the use of social media, I mean, it's a contradiction in terms in terms of social media. I mean, the use of new-
fangled ways of communications at the same time raises issues for Twitter, for YouTube - for all of these things too, doesn't it?
SAMUEL BURKE, BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and this is going to be a very interesting case because we saw how ineffective mainly YouTube and
Twitter were in taking down the James Foley videos. Once they were out, they were just duplicated by other users. But this time around, ISIS has
not yet uploaded the videos to social media. It appears that a group SITE Intelligence which tracks these terror groups online, got the video ahead
of time. So this is in effect, a warning to the social media companies - specifically YouTube and Twitter that this video is going to come and so
we're going to be watching very closely to see if these companies really learned from this past beheading video, and we'll see if they can take down
this videos more quickly so that ISIS is not able to use social media as its propaganda tool with this second beheading video.
QUEST: Right, but is it using - is it using - social media as a communication device. In other words, get the message out rather than
propaganda per se? There is a difference. One is just - one is using it just to put out the message, you know, -- this has happened. The other is
to try and create a view around what has happened.
BURKE: It's quite fascinating. Terror experts who really track every move that ISIS makes on social media, including staying in contact with
them, say that they have two different methods. On the one hand, they just want to get the message out, but on the other hand, they're also using
propaganda inside Iraq and Syria.
The app that you're seeing on your screen right now, Richard, was actually an app that ISIS created to magnify their message inside Iraq and
Syria. It was called "The Dawn of Glad Tidings." And so it would latch on to people's Twitter accounts who downloaded the app, the app would go into
their Twitter accounts and start replicating ISIS tweets, so that if you were in Iraq or Syria, you were seeing ISIS flagged everywhere. So that is
a form of propaganda really meant to extend a clear message to the people in Iraq.
QUEST: OK, but - which should disabuse anyone who thinks that these are just a bunch of hoodlums and murders, because there has to be a degree
of sophistication about all of this.
BURKE: I couldn't have said it better myself, Richard. These experts who track these groups, who track ISIS' social media team say it's a team
that a giant corporation - a big Western corporation - would be envious of. If you're sitting at home thinking these are just a couple of young guys
uploading something, they do very coordinated attacks. They carry out coordinated social media attacks so that they can inundate people on social
media with their message. This is a well-formed group that's operating in very ingenious ways that, quite frankly, we had never seen before.
QUEST: Samuel, please keep watching this, and when there's more to report on this side of the story, we insist you come back to us. Thank
you. This is "Quest Means Business." Back in a moment. Good evening .
(COMMERCIAL)
QUEST: The Dow and the S&P slipped in New York trading day. NASDAQ ended the day slightly higher. It was the first day of course trading
since in September, and manufacturing got a surprise boost - expanding at its fastest rate in more than three years. We had a little blip in the
morning. We often have this little blip where the market goes up - that's usually around 11 o'clock. Then it came down with a slight rally. That's
roughly around the sort of time when the news on ISIS and the merger was announced.
In Europe, stocks ended the day overall with little encouragement. I think you can call that flat small gains and tiny losses. The ECB meets on
Thursday, and the Euro fell to one-year low against the dollar. Tesco's shares rose more than 2 percent. The supermarket's new chief promised
urgent action to address the loss in market share.
To the Super Screen and you'll see the pound against the dollar. The pound's taken a knock after signs that the Scottish Independence Movement
is gathering steam. The yes or no vote to leave the United Kingdom is less than three weeks away. Now, investors are nervous Scotland's edging closer
than ever towards leaving the U.K. Here's how the pound fared against the U.S. dollar - 166. We had been up to 167, almost 170. Of course these are
trading rates, not consumer rates. But look at how it came down very sharply here. Very sharply here right the way down but now down to about
164 - 164 and change.
The latest gov UKIP poll shows the gap has narrowed. It's now just 6 percentage points. Forty-two percent say they will vote for independence,
48 percent are still with the Better Together campaign in the U.K., and 10 percent are undecided or say they will abstain. What's interesting of
course is that the - this together group - has remained consistently in the 48 to 52 percent. It's the independence group that's come up and gained
support of their (cause/cost)(ph).
Now, whichever currency you're using, there are now cheaper and better options when it comes to sending money abroad. In this weeks' "Future
Finance," Isa Soares takes a look at a player in the market which is giving the traditional banks a run for their money.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
ISA SOARES, REPORTER AT CNN INTERNATIONAL: Ergin Erdemir came to London seven years ago. Of course leaving Turkey wasn't easy. He works in
this office as an IT consultant. But he never forgets the needs of his family back home. And like many others in London, he continues to send
them money. He's no longer doing it the traditional way.
ERGIN ERDEMIR, IT CONSULTANT: Using Azimo, you don't have to fill in forms. We go on the website, login to your icon and then you can compare
the exchange rates. I'll say each transaction, I have saved up to $8 or $9.
SOARES: Analysts say this is the future of money transfer, with the World Bank estimating that remittances to developing countries will rise to
$516 billion by 2016. Azimo is one of several other remittance networks. It allows people to transfer money between some 200 countries without the
need to visit a bank or even leave your house.
MICHAEL KENT, CEO AND FOUNDER, AZIMO.COM: A person will register on their phone or they can do it on the internet. They fund our account
either with a credit or debit card or they can transfer money to us using their internet banking, and then they tell us where they want to send it.
We send to cash, we send to bank accounts, we send to mobile wallets. We allow you to pay your bills in different countries, and in certain markets,
we'll actually send someone around to deliver your cash to your home .
SOARES: For many migrants, it's the savings that make the biggest difference. According to the World Bank, a commercial bank charges on
average 12.05 percent to send remittances. A traditional transfer operator charges 6.56 percent. But Azimo says it charges only around 2 percent.
KENT: Because I can be - I suppose - direct, that cost just isn't there. We pass on our savings to consumer. Western Union made a billion
dollars of shareholder returns last year. In the depths of a big recession, you know, they're making supernormal profits. And what we're
doing is saying, you know, we'll use technology to make it - to cut out the middle men and we're happy with a much more reasonable slice of the pie.
SOARES: Azimo is not just eating into the banks or other remittance players, it's also taken the first bite into social media by allowing users
to send money via Facebook.
KENT: People are already communicating there with their friends and their family over that medium. And we're just saying - we'll add a
component in the back. It's not just sharing photos and sharing updates, it's sharing money.
SOARES: The World Bank wants to see the traditional firms also slash their fees. It believes by doing so, the saved money could benefit a
country's economy. For example, the Philippines received $25 billion in remittances last year, eclipsing the total value of the country's $22
billion electronics industry. In Vietnam, cash transfers were worth $11 billion, equaling its petroleum exports. By lowering the world remittance
fee to 5 percent, the World Bank argues this could save poor countries as much as $16 billion a year. And that means more savings for Ergin Erdemir,
more support for his family and a new lifeline for his country's economy.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
QUEST: Now coming up on "Quest Means Business," a bold plan for a new London airport that fails to take off.
(COMMERCIAL)
QUEST: Regulators in the U.K. have rejected the mayor of London's plan for a brand new airport - a very expensive airport. Boris Johnson
attacks the verdict as irrelevant and short-lived because he believes that the existing two options of Gatwick and Heathrow stand absolutely any
chance of happening. It leaves London at a standstill over how to deal with its need for another runway. The mayor wanted a brand new island hub
in the Thames Estuary for runway capacity. It was nick-named Boris Island. The mayor basically believes only a four runway option is the solution for
London.
But the Davies Commission said it had serious doubts about the plan. Heathrow now has one of the alternatives left - expansion there is
politically extraordinarily controversial on both pollution and noise grounds. The ruling conservative party and coalition had opposed
expansion. The other options - they've got Heathrow with one, you've got Gatwick which is the other option which many people say is not sustainable
in the long run because Gatwick doesn't have the full range of options to turn it into a full hub airport. Three options left - two relate to
Heathrow, one relate to Gatwick.
Latin America's busiest hub is getting a new airport. In the state of the union address, the Mexican president announced plans for a $9 billion
project in Mexico City. Nick Parker is in Mexico City. A new airport, $9 billion, it'll cost twice as much by the time it's built and it'll take
twice as long as they're planning. So when are they expecting the first planes to arrive?
NICK PARKER, CONTRIBUTOR, CNN.COM INTERNATIONAL: We're looking at a date at this stage of 2018, Richard which is when they're beginning to try
and do a transition from the old airport to the new. And this is really a huge infrastructure project for Mexico - easily the biggest of Mexican
President Enrique Pena Nieto's time in office, and one that was sorely needed really since the 1990s. The crucial central issue is that the
airport right now, despite being the biggest hub in Latin American, is at capacity. It basically can hardly add any more flights. One of the main
reasons for this is that the two runways that it has cannot be in operation simultaneously at the same time, because they are so close together. So
basically the airport cannot expand.
Now, other governments have attempted to tackle this problem in the past in 2002. One such project was met by extremely violent protests by
machete-wielding residents who ultimately derailed that project. This time crucially people are saying that the important issue is that the government
owns the land that they are planning to develop, which is adjacent to the current airport. This is what the president said earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
ENRIQUE PENA NIETO, MEXICAN PRESIDENT, VIA TRANSLATOR: For decades it has been necessary to create a new installation for the International
Airport in Mexico City. The current saturation hinders communication in the country, limits Mexico's connectivity with the world, hurts commerce
and investment and creates delays for users of the airport. Faced with this situation, we cannot delay the fundamental solution any longer.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
PARKER: Now, Richard, the new airport is expected to quadruple the number of passengers to 120 million a year with not just three, but
eventually six runways planned.
QUEST: Nick, did you say at the beginning of our discussion that 2018 was the date?
PARKER: That is the date, Richard, yes. We've spoken to some analysts, particularly one at Credit Suisse. They are expressing some
skepticism perhaps you could say with the tightness of that deadline. That is one open question about whether they will be able to make that deadline.
Certainly less than four years would be an accelerated process I suppose you could say. But they did point out that the government has met a number
of other deadlines that they have set, including a series of landmark reforms that have been enacted over the last 18 months. So I guess there
is some sort of cautious optimism that this extremely tight deadline can be met. Richard.
QUEST: 2020 or 2020 at the earliest would be my guess. Nick Parker joining us from Mexico City. I may be completely wrong, and I look forward
to being proved wrong when it opens in 2018. But I won't be. Jenny Harrison is at the World Weather Center.
JENNY HARRISON, WEATHER ANCHOR FOR CNN INTERNATIONAL: (LAUGHTER). Hello to you, Richard. Well an airport that is still open despite what's
going on of course sounds rightly can (ph) Iceland, because there's been some activity in the last few hours. Let me just show you. This is a
pretty dramatic picture that's been coming in. You can see all this magma eruption. Now, the good thing with this is that we've had - well say good
thing - the magma of course has been coming up through these fissures which has broken through the glacier from obviously deep below. But we haven't
had any of the big volcanic eruptions that we'd normally associate with volcanos, which means so far no ash actually been blown up into the
atmosphere.
This shows you obviously what it looks like from space. Kind of hard to figure out really what isn't cloud, what's glacier and what is
elsewhere. But this you can see - this is actually steam, and there's actually a fissure eruption just there. And we can overlay another image
which is actually warm which picks up temperature. So you can see straightaway that is one of those eruptions that I just showed you in that
picture. But as I say, thankfully no ash has been in the air - just steam and just gas.
And the other thing is in the last 24 hours, the number of earthquakes has really come down. Now when I say it's come down, we've still actually
had just over 300, can you believe? But even so, that is a lot less than we've seen just about every day up until today. It was about 500
yesterday, but before then, it was, you know, getting on for 700 or 800 earthquakes literally from midnight as the day went on. So you can still
see since 16th of August the number that've been coming through. And of course they work their way up in to the northeast of the glacier.
So, the concern now is - and this has been happening really since Friday into the weekend -- is there's also this other volcano - Askja.
This one has now got an elevated unrest associated with that, so again, just watching it - because there's been so much more seismic activity
closer to this, so a lot of it really is coming from Bardarbunga. But of course it could settle off, if you like, a bit of a chain reaction.
So, we've seen a lot less in terms of the seismic activity associated with Bardarbunga, and we've seen a whole lot of this magma eruptions, but
really nothing beyond that. So, pretty good news because of course what we're watching as well is those upper-level winds. And if there was to be
a big eruption with all of that ash that's spewed up into the atmosphere, well these are the upper-level winds.
And you can see in the next 48 hours, anything coming from there would actually be taken across into northern Europe. But at the same time, we've
had some pretty heavy amounts of rain across central Europe as well, in particular, into the southeast. More to come in the next couple of days
and some fairly impressive totals of rain as well - you can just see quickly look - Croatia 129 millimeters, 61 in Budapest and Hungary, and in
both cases, above the monthly average. So we'll keep an eye on that for risk of flooding. Richard.
QUEST: Thank you, Jenny. Apologies for cutting you short - there's some news I need to bring to our good viewers, to you. A Home Depot says
it is probing a possible data breach. It's working with law enforcement to look - which is looking into - some "unusual activity" in their words.
Security analysts say the breach could affect more than 2,000 stores. Home Depot shares are down some 2 percent. It's a busy day as I promised you
right at the start of the program. This is "Quest Means Business." Good evening. Back in (inaudible).
(COMMERCIAL)
QUEST: Before I leave you tonight, allow me to update you on obviously the main news this evening. ISIS militants claim to have
beheaded yet another hostage. The terror group has published a video that appears to show the murder of the American journalist Steven Sotloff. CNN
cannot confirm the authenticity of the video. The 31-year-old was captured in Syria a year ago. Speaking to the camera before his apparent execution,
Mr. Sotloff said he was paying the price for U.S. intervention. The Sotloff family has released a statement saying it's awaiting verification
of the video and is grieving privately.
Speaking to reporters earlier today, the State Department spokesman Jen Psaki expressed her condolences to the family.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
JEN PSAKI, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: We've seen reports of a video that purports to be the murder of U.S. citizen Steven Sotloff by
ISIL. The intelligence community will work as quickly as possible to determine its authenticity. If the video is genuine, we are sickened by
this brutal act, taking the life of another innocent American citizen. Our hearts go out to the Sotloff family, and we will provide more information
as it becomes available.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
QUEST: Now there's more coverage in "Amanpour" which is at the top of the hour. And that's "Quest Means Business" for tonight. I'm Richard
Quest in New York. Because the news never stops, neither do we. This is CNN.
END
