[Blitzer:] As Kurdish forces battle ISIS on the front lines in Iraq, the terror group has carried out a rare bombing right in the heart of the Kurdish capital, but was it targeting Americans? The suicide attackers struck outside the governor's office in Erbil. That's a city mostly untouched by Iraq's violence, at least so far. It has a large international presence, including a U.S. military operation center with several, a lot of American diplomats and American military personnel on the scene. The House Intelligence Committee chairman, Mike Rogers, is standing by. We're going to get his thoughts in just a moment. But let's go to our chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto. He's got more on the very latest.
[Jim Sciutto, Cnn Anchor:] Well, frankly, this is a concerning development because Erbil has been, at this point, an oasis of relative security in Iraq. It has a strong security system, cohesive security forces, but today's attack penetrated that security. A suicide car bomber detonating at the entrance of a government building near the city's ancient citadel, killing at least four, wounding some 29. Remember, the Kurdish stronghold is one of two main bases for U.S. military advisors. There are about 75 stationed there, some 200 diplomats, many more American businessmen and officials regularly traveling there to a city that has regular international flights. In fact, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Martin Dempsey was just there this week. I am told by U.S. military officials, however, there is no evidence that this attack was intended to target U.S. personnel, U.S. diplomats, soldiers, et cetera. But in essence, how close things are there, Wolf, where this bomb struck is just about two and a half miles from where the U.S. embassy compound is.
[Blitzer:] And what are the administration's latest plans on potentially seeking additional congressional authorization to engage in this war against ISIS?
[Sciutto:] As you're aware, the president has said President Obama said he'd like to right-size a new authority ending the current dependence on the original 911 authorization, which was original aimed at al Qaeda. Questioned today by senators in his confirmation hearing, the president's nominee for deputy secretary of state, Tony Blinken said the White House will introduce legislation if it believes it can pass Congress.
[Anthony Blinken, Deputy Secretary Of State Nominee:] We would like to have a targeted, focused AUMF that deals with the challenge before us, which is defeating ISIL. And if we can get an AUMF that gets broad support there's no question we will be better off.
[Sciutto:] Some of the newest calls from new authorization are coming from Democrats. In fact, Senator Tim Kaine from Virginia, for instance, and House member and intel committee member Adam Schiff. They're pushing for it, but the trouble is you have many Republicans calling for it, too. But they might have a different vision of what this authorization would have. For instance, should it have an authorization for the use of ground troops, something the administration has said it does not want does not want to have.
[Blitzer:] Lots going on. Jim Sciutto, thanks very much. Joining us now, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Republican Congressman Mike Rogers of Michigan. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. Based on everything you know, are Americans, military, diplomatic, business personnel, are they being specifically targeted in this Kurdish capital of Erbil?
[Rep. Mike Rogers , Chairman, House Intelligence Committee:] I don't think this specific attack, Wolf, was targeted at the Americans. I think it was targeted at Kurdish government officials. And again, what we've seen in the past is ISIL uses suicide bombers not only in tactical units when it does attacks in western Iraq or eastern Syria, but we've seen this call for more terrorist activity outside of that region. And it only fits there are certain areas of recent chatter that they want to have this terrorist activity reach into places where they think they can create problems for the government. Certainly the Kurds and the Peshmerga have created problems for them. I think that's what you saw here today was specifically targeted at that.
[Blitzer:] And I guess I know the answer, but I just want your thoughts. And Israel, as you know, three American rabbis were killed yesterday as they were praying in a synagogue. Last month an American baby was killed in Jerusalem in one of these hit-and-run terror attacks. The question is are Americans being targeted in Jerusalem?
[Rogers:] Well, both Israelis are being targeted and, certainly, an American Jew is a big target for any of those targeted attacks, simply because of the press that it gets and the chaos that it creates. So we think some of it was targeted, certainly, at Israeli citizens with the added benefit in their mind of attacking Jewish Americans. And what's concerning is that we're seeing an ISIS or ISIL tactic adopted by others. We knew that there was a lot of conversations. We know that 21 of the 21 al Qaeda affiliates that we track, about half of them are have pledged allegiance to ISIS. We know that there's been a lot of communications. This was a wing, we think, of the Palestinian, the PLO, right? The Palestinian liberation army. We think it was a faction of that that conducted this attack, so it was clearly targeted and clearly political violence and clearly terrorism. And that's what's so concerning.
[Blitzer:] So you don't think these two guys, these two cousins who went into the synagogue yesterday morning and killed these people. They had these meat cleavers or whatever. They were just acting on their own? They were lone wolves, as they say. They were inspired, but this was actually part of some sort of terror plot. Is that what you're saying?
[Rogers:] I think it was certainly an aspiration of the PLO to have that faction and the militant wing have a successful terrorist attack. Now there's the link is certainly circumstantial at this point, but I think in the days ahead, you'll find that there was lots of encouragement for this to happen. And that's again, just as it is when ISIL contacts the people in Australia and says randomly kidnap people and cut their heads off. I believe you're going to find very similar profiles in the Israeli attack and what we saw ISIL trying to promote in Australia and Canada and the United States in France and Germany.
[Blitzer:] Now you say PLO, you don't mean the Palestine Liberation Organization. You're you're referring to some extreme organization, right?
[Rogers:] It's a militant faction. It is a militant group associated with the Palestinian Liberation Army. And so it is very clear distinction there, and I may have misspoke earlier.
[Blitzer:] Yes. I just want to make sure you're not referring to the PLO. You indicated the U.S. needs to move more quickly when it comes to ISIS. What else can the U.S. be doing? What should the U.S. be doing?
[Rogers:] You know, we need an aggressive tempo in order to make the Peshmerga more impactful, the Iraqi military more impactful. They're going to need U.S. soldiers with special capabilities with them. We have seen this in the past. It makes the fighters far more effective and Syrian rebels, as well. And we're going to have to start targeting in a more robust way their operations in Syria. And again, we're not talking about the 101st Airborne, or the 4th Infantry Division. We're talking special capability soldiers and intelligence officials, targeted strikes, and allowing the logistics that would go along with supporting those units may be American enabled as well as intelligence packages. With all of that comes better intelligence, comes more effective fighters. I think we'll short circuit the need for any big military movement if this starts and begins to spill over as you saw today with the attack in Erbil. You don't we don't want this fanning and expanding the borders of where the current conflict is, because it cause more it will cause more instability, more problems across the Middle East. Remember, their stated goal is to go into Israel and Jordan, and Lebanon. And that is concerning.
[Blitzer:] Has the vetting of Syrian rebels opposed to the Bashar al-Assad regime actually begun? Because we did receive some indications from Representative Peter King on the House side that some rebels already are being vetted and presumably getting ready to be shipped off to Saudi Arabia for training.
[Rogers:] I don't want to talk about any of the specifics. Obviously, there are Sunni-led nations who are participating, are assisting in vetting processes today. And we know that, certainly, our military intelligence and our civilian intelligence agencies have are participating in a vetting process to make sure that we get the right kind, or at least nothing's perfect, if we think this is going to be perfect, we should take that out of their heads. It will have some problems. But I think we can get to a very confident state where you can train these rebels and make them effective, because it also fits their goals and their aims of making sure they're not fighting ISIS. Remember, some of them will fight ISIS today. Al-Nusra, the al Qaeda affiliate there tomorrow. And the Assad regime next week. And so that presents a pool of individuals we believe can be vetted, I think, accurately and safely and then employed to help us, which would help the United States national security interests push back on al-Nusra and al Qaeda affiliate and ISIS, which used to be an al Qaeda affiliate.
[Blitzer:] We're going to have a lot more on the other breaking news: the president getting ready to announce a major shift in immigration policy in a primetime televised address tomorrow night. But what are your thoughts? Is the president legally authorized to go ahead and allow 3 million, maybe 3.5 million people who don't have authorization, who are here without legal status, is the president authorized to go ahead and shift some of these policy decisions on his own?
[Rogers:] I don't believe he is, but I will tell you that even if let's just say for point of argument he is, this is so divisive. There is this is the failure of his presidency, I think, if he does this. And he's had a lot of certain troubles, certainly, in the recent past. But this will absolutely poison the relationship, if he has any left, between Congress and the American people. There is a way, Wolf, which is so disappointing to me in this administration, to sit down and work through these issues. The House has passed a version of immigration reform. The Senate has a version of immigration reform. There is ways to sit down and actually lead discussions I know this is hard leave discussions with both parties, both sets of ideas, to come to a conclusion. Doing this is only serving a very narrow slice of whatever the president's agenda is on this, and I'll let viewers can make their own determination. But I will guarantee you this will cause real problems across America and really divide America in a way. And it won't be just Republicans and Democrats. I think that is a misnomer. You're going to see this cut across party lines in a way we haven't seen before. And that divisiveness will poison every other major accomplishment we need to get done on behalf of the American people, certainly in this term and going into next term, as well.
[Blitzer:] If the Senate-passed immigration legislation had come up for a vote in the House of Representatives in the past, with several Republicans supporting it in addition to the Democrats, would you have voted for it?
[Rogers:] Not in its current form. But I think the changes are not there are negotiable portions of this bill, meaning there are ways to come to an agreement on immigration reform. But the problem is no one was talking about it. Nobody was sitting in the same room discussing those differences. You know, you can do it if you actually sit in a room and have this discussion about these differences and you get to a place. What you see now is "I'm going to get everything I want" That's what the president is saying "or I will take nothing." That's wrong. I mean, it's wrong here in the Congress if we do that, and it's wrong if the president does it. And I'll guarantee you, Wolf, I talked to a lot of people back home. This is very divisive. And I don't think that's healthy for America that's trying to heal itself in its economy, in its stature, in foreign affairs. I really I really am troubled by this.
[Blitzer:] Mike Rogers is retiring from the United States House of Representatives, leaving. Good luck in the next chapter of your life, Mr. Chairman. Thanks very much for joining us.
[Rogers:] Thanks, Wolf. Six more weeks as chairman.
[Blitzer:] But who's counting? Right?
[Rogers:] Yes, exactly.
[Blitzer:] Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Mike Rogers. Thanks very much.
[Rogers:] Thank you.
[Blitzer:] Coming up, Israel is stepping up its security as it promises to retaliate for a grisly attack in a synagogue. We're going live to Jerusalem, where tensions are rising. And the suspect Jesse Matthew may now face murder charges after officials rule Hannah Graham's death a homicide. We have details. That's coming up. Stay with us. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.