[Berman:] The crisis in Iraq creating bizarre situations for the Obama administration. We're seeing the U.S. on the same side sort of with Syria and Iran in the fight against Islamic militants. This is the latest. An American official tells CNN that Iran is now flying surveillance drones over Iraq. Not known where they're being launched from but the Pentagon confirmed a week ago the U.S. has been flying manned and unmanned surveillance planes of its own over Iraq. Plus, both Iran and the U.S. are now providing Iraq's military with advisors, equipment and other supplies.
[Pereira:] Then, there is the Syrian involvement. Iraq's military denies that it was Syrian war planes that hit several towns in Anbar Province controlled by ISIS militants now. But local officials and residents used scopes and other high-tech equipment to see details on those war planes and insist the fighter jets were from Syria. Those air strikes killed close to 60 civilians. Want to bring in our military analyst, retired Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona, a former liaison officer to the U.S. office in Baghdad. Colonel, really good to have you here. It's interesting. You look at all of this, you look at the line, if you will, it's Iran, Syria, the United States, Iraq, versus ISIS, AKA the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Not officially on the same team. It's about the short-term goal. Should they, are they looking at the long-term effect?
[Lt. Col. Rick Francona , Cnn Military Analyst:] Well, this is truly bizarre lineup of people on one side of the border, we're doing the same thing with the Syrians want to do, on the other side of the border we're supporting elements to overthrow the same government. There's no doubt these were Syrian war planes that struck inside of Iraq. They're the only ones that has those kinds of fighter aircraft. It had to be them. Here's what you've got. You've got American fighters, armed reconnaissance aircraft over Iraq, air got Syrian aircraft incursion into Iraq, and now Iranian drones in that same air space. This is a battle manager's nightmare. Three countries not coordinating with each other. Will there be coordination? I doubt it. It will be more along the lines we're going to declare this our air space, stay out of it.
[Berman:] You know firsthand about this? You are a pilot. You have flown many a missions.
[Francona:] I'm an intelligence guy.
[Berman:] So what goes on when these pilots and the planners are thinking there could be Iranian drones and planes.
[Francona:] You set up rules of engagement. You're going to be up there. There may be an opportunity to run into a Syrian fighter. We don't know what their intentions are going to be. You have to err on the side of caution. And, of course, you're going to have young men and women in close proximity in very lethal equipment. It's just a situation fraught with danger. We have to proceed very, very cautiously. If the Syrians are going to continue to conduct these air strikes, we have to make sure that we're not getting mixed up in that. The problem with the Syrians doing this is that they're not really concerned about collateral damage and they're trying to keep that border open. That border is very important to Baghdad and Damascus. And ISIS has really effectively closed that entire border and they're trying to keep it open, with not much success.
[Pereira:] At this point, air strikes are not on the table. You were telling us before that one of the reasons was that you want to get some people on the ground when you get that on the ground contact and intelligence, you're better able to make precise targets for those air strikes. Are we even close to that?
[Francona:] No.
[Pereira:] Is this a possibility then?
[Francona:] It's even worse than when we had spoken before. Now we're getting conflicting reports from the Iraqis and Syrians about what's going on. And from ISIS itself. ISIS says we're in control of this. The Iraqis say no, we're not. We're in charge of that. We don't know. So before you even launch an air strike on a facility you need to know who's in charge of it so you don't have friendly fire incidents. That's going to take U.S. advisors on the ground. We simply cannot trust what the Iraqis are telling us. That's sad because they're technically our allies here.
[Berman:] Gets to a much, much bigger problem. Colonel Francona, great to have you hear with us. Really appreciate your time. Coming up for us, emails disappearing, but gone forever? The IRS keeps saying it lost emails connected to the political targeting scandal, but is it possible these days to actually lose emails for good? We're going to ask our tech expert ahead.
[Pereira:] Also, pushing ahead to our series with the '60s, we have a neat opportunity today. We're going to speak with "Star Trek" actress, Nichelle Nichols. She's here with us and we'll talk to her live coming up.