New ISIS Video Shows Two Japanese Hostages
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. ISIS terrorists have released another video. It shows two Japanese hostages kneeling beside a knife wielding jihadi john. We're not going to show you the video because it just gives ISIS what it want, publicity. Instead, we'll show you pictures of the two hostages. One is a freelance journalist, the other a security consultant who was believed to have been traveling with rebel fighters when he was captured. While we won't show you the ISIS video, we will talk about it because it's a little different from the other videos we've seen. The terrorist in this video asked the Japanese government for a $200 million ransom. So what does that mean? Is ISIS using this opportunity for cash or is it cash strapped? Joe Ruffini is an anti-terror expert. He joins me now. He's also the author of the book "When Terror Comes to Wall Street: A Citizen's Guide to Terror and Awareness." Good morning and thanks for being here.</s>JOE RUFFINI, ANTI-TERROR EXPERT: It's a pleasure. Thanks for having me.</s>COSTELLO: So, Joe, what do you make of this? Why is ISIS now asking for ransom?</s>RUFFINI: You know, it's kind of -- it can be one of two reasons. Either they're trying to play the game a little bit differently. I don't think ISIS is cash strapped, but this may be an opportunity for them to make a little cash. And, you know, they're very flexible. They're very asymmetric in their tactics. They're going to switch it up and this is just something a little bit different. Certainly nothing to be surprised about. They're going to change their tactics and their approaches from time to time. But it's very important for us to remember that what they want to project is this psychological effect that any kind of beheading or threatened beheading has on really the global population at large.</s>COSTELLO: That's why we're not showing the ISIS video, frankly. The reason I ask you that money question is because recently ISIS released 200 elderly Yazidis, elderly people and children, and many believe they released those 200 people not on humanitarian grounds but because they couldn't afford to feed them. That's why I asked you that first question.</s>RUFFINI: Well, you know, that could very well be the case. But to be perfectly honest with you, you know, we're not there. We're not there on the ground. And it's very, very hard to tell what their motivation is. ISIS remains strong. They remain a threat. A very credible threat. And it's not a threat that's going to go away any time soon.</s>COSTELLO: The terrible irony here is that Japan donated hundreds of millions of dollars, not to fight ISIS militarily, but to help refugees because, you know, Japan is a passivist country, yet ISIS accuses Japan of killing our women and children. I mean that's so ridiculous it's hard to even talk about.</s>RUFFINI: Well, they're going to make claims like this. Any of the jihadist groups are going to make claims like this. If you look at the social media, if you look at how they recruit on the Internet, if you look at what they do to motivate young men to become self-radicalized, they're preaching lies. They're preaching hatred. They are using the religion of Islam to kind of wave the religious banner and recruit very young men around the world and in the United States, and they're going to make absolutely ridiculous claims that would seem absolutely untrue to most everyday young men and women. And they'll continue to do this. It's part of the tactics. It's a game that they play.</s>COSTELLO: OK, so let's talk about the game they play. So as they pull in more countries, and in this terrible way, at some point don't they realize that the world will just harden against them? It will join together, will ban together?</s>RUFFINI: Well, you know, that's a good point and one would think they would take a lesson from al Qaeda around 2007, 2008. Osama bin Laden's popularity dropped in eight out of the nine predominantly Muslim nations. Support for suicide bombing dropped and overall support for al Qaeda dropped. And the main reason was is that Muslims around the world, like everyone else, were tired of seeing Muslims be killed by al Qaeda in their attacks. And I don't really understand why ISIS doesn't realize that if they don't choose their tactics and their victims carefully, this is going to fall back on them also. There's a lesson to be learned here, and they're not learning it.</s>COSTELLO: Yes, well, let's hope they never learn it. Joe Ruffini, thanks so much for your insight. I appreciate it.</s>RUFFINI: Thank you.</s>COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, it's the movie that's making box office history. "American Sniper." I'll talk to a former Navy SEAL who trained the man who inspired the film to get his thoughts on the film and the controversy surrounding it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you ever think that you might have seen things or done some things over there that you wish you hadn't?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, that's not me, no.