Obama States U.S. Goal Is To Destroy ISIS
BERMAN: More breaking news as the scramble to locate any survivors from that small plane got underway off the coast in Jamaica, another aviation story hit. We got word that a charter airliner filled with American military contractors leaving Afghanistan have been forced to land in southern Iran. Now, at the time, we neither knew how things would unfold nor where they might lead, now we do. And Tom Foreman joins us with the very latest. Tom, lay exactly what happened here?</s>TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, this was a strange story. The plane was taking off here from Bagram air base in Afghanistan to fly down here over the tip of Pakistan across Iran to land in Dubai. Chief problem, it took off three hours too late, and that became a problem when it hit the air space down here going into Iran because the Iranians at that point said this is too late. You're outside of your flight plan window. You must turn around and go back and the pilot of this chartered plane with these 100 American contractors on board said I don't have to fuel to do that. So Iran said your choice is you land here at Bandar Abbas or we will force you down, John.</s>BERMAN: So it's on the ground in Iran, not where it wants to be, Tom. What then?</s>FOREMAN: Then what happens is the officials from Dubai air, which operate this charter basically start having a meeting with the Iranians and explaining what's going on. The Iranians come on board. They look over the plane. They check out apparently, the people on board, I'm sure, the plane itself to make sure they are satisfied that there is nothing wrong with what they were dealing with there. And after they were satisfied with all of that, then they said this plane can go on, John.</s>BERMAN: All right. We know it took off a short time ago. Do we know if it's finally made it out of Iranian air space or back to Dubai?</s>FOREMAN: Yes. We know that it actually -- finally was able to take off. They had to get a new crew, because the new crew was involved so long they couldn't keep flying. So that took a little bit more of the delay. But once they get the people in, the plane took off at 6:45 p.m. eastern time. And yes, I think we can bring up right now the message that came out of the state department short while ago saying yes, in fact, it has landed in Dubai about 8:00 eastern time and no doubt, everybody on board is relieved and answering a lot of questions about precisely what happened with the Iranians. A pretty tense moment for awhile there, John, that ultimately seems to have ended out OK.</s>BERMAN: The end of an unexpected odyssey to be sure, Tom Foreman, thank you so much. President Obama arrives home tonight after an especially high stakes moment on the global stage with Russia threatening Ukraine and ISIS on a bloody tear through Iraq and Syria. The president had a two-fold mission at the NATO meeting in wails. Rally his fellow leaders to meet those challenges and also clear up confusion in some corners and outright doubt in others about his policy confronting ISIS. Joining us now from Wales, Jim Acosta who has been traveling with the president. Jim, this seemed to be tougher talk than we've heard from the president lately on the issue of ISIS. This wasn't about making ISIS a manageable problem.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. This was a different President Obama on this final day of the NATO summit. You recall last week the President got in a lot of hot water, not only with Republicans but with Democrats when he said he didn't have a plan for dealing with ISIS and Syria. And as you mentioned earlier this week, he said he wanted to reduce the ISIS threat to a quote "manageable problem." He was much tougher on the ISIS threat earlier today. Here is what he had to say.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are going to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL the same way we have gone after al-Qaeda, in the same way that we have gone after the al-Qaeda affiliate in Somalia. You can't contain an organization that is running roughshod to that much territory causing that much havoc displacing that many people, killing that many innocents and slaving that many women. The goal has to be to dismantle them.</s>ACOSTA: And the president cautioned that this effort will take some time and even secretary of state John Kerry added at a session earlier today that the effort could take years, John.</s>BERMAN: And he said that this effort will take a coalition and accordingly, Jim, he announced a coalition, a core coalition of allies to fight ISIS. What more can you tell us about that?</s>ACOSTA: That's right. It's a coalition of ten countries at this point, ten including the United States. These countries will be doing different things based on their varying capabilities and appetite for direct military action in Iraq and potentially Syria. But secretary of state John Kerry and top administration officials like defense secretary Chuck Hagel and the counterterrorism advisor, Lisa Monaco, they will be going to the Middle East in the coming days to start lining up some air partners for this coalition and say an effort and endeavor that the president thinks will be successful and ultimately help this mission have credibility on the world stage.</s>BERMAN: This administration, Jim, does still seem to be conscious or aware or under the belief that many people in the United States are war weary. So how did administration today address that feeling?</s>ACOSTA: That's right. Well, we heard the president say during his press conference which by the way only lasted 24 minutes, he was out of here quickly, that there will be no boots on the ground. There will not be a ground combat role for forces, U.S. forces, in Iraq or potentially Syria. And then secretary of state John Kerry had interesting comments at a NATO session earlier today during which he said that would be a red line for the United States in terms of having combat troops on the ground in Iraq and potentially Syria. Of course, that term red line is not one that the White House would use because President Obama's red lines have been crossed in the past, but it does under line just how serious the president is taking this pledge of having to combat troops on the ground.</s>BERMAN: Jim Acosta in Wales for us. Thanks so much, Jim.</s>ACOSTA: You bet.</s>BERMAN: We will have much more on this story and others at CNN.com. Just ahead, the exact cause of Joan Rivers' death still a mystery. Tonight, the latest on the investigations that her passing has triggered.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the egg arrival. The arrival. She was incubating is what she told us.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you say about this?</s>JOAN RIVERS, COMEDIAN: I'm not going to say anything nasty. She came in an egg and some people will do anything to not have to speak to Ryan Seacrest. I have to do a full disclosure here because I was supposed to be one of the people, seriously, they asked me to walk around in the entourage and hold the thing but I got fired when I raised my hand after the first meeting. I said is it just me or am I the only one that thinks this is (bleep)?