CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Congressman Andre Carson on the Middle East and Airport Security

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BLITZER: Pretty chilling when you think about it. All right, Rene, thank you.

Joining us now, Congressman Andre Carson. He's an Indiana Democrat. He's also member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Congressman, thanks very much for joining us.

REP. ANDRE CARSON (D), INDIANA: Thank you.

BLITZER: I know you, like your colleagues, you have been briefed. Can you say conclusively right now, Congressman, that a bomb caused the downing of the plane?

CARSON: Well, I'm not at liberty to confirm these things.

What I can tell you is that there is a huge and growing threat in the Middle East as it relates to ISIL and other terrorist organizations. It's very disappointing that our friends in the Egyptian government have not allowed the FBI and other agencies to help with the kinds of forensics that they are skilled at doing to determine the source of this.

But what it tells me more deeply is that perhaps there was and are terrorist sympathizers in our international airports that we have to address.

BLITZER: When do you believe U.S. officials will be able to confirm the cause of this explosion? We know it was an explosion. They heard an explosion at the end of that cockpit voice recorder recording.

[18:10:02]

CARSON: It would be gravely irresponsible for me to speculate or even say, quite frankly, but it's clear right now as we speak that we need our international community to come together and share intelligence information and to see to it that, you know, one, we're not hurting other U.S. citizens or even Russians, for that matter, but, even more than that, that we're guaranteeing the safety of those who wish to travel, see their friends, their loved ones, their families and even vacation.

And if we fail to address this threat or even minimize the threat, I hate to see what happens for our future.

BLITZER: I raise the question, Congressman, because there is at least one, but probably several killers, mass murderers at large right now, presumably still in Sinai. Maybe they have gotten out by now.

CARSON: Yes, you know, I -- this is why it's ever more critical for the international law enforcement community and intelligence community to work together.

I think our friends in the Egyptian government must realize that they need the help of the United States to help track down these terrorists and to get to the root causes of it so another incident doesn't happen like this in the next few weeks.

BLITZER: You're in the Subcommittee on Aviation.

And, as you know, an internal investigation of the TSA this summer, this summer, showed that investigators were actually able to smuggle mock explosives or banned weapons through checkpoints 95 percent of the trial run. So are American airports at risk of an attack right now unless security is dramatically reevaluated?

CARSON: Well, you're absolutely right.

Since -- there was a GAO study that showed that there are numerous vulnerabilities in airport security. Since 9/11, we have worked throughout the years to strengthen security at airports and we have been quite effective for the most part.

However, there has to be more that needs to be done. The TSA head was very direct in his testimony before Congress. I think that Secretary Jeh Johnson is a doing a great job, but we have to look at recalibrating the training that is taking place within TSA.

BLITZER: Because a U.S. official has told CNN that when it comes to aviation security here in the United States -- and I'm quoting him now -- "You can lock the front door all you want. If you have left the back window open, it doesn't really matter."

And it's pretty chilling when you think about the desire of these terrorists to blow up planes with people inside.

CARSON: Sure. Sure.

You know, there are a lot of great men and women who are at TSA who go to work with the intention of making our country safer, but at the same time, there have to be a series of internal controls and reviews regularly to ensure that the outputs are high and that the services are efficient.

BLITZER: Congressman, stand by. We have more to talk about, including another very disturbing development today, the killing of two Americans, trainers in Jordan.

Much more coming up right after this.

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[18:17:51]

BLITZER: We're back with Congressman Andre Carson. He's a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Congressman, stand by.

We're monitoring right now also that investigation of the Russian airline disaster. We're following other new acts of violence in the Middle East. Israel says, for example, check out this video, a female terrorist attempted stabbing attempt at a west point -- checkpoint today.

She took a knife out of her purse, went after that Israeli security guard. The Palestinian woman reportedly was shot dead after she refused to listen to security guards who demanded that she stopped and at that point she took that knife out of her purse.

And in Jordan, a deadly shooting attack at a U.S.-funded police training facility near the capital of Amman. At least five were killed, including two American security contractors. The shooter seen in this photo on the right also was killed. He was a Jordanian police officer who reportedly had been fired. A senior Jordanian source tells CNN the shooter's motivation was, in the word of this Jordanian source, personal, but the United States is investigating.

All this played out as President Obama met today with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time in more than a year.

Let's bring in our global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott.

Elise, the president made a point of bringing up that shooting attack in Jordan even before he spoke about what is going on in U.S.- Israeli relations. He spoke about the killing of these two Americans in Jordan.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And, as you said, Wolf, the U.S. still investigating.

This gentleman was fired. But was he radicalized after? They just don't know. But just the very fact that these two Americans were killed in neighboring Jordan shows that President Obama and Netanyahu, despite the bad blood, the drama over the Iran deal, don't really have the luxury of holding a grudge.

The U.S. and Israel have a very important intelligence and security relationship. With Israel, that gave the U.S. some of the intelligence about that downed Russian airliner. They also have -- talking about Syria and trying to prevent the spillover from the civil war and the threat by ISIS.

And then there's the Iran threat. Even though the deal is being done, the nuclear deal, the U.S. and Israel obviously still concerned about Iran's other activity, and so there is still a lot of bad blood. President Obama, Prime Minister Netanyahu not going to be best friends, but I think they both realize they have a lot of work to do together and I thought the comments today reflected that.

[18:20:13] BLITZER: Yes, I thought it was significant the president said the U.S.-Israeli military-to-military relationship, intelligence cooperation relationship is better, he said, than it's ever been before.

All right, Elise, thanks very much.

Let's bring back Congressman Andre Carson of the House Intelligence Committee.

Do you know, Congressman, why these two Americans in Jordan were killed?

CARSON: Well, as was stated by the police officer or police captains' relative, that there is -- he was certainly disgruntled, but there's also a history of mental health issues there as well.

But, regardless, we have to know that our U.S. military is on the ground helping to train security forces from across the world, as well as local law enforcement. And these folks are going back with U.S. military training into their countries, not only to keep their citizens safe, but to fight and protect folks against human rights abuses.

So it's deeply unfortunate, and it's tragic, but we have to remain firm in ensuring that our military is doing the right thing in helping to make the world a better place.

BLITZER: Jordan, of course, is a key ally of the United States in that part of the world, one of the best friends the United States has.

Jordan has a peace treaty with Israel, as you know. But there is a lot of concern that the spillover from Syria could undermine what's going on in Jordan. There is a million or two million refugees that have come into the kingdom, to the Jordanian kingdom, over the past few years from Syria. How worried are you about the security of Jordan?

CARSON: Well, Jordan has been an ally for decades. And I commend them for taking in the scores of Syria refugees.

And I think this has caused a bit of a strain on the Jordanian government. That is to say that they remain strong in helping our security forces, in making tremendous contributions to intelligence sharing as it relates to the security issues ongoing in that region.

My hope is that we can continue our support, the kingdom of Jordan and all that they have done and all that they continue to do in being a responsible and helpful partner to the United States and Israel as we move forward.

BLITZER: It's not going to be an easy assignment, but a critically important one.

Congressman, thanks very much for joining us.

CARSON: An honor. Thank you.

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