Ambassador Power: More progress needs to be made in uniting anti-ISIS coalition

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• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  The civil war in Syria entered a new phase in recent months. Millions of refugees have been displaced, as more countries like Russia, France and the United Kingdom enter the fight against ISIS.

  And, as we saw this week, the threat of radicalization became real here at home.

  So, how does all this look to America's top diplomat to the United Nations?

  I spoke with Samantha Power just a short time ago.

  Ambassador Power, welcome.

  I want to ask you first about, in the wake of this confirmation by the FBI today that it's looking into the San Bernardino shooting as an act of terrorism, is their concern on the part of the administration that it was late to recognize the threat here on U.S. soil?

  SAMANTHA POWER, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations: Well, look, DHS, FBI, Department of Justice professionals have been working 24/7.

  There have been a huge number of plots around the world and a number here that have been disrupted. These are the most professional people around in terms of looking out for American security. I think the investigation is still progressing, so it's a little premature to go beyond what has been said, and once we have come to some conclusions, I know people will be looking back, and the president will insist we do an after-action to make sure that everything we can do is being done.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Well, I'm sure you know that observers, critics, even including some even Democrats, are saying that the administration needs to have a more defeat ISIS strategy rather than a contain ISIS strategy, which was the language the president was using until just a few days ago.

• SAMANTHA POWER:

  Well, from the beginning of the campaign, our slogan, as it were, has been degrade and destroy, degrade and defeat.

  The challenge, of course, internationally, is that ISIL has rooted itself in populations that need to be contested on the ground. Their financing has to be cut off, which we have made, I think, significant progress on even in recent days, and hope to make more progress on actually later in the month here at the Security Council, when Jack Lew chairs a session of the Security Council and brings the world together around tightening the screws on ISIL financing.

  We have got to deal with the messaging. And then in communities where people are alienated, it's going to be not only a whole of government effort. It's got to be a whole of nation effort, where citizens and family members are also much more attuned to what might be going on in their own households, never mind in their own communities or cities.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Well, from a diplomatic point of view, can an anti-ISIS coalition succeed if the countries in the region around Syria, around Iraq are themselves not committed? I'm speaking about Russia and Turkey.

• SAMANTHA POWER:

  Well, certainly, we need everybody committed.

  And I think, in Turkey, you have seen more of a stepped-up effort, an accelerated effort in recent weeks as the ISIL threat has come home with the killing of hundreds of Turkish citizens, tragically. You have seen a stepped-up effort that we're doing together in terms of closing off that last stretch of the Turkish border.

  That's a really important operation and needs to be completed. You have seen more arrests. And in Russia, of course, you have the fact that ISIL claimed responsibility for planting a bomb that killed so many Russian innocent civilians, but you still have Russian airpower being deployed mainly against moderate opposition groups and mainly, it seems, with an intention of propping up the Assad regime.

  So, a lot more progress needs to be made there. I will say that the fact that the Vienna process to bring about a political solution for Syria has made the progress it has, I think, suggests that Russia is beginning to realize also that it's bitten off more than it can chew on the ground and that the effect of hitting — not really hitting ISIL and hitting these other groups isn't really working.

  They have taken very little territory, even though they're bombing like crazy. And so we're hopeful that their engagement in the Vienna process around a political transition and the constant dialogue about who is ISIL, who is the real threat to Russian citizens, to American citizens and to citizens around the world, that we will be able to narrow those gaps that have not been helpful, as you say.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Well, in connection with that, we noted that Secretary Kerry said yesterday about Syria and about the Russians, he said, with respect to question of President Assad and the timing, he said, "I think the answer is, it is not clear that he would have to go if there was clarity with respect to what his future might or might not be."

• SAMANTHA POWER:

  Can you expand on that? Well, I think all the secretary was saying was actually just repeating our position, which is, fundamentally, the political transition needs to come about by mutual consent.

  We need Russia and Iran to help bring consent on one side, and we need the moderate opposition to engage and believe in a political transition. It has always been incumbent, ultimately, on the parties, with us prodding them and nudging them, you know, to come to an agreement about the precise timeline.

  I think all Secretary Kerry was saying is that we need to know that timeline. There is no scenario where we can really durably end the flow of foreign fighters to Syria, stabilize the country, really get the international community united around the anti-ISIL fight for as long as there is ambiguity about what Assad's time horizon is.

  So, he has to go. People have to know when he goes, and we have got to work the specifics on the timeline.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Well, let me ask you about the refugees.

  We know their plight is as dire as it ever has been, refugees fleeing Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries. But since the Paris attacks, how worried are you that the willingness of the European countries to take them in is now seriously diminished?

• SAMANTHA POWER:

  Well, I think it's not just the Paris attacks.

  It's, of course, absorbing nearly one million refugees. I think 865,000 refugees have come just in the last calendar year. That's a lot. And it's a lot for any social services, for any politics. It's a lot of people to absorb.

  You're still seeing, you know, people like Chancellor Merkel and President Hollande, and even in the wake of Paris, sticking to their commitments, recognizing that we have a responsibility to people, to these families who are just desperate, parents who are looking at their kids not having access to school, not having access to food, and feeling they have no choice but to get on these boats and trust these smugglers and leave their fate to the stars and to God to try to put them in a better place.

  So, we have to be part of sharing that burden here in the United States. We are in a different position than the European countries are, in the sense that we have ample time to screen refugee files, to interview refugees. The burden of proof is on refugees to show that they're not a threat.

  We have the FBI, the NCTC, DOD, everybody, having to vouch on those — files on those families as they come forward. And the vast majority of those who come to the United States, too few from Syria, a number that we would like to increase, as you know, have been families, very few single, unattached men, unattached to families and so forth.

  So, we're looking at the most vulnerable, but we're definitely looking at trying to do our share and to remind the American people also just how central refugees and immigrants of all kinds have been, of course, to the building of this great country.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  But I know you know, on the campaign trail, many of the Republican candidates for president are saying there must be tighter limits, restrictions on the ability of these refugees to get into the U.S.

  What would the consequences of that be? And you, meantime, separately have action in Congress, bipartisan, to tighten temporary visa waiver language.

• SAMANTHA POWER:

  Well, let me stress what I hope everyone knows, which is, President Obama's chief priority is keeping the American people safe.

  And we wouldn't be coming forward with a proposal to increase the number of slots for refugees to come to this country if we didn't think we could do so in a manner to keep the American people safe, and where the security vetting, where we had confidence that the security vetting was sufficient.

  The refugee population is screened more carefully than any other population that comes into this country. So, it's incumbent on us to describe that vetting, to give people confidence.

  But it's also, I think, incumbent on folks in all political corridors to reflect, again, on how we feel as a country about the times where we have shut our doors and where we have let the specter of a threat that wasn't moored in fact deter us from bringing in, for instance, Jews who were trying to flee the Holocaust.

  And this needs to be one of those times where we step up, we make sure we do it compatible with the safety of the American people. But I think we can get there.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Ambassador Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, we thank you. SAMANTHA POWER: Thank you, Judy.