A Former Jihadist Speaks Out
Why would three American teenage girls from Denver try to join ISIS?
We asked Mubin Shaikh, a former jihadist, to offer context – and he says the answer is a mix of a search for identity, adventure and a false sense of reality.
"You reinforce in yourself this idea that you can participate in something far greater than your mundane existence at home," Shaikh told CNN's Michaela Pereira.
Shaikh now works for Canada's intelligence service but says he can offer perspective on these teens because he once was a young Muslim who came to the edge of extremism.
He was brought back by a support network of parents, friends and religious elders.
"It will take a holistic effort and it can't be done by coercive forces," to reach vulnerable people who may consider extremism, Shaikh said.
In this Denver case, two families called the FBI and the teens were intercepted in Germany.
"It's better that your kid get arrested or at least talked to than be used as a sex slave," Shaikh said.
"A lot of them are living in a fantasy world and just don't understand what awaits them on the other side."
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RELATED: Officials: 3 Denver girls played hooky from school and tried to join ISIS
Emotional Reunion as Jeffrey Fowle, Held by North Korea, Returns to U.S.
After five months of detention in North Korea, Jeffrey Fowle arrived home in Ohio early Wednesday for an emotional reunion with his family.
Stepping off the plane at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and onto the tarmac, he was embraced by family members, including his three children.
"It's a good sign that the North Koreans released this man unconditionally," former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson told CNN's "New Day." "They usually demand a price."
Richardson has helped negotiate the release of prisoners in the past, including from North Korea.
Pyongyang's move is "a signal to the U.S. that says, 'All right, let's start talking,' " and perhaps restart nuclear negotiations, he said.
Five Things to Know for Your New Day – Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Police are looking for more victims in northwest Indiana. A freelance cameraman who had Ebola is now virus-free. And an American newspaper icon is dead.
It's Wednesday, and here are the "5 things to know for your New Day."
1. INDIANA SERIAL KILLER
Looking for answers: Seven women are dead in northwest Indiana, but are there more? Authorities in Gary and Hammond are searching for answers in the thousands of vacant structures that litter the area. Authorities say Darren Deon Vann - the man who, according to police documents, admitted strangling a woman inside a Hammond Motel 6 room - confessed to killing six others and led police to their bodies in Gary. Vann has been charged in the death of 19-year-old Afrikka Hardy, the woman whose body was found in Hammond.
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