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Prism

China Executes British National On Drug Smuggling Charges

Aired December 29, 2009 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

HALA GORANI, CNN INT'L. ANCHOR, PRISM: China defends the execution of a European national convicted of drug smuggling.

New pictures of the bomb the U.S. feds say could have blown a big hole in Northwest Airlines Flight 253.

And from 9/11 and the war on terror to the rise of China; it has been a decade of change. In or "Prism Segment" tonight, what was the biggest story of the last 10 years?

From CNN Center in Atlanta today, this is PRISM, where we take a story and look at it from multiple perspectives. I'm Hala Gorani. Stan Grant is off this week.

China has carried out its first execution of a European national in more than half a century. The British citizen you see here, Akmal Shaikh was put to death for the crime of drug smuggling. The execution was not unexpected, but it has continue to provoke anger in Britain. Shaikh's family says he was mentally unstable and not criminally responsible. The Chinese court disagreed. Beijing was unapologetic, saying that the court followed the law of the land.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIANG YU, SPOKESPERSON, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY (through translator): I want to stress that China is a country ruled by law. The Chinese Judiciary Department deal with cases strictly according to law. The independence of Chinese Judiciary Department cannot be interfered with. No one has the right to interfere with the judicial sovereignty of China. Combating drug dealing is the common will of all people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: Well, that is the view from China. What is the view from the United Kingdom, where as we said, people are angry and frustrated at what took place there. Phil Black is live in London with more British reaction.

Hi, Phil.

PHIL BLACK, CNN INT'L. CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Hala.

Yes, anger here, lots of it. As you said, the British government really believes it did everything it possibly could to appeal to China, to show some sort of clemency in this situation. The British government said it made 26 or even 27 ministerial representations to the Chinese government to intervene, including some made by the British foreign secretary. Even the prime minister, himself, and it has all come to nothing, so no surprise then that the British government has been using very strong language today.

A strong, curt message from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in which he said, "I condemn the execution of Akmal Shaikh in the strongest terms, and am appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted. I am particularly concerned that no mental health assessment was undertaken. At this time our thoughts are with Mr. Shaikh's family and friends and I send them our sincerest condolences."

The Chinese ambassador to London was called to the foreign office, summoned was the language they used here, to meet with the Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis. He described that conversation as a difficult one. But take a listen to Ivan Lewis' comments before that meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IVAN LEWIS, BRITISH FOREIGN OFFICE MINISTER: We provided China with lots of evidence of very bizarre behavior by Mr. Shaikh over a long period of time. The thing that horrified us the most is that the Chinese courts refused to even undertake a medical assessment prior to proceeding with his execution. By any standards of human rights at the beginning of the 21st century, that cannot be acceptable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACK: The official reaction from the Chinese embassy in London today is that there was no previous medical record of Mr. Shaikh's "possible mental illness". That is how they put it. And they insist that the independence of the Chinese judicial system must be respected, Hala.

GORANI: All right. Phil Black, live in London.

Well, in many European countries there is simply no death penalty regardless of what crime you commit. But it is not the case elsewhere in the world. According to Amnesty International 16 Asia-Pacific countries use the death penalty for drug trafficking and sometimes just for drug possession. While it is not known how many executions are imposed for drug crimes, reports show the majority in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam are for drug related offenses.

Staying in Asia, North Korea says it is hold an American man who entered the country illegally on Christmas Eve. Officials think it could be 28-year-old Robert Park, a Korean-American missionary. He told relatives he was going to try to sneak into the isolated Communist state to bring leader Kim Jong-Il a message about God. Park's parents told local media that their son is willing to risk his life to deliver that message.

Iranian government officials are lashing out at nearly everyone over this weekend's violent demonstrations. Both Western powers and opposition demonstrators are being blamed for provoking the bloodshed that killed eight people, according to authorities in Tehran.

Iran parliament speaker Ali Larijani slammed Britain and the U.S. for their condemnation for the way Iran has handled the protests. Tehran says Britain's ambassador will be called to Tehran to hear those complaints in person. Larijani also says opposition demonstrators should be dealt with harshly. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALI LARIJANI, SPEAKER OF PARLIAMENT, IRAN (through translator): The Islamic Parliament demands government security officials, including the interior ministry, the intelligence ministry, and the judiciary system, arrest these blasphemers and consider the harshest sentence, without any forgiveness against these people who are anti-revolution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: Well, there has been reaction across Europe to the situation in Iran. And you see some of the demonstrations there. Dozens of Iranians and opposition activists rallied outside Tehran's embassy in Paris. The group waived flags and chanted and show their solidarity with the anti- government protestors. The scene was similar in Berlin, where protestors gathered waving flags and holding signs in support of the demonstrators in the Iranian capital.

We now shine our PRISM light on the latest in that unsuccessful attempt to bomb a U.S. airliner, that Christmas Day attack. A branch of Al Qaeda in Yemen is claiming responsibility for the plot. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula says it was in retaliation for what it called American air strikes there. The bombing suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had been living in Yemen from August until earlier this month, according to reports.

We are also now getting our first look at the actual device that authorities say could have done very serious damage to that plane, had it actually gone off. Jeanne Meserve has the latest on the investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice over): These pictures from an FBI bulletin obtained by CNN shows 76 grams of PETN in an anatomically shaped sheaf, tucked into a pocket stitched into underwear. It was allegedly worn by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to avoid detection during screening. There is scorching from the attempt to set off the bomb, and one photo shows the triggering device, a melted syringe with plastic film-like material and tape. Preliminary analysis indicates it contained ethylene glycol an ingredient in coolant and anti-freeze.

A claim of responsibility from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula called it an "advanced bomb" and touted the fact that it defeated American security.

A U.S. counter-terrorism official says the statement appears to be authentic and it seems credible that the group had some involvement in the attempted attack. The government of Yemen where the Al Qaeda affiliate operates says Abdulmutallab visited the country at least twice, once for our five years ago and again from last August to early December.

FRANCES FRAGO TOWNSEND, CNN SECURITY CONTRIBUTOR: You do worry that next the lesson they'll take from this is, next time what we need is two or three guys on each plane and several planes so that we can have some assurance that at least one of them does blow up. So, I'm sure I would take a whole lot of comfort from it.

MESERVE: U.S. officials say the alarm raised by Abdulmutallab's father, more than a month ago, was not specific or credible enough to put the young Nigerian on a terror watch list. But critics say there was a failure to connect the dots, including his use of cash to purchase a one- way ticket, that he didn't check luggage. And perhaps most importantly, the British decision to deny him a new visa last May.

RANDY LARSEN, THE INST. FOR HOMELAND SECURITY: I just don't believe that we'll ever have a scenario where we will get more advance warning of an attack on an America. It is hard to imagine that this will happen. And yet, we failed to put that information together.

MESERVE (On camera): Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula says the attempted attack was retaliation for an alleged U.S. attack against terror targets in Yemen. Two prisoners released during the Bush administration, from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, are among that groups leaders. But counter terrorism officials say they are still investigating just how tightly linked that organization is with the attempted bombing. Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: Jeanne Meserve mentioned some of that, some of this in her story, but we learning more about Abdulmutallab and his education. We know he traveled to at least two countries in the Middle East to study. Mohammed Jamjoom is following these developments for us from Dubai.

Let's first start with what we know about Abdulmutallab's time in Dubai, where you are.

MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN INT'L. CORRESPONDENT: Hala, what we are told so far is that Abdulmutallab showed up in Dubai in January of this year. He was here until about three months ago. In that time he attended a university called Wollongong University. That is an international university. He was studying business courses, trying to do a masters in business. He dropped many of the classes and then dropped out altogether.

Beyond that, we don't know much about what else he was doing in Dubai, Hala.

GORANI: What we are hearing, though, from these reports is that he spent a significant amount of time, before the alleged attack, in Yemen, studying Arabic in a school there in Sana'a, Yemen, correct?

JAMJOOM: That is right, Hala. We know, not only was he in Sana'a, according to the Yemen's government, from August 2009, until this month, `til December. He was also there before, sometime in either 2004, or 2005. That is according to the press officer at Yemen's embassy in Washington, D.C. He was there and doing some sort of training, Arabic language program, and he actually applied for the visa to go into Yemen, in August of 2009, under the same program. And that is how he got the visa. Whether or not he actually took that program and took it up again when he got to Yemen this time, we don't know, whether he was just pursuing militant activities. Nonetheless, he was in Yemen, and he has been in Yemen, before then as well, Hala.

GORANI: And all these questions that remained unanswered, Mohammed. Tell us a lot about just how difficult it is to gather information from Yemen. Just how easy, I assume, also it is, to go there undetected.

JAMJOOM: Absolutely. It is easy for people to get into Yemen without a visa, even. Yemen is a very -the borders are very porous. It is a very poor country, very easy to get into and out of Yemen, from several different of those borders. And when people are in Yemen it is very easy for them to disappear. I was talking to analysts this week, when we were first hearting about the story. How could this person have just disappeared? How could he just gone off the grid in Yemen? They say it is very easy to do, very easy to disappear there. Central government very ineffective, they have so much on their plate right now; battling so many different types of militancy going on. They don't really know where people go, when they go there. It is very easy for them to just disappear.

GORANI: All right. Well, there is a lot more reporting and investigation to do with this story and our Mohammed Jamjoom in Dubai is following all of that for us.

Thanks very much, Mohammed.

All right. Taking you to Turkey now, where our affiliate CNN Turk is reporting that a six-story building has collapsed in Istanbul. And they are people injured, according to those reports. Ambulances and firefighters have been dispatched to the scene. It is said to be in a low- income neighborhood. CNN Turk has also reported that at least one person was trapped in the rubble waiting to be rescued.

You are with PRISM. Worldwide financial crisis, war and an ever- present terrorist threat, in tonight's "Prism Segment", the decade in review. Take a look at the stories that changed our world.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: It doesn't happen often, in fact, it only happens every 10 years. We are not just saying goodbye to a year, we are saying goodbye to a decade, the first one of the 21st century. Scary for some, perhaps, exciting for others, and it is our "Prism Segment" this evening. What were the top stories of the decade that shaped our times? Everyone has a list in their mind. "The Boston Globe" choose, of course: 9/11 attacks; the death of Pope John Paul II; the election of President Barack Obama; Hurricane Katrina; the mapping of the human genome; the ascension of China as a global power; the confused U.S. election of 2000; the rise of Google and new media; the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq.

We all have our lists. And different events touch people in very different ways. And your perspective depends a lot, quite often, on where you live. From Atlanta, we asked visitors what stories they remember most from the last decade.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it is 9/11, because there was the first mainland attack on U.S. soil and that prompted the entire war on terror that is going on right now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And it changed everything. How we look at American. I mean, it kind of brought us together, made us stronger.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, the biggest story for me was two, actually the whole Sarah Palin situation, her candidacy. And the whole point of seeing Russia, from Alaska, and the whole deal. That is just the way she approached the interview. It was very interesting for me, let's say.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it is the 9/11. Because I think it changed the entire world since, you know, 9/11. Anywhere in the world you go, you know, before that your security was kind of light and stuff. And now if you go anywhere, the airport, things have changed forever I guess. That is the reason I think that was the biggest story.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The bombing of the -in New York City, was probably the biggest thing I've seen in quite a while, probably in my lifetime. Because I actually saw it happen. I saw the airplane go, the first would come, then I saw the next one. I actually saw it happen.

And I actually saw the president reading to the children in Florida. That's where I'm from. And then he left the room and got into his plane and flew back to Washington. It was very, very exciting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think Obama being president. Because, personally, I never thought I would live to see an African-American president. And I'm glad. But I just wish they would give him a little time to get things straightened out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: And there you heard it from visitors in Atlanta. So, as we mentioned, it is where you come from that matters. And I've been asking you, on my Twitter page, @HalaGorani, what stories you think defined our decade.

Liam, in England, a regular writer, writes "The fast and furious economic growth of China (lesser extent India) is the story of the last decade."

Juliana, in Brazil, Tweets, "The bad decisions that the U.S. government took after 9/11 and how they damaged America's image and economy."

Rados in Serbia writes: "9/11, the Iraq war, and he also mentions the tsunami of 2005, and the Michael Jackson's death."

A man who regularly thinks about some of these events, is our guest on PRISM today. Julian Zelizer is the author of "The Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security From World War II to the War on Terrorism." He is also a professor and historian at Princeton University.

Welcome Julian Zelizer to the show.

JULIAN ZELIZER, AUTHOR, HISTORIAN, PROFESSOR, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: Thanks for having me.

GORANI: Right, well, we are going to talk about your top four or five events that defined the first decade of the 21st century. And of course, you have 9/11 at the top of your list.

ZELIZER: Yes, 9/11 changed America and it changed the world. It defined what the major national security threat was. You know after the Soviet Union collapsed we weren't quite sure what the next defining battle would be. And now we know. It also reconfigured public policy. Not just here in the U.S., but all over the world, to deal with stateless terrorism. Terrorist networks that didn't reside in one country, but really were all over the globe.

And on both fronts, as well as the trauma that that attack caused, I do think it was a defining event of the decade.

GORANI: Let's talk about China now. Many of the people who Tweeted in mentioned China; it's is economic and political rise, and it also made your list.

ZELIZER: China is absolutely important for two reasons. One, it has emerged as really a pretty strong super power, meaning economically, its might is much greater than I think many people in the `90s expected it to be. And many predict that will continue to expand. At the same time it is this weird hybrid of an authoritarian government and a market-based economy. That in the `90s no one thought was going to happen. We thought we either had democracy and markets, or authoritarian governments and state-controlled economies. But with China we see a little of both. And I think that will just be the way it is in that country.

GORANI: All right. You also mentioned the election of President Barack Obama, an historic milestone. Tell us more about why that particular election made your list.

ZELIZER: Sure, I mean, it is easy to become cynical already, that it didn't change that much. The race relations are the same. Or that he is not a transformative president. But the election of an African-American in the country founded on slavery, is quite dramatic. And it shows how with all the problems in the country, racial attitudes have changed quite significantly. Not since the beginning of the country, but just since the 1960s. And I do think that election is a landmark that will, you know, show that we have entered a new phase in terms of race relations and social relations, that that presidency will mark.

GORANI: All right. Now, I noticed that among those who compiled these lists, Iran and North Korea, I mean, that nuclear threat, coming from so-called rogue states, didn't make many people's lists over the last decade. Why not?

ZELIZER: I thin part of it is actually an affect of Iraq. Meaning, the discovery of no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the questions that emerged after the war create some skepticism about what kind of threats these other rogue nations present. Is it more bombast than a real national security threat? It might be there is a very real threat in Iran. But I think that is part of the aftermath of the war and part of why you don't see it on the list. I think Iraq changed it.

GORANI: All right. Let's look forward to the next 10 years. Let's look in our crystal ball, although we have some information to support some of these choices.

Of course, China, you say that China versus the West, versus the United States in it's battle for economic supremacy, will be the new Cold War. So, what do you mean by that?

ZELIZER: Well, it will be more of a new economic war. I do think there are a lot of questions about U.S./China relations. Not about arms and military fights, but about economic fights, the muscle that China has. And I think while the U.S. is focusing on terrorism as a security threat, the real question will be handling China as an economic threat.

Whether China uses its muscle to threatened the United States or to put it in danger in any way. And I think that will just be an issue for the next 10, 20 years. Not that it will be a crisis, but it will be front and center for policymakers.

GORANI: All right. Stateless terrorism, the war on terror, security threats and the battle for economic supremacy, two very big stories we are no doubt going to be covering a lot in the next few years. Julian Zelizer, Princeton University, thanks very much for joining us on CNN.

ZELIZER: Thanks for having me.

GORANI: Well, we have other lists of course, different points of view for you to consider in the new year and the new decade approach. Our "Prism Segment" for you there, thanks for watching.

Now, coming up next, heavy rains caused flooding in New South Wales. We will have the latest on the situation down under. Plus, we'll take a look at your worldwide weather picture where you are today. Stay with us.

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(WEATHER REPORT)

GORANI: Thanks very much, Mari Ramos. That is it for me. I'm Hala Gorani. "Rookie Trader" is up next after an update of the headlines.

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