Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Concerns Over North Korea Rocket Launch; Golden Globe Nominations; Marine Denied Medal of Honor; Bombing at NATO Base in Kandahar

Aired December 13, 2012 - 10:30   ET

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


DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: LEMON: It is time to check your top stories here on CNN. Friends of Jacob Roberts say the image of the gunman doesn't jive with the young man they knew. Authorities say the 22- year-old wore a hockey-like face mask into an Oregon mall and opened fire on holiday shoppers. He killed two people and then himself. A third shooting victim remains in serious condition.

Just hours after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta wrapped up his visit in Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan, insurgents struck. A suicide bomber detonated a vehicle outside the gates of the NATO base. It's not clear if the attack was tied to Panetta's visit. Several coalition soldiers were wounded along with as many as ten civilians.

And in money news, first time claims of unemployment benefits fell last week to 343,000. That's similar to levels before Superstorm Sandy, which led claims to surge last month.

In North Korea a rocket launch is sparking international concerns but inside North Korea there may also be worries as a U.S. official tells CNN the country may not have full control of the satellite.

Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins me now. Barbara good morning. This launch is viewed by some as a success for North Korea after years of failed attempts, but the White House is warning that quote, "there will be consequences". So what are the potential next steps on both sides?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, what they're talking about really is a continuation at this point of the track they've been on, going to the United Nations, sanctions, international condemnation. Because this violates some U.N. resolutions, of course, about North Korea testing this kind of technology. It is essentially a long range ballistic missile that someday could be capable of striking as far as the West Coast to the United States.

Right now, though, what's happening is the U.S. is very closely monitoring the satellite that this missile put into orbit because of what you said. They don't know if the North Koreans have full operational control of the satellite. Some key things that should have happened sending some radio signals to control the satellite from a ground station have not yet happened. And U.S. officials this morning tell us they're going to have to keep watch for several days on the satellite to really try and determine exactly what's going on, exactly what kind of control the North Koreans may or may not have -- Don.

LEMON: So some people are concerned that this launch means North Korea could strike the United -- could strike the United States. I mean --

STARR: Yes -- I mean, that's you know, that's -- that's the big concern, why should we care, you know, if it could strike the United States with this kind of missile and if they could put a small nuclear warhead 0on top of it, this puts North Korea in a position that holds the whole Asian Pacific rim potentially at risk an economic powerhouse in today's world economy.

But we've talked to a lot of experts who say, look, North Korea, they might have succeeded in getting this into space, this satellite orbiting the earth, but they have a long way to go to really achieve the kind of precision, technology and engineering to be able to do something like that. The worry of course is that that time frame could be accelerating because they may be getting outside help in all of this from countries like Iran -- Don.

LEMON: All right. Barbara Starr, I appreciate it.

A marine who died while fighting if Fallujah, Iraq in 2004 will not be awarded the Medal of Honor and some people are pretty upset about it. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta made the decision yesterday. And some say the Sergeant Rafael Peralta deserves the a Medal of Honor for jumping on a grenade and saving his fellow soldier's lives.

But Panetta agreed with the previous decision from Robert Gates saying there is too much conflicting evidence here.

CNN's Brianna Keilar profiled Sergeant Peralta in 2006. That was when he was up for the Medal of Honor the first time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Icela Donald says her brother was very generous.

ICELA DONALD, RAFAEL PERALTA'S SISTER: He would give everything to his friends.

KEILAR: And in the end, he gave them the ultimate gift. Insurgents shot Peralta as he and other Marines raided a house in Fallujah. Corporal T.J. Kaemmerer saw what happened next.

CPL T.J. KAEMMERER, WITNESSED INCIDENT: One of the insurgents threw a grenade into the room where Sergeant Peralta was lying and that's when he pulled it under himself and save pretty much everyone in the room. Myself and the other Marines in the house all owe him our lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: So joining us now live from Las Vegas is Tony Perry, he is a San Diego Bureau Chief for the "L.A. Times". Good morning to you.

TONY PERRY, SAN DIEGO BUREAU CHIEF, LOS ANGELES TIMES: Good morning.

LEMON: You reported extensively on this. And -- and some say that Peralta was brain dead before he jumped on the grenade. What does that -- what does that mean, what does that have to do with anything?

PERRY: Well, what it has to do is the question of if he did indeed reach out and grab that grenade and smother it, was it a conscious action of a person alive or was it some sort of automatic body reaction of a body that was already dead. The initial autopsy said that it could have been done while he was still alive which, of course, is exactly what the Marines who were there said he did.

Further review by a pathologist said that, no, the -- the wound that he had received to the head would have been immediately deadly and that when he fell, if indeed he did pull the grenade, it would have been a reflexive action of a body already dead.

With this conflict, Secretary Gates decided the Navy Cross, number two the second only to the Medal of Honor was appropriate but that the Medal of Honor about which the standards are exceedingly high was not appropriate.

This didn't go down well with the Marine Corps. It didn't go down well with Congressman Duncan Hunter and he's been pushing ever since to have it upgraded to a Medal of Honor.

LEMON: How is it playing with the family?

PERRY: Not well. The family -- the mother, Rosa, and the two sisters and a brother are -- are crestfallen. They believe that their loved one deserves the Medal of Honor. The brother has enlisted in the Marine Corps to carry on in his brother's tradition, so it hasn't shaken their sort of immigrant faith in this country.

Rafael Peralta was 25 when he was killed. He enlisted in the Marine Corp the day he got his green card. He's an immigrant from Mexico.

LEMON: Goodness.

PERRY: He sent a letter to his brother the night before the big battle saying "I'm proud to be an American. We should all be proud." It's about as emotional as you can get. It's very emotional with the Marine Corps. Secretary of Navy Ray Mabus had said Medal of Honor.

But as we know now, Leon Panetta reviewing the material presented by Congressman Hunter said, no, he was going to stick with the decision made by his predecessor, Bob Gates.

LEMON: His story, I mean if you wrote it, some people wouldn't believe it and say this is -- I mean you can't -- that you're making this up. Why is this award so important to the Marine Corps Tony? PERRY: Well, the Marine Corps is by its nature a brotherhood. And the Marines who were there believe they are alive today because of what he did. And you don't -- that's indivisible. And they are uniform in this and they're not going to rest because of a pathologist's report who did not see the body but rather was looking at various reports.

Indeed, a Blue Ribbon Commission did look at this and say that with the -- the conflicting evidence, Medal of Honor was not appropriate. Marines are not going to -- to buy off on that, although I don't know what they can do. The larger issue is why have there been so few Medals of Honor in Iraq and Afghanistan, ten -- ten in this decade of war. 246 in Vietnam. Why are we so reluctant to reward, to acknowledge bravery like Rafael Peralta?

LEMON: Right.

PERRY: And nobody seems to have an adequate answer to that. And it's -- it's the sort of thing that makes the Marines absolutely heart sick.

LEMON: San Diego Bureau Chief for the LA Times, Tony Perry, thank you Tony.

The stars came out last night in Madison Square Garden rocking all in the name of charity for Sandy relief. We're going to bring you more highlights.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Several rock legends rocked the house, rocked out New York to help raise money for Super Storm Sandy.

(MUSIC)

LEMON: That's music from my generation, 80s and 90s. that's local boy made good, Billy Joel. He was just one of many hometown acts that came out to Madison Square Garden. He was joined by Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, just to name a few legends. There was even some support from across the pond British rocker Chris Martin. Cold Play joined Michael Stipe on stage for an REM classic.

The concert raised $30 million in tickets and other sales. The proceeds of course will benefit relief efforts for Hurricane Sandy.

It's award season in Hollywood and the nominees for the Golden Globe Awards have been announced. "Lincoln" on top with several nominations.

OK. Nischelle, can you clear this up? Because -- and people are like it's obvious that you and Nischelle don't like each other -- obviously sarcasm. So Nischelle -- I like to call you Nischelle sometimes. Sometimes I call you Nischelle. It just depends on, you know, is it Nischelle or Nischelle?

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN SHOWBIZ CORRESPONDENT: Unfortunately, it's both. Half of my family call me Nischelle; half call me Nischelle.

LEMON: See. Boom. There you go, producers.

TURNER: I just say whatever. Just call me. Just put it like that. That's what I say.

LEMON: So who is on top here?

TURNER: By the way, Don, I know you were -- I heard you talking about the concert, the 12-12-12 concert for Superstorm Sandy and my Twitter time line was blowing up saying that Kanye West was in a Givenchy skirt during the concert. We didn't have anyone in a skirt today but Ed Helms was here in a suit and he was announcing the nominations this morning. So that was kind of my concert.

LEMON: It was a leather kilt.

TURNER: Megan Fox and Jessica Alba. A leather kilt -- there you go. But it was by Givenchy and I'm sure it was fantastic. Megan Fox and Jessica Alba also helped out announcing the nominations this morning. We talked a lot about movies last hour. Now let's talk a little bit about television.

As you can tell around me, they're breaking everything down this morning. I'm the last man standing.

LEMON: Don't they know you're trying to do some TV there?

(CROSSTALK)

TURNER: No, it's OK. I'm still here for you. Let's talk a little bit about the actresses in a television series that were nominated. The actresses in the drama series that were nominated this year: Connie Britton who is great in everything she does. She's nominated for Nashville, which is a fairly new show but people are really loving this show. Glenn close also for "Damages". Claire Danes for "Homeland". People love that show. The President of the United States loves that show.

Michelle Dockery for "Downton Abbey". And Julianna Margulies for "The Good Wife". She is a perennial favorite at every award show. And also the actresses in a comedy series -- Zooey Deschanel for "New Girl". Julia Louis-Dreyfuss for "Veep" Lena Dunham for "Girls". Tina Fey for "30 Rock". And Amy Poehler for "Parks and Rec.

Now Zooey Deschanel, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and Lena Dunham are kind of giving their -- I wouldn't say revenge -- on the SAG awards but they were nominated for Golden Globes. A lot of people thought they got shut out from a dag nominations.

Now let's talk about the actors -- the fellows. The actors in a drama series nominated, Steve Buschemi for Boardwalk, Ryan Cranton for breaking badge, Jeff Daniels for "The Newsroom". John Hamm for "Mad Men" and Damien Lewis for "Homeland".

For comedy actors, Alec Baldwin for "30 Rock". Don Cheadle for "House of Lives". Louis CK for Louie. Matt Le Blanc for episodes and Jim Parson's big bang theory. Now, it's going to be a really fun night on the Golden. I've never -- I don't know if you've ever been Don -- but the Golden Globes red carpet is so big and so massive and everyone is there because of television and it's movies and there's lots of star power.

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will be hosting this year. And I don't know if you have a favorite television show.

LEMON: I do. I do.

TURNER: So I'm really excited about this because "30 Rock" and "Parks and Rec" are my favorite shows. So I'm excited to see them January 13.

L: I have a couple. "Walking Dead's exclusive but "The Good Wife," if you don't watch "Good Wife", I'm telling you viewer. That is the smartest show on television and the design, the furniture and the architecture, the great actors and actresses. I love Julianna Margulies in that. And I love -- Josh Charles was Twitter fan and I'm going to tell you -- Will Gardner was robbed.

TURNER: Well, there you go. You know what else got a lot of love? "Game Change" got a lot of love from the Hollywood foreign press,. nominated a lot. Nicole Kidman got nominations in both the movie categories and the television categories as did Maggie Smith. So there's a lot of dual nominees, a lot of crossover going on here. It's going to be a fun night. Award season has begun -- Don Lemon.

LEMON: My vote goes to Alicia Florick, Julianna Margulies and to Nischelle Turner. Crews are like we got to go -- Nischelle is no longer talking. We're not done yet. All right.

TURNER: I know. Bye guys. Got to go.

LEMON: Bye. Tell those folks you're trying to do TV. Calm down.

"SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" will have more tonight at 11:00 Eastern on HLN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Top stories right now.

Lawmakers wanting answers on the Benghazi consulate attack will soon hear from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The House committee investigating the attack announced Clinton will testify next Thursday. That attack killed four Americans including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.

There is some encouraging news for California governor, Jerry Brown. His doctors say his prognosis is excellent as he undergoes radiation therapy for prostate cancer. That treatment is expected to be completed in another month.

Police say five armed men in ski masks robbed a jewelry store near L.A., shot the clerk and led police on a high speed chase. You see it right there. One man was caught after jumping from his car and running into a park filled with police officers handing out gifts to schoolchildren. Two others ran through the Cal State Fullerton campus. Campus was on lockdown, but police didn't find them. The other two were caught.

All right. Some breaking news now out of Afghanistan. A short time ago, a suicide bomber detonated a vehicle outside the gates of Kandahar Air Base. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had been there but left hours earlier. Not clear right now if the attack was tied to his visit.

Initial reports -- initial reports are saying that several coalition soldiers were wounded along with as many as ten civilians. Want to go live now to our Erin Burnett who is in Kabul, Afghanistan right now. Erin, hello to you. What are you hearing about this?

ERIN BURNETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don I can give you a little bit of an update here of what we have. So far we now understand that one coalition force of the international forces has been killed in this suicide attack and two Afghan civilians. Now the number of injured is now up to three coalition forces and 18 Afghan civilians. As well of course as the bomber who the Taliban has now claimed suicide. And in an e-mail to CNN praises the bomber, the suicide bomber for his bravery.

Don, I was actually with the Defense Secretary in Kandahar today. The attack was about two hours after his departure and as you said, it's unclear right now whether this attack was targeted at the Defense Secretary or not. But as you said it was right at the entrance to the Kandahar Air Field.

It's pretty interesting because in Kandahar today, Don, I had a chance to talk to General Abrams, of course, who is the commander for the southern part of Afghanistan. And he talked about this issue specifically. When he was asked about the security, he said look, it gets better every single day. And specifically when he talked about the Taliban, Don, he said look, the insurgent capabilities here are pretty limited and he mentioned actually an attack that they had tried to carry out on Kandahar Air Field that had failed.

So obviously the timing on this is terrible. There are people who have now lost their lives. But this goes against the narrative that the United States coalition forces and the Afghan government are trying to build, which is that this is an insurgency that is waning and is on its way to defeat.

And I just -- one last thing, Don. I talked to the deputy foreign minister of Afghanistan just a couple of moments ago and he told me "Look, I'm not surprised that this happened. I think this kind of thing could still happen. And every single day someone like me realizes it could have been me."

LEMON: Yes. Hey real quickly, here because we're running up against the other show, you know how that is. You're traveling with the Defense Secretary.

BURNETT: Yes.

LEMON: When they found out this information, not going to stop them from touring and finishing their business there?

BURNETT: No, it's not. As a matter of fact, right now the Defense Secretary is in a meeting with Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan. So they're continuing with that and of course, we'll be live with our special report tonight on the future of Afghanistan here in Kabul -- Don.

LEMON: Erin Burnett, stay safe. We appreciate your reporting. And as Erin just said, she's going to be live tonight from Kabul at 7:00 Eastern right here on CNN "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT". Make sure you tune in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: It's been an informative two hours, right Dana? Right Adam -- here in the studio with me. I think it has.

I'm Don Lemon. Thank you so much for joining us. "CNN NEWSROOM" continues with Miss Ashleigh Banfield right after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)