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Senate Hearing on Tsarnaev FBI Investigation Today; Furloughs Causing Flight Delays; Investors Wait for Apple's Earnings Report; Nike Pulls "Boston Massacre" Shirts

Aired April 23, 2013 - 09:30   ET

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

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to a special edition of NEWSROOM, live from Boston. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting. Today, the FBI faces a grilling on Capitol Hill over the Boston bombings, lawmakers want to know if the agency missed vital clues two years ago. That's when agents interviewed the older suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, at the request of the Russian government.

CNN's national political correspondent Jim Acosta joins us from Washington now with what's going on. A lot of frustration, a lot of what ifs, could if this Boston massacre been prevented if the FBI would have done certain things? Those are the questions that will be brought forward today.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. It will be playing out on Capitol Hill. The Senate Intelligence Committee has set a hearing for 2:30 this afternoon with FBI officials, they will be the lead briefers at this hearing. I'm told from a source of that committee. Lawmakers want to find out if federal investigators somehow failed to see big red flags coming from Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

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ACOSTA: As lawmakers are praising authorities for the quick work in the Boston bombing case, members of Congress are still calling for hearings into the FBI's handling of dead suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who traveled back to a dangerous region of Russia, just last year.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, (D) CALIFORNIA: What did he do, when he went back for six months? Did he sit in his aunt and uncle's home for six months or was he doing something else? And when he came back to this country, why didn't it ring a bell with the FBI intelligence unit?

ACOSTA: Two years ago, the FBI was asked by the Russian government to investigate Tamerlan. The Russians suspected the 26-year-old ethnic Chechen was the follower of radical Islam and a strong believer and that he had changed drastically since 2010, as he prepared to leave the U.S. for travel to the country's region to join unspecified underground groups. The FBI said it did not find any terrorism activity. Late last year, Tamerlan made that trip and spent time, an aunt says, in war-torn Chechnya. PATEIMAT SULEIMANOVA, SUSPECTS' AUNT: Yes, he went to Chechnya for a couple of days. I don't know where those relatives lived. I mean, the relatives from his father's side. Probably Gudermes and Chirit (ph). There were bombings in Chirit (ph), where they lived.

ACOSTA: : Despite the warning from the Russians, the trip apparently went undetected by U.S. authorities. South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham told reporters Tamerlan's name was on a no-fly terror watchlist. Graham says the bureau official told him Tamerlan slipped through the cracks.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R ) SOUTH CAROLINA: I've been informed that the air flock (ph) passenger list that his name was misspelled and didn't get into the system because of a misspelling.

ACOSTA: Add to that, Graham said, Tamerlan's activity on jihadist websites.

GRAHAM: How did we miss all that? The FBI said they have limitations on what they can do.

ACOSTA: A Chechen Islamist rebel group denied any involvement in the Boston bombing, saying the Caucasian Mujahideen are not fighting against the U.S. we are at war with Russia.

But some Chechen fighters have shown up in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. All questions they want answered from Tamerlan's younger brother Dzhokhar. A handful of GOP lawmakers say the young suspect should be treated temporarily as an enemy combatant. That was ruled out by the White House.

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We will prosecute this terrorist through the civilian system of justice.

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ACOSTA: For its part, the FBI says it interviewed Tamerlan back in 2011, that they came up with nothing, then went back to the Russians and asked for more information. The FBI says the Russians did not get back to them after that request was made.

Meanwhile, we can tell you that homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano, she is also appearing at a judiciary committee hearing this morning on immigration reform. Happening right now. Wolf, given the fact that both suspects immigrated to this country in the last decade, expect the case in Boston to come up. Wolf.

BLITZER: Just to recap the Senate Intelligence Committee will have a separate briefing with the FBI this afternoon, the House Intelligence Committee will have their hearing, both will be behind closed doors, no media allowed inside. Is that right?

ACOSTA: That's right. And that's typically what happens in these cases, Wolf. Because there -- there might be sensitive national security details that are divulged during the hearings, they are often closed to the public. However, we'll be staking out those hearings and trying to find out, what, if anything, being said about whether or not some red flags were missed in the case of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in his trip to Russia back in 2011. Wolf.

BLITZER: And everybody agrees, the most important thing right now, to learn lessons from what happened, not necessarily for recriminations or blame, but to make sure it doesn't happen again, so there is progress on that front. Jim Acosta we'll stay in close touch with you as well. And still ahead, enemy combatant or civilian court? Prosecutors are making tough legal decisions in the Boston bombing case. We're taking a much closer look.

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BLITZER: The long, legal case against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has only just begun, and the decision by the Obama administration, not to designate him as an enemy combatant is upsetting several Republicans.

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GRAHAM: I have been informed that the Obama administration has indicated this suspect in Boston will not be treated as enemy combatant. I strongly disagree with the Obama administration's decision to rule out enemy combatant status for this suspect at this time.

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BLITZER: Let's bring in our senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, joining us from New York. Can or should a U.S. citizen be formally given this enemy combatant status? What does the law say?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Every terrorist suspect arrested in the United States, since the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 has been treated in the criminal justice system, not as an enemy combatant. This is absolutely standard operating procedure. Frankly, the whole status of enemy combatant remains ambiguous and unresolved in the legal system. The prisoners in Guantanamo Bay remain in legal limbo. By treating them as criminal suspects, the Obama administration is avoiding all kinds of risks and simply acting as the Bush administration has in the past and as they have acted in other terrorist cases by using the normal criminal procedures.

BLITZER: Because Lindsey Graham and others say, he should be tried as a U.S. citizen, should be tried in a U.S. civilian court, but that can await this process of doing some serious interrogation of him and designating him as an enemy combatant in the meantime. All of this is moot right now, because as you know, yesterday, he was formally given his Miranda rights and a judge magistrate at his bed side with a court-appointed attorney, a public defender. So, all of this is just moot discussion right now because the Obama administration has made its decision. But, is Lindsey Graham on sound legal ground, saying he should be tried in a civilian court, he could be held and questioned as an enemy combatant?

TOOBIN: I think the only fair answer to that question is we don't know, because it's never been done before in American history to have some sort of hybrid combatant and criminal proceeding. We do know from Jake Tapper's reporting, there was an interrogation of Tsarnaev. And he did disclose his position that there was no broader conspiracy here. Just him and his brother. It seems like the Justice Department and the FBI have done the kind of interrogation that at least -- that Lindsey Graham seems to want to have been done, perhaps not as extensive as it might have been. But there was a pre-Miranda interrogation and authorities can work with that, at least now going forward.

BLITZER: I think that's a fair point. Certainly, Lindsey Graham and others will say it wasn't enough. They should have been, not necessarily just 48 hours of interrogation, but days and days if not weeks and weeks. That will be a subject for future debate. Jeffrey thanks very much for that analysis. Jeffrey Toobin's our senior legal analyst.

Just ahead, a check of other stories we're following, including serious delays at major airports across the country with fewer people in control towers. We're in store for a lot of waiting. Back in a moment with that and all of the late developments out of Boston.

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BLITZER: Welcome back to our special NEWSROOM, we are live from Boston. We'll have all the latest developments on the Boston marathon bombing's investigation in just a moment.

But first, a couple of other top stories making news on this Tuesday.

The TSA has postponed a controversial rule allowing passengers to bring small knifes on planes; that change that was due to take effect on Thursday. The agency now saying it is getting additional input from an advisory group.

Another thing many airline passengers might notice, are longer flight delays. The FAA is furloughing 10 percent of its workforce because of federal spending cuts and that's causing delays of up to two hours at airports in Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C.

Our Casey Wian is in Los Angeles with more on what's going on. What is going on, Casey?

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Wolf, it was another rough evening for travelers here at Los Angeles International airport last night. Up to 80 percent of departures were delayed last night up to 20 percent of arrivals delay that according to FlightView.com. It's largely because of those FAA staffing issues that you mentioned, workforce reductions that all started Sunday night.

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WIAN (voice over): Erin Hammons was on a flight Sunday night from Las Vegas to L.A. Little did she know, forced federal spending cuts began the same day, reducing the number of air traffic controllers on duty. The result -- major flight delays. ERIN HAMMONS, PASSENGER: I was on an 8:25 and when I rebooked, our departure time was 1:45 a.m. A couple of airline employees told us that it was due to fog and a couple of airline employees said that it was due to the sequestration.

WIAN: Actually it was both, according to Air Traffic Control Union Rep Michael Foote, who was working in the LAX air traffic control tower Sunday night. The airport has four parallel runways that can operate simultaneously on clear days.

MICHAEL FOOTE, NATC PRESIDENT, LAX TOWER: And when that weather comes in though, we normally go to a two-runway arrival rate, two runways are open, they are descending due to clouds but they are less than a mile apart, side by side coming down.

WIAN: That requires one air traffic controller monitoring each arriving plane at the LAX control tower as well as regional air traffic control facilities are operating shorthanded.

FOOTE: Well (inaudible) on there. We essentially become a one runway airport. So we go from four down to one.

WIAN: It doesn't take much to create a big backlog and it's not just LA, nationwide the FAA says 400 flights were delayed because of staffing shortages Sunday night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well they need to fix it because I just want to go home.

REP. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: These are awful and they must stop. We cannot let these delays go through. Not only because of inconvenience, but because it directly hurts our economy.

WIAN: With 10 percent staffing reductions in effect through September significant delays are likely.

ALEXA BARRON, PASSENGER: If there is some cost cutting and I don't feel it too badly I'm all for it. If it becomes painful, then I think we need to figure out another way to deal with things.

JOHN RYAN, PASSENGER: We're all going to pay the price. So what can we do? You know, you grin and bear it.

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WIAN: Now the good news is that most major airports around the country are operating back to normal this morning. There are some weather-related delays at JFK and LaGuardia but most airports operating smoothly with minimal delays. But these periodic delays especially when weather crops up are going to be seen by travelers throughout the country for the rest of the summer and into the fall unless Congress does something about it -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Unless Congress does something about it, unlikely they will, given the mood up there right now. We'll see what happens. Casey, thank you. Apple, by the way, is reporting its quarterly earning today with very low expectations. Dan Simon is joining us now from San Francisco. Dan what exactly is Apple's problem?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Wolf it's really been incredible to see the collapse of Apple stock. It hasn't been trading this low since November of 2011. That was right after Steve Jobs died and no one really knew for certain how the company would do.

We want to sort of explore a couple of reasons why the stock is trading so much lower. You know when you look at the technology business -- it's almost like the movie business. You have to create a hit after hit after hit and Apple hasn't unveiled a new product for about six months not since the iPad mini.

Also the smart phone market Wolf is maturing especially in the United States. Most people who have cell phones now have smart phones. So there's not this constant rush to go out and get one and finally and perhaps this is the most significant competition has never been more intense. You look at Samsung, you look at Amazon creating great products and also had a cheaper price Wolf. So, we'll be watching the earnings and the guidance and they'll be coming out at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time -- Wolf.

BLITZER: We'll see what happens with Apple. Thanks very, very much.

Coming up, a Nike t-shirt with the words "Boston Massacre" stayed on sale for days after the bombings. We're going to tell you what they're doing about that right now.

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BLITZER: Nike is pulling t-shirts with the words "Boston Massacre" from its outlet stores. The shirt is on sale for years, they have nothing to do with the bombings. But one week after the tragedy, Nike is now pulling the shirts.

Alison Kosik is following the story for -- for us. Alison, these shirts are about the Yankees, Red Sox rivalry. But what's going on now?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Exactly Wolf. And what they're really meant for are New York Yankees and what those shirts refer to is that late-season sweep the Yankees had over the Red Sox in 1978 which ended in a World Series victory for New York.

Now, these T-shirts, you said they came out a long, long time ago. Many are finding them inappropriate and insensitive. Because you look at the T-Shirt They have "Boston Massacre" written on them with blood spattered over the word. Now we did talk with Nike yesterday and what they told is that this is an older item. And that in light of the tragedy in Boston, they say that they took immediate action to remove the product from distribution.

And interestingly enough though as Nike is pulling those shirts off the shelf, Adidas can hardly keep up because last week was Adidas did was it created a T-shirt that said did "Boston stands as one" as a tribute to the victims in the attacks. You know, these shirts sold out within a day. They are available again. And what Adidas is telling us is that it's raised more than $1 million for One Fund Boston, and it plans to keep raising as much money as possible -- Wolf.

BLITZER: There's also quite a bit of Boston Marathon gear for sale on Ebay right now. Is it mostly for charity?

KOSIK: Yes. You look on eBay, you know, a good portion of that stuff is going to charity or at least, you know, it's voicing support to the people of Boston. And you see a lot of "Boston Strong" t-shirts when you go flip around on eBay. In fact, you can even see that a couple of people have already tried to trademark that term, "Boston Strong".

There's also been a lot of outrage though, you know, even if finisher's medal is being sold on eBay from someone who completed the marathon. That is up for sale. There's only one of those up right now and it says the proceeds for that will go to One Fund Boston.

But there had been several medals posted the other day and only half of them mentioned that the money would be donated to charity. So there was also a lot of anger you can find on social media on Facebook and Twitter saying that, you know, these sellers are trying to capitalize on these bombings. What the company that sells these medals, Wolf, telling our Boston affiliate that seeing them sold online is, quote, "disgusting" -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Alison, thanks very much.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM begins right after a quick break.

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