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Connect the World

Interview With Quilliam's Usama Hasan; First Case Of Bird Flu Confirmed Outside Mainland China

Aired April 24, 2013 - 16:00   ET

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


BECKY ANDERSON, HOST: Tonight, training foreign fighters: we bring you an exclusive report on a Dagestani militant who is linked, or been linked, to one of the Boston bombing suspects.

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN London, this is Connect the World with Becky Anderson.

ANDERSON: Tonight, I speak to a former jihadist on how to combat the appeal of radicalization.

Also ahead, Iggi's (ph) chosen man. Can Enrico Letto end months of political paralysis. A live report from Rome coming up.

And it's another big night in European football. The very latest on a Champion's League semifinal as two giants of the game head-to-head.

First up tonight, investigators are looking for clues to the Boston bombings on another continent. This hour, U.S. authorities traveling to Russia to meet with the suspects parents. Now they spent the day questioning them in the Republic of Dagestan along with Russian security officials.

Surviving suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told investigators from his hospital bed in Boston that he and his brother Tamerlan acted alone and were self-radicalized. But some family members are now raising questions about a mystery person who may have influenced the older brother. They say he's a convert to Islam who befriended Tamerlan in Cambridge near Boston.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSLAN TSARNI, BOMBING SUSPECTS' UNCLE: He said this person, he just took his brain. He just brainwashed him completely. Tamerlan is off now. There's no any obedience and respect to his own father. That concerned me big time.

ELMIRZA KHOZHGOV, SUSPECTS' FORMER BROTHER-IN-LAW: I'm not sure if he inspired or taught him to be radical Islamist, but he surely did have influence and did teach him things that would make Tamerlan, you know, go away from the people and go more into the religion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, the suspects' aunt has said that Tamerlan arrived in Dagestan last year a changed man, much more religious and much more serious. He left his wife and baby daughter behind for six months to spend time overseas. And investigators want to know why.

Nick Paton Walsh is live in Dagestan tonight for you.

Tracking down details of that trip. Nick, what have you found?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Becky, the only open link between Tamerlan Tsarnaev and potential extremism here in southern Russia was a link on his YouTube channel to a video of an extremist here called (inaudible).

Now we've learned from police that Mr. Dulgatov (ph) and the militants he worked with had been running training for militants both Russian and foreign where people had also learned how to make explosives.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Dagestani militant Abu Dujan in a video one of the alleged Boston bombers Tamerlan Tsarnaev posted on his YouTube Channel. Russian special forces killed Abu Dujan in a shootout last December in Dagestan and we don't know if they ever met Tsarnaev.

But Dagestani police have revealed to CNN the small time militant ran training camps for bomb-making that foreigners came to. Police gave us images of Abu Dujan's group training in the woods.

This one explains how to mix and prepare home-made explosives almost anywhere. And the group's pictures suggest they learned to use a mobile phone as a detonator. The local police chief who helped hunt him down Abu Dujan says the militant trained foreigners.

ASKHABALI SAUERBEKOV, POLICE CHIEF, KIZIL YURT (through translator): We do not have audio or visual confirmation but we do have information confirming that Abu Dujan met with foreigners.

WALSH (on camera): What did the foreigners learn in the woods?

SAUERBEKOV: I can't talk about the number of foreigners but they met to exchange their bandit experience. They are Dagestanis who have taken citizenship elsewhere and come here to meet in the historical motherland whose roots are here.

WALSH (voice-over): Could that have included Americans?

SAUERBEKOV: It's entirely possible but I know there were Arabs and Turks among them. Whether there were Americans, I don't know.

WALSH (on camera): The police told us that Abu Dujan was often observed coming here to the heart of Makhachkala, to this Salifist Islamic mosque behind me which itself denies any links to extremism. It is possible, though, that Tamerlan Tsarnaev last year also prayed here.

SAUERBEKOV: Of course, the (INAUDIBLE) mosque is their mosque, where all the Wahhabists go. Our technological work gives us operational information that Abu Dujan went there, met people, and agitated. Not once but many times.

WALSH: There are reports that Dujan was observed at the mosque and he was observed meeting Tsarnaev. Do you know this?

SAUERBEKOV: I really can't answer this. For different reasons, I can't answer. You understand me?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH: A very interesting expression on his face as he answered there. I should point out that Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Abu Dujan have never proven thus far to have actually met, but you can just see from that video the wealth of militant experience and radicalism here in Dagestan and the climate that Tamerlan Tsarnaev could perhaps have been in when he came back here last year, Becky.

ANDERSON: Is it clear, Nick, that what U.S. authorities who are in the region tonight have learned and whether they've established any links between this militant and the older brother?

WALSH: That is not clear at this point. We don't know the extent of the debriefing they got from the parents who they spoke to yesterday. We do know that U.S. intelligence officials have been looking at the social media accounts such as that YouTube link of Tamerlan Tsarnaev to try and piece together what links to Chechen or otherwise Caucuses extremists there may be. But this is clearly going to be at the heart of any work their doing.

Yes, of course, they've said they don't think there's any foreign organization behind this, but we're looking at here if there were any link to this region, this perhaps slightly more ad hoc, perhaps a little more amateur passing on those skills if that were to have happened, Becky.

ANDERSON; Nick Paton Walsh in Dagestan. Nick, thank you for that.

As authorities study possible links abroad to the Boston attacks, they are also investigating whether online jihadist magazines may have played a role. Now specifically this one, "Inspire." It's an English language magazine published by al Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula. In 2010, it ran an article called make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom. Now recipe experts say it has been downloaded around the world.

Let's bring in Usama Hussein for you. Hossein, sorry, for you -- Hasan, even -- apologies -- for you at this point. He's a researcher, a senior researcher with the Quilliam Foundation, the counter extremism think-tank here in London who also as a teenager became a radical activist, and as an undergraduate briefly took part in the jihadi against Communist forces in Afghanistan.

Sir, why? Why did you do that?

USAMA HASAN, QUILLIAM FOUNDATION: I was young. I was idealistic. And I wanted to help the jihad, which had motivated thousands of Muslims from around the world to fight the so-called godless, atheist Communist army of the Soviets, and later the Afghan Communists.

And also, the young men seeking adventure and military experience was amazing to learn to fire a gun and to train in weapons for the first time. This was something -- I wasn't integrated enough here in Britain to ever imagine going to British armed forces, for example. So this was the early opportunity as a 19-year-old to go and have a cool time.

But also I believed in the cause, because I risked my life along with colleagues to fight in that war briefly.

ANDERSON: The reason I asked you that, our viewers who may not know your background I think it's important to point out that you have so much to tell us about what might have been going on in the minds of these Boston bombers, particularly the older brother and those others who are being flushed out around the world at the moment who may or may not have been self-radicalized or are affiliated with any one single organization.

Take us inside the mind of Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

HASAN: Well, we can't say for sure right now, but there's so much evidence based on other terror suspects, et cetera. The key thing is that people become convinced that there is a global war and conspiracy against Islam and Muslims worldwide. And the al Qaeda narrative points to places of conflict like Israel-Palestine, like Kashmir, like Bosnia in the 90s with the major radicalizing factor in Europe, the Chechen war. And of course more recently the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

And people selectively pick out these wars and say, look, it's Muslims are targeted everywhere. They forget the fact that there have been terrible wars in Sri Lanka, in Congo, many other parts of the world. So, yeah, there are Jews, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, people suffer everywhere. There is terrible violence everywhere. But al Qaeda say it's all the fault of the west and the non-Muslims, including America, Russia, and everybody else. And it's your duty as a young Muslim man to take up the Jihad, take up arms and fight.

ANDERSON: How influential is a site like "Inspire?"

HASAN: Regrettably for people who sympathize with al Qaeda, and of course there have been thousands, perhaps millions of Muslims affected by that kind of rhetoric. Don't forget, Osama bin Laden was a hero of the Afghan jihad against the Soviets. And he lived in Sudan and other countries, went around the Arab world raising funds for his jihad against the Russians. He was a hero. And he was very charismatic. And so he had thousands, millions of sympathizers around the world. I used to admire him when I was much younger. And many people still do.

So those who have bought into that ideology of hatred and of perpetual war and conflict, who don't want to live in peace with others, they will read "Inspire" -- it is the official mouthpiece in English. In the past, al Qaeda had most of its material in Arabic, of course. But -- Anwar al- Awlawki who was in London for awhile. I met him twice here in London, he set up the "Inspire" magazine, because he was a fluent, charismatic preacher in Arabic and English.

ANDERSON: Should a site like that be shut down? There's a big debate about freedom of speech here, of course, isn't there. But a site like that, U.S. authorities at least must be looking at and saying, you know, we want to get rid of this. We don't got -- we don't even want to give people access to a site like this.

When you look at that as a reformed man who is a part-time imam now, fighting against sort of fundamental thought, as it were, do you want to see that sort of site available to young men around the world?

HASAN: Quite simply, no. I don't know how easy it is to get hold of that magazine, but clearly those who want to will find it just like they find porn or anything else like that.

ANDERSON: Would you say shut it down -- authorities?

HASAN: Well, it's probably illegal, because it inspires or incites hatred and violence and terrorism. So it breaks a law in most countries. It's actually illegal in most countries. But in this day and age it's very difficult to actually shut everything down, because it just pops up somewhere else. And the issue -- so people need to make it difficult to access material like that, but at the same time the ideas need to be challenged openly. And that's one of the challenges which Muslim authorities and communities worldwide must take up.

It's for far too long people have been silent about these ideas like we must have a global Islamic state. We must fight against America, et cetera. And that needs to be challenged.

And I think that will help hugely, because then young men like he Tsarnaev brothers would have an alternative to say, well, there's -- people are discussing these ideas openly, yes. People are angry about wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and other places, but there are other ways to challenge that without resorting to killing women and children, which is the really sick and evil think which happened here.

ANDERSON: It's always a pleasure. Thank you.

Usama Hasan.

Still to come tonight, dozens of people are dead, and many more are still missing or trapped in Bangladesh. We're going to bring you up to date on the latest tragedy to strike that nation's garment industry.

And as Chinese health officials keep a close eye on poultry, word that for the first time the deadly new strain of bird flu has been found outside mainland China. More on that straight ahead.

And the story that's shaking horse racing. We're going to have the latest on the Godolphin scandal. All that coming up after we take a very short break here on Connect the World.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: You're watching CNN. This is Connect the World. I'm Becky Anderson for you in London. 16 minutes past the hour. Welcome back.

Many people are believed trapped after an eight story building collapsed on the outskirts of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka. The national news agency reports more than 80 people have been killed, hundreds more are injured. The building housed several garment factories and a shopping mall.

Now in congested areas like Dhaka, tragedies like this are all too common as Sumnima Udas reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUMNIMA UDAS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Desperate scenes on the outskirts of Dhaka. Soldiers and rescue workers scramble over the wreckage of this commercial building, digging through the rubble by hand, searching for survivors trying to pull them from the tangled mess of concrete. Hundreds of injured were rushed from the scene, hundreds more are still believed to be trapped in the ruins.

SIRAJ MIAH, HUSBAND OF TRAPPED WORKER (through translator): My wife came to this factory to work in the morning. After learning that the building collapsed, I rushed here looking for my wife, but until now I haven't found her.

UDAS: According to one report, it's believed some 2,000 people were inside the eight story building housing several garment factories and a shopping mall when the upper floors gave way. This is just the latest disaster to hit the Bangladesh garment industry.

Last November, a fire at a clothing factory in the suburb of Dhaka killed at least 112 people and more than 70 people died in 2005 in another building collapse in the same area as Wednesday's disaster.

While the cause of this collapse is not yet known, workers tell local media cracks have been discovered in the building the previous day.

This is yet another setback for one of Bangladesh's biggest industries. Bangladesh is the world's number two garment exporter behind only China. It's an industry that makes up the vast majority of the country's $24 billion in annual exports and one that employs more than 4 million people, mostly women.

Sumnima Udas, CNN, New Delhi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Well, we are seeing reports out of Syria that the civil war has destroyed yet another historical treasure, a minaret that stood for almost 1,000 years appears to be gone. This is video that was -- we believe was shot last month at Aleppo's ancient Umayyad Mosque. You can see the minaret standing on the right, and today it appears as if it's not there anymore.

The Syrian government says it was blown up by terrorists, as they call them, the regime's code word for rebels. The rebels deny that. They say government tank fire knocked it town.

Well, in football news Liverpool striker Luis Suarez has been hit with a 10 game ban for biting the Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic. The English Football Association slapped Suarez with the suspension saying the standard three match punishment, and I quote, "clearly insufficient."

Well, Liverpool FC says it's, quote, "shocked and disappointed at the severity of the ban." We're going to have more on that later in the hour.

Well, concerns of a deadly strain of bird flu would spread beyond mainland China were confirmed today when a man in Taiwan was diagnosed with the virus. Ivan Watson has more on that and a new warning on the virus coming from health officials.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Health officials in Taiwan announced that they discovered their first case of H7N9 bird flu in a human on Wednesday, this in a 53 year old Taiwanese man who traveled back from a visit to China. Up until now, all of the cases of this new strain of bird flu had been discovered only on mainland China, at least 108 cases of them, at least 22 of those people infected died as a result of the disease, showing that it is quite lethal and dangerous for humans according to the World Health Organization.

KEIJA FUKUDA, ASST. DIR.-GENERAL FOR HEALTH SECURITY, WHO: This is definitely one of the most lethal influenza viruses that we have seen so far. But I want to give you a caveat, or give you a little bit of context, we really are at the beginning of our understanding of this virus. And right now, we may just be seeing the most serious infections and it may be possible that there are people who have mild infections.

WATSON: They also are trying to figure out how it is being transmitted. So far it is mostly live poultry markets in China that have tested positive for the disease. And it is believed that it is being transmitted from the birds to humans. World Health Organization officials saying it appears this strain of the virus is more contagious than previous strains were and that it is important to maintain vigilance to try to look for this and isolate infected people so that they can carry out more research, more tests, and see if the virus is mutating.

One positive sign, it seems that closing these live poultry markets has helped reduce the spread of the disease.

Ivan Watson, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Well, you're watching CNN live from London. This is Connect the World. I'm Becky Anderson. Coming up, could this man break Italy's political deadlock?

Enrico Letta has been charged with the task of forming a government two months after indecisive elections. I'm going get you to Rome for the latest details on that.

And they say you are what you tweet. What happens if it's not you who is tweeting from your account? An in depth discussion about our online security coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: Well, after two months of political deadlock in Italy, the country's president has picked this man, Enrico Letta, to form a new coalition government. That puts Letta in position to become the next prime minister if he can build enough support in what is a fragmented parliament. He is currently the deputy leader of the center left Democratic Party.

The 46-year-old is set to become Italy's youngest prime minister in 25 years. Letta's uncle is an aid to former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi with whom he'll now discuss a broad coalition.

So, is this actually a victory for the center-right and Berlusconi and a loss for his former rival Pier Luigi Bersani?

Let's get it all sorted out, should we? Bringing in our senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman to discuss all of this.

At least one assumes we are at the end of what has been a period of political paralysis in Italy, but what does this mean, what's the significance of this -- of this news?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly we are several steps closer to the formation of a government in Italy and certainly the fact that Mr. Letta is the nephew of Silvio Berlusconi's right-hand man, somebody who has very good ties despite the party difference with Berlusconi's People of Liberty Party, that would indicate that perhaps some sort of grand coalition which joins the center-right of Berlusconi with the center-left of the Democratic Party may be in the offing.

But of course what we're also seeing at the same time are real riffs within the left, within the Democratic Party, because many of the members are very unhappy with how this current situation has been dealt with. They don't want to make a deal with Berlusconi who is seen by many within the Democratic Party, and many Italians in general, as somebody who is simply so mired in scandal that they don't want anything to do with him.

But certainly it does appear that we may in the coming days have a government.

But let's keep this all in perspective, if Mr. Letta succeeds in forming a government, it will be the 66th Italian government since the end of World War II, which was 68 years ago, Becky.

ANDERSON: Yeah, I mean, it's remarkable when you consider those numbers.

A couple of questions for you. Firstly, what happened to the clown of Italian politics, as he was once known, Beppo Grillo, who got some 25 percent of the vote in this election, who said he wouldn't do any deals with anybody. Does he get left out of all of this? I mean, 25 percent of the population, or those who voted, voted for him.

WEDEMAN: Well, he's sticking to his guns, though, Becky. He's saying he wasn't going to make any back room deals with any of the major political players and that's what he's done. And in the sense it puts him in an ideal situation for a politician like him who has got a very sharp tongue, but not necessarily much in the way of strategy to run the country. He's going to be in the opposition. And certainly as he watches this grand coalition try to coalesce, try to function, try to come up with acceptable policies, he's going to be a bit like John Stewart. He's going to have a lot of material for satire -- Becky.

ANDERSON: Ben Wedeman for you in Rome. Ben, thank you for that.

The possible end of the political deadlock, then, helping with Italy's borrowing costs at least today. Yields at an auction of two-year bonds were at the lowest level since the introduction of the euro. Investors seem less anxious of the Italian economy, it seems, certainly from the markets and viewing Letta's appoint as a step towards political stability. Likely that Letta government wouldn't stray too far from austerity and, well, you can see the result.

I mean, if you're looking for some clarity and a bit of security in what are these Italian assets, then the announcement today certainly doing no harm.

The latest world news headlines are just ahead.

Plus, a tweet, a tailspin, and a turnaround. The markets take a wild ride on Tuesday after a bogus tweet went viral. We're going to find out just what happened and how we can prevent it in the future.

And they are symbols of impeccable service and grace, Singapore Airlines puts its flight attendants through rigorous training. We're going to show you what it takes to become an iconic Singapore girl.

And what punishment does biting another player deserve? More on what Liverpool's Luis Suarez's future looks like. That of course after your headlines bottom of the hour here on CNN. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: Half past nine in London, this is CONNECT THE WORLD here on CNN. The top stories this hour.

US investigators are looking into reports that a mysterious friend may have influenced one of the Boston bombing suspects. An uncle of Tamerlan Tsarnaev says the man, quote, "brainwashed him completely." He's described as an Armenian convert to Islam.

A catastrophic building collapse in Bangladesh has left at least 80 people dead, hundreds injured, and many more trapped in the rubble. Rescued workers from the garment factory inside say their bosses initially told them not to come in today because of a crack in the building, but they say the bosses later reversed that decision and ordered them in.

A two-month long political stalemate in Italy may be on the verge of ending. Enrico Letta says he'll accept the president's request to form a new government after February elections resulted in what was a three-party split. Letta is currently deputy secretary of Italy's center-left Democratic party.

An ancient minaret in Aleppo, Syria, has apparently been destroyed. Amateur video of the mosque appears to show proof, empty space where the minaret once stood. The Syrian government and rebels are blaming each other for its destruction.

The Dow Jones plunged briefly on Tuesday afternoon after a hoax tweet on the AP news agency's account caused alarm about the safety of the White House. Now, it turned out the AP Twitter feed had been hacked, and a group called the Syrian Electronic Army is claiming responsibility. With more on what is a little-known group, here's CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The latest attacks in a war seemingly without end. The Syrian Electronic Army, a group of pro-Syrian regime hackers that has aggressively targeted major news organizations and activists, on Tuesday claimed it had targeted another organization, the Associated Press.

"Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured," read the tweet from the AP's Twitter feed. False news, but the impact was near immediate. At one point, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 145 points, but recovered quickly.

It didn't take long for the AP to respond, letting everyone know it had been hacked, even addressing what happened at the White House press briefing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want to say at the top that it appears as though AP's Twitter account has been hacked, so anything that was just sent out about any incident at the White House is absolutely false.

JAMJOOM: But who exactly is the Syrian Electronic Army? "We are a group of enthusiastic Syrian youths who could not stay passive towards the massive distortion of facts about the recent uprising in Syria," reads a statement on their website.

Over the past few months, they claimed to have hacked the BBC, CBS, NPR, Human Rights Watch, even the Twitter account of FIFA president Sepp Blatter. The group's website boasts of their accomplishments, and their Instagram page even shows screen grabs of various hacks.

Experts aren't sure if the group is affiliated with Syria's government, but Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, has praised them in the past. Twitter, for its part, has decided to take action, suspending the group's account, something it has done before, only to see the group open a new one.

And with a Facebook page, a YouTube channel, and an Instagram account, the group is very much active, leaving many to wonder when and who the Syrian Electronic Army will strike next.

Mohammed Jamjoom, CNN, Beirut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Well, the reaction on the markets was swift and steep, let me tell you. Seconds after that fake tweet went viral on Tuesday, the Dow dropped 143 points, about 1 percent of its value. Fortunately, the drop was short-lived and stocks bounced back.

Felicia Taylor is in New York for us to explain just why we believe the markets dropped so dramatically, and then bounced back almost as quickly. Felicia?

FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Becky, what that has to do is -- we're talking about high-frequency trading, or algorithmic trading. And how this works is, there are computer programs that are set in place, and there are key words that can be affected by the marketplace.

And the thing that traders that I've spoken to on Wall Street say is they can't -- a computer program can't decipher whether something sounds realistic or plausible or not. All they do is recognize words like "President," "Barack," "Obama," "explosion." And that's obviously something that's going to trigger a kind of reaction.

So, the S&P lost $121 billion in value in just a matter of minutes. Overall, market loss about $200 billion. But again, it came right back, because evidently, they were able to take it off as quickly as it was there. It was only up for about four minutes.

And Twitter, obviously, is looking at things that it can do to prevent this from ever happening again, maybe putting it -- inputting passwords and things like that.

But what this really intimates is that the SEC, because of the flash crash in May 2010, has now put into place something called limit up, limit down. That was just put in place as sort of an experiment in the beginning of this month.

And what that is going to mean is that any stock, any indices that goes up or down 5 percent will then not be halted, but it won't be able to trade with -- outside of that band, which is very interesting, because currently, they have circuit breakers that trade outside of a 10 percent correction up or down, and that's a big difference to halt these kind of massive moves that are algorithms.

ANDERSON: And you can see what a 1.5 percent move can -- the sort of damage that can be done when you quote the sort of figures that were lost on the Dow, so a 5 percent move isn't particularly good, but at least there's a circuit breaker there. All right. Felicia, thank you for that.

Now, the Syrian Electronic Army, as the group is known, isn't the first internet hacking group to stir up trouble, and they likely won't be the last. Yesterday's incident begs the question, why are sites like Twitter so vulnerable to these sort of attacks?

Joining me to discuss that is Devin Redmond, who is CEO of Nexgate, which is a company which works to stop hack jabs --

(LAUGHTER)

ANDERSON: Hack jabs. Hack jobs, I've got to put my teeth into that. Hack jobs before they've caused any real damage. Devin, by no stretch of the imagination are you the only company out there providing the sort of software which might prevent the sort of -- problems that the AP had yesterday. But certainly we can say that the AP case shows that hackers can have a huge effect, right?

DEVIN REDMOND, CEO, NEXGATE: Yes.

ANDERSON: How do they do this?

REDMOND: So, there are a variety of mechanisms that hackers can use to get access to an account. In this scenario, it's believed that it was phishing attack. Something as simple as sending an AP employee a message saying "Update your account, send us your credentials" because something's happened on the account, and tricking them into disclosing those credentials.

And in that scenario, once they have those, they can log in, take ownership of the account, change the profile picture, change the description, and start putting out erroneous tweets.

ANDERSON: How would software like yours work?

REDMOND: Sure. So, our technology and other technologies that are designed to protect accounts in particular are designed to look at anomalies on the account, sort of look at anomalies in the social networks themselves.

ANDERSON: So, use this situation as an example.

REDMOND: Exactly. So, in this situation, what would have happened is, any change to that account, somebody gets added to the account, the password changes, a profile picture is changed or the description of the account is different would have triggered a notification as well as an option to automatically remediate that.

ANDERSON: What I don't understand is, you're suggesting that if I had been working for AP yesterday and I updated my profile, your software would be watching for that. But that doesn't necessarily mean that's a hacking job.

REDMOND: That doesn't necessarily -- no. Exactly. So, it would give you an opportunity to confirm and say, yes, this was a legitimate event or not a legitimate event. If you do not confirm, then it actually takes preemptive action and removes that content.

ANDERSON: We've suggested this isn't the first tine nor will it be the last that an organization's Twitter account get hacked into. This caused a lot of damage, of course. Thank God, only short-term. How often is this going on?

REDMOND: It's going on with increasing frequency. People are realizing that it's a great platform to take advantage of, whether it's Facebook or Twitter or another social network. And the reality is, getting access to that gives you a voice to many.

Up until now, the damages have been relatively minor, right? Embarrassment, costs of remediating the embarrassment, press conferences, those types of things. But now that somebody's keyed in on the ability to do something that has a massive financial impact on the market, you're going to see it increase even more.

ANDERSON: Earlier today, Devin, Australian police arrested the leader of another hacker group. Authorities -- and I just want our viewers to be filled in on this -- haven't released the name of the suspect, but he was allegedly part of a notorious hacking group called LulzSec. He's charged with two counts of computer hacking and could face 12 years behind bars.

The company, which stands for Laughing at Your Security, has claimed credit for hacking the FBI, the US Senate, and Sony. And the SEA joined a long -- this is the Syrian Electronic Army, of course -- joined a long list of hacking groups, the most notorious of which is Anonymous, of course. It's a huge alliance of hackers who take on big targets.

Reminding our viewers again, in 2010, they froze thousands of accounts, which -- with payment companies like Visa and MasterCard, and there are various other issues around. If I were somebody running a small to medium-sized enterprise tonight, what would your advice be?

REDMOND: Sure. So, there are a handful of things that you can do to protect yourself. First and foremost is best practices. Make sure you've got a good password, recycle your password often, make sure that you don't respond to phishing e-mails that are trying to get access, verify everything that's happening.

And then beyond that, use technology to monitor your accounts and make sure that what you want to happen is actually happening.

In addition to that, a lot of people just use written guidelines and policies, and this is very similar to the early days of the internet, where enforcement was done by having something written down and saying, hey, everybody follow this.

And the reality is, you need technology to automate that enforcement as well, right? Put guard rails on the side of the road and let people go, but make sure there's some safety in place around that.

ANDERSON: Fascinating. Thank you, sir.

REDMOND: Absolutely.

ANDERSON: Live from London, you're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. Before they get their iconic uniforms, each Singapore Girl is put through her paces. We're going to get behind Singapore Airlines' intensive training course for you, the latest in our Gateway series, that's coming up next.

And another clash between Spanish and German giants in the Champions League has just finished. Stay with us for the result of Real versus Borussia Dortmund.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: She's trained to be the epitome of grace, Asian hospitality, and impeccable service. Who am I talking about? Well, it's the Singapore Girl. The flight attendants on Singapore Airlines have been synonymous with the carrier for decades, but it takes 15 weeks of training before they earn those iconic uniforms.

In the Gateway, Andrew Stevens goes to class to see exactly what it takes to be part of what is a long tradition of service.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(JET ENGINE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love straight hair. Anything that's a bit curly will mind your set. So the stem of your lashes to the ending point, that curved part, only seeing one of them.

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The rules are clear.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very nice. OK. Please make sure your band's within 6.5 to 7 CM -- not inches.

STEVENS: To become a Singapore Girl is to become part of a long tradition.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Seven CM, OK, good.

STEVENS: A symbol of service for Singapore Airlines since 1972.

(VIDEO CLIP - SINGAPORE AIRLINES 1972 AD)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, you're going to walk in twos. Remember? Know that walk. Bounce your knees while you're walking and try to keep it down.

One! Two! Three! Four!

STEVENS: We're about two weeks, now, into their training course, and today is all about body language, learning how to walk properly, how to bow properly, and most important, how to keep smiling.

After making it through multiple rounds of interviews, young men and women train for 15 weeks.

STEVENS (on camera): How well did you know about Singapore Girl when you grew up in Singapore? Was it an icon for you?

JESSLYN BIN HUI YUN, FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Yes, it was an icon. It was like a Singapore icon, as well. Because the SIA Girl declared the Singapore Girl the one occupation that we can ahead and go off in those, and without blue eye shadow and properly groomed hair. So, when you walk in the airport, everybody will be like, "Whoa, that's a Singapore Girl!"

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then you will rotate the handle in the direction of the arrow, and release, all right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Open it now! Open it now! Open it now! Open it now!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Abandon plane! Jump!

STEVENS (voice-over): But it goes beyond looks. Safety training makes up two weeks of the course, preparing them for when they finally get to take flight.

STEVENS (on camera): What do you say to the people who say that your marketing campaign is based on pretty young girl will give you great service? It's a bit old-fashioned, perhaps a bit sexist, even.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I guess the best response to that is folks choose to fly with us, and we have a very diverse group of customers. So, it's not like a certain age or a certain sex who choose to fly with SIA. So, I think there's a certain appeal in terms of the warmth, the care, this epitome of Asian warmth and hospitality that appeals to a lot of different customers, and I think that still rings true today as well.

STEVENS (voice-over): Andrew Stevens, CNN, Singapore.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: All right. Coming up after this short break on the show, the second German versus Spanish semifinal match-up in the Champions League produces another spectacular -- but it's got to be said -- pretty one-sided match. The result after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: At this time yesterday, we were talking about Bayern Munich crushing Barcelona in the Champions League semifinal. Twenty-four hours later, and it's another German club taking it to a Spanish one. Pedro's with me now for what looks like -- well, it looks like, at least, an all- German final. Listen, there's a second leg in both of these games to go, but what happened tonight?

PEDRO PINTO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think the score reads overall Germany 8, Spain 1, right? That's what we were talking about before we came on air.

ANDERSON: Unbelievable.

PINTO: Unbelievable. Borussia Dortmund battering Real Madrid at home 4-1 tonight, and they did it thanks to Robert Lewandowski, who scored not one, not two, not three, but four goals --

ANDERSON: Oh!

PINTO: -- on the night. Absolutely incredible. If you didn't know him then, you definitely know him now. Twenty-nine goals in the last twenty-seven games for the Polish international, who has now become a hero.

Borussia Dortmund has won the European Cup before, back in 1997, and it seems now they're just a small step away from the final at Wembley, where they could face Bayern Munich in an all-German final.

ANDERSON: It is remarkable. Now, you and I stood on the roof of a building at the European Championships --

PINTO: Yes.

ANDERSON: -- overlooking the stadium in Poland where this guy, if I'm right in saying, he's plays for Poland --

PINTO: He does.

ANDERSON: If I'm right in saying, he scored the first goal in that tournament.

PINTO: Yes.

ANDERSON: Remember?

PINTO: Yes.

ANDERSON: And then, Poland went on to actually lose that first game.

PINTO: You're absolutely -- good memory.

ANDERSON: And I didn't even look it up --

PINTO: Yes.

ANDERSON: -- I promise you that.

PINTO: She didn't plan this. She didn't plan this, I can confirm that.

(LAUGHTER)

ANDERSON: This is absolutely remarkable. I was thinking before I came on air tonight, do we overlook German football in Europe?

PINTO: I think in recent history, we have, but it's also because they haven't -- they haven't won the title in a while. Bayern Munich --

ANDERSON: Bayern Munich did a number of --

PINTO: Yes, Bayern Munich have been in two finals in the last three years, but I still think the Bundesliga is incredibly underrated. Their quality of football has been rising every single year, and they've proven in this season in the Champions League, placing two teams in the semifinals for the first time ever, as far as German football is concerned.

And I do think because there's perhaps not as much hype --

ANDERSON: And bling.

PINTO: -- and bling --

ANDERSON: Yes, celebrity.

PINTO: -- around German football, yes --

ANDERSON: Yes, yes.

PINTO: -- that we tend to forget about them sometimes on the global stage.

ANDERSON: It is -- I think it's fantastic, it's great to see teams playing like this, we always know to expect great things from the German team, but this -- I think these last two games --

(CROSSTALK)

PINTO: And they're all young.

ANDERSON: -- have been absolutely remarkable. Yes.

PINTO: Young German players --

ANDERSON: Yes.

PINTO: -- that are -- that have been homegrown. So, it's a great model they have over there in the Bundesliga.

ANDERSON: Very, very briefly --

PINTO: Yes.

ANDERSON: -- ten match ban for Luis Suarez for biting an opponent, fair or not?

PINTO: I said earlier in the office before the ban was announce that I thought he was going to get ten games, so as far as I'm concerned, it's fair, because there's been previous cases --

ANDERSON: Because you were right.

PINTO: No, no. Because --

(CROSSTALK)

ANDERSON: Go on --

PINTO: -- they've been previous cases --

ANDERSON: Yes.

PINTO: There was the -- and EFA said it took previous cases into consideration as well -- there was the racism last year. There was another bite that he had had in the Netherlands as well. I can tell you who's not happy about it at all, obviously, is Suarez and Liverpool.

They released a statement saying that both the club and player "are shocked and disappointed at the severity of today's decision. We await the written reasons tomorrow before making any further comment."

ANDERSON: Good story. Has legs. Still.

PINTO: Yes. I think there's an appeal on the horizon.

ANDERSON: Ped, always a pleasure, thank you.

PINTO: Yes.

ANDERSON: From bans to doping and the latest in the Godolphin stable scandal. For that, we've got another one of my sports colleagues. Don Riddell joining us from CNN Center on that story for you. A big day for them on Thursday, it sounds like, Don.

DON RIDDELL, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's when the Godolphin trainer who's at the center of this absolutely massive doping scandal, Mahmoud al-Zarooni, is going to have to face a disciplinary hearing of the British Horse Racing Association.

He is accused of breaching, I think, 15 codes of conduct in the British horse racing rules. So, he is in a lot of trouble. He's got an awful lot of explaining to do.

Also, I can tell you that on this Wednesday, the owner of the Godolphin stable, Mohammed -- sorry, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, issued a statement on how he feels about what's been revealed in the last couple of days. Hopefully we can bring you that statement.

He said, "I was appalled and angered to learn that one of our stables in Newmarket has violated Godolphin's ethical standards and the rules of British racing. There can be no excuse for any deliberate violation. I've worked to ensure that Godolphin deserves its reputation for integrity and sportsmanship, and I have reiterated to all Godolphin employees that I will not tolerate this type of behavior."

Becky, we have, of course, covered on many occasions professional athletes -- humans -- doping in sport, but we're not too familiar with how it would work in the world of horse racing, so our Atika Shubert has been speaking to an expert about that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIK BELLOY, HORSE VETERINARIAN: There is the other side, which is the one that this whole scandal is about, which is the anabolic steroids.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BELLOY: And they build up muscle mass so, effectively, make the horse stronger, make it put on maybe more weight, growth. One of the drugs that's involved is actually the same drug as Ben Johnson was found to be taking.

SHUBERT: Wow. I understand that using the kind of -- anti- inflammatory steroids is fairly common.

BELLOY: It's fairly common, yes, that would be fairly common. Because horses are athletes, they will get injuries just like human athletes would, and in order to treat them and keep them under control, they will be given sometimes corticosteroids.

But these steroids are not allowed to be used right ahead of a competition, so it has to be taken -- it has to be given some time away from competition so that you're not actually either falsifying the competition or enhancing the horse's performance, and also to make sure that the horse welfare doesn't get compromised.

Most of my clients are horrified that -- to find that horses have been sort of getting doping in them. And also, of course, the horse welfare, that's really, as vets, what we are most concerned about, to make sure that horses aren't pushed beyond their limits and that the competition remains fair.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RIDDELL: Becky, this is, of course, an absolute mess for the horse racing industry. It's highly embarrassing for the Godolphin stable, and we'll be hearing much more about this, of course, on Thursday.

ANDERSON: Yes. That's right. Don back with all your sports news on "World Sport" half an hour from now. Thank you, sir.

All right. From Hurricane Sandy to clashes in Cairo, iReporters have helped CNN cover some of the world's biggest stories by sending in their pictures -- or your pictures -- and video. Now, we are honoring those of you who've contributed in the third CNN iReport Awards, we've chosen 36 nominees in 6 categories, and today we want to take a look at the hopefuls for the Compelling Imagery prize.

(VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Over the coming weeks, we'll be showcasing the nominees for other categories. The winners are going to be chosen by a panel of CNN experts. But we do need your help. To vote for the special Community Choice Award and find out more about other nominees, do go to cnnireportawards.com. That's cnnireportawards.com.

I'm Becky Anderson, that was CONNECT THE WORLD. Wherever you are watching, we thank you for joining us.

END