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Castro Brothers Speak To CNN; New Cell Phone Video Of Rescue; Neighbors: Raze The "House Of Horrors"; Six Killed In Pennsylvania House Fire; "Tsunami Of Ice" Slams Lakefront Homes; Barbara Walters To Retire Next Year; Surviving 16 Days Under Rubble; Bangladeshis May Get Pay Raise; Pakistani Girl, Father To Be Honored; Coke Says It's Curbing Ads To Kids; Chilly For May; IRS Targeted Conservatives

Aired May 13, 2013 - 10:00   ET

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

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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN HOST: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, a CNN exclusive.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A monster, hateful, I hope he rots in that jail. I want him to suffer in that jail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Ariel Castro's brothers talk of curtains covering his doors and music always playing and how now it all makes sinister sense.

Plus, the miracle in Bangladesh, surviving on dried biscuits and rationed water for 17 days. Meet one amazing survivor.

And the IRS says, I'm sorry, four singling out Tea Party groups.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The fact that the IRS was doing this is absolutely disgusting. It's an abuse of power.

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COSTELLO: This morning, a call for heads to roll. And full geek alert. NASA Commander Chris Hadfield bids farewell to space. You are live at the CNN NEWSROOM.

And good morning. Thank you so much for being with me. I'm Carol Costello. We begin in Cleveland this Monday morning, anger, betrayal, maybe even hatred. The brothers of Ariel Castro want him to rot in jail. They break their silence in a CNN exclusive.

And the moment that night near ended, we will show cell phone video of police rushing into that house of horror and whisking two of the women to freedom. A monument to the women's triumph over one man's cruelty, Cleveland workers board up the so-called house of horrors. Neighbors want it erase from their scarred community, burn it, bulldoze it even blow it up.

But first up, CNN's exclusive interview with Pedro and Onil Castro, police have publicly cleared them, but they fear they are doomed to a lifetime of whispers and suspicion. Martin Savidge has their story in their own words. Marty, before you begin, why do they want to talk? Why do they want to tell the world their story?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, two reason, Carol, number one, they want to say that they are so thankful that those young women are finally free and, number two, they wanted people to know that they had nothing to do with it. That was all said, but I had questions with them beginning with, what do they think of their brother now?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: What is your brother to you now?

ONIL CASTRO, ARIEL CASTRO'S BROTHER: A monster, a hateful, I hope he rots in that jail. I don't even want them to take his life like that. I want him to suffer in that jail to the last extent. I don't care if they even feed him for what he has done to my life and my family's.

PEDRO CASTRO, ARIEL CASTRO'S BROTHER: I feel the same way.

SAVIDGE: To the both of you now, he no longer exists?

PEDRO CASTRO: Right.

SAVIDGE: He is gone?

ONIL CASTRO: He's a goner.

SAVIDGE: Almost as if he were dead.

ONIL CASTRO: The monster is a goner. I'm glad that he left the door unlocked or whatever he did. Whether he did it on purpose, maybe he wanted to get caught. Maybe he was inside too much. He wanted to get caught. If he wanted to do that, he shouldn't have gone to ma's house and put me in the car if he knew that was going to happen.

SAVIDGE: If you could talk to Gina, if you could talk to Michelle, if you could talk to Amanda, and in a way you are, I guess, what would you say?

PEDRO CASTRO: I would tell her, I would tell them that I'm sorry that you had to go through this. That I always was thinking about these girls being missing and I'm just grateful that they're home and, you know, out of that horrible house. And I just, I'd just tell them that I'm sorry for what Ariel done because, see, I'm not much -- it's Felix, I know him for a long time, and when I find out that Ariel has Gina, I just -- I just broke. I just broke down because it's shocking. Ariel, we know this guy for a long time, Felix, and --

SAVIDGE: And this is Gina's father?

PEDRO CASTRO: Gina Dejesus. And you got his daughter and you go around like if nothing, you even went to the -- you give his ma a hug. You got his daughter captive.

SAVIDGE: Onil, same thing?

ONIL CASTRO: Same thing. I also want the families to get the justice to the fullest extent and I don't want to ever, ever, see anybody in this world, this has turned my heart apart. This has killed me. I am a walking corps right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: You know, Carol, I heard that line right there that you heard Onil say I am a walking corps right now. It really struck me when he said that. Much of that interview, of course, strikes you, but those words, they really did, really did hit me -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Tell us a little bit about how they are living. I know they are hiding. They are living in hiding with their mother so what are their lives like?

SAVIDGE: Yes. Well, they're frightened. They are actually in a number of locations. It's specifically handled so I didn't know where they were or where they are because if anybody ever asked I didn't want to lie. So I don't really know where they are. All I know is they are spread out.

I know that they had been living in hotels, something they really can't afford. They don't have money, but yet, it was something they had to do. They felt for their own safety. They are hoping, Carol, by speaking out, by getting this word out that they can go home because they know they can't keep living as they are.

COSTELLO: Martin Savidge reporting live from Cleveland for us. Thanks, Marty.

We are also getting a look at the chaos that ensued in the moments around the rescue of those three women one week ago now. The cell phone video was taken last Monday as police first arrived at the house where Amanda Berry, her daughter Jocelyn, Gina Dejesus were kept for nearly a decade.

Eyewitnesses now coming forward who were there when the three women first came outside, our national correspondent Susan Candiotti, has their story.

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SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And where did you see her, Amanda and her little girl?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coming down the street.

CANDIOTTI: And then everything unfolded right here?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): These two women happened to turn on to Ariel Castro's street and found themselves smack in the middle of an amazing escape to freedom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Amanda walking down the street with a cop right when the cop asked her who are you, she passed us and said Amanda Berry.

CANDIOTTI (on camera): When you heard the name Amanda Berry and you knew exactly --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Me and her looked at each other and we had goose bumps and then we pulled up our hoodie and like, you know --

CANDIOTTI: Goose bumps.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It hit us quick.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When she said Amanda Berry I saw it in her eyes and I knew it was really her. She had tears coming down her face.

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Jasmina pulled out her cell phone and rolled video as police ran to Ariel Castro's house looking for other victims. Then her phone ran out of power.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've seen Gina coming down the steps shaking real, real, real hard, like she was cold and they took them to the ambulance.

CANDIOTTI: They watched Gina Dejesus, Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and her daughter taken away by ambulance. On Mother's Day, special prayers of thanksgiving at Holy Family Catholic Church for the women's freedom --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight, Gina Dejesus.

CANDIOTTI: The crisis management team stepped in to represent the women at no charge, pleading for privacy, but passing along the victims' thanks -- from Amanda.

JIM WOOLEY, ATTORNEY FOR CLEVELAND VICTIMS: I am so happy to be home with my family.

CANDIOTTI: From Gina.

WOOLEY: I want to thank everyone for all your prayers.

CANDIOTTI: From Michelle.

WOOLEY: I am healthy, happy, and safe, and will reach out to family, friends and supporters in good time.

CANDIOTTI: Castro's home now finally boarded up, sealed as evidence. A city councilman allowed to stand in the backyard overcome by what the women endured for a decade.

BRIAN CUMMINS, CLEVELAND CITY COUNCIL: You can't help but feel like, you know, the presence of -- of this enormity of -- of the event. I mean, it's unbelievable. CANDIOTTI (on camera): What did you picture in your mind's eye of what those women went through as you stood back there?

CUMMINS: It's just horrors, absolute horrors.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Susan Candiotti now joins us from Cleveland. Susan, we know that Ariel Castro's brothers are living in fear. We also know that neighbors who live besides that house of horrors, they want the house burned down?

CANDIOTTI: Well, some people do want that to happen and, certainly, it would be understandable. Those who don't want to simply look at anymore that house known as that house. Other people are talking about having it torn down and eventually putting up a memorial of some kind or a monument to indicate what happened there so that people don't totally forget.

I think would be hard to do in any case. But the fact of the matter is, Carol, nothing is going to happen to this house in the very near future, not until all the criminal proceedings are over and done with. This is a crime scene and it must be preserved until the authorities are done with it.

COSTELLO: And after that, of course, the neighbors will have to deal with it. Thank you, Susan. In a little bit, we are going to talk with Councilman Brian Cummings who represents that district to find out more about what eventually will happen to this house.

Checking our other top stories at 10 minutes past the hour, a tragedy in Pennsylvania, six people have died after a house goes up in flames. The fire started late last night, four children among the victims. When firefighters got there, flames were shooting out of a second floor window. No word on what caused the blaze.

In Canada, it is being called a tsunami of ice. Look at this, giant walls of ice some reaching 30-feet high slammed into about two dozen homes, ripping off their roof and forcing people to run for their lives.

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DONNA BILLOWS, RESIDENT: I saw the ice just coming, just moving so quickly, bang, the ice came right through the living room here. He said, grab your purse, grab whatever you can, get the keys. We got to get out of here.

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COSTELLO: I have never seen anything like that. Reporter Cade Malone with CKDM Radio joins me now on the phone. He is at Dolphin Lake in Manitoba, where all this went down. Thanks for being with us, Cade.

CADE MALONE, CKDM REPORTER (via telephone): It's great to be with you, Carol. COSTELLO: OK, so first of all, help us understand how this happened, how these tsunamis of ice form and then actually move and go into people's homes.

MALONE: Well, if you can imagine a freight train. The first thing you need to know is that Dolphin Lake is a very long lake. It's about 35 miles long. So we have been having some really warm weather lately. Now the ice has been softening up, breaking up a bit.

So basically, on the weekend, we got these really massive strong winds from the north and once this ice was softened up and was breaking up a bit, the wind just pushed it into the shoreline. Now, if you can imagine a freight train 35 miles long that hit the brick wall.

Basically what will happen is that the front will get crushed, but the rear cars will just keep pushing and pushing. So what happened is that the ice that was further into the middle of the lake was still moving. It just kept pushing the ice, pushing the ice, and basically created these huge mountains of what were essentially crystals, ice crystals, chards of ice.

And basically, they built up these huge mountains. They kept mush pushing the mountains and pushing until it just kept crashed into the homes and cottages.

COSTELLO: It's almost like a glacier moving and hitting your homes. How fast do these mounds of ice crystals move?

MALONE: Well, the municipality, the officials from the municipality told me the whole event once it hit the shoreline only took about 10 minutes. So it was really quite fast. And the witnesses I spoke to said, you know, it's interesting we use the analogy of a long freight train, but that's what it sound like. They said it was just this massive roar. The ice just kept moving on shore and led into homes.

COSTELLO: We can see the damage it caused. Some homes seemed to be torn off their foundations. Am I looking at that picture right?

MALONE: Yes, that is exactly what you are seeing there. Basically, some of the houses were pushed right off their foundation. Others houses stayed on their foundation, but the ice just came through and on top of and crushed them and pushed them aside. It was like nothing I've ever seen. It was amazing.

COSTELLO: You are not kidding. I think that's the understatement of the year. Cade Malone, thank you so much for helping us to understand. We appreciate it.

MALONE: A pleasure, Carol, thank you.

COSTELLO: Barbara Walters, she's retiring. The legendary broadcaster is expected to announce her retirement today on the show she created back in 1997. That would be "The View." Walters began her on-air career back in 1961 on NBC News' "The Today Show," where she would later become the first woman to co-host in 1974. Two years later, NBC hired her away to become the first woman to co- anchor ABC "World News Tonight" for an unprecedented salary at the time of $1 million per year. Walters who was 83-years-old has been with ABC ever since.

She's going to announce her retirement as I said on "The View." We expect her to announce that she will retire in 2014 and she will be sorely missed, what a pioneer, one of my idols, actually.

Next in the NEWSROOM, your kids may love drinking Coke. But the soda giant is vowing some major changes involving that soft drink. We'll tell you about them.

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COSTELLO: Recovery operations at the sign of a factory collapse in Bangladesh are expected to end tomorrow, 1,127 bodies have been pulled from the mounds of rubble over the last 19 days. Authorities believe now there is no chance now of finding any more survivors and that makes the story of one young woman even more incredible. CNN's Sumnina Udas reports.

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SUMNINA UDAS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just a day after 19-year-old Reshma was pulled out alive from the rubble of a multi-story building 16 days after it collapsed, doctors say she is recovering well and out of danger.

Reshma, a garment factory worker and a mother was able to find a gap in the building rubble large enough for her to stand and to sit, but there wasn't enough room to lie down. She told rescue workers she survived by eating dried biscuits and drinking small amounts of water.

RESHMA, SURVIVOR (through translation): Every so often, I look for water and I found a little bit and drank it. Then I didn't find anymore. With a lot of painful effort, I climbed down stairs by using a stick to break through tiny spaces. I called for help, but no one heard me.

UDAS: Rescue workers did eventually hear her though, they were looking for more bodies trapped in the rubble when they heard her faint voice calling out for help.

MOHAMMAD RUBEL RANA, RESCUE WORKER (through translation): And I looked through and I saw someone calling, please save me, instantly I called the army and firefighters and said, please, look, I heard a sound. Then they saw her and confirmed there was a woman.

UDAS: As workers used hand saws to try to free her from the rubble, a crowd of hundreds had gathered to cheer, pray and watch the miracle unfold. Reshma's family overjoyed and overwhelmed by the news rushed to be by her side.

AYESHA, MOTHER-IN-LAW OF RESCUED WOMAN (through translation): I am very happy that she is alive. At least my grandchildren got their mother back. All my grandchildren are now overwhelmed.

UDAS: Even amid the joy of Reshma's survival, though, rescue workers are now returning to the grim task of retrieving more decomposing bodies. More than 1,000 people were killed. Officials say there is very little chance they will find any more survivors. Sumnina Udas, CNN, New Delhi.

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COSTELLO: Just an incredible story. The garment factory is raising questions about whether the lives of workers in Bangladesh can be improved. Christine Romans is following that part of the story for us. Christine, I mean, is there any chance that wages could rise in these factories due to this horrible tragedy?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: There is a chance, Carol. Two big developments happening right now in the Bangladesh story, one is that the government has formed a wage board to review whether they need to raise the minimum wage. The last time they did that was in 2010. The last time the minimum wage was raised was in 2010.

You know, these folks make $38 a month. These garment workers and many of the women. The 90 percent of the industry is women. Many of the women say they have to borrow money before the end of the month to make it through. So this is one reason why the EU Trade commissioner has called this modern day slavery.

It's not really even enough for them to survive on. They get caught in the cycle of borrowing money to make it to the end of the month and then going back into the conditions. The other development that we are watching here this evening in Bangladesh is that because of unrest, following horrible, horrible conditions in that factory collapse.

They have now shut down the major garment hub because workers for several days haven't been coming to work or they have been coming to work and they have been just slapping down their card and walking away. So there are some 1,000, maybe 1,500 factories according to one of our fixers on the scene that have been shut down now.

So the workers are standing up at this point as well. So there is a lot of pressure on the government or the factory owners to raise those wages. Let's really be clear here. At $38 a month, Carol, that's still less than half of what a worker gets in, say, China, $138 a month. Even if they doubled these wages, they'd still be the cheapest in the world.

COSTELLO: And safe working conditions? They pay them nothing and then -- that's just unbelievable.

ROMANS: It really is. They're going up so fast, Carol. I mean, there is so much demand for American consumers for fast fashion and European consumers. They're building these factories like crazy. There are so many orders. There is so much demand for cheap clothes that the factories are turning out as much as they possibly can. This is the result.

COSTELLO: Christine Romans reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

It's 22 minutes past the hour. Time to check other top stories, Malala, the Pakistani girl who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban is in the United States today. She and her dad are being honored in Oklahoma City for their work in promoting education to young women in Pakistan. Malala's father runs the all girls institution that she attended when she was shot.

Coca-Cola is pledging to take on the obesity around the world and to curb advertising its sugary drinks to kids. One of the beverage giant's new commitments is to offer no or low calorie drinks globally. Still some critics are skeptical saying Coke is just trying to deflect criticism of its sodas.

It feels more like winter in the middle of May in parts of the country. People in the Ohio River Valley, Great Lakes in New England woke up to freeze watches and warnings. But there will be a warm-up by mid-week. We promise. NEWSROOM will be right back.

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COSTELLO: Tea Party targeted. An audit about to be public says IRS agents were singling out groups with Tea Party or Patriot in their name. As one lawmaker puts it, it's chilling. If true, it means the government agency was targeting people just because of their political affiliation. That would be a big no-no.

Chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash is on Capitol Hill. Dana, some says this sounds Nixonian.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Some are saying that. Republicans need to be careful, of course, because we don't yet know if President Obama was at all involved or knowledgeable or anyone in the White House for that matter so that would certainly be the thing that would make it Nixonian.

Regardless, this is I think in a bipartisan way very, very troubling. For two reasons, first and foremost, just the idea that the IRS or agents were targeting specific groups and then secondly, from the perspective of people here in Congress, why they didn't tell members of Congress.

We obtained some information that kind of gives our viewers time line of what we're talking about here. Let start going back to March and April of 2010, we are told by our documents that we have obtained that is when, Carol, IRS agents started searching for political sounding names like "we the people" or "take back the country."

Then in August of that year, there was be on the lookout internal IRS memo sent specifically to look for these and other groups with names like Tea Party then if you fast forward to June of 2011, that, we learned, based on information that we obtained this weekend was when the director of exempt organizations was first briefed on the efforts. If you fast forward again, March 2012, the IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman, he came to congress and denied that they were targeting groups for political reasons. So what this tells us are a few things. Number one, of course, that we had the information that they were actually doing this.

And this of course, comes from an internal audit you talked about. But I think, more importantly, for people here in Congress the fact that this official, Lois Lerner was briefed back in 2011, why didn't she tell Congress and, more importantly, the commissioner, himself, he probably testified saying that there was no targeting at all and that was simply not the case.

So those are many, many questions that members of Congress want to get to the bottom of. Of course, you know, Tea Party groups, they tend to back Republicans, but this is bipartisan when it comes to the outrage and the concern here in Congress.

COSTELLO: So just so people clearly understand, these Tea Party groups, these conservative groups were applying for a non-profit status, right?

BASH: That's exactly right. They were applying for non-profit status. What these IRS agents, who started this targeting were trying to do was to determine whether or not they should get the status. What the IRS says is that this was a mistake, but it was simply a shortcut. It wasn't a way to target them for political reasons.

There is a lot of eyebrow raising here in Washington and everywhere, that that was really the case. It really was done for political reasons. We should know more when the full audit comes out sometime this week from the IRS. Of course, as you can imagine, Carol, we are hearing from the House, Ways and Means Committee and others that they are going to do an investigation.

They are not going to let this go because I should say, the Tea Party obviously, I should take a step back the Tea Parties were, they came to life. They were created by the people who are a part of them, in large part because they are concerned about bureaucrats and the government getting too big for their britches so to speak. So the irony and outrage about this can't be underscored enough.

COSTELLO: And our next guest will most likely bring that up. Dana Bash, thank you so much.

Joining me now is Justin Benicthomas. He is the founder of the Cincinnati Tea Party. Thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.