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American Woman Killed in Syria; Umbrella Fired Fatal Ricin Ball; Bee Winner Spells Dumpling Name; Outcry as Detroit Weighs Art Sale
Aired May 31, 2013 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: CNN has now talked to the family of the woman reportedly killed in Syria. Her passport, Michigan driver's license, they were shown on Syrian state TV. Now they identify Nicole Lynn Mansfield as one of three Westerners killed while fighting alongside the rebels in Syria. Mansfield's grandmother and aunt told us today that FBI agents visited them in person to give them the news.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAROLE MANSFIELD, MANSFIELD'S GRANDMOTHER: I'll never stop loving her. In spirit always.
MONICA STEELMAN, MANSFIELD'S AUNT: We can't control what she believed in. We could try to maybe help her. But when she set her mind to something, that was it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Nicole Lynn Mansfield's father told us that he notified the FBI a few years ago that his daughter had converted to Islam, but he had no idea what she was actually doing in Syria.
The Justice Department says Attorney General Eric Holder told the truth when he testified before lawmakers this month. Now some Republicans, they're questioning Holder's statements about the investigation into the leaks of classified material. Now Holder told lawmakers that he wasn't involved in the possible prosecution of journalists.
But there are reports that he signed off on a decision to seek a search warrant for a FOX News reporter. The Justice Department says that Holder's testimony was accurate and consistent with the facts.
And authorities questioning someone in Texas about the threatening letters that were sent to the president as well as the mayor of New York. Early tests show that the letters sent to Mayor Michael Bloomberg contained a small amount of the poison ricin. Final results are expected today.
Now tests for ricin are also being carried out on the letter that was sent to President Obama. An official says that letter looks similar to the one sent to Bloomberg. Now all the letters were postmarked from Shreveport, Louisiana. Now the letters to Bloomberg threaten to kill anyone who tries to take away their guns. Ricin, one of the deadliest toxins known to man, less than a pinpoint can kill a person in 36 to 48 hours. But using it as a weapon, not as easy as it sounds. Since the 9/11 attacks, there have been six attempted ricin attacks here in the United States. No one was injured or killed. Most of the cases remain unsolved. But that said, it has been used successfully as a weapon.
One of the most infamous examples dates back to the Cold War. The murder weapon, not a tainted letter, was more along the lines of James Bond.
Gary Tuchman's got the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Georgi Markov was a beloved influential novelist and playwright in his native country of Bulgaria but he defected to the United Kingdom in 1969 when communist authorities started to censor him and ban his plays.
In September 1978, Markov walked across the Waterloo Bridge over the River Thames. After he got to this bus stop he felt a sharp pain in his right thigh and later said he remembered seeing a man next to him fumbling with an umbrella. What Markov did not know is that he had just been victimized in a James Bond-like Cold War plot.
The umbrella was actually a poisonous gadget that shot out this tiny platinum ball, a ball containing the deadly poison ricin.
In this documentary, "The Umbrella Assassin," which aired on PBS, the emergency room doctor who treated him tells what happened when Markov came in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I first saw him, he was fully conscious. He was feverish but he was also pointing to an area on his right thigh which he said was swollen and painful, and indicating that this was the area in which he'd been shot, stabbed or something had happened to him.
TUCHMAN: Four days later, Markov was dead. His widow Annabel also appeared in the documentary.
ANNABEL MARKOV, WIFE: He told me that he'd been jabbed with an umbrella tip. It was almost as if he didn't want to believe it himself, and I don't think he wanted to frighten me with it. But he showed me the mark that the umbrella had made.
TUCHMAN: This document allegedly shows the former Bulgarian leader paid $50,000 to have Markov killed. Other Bulgarian communist officials and Soviet KGB officials were implicated but no individual has ever been charged with the murder.
In the documentary, Markov talked about government plots against him and defecting from Bulgaria. GEORGI MARKOV, WRITER: I don't want to say that I am, let's say, braver or more honest than other people. Perhaps if I were more honest, I should have been there, because if you're honest you should stay there and fight the battle there, not being here.
TUCHMAN: Markov was 49 when he died, a victim of ricin and the Cold War.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: And we're doing a quick check of the markets here. Right now the Dow is down four points. And it looks like it may well end up being a great month for investors however. And we are looking at -- we hope the Dow expected to finish the month at least this is 3 percent higher than where it started.
And this is a trick question kind of, sort of. Can you spell knaidel? Knaidel is the word. A 13-year-old nailed it at the National Spelling Bee. New champion, he's going to join us up live next.
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MALVEAUX: All right. The winner of this year's National Spelling Bee, 13-year-old from New York State, eighth grader, Arvind Mahankali, had to spell out the name of a type of dumpling. That's right. I want you to check out the winning performance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARVIND MAHANKALI, NATIONAL SPELLING BEE CHAMP: Knaidel. K-N-A-I-D-E- L. Knaidel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Wow. Arvin won $32,500. It was the last year that he was actually eligible to be in the contest. And Arvind Mahankali and his father, Srinivas Mahankali, joining us from Washington.
Congratulations to both of you. Great to see you, Arvin.
SRINIVAS MAHANKALI, FATHER OF NATIONAL SPELLING BEE CHAMP: Yes.
MALVEAUX: Tell us about that word. When you've heard -- is it knaidel?
A. MAHANKALI: Yes.
MALVEAUX: Yes. Did you recognize it? What did you think when you heard?
A. MAHANKALI: I remembered it. I remembered that I studied it a short while ago. And so I asked for (INAUDIBLE) and its definition just to confirm that it was what I thought it was. MALVEAUX: And when you finally got through it and the confetti was falling, I mean, did you finally say, god, you know, the last couple of years I was in third place, I finally got this thing?
A. MAHANKALI: Well, I mean, like, at that time I realized that I won, but it didn't exactly register. Like I didn't appreciate the magnitude of what had just happened.
MALVEAUX: Uh-huh.
A. MAHANKALI: So I was sort of been shocked.
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: When did it hit you? When did it hit you?
A. MAHANKALI: I think it will fully hit me by about 5:00 today.
(LAUGHTER)
MALVEAUX: 5:00 this morning?
A. MAHANKALI: I mean like a few hours after now, it might hit me.
(LAUGHTER)
S. MAHANKALI: He's still in the process of digesting.
MALVEAUX: It's still a shock. And the proud dad. I mean, you're beaming from ear to ear here. How did this happen? I mean, was this years and years and years of hard work? How did you guys do this?
S. MAHANKALI: It's tremendous hard work on his part. You know, and he's totally committed and very motivated to do this. You know, so it's -- really proud. And I'm really proud of this.
MALVEAUX: Were you --
S. MAHANKALI: And --
MALVEAUX: Were you sweating during the whole thing?
S. MAHANKALI: Not really. Actually, I told him that I'm -- I'll be happy, you know, whatever is the result. So we were pretty cool.
MALVEAUX: And how did you guys prepare? What did you do? Were you a part of drills? Did you read the dictionary? How did you actually get to this point where, you know, you're the best, you're the absolute best?
A. MAHANKALI: My dad collected words for me. So I studied those words. I had my mother quiz me on them occasionally. And my brother quiz me on them. I also browsed the dictionary whenever I had time. So I look for interesting words and I read them. And I read their definition for support to become familiar with them. MALVEAUX: And we see this is a dumpling, this is a very special word. Give us a sense, you know, you got $32,000, more than $32,000, your whole future ahead of you, you're only 13. What's next now that you're not going to be spelling?
A. MAHANKALI: Now that I won't be participating in spelling bees anymore, I plan to study physics and math. So I want to hopefully do well in the math Olympiads and physics Olympiads next year.
MALVEAUX: And I understand you're looking to Harvard maybe, is that right, in your future?
A. MAHANKALI: Yes. Either Harvard or MIT. I hope to get into either one.
MALVEAUX: I think you've got a pretty good chance. I'm a Harvard gal myself. And I did not -- I did not know how to spell. So I think you'll be just fine.
I want to thank you guys both. Dad as well. You must be very, very proud of him.
S. MAHANKALI: Thank you. Very proud.
MALVEAUX: Clearly this is a very bright future for both of you. Thank you so much.
S. MAHANKALI: Thank you.
MALVEAUX: Good to see you. Congratulations.
S. MAHANKALI: Thank you so much.
MALVEAUX: Sure.
Check out the video. This is a small plane going through the roof of an apartment building. We're going to tell you what the pilot said as he stumbled, he stumbled out of this wreckage.
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MALVEAUX: The heart of Turkey's biggest city looks more like a warzone today. Check this out. You're looking at police -- this is in Istanbul -- firing teargas at protesters who have been staging a sit-in at a park. They've been there for the last four days. And they're angry about plans to turn the park into a shopping mall. Well, police used water cannons to help break up that sit-in. And many of the protesters fought back. They threw bottles, they set up barricades. About a dozen people reportedly injured.
And a California man has been charged with murder after his four pit bulls attacked and killed a woman earlier this month. The Los Angeles County D.A. received at least three other reports of Alex Jackson's dogs attacking people since January. Police say that 63-year-old Pamela Devitt was walking or jogging east of Los Angeles when the dogs mauled her. Devitt died in the ambulance from blood loss after suffering 150 to 200 puncture wounds, bites, that's right.
Legal experts say a murder charge is very rare in the case of a fatal dog mauling. Well, prosecutors have to show the owner knew of the great danger he was creating by letting his dogs run loose.
Virginia family got a very rude awakening about midnight last night. Imagine this, a plane slammed into their living room. Amazingly nobody was killed. But the pilot hurt pretty badly. A woman in the house needed medical help as well, as you can imagine. Four adults, two kids were sound asleep when the plane got low in fuel, then had electrical problems about a mile from Dulles Airport.
Well, one of the people inside said the pilot stumbled out of the wreckage, believe it or not, said, "I think we hit your apartment." Yes, I think so. He's lucky. And observant.
And ever wonder what a guinea pig, yes, a guinea pig, tastes like? Anthony Bourdain, he can tell you. He went to Peru for this weekend's brand new installment of "PARTS UNKNOWN." Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTHONY BOURDAIN, HOST, CNN'S PARTS UNKNOWN: There's one thing you need to know about Peru is it's big, that there's ocean and mountains, Amazon. Peru you think Machu Picchu and don't they eat hamsters there? For a long time now we've been hearing in the States that Peruvian cuisine was going to be the next big thing. Chocolate. What could I say about chocolate? It's a perfect stocking stuffer, Mother's Day gift, Valentine's Day gift. And before chocolate hit Europe, this is what the Aztec kings would bring.
It's always fun to travel with Eric.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we'll just sip our cooler, Tony. I can't wait.
BOURDAIN: You know, the best thing about this whole trip is Eric was identified as me in the newspaper. Could prove useful. What does it mean? The para-god. I was fascinated by the display of pre-Colombia erotica at the museum.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I should have known that.
BOURDAIN: I guess there really is nothing new under the sun. You think you invented something and, nope, Peru still manages to amaze.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Never thought about what a guinea pig tasted like. Nice furry creatures. But "PARTS UNKNOWN," Anthony Bourdain all over Peru this weekend. We'll bring it to you. Tune in or set your DVR for 9:00 p.m. on Sunday.
And are you in the market for some art? Well, maybe Van Gogh, Rembrandt, well, Detroit. We're going to tell you why Detroit might actually be putting up some of the masters on the auction block. That is right. Just ahead.
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MALVEAUX: Want to bring you some dramatic live pictures here. This is out of Houston, Texas. This is a hotel that is on fire. You can see the aerials from there from our affiliate. This is KPRC.
The huge big black billowing smoke that is coming from that facility there, it is a four-alarm fire. A reporter on the ground saying that this fire might have started in the sports bar. You can see as they zoom in there, just dramatic flames, really engulfing that building.
There are fire crews that are on the scene. You can see that they've blocked off the street as well. It is close to the highway. But lots of personnel that are there, and you see the emergency crews as well as many of the fire trucks that are parked along the side. We have seen firefighters that are on site, very close to the flames, with hoses trying to get that out as quickly as possible.
We don't know whether or not there's anyone inside of the hotel at this moment. But certainly we see some people on gurneys there that are near the ambulance. We're going to have more details. We'll bring that to you as soon as we can.
It is almost like a going-out-of-business sale in Detroit, really. Potentially on the table, we're talking about Van Goghs, Rodin, as well as Rembrandts. This is a scenario that is kind of disturbing really to art lovers, but Detroit, so much in debt, it is considering all options to raise billions of dollars, including selling that art.
Poppy Harlow explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Matisse, Renoir, Van Gogh. Diego Rivera's iconic Detroit industry. Treasurers of the Detroit Institute of Art.
GRAHAM BEAL, DIRECTOR, THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS: So this is a Monet.
HARLOW: A Monet that could be sold to pay down Detroit's debt. More than $15 billion in debt, Detroit's emergency manager Kevin Orr asked the museum for an inventory to appraise its 60,000 pieces.
BEAL: They basically let us know that the collection was not off the table.
HARLOW (on camera): What makes Detroit unique is that the city actually owns all of the art here. Making it vulnerable for sale. In most cities, a nonprofit owns the art.
(Voice-over): In a statement, Orr insists there is no plan on the table to sell any asset of the city but says it is possible that the city's creditors could demand the city use its assets to settle its debts. That's if Detroit files for bankruptcy. (On camera): What did you think when you heard that this was under consideration?
LAURA BARTELL, LAW PROFESSOR, WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY: He has got to look at what assets Detroit has, what they are worth, and whether they should be sold.
HARLOW: Would it be irresponsible for him not to do this?
BARTELL: Absolutely.
HARLOW (voice-over): But the possibility of selling off beloved masterpieces is sparking heated debate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I cannot even imagine this not being here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's one of the things that to me makes the city worth going to.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope it doesn't get sold off.
HARLOW (on camera): What would the sale of this mean?
BEAL: It would be a tragic irony. The first U.S. museum to acquire a Van Gogh in 1922 and then 90 years later, we sell it.
HARLOW (voice-over): Some works were donated with the mandate they not be sold. Most, though, are on the table.
CHARLES PUGH, DETROIT CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT: How in the hell are you going to sell a Renoir or a Van Gogh or a Jacob Lawrence painting to pay our bills?
HARLOW (on camera): But this city is more than $15 billion in the hole.
PUGH: I know. But, see, selling your art work should not be one way to fix it. It's like selling your kids. There are other assets that we can leverage and get this money that we need.
HARLOW: What power do you have?
BEAL: We have the power of the courts. We will defend, we'll do everything we can to defend the integrity of this collection, yes.
HARLOW (voice-over): As have people in three counties, who voted last year to increase their own taxes to support the museum when the city no longer could. But if Detroit goes bankrupt, nothing may be able to save these masterpieces.
Poppy Harlow, CNN, Detroit.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: Well, that's it for me. CNN NEWSROOM continues after this break. Have a great weekend. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
