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Rain in Colorado; Jersey Boardwalk Fire; Kerry Calls Syria Talks Constructive; Death of the Rapping Terrorist; Accused Killer Bride Out of Jail

Aired September 13, 2013 - 14:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Biblical flooding -- not my word. That's straight from the National Weather Service as folks in Colorado are trapped as the flood waters are rising.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OMAR HAMMAMI, RAPPER: It all started out in Afghanistan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: A jihadist rapper from Alabama targeted by his fellow terrorist said, but is he really dead this time?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, NEW JERSEY: We are tough and we stand together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Fire on the boardwalk. And now, the recovery.

Plus, cyber bullying blamed for another child suicide. This time, she was just 12 years old.

And Julie Chen admits to help her career she had surgery to fix her, quote, Asian eyes. So how common is this?

Great to be with you on this Friday. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Here we go. Yet another day of rain in northern Colorado. Exactly what these folks do not need. Some parts of the state, look at this, have gotten nearly 12 inches of rain in the last 48 hours. Just the sheer volume and how fast the water is moving here in front of these homes. So far, three people have been killed by the storms. We know that the National Guard has been called in. But the weather is so bad, its helicopters can't get off the ground. More families are being evacuated from their homes today, and the governor says people need to stay off the roads.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. JOHN HICKENLOOPER (D), COLORADO: Even just a foot and a half of water can knock people over and you can be swept away. There's - it's much, much different than normal water that you see going down a - down a mountain stream. So we're asking people to be exceptionally careful and to, if at all possible, stay off the roads.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I want to bring in both George Howell, who is standing, it looks, in the midst of some of that rushing water in Boulder, Chad Myers sanding by as well.

And, George, first to you. Just set the scene for me. Tell me exactly where you are and how bad it is.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK, Brooke, so we're in Boulder. Let's talk about it in different phases. So, the last 24 hours we dealt with the storm, a lot of rain, a lot of water rushing down the road. Now it seems like we're dealing with the cleanup. I mean you see the bulldozers here. They, you know, started the process of moving a lot of the mud, a lot of the rocks. There's a lot of debris that came through as these floodwaters pushed downstream.

And now we're also seeing, you know, people are coming out to kind of look at it. You know, it's been a soaking 24 hours. People are coming out to see what's - you know, what the situation is. Jonathan, I don't know if you can pan over here to show what the people are doing as far as cleaning up, you know, trying to move the debris from in front of their yards, in front of their homes to, you know, get back to some sense of normalcy here.

But looks can be deceiving because we do still, Brooke, have a lot of running water down these neighborhoods. There are still areas that are cut off because of all of the rain that came in a short amount of time. Keep in mind, there's the evacuation in Lyons, Colorado. Thousands of people who have been moved to higher ground because, again, it's a lot of water that still has some - it's got to go somewhere, and it's pushing its way down the hills.

BALDWIN: Yes, George, thank you.

Chad Myers, I was reading about -- in some of the local papers, reading about Lyons and a couple other towns -

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

BALDWIN: Who, right now, are just absolute islands. Water on all sides. And looks to me, we talked about this yesterday, here we are again, it's not getting better.

MYERS: No, and roads are washed out.

BALDWIN: Yes.

MYERS: You can't even get there. You can call out the National Guard all you want. If the National Guard can't drive a truck up the hill and they can't fly a helicopter to come get you, you're in trouble.

And something else. I was very happy to see Victor not knee deep or waist deep in that water because, folks, that water's not clean. I know it just looks muddy, but there's a lot of other stuff in that water flowing down the hill. We've had 15 inches of water almost coming down in Eldorado Springs. Eldorado Springs. And Boulder at 12 inches. Aurora had 11.5 inches yesterday. And again, all that water is either going to go into Nebraska, it's going to go to Kansas, it's going to go in the Platte River, it's going to go in the North Platte River. I saw the north fork of the - of the roaring - just almost like the Left Hand Canyon and also up into Big Thompson Canyon was higher this flood than in the epic flood of 1976.

BALDWIN: Wow.

MYERS: So this is more water than Colorado, the front range, has ever seen in some spots. And then you could see some of the water start to move things downhill.

Now that the ground is so saturated, you could begin to see the next thread, would be mudslides. And you don't want to be on a road trying to get somebody out of the way when that land above you starts to mover. It's like you have a cold front that doesn't move. It's called the Rocky Mountains. The air goes up the mountains and it rains. And it rains in the same places and it has been raining in the same places now for a couple of days. And this isn't over. We have three more days before it finally stops.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: We are thinking about you, Colorado. Chad, thank you.

And from one disaster there to a different kind of threat for folks in New Jersey. Firefighters on the New Jersey shore. They are working still this afternoon to put out the hot spots in this fire that actually started in a custard shop, ripped through New Jersey's iconic boardwalks. And the fire, I don't even know if difficult is the best word here to fight. I mean it was enormous, this effort, hundreds of firefighters. This thing burned for nine hours and destroyed four blocks of Seaside Park. This is a popular kid's area. And parts of Seaside Heights. This now is the aerial picture of what it looks like today. Just charred black. This same area, I don't have to remind you, this was all just rebuilt after Superstorm Sandy hit 10 months ago. Just this afternoon, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is vowing to rebuild yet again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I will not permit all the work that we've done over the last 10 months to be diminished or destroyed by what happened last night. We're going to get back on our feet. We're going to do what we need to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Chris Welch is live there for us there on the New Jersey boardwalk.

And I see them working behind you, Chris. Let me just ask you this, do we know yet how this fire started?

CHRIS WELCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's really the question of the hour, Brooke. And we seem to be asking that question to the officials, to the fire officials, to the governor about every hour, as much as we can. The governor actually held a press conference this morning and he reiterated the fact that they do not know exactly what caused this fire.

We do know that Ocean County prosecutors have investigators on the scene. And I actually just spoke to a public affairs director with the prosecutor's office and he tells us, look, you know, it really may be a few days at least before we know, before we know anything, really, about what could have started this. He says, you know, this fire has been smoldering.

Take a look behind me, in fact. You know, they're still dousing water on some of these hot spots just to make sure nothing pops up again. And, you know, that's the concern right now is that it had just been too hot for investigators to go inside. So they've really just been able to go inside and start looking.

BALDWIN: And can we talk about these firefighters, Chris? These firefighters, you know, I was reading "The New Jersey Star-Ledger" this morning, and what really struck me was the enormity of this battle to fight this thing. I mean 400, 500 firefighters, up until 10:00 last night. Let me quote part of the paper this morning. "At the height of the blaze, hundreds of firefighters battled one obstacle after another to keep flames from spreading north into Seaside Heights. At one point," (INAUDIBLE), "at one point firefighters battled 30-mile-per-hour winds and embers the size of small birds." Tell me about their efforts.

WELCH: Exactly. It's those winds that made things so difficult. And you're right, 400 firefighters on the scene. I mean you saw those pictures. We all saw those pictures. Just looking at them today, it's still incredible. They were dealing with a massive fire here. And the winds, those 30-mile-per-hour gusts that they were dealing with, were carrying those embers the size of small birds that you mentioned, carrying them, in some cases, across the street. Actually the only time we know of that the embers reached another section, in addition to the boardwalk, it reached a condominium. Luckily, these firefighters were able to put that out before it spread, you know, across the street here, but it took out four blocks of boardwalk, and some reports say up to 50 businesses lost.

BALDWIN: We'll be talking to some of those business owners at the top of the next hour who just reopened in July and here they go again. Chris Welch, thank you.

Crucial talks on the crisis in Syria extend now into day two. Secretary of State John Kerry describes them as quote/unquote "constructive." He is meeting with Russia's foreign minister on a plan for Syria to give up its chemical weapons. Kerry says both sides want a diplomatic solution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: I will say on behalf of the United States that President Obama is deeply committed to a negotiated solution with respect to Syria. And we know that Russia is likewise. We are working hard to find the common ground to be able to make that happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So now there is talk that the current negotiations could help jump start talks to end the fighting all together. Kerry and Sergey Lavrov plan to meet later on this month as well. Matthew Chance is covering the talks for us in Geneva.

And, Matthew, Syrian President Bashar al Assad wants the U.S. to absolutely call off this threat of a potential military strike or attack. The U.S. says no. so how serious is this possible roadblock?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think it's a pretty serious roadblock. It's probably the principle obstacle in the way between the Americans and the Russians in forging an agreement on this issue of chemical weapons. Of course, remember, it's the Russians as well that believe in principle. That the idea of a country like Syria being forced to disarm, while another country, the United States, has -- is preparing a military strike against it potentially, is something that is not conducive to that happening. And so they're very much working against that. They want the United States to lift that threat of military action against it. The U.S., for its part, believes that without the credible threat of military action against Syria, nothing will happen and it won't live up to the commitments that it hopes Syria will make.

BALDWIN: What about some of these meetings? We mentioned that Kerry and Lavrov, they'll be meeting later on this month. We also know that Kerry will be traveling to Jerusalem Sunday to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. What's the purpose of that trip?

CHANCE: Well, that trip is sort of unrelated in the sense that it's to primarily discuss the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. That was, of course, set into motion once again last month on the initiative of the U.S. secretary of state. Lots of issues to discuss in terms of the sort of final status issues to try and get these two sides to give some ground and to compromise, to forge some kind of agreement that may produce a two-state solution.

But, of course, the issue of Syria is going to be discussed and undoubtedly the outcome of these talks on the chemical weapons issue of Syria will be discussed at length between the secretary of state and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Matthew Chance, thank you so much, for us in Geneva, Switzerland.

Coming up, he is a jihadi, he's a rapper, and he's from Alabama. And apparently he's dead because he ticked off his al Qaeda bosses. Wait until you hear why.

Plus, a story that will infuriate you, as it did me. This 12-year-old girl kills herself after being bullied online. But it's what she left behind that is raising all sorts of questions. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: One of the most wanted terrorists in the world, a rapper jihadist from Alabama with a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, reportedly has been killed in Somalia. Not by an American drone strike, rather gunned down in an ambush set up by very frustrated, ticked off former bosses here, the al Qaeda affiliate there, al- Shabab. This man's name is Omar Hammami. He was known as "the American." That's it, "the American." He was social media savvy. In fact, here's one of his raps from YouTube.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OMAR HAMMAMI (rapping): (INAUDIBLE) keeping them captives (ph) living in fear. It all started out in Afghanistan when we fight the oppressor straight off the land. The union crumbled, crumbled and tumbled, (INAUDIBLE), (INAUDIBLE) power withdrawn (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Hammami was also prolific on Twitter, where he often slammed al-Shabab's leadership in tweets like this one. "Shabab has changed strategy from choosing best of legit targets to hitting whatever target they can and then legitimizing it later."

Now, this isn't the first time Hammami's been attacked and reported killed. He posted these pictures last April after an attempt on his life. He then tweeted this, quote, "just been shot in neck by Shabab assassin. Not critical yet."

As I said, Hammami's been reported killed before, only to emerge alive each and every time. So this time, is it real? J.M. Berger runs the website intelwire.com. He also wrote the book "Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go To War in the Name of Islam."

So, sir, welcome. And I know you follow Hammami, you monitor all these jihadist social media sites. Is this latest account of his death credible?

J.M. BERGER, EDITOR, INTELWIRE.COM: Well, it's definitely more credible than anything we've heard before. The news of the attack on Hammami first came from al-Shabab social media users. Previous reports had been sent by the amazon, the African union force in Somalia and the Somali government. So there sources were pretty weak. It was kind of wishful reporting in some ways. If they hadn't heard from him for a while, they thought he was dead. These were coming from people involved with al-Shabab so - and their accounts that I had been following for a while and had a pretty high degree of confidence in.

BALDWIN: J.M., I just want to talk about his background because here you have this guy, raised in a suburb of Mobile, Alabama. This guy was the president of his high school, went to Bible camp. So, connect the dots for me. How did he end up fighting with al Qaeda in Somalia?

BERGER: It was a strange path for a strange guy. You know, Hammami was converted to Islam as a teenager. His father was Muslim, although not -- they didn't practice it growing up. His mother was Christian. And, you know, a lot of converts get very deeply engaged in the religion and can sometimes wander into sort of extreme areas. And I think Omar, you know, al-Shabab, in trying to discredit him sort of famously called him a narcissist, and, you know, I think - I think, and I think Omar would have admitted that there was some truth to that. He had a very high expectation for himself, let's put it that way. And he didn't go halfway on something. He went all the way when he could.

BALDWIN: So does that have to do with why he broke from al-Shabab?

BERGER: I think it did. He had specific grievances with al-Shabab. I mean part of the reason he broke with al-Shabab is that al-Shabab is pretty terrible. So his complaints included that they were assassinating leaders within the group who expressed dissent. They treated the foreign fighters, like himself and some others, badly. There was inequitable distribution of war spoils. He had a number of complaints. They sort of all boiled down to al-Shabab being corrupt and brutal in a way that he felt was not consistent with jihadist values.

BALDWIN: And so much of his frustrations were, you know, leaked onto Twitter. I mean how entrenched, bigger picture, J.M., in terms of, you know, social media, is it in this greater terror movement?

BERGER: Social media is really enjoying a surge in terms of how it's used by extremists now. And, you know, Omar's presence on social media was a big deal, actually. It sent a lot of people to Twitter to argue with him and dispute with him and criticize him for airing his grievances in public. And more broadly, you know, the old Internet forums, the message boards that al Qaeda used to use, have suffered a lot of outages in recent years, probably due to attacks by western governments, and so those users have gone to social media and they decided they really like it.

BALDWIN: J.M. Berger, thank you very much.

Coming up, TV star Julie Chen made a huge admission this week about surgery she had to her face. We're going to discuss the pressure she felt to change.

Plus, they promised till death do us part. Just eight days later, a tragic end to this young marriage. The bride is accused of shoving her new husband off a cliff. And next, the song they had written for their wedding that could hold strange clues surrounding the groom's death.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: This wasn't at all the way honeymoons are supposed to end. A 22-year-old newlywed charged with killing her husband is now out of jail. She is accused of pushing him off a cliff all of eight days after they were married. She's now in home confinement in her parents' home and Kyung Lah reports that that news of her being out, not exactly sitting well with some.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jordan Graham, out of jail, returned home, crouching in her parents' car, probation officers' papers in hand, spoke with the now infamous bride as she began home confinement as ordered by the judge. A slap in the face to friends of Cody Johnson.

MAXIMO ROCHA, VICTIM'S FRIEND: I want them to do the right thing. I want justice for Cody.

LAH: But the judge released Graham, ordering her to electronic monitoring at her parents' home before her second degree murder case goes to trial, saying she has "no criminal history whatsoever" and never "exhibited tendencies for violence or even anger," except for the charge that she pushed her husband of just eight days off this sheer cliff, face first in Glacier National Park, killing him.

ROCHA: He didn't deserve whatever end she gave him. He never earned anything that Jordan did to him. And I disagree with all of my heart at what the justice system is saying is fair.

LAH: It was just a short time ago that the couple appeared happy and in love in their first dance at their wedding. While the groom's friends describe the bride as having cold feet, Elizabeth Shea remembers her as a normal bride, excited about her life with Johnson. Shea is a custom song writer. She says the bride hired her to write the lyrics to a song honoring the couple based on interviews she did with them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (singing): Everyone wants a safe place to fall.

ELIZABETH SHEA, CUSTOM SONGWRITER: I used words like, "you helped me to climb higher for a better view," "you're my safe place to fall," "you never let me go." And so now when I hear those words, it's a little creepy.

LAH: Eight days later, Johnson fell to his death, allegedly pushed by the very bride who danced this prophetic song with him.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Missoula, Montana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: In court today, the Graham's attorney says it was all an accident. She never meant for this to happen.

Coming up next, the talk host Julie Chen, opening up about her plastic surgery years ago, and the pressure she says she felt to change something very specific on her face to look, as she put it, less Asian. Why she made that decision.

Plus, harrowing pictures of the devastating floods in Colorado. As the waters rise, these people documented the destruction firsthand, and with even more heavy rains predicted for the weekend. That is next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)