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Ebola Patients Being Treated in Atlanta; Russia Builds Up Troops at Ukraine Border; 1.2 Billion Passwords & User Names Stolen; Israeli and Palestinian Delegates Meet for Peace Talks; Egyptians Hoping to Extend Cease-Fire

Aired August 06, 2014 - 06:30   ET

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

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: But as you have pointed out, one of the problems with this is in the only has it ever been given to humans before, but also, they are in short supply of this serum as well. Do they have enough?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no, very good points. You know, again, they were the first people to ever try this. That's very unusual. Typically, it goes through a clinical trial process, test to see if something is safe, something is effective, and then whether you can offer it to a larger number of people.

I will tell you that this particular product, we've been doing a fair amount of investigation, it can be scaled up, if you will more quickly. It can be actually grown through certain plants, and in this case the tobacco plant. It's a fascinating process. They actually take a single gene and insert it into the plant and the plant is taught how to make those antibodies which can have this significant impact.

We don't know how long it's going to last. We don't know if it will have the same benefit in other patients as it did in Dr. Brantly and Ms. Writebol but it looks pretty promising when nothing else really exists.

BOLDUAN: It sure does.

And when you look at scope of the threat which really obviously is centered in West Africa right now. We just received news this morning that Nigeria's reporting, Sanjay, they have five more confirmed cases of Ebola, two deaths, and this is all related to folks who came in contact with that American man who is traveling in Nigeria, Patrick Sawyer. It really just shows what a huge threat this still is, which does beg the question with -- with Writebol and Brantly being treated in Atlanta, at what point, Sanjay, and the doctors say they do have reason for hope, at what point do we know that they are safe, that the threat is gone? How do they know?

GUPTA: Well, there's two of two components to that and you need both. One is as far as they go, you know, these two particular patients, want to make sure that they are actually feeling well, that physically they are more robust and able to care for themselves and get up and around, you're also going to make sure that they are still not shedding the Ebola virus, which can persist in someone's body fluids even after they start to feel better.

So, that is -- those sort of two criteria are what's going to be really important for them and it's roughly the same criteria that people use in other hospitals as well.

BOLDUAN: And from your perspective, is this a long-term stay in the hopes that they do continue on the road to recovery or with the experimental serum described as a miraculous turnaround for Kent Brantly, do you think this could be coming in short order that they could be recovered?

GUPTA: I think they're still going to be here for several days, because even if they do feel better I think, you know, making sure that there's no more virus in -- that they could potentially transmit. So that's going to be the isolation part of it alone I think will probably last several day and they're going to be checking their blood often just to answer that question.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely and even doctors, I know you have pointed out they have to check their temperature twice a day to make sure that there isn't any issue as they're trying to help patients recover all along the way, just shows the scope of the threat, and then you look overseas and they need a lot of help in West Africa right now.

Sanjay, thanks so much. Sanjay is on top of this story for us. We'll check back with you later.

Let's take a break, though. Coming up next on NEW DAY, it may be cyber crime of the century. Seriously. Russian hackers reportedly steal more than a billion user names and passwords. What you need to know to try to protect yourself against this. That's coming up.

Plus, new details about the peace talks scheduled to take place in Cairo, between Israel and Palestinian factions of Gaza. We have more on that. That's supposed to start up today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The world is telling Russia to back off in Eastern Ukraine and the response seems to be a resounding nyet. There are now 20,000 Russian troops assembled just outside of eastern Ukraine, a doubling of forces that coincidentally comes as Ukraine's military is gaining control in the fighting in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk. Moscow is ignoring its own buildup and will only say eastern Ukraine is a humanitarian catastrophe.

Nick Paton Walsh has more from there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Chris, that Russian force on the border isn't really enough to occupy territory but it is in the words of one NATO official to seriously intervene here in Eastern Ukraine, special forces, anti-aircraft, artillery, armor, highly mobile.

The question is Moscow who supported, many say, and armed this separatist insurgency here definitely on back foot in the face of an advancing Ukraine army, we heard gunfire, in the center of Donetsk last night and we know the army is advancing towards the city center over that hill behind me. In the light of that advance, does Moscow do nothing and let the separatists directly go to the wall or does it do something to change a situation?

When you hear Moscow talk about the catastrophe, are they laying the groundwork in their eyes to send a small force in to intervene and remind Ukraine its neighbor who they want to consider a boss in that region -- Chris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: The question is are they going to reach in to help stop something or reach in and make it worse?

Our thanks to Nick Paton Walsh. We'll get you more from that in just a little bit. But right now, over to Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Chris. We're actually going to stay with another issue that stems from Russia.

It could be the biggest data breach ever. A group of Russian cyber criminals have stolen 1.2 billion -- yes, you heard me, billion with B -- 1.2 billion user names and passwords. The security company that uncovered this breach says the hackers stole the information from more than something like 420,000 Web sites. It probably means one of the ones you've used.

Poppy Harlow is here with the details.

This is astonishing, just the breadth of it, 1.2 billion.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, right. You know, four times the U.S. population. It's an incredible number.

This is by all accounts the biggest data breach yet. It wasn't discovered by the government. It was discovered by a Milwaukee-based security firm called Holden Security.

We talked to the founder last night about it, and he said what's interesting about this is that they weren't trolling for your financial data. They weren't breaking into your bank account. They were basically sending out spam e-mails to market things like different weight loss pills, things like that. But what they do think is that they were gearing up for something bigger so they were able to fly under the radar for a long time.

This was affecting big Fortune 500 companies and tiny little mom and pop shops with Web sites. They have fixed and closed the loophole on a lot of the Web sites but not all of them. Not putting the names out there what companies may have been affected which makes it hard for me and you to know, hey, have I been to that Web site, have I been hurt?

But he pointed out that Fortune 500 companies and small companies at this point are still vulnerable. They are leaving themselves exposed to all of this. An interesting factor and analogy made it we keep our homes tidy. We don't keep our online lives tidy and it's kind of true. We don't do the things we need to do to protect ourselves.

Maybe it's not so harmful this time but 1.2 billion, you got to think that there was a bigger goal here.

PEREIRA: You look at the law of averages, look around our studios, that means several of us were likely hacked.

HARLOW: Right.

PEREIRA: Here's the question, how well we know that we've been hacked?

HARLOW: So, you may know if your friends email and say, hey, did you send me this odd e-mail with the links?

Don't ever open those links, folks, by the way. Don't ever do that. So your friends may alert you. Not like a sure fire way to know, oh, I've been hacked, this happened this morning, this happened today.

But this company Holden Securities is saying they are setting up a way in the next few weeks for you to contact them and for free they will tell you if you were vulnerable or part of this hack, not all hacks, this hack. Also, companies can pay them and pay other security firms to let them know.

PEREIRA: Obviously, the best thing is to change your password, right?

HARLOW: Change it. I mean, I make the mistake for having a similar password for a lot of things.

PEREIRA: Poppy Harlow rule.

HARLOW: Yes, exactly, Michaela rules. Don't do that. It's hard to remember different passports, there's this great apps on your smartphone online where can you save all your different passwords and it's secure.

PEREIRA: I was going to say, I don't need them hacking that Web site.

HARLOW: Apparently they are secure, so they say. You need a different password for everything.

Also, what we're seeing increasingly is this double factor identification. Websites prompting you --

PEREIRA: Verification.

HARLOW: All companies should have this. Websites prompting you for two passwords to get in. That's going to make you a lot safer. This is the reality we live in and 1.2 billion people were hacked.

PEREIRA: Keep your online life as clean as your real life. I like that. Good analogy from Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes, I don't do it, but I will try.

PEREIRA: Well, good words.

All right. Let's go from that to this and see if our forecast is any cleaner. Our meteorologist Indra Petersons is -- well, she's on her way into the studio to tell us about the forecast. I hear there's rumor of some rain in the Southeast. We'll find out or in the Northeast after a break. Kate, I'll send it over to you.

BOLDUAN: All right, Michaela. We'll over to Indra in just a second.

Let's take a break, though.

Coming up next on NEW DAY, Israeli and Palestinian delegates, they are in Cairo this morning for peace talks. What do the two sides want, and what can they realistically get?

We'll take a look.

CUOMO: Sorry. Plus, another green on blue attack in Afghanistan. An American general killed. What does this mean for the mission there? Can we trust the people we're training? Is it even worth the risk? We have top military experts and we'll put the questions to them and they will weigh.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back to NEW DAY. Let's get a look at the forecast with meteorologist Indra Petersons. Indra, what do you see?

INDRA PETERSONS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Its supposed to be summer, right? You look at the map, it looks good out there, we're talking about temperatures. Pretty much comfortable no matter where you look but then you know that is not the complete story because, yes, it is raining in a lot of places today so it's not that perfect. Midwest, also even to the northeast we're talking about a cold front. A couple of lows are out there so where you have the lows themselves, you're going to have more instability. What does that mean to you? More rain, the heavier rain.

We're talking about especially out towards St. Louis, they were having a threat of stronger thunderstorms, but no longer a severe weather threat. If you want to track it as we're getting closer to the weekend, as I know you do, as you go towards the northeast, high pressure. That's going to be building in. Its going to be nicer as you go towards the weekend. But all that bad stuff going down to the southeast. That's where we're talking about the rain as you go towards Friday so that cold front ,again is sagging farther down to the south.

What are we watching as far as rain totals? Heavy, once you're talking about the southern portions of the midwest. 2 to 4 inches kind of spreading in towards the southeast, again, as you get closer towards Friday and Saturday it's going to progress even farther down to the south. Bertha, giving you the update, notice kind of offshore of New York. When I say offshore I mean really far offshore and also weakening right now. The current stats bringing in 15 miles per hour so just a tropical storm. Meanwhile on the opposite side, right side of the eastern pacific, we are talking about the threat for still for two hurricanes that are out there. We have Iselle and Julio. Both of them bee lying it straight for Hawaii. The good news, they're expected to weaken and just make landfall as tropical storms over the next several days. By Thursday night and Sunday we do have that threat for these storms to make a landfall. Kate?

BOLDUAN: All right, Indra, thank you very much. So, delegations from Israel and the Palestinian factions are in Cairo this morning preparing to begin talks through Egyptian officials, to negotiate a long-term peace deal. Both sides coming to the talks with key demands. So let's talk about what those demands are, let's break them down and also let's also break down what they realistically can get in this environment. Let's bring in Peter Beinart CNN political commentator and contributing editor for "Atlantic Media" and a senior columnist for the Israeli newspaper "Haaretz". Peter, its great to see you. As we were just saying we talk about these demands a lot but to understand them and understand how important they are and what the history is of them I think is really key when you look as they start these talks off. Israel and Gaza, the biggest, I think we could argue, the biggest demand coming from Gaza, coming from Palestinian factions is to remove the blockades. Explain to folks what the blockades are. Why were they put in place by Israel and Egypt some seven years ago?

PETER BEINART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right. Israel started actually restricting movement in and out of Gaza earlier, back in 1991 after the first Intifada because of security concerns. After the election of Hamas, Israel pulled its settlers out of Gaza in 2005. In 2006 there was an election that Hamas won, then Hamas took control militarily in the Gaza Strip in 2007.

BOLDUAN: And that speaks to the fear that Israel had and why they put the blockade in place.

BEINART: Right. Israel was concerned, wanted to prevent military goods from coming in. Also Israel, as an Israeli officials said, they also wanted to show Palestinians that they would be punished by electing Hamas and that they would do better in the West Bank where the more moderate Fatah was in office.

BOLDUAN: What did that do for the people of Gaza?

BEINART: So that had a very, very damaging effect on the people of Gaza. In 2007, Israel made it hard to import very many goods into Gaza and also very hard to export goods out of Gaza. Now, after 2010, after the round of fighting then, Israel loosened the restrictions on goods coming in, so it is easier. They do bring a lot more goods into Gaza now. The problem is it's hard for Gazans to afford those because it's still extremely difficult for Gazans to export out of Gaza. That's why such a huge percentage of the population is now on food aid because Israel makes exports from Gaza into the West Bank and Israel very difficult.

BOLDUAN: And the fear for the part of Israel and why this is a huge question or a concession is the fear that this would allow easing these restrictions would allow Hamas to re-arm and rebuild tunnels and also the part of Egypt. Egypt, if you look in this border. There's -- the Rafa border, this is also blocked off.

BEINART: Right. And what's different now -- what's different now from the last round of fighting is you now have an Egyptian government under Sisi that is very hostile to Hamas. Remember, Hamas is the Palestinian wing of the Muslim brotherhood that Sisi has been cracking down on very aggressively in Egypt. So what's new in this conflict is the kind of de facto partnership between Israel and Egypt, both a very hostile view towards Hamas and both want to try to close off access for Hamas from potential weapons to come in.

BOLDUAN: With that in mind then, how open is open enough? I mean, you can see a scenario where people -- where the Palestinian factions, no matter what Israel says in terms of loosening restrictions won't be happy with what Israel is prepared to do.

BEINART: Right. The reality, the problem Israel has is it wants Gaza demilitarized but it won't go back to sending its own soldiers permanently to control Gaza. The cost economically, the human cost to Israeli soldiers, the risk of their lives is simply too high. So although Israel wants the demilitarization of Gaza I don't think Israel has the capacity to bring it about. The best Israel could probably do from a security point of view, its destroyed a lot of the tunnels and some of the rockets that Hamas had. It may be able to have tighter control at the borders, especially if it brings in the Palestinian authority.

BOLDUAN: Right.

BEINART: That's Mahmoud Abbas. His forces into Gaza, they may have some tighter control of the border but it's not going to be demilitarized in the way Israel would like.

BOLDUAN: And that you're speaking to the key demand coming from Israel at this point is demilitarizing Gaza. How do they actually go about that? How would they realistically go about trying to achieve that.

BEINART: You couldn't realistically go about doing that unless you go house to house throughout Gaza which Israel is not willing to do. I think the best Israel can expect is that it has degraded a lot of Hamas' capacities and the capacities of other Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip, and now it may be able to have tighter restrictions on weapons and dual-use technology coming in especially because of the cooperation from Egypt. But this is the tragedy, Israel may feel it has good reasons to not allow concrete to come into Gaza, for instance, because concrete was used to build these tunnels, was so frightening to Israelis, they could have allowed fighters to get in. But how ordinary Palestinians also need concrete in order to rebuild from the terrible devastation of this war. You have something that from the Israeli point of view that looks like a totally legitimate security concern, but from a Palestinian point of view it looks like a grave humanitarian concern. That's the tragic conflict here.

BOLDUAN: And also just the reality in dealing with Hamas. What would the likelihood that Hamas would agree to disarming its military wing?

BEINART: No, this is Hamas' leverage, Hamas is not going to disarm. Hamas believes that in fact in using military forces the way it gets issues on the agenda and the way it tries to get concessions. And so, no, Hamas is not going to withdraw. I really believe that ultimately you need a political strategy against Hamas. You need elections, and you need to bolster those Palestinian factions that have accepted Israel's right to exist so that they would have an advantage in those elections. A military strategy against Hamas without a political strategy I think ultimately doesn't work.

BOLDUAN: To get to that political strategy, to get to those elections that though requires quiet and requires a long-term kind of a peace agreement, some kind of a long-term cease-fire that right now is tenuous at best. What do you think is the best possible -- I don't even know if we can call it a middle ground for the talks that will supposedly start up today in Cairo?

BEINART I think the best leverage we have is the fact that you have a Palestinian unity government that was created earlier this year. That creates an opening, a legitimate opening for the Palestinian authority to have a presence in Gaza.

BOLDUAN: Because right now Hamas is the governing party of Gaza.

BEINART: Right, and that would reassure Israel to some degree.

What I would hope ultimately would be a Palestinian unity government could be a way to go to Palestinian elections and Hamas would run in those elections. That doesn't mean Israel has to accept Hamas fire. If Hamas attacks, Israel should respond. ButI think ultimately the best hope for Gaza is a Democratically elected legitimate Palestinian leadership that can then negotiate with Israel for a two-state solution.

BOLDUAN: Because these two demands they seem almost diametrically opposed of what they want. Open up the blockade but that gets to the fear that speaks to why Israel wants to demilitarize Gaza at the same time. Seems hard to have both of those happen at the same time.

BEINART: Right, ultimately the best trade-off I think would be tougher controls on military goods coming into Gaza coupled with more opening for civilian goods to allow the economy to flourish, but, of course, with so many dual use technology items it's hard to determine what's actually a piece of military hardware.

BOLDUAN: What's good for the people and what's going to be used for military use.

BEINART: Exactly.

BOLDUAN: Peter, thanks so much for laying it out for us as the Cairo talks are set to begin today. Chris?

CUOMO: Kate, we're following a lot of news this morning so let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The situation obviously on the ground in Gaza is dire to say the least.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The main goal was to deal with the tunnels. They are no longer a threat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are working to extend the cease-fire (inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The shooter dressed in an Afghan military uniform used a Russian-made machine gun.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A top American general, the first killed in overseas combat since Vietnam.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Writbol was wheeled into Emory by workers in haz- mat suits.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't know if these two patients were improving on their own or if it was all because of this experimental drug.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to NEW DAY. We want to stay on the fragile peace in the Middle East because we're at a critical point right now. Delegations from Israel and the Palestinian factions are set to begin talks today. The cease-fire between the two sides runs until Friday morning with the Egyptians reportedly trying to buy some time and extend it until Sunday. Let's get right to Jake Tapper he's live in Jerusalem this morning and the politics here are very complex, to say the least, but they do hinge on current cease-fire, yes?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Chris, and we're one- third of the way into the 72-hour cease-fire. The good news, no one has yet broken it, but with those indirect talks not having started yet in Cairo, an Israeli government source actually tells me that the Israeli delegation has not arrived in Egypt yet, but there's already talk by the Egyptians of extending the cease-fire a few days to give these talks time to begin. That's a proposition that a spokesman for Prime Minister Netanyahu told me in the last hour that that was fine with the Israelis, they are fine extending the cease-fire indefinitely, he said. Of course, the thorny issues come next. Israel will not meet directly They want them Hamas disarmed, what they call the demilitarization of Gaza. The Palestinians want the end of what they call the siege of Gaza, they want more freedom of commerce, to be able to move inside and outside the country. They want the lifting of what they see as Israeli and Egyptian blockades and those details are going to be really tough, Chris. CUOMO: I tell you, it makes American politics look like child's play

in some ways, Jake, and when you look at the situation, a big part of the focus has been that Israel has needed to go into civilian areas. It says it has to do that to target where the attacks are coming from, and then we hear about this new video. Tell us about what some Indian television station believes it captured.

TAPPER: There's a reporter with NDTV who was at his hotel and right outside the window he was able to see in this very populated area a group of individuals. We suspect that they are militants likely with Hamas, but we do not know that for sure, setting up a tent, constructing something, burying something and then from that exact same site launching a rocket into Israel. It does suggest proof of what Israel and others in the media have been reporting, and Israel has been using as their justification for hitting population centers that Hamas and other Palestinian militants are firing missiles, firing rockets rather from these population centers. Of course, there are those in the human rights community that says that does not allow or give the green light to Israel to hit back with the force they are using, but it is proof that Hamas is doing that.

CUOMO: And the strength of the pushback obviously is what you are seeing there happening all around you in Gaza. How bad is it for the people who are there?

TAPPER: Well, hospitals are absolutely overwhelmed. Patients are still coming in. Humanitarian workers told me this morning that they need emergency water equipment as soon as possible. They say basic items such as foods, blankets, mattresses, hygiene kits, medicine, they are getting in. The real issue they are having is with items such as basic construction materials and also the -- the devices that they use to carry water. Those items, Israelis often consider them duel use, meaning they could be used for terrorism.