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At This Hour

Remembering Michael Brown; Flight Diverted After Bomb Threat; Stopping ISIS from Getting to America; Funeral for Michael Brown

Aired August 25, 2014 - 11:30   ET

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


DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: It is an American problem, Donna Brazil, and so much so -- I don't think this is choosing sides. But it is a big enough American problem that the White House chose to send three representatives here today. Why is that?

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN COMMENTATOR: Don, everyone recognizes this is really a turning point, maybe a tipping point. We have seen so much death, mayhem, civil disobedience and dysfunction. I think this is a day that we celebrate and understand that Mike Brown was a young man. He had a life, perhaps a good huge life before him. He was tragically killed. We don't know everything yet, Don, and I think we have to constantly caution and be patient until the justice system is completely worked out, but today I think we should focus on the home going service, a part celebration, a part funeral. What they are going to, talk about Mike Brown, his life, the people he made laugh, the future that he was thinking about when he decided to get his grades in order, to complete his graduation requirements. I think we're going to hear about Mike Brown the way his family wants him to be remembered, and hopefully today wealthy about the Mike Brown's in our own lives and our community and hearts and make sure we though them the love, the support that they need to ensure that these children will have a future and I'm glad that the White House sent three representatives.

LEMON: Donna, let's talk about the role of women too in all this. I had a chance to sit down with Michael Brown's mother, and seen bell and Trayvon Martin's mother yesterday. It was the first time they had met Lesley McSpadden, Michael Brown's mother. It was amazing to see. What can these women offer you and they talked about mothers, what mothers can offer, but can you talk to me about girl power please and how that's going to help her get through this?

BRAZILE: I saw your interview and it was a really wonderful interview, don, thank you for taking time out to bring those women together and I'm sure if you had more time, you will bring many of the other mothers who are still grieving today the loss of their boys or their little girls. They see Sybrina Fulton just hold Lesley McSpadden and encourage you, remember what you will talk about in the kitchen when he's not there.

She really did lift up Ms. McSpadden. I saw when she walked in, I know it's going to be a long, long time, a long grieving process, but I think those mothers were there to just remind her that her boy may not be with her physically but will always be with her spiritually. For women, girls, for all of us who care for our men, our brothers,

our fathers, our sons, our nephews, we love them. We want to help them build a future, a future life. We want to help out young girls as well. But we are our brothers' keepers and our sisters as well and having those women bond and to come together, I hope that she nodes, Ms. Leslie, that she can pick up the phone next week, when the media is gone, when the protesters and gone, the celebrities and stars are gone, they will be there for her because that's what sisters do. We stick together.

LEMON: Yeah. I got to get a break.

You want to say something, L.Z.?

L.Z. GRANDERSON, CNN COMMENTATOR: I just want to add, while it's important to talk about the grieving mothers, don't forget these men have fathers.

LEMON: And they are grieving.

GRANDERSON: We are grieving as well.

LEMON: The fathers are grieving as well. That's a great point to take us to break.

We're going to be back with our continuing coverage of remembering Michael Brown, the home going ceremony live here on CNN right hereafter a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Over the weekend, hackers took down Sony Playstation and other online gaming networks, they didn't stop there.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: An American airlines flight with a Sony executive on board was forced to land on Sunday after a same group sent out a tweet claiming there were explosives on that airplane.

Our aviation expert Rene Marsh is following the story.

Rene, this is crazy. What have you learned?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Michaela and John, we're talking about American Airlines flight 362, was supposed to go from Dallas to San Diego but it was forced to divert to Phoenix. Add on to that two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled to monitor the plane as it landed. And it appeared to be all because of a group of hackers who call themselves the Lizard Squad.

The president of sonny on line entertain he was on this plane and the hackers knew it, because they tweeted directly at him. This is what the group tweeted. It says, "We have been receiving reports that Smedley's plane 362 from Phoenix to San Diego has explosives on board, please look into this." They paired that tweet with images from 9/11.

We know the plane landed safely. The executive did send out his own tweet. It read, "My plane was diverted. Not going to discuss more than that. Justice will find these guys." We do know that the FBI is now investigating.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Here's the thing and I'm not condoning any kind of crime, messing with video games seems hugely different than diverting a plane which is tan amount to a terror threat there. What are authorities saying?

MARSH: They are investigating and law enforcement official confirmed to CNN that obviously there were no explosives on board. It turned out to be a hoax. But that being said, they say that they are moving forward with this investigation so that's very much under way.

PEREIRA: This seems to scream back story. What is the history between Sony and maybe this particular executive and this hacking group, they call it lizard group?

MARSH: Right. I spoke to even some of our folks in our tech department hadn't heard of this group as yet. People know about them now, but we don't know of any prior situation between Sony and this group. We're not aware of any prior relationship. We do know the group has targeted not only Sony but other online networks. They are trying to get a hold of a network of computers so they can initiate these attacks. The big picture they want to take down as many of these networks as they possibly can. But again, to the back story, we are not aware of one at least not at this point.

PEREIRA: Oh, my goodness. Rene Marsh with the latest.

Imagine you are on that flight, you are mg your business, you are trying to head hope and you get word there's an emergency landing to find out that this threat was tweeted.

BERMAN: Something is missing here. People mess with online games, that's one thing, taking down a plane is another thing.

Thanks to Rene for that.

All morning, we've been watching the service for Mike Brown. That's his mother, Lesley McSpadden. They are remembering the 18-year-old who was gunned down more than two weeks ago.

PEREIRA: There are some scripture readings going on. Many different speakers going on.

We're going to take a short break now. We'll be back @THISHOUR.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Some stories we're following @THISHOUR, an active-shooter incident was reported at Virginia's Ft. Lee this morning. The Army installation was put on lockdown but in the last hour, the all clear was given. No word at this point what sparked that warning. PEREIRA: As the U.S. bombs ISIS targets in Iraq and ponders moving

the battle to Syria there is another major concern, could militants find their way to the United States?

BERMAN: A man who killed a U.S. journalist is believed to be British, so what if operatives have western passports and visa.

CNN's Alison Kosik has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN RHODES, DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: They pose a greater threat today than they did six months ago and we're taking it very seriously.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the U.S. continues to carry out air strike against is they are also monitoring the possibility that the next generation of Islamic militants could come from within the United States border.

REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: It's a problem in many countries and we face that problem here in America.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED ISIS TERRORIST: You have been at the forefront of the aggression toward Islamic state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Authorities are already investigating the possibility that the man heard in the Foley video might be from America's strongest alley.

DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: From what we've seen, it looks like increasingly likely that it is a British citizen.

KOSIK: The problem is how do track down citizens with potential ties to these groups.

BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE & SECURITY ANALYST: The FBI is looking at analytics, mosques, no fly lists. Travel in particular. Young people don't disappear into the Middle East for months or years at a time.

KOSIK: ISIS is already recruiting the next generation of militants in the U.S. through propaganda video.

(MUSIC)

KOSIK: But in technology leads to new challenges.

BAER: We don't have a political police in this country so the FBI cannot go after people on Facebook and simply not on their -- knock on their doors.

KOSIK: ISIS recruiting efforts have already attracted American members. SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R), ARIZONA: We're tracking Americans who are

fighting for ISIS.

BAER: Having an American citizen fighting for them in Syria and Iraq is a legitimizing factor. They want to show that ISIS is a universal movement.

KOSIK: The FBI issued a bulletin on Friday warning law enforcement agencies to be aware of threats from ISIS and their efforts to garner support through social media.

BAER: They know how to make homemade devices, you know, from materials that could obtain here, including the detonators. So they certainly have the capacity to launch an attack here.

KOSIK: American citizens have already been investigated to possible ties to Islamic militant groups. A North Carolina man was stopped in August on JFK airport on a gun charge and was questioned on length on tweets he sent in support of ISIS. A woman was also questioned in April for proving material support to terrorists. Looking for suspicious activity, tweets and travel information might lead investigators to the next potential threat to the homeland.

RHODES: As we look ahead, we are going to do what is necessary to protect Americans. So if we see plotting against Americans. We see a threat to the United States emanating from anywhere, we stand ready to take action.

KOSIK: Alison Kosik, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Our thanks to Alison for that report.

PEREIRA: I want to turn back to Missouri, a home-going service is going on right now for young Michael Brown, who was set to start college, an 18-year-old who died August 9th. Many are gathering to send him home, if you will, people in the church, people from the community.

BERMAN: We'll have much more right after this.

(SINGING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Welcome back everyone. All eyes this morning on the Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis. Services, what they're calling home-going services for 18-year-old Michael Brown.

PEREIRA: Central to the black community is a church. Central to a church is music and dancing and song and that is definitely a part of the home-going service.

Let's get back to Don Lemon.

You've been watching the crowd form there. Now they're inside the church.

LEMON: You know, I said I -- no more than 30 seconds after I said that, someone walked out and handed me one. This is a front of the program, John and Michaela, right here. It says, on the front, "Celebration of Life." And then it's got, of course, the gates of heaven here and it opens up. It talks about the program and what's going to happen. I thought what's interesting is the mom and the dad both wrote a letter to their son in this. I'm going to read a little bit of the mom's.

This is from Lesley. It says, "To my son, I never want this to go unsaid. There are no words to expose how much you mean to me. I son like you I thought could never be. The day you were born, I just know god sent me a blessing and that was you." That's from the mom.

The dad -- we must remember, I did interview the mom yesterday. The dad was not available for us, he did some other media. But right on the point, we don't want to forget about the fathers here. This is from the dad.

He says, "To my son, dear son, I don't understand why you were chosen by God. I know he knows what he is doing because God Almighty doesn't make mistakes. So that's why you were called home. I think of you day and night. Just wish, day and night, just wish I was there to save you from harm. I always told you I will never let nothing happen to you, and that's what hurts so much, that I couldn't protect you, but we love you. I will never let you die in my heart. You will always live forever. Your dad and best friend. You old dude. That's what you called me. Michael Brown Sr."

You have things like that you say like that to your loved ones, like "you old dude." He put it in there. I think that's amazing.

GRANDERSON: The things we need to make sure we put into America again are the moments with the father. There is this story line that black men do not care about our children, that we're not there for our children. We do care. We do love. We need to make sure that narrative gets in our pop culture, our news coverage as well.

LEMON: Amen. Let's listen in.

(SINGING)

UNIDENTIFIED PASTOR: We're ready to hear from the family at this time. Do me a favor, turn to your neighbor and say, you did come to church. Let's, let's hear from the family, let's hear from the family. Let's hear from the family.

(SINGING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)