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Michael Brown Laid to Rest; ISIS Captures Syrian Military Base; Earthquake Aftermath

Aired August 25, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. I'm Ana Cabrera, in for Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for staying with me.

Today in Missouri, it's prayer, not protests, faith not fury, as Michael Brown is laid to rest. Church officials estimate about 4,500 people attended his funeral at the Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Saint Louis. It has been 16 days since a white Ferguson police officer shot and killed Brown, who had no weapon, his body left to lay in the street for hours.

Well, now the 18-year-old is remembered and he is celebrated before some 500 members of his family, along with Missouri's governor, civil rights advocates, including Martin Luther King III. Also, Hollywood celebrities, like Spike Lee were there and three members of the White House staff.

Listen now to moments from what organizers are calling Michael Brown's home-going celebration as the family shares their loss with so many strangers who definitely won't forget who their son was and how he died.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

ERIC DAVIS, COUSIN OF MICHAEL BROWN: I know that Michael would be smiling that big gentle smile that he always gives whenever he greeted you, because Michael was a big guy, but he was a kind, gentle soul.

And before he left this Earth, the day that he was killed, he was out spreading the word of Jesus Christ. This moment, Michael also stated to the family that one day the world would know his name.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

CAL BROWN, STEPMOTHER OF MICHAEL BROWN: The day that Mike-Mike graduated, we went to the graduation and then we took him out to lunch.

And his entire talk was about God. He said, Cal, I feel like I am God. I have got so much going inside of me, and I just -- I know that the world is someday going to know my name. He said, I'm going to shake the world. And I promise you that he has. BISHOP EDWIN BASS, CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST: While this tragic loss

will always be with you, the step-by-step, one foot in front of the other, march of time will ultimately bring you to a divine place, where you will laugh again, you will find the joy of living again, as your thinking shifts from tragedy to the joyful reflection of good times.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: It's a kinship no parent wants. But when faced with it, they're grateful for the support. Other parents of children shot to death attended Michael Brown's funeral. Tracy Martin, with the beard, and Sybrina Fulton were there. Their son Trayvon was unarmed when a neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman, killed Trayvon in 2012.

And in a letter Sybrina wrote to the Browns, she mentioned the daughter of my next guest. Hadiya Pendleton was killed after she performed in the president's inaugural celebrations in 2013. Hadiya was an honor student and she died, police say, as alleged gang members randomly shot into a Chicago park.

In a letter to Michael Brown's mother, Sybrina Fulton mentioned Hadiya as among -- quote -- "the countless other Michaels and Trayvons in our country."

Hadiya father, Nathaniel Pendleton, is joining me now from Chicago.

Nathaniel, the funeral for Michael Brown finished about 90 minutes ago and we know you couldn't attend the ceremony because of health reasons. But thanks for taking some time to talk with us.

NATHANIEL PENDLETON, FATHER OF HADIYA PENDLETON: Thank you.

CABRERA: The Browns, of course, are laying their child to rest today. You have done the same. What has been going through your mind today?

PENDLETON: Well, first, I really want to say my condolences go out to the Brown family.

And every kid matters. You know, the way I feel today is really upset that another young soul has to be put to rest, stopped in his footsteps, because, you know, an officer decided to, you know, unload bullets into him. It's a travesty.

CABRERA: And that being said, you mentioned it was an officer who took Michael Brown's life. So there is a stark contrast between his killing and your daughter's, who was killed at the hands of alleged gang members.

What makes you feel so connected to the Brown family's tragedy?

PENDLETON: Well, regardless, a child is lost.

And me, along with Hadiya's Promise, Cleopatra Pendleton, we are here in solidarity, standing with them to let them know that, you know, we are 100 percent behind them, and, you know, this type of this type of violence has to stop.

CABRERA: How have you been able to move forward?

PENDLETON: Well, me being able to move forward since my daughter's death, it's real baby steps. It's not easy. The Brown family will find that out really soon.

It's not easy to move forward. But me and my wife, we decided to keep things moving forward by constantly trying to stay active, trying to bridge, you know, the relationship between officers and the community, law enforcement and the community in our communities. We just -- you know, we're just trying to keep busy.

CABRERA: What was your reaction when you found out Hadiya was mentioned in this letter that Trayvon Martin's mom wrote to Michael Brown's family?

PENDLETON: Well, the only thing I could really say is that, I mean, I'm -- I mean, she was mentioned, but the thing is, we're all in a fraternity that no one wants to be in.

You know, I really wish that my daughter could have been mentioned on a much better note than, you know, being included in the death of another child, another innocent kid.

CABRERA: You can certainly say at least that her memory still lives on today.

Nathaniel Pendleton, thank you for joining us on a tough day for so many. But I know it's a sensitive day for your family as well. So thank you.

PENDLETON: Yes, it is. Thank you.

CABRERA: We will have much more on Michael Brown's death coming up this hour, including an update on the possible charges against the officer who shot him. The grand jury is still reviewing the case against Darren Wilson. So when will it announce its decision?

Plus, the terrorist group ISIS beheaded an American journalist. And now we're hearing it has just captured a major military base in Syria. Today, Syrian leaders say they are ready to accept support from the U.S. So what should President Obama do? We ask a former CIA operative next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Let's talk about ISIS.

The ISIS terrorist army, as some have characterized this group, wreaking havoc in Iraq, and now has captured a major military base in Iraq's neighbor Syria. Take a look. These are ISIS fighters, quite possibly, including brand-new recruits. And they are marauding, as we speak, through the Syrian city of all Tabqa, after defeating the Syrian army at that nearby military base. So what does that mean? Here's what it means. It means ISIS now

controls an entire Syrian province. This is Raqqa province, which it hopes to build out by stealing vast chunks of both Syria and Iraq. And it sounds pretty crazy, but this is happening. And it's happening fast.

Bob Baer is with us now live from California, where he is stationed right now. He's formerly of the CIA.

Bob, thanks so much for joining us.

We know the United States already is dropping bombs on ISIS in Iraq with these airstrikes to try to thwart the momentum there. And now comes word from the Pentagon that ISIS targets in Syria are being identified for possible airstrikes there.

So I guess the big question is here, with how much land ISIS has already claimed, this border between Iraq and Syria, it seems like it's almost meaningless. Could this actually happen, and has it already?

BOB BAER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think what we have to consider is that ISIS is a state now, a pariah state, of course. But talking to somebody in Mosul last night, they are issuing documentation. They have got their own Ministry of Interior passports.

They have lowered the price of things like flour. They -- today, I understand -- this is unconfirmed -- that they have really caused -- inflicted some damage against Kurdish Peshmerga militias. The fact that they're a guerrilla force, they can move fast.

And what it all comes down to is bombing from the air is not going to be enough. By the day, we're faced with the very, very difficult decision whether we have to put boots on the ground.

CABRERA: Well, and you mentioned they're a guerrilla force. But yet the way they're functioning and the amount of power they have, the amount of not only manpower, but money, financial power, and tactics that seem to have been so effective already, what can you do? We haven't been able to stop them. Nobody has.

BAER: Exactly.

I mean, it's -- this is -- I have never seen the Middle East so bad, ever. And I have been there almost 40 years. And we have the Islamic State, which is, in fact, the caliphate, which has -- we use -- unbridled violence against its enemies.

And I don't -- this is alarming, but if we don't do something or the region doesn't do something -- I don't advocate putting American forces in Iraq. But this chaos or this state or call it whatever you want is going to move down into the Gulf, where 60 percent of the world's oil resources sit. I don't like to put it in terms of oil.

But we better look at this realistically. CABRERA: Let's talk a little bit about James Foley. We have been

talking about how Britain says it's close to identifying that black- clad terrorist who appears to have played a key role in the beheading of journalist James Foley.

Other than the effort to seek justice, how important is it to identify this one man when we're talking about possibly hundreds of Europeans and other Westerners who have now joined ISIS and could end up slipping into the U.S. to carry out attacks here?

BAER: I think it's just a footnote in the conflict. There's a lot of British citizens that are in Iraq and Syria fighting, as French and Germans and Swedish and the rest of them, as well as Americans. And, fine, we can identify him is and we can bring justice to Foley in some sense. I think we will.

The British are very good at identifying fighters. And they use algorithms to go through travel documents and the rest of it. We will find that out. But, you know, it's what ISIS is going to do next and just how capable are they, and more than that, whether they're capable of hitting inside the United States.

We know they intend to take revenge against us. But can they do it here? And, you know, I just don't know. I think they're here, but, you know, whether they're capable of undertaking a major attack, I don't know.

CABRERA: The threat on this other journalist who they have in their custody who they also showed in the video, Steven Sotloff, what do you think that threat really means to the U.S.?

BAER: It's not a threat to us. It's a personal tragedy.

And if -- you know, his chances aren't very good at this point. And the chances of a rescue are almost zero. They keep moving the hostages around. And I think when ISIS is ready to remind us that they are a terrorist organization, they will move to execute him as well, unfortunately.

I just -- I don't see any way around that. And I don't think we're going to talk to them. And we can't talk to them. We can't buy him back. It would be recognition of their sovereignty in a sense.

CABRERA: All right. Bob Baer, thanks for your insights.

Coming up, almost 5,000 people showed up today to remember Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager who was shot and killed by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer. This includes three representatives from the White House. Does that give the appearance that President Obama is taking sides in this case? We will discuss.

Plus, you have now seen the devastation left behind by the biggest earthquake to hit Northern California in 25 years. We have some new video of the moment the earth started shaking. And could this signal an even bigger quake on the horizon? We will ask Bill Nye, the Science Guy, coming up next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: In the heart of Northern California, wine country, it is cleanup day after that very strong earthquake caused likely a billion dollars in damage.

Buildings crumbled. Stretches of road were split in two; 208 people were treated for injuries, but no one was killed. This earthquake triggered six major fires that did destroy several mobile homes. And it could take up to a week to get the water system back to normal after dozens of reported water main breaks.

Scientist Bill Nye is with me in New York.

But I want to begin with CNN's Dan Simon there on the ground in Napa, California.

It's the day after. Dan, set the scene. What does Napa look like today?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hey, Ana.

I would say it is a tale of two cities. I spent about 30 minutes just sort of walking around downtown, and a lot of it is perfectly intact. There are restaurants open, stores open. You would think that nothing ever happened. But then you come to a street like this, and you can see behind me this building, this historic building crumbled. You can see all these bricks here on the ground.

Every single building on this one block has been red-tagged. So you just have to go block by block and see how things look. I can tell you that about 100 homes in the area and businesses have been red- tagged. And crews have been out making sure that there are no more gas leaks, trying to fix some of those water lines today and, of course, trying to do a bit of cleanup, Ana.

CABRERA: All right, Dan Simon, thanks. Stay with us.

I want to bring in Bill Nye to the conversation.

A lot of people wondered, you know, could this be the big one when that ground started to rattle. And you just told me during the break, well, it was bound to happen and we're going to have another one.

BILL NYE, THE SCIENCE GUY: Yes.

CABRERA: What do you mean by that?

NYE: Well, just it's a geologically unstable area. And there is going to be earthquakes.

CABRERA: What about that big one? What does that really mean?

NYE: It's still coming.

Well, it means people throw around numbers, every 125 years, every 500 years, every 1,000 years. But just because something is unlikely doesn't mean it's not very serious. So, as we say, earthquakes don't kill people. Buildings kill people.

CABRERA: And that's a good point, because when we look at the damage, we talked about possibly it being a very expensive earthquake, but we also heard from city managers there in that area who said it could have been a lot worse. Nobody died.

NYE: Yes, well, but that's because it happened at 3:00 in the morning. And those certain streets were shaken.

It's very easy for people who don't live there to be a little bit dismissive of such a thing and it's a few city blocks, if I can use the term only a billion dollars in damage. But I think it will be a lot more expensive than that, because there is a tremendous loss of productivity. People can't get to work, they can't get water. They have to evacuate the area for a long time.

And I remind everybody, California, at least by some reckoning, is the world's third largest economy. So when you shut down -- the wine industry might sound like a luxury to many people. But it's a several-billion-dollar industry.

CABRERA: You know, it's interesting that we had this quake that happened just some 36 hours ago or less than that. We had a 6.4 earthquake that hit in Chile on Saturday, a 7.0 quake that struck in Peru last night. Any connection between all three of these?

NYE: Well, either no connection at all or intimate. Of course there is a connection.

We're all living on the Earth and these tectonic plates are shifting and earthquakes happen. When I was young, I believe there were this many earthquakes, but we didn't have CNN to report them. So what we can do here in the developed world is make our buildings robust. And we can go one at a time. We don't have to do it all at once.

When these historic buildings fall apart in an earthquake, we can rebuild them safely. Now, this costs money, but compare it to the cost of loss of life or this -- there's going to be a tremendous effect or impact on the economy there. It's an opportunity.

CABRERA: All right, an opportunity. We like that. Thank you, Bill Nye, so much for joining us...

NYE: Thank you.

CABRERA: -- and giving us your take on all this.

Up next, as Michael Brown is laid to rest today, many in this community want to know if the officer who shot and killed him will face charges. We do know a grand jury is reviewing the evidence right now. So what do we know about the people on that grand jury, and how could their background perhaps impact their decision? Our legal panel will weigh in next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: It could be months before we know whether the grand jury that has convened already in the Michael Brown shooting will actually charge Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.

Now, the 12-member panel is made up of seven men and five women. We also know nine of the grand jury are white, six men and three women. The other three are two black women and one black man.

Joining me now, our CNN legal analysts Sunny Hostin and Danny Cevallos.

So, the racial makeup of the panel, nine whites and three blacks, does this matter, Sunny?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I guess it could matter.

What I'm surprised at is the very fact that we even know anything about the grand jurors...

CABRERA: Really?

HOSTIN: -- because the grand jury proceedings are always secret.

Witnesses are protected that way, because you don't want witnesses to be intimidated. You want -- don't want their grand jury testimony to get out. And so I'm very surprised that we not only know the sort of gender gap that I think I'm seeing. We also now are knowing the racial composition of the grand jury.

I don't think I have ever in my career, quite frankly, Ana, seen that.

CABRERA: Was that a mistake, do you think, Danny, in terms of the court revealing this?