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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield
"Whitey" Bulger's Personal Items Auctioned Off; Scotland Voting on Independence Today; State Trooper Bryon Dickson Laid to Rest; ISIS Causing Pain and Suffering
Aired September 18, 2014 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: In Syria today, about 16 mostly Kurdish villages on the Turkish border unfortunately fell to a lightning fast advance by ISIS fighters who were using tanks and artillery against them. That's according to a Syrian opposition group. This is a very disturbing development because in all likelihood the women and children in those villages now face an unspeakable nightmare as ISIS fighters routinely carry out wholesale rape against their victims. President Obama said as much about this despicable tactic just one week ago.
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In the region that has known so much bloodshed, these terrorists are unique in their brutality. They execute captured prisoners. They kill children. They enslave, rape, and force women into marriage.
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BANFIELD: Aki Peritz and Tara Maller, co-authored an article about this very crisis in "Foreign Policy Magazine," both are former CIA analysts, who were deeply focused on the Iraq insurgency a decade ago. Thank you to both of you. Tara, if I can just start with you. There are so many stories that are sort of coming out of the crisis zone. the Washington post detailed the horrors of the Mosul jail, where women are being rounded up and held there, forced to convert and if they don't they face daily rapes and murders. It is just awful what we're hearing. What is the extent of what you're hearing from groups that are recognized who can go on the record and say definitively x, y and z, that's happening?
TARA MALLER, FORMER CIA ANALYST: Well, actually, as Aki and I wrote in our piece, there have been scattered reports from the U.N., from Amnesty International, and media press reports on the ground about women and children being raped, having sexual violence carried out against them. One of the things that we were struck by was that it seemed to be mentioned often times in the press and policymakers as an afterthought or passing in a speech.
When we worked in government and in general, it's not something that's systematically tracked in that the same way that VBIED, vehicle born improvised explosive devices, or car bombs are tracked, or assassinations are tracked, or just roadside bombs are tracked. So we were wondering why and the genesis of the piece. Why isn't this type of violence as a tactic being used by these groups tracked in the same way or garnering the same attention as a marketplace bomb that injures or wounds people outdoors in a Baghdad marketplace. So that's what caught our attention about the issue and why we wanted to write the piece.
BANFIELD: You're right. I mean the amount of coverage alone on these horrible, despicable beheadings, dwarfs so much of the violence that is going on day after day after day against these children. Some of them, barely even teenage years, being sold off for marriages, being raped many times beforehand. Aki, if you could speak to the notion that there is this competing wisdom that this is either a strategy, a wartime strategy to, in a way, ethnically cleanse their ability to even marry or procreate in the future or if this is like the spoils of war? I hate to say this, but the fun that ISIS soldiers get to have after they have conquered a village?
AKI PERITZ, FORMER CIA ANALYST: Absolutely. Sexual violence has been around since antiquity. Both as a -- I guess as you said a spoils of war situation but also a very good strategy. I think that's where the United States Intelligence Community should really start tracking this in a much better way. Just like assassinations, just like bombings, just like beheading videos,. it seeks to garner and push a larger strategy to show that ISIS is here, they're a terrifying organization, and if you don't submit, they will do terrible things to you and your family. Sexual violence and even the threat of sexual violence causes people to flee, causes people to lose faith in their government, and causes people to, I guess, convert to their -- the ISIS cause much more readily because they're so terrified. That's why this is the kind of metric that we want to pay attention to, much more so than when Tara and I were both working for the agency.
BANFIELD: It's great reading. I encourage everyone to stay on this. It's important and it shouldn't be forgotten as one of the most critical crises and tragedies of what's going on. Tara Maller and Aki Peritz, thanks for being with us.
PERITZ: Thank you very much.
MALLER: Thank you.
BANFIELD: Thousands of people gathered to pay respects to a state trooper who was ambushed and shot dead. The man suspected of shooting him, still on the loose. Authorities say he's a survivalist with very good shooting skills and a big grudge against law enforcement. Details on the hunt for that man next.
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BANFIELD: In Pennsylvania, a fallen officer is laid to rest and the manhunt for his suspected killer is on the move. This was a large and moving tribute for slain state trooper Bryon Dickson at his funeral today in Scranton. Dickson was gunned down late Friday outside his barracks in Pike County in the Pocono Mountains. Dickson was an ex- marine and seven-year veteran of the state police force. He is survived by his wife and two young sons. In the meantime, Dickson's suspected killer is still at large. Take a good look. Authorities are afraid he just may strike again. This is Eric Matthew Frein. He's talked openly about killing officers and committing acts of mass murder and now he's on the run somewhere out there. Rosa Flores is following the story in Pennsylvania. Rosa, what's the latest on what they're doing to find this person?
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, we've seen a lot of activity this morning, Ashleigh, from ATF, we've seen them with dogs, we've seen them scouring the woods. We can also hear the helicopter overhead and so there's a lot of activity in and out of all of these roads because you've got to know that this is a very wooded area, there is roads that lead into other little roads into a lot of different little cabins and that's what complicates this search. Because this is not hunting season. Meaning, that a lot of the cabins in these dense woods are empty which is a perfect place for a wanted man to hide.
BANFIELD: So Rosa, but what about the cabins that are occupied? What about people who live in that area? Wow are they being kept safe and what are they being told to do?
FLORES: You know, I'm glad that you brought that point because a lot of people here are scared. They're afraid. And when we talk about schools, schools are closed today. As a matter of fact, it's on the front page of the local paper, the mention that schools are closed, here's what is significant about this. I talked to a local here who said, you know, this is a very rural area. When we talk mass murder and you think mass murder like this man has aspired to do, they think about schools, there are no malls here, no mass gatherings. The only place where you see a lot of people gathered is in schools and that's why they're afraid, Ashleigh, that's why they're taking that precaution.
BANFIELD: It's sort of an unusual story about his background, too, how he enjoyed to play these war games with other people in the war games community, but did the police think that he is all alone in this or do they think he might be getting some help?
FLORES: You know, they're tight lipped about that. They're not mentioning if they're searching for another suspect or anything, but here's what the D.A. made very clear yesterday. He said, doesn't matter if you're a friend or family of this man, if you are helping him, if you are harboring him in any way, you will be prosecuted and I think that's the message because they also mentioned that group that you just said, this military simulation group, he says, they said if you're part of this group, if you're helping them, helping him because they have a history of trying to help each other, you will be prosecuted. That's the overall message.
BANFIELD: It was an amazing video you were running earlier of the manhunt and the dogs and officers who were out there in the woods. Keep us updated. Rosa Flores, thank you, appreciate that.
The leader of the embattled Ukraine is in Washington today seeking to drum up support for his government as it battles pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine. Ukraine is not a member of NATO, prompting this plea from Petro Poroshenko as he addressed a joint meeting of Congress.
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PRES. PETRO POROSHENKO, UKRAINE: With this in mind, I strongly encourage the United States to give Ukraine special security and defense status which should reflect the highest level of interaction with non-NATO ally.
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BANFIELD: The Ukrainian president is going to be speaking with Wolf Blitzer this afternoon at 4:00 on Wolf Blitzer's program. He's also expected to meet with President Obama and Vice President Biden, as well as Secretary of State, John Kerry.
Toronto mayor Rob Ford is battling a rare and aggressive cancer. He recently announced he will not run for re-election and that he'll start chemotherapy as early as tomorrow afternoon. The cancer has spread from the fatty tissue of Ford's abdomen to other parts of his body. Doctors say while the cancer is rare, they are optimistic about fighting this tumor.
Well, he was once the top of the FBI's most wanted list, right alongside Osama bin Laden. But now the notorious gangster James 'Whitey' Bulger is locked up behind bars and convicted of murder. And the government is now auctioning off his personal items. Find out what's for sale and maybe more importantly, who's going to get the proceeds just ahead.
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BANFIELD: Without question, Whitey Bulger became one of America's most brutal and legendary crime bosses. With his Winter Hill Gang, Bulger terrorized south Boston in a reign that lasted almost three decades. He didn't even seem to fear law enforcement. In fact, he manipulated it instead. And for the longest time, it really just seemed like no one would ever catch him. But he was caught. Here's a clip from the CNN film "Whitey" airing tonight.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Prosecutors describe James "Whitey" Bulger as the center of mayhem and murder in Boston for 30 years as the boss of Boston's notorious Winter Hill Gang. A man so dangerous that he joined Osama bin Laden at the top of the FBI's most wanted list.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was the gang that ran amok. You have people who were being extorted, who talked about having shotgun barrels stuck in their mouths, machine guns pointed at their groin.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Body bags shown before Bulger shakes them down. It was absolute terror.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Back then, '70s, '80s, people were missing every day. Bang. Didn't come home. He's a dead man.
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BANFIELD: So they finally got him. Three years ago. And just last year he was put away. And the whole time he'd been living in plain sight in California and accumulating a whole bunch of stuff. Stuff that the government is now putting up for sale. Stephanie Elam has more.
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STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A $48,000 ring, his personal library, and a manikin Whitey Bulger used to make it appear someone was always keeping watch. Seized from Bulger's Santa Monica apartment, those are just some of the items that will soon be auctioned by the government. Proceeds will go to the victims of Bulger and his gang.
CARMEN ORTIZ, U.S. ATTORNEY: I'm just hoping that the steps that we've taken has helped to bring them some degree of justice and some degree of comfort.
ELAM: But while many families support the auction, Steven Davis calls it an insult.
STEVEN DAVIS, SISTER KILLED IN 1981: I'd like to be there and, you know, to have vigil an destroy it. You know what I mean? You know the guy destroyed all our lives. Anything that he touched or involved with should be destroyed.
ORTIZ: I can understand that position. This was not an easy decision for us to make because in many ways we do not really want to take any kind of steps that would glamourize the conduct.
ELAM: That's why only big ticket items will be sold with smaller personal items of little value kept off the auction block.
ELAM (on camera): Also going to victim, $800,000 found in the walls of Bulger's former apartment here in Santa Monica. It's that stash of cash that also upped the intrigue in his former residents.
What was the interest like in this apartment?
KEVIN MILLER, WESTSIDERENTALS.COM: Well, the first three or four days it was absolutely crazy. I'm talking 200, 300 calls a day. It was just madness. And then what happened, three or four days later, the reports came out that there was money hidden in the walls and that's when things just went to another level.
ELAM (voice-over): After a reported renovation, the unit went back on the market this summer. Asking price? Nearly $3,000 a month.
JACK NICHOLSON, ACTOR, "THE DEPARTED": I've got an informer in my outfit.
ELAM: Famously the inspiration for Jack Nicholson's character in "The Departed," Bulger has long fascinated Hollywood and that fascination will only grow with Johnny Depp set to play Bulger in the film "Black Mask" coming out in 2015.
MATTHEW BELLONI, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: It's a subject that fascinates people and then you add on top of that the fact that this guy lived under the noses of all the Hollywood studios in Santa Monica for years and nobody knew he was there.
ELAM: While the film will surely add to the Bulger intrigue, the victims' families say it's still about one thing, a brutal man, his victims, and a long wait for justice.
DAVIS: I cry inside that I can't get even.
ELAM: Stephanie Elam, CNN, Los Angeles.
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BANFIELD: Thank you, Stephanie.
And by the way, I can attest, I've seen this film, it's great. You can learn a whole lot more about Whitey Bulger. Our film's airing tonight at 9:00 p.m. right here on CNN.
Right now, voters in Scotland are deciding whether or not to split from the United Kingdom. What? What would it mean if they broke up? I mean what would it mean for the nukes (ph) and the pound and the future of the British flag and all those Scottish things. We're going to sort it all out coming up next.
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BANFIELD: So this is a very simple question. Yes or no. Scotland voters are heading to the polls today to decide on possibly splitting from the United Kingdom. And the turnout is expected to be one for the record books. Even 16 and 17-year-olds are getting their say. Imagine that for a moment. About a month ago it wasn't even close. Not many people were too worried about this. But, wow, the polls came real close in the last few days. But if the majority votes yes, this split's going to be mighty tricky. And then there are all those practical implications, which my colleague John Berman can only explain in his way.
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JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If we learned one thing from "Braveheart" it's --
MEL GIBSON, ACTOR, "BRAVEHEART": They may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!
BERMAN: Because if they do take it, Mel Gibson might have added, we will probably vote to get it back in 307 years or so.
This may be a classic relationship struggle over who wears the kilt in this family, but if there is a breakup, it could be the messiest divorce ever. What do you do with the flag? The blue part of the Union Jack is St. Andrew's Cross, that's Scotland's. What do you do with the pound? The U.K. says they keep that. The oil, well, that's in Scotland, so you know who wants that. The bombs?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, ACTRESS, "THE QUEEN": (INAUDIBLE) how to start a nuclear war yet.
BERMAN: They seemed important in "The Queen." You can bet the U.K. wants the arsenal that resides in Scotland. And what do you do with Wales? Well, that stays in the U.K., but maybe Scotland can visit Wednesday night's and every other weekend.
As confusing as the arguments over the stuff might be, the logic behind the arguments might be even more so.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now both sides of this argument have valid points. The freedom loving years of the Highland tradition and those who enjoy crawling like worms beneath British boots.
BERMAN: Those freedom loving heirs of the Highland tradition, as groundskeeper Willy (ph) calls them, say that while they absolutely positively want their independence, they absolutely positively want to keep the queen. Because nothing, I mean nothing, says freedom like a monarchy.
And nothing says independence like the United States of America, which is why Hillary Clinton told the BBC.
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I would hate to have you lose Scotland.
BERMAN: Because what does the United States really know about splitting from the U.K.? That never works.
In closing, no matter what happens to the flag, the pound, the nukes or the oil, no matter what happens in the actual vote, Scotland will always be part of Great Britain. It will never be part of England. The Irish, part of neither. Northern Ireland will still be part of the United Kingdom, which may no longer be as united, but Elizabeth will be queen of all of it. So keep calm and carry on.
John Berman, CNN, New York.
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BANFIELD: Oh, that John Berman, adorable.
Hey, the polls are going to close about four hours from now, but there are no exit polls in Scotland, so we can't even tell you at this point which side is winning or doing well until the actual final vote is counted. That's supposed to happen around midnight tonight. They're apparently helicoptering in votes from remote places. This should be pretty interesting. CNN's going to have live coverage of this, so we hope you'll stay with us tonight.
Thank you, everyone, for watching. My colleague Wolf starts right now.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting from Washington.
