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Partner of Ebola Patient Issues Statement; Duncan Death Impacting Ebola Drug Maker; Ebola Scare Forcing Changes at Airports; ISIS Expect to Take City of Kobani; Kerry Says Fight to Stop ISIS Bigger than Kobani; Jihadi Highway Brings ISIS to Fight>

Aired October 08, 2014 - 14:30   ET

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

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BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Bottom of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

We're just getting into us a statement from the partner of Eric Duncan, also the mother of his child. This is from Louise Troh. "This morning we received word that Eric passed away. His suffering is over. My family is in deep sadness and grief but we leave him in the hands of God. Our deepest sympathies go out to his father and family in Liberia and here in America. Eric was a wonderful man who showed compassion toward all.

I want to thank the Dallas community, the church, and the Liberian community as well, in particular, County Judge Jenkins, Mayor Rawlings, my pastor George Mason, Saymercy Lloyd (ph), Stanley Gay and Alvin Bush for all of the love and support they have shown me during this ordeal. Without their help, I can't imagine how we could have endured. I trust a thorough examination will take place regarding all aspects of his care. And I am now dealing with sorrow and anger that his son was not able to see him before he died. This will take some time. But in the end, I believe in a merciful God. I hope you keep my family in your prayers. This has dramatically changed our lives and we'll be grieving for a long time. May Eric rest in peace."

The latest from Louise Troh, the partner of the Ebola patient that died today in Dallas.

Thomas Eric Duncan was taking this experimental drug before he died today, and now his death appears to be impacting the drug maker.

"CNN Money" correspondent, Cristina Alesci, is with me to explain.

How so?

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: This company that makes the drug is called Chimerix. Wall Street is not kind to these drug makers. In this case, the stock took a huge beating today. It went down as much as 20 percent. It has since recovered. It's down about 4 percent. But this drug maker has been on a steady rise up once doctors started calling the company for its treatment for a drug that it manufacturers that showed hope in other kinds of infections. Doctors called the company asking for it as a treatment for Ebola. BALDWIN: This was still very much in the experimental phases, right?

ALESCI: Absolutely. In fact, when it comes to a drug's approval, it was probably based on my reporting, the furthest along in the FDA approval process. It was actually talking to the FDA about starting a clinical trial to see what the efficacy would be treating Ebola patients but it wasn't used in people for treatment with Ebola but used with other infections that were life threatening and showed positive results with that. One thing the company said is that it was used on 900 patients so it has data on the safetiness of it.

BALDWIN: Clearly, whichever of these drugs and they're all experimental as far as the existence of them and working so quickly and pouring millions into try to help the people that clearly need it.

ALESCI: It's small companies, because larger drug makers won't invest the hundreds of millions of dollars that are needed to bring these drugs to market. Because at the end of the day, if there's no outbreak, they're not going to be used. No other drug maker is willing to do this.

BALDWIN: Thank you so much, Cristina Alesci, for me.

What about how this impacts all of us? The Ebola scare is forcing change at some major U.S. airports. As early as this weekend, travelers coming from three countries hardest hit by Ebola -- Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea -- will have their temperatures taken and their flight itineraries will be taken and they'll have to fill out a CDC questionnaire before leaving the plane. The U.S. airports, JFK, Washington-Dulles, O'Hare International, Hartsfield-Jackson and Newark Liberty International affected for passengers landing in those locations.

People boarding planes in Ebola-affected countries face that screening. An additional layer of protection aimed at keeping Ebola out of the country. How effective will this be?

Let's talk to global health law expert from Georgetown University, Larry Gostin.

Mr. Gostin, everything I've read about what you said despite checking fevers, et cetera, you're skeptical.

LAWRENCE GOSTIN, PROFESSOR GLOBAL HEALTH LAW, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Certainly, I would be much more skeptical if we were doing mass screenings, screening of everybody entering our airports. That was done by Canada and Asia during SARS. Hundreds of thousands of screenings of passengers and no confirmed SARS cases. This one is a little bit more targeted because it's only going to be fever monitoring and questionnaires for those coming from the region. There will be a lot of false positives. This is influenza season. They will have elevated fevers. If they were in Africa, they may have malaria which masks symptoms of Ebola and tuberculosis. There are people who don't have Ebola that are flagged. I worry do we have the capacity at the airports. What will we do with the patients? What will the local health departments do? We had some failures in Dallas. And so we do have reason to be skeptical. So we have to do this smart and well planned if it will have any chance of success.

BALDWIN: You talk about masking symptoms. You brought up SARS and the fact that some passengers and some first-class part of the screening were given Tylenol by the airline crew so they could quickly get through the screenings. That's just something that maybe you think, what? Do you have any suggestions, any examples of how this could be done more effectively here in the U.S. at these airports?

GOSTIN: Fever screening has never been a good way to go. If you remember a number of years ago, when they had mad cow disease in the United Kingdom, we did change our intake questionnaire to say, "Have you been on a farm within the last two weeks." It's reasonable if we actually know somebody originated in one of the three most hard-hit countries. It's reasonable for us to ask them detailed questions. Where have you been? Who have you seen? Could you have been exposed? And then if they do have those risk factors and a fever, then they would need to be monitored very, very carefully. So it's not going to make us safe but at least it's not a huge overreaction like a ban on travel or screening for fevers, everybody who walks in the airport. Those things would have been really quite disastrous.

BALDWIN: Larry Gostin, with Georgetown University, thank you, sir, very much, as we wait to get details here as far as how we'll be affected at airports in the U.S.

Just ahead, in the war against ISIS, the Pentagon says air strikes will not save a city on the brink as an ISIS truck bomb blows up in the city of Kobani. We'll take you there live on CNN.

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BALDWIN: President Obama heads to the Pentagon for a meeting in just a few minutes talking about ISIS.

For days we have been telling you about this battle for Kobani. Today, an ISIS truck bomb blew up near the center of the city. And today, CNN crews spotted this military plane flying overhead. But several senior U.S. officials tell CNN that ISIS is about to take over Kobani. Even the Pentagon saying today that U.S. air strikes cannot save it.

Let's go to our senior international correspondent, Arwa Damon, there on the border.

Arwa, what are you seeing?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We spent the day watching what's happening in Kobani. We're hearing the fighter jets overhead throughout, and then as the sun began to set, we were actually able to see them quite clearly circling over Kobani. During the day, we saw what we believe to be at least three coalition air strikes. We do believe that these were coalition air strikes because of the size and intensity and sound of the explosions. Quite distinctive to anything that we normally hear when it comes to the artillery and mortars being traded. Now the Kurds that we've been talking to are saying that because of

these air strikes and the fact that the air strikes were forcing ISIS to advance on foot since their vehicles had been destroyed, they were able to push them back to a certain degree and push them to the perimeter of the city of Kobani. But ISIS still continuing to engage in intense gun battles and still continuing to pound the city, and as you were saying there, even launching a suicide truck bomb. The apparent target of that suicide bomber was the headquarters of one of the fighting units there. He did not manage to reach his target.

People are angry and frustrated. They have heard this rhetoric coming from the U.S., the Pentagon. But they say, look, it might not be that ISIS can be defeated with air strikes alone right now as the situation stands today because they have managed to gain a foothold into Kobani. But they could have been defeated. These air strikes could have been launched before they entered the city of Kobani -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: The timing there.

Arwa Damon, thank you very much.

To talk about what the U.S. is saying, let's go to Washington, because we know senior Obama officials say ISIS is about to control the city of Kobani. They are signaling the U.S. has other priorities. The State Department is trying to get everyone to refocus. I want you to watch Secretary of State John Kerry said today.

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JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: We're deeply concerned about the people of Kobani who are battling against ISIL terrorists. But this is a structure that's evolving on a daily basis. And not withstanding the crisis in Kobani, the original targets of our efforts have been the command-and-control centers, the infrastructure. We're trying to deprive the ISIL of the overall ability to wage this, not just in Kobani but throughout Syria and into Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's go to Washington to our chief Washington correspondent, host of "The Lead," Jake Tapper.

What's happening here? I know the original mission degrade and dismantle is. Is this trying to push Turkey to get involved? What's going on?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, THE LEAD: Certainly the U.S. government would like Turkey to get more involved especially militarily and when it comes to ISIS strong holds across their border. There are two things at play here. One, the U.S. government does not consider the Syrian Kurds to be, as of now, reliable, knowable potential partners on the ground. This is very different than across the border in Iraq where the U.S. is coordinating and working with the Iraqi security forces and, of course, with the Iraqi Kurds, the Peshmerga. That is different. And for that reason, because of those boots on the ground, the Kurds in Iraq and the Iraqis, it has been more effective, the U.S. air strikes. It's not the same relationship. There really is no existing relationship between the U.S. and the Syrian Kurds. So that's why they're saying the air strikes won't be enough because they're not coordinating. They don't know who these people are and won't start giving them arms or start coordinating with them.

And then the other reason is one that Secretary of State John Kerry just alluded to in the clip you played, which is when you look at the entire strategic goal of what the U.S. is trying to do -- and this might sound cold -- but strategically, Kobani is not significant. As a humanitarian crisis, yes, it is.

BALDWIN: And it's symbolic.

TAPPER: Absolutely. But in terms of what does this mean for ISIS's abilities in the area, they don't consider this to be -- the U.S. government -- anymore important than any other large village. It's not like a stronghold that will enable ISIS to do more in terms of their conquest. That's not to downplay what the humanitarian crisis will be, once is takes control of this town -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: What about this upcoming meeting at the Pentagon? President meeting with his military commanders any minute now. We talk about strategy here. What do you expect to come of this? Do we expect changes in strategy as far as what's happening in Iraq and Syria, or nothing dramatic?

TAPPER: I don't expect anything dramatic to be announced now. I suspect President Obama will be told, as he is no doubt already well aware, that there is much that can be done with air strikes, and that if more needs to be done to combat ISIS in Syria, it needs to be done with boots on the ground, and if not American boots on the ground, then the Free Syrian Army needs to be trained and equipped better, and that process needs to be ramped up. I suspect that will be the major take away from the meeting today.

BALDWIN: We'll look for what comes of the meeting. And we'll look for you also, 4:00 eastern, on "The Lead."

Thank you, sir.

TAPPER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Jake Tapper for me in Washington. Appreciate it.

Coming up next, the so-called Jihadi Highway. Have you heard about this? It's this network of roads that lead from Turkey deep into the heart of Syria. And according to this one man, he has helped smuggle hundreds of men, these ISIS fighters, down this Jihadi Highway across the border. And coming up next, my next guest actually talked to that smuggler. And it's a fascinating story here.

Stay with me.

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BALDWIN: We are heard so much about foreigners joining ISIS. But how do they get to the heart of Syria to the heart of this fight? The answer is what you're looking at. This is the so-called Jihadi Highway, a network of back roads through Turkey used to smuggle would- be jihadis into Syria.

Our Nick Paton Walsh, one of our international correspondents, followed this route months ago and he talked to an Iraqi so excited about his impending one-way trip on the highway, his legs were shaking. Watch this.

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NICK PATON WALSH: "Hopefully, I will die fighting. There are as many Europeans coming as Arabs now. We want an Islamic caliphate from Syria to Anbar in Iraq without borders but with Islamic law. Our fight is with the West now, too, as their silence means they're complicit."

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BALDWIN: That's one side of this. I read about the flip side of this smuggler/fighter relationship in this piece by National Public Radio reporter, Deborah Amos, who joins me now from NPR.

Thank you for coming in.

DEBORAH AMOS, REPORTER, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: Thanks.

BALDWIN: Let me establish that you're not going to see pictures of this person we're about to speak about. Because he risked his life, this smuggler, in talking to you very recently. How did you even get him to talk?

AMOS: He was such a charming guy. He was, in some ways, proud of his skills. He knew he had to stop. Turks were shutting down the network. The other thing that happened to him is on the other side of the border, on the Syrian side, more moderate Syrian rebels had taken over the checkpoint and said, hey, this is the end of this, we do not need crazy people coming across fighting against us. They warned him and said, you're done.

BALDWIN: Let's back up. Who is he? What was he doing?

AMOS: He was -- he knew all of the routes. Look, these were smuggler towns before the Syrian conflict began. This is -- cigarettes moved back and forth across this border.

BALDWIN: Cigarettes and not foreign fighters.

AMOS: Not foreign fighters. People know how to smuggle along that border. Now they were moving people who wanted to come and join the Syrian revolt. They thought it was jihad. They thought it was romantic, a lot of these.

BALDWIN: They were excited, you said. AMOS: They were very excited to come. It seemed like the right thing

to do. He was committed to the revolution. He wanted the overthrow of President Bashar al Assad. And he also knew, as did rebels, that there wasn't any serious international support for what they were doing. So here they had all of these recruits coming in to help them fight. So it seemed like the right thing to do.

BALDWIN: How many people over how long a course of time, including, you mentioned four women?

AMOS: For him? Hundreds.

BALDWIN: Hundreds of people he smuggled across the border.

AMOS: You know, what was interesting to me is he said, at the Turkish Airport, there were people who would say "good luck in jihad." It's not that these people were hiding what they were doing.

BALDWIN: They said this out loud at the airport?

AMOS: Out loud at the airport.

BALDWIN: Unreal.

AMOS: We would see them. I've been on the border for three years covering that story and I would see them. You knew who they were. They had big long beards and they weren't hiding at all.

BALDWIN: Turkey is shutting it down?

AMOS: Turkey is shutting it down. I think there was never official support for this but there was turning a blind eye and not being as rigorous as they could. I think they understand the danger. For one thing, there is a radicalization inside Turkey. There are credible reports that a thousand Turks have joined. And that means that there is support across the country, small, but still should be alarming for the Turks that there are Turks who do want to join. I think they are beginning to shutdown that network. The smuggler said he had been warned by Turkish officials that he had to be done.

BALDWIN: Doing it for his family. Doing it for his family.

Deborah Amos, from NPR.

It's worth a listen, this interview with the smuggler.

Thank you for coming by.

AMOS: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Really appreciate it.

AMOS: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Moments from now, as we were talking about Jake Tapper, President Obama at the Pentagon attending this high-level briefing as far as strategy and effectiveness of these air strike campaigns in Iraq and Syria. All of this as he's fielding criticism from his former defense secretary and former president. What's the strategy in this new war? We'll discuss next.

You're watching CNN.

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