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Melinda Gates on Ebola Outbreak; Ebola Patient in Spain Worsening; Airstrikes Won't Save Kobani; Journal Details Cop Shootings; AT&T to Pay Back Millions for Bogus Texts

Aired October 09, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: ISIS fighters are trying to cross the U.S. -- try to cross into the United States from Mexico. The feds say no way. This hour, the truths, the next Border Patrol agent joins us.

Then bombarded by bogus texts? Well, you're right, you might have been illegally charged. Now it's payback time.

Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We start this hour confronting a growing Ebola crisis head on.

A Dallas deputy shows symptoms and waits in isolation. Did he contract Ebola inside the unsanitized apartment of the nation's first fatality?

New safe guards, five of America's busiest airports are racing to roll out additional screening methods. Are they enough?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEH JOHNSON, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: So we're going to be taking temperatures of every passenger that comes from one of the three affected countries. If you answer positive or you test for a high fever, the passenger is immediately referred to CDC.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: What if they lie? What if they lie?

JOHNSON: Well, that's why we want to erect as many checkpoints as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And the rising tide of misery as health officials scramble, the death toll climbs ever higher. And this morning, we're learning more about the Ebola epidemic, it's global toll and the urgency that's propelled one charity to action with a record-breaking donation.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $50 million to ratchet up the world's emergency response to the health crisis. So where will the money go and when?

CNN's Poppy Harlow spoke to Melinda Gates, wife of the Microsoft pioneer and co-founder of the foundation. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELINDA GATES, BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION: I think we need to move supplies very quickly. I think we need to educate communities very quickly on how they can make sure they don't contract Ebola. I think we need to actually draw blood from people who had Ebola and recovered from it so we can use their blood or their antibodies to give those to other people. And then back home, we need to be working on the right drugs and vaccines for a long-term strategy against Ebola as well.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The fact that there is no more ZMapp, at least right now, supply, that experimental drug, and there really is very little -- nothing approved by the FDA to treat, to treat Ebola patients, what does that tell you about our pharmaceutical industry? Some have said, well, you know, big pharma just didn't get into this game because, frankly, there wasn't a huge need for it. It didn't make sense to spend all the R&D dollars? I mean, it is a business, too. So where is the line?

GATES: Well, I think this is what we're waking up to as Americans. It's part of what our foundation has looked up for a long time is there are these vast inequities in the world. We do work where there are markets. We work where there's lots of disease and so those typically are diseases you see in the United States, the United Kingdom. And yet people suffer from other diseases like malaria that we don't get much here.

And so we need to make ways that public and private partnerships that we -- it's in the interest of pharmaceuticals to actually invest in those diseases. And they are doing it. I mean, if you look at the investments going into malaria now or into childhood vaccines for diseases that we don't really get in the United States, that actually has been happening but Ebola was the one that was behind.

HARLOW: The first patient just died from Ebola in the United States, does this need to be a wake-up call to America that this could affect all of us and does have an impact on all of us?

GATES: Well, I think we all have to say that any death is tragic. So his death is tragic. Just as it's tragic for every parent or child or person who dies in West Africa.

HARLOW: Do you think people feel very removed from many people from West Africa?

GATES: I think so, too. I think so, too. And yet we shouldn't. I mean, if we can care that much about one person in the United States who gets Ebola, we need to care about much about the families who are contracting it in West Africa and say we need to do the right thing not just because it's right to do at home. It is right to do at home but those are our neighbors, too, just as he's our neighbor.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: CNN's Poppy Harlow joins me now. And Poppy, actually the Gates Foundation spends more on this than the

World Health Organization. How is that possible?

HARLOW: Yes. I know, it's a stunning statistics. And I confirmed it with Melinda Gates. The Gates Founds does more on public health work than the World Health Organization which shows the dire need for countries to do more and to put more money in it and especially to Ebola.

Some of the other things she said that stood out to me are, you need to build trust on the ground. They spend a ton of time in Africa. Us Westerners can't just fly in and assume that everyone there that's suffering is going to trust our medicine, trust our clinics, trust our doctors. You have to earn their trust first to be able to treat them effectively.

She said you have to fly under the radar. When she spends time on the ground in West Africa, no one knows she's Melinda Gates. She doesn't come with a huge security entourage. She throws up her hair, puts jeans on and talks to them just as a Western woman.

I can also tell you how much she emphasized urgency. We know all these U.S. troops are going, they have to act overnight. What the Gates Foundation did is they have a big polio clinic in West Africa. Literally, overnight, with a call, they said we're turning this into an Ebola clinic, this has to change now. And by the next day, it had changed.

COOPER: Fascinating interview. And, you know, I'm glad. It's going to cost, what, maybe $1 billion to fight this epidemic of Ebola?

HARLOW: At least, yes.

COOPER: Poppy Harlow, thanks so much.

HARLOW: Sure.

COSTELLO: Also this morning, some reassuring words for the Dallas deputy hospitalized with what's been called signs and symptoms of Ebola. Texas health officials now say Sergeant Michael Monnig faces no risk of the disease despite being a first responder in entering the unsanitized apartment of Thomas Eric Duncan. The Liberian died yesterday after becoming the first Ebola patient diagnosed on U.S. soil.

Last week, Deputy Monnig was already wrestling with the unknowns of the danger.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. MICHAEL MONNIG, DALLAS COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: We did not receive any type of emergency equipment.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And did you all touch anything while you were in there? MONNIG: Touched doors, touched lights to turn on lights. That starts

putting those question marks in your mind. You know, when you go home, and then the next day, you start hearing that equipment is quarantined or asked to be bagged up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Deputy Monnig arrived at the apartment days after Duncan left by ambulance. He says he did have some contact with Duncan's family members but doctors have said he's in the clear.

In Spain, doctors report grim news on the first known case of Ebola being contracted outside of Africa there. The condition of that nurse's aide is said to be worsening.

CNN Madrid bureau chief Al Goodman is in the Spanish capital.

Good morning.

AL GOODMAN, CNN MADRID BUREAU CHIEF: Hi, Carol, just a short while ago, the deputy director of the hospital came out here and talked to the media. A very short statement to say that the nurse's aide, her condition has worsened. Now she was peppered with questions, how much worse, what is the treatment, has the treatment changed because of the changing condition. She said the patient has asked me to say nothing else so she went away.

Now we also can tell you that the -- the four other people -- five other people, I'm sorry, who were in here under observation has now increased by one. And that one is yet another doctor from the other hospital in the south of Madrid where the nurse's aide went a few days ago and it was confirmed that she had Ebola. She sat around that emergency room for hours before she was brought up here.

Now there are several doctors from that area who have come in for observation to be at this most secure hospital -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Al, I've got to ask you about Excalibur, the nurse's aide's dog, what happened?

GOODMAN: What happened was that the husband of the nurse's aide, he's under close watch here in this hospital. A few days ago he started a campaign, giving interviews to the media, started social media campaign to try to save their dog Excalibur of him and his wife, the nurse's aide, who has -- who has the only confirmed case.

And he built up this massive amount of support. There were medical experts from outside of Spain saying maybe it would be better to save the dog for research purposes, isolate the dog, and let's study the situation instead of putting the dog down. 400,000 people got on to this social media campaign on an online petition. Save the dog. There were protests outside their home in the south of Madrid but Spanish officials said, we can't do that, we need to put this dog down.

We don't have anywhere to keep this dog in this potentially dangerous situation. The dog was euthanized, was put to sleep late yesterday -- Carol.

COSTELLO: We just showed some pictures of protests. Was that over the dog?

GOODMAN: There were strong protests outside the couple's home. The couple being the nurse's aide who's got the confirmed case of Ebola and her husband who is under watch outside their home in a southern Madrid suburb, trying to save the dog saying we are all Excaliburs, what they shouted in Spanish -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Unbelievable. Al Goodman, reporting live for us from Madrid this morning, thanks so much.

The urgent mission by the West to stop ISIS from advancing is currently focused on the Syrian town of Kobani. To be totally blunt, it ain't going well. Kobani sits right next to Turkey, a NATO ally. Despite repeated coalition airstrikes, ISIS fighters have now taken over parts of the town and shows no signs of withdrawing. Perhaps most disturbing, the Pentagon said it's not surprised.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON SPOKESMAN: Air strikes alone are not going to do this. Not going to fix this. Not going to save the town of Kobani. We know that, and we've been saying that over and over again. And yet we continue to get questions of well, why aren't you doing more? And how come they aren't more effective? But we've been very honest about the limits of air power here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Phil Black is on the border watching this grim situation unfold.

Has Kobani fallen? Nearly fallen? What's the status?

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It hasn't fallen yet, Carol, but all the facts on the ground suggest it is very likely, only a matter of time. Today, up above us, we've heard aircraft for much of the day. We've seen a number of large explosions around Kobani behind me. In fact, if we zoom in, you can see there is still a great deal of smoke above that southwesterly direction of the city there.

So we've seen airstrikes but certainly not with the same intensity, the same regularity that we've seen over the last couple of days. What that means says the fighters inside the city, these are the Kurdish fighters, the men and women resisting ISIS, they haven't had as good a day today as they had over the previous 48 hours or so.

They had recaptured ground inside the city from ISIS. They've now lost that ground again. They say what they need are regular constant airstrikes hitting those ISIS targets around the city, then they can take care of the street fighting. That's not what they're seeing today -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, military experts here say you really need ground troops. We know the United States is not going to provide troops on the ground. So Turkey sitting right there, it's got a strong military, why won't it send ground troops?

BLACK: Well, turkey set a number of conditions. It says it's very much in favor of ground troops. It has resources in the area. Look, we can show you quickly on the top of the hilltop not far from the border. You can see some Turkish tanks in position there, just below the crest of a hill, out of sight from the Syrian side but we can see them here. So it's got these resources in place but it doesn't want to mount a ground operation on its own.

It says there should be an international operation. But of course, so far, a few if any countries are signaling that is a good idea, or that they would be willing to sign up for such an operation. So what it means is that the Turkish military presence, all along this border which is significant is effectively just sitting and watching as Kobani approaches the point of very likely falling.

What those Kurdish fighters inside the city want is not necessarily Turkish troops across the border, they just want Turkey to open up the border crossing gate so that those Kurdish fighters can be resupplied with ammunition, more fighters. They say that would give them a chance of holding out just a little longer -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Phil Black reporting live for us this morning, thank you.

Still to come to the NEWSROOM, a suspected cop killer continues to elude a massive dragnet in Pennsylvania.

Alexandra Field has more for you this morning.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And Carol, for the first time we are hearing the chilling account of the shootings that led to that manhunt. Police believe that account was written by the suspect himself Eric Frein. We'll talk about it after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Chilling new details are emerging about the cold-blooded shootings of two Pennsylvania State troopers almost one month ago. Federal agents have been scouring the Pennsylvania countryside for Eric Matthew Frein ever since. So far, they found journal entries that may have been left behind to taunt them.

Alexandra Field has those letters, those diary entries, I guess. And they are chilling.

FIELD: Yes, chilling is absolutely the word. Police are confident that these letters were written by Eric Frein. They give us some information about the shooting of the two Pennsylvania State police officers which led to this manhunt. And the officer who has shared those letters with us says that the actions described amount to pure evil. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) LT. COL. GEORGE BIVENS, DEP. COMMISSIONER OF OPERATIONS, PENNSYLVANIA STATE POLICE: Friday, September 12th, got a shot around 11:00 p.m. and took it. He dropped I was surprised at how quick. I took a follow-up shot on his head and neck area. He was still and quiet after that.

Another cop approached the one I just shot. As he went to kneel, I took a shot at him and jumped in the door. His legs were visible and still.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FIELD: Carol, we know that hearing these details has to be very painful for anyone who knows the two officers who were involved in this. Their families especially. But these details are important, we're sharing them because they are showing police a little more about what may have happened there. First of all, they point to the fact that it doesn't appear that the suspect knew the identities of either officers involved.

We're learning that for the first time. We're also hearing a little bit more in these letters about the escape that the suspect made following the two shootings. At one point he talks about his surprise to see a roadblock so quickly. To hear helicopters overhead and how he had to sort of stash his AK-47 and try to make a run for it but really interesting to hear that surprise.

COSTELLO: Is he -- is he leaving these things behind for police to find to taunt them?

FIELD: At one point he indicates that things had gone wrong. He says that he turned off his lights to avoid police. And that he turned off a trail. That's when his car ended up in water. He called that a disaster. He had to leave the car, he said he had to quickly stash some things. But certainly, the theory from police has been all along that perhaps he is leaving little signs, little clues for him that this is part of a game. You know, this has been going on for nearly a month, Carol, and --

COSTELLO: I know. And then they've sighted him, right? They maybe found a campsite and?

FIELD: Over and over again, they have said that they're confident that he's still in this area. Since Friday, there have been four reported sightings from law enforcement and civilians. They have uncovered this campsite which they believe belonged to him. And they found two pipe bombs which they believe he had also made. So certainly evidence all over this area. You're looking at some of it which police say proves that he is still there and somehow managing to continue to evade them.

COSTELLO: Alexandra Field, thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, AT&T agrees to pay back millions of dollars for unauthorized charges to its wireless customers. We'll tell you if you're going to receive a bonus from them next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Those unwanted texts, well, AT&T customers, listen up. You might be in for a refund. The nation's second largest wireless carrier has agreed to pay more than $100 million to settle allegations of unauthorized charges on their customers' monthly bills. The charges were for third party text message services like, you know, horoscopes and love tips.

AT&T is accused of hiding the charges like you see here. Labeling it as an AT&T subscription, a subscription that customers never signed up from and AT&T profited from.

Christine Romans is as angry as I am.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Look at that bill. Look at that bill. It's maddening. You wouldn't even know it. It's just buried in there. These are third party charges and now AT&T is settling the biggest cramming lawsuit -- cramming claim ever.

They're cramming charges on your bill that you didn't even know you had, that you had to pay for. This went on for a lot of people for a very long time. $9.99 a month to get tips about your love life or your horoscope.

Can I show you what one look like?

COSTELLO: Yes.

ROMANS: Guess what, the placement of a donkey's eyes on its head enables it to see all four feet at all times. For help call 1-888 -- are you kidding me? You paid $9.99 a month to get -- to get such helpful advice.

COSTELLO: So even if you didn't call the number on there, you will be charged?

ROMANS: Yes. You would be. And, and if you try -- if you realized that this was not, you know, something was amiss and you tried to unsubscribe, get out of this, it was either hard to do or you couldn't get a full refund. So people are really mad. And the FTC was very, very angry. And they have actually filed suits against others but this is the biggest settlement today. The $105 million. It's going to go like this.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: I'm almost afraid, how do you get your money back if you were ripped off?

ROMANS: I know. So $80 million goes to customer refunds, $25 million is to penalties. So that's the total of what AT&T is going to pay. But here's the catch, we've been looking into it and it's going to be much more difficult to get the money back quickly and easily than it was to get the money put on your bills quickly and easily. You're going to have to go to the FTC Web site, find out if you're one of people who have this. This is an AT&T Wireless account, right?

Find out if you are due a refund and then you have to file for the refund. And AT&T is supposed to tell its customers, its wireless customers, if you are somebody who is eligible. What if you don't have AT&T anymore? What if you have something else now?

COSTELLO: Well, that's what I was going to say. How do you prove to the FTC that you're getting these unwanted texts.

ROMANS: I know. You're going to be able to. They have -- they have the records. They're going to be able to do it but it could take up to nine months. So the $9.99 they put on your bill like that, Carol, it could take us nine months to get back.

COSTELLO: So wrong. It is so wrong on so many levels.

ROMANS: You know, the whole consumer experience with --

COSTELLO: It sucks, right?

ROMANS: Right.

COSTELLO: Sorry. Didn't mean to be blunt.

ROMANS: Carol, that's a technical telecom term.

COSTELLO: I know.

(LAUGHTER)

Thanks, Christine.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, as the fight against ISIS ramps up in the Middle East, some lawmakers -- some lawmakers here at home are concerned ISIS fighters are trying to enter the United States through the southern border. You know, from Mexico. We'll tell if you that's true or not.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Checking some top stories for you at 29 minutes past the hour.

Tensions again running high in St. Louis after a white police officer shot and killed an 18-year-old armed man. According to police, circumstances are -- are very different actually from the shooting death two months ago of Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson. Police say the 18-year-old was armed and fired on the off-duty officer first.

A suburban Chicago teenager is in federal court this hour accused of trying to help ISIS. 19-year-old Mohammed Khan was arrested Saturday night at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Authorities say he planned to fly to Turkey where he was to meet an ISIS contact who would then help them get into Syria.