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Kim Jong-un Not Seen; Protests Erupt Again; Police Seize Cab; Cases Reviewed after UVA Student Vanishes

Aired October 10, 2014 - 14:00   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Randi Kaye, in today for Brooke Baldwin.

We start with Kim Jong-un, international man of mystery. Is he sick, dead or has he been overthrown? These are the kind of answers you won't get easily from the hermit kingdom. North Korea's supreme leader hasn't been seen now in five weeks. Unusual, but not unheard of until today. A major national event. A ceremonial palace visit to the remains of his father and grandfather, considered a must attend event in North Korea and Kim Jong-un was a no show.

All this as a bizarre exchange happened between North Korea and South Korea. South Korea launching balloons with anti-Pyongyang flyers. The North retaliating, firing on those balloons for about 20 minutes.

Joining me now, Jim Sciutto, to talk more about this.

All right, so, Jim, we know that Kim's had some health issues like gout. Has North Korea ever really been forthcoming about illness, I mean, or could this be something more?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Never forthcoming about anything. You know, that's the thing about North Korea, you don't know. It's the most opaque system in the world. It even -- the people who watch it, intelligence officers who watch it, always do so while acknowledging that they don't know for sure. And that's the thing about this place. Now, that said, I've spoken to a number of officials who watch China and who watch North Korea and none of them are particularly concerned right now. They're not taking this to mean that there's been a major upset inside that country while always caveating it by saying that, listen, we're not going to know that there's been a major upset in that country until after it happens.

KAYE: Would it be his style to rule say from a sick bed to not show weakness? Is that possible?

SCIUTTO: Absolutely. I think that's something -- what's been interesting here though is that North Korean state media has done something that it hasn't done before when one of its leaders faces a health problem, in that they've hinted at it. They've even talked about him having a limp and they've shown him on -- in video, in official state media, kind of limping along, which is something you would think they would want to hide exactly to avoid the impression of weakness. KAYE: Right.

SCIUTTO: There was also something interesting with this ceremony now that they encouraged other state leaders to send flowers and in those flowers on the messages to say, wish the leader good health, as if to acknowledge that his health needs good wishes at this point. Now, that may be tactical to say, well, he does have a health issue, so we want to kind of lay the groundwork for people being prepared to see that in later pictures of him without and assuming that he's out of the picture.

KAYE: What about the fact that North Korea has really been making a bunch of diplomatic moves lately? Could that be playing a role here?

SCIUTTO: Well, it's interesting, and that's the first thing I thought as well, is that the guy hasn't been seen for a month and all of a sudden you have a North Korean delegation go down to the South. But, again, I talked to officials involved and when you do look at North Korea over recent years, there's always this cycle. There's a cycle of increased hostilities, missile testing, nuclear tests perhaps, that are always followed a short time afterwards by something of an outreach. And part of this is just the brinksmanship that North Korea survives on. They get their strength from scaring the world. Every once in a while they need help, they need economic health, which China and other countries provide. And when they need that, they sort of open the door a little bit. And then when they have it, they close that door again.

KAYE: Yes. You say - I mean certainly they're not very forthcoming about anything. But would we know - I mean would we know if there was a coup of some sorts that happened?

SCIUTTO: It's - you wouldn't know until after it happened probably because, again, it's such an opaque system. You may remember last year you had these assassinations inside when Kim Jong-un apparently executed his number two official -

KAYE: Right.

SCIUTTO: Including, apparently, his family. That's something you didn't find out until afterwards because the government publicized that. And that's the thing, you know, this is a country that doesn't lift the veil unless it wants to.

KAYE: What about his sister? There's been some talk that maybe his sister is actually ruling the country.

SCIUTTO: That's interesting. And part of that talk comes from her prominent placement in state photographs at these ceremonies where he would normally appear. You see the sister appear as well. And again, that might be tactical as well. If he has some health issue, whether it's gout or there was even talk that he injured his leg during military exercises, which I find slightly hard to believe, but, again, you have that kind of talk preparing the ground - preparing the public for some sort of health problem. But let's say that's true, let's say there's something that he has to

recover from until he's to the point where it's OK for him to appear in public to show a family member in that position while he's gone shows that, well, the Kim dynasty still holds sway -

KAYE: Right.

SCIUTTO: Even if our main guy might be taking a little bit of a break.

KAYE: A little bit of a break. It is all about appearances now, isn't it?

SCIUTTO: Yes, no question.

KAYE: All right, Jim Sciutto, nice to see you.

SCIUTTO: Nice to see you.

KAYE: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Thank you.

KAYE: Well, in just under an hour or so, a so-called weekend of resistance kicks off in Ferguson, Missouri. This is where supporters of the unarmed black teenager, who was killed in August by a white police officer, will push for a nationwide movement against alleged police violence. The protest comes just two days after another black teenager was shot to death by a white officer, only this time police say they recovered a gun the teen used to shoot at the officer first. But even that information didn't stop a second round of violent protests from happening last night. The clashes with police got ugly and some protesters burned an American flag.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD CHANTING: Don't shoot. Hands up. Don't shoot. No peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: I want to bring in Kevin Jackson now. He's the executive director of the Black Sphere and author of "The Big Black Lie."

Kevin, nice to see you. So one teen was unarmed, the other was armed, yet the protests look the same. Why do you think that is and are these protests justified do you think?

KEVIN JACKSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE BLACK SPHERE, LLC: Yes, I don't believe that the protest is going to be justified. I think people should have - obviously should have a right to protest, but I think that certainly, with the second incident, they're going to find out that, you know, it's pretty much it's police doing their jobs. I think that in many cases we're doing the community a disservice by just having this call to arms for everything that's happening in the community. So is it their right? Absolutely. And I think that if people feel like somebody has been wronged, we need to get to the bottom of it. But I think in this particular case, with the second incident sort of escalating things, it may turn out that they find out it was unwarranted.

KAYE: Have you had a chance to speak with the people in the black community there about getting just as outraged when black people commit crimes against black people, I mean, and what was the reaction that you got?

JACKSON: Yes, I have. It's really funny, the outcry is more of, why are you bringing that up? Sort of, you know, we know what's going on in the black community, but we still want to sort of raise the awareness of this police brutality or things like that. I think it's a disservice to the community because, as a police force, would you really want to protect people that seem to have animus toward you? And the fact of the matter is, is there is a very disproportionate amount of crime in the black community. So it is something that should be raised and a lot of times when people raise those arguments, they get ostracized and I think it's not raised enough. Right after the Ferguson incident, there was an incident in St. Louis where I believe four people were killed within days of that and there was no outcry or no outrage by the black community leaders and certainly not from the national leaders.

KAYE: What about the fact that this is a predominantly white police force? I mean can the black community in Ferguson trust this police force? Do they have an argument there?

JACKSON: I don't believe that there's a color in protection. I think that the black people would -- in Ferguson have -- certainly have the power through the ballot to affect politics across the board. If you want to have justice be a color - a colorized version or if you want your politics to be colorized, that's certainly an area where they could do it. So, I mean, if there's any responsibility, it would be on the people who vote these folks in.

But I don't believe that the police police that way for the most part because we've all had run ins with police of different colors and we've managed to survive them. So I think that trying to make it a cop problem is sort of shirking the responsibility of society.

KAYE: So, meanwhile, now you have this weekend of resistance that's planned in Ferguson. Can that really be effective for protesters? What do you want to say to them?

JACKSON: Well, as I said, I think that if a person believes or a group believes that there's something to fight for, they're certainly entitled to do that. I think that the black community is going to, at some point, get very tired of the - of leftist and leftism and liberalism of ringing the pablobian (ph) bell and saying, hey, here's another injustice against you when there's not an injustice there. But if a perpetrator shoots at a cop, he's going to get shot back, you know, and that's the cop's responsibility is to protect the neighborhood. So at some point I think we're going to tire of this and the backlash is going to be evident in the ballot box.

KAYE: Kevin Jackson, appreciate your time. Thank you.

JACKSON: My pleasure. KAYE: Coming up in the NEWSROOM, the situation in the Syrian city of

Kobani is critical as ISIS continues its bloody assault. Caught in the crossfire now, civilians with nowhere to run. We're live in Turkey, next.

And later, the CEO of Microsoft apologizing after saying women should not ask for raises because it's good karma. We're going to discuss that. Lots going on in the NEWSROOM, so keep it here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: A desperate search is still underway to find missing UVA student Hannah Graham. The investigation of the suspect in her disappearance, Jesse Matthew, now spans across multiple towns where he either attended school or worked and involves other missing persons cases. CNN has learned from a source that police seized a cab Matthew owned and operated during the time Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington disappeared back in 2009. The cab was found on a local farm and authorities say he was driving the cab the night Harrington disappeared.

Meantime, police in Newport News, Virginia, are keeping a close eye on the case. The department is now reviewing all of its missing persons cases that were opened while Matthew lived there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE (voice-over): Another Virginia college campus, another sexual assault accusation against Jesse Matthew. This time it was September 7, 2003, at Christopher Newport University in Newport News. Paul Trible is the university's president.

PAUL TRIBLE, PRESIDENT, CHRISTOPHER NEWPORT UNIVERSITY: A complaint was filed by a student. It was thoroughly investigated by our campus police.

KAYE: The school can't say much citing student privacy laws, but Trible tells us the alleged sexual assault took place somewhere on campus. He shared this new information too. The alleged victim was a student and she decided not to press charges. Still, he says, she did take part in campus disciplinary hearings testifying against Matthew. The school couldn't divulge the results of those hearings, but Jesse Matthew was gone soon after.

KAYE (on camera): A spokesman for Christopher Newport University says Jesse Matthew played football here for the CNU Captains from mid- August to mid-September 2003. He left the university about a month later. The school also says students don't usually leave the second month in the semester or leave the football team so quickly.

KAYE (voice-over): The university would not say if Matthew departed on his own or was expelled. For President Trible, this is personal. His wife was raped back in 1973. Her attacker was never identified.

Matthew had enrolled at Christopher Newport University in January 2003. Shortly after leaving Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, where he was questioned after a woman reported being raped while he was there in 2002. Investigators determined there wasn't enough evidence to charge him. It seems Christopher Newport University was unaware of that case.

TRIBLE: Unless a student is in academic good standing and disciplinary good standing, we would never accept them.

KAYE: And now Matthew's behavior is raising eyebrows off campus at the Newport News Police Department.

CHIEF RICHARD MYERS, NEWPORT NEWS, VIRGINIA, POLICE: The timeline, the proximity of when he was occupied here is about the only link we have.

KAYE (voice-over): Chief Richard Myers is reviewing all missing persons cases that occurred while Matthew was attending college here, including the disappearance of 24-year-old Autumn Day. She was last seen shopping at this Food Lion grocery store on July 24th, 2003. Her car was later discovered in the parking lot.

Less than two months later, this woman, 31-year-old Sophia Rivera, also disappeared. Rivera went missing after leaving her home in this neighborhood about seven miles from the campus of Christopher Newport University, just five days after she vanished, September 12th, 2003, Jesse Matthew left the football team at the university.

A month later he was gone from the school.

Chief Myers has been fully briefed on both women's cases.

MYERS: At this point there isn't anything we've uncovered that in any way that links to him.

KAYE (voice-over): But he isn't ready to stop looking yet, either.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: So of course the question is, did the first school, Liberty University, make the other school aware that Jesse Matthew had a rape allegation on his record?

Here's what we know. The NCAA requires that the school from which a student athlete is transferring send what's called a tracer form to the new school. That form says whether or not the transferring student is in good academic standing and good disciplinary standing.

Christopher Newport University's president told me he that would never accept a student who had any trouble. You saw him tell me that right there.

We asked Liberty University to give us the letter; Liberty says that it doesn't have the letter or the tracer form as it's called anymore because the NCAA only requires that they keep it for 10 years and they won't even tell us at this point if the form was sent directly by Liberty to the new school or if it was sent by Jesse Matthew supposedly on his own. So if the form was ever sent and if it was incomplete or not exactly

forthcoming, it's not clear who had a hand in that.

Meanwhile up next, civilians caught in the crossfire as ISIS continue a bloody siege on Kobani.

Where do they have to run? Here live on the border between Syria and Turkey coming up.

And later, Microsoft CEO apologizing after comments he made regarding women and raises. He said women should wait for karma to do its work.

What do you think about that? We'll discuss. Stay with us.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Now to ISIS and its growing infiltration of the border town of Kobani. The city is in Syria right near Turkey's border and ISIS now dominates parts of it. Witnesses tell CNN about house to house battles as ISIS tries to take full control from Syrian Kurds. ISIS keeps advancing despite U.S. airstrikes.

Our Arwa Damon was live when one hit today. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Overnight we spoke with the commander of that brigade. A lot of heavy gunfire. Again, what we believe may have been yet another airstrike. The crowds gathered around us. They are Kurds. Mostly Turkish Kurds watching what has been unfolding in Kobani and you heard it there. The sound of yet another explosion. We are hearing the fighter jets overhead.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: Arwa joins us now live again from the Syrian-Turkish border.

Arwa, we heard Turkish Kurds cheering when that airstrike hit in that live shot that we just showed.

But many are quite distressed because the Turkish military is cracking down at the border.

What's happening there?

DAMON: That's right, Randi. You'll hear them cheering when there's an air strike or whenever the YPG, the Kurdish fighting force makes an advance. There is still a lot of anger and frustrated directed at the U.S. and allies and at Turkey.

Anger and frustration with U.S. and allies because despite the fact that there have been an increased number of strikes, especially strikes deep within Kobani in and of itself, those have not yet really served to allow the Kurdish fighting force to sufficiently push ISIS back out of the city.

People really felt as if the coalition should with have taken out these ISIS targets that presented themselves in open terrain well before the terrorist organization managed to get a foothold into Kobani.

When it comes to Turkey, Turkey has its tanks along the border. Direct line of sight to Kobani and direct line of sight to ISIS fighters moving around the hilltops with complete impunity just on the outside of Kobani.

And we saw that yesterday and today, blatantly moving their fighters around and yet Turkey at this stage still doing nothing. So those Kurds on both sides of the border really feeling as if more could be done and more and more importantly should be done -- Randi.

KAYE: And they have been asking for those heavy weapons from allies and still nothing?

Nothing has arrived?

DAMON: No, what they want to see is a weapons corridor being opened, especially at this critical stage while there's still space for those weapons to arrive into Kobani. The only gateway for them is to the north right with Kobani's border with Turkey. But ISIS has been moving especially today to try to take over the north and completely encircle the city in and of itself and if they are able to do that, sending weapons in is not even a option on the table.

Turkey saying it won't allow that to happen until the Kurds officially join with the rebels, the Free Syrian army rebels and Turkey is also saying it won't be part of a coalition until things like a no-fly zone and a safe zone are being put into place.

Those are not options the coalition is willing to entertain at this stage. So there's a sense among the Kurds that they are pawns in the overarching politics that are governing the battlefield as it is unfolding -- Randi.

KAYE: Yes, you talk about ISIS making progress, there are reports that they are gaining ground there in Kobani, now controlling half the city and it sounds like the Kurds are pretty discouraged.

DAMON: They are discouraged in the sense that they know that they can't hold out indefinitely especially without support. But there is a lot of pride in the fact that they have managed to hold off ISIS' full takeover of Kobani for so long.

Remember, they've been battling for nearly three weeks now at this stage. There's also a sense that once again they, Kurds, Syrians, are being abandoned by the international community.

We did just hear from the State Department that Turkey has agreed to train Free Syrian Army rebels in Turkey, the details of which are expected to be ironed out next week when the Department of Defense delegation travels to discuss that in Ankara.

But a lot of people will tell you that right now there needs to be a lot more that is done and it has to be done fast. The U.S. cannot afford to sit around and wait for moderate rebels to be trained to act as their eyes on the ground in Syria. The situation is desperate. It's dire. People need immediate military and humanitarian assistance.

KAYE: Arwa Damon there on the border for us, Arwa, thank you and be safe.

Coming up, so if you're a woman, would you leave your career up to karma?

The CEO of Microsoft had to apologize after saying just that. We'll discuss his comments right after this break.

Later, an Alabama pastor stunned his church this week when he reportedly revealed that he has AIDS and, on top of that, he was sleeping with members of his congregation.

Could he face criminal charges? You might be surprised at the answer after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)