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ISIS Continues Advance into Iraq; JFK Airport Begins Enhanced Screening for Passengers Possibly Infected with Ebola; Protests against Police Violence Continue in St. Louis

Aired October 11, 2014 - 14:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Deborah Feyerick, thanks for joining us. We begin this afternoon with breaking news in the battle against ISIS. The militants are still advancing on two fronts in both Iraq and Syria. The situation is so desperate in Anbar province right outside Baghdad that leaders there are asking Iraq's central government to request U.S. ground forces to intervene and save Anbar right now. They claim that ISIS has seized control of 80 percent of the province, and without help they say collapse is imminent. If that happens, ISIS is will control a huge area from Iraq into Syria where the city of Kobani is also under siege and could fall.

On the allied front U.S. and allied warplanes are hitting targets in Syria and Iraq since yesterday, striking a command-and-control facility, a staging building, a fighting position, and two small units north of Kobani. Warplanes killed more than 30 is fighters west of Ramadi earlier today.

Let's bring in Erin McPike. She joins us live from the White House. Erin, Anbar says it is being overwhelmed by 10,000 ISIS fighters. It is asking for American boots on the ground. The air strikes, why aren't they targeting more forces, more troops, to try to stall their advance? What's the White House say?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Deb, again, these cries for American ground troops are coming from officials in Anbar province, local officials, not coming from the centralized government in Baghdad. The U.S. has been working closely with the Iraqi government on those air strikes, and they're continuing those air strikes. There were more air strikes overnight. The air strikes continue in both Iraq and Syria.

But what we're hearing from the White House is simply, as they said before this is going to be a long fight. They know ISIS is very brutal, has very brutal tactics, and they warned at the beginning that this could go on for several years. And so right now what they're simply doing is digging in and sticking to the strategy that they laid out so far, Deb.

FEYERICK: So, if Anbar falls, ISIS will essentially be on Baghdad's doorstep. If Kobani falls, and we heard from one analyst who said Kobani really is really just a little bit sort of optics. But that means is will be on Turkey's doorstep. What is the sense of urgency? Is the White House reevaluating what it wants to do, what kind of resources it's going to be using in that area?

MCPIKE: I think what we're seeing is that it's giving the Obama administration the ability to apply more pressure to Turkey. And just yesterday Turkey committed to training the Syrian rebels, to giving Turkish troops so that they could train those Syrian rebels. And it may be that Turkey has to commit ground troops. That is under consideration. They have not done that just yet.

But we did hear from Deputy National Security Adviser to the President Tony Blinken yesterday, and he said essentially they need to have troops. And by that he was referring to the Iraqis and the Syrian rebels forces, but also essentially saying that Turkey needs to help out in a greater way, Deb.

FEYERICK: Yes, one of the -- Turkey, meanwhile, is saying, look, we'll help you as long as you a, create a buffer zone and, b, continue the fight against Syrian President Bashar al Assad. They're not particularly friendly with the Kurds.

All right, Erin McPike at the White House, thank you so much.

MCPIKE: Of course.

FEYERICK: And now to the Ebola crisis. It is roughly 4,500 miles from Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, to New York City, but a deadly virus has shortened the distance and expanded the fears in an area of the city that knows the human toll of Ebola much too well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: At this small colorful market women from West Africa sell native products like palm tree oil and sweet potato leaves. The women say it supposedly replenishes blood. They talk about Ebola. Yet this is not West Africa. It's New York City. With roughly 10,000 immigrants Staten Island's Little Liberia is one of the largest Liberian communities outside of Africa. Many fled during the country's brutal 14-year civil war. Now they face a different war.

ORETHA BESTMAN YATES, PRESIDENT, LIBERIAN COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION: Ebola is worse than a civil war. With a civil war people could run to different African countries to seek refuge. With Ebola you cannot run nowhere. You got to sit and die.

FEYERICK: Oretha Bestman Yates heads the Liberian Community Association here. She says people regularly go back to see family or welcome those who come visit. In the last few months things have changed.

YATES: You tell someone from Liberia to get away from you.

FEYERICK: Following the death of the first Ebola patient in the U.S., Yates says there's more tension among immigrants now fearful about going to hospitals.

YATES: People are not being open about this whole thing. They are trying to keep it to themselves.

FEYERICK: That is a problem. Being able to identify symptoms quickly is crucial. At nearby Staten Island University Hospital which serves the Liberian community doctors, nurses, and administrators have no illusions. Ebola may come here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First thing they come in, have you traveled? If yes within the last 21 days, where have you traveled?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it a risk? Of course, it's a risk. Of course, it's a risk. Do I think it's any more of a risk here than anywhere else? Well, maybe New York City, but not because there are West Africans here, because there are so many planes flying in.

FEYERICK: Dr. Brahim Ardolic is at the hospital's emergency medicine department. A decontamination room accessed from the emergency bay outdoors leads straight into an isolation room.

So the patient never has to go anywhere into the general hospital. They are completely isolated.

Isolation rooms are designed to keep infectious diseases like Ebola contained.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do have a plan in place where we'd actually be running a dirty emergency department and a clean emergency department, if that were to happen.

FEYERICK: And doctors and nurses are briefed every day on everything about Ebola.

Do you feel that you're getting everything you need from the CDC or from the health department in terms of how you are supposed to respond to Ebola?

DR. OTAR DATIASHVILI, STATEN ISLAND UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: Yes, more so from our department. They kind of channel the information to us so we have a pretty good idea what to do.

FEYERICK: The hospital is prepared to expect the worst, while little Liberia hopes it will somehow be spared.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: Everyone watching and waiting.

Well, still ahead, a rally in St. Louis today is bringing up familiar emotions, distrust between the community and law enforcement. A live report next.

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FEYERICK: Happening now, a weekend of resistance rally in St. Louis. Civil rights activists and protesters demanding justice for Michael Brown, the unarmed black teen who was killed by a white officer in August. They are rallying for another victim of police violence and all across the nation.

CNN's Jason Carroll is at the rally. Jason, what's going on?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the "Justice For All" rally is under way here at this park in front of the old courthouse in ST. Louis. You have got speakers up here who are addressing the crowds of some several hundred people who have gathered here at this park. It's a multicultural crowd. People are here for a number of reasons, wanting to hear those talk about justice and race. They've come from all over, Deborah. They've come from Texas. They've come from California. They've come from New Jersey. One of the residents actually from California joining me right now. Why don't you step on in here? You're 10 years old. You decided to come here. Tell me what you expected to hear. Tell me, why did you decide to come?

THANDIWE ABDULLAH, PROTESTOR: Hi. I think I came out here because this has been going on since 2003. And it's been fizzling out for way too long. And as a 10-year-old black child I know that my generation can be completely wiped out by those who can say that they can protect and serve us. And I'm not saying that all police officers are known as brutal people, but when this is an ongoing thing it certainly looks that way.

CARROLL: You know, what's interesting to me when I ran across you is that there's so many adults out here who some of them are willing to listen. Some of them are not willing to listen. You know, when I think oftentimes as an adult when we think of children we think of innocence. And, you know, when you come out here and I listen to you, you seem to have a maturity about the subject. And I'm wondering where you think that comes from. Is it something you've always been interested in, something you've always paid attention to?

ABDULLAH: I think it's not something that I've always had, but I think it's something that I will always need to have because I'm not safe. I can't pretend that I am an innocent child as people think. I mean, I'm not saying that I did anything wrong. I'm just saying that I need to know how to protect myself and I need to know that I should represent people who are my age.

CARROLL: And very quickly, what do you hope a rally like this will accomplish?

ABDULLAH: I think that we will bring an end to police brutality and that it won't be a threat to children.

CARROLL: All right, Thandiwe Abdullah, 10-years-old from California, Los Angeles, California. Thank you very much. I appreciate you sharing your perspective with us. I hope there are a lot of other 10- year-olds who are out there just as smart as you are.

Deborah, back to you.

FEYERICK: All right, thank you, Jason. Boy, 10 years old, what a presence that that child has. Interesting that she's there making sure her voice is heard in terms of what's going on. We thank you, Jason. And still to come, a very inspiring story of a former U.S. soldier who

is about to take to a different field of battle this afternoon.

But, first, it's time for our weekly series "Tomorrow Transformed," which looks at how information and communication technology is changing society. This week Richard Quest shows us an innovative way of getting around that combines the best of bus and rail.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was in Great Britain around 1830 when Sir Goldsworthy Gurney made one of the great contributions to mass transit. He removed the horse from the front of the stagecoach and he replaced it with the steam engine. That discovery is still transforming our world today. For instance, there are buses, and then there's BRT, bus rapid transit. It integrates technology like traffic signal transmitters that turn red lights to green as the bus approaches, and modern transport solutions like dedicated BRT-only lanes. Think of this as a rail system without the rails.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think BRT is taking everything we've learned over the last 100 years of public transit and integrated into one mode.

QUEST: Cleveland's Health Line is the top rated BRT system in North America. For commuters this is the answer, a revolution.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm actually getting rid of my car.

QUEST: Jeff lives and works along the health line corridor, his commute door to door less than 13 minutes. The future of bus rapid transit around the world is to expand the stations deep into the community as societies grapple with efficiently getting more people from a to b, bus routes like this bringing technology to the road represent the future of connected transport.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: An army specialist honors his late friend by playing college football. He overcomes his demons from the battlefield and triumphs on a different kind of field, the gridiron. Here's the host of "THE LEAD," CNN's Jake Tapper.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, "THE LEAD": This is specialist Daniel Rodriguez shooting for his life from a mortar pit in Afghanistan. When his outpost, Combat Outpost Keating, was attacked five years ago by overwhelming enemy forces, insurgents filmed this video of the Virginia native running to defend his position along with his best friend, Private First Class Kevin Thompson.

DANIEL RODRIGUEZ, AUTHOR, "RISE": The next thing I'm zigzagging because bullets are hitting my ankles. And as soon as I get to the top to get to my 240, Thompson is coming out, and the next thing I know he got hit right in front of me. And it was that surreal moment where you realize you can't do anything for your friend.

TAPPER: It was the deadliest battle of the war that year, and when it was over eight U.S. soldiers were dead. Dozens of others carried with them wounds physical and otherwise, including Rodriguez.

RODRIGUEZ: You come home back to a world that expects you to be the same, and I'm questioning myself why I'm living. I would drive different routes to go to the store because I was afraid of getting blown up. I was very close to taking my own life at that point.

TAPPER: How close?

RODRIGUEZ: A loaded handgun, a loaded handgun away, to my temple.

TAPPER: But the story of Daniel Rodriguez is ultimately an inspiring one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rodriguez doing his daily job.

TAPPER: He had joined the army to follow in the footsteps of his late father, and now he would find direction from his late friend and a memory of a conversation they had had.

RODRIGUEZ: Thompson and I were talking one day that we wanted to do better for ourselves and do something with our lives, and I told him that I wanted to play college football. And he said promise me that you'll play. I wanted to show Thompson I was better than this. There was a bigger purpose for my life. Why I was still breathing was because my friends had given their last breaths.

TAPPER: At the age of 22, a time when most college athletes are graduating, the 5'8" Rodriguez started training. He spent his entire savings on this college recruitment video. It went out on social media, and he waited for a call.

Let me be honest for a second. You're not the biggest guy I know.

RODRIGUEZ: Yes. Yes. You can say that.

TAPPER: Reporter: You weren't the youngest guy.

RODRIGUEZ: No, not at all.

TAPPER: But you probably were the most determined, and definitely one of the most impressive.

RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. And I like that on my resume. I like, you know, my features too small, too slow, too old, but a hell of a worker, you know.

TAPPER: Clemson University liked it, too. Rodriguez was a walk-on in 2010 and he's become one of the university's most celebrated athletes.

Every parent tells their kids you can do anything you want.

RODRIGUEZ: Yes. TAPPER: But you actually believed it and took it to heart. So now

what? President?

RODRIGUEZ: I don't know.

TAPPER: NFL? Acting?

RODRIGUEZ: All of the above. I've seen lives taken at such a young age of ambitious kids that wanted to do so much that never got to do it. For me to put a funnel or a scope on what I want to do just isn't fair.

TAPPER: His new book "Rise" was published this week. A movie version is already in the works.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: What a great role model. Never give up. Jake Tapper, thank you. And Clemson takes on Louisville this afternoon. Kickoff is at 3:30 eastern. We wish Daniel Rodriguez all the best.

We'll be right back.

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FEYERICK: A monster storm is barreling toward Japan. Vongfong is this year's most powerful typhoon. It is packing sustained winds of 85 miles per hour. It's drenching the southern island of Japan including Okinawa where flooding is a main concern. Vongfong is expected to make a pass directly toward mainland Japan.

A California woman is free after spending 17 years in prison for a murder she did not commit. A judge found Susan Mellon wrongly convicted because of credibility issues prom the prosecution's star witness. Mellon says her religious faith is what got her through all those years behind bars.

A traffic accident changed a young woman's life forever, or so she thought. It's this week's "Human Factor."

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KATIE SHARIFY, STEM CELL DONOR: The only thing that I did different that morning was unbuckle my seat belt.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It was a split second decision that forever changed the life of 26-year-old Katie Sharify.

SHARIFY: I was driving down on Interstate 5, a drive that I'd done hundreds of times.

GUPTA: But this drive turned terribly wrong. Sharify says the last memory she had of that day was unbuckling her seat belt and reaching down to grab a can of soda that was rolling around the floorboard. SHARIFY: I didn't think anything of it. I'd done it before. You

kind of reach over, grab your purse, grab whatever on the passenger's side.

GUPTA: But Sharify's car veered off the highway ejecting her from the back windshield.

SHARIFY: And that was it. I snapped my back in half, compressed my spinal cord.

GUPTA: Instantly paralyzed from her mid-chest down. Just days after the accident she was asked to participate in the world's first human embryonic stem cell trial for spinal cord injuries. Doctor's need volunteers like Sharify to act as human guinea pigs in order to test the safety of experimental treatments. But it would not help with her recovery now she was told. In fact, doctors warned her it could possibly make things worse. But still Sharify said yes.

SHARIFY: I would like for future injuries to have an option, have a treatment available, have hope, because I know it's very hopeless in the beginning and you just think your life is over.

GUPTA: Two years since the accident, Sharify's life is far from over. She's back to school, has become a young advocate for stem cell research, and this summer she even learned how to surf.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: An inspiring story.

Well, thanks so much for spending part of your Saturday here with all of us at CNN. I'm Deborah Feyerick. "CNN MONEY" starts right now with Christine Romans.