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At This Hour

Dallas Residents Get Ebola Warning Calls; U.S. Won't Let ISIS Take Over Baghdad Airport; ISIS Calls for Attacks on FBI, Police, Media; Michaela Pereira's Journey Home.

Aired October 13, 2014 - 11:30   ET

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


MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: I remember during some of the --

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: I can't remember what it was. SARS or H1N1 people were stockpiling serums they thought were going to help. What are people doing in Dallas?

MARK DAVIS, COLUMNIST, DALLAS MORNING NEWS & RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: We're not stuffing our storm shelters with MREs just yet but people are wondering -- honestly, this was kind of sad. Yesterday was Sunday. We're a very church-going community around here. Most churches feature that moment of hand shake but probably a little more Purell going around than the average Sunday. People are thinking, especially within a mile or two concentric circle around the nurse's apartment and hospital it's like OK. And part of it is exacerbated by the over comforting of officials who say. "We got this, don't worry about it, it's really hard to get." If it's stinking hard to get, how come so many health care workers are getting it?

PEREIRA: Yeah, Mark, I think we all want to be comforted but when you see a nurse working with a patient getting it, that's cause for concern.

Mark, we may check back in with you, because we know things are still a topic of conversation in Dallas.

Thanks for joining me today.

DAVIS: It would be my honor. Glad to do it.

PEREIRA: All right.

ISIS is gaining ground. They're knocking on Baghdad's door, in fact. The threat, the terror and the reality. We'll take a look at this fast-moving terror group and the U.S. strategy to stop it. Plus, the group's latest target, the FBI. We'll take a look at it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Back now to the battle against ISIS in Iraq. @THISHOUR, fighters from the terror group are approximately eight miles from the airport in Baghdad taking control of that airport. Obviously, that would have value from a military stand point, but it would also have a symbolic value. The U.S. keeps Apache helicopter there and there are 1,200 U.S. personnel in Iraq who would have a tough time getting out if the airport was under ISIS control.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says the U.S. will not let ISIS take over that airport.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. MARTIN DEMPSEY, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: This is the case where you're not going to wait until they're climbing over the wall. If they were within, you know, 20 or 25 kilometers where --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of Baghdad airport?

DEMPSEY: Sure. And had they overrun the Iraqi unit, it was a straight shot to the airport. So we're not going to allow that to happen. We need that airport.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Let's bring in our military analyst, retired lieutenant colonel, Rick Francona; and Steven Simon, also joins us, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.

Colonel, I want to start with you.

I think that is really concerning when we hear about the speed by which ISIS is moving, approximately eight miles from the Baghdad airport and you hear them lay out just how key and vital that airport is, yet they say just not going to let it happen. A, do you think that is -- of course all the might of the American military, we're not going to let that happen. And also just in terms of the city. Is that what ISIS is after? Are they just trying to gain ground?

RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, they would like to take the airport because, as you said, it has symbolic value. It would cut off the American's primary escape route. If there will be an evacuation of American citizens, U.S. military personnel and the embassy, they would use the airport to do that. But more importantly, not just having the airport but where they are right now they can already fire indirect artillery and mortars into Baghdad itself. So not only are they trying to make life miserable for the people there, they're already putting car bombs in there.

They're undermining the credibility of this new government that's supposed to appeal to the Sunni population, it undermines their credibility and it's just not going to happen. I don't think that they want to take Baghdad because they don't have the capability. It's nine million people. What do they do with it even if they could take it? How are they going to administer it? I don't think that's their goal right now. Eventually, yes, down the road, but not right now.

PEREIRA: Steven, I'll turn to you. Is controlling 80 percent of Anbar Province, that important strategic military base they took over today. One has to ask, are these air strikes doing anything to stem the tide? It seems as though they're still gaining real estate and gaining ground.

STEVEN SIMON, SENIOR FELLOW, MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE: Well, the jihadists have been in control of Anbar Province -- largely in control of it -- for several years now, really since the U.S. surge ended. The Iraqi government has not been very successful in pushing them back thus far. It's going to take a while to do it and I think we've got to be quite realistic about that.

PEREIRA: I want to talk about reality, too. We're getting word of another ISIS threat, a security bulletin warning, the FBI, other law enforcement personnel, and even members of the news media that they could be the subject of targets by ISIS. Steven, you know this world all too well. How real is this threat and are authorities feeling like they're on top of this?

SIMONS: Well, ISIS surely knows how to press our buttons. We know that quite well. I'm not sure that these threats are very credible right now. ISIS is, as we can see, in the region configured as an army. That's what they're there for. Most of the people who are attracted to their message are flowing to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside them in this effort to establish a territorial base for an Islamic caliphate. They're not focused, as al Qaeda was, for many years on establishing the kind of cellular infrastructure in the United States and other foreign places that could enable them to target Americans along these lines.

PEREIRA: Colonel, it's interesting. He talks about the army that ISIS is, but then you also have this sort of less visible social media army that they're inspiring.

PEREIRA: FRANCONA: This is what I worry about is someone who's self- radicalizing, reads this stuff on the internet and decides, "I'm going take out a military family. So and so's spouse is overseas serving so why don't we make an example of them?" That's a threat everyone personally needs to take care of.

Colonel Rick Francona and Mr. Simon, we appreciate you giving us your expertise.

We're going to change directions quite starkly. We'll share something more personal and a little bit more intensely personal for me. I was adopted at a young age so growing up I had questions about who I am, where I came from. Part of me has been very, very curious about my roots. So, up ahead, I invite you along with me to Jamaica. "Roots: My Journey Homecoming," up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: It is perhaps the bedrock question of anyone's life -- who am I? Author Liam Callahan says we're all ghosts. We all carry inside us people who came before us. But since I'm adopted, I didn't know who came before me, so I set out to answer that very personal question. My voyage starts in St. James parish, Jamaica. It's my journey home

to find my roots.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: So my adoption journey began when I was very young, I was three months old when I was adopted by mom and dad.

You took one look at my family and you knew there was something here that was a little different. I was the only black kid I knew or part black kid or brown kid anywhere.

In Canada, I had to go through the government if I wanted to search for my birth family. They connected with my birth mother's family. She was a wonderful woman that I didn't get to meet. I missed her by about a year. She lost a very brave battle with cancer and if I had found her when I started looking, she would have been in the throes of that period in her life and it would have been very difficult for her. But the fact is, all of what you see in front of you, the color of my skin, the curl of my hair, comes from my father's side, my birth father's side, and I don't know anything about him.

A door has already been shut to me that way and I'm not going to force it open. Beyond the fact of what it said on this piece of paper, that my birth father's family was from Jamaica, that's all I know. So now I'm starting the search again to find out more about my heritage.

Do I need to be scrubbed?

KEN CHAHINE, ANCESTRY.COM: This time it all starts with a DNA test.

Yes. You gave us a saliva sample.

PEREIRA: Yes.

CHAHINE: We have found a second cousin, two third cousins and multiple fourth cousins of yours. Is that sinking in?

I can tell you now, that is on your father's side. And it does go back to Jamaica.

PEREIRA: OK.

CHAHINE: We've got the name of the town. We have the pictures so some of your ancestors. It's located in the parish of St. James in the mountains.

PEREIRA: St. James, in the mountains, Southeast of Montego.

Because the doors to my birth father closed to me, I chose instead to investigate the place my ancestors were from instead of contacting these cousins.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome to Jamaica!

PEREIRA: My DNA results pointing to Montego Bay and Cambridge. I came here to take it all in, the scenery, the food.

There's a whole fish in my soup and I could not be happier. I really could not be happier.

And, most importantly, the people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I felt that there was no way that you could come to Jamaica and not get one of these scarves.

PEREIRA: You're right about me being in New York and freezing.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the winter.

(LAUGHTER)

PEREIRA: I wanted to soak up as much as I could to learn what it truly means to be Jamaican.

(MUSIC)

PEREIRA: It seemed no matter where we were on the island, for every moment there's a song.

(SINGING)

PEREIRA: Our first stop, Montego fisherman's village.

I guess we're ready to go fishing. I'm meeting somebody here.

Knowing that I'm part Jamaican, I wanted to experience firsthand how some of the people in Montego Bay, or Mo Bay, as they call it, make their living.

Meet Devon Gray, he's the chairman of the Mo Bay Fisherman's Cooperative Society.

Here we go. Where should I leave these? Just here? Wish me luck.

(LAUGHTER)

If you're way throughout, you can't see land.

DEVON GRAY, CHAIRMAN, MO BAY FISHERMAN'S COOPERATIVE: No, you can't see land if you're way out there. Most of us just know our way back, you know.

Whoa. Look at that. I want to get a hold of that.

PEREIRA: Look at the size of those claws.

GRAY: That's a king crab.

PEREIRA: That's a good-looking crab, man.

(SHOUTING)

PEREIRA: It just jumped in the water!

(LAUGHTER)

Captain overboard.

For these men, it's more than just a fishing collective, it's a family.

GRAY: Hold on a bit.

PEREIRA: Come here. What do you have in there? Look at that.

GRAY: It's not a good catch last night.

PEREIRA: Not a good catch last night? That's OK. Everyday is a new day, right?

GRAY: Yeah.

PEREIRA: Bye, Johnny.

This first leg of my journey, already such a warm welcome.

GRAY: Typical day. Full day, too. And, of course, beautiful Jamaican lady returning home.

: Now, to really get a sense of life here, I wanted to spend time with a Jamaican family in their home.

There they are.

Hello! Hi!

You must be Linda!

Linda and Peter, who we met through a friend, graciously welcomed me and quickly put me to work.

I can shimmy and shake and saute. Oh, that smells so good.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then you add the salt fish.

PEREIRA: The salt fish. The whole thing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just put the whole thing in there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just mix it up. You did a great job, chef.

PEREIRA: I'm exhausted.

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: What a beautiful, beautiful blessing. I learned so much about family, food, and culture right here at this dinner table. Get you coconut water coconut mighty good for your daughter

(SINGING)

PEREIRA: Peter and Linda and their family were quick to make me feel at home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is Jamaica what you expected it to be?

PEREIRA: It's been even more. I didn't know just how friendly Jamaicans were. I can't stop smiling since I've been here. Literally every person that we talk to says "welcome."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we're a typical family. We work hard. We are very industrious. We work hard. (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

PEREIRA: Which means?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are a small nation but we are great people. We are great people.

PEREIRA: In my new home away from home, there is rarely a moment of silence.

(SINGING)

PEREIRA: Reggae is in Jamaican's bones. The anthem that made this country famous is on constant request.

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: We're here to meet with Ratafara (ph) and learned how they molded Jamaica country into one love.

Hello, first man. Are you going to take me across the river?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Definitely.

PEREIRA: All right. Let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me your shoes and hold on to a brother.

PEREIRA: Hold on to a brother.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome. Jamaica's motto is that it's never really meant to be a country in a state that it is not. The Japanese, Indians, Chinese, Germans, all over Europe, they all come together and make this place.

PEREIRA: This place?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This place.

(SINGING)

PEREIRA: The music, a reminder of their roots.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today, a big bass drum represents our history.

PEREIRA: With the pulse of Jamaica now in my soul, I'm headed to the heart of my journey.

Today, we're on our way to Cambridge. We believe that some of my ancestors come from this area of Cambridge.

This little church on the hill, my ancestors' place for worship, and for some, their final resting place. There is a potential that some of my ancestors are buried here. It's startling and amazing and wonderful.

Are you from Cambridge?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I am.

PEREIRA: Mr. Griffith lives across the street from the church.

You remember walking up these stairs?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was a choir boy.

PEREIRA: You were a choir boy at this church? Do you feel a sense of pride coming back here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

PEREIRA: Oh, my goodness. Look at the view.

We walked around the remains of St. Stevens' Anglican Church, staring at the very spot where my ancestors used to pray.

Man, if these walls could talk.

(LAUGHTER)

After Mr. Griffith left, I took a moment in the church by myself. I remember saying that I would love to find some context for that other side of me that I don't know anything about and this feels, if this is it, this is great. I look at faces a little longer and try to imagine if they see something in me that's familiar. To think that maybe somebody that was connected to me stood in this very church, that's really powerful. Kind of magical, really.

Well, it has been four wonderful warm and enlightening days but it feels like I'm not done yet.

I experienced firsthand what people feel it is to be Jamaican. There's a great sense of pride with the people here, a great sense of joy in the people here. They love music, they love to dance. I can't tell you how many times people spontaneously broke out in song.

It was the most generous gift somebody could give me. Every person that heard my story and understood that I was a child looking for -- for connection, every single person said, welcome home. And it was amazing and unforgettable. It was like -- it was like coming home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: I have to say a big thank you to all of the people of Jamaica who warmly welcomed me. Can we talk about the mangos for a second? They were incredible. People may wonder why I didn't look for my birth father or the cousins. First of all, that's a door that I have knocked on to no avail and I chose not to try to force it open, especially like this, in television. It's an intensely personal thing to do.

To be perfectly honest, though, I'm blessed with an amazing family. There's my mom and dad and my sisters. Many things that I would want from that connection to meeting my birth family, or at least my birth father's side of the family, I got on this trip to Jamaica. I feel a great sense of pride. Look at my parents looking so good. This is merely another piece to my puzzle.

You know what we did? We posted all sorts of snapshots and video clips from behind our scenes to our trip to Jamaica. Check them out at CNN.com/roots. We have pictures of the goats we encountered, the food we ate, and our amazing driver and guide.

All this week, CNN anchors will share their own stories in our series, "Roots, Our Journeys Home." Tonight, on "AC 360," Anderson learns about his father's history. Tomorrow, on "New Day," Chris Cuomo takes us to explore his family's root. And next Monday, a two-hour special, "Roots, Our Journeys Home," featuring 13 anchors and hosts with CNN, hosted by Anderson and me.

Thanks for joining us @THISHOUR.

"LEGAL VIEW" with Don Lemon starts now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: This was not supposed to happen in America. The hospital staff took every imaginable precaution but couldn't keep Ebola from spreading. So now what? We expect to hear from the head of the CDC, live at any moment. We'll have that for you.

Also, this hour, bombs away in Kobani as ISIS bears down on Baghdad. Iraqi troops now threatening to flee unless U.S. boots march in to help.

And a scary moment in New York.