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Ebola Quick Strike Team Preps for U.S. Call; Search for Hannah Graham Turns Up Remains; U.S. Air-Drops Direct Aid to Kurdish Fighters; Interview with Gen. Wesley Clark

Aired October 20, 2014 - 09:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, out of quarantine, breaking new details from Dallas as dozens of patients are being released today. But is 21 days enough?

Also the search is over. Police in Virginia this morning saying they're trying to identify remains found there this weekend. They're believed to be that of missing UVA student Hannah Graham.

And help is on the way. More Kurdish fighters can now enter the fight against ISIS in Syria just as the U.S. drops weapons and ammunition to the Kurds fighting for the city of Kobani.

Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for being with me this morning.

This morning a glimmer of good news in what has been a nightmarish three weeks for health officials in Dallas. The quarantine period ends for those who made initial contact with Thomas Eric Duncan who became the first Ebola case diagnosed in the United States and the nation's first Ebola fatality.

In all, the monitoring period ends for 44 people. That's includes Duncan's fiance and her children who are now free to leave their apartment and return to the community.

But the agonizing wait slogs on for 75 other people. They're only half way through their 21 days of monitoring for any signs of sickness.

Also new this morning, the Pentagon scrambles to form a quick strike response team. Its mission, deploy its 30-member medical team to anywhere in the United States where Ebola has popped up.

CNN's Michelle Kosinski is at the White House this morning.

Good morning.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

Right, we're going to see this team being formed. The people are just being chosen for it now. They will have to undergo training first. But it's likely to be five doctors, 20 nurses and then five trainers who can help people learn exactly what they need to do to closely follow this new protocols in the treatment of Ebola.

So they'll get their training then they'll be able to deploy within 72 hours to any new cases of Ebola that arise in the U.S. So initially we saw the boots on the ground sent to West Africa to deal with the threat there. Now we'll see boots on the ground in America if there is another case, although the difference is here in the states these people will be equipped to potentially directly treat the patients -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I want to talk -- because there's been a lot of talk from politicians over the weekend. Some want travel bans put into place, nobody coming here to the United States from West Africa. Is that likely to happen?

KOSINSKI: Definitely -- I mean, yes, this has become a real political issue and we've been hearing those calls over and over again for a travel ban. And those calls are not just coming from Republicans who've been critical of many parts of the U.S.' response so far. But they're also coming from some Democrats.

The CDC has as many times as there's been a call for, they have repeated that it could be counterproductive, although depending on who's speaking, it hasn't really been fully clear how it would be counterproductive. I mean, they say that you can track someone better this way where people are being screened as they leave a country and people are being screened as they come into this country.

How that would change if there was a travel ban and be less efficient, I would say it's still not 100 percent clear. But the White House has referred to what the CDC has said on this and the NIH is they don't believe that it's necessary. In fact, they think it could hurt the response for now. So it seems like that's where it stands.

Now that said, some public health officials have said that they are open to the idea if they do in the future deem it necessary. So far, though, nothing has changed -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Michelle Kosinski reporting live at the White House this morning, thank you.

President Obama did meet with his Ebola response team over the weekend. Noticeably absent, Mr. Obama's Ebola czar Ron Klain. Apparently Klain was busy meeting with the president's chief of staff. He also does not officially start as Ebola czar until Wednesday.

Still, the president sent a White House representative to Dallas and he did organize that rapid response team.

Dr. Alexander Garza is a former assistant secretary for Health Affairs and chief medical officer for the Department of Homeland Security. He's now associate dean at St. Louis University.

Welcome, sir.

DR. ALEXANDER GARZA, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH AFFAIRS, HOMELAND SECURITY: Good morning. COSTELLO: Thank you for being here. I just wanted to ask you this

question. Why doesn't this new Ebola czar just jump in? This is the second White House meeting that he has not attended. Why would that be?

GARZA: Well, it seems to me, from what the White House is saying, is that it's a paperwork issue. So making sure that he's done all of his proper paperwork, he's been vetted appropriately and that all of appropriate bureaucratic issues are taken care of. That seems to be the reason.

COSTELLO: Now, see, that's says one thing people do not like about government.

GARZA: Right. Right.

COSTELLO: It's a bureaucratic issue with paperwork. Really?

GARZA: Yes. Yes. Sadly paperwork exists everywhere especially in the federal government. And so sometimes it's tough to get these things moving without a lot of pens moving.

COSTELLO: You know, a lot of people say Ron Klain is nothing more than a political operative. Why didn't President Obama appoint a doctor to this role?

In your opinion, is Ron Klain the right guy?

GARZA: Well, it's a -- I agree it's a curious decision to appoint somebody such as Mr. Klain to this position. I'm not saying that he can't be successful. Surely there's many people that have been appointed to positions where they don't have expertise that have done well. But I think primarily what the American people want is they want confidence in their government that things will work and that they're well taken care of. And so I think if he can establish that right away that he can with successful.

COSTELLO: Well, we'll see. Let's talk about the strike team now consists of 30 people, including five doctors and 20 nurses. They'll start to train in Houston as a team.

Too little too late?

GARZA: I think it's an addition on, too. And so as anybody that's been in the military knows, you know, your battle plan doesn't survive first contact with the enemy. And so the CDC, HHS is learning as they're going that some of these things are not panning out the way that they had planned them to. And so this is just another build on to their plan that maybe we should have some more assets at our disposal to try and combat this virus.

COSTELLO: So what exactly will the strike team do?

GARZA: Well, I think that's a -- that's a big question out there. And so from the looks of it, it appears that it's mostly a clinical team. So a team that can go in and take care of patients. I mean, you're talking about ICU nurses and physicians. But also the trainers to apparently train the staff at whatever facility they're going to go to. So that's how it appears from the outside. Now what the internal plans are at least I haven't read of what their mission is going to be.

COSTELLO: OK. So this strike team, it'll be able to deploy within 72 hours.

GARZA: Correct.

COSTELLO: I suspect people will want them to, like be able to strike as in right now. So why 72 hours?

GARZA: Well, that's pretty typical. Even though there's quick reaction forces, it still takes a little bit of ramp up time to get people, you know, onto their planes to get all their affairs taken care of in the air and mobilized. And so that's pretty routine that it takes at least that amount of time to get everybody together, organized, and in the air.

COSTELLO: Alexander Garza, thanks for your insight. We appreciate it.

GARZA: Thank you.

COSTELLO: OK. Here's some more good news in the fight against Ebola. The West African nation of Nigeria says it is now Ebola free. That means there has not been a new case in 42 days. Nigeria joins Senegal, which was declared Ebola free last week. Both countries are being praised for containing their outbreaks by swiftly identifying and then isolating those who were exposed.

In other news this morning, authorities in Virginia are waiting on forensic results from remains that could be those of Hannah Graham. The University of Virginia student disappeared five weeks ago now. Police are now calling the Graham case a death investigation after Saturday's discovery of remains in a creek bed.

CNN's Jean Casarez jean is in Charlottesville, Virginia, with more for you this morning.

Good morning, Jean.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN LEGAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. You know, officials have said that this is the largest search in the history of Virginia. But the question now is, is the search over for finding Hannah Graham?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ (voice-over): The five-week search for University of Virginia student Hannah Graham now suspended after a shocking discovery turned this missing person's case into a death investigation.

CHIEF STEVE SELLERS, ALBEMARLE COUNTY POLICE DEPT.: Today's discovery is a significant development. And we have a great deal of work ahead of us.

CASAREZ: Saturday, a search team scouring an abandoned property in Albemarle County, Virginia, found human remains, eight miles from where 18-year-old Graham disappeared.

SGT. DALE TERRY, CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, VIRGINIA SHERIFF'S OFFICE: I do believe God wanted us to find what we found. I don't know how else to explain it other than something just inside me told me just continue to look.

CASAREZ: Shortly after, Charlottesville Police relayed the news of the discovery to Graham's parents.

CHIEF TIMOTHY LONGO, CHARLOTTESVILLE POLICE DEPT.: Forensic tests need to be conducted to determine the identification of those remains. But nonetheless, we wanted to be quick and timely to share that information with the Graham family.

CASAREZ: Graham vanished in the early hours of September 18th from Charlottesville's Downtown Mall. Last seen in surveillance videos with 32-year-old Jesse Matthew. Matthew is the only person detained in connection with Graham's disappearance. He is behind bars charged with abduction with intent to defile.

The remote location where the remains were found is within miles of the farm where the body of another missing co-ed was found in 2010. Twenty-year-old Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington. Law enforcement has connected Matthew to Harrington through DNA evidence, calling it a significant break in her case. Police have since seized a cab he was driving the night she vanished.

No word on how long it will take to identify the remains found over the weekend. But if they are those of Hannah Graham, Jesse Matthew could be facing a murder charge.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ: And the processing of that crime scene continues this morning. And this missing person's case has now become a death investigation.

Sergeant Dale Terry at the Chesterfield Sheriff's Department was the one with his group that found the remains Saturday around noontime. And the way he describes it, it was all skeleton. There were black tight pants that were close to the remains. And the remains were scattered.

So, Carol, I spoke to someone close to the crime scene yesterday, a law enforcement officer. And I said you're basically trying to put back together a skeleton, and he agreed that that was the case.

And, Carol, once the remains are put together and it is believed that that will take possibly until Thursday, the chief medical examiner in Richmond, Virginia, will conduct an autopsy. So many things to find. First of all the identity. Is this in fact Hannah Graham? And then also the cause, the manner of death which can be extremely difficult when you have a situation like this.

And those black pants, Carol, could be extremely important because perpetrator DNA, who did this, could be found on that potential piece of evidence.

COSTELLO: And just an added question, where these remains were found, were they -- because I know Matthew is suspected in another woman's death, right? Was it anywhere in proximity to that woman's -- where that woman's body was found?

CASAREZ: Within miles of where Morgan Harrington's remains were found. And here's something else. Yesterday we were talking to neighbors in the area. And we found a neighborhood and we found a home that Jesse Matthew and his mother lived in together up until about 2008. Neighbors said they knew them well. His mother is a wonderful woman that he would be so friendly to all the neighbors.

And that's four miles away, Carol, from where the current remains are.

COSTELLO: Jean Casarez, reporting live from Charlottesville, Virginia, this morning.

Police in Indiana say a suspected serial killer has led them to the bodies of seven different women. The 43-year-old was arrested Friday after one woman was found dead in a Hammond motel. He reportedly confessed and led police to six more women whose cases date back to the '90s. Hammond's mayor says the suspect is also a convicted sex offender. No word from the suspect or his attorney.

I'm going to be talking with the mayor of Gary, Indiana, in the next hour. That's coming up at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time in the NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Checking top stories this is Monday morning. The students involved this weekend's pumpkin festival riots could be expelled from school. Thirty people were hurt at the annual event in New Hampshire's Keen State College.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a man inside.

COSTELLO: Amazing video of a Fresno, California, house on fire and the heroic rescue all caught on tape. The unidentified man calmly walked into the house engulfed in flames. Moments later he walked out with a man over his shoulder.

Breaking royal baby news. Will and Kate announcing this morning they're expecting their second child this April. Their first born, Prince George, is now almost a year and a half old.

The markets looking for a calm Monday after last week's nightmare roller coaster. What to watch more? Key earnings reports come up this week from big names like Coke, Amazon, and GM.

Apple Pay starts today. The program lets you use your iPhone 6 to pay for stuff at more than 200,000 stores like McDonald's, Macy's and Whole Foods. Wal-Mart among those stores not getting on board just yet.

And it's number 509, 38-year-old Broncos' Peyton Manning smashing Brett Favre's old TD record last night against the 49rs. The Broncos tweeting last night, "The ball is headed to the hall."

NEWSROOM is back after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: There has been a major shift in U.S. strategy in the war against ISIS. Outgunned Kurdish fighters battling ISIS forces for control of the Syrian town of Kobani are now getting direct U.S. aid. In fact, the United States has air-dropped weapons, ammunition, and medical supplies to the Kurds.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is on the Turkish-Syrian border with more. Hi Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, behind me last night, three U.S. C-130 cargo planes dropped aid, ammunition, medical supplies and food taken from Iraqi Kurdistan and delivered it we think to the west of the city over there, 27 separate bundles.

Now, those who received it have told us, fighters saying those munitions contained M-16 rifles. A doctor rejoicing that he can finally treat patients, he says, because there was a ton of medicine in there. The hospitals here are really strained because of weeks of fighting.

But of course this marks a direct move by Washington to directly intervene and assist the Kurds who have been begging for resupply for the past few days, a move that could potentially have angered its NATO ally Turkey, in whose territory I'm standing now. Carol.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about Turkey for just a second, because I understand Turkey is helping Kurdish fighters get into Kobani, and that's a good thing, right?

WALSH: Well, at this stage, they say that they are willing to permit Peshmerga -- now that is Iraqi Kurdish fighers from the Kurdish area of Iraq -- to cross through Turkey and then, yes, enter Kobani down below me and assist in fighting down there.

I should point just over the hill behind me, we're seeing another plume of black smoke. You may hear the blast in a moment. That might suggest the second coalition air strike today has in fact gone in. We've been seeing consistent air support from coalition jets in the sky. In fact, the same release in which they talked about air drop also revealed they put 135 separate strikes in since the fight for Kobani began.

But the Turkish facing a complex task here. They consider the Kurds fighting for this city to be allied with terrorists if not in fact terrorists themselves, letting the Peshmerga in to assist them, perhaps take some of the itnernational pressure off of them. They've been accused of intransigence, their army parked on the hill here watching the conflict down below them.

But the key question is, of course, exactly how willing will Turkey be to allow further aid? And how has the decision by Washington to directly air-drop support, how has that frayed relations with Turkey, whose help they badly need in implementing their strategy against ISIS here behind me and in Syria. Carol?

COSTELLO: Nick Paton Walsh reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

With me now General Wesley Clark, the former NATO Supreme Allied commander. He has a new book out: "Don't Wait for the Next War: A Strategy for American Growth and Global Leadership." Welcome, General.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), FMR. NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Glad to have you here. Is it a good idea for the United States to air drop weapons?

CLARK: It certainly is. This is exactly what we need to be doing. There's not a thing to be gained if ISIS overruns Kobani. Nothing to be gained by that at all.

Turkey has its own internal problems. There's trade-offs to be made, there's leverage to be worked out. Turkey is concerned about PKK terrorists. They're concerned about Iranian support for those terrorists. There's lots of cross-currents in the Middle East. That's why we don't have business putting boots on the ground, but assistance there, yes.

COSTELLO: I guess there's always a danger that those weapons being air dropped could get into the wrong hands, as in ISIS's hands. Is that possible?

CLARK: That's absolutely possible. It's possible if the air drops don't go in right on the target. And it's also possible if, for whatever reason, the Kurds are not able to defend themselves and are overrun by ISIS, they may well capture it.

But the people who are planning the air drops presumably had enough knowledge to know precisely where to put them in. The reports we've been receiving over the last weekend show that ISIS has tough fighting, but is actually falling back from some areas inside Kobani. And as you can see from the video report, it's a big area. We're pretty precise with those air drops.

COSTELLO: General Lloyd Austin from U.S. Central Command said the U.S. strategy is working against ISIS. He said, though, it will take strategic patience to beat ISIS. So, first of all, you said you think the strategy is working. Why do you think that? And, two, what does the General mean by strategic patience?

CLARK: I think that what we're going to try to do against ISIS is we're going to build a coalition. That coalition is going to have to have ground troops; they won't be U.S. ground troops. And those ground troops, therefore, have to be trained and organized and able to support U.S. air support. So all of that takes time. It can't be done overnight. And what we have to do now is block and contain ISIS's momentum. And as best we can keep it from further expanding and further enriching itself with oil --

COSTELLO: Do you think the U.S. strategy is doing that?

CLARK: I think it's -- I think the U.S. strategy is partially effective. You can't win without boots on the ground. But you also can't win without re-establishing governance in the area. And what I'm not seeing is how we intend to govern Syria once we've blasted ISIS out of there. It's not clear yet.

COSTELLO: Didn't we make the same mistake in Iraq, as far as not knowing what to do after Saddam Hussein fell?

CLARK: Oh, an even bigger mistake in Iraq because we had U.S. combat troops on the ground. So de facto it fell to us to provide the forces of law and order and try to hold things together. Yes, it was a big mistake. We should in my view have never intervened there.

COSTELLO: Is that a fear in Syria?

CLARK: In Syria, we do not want to intervene on the ground. But what we don't want to do is defeat ISIS and then have Bashar Al-Assad take back over. At least, that's what the president has said -- our objective is not help Bashar al-Assad.

COSTELLO: But what if he's still in power after all is said and done? Or what if he's not in power, who fills the void?

CLARK: Exactly right. And these are questions that I'm sure the White House is working every day, Secretary of State Kerry every day, to try to put something in place.

We do have a moderate Syrian opposition. It's been around several years. A lot of people don't think much of it. But we've been giving it assistance. They would love the opportunity to have U.S. air protection to move to northern Syria, to plant a flag, to say that they're the state of Free Syria, and to try to rally forces to them.

I'm not sure why we're not doing that, but we're not doing that. One reason might be because we haven't really made up our mind how strongly we want to oppose Bashar Al-Assad. He is backed by Russia. If we put a lot of U.S. air power in there, maybe we have to go against Russian air capacities in Syria. So there's a lot of trade- offs in this and a lot of weighing what the consequences of actions would be.

COSTELLO: General Wesley Clark, thanks for your insight this morning. We appreciate it.

CLARK: Thank you.

COSTELLO: I'll be back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, a critical day in the fight against Ebola. An all clear for those in quarantine but we're asking this morning is 20 days enough? And have we turned the coroner containing the virus? Also ahead, Ferguson cop speaks out. Officer Darren Wilson telling the his side of the story.

Also critical findings that a forensic report. So what impact are will this have on the grand jury?

And breaking royal baby news. Yay. Will and Kate expecting their second child next year. We're live at Buckingham Palace with all the juicy details. NEWSROOM continues now.

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