Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

Nurse Released from New Jersey Quarantine; Political Uproar Over Ebola Rules; Ebola Test Results Soon for Five-Year-Old; ISIS Targeting Aircraft With Portable Missiles; Shooter Invited Victims to Cafeteria; Ebola Results Soon for 5-Year-Old Boy; Legal Cases Building Against Graham Suspect

Aired October 27, 2014 - 17:00   ET

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


WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Happening now, Ebola crisis -- test results are due soon for a 5-year-old boy running a fever after visiting West Africa, as a nurse just back from the region wins her fight to be freed from quarantine.

New ISIS threat -- the terror group shows off the shoulder-fired missiles that it has used to shoot down Iraqi helicopters.

Are U.S. aircraft now in danger?

Hello Kim -- new pictures of North Korea's leader visiting an orphanage, completely with Hello Kitty style decor.

So what's behind the charm offensive?

And multiple charges -- the suspect in the Hannah Graham case will soon face a judge in another case that's been building for years.

Is that just the beginning?

I'm Wolf Blitzer.

You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: We're tracking several major developments in the Ebola crisis. A nurse who was quarantined in New Jersey after returning from West Africa has now left the hospital. Kaci Hickox is free to go home to Maine, but officials there say she'll face further isolation.

Ebola test results are due any time now on a 5-year-old hospitalized with a fever in New York City. He, too, had recently been in West Africa. And as several states act to monitor or isolate certain travelers from the so-called Ebola hot zone, federal officials issue new Ebola guidelines.

Our correspondents, analysts and newsmakers, they're standing by.

Let's begin with CNN's Alexandra Field. She has the very latest -- Alexandra?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there, Wolf.

Kaci Hickox says that her basic human rights were being violated. She insists that she never had signs of the Ebola virus and yet she was being made to stay in isolation here in University Hospital.

Then she threatened legal action and now she is on her way home to Maine.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD (voice-over): Until hours ago, Kaci Hickox was under quarantine in less than great conditions. Her toilet, sink, her room, thanks to the New Jersey governor, not what she was hoping for, after retiring from a tough assignment in West Africa.

She described her conditions to CNN.

KACI HICKOX, NURSE: It's just a basic tent structure. There's a hospital bed. They bring me food. I have kind of a porta-potty type restroom, no shower facilities and no connection with the outside world except my iPhone.

FIELD: Hickox spent a month working with Ebola patients in hard-hit Sierra Leone, where nearly 1,300 people have died. After that, she was held in this tent at Newark University's Hospital after registering a fever, a reading she disputes.

HICKOX: I truly believe that it was an instrument error. They were using the forehead scanner. And I was obviously distressed and a bit upset. And so my cheeks were flushed. And I think there has been some evidence that that machine is not very accurate in these kind of situations.

FIELD: New Jersey's governor insists she had a high temperature.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: And my heart goes out to her because she's someone who has been trying to help others and is obviously ill.

FIELD: He says she was showing possible symptoms of Ebola.

Hickox took direct aim at that claim.

HICKOX: You know, the first thing I would say to Governor Christie is that I wish that he would be more careful about his statements related to my medical condition. I am not, as he said quote, unquote, "obviously ill." I am completely healthy and with no symptoms.

I understand that people feel like they have a risk. And I think we can have a conversation about what further measures might look like. But I think this is an extreme that is really unacceptable. And I feel like my basic human rights have been violated.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

FIELD: After three days inside that tent inside this hospital, Hickox left here this afternoon in a private car, which will take her back to Maine. But once she arrives in Maine, she will have to stay in quarantine. Health officials in that state say that she can stay in her home, but they will be in close contact with her. They'll monitor her over the course of this 21-day incubation period and make sure that they don't detect any symptoms of this virus -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Let's hope they don't.

And we wish her only the best of luck.

All right, thanks very much, Alexandra, for that report.

States joined federal authorities in taking steps to keep Ebola from spreading in the United States. There's a growing political uproar and growing confusion at the same time.

Let's bring in our senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta.

He's taking a look at this part of the story -- Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the CDC just came out with new guidelines for states trying to figure out what to do with those health care workers returning from West Africa. But the White House said today the federal government won't force those states to follow those protocols.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA (voice-over): Doctors and nurses in the Ebola hot zone in West Africa will need a careful examination of U.S. quarantine rules back home. The White House says if a state wants to confine a nurse to a tent in a hospital, as in the case of Kaci Hickox, so be it.

(on camera): If they want to put people in tents, they can do that?

JOSH EARNEST, DEPUTY WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, subject to the laws of these individual states.

What we hope and what we think has been true in the vast majority of circumstances is that these kinds of policy decisions should be driven by science.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Despite new CDC guidelines on how to deal with these returning health care workers the Obama administration is leaving it up to the states, some already stepping forward to come up with their own policies.

CHRISTIE: I think this is a policy that will become a national policy sooner rather than later.

ACOSTA: The White House slammed New Jersey and New York governors, Chris Christie and Andrew Cuomo, after they imposed mandatory quarantines that led to the confinement of Nurse Hickox. Christie freed her after she protested.

CHRISTIE: I didn't reverse any decision.

Why are you saying I reversed a decision?

ACOSTA: Administration officials refused to say whether they were ever consulted.

(on camera): Is that a yes or no in terms of whether or not the administration was told in advance?

EARNEST: What I'm telling you, Jim, is that I'm not going to be in a position to detail all of the -- all of the phone calls.

ACOSTA (voice-over): And they wouldn't say whether the nurse's rights were violated.

EARNEST: Her service and commitment to this cause is something that should be honored and respected. And I don't think we do that by making her live in a tent for two or three days.

ACOSTA: Adding to the confusion, the Pentagon, which is sending soldiers to West Africa, is also mulling quarantine policies of their own, all of which worries top health officials.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: You don't want to make a blanket change in something that might have negative consequences.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM CAMPAIGN AD)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ebola inside the U.S. -- Americans alarmed about national security.

ACOSTA: Eight days before the midterms, Republicans argue Ebola is only a symptom of a bigger problem.

REP. DARRELL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: I think governors of both parties are reacting to an absence of leadership.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

ACOSTA: Now, all of this confusion is raising the question, whatever happened to Ron Klain, the administration's Ebola response coordinator?

Well, the White House says Klain is expected to take on more of a behind-the-scenes role. We may see him publicly, but not very often. For now, Wolf, they're saying Ron Klain will be doing more behind-the- scenes, backroom dealings with the different agencies of the federal government, but no plans at this point to put him out in front of the cameras -- Wolf.

BLITZER: What did the White House say, Jim, about the apparent mixed signals coming from various branches of the U.S. government? You hear something, for example, from the Department of Defense, you hear something else from the CDC, you hear something else from the governors and the states.

What are they saying about that?

ACOSTA: You know, they're saying, at this point, you know, the federal government really is going to stay out of the state's way when it comes to putting together their quarantine rules for the individual states. The CDC has no enforcement authority.

As for the Pentagon, the Defense Department, they are said to be mulling these quarantine rules as we speak. And at that point, the White House says they'll let the Pentagon announce them.

BLITZER: Jim Acosta at the White House.

Thanks very much.

Ebola test results are due literally at any moment for a 5-year-old boy who developed a fever after returning from West Africa. He's over at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, which is also treating a doctor who came down with the disease after treating patients in Africa.

CNN's Poppy Harlow is over at Bellevue Hospital -- Poppy, what's the latest?

What are you hearing over there?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we're standing by, because it could be any moment that we get those test results. You know, this test takes up to 12 hours. It was administered earlier today on this 5-year-old boy. He landed at JFK Airport in New York City on Saturday night around 9:00 p.m.. Then on Sunday, he got a very high fever. He was rushed here to Bellevue Hospital, the place for treating anything suspected of possibly being Ebola.

This is video we at CNN believe is him being transported, along with his mother here. He is being held in isolation.

He spent a month in Guinea with his family. And that is the concern. That is part of the hot zone, really, for the Ebola virus.

Again, we do not know if he has Ebola, but he has a 102-degree fever at the latest reading. So this is cause for concern.

Earlier today, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio addressed why the city is taking these steps when it comes to this 5-year-old boy.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK: The child was having some difficulties, but it's not clear they were the kinds of symptoms that would be related to Ebola. So, again, this is the abundance of caution dynamic. A very recently returned family. The child was showing some signs of an illness. It's not clear what the illness was. We did the cautious thing and brought the child in under the full protocol.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Now the mayor, Wolf, I can tell you, saying it's a, quote, "encouraging sign" that this little boy's mother is showing no symptoms whatsoever. But officials are still trying to suss out whether or not the boy had any contact with any Ebola patients while he spent that month in Guinea.

We don't know what officials here are really working ahead and tracking down anyone he may have come into contact with between Saturday night, when he got here to New York, and when he came here to the hospital on Sunday night. Just in case it is a positive test, they want to be able to trace his footsteps -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And let's hope it isn't a positive test. Let's hope the test comes back negative.

HARLOW: Yes.

BLITZER: And we'll report it as soon as you let us know what they're saying at the hospital.

Poppy, stand by.

Just ahead, conflicting and sometimes confusing guidelines from federal authorities and a growing number of states on how to handle health care workers and other travelers just back from the Ebola hot zone in West Africa. Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health will stand by to try to sort it all out for us.

And a new threat from ISIS -- shoulder-fired missiles are being used to try to down Iraqi helicopters.

Can they do the same to American aircraft?

Plus, the suspect in the Hannah Graham case will soon face a judge in another Virginia case. New details coming into THE SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: There's a new and dangerous weapon that has recently shoulder-fired missiles to shoot down Iraqi helicopters. Those missiles may also pose a threat to other aircraft just as the United States and its allies are stepping up their air campaign against the terror group.

Our chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, has been looking into this part of the story. From the U.S. perspective, it's a very disturbing development.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: No question. It's long been a fear there. You might know this from flying into Baghdad. You have to do that corkscrew approach so that you don't have a long, slow approach to take you away from the middle.

What's different now is that ISIS believed to have much more advanced shoulder-fired missiles with greater accuracy and a greater range, and they are also now within miles of Baghdad International Airport.

This is the ISIS propaganda video that highlighted the threat. And in that video, when we play it, you'll see that an ISIS militant is shown firing at an Iraqi helicopter with a shoulder-fired missile. We don't have that video. But I'll tell you that Jane's (ph) defense experts have looked at it, and they've identified the missile that that ISIS militant was firing is a Chinese-made FN-6, and later in the video you see what ISIS claims to be the wreckage of that downed Iraqi chopper.

Now U.S. officials are concerned -- here's that missile now. A Chinese-made FN-6. It has a range of up to 12,500 feet, which can hit not only Iraqi helicopters but also U.S. helicopters, Apaches that are now in action over Iraq, as well as AC-130 gunships. To be clear, they have a range that could hit planes like that and helicopters like that. It could not hit commercial aircraft flying at altitude, because that's about three times the range of this particular missile.

That said, if that plane is flying in on approach, take-off or landing at Baghdad International Airport, that's when they're most vulnerable, and that is a risk.

One more thing that we can say, Wolf, is that U.S. pilots can take steps to reduce the risk. For instance, they can alternate their flight path. I spoke with Iraqi -- former U.S. commanders in Iraq. And they said that one of the biggest troubles was they would set themselves up in areas where they knew U.S. helicopters were coming. So, of course, U.S. commanders changed those flight paths, moved them around. And that's one thing that they're doing there.

And also the Apaches that are now operating in Iraq, they have this ability to fire from distance, so you can fire even from behind a mountain at a target a few miles away, which of course, reduces the risk from somewhere there firing back at you.

BLITZER: Do we know how these guys got these Chinese shoulder-fired missiles?

SCIUTTO: Well, we believe -- what U.S. officials believe is that they either captured them from Iraqi forces or captured or bought them from other Syrian rebel groups or perhaps both. And you and I talked about this, but that was one of the reasons that the Obama administration was reluctant to arm the Syrian rebels earlier, because they were concerned that advanced weapons would get into the hands of militants like ISIS, and that's clearly what's happened here.

So it's a real worry going forward, and it's going to be a real threat that U.S. pilots will have to deal with in Iraq as they're flying air support for Iraqi troops.

BLITZER: Dangerous missions for those C-130 pilots, as well as those Apache pilots, as well.

All right. Thanks very much, Jim Sciutto, with that late-breaking development.

We're also getting new information on a disturbing new ISIS video showing a western hostage in the frontline town of Kobani. We're going to have new details on that. That's coming up in our next hour. I want you to stand by for that.

But right now, let's focus in on this new ISIS shoulder-fired missile threat. Joining us, our CNN global affairs analyst, retired U.S. Army officer James Reese. He's a colonel, retired. Also joining us, Douglas Ollivant. He's a retired Army officer, former National Security Council official. He's now with the New America Foundation and Manton International, which has business interests in Iraq.

Gentlemen, thanks very much for joining us.

Colonel Reese, first to you. The fact that ISIS now has these shoulder-fired missiles, how much does that change what's going on on the ground and in the air over there?

LT. COL. JAMES REESE, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, Wolf, what it does right now is it literally starts to affect what the Iraqi forces have done with their air superiority especially for rotary wing or helicopter support, those -- that becomes a threat.

When the U.S. Apaches -- remember, one of the things we do is we own the night. We really want to put those Apaches out at nighttime. We want to use our night vision devices, our thermal devices to help target the ISIS aspects if our Apaches have to go out.

The problem is the Iraqis and others that have the Apaches don't have the experience and the training like our American pilots do to really do that at night. Now, during OIF through the years, we've even seen it when we left and we started our business over there. We'd still see the Apaches flying during the day. But the other thing the American Apaches have is we have a system on there which is called ASE or aircraft safety equipment, survivability equipment that literally also sets us apart from other people that have the Apache, like the Iraqis.

BLITZER: Douglas, I'm told -- and maybe you have better information than I do -- that U.S. officials are not really concerned that ISIS could take over Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, 7 million people. It's pretty well secured by the American military, largely Shiite- controlled. But they are concerned about the Baghdad International Airport, which is, what, about 12 or 15 miles outside the city.

How realistic is it that ISIS could take over Baghdad International Airport?

DOUGLAS OLLIVANT, NEW AMERICA FOUNDATION: They're not going to take over Baghdad Airport. I don't think U.S. officials are concerned about that. What they are concerned is that ISIS could conceivably get close enough to interdict it. Either use these shoulder-fired missiles we've been talking about or get close enough to have an artillery round or even a mortar round land on the airstrip, therefore, by canceling the international flights into Baghdad and cutting off Baghdad from international commerce and making the problem just exponentially harder.

BLITZER: Yes. If that airport is endangered, Col. Reese, there are thousands of Americans still in that so-called Green Zone, where the U.S. embassy is in Baghdad. They would have a hard time getting out of Iraq. They'd have to go via land, I assume, if they can't use that Baghdad International Airport.

REESE: Well, Wolf, remember, I mean, Iraq through the years is moving south of Basra, has some very established international airports. Down in Jaffe (ph), if you recall, Toleo (ph) Air Force Base. There's a very large air force base down south that they could use, and then even going into Basra. And if everything went to heck there, they could ground move all the way into Kuwait.

But, you know, the regional security office at the embassy and the military leadership there, which the American also, CentCom, they've looked at these. They've had these in place since -- for years. They've had secondary and tertiary plans to get them out in case BIAP would fall.

BLITZER: But it makes our using some of those shoulder-fired missiles to go after commercial aircraft, doing that little spiral landing as all of us have done, getting into Baghdad. That could endanger commercial flights and other flights going into Baghdad.

OLLIVANT: Well, the commercial flights don't spiral. They have to do a stand-in...

BLITZER: Only our C-130s can do that down in. So the embassy personnel will always be able to get out. We can spiral down C-130s, get them out and go back up with barely minimal risk. But in terms of normal international commerce bringing in the Turkish air flights, the Emirate flights, the Middle Eastern airline flights, that's the concern that could stop that commerce and really set Baghdad and all of Iraq back.

BLITZER: And that's a real concern right now as we watch what's going on. ISIS is still gaining power. Douglas Ollivant, thanks very much for joining us. Colonel Reese, as always, thanks to you, as well.

Let's get to politics a little bit right now. With the midterm elections only a week away from tomorrow, a new CNN/Opinion Research poll shows President Obama's approval rating remains stuck in the mid- 40s, where it's been basically most of this year. Thirty percent of Americans say they're very angry about the way things are going in the country. That's up, by the way, eight points from 2012 and is virtually the same as 2010 when the midterms turned into what President Obama then called, and you will remember, he called it a shellacking, the midterm elections in 2010.

Coming up, how to handle health workers and other travelers from West Africa's so-called Ebola hot zone. Are federal authorities and the states working at cross purposes? Dr. Anthony Fauci of NIH is standing by to explain what's going on.

And ominous messages from the Washington state high school shooter. Should someone have noticed and taken action?

Plus, the suspect in the Hannah Graham case will soon face a judge in another case that's been building for years. Is that just the beginning?

Stay with us. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Learning new details about the mass shooting at a high school near Seattle, Washington. A 15-year-old boy shot five students before killing himself. Two of the victims have died.

Our justice correspondent, Pamela Brown, is on the scene for us in Marysville, Washington, with the latest. What are you learning, Pamela?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we are just learning from this Snohomish County sheriff that the shooter, Jaylen Fryberg, invited his victims to the lunch table here last Friday before opening fire on them, killing two.

This as we learned he sent an ominous picture to his ex-girlfriend just before the rampage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): A law enforcement source tells CNN Jaylen Fryberg sent a selfie of himself holding a gun to an ex-girlfriend just before he walked into Marysville-Pilchuck cafeteria Friday and opened fire. It is unclear if it was the same .40 caliber pistol he used in the school attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He came up from behind and had a gun in his hand and fired about six bullets into the backs of them.

BROWN: Tonight, investigators are searching Fryberg's computer, scouring his social media and talking to witnesses, trying to piece together why the popular freshman homecoming prince would turn so violent, targeting his best friend and family.

On Twitter, a trail of ominous messages. "It breaks me. It actually does. I know it seems like I'm sweating it off, but I'm not. And I never will be able to."

His most recent tweet, just a day before the attack, "It won't last. It will never last."

Sources say Fryberg may have acted out following a family dispute.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jaylen pulled out a gun and shot his friends, his cousins.

BROWN (on camera): Why do you think he did that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Him and one of his cousins got into a fight a few weeks ago over his ex-girlfriend.

BROWN (voice-over): Breaking overnight, a second victim, Gia Soriano, died from her shooting injuries. Her doctor read a family statement outside the hospital.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Gia is our beautiful daughter, and words cannot express how much we will miss her.

BROWN: The first victim, student Zoe Galasso, was remembered for her bright smile and sense of humor. Heartbroken students are struggling to cope with the loss.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm just in a lot of shock. I never thought that I would lose my best friend at, like, such a young age.

BROWN: Witnesses say the death toll could have been higher, had first-year social studies teacher Megan Silberberger not stepped in. Witnesses say she ran toward the gunfire and confronted the shooter just before he shot and killed himself.

ERIC CERVANTES, STUDENT: She, like, grabbed his arm, hand on hand. It happened, like, in seconds.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Three of the victims remain in the hospital tonight, two in critical, one in serious condition.

Meantime, classes here at Marysville-Pilchuck High School have been canceled for the rest of the week, Wolf, as students here and faculty try to cope with what happened here last Friday.

BLITZER: What a heartbreaking story indeed. Pamela Brown, thanks for that report.

BLITZER: Let's get back to our top story right now. Test results are due literally at any time now for a 5-year-old boy hospitalized with a fever in New York City. That little boy recently returned from West Africa. And a nurse who was quarantined in New Jersey has won her fight to get out of isolation there.

Joining us now, the director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Dr. Fauci, thanks very much for joining us. I know you're incredibly busy right now.

Let's talk about this little 5-year-old boy being tested right now for Ebola. He had a significant fever when he was brought in. Do we know the results yet?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, NIH: We don't, Wolf. We don't. But what I'm understanding is that there are certain laboratory tests that are really not consistent with Ebola. But you don't know until you do the test. And I have not heard about the results. So it would not be a good

idea for me to comment on it, Wolf, because I really don't know what those results are.

BLITZER: All right, as soon as we know, we'll get -- we'll get back to you.

In the meantime, let's talk about some of the other aspects of these -- this Ebola crisis right now. The Pentagon is doing what they call controlled monitoring of some U.S. troops who are coming back from West Africa.

Other healthcare workers returning from that Ebola hot zone, as it's called, are being told to do self-monitoring. Some states are requiring mandatory quarantines, if you will. We're getting all these mixed signals. What's going on here?

FAUCI: OK. So Wolf, I think it's important that the CDC guidelines -- the very most recent guidelines that were put out today -- are adding a degree of clarity to with attention to scientific evidence and scientific data. And it's really, I think, important to explain why it's much clearer now.

So when you have a person coming back, a health worker, they are at different levels of risks. So rather than throwing everybody in the same bucket and either say, "If you want to make an extreme," for example, either quarantine everybody or let everybody on their own, those are two extremes.

If you look at it, there are different levels of risk to which the healthcare worker or even a person coming in from that country. There's a high risk. There's some risk. There's a low but not zero risk. And there's a really unappreciable risk, essentially no risk at all.

What's being done now with the CDC recommendations, which is a really good idea, is that they're matching the level of risk with the degree of monitoring that you're going to have. So that the higher the risk, that you have a higher degree of monitoring.

So the lowest degree is passive where I take my temperature. I see how I feel and I make my own decision. The next degree is active, where I take my temperature, figure out how I feel and tell somebody.

And the third level is a direct active monitoring, where it isn't left up to me and my judgment, but someone comes every day to my home or where I am, takes my temperature, determines my symptoms, and makes the clinical judgment as to what the degree of restriction is going to be.

So you take away denial. You take away arbitrariness, and you wind up with something that's scientifically based. And that's a lot more precise. And I think people can understand that. You don't want to be everybody in the same place. You've got to individualize your evaluation of how much travel, how much mixing in the community you're going to allow someone to have. BLITZER: Did the New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, and the New

York governor, Andrew Cuomo, make a mistake in issuing over the weekend that mandatory quarantine policy?

FAUCI: You know, Wolf, I don't want to criticize them. And I wouldn't say it was a mistake. They were trying to do the best for their constituencies. I have said that, if you look at the scientific data and the scientific evidence, I would not have recommended that. But I have no criticism for them. They were trying to do the best for their constituencies.

BLITZER: Do you have an update on Dr. Craig Spencer, the Ebola patient at Bellevue Hospital right now? How's his condition?

FAUCI: You know, I don't know, Wolf, in the sense that I'm not in direct contact. And if I did, I wouldn't want to give out a patient confidentiality information without the permission of the patient and his healthcare providers.

BLITZER: If I had been related to him or a friend of mine, I would have said, go to NIH and have Dr. Fauci take care of you at NIH, just like that nurse from Dallas was brought to you. She was released the other day. Do you have confidence that what they're doing for him at Bellevue is as good as what they -- you could do for him at NIH?

FAUCI: Bellevue is a great place, Wolf. I have complete confidence in Bellevue. I know most of the physicians there. They're extremely well-trained. They're devoted. They're good.

BLITZER: What about the healthcare workers there, the nurses and the doctors? Are they as -- are they as protected there as your nurses and doctors would be at NIH?

FAUCI: The CDC -- and to their credit -- they are there, they are helping out. They are having the monitoring of the -- in essence of making sure things are running well. There's a great degree of collaboration and cooperation between the CDC, the state and city health authorities, and the faculty and personnel of Bellevue. So I think that's a good situation there. And they're doing well. I trust them.

BLITZER: All right. Well, that's encouraging to hear that. Let's hope that Dr. Craig Spencer is freed of Ebola and freed very, very soon.

Dr. Fauci, thanks for all the good work you're doing. We really appreciate it.

FAUCI: You're quite welcome.

BLITZER: Still ahead, the main suspect in the kidnapping of the University of Virginia student Hannah Graham is ordered to appear before a judge. There are new details coming into THE SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: There are new pictures in another story we've been following here in THE SITUATION ROOM. It's the latest sighting of the North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un.

Photos released by the country's state news agency show him touring an orphanage over the weekend in North Korea's capital of Pyongyang. At one point, he arranges some Hello Kitty dishes on a table.

Till the middle of this month, he had been out of the public eye for about five weeks, raising questions about his health. But there have been several still photos of him released over these past few days.

Let's get to another story we've been following in THE SITUATION ROOM. Now that her remains have been identified, the Charlottesville, Virginia, area is coming to grips with the death of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham as legal action develops against the suspect in the Graham case, as well as in other cases. CNN's Brian Todd has been looking into all of this for us.

What are you finding out, Brian?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, tonight we've learned that Jesse Matthew is going to face a Fairfax County judge, Fairfax County, Virginia, this Friday. He's going to be video-conferenced in from his jail in Charlottesville.

But prosecutors near Charlottesville have yet to reveal their plans. It's a careful strategy, but it's playing out in a wounded community looking for justice.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): With chalk wall memorials and flower displays, the University of Virginia community tries to process the death of 18- year-old Hannah Graham.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The impact that it's had on our community has been really difficult for all of us.

TODD: Made even more difficult with the knowledge that a man with strong ties to Charlottesville, a local high school football and wrestling star, is the prime suspect. Confirmation of Graham's death now means Jesse Matthew could be charged with murder and could be eligible for the death penalty.

But experts say it's not clear what the best evidence in a murder case would be, and it may take a while to indict.

SCOTT GOODMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: That is a complicated case that will probably take a couple of weeks.

TODD: Less complicated, analysts say, is the case against Matthew in Fairfax County, Virginia, where he'll likely be tried first. There, he faces sexual assault and attempted capital murder charges from a 2005 incident where a woman was abducted while walking home from the grocery store. GOODMAN: Fairfax is the strongest case, because it's a case that has

been in the works for the last nine years. They have a live victim who can come in and testify.

TODD: There's a forensic link between that case and the abduction and murder of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington. She vanished in October 2009 while visiting UVA. Her body was found on a farm outside Charlottesville more than three months later. No one's been charged in Harrington's murder.

What's the link to Fairfax? The man who found Harrington's shirt here on this bush in downtown Charlottesville says police later told him they had a DNA match to the Fairfax case.

Harrington's parents recently spoke about the ties between their daughter's murder and Jesse Matthew's arrest in the Graham case.

GIL HARRINGTON, MORGAN HARRINGTON'S MOTHER: I'm so pleased that that has happened, but it doesn't change a lot for us, in some ways. You know, our bedroom is still empty upstairs.

TODD: And analysts say the Harrington case may be the weakest one legally against Jesse Matthew.

GOODMAN: There has been no evidence that we are aware of that establishes to any kind of degree of certainty that Mr. Matthew and Ms. Harrington were ever together.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: That, of course, departs from the Hannah Graham case, where surveillance video and witness accounts put Jesse Matthew and Hannah Graham either together the night she disappeared or at least in close proximity to each other.

We reached out to James Campbell, Jesse Matthew's attorney. He told me he would not comment on any aspect of the Graham, Harrington or Fairfax County cases. But he did send a statement on behalf of Jesse Matthew's grandparents expressing sympathy to the families of Morgan Harrington and Hannah Graham.

BLITZER: Brian, thanks very much. Brian Todd reporting.

Let's get some more now with investigative journalist Coy Barefoot and CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes, a former FBI assistant director.

Coy, what's the latest that you're hearing on those charges Jesse Matthew faces in the 2005 rape and attempted murder case in Fairfax, that's just outside of Washington, D.C., in northern Virginia?

COY BAREFOOT, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: Right, Wolf. That took place on September 24th, 2005. Three felony charges in that case. Abduction, rape and attempted capital murder.

Big development today to learn that Mr. Matthew will have his arraignment by video court. It's not Skype. I've been asked that many times. It's not Skype. It's a private phone line that's used at the jail. He will not be leaving the jail. And that's going to disappoint him because I have sources at the jail that tell me all last week he was sharing with people in the jail that he was looking forward to going to Fairfax, something a road trip for him, I guess.

The big news in Fairfax, Wolf, is, as far as I am concerned, is the courage of the young woman who was assaulted. I mean, just think about this for a minute. This young woman was brutally raped, she was nearly beaten to death. And then she voluntarily subjected herself to a rape kit test. She was swabbed. She was scraped. Her entire naked body was photographed. She was poked. She was prodded.

They took samples of her hair, her blood, her urine, her skin, her fingernails. It's a grueling process that can last up to four hours. But she did it. And too often the victims of rape and of sexual assault, they're silenced by fear or intimidation or shame or murder. And that did not happen. And the evidence that this woman is bringing forward from the 2005 case, that could very well be the evidence that is possibly used to convict a serial killer.

BLITZER: All right --

BAREFOOT: We can thank her courage for that.

BLITZER: Yes. All right. Stand by, Coy. Tom Fuentes, stand by as well. We have more to discuss, other developments in this case that has really sparked an enormous amount of concern around the country.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Investigative journalist Coy Barefoot and CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes, a former FBI assistant director. We're talking about the Hannah Graham case.

Jesse Matthew, we have some pictures, high school yearbook pictures of the suspect in this case. There you see some of the pictures, yearbook pictures from when he was in high school. And I guess a lot of people are asking, does he fit that profile? And he hasn't been convicted of anything yet. He's been charged but he hasn't been convicted of anything -- of potentially a serial killer?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, in a way, Wolf, he really does because most serial killers are charming, they're intelligent, they're outgoing, gregarious, they have friends. And we look back on many of the major cases of that and it's exactly they charmed their victims into becoming victims. And he certainly fit that

BLITZER: Coy, you spoke with the second tipster who reported the property to police where they found Hannah Graham's remains, her body. He actually walked around the property. What did he have to say to you about that? BAREFOOT: I was with him this morning. And just to review here,

there were two gentlemen who called in on the tip line to report the property where Hannah Graham was eventually found, and both men were motivated to call in because of an unusual collection of very large buzzards that were all over the property. The gentleman that I was with this morning was a Navy SEAL. He'd served two tours in Vietnam.

And he said to me, he said, Coy, I've seen it all. And I can tell you, I got out of my car that morning, I walked behind that house, I walked into the woods, I stood there under all those buzzards, and I was so freaked out and nervous that I had to leave. And I would think that it takes quite a lot to creep out a Navy SEAL. He walked into the woods and as we know now he was only feet from the body of Hannah Graham, but he just did not see her.

That was the morning of October 6th. And he said the woods were so thick, and such a thicketed woods leading down to the creek that he couldn't see her. But he did walk the property and look as best as he could, Wolf.

BLITZER: So you hear about that.

Tom, we're told there's no more active digging going on, on that property, no more searching. So it would appear police believe they've collected enough evidence, there's nothing left there to go through. Is that your assessment?

FUENTES: Yes. I think so, or they wouldn't have released the property for other people to be walking around there and released for remains. So they're finished at that site. And chances are they may have come up with nothing as far as the implication of Jesse Matthew murdering her, the decomposition, the evidence just might not be there to show, because we already know they were together.

So just finding his DNA on her pants or other remains there won't help. They need to find more specific indication that he was the last person with her, and I think the key to that is going to be whatever they found in his apartment, in his car, did he take a souvenir, did he take jewelry, a cell phone, money or billfold, underwear. You know, often these guys take some souvenir that they can reminisce.

BLITZER: All right. We'll see what they learn.

Tom Fuentes, thanks very much. Coy Barefoot, thanks to you, as well.

Coming up, Ebola test results are due any time now for a 5-year-old boy hospitalized with a fever after visiting West Africa.

And a U.S. general and a number of troops are quarantined after their work in West Africa. So why isn't the Pentagon calling it a quarantine?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Happening now, breaking news. New Ebola guidelines. The Centers for Disease Control moves to end the controversy over patchwork quarantine rules that have sparked a very public battle involving the White House. The New Jersey governor Chris Christie and a nurse who says her rights were violated.