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Space Probe Lands on Comet; Awkward Exchange Between Chinese President, "New York Times" Reporter; Iraqi Army Takes City Back From ISIS

Aired November 12, 2014 - 14:30   ET

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

SHIRLEY ALDEBOL, VICE PRESIDENT, WINDOW WASHERS UNION: You know, a tragedy was really averted here today.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: What was your thought when you saw this had happened? What was your first thought? And how serious were your concerns about the safety of these two men?

ALDEBOL: You know, whenever something like this happens, of course, you know, the first response is, oh, my god, two of our folks are basically hanging off a building. Our concern is always for our members' safety because this is very dangerous work, right? And, you know, we immediately dispatched folks down there to make sure that they were there until they got -- they got in safely.

KEILAR: Yeah. All hands on deck certainly.

ALDEBOL: Yes.

KEILAR: Shirley Aldebol, with the Window Washers Union, thank you for joining us.

ALDEBOL: OK.

KEILAR: This is the resolution, thank goodness, of what we've been watching here, live, unfold. Two workers who were trapped in this scaffolding after a cable snapped, leaving this apparatus just dangling 69 floors off the ground there on the Freedom Tower. Thankfully, pulled inside after rescue workers cut the glass. We'll continue to cover this if there are any new developments here.

We also have another big story that we're covering and we'll tell you about ahead. You may know this. A tiny spaceship landing on a moving comet. Difficult stuff. Pretty cool stuff. We'll talk about that. We'll talk with Astronaut Mark Kelly about how this happened and really what the challenges ahead are.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Another story we're watching today. Pictures just coming in. What they prove is futurist. Man has caught a comet, called 67P. This is only about 300 million miles from earth. This photo is among the first from the probe's seven cameras landing on a comet. It's like one bullet catching up to another. 67P, it could go from New York to Los Angeles in 4.5 minutes, if you can fancy that. Philae was carried to the comet by Rosetta. This is an orbiter that took 10 years just to reach 67P.

This is the moment when the control room in Germany confirmed that Philae had touched down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

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KEILAR: A room full of excited scientists. And so many people at home geeking out, getting excited watching this as well. They were team members from the European Space Agency. They were giddy, not just over the landing, but that Philae was talking back to them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHAN ULAMEC, PHILAE LANDER MANAGER: And the landing gear has been moved inside so we are sitting on the surface. More data to come. We are on the comet.

(APPLAUSE)

ULAMEC: (INAUDIBLE)

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Very unique moment there.

With me to talk about it, CNN digital correspondent, Rachel Crane; and Mark Kelly, a retired naval captain and astronaut, whose brother, Mike, is a commander on the international space station.

Rachel, we're hearing that the landing -- the good news is that Philae is talking about. Not everything went according to plan with this landing.

RACHEL CRANE, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. The lander is in place. There were several hiccups this morning. The most significant involving the harpoon system. The comet is 2.5 miles wide. The force of gravity is weak. In order to keep this lander on the surface of the comet, it needs to latch on and the harpoon system which was supposed to facilitate that did not deploy properly. There were screws in the bottom of the leg of the lander and that's what we believe is actually holding the lander in place right now.

KEILAR: Meaning that the screws were able to --

(CROSSTALK)

CRANE: Drill through the surface of the comet and keep the lander in place so it didn't bounce back into space. KEILAR: Is that a redundant system? Is that the idea?

CRANE: Yes. There was another system in place on the lander, which also did not work properly this morning. A thruster on top of the lander was supposed to help push back so it didn't bounce back into space. That didn't work properly this morning. It was all dependent on these screws in the bottom of the legs.

KEILAR: Amazing, Mark. And you looked at that, and you know so well the difficulties when it comes to space travel and really just everything working out as it's supposed to. How monumental is this when you watched this today? How big a deal when you watched this?

KELLY: It's a big deal. In space flight, doing these hard things, it doesn't always go right. We always have glitches along the way and we have to overcome them. When you look at what this team of people did, it's quite incredible to fly a 10-year mission and have the spacecraft shut down in excess of 30 months, to restart it and to rendezvous with something that's moving 40,000 miles an hour, and then land on it. It's quite an incredible thing to do. And you have to give those teams a lot of credit for their success.

KEILAR: Do you expect when you have an apparatus that traveled that far, so much time has passed and space isn't a friendly environment where you will have these issues with the thrusters.

KELLY: It's not friendly at all. Massive temperature changes based on which side of the spacecraft is facing the sun. The temperature swings can be plus or minus-200 degrees probably even much more significant in the air this spacecraft is operating in and look at the radiation environment and how it affects electronics. It's a difficult thing to do and it's amazing that they pulled this off.

KEILAR: Talk about this, Rachel. When Philae was carried up there by the Rosetta and the Rosetta, it has to shoot the Philae at the comet.

CRANE: Right. It actually free falls down to the surface of the comet itself.

KEILAR: It's unbelievable.

CRANE: Yeah.

KEILAR: How far up are we talking?

CRANE: About seven miles. I was on the phone earlier with NASA scientists working on this project, and to speak about difficulty, and they likened it to hitting a golf ball on earth and hitting the moon. That's what a huge accomplishment this mission actually working was.

KEILAR: How did they insure -- the accuracy is unbelievable.

CRANE: They had 1,000 feet for error and they made it. The fact they actually did it and the mission is also now sending data back and sending pictures back is extraordinary.

KEILAR: And tweeting. But I don't think it is. Philae isn't tweeting, but smart P.R. folks. Some tweets coming out.

Mark, let's talk about the serious nature of this mission here. What's the point of going and having a spaceship land on a comet and study the comet? What do we learn?

KELLY: Comets are mysterious things. They are flying through the solar system as they get close to the sun. The molecules and atoms onboard and material heats up and creates a big tail. We don't understand it. By studying a comet we can learn more not only about the comet but about our solar system and our galaxy and formation of the universe. The lander has an incredible array of experiments and it will look at the composition of the comet and how a comet really works and what it's made of and other elements there. We'll learn a lot about where this comet came from and where the solar system came from and maybe a bit about where we came from.

KEILAR: Amazing. It's so fun. It's just capturing our imagination and perhaps it may reveal clues about the origin of life.

Rachel Crane, Mark Kelly, thank you to both of you.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Coming up, a key Iraqi city held by the Iraqi army in a tense battle against ISIS. A few months ago, this would have seemed impossible. What's different now? We'll tell you.

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KEILAR: This was an awkward moment on display when the world's two most powerful men announced an historic deal between the U.S. and China. It was supposed to be a victory lap for Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Obama. They reached a deal to tackle climate change.

In an unexpected move, China's president agreed to take one question from a U.S. reporter, something that the Chinese usually refuse to do.

"New York Times" reporter, Mark Landler, did not ask about the climate change deal. He chose a very different topic. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK LANDLER, REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Several news organizations from the United States have had issues are residency permits in China being denied, including "The New York Times." I'm wondering, in the spirit of these arrangements that you agreed to this week with business people and students, isn't it time to extend that right to foreign correspondents who seek to cover your country?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): The president will take a question from the member of the Chinese press.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: At first, China's president completely ignored Mark Landler, "The New York Times" White House reporter's question, and then things got stranger.

CNN White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, with the details.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: But then Xi conceded his country's human rights record was not perfect. "China has made enormous progress and that's a fact," Xi said, "On the question of China's human rights, we should never consider our work to be mission accomplished."

Xi eventually answered Landler's question, blaming "The New York Times" for its own access problems in China. "The party that has created the problem," Xi said, "should be the one to resolve it."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: I want to bring in Mike Chinoy. He's the senior fellow at the University of southern California's U.S.-China Institute.

Mike, this is fascinating, having been a White House correspondent, having watched this. Normally, when there's a White House trip to China, the Chinese president wouldn't even take questions. This time, President Xi agreeing to take questions. And what we see out of a press conference like this, it becomes a free-for-all and anything is on the table for a question. It doesn't have to be about climate change, which is what we would have wanted to talk about. What do you make of this awkward moment? He doesn't answer the question and then later he comes back to answer it.

MIKE CHINOY, SENIOR FELLOW, U.S.-CHINA INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: Well, Xi Jinping has been someone who was not given many interviews, certainly not to the international press. Since becoming the president that adopted this sort of imperial tone, above the fray, in a sense. The Obama administration pressed Chinese hard for two presidents to accept some questions from the media. It was in fact politically, diplomatically a big concession from Chinese to allow any questions. And President Obama chose "The New York Times" correspondent for the one question that American journalists would be allowed to ask. And of course, the "Times" had problems getting visas for journalists in China since it published an expose of the wealth accumulated by the former leader.

When that question was raised, he answered by saying it's "The New York Times" own fault, but Chinese officials made it clear to the "Times" that investigating the wealth of the top leadership is off limits, and as long as "Times" continues to do that, it will have visa problems.

Interestingly, this was not shown live on Chinese TV, even though it was their president and the American president, because I think the Chinese censors were concerned about what might be discussed. It was not something the ordinary TV viewer in China got to see.

KEILAR: President Obama did pick, or certainly in consultation with his aides, but when he picks the reporter from "The New York Times," and when he picks Mark Landler, he knows, you know, first off, U.S. reporters don't generally throw softballs at these kinds of news events. He knows the Chinese president is going to get a tough question, right?

CHINOY: Sure. This has been an issue that the American government has raised with the Chinese authorities. It's not only "The New York Times," but "Bloomberg News" published a big report a couple years ago about the wealth accumulated by his relatives, and it faced visa problems and other Western media blocked in China.

And this is an issue that American officials raised. When Vice President Biden was in China some months ago, he had a private meeting with some members of the American press corps to hear their concerns. But from his point of view, I think he took a very, very tough line and made clear there's no give. That's part of what we've seen generally, is that he's taken a very, very strong unyielding line on many issues, and not only in U.S./China relations, but broadly internationally.

He's a tough, strong leader. That came through. Even though the question got raised, it certainly doesn't appear that it's going to lead to any change in the way China deals with these media organizations.

KEILAR: He answered the question, and he did it on his own terms, most certainly.

CHINOY: That's right.

KEILAR: Mike Chinoy, thank you so much for being with us.

Coming up, a key city in Iraq held by the Iraqi army in a tense battle against is, a few months ago this would have seemed impossible. What's different now? We'll talk about that.

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KEILAR: Having run away from ISIS rather than fight ISIS, the Iraqi army got tagged last summer as the gang that couldn't shoot, much less shoot straight. Have a look at this with your own two eyes. An Iraqi flag today being raised over a major city that the army has just recaptured. Bayji, this is north of Baghdad. It fell to ISIS last June. Late last week, the army struck from south and west, and it has now reached the center of the city. The next battle likely to be for Iraq's largest oil refinery, which is to the north of this. A beleaguered force has been able to hold down the refinery despite a month-long ISIS onslaught.

Now to talk more about this, from Orlando, Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, a CNN military analyst.

General, tell us about this. Tell us about the battle for Bayji and this apparently victory by the Iraqi forces. How important is it?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's huge, Brianna. A lot of good news out of Iraq today on several fronts. This is one of them. Bayji was a town in my area of operation. It was always a thorn in our side, because al Qaeda uses the oil coming out of refinery on the black market, and this is how they gained some of their funds. The city of Bayji itself is a city of 200,000 people. Most of them are refinery workers. And the fact that we had a combination of Iraqi army, some Shia militia and allied airpower helping to free this city is critically important. There's a lot of fight left there because I would guess that ISIS troops, just like al Qaeda troops did before them, will plant IEDs so it will be difficult to continue to clear this city.

KEILAR: And then obviously the next step is trying to move north to that oil refinery, which at this point, ISIS does not control. Tell us about that attempt and really the challenges to get there.

HERTLING: The oil refinery is an unbelievably sprawling and mid '50s construction type of facility. It produces about 300,000 barrels of oil a day, about 10 million barrels a month at capacity. Critically important. It's a quarter of Iraqi's oil that comes out of there. It's a difficult ground to fight on. There's a lot of pipes and warehouses and facilities, truck routes coming in and out of there. I think that we've had Iraqi security forces, Iraqi army in that area withholding against the ISIS advances over the last several weeks. They have been beleaguered. And it's an opportunity to reinforce that and regain the facility.

KEILAR: Do you look at this -- Iraqi forces recapturing Bayji, and say that maybe this is a sign that Iraqi forces can do this in a much bigger way? That's really the question right now.

HERTLING: I think --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: U.S. troops are there trying to train Iraqi forces.

(CROSSTALK)

HERTLING: It's a combination of things. It's, first of all, the success of an Iraqi security forces, which we shipped up from the south from around Baghdad, to reinforce this area. It's also the announcement today that was backed up by the defense minister, saying, hey, we're going to ship arms and equipment to the tribal leaders in the West, in Anbar Province, and we'll establish this National Guard. That's why you have seen Americans establishing training sites. So the combination of that, what's going on at Bayji, and the announcement that Mr. Alabadi (ph) has swept clean the old Shia proxies that Mr. Maliki put in place as generals, and he's replacing them now. So we're talking about new leadership in the Iraqi army. Those three areas, happening within the last couple of days, last couple of hours, are critically important for the continued fight by the Iraqis to regain their territory with coalition help.

KEILAR: You worked in Iraq with a lot of these Iraqi military leaders where it was a more diverse group. We saw the last prime minister of Iraq, Nouri al Maliki, sort of dismantle that more representative leadership in the military. Do you think -- you say this is a good sign. Do you think the damage that was done can be reversed?

HERTLING: I think it can. That's the important positive point. What we've seen in the province where Tikrit and Bayji are cities. This is a Sunni tribal area. They have some Kurdish influences. Yet, Maliki replaced the 4th Infantry Division commander with a Shia. It was crazy. It was ludicrous. That's why you saw a lot of subordinate leaders just giving up their arms. They wouldn't fight for these guys who had no knowledge of professional military activity.

What we're seeing now, with a new Sunni defense minister, replacing some of these generals, getting some new leadership onboard, we're seeing some very positive signs.

But again, Brianna, this is going to take a while. You don't rebuild the army at a flip of a switch. It's going to take weeks, months, to get new leaders place and regain the trust with soldiers but also, as importantly, with the citizens in these areas.

KEILAR: Weeks, months, maybe more. We'll be watching.

General Mark Hertling, as always, thanks for being with us.

HERTLING: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: We'll be right back.

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