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Monster Storm Batters Northern California; White House Mum on Torture Report Issues; Does Torture Report Strip U.S. of Moral Authority?; Spending Bill Contains 1,603 Pages; Sony Leak Reveals Major Behind-the-Scenes Drama

Aired December 11, 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: Left us with something good and we appreciate that. Have a great day.

NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

We begin with a monster storm hitting the West Coast. The so-called river in the sky now bursting its banks over California.

Take a look at these live pictures of the bay area. The camera bouncing around from the heavy winds and rain, gusts could get up to 80 miles per hour later today.

And this is in San Rafael, where up to 10 inches of rain is expected in some areas. Waves are hitting the coast at 20 feet. In the Sierra, Nevada, mountains, that rich moisture will fall as snow. A few feet of it. Whipping winds will make out for whiteout conditions. Mudslides also a danger.

That river in the sky actually called an atmospheric river is a band of heavily moist air hundreds of miles wide. The National Weather Service tweeted this overnight satellite picture showing much of the storm still offshore but it's getting closer.

CNN's Dan Simon is covering the storm. He's in San Francisco this morning.

Good morning, Dan.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. We are in downtown San Francisco. The rain just starting to come down. As you said this area is going to get hammered and the city itself, it could get up to nine inches of rain, and if it isn't the rain, it's the winds.

You talked about hurricane force winds could see 50 to 60-mile-per- hour gusts in the city, maybe 90-mile-per-hour gusts outside of the city. As you can imagine they've been preparing for this event here over the last day or two. We had the utility cruise trimming tree limbs to make sure that they don't fall on power lines, clearing storm drains to prevent the possibility of flooding. Some, though, say this is a welcome relief given the fact that the

state is in the middle of an historic three-year drought so we could certainly use all the precipitation but if you have so much rain, of course, in a short period of time you could have monumental problems -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Dan Simon reporting live from San Francisco, thanks so much.

Let's head to the Middle East. Terrorists have retaliated for a failed attempt to rescue an American hostage. Officials in southwestern Yemen say militants fired a half dozen rockets at U.S. targets stationed at the country's largest military airbase. There were no fatalities and no major damage.

The al Qaeda affiliate Ansar al-Sharia says it was to avenge the deadly U.S. raid aimed at freeing Luke Somers -- you see him on the right -- as American commandos tried to advance on the compound, captors killed the American photojournalist and another hostage, South African teacher Pierre Korkie.

Today a key group of senators is due to vote on formally declaring war on another terror group ISIS. The Foreign Relations Committee is divided on whether the issue should be passed on to a full congressional vote. That move is being pushed by Senator Rand Paul who wants to place limits on the Obama White House. Now he says to prevent the open-ended war we saw in Iraq.

Paul believes President Obama overstepped his authority by launching the airstrikes against ISIS without the consent of Congress.

Well, here's the new measure of the far-reaching impact of the Senate's so-called torture report. This morning there is the new best-selling e-book on Amazon's intelligence and espionage section. It's in that section, I meant to say. Part of the intrigue is whether the CIA withheld details on brutal interrogation techniques of terror suspects.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney dismisses the claims and criticisms as a partisan hit job by Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD CHENEY, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: What happened here was that we asked the agency to go take steps and put in place programs that were designed to catch the bastards that killed 3,000 of us on 9/11. And to make sure it didn't happen again. And that's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit, not the kind of condemnation that they're receiving from the Senate Democrats.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: The Feinstein report suggests that President Bush was not fully briefed on the program and was deliberately kept in the dark by the CIA.

CHENEY: Not true. Didn't happen. Read his book. He talks about it extensively in the -- in his memoirs. He was, in fact, an integral part of the program. He had to approve it before we went forward with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The report also claimed that Secretary of State Colin Powell was kept in the dark for almost two years because the career military man would, quote, "blow his stack" over the abuses. The government's top law enforcement officer at the time disputes that claim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALBERTO GONZALES, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: I don't remember that concern, but at some -- at an appropriate time people would be read into what it is the administration would -- would be considering, and so at the appropriate time General Powell and others would be advised of what the administration was considering, what the CIA was proposing, what the Department of Justice was saying in terms of legality, and then they would have the opportunity to present their views.

And the same thing happened, for example, with respect to the application of the Geneva conventions. People at the appropriate time was informed and they had the opportunity to make their views known to the president of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Jim Acosta at the White House this morning with more.

Good morning, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. So far the White House is steering clear of the two big questions coming out of that torture report, should CIA officials be prosecuted for those harsh interrogation tactics and did those interrogation tactics save lives? There is one person who will say Dick Cheney.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA (voice-over): With the debate raging over the fallout of the torture report the White House is staying on the sidelines. Press Secretary Josh Earnest refused to weigh in on whether CIA officials should be tried for interrogation tactics the president himself has described as torture.

(On camera): Did those details warrant going back and reexamining whether people should be prosecuted?

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Decisions about prosecution are made by career federal prosecutors at the Department of Justice.

ACOSTA: The Justice Department says the federal prosecutors who looked into the program won't be launching a new investigation based on the report from the Senate Intelligence Committee's Democratic chair, Dianne Feinstein.

Trial or no trial, the CIA has some big names coming to its defense, from former Vice President Dick Cheney who blasted the report on FOX News.

CHENEY: I think it's a terrible piece of work. We did exactly what needed to be done in order to catch those who were guilty on 9/11 and to prevent a further attack and we were successful on both parts. And I think --

BAIER: This report says it was not successful.

CHENEY: The report is full of crap.

ACOSTA: To the agency's former director, Michael Hayden.

GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: What stunned me about the report most was the fact that it was written in the way it was written. It is an unrelenting prosecutorial document.

ACOSTA: Both men saying the CIA is right in asserting that harsh interrogation techniques like those shown in the films "Zero Dark Thirty" actually prevented attacks and saved life. But on that crucial question, the White House takes no position.

EARNEST: It is impossible to know the counter-factual. Right? It's impossible to know whether or not this information could have been obtained using tactics that are consistent with the Army Field Manual or other law enforcement techniques.

SEN. MARK UDALL (D), COLORADO: The CIA is lying.

ACOSTA: Colorado Democratic Senator Mark Udall called on the president to clean house at the CIA. Udall said an internal review of the interrogation program conducted by former CIA director Leon Panetta found the CIA repeatedly misled Congress about the brutal tactics.

UDALL: The president needs to purge his administration of high level officials, who were instrumental to the development and running of this program. For Director Brennan, that means resigning.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: But there is no indication that that is going to happen any time soon. The White House maintains the president still has full confidence in CIA director John Brennan and Brennan will have a chance to defend himself at a news conference at the CIA later on this afternoon -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Jim Acosta reporting live from the White House.

And as Jim said, in just a few hours we should hear more from the CIA director, John Brennan.

In a rare public exchange, the head of the nation's spy agency will also field questions from reporters. CNN will carry the news conference live. It is scheduled for 1:30 Eastern Time.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, countries with human rights abuses of their own slamming the U.S. over the torture report. So have we lost our moral authority? Should we care?

We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Fallout from the torture report is reverberating around the world. Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini slamming the United States as a symbol of tyranny against its people. China's state-sponsored news agency blasting Americans as hypocrites when it comes to human rights. And Pakistan's Foreign Ministry says his country deplores torture and those acts should never be repeated.

Before you say who cares what other countries think, remember there are always repercussions, especially when you consider yourself a moral authority.

Here's President George W. Bush in his 2003 State of the Union.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT: Iraqi refugees tell us how forced confessions are obtained by torturing children while their parents are made to watch. International human rights groups have catalogued other methods used in the torture chambers of Iraq. Electric shock, burning with hot irons, dripping acid on the skin, mutilation with electric drills, cutting out tongues, and rape.

If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: No CIA interrogators did not go to those lengths but they did resort to extreme measures that some do call torture.

So let's talk about that with John Hudson. He's a senior reporter at "Foreign Policy" magazine and the Reverend Ron Stief, the director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

Welcome to both of you.

JOHN HUDSON, SENIOR REPORTER, FOREIGN POLICY: Thanks.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here.

Reverend, why does the United States have to be the moral authority?

REV. RON STIEF, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL RELIGIOUS CAMPAIGN AGAINST TORTURE: Well, we have to be the moral authority because we are among nations who look up to our democracy, and the faith community has been working on this issue for years to get the torture report out so that we can admit our mistakes, we can move forward, we can go ahead and lead in this -- in this world on this issue.

COSTELLO: But why --

STIEF: Torture is immoral.

COSTELLO: Why is it so important -- why is it so important that we lead?

STIEF: Well, because we're world citizens. Torture is immoral and we're actually having one of those rare moments in U.S. politics where we're having a huge public discussion about an incredibly important moral issue -- torture.

Torture is always wrong. That's what the faith community has said from the beginning and now we're hearing that from our president, we're hearing that from Senate intelligence committee. It's important that the world hears that, so that we can move beyond this horrible episode, horrific acts that you read about in this report and get to Congress starting to take some action so that we permanently ban torture and that this never happens again in the name of the U.S. citizens.

COSTELLO: Well, John, Dick Cheney certainly isn't saying any of that. He actually says he'd do it in a minute -- he'd do it again in a minute because it saved lives. But your magazine writes, quote, "How Osama bin Laden would smile were he to see us even debate such things. How he must have delighted that he and a comparative handful of others could goad the United States to behave so reprehensibly over fear of a band of thugs."

But that band of thugs doesn't seem to have a moral compass. And frankly, that band of thugs killed 3,000 innocent Americans.

HUDSON: Yes, it's absolutely true, and the things that have been revealed and the torturous details we have seen shocked the conscience legitimately. What you've seen is really a bold act of airing our political laundry out in the open, and if you look at China, and if you look at Russia, of course, they're seizing on this report, but the important thing to remember is the kind of debate that we're having right now is something that would never happen in those countries.

What you would have is mass censorship, self-censorship and the intimidation of anyone going after the state in the same way that Senate Democrats have done in this report.

COSTELLO: So having said that, John, how damaging is this torture report, as far as America's role on the world stage?

HUDSON: It certainly degrades a lot of the values that we talk about that you showed very well in that clip that showed George W. Bush declaring that torture is evil, and it's very easy for other countries to look at the United States and call it hypocritical.

But it's important to remember that when foreign nations do this, we're doing it for domestic consumption, and that shouldn't sway us from reflecting on our own political system and trying to make it better.

COSTELLO: So, Reverend, have we sent a strong enough message that most Americans think torture is wrong or does more need to be done? Do heads need to roll?

STIEF: I think we sent a really strong message. By international standards, of course, impunity is something that we're going to have to address as a nation, the administration and the Department of Justice have said they will not prosecute.

But I think we have actually come to terms with the fact that the United States acted wrongly and acted immorally. The best way for us to move forward is to give the international committee of the Red Cross access to future interrogations, get the CIA out of the detention business, out of setting up prisons for detainees, to basically restore order in the interrogation and detention of suspects, so that we can, again, be among the global community of people who respect human rights.

COSTELLO: Reverend Ron Stief, John Hudson, thanks so much to both of you. I appreciate it.

HUDSON: Thank you.

STIEF: Thank you very much.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

Congress is set to vote on a huge government spending bill today. The controversial headline, "Obamacare and immigration programs are funded."

Who are the other winners and losers? Well, first the winners, wealthy donors, Boy Scouts and white potato producers. The losers? D.C. pot legalization backers, portrait painters and school lunches.

CNN chief congressional Dana Bash joins me now with more. Good morning, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

It is a massive $1.1 trillion bipartisan bill, a kind of big bill everybody grouses about but all of the reasons that we know because there are lots of hidden surprises.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH (voice-over): A massive $1.1 trillion bill to keep the government running and avoid a shutdown. But tucked inside the 1,603- page bill, lots of add-ones that have nothing to do with funding government agencies, but lots to do with the powerful getting help for their priorities.

Like on page 1,599, a change in campaign finance laws that allow wealthy donors to give thousands more to political parties than they do now, or a new rule easing First Lady Michelle Obama's controversial healthy school lunch standards, and a federal program that helps feed women and children can call white potatoes a fresh vegetable. It just so happens that Congressman Mike Simpson, who comes from potato- producing Idaho, chairs the subcommittee in charge of the program.

Other high-profile add-ones, no federal dollars will be allowed to implement Washington D.C.'s new recreational marijuana law, no money either to stop manufacturing incandescent light bulbs. Yes, light bulbs.

When Republicans took control of the House four years ago, it was supposed to mean the end of the big bills negotiated in back rooms.

(on camera): This is exactly the Christmas tree bill throwing everything on that you campaigned on and you were against. You promised not to do this.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Understand, all the provisions in this bill have been worked out in a bipartisan, bicameral fashion or they wouldn't be in the bill.

BASH (voice-over): It is true all the extraneous things in this bill were agreed on by both parties, things like reversing regulations on truck drivers that require shorter work weeks, and taking the stage grouse bird off the endangered species list.

BOEHNER: When we get to the end of session, members are trying to find a way to get their legislation across the finish line, because of not really the issues on the House side, more issues on the Senate side to facilitate their ability to move legislation, some of this stuff ends up in one bill.

BASH: There is a new money-saving measure likely to make taxpayers happy. No longer will they pay for official portraits for presidents or members of Congress.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Right now, though, Carol, the biggest issue that is keeping Democratic votes away from this is actually something that is in to strip away some of the reforms, Carol, that were put in place after the financial meltdown in 2008. The Wall Street reforms, you have Elizabeth Warren, and a host of other Democrats railing against this bill because of the reforms chipped away in the bill, even though their Democratic negotiators agreed to it.

So, that is part of the reason why we'll watch the vote closely, in a few hours to see if Republicans and Democratic leaders can get enough votes because of the opposition in both lanes of both parties -- Carol.

COSTELLO: We'll be sure to check back. Dana Bash reporting live from Washington, thank you so much.

BASH: Thank you. COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM: the latest drama from Sony

Pictures, definitely not coming to a theater near you but from hackers. Salary, Social Security numbers, script leaked, Angelina Jolie slammed and called a spoiled brat.

We're live in Tinseltown, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: As the holiday season gets into full swing, so, too, does the Hollywood Awards race.

Kicking off the season of glitz, glam. Moments ago, the 2015 Golden Globe nominations were announced. Topping the nominations this year, HBO's "Birdman" with seven.

Here's the quick look at the other categories.

For best actress in a drama, Jennifer Aniston for "Cake". Felecity Jones, "The Theory of Everything". Julianne Moore "Still Alice". Rosamund Pike, "Gone Girl", and Reese Witherspoon, "Wild".

For best motion picture drama, "Boyhood", "Foxcatcher", "The Imitation Game", "Selma" and "The Theory of Everything" filled the category.

For more on the nominations, go to CNN.com.

Golden Globes are a bit overshadowed this morning by some of the humiliating details coming out about that hack attack at Sony Studios and how bad it really was.

Now, we're hearing from the studio co-chair Amy Pascal and the producer Scott Rudin, and their e-mail war slamming Angelina Jolie and President Obama.

First a little background for you. You may not know the name Scott Rudin but seen his movies, "Social Network", "No Country for Oldman", "The Truman Show", he's the one everyone at the Academy seems to be thanking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Scott Rudin, for bringing us this novel and giving us the opportunity to make the movie.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you to Scott Rudin who brought me over here and somehow had the vision that a Jewish-Nigerian Brit could come over the pond and play one of the most iconic parts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scott Rudin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scott Rudin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scott Rudin.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Scott Rudin, you fought so hard for this film to get it made.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And America's best living film producer, Scott Rudin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Oh, you get the idea. Rudin's, mails, well, likely won't be hurting him. Any thank yous this morning.

One e-mail saying Angelina's Jolie pet film project "Cleopatra" would make him the laughing stock of the industry and "I'm not destroying my career over a minimally talented spoiled brat." In a separate e-mail, Rudin and Pascal joke about President Obama and the movies he probably prefers, Rudin wrote, quote, "I bet he likes Kevin Hart."

Let's talk about that. I'm joined by Brian Stelter, CNN's media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES", and Nischelle Turner, correspondent of "Entertainment Tonight", and CNN contributor.

Welcome to both of you.

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Hi.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: I'm dying to start with you, Nischelle, I want to start with the spoiled brat but you'll start with the newsy portion with Brian Stelter.

This hack was really serious.

BRIAN STELTER, RELIABLE SOURCES: It has been and it continues to have these repercussions. It was about three weeks ago that some of Sony's upcoming films leaked onto the internet and we started to see some private information leaked out. Now, all the e-mails are doing much more damage because we are seeing the relationships that really exist in Hollywood, the good, the bad, but mostly the ugly.

COSTELLO: Yes, I never heard Angelina Jolie referred to as a spoiled brat, Nischelle.

TURNER: Yes, you know, that was a new one. That one leaked out yesterday. We also saw some leak out about Kevin Hart. They called him and I hope I can say this on television, a "whore", and said I'm not saying he's a whore but he's a whore, saying he was greedy.

So, it was very interesting, and also alluded to kind of the racial off-color jokes they were making about President Obama, so this is really kind of starting to snowball here.

And you know what? This group, the Guardians of Peace, with then started several weeks ago, they promised that they had some really embarrassing information that they would leak and they're delivering on their promise. This is embarrassing for Sony.

STELTER: It is painful. Talking about private e-mails these folks never thought would leak out. I talked to them privately and won't speak on the record, but they say this could happen to any company. This could happen to any movie studio and they obviously feel like they're being taken advantage of and exploited, that these e-mails are now being talked about.

I have to say though, it's not as if the media companies are hacking this information. We are not going in, hacking those documents. We are just sharing what's already now available in the public domain. This is a cyber attack and now we're seeing the damage.

COSTELLO: And I'm sure Sony doesn't want us to share - to share these e-mails with the public, but there out there and you can't help --

TURNER: Yes.

COSTELLO: I mean they're all over the Internet, so we're not sharing anything new, right?