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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Bush-Era Officials Fight Torture Claims; International Anger Over CIA Torture; Federal Government Shutdown Averted; Falling Oil is Rattling Markets; Northern California Hit Hard; New Questions About UVA Rape Story

Aired December 12, 2014 - 05:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Defending the CIA. Its director criticizing the Senate report that detailed the torture of terror suspects post-9/11 refusing to say enhanced interrogation methods were torture or that they were ineffective. The controversy grows this morning.

Government shutdown side stepped for now. The House narrowly passing a trillion dollar bill to fund the government. The spending fight moves to the Senate where lawmakers from both political parties are promising to vote down the budget bill.

Storms pummeling the west coast, rains, snow and dangerous winds tearing through communities in California, Oregon, and Washington. This is the worst storm in years and it's not over yet.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. It's 30 minutes past the hour this Friday morning. John Berman has the morning off.

The battle over the CIA's use of harsh interrogation techniques is escalating as CIA Director John Brennan holds an unprecedented news conference at agency headquarters defending the techniques as producing useful intelligence.

Brennan calls it unknowable whether that information could have been obtained without the harsh interrogation. While he would not call it torture, he did not use the word torture. Brennan admitted some officers used techniques that went beyond what had been legally authorized.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BRENNAN, CIA DIRECTOR: A number of cases, agency officers used interrogation techniques that had not been authorized, were abhorrent and rightly should be repudiated by all.

The detainees who were subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques provided information that was useful and used in the ultimate operation to go against Osama Bin Laden. I'm not going to attribute that to the use of the EITs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Top Bush administration officials fighting a firestorm created by the Senate's 500-page torture report. Bush-era Attorney General Michael Mukasey claiming enhanced interrogation techniques did not violate the law.

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden argued that rectal rehydration was not an interrogation technique at all.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GENERAL MICHAEL HAYDEN, CIA DIRECTOR UNDER PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Jake, I'm not a doctor and neither are you. What I am told is this is one of the ways that the body is rehydrated. These were medical procedures and to give you a sense --

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, "THE LEAD": Are you really defending rectal rehydration?

HAYDEN: What I'm defending is history. To give you a sense as to how this report was put together, this activity, which was done five times and each time for the health of the detainee, not part of the interrogation program. Not designed to soften him up for any questioning.

MICHAEL MUKASEY, ATTORNEY GENERAL UNDER PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: The torture statute says you can't under color of law cause intentionally cause somebody severe physical or mental pain or suffering. Severe physical suffering or pain is not defined. Severe mental pain or suffering --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So it gave them a lot of wiggle room.

MUKASEY: It has to last beyond what's transient. What the CIA did, did not violate the statute.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: Worldwide outrage building over harsh interrogation this morning, harsh words criticism now coming even from U.S. allies. Germany is calling the CIA torture gruesome. Other countries like China and North Korea accusing the U.S. of hypocrisy for indulging in torture while pointing the finger at them over human rights violations.

CNN's Ian Lee joins us now live from Cairo. Ian, now the U.N. is saying that the U.S. has lost its moral high ground and it's calling for prosecution, any change that's going to happen and if it doesn't, then what?

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine, as you said, there has been strong international condemnation especially from human rights groups as well as the United Nations. One human rights expert with the U.N. talked recently to Christiane Amanpour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BEN EMMERSON, U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICIAL: Whether the program produced actionable intelligence or not is irrelevant. The obligation to prosecution is resting on the United States is the case because it's party to the torture convention. Whether or not intelligence resulted makes no difference to the legal liability to those who committed crimes of torture.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: So far the Obama administration has been reluctant to prosecute any Bush-era officials. There are other avenues though. One that has been proposed is that these officials get pardoned and let off the hook.

That would send strong messages to any future cases of torture are illegal, and they could be and would be prosecuted. The other option is going to the European courts. They have shown a more willingness to prosecute U.S. officials.

It is highly unlikely any of the U.S. officials would be handed over for European prosecution. The real damage we are seeing done here, especially here in the Middle East, is that every year the State Department gives out a human rights report detailing abuses including the use of torture.

Next year, when the 2014 report comes out, many countries in this region especially here in Egypt will point out the U.S. hypocrisy -- Christine.

ROMANS: And U.S. officials will say this has now been outlawed. This was ten years ago. The president said they will not happen again. You are right. The ammunition it gives to people opposed to the United States is something we will feel for some time. Ian Lee, thank you so much for that, in Cairo this morning.

Now the president is set to sign a bill that will keep the federal government lights on following a House vote last night narrowly approving the spending bill to avoid a shutdown.

Liberal Democrats breaking with the White House to oppose the budget measure, which cuts $300 million for Pell Grants and loosening the Wall Street regulations and raise its caps on campaign contributions.

Chief congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, is on Capitol Hill with the latest for us.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, crisis averted. The government is remaining open. The funds are continuing to flow, but not without a lot of chaos here on Capitol Hill.

Late last night, just hours before the government was going to run out of money, the House finally passed a very large $1.1 trillion bill to keep the government running for an entire year, but it was very close. It passed by only two votes.

It wasn't even clear up until the last minute that they were even going to put the House vote on the floor. Here's why. This was not supposed to happen. People are used to brinksmanship on Capitol Hill. But this particular spending bill was the product of Democratic and Republican negotiations in the House and the Senate.

So they thought that they were going to be able to pass this. But things began to unravel big time when House Democrats led by the House Democratic leader split from the White House and split from Senate Democrats and started to say that they don't like some of the things that were in the bill.

Things that they said hurt consumers and were for the wealthy and rolling back some Wall Street reforms and campaign finance laws being changed, lifting caps to allow wealthy donors to give even more money than they do now.

So because of that, it was not clear whether the votes were going to be there and at the end of the day, you saw the White House chief of staff come here to Capitol Hill and try to convince House Democrats that this is the best they can do. This actually big picture sets Democratic priorities before Republicans take over in Congress.

So this actually finally did pass. You had some strange bedfellows at the end of the day. You had Republicans and Democrats leadership hand-in-hand working together while you had liberals and conservatives opposing this.

Just proves that compromise is important to talk about and important to do, but it is not easy in these times when you have such hard and vocal wings in both parties.

ROMANS: Absolutely. Dana Bash, thank you for that.

Outrage over the deaths of two unarmed black men killed by White police officers is still gripping the nation. Attorney General Eric Holder will be in Chicago this morning to discuss race and law enforcement issues in the wake of what happened in Ferguson, Missouri and New York City.

It's the latest in the series of meetings he is holding on building community trust. Meantime, hundreds of minority congressional staffers walked off the job Thursday protesting the grand jury decisions in the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

This as Eric Garner's daughter, Erica, staged a die-in Thursday in New York City in memory of her father. His mother was there also calling for justice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GWEN CARR, ERIC GARNER'S MOTHER: It's just as we want everyone to stand together stand with us. It's been that way and I want it to stay that way. It's not for just my son or your son. It is for everyone's son.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: Time for an EARLY START on your money this morning, falling oil prices spooking markets. European stocks are down this morning so are U.S. stock futures. It looks like we could have a tough end to a wild week.

Yesterday, the Dow snapped a three-day losing streak rose 63 points. Strong retail sales boosting stocks. Oil reached fresh lows here. That is weighing on markets. Oil fell below $60 a barrel for the first time since July of 2009.

Now this is great for consumers. It is big savings at the pump. It's about $100 a month more for American consumers. Almost like a pay raise or tax cuts. It is a scary thing for oil producers and people who own oil stocks.

This morning, the International Energy Agency says prices are likely to keep falling because of the booming supply in the U.S. The IEA also cut its outlook for oil demand because of growth worries in some of those markets next year.

All right, happening now, west coast pummeled with rain, snow, 100- mile-an-hour winds. It's being called the worst storm there in years and it's not over yet.

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ROMANS: A huge storm battering the west coast with gusty winds and torrential rain. Communities crippled and flights canceled, subway shutdown and streets under water. Look at the scene in San Francisco where cars were submerged in water.

The rain is making it absolutely treacherous for people to get around. Winds were also a problem here, packing a punch toppling trees. You can see uprooted tree crushed this SUV parked in a driveway.

Two children were hurt when this massive tree came crashing down on a school playground in Santa Cruz. Emergency crews rushed to save an 11-year-old boy pinned under the tree. He is OK now. Another young girl who was struck by branches was treated for minor injuries.

One person was injured in San Jose when heavy rain caused a partial roof collapse at a Safe-Way grocery store. People who were inside at the time described the scene as pure chaos.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You just hear loud noises crashing and this is real scary. I had to call 911 and just freaked out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Besides the rain, there was also snow. You can see the blizzard coming down in the northern sierra. At least 2 feet of snow fell there. Here is a couple of daredevils making the best of their rough surf on Lake Tahoe. The storm's gusty winds made for some pretty impressive waves for these surfers. So is there any relief in sight to the west coast? We want to get more from our meteorologist, Derik Vandam, an EARLY START on your weather.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Christine. We are still monitoring our major west coast storm. Here it is on the satellite loop. Impressive rainfall totals from San Francisco. Get a load of this. Rain since Thursday, more than what we received in all of 2013 for the San Francisco bay area.

Nonetheless, it's very impressive even going north into Central California with 7 inches of rain. We focus attention on Los Angeles, 2 to 4 inches of rain. You know what it means with the wet roads and morning rush-hour commute. Not nice. We want to avoid that if at all possible.

Of course, we have the wind to contend with, high wind warnings in effect for much of Southern California extending across Nevada and even into New Mexico. Take a look at this. Some of the wind gusts reported on tops of mountaintops exceeding hurricane strength.

That is very impressive stuff for White Mountain. On top of that, we had very, very chilly temperatures across the northeast. Temperatures today in New York City only topping 36 -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Derek, thanks for that. See you soon.

Let's take a look at what is coming up on "NEW DAY." Chris Cuomo joins us this morning. Happy Friday.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Happy Friday to you. I always like to see you there by yourself without that dead weight next to you. The CIA director is front and center this morning. It's making the criticism expand over the agency's use of harsh interrogation tactics.

Many call it torture. The head of the CIA does not and we will tell you why. John Brennan is certainly in the crosshairs right now. He says it is unknowable if the tactics led to any useful information.

We have reaction from a former justice official that Christiane Amanpour interviewed. We will vet the situation with former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. We will take you through the new evolution of that issue.

Plus there is another woman accusing Bill Cosby of drugging her. You know who she is, supermodel, Beverly Johnson. She is telling a story you want to hear. The question begins is this the tipping point now? What happens with all of these allegations? All of that when "NEW DAY" begins at the top of the hour -- Christine.

ROMANS: Her piece, Beverly Johnson's piece is so interesting. She talks about the role of African-American men in society. She talks about Ferguson and she really weaves this story about what held her back for so long. Chris, we look forward to that. Thank you. More questions about the "Rolling Stones" story of the alleged gang rape on the University of Virginia. Now friends of the woman at the center of the story say the quotes attributed to them in "Rolling Stone" are false. That's coming up next.

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ROMANS: New questions this morning are being raised about a magazine story of an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia. The college students described in the piece as friends of the alleged rape victim, Jackie.

They have come forward and they are challenging key aspects of the story. Two of her friends told ABC News some of "Rolling Stones" article is false.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The reason that we did not go to police was because Jackie didn't want to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jackie said to you I don't want to go to police. She said those words to you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They attribute you in the article as saying she's going to be the girl who cried rape and never been allowed into any frat party again. Did you say that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. So this is not true?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: Police in Virginia are still investigating the alleged assault.

A whooping cough epidemic spreading in California, now the state Department of Health tallying nearly 10,000 cases so far this year, that's make it the worst outbreak in 70 years. Epidemiologists claimed the high number on the limitations of a new vaccine introduced in the '90s with fewer side effects and also on better testing and diagnosis.

Another epidemic spreading in California, this one spreading among professional hockey teams, mumps is typically a childhood disease. But at least five NHL teams have been affected so far.

The outbreak started in Southern California with the Anaheim ducks and has spread to teams in Minnesota, New York and New Jersey. Teams are offering booster shots to players.

Walmart is cutting the price of iPhone 6 and cutting it by a lot. We will get an early start on your money next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: All right, let's get an EARLY START on your money this morning. Falling oil prices spooking global stock markets. U.S. stock futures looking lower at 128 points right now. It's been worsening this morning. Looks like a tough end to the wild week.

Yesterday, the Dow snapped a three-day losing streak. Rose 63 points yesterday. The U.S. economy is steadily improving, but falling oil prices are a concern in markets. Crude oil fell below $60 a barrel since July of 2009.

This morning, the International Energy Agency said oil prices are likely to keep falling thanks to booming supply in the U.S. The IEA cut outlook for oil demand next year because of growth worries in some big markets and economies.

Wal-Mart is slashing iPhone prices. Shoppers can now get an iPhone 6 for $129 and an Iphone 6 plus for $229. That's a $50 discount from the standard price.

Wal-Mart is cutting prices on the Samsung Galaxy, Xbox and Playstation gaming systems, and cutting prices on televisions. Betting that discounts on electronics is a good way to lure holiday shoppers.

Strong retail sales in November, an encouraging sign for businesses this month. SeaWorld's CEO is out, stepping down. CEO James Atchison will resign effective January 15th. He will take a $2.4 million lump sum payment plus 8 million in stock option after a rough year for SeaWorld.

The theme park got a ton of negative attention after the film the CNN film, "Blackfish" documented killer whale attacks on trainers. Visits to parks are down and the stock has plunged 43 percent this year.

All right, the CIA director playing defense after a scathing Senate report accuses the agency of torturing terror suspects. "NEW DAY" has that starts right now.