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Guns Smuggled on Flights; Independent Theaters to Show 'The Interview'; North Korea's Internet Problems

Aired December 23, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, here we go. Hour two. You're watching CNN.

We are watching and waiting for this news conference to get underway here in New York out of Brooklyn with the district attorney because this is a huge, huge story. This is a huge break in this case, this gun-smuggling operation involving a Delta Airlines employee. Investigators say these two men, one of them, a Delta baggage handler, smuggled dozens of guns onto flights from Atlanta to New York. Some of those weapons, assault rifles.

The airline is responding with a statement. Let me read this for you. It's very brief. "Delta is cooperating with authorities in this investigation. We take seriously any activity that fails to uphold our strict commitment to the safety and security of our customers and employees."

Let's begin with just sort of the reporting and how the heck this happened with Sara Ganim.

And, Sara, just explain to me how they got these guns in carry-on bags in planes, please.

SARA GANIM, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Absolutely, Brooke. This is a seemingly huge breach in airport security at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the busiest in the country.

So many people fly through here, especially around the holidays. Here's what happened. A man named Eugene Harvey, he was an employee, a baggage handler with Delta. And authorities say he was able to smuggle guns into the airport through an employee entrance where there was no screening.

Once he was inside, he met up with another man, Mark Quentin Henry, who did go through screening because he had a ticket to fly. And the two of those men would meet in the terminal in a bathroom and exchange the guns, and then Henry got on a plane and flew from Atlanta to New York. This happened 20 times between May and December.

And the reason that they got caught is because Henry was then selling these guns on the streets in New York, and he didn't know this, but he was selling to a man who was selling to an undercover police officer. And authorities were able to track the scheme back to these two men. Now, to give you an idea of the scope of this, how big it was, well,

when Henry was arrested, he was found with 18 guns. Seven of them were loaded, and in total, 153 firearms were recovered. Two of them were assault-style rifles, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I'm listening to this and I'm looking at the numbers, and I'm just like shaking my head. It is unreal. And thank goodness that none of them went off. Loaded, you know, assault rifles on an airplane in a carry-on? Sara Ganim, thank you. Stand by and await as we await news and perhaps specifics on maybe charges from this Brooklyn DA.

But let's broaden out the conversation.

Let me bring in CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director Tom Fuentes, and sitting next to me here in New York, HLN legal analyst Joey Jackson.

So, gentlemen, this is that story today where, I mean, we all jump on planes, we all, you know, have to walk through and get X-rayed and walk through the metal detectors, et cetera.

Tom Fuentes, to you. With all your years in the FBI, to think of this happening, your reaction.

TOM FUENTES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: No, it's unbelievable, Brooke.

But, you know, it's even more scarier than what you just said that a gun might go off. When passengers are boarding an aircraft, the cockpit doors are wide open still. Every time I have boarded one, and I fly very often, I have not seen the cockpit doors lock yet before passengers board.

BALDWIN: You're exactly right. I hadn't even thought about that.

FUENTES: So he's carrying on loaded guns, assault rifles that are loaded and the cockpit's sitting there with the pilots and the crew and imagine from there on. I don't have to spell the rest of it out.

BALDWIN: Joey Jackson, I know we're waiting for this Brooklyn DA and you're the one sitting here with me shaking your head.

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes.

BALDWIN: But what...

JACKSON: Listen, Brooke, this could've certainly been disastrous. And, you know, you look to law enforcement to break up rings like this. Apparently, they did. But it goes deep, because if you think about this -- and Sara spoke to the length of time that it was occurring. I mean, how big actually is this ring?

You have certainly a conspiracy, which is multiple people engaged in a criminal activity, agreeing to further that activity. You have the smuggling of guns with drug -- you know, with gun trafficking coming from, you know, one area to another. You have the aiding and abetting of this, the crimes and the list of crimes continuing to go on.

BALDWIN: What kind of charges are we talking about?

JACKSON: Exactly those. So they will charge conspiracy, they will charge the trafficking and guns, they will charge the aiding and abetting and a laundry list of other charges depending upon -- and, remember, these investigations, you know, at this point, they scratched the surface.

How many other people were involved as they pull out text messages, as they evaluate computer systems, as they continue to unfold this, you know, how many other airports, goodness forbid, are involved as well?

BALDWIN: That is what I'm thinking, because, Tom, listen, I have been through Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson a gazillion times. And to think that there's some side door in this airport where this one guy walks through to meet the guy with the airline ticket, the guy walks through the side door with the gun, the guy with the airline ticket is the one that grabs the guns and takes them on as a carry-on, on the plane, and so far, at least according to Sara Ganim last hour, I don't think this airport has changed security for some of these employees.

I have to imagine that that will change, correct?

FUENTES: You would hope so. But, you know, I don't know what in the short run they will do to stop this.

You know, and just imagine you're talking about being able to carry on one personal item and one bag and how much could you put in a bag, how much explosives, contraband drugs? There's all kinds of bad things that could happen to that aircraft once the contraband is actually taken aboard like that. And, as I mentioned, with explosives or firearms, the cockpit door is open while dozens of passengers are boarding.

BALDWIN: Joey Jackson, final question. Just jump in, but also what more do you want to hear from this Brooklyn DA?

JACKSON: Listen, you want to know, obviously, the extent of this. And when -- whenever it's an inside job, you get concerned, because these people have access to things that normal people don't.

And so how many other employees were involved? How long has this been going on? Are there any other airports out there where this could be connected to, you know, and just what was the overall extent and nature of this criminal enterprise? It would be interesting to see in that press conference what's unraveled here.

BALDWIN: We're watching, we're standing by for it out of Brooklyn and hearing from the district attorney.

Gentlemen...

(CROSSTALK)

FUENTES: If I could add, Brooke, just -- Joey is exactly right. And that's why they would have allowed it to go on so long with continuing buys, continuing deliveries, to try to make sure they had everybody that could be involved in the conspiracy. And, apparently, they were pretty confident it's just these two guys.

BALDWIN: Got it. Eight months, that's what they say. Joey and Tom, thank you, both, very much.

JACKSON: Thank you, Brooke.

FUENTES: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Let's talk about Sony now. Sony doing this about-face on this comedy, the satire "The Interview." First, it said the movie would not be released in theaters. And now it is apparently back on Christmas Day in certain places.

What has changed and why now? We will talk about that.

And the Sony hack, what was blamed on North Korea and now it has its own problems involving its Internet. Whole Internet, apparently, in this country has been down. Who could be behind that?

And two chilling car crashes in France, both cases in which vehicles plunge into crowds. Officials say the attacks are unrelated, but there are concerns both are lone wolf terror attacks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We are following some breaking news now, as Sony has announced it will now release the movie that has enraged North Korea, this comedy the satire called "The Interview."

Maybe won't be playing in a mega-theater chain near you. Instead, the comedy about the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will be sent to a select few independent theaters for limited screenings on Christmas Day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: To the most dangerous country on earth, Kim Jong-un's people believe anything he tells them, including that he can speak to dolphins or he doesn't urinate and defecate.

JAMES FRANCO, ACTOR: You're telling me that man doesn't pee or poop?

SETH ROGEN, ACTOR: Everybody pees and poops. Where would it go? Otherwise, he would explode.

FRANCO: But he does talk to dolphins?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: This, of course, was the film that triggered the cyber- hacking out of Sony film studio and threats of 9/11-like retaliation. That was enough to at least initially have Sony pull the film. That decision, as you watched, definitely did not sit well with

President Obama who at the end-of-the-year news conference on Friday called it a huge mistake. But, today, we do have a statement from the White House on Sony's reverse decision.

"As the president made clear," they write, "we are a country that believes in free speech and the right of artistic expression." Also, actor Seth Rogen breaking his Twitter silence with this, tweeting: "The people have spoken, freedom has prevailed, Sony didn't give up. 'The Interview' will be shown at theaters willing to play it on Christmas Day."

James Franco tweeting this: "Victory. The people and the president have spoken, Sony to release 'The Interview' in theaters."

Joining me now, one of the theater owners, Paul Brown, owner of the Terrace Theater in Charleston, South Carolina. Also have Michael Musto joining me as well. We're going to talk with him in just a moment.

But, first, to Mr. Brown on the phone with me.

So, let me begin with when did you first hear that Sony would be releasing this film? Did you find out today?

PAUL BROWN, OWNER, TERRACE THEATER: Yes. My mother-in-law called me this morning really early in the morning to tell me that the film was going to be re-released and they were picking a select few theaters.

We had originally -- we had originally -- were scheduled to release the film on Christmas Day prior to all of this happening. And then, you know, it was pulled and then, you know, I guess Sony targeted a certain number of theaters that they wanted to try to see if they would reach out to them. I know the Art House Convergence Group had sent an open letter to Sony with respect to showing the film and, you know, the importance of freedom of expression and artistic freedom.

And we followed that suit and supported that letter.

BALDWIN: You know, I feel like it was an hour ago we were reporting on two smaller independent theaters, and now that list is growing and growing.

I do have to ask you, you know, initially when we were reporting about that threat when I believe it was roughly saying remember 9/11 as far as what could happen on Christmas Day if these theaters release this film, did you ever for a second sort of think that that could even be remotely a possibility?

BROWN: Well, you know, Terrace has always been a safe place. We feel like, you know, there are a lot of, you know, anonymous type threats out there. If we thought that this was a danger to our audience, we wouldn't have shown the film.

But we feel like it's important to take a position as sort of a box store-type movie theater, one that doesn't have a larger corporate agenda, to take a position and show and offer our audiences a variety of choices. And they will make the choices.

BALDWIN: Paul, we also know that Sony wants to release the film on video on demand, so putting it up online. And I'm wondering if you are opposed to that, if you're worried that might actually hurt any of your ticket sales.

BROWN: We -- our theater has always -- a lot of theaters don't obviously oppose -- they oppose video on demand. Our theater's never been really hurt by video on demand.

The experience of gathering and seeing a movie together, especially a comedy, far exceeds any sort of video-on-demand-type experience. We're confident in it. We have shown a number of movies that have been released sort of day-and-date video on demand, even ones that have been released afterwards. We haven't been hurt by that at all.

BALDWIN: OK. Paul Brown, thank you so much.

BROWN: That's it?

BALDWIN: Good thing your mother-in-law called you. Yes, appreciate it.

BROWN: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: Thank you very much.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: You got it. You got it. Happy holidays to you.

I want to talk a little bit more about this with Michael Musto, a columnist for Out.com.

Here you are back, we're talking about this reversal. Are you surprised?

MICHAEL MUSTO, OUT.COM: I'm not that surprised because, Brooke, the entire world came down on Sony, including the president. George Clooney was starting a petition saying let's stand up to terrorists.

I had a little sympathy for Sony, as I expressed on this network, because who knows what the right thing is to do in the face of what seemed like credible terrorist threats? But the whole world came down on them and was in favor of freedom of expression at any cost.

Sony, let's be fair, from the beginning said it's not us, we wanted to release it, it's the large theater chains that were not interested in doing it.

BALDWIN: That's the question, right? So initially, all those theaters backed out last week, and so then Sony yanked it. And now it's sort of reverse. The smaller -- Sony saying, OK, the smaller independent houses like Paul Brown's, who we talked to -- the next step would then be, OK, are bigger theaters going to say, why not?

MUSTO: Well, the bigger theaters have erred on the side of caution so far. And it's perfect that the indie theaters are picking it up, because they are into edgy films. That's what they show for a living and they're people live on the edge, the people who program these theaters.

The larger theater chains are much more corporate. There are a lot of executives having meetings and they're very cautious to an extreme. But I think they're going to pick up on it, because they're going to see that let's hope there are no incidents. People are going to show up. And they can make money from it. And that's the bottom line.

BALDWIN: I had someone on last hour from "Variety." And he made a point I hadn't heard yet as far as like the talent in the film. The Seth Rogens and James Francos and that Sony could potentially be worried that they would really irk them if ultimately their film -- and this was their -- Rogen's baby -- if this wasn't shown.

MUSTO: Well, I think, not only the talent, but I think Sony wanted the film to be shown. They spent money on it. It was their big Christmas release.

BALDWIN: You do?

MUSTO: I do. I honestly believe that.

And they're proving it by allowing it to be shown in different theaters, and it's going to build. They will also be a VOD release, I'm sure. And I won't have to...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: That's what Sony's saying.

MUSTO: I'm not going to have to go to Charleston or Austin to see it. I can just sit at home and watch it. I hear it's not "Citizen Kane," by the way. But that's not the point.

BALDWIN: Well, I think this is the kind of publicly. Hey, I don't know if I necessarily would have seen "The Interview." But having talked about it day in and day out, you know, it might make someone like me or someone else, you know, this is the kind of buzz you can't really pay for.

MUSTO: It's much more of a must-see than it was a couple of weeks ago. But I honestly don't think this was a big plan. That would be another great movie, that this was all cooked up...

BALDWIN: That's the sequel.

MUSTO: ... to get someone to go see it in Charlotte.

BALDWIN: Dun-dun-dun.

Michael Musto, thank you so much, columnist for Out.com. Appreciate you coming in here.

MUSTO: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Who -- speaking of North Korea, another story here. Who is trying to take down North Korea's Internet? The U.S. had hinted it would retaliate for the Sony hack. The president specifically saying it would be a proportional response, wouldn't say more than that. Now North Korea is offline at some point for nine hours at a time. Who is behind this? We will hear what U.S. officials have to say about that.

And fears in France after vehicles crash into groups of people with a driver yelling about Palestinian children. Now heightened concerns over lone wolf attacks this holiday week -- we will bring you the latest there. Stay with me. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right, want to come up on some live pictures here. This is the Brooklyn district attorney's office.

And looks like a number of guns on that table. So we're watching and waiting for this. This is, of course, the news conference in the wake of this huge story that's broken. The FBI ultimately caught this gun smuggling scheme between Atlanta and New York airports back and forth eight months, assault rifles being smuggled on airlines on carry-ons.

So we're going to look for those charges and the criminality of this whole thing. So, stay tuned for that live out of Brooklyn.

But let's talk about this. While the U.S. continues to investigate the hacking into Sony's computer network and its ties to North Korea, North Korea trying to figure out its own Internet crisis of sorts because there has been yet another network outage. But the question still remains, who or what's behind it?

CNN global affairs correspondent Elise Labott joins me from the State Department.

And, Elise, you have been asking excellent questions of your own. What are you hearing?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, obviously, the U.S. wants to maintain an aura of mystery here. Did they do it? Everyone would assume this was a tit for tat.

And you remember that the president said this would be a proportional response from the United States. Yesterday, deputy State Department spokesman -- Marie Harf created a little mystery when she said that some of the U.S. actions would be seen and some of them would be unseen.

So, today, I tried to pin her down a little bit about whether the U.S. was involved. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LABOTT: So just point-blank, was the U.S. involved in anything related to the Internet shutting down in North Korea?

MARIE HARF, SPOKESWOMAN, STATE DEPARTMENT: I would -- this isn't our Internet, Elise. I would go ask North Korea...

(CROSSTALK)

LABOTT: Did the U.S. undertake any type of cyber-operations that could've led to the North Korean Internet being down?

HARF: I don't have any information to share with you about...

(CROSSTALK)

LABOTT: You're not saying absolutely not, you're not involved?

HARF: I think -- I'm not going to comment on those one way or the other, and I would caution you from assuming that means...

(CROSSTALK)

LABOTT: I'm not assuming. I'm asking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LABOTT: And that's true, Brooke. We can't assume that the United States did this because, as we know, a lot -- most of North Korean Internet runs through China, a Chinese state department -- state telecommunications company.

So if the U.S. were going to do something to -- like this, this would also impede on Chinese sovereignty. And it's also entirely possible that the Chinese just kind of turned the North Koreans off to send a message. But, clearly, someone's trying to send a message to North Korea that what they did with the Sony hacking was unacceptable.

BALDWIN: We had a presser, and the mystery continues. Elise Labott, thank you so much in Washington for us.

And many of you kept up with the top stories of the year, of course, on Twitter and social media sites. So which hashtags made our list of the top 10 this year? That is ahead.

And is there a link between terrorist attacks in Europe and the upcoming holidays? France has seen two crashes that raised fears of terrorism. Could it be a preview of new attacks or coincidence?

Also, we're watching and waiting.

Oh, let's go to Brooklyn.

The district attorney there, Kenneth Thompson, speaking about this gun-smuggling on airplanes. Let's watch.

KENNETH THOMPSON, BROOKLYN DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Good afternoon. I am Brooklyn district attorney Ken Thompson. And we're here to talk about a very important case. I first want to

identify some of the people who are standing up here with me. First of all, I want to identify William Schaeffer. He's the chief of investigations here in the Brooklyn DA's office.

Next to him, next to me is Nicole Chavis. She is the chief of our Violent Criminal Enterprise Bureau. And next to her is Tara Lenich. She is our deputy chief for special investigations and VCE.

I'm also joined today by First Deputy Police Commissioner Ben Tucker, who is going to say some words here as well. We're also joined by Chief Thomas Purtell of the NYPD Organized Crime Control Bureau. And we're joined by FBI special agent Richard Frankel, who is in charge of the criminal division here in the New York office of the FBI.

We're also here with the case agent, the detective who led the way for the NYPD, Detective Jared Bemeux (ph).

Now, I'm going to leave it up to Deputy Police Commissioner Tucker to introduce other members from the NYPD.

But we're here today because gun violence is literally tearing our country apart. In Brooklyn, far too many people have been victims of gun violence so far this year. And we're determined to do something about the gun violence.

So, many months ago, my office joined with the NYPD. And we began an investigation into illegal firearm sales right here in Brooklyn. That investigation led us to an individual named Ernest Lanal (ph).

He actually sold an undercover agent over 100 guns right here in Brooklyn, .40-caliber weapons, .380-caliber weapons, .9-millimeters. We were determined to get to the source of these guns. And our investigation led us down to the state of Georgia and the letters from an individual named Mark Henry.

What we learned was truly frightening. Henry is a former Delta Air Lines employee. He worked with a current Delta employee, Eugene Harvey, who works down in the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport down in Atlanta.

Together, those two individuals breached the security at the airport down in Atlanta. They breached the security to smuggle so many firearms, so many guns on planes from Atlanta to New York City. The flights originated in Atlanta and they landed here in New York at John F. Kennedy Airport.

They also landed at La Guardia Airport. Between May 2014 and December 2014, Mark Henry literally took about 20 flights with guns on them on commercial airliners. We were fortunate that we were able to get all the guns that they tried to put on the streets of Brooklyn.

And what I want to do is, I just want to show you. And I'm going to go through how this happened. I'm going to walk you through how this happened, so it's crystal-clear. But what I want to do first is, I want to show you one of the guns that Mr. Henry smuggled on the plane. This is an AK-47. This gun can shoot through a car door, can shoot

through an apartment door, can shoot through a bulletproof vest. In November, Mr. Henry bought this gun on a Delta commercial airliner to New York.

There's also an AR-15, another assault weapon, that he smuggled on the plane. Now, what I want to do is, I want to just walk you through in detail. And we're going to answer all your questions on how this happened and how long this has been going on.

But in order to do so, I have to go over to the charts, so I'm going to show you. So what we have here is Mark Henry, the former Delta Air Lines employee. He worked for Delta between 2007 and 2010. He was a ramp agent or baggage handler. He was fired in 2010.

His mother had worked for Delta for many years. She was first with Pan Am before it merged with Delta. So, his mother was a longtime employee. They both worked down in Atlanta.

What he did, what Henry did is, he worked with the current Delta employee Eugene Harvey. Eugene Harvey is currently a ramp agent and baggage handler down at the airport in Atlanta. Henry would meet with Harvey, sometimes at Harvey's house in Atlanta, and give him guns that Harvey was to smuggle into the airport.

Sometimes, they met at Henry's mother's house or other locations down in Atlanta. Henry would give Harvey the guns. Now, this is critical. The problem down with this -- at this airport in Atlanta is that the employees don't have to go through screening.

And so when the employees arrive at the airport, they can get into the terminal without going through any screenings. Henry knew that, and so he worked with Harvey. So, Henry would give Harvey the guns outside the airport. Harvey would go through. All he had to do is just badge himself in, and he can -- parked in the employee parking lot, badge himself in, and he's in the terminal with the guns.

Henry would go through the normal TSA checkpoints, like any other passenger, with a knapsack that wasn't quite full. So, he went in as a standard passenger.