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ISIS Attacks U.S. Troops; Girl Survives Plane Crash; AirAsia Search; Boston Bombing Jury Selection

Aired January 05, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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


BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, here we go. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me here on this Monday.

Want to begin with some news just into us here at CNN, breaking news from the Pentagon. The Pentagon confirming moments ago that U.S. troops in Iraq are under quote-unquote "regular attack by ISIS." Now, keep in mind, as we've been covering this now for months and months, these U.S. troops there, these are advisors, these are not troops in any kind of combat roles. That said, of course, in the wake of what we're reporting, one of the questions is, could that change?

These attacks are happening at Al Asad Air Base. This is in Anbar province, western Iraq. There you see the orange on your screen. Let me take us to our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr.

And so, Barbara, let's just begin with what exactly you're hearing. What kinds of attacks are these?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, this is at the Al Asad Air Base in Anbar province in western Iraq. This is a huge sprawling base. There are hundreds of Iraqi forces there, over 300 U.S. force there. What has been happening, we are told, is a number of mortar and rocket attacks. They are what the military calls indirect fire. What that means is they're not very precise. They're not really aimed at anything in particular. The ISIS fighters basically light off these mortars and rockets, aim it towards the base and it falls somewhere around there in and around the base.

So far no U.S. casualties. Iraqis not saying whether they've suffered any. But it does raise this question, you know, will the law of averages run out for the U.S. some day here as these attacks continue. Right now, the Pentagon is calling them ineffective. Thankfully, no U.S. casualties. But make no mistake, obviously there's a concern. You have 320 U.S. troops there. You have this constant barrage of fire. A lot of worry about making sure that those U.S. troops, number one, can be kept safe and, two, that if they're not in combat, at least combat doesn't come to them.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: So, of course, though, that begs the question, if these are not precise now and if and when, you know, that changes, I know you're talking to DOD folks. I mean at what point might the U.S. role change or is that still very nebulous at this point?

STARR: Well, I think President Obama has been adamant repeatedly, he will not put U.S. troops in a combat role. And -- but what does that really mean? What it means is the president is saying that U.S. troops will not have combat tasks on the ground assigned to them. Look, we have, you know, dozens and dozens of U.S. combat aircraft flying over Iraq and Syria every day. A Jordanian pilot already down and in ISIS hands. So there is combat going on, make no mistake.

The president's talking about boots on the ground in a combat role. The problem is, this is beginning to underscore that very thin line. They may not be there in a combat role. They are in Anbar and at these bases to advise, assist and train Iraqi forces. But if this type of fire, if this type of attack keeps coming at them, at what point do they have to push back simply to protect themselves. A big question, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Barbara Starr, thank you so much, at the Pentagon for us right now.

Now, we have to tell you this story about this little girl, this sole survivor of this plane crash. She is Sailor Gutzler. She was flying Friday night with her family from a trip down in Key West, Florida, back to Illinois, when this twin engine plane crashed in rural Kentucky. Her mother, her father, her older sister and her cousin, the only other people on board, they all died in this crash.

So Sailor was 100 percent, you know, utterly alone here in this freezing cold, dark forest. She was dressed for Key West, so she was in shorts, no coat. She had an injured arm. She believed her family was dead, but hoped perhaps they were just sleeping. Again, Sailor, the survivor, seven years of age.

And despite the horror of what happened, she set off to find help. She trekked three quarters of a mile and found the home of Larry Wilkens, who couldn't believe what he saw when he heard this light knocking on his front door.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY WILKINS, SEVEN-YEAR-OLD FOUND HIS HOUSE IN WOODS: She just said that -- she said my mom and dad are dead. We just had a -- we had a plane crash. And the plane was upside down. I'd say it's kind of unbelievable, you know, that a little girl would come out and -- you have to bear in mind how rough the terrain is through that woods. A lot briar bushes and her little legs were just cut up from the -- from the bottom of her shorts to the tip of her toe. And it was about 35, 36 degrees and was barefooted. And we had a -- it wasn't rain, it was just drizzling, you know? So she was a little bit wet, not soaking wet, but a little bit wet but I imagine them little feet were pretty dagg gone cold.

I've got too little dachshund dogs and they helped her a lot. Her grand dad told me that she had a dachshund. But these little dogs love everybody, you know, and they took to her just immediately. And that helped -- I think that helped calm her down quite a bit. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Unbelievable, isn't it, the notion this seven-year-old survives this plane crash. Jay Thomas is a public affairs officer for the Kentucky State Police and he's on the phone with me.

So, Trooper Thomas, thank you so much for calling in. And let me just begin with, how is Sailor doing? I understand she's with family.

TROOPER JAY THOMAS, KENTUCKY STATE POLICE (via telephone): Right. She was treated and released at a local hospital and then turned back over to her family. She had a broken wrist and just some minor cuts from her trek through the woods and through some briar patches as well. But she's doing well now.

BALDWIN: I want to get into the briar patches and the trekking in the -- you know, in the middle of nowhere, sort of this crash site was. But first, what more can you tell me as far as, you know, initially Sailor had told emergency responders that she thought her family was dead, then maybe she said, well, maybe they're sleeping. I mean at seven years of age, she has to be old enough to understand more or less what happened.

THOMAS: Right. She -- she initially told us that she thought her parents were dead, but they could possibly be sleeping. She tried to wake them up after the crash, but she couldn't get them to respond to her. There was a small fire at the scene of the plane crash. She tried to light a stick. She said her dad had taught her some things like that. But because everything was so wet and raining and the fire actually extinguished itself from the rain. She wasn't able to light the stick.

But she just had that -- the survival mindset that she had to get help for her family. And she started that trek through the woods. There's not any houses in that area that she was in. And a lot of the houses that are actually there are vacation homes where people don't live there year round. So she was very lucky to make to it Mr. Wilkens' house.

BALDWIN: I mean -- so the denseness of the forest, the fact that so many of these people don't even live in these homes year round. You know, you say she was incredibly fortunate. Was it also foggy? You mentioned rainy. Help set the scene for me of what she had to endure to find this man, to find safety.

THOMAS: Yes, this -- on Friday night it was raining, there was some fog, some dense fog that was out. There was no moon light. So it was almost just pitch black. The -- it took rescue workers approximately two hours to find the plane just searching through the woods. There was really nothing reflective on the plane to help with their flashlights. But the small fire that she had told us about had extinguished itself. So we really had nothing to go on. We had a general direction of which way to look for it. BALDWIN: And the plane itself, I'm sure it's NTSB's jurisdiction, but

are they determining more or less it really was the fog or weather that led to the plane going down? THOMAS: They had their preliminary investigation and they're going to

release something in approximately 10 days on the findings of that. I don't want to get into their investigation.

BALDWIN: Sure. Trooper Thomas, thank you so much for spending the time with us. Thoughts and prayers, obviously, with little Sailor and those who are with her now. Appreciate it.

I do want to let all of you know that a fund has been set up to help this little girl. And you can find out how you can help. Just go to our website, cnn.com/impact.

Coming up next here on CNN, in the search of AirAsia Flight 8501, did the pilots flight a route that wasn't approved? Those new details ahead.

Also, conditions under water making it impossible for divers as they search for victims and wreckage.

And jury selection begins in the Boston bombing trial. Hear why the sides could not reach a plea deal. Could this mean the death penalty for this alleged Boston bomber?

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BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Some severe setbacks in the search for remains and wreckage from AirAsia Flight 8501. In the air, you see it, rain, high winds again grounding these planes. On the sea, take a look at this new video. This shows you exactly how rough it is for these search crews out there, but the condition above the surface of the Java Sea are just half the battle because divers, who do make it to the ocean floor, hitting muddy waters and what we're hearing is zero visibility. So now they have to rely on sonar, which, according to a report from Reuters, has possibly, possibly picked up the tail of the plane which contains the all-important black boxes. But keep in mind, one large piece of the wreckage initially believed to be part of the missing plane, turned out to be a wrecked ship.

So, search teams did manage to find three more bodies today, bringing the total number of victims recovered to 37. Keep in mind, that is 37 out of a total of 162.

So let me bring in our two CNN aviation analysts. I've got Jeff Wise with me here in New York, author of "Extreme Fear," and Miles O'Brien in D.C., pilot and PBS "NewsHour" science correspondent.

So, gentlemen, welcome to you.

And, Jeff, beginning with you, reading "The Wall Street Journal" today, there was reporting out of "The Wall Street Journal" talking about the different routes that this AirAsia was and wasn't approved to fly, depending on the day of the week, right? So apparently they were not approved to fly on that route on that day. How are routes even approved? Could this happen here? JEFF WISE, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Right. Right. Well, listen, it's

like, if you're a business and you want to do something, you want to run a cab, you want to open a hotel, you want to fly a route, you need a permit. You have to go to the government and get a permit.

And in some places in the world, if you try to follow the proper procedures to get a permit, it's -- you're never going to get it. And you grease some palms and that's how you get the permit. I'm not saying anything about Indonesia, but suffice to say that in this case the branch of the Indonesian government that handles or that looks into corruption cases is looking into this. So what we're looking at is a paperwork not being in order kind of situation, not a pilots taking off recklessly and flying a route that they're not supposed to fly.

BALDWIN: OK. So, Miles O'Brien, you're listening to this, before I move on. I mean do you think this is just sort of a tangential part of this discussion or this might lead to a bigger piece of the puzzle here as far as what happened to the plane?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: I would take this little fact and pin it up on the bulletin board and keep it in mind when you start thinking about the overall investigation and how the airline is run. Will there be questions about the weather briefing, the authorization to fly, the decision to fly two hours earlier?: There are a lot of things that are kind of creeping into this discussion that are not necessarily verified, but could say a little something about a very fast growing region with a lot of demand for aviation, a low cost carrier in the midst of that. Whether the regulators of the airline are trying to sort this thing out and who's doing the right or wrong thing is unclear right now, but it may say a little something about the culture of the airline.

BALDWIN: OK. I will duly pin that on my board there.

What about also from "The Wall Street Journal" finding AirAsia pilots assess the weather on their own and then they make the call whether or not to fly. Here in the U.S. and Europe as well, they rely on these special dispatchers to evaluate the weather. Miles, do you think that's a problem as well?

O'BRIEN: Well, yes. Just to be clear how they do it here. When -- every time you push back, the captain and a qualified licensed dispatcher have agreed that this is a good idea to go. They've checked the route, they've checked the weather, weights and balance, on it goes. This system is very important. It's an important piece of the safety picture here in the U.S. and in Europe. And, again, we're talking about an area that's sorting out its aviation future, trying learn how to do things safely and maybe this is one of those little pieces they should learn from.

Having said that, they decided to leave two hours earlier. And what they were talking about is literally a face to face meeting with a weather officer, which seems kind of anachronistic in this day and age anyway. So, again, I think this is part of a, you know, a background portion of this. This, I'm certain, it's hard to imagine, a captain and a first officer not taking off -- taking off without a weather briefing of some kind. And we all know there are lots of ways to learn about the weather.

BALDWIN: On the issue of icing, Jeff Wise, the weather agency there said icing was the most likely of possible weather related factors. Does that seem probable to you?

WISE: I heard that and I -- it struck me that it's probably too early to make that kind of a strong statement.

BALDWIN: Why?

WISE: A thunderstorm -- because we know so little about -- we haven't found the black boxes, we haven't found the data recorders, cockpit voice recorder.

BALDWIN: Right.

WISE: We don't know really exactly what happened. We have some reports from the automatic equipment that was transmitting information about the flight. We know something about how the flight went up and then apparently came down. But to think that it was icing is premature. There's a number of things, there's a number of ways that planes can get into trouble in and around thunderstorms. Icing is one. There's other things as well. And I don't think they have really the basis. And this came from the weather service over there, not from the aviation investigators.

BALDWIN: Well, hopefully Reuters is correct in reporting that perhaps -- perhaps they've found those flight data recorders and we can get a lot, you know, paint the greater mosaic, as it were, as far as this plane is concerned.

Miles O'Brien and Jeff Wise, thank you both very much.

Coming up next, jury selection is underway in the trial of accused Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Now he could face the death penalty after both sides failed to reach a plea deal ahead of his trial. We'll tell you why.

Plus, Wall Street starting out on the wrong foot this year. See that picture. The Dow dropping a whopping 300 points today. Why? What's to blame? Stay right here. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right, the Boston Marathon bombing moving back into the national spotlight today with jury selection now underway for terror suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Twelve hundred people from the greater Boston area have been summoned to the federal courthouse. And from among that pool, 12 jurors and six alternates will be selected. Tsarnaev has thus far pleaded not guilty to 30 federal charges. If all goes as planned, opening statements will begin three weeks from today for a trial that could last for about four months. If convicted, Tsarnaev could face the death penalty in the second phase of this whole proceedings. Tsarnaev's attorney tried to reach a plea deal with prosecutors as the

Justice Department refused to budge on the death penalty. The so- called pressure cooker bombs killed three people, wounded some 264. I mean who could forget that day. A police officer then with M.I.T. also allegedly shot and killed by Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan, the older brother who was killed in that confrontation with police during that manhunt that followed that bombing.

So let me bring in our justice correspondent Evan Perez and our jury selection expert Edward Schwartz, who is on the law faculty at Boston University.

So thank you both for coming on.

And, Evan, let me just turn to you. So two phases, right, determining whether guilty or not. If convicted, you go on to that sentencing, to the penalty phase.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Yes.

BALDWIN: Now, these attorneys initially were talking behind closed doors as a way to avoid it all so some of these people wouldn't have to talk about this horrendous experience that they endured.

PEREZ: Right.

BALDWIN: Impasse. What happened?

PEREZ: An impasse. You know, Judy Clark, the famous attorney, she's handled so many of these cases. She's represented some of the most notorious criminals in American history, including the Unabomber and Jared Loughner who --

BALDWIN: And got plea deals.

PEREZ: And got -- and managed to get plea deals.

BALDWIN: What happened this time?

PEREZ: In this case, the Justice Department decided they did not want to take the death penalty off the table. This has been a case, as you know, that garnered a lot of emotion in Boston and we know that some of the victims, family and some survivors have said, have spoken out and said that they want to see death for Tsarnaev.

BALDWIN: Exactly right.

Want to come back to you --

PEREZ: Sure.

BALDWIN: Because it's also worth noting what Eric Holder has said about all of this. But, Edward Schwartz, to you. You know, when we think of jury selection, and particularly in this kind of case involving capital punishment in talking about, you know, screening these potential jurors for absolutely impartiality, how do you do that?

EDWARD SCHWARTZ, JURY CONSULTANT: Well, the first question, of course, is whether or not you believe that something like absolute impartiality exists. I think what we can hope for, though, is to get people who can be open minded about the information that's going to be presented to them today and moving forward throughout the many weeks and the judge has a difficult job for sure. There are a variety of things that are going to make it hard for individuals here in the Boston area to stay open minded about this case for sure.

BALDWIN: Beyond staying open minded, though, what kinds of questions are asked of these potential jurors as far as the death penalty is concerned?

SCHWARTZ: Well, there is a process known as death qualification, which is asking people in these kinds of capital cases about their attitudes on the death penalty. Because if someone expresses the view that essentially under no circumstances would they vote for the death penalty, then they're deemed as not being acceptable or qualified to serve on a capital case. Support for the death penalty here in the commonwealth of Massachusetts is extremely low. And so those concerns are going to be present and important to explore for a very large number of the prospective jurors who have been assembled here.

BALDWIN: Evan Perez, as I mentioned, Eric Holder, he has been a critic of the death penalty --

PEREZ: Right.

BALDWIN: Yet he has been, you know, very crystal clear as far as this goes. What has he said?

PEREZ: Well, you know, one of the things that he talked about in this case was that, you know, the lack of remorse from Tsarnaev and he said this was a heinous crime. I mean this was something that imprisoned the city for a day as people were hunting for these suspects, if you remember. And, you know, while he is critical of the death penalty, he has authorized this and on a couple of other cases, including on Friday, if you remember the LAX, the shootout, a shooting in -- which killed a TSA officer.

BALDWIN: Right.

PEREZ: He authorized the death penalty for that suspect just last week. So he is willing to go there.

The interesting thing, Brooke, is that this is -- this case, if he does get the death penalty, Tsarnaev, is going to be something that's going to be litigated for a dozen years probably before he ever gets to that stage.

BALDWIN: Let me end with you, Edward, just also with your legal hat on, but also just as a Bostonian. I mean I was there for a month covering this and I'll never forget the eerie -- it was like a ghost town during those horrendous few days when, you know, no one knew who had committed these atrocities. And ahead of this, not that the jury selection has begun, what's the sense in the city?

SCHWARTZ: Well, I have to say that the people that I've spoken to, including I was speaking to just my colleague Jeff Herman (ph) today at Decision Quest (ph) where I work about, if ever there was a circumstance in which a change of venue seemed appropriate, this is it. You can't speak to anybody around here who thinks, frankly, that this guy is going to find a set of jurors who are impartial in the conventional sense about what's going on here. Everyone has feelings about this and strong ones.

BALDWIN: They need those 12 jurors and then six alternates. We'll see if they get them. Edward Schwartz and Evan Perez, gentlemen, thank you both very, very much.

We'll stay on that story, of course, in the coming months.

Meantime, just moments from now, the mayor of New York will make an announcement, along with the commissioner of the New York Police Department, and it comes 24 hours after some officers once again turned their backs on the mayor. How will he respond? We'll take it live.

Plus, he is the fifth in line to the British throne. But Prince Andrew, Duke of York, right now accused of being part of a billionaire's under age sex ring. And he's not the only famous face involved. Those details ahead.

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