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Hostage's Mother Speaks; U.S. Allies in Flux; Measles in U.S. Sole Survivor Crash

Aired January 23, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Here we go. Top of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And we have breaking news here from the NFL, now specifically responding to the so-called deflate-gate involving the New England Patriots and questions as to whether or not they cheated. So, we have heard now from Bill Belichick over the week, we've heard from the quarterback here, Tom Brady, both of whom saying they have no idea what happened. Again, the heart of this, the 11 of the 12 balls - remember, each of the team brings its own balls. They are looked at. They are inspected by the refs. And they were played.

Here's what we have from the NFL. Now officially they are saying this. They said that they have conducted, over the past couple of days, nearly 40 interviews. And let me just read part of this multi- paragraph statement. "We take seriously claims that those rules have been violated and will fully investigate this matter without compromise or delay. The investigation is ongoing, will be thorough and objective."

A couple of points as I've just skimmed through this in the last couple of seconds. We heard Tom Brady talking yesterday in that news conference, really the headline there, he said he had no idea about these under inflated balls. And he said he had yet to talk to the NFL. One of the key lines here - and they're not saying they specifically talked to Tom Brady, but the NFL does say, over the past several days, nearly 40 interviews have been conducted, including of Patriots personnel, game officials and third parties with relevant information and expertise.

Here's the other point that I want to italicize for you. They say, "while the effort thus far supports the conclusion that footballs that were under inflated were used by the Patriots in the first half, the footballs were properly inflated for the second half and confirmed at the conclusion of the game to have remained properly inflated."

So this is the first time we are hearing this confirmation, this acknowledgement from the NFL saying, yes, in that first half, the balls were under inflated, but they were at proper inflation in the second half.

We're going to be on this for you throughout the next two hours. I've got two guys who are going to come on, both of whom -- one of whom currently plays in the NFL. Both of whom know Tom Brady. And we're going to talk a lot more about that.

But let's move on. Right now, the lives of two men hang in the balance. And the race is on to save these two Japanese hostages being held captive by ISIS. The deadline for this $200 million ransom has now passed, but still no word yet from their captors on the fate of these two men.

And this is the same familiar and gruesome scene we have witnessed too many times before. ISIS' hooded killer putting his knife to the throat of these hostages, threatening to behead them. But the mother of one of them has just made a tearful and direct plea for his life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUNKO ISHIDO, MOTHER OF ISIS HOSTAGE (through translator): To all members of ISIS, Kenji is not an enemy of ISIS. I really think he is a man who is able to help you as your friend once you get to know him. Over the past three days, simply, I can't understand what was happening around me. And when I consider again how my son has caused inconvenience and troubles for so many people, I will take this opportunity to apologize again from the bottom of my heart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Joining me now, our CNN senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson.

Nic, this Japanese broadcaster has reportedly been in touch with an ISIS spokesperson. What do you know about that?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They seem to be dealing with the Japanese broadcaster NHK, rather than dealing directly with the government. According to the government spokesman earlier today, they hadn't heard anything subsequent to that deadline. The issue of whether or not the government is willing to pay, or anyone's willing to pay the $200 million ransom that's been demanded by ISIS has really been, you know, assiduously avoided in detail to stay away from a complete denial. But there's no indication that's happening in the background.

Obviously, what we have heard a lot from the Japanese government is their position that the support that they are giving in Syria is not in terms of military aid. It is humanitarian to help the people there. And Kenji Goto's mother emphasized that as well. She said that she'd been crying for the last three days, but that her son, 47 years old, she said, look, he goes to war zones because he wants to save the little children there. So this real emphasis on the humanitarian side of what he wants to achieve.

BALDWIN: Sadly we just - we keep hearing from these mothers in these sort of similar reasons why these men and women go overseas to try to help.

Let me ask you about these two Japanese hostages. Some of the surprising details from their unlikely friendship, to the troubled past that actually may have led at least one of them to travel to Syria.

ROBERTSON: Certainly. And perhaps the, you know, the misjudgments or missteps that they made on the ground, according to one report Kenji Goto had told a Syrian he was working with that he wanted to go to Raqqah, that he would go to Raqqah, the town that's the headquarters for ISIS because being Japanese and not being American or British, he felt safe that he wouldn't be threatened. The other, Haruna Yakawa, a 42-year-old security contractor is sort of how he billed himself. You know, he had something of a troubled past before he went to Syria. And friends reported saying that they were sort of troubled by his view that now he'd got to Syria, he'd kind of found a mission in his life, you know, to help people. So, you know, for friends, particularly friends of his, that was deeply concerning and worrying that he'd immersed himself in this way.

BALDWIN: Nic Robertson, thank you very much.

And in the Middle East, two leaders are gone from power and now one region, critical to the U.S. war against terrorism, really is at this crossroads. Saudi Arabia today buried its king. A cautious reformer and U.S. ally who died early this morning. And this comes just one day after its neighbor Yemen witnessed its president, its prime minister, its cabinet, resign. Now, the Saudis do have a new leader. The 90- year-old king's half-brother. As for Yemen, that's a whole different story. It is not clear exactly what who is leading the country, a place key to an al Qaeda branch. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP. The one certainty, a major concern over who could take hold of that power vacuum and what that could mean for the west. Houthi rebels have now taken over the presidential palace and they are not yet claiming the presidency.

With me, Daniel Benjamin, who was an ambassador at large and a former coordinator for counter terrorism at the State Department. And also here with me, CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank.

So welcome to both of you.

Mr. Ambassador, let me begin with you. I want to begin with Saudi Arabia and then pivot to Yemen as far as what happens now with these power shifts, beginning with Saudi Arabia. In immediate terms, what does this mean for them?

DANIEL BENJAMIN, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR AT LARGE: Well, it doesn't mean a lot in terms of change. The pattern in Saudi Arabia has been continuity. The royal family works very closely together. It's unlikely that we're going to see any dramatic shifts. The king himself had been ailing for quite some time. So I think that, for the near- term, continuity is going to be the centerpiece here.

Over the long-term, you know, the Saudi royal family is coming to the end of the line of the sons of King Abdullah as he's the founder of Saudi Arabia who have since his death in the '50s ruled the country continuously. But there is now a member of the generation, the grandchildren, who is second in line. And he is a very close friend to the United States, Mohammed bin Naif. And so I think there's a lot of hope that the relationship will stay on an even keel. BALDWIN: OK. So, so far continuity in Saudi Arabia.

Paul, to you, which I think is a much different answer in Yemen, right next door. What's the immediate situation as far as, you know, a power vacuum? You have AQAP. We mentioned the Houthis. What's the situation there?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, it's a very concerning situation. We don't really know what's going to happen next. I mean the president has just resigned. The Houthis haven't totally taken over yet. They may want to form some kind of coalition government with some of the Sunni factions in the capital or they may take over the whole thing entirely. One thing's for sure, al Qaeda in Yemen is benefitting from all this chaos in Yemen, this political uncertainty.

BALDWIN: Why?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, one of the main reasons is because if the Shia Houthis take over, then that's going to be a big, big problem for all the Sunnis in the country. All the Sunnis tribals are going to be very, very angry. And al Qaeda in Yemen is going to be able to exploit that for recruitment purposes and expand their presence in Yemen, in the central areas of Yemen, in the tribal areas of Yemen. And, of course, this is a group that has says that its top priority is to attack the United States. There's the potential it's going to have even more recruits, even more resources to do that in the future.

BALDWIN: What about, though, as we've been talking, as we've been covering, of course, the war with -- against ISIS in both Iraq and Syria, Iran popped up playing an interesting role there and now also Iran is popping up, playing a role as it pertains to Yemen.

Ambassador Benjamin, walk me through Iran's stance on what's happening right now.

BENJAMIN: Well, of course, at the core of the matter is the rivalry between Iran, the great Shia power, and Saudi Arabia, the leading Sunni power, especially in the Gulf. And the Saudis actually consider the Iranians were backing the Houthis for quite some time and had been sounding that alarm. In fact, for a long time I don't think they were, and that was the view in Washington. But eventually I think the Iranians did come to believe that this was a good idea. And they've actually been caught red handed with, you know, ships being intercepted carrying weapons, ammunition and the like. So they are clearly involved.

The interesting thing is that the Houthis are themselves a branch of Shia Islam, but they're not the same kind of Shiites as the Iranians. And, in fact, historically, they've had very close relations with the Sunnis, almost unique in the world of Shia Islam. And so there may be more of a basis for a coalition in Sanaa. But I do agree that the near-term prognosis is for more chaos. And that is going to be quite a problem.

Now, the Houthis and AQAP have been fighting pitch battles for years now. And the possibility that this will become an Iraq-like situation can't be excluded. It also can't be excluded that the south is going to separate from the north.

BALDWIN: So then, Paul, as I'm hearing, and you were saying before, that this is all great for AQAP, which then would be bad for the west. What does the west, what would the U.S. want as far as - because Yemen and this president has thus far - we've been giving them a lot of money. You can argue over where that money has actually really been going. But they've been a key ally for us in terms of fighting terror.

CRUICKSHANK: They have. And the big question is, you know, will there be an ally now in Yemen if the Houthis take control? They're viscerally anti-al Qaeda. They've been going hard against al Qaeda in the central parts of Yemen, in Bida (ph) province, in Mara (ph) province. There's a lot of fighting even today between AQAP and the Houthis. But the Houthis are also pretty anti-American as well. So it's unlikely you get the same level of cooperation that you had before.

BALDWIN: Who's our friend?

CRUICKSHANK: Exactly.

BALDWIN: Paul Cruickshank, thank you very much. Daniel Benjamin, appreciate you as well.

In just a couple of minutes here on CNN, right here on American soil, a woman who wanted to become a bride of ISIS learns her fate. CNN has this exclusive jailhouse interview with this wannabe jihadist.

Plus, the Disneyland measles outbreak is spreading and now fears are stirring this whole vaccination debate.

And, much more on our breaking news from the NFL saying, yes, indeed, those footballs were under inflated last Sunday. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

And we have to keep talking about measles because it is making a frightening comeback. And if you ever, you know, think you could be in danger, even if you had a measles vaccination and a booster shot years ago, you could be. Ground zero right now for the measles outbreak is in, of all places, Disneyland Amusement Park in California. Now we've been keeping tally. More than 50 cases are now linked to Disneyland. Health officials say 82 percent of those patients were not vaccinated.

Taking you back 15 years. The CDC declared the U.S. had eliminated the measles in the nation. And now I want to show you this chart. Measles, they are skyrocketing, these cases, because more and more people are refusing vaccinations. Again, I go back to the CDC here. They say more than 600 measles cases were reported last year.

Let's talk about this with Dr. Seema Yasmin, former CDC disease detective.

Dr. Yasmin, good to see you. DR. SEEMA YASMIN, FORMER CDC DISEASE DETECTIVE: Hi, Brooke.

BALDWIN: So, why? Why - I mean how do you respond, just as a medical -- as a doctor, when you talk to parents who say, you know what, I'm skipping the measles vaccination for my son or my daughter?

YASMIN: It's so important to remind parents, remind everybody that measles is so contagious. And it's so contagious, Brooke, that if you're not vaccinated and you walk into a room two hours after someone with measles has left the room, nine times out of 10 you'll catch measles. It's so easy to pass on to others. And we can't think of it as a trivial kind of illness, especially in children. Measles can cause swelling of the brain, convulsions, permanent deafness and even death. So it's not to be taken lightly at all.

BALDWIN: I think it's worth underscoring what you just said. If you go into a room two hours after someone else had -- who had measles, you could get it. That speaks to the contagion factor. But, again, what do you say to parents who maybe brush that off or whatever their reasoning is, choose not to get their kids vaccinated, what do you say to those parents?

YASMIN: The vaccine is really safe, Brooke. And it's 99 percent effective if you or your kids have had two doses. And it's really worth remembering that before we ever had a measles vaccine, every single year half a million Americans would get sick with measles, hundreds of them would die. But as soon as we had the vaccine available, those numbers dropped by 98 percent. So we know that the vaccine works.

The other thing though is, often people talk about vaccination as a personal choice, right? They say, oh, I choose personally not to get vaccinated, not to get my kid vaccinated. When I speak to health experts, though, they say it's as personal a choice as deciding to drink and then get in your car and drive. You may say, well, that's a really personal decision. I choose to do that. But actually your decisions and your behavior has a huge impact on the health and safety of all of the other people around you.

BALDWIN: Dr. Seema Yasmin, thank you so much. Just reminding parents here, CDC recommendation. Appreciate it.

YASMIN: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, she was that seven-year-old sole survivor who somehow incredibly walked away from that plane crash that killed her family. Remember, this was the little girl who walked and walked in the dark, in the rain, through the woods. Well, we just heard moments ago what may have taken down that plane over Kentucky.

Plus, dramatic video of this rescue at sea as a 75-foot fishing boat capsizes in the violent seas of the north Atlantic. We have more of that for you.

And we will soon know the punishment for that American teenager who was determined to join ISIS. We talked to her. Stay with me. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: I know you remember that miraculous story of that seven-year- old girl who survived a plane crash that killed her parents, two other relatives. Sailor Gutzler. She was on board that small, private jet that plummeted into the Kentucky woods last month. Her father was the pilot. And that brave little girl managed, you remember, to escape the burned out wreckage, and walk away, basically barefoot. Remember, she'd been dressed because they were on a family vacation down in Key West. Walked just about a mile. Sees a light on. Gets this neighbor to help.

Now just into us today, we are learning what may have caused the crash. So let's go to George Howell for that and more of those details.

George, what are you hearing?

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, you know, the preliminary report from the NTSB, all along we knew that this plane was flying through some tricky weather that day. But now we know, according to this report, that weather may have very well played a factor in that crash due to icing, due to poor visibility and mountain obstruction and engine troubles, Brooke. According to the report, the pilot told the controller on the ground that the engines were -- that he had problems, specifically that the right engine had failed. All of this before he could reach the nearest airport. So that's all part of the preliminary investigation.

In the meantime, in the nearby town of Nashville, Illinois, the community continues to struggle with what happened. But their main focus, as we saw, is to care for this one sole survivor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL (voice-over): It's been nearly two weeks since that fatal plane crash that left a little girl without her family. Felt worst here in the heart of the Midwest, the loss of family Marty, Kimberly, Piper Gutzler and her cousin, Sierra Wilder. Their funerals, fresh in the minds of many. But there was one survivor, seven-year-old Sailor Gutzler.

PASTOR MATTHEW WIETFELDT (ph), TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH: We're all rallying around here. We're all - we're praying for her as a church.

HOWELL: For the pastor of this church, who oversaw the family's funerals, Matthew Wietfeldt remembers vividly the feeling of seeing young Sailor sitting in a pew in front of him.

WIETFELDT: My heart's broken for her as a father myself and knowing how I would feel with -- if one of my girls was going through this as well. But again, we rejoice that she did survive.

HOWELL: Looking at the wreckage, it's hard to imagine anyone could have survived. But somehow Sailor Gutzler did. She managed to make her way through the dark of night, clearing through nearly a mile of brush and trees in order to find help. First responders in Kentucky came together to talk about the crash. Lieutenant Brent White with the Kentucky State Police was the second person on the scene that night. He just recently got a chance to see the seven-year-old for the first time to return her personal belongings.

LT. BRENT WHITE, KENTUCKY STATE POLICE: We were glad to see that she was up and about. She had a St. Louis Cardinal red cast on her arm. And she's just an amazing little girl with a loving family. And they're just surrounding her, trying to support her at this time.

HOWELL: You won't find memorials or the tale tell signs of mourning on the streets of Nashville, Illinois. Folks here say it's out of respect for Sailor and her family as this community focuses more on healing to help Sailor move forward. But beneath the surface, the emotions run deep. At the school that Sailor attended with her sister, the superintendent is offering support for students and staff coping with great loss at what many here are calling a miracle.

MICHAEL BRINK, SUPERINTENDENT, NASHVILLE DISTRICT 49: There's just a lot of questions, and I think there still will be for months and maybe years to come. It's something that we as adults can't explain, much less kids. And we're just doing a lot of listening right now and working through whatever we need to work through. And we'll get through it. It's just going to be a long process.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: You know, and that really is what you hear from most people there in Nashville, this phase that we'll get through it, you know? And despite Sailor's loss, her extended family, Brooke, has really grown, especially there in Nashville.

BALDWIN: I bet they have. George Howell, thank you so much for the update on her. I've been wondering. Appreciate it.

And now to this absolutely incredible rescue off the northern coast of Scotland. You have these five fishermen battling freezing cold waves as their ship is on the verge of sinking. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN (voice-over): The British Maritime and Coast Guard Agency getting calls of a fishing ship in distress. You see the boat here, pounded by giant waves and taking on water fast. The fishermen scrambling to climb on the side of the boat before it goes under. A coast guard helicopter rushes to the scene and a rope is being lowered to those trapped fishermen.

Just as a wave washes them off the ship and into the icy waters, one fisherman still hanging on for dear life. Climbing past that spinning propeller on the boat, he jumps from the ship just as it was swallowed up into the freezing water.

One by one the fishermen are pulled up into the rescue chopper. The fishermen are now being treated for hypothermia but everyone made it out alive. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: How about that?

Coming up next, this American teen turned jihadist wannabe. And moments from now, a Colorado woman, determined to join ISIS, will learn her fate. We'll have a live report for you next.

Also, breaking news. Now hearing from the NFL saying, yes, evidence shows that those footballs used by the Patriots last Sunday were under inflated. Thus far, star QB Tom Brady and the coach, Bill Belichick, seem united in not knowing anything. We will talk with their former teammates and get their take.

Stay right here. You are watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)