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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Monster Blizzard to Hit Northeast; ISIS Apparently Kills Japanese Hostage; President Obama to Visit Saudi Arabia
Aired January 26, 2015 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Bracing for impact. A monster storm set to pummel the Northeast. We are talking a catastrophic blizzard expected to bury 20 million from New Jersey to Maine. We're talking feet of snow and what's worse -- hurricane force winds. T
his morning, thousands of flights are already cancelled. Cities preparing for blackouts and whiteout road conditions. We are tracking the storm and huge impacts it is already having this morning.
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Monday, January 26th. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East. When the weather service starts using words like historic and life threatening to describe a blizzard set to hit parts of 12 states, officials take that warning seriously. Worst case, snowfall amounts could range from two to three feet -- yes, feet -- two to three feet from New York to Boston.
New York City Mayor De Blasio warning this nor'easter forecast to blow in tonight and tonight, it could break records.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK: This literally could be one of the top two or three largest storms in the history of the city and we need to plan accordingly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Cities throughout the Northeast and even the Midwest are doing just that. They are planning and getting ready. Columbus, Ohio, putting 70 to 80 plows on the road, with drivers working 12 hours shift. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, it will have 400 trucks out in the Philadelphia area plowing and salting their way through this huge snowstorm. Fifty million people in the path of the storm.
BERMAN: It's crazy.
I want to bring in meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.
What you all want to know is when the storm is coming, where it's going to hit worse. Pedram, what can you tell us?
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. You know, Monday night, Monday night, beginning across areas around Philadelphia and points northward and it really begins to pick up an intensity late Monday night into early Tuesday morning across the Northeast. The ingredients are already in place. We do have the snow showers across the Ohio Valley, pushing in toward the mid-Atlantic. We are seeing some flurries around Philly, even around New York later on this morning. But accumulations today, one to three inches at the very most.
That same system, parts off the Eastern Seaboard, it's your ingredients here for a Northeaster, and, of course, with some 1,900 flights canceled already on Monday, 1,700 cancelled preemptively for Tuesday, you know, this is going to be a big deal.
And, Christine is already telling you, some 50 million people impacted by it. Here's the perspective -- nearly 30 million, right around the immediate coast from New York City to New Haven, Providence, Boston, going to be seen blizzard-like conditions. So, when you talk blizzard-like conditions, you've got to have ingredients in place with winds being at least 35 miles per hour, visibility less than a quarter of one mile, and also have these winds howling for at least three hours or more.
You'll have that around New York City, around Boston, again beginning at some point Monday night. The blizzard warnings not expected to expire until some time around midnight on Wednesday. So, it shows the longevity of all of this.
It showed one model at 22 inches around New York City. Look at this American model, only brings eight inches in New York City and the bulk in Rhode Island and Connecticut and Massachusetts. So, we kind of look at the variance.
If you get up to 20 inches, you are putting yourself in the record books with the exceeding the March 1888 New York storm, closing on December 1947. You may recall the February 11th, 2006, which brought in about 26 or so inches of snowfall around this portion of New York.
So, you put all this together and it is a recipe for disaster. Typically, guys, blizzards impact 2.5 million people in the United States every single year. This has the potential to impact 30 million with that blizzard criteria. So, it showed you how big of a deal it is.
BERMAN: It is a lot more. Just to reiterate, Pedram. You know, everyone is getting caught up. Will it be 12 inches? Will it be 20 inches of snow? Whatever happens with the snow, we are looking at the strong winds. It is those winds that could create the really dangerous conditions, correct?
JAVAHERI: It's important to note -- yes, when the snow dies down, it will at some point Tuesday afternoon, the winds will be howling in the 40-to-50-mile-an-hour range. So, blizzard conditions without snow falling are going to be happening because snow will be blown around, drifts will be taking place. So, the storm could be done with, but blizzard conditions are not going to be done.
BERMAN: Guys, don't get caught up on the snow totals. This is dangerous, period. Please take precautions.
Pedram Javaheri, thanks so much.
ROMANS: I think a lot of people should be prepared for power outages. That's the planning should be right now. I mean, if you talk about that much snow, that much wind and all those power lines in the Northeast, you are talking about power outages and that could be the real problem here.
All right. Airlines bracing for the blizzard. They're cancelling thousands of flights and prepping for backlog.
OK. Here is the tally. So far, folks, more than 1,800 flights canceled today. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East. Another 1,600 are being canceled tomorrow. Those numbers are growing by the hour. Several airlines like United and U.S. Airways announced plans to halt all Tuesday operations at certain airports. The backlog is expected to make traveling a nightmare through the end of the week. Airlines are waiving their change fees to rebook flights at dozens of airports.
Last year, winter weather was damaging to the economy. Remember that, local governments got pummeled with huge bills for snow removal and road treatment. People hunkered down at home instead of Christmas shopping. The overall economy took a hit. The GDP contracted more than 2.4 percent in the first quarter. That's what a big storm can do.
This winter has been very different, but very likely getting our first highly disruptive snowstorm. The worst airports right now, the worst cancellations are Newark, JFK, Boston Logan and LaGuardia. No surprises there.
BERMAN: Don't go anywhere tomorrow. Tomorrow is not happening. You are not getting anywhere tomorrow. Think about how you want to hunker down today.
ROMANS: We're going to move on to some other news now. We'll get back to your weather shortly.
New developments this morning, the story of the two Japanese hostages held by ISIS. Developments are potentially awful. Video that reports to show ISIS beheading one of the men, Haruna Yukawa. A known is supporter posted this video online Saturday of the other man, Kenji Goto, holding what looks like a photo of Yukawa's headless body.
On the video, a voice claiming to be Goto blamed Japan for not saving Yukawa by paying the $200 million ransom. The video also says ISIS will drop the ransom demand and release Goto in exchange for a convicted female victim terrorist facing the death penalty in Jordan. We have some breaking news on this front. Japan has an envoy in Jordan to, quote, "coordinate with every side on the crisis hostage." So, what does that mean exactly?
CNN's Will Ripley standing by in Tokyo.
Will, you've been covering this story from the very beginning. What's the latest?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is an unpredictable hostage crisis. ISIS continues to set the terms here, changing the rules as they go along. But, yes, Japan has sent a delegation from Tokyo to Jordan.
And we know that this is a major priority for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, working with authorities there to see if there is any way to work out a deal to secure the safe return of Kenji Goto. The one surviving Japanese hostage after the brutal execution believed to be confirmed now of Haruna Yukawa. The U.S. and Japan both saying as you said that the picture that is circulating on the Internet is very credible. This is an awful time for Kenji Goto's mother.
She spoke earlier today about the pain she is going through right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUNKO ISHIDO, MOTHER OF KENJI GOTO (through translator): I am a mother. I cannot bear this. I got to believe in everyone's effort. Otherwise, I cannot live. The human fighting to each other, this is not the samurai warlord era.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIPLEY: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is facing criticism now because of the fact that this hostage crisis erupted just two days after he made a very public announcement of $200 million to support the coalition against ISIS. Some of his opponents here in the country are saying had he done that more privately, the countries that are receiving the aid would have been just as happy and he could have perhaps prevented something like this, all full well that ISIS was holding two Japanese citizens, John.
BERMAN: All right. Will Ripley for us, thanks. Stay on these developments. Let us know if there's any news this morning. Appreciate it, Will.
ROMANS: Now, that swath that ISIS purportedly wants to make raises questions. Chief among them, who is this woman? A failed suicide bomber who ISIS seems to want returned very badly.
And why is she worth the $200 million ISIS would be giving up in a straight swap for her, for the Japanese hostage Kenji Goto?
Let's bring in CNN's Jomana Karadsheh from Amman, Jordan.
Give us a little more about who this woman is.
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, in 2005, al Qaeda in Iraq, that's a predecessor of ISIS, dispatched a team of suicide bombers here to the Jordanian capital. On November 9th of that year, three hotels here in Amman were hit by these suicide bombers. A few days later, Sajida Rishawi, an Iraqi, was captured by Jordanian authorities.
Her confessions were aired on Jordanian state television at the time. And she said that she was at the hotels with her husband who struck a wedding party there, killing and wounding dozens. She said that she also tried to blow herself up, but her suicide vest failed to detonate. In 2006, Jordan sentenced her death. She has been on death row since because Jordan had a de facto moratorium on the death penalty from 2006 and only resumed executions last month.
Now, what is the link here to ISIS? It is all in the roots of that group. It is the attacks in Amman, the triple bombings who are believed to have been orchestrated by the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq at the time. Its founder, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born terrorist, he is said to have had close relationship with the family of this failed suicide bomber, Sajida Rishawi. Her brothers fought alongside in 2006.
But, Christine, many people here are asking, experts and analysts I've spoken to, why this woman specifically. There are higher level jihadists in Jordanian jails that ISIS can ask.
ROMANS: So, Jomana, what's the latest happening in Iran right now? I mean, I know that Japanese are sending an envoy. What's the latest happening?
KARADSHEH: Well, for the past week, the Japanese have had a delegation here. They created what they call a crisis center at the embassy in Amman. And one would assume here, they are trying to utilize whatever open channels Jordan might have with ISIS. If you recall, Jordan is dealing with its own hostage situation.
A coalition pilot, a Jordanian, his F-16 crashed in ISIS territory, in December, and he has been held by the group since then. Of course, Japanese officials and Jordanian officials here are very tight-lipped about what is going on with the negotiations. They say it's very delicate and sensitive situation at this time, Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Thank you so much for that, in Jordan this morning.
BERMAN: One American woman does remain captive by ISIS. She was taken hostage in August of 2013 while on a humanitarian mission in Syria. The White House chief of staff Denis McDonough says intense efforts are being made to bring her home safely.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DENIS MCDONOUGH, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: We are working on the matters aggressively. We are sparing no expense and sparing no effort both in trying to make sure that we know where they are and we are prepared to do anything we must to try to get them home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: ISIS has demanded more than $6 million for the woman's freedom, along with the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist convicted in the U.S. of trying to kill a U.S. Army captain.
ROMANS: Yemen falling into political chaos this morning as an emergency session of parliament is canceled and lawmakers are turned away at the door. The president and prime minister and the whole cabinet resigned last week when rebel Houthis invaded the capital and effectively took over the country. President Obama insisting the U.S. counterterrorism in Yemen is unchanged and working, saying that killing militants with drones there is better than, quote, "playing whack a mole with massive U.S. deployments in perpetuity." The U.N. Security Council set to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis in Yemen this morning.
BERMAN: New this morning, President Obama is trying to prevent millions of acres of animal habitat in Alaska, a move that is already drawing fierce opposition for some Republicans. The president says he will ask Congress to designate 12 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, that's ANWR, as wilderness, the strongest level of federal protection. This would forbid a range of activities like drilling for oil and gas. The measure is not likely to make it through Congress.
ROMANS: The Senate today expected to resume the debate on the bill that could approve the Keystone oil pipeline. Final vote in the Senate is expected this week. Majority leader Mitch McConnell has vowed it will be the first piece of legislation the Republican Congress sent to President Obama. The president has promised to veto the measure.
BERMAN: President Obama soon to meet the new king of Saudi Arabia, the biggest U.S. ally in that region -- of course, a new leader in that region as well. We will discuss the implications. We are live with that meeting, next.
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ROMANS: President Obama cutting short a trip to India today. He is traveling to Saudi Arabia to pay his respects to the family of King Abdullah who died last week. The president also meeting with the newly named monarch, King Salman. The question on everyone's mind, will a new king of America's strongest ally in the Middle East means changes for the U.S. war on terror.
I want to bring in CNN's Becky Anderson live from Abu Dhabi with the very latest.
Good morning, Becky.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine.
You are right. Well, leaders have been arriving in the Saudi capital, all weekend, to pay their respects to the family of the late King Abdullah and indeed to the newly appointed monarch, King Salman. And on Tuesday, the U.S. president will do the same. As you said, it's a hastily rescheduled trip from India, Obama's staff will ensure there is not repeated of the criticism that dogged the White House for its failure to send a senior representative to France, for example, for the unity march held in the wake of the Paris terror attacks, and how the transition of the top will affect the Saudi Arabia government relationship with the United States.
I wouldn't expect any real change. Not immediately. The kingdom's status is one of Washington's most important Arab allies is well- documented, as you know. And given the turmoil, the fight against radicalism, at least the fight against ISIS.
U.S. security with economic interests necessitate that Riyadh and Washington continue to work in lockstep. The question, though, is not the immediate future, but what happens a little further down the road. This is interesting. A new generation in Saudi Arabia clearly being marked out for leadership.
The king is 79. He is rumored to be in ill health. His current heir is in his late 60s. The next in line, is where it gets interesting, Salman's nephew, Prince Muhammad bin Nayef of the ministry of interior is appointed second deputy P.M., and therefore, in Saudi's future crown prince. And this means a 55-year-old is now effectively second in line to the throne.
This is the first of a new generation of decision makers and policy makers. U.S. educated, bin Nayef has got excellent ties to Washington, and he is known for the main force of the Saudi Arabia war on al Qaeda in the kingdom over the last decade or so. He is now, reportedly, the point man on the kingdom Syria policy. That's important.
So, watch this space, as Washington and indeed the world other capitals look to react for change is afoot, not, though, today or tomorrow, but possibly in the not too distant future.
ROMANS: Consistency in the near term, but some potentially big changes along that term. Thank you so much for that, Becky.
BERMAN: Nineteen minutes after the hour.
The prosecution and defense in the Aaron Hernandez murder trial are expected to choose the final 12 jurors and six alternates today from the pool of 53. Opening statements are scheduled to begin on Tuesday up there. But I've got to tell you with the weather, I bet they won't. The former NFL star is charged in the death of semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd. Hernandez has pleaded not guilty. He faces murder charges in a separate case where he's accused of killing two men he met in the Boston nightclub back in 2012.
ROMANS: Federal trial of accused marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will not begin today because of a delay in the jury selection. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty for Tsarnaev. The judge has been questioning suspected jurors at length about their feelings on capital punishment. That has slowed the process. Tsarnaev is charged in the 2013 marathon attack that killed three people and injured more than 260.
BERMAN: Security concerns causing a lot of headaches for air travelers. A Delta flight from Los Angeles to Orlando was diverted after a reported bomb threat on Twitter. It eventually took off for Florida seven hours late. Two other flights involving JetBlue and Sky West had evacuated upon arrival in Seattle. Airport officials there only will only say there was a security concern.
ROMANS: "Bird Man" spreading its wings, taking home top honors at Sunday night's Screen Actor Guild Awards. Michael Keaton and company winning the award for best film ensemble. Top individual acting awards were won by Eddie Redmayne for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in the theory of everything. And Julianne Moore as the woman confronting early onset Alzheimer on "Still Alice."
BERMAN: Look at the beard on Matthew McConaughey, when did that happen?
ROMANS: When he was driving car in that commercial.
On the TV side, the Netflix, prison dramedy, "Orange is the New Black" won the price for outstanding comedy ensemble, and the PBS series "Downton Abbey" was named the top drama cast.
BERMAN: I wonder if we can book Matthew McConaughey's beard for EARLY START.
ROMANS: I wonder if it has a handle.
BERMAN: It probably does. We'll ask. We're going to have people on it.
All right. We have news 21 minutes after the hour. Hundreds are feared dead in a new attack by Boko Haram. Terrorists slaughtering so many in another African city. Secretary of State John Kerry is now in the region. We are live with the new details, next.
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BERMAN: New violence this morning by Boko Haram. The Islamic extremists clashing with troops in Northeast Nigeria's biggest city Maiduguri. The bloodshed happening as the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visits Nigeria's president in that country's financial hub, Lagos, to encourage peaceful elections next month.
Diana Magnay is following all the latest for us.
Good morning, Diana.
DIANA MAGNAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.
Boko Haram on Sunday launched an attack on the town of Maiduguri and that is a very important city. It is the regional capital of Borneo state. If the militants manage to takeover it, they will effectively control the entire of Borneo state. It's also the center of Operation Flash, which is the Nigerian military's attempt to push out Boko Haram.
So, a very important strategic city. Boko Haram has been trying to take it over for months. This time round, they were upheld. There was fighting on the outskirts of the city. The Nigerian military managed to push them. But you can be sure they will be back and also on Sunday, they did manage to capture and takeover a very important military barracks in a town called Mangano (ph) which is between Baga and Maiduguri, which is basically, Baga is where the massacre happened in January.
So, thus, becoming flush with more weapons, more emboldened to take on Maiduguri. Not 24 hours after the Nigerian president himself was in that city as part of his campaign tour. A
s you said, the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was in Nigeria on Sunday in Lagos. He met with both candidates in the election which is promising to be a close race. He reinforced the U.S. is committed to Nigeria and committed to helping Nigeria in this terrible fight against Boko Haram in the northeast of the country. He said that despite reports of this relationship being very strained, he said there was cooperation and further help and support would be contingent and depend on the elections coming up on February 14th are free and fair and credible and peaceful.
So, that was the message from the secretary of state, in a very violent day in Nigeria's northeast, John.
BERMAN: It's really unbelievable to see, Diana. Boko Haram running rampant and the world seems to be watching in some cases, relatively impotent to stop it.
Diana Magnay, thanks so much.
ROMANS: Police and protesters clashing in Egypt, on the fourth anniversary of the Arab Spring uprising. Eighteen people reportedly killed over the weekend, including three officers. More than 400 people were arrested. Government officials say three of the dead were militants trying to plant bombs that accidentally exploded in two Niles delta towns.
BERMAN: Ukraine's president said he has proof that Russian backed separatists were behind the attack that killed at lest 30 people. He said intercepted conversations prove that rebels fired rockets hounding the southeastern city of Mariupol. President Obama said the United States would work with his European partners to ramp up the pressure on Russia.
ROMANS: All right. The Northeast set to be brought to a standstill. Do you have your gloves? Historic catastrophic blizzard expected to bury cities -- and we mean bury -- from Philadelphia to Boston. Airlines cancelling thousands of flights, by 1,800 flights cancelled for today. Cities bracing for this unprecedented impact and breaking down what you need to know about this monster storm after the break.
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