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Rap Mogul Accused of Hit and Run; Fates of ISIS Hostages Unknown; Two Americans Shot at Saudi Arabia Gas Station; Dartmouth Pres. Bans Hard Alcohol; Roger Goodell to Give State of the League Address

Aired January 30, 2015 - 09:30   ET

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


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Notorious rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight is under arrest this morning. Police say Knight murdered a 55-year-old man, driving over him with his pickup truck after the two were seen arguing on a movie set in Compton. Knight turned himself in for questioning early this morning. In a bizarre scene, Knight paused to finish his cigar and then he put the cigar out on a tree before he headed inside the west Hollywood sheriff's station.

Sara Sidner is following the story. She has more for us.

Hi, Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol.

This is the latest really in a string of run-ins with the law for the former rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight. But these are the most serious charges he's ever faced. He's been arrested and booked on suspicion of murder after sheriff's investigators say he ran over two people, killing one of them in the middle of the day in L.A.'s Compton neighborhood.

Now, the trouble started yesterday, according to sheriff's deputies, yesterday afternoon when an argument broke out on the set of a biography called "Straight Out of Compton" about the once hugely popular '90s west coast rap group MWA. And you're seeing video there of Suge Knight smoking that cigar, calmly talking to sheriff's investigators. The L.A. sheriff's office says the argument ended outside a burger joint when Knight ran two men over in his truck, killing one of them and injuring the other.

There were witnesses. Let's go ahead and hear from one man who says he was there when it happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All I hear is some arguing and loud sounds going on. So I turned to look out and I seen Suge Knight turn around and go to his car. He backed his car up and then he put it in drive and then he hit Terry Carter (ph). He ran him over twice. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: So you can understand why sheriff's investigators are looking into this case and hearing from some of the witnesses have arrested him on the suspicion of murder. Sheriff's deputies, though, have not confirmed the name of the victims. Knight's attorney told the "L.A. Times" this morning that he is positive that Knight will be exonerated by Tuesday.

Suge Knight rose to fame when he co-founded Death Row Records with Dr. Dre in 1991. But Knight constantly found himself surrounded by violence and in legal trouble, much like the music he produced.

Let's talk about some of the things he's been through. The last time Knight made headlines was back in August of last year after he had been shot six times in a packed Hollywood nightclub during a pre- awards party. There was a fight that broke out there. He did, obviously, survive that.

Then back in 1997, Knight was sentenced to nine years in prison for violating parole in another case, an assault case. He got out about four years later, serving his time, but ended back in prison for another two years after violating his parole again for striking a parking attendant. His legal battles turned into financial battles. And nine years ago he filed for bankruptcy. Now he is facing the biggest and most difficult case against him, accused of murder.

Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Sara Sidner reporting live from Los Angeles this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the word is waiting to learn the fate of two ISIS hostages, but has the terror group already won by bringing countries like Jordan and Japan to the bargaining table. We'll talk about that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We are just about 24 hours past an ISIS deadline for a prisoner exchange that could release two hostages in exchange for a Jordanian policer. And while the fate of Japan's Kenji Goto and the Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh remain unknown, many analysts have argued that ISIS is even getting countries like Japan and Jordan to the bargaining table is a win for the terrorist group. But is it really? Let's walk through the terror group's ever changing list of demands.

On January 23rd, ISIS demanded $200 million from Japan in exchange for two Japanese prisoners. Japan didn't move and ISIS killed one hostage, Haruna Yukawa. On January 28th, ISIS instead asked for the release of failed suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi in exchange for the remaining hostage. And then on Thursday, ISIS demanded al-Rishawi be delivered to the Turkish border. Jordan said it would only hand over its prisoner in exchange for a captured fighter pilot, show us proof of life, but so far ISIS has not shown the Jordanians any proof of life. So why is all this happening? So let's talk about this. I'm joined now

by Daniel O'Shea, he's a former Navy SEAL and former hostage negotiator at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad from 2004 to 2006.

So, Daniel, in your mind, is this really a win for ISIS?

DANIEL O'SHEA, VICE PRESIDENT, GROM TECHNOLOGIES: Absolutely, they're driving the narrative and these lists of demands, if you go back to the first demand, they were demanding $200 million, which is obviously an outrageous sum. No one was going to pay that. But they body is going to pay that but they did that calculated because Japan had announced they were going to contribute $200 million to the effort to fight ISIS. So now what they've said to any country, that if you publicly claim support to fight ISIS, we're going to come after you and these are the kind of demands.

So this is part of the theater of hostage terrorism. And, yes, they're winning, and they're dragging this story out. And type of media attention is the oxygen that fuels this form of terrorism. So, yes, ISIS is absolutely winning in this case. And the fact that they're bringing two nation state, not only an Arab nation, they're bringing a western country, Japan, and they're giving more legitimacy that they have indeed established a caliphate and that, you know, they're now being brought, you know, to the negotiating table with other nation state actors.

COSTELLO: And you're saying that even though I mean it seems -- it appears as if ISIS has been driven underground because they're not showing proof of life, right?

O'SHEA: Well, no.

COSTELLO: If they're -- if they haven't been driven underground, then why aren't they?

O'SHEA: Well, a proof of life video doesn't need to be aired out in the open. It can be a video. It can be a photograph snap with a newspaper with a headline. So, proof of life -- again, I think they're just dragging this out. They're seeing - they're very calculated in the way they do this. And as long as this is -- keep focusing the media attention, they will extend the deadlines.

I mean they did this many times in Iraq where they put a demand but they thought it was garnering world's attention, they would - they would push to the right. So as long as they think they can milk this for exposure and attention and worldwide, you know, focus on ISIS itself or the Islamic State, they're going to continue to drag this out.

COSTELLO: So there are protests going on in Jordan right now over this incident. So are you saying that ISIS meant for that to happen?

O'SHEA: Absolutely. They're trying to drive a wedge. You know, they've got -- the pleas from the family. This is a very powerful family of the pilot, the Jordanian pilot. So of course they're seeing the division within an Arab nation. So of course they want to drag this out because as soon as say they showed - you know, did the transfer release, the prison swap, or they showed that they killed both the hostages, guess what stops, the protests stop, the forced pressure on the government in Jordan. King Abdullah is under tremendous pressure. So they want to drag this out for as long as they can. So they're orchestrating this and this is these different demand, these outrageous demands. It's just, for them, all part of the process. And it's - they're very effective at it. And, again, I'll stick to my guns here that they're absolutely in the driver's seat in the current situation in these negotiations.

COSTELLO: So in your estimation, is Jordan reacting appropriately?

O'SHEA: Well, this is a - I mean, I'm not - I don't know what brought them to bring out openly that they said they would be willing to trade the pilot. Now, they could be doing this all behind the scenes, but the fact that it was released publicly, that, again, it just -- these type of things, you really don't want the attention. You want to do it behind closed doors. Because every time a news media story broke, and I worked a lot of cases, it drove such a -- it threw a wrench in the works if we were trying to coordinate. In our case, we were coordinating rescue operations. We weren't, you know, we weren't negotiating settlements or doing prisoner swaps. We stuck to a firm policy of no negotiations - no concessions to terrorism. But, you know, we've changed that policy. So how the U.S. in in any position to be telling the Jordanians you can't do a prison swap because we did it last year for Bowe Bergdahl. So it's - you know, there's not a lot of good options for Jordanians in this situation and -

COSTELLO: Yes, and I was just going to -

O'SHEA: Obviously the fate of two hostages are at risk (ph).

COSTELLO: I was just going to ask you what option they have and what they should be doing?

O'SHEA: Well, the smartest thing for the Jordanians in particular, they should be, you know, trying to go into -- you know, Islamic back door channels. There's going to be connections. There's going to certainly be discussions within the tribal networks. And that's probably the best way this is going to be done. And in all cases - not all cases. Most cases in Iraq, when we did get a western hostage in particular released, it was because of using tribal networks, negotiating behind the scenes and times, many times, a gesture of goodwill. And that's what they may do in this case because if they do kill this Jordanian pilot, it will just probably get Jordan right back on - right back in the game of wanting to support the air strikes and support the mission. It won't win them any favors in the Arab world with the Arab states. So if they're smart, they will release this pilot because it will - it will engender tremendous goodwill within the Arab community. And, of course, they're targeting, you know, goodwill in the Arab world, regardless of their terrorism that they're doing to the west with these western beheadings. That's my - that would be my take on it.

COSTELLO: All right. Daniel O'Shea, thanks for the insight. I appreciate it. Still to come in the NEWSROOM -

O'SHEA: Thank you.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, as college campuses struggle to end sexual assaults, does the answer involve limiting alcohol? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COSTELLO: Disturbing news out of Saudi Arabia. Americans came under attack at a gas station. One American is dead. Another is wounded.

CNN's Nic Robertson is on the phone; he's in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. What more do we know about this, Nic?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, we're only just beginning to get the details, Carol. We first heard that two Americans were shot at, that one was injured and the other one appeared to, at that stage, been uninjured. But details are coming to come through.

One Saudi press agency is reporting that the shooting took place at a gas station on the main highway that runs east from the capital of Riyadh towards sort of the oil area of the country, in the east of the country. That police gave chase to the attackers, exchanged gunfire with them, and one of the attackers was injured and he is now in custody, according to the police.

But the one statement that we have so far from the Saudi press agency is quoting a police spokesman saying that one American dead and the other injured at this time. Other sources telling us that the person who's been injured is in stable condition at the moment, Carol.

COSTELLO: So is there an indication that the Americans were targeted because they were American?

ROBERTSON: It's not clear at this time. And the details, I think, they're probably going to going to be hard to get at. It's typically hard to get clear details in Saudi Arabia. We should learn more, but the context for this incident, in the past few months, there have been attacks on westerners here. In November, in Riyadh, the capital, a Danish worker was driving in his car home from work, and another car pulled alongside him, fired a pistol at him, and he was injured in his shoulder. Now, that was recorded on video and posted by a group of people claiming to be associated with ISIS.

You have two Americans, one was injured in a shooting in October last year. That was put down to a work-related dispute but it left the question of was this some kind of radical Islamist type of attack. And also within the past couple of months, another American injured here in a stabbing attack that raised the same questions. But, again, getting a (INAUDIBLE) claim of responsibility as there was in November for the shooting of the Danish man, it's very difficult to know precisely for sure here what happened, carol.

COSTELLO: OK, I'll let you get back at it. Nic Robertson reporting live from Saudi Arabia this morning. Thanks so much.

In other news, is excessive drinking the biggest threat to a safe college campus? The president of Dartmouth said yes and he's banning hard alcohol in a bid to change his school's culture. But does the root of the problem at the nation's universities run deeper than drinking? One of my next guests says yes. Andrew Lohse is a former Dartmouth student and the author of "The Confession of an Ivy League Frat Boy: A Memoir". Also joining me, journalist Anushay Hossain, editor-in-chief of anushayspoint.com. Welcome to both of you.

Andrew, I want to start with you. So the president of Dartmouth says he's going to ban hard alcohol from campus because he thinks that that will in part help stem the number of sexual assaults on campus? Is he right?

ANDREW LOHSE, FORMER DARTMOUTH STUDENT: No, I don't think so. I mean, let me start by saying that I'm excited by the prospect of radical reform and we're not there yet and I don't think this plan is going to get us there, because it doesn't deal with the root of the problem, which is just the presence of this sex-segregated Greek system on our campus in the first place. And banning hard alcohol's really not going to work and it's probably going to cause more problems than it's looking to solve.

COSTELLO: Why do you say that?

LOHSE: You know, we've seen in the past prohibition doesn't work. As I talk about in my book, fraternities are highly secretive and sophisticated organizations that are designed to circumvent the rules and break them. So the idea that a fraternity is going to follow this rule, I find it laughable, to be totally honest with you.

COSTELLO: Anushay, do you think that drinking is at the root of the problem of sexual assaults on campus?

ANUSHAY HOSSAIN, JOURNALIST, ANUSHAYSPOINT.COM: No, I absolutely do not think that and I agree with Andrew. You know, at the end of the day, alcohol does not rape. Rape is rape. Sober people rape. Children are assaulted. What we have at hand here is a rape culture that we need to really deal with and banning alcohol is not going to solve the fact that campus sexual assaults are at epidemic levels across the country. A recent "Newsweek" survey found that 31.7 percent of college males actually admit that they would rape if they knew that they would get away with it.

So banning alcohol is really not the solution. And in fact, Notre Dame did something very similar and it just pushed binge drinking and underage drinking off campus.

COSTELLO: And, Andrew, I don't know if you have been paying attention to this terrible case out of Vanderbilt, right. Two football players were convicted after raping an unconscious woman. Their defense was they were so drunk they didn't remember it. It was the drinks. So by banning alcohol, is that giving potential rapists an excuse to attack?

LOHSE: I think that by putting all focus on alcohol and not on the cultural systems that can produce this individual behavior, and then the individual perpetrators themselves, I mean we're just being far too reductive. And it's an easy solution to try to put forward if you're the president of Dartmouth or a school like Vanderbilt or Notre Dame. But if it's really going to accomplish anything, it's clearly not. And by putting all the focus on the alcohol did it, it is quite frankly absurd.

COSTELLO: And Anushay, by putting most of the focus on fraternities, is that helpful either? Because I don't know of any statistics that say that most sexual assaults happen inside these fraternities.

HOSSAIN: You know what? Fraternities are definitely not helping the situation; it definitely encourages and promotes a culture where men kind of feel like they can do what they want and get away with it. And to a large extent we've seen across college campuses in the U.S. that is what has been happening.

But that's not where the emphasis should be. Rape culture is when we normalize male sexual violence and blame it on other factors -- blame it on women's behavior. Women were asking for it. Blaming it on alcohol. Blaming it on the Greek system. We need -- clearly men and women need to understand -- well, I think women probably definitely understand it better -- but understanding the concept and the definition of consent. Why do men feel like they can do this? Why when they're drunk or when they're sober would they want to sexually assault women? This is what we need to address. So banning alcohol, banning fraternities, I mean, it's really not going to solve the issue in the long run at all.

COSTELLO: Andrew, do you agree?

LOHSE: You know, I agree with Anushay on some points. But I mean -- all the data points to fraternities being a big contributor to this problem. I mean, a fraternity brother, many studies show, is 300 percent more likely to commit rape than a nonaffiliated college student. A lot of books have been written on this topic. One book by Peggy Sanday, "Fraternity Gang Rape".

So I think that at a school like Dartmouth that's really dominated by its Greek system, the administration's failure to address the problem, this highly intersexual problem at its root, is really just punting the ball down the field for three or five more years and in the process more people are going to be harmed by the structure as it is now.

COSTELLO: Anushay Hossain, Andrew Lohse, thanks to both of you. I appreciate it. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: It's hard to pity Roger Goodell even though the NFL commissioner has perhaps one of the toughest jobs in corporate America so I won't be coy. Let's not feel sorry for Roger. Today, in just a few hours, Goodell will stand before reporters and deliver his state of the NFL. And while you could argue Goodell after 1 million missteps is making progress on the domestic violence front and arguably on concussions, it's difficult to understand why he did not immediately address Deflategate, as in go before the cameras and tell millions of football fans he's on it.

No, Deflategate does not remotely compare in importance to domestic violence and concussions, but as Richard Sherman pointed out, Goodell does have close ties to Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

Although, honestly, whatever Goodell says about anything won't stop football fans from passionately loving the game. And that certainly includes me. And I'm conflicted about that. I'd like to think my admiration for awesome players like Calvin Johnson should not be marred by a few villains. I'd also like to think my reporting on Ray Rice in small part made a difference. So I'll be watching Sunday but I'll be rooting for the Seahawks.

All right, let's bring in Andy Scholes. He's in Phoenix where all eyes will be on Goodell in a few hours. Good morning, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Carol. This is probably the most anticipated Roger Goodell state of the league address ever. Like you said, Carol, no question about it. PR- wise this year for the NFL, it's been a complete disaster from concussion lawsuits to Ray Rice and the elevator tape to Adrian Peterson. You know, the NFL has taken hit after hit. Some people even calling for Goodell to step down during the season.

As you said, Carol, we still haven't heard from Goodell on Deflategate. He's sure to address that later on this afternoon, plus all the other controversial topics the league has had to deal with this year and where the league goes from here. And of course Goodell giving his state of the league address as the league prepares for its biggest game of year.

And in terms of the Super Bowl, Carol, this matchup on paper really couldn't be any better. We've got two -- the two best teams in the NFL. The Seahawks of course looking to win back-to-back Super Bowls. No team has done that in a decade. The last team to do it of course was the New England Patriots. Tom Brady, he's raised three Lombardi trophies in his career already. A win on Sunday would put him in exclusive company as he'd join Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana as the only three quarterbacks to ever win four Super Bowls.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM BRADY, PATRIOTS QUARTERBACK: I'm proud of what we've been able to accomplish. I hope the best is yet to come. But we got to earn it and I think that's a great thing about football is no one gives you anything. You've got to go out there, and especially against a team like this. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: And Carol, the Super Bowl is the most bet sporting event of the year. An estimated $10 billion will be wagered on the game worldwide and you can bet on much more than just the outcome of the game. There's all kinds of fun props (ph) like the coin toss. You can bet on what Katy Perry is going to be wearing halftime. And my personal favorite prop bet is will Bill Belichick be caught smiling on the sidelines during the broadcast? No is a heavy favorite right now.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: I can understand why. Andy Scholes, thanks. That was a lot of fun.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

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