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Train Crash Called Deadliest; New Developments in Hernandez Murder Trial; Dropping Acid in Silicon Valley; Jordan Ramping Up Fight against ISIS, UAE Suspending Theirs.

Aired February 04, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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


ALEX BERNIER, TRAIN PASSENGER: Well, shortly after that announcement, people started pushing through to the second car and said it smelled like gas, and move towards the back. I grabbed my stuff and joined the crowd. At that point, we were all kind of pushing towards the back waiting for instructions, but the focus for the first responders was at the head car. So we were just kind of waiting there until we saw people walking outside the train and they were kind of shouting at us, get off the train, get off the train. So at that point, someone broke the glass lever and opened the door. No one in our car was jumping out of windows, but we had to jump out of the door into the snow.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Jumped out of the door into the snow and then you see the fire and then you realize the magnitude.

BERNIER: Yes. And we all headed back to the crossing by the Taconic. They had a staging area, a lot of first responders. It was very reassuring in that regard. People were really helping out.

BALDWIN: Incredible and on the scene as quickly as they possibly could be. Unreal. Something that you do every single day that this could happen. Alex, we're glad you're OK.

Alex Bernier, thank you so much for taking the time with me. I really, really appreciate it.

Next, we have some new developments today in the murder trial for former New England Patriots star, Aaron Hernandez. Emotional moments today as the mother of the shooting victim takes the stand. But it's the prosecutor's first question that raises eyebrows here. We'll share that moment with you from inside the courtroom. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Former NFL star, Aaron Hernandez, his fiancee carried what could be the key item into the basement of her home the day Odin Lloyd was killed. Was it intended to hide the murder weapon? That is the strategy prosecutors may be taking here. The prosecution showed images from Hernandez's security camera that they say showed Shayanna Jenkins, taking this trash back to her home's basement the day after Odin Lloyd's death, the home she shared with Aaron Hernandez.

Miguel Marquez is live outside of this Massachusetts courthouse. Let me begin with the strategy so far. You have the pitting of these

two Jenkins sisters. We know the prosecution showed this video where these women showed this emotional hug. What's going on?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're making the links here. They're saying that at the time of his death, they were very close and then they have since grown apart as all of this has happened. They have intimated that Shayanna took the black bag to the basement. What was in it, where she was going, not very clear. Shaneah saying that after she saw her with the bag, she asked to borrow her car and took off for a half hour to get cash. Not very clear where the prosecution is going with all of this or how they'll make the final connection that the murder weapon may have been in that bag, but that's clearly where we seem to be headed -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: I wanted to ask you, the victim Odin Lloyd's mother took the stand and, in previous days, got up in the courtroom weeping and had to leave. She took the stand today. What was it the judge asked her to do?

MARQUEZ: Before the jury came in, they showed her a picture of Odin Lloyd, a cleaned-up picture, only the head, and they showed it to her. She kind of put her head down and identified her son. She began to get emotional. As she got up, the judge said, "You'll be called back in a moment when the jury comes in, I don't want you to show any emotion when we're showing pictures of your son. It won't be fair. We don't want you seeing crying or showing emotion. I know it's tough but it has to be." She agreed. She came back. It was very technical testimony she gave. She did not cry in front of the jury. She got off the stand after only a few minutes and it was done, but it must have been an extraordinarily tough day for her -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: We'll talk to an attorney next hour to see if that's typical of a judge to ask someone like that or harsh.

Miguel Marquez, in Massachusetts. Thank you so much, Miguel.

Next, two critical U.S. allies taking two very different courses of action in the fight against ISIS. One, about to step up strikes, the other stopping them. Why? And will the murder of that Jordanian fighter pilot prove to be a turning point in this war? Ali Soufan, a former FBI special agent, will join me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: LSD, a drug made famous in the '60s. The mere mention of acid conjures images of hippies tripping in San Francisco's Haight- Ashbury district, ground zero for the movement. For some in Silicon Valley today, it feels like the '60s all over again. And instead of hippies, it's techies dropping acid to not just to expand their consciousness but also their profits. That's right, profits.

That's today's focus of our week-long series "Sex, Drug and Silicon Valley."

"CNN Money's" Laurie Segall is back with me. We talked smart drugs, and now dropping acid.

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. As part of our series on sex and drugs in the valley, I want to pull back the curtain on drug use in the bay area so I asked some of the most innovative people out there what they're on. Turns out, LSD.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEGALL (voice-over): Part is dependent on flexing your biggest muscle, your brain. How well can you focus? Can you stay up all night and cope? But the other part is creativity, the ability to think outside the box, to have the breakthrough moment, a moment that could turn your millions into billions.

TIM FERRISS, AUTHOR: The billionaires I know almost without exception use hallucinogens on a regular basis.

SEGALL: Tim Ferriss is a valley inside, an entrepreneur, and he wrote the book about optimizing your time. His lifestyle insight has a cult-like following.

(on camera): The creativity comes from drugs?

FERRISS: The people I know trying to be very disruptive and look at the problems in the world that exist and ask completely new questions. They might look at something that's been for hundreds of years and see something completely different.

KEVIN HERBERT, ENGINEER, CISCO: I was actually in a science fiction convention with a bunch of friends and the Grateful Dead's "Trucking" came on the radio and my girlfriend at the time sort of had a revelation, oh, that's why people listen to the Grateful Dead on LSD.

SEGALL (voice-over): It was the fourth of July in 1980 when Kevin Herbert first tried LSD. He's been using for decades. He works as an engineer for Cisco.

(on camera): How high is the premium on creativity in Silicon Valley?

HERBERT: Everything we do is creative. Everything requires creative solutions and LSD fits into that because we get the sort of magical breakthrough. The grateful dead show, the drums. The hard core debugs. I took LSD. Wait, the problem is in hardware, not software at all. I come back to work the next day, tell my manager I had an epiphany. He laughed and said, great show.

SEGALL (voice-over): And there's actually scientific proof that LSD could do just that. One study funded by the U.S. government in the '60s took a group of scientists and set them out to solve 48 different physics, math, and architectural problems, problems that the scientists themselves had been unable to solve. Each scientist was guided through a psychedelic trip, at the end of which, 44 of the 48 problems found a solution.

DANIEL KOTKE, FORMER APPLE EMPLOYEE: I moved here to work in the apple garage building Apple Ones. That was 1976.

SEGALL: That's Daniel Kotke, one of Apple's first employees. And before we knew Steve Jobs as the creator of one of the most successful create companies in the world, Daniel knew him as the guy he used to trip with in college.

(on camera): You said Steve said LSD was one of the best things he did. Why was that?

KOTKE: It expands your consciousness. It could have been mushrooms, peyote, any number of things. Conversely, Steve was never interested in smoking pot. That did not expand consciousness.

SEGALL (voice-over): Today, psychedelic researcher is having a renaissance. There are more studies now than there have been in decades.

FERRISS: We don't know as much about the human brain or body as we think we do. I mean, we're absolutely medieval. I think we'll look back in 10 years at our behavior now and it's going to look like blood letting in the dark ages.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SEGALL: Brooke, you see, I was just talking to Tim there, like, are people open about this? And he's, like, you know, they're not ashamed of it at all. They just don't really talk about it openly, but in small settings, people exchange notes.

BALDWIN: Looks like the guy. when he went in with his epiphany, some sort of code of what I did last night. A brilliant idea.

It's interesting hearing Dan Kotke talking about dropping acid with Steve Jobs back in college. But are there any, you know, higher profile techies in Silicon Valley out with during this currently?

SEGALL: You would get connected to other people and a lot of folks didn't want to talk openly about it. But people responsible for software that we are using today spoke a little openly about saying we got the idea for this during this trip. You know, obviously, you have to talk about the dangers. One other one, when doing the research that was interesting was Francis Crick, the DNA structure. There's rumors that was discovered on LSD. So interesting when you peel book the curtains, about LSD, the safety implications here.

This is classified by the DEA as a very dangerous drug that can cause paranoia and anxiety. But there's a resurgence in research about this and people wanting to know, what are the applications? Is there any safe way?

BALDWIN: Wow. All right. Something you learn everyday.

Laurie Segall, what about tomorrow? What are you bringing me tomorrow?

SEGALL: We've talked about drugs in the valley. Tomorrow, things will get a little awkward. We'll talk about sex in Silicone Valley. We interview the guy behind Twitter's hash tag, coined the hash tag on Twitter, and he applies data and analytics to this idea of love. He talks about non-monogamy, something called polyamory. And you'll see me get uncomfortable because we go to a high-tech swinger's party and talk about the phone is the modern day key. So it's going to be interesting nonetheless, Brooke. I promise you that.

BALDWIN: Swing party, you had me there.

(LAUGHTER)

Laurie Segall, thank you so much.

Laurie Segall, joining us all week for this five-part video series on how these Silicon Valley innovators are optimizing their relationships and their brains through swinging, polyamory and apparently psychedelic drugs. All week, right here on CNN.

Thank you very much.

Still ahead, incredibly powerful images of this tragic plane crash captured on dash cam video. How some, including a toddler, managed to survive.

And next, we get brand new information about the ISIS video of that Jordanian pilot burned alive. We are now hearing supporters watch the video, cheer the video, even mentioned President Obama by name. What is next? Is this war at a turning point?

Stay right here. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: In the fight against ISIS, in this war against ISIS, one U.S. ally ramping up air strikes while another key partner has suspended them.

Right now, we know Jordan is quickly expanding its role in the U.S.- led air strike on Jordan's strongholds, plan for retaliation in the wake of the horrific, horrific ISIS video that showed the young Jordanian fighter pilot's final moments, set on fire in a cage, burned alive. U.S. official tells CNN Jordan is in the process now of stepping up the air strikes.

At the same time, the UAE, United Arab Emirates, suspended air strikes on ISIS and demanded the Pentagon make a change. The UAE called off air strikes for concern of its pilots' safety. And they asked the Pentagon to move search-and-rescue operations closer to fighting zones in Iraq and Syria. The Pentagon said no changes expected there. Of course, the UAE, just one member of this massive coalition. According to the State Department, that coalition includes more than 60 members, each pledging to help eliminate this threat posed by ISIS.

We'll have to wait and see if this latest execution is a major moment in this conflict, possibly pushing Jordan or other nations to step up in this fight. Let me bring in former FBI counterterrorism agent, Ali Soufan, who

served on the Joint Terrorism Force and has carried a number of high- level negotiations. And he is the author of this phenomenal, phenomenal book "The Black Banners: An Inside Story of 9/11 and the War against al Qaeda."

So nice to have you back, as always.

ALI SOUFAN, FORMER FBI COUNTERTERRORISM AGENT & AUTHOR: Thank you. Great to be back.

BALDWIN: It's interesting. I think about so many different questions I want to ask you before we come on and have so much more knowledge that you can drop on me.

SOUFAN: Well, thank you.

BALDWIN: Let me begin with something you just started with, which was the symbolism, perhaps, of this video, the notion that this young fighter pilot was burned alive, could perhaps be actually ISIS saying to the rest of the world, this is what you do to us by these air strikes.

SOUFAN: Well, they are taking brutality to a different level, but if you look at this horrible, horrific video, the brutal murder of this brave man, Muath al Kaseasbeh, they first burned him and then they put rubble on him, and they're trying to stimulate what an air strike because, at first, people get burned sometimes and the rubble go down on them. That's not justifying the craziness and the brutality and the mentality of ISIS and the people who carried out this horrific crime.

BALDWIN: What does that tell you about getting inside the minds of ISIS militant? This is thinking that way?

SOUFAN: That decision definitely came from the leadership, too. And I think ISIS is scaling up to brutality because of its losses. ISIS is dealing with a lot of problems right now. They lost Kobani. They lost about 30 villages around Kobani. Most of the global jihadis going inside Syria, they're not really joining ISIS, as much as al Nusra, which is gaining -- an al Qaeda affiliate in Syria -- is gaining more ground. Also, many different Islamic groups that's part of the Syrian opposition are gaining grounds on the area towards Turkish border. Syria -- sorry -- ISIS lost many of their fighters in Kobani, hundreds of their top-notch fighters. Not a lot of people are joining the group. There are reports they are gaining a few thousand a week. I don't believe these things are accurate.

What we see today that ISIS are trying to step up networks in places like Yemen and Libya and Pakistan. And I think CNN reported on some of these things. But what we see and notice from sources on the ground, they are not actually trying to challenge the global jihadi affiliates in these areas, like al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula or Taliban.

(CROSSTALK) SOUFAN: Instead, they are trying to set up networks for recruitment because they are really hurting and they need more people. Also at the same time, ISIS use brutality and use fear to control the population, and that's something more the leadership of ISIS did than under Saddam, because the top leadership used to work in Saddam's intelligence and Saddam's military services.

BALDWIN: To your point, do you think that now -- we're reporting U.S. officials saying Jordan will be upping its air strikes. Could that be perceived by ISIS as playing into their hands, that is precisely what they want, to help them beat on their proverbial chests and say we are a superpower because you are bringing the fight to us?

SOUFAN: Jordan needs to respond, absolutely. And they have every right to respond. Now, it depends how they respond. If they up their air strikes, that is fine. Because what ISIS wants now, ISIS wants a shock-and-awe moment, because after the shock-and-awe moment, they say --

(CROSSTALK)

SOUFAN: -- from the West, from the coalition, from everyone, ISIS wants a battle that can show that they are fighting. The air strikes are a long-term strategy. It's killing them with a thousand cuts. We're turning that strategy against them. So they have hundreds if not thousands of their fighters are being killed in places like Kobani and places like Daeyali (ph) in Iraq. But they have nothing to show for it. They don't have that global jihadi battle against infidels or people who don't believe what they believe in. Instead, they're being killed slowly.