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What Those in Devastated Towns Think of Ukrainian Cease-Fire; Interview with Mother of Iranian-Held Prisoner Jason Rezaian; Oregon Governor Being Pressured to Resign; Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Admission
Aired February 13, 2015 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Jim Sciutto, in today for Wolf Blitzer.
We are less than 35 hours away from the start of the cease-fire in eastern Ukraine. Part of a peace agreement reached earlier this week, all sides say they're hopeful that terms of this deal will be honored, but then, again, that's what they said after the last peace deal put in place in September and that quickly failed.
Our Nick Paton Walsh talked with forces and civilians in a devastated town to get their takes on the prospects for peace.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Head to the front lines and you can feel how hard a cease-fire will be. Here, a thousand yards from the Ukrainian army, this is the reaction to the news the fight stops at midnight Saturday.
"I think the cease-fire is so they can gather strength. Personally, I with these people can't talk peace because they've killed too many civilians.
I hear rockets being fired and say move against the wall.
(on camera): All right, it's coming in.
(voice-over): How can we talk to them," he says. "Only with this."
Like many of the soldiers on the front line here, he said, "Why would you give somebody a third chance to deceive you and the cease-fire is used by the Ukrainian authorities to buy themselves time to regroup for further conflict."
Yuri shows us where that morning he says a missile landed. It happens every three hours. He doesn't expect hit to stop.
"Unlikely," he says. "Ukrainians don't go for cease-fires. There's no talk of cease-fire here because of how many of our women and children have been killed. So until we've freed all of the next region, we aren't going anywhere."
It is a cold and distant front here disconnected from the palatial world of the Minsk agreements. And it's anger fueled by damage already done.
Another hit here, killing one woman, peppering the school with shrapnel and leaving many, like her neighbor, Vladimir, furious at Kiev's disregard for them.
"You think someone will like being called second-class people," he says. "And told, get a suitcase, a train and go to Russia."
These are towns that have found a whole new wretched world underground.
Paulina and the girls sleep down here most nights.
(on camera): It's in underground labyrinths that residents barely knew existed before the shelling began. But loathing for the other side slowly grows, making it so much harder for many to imagine a future with Ukraine united as it once was.
(voice-over): Everyone finding a space underground as a dark mood greets the cease-fire ahead.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCIUTTO: CNN's senior international correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, joins us live now from eastern Ukraine.
Listening to the comments from the separatists doesn't sound like they're invested. Are you seeing preparations on the ground to get ready to stop fighting in 36 hours?
PATON WALSH: Frankly, the opposite, Jim. We have been hearing from the self-declared deputy minister of defense for the separatists, and we asked him clearly what they felt about Ukrainian territory, that's the key town both sides want to take before the cease-fire kicks in and whether he felt it was separatists or Ukrainian territory, and he said clearly it's ours and the Ukrainian troops should give themselves up on it.
The picture you're seeing now are over an elaborate device, which they says will involve an artillery shell to fire over the heads of those troops and that then fire and drop leaflets down on them, explaining terms and reasoning behind them surrendering. And clearly they're using heavy weapons in the city, as well. It's part of the P.R. strategy to try to get them to surrender.
Most troublingly, it seems like Moscow also believes they should be on separatists side of the lines as agreed in Minsk. That's a key flashpoint. We saw today ourselves how three children were killed last night in a separatist-held area as they had their first bath in a week, depriving a mother and father of their children. That was deeply troubling for many that area. But also today, on the Ukrainian side of the line, a child and another person killed when shelling hit a village. The fighting still continuing. Peace theoretically 30 hours away -- Jim?
SCIUTTO: Enormous disconnect between the facts on the ground and the talk at negotiating table.
Nick Paton Walsh is Donetsk, Ukraine.
We just saw this tweet from the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S., mentioning, "Russian-backed terrorists bring war to the peaceful. Killing a 7-year-old. This is how they fulfill the Minsk agreements."
Not a ringing endorsement from Ukraine's top diplomatic here in the U.S.
Coming up next, an American journalist imprisoned in Iran. Is he just a political pawn in the nuclear negotiations? I'm going to speak live with his mother from Istanbul who has her own opinion. Please stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCIUTTO: It's been more than 200 days since American journalist, Jason Rezaian, was arrested in Iran and imprisoned there, and still he doesn't know what he's being charged with or when he'll have a day in court, and doesn't have an attorney yet. The only thing we know is that the judge in the case is the same one that sentenced two American hikers to eight years in prison for alleged spying. That, back in 2009. He has dual citizenship, American and Iranian, and was in Iran writing for "The Washington Post." His wife was also arrested. She was released last October.
Joining me now is Jason's mother, Mary Rezaian. She is joining us from Istanbul, Turkey.
Mary, thank you very much for joining us today, taking the time.
MARY REZAIAN, MOTHER OF JASON REZAIAN: Thank you so much for having me, Jim.
SCIUTTO: I wonder if I can ask you. I know you met with him on Christmas Day, spoke to him on the phone on Thanksgiving. When you have contact with Jason, how are his spirits? How does he sound?
REZAIAN: Well, whenever I've had contact with him, we have realized that other people were listening. And so he's not able to speak about things that he can't speak about. But Jason is a sunny person and most of the time he sounds good. He sounds hopeful. But at the same time, he sounds impatient that he's more than ready to come out.
SCIUTTO: Yeah. When you say other people with him, I assume you mean his handlers are there watching and listening.
REZAIAN: Exactly. Either they're there, cameras, or we know there are microphones in the room.
SCIUTTO: Yeah. Not the best way to have a conversation with your mother. We know that he has had health issues. What are those issues and do you have any sense of how his health is holding up?
REZAIAN: Well, Jason has an enlarged heart and he's been on high blood pressure medication since he was a teenager. I will say that this forced - detention has changed his body a lot. He's lost 40 pounds. It was good that he lost that weight but at the same time he lost it very rapidly. I know that they are monitoring his blood pressure so they're keeping his blood pressure low, which is probably a good thing because it must be very stressful for him where he is. He had developed an eye infection in I believe it was in November. And it took them almost two months before they started addressing it with eye drops. I am not aware that he's actually been given antibiotic eye drops. They did take him out of the prison to see an eye doctor. And he's had other -- he always gets a respiratory problem in the wintertime. He's had that. So, he has a number of issues and I also understand he's developing dental problems because they're not permitting him to floss and just learned that this week.
SCIUTTO: I can't imagine something more stressful than the lack of knowing how long he's going to be there. I've spoken to other prisoners in Iran who have talked about that. Now, this is happening as the U.S. Is very deep into negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. You know, increasingly warm relationship between U.S. and Iranian diplomats, Secretary Kerry, the Iranian secretary general. I wonder if you feel the U.S. is doing enough to secure Jason's release.
REZAIAN: Well, the reality, Jim, is that Jason is a dual citizen. And as such, the Iranians consider him to be an Iranian and, therefore, subject to the laws of Iran, and the United States really doesn't have anything to say about it. I understand that our State Department and various other people in our government have been working very hard for Jason's release. But many times when there's pressure that is exerted, the Iranians go in the other direction. So there really is not all that much that our side can do.
SCIUTTO: Let me tell you. I met your son, interviewed him in the 2009 election crisis in Iran. We certainly are -- our hearts go out to you and him and only wish for a quick resolution.
So thanks for joining us, Mary.
REZAIAN: Thank you. And please remember the change.org petition, Free Jason Rezaian." That would be a great help if people could sign that. Thank you.
SCIUTTO: Great. Thank you, Mary.
And, viewers, you can learn more about the case at CNN.com. Mary Rezaian has written an op-ed about her son. Check it out there. It's a powerful story. Calls for Oregon's governor to resign are growing louder by the day.
The Democrat is now under a criminal investigation over a scandal involving his fiancee. Find out what the couple under such scrutiny right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SCIUTTO: A high-stakes political drama unfolding right now in Oregon. State's four-term Democratic governor, John Kitzhaber, is facing growing pressure to resign after troubling questions surfaced about his live-in fiancee.
Suzanne Malveaux is covering the story.
He has legislative leaders calling for the resignation. How did he get here?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These are the friends, too, by the way, people of his own party.
(LAUGHTER)
SCIUTTO: Yeah. Some resigned.
MALVEAUX: Absolutely. A wild ride for the residents of Oregon getting conflicting messages over the governor all week. We have several state officials, they've met with the governor and said Kitzhaber gave indications he would resign, but after meeting with the legal team and fiancee Cylvia Hayes, he changed his mind, telling reporters in his driveway that, in fact, he was staying.
This all began back in 2002. Kitzhaber met Cylvia Hayes, the next year Hayes formed a nonprofit environmental organization. The same year that the governor divorces his wife and they begin dating. Well, Hayes turned her non-profit company to a for-profit one. In 2009, her firm won a $60,000 consulting contract through the state's Department of Energy and despite the fact that this company finished last among four bidders. Oregon's Department of Justice, they investigated whether or not this was awarded properly, but ultimately said they lacked the legal grounds to file suit. Hayes denied any wrongdoing here. But overall, investigators are looking into whether or not Hayes' private work as a paid environmental consultant has overlapped with her public work as the first lady and advisor of the governor. Both of these individuals, they're now lawyered up. They say there's no conflict of interest.
And here's another bizarre twist. Hayes has recently admitted to doing some wrong in the past. She has apologized for entering into a sham marriage, making what she called a serious mistake in 1987 for marrying an 18-year-old to secure residency status in the United States. She said they lived together as well on property which he intended to make into a marijuana farm but the operation never materialized. She said she wasn't financially involved in all this and she wasn't proud of that period of her life, that this was an abusive relationship that she had with this man.
But fast forward now to today, a lot of speculation over the governor's next steps. What has alarmed them is Kitzhaber called his secretary of state, Kate Brown, abruptly to return from a Washington, D.C., conference. If he resigns, she would be the next person in line to replace him. Brown said she, in fact, did meet with him and he told her that he is not stepping down, and she called all of this here an unprecedented situation. So, Jim, you can imagine the confusion that is taking place in that
state. And his dear friends, who have taken him aside and said, look, this has got to stop.
SCIUTTO: I mean you look at this. There is so many warning signs, red flags about these various business relationship.
(CROSSTALK)
SCIUTTO: I'm no lawyer but it looks bad.
MALVEAUX: It looks suspicious.
SCIUTTO: Suzanne Malveaux, thanks for digging in.
MALVEAUX: Thank you.
SCIUTTO: Well, if you watching the State of the Union, you may have noticed this image. The story behind the sleeping justice right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCIUTTO: We heard a candid admission from a Supreme Court justice. Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Anthony Scalia took part in a discussion. CNN had the only camera there. And when the subject of the State of the Union came up, Justice Ginsburg revealed why she fell asleep.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUTH BADER GINSBURG, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: The audience for the most part is awake because they're bobbing up and down all the time.
(LAUGHTER)
And we sit there, stone-faced, sober judges. But we're not. At least, I wasn't 100 percent sober because before we went to the State of the Union --
(LAUGHTER)
-- we had -- we had dinner together and I vowed this year, just sparkling water, stay away from the wine. But in the end, the dinner was so delicious, it needed wine, too.
(LAUGHTER)
So I came home and one of my granddaughters, and she said, you were sleeping at the State of the Union.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Shocking, shocking admissions there. Supreme Court justices drink wine as well. With me now, Supreme Court reporter, Ariane de Vogue.
Such an unusually candid moment for this vaulted Supreme Court justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN SUPREME COURT REPORTER: They were. But it was more than the snooze moment. They're two legal giants getting together. They're on opposite sides of the spectrum, but they respect each other for the way they write their opinions, and they know they're writing for other judges, and they've built this incredible friendship over the years.
SCIUTTO: Seeing them sitting there, just an odd combination.
DE VOGUE: They get along. They get along really well.
SCIUTTO: So they each vacation together, when you say they get along?
DE VOGUE: They have vacationed together. He talked about the south of France and he talked about how brave she is and she tried parasailing. This light woman had gone in the air. He couldn't believe she did that. They went to India and rode atop an elephant. And they've spent some New Year's Eves together. So they're very close, even though on these hot-button issues, they don't agree.
SCIUTTO: That's the thing. Does it bring them together in any way on a decision before the Supreme Court decision?
DE VOGUE: Well, no. They respect each other. He'll be in the majority and she'll be in the dissent. He really appreciates the way she writes her opinions and the way she cares about the issue.
SCIUTTO: That's unusual to hear. The other idea before the Supreme Court is the idea of cameras in there, something that some justices are for until they get into court, is that right?
DE VOGUE: That's the thing. We thought with Justice Kagan and Sotomayor, before they took the bench, they would be interested. Doesn't seem it will happen. The justices feel they're very transparent. They give you their opinions, their dissent, you see their thinking, and they give you their thinking, but they don't seem to be locking in on the idea.
SCIUTTO: After seeing them there at this causal event, it would be nice to see -- we have this impression that they're so impenetrable. It would be good for us to see how they make these decisions.
Ariane de Vogue, thanks for joining us.
DE VOGUE: Thank you.
SCIUTTO: Welcome to CNN.
DE VOGUE: Thank you.
SCIUTTO: Other headlines today, a bill approving a Keystone Pipeline gets a ceremonial signing but it won't get the signature it needs, that of President Obama. House Speaker John Boehner signed it in a photo op, but he knows President Obama promised to veto it. It will generate tens of thousands of new jobs. Democrats, not so sure. No word on when it will arrive on the president's desk. He'll have 10 days to veto it once it arrives.
Taking a look at the stock market now. For the first time this year, the Dow traded above 18,000 earlier this morning. If it closes up, it would be the second-straight week of gains. Right now, it seems the Dow is up slightly, but just below 18,000 level. We'll keep an eye on it.
Meanwhile, many of us are starting to spend more on gasoline again. Today's oil prices won't help change that. Oil hit its highest-level this year trading, about $60 a barrel, despite an oversupply of crude oil.
That's it for me today.
For our international viewers, "Amanpour" is next.
For our viewers in North America, "Newsroom" with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.
