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Terror Suspect Describes Major Attack Plot on D.C.; Racist Chant by Oklahoma Fraternity Sparks Outrage; Protests Over Madison Shooting Death; Unanswered Questions for MH-370

Aired March 09, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER CORNELL, SUSPECTED TERRORIST: I would have took my gun, I would have put it to Obama's head. I would have pulled the trigger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, the voice of terror. An Ohio man lays out his plan to wage violent jihad. We're talking to the reporter he called collect from behind bars.

Also.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: There will never be a -- at SAE. There will be a -- at SAE.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: A racist chant, a rapid response. A fraternity shuts down its house, vandalized. We're on the ground in Oklahoma.

And time ticks down to the Apple Watch is unveiling. The five things you need to know before ordering yours.

Let's talk, live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We begin this hour with a war on ISIS and the battle lines drawn both at home and overseas.

This morning, America's top military officer arrived in Baghdad. U.S. Joint Chiefs chair Martin Dempsey is in the capitol as Iraqi forces wage their biggest offensive yet against ISIS.

And in Ohio, a reminder of the militants' far reached. A 20-year-old Cincinnati man, Christopher Cornell, said he wanted to kill the president. He also says he conspired with ISIS to launch a deadly attack on the U.S. capitol. He laid out his plans in a riveting and wide-ranging phone interview from his jail cell.

In just a moment we'll talk with the reporter Tricia Macke of CNN affiliate WXIX. But first, listen to some of their conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CORNELL: The event in which I planned on Tuesday, September 20th, in Washington, D.C., would have been a great attack against America. Even with my capture its repercussions will not stop. Although it would have been a major attack against America, events that will follow are dangerous and more enormous.

With the Islamic State I have connections with many brothers over there, even corresponding for quite some time actually. The FBI finally caught on this past year.

TRICIA MACKE, REPORTER WXIX: Was it their idea for you to plant pipe bombs at the capitol and have people running outside to shoot them?

CORNELL: It was a mix of both our ideas.

MACKE: When did you fist come in contact with them?

CORNELL: I won't say that in specific either.

MACKE: You have to give me some more insight on how somebody would go about contacting someone. How would I do that? How did you do that? Do you do that through, you know, YouTube videos?

CORNELL: Through encrypted messaging.

MACKE: Can you give me an idea of other things that you would write on encrypted messages?

CORNELL: Talking about how we should wage jihad in America. We should form our own groups and alliances in the Islamic State and I say groups, I mean, you know, what you would call sleeper cells.

MACKE: Right. How dedicated were you to carry out this plan to wage jihad in America?

CORNELL: I'm very dedicated. Like I said, I'm a Muslim. I'm so dedicated that I risked my life. That should say a whole lot.

MACKE: If you weren't arrested that day when you were at a gun store buying two guns and 600 rounds of ammunition, what would you have done?

CORNELL: What have I done?

(LAUGHTER)

I would have took my gun, I would have put it to Obama's head. I would have pulled the trigger, then I would have unleashed more bullets on the Senate and the House of Representative members and I would attack the Israeli embassy and various other buildings full of Kafir, who want to wage war against us Muslims. That's would have happened.

Obama is an enemy of Allah therefore enemy of us, of the Islamic State.

MACKE: And you said that the plan that you wanted to implement and you intend to, if you ever get out, I would imagine?

CORNELL: Yes.

MACKE: Is in retaliation for what?

CORNELL: To continue the American aggression against our people and the fact that America, specifically, President Obama, wants to wage war against the Islamic State.

MACKE: I want to hear what you think is coming.

CORNELL: What I think is coming? Many things. There will be indeed many, many attacks. There will be, you know -- like I said, we'll raise the banner over the capitol. I'm not going to give away too much.

MACKE: Were you, up until January, in contact with people overseas?

CORNELL: I won't give you that information. But I would tell you, I'm in contact with many.

MACKE: How organized is the Islamic State?

CORNELL: The thing is we are indeed here in America. We're in each and every state. We're here in Ohio.

(LAUGHTER)

We're here in Ohio. We're in every state. We're more organized than you think.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. Let's bring in the reporter who interviewed Cornell for about an hour.

Tricia Macke is with our CNN -- our Cincinnati affiliate, rather, WXIX.

Welcome. Thank you for being with me this morning. I appreciate it.

MACKE: My pleasure.

COSTELLO: Why did Cornell feel the need to talk publicly about his hatred, do you think?

MACKE: That's a good question. He called the newsroom at least three times on this past Wednesday evening. Calls were coming in collect to our newsroom. And on the third try, he finally did get through to us and we were able to get back to him. The question is, why would he have a telephone? He has access to a

phone from 7:00 in the morning until midnight. So it was just a matter of time before he got ahold of us or someone else.

COSTELLO: As the conversation wore on, were you shocked at his openness about the crimes he wished to commit?

MACKE: I was very surprised. For one, I didn't know if he would actually call back to do a recorded interview in the first place. And when he did call back, only like seven minutes late from the time that he said he would call me back and we could record the conversation, but a jailhouse conversation, you have to do it in like 20 minute increments. So there's a two-minute warning at the end of two minutes, at the end of 18 minutes saying that you only have two minutes left to talk.

And he was so open and just coming out and answering every question that I had. You just played a lot of that interview. You saw it was a very cordial give-and-take interview. He held nothing back. And as soon as his 20 minutes was up, he called me again. We talked for another 20 minutes. And after that was up, he called me again. So that was a full one hour-long interview of which he answered every question that I could imagine to ask him.

COSTELLO: It seemed at times like he was bragging because according to the FBI there's no evidence that he actually was in contact with terrorists overseas or passed along encrypted messages. What do you make of that?

MACKE: Yes. I know. At one point I even asked him because, you know, his appearance has changed. He went to school here in Cincinnati. And when you look at his high school photos, he's this really clean cut cute kid, wrestler, that kind of stuff. I asked about his change of appearance because, you know, did he just idolize members of ISIS so much he wanted to be a member?

He says he was always a Muslim. He always wanted to do this and his whole plan was thought out his whole life, that he wanted to be quiet about this until the perfect time. And I did ask him also, are you just a 20-year-old punk that's just kind of causing trouble? And he said, no, in fact, you know, this is well thought out. I am a member. I intend to do this. I intend -- if I was asked upon ISIS to do anything, like behead Americans or carry out any kind of a terrorist plot, he would do that.

And I asked him that repeatedly throughout that hour. And so if he's full of it, you know, in trying to brag, I don't know, he didn't seem like that to me.

COSTELLO: I spoke with Cornell's father not too long ago right after he was arrested and he told me that the FBI set up his son and his son was just a little mentally imbalanced at the time. Let's listen to part of that interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOHN CORNELL, FATHER OF TERROR SUSPECT: I'm not saying he's a saint. He's 20 years old going on 16. He's a big kid. He's never been outside of Cincinnati other than to wrestle at some wrestling tournaments when he was a kid. There is no way on the face of this earth that he plotted this by himself. There is no way he could have came up with this. I know my son better than anyone.

I believe that he met with this informant before the informant ever contacted the FBI. I believe this informant filled his head with a bunch of garbage. I believe he was tricked in the correspondence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Tricia, what are the Cornells saying now?

MACKE: OK. Two things on that. First of which, when we talked to his family initially, they said about the same thing that they said to you. And we played the sound bite to Chris Cornell's father, where he said he wanted to put bullets in President Obama's head. And he said at that moment he now disowns his son. He had no idea that was what he was all about. He believes us now and he disowns him.

And also, about the FBI informant. I asked him about that as well. He said that he was in contact with multiple people over the years. And he had been in contact with this FBI informant, it turned out to be an FBI informant, for at least 20 months. And he said, is that the only one you were in contact with? And he went on and on and kept saying, no, there were multiple ones.

I asked for names of different people that he would talk to overseas. He said -- I said, how high are they up the rung of the ladder? He wouldn't give me any names, however he did give me a name of someone he said was his brother who was arrested back in February for trying to plant bombs on airplanes. So he was trying to come up with some credibility when he was explaining his intent to wage jihad on America.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Tricia Macke, thanks so much for sharing. We appreciate it.

MACKE: My pleasure.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, protests erupting in Wisconsin after a white cop fatally shoots an unarmed biracial teen.

CNN's Rosa Flores is following that story.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol, I am live in Madison, Wisconsin. Take a look behind me as the support grows for the family of Tony Robinson, so does the memorial here. Now I'll let you know what the police chief says that he can do to repair, make amends with the community here. Up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A campus-wide outcry happening right now. Here's a look at the University of Oklahoma. Students and the community gathering in protest. At the center of the controversy? A 10-second video of Sigma Alpha Epsilon members chanting a racist chant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRATERNITY (chanting): There will never be a (BLEEP) in SAE, there will be a (BLEEP) in SAE.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The frat building defaced this morning, the words "Tear It Down" spray-painted on the wall.

CNN's George Howell has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The audio on this clip is disturbing, a group of young men and women on the bus who don't seem to know they're being recorded chanting this.

FRATERNITY (chanting): There will never be a (BLEEP) in SAE, there will be a (BLEEP) in SAE. You can hang from a tree but they'll never sign with me. There will be a (BLEEP) in SAE.

HOWELL: The clip purportedly shows students from the University of Oklahoma using a racial slur, the N-word, singing about their fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon. It was allegedly filmed Saturday as the group headed off to a date party for the fraternity's Founder's Day. Within several hours of the clip being posted and shared online and the Sigma Alpha Epsilon national headquarters announced it was closing its OU chapter and suspending its members.

In a statement, the fraternity's leadership says, quote, "We apologize for the unacceptable and racist behavior of the individuals in the video and we are disgusted that any member would act in such a way." It goes on to say, quote, "We are hopeful we can reestablish the Oklahoma Kappa chapter at some point in the future with a group of men who exemplify our beliefs and who serve as leaders on campus and in the community."

The university president, David Boren, also promising an investigation saying, quote, "This behavior will not be tolerated and will be addressed very quickly."

The response online to this clip has been sharp. One group called Unheard on Twitter, planning a rally Monday. Others changing their profile pictures. Some students on the OU campus came together for a prayer circle Sunday night, denouncing the chant that had some in this video laughing. Fair to say, no one's laughing now.

George Howell, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Well, this video is creating a social media movement on campus. This was recently posted on Instagram. "Guess what? Fraternities don't become racist overnight," it says. A black student organization named Unheard, you heard George mentioned that, it posted the video on the OU president's Twitter page last night, writing, quote, "Racism is alive at the University of Oklahoma."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEAGAN JOHNSON, CO-DIRECTOR, "UNHEARD": I was outraged, I was upset, but shocked was not an emotion that I ahd. These racist situations happen every day and we encounter them. So within the black community, we were upset, we were angry, but were not shocked because these are things that happen every day that it took this group of students to be on camera and caught for it to get national attention.

COSTELLO: The university's president says an investigation is under way.

Day three of anger and frustration in Wisconsin after a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed biracial teenager in Madison. Over the weekend, demonstrators demanded answers and chanted, "Black Lives Matter". This morning, protesters plan to protest at the Wisconsin State Capitol and local high school students are vowing to stage a walkout. Oh the surface, this case seems too familiar. But the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Tony Robinson has its own unique set of circumstances.

CNN's Rosa Flores live in Madison with more. Good morning, Rosa.

FLORES: Good morning. You're absolutely right. It sounds very familiar but there are few differences for sure. One of those differences is we have not seen the surge of witnesses, the video that we've seen in the other cases. And I can tell you why.

Take a look over my shoulder. This is the house where the incident happened. It happened inside. And so you don't see a lot of witnesses coming forward because it was not in a public street. But hear this. There was one woman inside that house and she allowed CNN in, exclusively.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES (voice-over): Charged protesters unloading anger and frustration at police officers guarding this Madison, Wisconsin, house turned crime scene.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Innocent black children --

FLORES: This is where unarmed 19-year-old Tony Robinson was shot and killed by police Friday. No one is allowed inside except for Kathleen Bufton. She lives a thin wall away from where the gunshots rang out.

KATHLEEN BUFTON, NEIGHBOR OF TONY ROBINSON: Right here on this wall of the kitchen.

FLORES: Bufton says she was in the kitchen when she heard a scuffle next door, then pounding on the door, she says. (on camera): Was that the police?

BUFTON: Yes. He forced the door open.

FLORES (voice-over): What she didn't know, according to police, is that there were multiple calls into dispatch regarding Robinson, including an alleged battery incident.

DISPATCHER: Look for a middle black, light-skinned, tan jacket and jeans outside yelling and jumping in front of cars.

FLORES: Police say Officer Matt Kenny responded, heard a commotion inside the home, and forced his way in and then gunfire.

BUFTON: You could really hear it. I mean, right here. I mean, nothing went through.

FLORES: Police say Robinson attacked Kenny, provoking the officer to use deadly force. But Bufton has her doubts.

BUFTON: I wonder if it was a white person, if they wouldn't have got shot. They'd have got tased.

FLORES: Her thoughts echoed by Robinson's family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I think he shot him because he was afraid of him.

FLORES: This is not the first time the 45-year-old officer used deadly force. Officer Kenny was exonerated for an incident that took place eight years ago. The police chief says he's working to regain public trust.

MIKE KOVAL, MADISON POLICE CHIEF: We need to start as any healing or reconciliation would, with an "I'm sorry".

FLORES: But hundreds gathered throughout the weekend demanding more than apologies.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES (on camera): And as you take another live look, here are some of the signs, some of the messages that this community is leaving for the family of Tony Robinson. You see Ferguson to Madison, Black Lives Matter. Unarmed Black Child. Michael Brown, Black Lives Matter.

A lot of these messages, Carol, not only on signs but verbally chanted along this street throughout the weekend as this community comes together in solidarity for Robinson's family.

COSTELLO: All right, Rosa Flores, reporting live from Madison, Wisconsin, this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the grieving families of MH-370 left without answers and turned away from their place of worship. We'll bring you their story from Beijing. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It's been one year since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared and a newly released report by the Malaysian government reveals startling new details, including that the battery in the plane's locator beacon had been expired for more than a year. For the families of those onboard, the report was missing the only thing that mattered, though: answers about what happened to their loved ones. For them, it's been a year of grief, a year without closure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIAN LAINGWEI, BROTHER OF MH-370 PASSENGER (via translator): When he was here, everything was okay with our family, he says. How, everything is up to me. I hope he's alive. I hope he is somewhere alive. I just know he wants to come back home to us.

DANICA WEEKS, WIFE OF MH-370 PASSENGER: You create your own scenarios in your head and you can't bear to think that someone, your best friend, your amazing husband, if any of my children went through any of that. I don't want that for him. It's the not knowing that just really destroys you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: With me now, a former managing director for the NTSB, Peter Goelz. Welcome, Peter.

PETER GOELZ, FORMER MANAGING DIRECTOR, NTSB: Hey, good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning. The beacon battery for the flight data recorder had expired in December 2012. It was not replaced. Important because that beacon is designed to send a signal if a crash occurs in the water. Did the hundreds of people straining to hear a ping in the Indian Ocean know that?

GOELZ: Well, they didn't know that. And it really is unforgivable. And what it may do is show that Malaysia Airlines had a -- not the most stringent culture of safety. This kind of replacement of the battery happens on a regular basis. It should have been caught; it shouldn't have been allowed to get back in the air without a new battery.

COSTELLO: Why didn't they know this at the time? Because here are all these people out in the middle of the ocean trying to hear a ping from a battery, from a device whose battery had expired?

GOELZ: Well, I think it was a little bit of a fire drill there. I mean, they were panicking. They mishandled the early stages of the search.

This factual report, which is almost 600 pages, really lays out two really critical things beyond the battery. One is just how out of control the initial hours following the plane's disappearance was. They really did not have a set plan or a set procedure to deal with the missing aircraft. And then, secondly, it gave an in-depth review of the flight crew's background and really kind of exonerated the pilot. It showed that there was nothing in his background, no change in behavior. His financial situation was stable. I mean, it's a pretty responsible factual report, but it doesn't give us any answers.

COSTELLO: It's just so disturbing. So the families are suing. Could these new developments factor into their lawsuit? I would say yes, right?

GOELZ: Yes, certainly. And the issue is this, though, that this search cannot end. This has to go on because commercial aviation cannot stand a vacuum -- a missing plane of this stature, of this size, with absolutely no clear understanding of what happened. It has to be found.

COSTELLO: Could the expired pinger, though, mean that the airline is ultimately responsible for this plane not being found?

GOELZ: Well, I think that more importantly was the chaos between the air traffic controllers and the Malaysian government during the opening hours, where they really did not acknowledge, really, that the plane was missing until some four or five hours until it went off the radar screen. And then the military was slow to indicate that they were tracking the primary return for some hours after that.

So I think it's contributory. But until they find the plane, all of these questions are going to hang there and, unfortunately, it's not reflecting well on the airline or on the government of Malaysia.

COSTELLO: Peter Goelz, thanks as always for your insight. I appreciate it.

GOELZ: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, many people say he's a real live superhero, the Jerusalem mayor tackling a knife-wielding attacker to the ground. Up next, I'll talk one-on-one with the mayor and ask him about that incredible takedown and so much more. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)