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Al Qaeda-linked Group Attacks College Dormitories in Kenya; Indiana to "Clarify" Religious Freedom Law; New Details on Germanwings Crash; Source: Co-Pilot Had at Least 5 Doctors; Governor Orders Historic Water Restrictions. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired April 02, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:07] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

We're following two breaking news stories this morning. Any minute now Indiana lawmakers will hold a joint news conference with business leaders to outline their legislative fix to that controversial religious freedom law. We'll take you to Indianapolis in just a moment.

But we start in Nairobi, Kenya. And a story of true religious persecution. Mass terrorists stormed a college campus, separating Christians from Muslims, and then opening fire. At least 15 Christians were killed, many more wounded and hundreds missing.

It isn't over yet. Gunmen still on the loose holding hostages in some of the dormitories at the Garissa University College. Eyewitnesses reporting heavy gunfire and explosions within the past two hours. Hundreds of students are fleeing, some of them crawling out. An al- Shabaab and al Qaeda linked terror group is claiming responsibility for this attack. Kenya's president spoke just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. UHURU KENYATTA, KENYA: I want to take this opportunity to urge Kenyans to stay calm as we resolve this matter and to provide the authorities with any information they may have in connection with any threats to our security. This is a moment for everyone throughout the country to be vigilant as we confront and defeat our enemies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Let's bring in Robyn Kriel. She's the East African bureau chief for eNCA News in Nairobi.

What's happening now, Robyn?

ROBYN KRIEL, ENCA NEWS REPORTER (via phone): What it sounds like, Carol, this siege is ongoing. Every now and again sporadic gunfire and some sort of explosions. We could hear grenades or (INAUDIBLE) explosive devices but we're just not sure at this point.

This has been a very harrowing day, and I might add that night actually was when these students would be heading off for their Easter vacation. So an especially awful day for this to happen, you can imagine, as a number of students would have been getting out of town.

There are a lot of students from out of town at this university. It is a very large university in Kenya. What we know is that about 15 -- at least 15 people have been confirmed dead. There have also been -- there has also been talk that some of those people include gunmen themselves. There have been instant messages coming through from students hiding under beds, imploring the authorities to come in and telling their family members that they love them as the gunmen were going through door to door.

COSTELLO: And Robyn, we had word that these attackers were asking students whether they were Muslim or Christian. And if the students said they were Christians they were shot on the spot?

KRIEL: That's indeed what we are hearing. And that has become a common theme amongst these sorts of brutal attacks that have been happening in the last few years in Kenya. This started -- I believe it started in West Gate in 2013, the West Gate Mall attacks where shoppers were asked by the gunmen if they were Muslim or Christian. And if they were Christian, they were allowed to leave. If they -- sorry, if they were Muslim they were allowed to leave. If they were Christians they were executed on the spot or kept for purposes later.

This also happened during the (INAUDIBLE) attacks. There were also beheadings in that case of some non-Muslims as well as a bus attack where Christians were forced to lie down and face the ground and then shot one by one by gunmen. This has been a (INAUDIBLE).

I might also add that there was a propaganda video released by Al- Kataeb media which is al-Shabaab. You remember it's an al Qaeda linked group. So they're quite a sophisticated media wing which faces specifically that when the attackers launched attacks of this kind the Kenyan (INAUDIBLE), that they are not aiming for Muslims, that they are simply aiming for Christians and that they tried to keep them safe in those instances wherever possible.

COSTELLO: Robyn Kriel, thanks so much. Robyn Kriel reporting from Kenya.

And in case you're wondering about the religious breakdown of that country, 45 percent of the people in Kenya are Christian, 33 percent Roman Catholic, 10 percent Muslim and then the others are other religions. So just so you know, it's a very -- there are a lot of Christians in Kenya -- 45 percent.

[09:05:08] This latest attack, of course, bringing back painful memories for the people of Kenya. In 2013 nearly 70 people were killed after the terror group al-Shabaab attacked a shopping center.

Let's bring in CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr with more on al-Shabaab and what its aims are.

Good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Al- Shabaab is a group that the U.S. has been watching for years. Their initial stronghold in Somalia is where they have been mainly operating in their initial years, trying to take over large parts of that country. Driven out in recent months by major combat operations by troops from Africa, from the African Union in East Africa.

So they've been set back on their heels a bit in Somalia. But the al- Shabaab has now turned to these so-called soft targets that we've seen. Shopping malls. This university today in Kenya. And it was just in February that al-Shabaab issued a video claiming that they were going to threaten U.S. and European shopping malls.

The soft targets are so readily available for them to go after. The kind of targets that just simply cannot be reasonably, practically, fully protected against attacks. So this is something that the U.S. is well aware of.

The concern for the U.S. about al-Shabaab is just not, of course, what they are inflicting on these people in Kenya and Somalia. Terrible as it is. A lot of concern that they are able to recruit Somali Americans to come to their cause, inspire them to stage perhaps lone wolf attacks. So while the U.S. has been going after the al-Shabaab, in fact, the U.S. military has staged a number of raids into Somalia to try and kill some of their top leadership.

Today what we are seeing the al-Shabaab group still very much alive, still very capable of staging these types of attacks -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Barbara Starr reporting live from the Pentagon. Thanks so much.

And a little correction. Kenya is 80 percent Christian. Just wanted to clarify.

We're also following breaking developments this hour in Yemen. We learned that gunmen there have opened fire on Saudi guards protecting the borders separating those two countries. Ten guards are wounded. One Saudi soldier is killed. He becomes the first known Saudi fatality since the country launched a military offensive against rebels in Yemen.

A week of airstrikes like this one have not seemed to slow the Houthi fighters who are trying to topple the Yemeni government. This attack comes just hours after al Qaeda fire stormed a prison along Yemen's coast and freed nearly 300 prisoners. A third of them are linked to the terror group. We'll have more on the prison break later this hour.

Now to Indiana where moments from now Republican leaders will attempt to clarify the state's controversial religious freedom bill reportedly adding language that will clear up any confusion over whether businesses can discriminate against gays and lesbians.

Miguel Marquez live in Indianapolis to tell us more.

Good morning, Miguel.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. It is an extraordinary event that's happening here in Indiana. I want to show you just to sort of set the mood here. This is the House chamber. They have invited the national media in here. They've invited members of the business community. Eli Data Companies are here, sales forces here, companies that were very, very critical of the government here.

And the big question for us is whether this would be a partial cave by the government here or it would be a complete cave in. We have the actual language that they are going to be debating here today and it actually adds into this language among other things that it will protect, race, color, creed, but also sexual orientation, gender identity and also even U.S. military order.

It protects everything. And as I understand it, that is the first time ever in the state's history that they have protected sexual orientation as a class across the entire state in any piece of legislation. It's not written into their civil code or their civil rights code, but it is in this bill now and that will certainly upset those who did not want that in there.

Religious businesses who did not want to service gay weddings, that will certainly be a concern for them. But it looks like they have completely reversed themselves and will take this to conference committee shortly on the other side of this hall and then they will vote on it in the House and the Senate here and possibly have it to the governor's desk by this afternoon.

If he vetoes it, which we don't expect, it's likely that the House and Senate here would have the votes to override it -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So if that language is included in this bill, what would the law protect?

MARQUEZ: That is exactly the question. I mean, the way this reads now from what they have done if I can see what they are deleting from the original language and what they are inserting into it, it basically tracks exactly or almost exactly, and may even be in some ways stronger than the national Religious Freedom Restoration Act in protecting individuals from government intrusion but not allowing essentially individual businesses, corporations from not providing services to, for instance, a gay or lesbian company that -- couple that went to a florist or a baker or a photography studio and asked for services for a gay wedding -- Carol.

[09:10:35] COSTELLO: All right. Miguel Marquez, we'll get back to you.

Miguel Marquez, reporting live from Indianapolis this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, lying to stay on the job and in the cockpit. Disturbing new details on Andreas Lubitz and his deadly deception.

CNN's Will Ripley has the latest from Germany.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, just within the last few minutes some new information from investigators. It paints a picture of Lubitz's psychological problems spiraling out of control. What exactly he was doing in the weeks and months before the crash.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Just minutes ago a troubling new report on the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525. CNN has learned that Andreas Lubitz was actively shopping doctors, maybe a half dozen or more in a desperate attempt to keep his private life to remain in the cockpit.

[09:15:01] CNN's Will Ripley joins us live from Haltern, Germany with more on this.

Good morning.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, this information is coming from a law enforcement source, speaking to CNN and this source has detailed knowledge of the investigation. We've been telling you about Andreas Lubitz's depressive episode back in 2009.

But this source is telling us that he had a very serious relapse last year, a relapse of severe depression. And as you mentioned, he started doctor shopping desperately trying to find somebody who could help him, seeing five or perhaps six doctors and being prescribed what we are told is very heavy medication, medication to treat the depressive symptoms that would have seriously impaired his ability to fly.

Now, given that we know that Andreas Lubitz had dreamed of being a pilot from the time he was a teenager was afraid of losing his pilots license, investigators believe that he was not taking this medication, not taking the medication to treat the psychological problems because he wanted to stay in the cockpit. He wanted to keep working. In fact, a pilot that flew with him just one day before the Germanwings Flight 9525 went down said that Lubitz seemed completely normal and was able to function in the cockpit normally.

Obviously, very disturbing, Carol. The doctors knew that he was unfit to fly. They gave him notes saying that he was unfit to fly. But those notes were found torn up in his apartment. He was apparently thinking that he could hold everything together. So, now, the question becomes, was he planning this or was he in the midst of some sort of episode at the time of the crash.

That's what investigators are looking at right now. But very disturbing, Carol. German privacy laws would not have allowed his doctors to inform Lufthansa, his employer, that all of this was happening. He would have had to self-report. And we know that didn't happen in this latest case -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And going back to one point that you made, Will. Law enforcement source with detailed knowledge of the investigation doesn't think Lubitz was using that heavy medication while he was working because they interviewed him the day before he flew and said this Lufthansa employee, Germanwings employee who interviewed him said that Lubitz seemed completely normal with no problem whatsoever.

So, he hid things well or -- what do you make of that? RIPLEY: He did hide things well, Carol. And keep in mind, remember,

his long-time girlfriend whom he had known since he was in high school when they were growing up together and working -- he was working at Burger King, she was even unaware of the extent of what he was going through. She knew that he had psychological problems and perhaps even knew that at least two doctors had told him that he was unfit to fly.

However, she thought that he was going to be OK, that they would be OK as a couple. And so, we have an instance here where on the surface, people who interacted with Andreas Lubitz believed that everything was fine. And yet we paint this increasing picture of someone who was internally so troubled and falling apart, trying desperately to hold it altogether. Certainly, he had no business being in a cockpit on that day with 149 lives in his hands.

COSTELLO: Will Ripley reporting live from Germany this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in THE NEWSROOM: running out of water. And now, new orders for California residents to cut back, way back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:21:47] COSTELLO: California is desperate for water. Now, the governor, Jerry Brown, is issuing the first ever statewide mandatory water restrictions, ordering cities to cut water use by 25 percent. Brown announcing the order from a dry field that would normally be covered by snow. Last year, the snow in this location measured five feet deep.

The National Weather Service posting these pictures. This is the half dome in Yosemite, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Look at the striking differences year to year. You can understand why there is a crucial water shortage in California.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JERRY BROWN (D), CALIFORNIA: It's hard to grasp where we are, how much is a permanent climate change, how much is a temporary variation, but what we do know is -- I ask this gentleman over here -- have you ever stood on this meadow on this day that there wasn't snow? He said, no. You might ask him about that.

So, it's a different world. We have to act differently.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Another striking contrast, Lake Oroville. All but gone. A huge difference from what it looked like in 2011.

Chad Myers is monitoring the impacts of this historic drought. He's here to tell us more.

It's incredible, Chad. Bad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The numbers, Carol, are staggering. When I show you the numbers, and we're talking about trillions, not

about national debt but about water debt that we have out here in gallons, trillions of gallons that we don't have where we need it -- 99.85 percent of the state is severe and then the next layer up is extreme, 41 is in the exceptional category which means essentially some spots are turning into deserts.

This is what the rain should already look like. Not much rain. Not much snow this year, certainly not in 2015.

We back you up to a wet year. This is what the snow looks like. It's an odd color. But that's what snow looks like on this modus satellite. This year the snow is gone. It just didn't fall. Not that it melted already, it just didn't fall.

There is what our snow pack looks like. That's all that's left across the sierra. That's 1.4 inches across the ground. That's 5 percent, 5 percent of the average snowfall. This is what this picture looked like in 2012 where Jerry Brown stood yesterday and the governor stood on that, on that meadow, numbers that you just can't get your head around.

Thirty-six billion gallons of water are used each day in California. So, even cutting that back by 25 percent will help but it won't help everyone because they've already cut it back for the farmers. There are farmers now that can sell their water rights for more money than they can make using that water to plant because they can't grow, can't make enough money. The water is so expensive now.

Eleven trillion gallons, that's how much rain, snow, whatever needed to put this drought to an end. We're not even close. Even saving the 25 percent, that's only going to get 4.4 percent savings of what we need to get of that 11 trillion gallons of water on top of what we just don't have out there, Carol.

COSTELLO: That's just incredible. So, the Pacific Ocean is out there. Is there any way to take the salt from the water and use it for drinking water?

[09:25:00] MYERS: Certainly, there is. It's very cost prohibitive because it takes a lot of power to do it, to steam that water to make it distilled water takes a lot of energy -- energy that we just haven't put -- now there's ways to do it solar. That would be a very large container to make it solar.

Taking salt out of water and making fresh water is difficult. The earth does it all day long. The earth does evaporates the water out of ocean, makes it rain, makes it fall. We just can't get the rain to fall where we need it, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Chad Myers, thanks so much. We appreciate it.

Still to come on the NEWSROOM, Indiana lawmakers promising change, protecting all Hoosiers from discrimination. We'll have the changes from the state's controversial religious freedom law, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

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

We do begin with breaking news out of Yemen. There's been a terrifying prison break there that happened earlier this morning, and now, we understand that Houthi rebels have raided the presidential palace. It seems that things are getting worse and worse in Yemen despite an intervention by Saudi Arabian troops.

Let's head to Saudi Arabia now, in Riyadh, and Nic Robertson to tell us more.

Hi, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

Well, an estimated 270 al Qaeda prisoners are among them, a senior al Qaeda leader in Yemen, who's been in prison for about four years, were sprung from jail by al Qaeda operatives.