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Two Women Survive Kenya Massacre; U.S. Women Arrested Trying to Support Terrorism; Family Leaves Vacation in Coma; Investigators Analyzing 40 Mobile Phones Found; U.N. Estimates At Least 519 Dead In Yemen Battle; Three Months Of Nuclear Negotiations Ahead; Ferguson's Ugly, Racist E-mails Released; NCAA Was "Concerned" Over Indiana Law. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired April 04, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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

[10:59:46] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour with remarkable stories of survival from the horrific college massacre in Kenya. Helen Titus survived by lying on the floor, smearing her dead friend's blood on her own face and then playing dead herself. She said quote, "I just soaked myself with that blood and they skipped me."

For more than two days another young woman hid in a closet, buried in clothes, drinking body lotion for hydration. Her name is Cynthia, and this morning she is out of hiding, and safe. We'll hear from her in a moment.

In the meantime, al Shabaab terrorists are warning they are not done, after Thursday's attack killed 147, most of them students. This morning, they are vowing that Kenya's cities will run red with blood.

Let's bring in CNN's Christian Purefoy in Garissa, Kenya. Christian, you were able to speak to Cynthia about her ordeal. She was the one who hid in that closet. What more did she say?

CHRISTIAN PUREFOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's times like this that you really look for some sort of hope amongst the horror. And at about 9:00 this morning over 48 hours since the attack happened, Cynthia, a 19-year-old girl, was discovered hiding in a cupboard by the military. And during that time, about 48 hours all she had to drink -- and this is really quite remarkable -- she told us all she had to drink was body lotion.

Here's what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CYNTHIA CHEROITICH, STUDENT: And then me I decided to go to the wardrobe -- in the wardrobe, we have these small rooms. And then I entered into that place. And then I covered myself with the clothes. And then these people entered into our room. And ten they told my other roommates who were hidden themselves in the under-bed. They told them to come out -- to go out. And when they were outside now, they told if you don't know how to read them in the Muslim word, whatever. Then you lie down. And then if you know, you go to the other side. (END VIDEO CLIP)

PUREFOY: Now, Cynthia described how she had her eyes closed but she could still hear all of this going on. She didn't know, she couldn't see what happened next but we spoke to one medic who went in shortly after the military who said that when those young students were made to lie on the floor, he said he saw gunshots to the back of the head.

Cynthia was still in shock when we saw her, but the military, when they went in and they found her, they had to bring in the principal back to the crime scene to say to her, "It's ok, Cynthia, these people are not going to hurt you" -- Christi.

WHITFIELD: All right, Christian Purefoy, thank you so much. Appreciate that.

All right. Six people in England are now in police custody. They are accused of terrorism offenses related to Syria. Five men and one woman were arrested in the southern port city of Dover. Searches are under way at the homes of several of the suspects. Police say the group did not pose any immediate risk to the public.

Meanwhile two Illinois men have been indicted for allegedly conspiring to provide support to ISIS. A U.S. Army National Guard specialist and his cousin were arrested last month. They are accused of plotting a terrorist attack on an Illinois military facility. Prosecutors say the two men will be arraigned on April 8th. If convicted of the charges against them, both men could face 15 years in prison.

Three American women are also now in federal custody facing terror charges.

CNN's Jason Carroll takes a look at the accusations of a homegrown terror threat.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are U.S. citizens who live in Queens, New York. The two women identified in a federal criminal complaint as 28-year-old Noelle Velentzas and 31-year-old Asia Siddiqui. Authorities say they are homegrown would-be terrorists planning to detonate a bomb in the United States.

In the 29-page complaint, the U.S. attorney details how the women allegedly expressed their support for quote, "violent jihad". Prosecutors say the women researched and acquired materials needed to make various types of bombs, including fertilizer, a pressure cooker device and multiple propane tanks which authorities say Siddiqui kept in her apartment building.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My client will enter a plea of not guilty even when there's an indictment. And she and I will address everything in the courtroom where it belongs.

CARROLL: Authorities say the suspects were not after civilians but instead the police and military, even taking inspiration from the funeral of slain police officer Rafael Ramos, believing a crowded police funeral would be an easy target. They say Velentzas considered Osama bin Laden her mentor and praised the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and she was obsessed with pressure cookers since the Boston Marathon attack according to an undercover officer.

[11:05:11] Prosecutors say Siddiqui's ambitions were just as strong. That she had repeated contact with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and that she even wrote a poem which appeared in a jihadi magazine. In it lines such as "no excuse to sit back and wait for the skies rain martyrdom" and "taste the truth through fists and slit throats".

The pair had been on the radar of investigators since at least May 2013 and according to a law enforcement official close to the case the women came to the attention of investigators through another terrorism investigation.

People in Velentzas 'neighborhood tell us she's married with a young daughter. They say she sometimes argued with her husband but there was nothing to indicate she had jihadist leanings.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's a very friendly woman and I would never even expect that at all. They're very lovely people. I know I saw the FBI this morning but I didn't know exactly what that was in regards to. That is so crazy.

CARROLL: Jason Carroll, CNN, Brooklyn, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. So is this evidence that the threat of homegrown terror is growing? I want to bring in Lt. Col. Rick Francona. He is a CNN military analyst and a former military intelligence officer -- good to see you. And Jonathan Gilliam is a former FBI agent and Navy SEAL joining us here in Atlanta, right on set with me. Good to see you as well.

All right. So Jonathan, to you first, what does this tell you about the growing threat of home terrorism or perhaps even what does it say about the counterterrorism efforts?

JONATHAN GILLIAM, FORMER FBI AGENT: Well, I'll tell you, both of those questions, the first thing I think this really starts to show everybody that the lone wolf definition that we always use, the reality is, these are homegrown operatives. Let's look at it that way because you don't necessarily have to go to some type of a tryout or boot camp to be a part of ISIS, al Qaeda or follow fundamental Islamic Mohammedanism. You just have to say I believe in that and I swear allegiance to it.

WHITFIELD: Or be inspired because these women we have learned have said that they were inspired by the marathon bombing in Boston.

GILLIAM: Sure. Right, but they are a part of this fundamental belief system. They were inspired by it, and so they raised their hand and they say I want to do this. So that's the first point is that people need to realize anybody that's in that religion, if they're in an inspirational moment they could be guided like this.

The other thing that we really need to look at here is that this woman that was just on there a second ago saying that she had no idea what was going on. This is a closed --

WHITFIELD: Blending in.

GILLIAM: -- it's a closed society and the people that will be able to spot this are Muslims themselves. And I think this shows that our counterterrorism efforts are still moving forward, but sources in and around Islam, in and around the mosques and as a part of those things, that's going to really be the biggest tool that we could ever use. No technology will ever be greater than that.

WHITFIELD: So then Colonel, just hearing what Jonathan is saying and describing how people are inspired working on their own, it would seem as though that would make it even more difficult for counterterrorism specialists to find, to weed out. But does it not seem that in recent weeks, if not even months we're seeing a number of arrests that speak to the effectiveness of counterterrorism efforts? Are you inspired by what seem to be a string of arrests?

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I'm encouraged by the string of arrests but it's kind of frightening to know that these people are out there and I think we're just getting to the tip of the iceberg right now. As Jonathan said these lone wolf attacks, they're very hard to detect and they're very hard to stop because we know we've caught some, but we don't know that we've caught all. So it's quite the problem for everybody.

What's interesting in this particular case is now that they're trying to recruit women and we've seen a huge effort to try and bring women into the ISIS fold, have them go overseas as jihadi wives. Now we're seeing them also being recruited as actual operatives, inside the United States.

This is an interesting trend but I think that law enforcement has a real challenge here. And I think Jonathan is exactly right, how do we get the information inside this very, very closed community.

WHITFIELD: Ok. So real challenges particularly as it pertains to women being targeted to help carry out -- to be followers. What are the challenges that you see, Jonathan, for law enforcement in particular to locate them, to suspect them, number one, and then to actually make an apprehension or find enough evidence in order to arrest?

GILLIAM: The biggest challenge for law enforcement is opening their mind, opening their mind and actually looking at people and saying, it's possible that they will be an attacker.

WHITFIELD: But then now we're going back to that slippery slope with the whole profiling. You're looking at someone and suspecting you potentially are up to no good. There has to be more than that.

GILLIAM: You're exactly right. So I'm saying going beyond profiling and as the Colonel would tell you there in the military when we plan our operation we look at all contingencies and we try to have a very robust plan before we go out.

[11:10:08] There, you know, there's a lot of kids walking around out here and there's a big draw to the CNN studio here. We had to start looking at anybody as a potential, even kids could be used and have been used overseas. It's just a matter of time before they take the tactics that are proven there, and bring them over here.

Kenya is a perfect example. They've started using malls, now universities, those are very soft targets, where there's little or no protection and now over here they've shifted from just simply having support from the females to actually having females that can carry out attacks. We've been seeing that for years.

WHITFIELD: And then Colonel, you know, al Shabaab is threatening more attacks on soft targets in Kenya and one has to believe just as you heard from Boko Haram threatening more in Nigeria and al Qaeda and ISIS threatening beyond the borders where we're typically seeing them. How does counterterrorism get ahead, anticipate especially since we see there's an evolution of attacks. We've seen that since 9/11. We've seen it even in "Charlie Hebdo" as a recent attack.

FRANCONA: Well, we're getting better at this. If you look at the background of the Kenya attack at the university, there was actually intelligence that almost predicted that. Maybe not the specific university, but we know that the soft targets are very lucrative and that al Shabaab in particular wants to go after them. They're trying to punish the Kenyans.

So the Kenyans have developed a pretty good capability, although as Jonathan will tell you, you only have to be right once to create that significant emotional event and that's what these attacks are aimed at, create fear, create dissension and cause people to question their own law enforcement capabilities.

So I think we're going to see more of this, and there's going to be a shift from these harder targets to these malls and university shopping centers. It's a huge problem, and I do not envy my law enforcement colleagues.

WHITFIELD: And so Jonathan, how do you see the road ahead particularly as it pertains to counterterrorism? What kind of predictions would you make in terms of potential targets?

GILLIAM: Well, we've been -- the experts in the field that actually study this stuff from an attacker's point of view we've been saying for well over ten years that soft targets are what are going to be hit now. They've shown that you can go to a university in Kenya and kill 150 people with guns. You don't need airplanes. It's just a simple fact that they use grenades, they use guns, in Boston they used crude bombs. We need to start looking at soft targets and forward thinking these things.

WHITFIELD: And when we say soft targets what do we mean? Because I think right now most people are convinced that anywhere is a soft target.

GILLIAM: Right. I tell you the biggest thing that people in general can look at is any place that people congregate and let their guard down, stadiums and arenas, at the end of a football game, there's going to be 50,000 people congregated in one area because they're trying to leave, the end of a marathon which we saw in Boston, religious institutions, malls, tall buildings where you go to work every day.

These are targets that are somewhat, you know, a good comparison to that is the attempt or whatever happened where the two people drove their vehicle into the NSA the other day. That's a hardened target. They didn't even get close to the building. One of them got killed, the other one got injured. That's a hard target so to do an effective attack --

WHITFIELD: Because there's reinforcement of security present.

GILLIAM: That's correct.

WHITFIELD: But any other place where you don't see reinforcement -- when you talk about the stadiums you're talking about as you leave the stadium, in the stadium you have protection.

GILLIAM: It's hard in the stadium but here's what you have to realize. Stadium on a Sunday night at 2:00 in the morning there's nobody there, there's no target there. There's critical times and critical areas in and around these soft targets and here's what everybody has to realize. If I want to steal from you, I have to figure out how to get in, take what I want and get out. If I want to attack you, all I have to do is figure out where you congregate and I just go there and attack you. It's much easier.

WHITFIELD: All right. Colonel, any last word or anything you want to add to that concept of how anyone is to go about their business on a day-to-day basis and try to protect themselves?

FRANCONA: Yes, I just want -- I just want to underscore as Jonathan said how difficult this is to defend against because you can't be everywhere all the time. You can't defend every target and as you shift your focus of what you're going to defend, then the attackers will simply move somewhere else. They will go where the defenses aren't.

So as he says, if you're targeting a stadium and they see police protecting that target, they'll go somewhere else. They'll go to the mall where everybody else is at the stadium so it's a very, very difficult problem set.

WHITFIELD: All right. Lt. Col. Rick Francona, Jonathan Gilliam -- thanks so much, gentlemen. I know we'll be talking again later on throughout the afternoon.

All right. Also coming up, it was supposed to be a fun-filled family vacation in the tropical paradise of St. John. Instead it turned into a nightmare when the entire family became very sick. The shocking cause of their illness.

[11:15:04] Then a wild brawl breaks out inside a casino and 300 people get involved -- crazy video. Much more of that straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A dream vacation in the U.S. Virgin islands turned into a nightmare for one Delaware family. Apparently over time, the family was found in their villa on St. John Island and the father was in a coma and the two boys and the mom were suffering from severe seizures.

EPA officials say a pesticide at their rented luxury villa may be to blame and the Justice Department is now launching a criminal investigation.

CNN's Sara Ganim joins me now with more on this from New York.

Sara -- so how is the family doing? How long had it been before anyone noticed they hadn't seen the family to find them in a coma or in seizures?

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Fred I just got off the phone with the family attorney and I have to tell you, unfortunately, the parents are doing a little bit better but unfortunately the boys are still in pretty bad shape. The attorney told me that they were quote, "in rough shape" and I want to just run through this for you.

The parents Teresa Devine and Steve Esmond, he says they're doing better but their teenage son Sean who is just 16 years old and their son Ryan, who is just 14 years old still in critical condition at a children's hospital. This whole family was air lifted back to mainland United States after falling ill after a fumigation of the villa beneath the one where they were staying and Sirenusa Resort on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

This was very scary, Fred, the older boy had blood in his lungs, his heart was failing. One of the boys has brain damage right now.

[11:20:01] The father he's now awake, but he can't talk, and the mother has been released to occupational therapy because she had a lesser degree of exposure, the attorney told me. But he also said this is a long recovery.

This methylbromide that they were believed to be exposed is like sarin gas. It attacks the nervous system, and the Environmental Protection Agency says traces of it were found in the family's villa, even though the fumigation was done below. Methylbromide is not allowed to be used indoors because of its acute toxicity. The EPA has a restriction on it.

The resort, which is owned by Sea Glass Vacations, told us that the pest control company Terminix is one that fumigated on March 18th. And that was smack dab right in the middle of the family's vacation which was nine days in the U.S. Virgin islands. The EPA clearly states, like is said that methylbromide is restricted because it's odorless and it causes injury to the lung and to the nervous systems and then could be fatal if it's inhaled.

The U.S. Department of Justice has now opened a criminal investigation. The EPA is monitoring the air and environmental samples at that resort and working with local agencies to figure out what happened. Terminix told CNN in an e-mail that it is quote, "looking into this matter internally, cooperating with authorities. They said "We're thinking about the family and we join the community in wishing them a speedy recovery".

A spokeswoman for the EPA told CNN it is actively working to determine how this happened, and will make sure steps are taken to prevent this from happening to others at a vacation apartment or elsewhere.

And just to wrap this up, Fred, the attorney told me, he said this is the most horrifying story in the world.

WHITFIELD: It really is. Oh my gosh, that is just heartbreaking. We of course are hoping the best for that family. Sara Ganim, keep us posted on where this investigation goes.

All right. Still ahead, investigators have left the site of the Germanwings plane crash, and guess what? They're not going to be returning. We'll explain why, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:25:45] WHITFIELD: All right. Checking our top stories.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a volunteer deputy inadvertently shot and killed a suspect in a drug and gun bust. Police say 73-year-old Robert Bates thought he was pulling out his taser during the violent arrest but instead grabbed his pistol and shot the suspect who later died at a local hospital. Bates has been put on administrative leave while officials investigate the case.

Attorneys for real estate icon and murder suspect Robert Durst are calling his court proceedings in Louisiana torture and they want it to stop. The 71-year-old's lawyers filed a motion yesterday in New Orleans where he faces weapons and drug charges. They asked a judge to find no probable cause and accused authorities of trumping up charges to delay his extradition to Los Angeles. Durst is also wanted for murder in a high profile cold case out of California.

And wow, this wild and violent brawl caught on video at one point. As many as 300 people were fighting at this casino in Queens. You can see chairs being thrown as well as punches. Police say three men have been arrested, and an officer was sent to the hospital because of injuries. Officials say they aren't sure how it all started in the first place.

And the last investigators have left the Germanwings crash site in the Alps, as the investigation moves into its next phase. There will be further analysis of the flight data recorder, which has now shown that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz purposely used the controls to speed up the plane's descent. Investigators are also taking a closer look at mobile phones recovered from the crash site. Let's bring in now CNN's Will Ripley, who has been following the investigation from Dusseldorf. Does this mean the ground investigation has been completely wrapped up, since investigators have left that area?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The investigation at the crash site is now wrapped up -- Fred. This is a significant development in this investigation, because it shows that the folks who have been on scene now for a week and a half have recovered everything that they need as far as key evidence to figure out exactly what caused this plane crash.

We've seen the pieces come together all week but they've recovered now the two black boxes, the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder. They recovered all of the human remains, 150 DNA profiles, they recovered some 470 personal effects including 40 mobile phones which have been heavily damaged. All of that has been taken to a separate location, it's being analyzed. And then there will be essentially guards watching over the plane debris and in the coming days, a private company will come, they will collect the rest of the aircraft debris, they will take that to a separate location as well where the investigation will continue and will continue for quite some time.

But for the moment, at the crash site, the work has been completed. They will clear it out, and then they'll move forward as they try to put together the pieces in this horrible story as we've seen with Andreas Lubitz deliberately flying this plane into the French Alps mountain range.

WHITFIELD: And then Will what about those many mobile phones, what kind of condition are they in and what might investigators hope they can actually retrieve from them?

RIPLEY: Yes, this is a really important aspect of any crash investigation because a lot of times people are conditioned when things start to happen they pull out their mobile phones and they start rolling, they start taking video or photos, and these phones were severely damaged because we know, Fred, the plane hit that mountain range at 420 miles an hour.

However, earlier this week, two different tabloids released what they believe is a transcript of some video that was taken and retrieved from a sim card. While the phones itself may be damaged, some of them may have sim cards, they may be able to pull video, pull files, photos, that sort of thing and any piece of evidence that they can find to figure out what it was like in the final moments they will be doing that and that will be analyzed in a lab in France -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Will Ripley, thank you so much from Dusseldorf, Germany.

All right. Chaos continues in Yemen as hundreds of al Qaeda

[11:30:00] prisoners freed by rebels now roam the country. Now, one of the most wanted terrorist leaders is settling into one of the country's presidential palaces. Take a look at these images right here -- more of it next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:32:26] WHITFIELD: Happening right now in the NEWSROOM, chaos continues in Yemen as hundreds of al Qaeda prisoners freed by rebels now roam the country. One of the most wanted terrorist leaders is settling into one of the country's presidential palaces as you see in the images.

Then with just days to go before the city council election in Ferguson, Missouri, we are getting a new look at racist e-mails sent by some Ferguson police officers including pictures of Ronald Reagan holding a baby monkey, more behind that story, plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get your car off of it!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The race to save a family trapped in the back of an RV as it goes up in flames. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

All right, hello again everyone. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The U.N. Security Council is holding an emergency meeting right now to discuss the growing crisis in Yemen.

Today the International Red Cross is calling for a 24-hour pause in the fighting to bring medical help into the country and all of this as new pictures appears to show an al Qaeda leader in one of the presidential palaces.

CNN cannot confirm the authenticity of the photos. Khaled Batarfi and more than 200 others were freed from prison by al Qaeda militants earlier in the week. The U.N. estimates at least 519 people have been killed since the Saudi-led airstrikes were conducted last month. They're trying to remove now Houthi rebels who are backed by Iran.

CNN's Nic Robertson is near the Yemen/Saudi Arabia border. So Nic, what is the latest on these efforts to restore some kind of control in the country of Yemen, if not even return the president to the country?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly Aden seems to be the place where most of the fighting is still going on. We understand the Houthis had made some gains over the past couple of days. They appear to be being pushed out.

Saudi Arabian special forces in a non-combat role are there trying to organize and help the resistance. They've also been involved in the parachuting in of communications equipment and weapons. The bombings continue particularly over on one of the Houthi strongholds in the north.

What we are hearing from the international community from the Red Cross is that they are calling for a pause in the bombing campaign. They say there's a humanitarian need for that. They say they've got plane loads of medical equipment that they're not able to fly into the country right now, 48 tons of equipment, they say, which is enough to take care of about 2,000 to 3,000 people for several days.

[11:35:13] Their concern is that medical facilities in the country are running out of supplies, running out of equipment to treat the wounded, 519 people according to the U.N. dead, and aid in that town that is under the most extreme fighting.

The Red Cross says that the people there need a pause in the fighting if only to get out of their houses to get food so this is a very big concern and they're adding that on top of concern of Khaled Batarfi from al Qaeda.

If that is him sitting there in the presidential compound, it's certainly an understatement if you will for al Qaeda's aspirations. They will be tried right now to use the chaos to grow that territory, take control of provinces and towns so that they can expand their influence in the country and beyond its borders -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And so Nic, while 500 people have died during what's being attributed to the Saudi air strikes, what more militarily, whether it be Saudi Arabia or some of its multinational allies, what is being done militarily to try to restore some sort of stability in that region, if not try to weed out some of these Houthi rebels?

ROBERTSON: Well, the UAE flew its first missions bombing missions into the country overnight last night. The Egyptian Navy has vessels just off the port of Aden and we're also learning that there's a very strategic area right in the sea sort of off the tip of Aden in the south of Yemen at the moment.

There's an island there, and according to Saudi sources, Houthis have been trying to put weapon systems on that island, backed by Iran. What is important about this island is, that island sits at the narrowest point in the sort of, if it you will, at the end of the Persian Gulf where all or so much of the world's oil supplies pass by boat.

A choke point, if you will, on that waterway and we're told the Saudi Special Forces have gone in there as well to take care of that Houthi threat -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Nic Robertson, thank you so much along the border with Yemen and Saudi Arabia, appreciate it.

All right, meantime, the White House is going on the offensive today and trying to sell the nuclear deal with Iran to members of Congress. Everyone from President Obama to officials at the State Department are calling lawmakers this weekend, trying to make their case as to why this current deal, the framework for this deal may be the best option for preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

I'm joined now by Alireza Nader, Iran analyst at Rand Corp and the author of "Iran After The Bomb." Good to see you, and in Boston Jim Walsh, is an international security analyst, good to see you as well, and Christopher Dickey is the Middle East editor at "The Daily Beast" and he joins us from Paris. Good to see you as well.

All right, so all of you then the president says this is, I'm quoting him now "our best option by far." Ali, is it?

ALIREZA NADER, IRAN ANALYST, RAND CORP: I agree. I think that we're getting a good deal. If you look at the plan of action, the framework, the fact sheet that was released, Iran is making a lot of concessions. It's giving up a lot of its centrifuges. It's accepting very intrusive inspections.

And I think right now things look good for the United States and the P5 plus 1, of course. This is not the final deal. We have three months to go. There are some outstanding issues between the two sides that have to be resolved so there may be some obstacles, but I think this is a breakthrough.

WHITFIELD: Christopher, what could happen in those two to three months to either undermine or strengthen this framework?

CHRISTOPHER DICKEY, FOREIGN EDITOR, "THE DAILY BEAST": Well, a lot of things. I mean, first of all, you have to listen to what people were saying. They said again and again all the parties to this agreement kept saying that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.

So this is really not signed, sealed and delivered. This is an idea of what might be signed, sealed and delivered three months from now, if it then. My guess is the negotiations will once again be extended at that point, because there are a lot of issues that are absolutely critical.

On the Iranian side, there has been an attempt to say the deal is done, sanctions will be lifted and then sort of in parentheses in fine print, "When we've met our obligations under the agreement."

Well, meeting those obligations means those kinds of intrusive inspections, giving up a lot of the enrichment facilities. It means almost shutting down the hardened facility that has been a key to the program in many ways.

All those things are very problematic and already all the hardliners in Iran are attacking those points of the supposed agreement. Of course, in the United States, the U.S. Senate, and the U.S. Congress is incredibly skeptical.

Nobody wants to be accused of driving the United States into another war, but it's very easy for people like Senator Cotton to stand up and say this is a bad agreement and we don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons, as if they then have a solution to that.

[11:40:13] Their solution will be to try to block anything put forward by the Obama administration without offering any alternatives.

WHITFIELD: So Jim, I know you were nodding on some of that, in your view, is this promising or is it problematic, one of the words that Christopher used there? If we could show that screen again because these are some of the things that are in that deal, and we heard the president, Obama really reiterate this.

We are talking about the reduction of the centrifuges by two-thirds to 6,000, reducing these enriched uranium stockpile. Also on the list Iran would not build a new water reactor. The president said this is the best defense. Are you in agreement, promising or problematic?

JIM WALSH, INTERNATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I agree there's still a lot of work to be done, but I am very encouraged by this, Fredricka. I judge it two ways. I look at the provisions of the agreement itself and compare it to other things that we have knowledge and success with.

Looking at it, itself, I think it's unprecedented. It would represent a commitment by a country to a level of inspection that no country has really done before. I think it's unprecedented in negotiated agreements and there are lots of parts here.

The water reactors you suggested they'll scratch what they have and start over, they'll ship out their spent fuel. There will be more inspectors on the ground. We've already doubled the number of inspectors on the ground.

Now that number will increase and their mandate will be expanded and when I think you compare this agreement -- now we ain't there yet, but if we get --

WHITFIELD: And in your view, what does it take to get there?

WALSH: Yes, well, I think the political advantage has gone to the president because he had something that is more detailed and more robust than people expected, and he says this is, you know, the best thing we've ever had in terms of our own proliferation agreement so it will be hard I think for Democratic senators to walk away from Democratic House members.

So there may be a bill in Congress that causes problems, but I don't know if those sorts of bills will be able to sustain a veto, and I think that's what would happen.

WHITFIELD: OK, and then Ali, as it pertains to Congress really it's the issue of sanctions, less about all the other details in the framework, but how could that potentially be a road block for that framework, in your view?

NADER: And that's I think one of the unclear elements of the deal, sanctions relief. Iran is very concerned that it should get sanctions relief upfront. Iranian officials have stated that's the case but that's in reality is going to take a while for Iran to get sanctions relief.

It has to demonstrate compliance with the agreement, and that might take a few months, but I think Iranian officials have been supportive of this deal, conservatives in Iran have come out and supported it, and the supreme leader has so far been quiet.

But before in the past, he has said that Iranian negotiators are heroes, they're doing important work for Iran, so I don't think there's actually that much hard line opposition in Iran to this deal. Some people have made noises, but Iranian officials are spinning this as a victory and let them. They have to basically satisfy their own constituents.

WHITFIELD: All right, Alireza Nader, Jim Walsh, Christopher Dickey, thanks to all you, Gentlemen, appreciate it.

All right, also still to come, the racially charged e-mails that got two Ferguson police supervisors and a county clerk fired. Those e- mails now revealed. Offensive jokes and pictures, one even showing former President Ronald Reagan feeding a baby monkey with the caption as it relates to President Obama. We'll talk about that next.

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[11:47:27]

WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. We're now getting our first look at the racist e-mails exchanged between Ferguson, Missouri, city employees. Those e-mails were cited in a federal civil rights inquiry last month. They were released. CNN's ryan young takes a look at the e-mails.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We get our first chance to look at some of these e-mails for the first time. We're not going to show you all of the e-mails, but we want to show you a few of them.

Speaking with the folks in Ferguson, they felt like that the police department and some city officials were racist. Now you get the see the e-mails they were trading back and forth.

This first photo shows Ronald Reagan holding a monkey and the caption says, "Rare photo of Ronald Reagan babysitting Barack Obama at early 1962." You can feel the offensive nature by just looking at the photo.

It moves on to show more photos. They even target the first lady. You can that a group women we've blurred the top of the photo and then says this was a high school reunion for the first lady. These emails cost three people inside the Ferguson city government to step down.

The last e-mail compares dogs to welfare recipients. I'll read part of this e-mail and said "I wanted to get welfare for my dog and they're mixed in color, unemployed and lazy, and can't speak English."

And it eventually goes on to say that he was able to get welfare for his dogs. When you look at the three e-mails and talk to people in Ferguson, you obviously understand another debate will be had after some of these e-mails came to light -- Christie and Victor.

WHITFIELD: All right, Ryan, thank you so much.

All right, still to come, a roadside inferno, an RV engulfed in flames.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flames out of the back window.

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WHITFIELD: All right, you'll hear from a Good Samaritan, who ignored the flames to save the people inside.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:52:55]

WHITFIELD: All right, the NCAA men's basketball tournament kicks off today in Indianapolis. Four teams, thousands of fans, and college basketball's biggest weekend.

But this week, the big story out of Indiana was not basketball. The national spotlight was focused on backlash over the controversial Religious Freedom Law. Critics called it a license to discriminate against the LGBT community.

CNN's Andy Scholes is live for us in Indianapolis. How much has the controversy distracted or impacted tonight's games?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: Well, you know what, Fred, it almost overshadowed this whole final four weekend here in Indianapolis. It was a big distraction throughout the week. There were protests and what not.

It was -- they were worried this would bleed over into the final four festivities. NCAA's headquarters is down the street from downtown Indianapolis and the NCAA, they put a lot of pressure on the Indiana legislators to get this law changed in time for the weekend and they were successful.

The fix got in and we could finally start concentrating on the exciting games we've got here tonight. And the big story is going to be can Kentucky, can they complete the journey and have a perfect, undefeated season, two games away from being 40-0.

And this Wildcats roster is just stock full of NBA first-round picks, an amazing team. And these Wildcats are well aware of how special it would be to be the first team since the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers to go undefeated.

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ANDREW HARRISON, KENTUCKY GUARD: It would be just a blessing, can't even put it in words. At the same time, it would be a tough two games to win. But if we do complete that goal, I wouldn't even know how to put it in words.

KARL ANTHONY TOWNS, KENTUCKY CENTER: Winning the national championship, that's the biggest thing and that's our goal. That's been our goal since the beginning of the year. He wanted to win it all, and we're so close to it. We just need to capitalize on opportunities and play the game we know how to play.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: The other match-up, Duke, is going to be taking on Michigan State. And on the call for TBS tonight you can former Blue Devil great, Grant Hill. I caught up with Grant earlier this week and I asked him, what's tougher, playing in the final four or being on the broadcast for the final four. Take a listen.

[11:55:07]

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GRANT HILL, TBS BASKETBALL ANALYST: Sitting over there with Jim Nance and Bill Naser, that's fun. You do have to be prepared. You've got to do your prep work. And make sure that you know these teams and we feel pretty good about that. But definitely playing is more hard -- more difficult and more challenging than broadcasting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Turner Sports is doing something really cool tonight for the broadcast. The national broadcast on TBS starting at 6:00 Eastern and if you're a super fan, we've got you covered with the team stream presented by "Bleacher Report."

For Duke-Michigan State, the Spartans home announcers on TruTV while the Blue Devils are going to be on TNT and in the night cap with Wisconsin taking on Kentucky, that's on TruTV and Kentucky will be airing on our sister station, Tnt. So Fredricka, if you're actually a big-time fan of one of these teams --

WHITFIELD: You got options.

SCHOLES: -- different channels, turner channels -- you can listen to your home broadcast and really get the homer feel for these games tonight.

WHITFIELD: That's fun. It puts you there. That's what everybody wants. You can't get a ticket to be there, this is the next best thing. All right, Andy Scholes, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

And, of course, later on today, don't miss our CNN "Bleacher Report" special, "All Access At The Final Four," at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time with CNN's Rachel Nichols, Coach Kaye and Steven Smith. All right, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:59:33]

WHITFIELD: Happening right now in the NEWSROOM, incredible stories of survival emerge from the students who survived a bloody college campus assault in Africa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the gunman came in, she hid on top of a cupboard.

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WHITFIELD: One woman actually drank lotion to stay alive and another covered herself in her friend's blood.

And investigators are recovering dozens of cell phones from the Germanwings crash site in the alps, and we're learning stunning new details about the actions of that co-pilot in the days leading up to the fatal crash.

Plus --

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get your car off of it!

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