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Venezuelan Man Finished Boston Marathon after 20 hours; ISIS Provides Stability in a Chaotic Part of the World; Almost 450 Migrants Rescued Off Italian Coast; DEA Administrator Stepping Down; Bill Withers in and Roll Hall of Fame; Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired April 21, 2015 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: I love that you showed that to join me today. And I really appreciate it with such an incredibly compelling story.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.
BALDWIN: Luis Vasquez, thank you very much.
And let's stop talking about the killer here because I want to talk about who Luis in the wee hours this morning. And this amazing feat of determination, the final athlete to cross the finish line at the Boston marathon. Keep in mind, they started yesterday morning. He crossed the finish line at 5:00 today, a.m., amid cheers from friends and supporters.
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BALDWIN: Wow. This Venezuelan man who suffers from muscular dystrophy defied all the odds, finished the race 20 hours after he started it. Much of the time he walked in the dark. Nasty conditions, pouring rain. But he gave the message of hope and finally stepped across the finish line.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The rain, the distance, the cold. I mean, everything today was overcome because when we are a team, the human activity, the human will appears every time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: This afternoon, the Boston mayor, Marty Walsh, presenting him with a medal at city hall. Congratulations.
Coming up next, what is it like to live under ISIS? We've heard of the brutality, that's not new. But there is also this government with courts and schools and hospitals. We will take you inside ISIS, the state, next.
Plus, images of hundreds of refugees crammed on to a boat desperate to escape from Syria and get to Europe. They are paying thousands just to get away. We will share their stories coming up.
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[15:36:17] BALDWIN: When you think of ISIS, you think of murderers focused on beheadings and vigilante justice. But the terror group is also winning allies by providing stability in a chaotic part of the world. Its health workers deliver measles vaccinations, it even runs a university. And it is the ordinary work of government.
But in this case done by terrorists, CNN's Atika Schubert has a look at the bureaucracy that is ISIS.
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ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): ISIS sees itself as a state, a government. Its ambition, to be an Islamic caliphate that claims sovereignty of the world's Muslim community.
So how does ISIS govern the territory it controls? Who picks up the garbage, runs schools, and patrols the traffic? This is an area larger than many countries. Is has divided a territory into Wilayat or provinces. Each of which has a governor. Several new provinces have been created, virtually erasing the Syria/Iraq border.
At the top of the government is Abu Bark al-Baghdadi, the self- declared caliph of ISIS. He has sort of cabinet, the Shura council, and beneath that about ten ministries or councils that maintain everything from health, education and religious rulings to transportation and even environmental policy.
Despite its medieval send of justice, in many ways ISIS runs a surprisingly modern bureaucracy according to terror analysts. The health department has fully operational hospitals complete with maternity wards. Babies are delivered daily, registered and issued with official ISIS birth certificates.
It also runs a vaccination campaign with health workers on motorcycles delivering polio vaccine drops and shots to protect against measles, mumps, and rubella. It also has a court system that runs its strict interpretation of Sharia or Islamic law. Theft, for example is, publishable by chopping off a hand. But it also handles everything from violations to rental disputes.
The education department runs several schools and even the university in Mosul. Girls receive an education, though segregated from boys. And the curriculum is severely limited -- no art, music, or theater, no physical education or philosophy. Just reading, writing, math, and of course religion, according to ISIS. Any teacher hoping to work must undergo ISIS official Russia Sharia training.
In many places, ISIS is simply taken over the civil infrastructure already in place, particularly in war-torn Syria. ISIS hopes to prove it is bringing order to chaos, however violent its rule.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Atika Shubert, thank you. We have also been reporting on this micro crisis that has thousands
fleeing ISIS as well as the civil war in Syria. While new video just in to CNN showing people sleeping on top of one another here. Look at this. In what one survivor calls a huge garbage bin on a cramped boat packed with migrants. Hundred of them were trying to reach Italy from Syria. (INAUDIBLE) TV obtained the footage exclusively that you are looking at.
And just today, almost 450 migrants are being rescued today off the Italian coast. Nearly 60 children were among those picked up by these two Italian navy ships. Meanwhile, the captain and crew member of a migrant boat that capsized at sea Saturday are now under arrest. More than 800 people were on board, but only few were rescued. The others are feared dead.
Let's go to Italy in to Karl Penhaul in Catania.
And tell me, Karl, about those who were rescued today.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, as you can see, this is a migrant crisis that just escalates almost hour by hour, 446 migrants plucked from that boat there off the southeast of Italy, off the coast of Calabria. They're now aboard two Italian Navy vessels, we understand, heading here to Sicily, to the port of Valgusta.
Now also, that added to yesterday, a 638 migrants plucked off boats set adrift from Libya yesterday. And they were pulled off at least six different vessels. So as to say, hour by hour, more and more people being rescued, Brooke.
[15:40:29] BALDWIN: Karl, we were just showing the pictures of these people sleeping on top of one another. I mean, you've been hearing stories of some of these survivors. What is life like on these ships?
PENHAUL: Yes, certainly as you can see from those pictures, the aim of the people smugglers, the human traffickers cramming these people on to rust bucket boats is to maximum profits. And make no doubt about it, this is a multimillion dollar industry that these traffickers are going. Welfare of the migrants is the least of their concern. They do not really care if they get to their destination. They care about taking cash and shoving boats off into the Mediterranean, talking to some migrants who did survive and who are in Sicily now.
Some horrendous stories. One Syrian man who's been in Sicily now for ten days said that as he sat aboard his boat in Libya, he'd already paid $1,800 for the trip. And he said just as he sat there, the people, smugglers gang that he dealt with, let one of the armed militias on board. So guys in uniform, masks, and assault rifles burst on board that boat, robbed all the migrants of their possessions, even pulled the gold earrings out of the ears of the women who were on board that boat.
Talked to another guy, as well and they are train guys, just 18-years- old. He said that he'd come from Sudan aboard two buses, along with a group of another group of migrants. And he said at one point south of Tripoli, two buses were surrounded by ISIS gunmen. They pulled the people off the bus, sorted Christians from Muslims and beheaded 20 Christians. He survived because he ran away. But he showed me a scar from a bullet. Horrendous stories, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Horrendous, indeed. Karl Penhaul in Italy. Thank you, Karl.
Just ahead, a scandal over sex parties with drug enforcement administration agents could be forcing the agency's chief to step down. We have that for you coming up.
Also, just stunning dash cam video shows a car here consumed by flames, the driver was trap inside. We had the kind of a rescue for you next.
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[15:47:00] BALDWIN: All right, got news out of Ferguson, Missouri. These are pictures just from moments ago here as we're covering this standoff in progress. Police have responded to this home here in the Ferguson area after a suspect reportedly shot his brother in the head. That individual has been taken to a hospital. But this man has apparently still barricaded himself inside of his home. And so, a couple of schools there in the area are on lockdown. You see SWAT, local law enforcement responding to the situation ongoing in Ferguson. We'll keep a close eye on it. And as soon as anything develops, we'll bring it to you here on CNN.
For now let's move on. And let me tell you about these two police officers in Texas. They pulled up to this burning car and did what so many of us could never, ever do. Ran toward the flames, reached inside, save the driver's life. The dash cam video is stunning.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's still breathing!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, man!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fire extinguisher.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got fire extinguisher.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on, man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got his arm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Come on, man.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, man.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on, man. Stay with us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hang on, man.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stay with us!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on. Pull back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, dude. Stay with us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come one, man.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on. It is all right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're all right!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stay with us!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're all right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on, you're all right! You're all right, man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, bud, you're all right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on! Hey, bud. Relax, man. Relax, bud, OK? You're going to be all right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on, man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to be all right, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're all right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to be all right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stay with us, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to be OK, all right, man? You're going to be OK. Ambulance is coming, all right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: You hear the police officers? Stay with us, an ambulance is coming. The ambulance did come. It showed up moment later. The family of the driver that they pulled out tells our affiliate, KTVT, he is currently in critical condition. We are learning this afternoon DEA, the administrator of the DEA, will
soon be stepping down. That's according to officials familiar with the situation. This is in light of troubling reports of DEA agents participating in rowdy drug-fueled sex parties with Colombian prostitutes, all paid for by drug cartel kingpins.
Justice correspondent Evan Perez has more now.
And was this all because of the light punishments for those DEA agents?
EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: You couldn't make it up, right Brooke?
No, this was like the straw that broke the camel's back here for Michelle Leonhart at the DEA. She had lost favor inside the administration, but certainly that hearing that you just showed clips from at the house oversight committee hearing in which she had a terrible performance in trying to answer questions as to why some of these DEA agents who were accused of this wrongdoing, of the misbehavior were basically were basically just suspended for 14 days at the most and now they're still on the job. And some of them are still have their top secret security clearance. And she couldn't really answer those questions, Brooke.
And so, that's what really did it, when she lost the confidence of Congress. And the administration already was not really liking her because of the way she's handled -- the way the U.S. -- the federal government has handled the legalization of marijuana on the state level. So there's plenty of issues with Michelle Leonhart. That was just the last one.
[15:50:44] BALDWIN: You are right, it does rave like a screenplay. Tell me quickly about Loretta Lynch and now how that this human trafficking vote has just happened. Will that be paving the way for her getting her way through?
PEREZ: Yes, absolutely. We expect that she probably will get a vote on Thursday. So we might have a new attorney general certainly by the end of the week, maybe early next week. Eric Holder, he'll finally be free.
BALDWIN: All right, free. Evan Perez, thank you. Appreciate it in Washington.
Coming up next, the man behind "lean on me" and "it aint no sunshine" taking his well earned spot into the newly adapted into the rock and roll hall of fame. This just happened over the weekend. Hear what Bill Withers says about that incredible night and why he rarely performs live.
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[15:33:24] BALDWIN: Yes, please. The smooth voice of Mr. Bill Withers, R&B legend and one of the newest members of the rock and roll hall of fame. Stevie Wonder took the stage Saturday in Cleveland to induct the man known not only for his voice for his legendary song writing skills. Stevie Wonder actually sat next to Bill Withers and performed its classic "aint to sunshine." Withers later backed up R&B star John Legend with his song "use me." A couple others in this year's clash. He had Ringo Starr, Green Day, Joan Jet and the Black Hearts.
And Bill Withers is back with me. You know, we chatted right when you found out you were getting this amazing honor. And you told me it was a huge surprise. It is such an honor for me to have you, Bill Withers back on.
BILL WITHERS, SINGER: Thank you, sweetie. Brooke, I feel like we're kind of old buddies now, you know?
BALDWIN: I feel -- you know, I would like to be considered your old buddy definitely. I think I owe your wife a huge thank you for getting you on the TV with me. But what was the highlight? Was it Stevie Wonder inducting you, was it a little bit of getting to tell the record industry how you feel? Was it Yoko Ono's hat? What was it?
WITHERS: NO, I didn't -- I had no -- you know what, it was a few days of dejavu and I love yous. So who could have a problem with that? Its fantasy world, you know.
BALDWIN: Who in this fantasy world, Bill Withers, who was your favorite person to get to bump in to backstage?
WITHERS: Well, it was kind of fun, you know. I got to hang out with the kids like Beck. Beck was cool, you know, Miley Cyrus, I was teasing, you know. So we got to play with each other, you know. And of course Ringo and Stevie and all of the older guys. But it was just as fun with me and the kids, you know.
BALDWIN: The kids.
WITHERS: You get to mess with them, you know. It's like antagonizing your nephews or something, you know.
BALDWIN: I'm sure they were tickled by that. And you know, the last time we spoke, you couldn't remember the last decade you had performed. So how did it feel to get up there and sing?
WITHERS: Well, it felt like I knew I wasn't 35 anymore, I'll tell you that, Brooke. You know --
BALDWIN: How do you mean?
WITHERS: Your breath is different. Well, it is just, you know, I wasn't really -- you know, nobody knew what I was saying. I was able to hide. I could have been singing another song. They wouldn't have known the difference. So it was fun. The whole thing. And, you know, John Legend has always been very nice to me, and Stevie. So when somebody is being nice to you, like I said, it's just dejavus and I love yous, you know.
BALDWIN: How did your family feel about seeing you over the weekend being inducted. I mean, will we -- you joked about watching a lot of Judge Judy. Is there more judge Judy in your future or will we get to see you on stage, sir?
WITHERS: Yes. The thing about Judge Judy is a little cranky, you know. So when you're (INAUDIBLE), you look for kindred spirits, you know. It is just kind of fun. But talking about how my family felt, I'm sure my kids were sitting there thinking, oh God, don't embarrass me.
BALDWIN: Bill, thank you so much. Rock on.
WITHERS: And thank you for being nice to me. I always look forward to this -- in case you don't know, this is a series called babbling with Brooke. And we do this by annually.
BALDWIN: I like it. It is a new segment. Bill, thank you.
WITHERS: OK. Take care.
BALDWIN: I mean, seriously, that happened. The 2015 Rock and Roll hall of fame production will air May 30th on HBO.
I'm Brook Baldwin. Thanks for watching. "The LEAD" starts now.
