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Atlanta Plane Crash; Military Base Security; Baltimore Police Investigation. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired May 08, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Wolf, thank you so much. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN.

And we've got some breaking news for you here at the top of the hour. The growing threat of jihadists inside the United States leading to something huge today, the security threat levels at all United States military bases in this country have just been raised.

I want to show you something. This is a chart here. And you can see all the different colors and how this is all significant. The threat level now today jumped from Alpha, which means there is a possible threat of terrorist activity, to Bravo, which means that threat is now increased and predictable.

Scratch that. We're going to actually - we have some other breaking news here. This small plane has gone down on this massive highway in Atlanta. Four people dead. Let's listen to this news conference.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On behalf of the NTSB, I would like to give my condolences to the family and the friends of the occupants of the aircraft.

To move on further, we had a PA-32 that departed Peach Tree DeKalb Airport. And, for some unknown reason, the pilot crashed here on Highway 285. At this time, we don't know the cause of the accident, and we won't be speculating on what might have happened.

I'll be here for another few hours. We'll be documenting the scene and collecting evidence. After that, the aircraft will be moved to another site in Griffin, where we will further the investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where, sir?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Griffin, Georgia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, (INAUDIBLE) -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) the pilot?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to head over to Peach Tree DeKalb. I haven't had the opportunity to go over to the tower yet to see if there was any radio calls made by the pilot before he crashed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From what - from what I understand, there was four passengers on board and they all perished.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know anything about the pilot?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not (INAUDIBLE) on the records yet. And as soon as we get that, I'll be further able to answer that question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not going to - it's not going to be difficult. Of course the airplane is somewhat complex, but it shouldn't be a problem. Once it gets to Griffin, we'll be able to reconstruct it and figure out what happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are the key factors you look for?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, at this time, I'm going to look at everything. It's going to be a laundry list of items. I'm going to look at the maintenance that was last done on the aircraft. From what we understand, the airplane just fueled at - over at Peach Tree DeKalb. And also we're going to look at the pilot's experience. Right now I can't say what I'm going to look at specifically, because I don't know. So once we start getting further into the investigation, I'll be able to figure that out, what I need to pinpoint.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) the aircraft itself (INAUDIBLE)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to reconstruct the whole aircraft and start from the beginning and just move my way through.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) what's left, you can actually do that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I can.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not - at this point, I mean, I'll take everything into account, but I can't say factually - I haven't spoken to anybody that might have said that or heard that. And until I take a look at the aircraft, I'm not going to speculate on that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it's a general aviation aircraft. I mean the unit that's on it is an ELT, which is emergency locator transmitter, but that wasn't - that wasn't needed in this particular accident because we know where it is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So there's nothing on there that will tell you anything that was wrong with the aircraft (INAUDIBLE)? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll be - well, there's a lot of information there

that would tell me what happened with the aircraft, but until I start looking at it, I'm not going to be able to tell right now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How long will it take you (INAUDIBLE)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That would probably take me probably about two weeks to reconstruct. And then after that, the report will probably come out within six months to a year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two weeks just to reconstruct it, then you may or may not have answers (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, that's speculation. I - so (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Generally speaking, what - are there specific things you will be looking for as the plane (INAUDIBLE) -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, as the - as the investigation progresses, there will be specific things I'm looking for. At this time, I'm not looking for anything specific. I'm looking at everything. All right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How much longer does the highway need to be closed for your work?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, once the aircraft is removed, they should be able to start opening up the highway again. So right now it's being moved. So as soon as it's done, we can start opening up the highway again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're waiting for NTSB to conduct their on-scene investigation, and we're in the process of doing the cleanup. The moment we can - we already started coordinating with the Georgia State Patrol and all the other agencies so we can start cycling the traffic safely so we don't have that surge of traffic all of a sudden hitting an open road. So it's a very methodical system of how we re-establish the traffic back on to our freeways.

[14:05:05] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is it going to be opened by rush hour?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We believe so. We - NTSB is working very hard and so are the other - all the other folks here are working - doing our best to try to get this going as quickly as possible, as safely as possible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) the airport down in Griffin?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So that's it. All right. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We - we don't have any of that information. We - right now we're - we're following the lead of NTSB and working with them. OK. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is everybody good?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do we know -

BALDWIN: All right, so those were just some updates that we got from NTSB, obviously they are on the -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They will do the notifications. So we don't have that information.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are there indications that they're not local?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I haven't - I do not have that information.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody good.

BALDWIN: OK. We just wanted to make sure we were getting the tail bit of that.

So, again, these are pictures. This was a single-engine plane, four passengers on board, or four - I should say four individuals on board who died after this plane took off just outside of the Atlanta, Georgia, area right around 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time this morning, crashed into the median there of a massive, massive interstate here here in the Atlanta area. If you're familiar, this is basically like the beltway of Atlanta. And what you're looking at now, unreal flames and smoke here. This is video we've just gotten in from a driver on I- 285 in the Atlanta area.

Martin Savidge, I think I have you here and you've got a little bit more on what we're looking at. Unreal. And also incredible, you have these four individuals who died, but given the fact that this is such a massive highway in the Atlanta area, I understand no one was even injured driving this morning, correct?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Correct. Yes. And that's what firefighters say is miraculous out of this horrific tragedy.

BALDWIN: Thank goodness.

SAVIDGE: Although, it should be pointed out, that it was witnessed literally by hundreds of people because it was the tail end of rush hour. And you've already mentioned, this is one of the most heavily traveled highways in the Atlanta metro area. So a horrific scene that they witnessed, but thank goodness nobody else on the ground was injured, despite the fact that a number of vehicles were damaged by flying pieces of the aircraft.

They've already opened up the westbound lane of I-285, which is welcome news. But it's Friday, which means the afternoon rush is probably already underway. It starts right after lunch in Atlanta. So this is having a tremendous impact. But, of course, the greatest impact is the tragedy to the families of the victims who were on board.

All we know right now is that there were three males and one female, as well as a family pet. And they are in the process of notifying families at this time. The bodies were removed some time ago. And you can see they're collecting parts of the aircraft. And they're going to be key, especially the engine probably, because it may give us some insight as to how this unfolded. And it appeared to have unfolded very quickly.

Peach Tree DeKalb Airport, where they took off from, north of Atlanta, is just about a mile away, if that. So whatever happened, happened very fast. They came down on the highway and it appears, according to witnesses, they hit the center median. And as you already saw from that home video, I believe, just incredible fire. There would have been a lot of fuel for the flight. And there was heavy black smoke and there was not a whole lot that remained of the airframe after that.

BANFIELD: Yes, we see the flames. We heard the official just pointing out, they had just refuled. According to Flight Aware, the plane was headed to Oxford, Mississippi. That's the home of Ole Miss. And we just heard the official, Martin, again, saying they will reconstruct this plane because the question is, why, why did this happen? He was saying, what, it could take two weeks to do that.

SAVIDGE: Right. You know, a small general aviation aircraft like this does not have a black box, so it's going to be the wreckage itself, maybe some radio communications. And we've heard there were some that were made very quickly that could indicate what the problem was. But as far as ascertaining exactly what went wrong, it's going to be the wreckage itself.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: All right. Martin Savidge in Atlanta. Martin, thank you so much.

ISIS activity. Coming up next here, officers, with regard to new threats, threat levels raised in U.S. military installations across the country based upon what the director of the FBI has just warned. We have that.

Also, officers in San Francisco accused of sending racist and homophobic text messages and now thousands of cases are being review.

Plus, word that many deputies actually bet on these fights between inmates. Those shocking details, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:13:42] BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And let me get back to the other breaking news we're following here, the growing threat of jihadists right here inside the United States. It is leading to something huge. Security threat levels at all United States military bases in this country have just been raised.

Let's go back to the chart. Today, the threat level jumped from Alpha, which states there is a possible threat of terrorist activity, to Bravo, which means that the threat is now increased and predictable. An official telling CNN that the four-star admiral who oversees all bases in the continental United States has now signed an order raising the, quote, "force protection level."

Perspective, the threat has not been at Bravo since the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. And all of this is happening here as the FBI is warning that ISIS is recruiting hundreds, perhaps thousands of Americans online.

Joining me now, Phil Mudd, CNN counterterrorism and former CIA counterterrorism official. And I've got Rosa Flores with me, who's at Ft. Dix military base there in New Jersey.

So, Rosa, let me just go to you first since we're talking about these threat level changes. What does that mean as far as security starting right now at bases like Ft. Dix?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, we have to start with the end goal here, Brooke, and that is to protect U.S. military personnel, U.S. military assets or resources, you name it. That's why we're here.

[14:15:03] So I want to show you the lay of the land here. So this is Ft. Dix, like you mentioned, and this is their entrance gate. You can see that cars drive in, they drive out. Now, we're not going to be able to show you close-ups of anything that's happening close to that gate for obvious reasons, for security reasons. But here's what we do know.

We do know that the checks are going to be random. There are going to be, you know, canines, possibly. They're going to be checking photo I.D.s. They're going to be doing things in a random manner. Why? Because that's how military personnel prepare for something that's a random threat.

Now, a few things. Why? Why is this happening? Why are we in this Bravo state of alert? And that's because military personnel, the security is telling us that there are possibly thousands of people in the United States who are following ISIS, sympathizers with ISIS possibly in the United States and so that's what is necessary at this point in time.

Now, why is Ft. Dix resonating? Well, Brooke, as you know, back in 2007, six men had a plot to attack this particular military installation, and it was busted by authorities. Now those men, of course, some of them still in jail, and that's why it's important.

But, again, we can't forget the end game here, Brooke, and that is, it's to protect those U.S. military personnel, U.S. resources, to make sure that the U.S. is ready for any particular threat, for any random threat.

Brooke. BALDWIN: All right, Rosa, thank you.

Phil Mudd, let me just tap into your intel mind here. I mean we - you know, in hearing from this defense official telling CNN, let me quote this official, there is no specific threat but the water temperature has gone up a couple of degrees. So can you translate that for me? I mean what would - what would prompt a raise in force protection level here?

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Sure. I mean ideally in the intelligence world you have specificity, that is where is it going to happen, when is it going to happen, who are the plotters, and what kind of device are you going to use? The reason you don't see that often is if you have that kind of specificity, you usually know enough to disrupt the plot. In other words, you can arrest or kill the people who are involved in plotting.

A lot of times what you see in this business, though, is, information that has an informant, for example, saying, hey, I've been talking to ISIS guys and they're saying one of the things they're thinking about is putting out more information to attack American military installations. Very general. It gives you no specificity. But your option is to say, we don't have enough specificity to stop this, but we want to put it out in the event that people in charge of military installations want to do more, in this case stepping up the security level to Bravo to protect their facilities. This happens all - it used to happen more often right after 9/11. Less frequently now.

BALDWIN: But why military, Phil?

MUDD: This is fascinating. Back when we faced the initial stages of al Qaeda, they wanted to disrupt the entirety of the American economy, political system, and military. That is the Twin Towers in New York. That's an economic target. The Pentagon, that's a military target. The political system in America, that Pennsylvania plane in Shanksville was going toward the U.S. Congress.

There's been a change in the way people like ISIS think about targets. What they're saying is, there are people in the United States who are responsible for projecting American power overseas. Because they're projecting American power overseas and killing us in places like Iraq and Yemen, they are legitimate targets. They are appropriate to hit. That's not a civilian in a restaurant. That's not a civilian in an economic zone. That is a police officer and a military officer. It's a very simple way to persuade a kid who's 17 years old that if you want to go attack a target, it's not an innocent civilian, it's the people responsible for killing Muslims in places like Iraq.

BALDWIN: Back to your point about specificity -

MUDD: Yes.

BALDWIN: And what people could be looking for or lack thereof, know there's a lot of gray area when it comes to this. You know, if you're law enforcement and you're monitoring, there's so much talk about, you know, based upon, especially what we saw in Garland, Texas, over the weekend, tweets, right, social media.

MUDD: Yes.

BALDWIN: If you're watching chatter, you're listening to chatter, how do you know what to look for? Because I have to imagine there's a lot of talk and then only certain people follow through. And you can't waste resources.

MUDD: You can't. There's a couple characteristics you've got to look at. That is the - we've talked about several hundred people from North America. That is United States and Canada going overseas to join ISIS in Syria and Iraq. A lot of them have come home. Number one on list has got to be people who have shown enough willingness to join a terrorist group that they actually traveled overseas.

Number two is old cases, like the case you saw in Garland, a closed case because that kid was prosecuted successfully. Which people who have already shown intent in the past, over history, are cropping up now, continuing to talk about these issues. I tell you the problem in this case, and this is what FBI Director Comey talked about. Several thousand people who have never been arrested, who have never traveled, who have shown interest in ISIS. What do you do with them? One of the things you've got to look -

[14:20:12] BALDWIN: Would they even be on the radar?

MUDD: They would be potentially. One of the things you've got to look at is this shift between talk and violence. People who are talking about acquiring a weapon. People who are talking about actually conducting an operation. But for that number of people, for a security service like the FBI, thousands of people talking, you're trying to understand not what they're doing, that's pretty straightforward, what they're thinking. And that is impossible for a security service.

When is a 17-year-old overnight going to say, well, yesterday I was interested in ISIS. I was online. I was following somebody on Twitter. Tonight I'm going to shoot up a U.S. military base. You can't figure that out.

BALDWIN: Right. Predicting that. Ah, Phil Mudd, always a pleasure to have you on.

MUDD: Thank you. BALDWIN: Thank you so, so much.

MUDD: Sure.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, we have to talk about this story out of San Francisco. Have you heard about this? Officer there accused of sending racist and homophobic text messages. And now you have thousands of cases being reviewed because of this.

Also, word that many deputies bet on fights between these inmates. We have those details ahead.

Also breaking just a short time ago, America's new attorney general making a major announcement about Baltimore's police department weeks after Freddie Gray's death.

Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:25:33] BALDWIN: The federal government is now turning a watchful eye to the Baltimore city Police Department. Just today our new attorney general, Loretta Lynch, announced the Justice Department Is launching an investigation into the department's patterns and practices. And this comes at the urging of Baltimore's mayor following charges brought against all six of those police officers in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray.

Let's go there to our national correspondent, Suzanne Malveaux.

And, Suzanne, my question would be, you know, what exactly will the DOJ be looking at? What does that investigation entail?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is way beyond what they've looked at before because before it was just whether or not they were violating police policy. But this is much, much broader. The question really being, is it a pattern or practice within the Baltimore Police Department to violate the constitutional civil rights of its own residents? That's what's going to happen. It starts immediately.

And, Brooke, I have to tell you, the people who I've gotten to know in Baltimore covering this story, there's a great sense of relief. They say that there has been harassment and abuse that has taken place for many, many years among at least some of the police officers and people in this community. So we've heard from the attorney general, Loretta Lynch, earlier today telling us that the reason why this is so important is what many people have said before, which is that there is a trust that has been broken between the community and this police department.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LORETTA LYNCH, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Today, the Department of Justice is opening an investigation into whether the Baltimore Police Department has engaged in a pattern or practice of violations of the Constitution or federal law. This investigation will begin immediately and will focus on allegations that Baltimore Police Department officers use excessive force, including deadly force, conduct unlawful searches, seizures, and arrests, and engage in discriminatory policing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So, Brooke, this is the response from the Fraternal Order of Police for Baltimore City. They say they "welcome the involvement of the Department of Justice and look forward to working with their representatives to heal the wounds of our city, and to improve the relationship between the community and our department. Additionally, we suggest that, as part of this comprehensive expectation, the Department of Justice also consider expanding the scope of their review to include the practices and policies of the mayor of Baltimore, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake."

The point being here, and you can kind of hear it in this statement there, Brooke, that they are not happy with the mayor's leadership. They believe that she, in part, is responsible as head of the police department, as one of the agencies underneath, you know, her own authority that she also needs to be held responsible for what's going on.

We're also, as well, Brooke, going to be hearing from the attorneys of the family of Freddie Gray. They're going to be speaking in about 45 minutes. They, too, are very relieved that there's going to be some federal help in dealing with this broken city.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: We'll listen for the family. Suzanne Malveaux, thank you so much, with reporting out of Baltimore.

Next, that - to San Francisco. Allegations of wrongful arrest, racist and homophobic text message, even forcing prisoners to fight one another, some officers in the San Francisco Police Department, and now nearly 3,000 cases could be subject to new scrutiny. What does all this mean potentially? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)