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D.C. Murders; Battle Against ISIS; Plane Threats. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired May 25, 2015 - 15:00   ET

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


[15:00:05]

AWAZ BARWARI, ESCAPED IRAQ: It's a reward and a gratitude, add to that, to him and to what he'd done to all of us.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: That's so wonderful, and, at the time, a perfect stranger.

Lava and Awaz Barwari, thank you both very much.

A. BARWARI: Thank you for having us.

LAVA BARWARI, ESCAPED IRAQ: Thank you.

BALDWIN: And we continue on, top of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

We're following this developing story here. The FBI is looking into a series of threats made against multiple passenger jets, all heading to the United States. One anonymous caller claimed a chemical weapon was on board this Air France flight. The plane landed safely at New York's JFK Airport, escorted by two F-15 fighter jets just as a precautionary measure. It has now been cleared, no real threat detected.

Jean Casarez has been looking into all these different reports and threats.

And where does all this stand now?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're learning more and more airlines, more and more flights.

BALDWIN: Really?

CASAREZ: Law enforcement receiving these anonymous calls. Once again, none of them have any credibility at this point.

But we're learning that a flight that is just about to -- or right now landing at Hartsfield -- Jackson-Hartsfield Airport in...

BALDWIN: Atlanta.

CASAREZ: In Atlanta -- Virgin Atlantic Flight 103M arriving from Manchester, England, has received a nonspecific threat. No other information is available at this time.

Also, United Airlines has confirmed with us that Newark Airport in New Jersey, Flight Number 63 from Madrid to Newark is one of the flights that has been affected. It is currently undergoing an inspection. Nothing has been found. It's at a remote parking location away from the terminal there, hoping for passengers to be able to get off that plane soon.

And now something that's a little different, because these are all international flights. And we're learning this right now. Southwest Airlines in Buffalo Niagara International Airport, the pilot after landing just a short time ago requested canine detection unit to come on board the plane. They have -- they are searching the plane right now. No irregularities were found. That plane is being reboarded for its next flight.

Now, we did get word from the FBI. They issued a statement to CNN. We want to read that for you. It says: "Out of an abundance of caution, Air Flight -- Air France Flight Number 22," which started it all this morning, "was escorted to John F. Kennedy Airport by U.S. Air Force fighter jets following a phone threat. The plane has landed, has de-boarded. There were no incidents or hazards reported on board the flight by either the passengers or its crew and the plane has been cleared."

And there was another flight, American Airlines flight earlier today from Birmingham, England, to JFK. It landed without incident. But, once again, it was an affected flight, a phone threat being called into law enforcement saying -- and the threats have not really become public. Reports are a chemical...

BALDWIN: How bizarre.

CASAREZ: ... attack, but nothing credible at this point. But the threats are still coming and the airplanes are still being looked at by law enforcement.

BALDWIN: So bizarre. Jean Casarez, thank you for the update.

It moved in fast. It hit quite hard. This line of massive storms flooded parts of the Plains and Midwest Sunday. Three people across two different states have died. The damage was particularly devastating in parts of Central Texas. That is where one person died and 12 others are missing at this hour after the ferocious flash flooding swept through the towns of Wimberley and San Marcos.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God! Stop, stop, stop. He needs to get out. Oh, my God. Oh, my God!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, you're seeing this video. This SUV became trapped in these fast-moving waters. Thank goodness bystanders were there. They were able to get him out. Another example of just the fierce -- the fierceness of the storm. It

collapsed a bridge. And officials say thousands of people are displaced because their homes have been wrecked.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is on the phone with me from Wimberley, because, Ed, I understand you're on phone. The weather is so bad there. Tell me what you're seeing.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brooke.

I just wanted to kind of start off by saying, normally, we'd be there live in front of the camera, but another line of storms coming through has knocked us off the air here temporarily in the town of Wimberley, Texas, an area that's already dealing with a dreadful amount of rain that's caused an extensive amount of damage along the Blanco River here in this normally quiet Central Texas town, one person killed in this area.

And the more disturbing news here at this point is that there are 12 others still believed to be missing. We're told by emergency officials here in the Wimberley area that these are believed to be 12 people that were part of a Memorial Day weekend gathering, several families coming together to spend the weekend at a river house here along the Blanco River.

[15:05:08]

And there are search-and-rescue teams going up and down the banks of the river here this afternoon looking for these 12 people, which we're told also could include several small children, so a very scary situation for those families involved as they try to figure out where those people, those loved ones might be at this point.

And, obviously, the longer this drags out, the more treacherous and the more desperate that situation becomes. So we will continue to monitor that, Brooke. But this is an area where the Blanco River rose dramatically very quickly in the middle of the night Saturday going into early Sunday morning, as the rainfall fell here dramatically. The Blanco River crested about a little more than 40 feet over its normal stage.

And as you look along the banks of this river, Brooke, it's just staggering to see the amount of damage inflicted by the massive trees that were swept away, ripping homes off their foundations. We're told that nearly 400 homes simply washed away and at least 1,000 homes in all damaged here, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I mean, it's incredible. This is why they call it flash flooding, just how it can happen in a nanosecond.

We're talking to someone who had to be pulled out with a Black Hawk helicopter because he got stuck in some of these fast-moving waters.

Ed Lavandera, to you and crew, please be safe. Thank you so much for calling in.

(WEATHER UPDATE)

BALDWIN: But, before we do that, just into CNN, NFL player and Chicago Bears defensive end Ray McDonald arrested on domestic violence and child endangerment charges, no details yet as far as what exactly happened.

But we do know he's in custody in California. It's worth noting McDonald was arrested last August on felony domestic violence charges, but prosecutors never formally charged him. After the season, the 49ers released him, citing -- quote, unquote -- "poor decision- making." He signed a one-year deal with Chicago.

Coming up next, war of words. America's defense chief says Iraqi forces had no will to fight against ISIS in terms of the fall of Ramadi. And now Iraq is responding as its forces surround the city.

Also, did he act alone? What we now know about the D.C. mansion murder suspect who was captured after a massive manhunt there.

And, just talking Texas and Oklahoma, much more on the severe weather there -- we will talk to a father who was stranded on this flooded highway who made a call to his daughter, fearing he would never see her again. They join me live, an incredible story.

[15:10:12]

Do not miss it. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: You're watching CNN on this Memorial Day. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And, right now, we are watching the fallout of a very divisive statement made exclusively to us here at CNN, the U.S. secretary of defense, Ash Carter, telling Barbara Starr that Iraqi soldiers don't have the -- quote, unquote -- "will to fight ISIS."

And the timing of all this is pretty incredible, because right now you have Iraqi forces mobilizing on the perimeter of the city of Ramadi ready to battle ISIS to regain control of the city.

[15:15:01]

And in the wake of Secretary Carter's remarks, you now have Vice President Joe Biden quick to pick up the phone, call the Iraqi prime minister, thanking him for -- quote -- "the enormous sacrifice and bravery of Iraqi forces over the past 18 months in Ramadi and elsewhere."

So, Barbara Starr, she's the one who got the interview with the defense secretary.

So, let me just begin with that interview. And tell me more about what he shared with you, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: He was talking a good deal about the situation in Ramadi, as you pointed out.

And one of the things that secretary of defense is coping with right now is a lot of political pressure from the Republicans in Washington to make a commitment to put troops on the ground. So, he apparently wanted to spell out in detail his views about the capability of those Iraqi troops that the U.S. forces would have to deal with on the ground.

Listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASHTON CARTER, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: The Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight. They were not outnumbered. In fact, they vastly outnumbered the opposing force.

And yet they failed to fight. They withdrew from the site. And that says to me, and I think to most of us, that we have an issue with the will of the Iraqis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: The will of the Iraqis to fight, especially in Ramadi,he's really focusing on that because the fall of Ramadi is so serious. It's a major city in Iraq, brings ISIS closer to Baghdad.

It is not what the U.S. wanted to see. The Iraqis may be wanting that counterattack, and it may or may not work. But what Carter's people are telling me today is, they have begun to look at some of the reasons why the Iraqis had no will to fight there. And what they're finding is that, by all accounts, these Iraqi units on ground in Ramadi had not been paid for weeks. They hadn't been let home to see their families. They were underweaponized.

They didn't have enough weapons in some cases. They also felt very disconnected from their commanders. In the Iraqi military, there's a serious problem, the U.S. feels, with the leadership in that military. That's according to U.S. officials. They just feel that, in many cases, those Iraqi commanders are not really looking out for their troops on ground.

So all of this added up is why the Iraqi forces basically decided to bug out of Ramadi. And when you begin to look at it, you can begin to see it from the point of view of those Iraqi troops on the ground, but, still, the problem is this. What comes next?

For now, the Pentagon ruling out any use of ground combat troops by the U.S., any use of those forward air controllers, U.S. troops on the ground to help pick out targets. They say they need to see the Iraqis make a lot more progress -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: You're the second person in the last hour who's pointed out potential issues really with leadership there and those commanders. I want to begin. Barbara Starr, thank you so much.

Let me bring Lieutenant General Mark Hertling in, CNN military analyst, to -- I really want to ask you about that. But thank you, first and foremost, for coming on, and thank you for your service. I would be remiss not to say that on this very important day.

But when you hear, General, Barbara talking about, you know, these Iraqi security forces not getting paid, being told, you know, they can't take time away, they can't see their families, you know, don't really have guidance from commanders on the ground, does that then surprise you if you're hearing from Secretary of Defense Carter saying lack of will to fight?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Not at all, Brooke. This is a problem and a challenge that we saw even back when I -- the last time I was there, in 2008.

There was a continuous pressure on the Iraqi central government to pay their soldiers, to take care of them. The leaders at the time, the commanders, colonels and above, in the Iraqi army were much better then, but they had all been replaced.

I looked at the fight at Ramadi, did a little bit of analysis. And it's what Barbara reported people in the Pentagon are now saying to her. This was a disaster waiting to happen. You have a lack of coordination between units. You have various different units on the battlefield between the Sunni tribes, the Iraqi security forces, the Iraqi police, which are under the minister of the interior, not the minister of defense.

And you also have the shipping out to Ramadi of the Golden Division. And that core division has been all over Iraq. They're the ones that are the fire brigade. It's the elite Iraqi forces that are sent everywhere. So they have been fighting in Diyala province, in Tikrit, in the...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: So they're exhausted.

HERTLING: Yes, they're exhausted.

And so are the forces that have been fighting very well in Ramadi for the last 18 months. So, when you talk about an uncoordinated assault, a lack of cooperation with the air support and the fires, artillery, if you will, a lack of intelligence, not very good intelligence, and logistical problems, this is the kind of things you see in a worst- case scenario.

[15:20:03]

It gets to point that Mr. Carter is saying is, it's not the Iraqi soldiers. When he says forces, I read that to mean the generals, the government. It's writ large, the force writ large. It's not the soldiers. They will fight very bravely. It's the commanders and the government having to get their act together.

BALDWIN: But if we know that the administration -- we have heard over and over they don't want to commit combat troops. So, I don't know how that would affect potential training of the need for leadership.

And then you have, you know, the Senator John McCains of the world who are looking at the recent successful raid that took out an ISIS leader and is saying, listen, there need to be more special ops teams going in to help fight. Do you agree with the senator?

HERTLING: I see it very differently, Brooke.

You send special ops in when you have very good intelligence and very good capability to target. You can't just plop a bunch of special forces on the ground and say, hey, go do good work. It's got to be driven by intelligence. The other thing that's interesting is, when we talk about what happened during the surge, we have got to remember the surge was put in place in order to give -- first of all, to train the Iraqi army, which it did a very good job of.

But it was also to give the Iraqi government time to get their act together. That was handed to them. They squandered that opportunity. Now you have, you know, a failing army, even though the soldiers are still willing to fight. And Mr. Abadi, I have got to give him credit, the prime minister of Iraq, because he's attempting to pull it all back together.

But he has some governmental interference from within his own government. And I think that's what both President Obama and Mr. Carter are trying to say. Get your government together, lead your forces, and develop a will to fight.

BALDWIN: Let me ask you this, since I have you on Memorial Day. And I always really enjoy having you on, General. I know that, given all the years that you have dedicated to this country, do you have a favorite Memorial Day memory or a story?

HERTLING: Well, favorite is a tough word to describe.

BALDWIN: Most moving.

HERTLING: There were very emotional -- yes, very emotional moments.

Truthfully, Brooke, the kinds of things I felt with our own soldiers is important. But I also had an experience in Europe when I was commanding general in Europe and went to the American battlefield cemetery in a place called Margraten in the Netherlands, where we saw the citizens of this very small Dutch town basically adopt the graves of 8,000 soldiers who were there from World War II.

They pass it from family to family. They take care of those graves. And I tell you, that's a very moving experience when you have people of another country saying, we thank America for giving us this freedom. I hope, some day, we will see the same thing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

BALDWIN: Absolutely. And seeing all the pictures here this morning, Arlington National Cemetery, my own grandfather is buried there, 50 years with the U.S. Navy, it's just an important day to stop and remember and be mindful. General Mark Hertling, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

HERTLING: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, the manhunt for the suspects in the Washington, D.C., mansion murders is not over. Prosecutors in this case say the man they have in custody did not act alone.

Plus, how investigators used DNA on a pizza crust -- you heard me right -- to track down this key suspect. We're taking you inside the science lab next here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:27:38]

BALDWIN: Prosecutors say they believe the man charged with the killing of three members of a prominent Washington, D.C., family and their housekeeper did not act alone. Daron Wint faces first-degree murder charges. He's in prison without bond.

But what role did DNA matching actually play in identifying this man?

CNN's Alexandra Field visits an evidence lab to learn how authorities were able to find Wint with a pizza.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is potentially the smoking gun, a pizza box found at the scene, inside, crust that investigators say connects Daron Wint to a heinous crime.

(on camera): This is a pretty good find for an investigator.

DR. DAVID ZHANG, MT. SINAI HOSPITAL: Exactly, yes.

Doctor David Zhang runs a DNA identification lab at Mt. Sinai hospital in New York City. He says a single bite mark can be enough to crack a case.

TATYANA ROSALIE, MT. SINAI LAB TECHNOLOGIST: You swab the pizza to get as much DNA from the crust as we can.

FIELD: Zhang says investigators also likely tested a crumb.

ROSALIE: Put it in a tube, get the cells out and proceed with the DNA extractions.

FIELD: First, a machine separates out the DNA.

(on camera): This is releasing the DNA from the cell.

ZHANG: And purify the DNA.

FIELD (voice-over): Then the sample is sample is amplified. Millions of copies are made that make the sample large enough to be seen with the help of another machine.

ZHANG: The laser will trace the DNA. And that is what you are going to see here.

FIELD: It's a unique readout called a DNA fingerprint. To solve a case, that fingerprint can be added to or matched in a federal database including some 14 million different profiles.

ZHANG: Hair, saliva, urine, semen, all these can be used.

FIELD: The seemingly small clues picked up at crime scenes. Zhang says the piece of crust can yield millions of cells or even just a few. Sometimes, that's just enough to identify a suspect or even solve the case.

Alexandra Field, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Pizza crust.

Now that Daron Wint is behind bars and police believe he did not act alone, they're looking for anyone who could have helped him commit these crimes.

Let me bring in our CNN justice correspondent, Pamela Brown.

And so, tell me, what are police looking at now?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can tell you, Brooke, that D.C. police are continuing to hunt for more suspects who allegedly helped Daron Wint pull off those brutal slayings of the Savopoulos family and their housekeeper.

And there are looming questions about who was in that video -- hopefully, we can show it -- of a person fleeing after the family's stolen Porsche was torched. I guess we don't have the video to show.

BALDWIN: Here you go.

BROWN: But, basically -- there we go.

So -- so, they want to know, who is this person?