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Arrests Being Made in FIFA Corruption Investigation; Storms Bring Houston, Texas, to Standstill; Family Lost in Texas Floods; Iraqis Launch Major Offensive to Take Back Ramadi; Fight for Ramadi Highlights Bitter Divide Among Shia, Sunnis in Iraq. Aired 1-1:30a ET
Aired May 26, 2015 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: The FBI goes after FIFA. Arrests happening right now over corruption allegations involving the world football's governing body.
Deadly floods in Houston, Texas, after severe storms batter parts of the U.S. and Mexico.
And in Iraq, a sectarian twist in the battle to retake a major city from ISIS militants.
Hello, everybody. Great to have you with us. I'd like to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm John Vause. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
The center of corruption investigation for years, but now senior officials will be facing charges. The U.S. Justice Department has set to announce charges against FIFA and up to 14 people are being arrested overnight.
CNN's justice correspondent, Evan Perez, joins us now.
Evan, what are your sources at the DOJ telling you?
EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We're told up to 14 officials are now facing charges in an indictment that's going to be announced today in Brooklyn, New York. This is, as you pointed out, a long running case. The FBI has been investigating FIFA for now about three years. That's only the most recent investigation. FIFA itself has investigated its own self internally and always found that there was nothing wrong. And so now the FBI is deciding that they're going to bring charges against senior officials at the organization. We expect that these arrests are being made in Zurich and elsewhere. We know officials in other parts of the world are also being charged in this investigation. The FBI had the benefit of the help of one of FIFA's own. There's a former official who was wearing wires as he recorded conversations internally with FIFA officials in the last couple of years. That's part of the investigation. That's been ongoing and as you pointed out, this is a major, major announcement. This is something that a lot of people have been asking about and wondering about from this organization. There's an election happening on Friday. The long-time leader of FIFA is expected to win re- election on Friday and this, obviously, clouds that. We'll see whether or not this indeed does happen. Some of those officials who are gathering in Zurich this week, included today, are now going to be under arrest by authorities and expected to be facing extradition to the United States -- John?
VAUSE: So explain the legalities of all of this. The FBI is a U.S. Organization, FIFA is a world governing body based in another country. How does the FBI and the Department of Justice actually carry out these arrests? What's the legal basis here?
PEREZ: That's a great question. And certainly one that people have asked about. What right does the United States have to investigate a world body like this? And here is the simplest version of this. The United States is still the largest -- essentially the largest funder of the world cup because U.S. Networks pay the highest TV rights, the highest value TV rights for the world cup. And so a lot of those deals are transported in the United States in U.S. Dollars. They're negotiated in New York. That's the jurisdiction that -- that's what the U.S. says gives them jurisdiction. These charges that are being brought are going to be related to things that are against the law in Switzerland because some of these people are in Switzerland, so they have to follow Swiss law. So you'll have charges such as money laundering and wire fraud. These are things that are comparable to U.S. -- I'm sorry, between U.S. and Swiss law. But it is something that's going to be a very difficult thing because now we face the prospect of having to deal with Swiss courts, Swiss judges that are going to have to approve extradition for these people that are now being charged.
VAUSE: Clearly, they think they have some good evidence if they've moved ahead with such a dramatic news this is a big story. We'll continue to follow it now.
Evan, we thank you for the latest details on that.
Now to our other breaking news, in northern Mexico where relentless storms have killed 31 people, several others remain missing. In Houston, Texas, about 11 inches, more than 27 centimeters of rain fell from Monday night into Tuesday. Rivers and creeks overflowed their banks turning them into swamps. The flash flooding forced drivers to abandon their cars. 13 people were killed in this Mexican border city when a tornado ripped through within seconds. This powerful storm system spawned a tornado to the north in Ohio. A security camera captured the moment it tore through a parking lot. Two people were injured and a number of cars were damaged. The rain eased on Tuesday, but more storms are expected throughout the week, especially for Oklahoma and northern Texas.
This disaster has brought Houston, Texas, to a stand still with the rising waters covering roads and damaging many homes.
CNN's Ed Lavandera has the latest now from Texas.
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[01:05:28] ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than 10 inches of rain in a matter of hours drowns parts of Houston in a sea of chaos.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was bad. It was bad. You know, we tried. We tried to push the water out from the kitchen to the -- to the sliding back doors. And as soon as we made it back, it was already full.
LAVANDERA: City officials say motorists left about a thousand cars stranded on the city's roadways, traffic was snarled. The city's emergency management director described the scene as a mad house. Even Houston's popular Galleria Mall took on several feet of water.
Across the state of Texas, flood victims have had little time to react. Quickly trapped in walls of water, like Alisa Renee Ramirez, a beloved high school student and homecoming queen from the San Antonio area. Days away from graduating, she is driving home from her senior prom when flood waters washed her car off the road.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She did the right things, she called 911, she called her father. But it was just too much and too quick.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my god. We have a whole bunch of water.
LAVANDERA: After the rains, Matthew Crodadile (ph) and Will Sides (ph) used their kayaks to navigate their southwest Houston neighborhood where dozens of homes took on three to four feet of water. They strapped on our camera to show us the damage.
UM: Flooded?
UM: Yes.
UM: How many inches?
LAVANDERA: Cars abandon on the roadways was a scene common all over the city.
UM: One, two, thee, four -- five cars. Five cares and a whole lot back there.
LAVANDERA: They say they've never seen their neighborhood like this.
UM: Hey, they're coming our way.
LAVANDERA: And first responders improvised, as well. They fire rescue teams turned massive public works trucks into temporary ambulances to respond to 911 calls in the neighborhood, pulling several residents out who couldn't escape the flood waters pouring into their homes.
Ed Lavandera, CNN.
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VAUSE: Danny Perez joins me now on the phone from Houston. He's a spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation.
What's the latest advisory at this hour for everyone? DANNY PEREZ, SPOKESMAN, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (voice-
over): Things are looking better on our roadways. We started out overnight, the night before with about 45 different locations with high water. And right now, we're down to about nine. So things have significantly improved. We are keeping an eye on the storm that is way north of us. But we're making sure that a lot of our maintenance folks had gone out and make sure we have debris clear of the inlets and make sure drainage is flowing and our pumps are working great, so if we get ruined of storms, we're ready to go.
VAUSE: Danny, it's been incredible looking at some of the images, especially the thousands of cars which have been abandon on the side of the road. How will that complicate the cleanup?
DANNY PEREZ: Things are working fine. We're working with our partners. We're making sure we're getting those vehicles moved out of the way and also making sure that we're keeping the -- all the inletting and everything clear. That's the important thing. If we have another storm that comes through, we want to make sure things are clear, things are flowing quickly, properly, and making sure we're getting folks safely where they need to go.
It was just one of those storms that came through, a lot of rain at one time. It's overwhelming, the entire system, bayous. And we're making sure we're prepared and we're ready to go.
VAUSE: Danny, thanks for the update. We appreciate it.
Danny Perez from the Texas Department of Transpiration on the line from Houston.
A mother and her children are among the people missing in this disaster. Laura McComb and her son and daughter were swept away when water carried their cabin downstream during a storm on Saturday. Laura called her sister as the home was moving and she told Anderson Cooper about that conversation.
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JULIE SHIELDS, SISTER OF LAURA MCCOMB: A little after 1:00 in the morning, she called me and said I just want you to know, the ceiling has caved in and the boat -- the house is floating down the water and tell mom and dad that I love them. I love you. And pray.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, A360: I'm trying to imagine what was going through your mind while she's telling you all these things. It must have just been terrifying.
SHIELDS: It was surreal. But the strangest thing about it is she was so incredibly calm. Which you don't -- you're not calm in these types of situations. And I had been calm with her that evening. And I would say that it's -- it was a sign of her faith in God. God and her faith were so incredibly important to her.
[01:10:14] COOPER: She has deep faith?
SHIELDS: She has deep faith.
And I think she was, at that moment where she knew she needed to be there for her family. She knew what was coming and she was ready to accept that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Laura's husband, Jonathan, survived the flooding, but was seriously injured. He is now in hospital.
Move on to Iraq now, where the government has launched a major counteroffensive against ISIS. Iraqi security forces, Sunni tribal fighters and Shia militia fighters are surrounding the city of Ramadi in Anbar Province. And they're also working to cut off ISIS supply rights from other provinces.
Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, reports.
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BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As sandstorms rolled in, Iraq said it launched a major military operation to take back Ramadi.
JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We were pleased to see today that the Iraqi government announced the beginning of the mission to retake Ramadi and to drive ISIL out of Anbar Province. I think that is a clear indication of the will of the Iraqi security forces to fight.
STARR: Far different from Defense Secretary Ash Carter when he spoke to CNN.
ASH CARTER, DEFENSE SECRETARY: It is very concerning that they showed that failure of a will to fight --
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STARR: After watching the chaotic final moment before Ramadi fell, top Pentagon officials remained skeptical.
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STARR: U.S. military officials say, so far, the Iraq units are just conducting probing attacks against ISIS.
ISIS, for its part, is improving its battlefield tactics, calling in fighters from Syria, using snipers and suicide bombs in new ways, digging tunnels to get into Ramadi and breaking off fortifications.
LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: They are gaining intelligence from reconnaissance. They are understanding the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces to include coalition air power and they are adjusting their tactics to counter that.
STARR: Moving in small groups, making it harder for U.S. war planes to find them and staying off social media.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They've seen that there can be operational consequences to essentially live tweeting or live posting regarding their operations.
STARR: If the Iraqis are going to win, they will need help. These Sunni militias are already beginning to move into position. But Carter hinting it is the Sunni tribes of Anbar that the Pentagon is quietly focusing on, looking for ways to provide them with more weapons.
CARTER: They're the ones who have to get in the fight and win the fight.
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VAUSE: The battle to retake Ramadi, highlights, again, the bitter divide in Iraq. The Iraqi government is relying on Shiite militia from Iran. But Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province, is Sunni territory. ISIS is also Sunni. And Sunnis and Shiites have been at each other for 1400 years. To make matters worse, the Shiite Iraqi government has named the operation to retake Ramadi, (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE), a Shiite saying considered heresy by Sunnis. So what's in a name?
CNN military analyst, Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, joins us from Orlando, Florida.
General, the U.S. says the code name is unhelpful. Others say it's failing to represent the interest of Iraqis. In the bigger picture, do you see this as a significant problem?
HERTLING: I think it is unhelpful, John. They could have thought of a better name than that and I think some of the Iraqi generals should have probably brought that to their attention. I know the chief of staff of the Iraqi army is a Sunni and he's a very good soldier. I just think this one kind of got away from him a little bit. And it's just not good for the atmospherics of this operation in my view.
VAUSE: When you look at sort of the issue of the politics surrounding all of this, if the Sunnis have no confidence in their own government -- and I know it's just the name of an operation, but it's a very inflammatory name in some ways -- then at best, they'll fit on the fence or maybe even take up with ISIS?
HERTLING: Well, one of the things that I'd suggest is Mr. Abadi's government should be doing everything they possibly can to generate trust with the provinces. This is an area that I was knee deep in when I was in northern Iraq, and not to compare that to the Western provinces because there is slight differences, but we were continuously trying to get the central government to expand their reach out to the northern provinces. And it was often a failing proposition. You gain trust in a government by showing that you're for all the people, not just the ones on the capital. What we want to see out of the leadership -- and it is a combined leadership now in the central government with the Shia prime minister, with a Sunni deputy prime minister and with Kurdish representation, too -- you want to take every opportunity you can to generate trust that this a government for all Iraq. And, again, not to beat the dead horse, but this does not show that you're trying to generate trust. In fact, it is a little condescending to the people you're trying to defend.
[01:15:40] VAUSE: Very quickly, in military terms, the Iraqi government says Ramadi will be liberated soon. What's your assessment?
HERTLING: That's ambitious. They may liberate and take military actions in the town. But, again, I define liberation as quite different, perhaps, than what some of the leaders in Iraq are seeing it as now. It's certainly one thing to get armed military forces or militias or Sunni tribesmen to defeat ISIS or fight ISIS. It's another thick to completely liberate. To me, that means getting police forces back and operational, getting the government operational. To use the old tired phrase, it's the clear hold-and- build element where you can certainly clear with military forces, but you have to hold with security forces and then build with the government. You've got to get those in place to truly liberate.
VAUSE: OK, General, good to speak with you. Thank you so much.
HERTLING: Thank you.
VAUSE: Lieutenant General Mark Hertling.
Let's return now to our top stories. Charges are being announced against 14 senior members of the world governing body of soccer FIFA.
World Sport's Alex Thomas joins us on the line from London.
So, Alex, explain to us exactly what details do you know about these charges.
ALEX THOMAS (voice-over), CNN WORLD SPORTS (voice-over): John, very sketchy details right now. Potentially this is something that could blow wide open the FIFA presidential election happening this Friday, which determines who is going to be head of the governing body for the world's most popular sport. It's been Joseph Sepp Blatter, since 1998, when he succeeded the president who was in charge the decades before that. It seems this is a foregone conclusion. I'm currently at Heathrow Airport, about to board a flight to Zurich. This is ahead of Sepp Blatter's re-election. He has one challenger for president, Prince Ali bin al Husain (ph), but Sepp Blatter is the overwhelming favorite to be re-elected as president of FIFA. Now we hear the Swiss police, in plain clothes, overnight, raided the hotel where all the top officials of FIFA, football's governing body, are staying, and 14 have been arrested. And this is all connected to the FBI's investigation into corruption at the highest levels of the game. CNN understands from Swiss police they were ordered to conduct the raids at the request of the federal authorities. Hopefully, there's been cooperation between the Swiss and U.S. authorities. There is a particular extradition treaty between the two nations. "The New York Times" reporting that although people can't be extradited from Switzerland to America on tax charges, criminal charges do work in that case. We have yet to find out which of these FIFA officials have been amongst the 14 arrested. Although we understand Sepp Blatter himself is not one of them. Nonetheless, he's been accused of cronyism, those closest to help him maintain power. We believe the FBI will hold a news conference later on and we should establish that then -- John?
VAUSE: That news conference in Brooklyn in the coming hours. And Sepp Blatter has ruled FIFA with an iron fist for many years. We'll see if these arrests have any impact on that re-election.
Alex Thomas on the line from London, about to get on a plane to Zurich to find out more about the story.
We'll take a break. When we come back, Russia stages a surprise military drill around the same time NATO training exercises get under way in the Arctic. We'll tell but NATO's response to Moscow's maneuver. That's coming up.
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[01:23:26] VAUSE: Welcome back. An update on our breaking news. Overnight arrests are being made in a corruption investigation of FIFA. The U.S. Justice Department will announce charges for up to 14 officials of the world's football governing body. FIFA officials have gathered in Zurich for an election that could give Sepp Blatter a fifth term as leader. Law enforcement officials say he's not among those being charged but he was investigated.
A flight from Taipei en route to Los Angeles was the target of a bomb threat. EVA Air flight 12 was inspected and passengers' luggage was screened after landing, but nothing dangerous was found. The investigation into the person or group responsible is ongoing and it comes one day after 10 other phone threats remain for international and domestic flights bound for a number of east coast U.S. cities.
Afghanistan's government says all four militants involved in an overnight attack at an upscale neighborhood in Kabul have been killed. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the hours-long battle between insurgents and Afghan security forces. The spokesman for the terror group says a hotel own dollars by the son of Afghan's former president was the intended target, but the interior ministry says the hotel was not breached.
We go to Russia now. And Moscow is flexing its military muscle to bring 12,000 troops in a surprise drill in the country's northwest. Russian media report that hundreds of artillery pieces are heavy weapons, even cruise missiles involved. The exercises might be a response to European military drills led by Norway.
NATO, not happy with Russia's latest maneuver, saying more transparency is needed.
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JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL: We don't see any immediate threat against any NATO ally, but we are concerned, for instance, about the increasing number of snap exercises which Russia is conducting because that gives us no notification, reduces transparency, predictability and that, of course, increase the possibility that incidents, accidents spiraling out of control.
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[01:25:35] VAUSE: China says it will expand its military activities in the South China Sea, a move which could escalate tensions in an already jittery region. China outlined its strategy in a policy document on Tuesday. Beijing says, among other things, it will switch from air defense to both offense and defense. The news comes just a week after a U.S. surveillance plane flew over China's military build up and land reclamation projects in the South China Sea. That disputed area has been the focus of overlapping claims with several neighboring countries.
We'll take a short break here. When we come back, it's been one month since a deadly earthquake struck Nepal. Coming up, we'll hear from actress, Susan Sarandon, about her efforts to draw attention to the disaster.
And the death toll in India is rising amid a sweltering heat wave. We've look at whether there's any relief on the way.
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[01:04:47] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live, all around the world. I'm John Vause.
The headlines this hour, arrests are being made in a corruption investigation of FIFA. The U.S. Justice Department plans to announce charges Wednesday after a three-year FBI investigation. Football's governing body has been at the center of corruption probes for years.
