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NSA Loses Some Surveillance Powers; ISIS Attacks Iraq Police Base; John Kerry Breaks Leg While Cycling in France; Doctors Hail Major Drug Breakthrough; Groups Rally Against Facebook's Real Name Policy. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired June 01, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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


[10:00:00] GORDON: The vice president recover from this. He's a great man also.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Tom Gordon, thanks so much for your comments this morning. I appreciate it.

The next hour of --

GORDON: Thank you very much.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, the government loses some of its tools to fight terrorists.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MAJORITY LEADER: These aren't theoretical threats.

COSTELLO: Including the power to collect your phone calls in bulk. Senators sparring over the Patriot Act.

MCCONNELL: We shouldn't be disarming unilaterally. As our enemies grow more sophisticated and aggressive.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: They want you to fear and give up your liberty.

COSTELLO: But where is the balance between freedom and safety?

Also, is it getting crowded in here?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are you running for president?

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I'm 99 percent sure I will. So stay tuned.

COSTELLO: Lindsey Graham set to jump into the GOP race this morning. So what's his strategy to stand out from the crowd? Plus, protesting Facebook's authentic name policy. Domestic violence

survivors, Native Americans, transgender people and more take up the fight today using the #mynameis.

Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

This just into the CNN NEWSROOM. A deadly suicide attack at an Iraqi police base northwest of Baghdad. At least 34 members of Security Forces are dead. More than 48 injured after an ISIS terrorist drove a tank packed with explosives onto the base near Samarra.

Our Nick Paton Walsh is live in Baghdad, we'll check in with him in just a minute.

And for the first time in more than a decade, the NSA must stand down on some of its most controversial surveillance tactics aimed at catching terrorists. Overnight Senate lawmakers failed to pass a bill that would have extended three key provisions of the Patriot Act including bulk data collection of phone records and roving wiretaps on suspected terrorists. That means the agency is now forced to stop collecting telephone data on millions of Americans across the country at least for now.

The White House now warning of serious national security consequences calling the outcome a, quote, "irresponsible lapse."

Let's bring in CNN's Athena Jones. She's on Capitol Hill this morning.

Good morning.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Strong words from the White House. There was also tough talk on both sides of this issue on the Senate floor last night in a rare Sunday session. Today now Senate leaders are trying to make sure that the lapse in this law, a law that many say is vital to fighting terrorism, is over as soon as possible.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: I'm not going to take it anymore. I don't think the American people are going to take it anymore.

JONES: The heated debate over the Patriot Act pushing beyond the midnight deadline in Washington. Forcing the NSA to immediately stop collecting telephone metadata on millions of Americans across the country.

PAUL: They want to take just a little bit of your liberty but they get it by making you afraid.

JONES: Senator Rand Paul blasting the NSA's domestic surveillance program calling it an illegal spy program on Americans. This as counterterrorism officials also lose the ability to obtain roving wiretaps, allowing them to listen in on potential terror suspects even as they change cell phones. With the advancement of ISIS across the Middle East, some senators say this program is needed now more than ever.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Isn't this program as critical as it has ever been since its inception given the fact that the Middle East is literally on fire and we are losing everywhere.

JONES: The NSA's authority could be restored as early as Tuesday when Republican leadership expects a final vote on the compromised bill, the USA Freedom Act. The bill amends the Patriot Act requiring a specific targeted warrant to obtain any call records from telecommunications companies.

SEN. HARRY REID (D), MINORITY LEADER: We're in the mess we are today because of the majority leader. The majority leader should have seen this coming.

JONES: Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid blaming his Republican counterpart Mitch McConnell for not having a plan. After an about-face, Majority Leader McConnell who had wanted to renew the Patriot Act as is now says passing the compromise bill is the only realistic way forward.

MCCONNELL: I believe this is a program that strikes a critical balance between privacy on the one hand and national security on the other.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES: So what happens next? I spoke to an aide to Senator McConnell this morning and he told me that a final vote, a vote on final passage of the USA Freedom Act could come as soon as tomorrow. Of course a lot of things have to fall into place correctly for that to happen and of course this is the Senate so anything could happen.

I should mention that they also plan votes on some amendments to this bill and so if those amendments pass the Senate, if they change that law, they're going to have to send it back to the House of Representatives for consideration. So there's still a few more steps that have to take place -- Carol.

(LAUGHTER)

[10:05:04] COSTELLO: And I was feeling hopeful there for a second, Athena. I'm still feeling hopeful.

Athena Jones reporting live from the White House this morning.

All right. It's time to lose the political drama and lay out some facts on you. It is likely, highly likely the world will not end now that some of the NSA surveillance powers have been put on hold. In fact, the White House's own review group found the NSA's counterterrorism program was, quote, "not essential."

A former counterterrorism official who served on that review group said this. Quote, "There's no way that you can claim there's a single terrorist act that was prevented because of the telephone metadata collection program," end quote. Of course Rand Paul was one of the many who say these surveillance programs don't work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: I think people do use fear to try to get us to give up our liberty. And this was the whole thing that Benjamin Franklin debated. Whether or not we should trade our liberty for security and sometimes get neither. They say we're safer because of this bulk collection of data but it turns out that everybody that's objective that has looked at it has said that no episode of terrorism has been prevented, no case has been cracked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. So let's talk more about this with former NSA analyst Stephen Yates. He also served as deputy assistant to National Security of former Vice President Dick Cheney. He's now a distinguished fellow at the Hamilton Foundation.

Welcome, sir.

STEPHEN YATES, FORMER NSA ANALYST: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So, Stephen, the NSA shut down its bulk data collection program at 7:44 last night. The White House says this is an irresponsible lapse. Should Americans be worried?

YATES: Well, I think they should be worried about whether we're having the right conversation about this issue or not. A lot of the complaints about these programs suggest that it is the government that's collecting this data initially and in reality we have massive collection of private data by corporations, by former governments, and so really Americans every day consent to a lot of their data being collected by all these different sources.

So there's a privacy issue here that never seems to get addressed and then the second issue is at what stage are these bulk collected data programs relevant and my contention would be it's really relevant most of all after an initial attack and at what point do you want the government fully equipped to know whether there's a follow-on attack and be able to track where terrorists are going and communicating.

COSTELLO: So after the attack and not before. And I ask you this and reinforce what you just said because the man in charge of president's review of NSA is Richard Clarke, the former national coordinator for security and counterterrorism for the United States. He served under President Clinton and George W. Bush. He says the NSA's bulk collection is not netting terrorists. Shouldn't he know? YATES: Well, he should know more than he talks about. In reality, he

wouldn't know what these programs are doing now being a decade out of government. But in reality when we look at, say, the Boston bombing, at what point do you want authorities to be able to track the people who are involved? At what point do we want them in the minutes, hours after an attack to be going to courts and getting warrants and then beginning the aggregation of data or should data be available that they have access to immediately after the attack has happened?

This is not an easy nut to crack and there are real Fourth Amendment challenges. But this is a clash between the imperative of providing for our common defense and the bill of rights. Both are important and I wonder whether the current conversation we're having is really informing the public.

COSTELLO: Me too, actually. So I'll ask you this question. Senator Rand Paul, he's been accused of using the NSA to further his presidential ambitions. Do you think he is?

YATES: I think there's no question that the base of his political support is identified very, very closely with the -- a sort of counter argument to the post- 9/11 world. And at least from my point of view, I don't think ever anyone can say we got it all right in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and surely review and revision of these programs would be warranted.

But Senator Paul at times sounds like he wants to go back to the tools before 9/11 and I would just disagree that a majority of the country is there.

COSTELLO: Stephen Yates, thanks so much for your insight. I appreciate it.

YATES: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Let's get back to that deadly suicide attack at an Iraqi police base northwest of Baghdad. At least 34 members of Security Forces dead. Dozens more injured after an ISIS terrorist drove a tank packed with explosives into that base near Samarra.

Nick Paton Walsh is live from Baghdad now to tell us more.

Hi, Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, a quite devastating blast clearly given there are over 80 Iraqi Security personnel injured as well as 34 dead we know about right now. This is to the southwest of Samarra to the north of where I am standing here in Baghdad. Very much a volatile frontlines between ISIS and pro- government areas. It just shows you the kind of firepower that ISIS have at their disposal that can cause this much devastation but still really not quite even get inside the base they were targeting.

[10:10:07] But at this stage, Carol, people are still asking a key question. We've learned some staggering new information today about how was it that ISIS were able to get into the main town that Iraqi forces want to fight back and recover now Ramadi.

The speaker of parliament, now he's the most senior Sunni politician in Iraq, remember Iraq divided between Sunni and Shia, he has told us that he believes that military or political officials not clear who exactly gave an order for the elite special forces who are defending Ramadi. They're U.S. trained, the best of the best really here in Iraq, to pull out and that was let ISIS -- what let ISIS move in and take the city.

He also says the Iraqi prime minister wasn't aware that that order had been given. Listen to what he had to say to me earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SALIM AL-JABOURI, IRAQI SPEAKER OF PARLIAMENT (Through Translator): The military command who was present was speaking about a collapse in morale in the army and made a decision in a clear way to give the order to pull out and after that Ramadi fell. And even the prime minister, and he's the general commander of the armed forces, was not aware of the orders dealing with pulling out and that was led to big question marks for us.

Who has an interest in a direct way in the army pulling out and not confronting ISIS? And after that ISIS entered Ramadi and controlled it directly.

WALSH: Who gave that order?

AL-JABOURI (Through Translator): Who was there in the command is called the golden division. Who authors that withdrew and a collapse occurred and ISIS controlled Ramadi.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: Such a vital question for the future of Iraq really, whether the dominantly pro-Shia government here in Baghdad somehow let Ramadi, a Sunni town, go. Remember Pentagon chief Ashton Carter said the Iraqis lack the will to fight for Ramadi. Well, we just heard there, that perhaps suggest that deeper political division that may have led that vital town go to ISIS -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Nick Paton Walsh reporting live from Baghdad this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a possible major breakthrough in the battle against cancer. You'll be amazed at this. We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:16:43] COSTELLO: Secretary of State John Kerry heading back to the United States today after breaking his right femur while bicycling in France. Kerry has been in Switzerland leading nuclear talks with Iran and with the deadline at the end of the month, his new reality could be six months of rehab.

Elise Labott in Boston where Secretary Kerry will eventually be receiving medical care.

Good morning, Elise.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORTER: Good morning, Carol. Well, his surgeon here at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Dr. Dennis Burke, who actually did Secretary Kerry's hip replacement, traveled overnight to accompany the secretary back to the United States. We understand he'll be traveling on a U.S. C-17 military plane outfitted with medical equipment for his trip back to the United States. Additional medical personnel there as a precautionary measure according to the State Department.

And, you know, Carol, this couldn't come at a worse time for the secretary who just wrapped up a couple of talks with Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif in anticipation of this nuclear deal. The deadline is June 30th. So we don't know how long his recovery will be. But certainly this couldn't come at a worst time. The secretary has got a lot of important diplomacy going on right now.

COSTELLO: Well, tell us about that important diplomacy. How much will it affect the negotiations with Iran on the nukes?

LABOTT: Well, his aides tell me that the secretary is determined to keep working, to keep an important part of these talks and that he'll be doing so. I think he's going to -- he's going to have to come back to the United States. His surgeon will have to take a look at the injury. We know he broke his femur and that's a very serious injury for anybody but the secretary, although very physically fit, not a young man, 71. Had his hip replaced and we understand that's a very close injury to where he had on his bicycle accident. So I think it's going he'll have to see.

I mean, it's possible he'll be laid up for some time. Knowing Secretary Kerry, I'm sure he'll find a way to be calling in. I understand he's already spoken to several foreign ministers over the last 12 hours or so. Those calls you can imagine are coming in from those foreign ministers offering to wish him well. But it's not only these Iran talks and they're going to kind of start in earnest in the last few weeks of June with the foreign ministers, the political directors are going on now.

Secretary Kerry was expected to open the U.S. embassy in Cuba in the coming weeks. He also has what's going on with ISIS right now. He's going to miss that conference in Paris, which will be taking place tomorrow. He wanted to call in to that conference but his doctors kind of intervened and said listen, it's a very serious injury. We need to get you back to the United States and see what's going to do.

I don't think he's going to have to have any type of major surgery. What we understand is the doctor is going to set his leg. That will be a delicate procedure and then there will be a certain amount of rehab. But I think he'll make every effort to take part in these negotiations -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Elise Labott, reporting live from Boston, thanks so much. A potential game changer in cancer treatment. Some doctors hailing it

as the biggest breakthrough since chemotherapy.

Fred Pleitgen just spoke with medical experts in London. So tell us more about this -- Fred.

[10:20:06] FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it certainly is very interesting. And of course, Carol, we always have to be careful when we speak about new cancer treatments and what sort of a breakthrough they will be. But I can tell you from speaking with experts that they are very excited about what they're seeing out of the study that comes here from the U.K.

This is called immuno therapy. And essentially what it does is it teaches the immune system to fight cancer. Now that sounds simple at first but one of the things that we have to know about cancer is one of the reasons why it's so nasty is that the cancer cells, the infected ones, they mask themselves and so therefore our immune system, our T cells, don't recognize them as something that shouldn't be there.

Now what this new treatment does. It's a combination of two drugs. One of them is already available, another one is about to get certified. And the combination of these two drugs apparently it boosts the immune system to make it stronger and at the same time the second drug allows our immune system to recognize these cancer cells and therefore to start fighting them. And it was tested in a little more than 900 people who had a very late, very bad form of skin cancer.

So these people who were terminally ill and in about 60 percent of the cases the cancer either became smaller, at least didn't become bigger and in many cases went away all together. Now it's unclear whether or not it will stay away or whether or not it will come back. But this is certainly something that is causing a lot of excitement in the medical community to see that at least in some cases or in this one form of cancer this has caused major, major results -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Sounds so promising. Thank you so much. Frederik Pleitgen reporting live from London.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Tracy Morgan speaks out for the first time since his horrific crash. And you might be shocked by who he thanks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:26:04] COSTELLO: A diverse group of protesters including Native Americans, domestic violence survivors and members of the transgender community are taking a stand against Facebook. They plan to demonstrate outside Facebook headquarters later this morning. The group is upset over Facebook's policy that requires users to create accounts with their real names. The policy also allows users to report accounts they claim were created with fake names and get those accounts suspended.

CNN Money business correspondent Alison Kosik joins me now to tell us more.

Good morning.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN MONEY BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. So not sure if you knew this, but when you signed up to Facebook, or any of you would sign up to Facebook, you're required to use your authentic name and your authentic identity. You're not required to use your legal name, though, only the name that people, let's say, call you by or know you by, and you prove this through, let's say, a picture I.D. or Facebook even says you can show a piece of mail or even a magazine subscription.

Here's the problem from the folks behind this "My Name Is" campaign. They say that because they look different or they have different names that they are using -- that they say they're using for real reasons that their accounts are being suspended or shut down and they say this is happening wrongfully. And as you said, these are people who include Native Americans, victims of domestic violence, those who are victims of stalking, political dissidence, those in the gay and lesbian and LGBT community.

I want to show you a couple of stories from people who are behind this "My Name Is" campaign who say that they were wrongfully -- their accounts were wrongfully shut down. One story from Anonymous saying, "I am the victim of kidnapping and sexual assault. My abuser found me on Facebook and messaged me under fake accounts. So this person using a different name not necessarily as a cloak but as a shield."

The second story I want to show you from Boogie. This person adopted against their wishes. Their name was changed and now this person goes by the name Boogie but apparently this person's Facebook account was shutdown as well.

And shutting down an alleged fake account is pretty easy on Facebook. All you have to do is go to a click-down box and click report. And what this group is saying that this process of shutting down the accounts isn't fair right now.

Facebook has come out, though, and said the following, Carol. I want to go to their statement saying that, "We are committed to ensuring that all members of the Facebook community can use the names that they use in real life. Having people use their authentic names makes them more accountable, helps us root out accounts created for malicious purposes like harassment, fraud, impersonation and hate speech."

The point here being, Carol, is, you know, Facebook has this process in place because it doesn't want people hiding behind anonymous names and harassing people on Facebook. That's why it's so easy to go out there and share on Facebook because you know you're sharing your information and your pictures to people that you hope you actually know.

Now Facebook does say that they've had an ongoing conversation with these groups and they are in the process of seeing about making changes but that there is an ongoing dialogue going on.

COSTELLO: All right. Alison Kosik reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

KOSIK: Sure.

COSTELLO: Tracy Morgan speaking out for the first time since this horrific crash last year. The comedian tearing up as he talked about his recovery and the friend he lost that terrible night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRACY MORGAN, ACTOR/COMEDIAN: It's been up and down. I have my family. You know, I have my wife, Megan. We're about to be married. And my daughter and my son. So they keep my spirits up and then I have Ben and Matt Frost, and Mark (INAUDIBLE) and all these people that help me get my spirits up, and Tina Fey and all the people calling me. This is something to get my spirits up.

I mean, the case is settled, but the pain is always going to be there for Jimmy Mack. You know, this is a close friend of mine, and comrade in comedy. He was a loving man and he was a warm man. He was a good man. This is just hard to see that he's gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)