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Death Row Woman in Georgia Running Out of Options; Data Breach Causes U.S. to Pull Spies From China; U.N. to Raise Palestinian Flags at New York Headquarters; Obama and Castro Discuss Closer Relations; Afghan Forces Battling to Retake Key City From Taliban; Georgia Mother Executed; Obama Leads Anti-Extremism Summit at U.N. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired September 30, 2015 - 00:00   ET

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


[00:00:11] ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour, a late night in the U.S. state of Georgia. Lawyers for a woman condemned to death make a last- ditch attempt to save her life.

SESAY: Plus the United States pulls its spies from China following a hack that exposed the personal data of millions of government workers.

VAUSE: And a historic meeting at the U.N. between the leaders of Cuba and the United States.

SESAY: Hello, and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause. CNN NEWSROOM L.A. begins right now.

Well, it seems a woman on death row in the U.S. state of Georgia is about out of legal options. 47-year-old Kelly Gissendaner was sentenced to death for convincing her lover to murder her husband. Moments ago the U.S. Supreme Court denied a last-ditch stay of execution.

SESAY: CNN's Martin Savidge has been following the story and he joins us now live from Atlanta with more.

Martin, just bring us up to speed with where things stand right now. Is she out of options? Does she have anymore, anymore chances of reprieve on the state level? Just help us understand where things stand.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. They've gone through a number of different legal hurdles. And also they've gone through George Parole Board. It would seem at this time, John and Isha, that there are just no more options that are left for them right now.

I won't say none because I guess as long as she's still alive her attorneys are going to hope that there are some last second, last- ditch effort. But let's just go through what they've done today. First of all they had to go through the Parole and Pardons Board of Georgia. There was a hearing that was held in this state. It lasted for a number of hours. There was testimony given, even by her own children, that's Kayla Gissendaner here. They pleaded for her mother's sentence to be commuted.

What they wanted to see was to say, all right, don't give her death. Put her life in prison. That did not happen. Then that set up a whole series of legal actions that were taken on the part of the legal team. And what they were essentially arguing was a number of things. Number one, they were saying look, the co-conspirator in this case, she is convicted of murdering her husband, but she didn't actually do the crime. That was done by her boyfriend. He had a separate trial. He had a lesser conviction. In fact, he got essentially life in prison with the opportunity for parole.

She didn't actually carry out the deed, even though she planned it. She gets death. Many of those who are opposed to the death penalty said this shows the flagrant discrepancies that are in the legal system here in the U.S. But time after time, whether it was the U.S. Georgia Supreme Court, whether it was the U.S. Supreme Court, every one of those turned down and now it appears her very last hope which rested with the U.S. Supreme Court which they went to not once but twice tonight, that appears to have failed, as well.

If that happens, it means that she very much will die by lethal injection. Ironically, she has been to this threshold, I guess you could say, twice before. In February, they halted her execution due to bad weather. Then about a month later, they halt it again because they looked at the chemicals to be used and felt maybe they were cloudy and possibly wouldn't carry out the lethal execution. And now we're to the threshold again.

Some have said that is beyond what is considered fair and also humane in this case. But it appears they are going to go forward with this execution. She would be the first woman executed in Georgia in seven years -- John and Isha.

SESAY: Martin Savidge, appreciate the update. I know you're going to stay on this for us. Stand by for us for more -- for more perspective, let's bring in Lisa Bloom who joins us now here in the studio. She's a trial lawyer and analyst with the legal Web site Avvo.com.

Lisa, thank you for joining us.

LISA BLOOM, TRIAL LAWYER: Thank you.

SESAY: Let me pick up on what Martin just said. The point that she'd be the first woman to be executed in Georgia in a number of years. She did not kill her husband. She would also be the first non-trigger person to be executed if this goes ahead. Many people don't understand why despite the appeals for clemency, the Pope intervening, the fact she's turned her life around by all accounts.

BLOOM: The fact that her children have been begging for her life to be spared. And they're not just her children, they're the children of the man that she murdered. Their mother murdered their father. But they said they've come to terms. It took them many, many years but they have forgiven her. She's turned her life around. But all of that seems to have fallen on deaf ears, as you say, both in the Georgia Parole Board and in all the courts, it's gone all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court on the federal side, all the way up to the Georgia Court of Appeals and Supreme Court on the state side. And they've all been rejected.

[00:05:09] VAUSE: You know, Lisa, we have these live images outside the prison there at Jackson, Georgia. Many gathering outside to show their support for Gissendaner. One thing which I find interesting, you mentioned that Pope made this plea. Peter denied Jesus three times and here in this United States over the next 72 hours, the United States will be denying the Pope three times. He was here just a few days ago, pleading for the sanctity of life and to spare people on death row. He made a personal plea for Gissendaner here.

So what is behind this flurry of activity with prisoners being put to death? Because it's not just three in 72 hours, it's six over the next couple of weeks.

BLOOM: Well, that's right. We still have the death penalty here in the U.S. 32 states still apply it, although 80 percent of people put to death in the U.S. is just in three states -- Florida, Texas and Missouri. But we still do it. And it's -- unfortunately the Pope doesn't get a vote. The people of the county don't get a vote. Even the victim's family members only have a limited say. It's up to the parole board.

And I want to also add that the victim's other family members, other than his children, they are strongly in favor of the death penalty.

VAUSE: Because they said this is a fair --

SESAY: Yes.

VAUSE: This is a fair penalty for the crime.

SESAY: That's what they say.

VAUSE: Yes.

BLOOM: Yes. And that's what they say and they say they have waited for 18 years, enough is enough. She's had ever possible appeal. And she has to pay for what she did and the sentence that was imposed by the judge must be carried out.

SESAY: Wording it out just a little bit, we knew that the European Union has banned the export of execution drugs to the United States.

BLOOM: Yes.

SESAY: How is that impacting the application of the death penalty here? BLOOM: Well, that's a very interesting issue because we've used all

sorts of method, hanging, firing squad, and now it's generally lethal injection. And some places have had a real tough time executing prisoners because they can't get the medication and the drugs that they need. In fact, in the case of this very woman, one of the prior dates on which she was supposed to be executed was postponed because the medication was too cloudy. And so they decided to put it off and now here she is many months later.

VAUSE: Is there a problem for people in the United States essentially then in the company of countries, you know, like China, like Iraq, like Saudi Arabia, like North Korea, countries which routinely execute their own citizens?

BLOOM: Listen, Absolutely. And there are many anti-death penalty activists here in the United States that make that very argument, make the argument that over 100 people on death row have been exonerated, meaning proved innocent. You know, how many of those who have been executed were actually innocent. To me that's probably the strongest argument against the death penalty. It's irreversible.

VAUSE: It's like 4 percent did not commit the crime. Right?

BLOOM: It's irreversible. You can't fix it.

SESAY: Yes.

VAUSE: Lisa, it's great to have you with us.

SESAY: Yes.

VAUSE: We really appreciate your insight.

SESAY: Thank you so much.

BLOOM: Thank you so much.

SESAY: Thank you.

Now to another developing story. The U.S. is pulling its spies out of China following the hack on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. A U.S. official tells CNN the country believes Chinese hackers were behind the breach which exposed the personal data of more than 21 million U.S. government workers.

VAUSE: Justice correspondent Evan Perez joins us now on the line from Washington with more on this developing story.

So, Evan, how many intelligence agents do we know are impacted by this? Essentially how many are being pulled out of China?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Well, we don't know an exact number. But what we do know is that the Chinese have a very good idea of who are the U.S. intelligence agency employees in Beijing because they have so much data on who exactly really works for the State Department. There are 21.5 million employees of the U.S. government whose data was stolen in this hack.

And one of the things we've been hearing for several months, John, has been that the CIA was pretty confident that their data was not stolen. The NSA was pretty confident their data was not stolen. Well, the problem is that now the Chinese have a very good idea. They know they have a roster of everybody who works at the State Department and because of that, they can reverse engineer a list of people who aren't on their list and they can figure out who works for the CIA, the NSA, the Defense Intelligence Agency. So all of these people are going to be having -- be pulled out simply because their data will now be -- will now be found out by the Chinese.

VAUSE: Yes. Process of elimination essentially. So long term here, though, how hard will it be to replace these agents?

PEREZ: Well, it's going to be very difficult because, again, they have such a vast universe of data now on U.S. government workers. They know everybody who's gone through the process of getting a security clearance. And it takes years to train people to be able to go to a place like China. They have to have some familiarity with the country. It takes years to train these people. And so the fear I'm hearing from intelligence officials here in the United States is that, you know, for years the Chinese are going to have a pretty good idea of who is working for the CIA and other intelligence agencies and they're going to have to figure out other ways to get human intelligence from there.

[00:10:08] VAUSE: Evan Perez on the line from Washington, thank you.

PEREZ: Thank you.

SESAY: Well, this all comes after U.S. President Barack Obama met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the United States and cyber espionage was one of the main topics they discussed.

For more on the reaction in China, we turn now to CNN's Saima Mohsin live from Beijing.

Saima, I know we're working to get Chinese government's reaction to this development, but today, what's been the Chinese government's position on this hacking of the U.S. federal government's personnel office?

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Isha, they have said time and time again that this is certainly not a state-sponsored hacking that took place at the OPM. China has repeatedly said and President Xi reiterated during his trip last week that China doesn't back hacking of any kind, in particular, of course, for commercial property. And we saw that deal last week.

And just before going to the United States, the Chinese government released a statement saying that blaming them for the OPM hack is not responsible and counterproductive. But as you say we haven't gotten any official word today. There is a Ministry of Foreign Affairs briefing later. We will be asking questions there for you -- Isha. SESAY: Saima, as you mentioned there was a deal struck or an

understanding was reached during President Xi's first U.S. state visit last week. The question many have is, first of all, the details of that understanding and is any agreement likely to stick?

MOHSIN: Well, the details on this, they're incredibly interesting actually because they made some headway but not a lot, Isha. What they agreed on, those presidents, was that they won't indulge on any kind of cyber espionage related to intellectual property. The theft of corporate ideas, which would please of course U.S. businesses which have long been complaining about cyber hacking coming from China.

Again, China says that this is not state sponsored. It might be random hackers that are based in China. Having said that, it doesn't cover, of course, traditional cyber espionage. And last week when I was reporting on this during President Xi's visit, I spoke to an expert at Toronto University Munk School who said that the United States is one of the best if not the best intelligence gatherers of information in the cyber world itself.

And that is the main sticking point between China and the United States. Everyone knows that everyone is doing it. And of course the Web is the new underworld and warzone for cyber espionage. The question is, how far do you go and what are the limits there? And so China says well, we know the U.S. is doing this. So why can't we? And that's why, Isha, it might not stick for as long as perhaps the U.S. would like it to -- Isha.

SESAY: Very, very interesting. Much is expected.

Saima Mohsin, joining us there from Beijing. Thank you.

VAUSE: A short break here on CNN NEWSROOM. When we come back the U.S. and Cuba laying the ground work for better relations. A historic meeting at the U.N. and a look at what each side wants from the other.

SESAY: Plus Donald Trump's tax plan is getting trashed by his opponents. The issues they have with the business mogul's proposal just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:17:23] SESAY: Hello, everyone. The United Nations will raise the Palestinian flag at its New York headquarters today. It will join more than 190 other flags in the Rose Garden outside of the building. Traditionally, only member states' flags are on display outside the U.N. tower.

VAUSE: The Palestinian Authority has non-member observer status and the Palestinians see this as another step towards cementing a place within the international community.

SESAY: Well, CNN's Oren Liebermann has been talking to Israelis and Palestinians about their reaction to the flag raising. He joins us now live from Jerusalem.

Oren, how much significance are people attaching to this flag raising?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John and Isha, this is a very proud moment for Palestinians, but they say it has to last more than a moment. This has to be followed by concrete steps towards recognition of a Palestinian state and it has to be more than a ceremony. That being said, again it is a proud moment for Israelis. Different reactions there. Some who support a two-state solution and some who do not.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): Nothing is simple in and around Jerusalem. And symbols can carry tremendous significance. Perhaps no symbol stirs up more emotions and controversy than the Palestinian flag. You'll see the flag in Bethlehem and the West Bank and now you'll find the Palestinian flag at the United Nations.

(On camera): The Palestinian flag will be raised at the United Nations. What does that mean to you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It means for us as Palestinians, that maybe this is the beginning to get the freedom in Shalal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the first step forward. I hope it will be followed by other steps.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will be happy when we see our flag. But we don't want to see only flag.

LIEBERMANN: What does it change here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In essence, nothing much. In theory or ideology it means that people are beginning to recognize us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I waited a long time ago for this moment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can put a million flags out, but if the flag doesn't support where somebody's from, it's only color.

LIEBERMANN: No surprise here that we got very different answers when we asked Israelis the same question.

The Palestinian flag will be raised at the U.N. for the first time. What do you think about that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't agree with it.

LIEBERMANN: What do you think about that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm very happy for that and I hope it means that it's only the beginning for something more than official action.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They've had many opportunities to bring peace to their land, to flourish. Our leaders have offered them amazing deals and I feel that at this point in time, to give them any credence in the world, an audience, is just totally insulting to humanity. (END VIDEOTAPE)

[00:20:15] LIEBERMANN: So for Palestinians a very significant flag raising on their way or on their path toward a recognition of a Palestinian state. But again, they say this has to be followed up by concrete action, perhaps at the Security Council -- Isha.

SESAY: Oren Liebermann, joining us there from Jerusalem. Thank you, Oren.

VAUSE: U.S. President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart are discussing how to improve relations. They met at the U.N. on Tuesday.

SESAY: Mr. Raul Castro says the U.S. must lift its embargo on Cuba and end what he calls illegal U.S. occupation of Guantanamo Bay. Mr. Obama says the more Cuba does to improve its human rights record, the more the regulatory changes the U.S. will make.

VAUSE: Josh Lockman is a lecturer of international law and foreign policy at the USC School of Law right here in Los Angeles. And you are here with us on set which is great to see you and welcome.

(CROSSTALK)

SESAY: Thank you.

VAUSE: Thank you very much. Let's get back to what I see as almost kind of a standoff now between Obama and Castro. Obama saying, you know, you'll get that embargo lifted the more you move on human rights. More things improve in Cuba. Castro is unlikely to make any big bold political changes which will threaten his grip on power.

My read on that is that we're now coming to a stall in trying to improve relations between the U.S. and Cuba.

JOSH LOCKMAN, USC SCHOOL OF LAW: Well, I think it could be a stall, John. It also could just be a slow and steady climb as far as -- in the wake of the rapprochement that's taken place and the seminal moment, obviously, with the European embassies. Talks aren't proceeding as fast, I think, as people thought they were. That being said, progress has been made on trade issues, civil aviation agreements are, you know, underway, and talks are underway in that front.

But there are many issues that President Obama and the White House simply cannot touch because of the U.S. embargo under congressional control. And so that remains to be seen. I think the president probably tried to telegraph as much as possible in his meeting with Raul Castro that he is limited in his power.

VAUSE: Yes, if Congress won't move until Castro moves, and nothing is going to change.

LOCKMAN: Right. It's possible, though, that Congress may move but they may wait until after the election year next year especially with Senator Rubio and his showing so far in the polls. And if he is the nominee, this will be an issue that he along with the Republican Party I think will try to preserve as far as their animus toward opening ties with Cuba.

SESAY: So, Josh, let's talk about what the president can or can't do. You talk about the limitations because of Congress. The Cuban Foreign Minister Rodriguez says he could do more to ease the impact of the embargo by using his executive action. What can he do?

LOCKMAN: Right, exactly. I think we're going to see those types of actions taking place next week via Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker going to Havana and we continuously have the talks taking place between the U.S. State Department and the Cuban Foreign Ministry and those are proceeding well, albeit slowly. So there are executive actions and orders that President Obama can take in the arenas of trade, allowing U.S. telecommunication industry to go in more firmly, aviation agreements.

We have seen this obviously with the excitement over travel potentially increasing. And obviously the lifting or softening of visa restrictions for U.S. tourists, but there are other arenas in which the president simply cannot act without the imprimatur of Congress.

VAUSE: What I found interesting is that the, you know, the Cuban leader wants compensation for the 53-year long embargo. There's putting of $1 trillion price tag on that. They have a snowball's chance in Havana of that happening, right?

LOCKMAN: Snowball chance. Along with unfortunately Guantanamo Bay.

VAUSE: Yes.

LOCKMAN: And obviously the president has made this an issue since he campaigned for president in 2007 about closing Guantanamo Bay, but I think there is snowball chance, you know, of returning this territory to the Cuban government. But that being said there's tremendous enthusiasm and exuberance I think from the American people and from the Cuban people on this opening. And now it will hopefully fuel the government along with the public and private sector talks that are happening at a slow pace.

SESAY: We will be watching.

VAUSE: Josh, thanks for being here.

SESAY: Josh, thank you so much.

LOCKMAN: Yes. Thank you.

VAUSE: Good to speak with you.

SESAY: Thank you.

LOCKMAN: Cheers.

VAUSE: OK. Republican frontrunner Donald Trump's tax plan is already drawing criticism for its hefty price tag. Tax policy groups from both sides of politics forecast that it will reduce tax revenues by trillions over a decade.

SESAY: Trump's proposal promises deep tax cuts for people across the board without adding to the U.S. debt or deficit but his rivals are calling the business mogul's plan wishful thinking.

VAUSE: Former U.S. President Bill Clinton took a jab at Donald Trump on Tuesday calling his campaign fact free. During an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett, Clinton defended his wife Hillary, the Democratic presidential frontrunner.

SESAY: He pointed his wife's efforts to impose sanctions against Iran as secretary of state. It was in response to Trump's comments that Hillary's four-year tenure was a failure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIN BURNET, CNN HOST, "OUTFRONT": You say you can't insult your way to the White House. You say Donald Trump could be the nominee. So I have to play this for you. This is something he said in the interview yesterday about your wife and I want to play it for you and get your reaction. Here's Donald Trump in my interview yesterday.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I always respected him. I've actually liked him over the years, but when we look at what's going on in the world. When we look at the job that Hillary did as secretary of state, she goes down as perhaps the worst secretary of state in history.

[00:25:22] And when I run against her evenly in the polls, I'm doing very well against Hillary and beating her.

Erin, if you look throughout the world during her reign and the reign of Obama, the whole world is blowing up. We have lost our friendships. We have lost everything.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, the thing about branding is you don't have to be -- you can be fact free. And I think --

(APPLAUSE)

So even the Republicans admit that the sanctions on Iran were well done. And that it was a major achievement to get Russia and China to agree to sign off on these sanctions and to enforce them. She did that. That's what made the talks possible. So even people who don't like the Iran deal like the sanctions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Well, Clinton blamed his wife's struggles in the polls on political media picking up on criticism over issues such her use of a private e-mail server.

VAUSE: No kidding. OK. A short break here. When we come back a well-planned attack and

a surprising defeat for Afghan forces. A live report on the Taliban's victory in Afghanistan.

SESAY: Plus Barack Obama leads a U.N. conference on fighting ISIS as a new report slams U.S. effort to keep foreign fighters out of Iraq and Syria.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:30:00] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM Live From Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.

SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. The headlines this hour: The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a last ditch stay of execution. Kelly Gissendaner turning (inaudible) pleas from her family, and even The Vatican. The 47-year-old woman was sentenced to death for convincing her lover to murder her husband. Her execution has been set to take place a few hours ago. It would be the first execution of a woman in Georgia in 70 years.

VAUSE: The U.S. is pulling its spies out of China following the hack on the US Office of Personnel Management. A U.S. official tells CNN they believe Chinese hackers were behind the breach which exposed the personal data of more than 21 million U.S. Government workers.

SESAY: Afghan forces are battling to regain control of a key northern city after a bold offensive by the Taliban. The militants attacked Kunduz from several directions and quickly seized their biggest city since 2001. They also freed as many as 600 prisoners. The U.S. is backing Afghan forces with air strikes.

VAUSE: We will get more now on this story in Afghanistan. Let's go to Lynda Kinkade. She has details now in this report.

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Afghan Security Forces backed by U.S. air power fight to retake Kunduz, one day after it fell in to the hands of Taliban insurgents. Residents were seen fleeing the area as troops and security forces moved in and U.S. forces launched the first air strike, hitting Taliban positions on the outskirts of the city. That's according to a NATO spokesman.

Kunduz is the largest city to be overrun by the Taliban since 2001, and a set back for the President Ashraf Ghani, who came to power just a year ago. In a nationally televised speech Ghani tried to reassure Afghans saying government forces recaptured some parts of the city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMMAD ASHRAF GHANI, PRESIDENT, AFGHANISTAN (translator): I want to assure all of my countrymen that Kunduz is under our management. Therefore, we shouldn't be worried about enemy plans of stirring fear in the area.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KINKADE: Ghani says the military efforts have been hampered by the Taliban using civilians as human shields, but said the enemy was suffering heavy casualties.

After hundreds of Taliban prisoners escaped in a massive jailbreak on Monday night, Afghan officials say government forces had retaken the City Prison and Police Headquarters less than 24 hours later. The sudden fall of the city has raised questions over how ready Afghan forces were to tackle the

Islamist insurgents alone. Many Afghans are now afraid that Kunduz could be the first of many cities to fall to the Taliban.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are concerned if Kunduz goes, then there is a possibility that very soon other provinces will fall in to the hands of the Taliban; and our people and the country will fall in to a crisis and there will be misery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: U.S. officials are keeping an eye on the fighting. Roughly 10,000 American troops remain in Afghanistan. Most are due to come home by the end of next year, but the battle for Kunduz could impact those plans.

Lynda Kinkade, CNN.

VAUSE: Live now to Kabul and our reporter, Sunae Engel Rasmussen joins us now, live, with more on this. Sunae, what's the very latest on this counter-offensive by Afghan forces?

SUNAE ENGEL RASMUSSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the latest we hear is that there hasn't been a lot of change over the past, overnight. It's been a bloody night in Kunduz but the Taliban is in control of most of the city. Users on social media, people I have spoken to in the city say that Taliban bodies lying around in the city; but it still seems like the Taliban are in control of most of it. They're still besieging the airport just outside of the city, which would be a crucial place for the Taliban to be to get control of.

VAUSE: Sunae, is this an indication of what's to come there in Afghanistan, a revitalized Taliban under their new leader, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour?

RASMUSSEN: Well, it is definitely a big propaganda victory for the new Taliban leader, that's for sure. I'm not sure this is a sign the Taliban are able to broaden the offensive or move toward Kabul. I'd be surprised if the government security forces don't manage to take back control of Kunduz relatively quickly; but, that being said, it seems the Taliban are resilient in Kunduz. They have, in the past, proven willing to sacrifice quite a lot of fighters to key territory. So this could be a longer fight than expected.

VAUSE: Finally, Sunae, there's a lot of talk in Washington abut the time line for withdrawing American forces completely from Afghanistan. How much support is there, right now, in Afghanistan for the U.S. to keep a significant security presence in country?

RASMUSSEN: I think most ordinary Afghans, and most Afghans in the security establishment would prefer the Americans and their allies to stay for longer.

[00:35:00]

RASMUSSEN: That's also the opinion of the leading U.S. commander here in Kabul. He also has recommended to the President several times that the U.S. prolong their engagement in Afghanistan. There is no doubt that the current events in Kunduz will put the spotlight back on the President and will definitely reignite that discussion of whether or not it is the right time for NATO and U.S. forces to withdrawal from Afghanistan. But, it doesn't change the fact that at some point the Afghans will have to take control over security here and take responsibility. So if not now, then that's what a lot of people argue

at least, if not now when will that happen?

VAUSE: Okay, Sunae, thank you. Sunae Engel Rasmussen reporting there in Kabul with the very latest. Thank you.

SESAY: Now U.S. President, Barack Obama, says the only way to defeat ISIS, in Syria, is for President Bashar al-Assad to step down. Mr. Obama led an anti-extremism summit of more than 100 countries Tuesday at the United Nations. He says the U.S. approach for fighting the terror group will take time but all countries must do more to keep ISIS from recruiting new fighters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're stepping up our efforts to discredit ISIL's propaganda, especially online. The UAE's new messaging hub, the Sawab Center, is exposing ISIL for what it is, which is a band of terrorists that kills innocent Muslim men, women and children. We are working to lift up the voices of Muslim scholars, clerics and others including ISIL defectors who courageously stand up to ISIL and its warped

interpretations of Islam.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Meantime, the congressional report says the U.S. has failed to stop the flow of foreign fighters joining ISIS. It estimates more than 25,000 foreigners have gone to Syria and Iraq since 2011 to fight for terror groups.

SESAY: Still to come on NEWSROOM L.A., a look at a highly anticipated electric vehicle that has been years in the making.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:40:00] SESAY: Welcome back everyone. Twitter's newest high profile user is already generating controversy. Edward Snowden, you'll recall, is the whistleblower who leaked thousands of classified documents regarding U.S. surveillance programs to some journalists. Some call him a hero, while others consider him a fugitive from justice.

VAUSE: One of those that consider him is a fugitive is U.S. Republican President Candidate, George Pataki. He called Snowden, on Twitter, "A traitor that put Americans at risk, hides in Russia and belongs behind bars." Pataki's comments caught the attention of the journalist who published Snowden's leaked documents - that was Glen Greenwald -- and he mocked him by tweeting this out. "Hi, I'm running if President. My support in all polls is an asterisk. And I'm here to say who should and shouldn't be allowed on Twitter."

Last time we checked Snowden had more than 770,000 followers on Twitter, almost as many as you.

SESAY: Something tells me this is going to go back and forth.

VAUSE: Not over.

SESAY: We'll be reporting on that going forward. Alright, well, for Tesla car enthusiasts the wait is finally over. The highly anticipated Model X just rolled off the company's assembly line in Freemont, California. Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, helped showoff the crossover at a special event.

VAUSE: Tesla unveiled a prototype Model X SUV back in 2012. It was meant to hit the market by 2014 but production was delayed until now.

SESAY: Well, Aaron Robinson is Executive Editor at "Car and Driver Magazine". He joins us from Mountain View, California with his take on the Model X. Great to have you with us, Aaron.

So Tesla's Model X seats seven passengers, in three rows of seats. My question is how is this different from a minivan?

AARON ROBINSON, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "CAR AND DRIVER MAGAZINE": Well, it's far more sport utility looking. It looks much more like an upscale luxury SUV. Elon Musk figures that about half of the vehicle buyers who buy luxury cars actually buy SUV's versus sedans. So in order to reach that segment he needs an SUV.

VAUSE: We have known about the Model X for a while, but we haven't seen a lot it because no one was allowed to get close to it until now. I'm hoping you got a good look at it because Elon Musk, especially went on and on about the second row of seats. He called them a work of art. Did you see the seats and what is he talking about?

ROBINSON: Yes. In fact, the car is extremely complicated. I mean, even if a mainstream car company were building this car it is quite an engineering headache. They really should call it Elon's headache rather of the Model X.

(LAUGHTER)

ROBINSON: One of the massive headaches, besides these wild doors, these "falcon wing" doors, is these seats. The middle seats actually sit on these pedestals that slide back and forth. To though average person they may look that complicated, but from an engineering standpoint they are extremely complicated because they have to stand up to a lot of loads. You have to think of putting a 250 pound guy in that seat and crashing it. It has to be able to slide back and forth so it can get in and out of the back. One of the engineers said that if you took all of the plastic off of this pedestal it would look like something no octopus should have to build. So it is very complicated.

(LAUGHTER)

SESAY: Aaron, seriously, the buzz surrounding electric vehicles is on the slide. We all know that gas prices are dropping and sales are plummeting, too, of electric vehicles. Tesla is losing money. How big of a gamble is the Model X for Elon Musk?

ROBINSON: Well, it is a really big gamble because, as I said, it is a complicated car. This car probably would have been out in the show rooms about a year ago, maybe two years ago had they not been so aggressive in the design and trying to deliver these kind of concept car features in a production car. Elon Musk actually admits that the car is probably too complicated and they went overboard. But now he's got it and it's in production.

It does have some fairly stunning features to it, but, again, it's quite expensive. the base car is $132,000. It doesn't really come down and breach the wall separating electric vehicle from mainstream customers which is, of course, affordability. That's something that Tesla is looking for down the road with what they're calling the Model 3 or the next car which will be smaller and a bit cheaper. But right now, they are still luxury products with a limited following.

VAUSE: What was it, about 20,000 people put down $5,000 deposit because they are hoping to get one of these? When are they going to actually ramp up production? He says it's a very difficult car to make, very complicated. Are they going to be able to meet that demand anytime soon?

ROBINSON: It's going to be a while. I mean, the company is saying nine to 12 months if you go to a show room right now and put money down. They have said some of the parts are so complicated on the car that the suppliers that are making the parts -- even the sun visors are incredibly complicated - that it's going to be a while to get those suppliers up to speed so that they can deliver parts to the factory.

[00:45:00]

ROBINSON: So it's going to take some time to ramp this up. The same was true of the Model S. They had a big rollout and delivered some cars to customers but the ramp up in production was quite slow and I expect this car will follow that or even go more slowly. VAUSE: Gosh, complicated sun visors. Aaron Robinson, "Car and Driver", thanks for being with us. Glad you got to have a look at it. Appreciate it.

SESAY: Thanks, Aaron.

VAUSE: Okay, a series of powerful storms potentially followed by a hurricane, are threatening the northeastern part of the United States, and it's going to happen over the next few days. Meteorologist, Pedram Javaheri joining us with more details on that. Hey, PJ.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good to see you guys. You know, this story has certainly the potential to become one of the biggest weather stories in the United States in about a year or so if it materializes, I want to show you what has already occurred across portions of the southern U.S. Take you down to Mobile, Alabama, the perspective, with significant flooding in the past couple of days. Upwards of a foot of rainfall has come down over this region.

You look at areas, point to the north, we're getting viewer photos shared from Arlington, down in Virginia. Some of the scenes there are some basements taking on water, where upwards of four inches of rainfall has come down in recent days. James Madison University, that is in Harrisonburg, take a look at the scene there. There are some folks having fun across the University floating down with the floodwaters, but this story has certainly the potential to become something significant.

Let me show you what we are talking about here. Of course, the rainfall has already come down. We're looking off shore. This is Tropical Storm Joaquin, sitting east of the Bahamas Islands right now, has the potential to become a Hurricane, and want to show you what the models have, as far as the forecast going over the next couple of days. Bottom of the screen, that's the GFS model. It's an American model. Sunday 9:00 a.m. Eastern has the hurricane land -- falling across the eastern seaboard of the United States, around the Delmarva. If we look back at the top of your screen, that's the European model. That particular one keeps it off shore, near Bermuda. Certainly a lot of discrepancy with what will happen with this forecast.

Again, I want to show you what has transpired and what will continue to transpire over the coming couple of days. As we go towards the Northeast, you notice heavy rainfall. When I say heavy, I'm talking about significant flooding potential, upwards of six plus inches across northern New England through Wednesday, before a potential tropical feature gets here. Work your way towards portions of, say, New York State into portions of Massachusetts, two to four inches, maybe six inches, again, across these areas. So if we lay out some of the models for you, notice just about every single one of the models wants to take it to the eastern seaboard. Some of them take it into the Carolinas. Other ones take it in to the Delmarva. Then further back, you're looking at portions of the New England coastline getting impacted by this.

As we drop in some of the upper level energy, I want to show you something here. Friday at 10:00 p.m., massive storm system across the eastern United States, what is a Category Two, potentially, hurricane sitting there across the Atlantic. Now, watch what happens as we take it from Saturday in to Sunday. The storm system filled with tropical moisture emerges with our disturbance that comes in; has really what it takes as far as what it looks like it could be, what we saw with Sandy. when it comes to one storm interacting with a tropical feature. Superstorm Sandy, of course, was back in October of 2012 and this storm system has some of the makings of the interaction that took place, that brought in the devastating flooding over that region. That's why we think it could be a big story guys

VAUSE: Okay, Pedram thanks for those details. Appreciate it.

SESAY: Thank you, Pedram.

VAUSE: We will take a break here on CNN NEWSROOM and we'll be back in just a moment.

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VAUSE: We have this breaking news in to CNN: authorities in Georgia have executed Kelly Gissendaner. The 47-year-old woman had been convicted of murder for convincing her lover to kill her husband back in 1997.

SESAY: Despite appeals for clemency from the Vatican and her children, state authority and the U.S. Supreme Court refused calls for clemency. She died from a lethal injection in a prison near Atlanta, Georgia, and was declared dead at 12:21 a a.m. Eastern time. We know that more than 90,000 people signed a petition asking the governor for a stay of execution. As we know, the Pope appeal on her behalf. She's the first woman to be executed in Georgia in 70 years.

VAUSE: And, of course, the death certificate issued just on 30 minutes ago. CNN's Martin Savidge has been covering this story and discussed her last-ditch appeals.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The effort to spare Kelly Gissendaner's life went beyond the time when she should have been dead. Prison officials put the 47-year-old's convicted murderer's execution on hold to let the legal process run its course.

MARCUS EASLEY, RETIRED POLICE OFFICER: She was very strong and she was very assured in whatever the process was going to be. She handled herself with poise that was just beyond belief.

SAVIDGE: But, when the last court turned her down, time and hope ran out. Gissendaner's attorneys weren't the only ones fighting on her behalf. Her grown children begged a parole board to commute her sentence to life in prison. KAYLA GISSENDANER: She's so supportive of me. I can talk to her

about anything, any troubles I have or anything that I want to celebrate. I know that she's my biggest cheerleader. My brothers and I really want my mom to live. She's all that we have left.

SAVIDGE: Even the Vatican weighed in with a letter from an emissary of the Pope, "Please be assured of my prayers as you consider this request by Pope Francis for what I believe would be a just act of clemency" with it read.

Others felt the sentence for the 1997 murder of her husband was just. Doug Gissendaner's parents said in a statement, "As the murderer she has been given more rights and opportunities over the last 18 years than she ever afforded Doug who, again, is the victim here. She gave no mercy, gave him no rights, no choices, nor the opportunity to live his life.

Kelly Gissendaner planned her husband's murder but did not do it. The beating and stabbing death was committed by her boyfriend, Gregory Owen. In a separate trial Owen got a lesser sentence of life with a possibility of parole.

[00:55:00]

The disparity between his sentence and hers was a point attorneys and death penalty opponents focused on as evidence of a flawed judicial system. There was also Gissendaner's life after her conviction, in which she turned to her faith, studied theology and counseled fellow prisoners. In a strange twist, two previous execution dates were postponed, once by a winter storm and the other when the experts said the chemicals that made up the lethal injection looked cloudy.

With her execution Gissendaner earns two very different distinctions. The first woman executed in Georgia in 70 years and the last woman on Georgia's death row. M

artin Savidge, CNN Center, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: You are watching CNN NEWSROOM Live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: I'm John Vause. We'll be back with another hour of the day's top stories after a very short break. You are watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SESAY: This is CNN NEWSROOM Live from Los Angeles.

VAUSE: And, breaking news: In the last few moments a Georgia mother executed despite a last minute appeal from the Pope.