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Kurdish Forces Fighting to Retake Sinjar; Russia Denies Report It Has Syrian Peace Plan; Trump Promoting Immigration Plan on Campaign Trail; Russia Needs Its Own Doping Investigation; Exposing Human Trafficking in Mexico; Thousands of Refugees Flock to Europe; Chicago Gun Violence Reaches Epic Proportions; Putin Responds on Doping Allegations; Operation Surf Helps Injured Soldiers; Dangerous Toxin Hurting California Crabbing. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired November 12, 2015 - 01:00   ET

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


[01:00:11] ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour, fighting back against ISIS. A major new operation underway at this hour to retake a strategic city in Iraq.

SESAY: Donald Trump says he will deport millions of undocumented immigrant if he's elected U.S. president. It's a plan that has been tried before with mixed results.

VAUSE: And also ahead, you will meet the surfing soldiers hitting the waves and helping them to move beyond the horrors of war.

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

VAUSE: Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause.

NEWSROOM L.A. starts now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

SESAY: Breaking news this hour. Up to 7500 Kurdish troops are on the move in northern Iraq on a mission dubbed Operation Free Sinjar.

VAUSE: Now they're fighting to retake this town right here, it was seized by ISIS in August of last year. Warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition are providing close air support.

Senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh joins us now on the line from outside of Sinjar.

So, Nick, what's the very latest on the offensive as you've been able to work out at this point? How long do you think this will all take?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via phone): How long it will take is the key question, John. We simply don't know. And the optimism we're hearing amongst the Peshmerga who are I have to say gathered in number that we can see as being support, their official contention that 7500 strong. We simply don't know if the operation (INAUDIBLE) and this could be over in a matter of days even hours, some of them are saying, is misplaced or not.

Now yes, we do know and we can say there are restrictions placed on what I can tell you about our exact geographical movement on the condition of why we're allowed to be with the Peshmerga here. And we can tell you that the offensive is coming from the north from Mount Sinjar, from where there were those horrifying images of Yazidis fleeing for their lives last year. Some rescued by helicopter. And also from east and the west. Along a key road.

Sinjar is strategically important. The Peshmerga backed by coalition air power that we heard pummel the areas around Sinjar last night during the darkness but also invade previously according to coalition press releases. The Peshmerga want to reclaim that for reversing of course the symbolic nature of ISIS victory last year. But also because through that city runs a vital road known by many as Route 47 which head from the caliphate's self-declared capital of Raqqa, through to Mosul, the city they freed last year, marking many say the beginning kind of their state to create this self-declared caliphate Mosul.

Now if the Peshmerga are successful in blocking that road off, that could potentially severely hamper ISIS' ability to defend both Raqqa and Mosul, their ability to move resources around a particular area.

We're in the early hours here. The Peshmerga says 9:00 in the evening is when this offensive officially got underway and the last few hours we've been allowed to actually announce it. It is moving slowly where we are but they are in overwhelming numbers. They are deeply concerned about booby traps around them particularly in the (INAUDIBLE) areas. All sorts of rumors about what ISIS might be doing to prepare for their arrival. But I think a sense, too, of optimism on their numbers may give them the upper hand -- John.

VAUSE: Nick, do you know if the YPG forces, the Syrian Kurds, are fighting alongside the Iraqi Kurds, the Peshmerga, and also what about presence of U.S. military advisors? Are they on the ground there as well as best you can tell?

WALSH: As far as we can tell, yes, we think there are some Western military advisers. We haven't seen ourselves but they are known to be operating in this particular area. When it comes to the exact make up of the Kurdish forces, complicated in some degree. Officially if not complicated. The Peshmerga are very clear that this is an operation led by them and other Kurdish groups, including the YPG and maybe the PKK, are allowed in the trail end of that operations. And they could move in once the major part of the clearing is done.

Now here we've seen evidence of one --

VAUSE: Looks like we have lost our connection there to Nick Paton Walsh who was joining us on the line there from just outside of Sinjar. Reporting on a military operation which has been ongoing now for a number of hours as Kurdish Peshmerga forces move in on the town of Sinjar -- Isha. SESAY: Well, joining us now with more on all of this, CNN military

analyst, Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona. He's in La Quinta, California.

Colonel Francona, great to have you with us once again. You've described this offensive which is being launched on three fronts as sophisticated, but what are the challenges here to retaking Sinjar?

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, it is sophisticated. And of course, Nick was talking about the air power. That would have required quite a period of reconnaissance to actually determine what to strike. When you launch these operations you want to make sure that the air power is hitting specific targets and that you're having the intended effect. And then you move this three- pronged attack.

[01:05:10] And so, you know, the Kurds are capable of doing this and they've got the Western military advisor to help them do this. So I think that what we're seeing is the -- you know, realization of what we've been going for for the last year.

Now the challenges here are really going to be difficult once they get into that city. Remember, ISIS has had a year to prepare the battle field. Just like they did in Tikrit before and Ramadi now, they are building up defenses, booby traps, landmines and their favorite weapon is the car bomb driven by a lot of these foreign fighters that they bring in from outside.

So the overwhelming numbers are certainly on the Kurds' side but remember, a small number of ISIS fighters held off a large number of Iraqis in Tikrit for a long period of time. So I hope they're successful. The Kurds are very, very capable fighters but they need to go about this deliberately and slowly.

SESAY: Colonel Francona, you mentioned the capabilities of the Kurds. We know that this is an operation that involves Syrian Kurds. The YPG alongside Iraqi Kurds, the Peshmerga, alongside this coalition involvement. Do you worry about coordination here?

FRANCONA: Well, the coordination between the Iraqi Kurds and Syrian Kurds has always been problematic. They do get along and they cooperate when they need to. But politically they've had some difficulties over the years. The Kurdish Peshmerga, the Kurdish -- the Iraqi Kurds have not always supported what the Syrian Kurds are doing, especially when it comes to the support of the PKK. The Kurdish group that branded a terrorist organization by the United States and Turkey.

I think we're going to see much more coordination because every Kurdish area up there they regard as the future of Kurdistan, which of course is anathema to our allies, the Turks. So we're going to see that coordination but as Nick said, I think the Iraqi Kurds are going to try and make this an Iraqi Kurd operation.

SESAY: How does retaking Sinjar, if indeed they are successful. How does that impact the broader coalition battle against ISIS? FRANCONA: Yes, this is very important. Sinjar is a key city on that

route. As Nick said, it's the main supply route between Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq. Mosul of course is the key target down the road. The Iraqis have to retake Mosul. It's been in ISIS hands since July of 2014. The Iraqis have talked about going back up there since September 2014. They are nowhere near going after it. Sinjar might be the first step of doing it.

Sinjar is a great target because what it does it cuts Mosul off and it forces ISIS to either retake it and expend a lot of resources doing that or they're going to have to find a different way to resupply Mosul. This is a really smart thing for the Kurds to do.

SESAY: Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona, always great to get your perspective. Thanks so much.

FRANCONA: Glad to be with you.

VAUSE: OK. We move on now to Russia where there are denials about a Reuters report which says that Russia has put forward a draft plan to try and end the conflict in Syria.

SESAY: It comes as government forces have recaptured a key air base near Aleppo.

CNN international correspondent Fred Pleitgen reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERICK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): The Syrian government hails this as a major victory, pro- regime forces apparently backed by Russian air power managed to break through to the quarries air base east of Aleppo. It was under siege by ISIS militants for almost two years. Syrian government media later aired a recording of President Bashar al-Assad congratulating the soldiers involved.

"I salute the heroes who remained steadfast for years," he said, in a statement read on Syrian state TV. "And I salute the heroes who contributed to ending the siege. And I salute every soldier in the Syrian Arab Army for he is a brother or a son to us and their life and safety is always the first of priorities."

The news comes as Syrian forces claimed they are inflicting, quote, "huge losses on their enemies," which include Islamists but also more moderate rebel factions. As Russia and Iran bolsters Assad's forces international leaders continue their efforts to find a diplomatic solution to a civil war that's left more than 250,000 people dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and has turned millions into refugees.

Ahead of the second round of international talks in Vienna the Reuters News Agency reports that Russia has floated a peace proposal. One that reportedly called for an 18-month transition period, a council to outline and implement political reforms that Bashar al-Assad should not be a member of, and finally early presidential elections. According to media reports the plan would not exclude Assad from running in those elections, something the opposition and its backers demand as a pre-condition for any peace talks.

[01:10:12] Moscow vehemently denies putting forward such a proposal. The Russians saying first they want clarity on which opposition groups should be part of the diplomatic process and which ones shouldn't.

"I mean, first of all, a necessity to agree on a list of terrorist organizations," Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. "So that no one has any doubts or hesitation to an affiliation of this or that armed group."

As Syrian government forces display their perceived momentum on the battlefield the international community is trying to maintain the diplomatic momentum on the quest to finally end this bloody conflict.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Jill Dougherty is a researcher at the International Center for Defense and Security. She's also a longtime Moscow bureau chief of this network.

And Jill, it is always great to speak with you. This proposal that the Russians put forward, they're denying it's out there. The Russians and the Americans have pretty much confirmed there is. Maybe one reason why they're denying is it's not getting a lot of traction but at least now we know where the Russian stand politically and at least they're involved diplomatically here.

JILL DOUGHERTY, RESEARCHER, INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR DEFENSE AND SECURITY: Yes. And actually I think lot of this we already knew. It's not that different from some proposals or ideas that have been out there. But, you know, in something like this -- excuse me -- when they really, you know, want to make a proposal, the devil is in the lack of details and that's one of the problems here.

And essentially what they're saying is, as Fred said, it's 18 months there would be this political transition period. You'd write a new constitution, you'd have a referendum and then you'd have an election. But the real question is what happens in the interim to Bashar al- Assad because the Russians, according to the news that's out there, they don't want to be specific but it looks as if what they're saying is Assad would not be -- the president would not be the head of this group that tries to work out a new constitution.

But it raises the question of, what exactly does he do? How long does he stay in power? Where does he go? Et cetera. And as we all know and have been reporting for quite a long time, every country has a different view on that. The United states is a little bit more moderate, saying that eventually he has to go but maybe not right now. Other countries are a lot more vehement about having him step down immediately. So that's, I think, the biggest question mark of all.

VAUSE: You know, back in 2003, before the Iraq war, Putin send an envoy to Baghdad with a message for Saddam Hussein which was essentially step down as president but you can remain as the leader of the Baath Party. Saddam refused. We know how it ended.

Could something similar happen here? Because Assad, he's president, he's the leader of the Baath Party in Syria. Could the Russians play a similar role now, especially because they've got a lot more leverage with Assad than they did with Saddam Hussein?

DOUGHERTY: Well, remember, just that, what is it, about a month ago perhaps when Assad came to Moscow, met with President Putin? And that was one of the ideas floated at that time that perhaps Russia was speaking with him specifically about that.

Now it was never confirmed that that was the conversation. But you're absolutely right, John, that Russia has a lot more leverage with Assad. After all, they are rescuing him from destruction by sending in their air force to protect the Syrian forces on the ground. So in a sense he owes them something. But the Russians, Mr. Putin especially do not want to tell an elected leader to step down. Even if it is an elected leader who has attacked his own people many times so that's where we have -- that's why we have this problem and it all boils down to Assad.

VAUSE: Yes. I guess now, you mentioned Russia's heavy military involvement there propping up the Syrian government. Putin has essentially made it very clear now that any peace deal for Syria, the road to that has to go through Moscow.

DOUGHERTY: Absolutely. And that was probably one of the main reasons that he wanted to get involved and send in his air force. I mean, Russians wants to be a major player in the Middle East but more specifically, it wants to be there to define what happens after the Assad regime -- or maybe not, but the next government, whatever that should be, is in place. Russia wants to be at the table defining that and it really has done a very, I would say, a good job at inserting itself into the debate, into the discussion, and is now one of the leaders in defining what will happen next.

[01:15:07] VAUSE: Yes. Jill, we'll have to leave it there. I guess one of the issues, though, is how far are the Russians prepared to go, where are they willing to throw Assad under the bus. Always good to speak with you, Jill Dougherty. We appreciate it, thank you.

SESAY: Well, U.S. leaders are hoping a possible deal with Africa will help slow the flow of migrants to the region. That story is just ahead.

VAUSE: Also Donald Trump's plan for what he calls a deportation force to round up undocumented migrants in the United States.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KATE WILEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kate Riley with you CNN world sport headlines.

The Russian President has spoken for the first time about allegations his country was involved in widespread doping. Vladimir Putin said Russia must do everything it can to eradicate doping. The country faces a possible ban from the Olympics in Rio next year over claims of state-sponsored drug abuse in track and field. Meanwhile, we might see a foreign expert head up Russia's anti-doping laboratory. That news comes after the last director quit following WADA's allegations this week.

Sepp Blatter has suffered, and I quote, "a body break down." His adviser Klaus Stohlker had told CNN the 79-year-old is in hospital and is in a good, mental and physical state. Blatter has been suspended by FIFA's Ethics Committee. FIFA's attorney general opened criminal proceedings against him. He's expected to have his appeal heard in the coming weeks.

And England's rugby team are looking for a new head coach. Stuart Lancaster stepped down from his post by mutual consent. The decision follows England's disappointing World Cup campaign. The team knocked out of the tournament at the pool stages after defeat to Wales and Australia to become the first host nation to fail to qualify out of the group stage.

And that's a look at all your sports headlines. I'm Kate Riley.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. We move on now to the volatile and often emotional issue of illegal immigration and two very different approaches, one in Europe and the other in the United States. And an EU summit in Malta leaders are considering almost $2 billion in cash incentives for African countries. It's to help them deal with the economic and security issues which are driving a flood of migrants to leave the world's poorest continent, seeking a better life in Europe.

SESAY: In the U.S., the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination Donald Trump has been surging in the polls partly because of his hard line on illegal immigration. On the campaign trail on Wednesday, Trump was talking up his plan to use force to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants and to build a wall along the southern border with Mexico.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[01:20:14] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, my biggest hand last night and the biggest hand of the evening was when I said at the border, at the border -- we're going to create a border, we're going to build a wall. We're going to build a wall and the place went crazy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Not all Republican presidential candidates agree with Mr. Trump. During Tuesday's debate, John Kasich said it was not an adult argument while Jeb Bush said it would tear families apart. We should note both candidates are polling in the single digits.

SESAY: But Donald Trump's plan goes even further. He says he would create what he call a deportation force to humanely round up undocumented immigrants and send them back to where they came from.

VAUSE: Trump says it worked in the U.S. in the past and it will work again.

Here's Tom Foreman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Spurring protests and spiking poll numbers, tough talk about illegal immigration put Donald Trump on the election map.

TRUMP: They are bringing drugs. They are bringing crime. They are rapists.

FOREMAN: And now he is praising a program whose official name considers what is currently considered an offensive slur, "Operation Wet Back."

In 1954 this massive roundup of undocumented workers came after years of growing tension between the U.S. and Mexico about competition for workers, the effect on wages and border security.

DWIGHT EISENHOWER, 34TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My fellow citizens.

FOREMAN: And while the Eisenhower administration considered the program a success due to a sharp spike in apprehensions of Mexicans, many modern historians like Douglas Brinkley do not.

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: It was inhumane. It was abusive to Mexicans that had come into the United States at our request to work during World War II.

FOREMAN: For starters, immigration enforcement claimed over a million deportations while later analysis suggested maybe only a quarter million, even as farm jobs in the southwest continue drawing tens of thousands of new immigrants. Humanitarian complaints were raised as some deportees were sent back to Mexico aboard what a congressional investigation described as a slave ship.

BRINKLEY: Many of the Mexicans that were rounded up had their heads shaved, many were beaten and abused. There is incidents in 1955 of Mexicans that died in the desert because they were pushed out of the United States.

FOREMAN: Indeed, that summer 88 people died of heat stroke in a single episode. No wonder the blow back to Trump's ideas is strong.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: For the 11 million people, come on, folks, we all know you can't pick them up and ship them across -- back across the border. It's a silly argument. It's not an adult argument.

FOREMAN (on camera): Despite claims at the time that Ike's deportation program was working in less than a year it was out of funding and shutting down, although the debate about it rages on more than a half century later.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Now Thursday's Malta Summit is the sixth time European Union leaders will meet to discuss solutions to try and deal with this migrant crisis.

SESAY: President and prime ministers of 28 countries have tried to tackle this issue but previous meetings have produced few concrete results. German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants a united response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGELA MERKEL, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (Through Translator): The meeting is about agreeing to an action plan. This action plan will fight illegal immigration and it will do more for legal possibilities to work in Europe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Well, CNN's senior international correspondent Arwa Damon has the latest on the crisis from Lesbos, Greece.

So, Arwa, you're there in Greece, which has been one of the frontlines in this story of mass migration. Give our viewers some perspective on the situation where you are.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, just take a look at the scene right here and this is a fraction of the remnants, the life vests that you will find all across the island of Lesbos, at least a part of it that is facing Turkey. Beach upon beach is littered with all sorts of things that the various different refugees and migrants have left behind. Continuing to make the treacherous journey right across these waters.

In fact, according to Frontex in the first 10 months of 2015, 540,000 people crossed these waters and that is 13 times the number that tried to make this crossing back in 2014 and with those increasing numbers are the increasing deaths and is the increasing necessity for people who are absolutely helping out. And over here, we do have a volunteer Greek lifeguard unit. These are professionals that have all put their jobs aside for the time being, all reliant on donations, on the kindness of others to help fund their activities, to bring their speed boats that they're going out in, to bring their jet skis that they're going out in.

[01:25:14] They're constantly on the lookout here and they have a number of stations all along this coast line to try to help people coming through. And as we were driving here, Isha, we came across a very heartbreaking and yet sadly familiar scene. A family on the side of the road. The woman was pregnant, she was diabetic, she needed help. And that's why these teams are so critical because not only are they helping the refugees and migrants when they reach these shores, they are also going out into the water and helping them when they are in distress, trying to save as many lives as they possibly can.

But there is one thing that is just so glaringly obvious standing here and seeing all of this, and that is that we cannot keep having these various different key leaders talking about a plan. Something has to be implemented and as everyone knows only too well, it has to be multifaceted. It's not enough to try to throw money at the problem. It's not enough to build up fences or try to control that's coming mostly from Turkey and Libya and other places like that towards Europe.

You have to deal with the root causes of it. The desperation that is driving these various different migrants and refugees from their homelands to make these treacherous journeys and this, when they reach these various different Greek islands, it's really just the beginning for them. They might have crossed arguably the most dangerous part but the hardest part of the journey still lies ahead -- Isha.

SESAY: Heartbreaking scenes playing out over and over again.

Arwa Damon reporting from Lesbos in Greece where it has just gone 8:26 a.m. Thursday morning. We appreciate it, Arwa. Thank you for the reporting.

VAUSE: And we will take a short break here. When we come back, a 9- year-old boy shot and killed executions style has become another heartbreaking victim in Chicago's gun violence epidemic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FR. MICHAEL PFLEGER, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND SOCIAL ACTIVIST: These are children. And we've got to become angry as a country and decide we're going to go the courage to answer the root causes of this cancer and not just the wound on the skin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:30:43] VAUSE: Thanks for staying with us everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. It's 10:30 on a Wednesday night. I'm John Vause.

SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. The headlines this hour.

Kurdish Peshmerga have launched an offensive to retake the Iraqi town of Sinjar from ISIS. As many as 7500 fighters are involved with air support from the U.S.-led coalition. ISIS captured Sinjar in August of last year and is using thousands of Yazidi women and girls as sex slaves.

VAUSE: Russia is denying a report by the Reuters news agency that it supports a draft plan aimed at ending the conflict in Syria. Reuters says the plan outlines the process with will end the presidential election in 18 months and does not ban President Bashar al Assad from running. SESAY: The European Union leaders will wrap up their migrant summit

Thursday with some ideas to ease the growing crisis. They're offering African leaders more than $2 billions to crack down on human smuggling and stem the flow of people leaving the continent.

VAUSE: Gun violence in Chicago has reached an epic scale but the latest victim has shocked even the most jaded residents of the city's south side.

SESAY: 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee has been buried and Anderson Cooper reports his funeral was a grief-stricken plea for the violence to stop.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SINGING)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, A.C. 360 (voice-over): This is how it ended for Tyshawn Lee, a crowded church, a small casket. This is how it ends for too many of Chicago's black children. A sickening crime, a 9-year-old victim, yet again, sadness and anger on Chicago's south side.

MICHAEL PFLEGER, FATHER, Our children have a right to walk our streets. Our children have a right to expect to be safe wherever they are in the city of Chicago. Our children deserve that.

COOPER: Father Michael Pfleger led the funeral service.

PFLEGER: Tyshawn was not in the wrong place. The murderer, the assassin, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Tyshawn was doing what ever child has a right to do, be a child.

COOPER: Father Pfleger has helped raise a reward for information about who killed Tyshawn Lee but as so often happens, few people want to talk to the police.

GARY MCCARTHY, SUPERINTENDENT, CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: This is a different level of something we're involved in. This is noncombatants being assassinated.

COOPER: Police say he was lured here into this alley and shot multiple times in the face and back. While authorities still haven't made any arrests, they believe the fourth grader was intentionally targeted because his father has ties to a gang in conflict.

This year, there have been around 400 murders in Chicago, an even more horrific than last year when they had the most homicides than anywhere in America.

Now filmmaker, Spike Lee, has a new film called "Chiraq."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Welcome to Chiraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: It's a title, a term coined by local rappers, melding of Chicago and Iran. Many who live on Chicago's south side say it feels like war zone.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORT: Homicides in Chicago have surpassed the total of American Special Forces in Iraq.

COOPER: Father Michael Pfleger has been working closely with Spike Lee.

Today I sat down with both Spike Lee and Father Pfleger in the same Chicago church with Tyshawn Lee was mourned.

(on camera): You feel like a line has been crossed, although I wonder how many times have you said that, that a line has been crossed.

PFLEGER: Children have been shot and killed before there's no question about it. But when you target child to shoot and kill him is a different thing. On the street there was a code. You don't touch children, somebody's mother or grandmother.

SPIKE LEE, FILMMAKER: Elders, too, right?

PFLEGER: Right. You don't touch the children and the elders. It cross the line and takes away all the boundaries. And is this going to become a new normal?

COOPER: Do you see it getting worse?

[01:35:00] PFLEGER: I do. Unfortunately, what I see right now is so dangerous to me because with social media being what it is, there doesn't even have to be prove or evidence of why you're after somebody. Somebody says something to Facebook and then I respond to it.

SPIKE LEE: Anderson, I did not know until I got here and I met two of his peace keepers and they told me that social media is a major element of violence where people post stuff on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook and people respond to it, not by typing out something on their phones but by bang, bang, bang.

COOPER: Look at you, Spike, wanting to come here.

SPIKE LEE: Well, one, I care about human beings. And what's happening in Chicago is happening in Brooklyn, where I'm from, Bronx, in Killadelphia. Houston, south central, but my wife, Tonia, made it crystal clear, Chicago is a canary in the coal mine. New York City has three times the population of Chicago. Yet, Chicago has more homicides than New York. So, this is -- this is the spot. This is ground zero. And I'm always been a believer and I will go to my grave believing this that art can effect change. Good and bad.

COOPER: What do you think it is about here that makes it so bad?

PFLEGER: All I can say is there's a growing hopelessness that I've seen over the last number of years that is a level I've never seen before and a sense that nothing's changing.

How do you keep handling when the national landmarks in your neighborhood are not new businesses but teddy bears and yellow police tape and balloons.

COOPER: The memorials.

PFLEGER: Yeah. And part of high school graduations are remembering students that would have been in that class that got killed. When did that become a norm that that's part of our graduation ceremony. These are children.

We got to become angry as a country and decide we're going to have the courage to answer the root causes of this cancer and not just the wound on the skin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: I'm interested.

VAUSE: The question of gun violence in this country is one that there does not seem to be an easy answer, although it does seem to be quite obvious what needs to be done.

OK, a short break here. The Russian president has broken his silence about the doping scandal which has rocked Russia's athletic world. We'll tell you what Vladimir Putin is saying up next.

VAUSE: Plus, a dangerous toxin in hurting California's crabbing season. We'll see how it's affecting the industry and seafood lovers just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:41:38] VAUSE: Well, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered an investigation into the allegation of doping by Russian athletes.

SESAY: The World Anti-Doping Agency says the cheating was widespread. Russian track and field athletes, coaches, intelligence agents and the medical director of the Russia Federation are said to be involved. The Kremlin called the allegations, quote, "groundless." But Mr. Putin pledged cooperation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translation): We must carry out our own internal investigation and to insure the most open, I must stress this, the most open professional cooperation with international anti-doping structures. Here in Russia, we must do all we can to get rid of this problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: A drug testing lab in Moscow is also accused of throwing away some 1400 samples from Russian athletes.

VAUSE: That reportedly apparently happened just days before anti- doping inspectors were scheduled to visit.

Matthew Chance has the details from Moscow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Behind gates, locked to the public, this is the secretive Moscow laboratory at the center of Russia's doping scandal. It's currently closed with the director resigning to protect the lab's reputation. But no on here wants to talk about the explosive allegations of drug cheating now engulfing Russian athletes.

(on camera): Do you know about the cheating that's been taking place here. Do you know anything about it? Do you want to talk to us about it at all, from CNN? You don't want to talk to us?

The employees at this lab are clearly being very tightlipped but the report from the World Anti-Doping Agency goes into great detail describing the alleged activities inside that building. It's claimed this is meant to be a place that roots out cheats among Russian athletes but in fact it works hand and hand with coaches and Russian officials to cover up possible doping tests and the explicit reason to get Russian athletes to win at major sporting competitions.

Athletes like former 800-meter runner, Julia Stephanover (ph), featured in this documentary for German television last year. She's admitted paying a bribe to cover up her own positive test, and says doping is a routine part of Russian athletics.

JULIA STEPHANOVER (ph), FORMER RUSSIAN 800-METER RUNNER (through translation): The coaches have it hammered into them and the coaches hammer it into the athletes, therefore, the athletes do not think when they're taking banned drugs that they're doing something illegal.

CHANCE: But now Russia is paying the price. The stadium club, next generation of athletes have been put through their paces. This country sees themselves as an Olympic super power and the threat of exclusion from the Rio games for cheating has left Russians in shame and disbelief.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): This is a disgrace for Russia. Our sportsman should not act like that because they've always been the best. I feel ashamed for them. How can they possibly compete in the Olympics now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): I think all of this is a provocation because there's no proof. They just say there was an ex- athlete caught doping and claimed everyone was doping. It seems to me this is not true.

CHANCE: Hello.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi.

CHANCE: Do you know anything about the cheating?

(voice-over): In a country that spent billions on Olympic venues, simple denial may no longer be enough.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[01:45:25] SESAY: Well, still to come live from CNN NEWSROOM live from L.A., using surf therapy to help soldiers recover from their wounds. Inside a unique rehab program, next.

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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good day. Weather across the United States.

(WEATHER REPORT)

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VAUSE: Around the world, all those who served in the military were honored on Wednesday. For Veterans Day, President Obama placed a reef at Arlington National Cemetery.

SESAY: President Obama says more needs to be done for veterans, including better health care and access to better jobs.

VAUSE: And in California, some British and American soldiers wounded in combat are on their way to something new on the road to recovery.

SESAY: It's a program that gets them on out of rehab facilities and onto a surf board.

Our own Stephanie Elam hit the beach to check it out.

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[01:50:00] STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These bodies powering into the Pacific Ocean have stories to tell. They belong to American and British soldiers, some retired and some still active duty, all men and women injured while serving their country.

VAN CURAZA, FOUNDER, OPERATION SURF: We have the help for heroes on there, Operation Surf.

ELAM: This is Operation Surf, a camp designed to aid their mental rehabilitation by focusing on the physical.

JAKE VAN HOGLE (ph), INJURED U.S. SOLDIER: I always wanted to try surfing.

ELAM: Jake van Hogle (ph) joined the Army in 2005 and he was injured in Afghanistan.

VAN HOGLE (ph): An IED, broke my heel, my back, my arm and some other things.

ELAM: Five years later, Jake elected to have his leg amputated below the knee, a choice he says greatly improved his life and allowed for this adventure.

VAN HOGLE (ph): I haven't ridden a wave all the way in yet, but that needs to happen.

ELAM: And allowed for this adventure.

Cameron Crosby was on patrol in Korea when stabbed by a fellow soldier. More than a year since his injury, he's better but still has challenges.

CAMERON CROSBY, INJURED U.S. SOLDIER: My right side can still not feel temperature or pain. It's a privilege to be out here.

ELAM: But not all of these soldiers' wounds are visible.

STACEY ASHTON, INJURED BRITISH. SOLDIER: Kosovo, Bosnia and Iraq, a couple of times Afghanistan.

ELAM: Stacey Ashton was a medic in the British Army for nearly 14 years.

(on camera): Do you mind telling me why you were medically discharged?

ASHTON: For PTSD. I suffered for about 10 years on and off, and then kind of suffered from depression and anxiety.

ELAM: So, what do you hope to gain from your week here at Operation Surf?

ASHTON: Just inner peace, I think. Stop being so sad.

ASHTON: 99 percent of the time, they're standing up by the end of the day.

ELAM (voice-over): Sure enough, it's not long before Stacey is up on her board.

For 42 years, Van Curaza has been catching waves. He began Operation Surf in 2009.

CURAZA: It wasn't a grand idea. It was just an opportunity to help our wounded servicemen and women in transition.

(SHOUTING)

ELAM (on camera): Do you think you're going to be able to do that today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

ELAM (voice-over): The closing ceremony is bitter sweet. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to give this award to Stacey.

ELAM: A time to celebrate goals met and surpassed, friendships forged and lessons learned in the water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Surfing is amazing. It's great rehab. A lot of my anxiety has gone down and I feel confident.

ELAM: Stephanie Elam, CNN, on California's central coast.

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SESAY: Great scenes there.

Well, crabbing season should be starting soon in California but sport fishermen are being told to put away their traps for now.

VAUSE: That's because some crabs may be unsafe to eat because of toxic algae.

CNN's Dan Simon has more.

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DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tom La Torre and his family have been in the restaurant business for more than 80 years.

TOM LA TORRE, OWNER OF CRAB RESTAURANT: Got fresh crabs for you. Come on, everybody.

SIMON: Fresh crab, the signature item at this eatery in the city's famed Fisherman's Warf. This year is different.

(on camera): Can your recall a situation where you haven't been able to get California crab?

LA TORRE: There's been strikes and bad weather and there's been problems with fisherman, never because of an algae. This is something new to us.

SIMON (voice-over): Algae has forced state wildlife officials to halt Dungeness crab fishing season always slated for mid November. The algae is producing a toxin that gets caught in the food web and eventually making its way to crabs. If eaten by humans, it can be fatal.

UNIDENTIFIED PHYSICIAN: It can cause brain damage, seizures, coma in Marine mammals and in humans.

SIMON: It's part of an algae bloom fuelled by rising temperatures in the water known as El Nino. Blooms are common but scientists say this is the largest and most persistent one they've seen in 15 years.

It's already affecting sea lions, some animals treated at the Marine Mammal Center outside of the city.

Doctor Claire Simion (ph), a veterinarian, estimates 80 percent of the animals have died.

DR. CLAIRE SIMION (ph), VETERINARIAN, MARINE MAMMAL CENTER: The magnitude of the number of cases is unprecedented for us.

SIMON: And unprecedented for crab fisherman whose boats and traps are sitting idle.

(voice-over): What's the economic impact to people like you?

LARRY COLLINS, FISHERMAN: Last year, November 15th, I'm making a living. This year, November 15th, I'm not making a living. So, I guess I have 100 percent less income than last year.

(on camera): What do you make of this postponement?

BRETT SMALLY (ph), CRAB SELLER: A disaster.

[01:55:] SIMON (voice-over): Brett Smally (ph) is headed back to his native Oregon. No crab means no paycheck.

SMALLY: It's like gambling. We lost this time, it looks like.

SIMON (on camera): Crab is to San Francisco what lobster is to Maine. And these guys are from Washington, part of the culture and heritage. Now, you can still get them at the famous Fisherman's Wharf, except these guys are from Washington.

Scientists anticipate toxin levels will decline, but the question is when? Crab samples are repeatedly being collected. But until the fishing begins, it will be a difficult time for all who depend no these California crustaceans.

Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.

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VAUSE: Look out for bad crabs.

SESAY: You're watching CNN live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.

What --

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: And I'm John Vause.

Here in the United States, stay with us. "Amanpour" is up next.

Everyone else, Rosemary Church and Errol Barnett.

Thanks for watching.

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[02:00:10] ERROL BARNETT, CNN ANCHOR: The Kurdish offensive to retake the city of Sinjar from ISIS has begun.