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North Korea Claims First Successful H-bomb; 18 Minutes Missing in Terrorists' Timeline; Former Students Allege Abuse at Prep School. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired January 06, 2016 - 10:30   ET

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

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[10:29:53] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

World capitals across the globe are reverberating with strong words condemning North Korea's claims that it successfully detonated its first hydrogen bomb. In a rare show of solidarity, nations are voicing grave concerns.

CNN's Kristi Lu Stout explains why this could be such a game changer.

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KRISTI LU STOUT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's confirmed. It's not the first time North Korea has tested a nuclear weapon, but this could be the most powerful one by far.

Three previous tests, all clustered within a few kilometers of each other between 2006 and 2013 were atomic bombs or A-bombs. And we know how strong they are.

This is what U.S. forces dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 killing more than 200,000 people. But today's test of what Pyongyang claims to be a hydrogen bomb takes things to a whole new level.

The H-bomb is hundreds of times more powerful than an A-bomb, and here's why. Now atomic bombs use a process called fission to split plutonium into smaller atoms releasing massive amounts of energy.

Hydrogen bombs use fusion. Instead of splitting big atoms, it combines small atoms like hydrogen. Essentially it's two bombs in one with the A-bomb working as a trigger for the H-bomb to release a much bigger nuclear punch.

If this morning's test was indeed an H-bomb, it would mark a major step forward in North Korea's nuclear capabilities and make the Hermit Kingdom much more of a threat.

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COSTELLO: So does North Korea really have an H-bomb? How concerned should we be?

With me now, the director of government and international affairs at Georgetown University, Victor Cha. He's also the former director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council. Thanks for being here.

VICTOR CHA, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Sure, Carol.

COSTELLO: Do you think North Korea really has an H-bomb?

CHA: Well, we just don't know -- Carol. I mean, the speculation now is largely based on the Richter scale readings that were registered from the explosion. I'm sure there are folks out there trying to do the forensics on what sort of test it was. We may never know.

What we do know is that they are advancing in terms of their capabilities. This test, whatever it was, was a more powerful device than the previous three tests that North Korea has done. And they are seeking to develop a modern weaponized nuclear program. They're not just trying to build a couple of bombs that they can stick in the basement.

COSTELLO: There's very restrictive sanctions on North Korea. How are they getting the materials to build such a thing?

CHA: Well, there are sanctions against North Korea as a result of three U.N. Security Council resolutions. The sanctions are clearly quite leaky. They have not prevented North Korea from advancing their nuclear weapons or their missile program or their cyber capabilities, for that matter.

If you had to point to one weak link in the sanctions regime, you would have to say it's China. China is by far the biggest supplier of both commercial goods and who knows what else in terms of sensitive technology to North Korea. And they're still not willing to really step on the North Koreans next to get them to give up these weapons.

And so we'll have to see if this fourth test is enough to change their views. But I'm not confident that it will.

COSTELLO: Well, China has spoken out against this, right -- against this test. So why wouldn't it act now? And it's a strongly- worded statement, too.

CHA: Yes, it's a strongly-worded statement. And you know, they openly stated that the North Koreans didn't advise them in advance doing this test. So, you know, North Korea is the closest thing that China has to an ally. But with allies like this, you know, who needs enemies?

The main reason, I think, is that China is fearful of sanctions that could start to collapse the regime. With a country like North Korea directly on its border, the evil that you know is better than the evil that you don't know. The thing that they're most worried about is a destabilized North Korea in which there could be loose nukes and lots of refugees coming across their border -- millions of refugees coming across their border.

So I think it's that core strategic calculation that has always acted as a break on them taking stronger actions, even though they're not at all happy with what the North Koreans are doing.

COSTELLO: Ok, last question. And I'm just curious about this. The "Washington Post" is reporting that Friday is Kim Jong-Un's birthday. And normally when such celebrations take place, Kim Jong-Un would need something to brag about. Could this be all this is?

CHA: Well, I certainly think that's part of it. I don't think they would have made a big announcement on TV last night if they didn't want to get sort of the reputational benefits of this.

But at the same time, at the core, this is a national security problem for the United States, and they are rapidly building both the missile capabilities and the nuclear capabilities to try to threaten the United States.

So a little bit's about show, but it's also about very hardcore security threats.

COSTELLO: Victor Cha -- thanks for your insight.

CHA: Thank you.

[10:34:58] COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, two terrorists missing for 18 minutes. Now the FBI wants to know, what did the San Bernardino shooters do? Who did they talk to when they dropped off the radar?

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COSTELLO: The man who bought the guns used during the San Bernardino terror attack is expected to be in court today. Enrique Marquez is set to appear before a judge in just a matter of hours. He's facing a total of five criminal charges.

Marquez's appearance comes as the FBI now reveals a gap in the terrorists' actions after the attack and before their deaths.

CNN's Stephanie Elam is outside the courtroom with more for you. Good morning.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. And what they want to know about Enrique Marquez -- why he's getting charged is because of his relationship with the male shooter in that San Bernardino rampage on December 2nd. That's Syed Rizwan Farook. They're saying because of that relationship, this is where they see some problems.

For one thing, they're saying that he conspired to provide material support to terrorists with Farook in 2011 and 2012. Also there's two counts against making a false statement related to those two assault rifles that he had purchased years before these attacks had happened. And then also they're charging him with marriage fraud and making

a false statement related to the sham marriage to one of Farook's family members. Now, he's going to be arraigned here today in this U.S. District Court. He's being held in federal custody without bail. He's expected to plead not guilty.

It's supposed to be just a few minutes here, and then a trial date is expected to be set when this happens later on this morning.

Now, in relation to those 18 minutes that you mentioned, that is what the authorities are looking for, the help from the public to pin down exactly where the shooters were during that time.

[10:40:00] They've pieced together a four-hour time frame where the shooting happened, what they were doing leading up to the shooting and after it -- leading up to that fire gun shootout that they had with authorities on the streets when both of the assailants were killed.

But they're asking for the public, if you saw them during that period, to help them out. And that window is from 12:59 to 1:17 p.m. Pacific time. And that's what they want to just make sure they tie up any loose ends, Carol, to make sure that they know where they were, what they were doing and to rule out that they had any extra involvement from some other third party that they don't know about.

COSTELLO: All right. Stephanie Elam, reporting live for us this morning.

And I want to take a closer look at those missing -- those critical missing minutes that Stephanie was talking about.

We know FAROOK returned to the IRC at 10:56 in the morning with his wife and with weapons. The shooting itself lasted just about five minutes. The couple then drove through parts of the city and the Redlands neighborhood, stopping by a lake at 11:45.

Authorities were able to track the couple until just before 1:00 in the afternoon near the 215 and 10 freeways. But between 12:59 and 1:17, the FBI is dark. An 18-minute gap that authorities have no clue where the couple was or what they were doing. By 3:00 p.m., the couple gets into that gunfight with authorities, and they wind up dead.

So let's talk about those missing 18 minutes with James Koppenhaver. He's a retired major case investigator. Welcome, sir.

JAMES KOPPENHAVER, RETIRED MAJOR CASE INVESTIGATOR: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Why are these 18 minutes so critical?

KOPPENHAVER: You know, the FBI came out yesterday and appealed to the public to help them fill in the dark areas of this 18 minutes. A couple of suggestions. I mean are they looking for a third party? Are they looking for a driver? Are they perhaps getting intelligence that they had bomb-making materials stored off campus?

So there are many things that they are probably looking at. Their intelligence that they have that I guarantee they're not sharing with the public but they're certainly appealing for this 18 minutes of dark time.

COSTELLO: A lot of things just don't make sense when you really take a look at the time line. For example, at 8:37, Farook left his home, right, apparently to go to this holiday party. He arrived there ten minutes later. And then he spent two whole hours at the center socializing with employees. Why would he do that?

KOPPENHAVER: It makes no sense. I mean, these people were absolutely geared up. They were geared up. They certainly had the firepower to go in and kill these people. And it just makes no sense that they spent that amount of time there.

But more importantly, they were in and out of that building in under five minutes prior to law enforcement arriving, Carol. And then to be able to track them to a lake at 11:45 and then the FBI can't locate them after that, it's just bizarre.

And it would almost suggest to me that they probably were pinned down perhaps in a storage area. They were definitely off the grid. The big question is what were they doing while they were off the grid?

COSTELLO: And the other question is where was Farook's wife? Did she go to work with him and then wait in the car while he socialized for two hours?

KOPPENHAVER: Which that comes back to play -- early on, if you listened to one -- I think it was the first or second presser. They indicated that he was, in fact, at home, but then you heard the possibility that she was actually out in the car waiting.

So my concern is, was she home, and did Farook actually have a driver with him while he attended this party before this mass killing?

COSTELLO: Right, because it's a big period of time, right, between when the shooting happened and when police finally tracked them down around 3:00 in the afternoon. So you do wonder what could they possibly have been doing?

Were they talking with other associates? Were they gathering what? Because supposedly they were going to set off these series of pipe bombs that never happened.

KOPPENHAVER: -- which -- I'll come back to my earlier statement, Carol. It's concerning because we don't know what intelligence the federal government has. Obviously, they have some good leads and some good intelligence. We know that the shooters went to great extremes and length to destroy their digital footprint.

So I would suggest to you that this other individual that they're inviting today is probably cooperating and may have given the leads as to potential other locations of bombings, potential other locations of storage of bomb-making materials.

And I think that's why probably the FBI's appealing so heavily on the public to help them fill in the dark areas.

COSTELLO: Interesting. James Koppenhaver -- thanks for your insight.

Coming up in the NEWSROOM, tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia still mounting as Secretary Kerry urges calm, but is that enough?

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[10:48:51] COSTELLO: New fallout this morning between Saudi Arabia and Iran amid rising tensions. One Saudi prince and billionaire now saying he's canceling, quote, "the study of all projects and investments in Iran" as the nation severs all diplomatic, trade and aviation ties with Iran.

In the meantime, Secretary of State John Kerry is now reaching out to the leaders of both countries urging calm and encouraging a dialogue. International diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh with more. Hi -- Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, hi there, Carol. The rhetoric really is continuing to ratchet up. Not just from the Prince al Walid bin Talaal there -- a very influential Saudi prince with many investments around the world, and now cutting those ties at the moment with Iran.

You have the small country of Djibouti now saying it will cut diplomatic ties with Iran. And this is in support of Saudi Arabia. You have Jordan, an ally of Saudi Arabia, calling in the Iranian ambassador there to dress him down about how the Saudi embassy was torched in Tehran over the weekend.

[10:49:57] You have also on the Arabian side, the Iranian president tweeting that Saudi Arabia is just trying to destabilize the region to cover up their problems at home.

So at the moment, the rhetoric is ratcheting up. We're seeing no indication that that's about to calm down any time soon. But of course, Secretary of State John Kerry hopes to get both Iranian and Saudi representatives in the same room, in about three weeks in Geneva to try a hammer out a peace process to Syria.

ROBERTSON: The Iranians are saying that's now less likely that they'll be able to get piece. The Saudis will say yes, they'll go in the room with the Iranians. The reality is that when you have such polarized rhetoric, sectarian rhetoric. Now that Saud Arabia and Iran are raising -- when you have that polarizing rhetoric -- the idea of getting any peace deal on Syria behind closed doors just seems to diminish.

And of course, you have on top of that the risk of misinterpreting, misunderstanding each other, these two countries, and some of the spark creating some worse tension -- Carol. COSTELLO: All right. Nic Robertson reporting live from Saudi

Arabia this morning. I'll be right back.

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COSTELLO: Checking some top stories, yes, we must take a look at the Dow even though it's down 230 points. Investors seem to be kind of edgy about what's happening in North Korea these days among other things. We'll keep an eye on that for you.

[10:55:01] Also, a group of more than two dozen former students of Rhode Island's prestigious St. Georges' School claimed they were sexually abused over two decades and they say the school did nothing to help.

Ann Scott who has sued the school once before says she was raped repeatedly. After the original suit was dropped, she says the school initiated a gag order.

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ANNE SCOTT, FORMER STUDENT AT ST. GEORGE'S: I've been gagged for the last 25 years, and I want to say how damaging those gag orders are. They seal in the trauma. When you're raped --your voice is stolen, your soul is taken away, and all that a gag order does is preserve the institution's reputation and seals the trauma inside the victim, making it that much harder to reach out and get help.

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COSTELLO: Lawyers for the victim are calling for an independent investigation into the abuse and the alleged cover-up by the school. In a statement, the school deeply apologizes for the harm done to alumni.

Plunging oil prices have caused the Alaskan government to start a hiring freeze. Governor Bill Walker needs to control a growing $3.5 billion budget gap. Taxes on oil products fuel Alaska's growth. Oil prices have tumbled around 35 percent last year, stifling Alaskan revenue.

In Michigan, a state of emergency declared after lead contaminated water supply in Flint. The city's drinking water became contaminated. In 2014 after switching its supply source to the Flint River from Lake Huron in a bid to save money. The water source was switched back to Lake Huron in October.

Texas police are searching for the men who kidnapped a car salesman during a test drive, beating him and then stuffing him into the trunk.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They hit me. They thought they knocked me out, but they didn't. (inaudible) I jumped out. I started fighting. COSTELLO: The salesman says he was able to use his cell phone

light to find the trunk latch and get out. Police used an app on his phone which was still inside the car to track it down. No arrests have been made.

A famous cricket player tried to put the moves on a TV reporter during a live interview, but it did not go quite as planned. Not only did he get rejected, but he was fined big time.

Here's more from Jeanne Moos.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: "Don't blush, baby" tends not to be a good answer to a sports reporter's question about cricket.

MEL MCLAUGHLIN, SPORTS REPORTER: We'll leave it on that note. Well done, thanks.

CHRIS GAYLE, CRICKET PLAYER: Sorry.

MOOS: Star batsman Chris Gayle got a little too lost in the eyes of Australian Channel 10 reporter Mel McLaughlin.

GAYLE: I want to come and have an interview with you as well. That's the reason why I'm here so just to see your eyes for the first time. Nice. So hopefully after we win this game and we can have a drink after.

Don't blush baby.

MCLAUGHLIN: I'm not blushing.

MOOS: But some saw red.

"Not clever. Not funny. Not original. How about just let a fine broadcaster do her job?" -- tweeted a fellow reporter.

Gayle's club called his behavior "inappropriate".

It ended up being an expensive flirtation. Gayle's team fined him 10,000 Australian dollars, which works out to about $7,000 U.S.

Gayle called it a simple joke, no disrespect intended.

GAYLE: And if she felt that way, you know, then I'm really sorry for that.

MCLAUGHLIN: He issued an apology and I accept that and I just want to move on.

MOOS: It moved us back, back to the time a plastered Joe Namath got over-amorous.

JOE NAMATH, FORMER NFL PLAYER: I want to kiss you. I couldn't care less about the team struggling. MOOS: And the time Fox sportscaster Erin Andrews had to take

evasive action at the Daytona 500.

ERIN ANDREWS, FOX SPORTSCASTER: Of course, 50-cent here. I have to go talk to Danica Patrick. Good to see you.

MOOS: Maybe it's good to see that occasionally a female interviewee flirts. Tennis star Maria Sharapova seemed sweet on an Australian reporter.

MARIA SHARAPOVA, TENNIS PLAYER: You have so much good self- esteem when you speak. It's really nice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You too.

SHARAPOVA: What was the question? I was just admiring your form.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I admire yours.

MOOS: Next thing you know, the reporter was broadcasting a message in Russian to Sharapova.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maria (inaudible) -- Maria, you are very beautiful. And I'd love you to give me your number in English.

MOOS: With that volley, maybe he should be blushing.

Jeanne Moos, CNN.

GAYLE: Don't blush, baby.

MOOS: New York.

MCLAUGHLIN: I'm not blushing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And there is not much time left to try your luck at the $450 million Powerball jackpot. Drawing is at 11:00 tonight. This is one of the biggest jackpots in history thanks to an estimated $125 million in additional ticket sales since Sunday.

If no one wins tonight, the pot will get bigger. And you will have to play again. So, good luck.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan starts now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Nuclear backlash. The world reacts to North Korea's claim it has successfully tested a hydrogen bomb. Is the United States underestimating that country's reclusive leader, Kim Jong-Un.

BLAKE BERMAN, CNN HOST: And is it "Oh Canada" or "Blame Canada". Donald Trump raises --