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Putin Orders Russian Forces to Pull Out of Syria; Terror Attack on Ivory Coast Hotels; North Korea Threatens to Test Nuclear Warhead; Super Tuesday Three; Inside Look at Aleppo, Syria; Tumult on Trump Circuit; Photographer Smuggles Photographs Out of North Korea. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired March 15, 2016 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:12] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.
Ahead this hour, Vladimir Putin declared mission accomplished as Russia brings its controversial air campaign in Syria to an abrupt end.
Plus, security cameras captured the terrifying moments gunmen stormed a beach resort in Ivory Coast.
And the next battle in the U.S. presidential campaign could make Donald Trump all but unstoppable in his bid for the Republican nomination.
Hello, everybody. Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause. Another hour of NEWSROOM L.A. starts now.
Russian troops are expected to start pulling out of Syria in the coming hours on the orders of Vladimir Putin. The Russian president's surprise announcement came the same day as peace talks resumed in Geneva aimed at ending Syria's five-year long civil war.
Senior international correspondent Matthew Chance has the details from Moscow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the air and the sea, Russia's bombardment of Syria has been a game changer. This kind of overwhelming fire power reversing the military fortunes of the Kremlin's Arab ally, Bashar al-Assad. But now the Kremlin says it's achieved its goals, with the Russian president unexpectedly ordering a military withdrawal.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (Through Translator): I believe the goal set out to the Ministry of Defense and the armed forces has in large part been fulfilled. That is why I order the minister of Defense to start the pullout of the main part of our military grouping from Syria.
CHANCE: The end of Russia's Syrian campaign is every bit as abrupt as its start. It was only at the end of September last year that Russian warplanes began pounding rebel positions. The intervention effectively prevented an Assad defeat, but also sent a powerful message. Russia was a force to be reckoned with on the global stage once more.
(On camera): This Russian campaign in Syria has been widely criticized for causing even more civilian casualties and pushing out even more refugees. But for the Kremlin, it's been immensely successful. Not only has Russia saved an ally and preserved its interests in Syria, but it's also forced the warring parties and their backers to the negotiating table.
(Voice-over): The main focus now, says the Russian leader, is that fledgling peace process. With its ally bolstered, Russia will, he says, intensify its peacemaking efforts. But the Kremlin stopped short of announcing a complete drawdown. Its powerful air and naval bases in Syria, it says, will remain. This may not be the last Syrians ever see of Russia's military resolve.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: For more on this, UCLA history professor James Gelvin and CNN military analyst Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona join me now.
James, first to you. Mission accomplished for Russia. It would seem that this is all about a seat at the table for the Russians and a voice in any potential settlement here for Syria.
JAMES GELVIN, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, UCLA: You're absolutely right. I mean, what the Russians did was they went in at the point at which the regime was losing. They switched it around, now it's the opposition that's losing, and the Russians are the only people now that can actually represent the regime and those forces that are allied with the regime at the international convention.
VAUSE: OK. And, Rick, to you from a military point of view, Russia has bases in just one country outside of the former Soviet Union. That is in Syria. So is the motivation all along here basically for Russia to maintain those military bases and if Assad survives, well, that's OK, if he doesn't, that's OK, too?
LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I think that's exactly right. Vladimir Putin is not going to fall on a sword for Bashar al-Assad's future. I think he's thinking three and four steps down the road. He knows that in the future he wants to maintain some presence in Syria, some warm water port. That would be Tartus. He wants to keep that air field at Latakia. And he'll probably do that regardless of who's in power in Damascus. He wants to be in charge, he wants to be in control of Syria's future as more of a satellite -- as a Russian client. Much like when the Soviets were in charge.
VAUSE: And James, at this point, how much influence do the Russians right now over the Assad government? Because there are some questions Bashar al-Assad doesn't do everything he's told to do by the Russians. GELVIN: Well, that's definitely true. He doesn't do everything he's
told to do but ultimately the Russians are the ones with the power. And they were demonstrating that today actually when they withdrew from Syria.
[01:05:02] I mean, the whole point of the withdrawal was basically to let Assad know that he's on a very short leash and it's not a blank check that the Russians are writing.
VAUSE: There's a theory out there that one of the reasons why the Russians went in, in the first place apart from shoring up Bashar al- Assad, it was to counter Iranian influence in Damascus. What do say about that?
GELVIN: Well, the Russians definitely want to project influence wherever they possibly can, but I would say more importantly to the Russians was a whole series of other things particularly if you -- remember back to Putin's speech at the United Nations. The idea of -- what he said is we stand by our allies, as opposed to the United States that theoretically pushed people like Hosni Mubarak of Egypt under a bus.
So there was that sort of counter position. The main reason, I think, that they went in ultimately has to do with poking the United States in the eye and having some sort of -- being able to extend their power in a certain way into that region.
VAUSE: And Rick Francona, do you agree with that? Do you think that this was a poke in the eye to the U.S.?
FRANCONA: Exactly. And I think the professor will agree with me, they've been very successful at it. You know, the Russians, they went in there ostensibly to fight ISIS but they went in there to shore up Bashar al-Assad, and they changed through brute force, not the way we went on it, they went in there with brute military force and changed the situation on the ground. They altered the entire equation. Now Bashar al-Assad's forces are on top, they're on a roll.
I don't see how Aleppo survives. And it looks like we have been marginalized because our allies are now on the losing end of this. I think that's the correct assessment right there.
VAUSE: OK. And if we look at what effectively Vladimir Putin has done, withdrawn almost all of his forces, leaving some military presence behind enough to prop up the government but leaving Assad weakened enough, do you think that will mean that Assad might just be willing to negotiate with the opposition?
FRANCONA: Is that for me, John?
VAUSE: Yes, Rick, for you.
FRANCONA: OK. I don't think that -- well, we know that there's a red line. That was dictated today by the Syrian Foreign Ministry so that's a red line Bashar has to stay. But I think that in the end everybody realizes Bashar has to go. Now how does that happen? What's the modality of him leaving? Do the Russians set up some sort of exile in Iran or something? But I think in the long run, everybody knows Bashar has to go. They're just fighting for the best position they can get.
VAUSE: OK. James, finally to you, we tend to think of the Russians as this resurgent super power that's on the march, that's determined on -- you know, determined for global domination in some way. But, you know, a military intervention is not cheap. Oil is at record lows. Russia is being sanctioned on a number of fronts and it's struggling if you like. Does -- do you look at this essentially that the Russians didn't want to be bogged down endlessly in Syria or in some kind of military operation here?
GELVIN: That's a possibility. Probably more important than that is twofold. The number one, the prestige of being able to go into Syria, turn the tide in favor of Assad. And then, you know, in addition to that, with the Russians also want to do, as I said, was to poke the United States in the eye and to do that in a way that was actually very, very cheap for them. It didn't really cost a whole lot of money to be able to make your muscles shown in the Middle East.
VAUSE: Yes. OK. Professor Gelvin, here with us in Los Angeles, Rick Francona, our CNN military analyst, thank you both. Good discussions there and good analysis there of what's actually been happening. Thank you.
Well, still no claim of responsibility for a deadly bombing in Ankara. Even so Turkey has launched a military retaliation. At least 35 people were killed when a car bomb exploded near a busy transport hub on Sunday. Officials say the attackers were female suicide bomber and a male accomplice. At least 10 people have been detained.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AHMET DAVUTOGLU, TURKISH PRIME MINISTER (Through Translator): There are very serious and almost certain findings that point to a separatist terrorist organization, but of course this will be unveiled after the investigation is complete.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Funerals were held for the victims on Monday as Turkish warplanes reportedly struck Kurdish militant camps in northern Iraq.
Ivory Coast is observing three days of national mourning after an attack that left 18 people dead in the resort city of Grand-Bassam. This is the latest in a string of assaults by al Qaeda affiliated groups in West Africa.
David McKenzie has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Security footage obtained by CNN of a beach bar in Grand-Bassam just moments before the horror begins. Confusion as a single shot rings out. From another vantage point in the distance a gunman enters the same hotel carrying a Kalashnikov, then chaos. A Westerner takes shelter behind the bar.
The al Qaeda-linked group striking during Sunday lunchtime where foreigners and wealthy Ivoirians like to hang out.
[01:10:04] As women and children flee, a young gunman in a waistcoat walks calmly by looking for victims firing his AK-47.
(On camera): But the gunmen didn't just strike at this bar. Witnesses say that three of them walked down this beach shooting as they went.
(Voice-over): "They were wearing jeans and white T-shirts," says Isaac Watara (PH), a hotel manager. "And they had a lot of ammunition and heavy weapons."
Watara shows us where he saw two beachgoers murdered.
"I was standing on the balcony," he says. "I saw everything. They shot a man and then a woman. They were shouting, Allahu Akbar. One of the gunmen was injured in the leg so the other two just shot them dead," says Watara.
Many here believed Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was targeting Western diplomats at the resort. That is officially denied by U.S. sources. But now tourists are replaced by paramilitary police. It's become all too familiar in West Africa, young men like this increasingly willing to kill and be killed in the name of jihad.
David McKenzie, CNN, Grand-Bassam, Ivory Coast.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: A U.S. official says Iran is capable of launching a three- stage rocket with a satellite on top at any minute.
State media reports Iran test-fired two ballistic missiles last week. Washington suggests those tests are in violation of a U.N. resolution calling on Tehran to refrain from ballistic missile activity. Russia contends a call is not the same as a ban so Iran has not violated the resolution.
North Korea says it's planning ballistic missile tests of its own. The kind capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Newly released photos showing North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un reviewing a ballistic rocket simulation. There is skepticism, though, North Korea actually has the technology to carry out a successful test. And now South Korea is weighing in on Pyongyang's threats.
Senior international correspondent Ivan Watson live this hour in Seoul.
So, Ivan, it seems Kim Jong-Un is taking a very personal role in these upcoming tests. IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right.
And this has been a trend, also, that he's been attending these various rocket launches, these various exercises, the announcement earlier this week that North Korea had found the technology to miniaturize, as it claims, a nuclear weapon, so that it can fit on a warhead. And now this announcement coming today that North Korea claims it has developed the technology to protect a nuclear missile to allow it to reenter into the atmosphere, to allow it to be essentially an intercontinental ballistic missile with the images of intense flames being fired at what appears to be the cone or the tip of what would be this future missile.
And the announcement also coming from the North Korean leader for scientists to go ahead and carry out further nuclear tests and further rocket launches despite the fact that earlier this month North Korea was punished with another United Nations Security Council resolution with fresh sanctions for its previous tests and with criticism from its only real ally, China -- John.
VAUSE: And, Ivan, the United States and the South Koreans are all pretty dismissive of these claims by the North that they have this technological ability to carry out this kind of test. Why are they so certain?
WATSON: I don't really know. Presumably from their intelligence but definitely the line that we've heard from Washington and from Seoul in the wake of the claim that North Korea tested a hydrogen bomb for the first time in January and then that it fired a satellite into space the next month. The response has been from both Washington and Seoul that hey at least for now, North Korea does not have the technological capability to fire a missile into space and then have it come back down, let's say, in a place like North Korea with a nuclear warhead.
Well, this is North Korea's response to those arguments coming from Washington and Seoul. The South Korean government in the past couple of hours has insisted that North Korea does not have this reentry capability and take a listen to this warning from the South Korean president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PARK GEUN-HYE, SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT (Through Translator): If North Korea continues its provocation and strong opposition against the international community and does not take the way for change, it's taking the way for self-destruction.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: She's also calling on the South Korean government and military to be ready to punish North Korea and she's calling on major world powers like Russia, China, the U.S. and Japan to get ready in this effort -- John.
[01:15:14] VAUSE: Ivan, thank you. Senior international correspondent Ivan Watson live this hour in Seoul. A short break here but when we come back on NEWSROOM L.A. a team of
CNN journalists take you inside the Syrian city of Aleppo where despite months of devastating airstrikes the residents who are still there -- a few of them -- are holding on to hope.
Plus ahead, U.S. presidential hopefuls push for votes ahead of a crucial round of primaries. Really crucial this time. We mean that. Absolutely.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(SPORTS)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Well, in a few hours, voters in five U.S. states will begin casting ballots in primaries that could shake up the presidential race. We mean it this time. And all the Republican candidates except for one are eager for that change.
Jim Acosta has more on their campaigns in the final hours ahead of Super Tuesday 3.0.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One day before what's likely to be the biggest Super Tuesday yet, Donald Trump just wants his critics to feel the love.
[01:20:05] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a love fest.
ACOSTA: As more protesters were removed from another Trump rally, this time in North Carolina, the GOP frontrunner blamed Democrats for the chaos at his events.
TRUMP: The Democrats are seeing what's happening and they try and disrupt what's happening but it's not a big deal. They stand up, they shout for a couple of seconds, and they got whisked out.
ACOSTA: And Trump told Wolf Blitzer the media is also at fault for hyping the protest.
TRUMP: There's not much violence. Let's not even use the word violence. There's very little disruption generally speaking.
ACOSTA: Sarah Palin has some choice words for the demonstrators labeling them thugs at a Trump rally in Tampa.
SARAH PALIN, FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: What we don't have time for is all that petty, punk-ass little thuggery stuff.
ACOSTA: But after a near riot when Trump canceled his rally in Chicago, that protester who tried to confront Trump in Ohio, and the police pepper-spraying demonstrators in Kansas City, the other Republican candidates are warning their party could face a grim future.
MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump is our nominee, a lot of Republicans won't support him and every day that he behaves the way he is behaving now and inciting anger and frustration is making it harder and harder.
ACOSTA: But Republicans may not have much of a choice if Trump sweeps the five big states up for grabs Tuesday. Slowing Trump's momentum in Florida won't be easy for Marco Rubio, who is predicting an upset win.
RUBIO: Tomorrow is the day. Tomorrow is the day where we're going to shock the country.
ACOSTA: Looking much better in his home state is Ohio Governor John Kasich who is also railing against Trump with the help of former GOP nominee, Mitt Romney.
GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Leadership is not encouraging a toxic environment where we blame one group because of the failure of another one. This country is not about tearing one another down or having fistfights at campaign rallies.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bimbo.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dog.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fat big.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Real quotes from Donald Trump about women.
ACOSTA: An anti-Trump super PAC is piling on with this new ad portraying the real estate tycoon as offensive to women voters.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If Donald Trump is the nominee, he is a disaster.
ACOSTA: Ted Cruz is in agreement on the Trump effect on the GOP. He just differs on how to stop him, arguing Kasich and Rubio just don't have a shot at the nomination.
CRUZ: With John Kasich, it's real simple. It's mathematically impossible for him to become the nominee. He cannot beat Donald Trump. So a vote for John Kasich or a vote for Marco Rubio is a vote that's thrown away.
ACOSTA (on camera): The stakes are enormous in this latest Super Tuesday. A Rubio win in Florida and a Kasich victory here in Ohio would re-write the narrative in this campaign, signaling for the first time that Trump may not have the delegates necessary to clinch the GOP nomination.
Jim Acosta, CNN, Youngstown, Ohio.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, I'm joined now by Dave Jacobson and John Thomas. Dave is a Democratic strategist and a consultant for Shallman Communications and John is a Republican consultant, founder of Thomas Partners Strategies.
Thank you for both being here. OK. This time, you know, Super Tuesday three, it's more super than ever before. You know, like "Rocky 3" was good. We all love the third installment. It's going to be great. We mean it. OK. Predictions on your side. What are you looking for? What are you expecting?
JOHN THOMAS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: Sure. So I'm thinking Trump takes Florida. The question is, does Marco Rubio drop out? I think he drops out almost on election night. And the question is, where does his allegiance go? I predict that Marco Rubio will back Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz will make the night all -- I think Ted Cruz will do well in Illinois. Ted Cruz will make the night all about -- this has to be a one-on-one contest if we want to stop Donald Trump and he's going to then call for Kasich to drop out.
I think Donald Trump will take Ohio.
VAUSE: OK.
THOMAS: I do. I'm looking at the trend lines. It's close to call but the fact is Ted Cruz has been attacking John Kasich in Ohio for the sole purpose of tearing him down so that Trump can -- Trump can win Ohio and make this a one-on-one race.
VAUSE: And that gets us to an open convention?
THOMAS: It would. I think on a one-on-one race -- look, I don't think this thing is far from over.
VAUSE: Yes.
THOMAS: Sixty percent of the Republican delegates --
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: Yes.
THOMAS: -- want somebody other than Donald Trump, right.
VAUSE: To go slow, yes. Yes.
THOMAS: So if we get to a convention there is an argument. But I'll tell you, the police will need the riot gear.
VAUSE: Yes.
THOMAS: It's important.
VAUSE: Also, yes, and -- we joke about that but this is getting to be serious.
THOMAS: Yes.
VAUSE: What was happening within the Republican Party and the country.
OK, on the Democrat side.
THOMAS: Sure.
VAUSE: You know, it seems all but certain that Hillary Clinton -- this isn't about delegates. This is about just having a big night to knock Bernie out.
DAVID JACOBSON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think that's her ultimate goal. I just don't know that it's doable because he's got such extensive resources to continue a campaign for the long haul. I think, you know, she's been leading by 20 points plus for several months now in Florida, so you're going to see her dominate in that state. And similarly in North Carolina, she won in Virginia, she won in South Carolina, she's going to pick up a big win.
Those two states I think are going to -- she's going to have a decisive win with huge margins of which, you know, everything on the Democratic side is proportional delegate allocation.
VAUSE: Yes.
[01:25:04] JACOBSON: So that's going to run up the delegate score. I think the real sort of prize of the night is Ohio. I think she's poised to win but Bernie Sanders has been making some real gains in the rustbelt.
VAUSE: And don't forget Michigan. I mean, everyone was surprised that Sanders came and won Michigan.
THOMAS: Right.
VAUSE: I mean, you know, but he didn't get his delegates.
THOMAS: He didn't get the delegates. That's the argument.
VAUSE: You know, what are the possibilities of a Michigan?
JACOBSON: Look, well, I think it's definitely possible particularly because, you know, the Michigan vote and that anti sort of trade narrative that he's trying to, you know, push forward and attack her on I think is relatively compelling to sort of the working class white voters who are dealing with a lot of economic insecurity. And so I think that's the question, does it sort of resonate enough with Ohio voters?
And also it's spring break. And so a lot of those college students in the big cities in Ohio, they may be -- they may be in Mexico or in Florida. You know, I do think that Bernie Sanders is going to have a successful night in Missouri and I also think Hillary Clinton's attachment to Mayor Rahm Emanuel in Chicago I think is causing her some damage there with the African-American voters.
VAUSE: I mean, that's a little in the weeds. He's a very unpopular mayor right now. He used to be Obama's chief of staff. THOMAS: Right.
VAUSE: He's having a lot of problems in Chicago.
THOMAS: You know, we did a quick analysis of the polls after the fact. I was trying to figure out why were the polls so wrong in Michigan. And the best way I can explain it is, that most of the public polling was automated polls. They were machines calling houses.
VAUSE: So we're talking landlines.
THOMAS: Landlines.
VAUSE: Right.
THOMAS: The rules are that you cannot call -- when you're using automated polls, you cannot call cell phones. And so that explains it.
VAUSE: Yes.
THOMAS: Sanders supporters are younger and they weren't called.
VAUSE: Exactly.
THOMAS: So it's IVR mostly in Ohio, the polls could be wrong again.
VAUSE: Sure. OK. We talked about Donald Trump, we talked about the violence, you know, at his rallies and there's just been this widespread condemnation. And we've asked this question so many times. But have we reached peak Trump? I mean, is this the moment when, you know, OK, this is it. You know, he's on the downward slide? Is that -- I mean, are we looking at a moment like that?
THOMAS: I don't know. I think Trump is going to have to make some bold changes in his organization. If I were advising Trump I would tell him first of all take a stronger stance against violence and condemn it. Secondly, fire your campaign manager. The fact is, the candidate doesn't set up events. The candidate doesn't manage all those details of security. It's the campaign manager and the campaign manager seems to have been roughing up reporters.
VAUSE: Yes.
THOMAS: You've got to have a campaign manager that can come in and control these events and lock down the violence because if it continues, it may just end -- even if Trump gets the nomination, it becomes this reoccurring theme and swing voters won't like it.
VAUSE: As a Democrat, looking at what's happening at the GOP.
JACOBSON: Right.
VAUSE: From a political point of view -- JACOBSON: We're loving it. We're eating it up. Right? I mean, the
reality is people say that there's a civil war within the Republican Party. I think there's a civil war in America with Trump the divider- in-chief versus everyone else. You're seeing all these Republicans all across the country saying, I'll vote for anyone but Trump even if I have to, you know, pull my nose and vote for Hillary Clinton.
And so I think that's going to bode well for us, particularly when it comes to a general election with independent voters in key states like Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Colorado. All of these sort of purple states, they're going to want to go with a real pragmatist and not somebody who's going to continue to sort of fan the flames and make the country more polarized.
VAUSE: I guess we'll see. We do mean it this time. A decisive day coming up.
THOMAS: It is. It's very important.
VAUSE: We will get a better idea of where everything is heading after the vote on Tuesday.
Dave, John, thanks very much again for being with us.
THOMAS: Thanks for having us.
VAUSE: A short break here on CNN. When we come back, CNN goes behind rebel lines in war torn Syria. We'll take you inside what was once the country's largest city now an apocalyptic landscape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is basically what is left of rebel held Aleppo after months and months of thousands of Russian bombs reigning down on here. The streets are largely deserted. The buildings have been destroyed and the people who once lived here have been pushed out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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[01:32:21] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. Watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour.
(HEADLINES)
VAUSE: CNN's senior international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, and producer, Salma Abdelaziz, went deep undercover into war-torn Syria where virtually no Western journalists have gone for more than a year. Along with Syrian-based filmmaker, Bilal Abdul Kareem, they took the last remaining rebel-held group into Aleppo and saw the decimated ruins of a once-great city.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You can tell when you're getting closer to Aleppo. The streets are pock marked with the aftermath of fresh air strikes, burning the earth to protect the way from enemy fire. It's a dangerous journey to a city few dare to visit.
(on camera): We now have to drive extremely quickly along this portion of the road, because, on one side, you have the regime and, on the other side, you have Kurdish fighters who are fighting against rebel forces and snipers all around, but this is the only road to get into Aleppo.
(voice-over): As you arrive in the city, the scale of the destruction is breathtaking, stretching on and on entire residential neighborhoods reduced to rubble.
Aleppo was once Syria's largest city, a bustling economic hub, now an apocalyptic landscape.
(SIREN)
WARD: Russian war planes have bombed these areas relentlessly, allowing government ground forces to encircle the rebel-held eastern part of the city.
Still, we found pockets of life among the devastation. The fruit market huddled in the shadow of a bombed-out building, a line of people waiting patiently to collect water a precious resource here.
[01:35:11] (on camera): This is what is left of rebel-held Aleppo after months and months of thousands of Russian bombs reigning down. The streets are largely deserted. The buildings have been destroyed. And the people who once lived here have been pushed out. And the very few who are still here, who we've spoken to, have told us that they don't expect the situation to get any better. In fact, they're convinced it will only get worse.
(voice-over): 70-year-old Siad (ph) has lived here for 40 years. Her grandson, Farook (ph), is a fighter with an Islamist rebel group. In all, nine members of her family have been killed in the fighting, including two of her three sons.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): They all died on the frontline. They weighed our head high for them. God willing they are in paradise.
WARD (on camera): What would it take for you to leave Aleppo?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): It's enough for us to express our religion and faith as free people without anyone stopping us. It is enough to for us to defend our honor and our women.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): Should we leave our country and go to another country? No, this is our country and we will remain in this until we die. WARD (voice-over): The people clinging to life here feel that the
world has abandoned them, leaving them only with God. Their existence becomes more precarious with every passing day. But surrender is unthinkable.
Clarissa Ward, CNN, Aleppo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: So, how do people left in Syria's war-torn cities manage to live? In our next exclusive report, Clarissa Ward has a look at the statist civil institutions in rebel-held Syria and the forces set on destroying them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WARD: Any civilian infrastructure is a potential target, including hospitals. Last month, four were hit in a single day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): They want to kill the maximum number of people. Also, they want to forbid the area from having medical service. If there's no doctor, no nurse, no hospital, then there's no health care for the people and people will flee.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: All part of our exclusive coverage, "Inside Syria, Behind Rebel Lines," only here on CNN.
Back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:41:01] VAUSE: Authorities in North Carolina say they've decided not to charge Donald Trump or his campaign with inciting a riot. It all stems from this incident last week at a Trump rally. One supporter sucker punched a protester who was being led away. Mr. Donald Trump insists his rallies have never been particularly violent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: The press is now calling this thing, oh, but there's such violence. You know how many people have been hurt at our rallies? I think like basically none. Other than I guess maybe somebody got hit once or something. But there's no violence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The evidence over the past few weeks suggests otherwise, and whoever you support or blame, there is something different about Trump events.
Here's Gary Tuchman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There would be no wandering into this last Donald Trump rally before Super Tuesday three. That's because people attending the rally took buses from a parking lot about seven miles away from the Youngtown, Ohio, rally site. Trump organizers say it was not done this way to try to keep out possible Trump opponents. They say parking was limited. But one of the Trump volunteers on the buses wasn't completely on message.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People walk in with Trump's a bad guy. You don't want that. This is a rally and it's paid for by Trump. So, we want Trump supporters there.
TUCHMAN: Security keeps getting more elaborate at Trump rallies. As the buses pulled in, Secret Service, local police and private security were keeping a close eye on everything and many people were look over their soldiers.
(on camera): If you see protesters, what will you do?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell them to go whine somewhere else.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those people have an agenda.
TUCHMAN: What's their agenda?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To destroy.
(SHOUTING)
TUCHMAN (voice-over): This past weekend saw more tumult on the Trump circuit following the violence in Chicago on Friday.
(SHOUTING)
TUCHMAN: Secret Service and Trump's private security scrambled when a man charged towards the stage at an Ohio rally. Trump was noticeably startled but continued on.
And at another rally in Kansas City, Donald Trump showed no signs of flexibility to protesters.
TRUMP: Hello, darling. Go home to mom. Go home to mommy. Get him out.
(BOOING)
TRUMP: Get him out. Out.
(BOOING)
TRUMP: I hope these guys get thrown into a jail.
We are going to take our country back from those people, those people.
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: They do nothing.
TUCHMAN: And on Sunday, this is what Trump said on CNN's "State of the Union."
TRUMP: When I say things like, I'd like to punch them, frankly, this was absolutely violent and like a crazed individual. A lot of them are -- I don't even call them protesters, I call them disrupters.
TUCHMAN: The Trump supporters we talked to here have no problems with their candidate's more controversial comments.
(on camera): Do you think Donald Trump has any responsibility?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. No.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The media should stop showing it over and over and over, because that makes people want to do it.
TUCHMAN: Is the news media's fault?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's the news media. It's not Donald Trump. He's perfect.
TUCHMAN: People can argue until they're blue in the face about who's responsible for the violence at the recent Donald Trump rallies, but what is evident is that everyone realizes there's the potential for more.
TRUMP: All right, get them out of here.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Many people here say Trump should not change his language one bit towards protesters.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we need a leader who has authority and in charge. And if that's what it takes to be in charge, that's what it takes.
TUCHMAN (on camera): And you think that's an OK message to send?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fine with me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Gary joins us now from Youngstown, Ohio, the scene of Donald Trump's latest rally.
Gary, did all that extra security make much of a difference at this campaign stop?
TUCHMAN: It made a big difference, John. Not only was there extra security, but thing about it this way: If you're a campaign manager and you want to keep out political opponents, having a rally in an airport hangar like this, not in the middle of a neighborhood, not near everything, and requiring people to take a bus to get here for seven miles would discourage a lot of protesters to come here, because they would have to take the bus back for seven miles with 50 or 60 people who hate them. So, at this particular rally, there were zero disruptions.
[01:45:19] VAUSE: Not a bad plan. And it helps that you can park your gigantic plane there and get off and back on.
Do Trump supporters consider themselves the victims with the protesters? Is this feeding a narrative that everyone is against them?
TUCHMAN: There absolutely is a feeling here that Donald Trump and the people who support him are not to blame at all.
I specifically say to people, a very important part of this country's lifeline is the First Amendment and we have the right to say what you want. And I ask people here, don't they have a First Amendment right and everyone says, sure you do. But then they say, however, if you cause trouble, disrupt, yell, give the finger, you shouldn't be surprised if something bad happens to you. And therefore, it's your fault and not Donald Trump's fault for what he has said in the past, present or future.
VAUSE: That's the point, what will he say in the future, where is all of this going?
Gary, great to speak with you. Thank you.
There's a blockbuster deal in the news this week. Sony has agreed to pay Michael Jackson's estate $750 million for a share of a jointly owned music publishing catalogue. That catalogue includes more than a million copyrights, including about 250 Beatles songs. Some music insiders thought Sony would sell off its share of the catalogue but they're now all in.
Still to come here, pictures North Korea does not want you to see. We'll hear from the man who smuggled these photographs out of the hermit kingdom. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
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[01:51:00] VAUSE: The world's top Go player has his work cut out for himself. He's playing the fifth and final game against the Google A.I. programmer, a battle of man versus machine. These are pictures of the live stream event in Seoul. The artificial intelligence program already has a 3:1 lead.
North Korea might be the most secretive country on earth but now and then the curtain is pulled back just a little for a glimpse of life under the brutal regime of Kim Jong-Un. Michel Huniewicz is an amateur photographer who traveled recently to North Korea as a tourist. His photographs and blog postings are in stark contrast to government propaganda which tries to show an image of a strong, prosperous nation with a gleaming, modern capital city.
Michel joins us now from London.
Thank you for being with us.
Out of all the photographs you took, which ones stand out the most and why?
MICHAL HUNIEWICZ, PHOTOGRAPHER: Thank you. I mean, all of the pictures I took of North Korea are through my eyes. But there's a couple that are particularly important. There's one with a mother helping out her child and it looks like an ordinary scene which you would shoot in any country but in North Korea we saw very little human emotions. And it reminded me of a certain song that North Koreans learn and that teaches you that your mother's love is nothing compared to how much the Communist Party loves you, and that helps to show that maybe isn't always the case.
VAUSE: Can I ask you about the photograph at the train station in Pyongyang with busy well dressed people.
HUNIEWICZ: This was the first picture I took in Pyongyang. We arrived by train and it -- we looked through the window and looked like something you would see in a theater, like a stage where everything looks like a train station but it's a bit too perfect and people are walking in a manner a little too elegant. They're not in any great rush. And we look through the window and the window has curtains which amplify the effect of being in the theater and we all thought, this is fake, not real. It was the only train coming that day to Pyongyang. No other trains. There was no reason for those people to be there. They were not travelers but there to make it seem like it's a normal, ordinary capital city.
VAUSE: A couple of things stand out. When you entered the country, they searched your laptop and one of the things they're looking for was a copy of the comedy movie "The Interview," a comedy about Kim Jong-Un and North Korea?
HUNIEWICZ: That's right. They were looking for that and looking for books on North Korea. We were told not to bring any guide books because all of that would be confiscated. They were looking for GPS units. They were looking for films, other than "The Interview." They found a film on one of the fellow traveler's laptop about Yugoslavia and they said you can't bring that in, we don't know why, but they deleted it from his disk.
VAUSE: The photographs you took while in Pyongyang, especially of the run-down apartment buildings, and we have to keep in mind that Pyongyang is essentially for the elites of the country. And I think you said the people have to wear a badge which signifies that they're residents of the capital.
HUNIEWICZ: I believe so, yes. You cannot buy that badge. You can be given that badge if they decide you're a friend of North Korea. And the blocks of flats reminded me of Eastern Europe. It's pretty much the same thing, that brutal architecture, which is supposed to make you feel small and unimportant as individual, because only the community matters.
[01:55:11] VAUSE: You managed to smuggle these photographs out. Some of them I guess were taken illegally by North Korean standards. Most of them were taken legally. But I'm just wondering. Are you concerned about what might happen to your government minders who you left behind?
HUNIEWICZ: I am a little bit concerned because I don't really know if they're in any real threat because there's nothing highly controversial in those pictures, I don't think. I am aware of this. And for me, it has always been a question of whether we agree to play by North Korean rules and whether we agree to being blackmailed by them.
VAUSE: Michal, great to speak with you. Thanks so much.
HUNIEWICZ: Thanks for having me.
VAUSE: You've been watching CNN NEWSROOM, live in Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.
Stay with us. The news continues with Rosemary Church and Errol Barnett.
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