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Deadly Knife Attack in London; Race for the White House; Russians Waiting to Hear Olympic Fate; U.S. Veteran Seeks Asylum for Iraqi Who Saved Him; Controversy Over $400 Million U.S. Payment to Iran. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired August 04, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:00:17] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everybody. I'm John Vause in Los Angeles.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Sara Sidner.

And we begin with breaking news. Police trying to determine the motive in a deadly knife attack in central London.

VAUSE: Six people were stabbed, one woman died at the scene.

Scotland Yard says mental health is a significant factor here but terrorism has not been ruled out.

SIDNER: CNN's Isa Soares joins us now live from London. Isa, it's been just a few hours as we mentioned that this incident occurred but is there any information now being released about either the victims or the suspect at this point there?

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well hi -- Sara. We have heard in the last 45 minutes or so from the Met police. They have been in charge of operations. We know the counterterrorism unit is not leading the investigation but they are supporting it. This is what the message said.

In the last 45 minutes also, (inaudible) said the man they had tasered earlier was a 19-year-old man. They have given us no other information in terms of what exactly his mental state was other than to say that the mental health may have been a very important factor here. That is just one line of questioning they are looking into.

Of course, earlier they said that terrorism is also another factor. They haven't pronounced themselves any further on that side.

In terms of the victims, you know that one woman has died here. If you look over my shoulder, my left shoulder, you will see there is still a tent up. The area is still being cordoned off. We have seen the forensics teams still in there and we have been told the body is still under that tent -- Sara.

In terms of much more do we know about the woman? We know that she was 60 years of age. We do not know her nationality. But, you know, from many people I have been speaking to in this area -- and let me tell you that it's very, very quiet at Russell Square.

This is a very touristy area. We have the British Museum here. You've got several hotels as well. Many people basically saying to me, look, this is the first time we are hearing of it. When it happened -- when we arrived pretty much everything had been cleared. So this is what we're hearing at this stage -- Sara.

VAUSE: Isa stay with us because we do have a statement which was made by Scotland Yard a short time ago. This is coming from Mark Rowley who is the assistant commissioner of Scotland Yard. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK ROWLEY, SCOTLAND YARD: As a precautionary measure tomorrow, Londoners will wake up and in the morning they will notice an increased police presence on the streets including armed officers. This is there to provide reassurance and safety. And we ask the public to remain calm, vigilant and alert.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So Isa, obviously this attack comes I think on the eve of the Metropolitan Police there deploying hundreds of armed police for -- to -- there in case of a terrorist attack.

SOARES: Very much so. We heard yesterday from Met basically saying that they will increase police presence, 600 additional armed officers, John, across London or as you heard there, many people will be seeing armed police officers this morning.

But you know, this is not because of any sort of intelligence they may have received, we're being told. But because of the recent spate of terror attacks we have seen throughout Europe -- so precautionary measures but worth reminding our viewers that London and the U.K. still pretty much on a high level of terror alert -- John.

VAUSE: Ok. Isa Soares on the scene. We will be checking back in with you in the coming hours. We appreciate the update. Thank you.

SIDNER: And this man, Jeremy Chung was also on the scene and saw the aftermath of the attack. He spoke to us just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY CHUNG, WITNESS: There were about six or seven police vehicles surrounding the scene and the whole area was cordoned off. The body was still laying on the pavement on the east side of Russell Square.

The police response was rapid. And there were already groups of police officers going around the square asking questions and shining torches into residences and knocking on doors. And according to the bar owner where I was, the police had already escorted away most of the eyewitnesses who witnessed the event first hand so the police were well prepared, it appeared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Joining us now is former FBI special agent Bobby Chacon. Bobby -- thanks for being with us.

At this point, it looks like the alleged attacker is in custody. Police were on the scene within about 60 minutes. He was tasered apparently. If this was a terror attack, firstly it is unusual to have the suspect I imagine which means there should be a lot of answers pretty quickly.

[00:05:09] BOBBY CHACON, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Sure, I think that will happen. I think those of us in the States here will wake up tomorrow morning with a much better picture of what happened.

I think this is the type of investigation that you learn a lot really quickly and I think they may have even more information obviously than they're putting out at this point. But they are working around the clock. I'm sure they are on the phone with international partners and I think that we're going to have a really good picture really quickly.

SIDNER: I want to talk about, you know, what law enforcement is doing at this point and, you know, whether this was a mental illness -- an issue of mental illness. Or whether this is a politically motivated attack, a terrorist attack. Isn't this sort of the worst nightmare scenario? You have a weapon that anybody can get their hands on. No, necessarily -- very hard to stop. You don't necessarily know someone is going to do this if they did this on their own.

CHACON: Sure.

SIDNER: Are we going to be seeing more of this sort of -- we have.

CHACON: Well, I mean Nice was a similar thing where the mode of injury was something that anybody could attain. And the fact of whether this is mental illness or terrorism, we must remember those things are not mutually exclusive. This could be somebody that's unbalanced and simply the trigger mechanism could have been some radicalization online. I'm sure they're looking at all of that.

The early on statements that it might be terrorism leads me to believe that some witnesses may have heard him utter some things. That still doesn't mean that much. They will have to really dig deep to see what connections he had either online or in person.

VAUSE: When we hear terrorism everyone makes this automatic assumption, it is Islamic terrorism, it's al Qaeda, it's ISIS. It could be other forms of terrorism as well. I mean, you know, going back a couple of years when the IRA was active --

CHACON: Sure. Absolutely.

VAUSE: We're not saying that's the case here. But it could be something else.

CHACON: Right. I think that early on the statements that the police were making lead me to believe the witnesses a lot of times like we had here at Fort Hood they shout "Allahu Akbar" when they carry on their attack. Somebody may have heard something like that.

If it is a different terrorist organization those words are not as identifiable. Everybody knows those kind of Islamic terrorist words -- right that everybody that utters it they're carrying it out.

That's what leads me to believe it might be something like that but even if he had uttered those words that doesn't mean this is a true terrorist.

SIDNER: What are investigators going to be doing now? You can still see -- the scene was still up, the tarp is there where the body was underneath and obviously collecting evidence. What else are they going to be doing going forward to try and prove whether or not this was terrorism or whatever it was?

CHACON: Right. I mean they're right now doing basically the forensic crime scene. That in this kind of case is less important than the other work they are doing. They are probably looking at his phone records. They're probably running them through every intelligence community database that they're in contact with.

MI5 and MI6 are probably working on this. They are probably in communication with the FBI and the CIA here, Homeland Security and all the other partners throughout Europe and the intelligence community and just trying to build a picture of this guy. But that's what they're doing right now.

SIDNER: And, of course, there are cameras everywhere in London.

VAUSE: Yes.

CHACON: London is one of those cities that has a lot -- it prides itself on a lot of surveillance. They're pulling all those videos and looking at those too.

Bobby -- good to speak with you. Thanks for coming in.

CHACON: Thank you.

SIDNER: Thanks -- Bobby.

Now to the race for the White House. Democrats are riding high while some Republicans are frankly freaking out, for lack of a better word.

VAUSE: The latest Fox News poll shows Hillary Clinton with a ten- point lead over Donald Trump, the largest gap of the general election so far. When libertarian candidate, Gary Johnson is included Clinton's lead shrinks only a little bit.

SIDNER: Trump is having what many say is one of the worst weeks of his candidacy at this point. Sources telling CNN Republican leaders are growing increasingly frustrated with their candidate but Trump says everything is going great.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: So I just want to tell you the campaign is doing really well. It's never been so well united. We started on June 16th. I would say right now, it's the best in terms of being united that it's been since we began. We're doing incredibly well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Joining us now, Wendy Greuel who's a former L.A. City councilwoman and a Hillary Clinton supporter; also Republican consultant John Thomas who we have not seen for an awfully long time. It's great to have you here.

JOHN THOMAS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: It's good to be back.

VAUSE: It's good to have you.

Ok. Everything was going so well for Donald Trump at that campaign for about the first 11 minutes he had the attacks coming especially this one on Hillary Clinton. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Hillary's commercials, they're so false. They're so false. Like she's got the one with blood coming out of her eyes -- and I meant her nose or her ears or her mouth but these people are perverted and they think it was another location -- unbelievable. And you know the truth I cut it short because I was talking about either taxes or economic development so I said or whatever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[00:10:05] VAUSE: Ok. That was my bad. That was actually -- he kind of went off the rails because he's kind of relitigating the past.

That was when he went after what he said about the Fox News anchor Megan Kelly trying to make an excuse for it. And just in contrast, this is actually what he said at the time about Megyn Kelly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: She gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions and, you know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her -- wherever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Ok. So not whatever, but wherever. He is also trying to rewrite those comments he made about a disabled reporter. This was Trump just a few hours ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I didn't know the reporter. But then it came out that the reporter said he knew me. He met me. He met me in 1988. He met me and I knew who he was. I didn't know who he was. I didn't. And if I did and he was handicapped -- he had a problem with something and he was handicapped. He must be a nice guy. Didn't speak to him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And this is what he said at the time. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Right after a couple of good paragraphs, talking about northern New Jersey draws the prober's eye -- written by a nice reporter. The poor guy -- you got to see this guy, I don't know what I said. I don't remember. He's going I don't remember. Maybe that's what I said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Ok. And the bright side, John, there are no new controversies tonight.

THOMAS: Tonight. What time is it?

VAUSE: The night is still young.

THOMAS: I think the story here is the electorate doesn't like either candidate. There's about a 10 point swing of undecided voters who keep going back and forth between the candidates because they don't like either.

They don't like Donald Trump because of what he says and they don't like Hillary Clinton because of what she's done. So both the candidates have problems.

Trump's problem is he has to focus it on Hillary, not on himself and making these unforced errors doesn't make his case.

SIDNER: Why do you think he keeps bringing up some of these old things that have been controversial to say the least, never mind offensive to some? You can go all the way to making people really, really angry with some of the things that he is bringing them. No one is bringing them up to him, he's doing it himself.

THOMAS: Look, in a 60-minute press conference or a 60-minute stump speech, 90 percent of what he says is basically on message. But then he'll go off the rails because Trump knows that he's grown up in the school of public relations where you attack the attacker. That's what you always do. And it doesn't matter if it's the Pope or if it's the little guy on the street. That's what he does, he can't help himself.

VAUSE: Wendy, can he rewrite history like this in this day and age?

WENDY GREUEL, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: No. I mean, you know, if he is so expert at public relations I don't know who is grading him but in my book he gets an F. And when you start a day like today where the headlines are panic in the Republican Party and it's time for an intervention, that's a bad day. And I think that people are realizing this is the real Donald Trump. This is who he is. And I think --

VAUSE: He's not going to change.

GREUEL: He is not going to change. He is still going to go off the rails and no one is doing an intervention. And I think the American people are seeing that what they want is someone who potentially has the finger on making those decisions, the phone in their hand about critical life and death situations.

It can't be Donald Trump. It scares everybody and not only in this country but across the world.

SIDNER: So he goes off the rails, right -- that is partly why people like him. They say he speaks plainly. He's not politically correct. He says what he feels. He says things sometimes off the cuff and we all do the same so he is like us. And so you hear that a lot from his supporters.

But I want to ask you both, first to you, what are Republicans doing right now, the leadership of the Republican Party, what are they doing? And when it comes to Hillary's campaign, it seems like they are just sitting back and watching the show. I mean we haven't heard anything from the campaign at all. Not Hillary herself either.

THOMAS: Well, there are a couple of things going on. There is an intervention being held with Donald Trump by our top brass saying what you need to do is become a disciplined candidate and if you don't you need to drop out.

Now, they're not going to force him to drop out, in fact, they can't.

SIDNER: They can't.

THOMAS: But Donald Trump I think at this point, in fact I sat here John, with you a couple months ago when I said Corey Lewandowski has outworn his usefulness. He has become the story, he had to resign.

That's the same thing with Paul Manafort at this point. Manafort helped him get the nomination but he is out of his league. They need to bring in a seasoned hand who can help corral and teach discipline to Donald Trump.

SIDNER: But to be fair they have brought in some seasoned people and he is still saying what he wants to say. I can't imagine that this is the conversation the Republicans had wanted him to have after --

THOMAS: I think there is only one person that can get the job done. That's Roger Ailes. He's one person who knows how -- number one Donald Trump respects him; but number two he has shown that he understands blue collar voters across the United States for 20 years.

VAUSE: Ok. On the Democrats side though?

GREUEL: Look, I mean Hillary Clinton is out there talking about the issues right now. She is able to talk about the economy and jobs and about looking at foreign policy and who is going to be able to lead this country and just watching Donald Trump implode. And again I don't think anyone can control him. It's clear. [00:15:12] THOMAS: To be fair, Wendy, at your convention, Hillary

Clinton mentioned Donald Trump 22 times in her speech. Donald Trump mentioned Hillary Clinton 11 times in his speech. She's trying to make this a referendum on Donald Trump. I think it's about the issues. She's not going to do well.

VAUSE: Ok. I mean we're talking about the Republican Party. And it does seem that Trump is pushing it to the breaking point. Even his running mate Mike Pence broke with Donald Trump and decided to endorse the House Speaker Paul Ryan.

This is what Pence had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R-IN), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I strongly support Paul Ryan, strongly endorse his re-election. He is a long-time friend. He's a strong conservative leader. I believe we need Paul Ryan in leadership in the Congress of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So Wendy, when you look at what is happening on the Republican side compared to the Democrats with Hillary riding the bounce that she got from the convention and you look at what is happening with the Republicans, has Donald Trump now lost that time to make up the ground that he lost after the convention? Because this is a critical time in any campaign.

GREUEL: It is a critical time. And look, the Hillary campaign is not taking anything for granted. I mean she is going to every single state which is battleground states. She is there. The Democratic Party is supporting her.

I think that's where Donald Trump is going to have a problem. The Republican Party is not helping him, you know. They are concerned. They want to back away and they're going to look at other things that they can do for the Senate or Congress.

VAUSE: The down ballot.

GREUEL: The down ballot. And so he's going to have trouble in those places. But I think Hillary Clinton is going to put, you know, head down, move ahead and focus in on the things that are imp to the American people.

And yes, she is mentioning Donald Trump because boy, you are going to mention Donald Trump and say I can't believe he just said that as much as you possibly can. And he has helped from the statements he made about the Khan family to what he has done on the Purple Heart and all of the things. So he is his own worst enemy and I hope he keeps on talking.

SIDNER: He has had rough weeks before. He has.

GREUEL: This is pretty rough. SIDNER: But he has bounced back. So we'll all be waiting to see what

happens.

Thank you so much.

VAUSE: Thank you guys.

GREUEL: Thank you.

VAUSE: Ok. Russian Olympic athletes are all on edge as they wait to see if they'll be allowed to compete as the Rio Games open on Friday. That's still ahead.

SIDNER: Plus, why U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps has a new reason to celebrate ahead of the games.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: Now to your breaking news. One woman is dead, five other people injured in a knife attack in central London. Scotland Yard now says that mental health is a major factor but terrorism is still a possibility.

[00:20:09]

VAUSE: The police used a taser and then arrested the 19-year-old suspect. He is in custody in hospital. It all happened at Russell Square, an area popular with tourists near the British museum.

SIDNER: Well, Russian athletes still very worried. They don't know yet who among them will be able to compete in Rio. Right now, more than 100 team members are banned in the wake of a doping scandal.

VAUSE: Bans were upheld Wednesday against rowing and weight lifting teams. The IOC will issue its final ruling we are told no later than Friday just before the opening ceremony.

CNN World Sports' Christina MacFarlane joins us now live from Rio de Janeiro.

SIDNER: Could you tell us a little bit about what in the world is going on here and why this is taking so long to get this information to the athletes. Because I imagine those who are going to participate are really, really nervous right now for completely different reasons.

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN WORLD SPORTS: That's absolutely right -- Sara. And I can tell you it's the process that is slowing everything down -- a three-part process. Remember, the first step of this is the sport governing bodies have had to decide over the eligibility of their own athletes.

Now those who've been ineligible have had the option to go to the court of arbitration for sport to have that overturned. But once that process is complete it's not over yet. They still need to get the rubber stamp of approval from a new three-person panel that's been set up by the IOC. We expect the final ruling to come in the form of a press release, as you mentioned, any time between now and the opening ceremony. And I can tell you everyone here is completely on tenterhooks. Not just the Russian athletes but all the other athletes competing in the competition because remember, this has huge implications for the medal outcome here in Rio.

Russia was fourth on the medal rankings back in London 2012. So, a great deal of anticipation and frustration here in Rio.

VAUSE: Christina, the most decorated Olympian ever, American swimmer Michael Phelps, he had a press conference and he opened up about the problem of doping. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL PHELPS, OLYMPIC SWIMMER: We all want clean sports. That's all we want. We want everyone to be on the same playing field. For me, I'm the only one that can control myself and that's really all I focus on.

You know, I think I can honestly say as well in my career I don't know if I have ever competed in a clean sport. And it's upsetting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Never competed in a clean sport. Did those comments create a stir or were they just kind of greeted with a bit of a shrug?

MACFARLANE: Well, they have been widely reported but there hasn't been a huge amount of reaction to this just yet. But you've got to look at who these comments are coming from -- one of the greatest Olympians of all time, 18 time gold medalist. And these comments are bound to have a profound impact, especially just a week after seven Russian athletes were banned from swimming ahead of the Rio Olympic Games.

And also sitting alongside him, interestingly in that press conference, was his lifelong coach Paul Bowman who went one further and actually said that the system was broken and that it needed to be fixed. I think what it shows to us, what it indicates is a great deal of anger that's around at the moment from the athletes as to how this situation is being dealt with.

SIDNER: Ok. Now we have done a lot of negatives. We want to go to a little bit of lighter note speaking of Phelps his teammates voted him the person that's going to be carrying the flag at the opening ceremonies. Let's listen to what he has to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHELPS: When one of our staff members told me last night that I was selected, I think I had the biggest smile on my face you could possibly find. I mean I was -- pretty much like -- a little bit of emotion came over me. I probably shed a little bit of tears just of joy, just the honor and the opportunity to do that is just incredible. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: So he's on the one hand he's talking about the system is broken and he's worried about doping; and the other hand he's saying I'm so proud to be able to do this and be involved.

VAUSE: And also it might be his last Olympics.

MACFARLANE: Well, he said that last time around didn't he, back in 2012. But it was really nice to see there just how -- just how emotional he was in that press conference. It obviously means an awful lot to him.

And if you think back four years ago remember how he was then. By his own admission, he said that, you know, he was completely burnt out but he just didn't want to swim any more and his heart wasn't in it. And since then, he's had a rather turbulent time away from the pool.

If you remember, back in 2014 he had problems with alcohol. He was arrested for a DUI. He never thought that he would get back to this point. And what he has been saying here in Rio is that he feels the monkey is off his back like he has nothing left to prove and that he is just going the keep his head up and enjoy this one.

[00:25:13] And I think, you know, having that torch bearer flag on him is just going to be the icing on the cake.

VAUSE: Very quickly before you go -- still plenty of problems for the organizers. Look at this protest.

Police had to use tear gas and rubber bullets to get the protesters away from the Olympic torch. What is going on?

MACFARLANE: It's a shocking video, isn't it, John? I mean there is no secret of the fact that many Brazilians here are not happy about the fact that the Olympics have come to Rio. And here in this video you can see evidence of this.

Now, this was a peaceful protest planned around the arrival of the torch today in Rio. Among the crowd there were families, there were teachers, there were workers, and protesters protesting the lack of infrastructure in the city. And the police there you can see were in fact riot police. They came out, they fired rubber bullets and they had tear gas and they were hitting the crowd with batons.

And I think we're going to be seeing this riot police now staying with the torch all the way through to the opening ceremony on Friday. But really -- you know, upsetting scenes.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you so much. Christina MacFarlane joining us, live there from Rio. Just a couple of days away from that opening ceremony.

VAUSE: It's a late night duty or early morning duty. I haven't quite worked it out which slot Christina has scored there. But whatever it is, she is staying up late. We appreciate it. And we're going to take a break.

When we come back, Donald Trump not backing down, (inaudible) about those comments about the family of a fallen American Muslim soldier.

When we come back we'll talk to a U.S. veteran seeking asylum for the Iraqi officer who saved his life.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.

SIDNER: And I'm Sara Sidner.

Headlines for you at this hour.

One woman is dead and five other people have been wounded following a knife attack in central London.

[00:30:00] Officers used a taser to arrest a 19-year-old man involved in that incident. Police say mental health is possibly a major factor in the attack. But terrorism is also under investigation.

VAUSE: Hurricane Earl is heading to Belize. Rain is already battering the country and a category 1 storm hasn't made landfall yet. Earl could drop up to 30 centimeters of rain. In some areas, there could be a storm surge to almost 2 meters.

SIDNER: Terrifying pictures here. 300 people on board an Emirates flight were able to escape after the plane crash landed and burst into flames at the Dubai airport. A firefighter, though, was killed while responding to the accident. It's not clear yet what exactly caused the plane to crash land.

And the divisive U.S. campaign for the presidency, it seems most Americans agree that going after families of fallen soldiers should be off limits. Democrats and some Republicans are condemning Donald Trump for saying that the father of a U.S. Muslim soldier who died in Iraq had no right to criticize him.

VAUSE: The Republican presidential candidate also implying that the soldier's mother was forced to stay silent while her husband spoke at the Democratic convention because she is Muslim.

And then there is this new poll out from "Fox News" that shows the substantial majority, 69 percent of those surveyed saying Trump's response to the Khan Family was out of bounds.

Trump, not backing down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I don't regret anything. I said nice things about the son, and I feel that very strongly. But, of course, I was hit very hard from the stage and, you know, it's just one of those things. But I don't know, I don't regret anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Many Muslims stood shoulder to shoulder with American troops during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A U.S. veteran says a former Iraqi officer saved his life while on patrol in 2006.

SIDNER: Chase Millsap is trying to pay back that ultimate debt. He's helping the man known as "The Captain" seek asylum here in the United States. Millsap said that officer later injured in an IED blast now lives in legal limbo in Turkey.

Millsap spoke to "National Geographic" about how the "The Captain" risked his life to spare Millsap's.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHASE MILLSAP, U.S. MARINE VETERAN AND FORMER GREEN BERETS: And we were at the check point together. The sun was going down. It was another day in Iraq. And we were shot at by a sniper. He pushed me down. And he ran toward the sniper. Directly at him. Risking his own life to protect mine.

He saved my life that day. We became more than friends. We became brothers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: And that U.S. veteran joins us now here in Los Angeles.

Chase Millsap, thank you so much for being here.

You're a former Green Beret with three tours in Iraq, right?

MILLSAP: Right. That's right. That's right.

SIDNER: Something extraordinary was done for you. Your life was saved because of this captain. And now you are doing something frankly extraordinary for him.

I'm curious as to the lengths that you are going to, to try and get him legally into United States and what you discovered as you were trying to do that, whether the process was extremely difficult or not?

MILLSAP: It's absolutely difficult. But it's one of those things that, you know, as a veteran, especially Special Forces veteran, you know, we live by the motto, "De oppresso liber," which means free the oppressed.

So when The Captain called me and said, Chase, I need some help. It was sort of a no-brainer to say, obviously, I'm going to help you out and I'm going to continue to follow you down this path as long as I can help.

And, you know, we found barriers consistently across the way. I mean, we're dealing with one of the largest refugee crisis since World War II. And we're looking at barriers both internationally. And internationally, and especially an election year, it makes it very difficult when we start talking about immigration policy and things like that.

So with this, you know, I knew it was going to be a daunting task, but you know, bottom line I knew the story needed to be told and the best thing that I could do and other things likely to do was tell that story. And that's why I went to Turkey and met with The Captain years later after I left Iraq and said, how can I help?

SIDNER: Yes, this wasn't just Skype and phone calls. You actually went with him to try and get some of the things sorted out.

MILLSAP: Yes, absolutely. And, you know, a lot of it is, you know, as a Special Forces guy, as a military adviser, we want to get on the ground and see it for ourselves. You know, Skype only goes so far.

But being able to see it, being on the ground and literally see the rejection in somebody's face when they come up against a barrier and just that sheer thought of, I've got to wait even longer, that's something that I never wanted to see, but wanted to show and really help people understand that there is a human element to this especially it's helped and save American lives.

VAUSE: It's, you know -- it's difficult not to link this with what is happening with Captain Khan right now and the Republican campaign.

Donald Trump has made it a part of his platform for this temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. Most people seem to think that would never happen, but the mere fact that he has put it out there, it's a major part of his stump speech wherever he goes and it does have considerable support from, you know, a large number of Americans in this country.

How does that complicate everything for you?

MILLSAP: Well, I'll tell you, you know, things for me are pretty simple. You know, when you are overseas and you are on the ground, you work with and advise, train soldiers from all over. And it doesn't really matter the religion.

[00:35:00] I trained Muslim soldiers and serve right next to Muslim soldiers and fought in battle with Muslim soldiers. And I look at this now and I think, you know, this is so -- so political at this point. But also, you've got to go back to the human side of it.

I looked at it and said it doesn't really matter. And I hear things, though, that come over and come out and a lot of it is hate, but it comes out as toxic.

And for those of us that are on the ground that do this every day, we have to trust the people next to us regardless of religion. And when we hear things like that coming out through both parties, frankly, it makes our job very, very difficult on the ground.

VAUSE: I thought the whole issue of Iraqis and Afghans who served alongside the U.S. in the military or as translators or fixers or whatever, I thought that was being resolved with the 2007 Refugee Act. 5000 pages issued for a five-year period. That has now expired.

Is there a legal framework still in place? Has anything replaced that? Or is it just now you are a refugee, you stand in line with everyone else.

MILLSAP: Yes. It's actually complicated. Every year the quotas have to get re-evaluated when they go through Congress and you know, honestly, the backlog keeps getting longer as things sort of deteriorate overseas. And then you get into the technicalities of Afghans versus Iraqis.

And, you know, a lot of it, if you can just look in the history, right after World War II, there are a lot of Eastern Europeans that were fleeing an they ended up coming here to the United States. And we actually put them back in an American uniform and sent them back as a Special Forces soldier.

In fact, my old heritage comes from that. So I look at this and say, yes, it's complicated but we have done it before.

SIDNER: I want to ask you about the specifics in this case, because he save your life, but you've been talking to him for such a long time.

He's on a really difficult spot. He's got three kids, correct, and his wife. They are in a country. They don't even speak the language.

How far have you gotten? I mean, how hard is it? Because there is a lot of talk about it being easy to come over to the United States and it shouldn't be.

MILLSAP: Yes. Well, it's definitely not easy. And, you know, one of the things we first had to get through was the U.N. I mean, he had to officially be declared a refugee before he could even start the process. And for almost a year, he was just kind of in limbo. Nothing happened. And, finally, he was able to get through that. And he's now at the system where we can actually look at him from the U.S. refugee side and say, OK, this is somebody that we would even consider letting come in here.

And, you know, for the captain, obviously, this has an emotional toll. But I really truthfully worry about his children. The three kids that he has that, you know, have been forced to flee Iraq to another country that no one knows and picked up everything and now they are sort of like what am I going to do?

VAUSE: They've left everything behind. They are living in a small apartment in Turkey. They are in a strange place. He was injured by an IED. This is a guy who, you know, has done his duty for his country.

Chase, thanks very much for coming here.

MILLSAP: Thank you. SIDNER: Thanks for coming out.

The Obama administration says a $400 million payment secretly sent to Iran was not ransom for the release of four American prisoners.

We'll explain the controversy surrounding that story coming up next.

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[00:40:00] SIDNER: We want to get you caught up now on our breaking news.

Police are trying to determine the motive for a deadly knife attack in Central London.

One woman has been killed and five others have been stabbed. Police ended up arresting the suspect, a 19-year-old man. That is the only details we have on him at this hour.

VAUSE: He is in custody, in hospital. Scotland Yard says mental health is a significant factor, but terrorism remains a possibility. There is a beefed up police presence on the streets, including armed officers.

Well, some U.S. Republicans say a $400 million cash payment the U.S. secretly sent by plane to Iran amounts to a ransom. That would violate the U.S. policy not to pay for hostages.

SIDNER: The money transfer happened on the same day Tehran released four American prisoners and the nuclear deal was formally implemented.

Our Elise Labott takes a closer look.

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ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Four Americans including "Washington Post" reporter Jason Rezaian were freed from an Iranian prison on January 17th. But just as the Americans boarded a Swiss aircraft bound for Germany, another unmark cargo plane was landing in Iran loaded with pallets of $400 million worth of cash, shrink-wrapped Euros, Swiss Francs and other currencies, skirting America's own sanctions that ban transactions with Iran.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is a good day.

LABOTT: While the freed Americans were in the air, President Obama announced a historic nuclear agreement with Iran. The White House insists, the money entering Iran within a few hours of the American prisoners leaving was all a coincidence and there was no quid pro quo.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: No, it is not a ransom payment. United States does not do it that way and it's not accurate to describe it that way.

LABOTT: But that's not how Iranian leaders described it at the time. And Republicans armed with these new details of the money transfer as first described in "The Wall Street Journal" are outraged.

ED ROYCE, U.S. HOUSE REPUBLICAN: One of the reasons you don't want to transfer $400 million in unmarked bills in cash to Iran is because it's going to end up in the hands of Hezbollah, or it's going to end up in the hands of the other Iranian agents.

LABOTT: While U.S. and Iranian diplomats were secretly negotiating a prisoner exchange, separate teams from both countries were resolving a decades old Iranian claim before an international tribunal at The Hague.

The $400 million, the first payment ending a dispute over a failed arms deal dating back to the 1970s.

OBAMA: Iran will be returned its own funds, including appropriate interest but much less than the amount Iran sought. With the nuclear deal done, prisoners released, the time was right to resolve this dispute as well.

LABOTT: After the cash-filled plane landed in Iran and the Americans were freed, Iranian military commanders boasted the money was a ransom. But the State Department insists the prisoners would have been freed the same day even without the payment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We believe so. Because that was worked through a different process and it was concluded successfully.

LABOTT (on-camera): Now Congress is debating legislation preventing the White House from making any more cash payments to Iran and requiring the White House to make the details of the $1.7 billion settlement public.

Meanwhile, just last week, Iran detained another American, Reza Shahini, and two other U.S. citizens, Siamak Namazi and his father, Baquer, have been held in Iran for months. Their family fears the Iranians are trying to extract another cash payment from the Obama administration for their release.

Elise Labott, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: And thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM live here from Los Angeles. I'm Sara Sidner.

VAUSE: I'm John Vause. "World Sport" is up next.

You're watching CNN.

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