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Israel Pays Final Respects to Former Leader; New Kashmir Flare Up; New Jersey Train Crash; Trump Says He Won Monday's Presidential Debate. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired September 30, 2016 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:00:12] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour --
ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: A long list of world leaders in Israel to honor Shimon Peres during today's state funeral.
VAUSE: Chemical warfare in Darfur -- the escalating violence so bad now in Sudan, Amnesty International says it could amount to a war crime.
SESAY: Plus Donald Trump -- he talked about Bill Clinton's indiscretions. What about his own marital history? Is it fair game during this election?
VAUSE: We shall see.
Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause.
SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.
VAUSE: In about hour from now the family of Shimon Peres will arrive at Israel's Knesset to escort his body to Mount Herzl for burial.
SESAY: So far thousands of Israelis have paid their respect. Peres body has been lying in state at the parliament building where he dedicated so much of his life. Dozens of dignitaries are expected to attend his funeral. The former Israeli leader died Wednesday at the age of 93.
CNN's international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is live with us from Jerusalem. And Nic this is a day filled with ceremony and tradition. It is also a day which comes with a very complicated and complex security operation.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It is. There are so many people visiting -- world leaders, presidents, prime ministers. President Obama is due to touch down fairly soon. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is coming, too. Former President Bill Clinton already here -- he came to pay his respects yesterday.
But you have a list of presidents -- Switzerland, Cyprus, Romania, Greece, Togo, Ivory Coast, Serbia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria. Then you have a list of prime ministers -- Belgium, Netherlands, Estonia, Hungary, Sweden, Canada. It's a long list.
What we're expecting here today after Shimon Peres' family arrives at the Knesset in about an hour's time they will begin by about 8:30 here, that's about an hour and a half from now. They'll begin to escort his body to Mount Herzl, the national cemetery, as you say, and it's there that these dignitaries will begin to arrive.
What will happen there? There will be a eulogy and farewell ceremony. We will hear speeches by President Rivlin, by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, by Shimon Peres' daughter and two sons will both give speeches. We'll also hear there will be songs. We'll also hear as well from President Clinton -- he will speak. President Obama will also speak.
And by midday -- a little before perhaps -- the funeral service, it will be eulogies and farewell ceremony will have moved on to the funeral portion. So by midday here, about five hours from now, Shimon Peres will be buried.
But of course, having so many international dignitaries here is providing quite a challenge for Israel's security services. The biggest operation, they say, security operation in many years.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: Under the watchful gaze of Israel's security services, a steady stream of mourners filed by to pay their respects to the last of the nation's founding fathers. It looks low key but behind the scenes, not so much.
MICKY ROSENFELD, FOREIGN PRESS SPOKESMAN FOR ISRAELI POLICE: Well, it's one of the largest security operations involving special patrol units, undercover units, border police that will secure the different areas and, of course, make sure that everything goes according to the assessments, according to plans.
ROBERTSON: A plan that will need to keep dozens of former and current world leaders safe. Bill Clinton one of the first to arrive; Barack Obama, John Kerry; French President Francois Hollande; Britain's Prince Charles on their way too.
Outside a nearby hotel hosting some of the dignitaries police relax ahead of their arrival. No specific threat yet, but this city, Jerusalem, never far from trouble.
ROSENFELD: We saw over the last two weeks we, in fact, saw six attacks taking place where our police units responded to.
ROBERSTON: One of those authorities say, a lone attacker tried to stab a policewoman -- the response swift and decisive. He was shot dead.
Amidst all this security, there is one positive unintended consequence playing out during these sorrowful events. The world's most powerful men and women will be able to meet face to face, a rarity in itself.
Obama and Kerry in the twilight of the current U.S. administration will get no greater satisfaction than trying to rekindle the Mideast peace progress both they and Shimon Peres struggled to ignite.
[00:05:05] Aside from that perennial pursuit, conflict in Syria will be one of the most pressing international issues. If relations with Russia deteriorate Israel's allies will be looking for assurances President Putin's unruly Mideast machinations can safely be managed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: Now some of those leaders will only be on the ground here for a very short space of time. President Obama not expected to be -- actually in Israel for much longer than the ceremonies themselves. Of course there will be others that will stay here for longer. President Francois Hollande, of course, France had a long and deep relationship particularly with Shimon Peres over the years. So we can expect some of those leaders to be here a little longer -- some of course though jetting in and jetting out pretty quickly.
VAUSE: And so a very sad and solemn day begins in Israel.
And Nic we'll be checking in with you a little later. Thanks for being with us. Nic Robertson live in Jerusalem.
SESAY: Now tensions between India and Pakistan are reaching a point not seen in years. The two-nuclear armed nations have fought two wars over Kashmir and have argued about the disputed region for nearly 70 years.
Now India says it carried out surgical attacks against terrorists along the line of controlling Kashmir. Pakistan is disputing that and says that two Pakistani soldiers were killed after a shootout that India started.
CNN's India bureau chief Ravi Agrawal joins us now from New Delhi. Ravi conflicting accounts on what happened in that border area. Has India provided any evidence to counter Pakistan's claims that it's essentially lying about conducting these surgical strikes?
RAVI AGRAWAL, CNN INDIA BUREAU CHIEF: Not yet, no -- Isha.
It's almost as if the two sides of the argument are living in parallel universes. Indians and Pakistanis are waking up Friday to completely different accounts of what happened on Thursday.
The Indian account is that in the early hours of Thursday they had actionable intelligence that there were what they called terrorists along the line of control that divides Kashmir into Indian and Pakistani administrative portion. The Indian soldiers went in on foot. They say that they crossed the line of control and they then attacked Pakistani terrorist installations. That's what the Indian side is calling them. And they attacked and a number of militants were killed according to the Indians. The Pakistani version of the events is very different. They're saying that there were no terrorist bases on their soil. They are also saying that two of their soldiers were killed which would imply that well, they were soldiers, they were military bases and not terrorist bases. So very, very conflicting accounts.
Both sides have ratcheted up tensions in recent days. This is a major escalation. I should add there have been Indian surgical strikes in the past in recent years. This is one of the first times that India is publicly claiming them which ups the ante on both sides.
SESAY: Ravi -- with tensions escalating, talk to us about the fallout caused by this episode.
AGRAWAL: Well, there's going to be a fair bit of fallout on both sides. I want to take you back to two weeks ago when an Indian garrison town was attacked again on the Indian side of the line of control. In this attack 19 Indian soldiers were killed.
The Indian reaction to that was fierce. There were calls for some form of action against the people who perpetrated these attacks. According to the Indian side of the story, the attackers had quote- unquote, "Pakistani markings" which here was taken to mean that Pakistan may have had some a hand in it or the militants may have come from Pakistan.
Pakistan completely denied every aspect of this version of events so the cause from India to attack something or some form of installations in Pakistan were intense. And Thursday's attack was a response to those very calls for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to appear as if he is tough on terror.
You would imagine now that India had publicly claimed this attack that there will be similar calls within Pakistan to again be tough on what it is calling an unprovoked and naked act of aggression by the Indian side.
SESAY: Ravi Agrawal with the very latest on these rife (ph) intentions between India and Pakistan. Ravi -- we appreciate it. Thank you so much.
VAUSE: Investigators in New Jersey are trying to find the cause of a train crash which killed one and injured more than 100 others. The station in the city of Hoboken was severely damaged when the commuter train traveling from New York barreled through the terminal during morning rush hour.
SESAY: This video is from about 40 minutes before the wreck. Passengers think it didn't feel like the train slowed down as it entered the station. This witness described a scene of chaos after the crash.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[00:10:07] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Someone had his eye was gone. And he had only one side and all the blood everywhere. There was a lady laying down like the video there. And she was just laying and she didn't breathe at that point and she was just sitting there for so long and, you know, everybody was like screaming and like in a total panic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: For more on the crash and the investigation we are joined now from Colorado by CNN safety analyst David Soucie. David -- the focus now seems to be on trying to recover the event recorders -- essentially the train's black boxes. Once they are recovered will that pretty much tell us how this crash, how this accident actually happened?
DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well John -- it will tell us what happened. It may not tell us how it happened. For example, before you enter the train station there is an automated braking system that usually acted about 30 or 45 seconds before entering the train station and that is supposed to take over and cause the braking to effect.
So what it would tell you is whether or not that was activated. And that will tell you two things, whether or not the conductor activated it. But it will also tell you if he did activate it, did it actually work or did it fail. So those are the kinds of things that the black box or the event recorder would tell you at this point in the game.
VAUSE: Ok. Right now we have some accounts from witnesses who talk about how fast the train was moving. This is one passenger.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were there any brakes applied?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't feel or hear anything. The only thing that I felt was the feeling of my car going off the track.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was there -- can you describe the speed? Was it --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wouldn't know --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was it as fast as you had been going?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. It was not as fast as between Secaucus and Hoboken. It didn't seem to go as fast but it sure wasn't slow enough to come into the station.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And also David -- this is how one witness described the impact of the crash. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a chaotic scenario. People were running, moving away, trying to get away, trying to be safe. They didn't know exactly what happened. Granted the fact that the train was going at a rapid pace, that's the reason why it hit the platform and went airborne.
So no one wanted to stand around and see what is going on. You wanted to get the hell out of the area.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: As an investigator what do you make of those accounts?
SOUCIE: Well, it doesn't sound like there is any account of the train making an intentional slowdown before it comes into the station which is what you expect.
There was another witness that I read about earlier this afternoon who accounted that normally at the place where the train stops, they were still moving forward and that's when she became panicked about it.
So I think the fact that the gentleman mentioning that everyone was just getting the heck out of there is typical of the response and thank goodness they did because there could have been a lot more fatalities and a lot more injuries than there was during this panic time.
VAUSE: And very quickly, a lot has been spoken of, positive train control -- this train did not have it. None of the trains, I think, in New Jersey actually have it. How does that system work if it was in place?
SOUCIE: If the positive train control was in place it is synchronized with the rest of the system. So if there is anything anomalous to the normal activity, for example, the train should have been down to 30- mile-an-hour as it entered the station or less. If that didn't happen, positive train control actually takes control of the brakes and slows down the train to the speed that it needs to be as it comes in.
Now that wasn't in place as you mentioned before but that's partly because there was a deadline prior to the Amtrak accident in 2015 in which all the trains should have had it in place which was mandated by Congress. That was postponed and Congress has now approved it through 2018 and delayed it. So it's going to be some time still before we have positive train control on all of our tracks which needs to be done.
VAUSE: Yes. Ok. David -- thanks so much for being with us. We appreciate it.
SOUCIE: Thank you, John.
VAUSE: Let's go to break here.
When we come back in the race for the White House it might just be the ultimate spin on the first presidential debate -- Donald Trump still insisting he won.
SESAY: And why women at one of Trump's golf clubs say they could lose their jobs if they didn't have the right look. We'll explain when we come back.
[00:14:33] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Well, just like telling a child not to touch a stove because it is hot, Republicans in Congress are warning Donald Trump not to take the low road and attack Hillary Clinton about her husband's infidelities calling it a losing strategy.
SESAY: But the Republican candidate says he personally has a very good history in his marriage -- all three of them. In the same interview Trump also insisted he did not lose Monday's debate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Every online poll had me winning the debate -- so every single one of them -- many of them. Look, I found it to be an amazing experience, actually. We had 88 million people or something around that number. And I just found it to be an amazing experience.
Now, I think we did well. I think I did, you know, I'm very happy with the way it turned out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Joining us now for more Wendy Greuel, a former L.A. Council woman and Hillary Clinton supporter and also CNN political contributor and Trump supporter John Phillips.
Ok. So Donald Trump thinks he won the debate. So here again is a reminder of an official real life kind of scientific poll that we actually did -- the CNN/ORC poll straight after the debate. 62 percent said Clinton won and 27 percent said Trump and yes we know they orient more Democratic than Republican but that is pretty conclusive.
John for three days now, the Trump campaign has been trying to spin this. And by doing this, you know, they lost the debate and now it seems they are losing the post-debate as well.
JOHN PHILLIPS, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, if you look at "Drudge" and you look at "Time" and you look at all those polls, they are certainly unscientific. However they do reflect the intensity of his supporters. They show that there is a lot of enthusiasm among Trump supporters where they want to go out, they want to vote for him.
VAUSE: It doesn't mean he won.
[00:20:06] PHILLIPS: But it's not one of these boxing match where you have points and you say ok, well, you got this many points in the first round and you got this many points in the second round.
Go back to the expectations game before the debates occurred. What were people saying? People were saying that Hillary Clinton had to go in there and had to create enthusiasm among the Obama coalition because that is the winning math for Democrats right now. They take liberals, they take young people, minorities and they spike turnout and they can overwhelm the Republicans.
What Donald Trump had to do is go in there and not have any huge gaffes. He didn't have any huge gaffes. He did very well in the first 30 minutes which is the most important part of the debate.
And frankly I think the path that Hillary has taken post-debate is kind of shocking because they are focusing on this woman who was Miss Universe who has her own checkered past where we're finding out now that she -- when she went on Anderson Cooper yesterday he asked her point-blank, did you drive a getaway car in an attempted murder in Venezuela. She just said hey look we all have our histories.
SESAY: All the charges were dropped on that.
PHILLIPS: She said we all have our histories.
VAUSE: The judge said that --
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: Well, her history does not change the fact of what Donald Trump said to her.
PHILLIPS: But the vetting that Hillary Clinton didn't do with this woman and the fact that this woman is willing to do these things so cavalierly I do think plays into all the negative impressions that people have towards Hillary Clinton. I don't think that helps.
SESAY: Yes, but Donald Trump has doubled down on the issues -- the very issues Hillary Clinton had raised about Alicia Machado's weight and all the rest of it. He's certainly not doing himself any favors with women voters.
WENDY GREUEL, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: He's not. I mean this following a pattern. What he did with the Khan family, you know. He makes a mistake. He is really going after people who he shouldn't be going after and then he doesn't let it die.
I disagree with John. I mean, look, he had major gaffes in this debate and he clearly did not win the debate. Hillary Clinton was the one that was on message. She knew how to push his buttons and he just went for the bait as has been talked about. He made major gaffes when you are talking about offending a lot of women out there and foreign policy and all that. He was not on his game.
VAUSE: Ok. At a campaign stump, Trump referenced the Clinton scandals of the 1990s, the same one he's been praising himself for not mentioning. This is what he said.
(CROSSTALK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The Clintons are the sordid past. We will be the very bright and clean future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: This raises the possibility that at the next debate he will raise Bill Clinton's infidelities. Hillary Clinton was specifically asked about that today. This is what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He can run his campaign however he chooses. I'm not going to comment on how he runs his campaign. You will be able to see. We have two more debates. What he says and what I say.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Wendy it seems that the Clinton campaign almost wants Donald Trump to do this.
GREUEL: Again, I think it would be a mistake. And he is going in a direction that is going to make his numbers even go lower. When you talk about what he said about women and their weight and all that -- I mean look all of us at some point in time struggle with that --
(CROSSTALK)
GREUEL: And as well as on the issue of taxes. I mean the fact that he says that he was smart not to pay his taxes. Well, taxes pay for our firefighters, our police officers, our military, our roads -- all of that. And I think that for Hillary Clinton, she is going to focus in on the issues.
As Michelle Obama said then they go low we're going to go high. And that's what the Democratic Party and that's what Hillary Clinton is going to do.
SESAY: John -- the attacks also opens Trump up to some awkward questions about his own past. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I guess -- I mean, they can do -- but it's a lot different than his -- that I can tell you. I mean we have a situation where we have a president who was a disaster. And he was ultimately impeached over it in a sense for lying. And so we'll see whether or not we discuss it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not worried about your past history at all?
TRUMP: No. Not at all. I have a very good history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: He says he has a very good history -- three different women.
PHILLIPS: They get along.
SESAY: Well, there is something there. But this is a tricky proposition for him, wouldn't you say?
PHILLIPS: It would be a mistake to talk about the infidelities but not a mistake to talk about the intimidation of women who have accused the Clinton of sexual harassment or sexual assault. I'm talking about Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willy -- that is fair game.
VAUSE: Wendy -- fair game?
GREUEL: No. I mean that -- again, that is so in the past. It's all been aired throughout the years. Hillary Clinton is running for president of the United States, not Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton.
VAUSE: Ok. We have a little time left so I want to get to this golf lawsuit because it comes from a 2012 lawsuit that Trump wanted to fire female employees considered to be less attractive.
Matt Pearce from the "L.A. Times" broke the story. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT PEARCE, L.A. TIMES: The employees said that there was a culture at the Trump National Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes in which younger, more attractive women were favored over older, perhaps less attractive, more experienced employees and that this was at Donald Trump's direction.
[00:25:08] That he would come to the club and tell his managers that you've got to get some better looking people in here, you know. You need more attractive women in this restaurant.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: John, this does seem to add to the Miss Piggy, the fat shaming -- a whole lot of other things that Trump has in his past and recent past.
PHILLIPS: Yes. Look, I'm not privy to the details of the inner workings of his business. But lots of businesses when they're selling a product, they're not just selling a product, they're selling an image. Abercrombie & Fitch was a company that was --
VAUSE: And that was wrong what they did at Abercrombie & Fitch.
PHILLIPS: Gyms are constantly accused of doing this sort of thing. But that is part of the branding. That's part of sales is to selling a certain image.
GREUEL: You know, that is outrageous to me. I mean the fact is that you should not be judged on whether you are beautiful or not, no matter whether it's Abercrombie & Fitch -- whatever it is that you are doing is about providing the services. Good business means providing for everyone and not discriminating and I think it's outrageous.
VAUSE: Ok. Next hour --
SESAY: We'll pick it up. VAUSE: -- a little more time and we can go a little longer. Stick around. Thanks -- guys.
SESAY: Thank you.
All right. A quick break now.
A rights group says the violence in Darfur amounts to war crimes with many of the victims, children. We'll talk with Amnesty International just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN newsroom live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.
SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay.
The headlines this hour --
Security is extra tight at Shimon Peres' funeral. The last of Israel's founding fathers being laid to rest in the coming hours. In about 30 minutes his family will escort his body from the Knesset, the Israeli parliament where he has been lying in state.
Peres served as prime minister and president. He died Wednesday morning.
[00:30:11] VAUSE: And we got this just in to CNN. India says Pakistan has captured one of their soldiers along the line of control in the disputed region of Kashmir.
An official with the Indian army says that soldier inadvertently crossed into Pakistani controlled territory. The official says the countries are now in talks to secure his release. That same official says the soldier was not part of earlier surgical attacks which Indian claims it carried along the line of control, saying it was targeting terrorists. But Pakistan says two of its soldiers were killed after a shootout started by India.
SESAY: Well, at least one person is dead and 114 others injured after a commuter train plowed into a station concourse in New Jersey. The collision happened at the Hoboken terminal during Thursday morning rush hour. The train was traveling from New York. Passengers say it didn't feel like it slowed down entering the station.
VAUSE: OK. And there was a dramatic rescue from the rubble in Aleppo, Syria. A 5-year-old girl was pulled from what was left of a building, the debris after bombing attacks. She is, in fact, one of the lucky ones. UNICEF says dozens of children have, in fact, been killed in the past few days by Russian and Syrian airstrikes.
SESAY: All right. Well, we want to bring in -- we want to talk now about a change that occurred here in California, changes occurred to rape laws here. Rape laws, which -- this change has ended the statute of limitations that was -- that existed and prevented people from bringing cases against their rape accusers if the case was older than ten years.
That has now changed, thanks to Governor Jerry Brown signing this new act into law on Thursday -- SB813. Now there is no -- the change places no time limits for prosecuting rape cases. And it will only applies to crimes committed after January 1st of next year. We should say.
Let's bring in victim's right Attorney Lisa Bloom for her perspective in all of this.
Lisa, this is a good day.
LISA BLOOM, ATTORNEY: Yes.
SESAY: It is a good day for rape survivors.
BLOOM: Yes. Something to smile about.
SESAY: Something to smile about. Talk to us about what it means. One advocate says this is life changing.
BLOOM: Yes, it is. I represent Janice Dickinson, who is one of the 57 women who accused Bill Cosby of rape. It doesn't affect her case. She called me this morning and she was so happy. Just exultant. This is going to help other women in the future.
If you think about it, why should a rapist escape justice nearly because he has run down the clock? And that happens over and over again. You know, as the victim's rights attorney, I have people calling me all the time about cases from 10, 20, 30 years ago.
And I have to tell them, in most cases, unfortunately, there's nothing I can do. My hands are tied. Well, this will now open up the courtroom to a new class of people. If they can prove their case, they have the right to go in court and prove that case.
VAUSE: A lot of this is being driven by the Cosby case. Because a lot of victims testified not just here in California, but in other states as well, in Nevada and Colorado.
BLOOM: In fact, California is now the 18th state out of our 50 United States to say no statute of limitation in rape or child sexual abuse cases on the criminal side. And I think eventually it's going to be all 50.
VAUSE: There is a criticism moment. This is coming from public defenders as well as to the libertarians saying, OK, sure, it's a good thing not to have, you know, the statute of limitations, but on the other hand, there is concern that it could lead to a number of false imprisonments essentially because they say people's memory's fade and the evidence sort of fades over time.
BLOOM: Well, there's nothing to be concern about because the burden of proof does not change. So in a criminal case, the victim would still have to prove her case beyond a reasonable doubt. It's a very high legal standard. It's the highest burden that we have in American jurisprudence. She still has to prove that case. And right now, out of 100 rapes in America, only two results in the rapist actually being tried, convicted and sentenced to prison. We have to change that. We have to get the other 98.
VAUSE: There's a 2 percent conviction rates?
BLOOM: Yes. Only 2 out of 100 are arrested, tried and convicted. That's because a lot of rapes are unreported to begin with, right? So we're trying to change that.
And, listen, after 10 years, it's been a ten-year statute of limitations. Now it will be unlimited, right?
After ten years it's very hard to prove a criminal case. But if a victim has, let's say, a videotape or she has witnesses, why shouldn't she be able to go in and prove that case?
Frankly, I think it's going to be a rare case that's going to get to court after ten years or 20 years. But if there is some very powerful evidence, I think she should have the right to give it a shot.
SESAY: And we want to put this in context. While this is a good day for rape survivors, there is still a lot more work to be done when it comes to the law and how officials handle the issue of rape, the crime of rape.
BLOOM: Well, absolutely. And on the civil side, listen, I represent women who are bringing civil lawsuits. It doesn't change the civil statute of limitation, which is still only two years in California for sexual abuse victims who were abuse as children. It's only eight years. So we have a long way to go in that regard. Rape kits across the country are sitting untested in police departments.
[00:35:00] VAUSE: That's about to change because the rape victims bill of rights passed by Congress is about to be signed by President Obama. So, again, a positive development, right?
BLOOM: Well, yes, but I don't know if that is going to affect all of the many thousands of rape kits all over the country. So we have a long way to go. But the ball is moving in the right direction so it's cause for celebration.
SESAY: It's a good day for rape survivors.
BLOOM: Yes.
VAUSE: Lisa, thanks so much. Always appreciate you being with us.
SESAY: Thank you.
VAUSE: OK. We'll take a short break here. A lot more on the other side. Stay with us. You're watching CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SESAY: Amnesty International says the Sudanese government is using chemical weapons on civilians. As many as 250 people may have died from the affects of the poison.
We're going to show you some images that the group has analyzed, but we must warn you they are extremely graphic.
VAUSE: The attacks happened in a remote part of Darfur. Many of the victims are children. Some covered in lesions and blisters. Others have been vomiting blood and trouble breathing.
Amnesty says many of the victims have no access to medicine and are using salt, limes and local herbs for treatment. The group's investigation indicates at least 30 chemical attacks since January.
SESAY: Well, Tirana Hassan is the crisis response director for amnesty international. I asked him about the organization's investigation of the Sudanese government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIRANA HASSAN, CRISIS RESPONSE DIRECTOR, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: In the process of our investigation, we have found horrific evidence of a campaign that has targeted the civilian population, not only with conventional weapons such as aerial bombardments, land assaults, shootings, killings, the rape of women on a massive scale. But we then found that the government has also been used -- using what villagers have been describing to us as a kind of poisonous gas or a poisonous cloud, smoke. And that poisonous smoke had absolutely horrific effects.
We have heard time and time again about individuals whose within hours of being exposed to this gas, they were -- they were exhibiting symptoms such as blisters on their skin. They couldn't breathe. They were vomiting. Their eyes began to bulge. There was massive swelling in the days and weeks afterwards. Their skin would turn black and hard and fall off.
And we've had chemical weapons experts look through photographs, look through every single interview that we have done with dozens of individuals. And they have concluded that the evidence that Amnesty International has put together and the symptoms that people have shown and described to us cannot be conventional weapons. These do point to the use of some sort of chemical agent.
SESAY: Our viewers around the world will be wondering why would the government of Sudan be targeting people in these remote areas in this way. Help us understand.
[00:45:06] HASSAN: You know, the war in Darfur has been going for 13 years now. It hasn't stopped. You know, that is contrary to the government's narrative. But since there's been no ability for journalists or human rights investigators or even humanitarian agencies to be going inside, you hear very little about what is happening. And the government's narrative is the war is over, but it isn't over. And there is one particular armed opposition group who still functions in this area. They are from the ethnic group. And the civilian population who has been targeted in this campaign is also from that same ethnic group.
This is really one of the last strongholds of armed opposition group and it's where the government launched its campaign. But the important distinction here is the people that we have spoken to, the dozens -- actually the hundreds of people that we have spoken to and the tens of thousands of people who have been displaced haven't been soldiers.
The villages, which are attacked are not legitimate military targets. This is a campaign that has targeted the civilian population and targeting a civilian population is a war crime. And those who are doing that must be held to account.
SESAY: They are targeting a civilian population that is operating under an African union, United Nations peacekeeping mission watch, which beg the question of that effectiveness.
I know that amnesty international is calling for the United Nations Security Council to launch a credible investigation. Given the fact that the U.N. has failed to take credible action for past atrocities in Darfur, why is there expectation that they will do things differently this time around?
HASSAN: You know, I think one of the big things is that it's not about this time around. The international community has allowed Darfur to fall off the agenda. We stopped watching. The atrocities didn't stop happening. And what we've seen in this campaign in January is the natural escalation.
And you are very right. There is a joint U.N.-African Union mission referred to Unimed, which is in the area but it's not actually in the Jebel Marra region of Darfur. It's on the outskirts.
And we've seen both successes and absolute failures of this mission. In terms of any protection that's available to the civilian population, it's been offered by the U.N. and African Union Mission, but that means that the bombed villages, the civilians fleeing those area have to make it to a U.N. base.
And we have seen in one instance in the north of Jebel Marra that 70,000-plus people have begun to amass outside, fleeing their bombed homes and the only protection they have is actually camping out in front of one of these bases.
But the reality is, there is no protection for the civilian population there. And it is not being offered by the U.N./African Union Mission. And that is because they cannot fulfill their mandate. It is very clear.
The Security Council has given them a mandate to protect the civilians, but the government of Darfur -- the government of Sudan, sorry, has absolutely blocked their efforts to get into these areas and patrol.
And that's why Amnesty International is calling for the Unimed mission, this peacekeeping mission to actually establish a base inside Jebel Marra, where these abuses are happening.
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SESAY: Tirana Hassan there speaking to me a couple of hours ago. It is hard to believe that the conflicts in Darfur has been going for 13 years and has largely slipped off the world's agenda.
VAUSE: Yes, it was on the radar for a while there. There was a lot of interest, and then of course, given everything else that has happened, it seems to have taken a backseat, but the violence continues.
SESAY: Yes. Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.
VAUSE: I'm John Vause. "World Sport" is up next. And we'll be back with another hour of news from around the world. You're watching CNN.
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