Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Fired Cop Suspected in Three Deaths; Alzheimer's Cases on the Rise; Interview with Sachi Parker; Segment of Brennan Confirmation Hearing Aired

Aired February 07, 2013 - 15:00   ET

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


BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: We want to go in quickly as we've heard the John Brennan confirmation hearings are under way on Capitol Hill. He is the president's chief counterterrorism adviser, been nominated to become the chief of the CIA.

So just a minute ago, once this hearing began, there were some protesters that came up. Dianne Feinstein, the senator had to gavel the whole thing. Let's watch what happened a moment ago. We don't have it. All right, as soon as we have it, I promise you, we are going to see it and you can see the hearing is under way now.

Let's continue on at the top of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin live at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. We begin with the breaking news here, frightening times in Southern California. A police officer fired from his job is on the run right now.

We are told he wants revenge. The police chief in L.A. saying this is a vendetta against all police in Southern California. Here's his picture. I want you to take a good long look. This is 33-year-old Christopher Jordan Dorner.

He is wanted in connection with a string of shootings. He is accused of shooting three officers and killing one this morning in Riverside, California. He is also wanted in connection with the killing of Monica Quan, the daughter of retired LAPD Captain Randall Quan and her fiance last weekend.

Here is what Riverside Chief Sergio Diaz said just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERGIO DIAZ, RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA, POLICE CHIEF: The person with whom we are dealing, the criminal with whom we are dealing has made it clear that he considers police officers and their families fair game for his assaults.

We don't know whether that would extend to the families of our officers who were assaulted today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Want to go to Kyung Lah, who is Corona, California. You see the police tape and the cars behind you.

Remind us what happened in Corona and just tell me where this thing stands right now, Kyung.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You were just talking about the string of shootings, Brooke.

This is where today's string of shootings began. Over my right shoulder behind all the vehicles is the LAPD black and white that did engage in some sort of shooting with Dorner. What police are telling us is that just after 1:00 this morning, officers, LAPD officers who were in this area -- we're about an hour southeast of Los Angeles -- got a report that Dorner was in the area. They spotted him. They chased him and then he opened fire on them.

One officer here grazed in the head by a bullet. He could not chase Dorner. Then a short time, just minutes later, about 15 minutes away is Riverside. There was another shooting. Another officer was killed. The other partner, he was seriously wounded. Those officers according to the Riverside Police Department were ambushed in what they are describing as being simply cowardly.

Brooke, it has been certainly a frightening and bloody day here in Southern California for the police forces.

BALDWIN: Understandably so.

As a result, we heard from the police chief in L.A. a little earlier today talking about a what he called mistaken identity shooting in Torrance, California. Tell me what happened there.

LAH: It's really important to point this out because this really speaks to the nervousness of the officers in all of Southern California.

What happened this morning in Torrance, near a home that was already under police protection because of this manifesto written by Dorner, what officers there saw was a blue pickup truck driving by, a car that was similar in description to the vehicle they were looking for that Dorner was seen driving.

Officers opened fire on this vehicle. They thought it was acting suspicious. The two people inside, though, they were delivering newspapers. They were innocent victims and the police chief as you mentioned, Brooke, calling this just a really sad case of mistaken identity.

BALDWIN: Kyung Lah for us in Corona, Kyung, thank you.

We want to bring in Mike Brooks, law enforcement analyst at CNN's sister network HLN.

There is so much to talk about here. I want to get to the manifesto, but I want to get first -- as a former police officer -- you hear this police chief in L.A., Charlie Beck, talking. He was asked. This guy was trained. He worked with the L.A. Police Department for a couple of years, not to mention he's a marksman, ex-reservist. He is trained well and he appears to know what he was doing.

MIKE BROOKS, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: He is. He was an officer, not an enlisted man, but an officer in the Naval Reserve.

Yes, he knows what is he's doing. He knows weapons and he's a rifle marksman, pistol marksman in the Reserves and he has been very well- trained. The LAPD are some of the best trained officers in the country. He was there from 2005 to 2008. And I tell you this manifesto, it scares the hell out of me.

BALDWIN: Let's get to it. We have a couple chunks.

I want to just read this first one here -- quote -- "You better have all your officers radio/phone muster on or off duty every hour, on the hour. You may have the resources and manpower but you are reactive and predictable." It goes on, "I have the strength and benefits of being unpredictable, unconventional, and unforgiving."

How do you stay one step ahead of this guy? Because you have to think not only does this guy know what the officers are doing, he knows how they're responding to him.

BROOKS: He does. He knows about the Metropolitan Division, which is their elite unit with the LAPD that includes the SWAT team. These are the ones, these are the men and women who are out there protecting the higher-ups in the LAPD from serious injury or death because of this guy.

They are out the ones who are there doing all the protection. And I'll tell you what. From the sounds of his manifest, it sounds like he is also extremely well-armed.

BALDWIN: The officer -- I'm looking down at my notes from when I was listening at the news conference -- multiple weapons at his disposal, including assault rifles. Manifesto says violence of the actions will be high.

BROOKS: Right. In one paragraph, it said the violence of action will be high and the reason TAC alert was established, which means TAC team. But at the bottom of that, this is what scares me. It says, I also own Barrett 50s, so your APC are defunct and futile. APC means armor-piercing, armor personnel carriers and the ones you saw -- this is the bullet.

(CROSSTALK)

BROOKS: This is bullet from a .50-caliber.

BALDWIN: It's as big as my hand.

BROOKS: This is the kind of bullet that you use in a Barrett. I fired a Barrett before. It's extremely lethal. Its lethal range is almost 2,000 yards.

BALDWIN: Legal to get your hands on one of these?

BROOKS: Yes. It's a rifle. And some people own them. Very, very expensive, but if he has access to one of them, that's not good. BALDWIN: What about also -- I'm just curious -- listening to the L.A. police chief saying earlier -- we didn't know this. It was Wednesday, San Diego, 8:30 at night, attempted robbery, tried to steal a boat. Talking to Paul Vercammen, who is covering the story for us from Riverside, says he could have tried to hop a boat and head to Mexico.

BROOKS: Well, he knows boats because he was assigned to the harbor division of LAPD for a number of years. He was there and he left the Reserves and came back and he was assigned to the harbor division. He knows boats and he knows waterways extremely well.

BALDWIN: How do you function as a police officer? He heard -- the Riverside chief saying our guys and women are not responding to dogs and tree calls, but you hear him talking about how he is not just targeting police, he's targeting family. You want to serve and protect, but you need to be protected in times like these as well.

BROOKS: Absolutely. Right now, there are so many extended family members of some of these high-ups with LAPD. They have to be extremely careful of everything they are doing now, every place they go. You have the daughter of the retired captain who was killed over the weekend.

BALDWIN: Right, and her fiance.

BROOKS: Yes, exactly, and everyone else who was listed in this manifesto. You don't know where he is.

He know what the capabilities of law enforcement are because he was one for so many years. It's extremely, extremely scary. I haven't seen a case like this I don't think ever where you have had someone like this who has written a manifesto and has threatened to carry out all the acts of violence and could have the capability of doing it.

BALDWIN: They need to catch him and catch him soon.

BROOKS: Especially after he ambushed the officers in Riverside and killed one.

BALDWIN: Mike Brooks, thank you very much.

BROOKS: Thank you, Brooke.

(NEWS BREAK)

BALDWIN: Now this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: A massive manhunt is under way for a former cop accused of killing police officers. He is considered arm and extremely dangerous. And we will tell you why police believe he may be seeking revenge.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now. (voice-over): A teenager found handcuffed to a pole in a basement. Police say he had been there for months. How did this happen and where are his parents? We can do better.

Plus, Shirley MacLaine's daughter writes a tell-all book and the tales she shares, flying to Japan alone at 2 to her father, a clone, and then there's the sex guru. Sachi Parker on her childhood and Shirley MacLaine's response coming up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Alzheimer's may impact more families than anyone expected. Plus, a historic blizzard could dump up to 30 inches of snow on parts of the Northeast.

Time to play "Reporter Roulette."

A new study predicts the number of people suffering from Alzheimer's will triple, triple in the coming decade.

Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joining me now.

My great-grandmother had Alzheimer's. It affects, what, how many people?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So many families. So many families.

So, if we look at 2010 numbers, those numbers themselves are huge.

BALDWIN: Yes.

COHEN: So, in 2010, we are looking at 4.7 million people with Alzheimer's disease.

But when we look forward to 2050, we are looking at 13.8 million people with Alzheimer's disease. And experts will tell you we are not really prepared for that. We don't have the services. We don't have what it takes to take care of all of those people.

BALDWIN: So it's just the sheer number, the number of people making...

(CROSSTALK)

COHEN: Baby boomers. It's all about the baby boomers getting older.

BALDWIN: OK. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.

COHEN: Thank you.

(WEATHER UPDATE)

BALDWIN: Coming up here, this is the book that Shirley MacLaine does not want you to read. She calls it shocking. She calls it dishonest. The author? Her daughter. I am talking with Sachi Parker about her tell-all book live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Shirley MacLaine won an Oscar playing an eccentric mother. Remember how her character let it all out in the 1983 film "Terms of Endearment"?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHIRLEY MACLAINE, ACTRESS: My daughter is in pain. Give her the shot! Do you understand me? Give my daughter the shot! Thank you very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: What a role.

But according to her only child, MacLaine is as much a mother as -- actually, it's stranger in fact than fiction here. Sachi Parker's new book just came out today. It's called "Lucky Me."

Here they are, mom and daughter here on the cover, a "LIFE" magazine shoot. "It's Me, My Life With and Without My Mom, Shirley MacLaine."

And parker starts of with MacLaine leaving as a 2-year-old in the care of her father in Tokyo, alone on a plane at 2. Why? Because Frank Sinatra, according to Sachi Parker here in this book, was in trouble with the mob.

And Parker writes -- quote -- "Word was out payback was coming. One of the rumors was that Shirley MacLaine's daughter was in jeopardy of being kidnapped. To avert this possibility, I was shipped off to Japan for safekeeping."

And, folks, that is just page 10.

Sachi Parker joins me now live from New York.

Sachi, welcome to you. First, just crystal clear here, these are your stories. CNN has not, cannot verify them, but before we get into some of these stories here, I want you, just in a couple of adjectives, describe your childhood.

SACHI PARKER, AUTHOR, "LUCKY ME": My childhood was both very, very adventurous and happy, but also very lonely and painful. I don't think there was a gray area.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: No gray, just one extreme or the other.

PARKER: I think so.

BALDWIN: I tell you, your stories jump all around from being sent as a 2-year-old alone on this plane to Japan, and you talk about this stewardess at the time sort of cuddling you and holding you, having your mom and two sex gurus egg you on to lose your virginity, or when your mother tells you that your dad is a clone and the real one is on a space mission.

Pick one of those stories and tell our viewers what happened.

PARKER: I would have to say that my mother was tricked by my con man father into sending him $60,000 a month for many years, saying that he was the clone of my real father, and real father was traveling around space working for the government.

BALDWIN: Did you ever believe that?

PARKER: Me? No. Well, that's hard to believe. It's an unbelievable story.

BALDWIN: You were a child. Just curious. I know you were late teens, but...

PARKER: Actually, I was 25 years old when I heard that story.

BALDWIN: Twenty-five.

PARKER: Yes.

BALDWIN: Your mother -- we should get to this. Your has responded to your book, Sachi. And she says -- let me read here -- in a statement -- quote -- "It is a painful moment for me as a mother and as someone who values the truth. I am shocked and heartbroken that my daughter would make statements about me that are virtually all fiction. I have praised her lovingly and truthfully in my own autobiographies. I am sorry to see such a dishonest, opportunistic effort from my daughter, from whom I have only ever wanted the best."

How do you react to that, Sachi?

PARKER: Well, I -- it's too bad that she takes it that way.

These are my stories. This is my life to tell. These are my memories. And my intention was certainly never to hurt her.

BALDWIN: Never to hurt her, though, these stories, Sachi -- when was the last time you talked to her?

PARKER: It would have been in December.

BALDWIN: And how did that conversation go?

PARKER: It went very well.

We were speaking a lot about my daughter at that time. And...

BALDWIN: OK.

Let me quote you here. This is towards the end of your book. And you say this -- quote -- "I did everything I could to bring my mom into my life. I bent over backward, left no stone unturned. The big Hollywood happy ending never happened. And now that I have written this book, it probably never will."

Look, I'm sure you have critics who say maybe you are hoping for your own Hollywood ending. Maybe you want to make some money, get some fame out of this whole thing. What do you tell them?

PARKER: Well, this was a timely story for me to write. I was reflecting on my life. I had written a journal all through my life.

And I put all the stories together, and I really thought that this was something that would be interesting for people to read. It's a fascinating, interesting story. And I -- this is also a way for me to have my mother understand my truth and -- well, the truth, really.

BALDWIN: It's called "Lucky Me: My Life With and Without My Mom, Shirley MacLaine."

Sachi Parker, thank you very much for coming on. We appreciate it.

PARKER: Thanks.

BALDWIN: Need to get right to Washington to the Senate confirmation hearings, John Brennan being questioned by Senator Saxby Chambliss, the topic right now, enhanced interrogation techniques. Take a listen.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R), GEORGIA: ... techniques, it would be better to kill them with a drone or let them go free rather than detain them.

Can you explain the logic in that argument?

JOHN BRENNAN, CIA DIRECTOR NOMINEE: I respectfully disagree, Senator.

I do not -- I never believe it's better to kill a terrorist than to detain him. We want to detain as many terrorists as possible so we can elicit the intelligence from them in the appropriate manner so that we can disrupt follow-on terrorist attacks.

So I'm a strong proponent of everything possible short of killing terrorists, bringing them to justice and getting that intelligence from them. I clearly had the impression, as you said, when I was quoted in 2007 that there was valuable intelligence that came out from those interrogation sessions.

That's why I did say that they saved lives. I must tell you, Senator, that reading this report from the committee raises serious questions about the information that I was given at the time and the impression I had at that time. Now I have to determine what -- based on that information as well as what CIA says what the truth is. And at this point, Senator, I do not know what the truth is.

CHAMBLISS: How many high-value targets have been captured during your service with the administration?

BRENNAN: There have been a number of individuals who have been captured, arrested, detained, interrogated, debriefed, and put away by our partners overseas, which is, we have given them the capacity now, we have provided them the intelligence.

And unlike in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when a lot of these countries were both unwilling and unable to do it, we have given them that opportunity. And so that's where we're working with our partners.

CHAMBLISS: How many high-value targets have been arrested and detained, interrogated by the United States during your four years with the administration?

BRENNAN: I will be happy to get that information to you, Senator, in terms of those high-value targets that have been captured with U.S. intelligence support.

CHAMBLISS: I submit to you the answer to that is one. And it's Warsame, who was put on a ship for 60 days and interrogated. Thank you.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D-CA), SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE CHAIR: Thank you very much, Mr. Vice Chairman.

I want to point out that I'm going to try and enforce the eight minutes. If you hear a tapping, it is not personal.

Senator Rockefeller?

SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D), WEST VIRGINIA: Thank you, Mr. Madam Chair.

Welcome, Mr. Brennan.

And if confirmed, you are going to lead an extraordinary agency with extraordinary people who perform extraordinary services, most of them totally unknown by the American people. Most people don't think about that, what it is to due a life of public service and never have anything known.

Those of us who sit up here do a life of public service and want everything that we do to be known. That's how we get elected. It's a very different ethic in the Central Intelligence Agency and all intelligence agencies. And I respect it very much.

I want to go the EITC -- sorry, that's Earned Income Tax Credit -- to the enhanced interrogation techniques.

(LAUGHTER)

ROCKEFELLER: Well, I'm for both. I'm not for the second.

FEINSTEIN: No, you're not.

ROCKEFELLER: For the first. The -- you talk about the 6,000 pages. What I want to say -- and when the second round comes, I will. I'm going to pour out my frustration on dealing with the Central Intelligence Agency and dealing with various administrations about trying to get information.

Why was it that they felt that we were so unworthy of being trusted? Why was it that they were willing to talk to Pat Roberts and me or Saxby Chambliss and Dianne Feinstein, but not anybody else, until we literally bludgeoned them, Kit Bond and I, into agreeing to include everybody?

Like Carl Levin's not trustworthy? You know, I mean, it is amazing. And I pursued Dianne Feinstein's point about staff. When you go and you have under the previous administration a briefing with the president, or the vice president, or to the head of the CIA, others, you're not allowed to -- I can remember driving with Pat Roberts when he was chairman and I was vice chairman.

We weren't allowed to talk to each other driving up or driving back, weren't allowed to do that. Staff were a part of nothing. You have to understand that you're surrounded by people who work with you and fill you in, people who are experts.

We are, too. But they got to be part of this. They got to be part of when the OLC is come -- it should come to them also. I strongly support the chairwoman's view on that.