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Tsarnaev Moved to Prison Facility; Tweets Give Insight to Suspect's Mind; Tsarnaev Parents Leave Russian Home; Questions Grow Over Boston Intel; Cab Driver Says He Gave Tsarnaevs a Ride

Aired April 26, 2013 - 09:00   ET

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

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: NEWSROOM begins right now.

Good morning. And welcome to a special edition of NEWSROOM live from Boston. We're actually right in front of the makeshift memorial here at Copley Square. I'm Jake Tapper.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Brooke Baldwin. It is so great to be live in the midst of Boylston Street. The Back Bay is back.

Busy morning of developments here so let's begin with the very latest in this investigation here this morning. You have this younger suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He is now in a new hospital bed. Overnight, he was moved to federal medical center, Devens. It is in Massachusetts' prison. It holds detainees who also need medical care. About 40 miles west of where we are.

Meantime, how about this this morning? His father is going nowhere. Anzor Tsarnaev has apparently abandoned his plan to come to the United States and help in the investigation. His wife canceled an ambulance for him last night and now says his trip is delayed indefinitely.

Piecing together the final minutes of Sean Collier's life. MIT is asking for any information on last week's killing of the school police officer believed to be the last victim in the killing spree.

TAPPER: And was Times Square the next target? New York City's mayor says Tsarnaev and his brother wanted to detonate their remaining explosives at the tourist hub.

Let's talk more about bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev right now. As you know, he's been at Beth Israel Medical Center, the same hospital where several bombing victims are being treated. But now he's at a federal prison.

Brian Todd joins us now.

Brian, we had heard for days that the families were not happy understandably about Dzhokhar being there. What do you know right there?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know, Jake and Brooke, that he was moved probably in the predawn hours, overnight sometime, maybe around 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning, cover of darkness. A little bit more about this facility. It's about 39 miles from downtown Boston in North Central Massachusetts. It's a decommissioned military base. It specializes in housing male offenders that need specialized or long- term medical care and also it offers mental health care.

And we're also told that it has a satellite minimum security camp for male offenders. Obviously he still needs some kind of specialized care. We know that he was shot in the neck. The communication has been sporadic and so -- but you're right. The point to which that -- you know, that these families were upset that he was there.

BALDWIN: Understandably so.

TODD: And close to them. That had to have been one of the driving factors.

BALDWIN: OK. SO he went from Beth Israel, one of the great hospitals here in Boston, to Devens and then -- will he likely be moved again?

TODD: I think the indications are right now that he will probably be moved again to some other facility. Some other facility operated by the Bureau of Prisons somewhere. More of a jail -- the straight jail type facility. Again, though, the timetable for that unclear. He probably still needs some very comprehensive medical care.

TAPPER: I'm going to leave where it is. The irony of an accused Islamic terrorist staying at Beth Israel hospital. But I do want to ask about the way in which they whisked him out under the cloak of night. The media was not alerted.

TODD: Right.

TAPPER: The public was not alerted. They were doing this for his own protection, I would --

TODD: I think that you can assume that they were --

BALDWIN: Yes.

TODD: -- because clearly, you know, we even got accounts that they got the media out of there ahead of time and it was done in darkness. You know, this -- they don't want any more tension on this than needed to be there. And this was probably in the planning stages for several hours at least before they did this. They thought about this clearly and planned it out.

BALDWIN: Yes. Brian Todd, thank you very much for the latest here on this younger suspect.

TAPPER: Thanks, Brian.

BALDWIN: We're also learning that investigators are looking at Twitter. They're looking at Twitter, social media, for clues about the bombing suspect.

CNN's national correspondent Deborah Feyerick is taking a closer look at Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's online evolution. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The picture that emerges of a young man proud of his Chechen roots, eager to visit what he calls his homeland. A country he'd left as a child. Quote, "A decade in America, already I want out," he tweets in March 2012. The 19-year-old college student was planning to return to Dagestan last summer, arriving just as older brother Tamerlan was returning from a six-month stay there, but his plans fell through.

Quote, "My passport is not going to come in time," he writes. He complains that his mother is trying to arrange a marriage for him. Quote, "She needs to chill out. I'll find my own honey," he tweets.

His trip canceled, Tsarnaev instead takes a train to Washington, D.C. via New York, complaining about a noisy child, and noting, "New York looks ill from afar, but zoom in and it gets real dirty."

Messages and a photo from the time shows Tsarnaev visited New York again with friends around Thanksgiving. Quote, "New York is so ratchet on Black Friday it's ridiculous. I'm to bed soon."

Religion seems to have been of growing importance over the last year. Tsarnaev seems amused people mistakenly think he's converted. Quote, "Brothers at the mosque either think I'm a convert or that I'm from Algeria or Syria." On another occasion, he shares, "Spent the day with this Jamaican Muslim convert. My religion is truth."

Other tweets are of special interest to investigators. A full year before the bombing, Tsarnaev writes in native Russian, quote, "I will die young," unquote. Several months later in August, he writes, "Boston marathon isn't good place to smoke." And in January of this year, quote, "I got those brothers that I'd take a bullet for. In the leg or the shoulder or something. Nothing fatal, though."

Finally, a week before the attack, quote, "If you have the knowledge and the inspiration, all that's left is to take action."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: And we have Deborah Feyerick on the phone with us now.

And, Deb, just to be transparent with our viewers, you are actually en route -- you've been in Boston. You are now driving to Devens where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is now being housed and treated. But back to your piece, how do investigators plan to use all of this information, the tweets?

FEYERICK (via phone): You know, we were able to get about 90 pages worth of tweets over a 2 1/2 year period that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev put on his Twitter feed. And so it's fascinating because there's a lot of -- he comes across as an average 18, 19-year-old kid. But there are references that are of particular interest to investigators, and those are the ones that they're looking at most closely.

TAPPER: And Deb, is it the belief of law enforcement at all that this Twitter account was overlooked? Is there anything that you have seen in the years of tweets that could have been a tip-off in any way?

FEYERICK: You know, it's a tip-off, Jake, only with 20/20 hindsight. You know, there are references that are made, sort of illusions, obviously when investigators look at all these different e-mails, and all this -- they're always looking for encrypted messages. Was there some sort of code word, was there a trigger word that perhaps -- that they were using to communicate back and forth?

You know, there is one message that was sent to Tsarnaev that comes directly from the Caucus Emirates, that's the area where the extremist group is, that they're looking at very closely. But, you know, taken in their entirety, it's very difficult. Very difficult to see whether there was any meaning, but once they know now how the attack happened, then, of course, to think that he was mentioning, that he was talking about the Boston marathon in August, you know, well before certainly this happened, that's of keen interest to them.

Also, almost a year, Jake, within a week to the date, he says, "I will die young." So there are just sort of interesting things that they are looking at. But whether these were code or trigger, that's what they're really trying to drill down on.

TAPPER: All right. Deb Feyerick who is now her way to Devens medical -- Devens facility, where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is being treated. He was moved this morning. But let's go back to that delayed trip to the U.S. by the father of the Boston terrorism suspect. In fact both Tsarnaev parents have left their home in southern Russia for an undisclosed location in the country.

Senior international correspondent Nic Robertson in southern Russia, he joins us with more.

Nic, thanks for joining us. What have you learned about the parents this morning?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, it's another interesting turn in the saga of when and if the parents are going to go to the United States for Tamerlan's funeral. Yesterday, the father said he would, then last night we heard from the mother saying that the father was ill, she called an ambulance for him. Now the mother tells us they have both now left Dagestan for elsewhere in Russia, and put on hold indefinitely the plans for the father to go to the United States.

It does seem to be because of his health, they are saying that this is something that they would still like to do. But at the moment, it's been put indefinitely on hold. We've heard from the mother at the press conference that was held here yesterday really outlining how they both -- not just her but her husband as well, how they both feel that their sons are somehow set up, that it's a whole conspiracy theory that they weren't involved.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZUBEIDAT TSARNAEV, SUSPECTS' MOTHER: And when he is laying down there already, killed, cruelly killed. Oh, my gosh. I want to -- I wanted to scream. To scream to the whole world. What did you do? What have you done with my son? He was alive. Why did they need to kill him? Why didn't send him, you know, Guantanamo or whatever? Why did they kill him? Why? Why did he -- why did they have to kill him? They got him alive, right? He was in their hands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: Well, you know, that kind of reality right now is that it does appear both parents have accepted they're not going to be in the United States to attend their son's funeral. That's something that's now really becoming apparent, this whole trip is put on hold -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Nic Robertson, thank you so much many.

BALDWIN: It's just such a bizarre angle here in this whole story, as you know. We know Nick Paton Walsh has been talking to the parents. We thought they were coming here to Boston and now we have no idea where they are at this point in time.

TAPPER: No. And I -- you know, you hear from people who are watching this story and they're getting anecdotally a little annoyed with the histrionics of the mom considering what her son is -- sons are accused of having committed.

BALDWIN: Yes.

Just ahead, a closer look at what happened before the police shootout with Boston bombing suspects. The man -- this is -- this piece from "The Boston Globe" is amazing. The man who was carjacked by the suspects is telling his dramatic story. Sat down with this writer for about 90 minutes.

Our special coverage from Boston will continue after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to a special edition of NEWSROOM live from Boston. We're actually standing here at Copley Square right on Boylston Street. Calls to revamp the nation's system to track terrorists after the FBI cleared Tamerlan Tsarnaev following a 2011 investigation and now there are questions about what Massachusetts officials were told, if anything, about that the probe.

Juliette Kayyem is a CNN national security analyst and also of course a "Boston Globe" columnist.

Juliette, your paper is reporting that local officials were not informed that in 2011 the FBI had been warned to check out Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: That's right. So the entity that they would have been informed under is the Joint Terrorism Task Force. It includes a lot of federal agencies, as well as state and local, and the point is to share regional information. Because there is all sorts of information that needs to be shared. They are collocated in a building here in which they are all sort of working together.

What has become clear from the "Boston Globe" story is that state and local officials were not specifically notified that the FBI had done that initial investigation. The initial investigation had been put on this big list, the TIDE list that we have been talking about.

BALDWIN: Right.

KAYYEM: This half a million people.

BALDWIN: Right.

KAYYEM: But there was no specific, hey, Boston, hey, Massachusetts, we checked out this guy, want you to know that he lives down the street from here, and the Russians have expressed concerns.

BALDWIN: Because that's how the process should work?

KAYYEM: That's how the process should work. It sounds like what they cannot at least determine yet was they know there is no specific notification, but because these entities are collocated, was there oral communication? Was there an FBI agent saying to a state police person, you know, here is what we're worried about?

And that is what they are trying to unearth right now. But the fact that there is no specific documentation is inconsistent with why we sort of created these regional intelligence apparatus after 9/11. The lesson of 9/11 was as we saw the last two weeks, state and locals are the first responders, the ones who will save lives. They need to know what might be coming down the pike.

TAPPER: Juliette, here's the question for you: the idea that not only Tamerlan put on the list, but the mom put on the list, how often does that happen so there wasn't be an official alert. It seems if 500,000 or more people on the list, spread out across the country, I can't imagine that in a typical situation there wouldn't be cause to inform, hey, we just put --

BALDWIN: Son and mother.

TAPPER: Yes, this guy in Cambridge, we put him. Extremist, Russians worried about him. We put his mom on the list too. We're checking them out.

It seems like that would be --

KAYYEM: Right. The numbers I'm looking for, I would love to know right now, are how many people did the Russians say look at once if not twice, right? We've been debating this. Common for Russians to do or is it not? So, we need that number.

Secondly, how often are mother and son on the list? And third thing is, how active is this JTTF up here, right? Are there thousands of names? As you said, once you divide half a million across the country, maybe not so many for Boston. Those are the numbers we need to get a sense, not to say, oh, everything was bad or wrong. Just a get a sense of the pool of people they ought to be looking at. And those are numbers we don't have yet.

BALDWIN: I'm just curious on your take of the story, reporting on the parents and the parents, at least the father specifically was going to come here to Boston, you know, still TBD what as far as what they were going to do with the older suspect's body. But now, we have no idea where they are.

KAYYEM: Yes, we're in a standing pattern. This is not going to end soon for Boston. As the younger brother has now been moved, actually quite far away from Boston, which is probably a good thing, and the parents, at least one of the parents will arrive, if not for figuring out what to do with the body.

And secondly, I mean, as an investigation, we want to talk to them. And to be honest, we want to talk to him on our soil. I understand that, you know, we're reaching out to him in Russia, probably good to get him here, especially since they had a presence here.

So, those are all going to unfold over the next couple of weeks. It's not over for Boston, but it feels a lot better than it did two weeks ago.

TAPPER: And he also, he came to the United States and seeking refuge, as a refugee and he was granted that temporary status.

KAYYEM: That's exactly right. So, the immigration status and how long he's going to be allowed to stay is subject to at least some negotiation right now.

But as an investigation, you would you want him here. I know people are saying why is he coming? Just for investigation purposes, get him to the United States.

TAPPER: All right. Juliette Kayyem, "Boston Globe" columnist --

BALDWIN: Thank you for all your --

(CROSSTALK)

KAYYEM: Thank you.

TAPPER: -- national security analyst, thank you so much.

Ahead, a Boston cabbie says he had a close encounter with the Tsarnaev brothers the day before the bombings. We will bring you his harrowing story, which he is also sharing with officials, that's up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back to our special coverage here in Boston. We're going to take you back here to what we know in a moment.

But, first, other stories making news here on this Friday morning. Beginning with this: Cook County, Illinois, under a flood warning until Saturday afternoon. And you could see why. This is Des Plaines River, two feet above flood stage. The water level is expected to drop over the next 12 hours.

Federal agency did not know there were 270 tons of an explosive fertilizer at that Texas plant that blew up last week, killing 14 people, included in that number, first responders. This is according to regulatory records. The fertilizer company said it told state and local agencies, the most recent declaration was filed in February, federal law requires any plant having more than a ton of highly volatile ammonium nitrate notify Homeland Security.

TAPPER: One of the many challenges for law enforcement as they try to retrace the steps of the Tsarnaev brothers assessing all of the witness accounts. One of the stories comes from a local cab driver, Jim Duggan of Malden, Massachusetts.

Duggan has told the Department of Homeland Security he picked up the brothers at a train station and drove them to Cambridge the day before the attack and he shared information with Malden police officers who filed a report and immediately gave it to federal authorities and here is what he told them.

And what he is now telling us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM DUGGAN, BOSTON CAB DRIVER: I was here at the train station. It was a Sunday and it was kind of a slow day.

TAPPER: Two Sundays ago?

DUGGAN: The Sunday before the marathon. It was probably between 10:00 or 11:30. I was the only cab here. I was going to go pull away and get a cup of coffee when I saw two guys in my mirror.

So, I get out and they said, can you take us to Cambridge? So, I said, no problem. I opened the trunk. They had two backpacks. I reached out to help them put them in the trunk and they wanted to put it in themselves.

TAPPER: Did they seem heavy?

DUGGAN: I didn't touch them at that point.

TAPPER: The way they were carrying them, though?

DUGGAN: Not really sure. They put it in the trunk themselves. They were adamant about me not picking them up.

One of the first questions I asked them honestly is if they were from Saudi Arabia. They said, no, we're from Chechnya.

TAPPER: What other memories are coming back? DUGGAN: You know, we talked about a lot of different things. We get to the Kendall Square area close to where I was going to drop them off I said, hey, guys, I don't know if you've heard of the Boston marathon because it's tomorrow. Like right over the bridge, right? If you've never seen it might be a good experience, right? Something for you to see.

And the littler brother said, like, "Oh, Boston marathon?" And then the older brother got real aggressive. Little brother said to me at the time, nothing to worry about. It's between me and my brother. Just pull over here and let us out.

They get out. They paid me.

And honestly, I put the car in drive and went to drive away and I hear them screaming and banging on the trunk and I'm like -- oh, I forgot.

TAPPER: The stuff in the trunk.

DUGGAN: Right. So, I get out and they were angry. It was like, man, you know what? I'm sorry. I forgot. Innocent mistake. People make mistakes.

So I pop the trunk. The little brother grabbed his bag. And then I remember reaching in and grabbing another bag.

TAPPER: Was it heavy? The bag was heavy?

DUGGAN: Oh, it was heavy. You would assume like a purse or something, right, you assume what something should weigh --

TAPPER: It was heavier than you thought.

DUGGAN: It was heavier than it should have been.

TAPPER: The FBI released the photographs of the suspects a week ago at about 5:15 p.m. When did you realize oh, my God, I think he was in my cab?

DUGGAN: The news first came out and they had the picture of the kid with the white hat. I remember distinctly that kid with the white cap and curly hair coming out.

TAPPER: Was he wearing it backward?

DUGGAN: No, he was wearing it forward, just like mine.

TAPPER: Was the other one wearing the black hat?

DUGGAN: He was wearing that other cap too. Oh my mother (INAUDIBLE), those kids were in my cab.

TAPPER: When did you call Homeland Security? When did that happen?

DUGGAN: I called the FBI either Friday or Saturday night I think. At that time I told them, you know what? My memory isn't super clear but this is what I remember. And they told me that over time, right, certain triggers may come to you and you'll remember more. And I did.

TAPPER: You were face to face with evil.

DUGGAN: The thought that I had that kind of evil in my car, I don't know, 28, 30 hours. The thought that I actually picked up what could have been that bag is terrifying.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: It's a harrowing story, and so, the Department of Homeland Security has -- did speak with him. Did interview him and take his story. And it's all part of the investigation.

They have all of these eyewitness accounts, all of the people coming forward and law enforcement has to hear the accounts, assess what's important, what's not important, and try to retrace the steps of the Tsarnaev brothers.

BALDWIN: What a story. I mean, I ran into you yesterday in the hotel elevator and you said, Brooke, I talked to the cab driver who drove the guys the day before. The fact that they talked about the marathon itself and at what point did he realize I guess later in the week, oh, my goodness, these were the guys?

TAPPER: Yes. And also what's significant in his mind, he recalls him holding this big, black knapsacks that they did not want him to handle at all. And when he picked one up after he dropped them off, handed it to the older brother, he was very angry according to the account.

Again, we weren't there, didn't see it happen, but one of many accounts, law enforcement officials are now sifting through and using as they try to recreate steps. Try to figure out the timeline in making sure that the brothers -- the accused suspects we should say. Making sure they acted alone.

BALDWIN: Right.

TAPPER: And that they didn't have accomplices.

BALDWIN: Right. Great interview.

TAPPER: Thank you so much.

BALDWIN: A survivor of the Boston bombing says she doesn't really think about the men that planted the bomb that ripped apart her leg.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEATHER ABBOTT, BOSTON BOMBING SURVIVOR: I haven't thought much about them at all. I don't know how to pronounce their names. I haven't watched TV since the incident.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALWIN: That is Heather Abbott. You will hear much more from her and her decision to have her leg amputated as special coverage from Boylston Street in the heart of Copley Square continues after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)