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Alleged Murder Plot Revealed; President Obama on Government Shutdown

Aired September 27, 2013 - 15:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: It is the top of the hour. I'm Don Lemon. Thank you so much for joining us.

A huge story we're following right now. The foiled plot to kill a U.S. drug enforcement agent and an informant and you won't believe who was allegedly behind the horrifying murder plan. Two former American soldiers, one nicknamed Rambo, along with a German ex-soldier.

The murder plot began when a law enforcement sting interrupted their elaborate plan to protect the shipment of cocaine into the U.S., and just minutes ago, we heard from the U.S. attorney in this case, and he doesn't mince words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PREET BHARARA, U.S. ATTORNEY: The bone-chilling allegations in today's indictment read like they were ripped from the pages of a Tom Clancy novel. The charges tell a tale of an international band of mercenary marksmen who enlisted their elite military training to serve as hired guns for evil ends.

As alleged in the indictment unsealed today, the former soldiers were handpicked by Joseph Hunter to assist a purported Colombian drug trafficking organization. All five defendants allegedly worked to import hundreds of kilograms of cocaine into the United States, and as alleged in the indictment, three of the former soldiers went one terrible step further.

Three of the defendants were ready, willing, and eager to take cold, hard cash to commit the cold-blooded murders of a DEA agent and an informant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Let's get now to our justice correspondent, our justice reporter, Evan Perez, live in Washington now.

What else did the U.S. attorney have to say about what they're accused of, Evan?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, this was supposedly a security team, and this was an operation that the DEA decided to mount, a sting operation because they believed that these men were essentially working for drug cartels to do murder-for-hire plots. Now, the leader of this plot is Joseph Hunter, according to prosecutors. He's allegedly the one that led this team. He is a former Army sniper instructor for 20 years in the U.S. Army. And since he left the military in 2004, according to the prosecutors, he has been working essentially as carrying out murders and getting paid for them.

There was this exchange earlier this year by a DEA undercover informant, who sent an e-mail to Hunter asking him whether he was willing to kill a DEA agent and an informant. And it goes something like this.

The informant asks him, are you guys willing to carry out this -- kill these guys? And Hunter replies, my guys will handle it. Are you talking about both the captain and agent? The informant replies that they could do either. Hunter writes back, they will handle both jobs. They just need good tools.

According to the indictment that was announced today, these guys were traveling all the way from Africa to Thailand, having these meetings. They were recorded by an informant for the DEA, and they have quite a bit of detail as to how this is all going down.

LEMON: All right, Evan Perez in Washington, Evan, thank you very much.

We are just getting word here to CNN in about 20 minutes, President Obama will deliver a statement at the White House. We're assuming the topic is the Senate vote to fund the government through mid-November, but the threat of a government shutdown still hangs over everyone's head. Senate Democrats put funding for Obamacare back into the bill before passing it today and sending it to the House of Representatives, where Republicans could change it again.

Here's what the government shutdown would mean, hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed, national parks and museums, Yosemite and the Smithsonian closed, visas, passports, and gun permits put on hold and same for loans that go through the Small Business Administration.

CNN's Candy Crowley is the chief political correspondent, anchor of CNN's STATE OF THE UNION," and I watch her every single Sunday, every time she's on.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Don.

LEMON: Candy, we're just three days away from a possible shutdown. I know how you're going to spend your weekend. We're going to spend the weekend watching Congress play hot potato with this bill.

CROWLEY: And in particular watching the House, because we have no reason to believe that the House is going to pass what they're calling a clean spending bill, that is a spending bill without anything on it.

Now, what we have heard is that perhaps House Republicans will attach one that says, OK, how about a bill that delayed the health care act for a year, arguing that businesses have been given this year-long waiver, so too many things are going wrong, let's do another year.

Obviously, it's very hard to get something up and running if you don't get it up and running. And this is not going to pass muster again on the Senate. The question is how long do you play ping-pong between the Senate and the House before someone hits it off the table?

I mean, this is -- in as many years as I have watched this sort of thing take place, it's hard for me to see where the way out is. I don't know where the exit is on this one.

LEMON: Yes. And there's no one guiding you like the flight attendants.

CROWLEY: They don't seem to know. Yes, honestly, the leadership doesn't seem to know where this is going. And I don't get the sense that there's, you know, secret meetings going on some place to find a way out.

LEMON: Yes. This bill goes back to the House amid a really big rift among House Republicans. John Boehner is in a really tight spot here, isn't he?

CROWLEY: Yes, he is.

And it's not an unfamiliar place for him these days, actually. He has 35, maybe 40 members of his caucus who can be identified sort of roughly as Tea Party Caucus members. They tend to be on the Ted Cruz/Mike Lee sort of side of things.

They say, you know, we want to keep the government open just so long as we defund Obamacare. This leader is very pragmatic. He has given voice to all of these members, but I think he knows, and he understands it's never going to happen in the Senate. So the question is, will there be a time when he goes back to his caucus and says, I pushed this as far as it's going to go, and here's what's going to happen if we don't find some accommodation?

Because, obviously, I think the votes are there. If you took the Republicans who think that this is a bad place to discuss Obamacare on a spending bill, without which the government will shut down, and there are Democrats who would vote for it. So there's a group there. The question is whether that bill will get to the floor, and that's going to be up to John Boehner, who will then have to face that part of his caucus that doesn't want that kind of bill on the floor.

LEMON: Candy, get your sleep tonight because it's going to be a long weekend.

CROWLEY: It will be interesting, or not so much, one of the two. Thanks, Don.

LEMON: Thank you. We appreciate Candy Crowley joining us.

And again President Obama will make a statement in about a half-hour. We will bring it to you live right here on CNN. In the meantime, early this afternoon, he did speak on Syria, calling developments -- quote -- "potentially huge." He was talking about a U.N. deal on Syria. This is a proposed resolution reached with the help from Syria's friend Russia.

The U.N. Security Council draft plan would demand Syria give up its chemical arms.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The fact that we now have a framework that will be voted on, perhaps as soon as today, perhaps over the weekend or Monday, that would be legally binding, that would be verifiable and enforceable, where there would be consequences for Syria's failure to meet what has been set forth in this resolution, I think, is a potentially huge victory for the international community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: There's a caveat here, though. The resolution, if agreed upon in its form will not threaten military force if Syria fails to hand over its chemical weapons.

As soon as 30 years from now, that is when we could see devastating effects from global warming. That's according to a new report from the United Nations. It also says rising waters could have some cities underwater. We will take you to one city that could be in danger.

Plus, $300 million going to the Motor City, Detroit getting federal aid to try and fix the city, fix up that city. Hear what that money will be used for.

And, again, we want to tell you in just a few minutes, we will bring it to you live here on CNN, President Obama to make a statement from the White House on the budget fight, as a government shutdown looms just days away. We're back in moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Don Lemon here on CNN. I'm just getting some more information.

We're hearing in probably 15 minutes, the president is going to speak out on the budget crisis and possible government shutdown that is looming, the partial government shutdown looming, the president going to speak. And we are going to bring it to you live here on CNN, probably very close to the bottom of the hour, but it could happen at any moment, so make sure you stay tuned.

In the meantime, we're going to do some other business here and talk about one of the great American cities immortalized in song and on the nation's roads. It's best-known products sat just about every driver.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NARRATOR: The one fine car in the low-price field. New fashion car styling. Take the wheel of a new Ford and feel the difference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: I should sat in just about every driveway, but Detroit has long been on the decline. It hit rock bottom this summer, becoming the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy.

Tens of thousands of buildings are abandoned or ruined. Almost half the streetlights don't work. If you call police, it's likely that you will have to wait almost an hour before they arrive, if not longer. Two-thirds of the city's parks are closed, but Detroit is getting some help, $300 million, as a matter of fact, just announced by the Obama administration.

CNN's Poppy Harlow is here.

Poppy, this is really a drop in the bucket compared to the other needs that Detroit -- how much they need.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Right. So I think that's such an important point because, as we know, Detroit filed for bankruptcy, biggest city ever to do so, $18 billion in the hole. This is $300 million. It's federal money coming to Detroit from a lot of different grants.

A big announcement, many members of the Obama administration, including Attorney General Eric Holder in Detroit for this meeting with city officials today. About half the money is going to go to blight removal. It we could pull up some of those photos we were just showing you to give you a picture, this is the picture you see over and over of Detroit again, these abandoned homes and buildings, about 70,000 of them.

The idea here is they're dangerous, they're bad for the city. Businesses don't want to come when they see things like this. So, help get rid of them. You have got about $150 million going towards that. A lot of money is also going toward safety precautions like hiring more police officers, firefighters.

When you hear, as you said, Don, about 58-minute response time, that's unacceptable. That's five times more than any other American city. But I think we really need to make clear here this isn't a bailout. This is not a bailout for Detroit.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: The auto industry was bailed out, and then the president is saying this is not a bailout.

HARLOW: It's not going to happen. The emergency manager went to the White House a few weeks after he started the job and it was made very clear to him, I'm told, there will be not be a bailout. Politically, we can't get the votes, and even if we could, then every other city that needed help would come to us for a bailout.

I want to play you some sound. This comes from Secretary Donovan of HUD today talking about what the administration thinks is ahead for Detroit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAUN DONOVAN, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT SECRETARY: This president is committed to the future of Detroit. We all believe that this will be one of the great comeback stories in the history of American cities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: And I think that is the hope. He made clear, Don, that the administration is backing up Detroit , is here for Detroit, but I have spent so much time in the city and there are so many wonderful things about it, so many wonderful people.

There's just a vibrancy and a resilience to the city. Downtown is getting a lot of money, a lot of private industry. There's a long way to go and there's a lot of neighborhoods there that have frankly been forgotten, and $300 million hopefully helps, but it's a Band-Aid.

LEMON: As you were giving the information, one of the signs, one of the names on the building said Zombie land.

HARLOW: Yes. Yes. So many people have left the city since its heyday. There's a long way to go.

LEMON: Yes. When you think about $30 (sic) million as opposed to the $18 billion they're in the red.

HARLOW: Yes, $300 million during $18 billion.

LEMON: Just a little bit...

HARLOW: I want to make one more point here, and that is all the pensioners, all the city workers and retirees that are going to see their pensions cut and their health care benefits cut because of a bankruptcy, this isn't going to help them. This doesn't change it for them.

LEMON: Three hundred million.

HARLOW: Three hundred million.

LEMON: Three hundred million.

Poppy, thank you very much. Appreciate you.

HARLOW: Good to be with you.

LEMON: Prepare to evacuate. That's one of the eye-opening conclusions from a new report on global warming. It says rising waters will flood some low-lying areas in just a few decades. Straight ahead, we will tell you what areas could be the hardest hit.

Also, in just a few minutes, President Barack Obama going to make a statement from the White House on the budget fight, as the government shutdown deadline just days away. We will bring it to you live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: A new global report is the latest proof behind these pictures, ice melting, glaciers shrinking. As the ocean temperatures rise, climate change is happening, according to the 2,500 pages from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The first part of the report just came out today, nearly 1,000 researchers back at it, and just as many vetted it, all right? And their big conclusion is they're 95 percent confident humans are causing the Earth to heat up in the last 50 years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHEL JARRAUD, SECRETARY-GENERAL, WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION: The decade 2001 to 2010 was the warmest on record, continuing the trend of global warming.

More temperature records were broken than in any other previous decade.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So just some of the predictions from the report, those storms of the century will happen more often, and waterfront property may be underwater before the 22nd century begins.

One city is already seeing the signs of it.

And CNN meteorologist Chad Myers is in Miami for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): The ocean is rising quicker than in decades past and predictions made by some research scientists make the situation sound pretty dire.

HAROLD R. WANLESS, DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI: By the mid-part of the century, 2050, 2060, most of the barrier islands in the world are going to have to be evacuated.

MYERS: And that includes Miami. It's hard to imagine, iconic Miami Beach deserted, but it is obvious that rising water is already a common problem here. On a sunny day, a high tide is enough to flood some streets.

JAMES MURLEY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SOUTH FLORIDA, REGIONAL PLANNING COUNCIL: We live on lime stone. It's like a porous sponge. We really can't use levees to hold back the water.

MYERS: While the city continues to find ways to deal with the excess water, many experts say there's no way to stop it.

(on camera): We saw barricades and sandbags all along Alton because the water sits there during high tide. Let's put one more foot of water on top of this for just a one-foot sea level rise from here from Miami Beach. Every single street that's blue will have water in it if we get a one-foot rise in sea level?

PETER HARLEM, GEOGRAPHIC INFO SYSTEMS CENTER, FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY: Yes.

MYERS: That's a problem.

HARLEM: The king tides, it will be higher than this, but this is seasonally showing you the places that are going to be affected first.

MURLEY: The important thing is, is to keep observing what's happening, to look at all the ranges and projections and then come back to the policy-makers and say here's the actions you have to take.

MYERS (voice-over): The Southeast Florida climate change compact has been created to monitor and mitigate the harsh consequences of climate change.

MURLEY: They're not sticking their heads in the sand. They know this is a real problem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MYERS: And there's so much more to the story. I know we're in South Florida, Miami-Dade, but Broward County under the gun, too.

I mean, we're talking about all the big cities across the country that are along the shore, New Orleans, Tampa, Fort Myers, up the East Coast, all very close to the shore. The water is rising. When the water rises, there's more erosion, there's more higher water tables and there's more problems. This is not over. In fact, it's just starting -- back to you.

LEMON: All right, Chad Myers, thank you very much for that.

Up next, breaking news out of New Jersey involving same-sex marriage.

Plus, as we have been telling you here on CNN, the president getting ready to speak at any minute now, live pictures now of the Briefing Room, President Barack Obama making a statement on the looming government shutdown -- right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: This is just in, another state now permitting same-sex marriages.

A New Jersey judge has just ruled that same-sex marriages must be allowed based on this summer's Supreme Court case which struck down the Defense of Marriage Act. The judge says New Jersey can begin issuing licenses to gay couples starting October 21. That gives the state time to appeal the decision, but there's no word if that will happen.

Want to get you live now to the White House Briefing Room and tell you that, at any moment, President Barack Obama is going to come out and make a statement, I believe, to be about the economy soon and the looming -- possibility of a looming shutdown, possibility of a shutdown. He's going to do that live. We are going to bring it to you.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer will pick up our special coverage right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Following the breaking news.

We have just learned the president of the United States about to going into the White House Briefing Room to make a statement on a possible government shutdown.

The Senate has just passed legislation that will allow the government to continue to be funded, at least temporarily, but it does eliminate what the House earlier had passed, namely the defunding of Obamacare.

Brianna Keilar is standing by inside the Briefing Room.

The ball is now in the House of Representatives, Brianna. The ball is in the House of Representatives. So, we're waiting in the next day or so to see what the House of Representatives has done, but presumably the president will once again make his case, keep the government operational, keep the government funded, don't start tinkering with Obamacare right now.

The president was very, very outspoken on that yesterday. I assume there will be more of that right now. Brianna is standing by. We are going to get to her in a moment, but Candy Crowley and Gloria Borger are here. Dana Bash is up in Capitol Hill.

The president wants to put the pressure on the House of Representatives, the speaker, Gloria, John Boehner specifically, pass some legislation, don't shut the government down Tuesday morning.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Right, and presumably, he's going to congratulate the Senate on doing the right thing and put the ball in the House's court, as you point out.

And he's going to say, Republicans, it's time for you to get your act together. And, you know, John Boehner is going to start meeting with Republicans tomorrow at noon to try and figure out if they can find a way out of this mess. Right now, Wolf, I don't see it. Maybe they will come up with some brilliant idea, but it's going to be very hard for him to corral those conservative Republicans.

BLITZER: Normally, all of us have watched the government operate. When they can't come up with the appropriate appropriations bills every year to keep the government operational, they pass what's called a continuing resolution that continues to fund the government. That's what they have normally done.

In this particular case, though, they're not going to do that, maybe. CROWLEY: Maybe.

It doesn't seem as though -- and I think what's also missing, as far as I know, is any cross-party conversation about plan B, like what -- you know, you usually say, well, in a backroom somewhere, these people are talking about what to do when all these other people are finished yelling.

I think part of the problem that the president is going to have is that a lot of the folks that are saying we want some changes in Obamacare in exchange for this continuing spending bill, is that they're immune to his terms on this.

This is -- they want Obamacare gone, and they are talking to their constituents. These are people who represent constituents who believe in what they're doing. It makes them immune.

BORGER: Well, the problem also is that the leaders don't really represent, you know, their flock anymore, particularly in the House.

I mean, John Boehner can speak for himself. If this were up to John Boehner, this would have been done, but he can't speak for all of his Republicans anymore.

And he's got to try to figure out a way either around them and to go this without some of them and in concert with some Democrats to keep the government funded, or not, and continue this.

I mean, this is not a situation he loves to be in. He was dragged into this, kicking and screaming.

CROWLEY: But he's used to being in it right now, I must say.