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ISIS Has American-Made Arsenal; "Army Wives" Actress Works to Combat ADHD; Drivers Beware: Insurance Repair Scam

Aired February 21, 2015 - 16:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. I'm Suzanne Malveaux.

Disturbing new evidence today that ISIS is adding more American-made weapons to its arsenal.

So what you're seeing here, this is video purportedly from ISIS. It shows its latest score. Dozens of American-made M-16s and machine guns and also taking armoured vehicles and a Humvee. The weapons apparently were taken when militants over ran an Iraqi military post in Anbar province.

CNN cannot confirm the authenticity of the video but it would create another challenge ahead of this planned U.S.-backed operations to retake the ISIS stronghold of Mosul.

Joining us from the White House with more is CNN's Erin McPike. Erin, the administration, have they actually commented on the new video and what they're seeing there that these are man-made weapons? And they're talking about American-made weapons?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRSPONDENT: Suzanne, U.S. central command points out they do not know where or when this equipment was seized or when the video was shot. And that is an important point. Because it could have been shot a very long time ago.

Now, regardless they do say that the American-made equipment featured there is not current, so it wouldn't be on par with what Iraqi security forces will have as they continue to battle ISIS in the coming months. Now, while it was a setback, I would also point out that depending on when it occurred, an official from U.S. central command says they do believe they are ahead of where they thought they would be in the larger military campaign against ISIS.

I want to lay out some of the points they gave for why. First, they said that ISIS losses in the last eight months are equivalent to U.S. losses in 14 years in Iraq and Afghanistan as far as their holdings go they say three quarters of ISIS equipment their infrastructure, their forces in the battlefield have been depleted.

And last, going forward, they estimate that there are 1,000 to 2,000 ISIS forces in Mosul and that is compared to the 20,000 to 25,000 Iraqi forces that they will move into Mosul potentially in April and May. So generally they think that they are outpacing the efforts - their efforts rather are outpacing the efforts that ISIS can make to regenerate itself. That is a very important point. They do believe that they have had a significant impact on taking back ISIS to some degree, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And Erin, talk about some of the things, we know the White House is talking about the successes here. But there's going to be a new mission, this involvement here retaking Mosul in the spring. And the Iraqis are supposed to really be leading in that effort. Are we going to see potentially intelligence, boots on the ground regarding the United States back in Iraq in the spring?

MCPIKE: Suzanne, certainly intelligence. And American intelligence has been key to what they have done so far. They are cautiously optimistic that Iraqi security forces will be ready by April and May. U.S. forces right now are training thousands of Iraqi security forces to be ready. The thing that they are still debating is whether or not American troops will have to be deployed on the frontline in the form of ground controllers.

And that means basically that they would be able to call in an air strikes. That's something that President Obama would ultimately have to sign off on, but defense secretary Ash Carter addressed this this morning in Afghanistan. Listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASH CARTER, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Of course I'm open. I'm always open to advice from our military commanders about what the best way to achieve success is. That is a question that will come down the road. But I think what's important is that campaign to retake Mosul succeed. And we're committed to that success and not to a particular timetable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCPIKE: And that last point there applies to the overall effort to retake Mosul, that although they are saying that they would like this to take off in April or May, that it's tentative right now, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Erin McPike, thank you so much. Appreciate your reporting as always.

Want to bring in Phil Mudd, he's a former CIA counterterrorism official. And Phil, Erin brings up a lot of good points here. But one of the things we saw was the new secretary of defense talking about an operation that hasn't happened yet. It's going for happen in the spring which to me is pretty unusual. I mean give me your thoughts first of all as somebody in the intelligence community whether or not that's a good idea and what was behind that.

PHIL MUDD, FMR. CIA COUNTERTERRORISM OFFICIAL: Look, it's unusual but to my mind it's not unprecedented and it's not surprising. Everybody in Iraq, maybe not the United States but everybody in Iraq knew what was going to happen here. The hard core presence of ISIS is in western and northwestern Iraq. It also happens to be the location of the second largest city in Iraq that is Mosul. To say that eventually Iraqi forces backed by the Americans and others will go on offensive to retake the city to my mind not a big surprise.

Surprisingly, Suzanne, I do think there's an opportunity here. That is having watched terrorist guys for 25 years, I think there's a lot of whom might say wow there's going to be a big battle coming on. We think that we are ordained by god to win. Therefore there's almost a magnetic draw in Mosul. We're going to go to Mosul for a fight. There might be an opportunity for the Iraqis backed by the Americans to take out a lot of the ISIS guys in this fight because we prewarn this.

MALVEAUX: Is it possible that it could backfire the other way? I mean, maybe this is not in their thinking or their philosophy. But is it possible you might see defections where the guys are like I'm not up for it. This is going to be one hell of a battle. Are these the guys who are really itching for something like that?

MUDD: You asked the right question. Look there is an opportunity here that is to show ISIS that they may be a significant terrorist group that can murder people, but they're not an insurgent group that can hold territory. There's a flip side of this. And we saw this last summer when ISIS was rolling through territory.

If they come to the table in Mosul and the Iraqi forces prove that they can bring this fight, there is a significant downside. That is that we say look, after all this training, weaponry, intelligence, obviously U.S. is providing air power, the Iraqis still can't bring the fight? I think there is a down side. I don't think that will happen. But I wouldn't bet in Vegas against it.

MALVEAUX: And Phil, we know that this is - there's a psychological component to every war here. We saw ISIS releasing this video today showing dozens of American-made weapons, army vehicles it claim it seized from Iraqi forces. We also saw some dead Iraqis as well. You know, the last time the Iraqi forces went up against a big threat they went running. Could this potentially spook them and impact their psyche right now as they go forward and look at such a big mission?

MUDD: Look, ISIS is trying to show themselves as people who bring power to the battlefield, assassinating or murdering that Jordanian pilot, beheading people, showing these pictures of weapons. I don't think they're operating from a position of strength. Not because of the weapons, I don't think those captured weapons are significant.

You look at another handful of characteristics that will define success. How many people they have in the battlefield, 1,000 to 3,000 versus 20,000 to 25,000 Iraqis. They don't have an intelligence advantage. They don't have an air advantage. They have an advantage on the ground. They hold the territory. But I think what they're trying to say to members of the organization now that as ISIS members and recruits says, don't worry. We got it. We got weapons and recruits. I think behind the scenes they've got to be a bit concerned because they're facing an Iraqi military that is not going to be as surprised as they were when ISIS rolled through this territory last summer.

MALVEAUX: All right. We are looking at that map. And obviously there is going to be potentially a very big battle coming up in the months ahead. Phil, thank you so much for your perspective as always. We know that they have laid out these horrific plans time and time again, but there are things about ISIS that we don't know, actually. Up next we're going to talk to a columnist who says he knows what ISIS really wants.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: The brutal terror group ISIS on the minds of people both in the region and across the world. But there are some things we actually don't know about ISIS.

In a fascinating article in "The Atlantic" contributing editor Graham Wood is shedding some light on what he says ISIS really wants. Graham, we have found five things they think that our viewers probably did not expect and did not know about ISIS.

I want to go through those. You explained it very well in your article. One of them, a number of points controversy in the article is that ISIS is all about - and these recruiters are all about - Muslim beliefs. That it is very Islamic. Not non-Islamic but very Islamic based on true theology. What do you mean?

GRAHAM WOOD, "THE ATLANTIC" CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: By that I mean that they draw on Islamic traditions, they draw on Muslim traditions and Muslim texts. There are many different interpretations. But theirs is one of them. And they work very hard to justify it. It's not a view - their view is not shared by almost any other Muslim organization or Muslims. But it is nonetheless a Muslim view.

MALVEAUX: And they are specifically talking about a different time, the time of the prophet Mohammed and a different era. What specifically are they talking about when they say they want to develop something that is from the early days of Islam specifically?

WOOD: Yes. They believe that the only sources of authority are the Koran sayings of the prophet and the things that the prophet's companions did in the very earliest centuries of Islam. So they want to return civilization to the legal environment of that. The way that Islam was applied and practiced during those years.

MALVEAUX: And so we're talking about when you say that, I mean, it's very specifically we're talking about executions, we're talking about beheadings, we are talking about slavery, we are talking about rape.

WOOD: Yes. They believe that all of these things were applied in a particular way. And they've got a view of what that way is. Maybe someone would say it's a fantastic view. But nonetheless they think that you should turn it back to that particular - this particular centuries of practice of Islam.

MALVEAUX: And once they do that, right, when you have this caliphate if you will set up and they are instituting what they believe is an extreme version of Sharia law, there's the apocalypse. They actually say that they are trying to get to the end of the world and be a part of the side that wins, the battle, if you will.

WOOD: Yes.

MALVEAUX: How is that so? What do you mean?

WOOD: It means if you build it they will come. It means if you take a caliphate and you apply Sharia law and you move onto the particular steps in the conquest of other territory, and there are particular places they're thinking of like the city of Dabbaq in Syria, Istanbul, Jerusalem, that you will initiate an apocalypse.

And they constantly in all their propaganda are mentioning this because it is a major part of the narrative that there will be a fight between Muslims and non-Muslims and the Muslims will win and it will bring about the end of time including the return of the prophet Jesus.

MALVEAUX: One of the things that people dismiss in the United States, the administration has dismissed pretty much and we heard it from the president even last year when he kind of compared them to a J.V. team, if you will, when you compare them to Al Qaeda is that they're not really taken seriously in terms of the dogma and theology and you lok at it, I mean, this, you know, it's people crazy. How could this be that they would want to live this way and to exact this kind of brutality on other people?

But you go ahead in the article and you say that's the big mistake that the United States has made is that we have not made the distinction between what Al Qaeda is and what it stands for and what ISIS, the Islamic state is addressing here, is actually promoting.

WOOD: Yes, there are two different groups. They're at each other's throat right now. The group that constitutes Al Qaeda, it has many of the same views but they don't have the, extreme hatred of other Muslims and especially of Shia and they don't have such an emphasis on these apocalyptic beliefs. They think the apocalypse will come but it will not come on a calendar of a few years. It might be millennia or centuries.

MALVEAUX: OK. The final thing here is they want a fight. I mean, you bring that up is that they would like nothing more than the United States to step into the mess and make this all happen, a big blow out in Iraq and Syria.

WOOD: Yes, they want to really burn the middle ground so everybody has to stand on one side or the other. The side of Islam or the side of the crusaders. So that's what they're trying do with all of these grotesque videos is to alienate and to polarize the world. I think they've been very successful that way.

WOOD: All right. We're going to have you stick around. We're going to talk more about this. The article refueling much of the debate of course and the discussion regarding the Muslim community and the wall of Islam and what all of this means. Some critics are calling - some of these things these particulars that we've been talking about, lies, one of those critics is going to join us next live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) MALVEAUX: It's a battle that is drawing foreign fighters from across the globe, preparing for a fight for the end of the days. We are talking ISIS in a new article that claims to know the path they plan to take. The author, Graham Wood, he says the Koran outlines exactly what will happen.

A battle in northern Syria followed by a desperate fight in Jerusalem. Only to be led to victory by Jesus, the second most revered prophet in Islam. But is this just Islamic history or is it a reality for ISIS? We've got Haroon Mogul. He is a fellow at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding and author of the upcoming book "How to be Muslim."

And we're also joined again by Graham Wood, contributing editor of "The Atlantic" and our Phil Mudd. He is CNN's counterterrorism analyst and former CIA counterterrorism official. So Haroon, I want to start off with you and basically tell us is this a historical look at Islam here? Is this reality? Is this symbolic? I mean why do you take issue with what Graham has written?

HAROON MOGHUL, FELLOW, INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL POLICY AND UNDERSTANDING: Well, I want to make an important distinction. And it's very clear to me ISIS believes they're Muslim and believes what they're doing is Islamic. I don't buy for one second that this idea that Islam is a religion of peace, that extremism has nothing to do with ideas in Islam or Islamic history.

I'm not white washing or faith washing anything. My concern is that ISIS's relationship to Islam is like intelligent design or creationism to science. To a lay person it looks Islamic because they play with the ideas and the text. But what they end up doing is inverting Islam.

So they're very comfortable quoting texts and arguments out of context and for someone who is not familiar with the Islamic tradition this looks like Islam, sounds like Islam but it's not Islam. It's the opposite of Islam. It's a heresy within Islam that advocates things that no Muslim scholar, liberal, secular, religious, conservative, Sunni, Shia, would ever accept such as murder, kidnapping, ethnic cleansing, there is no tolerance for these things across the board.

So yes, ISIS thinks they're Islamic and we need to take that seriously. I think Graham is entirely on point. But it is important for people to also know that the Muslim community at large, not reflexively or out of a desire to be politically correct is rejecting these arguments because they're not consistent with our faith.

MALVEAUX: So Graham you talk about in your article very specifically though that there are points in the Koran that state during a time of prophet Mohammed that these were the expectations, this was the law of the time of the land and these are the things specifically in the Koran that this organization, these people will follow and it has attracted people from around the world. Do you believe it is based in the text of Islam that this call for what ISIS is doing today?

WOOD: It's certainly drawing from these texts. That's the distinction I would like to make between a tradition that draws from the text of Islam and a tradition that draws from these texts well, properly, in a way that a Muslim scholar would for example be pleased with from any part of the world of Islam.

I would describe the Islamic state as perhaps having the relationship to the rest of Islam that maybe the branch Davidians might have to Christianity. The branch Davidians were certainly a Christian sect. Were they unpopular one? Absolutely. It's the same thing with ISIS, extremely unpopular. But yet drawing from some of the same traditions.

MALVEAUX: And Haroon, do you believe as Graham has written that there is this notion that people are attracted to this because there's a theology that they see that they are part of something that is going to go to the end of days, the apocalypse, that they're going to be a part of the winning side of the apocalypse? Does that ring true to you?

MOGHUL: It's a mixed bag. I think at the senior levels of ISIS leadership it is hard to know whether they really believe what they're saying. I mean a lot of the people around (INAUDIBLE) are former (INAUDIBLE) party officials. You got secular Baath, you got religious Baath. I mean the one consistency in the Baath is they like to commit genocide. Where they're (INAUDIBLE) or they're now islamists who have converted themselves over to whatever it is.

But I think for the foot soldiers, yes it is compelling. It is a narrative that's really powerful that you're going to be a soldier on something, you're about right and wrong. This is about the end of the world, this is about standing up for the truth and creating utopia and the vision that Jesus is going to return, Jesus being the messiah in Islam is really powerful, it's an incredibly powerful lure for people.

MALVEAUX: I want to bring, if I could just for a moment bring Phil into the conversation because Phil, I mean, how do you counter something like this? We've heard from the president or the summit that happened the last couple of days talking about some of it is poverty and jobs and opportunity and people are disillusioned in some of the Middle Eastern countries. And that there need to be another way.

Propaganda also being a very powerful force in this. But if you have folks who believe that this is going to be the next coming, are going to be a part of the end of the world on the good side, on the winning side, how do you counter something like that?

MUDD: Let's take out that word you use, folks, and let's separate out the leadership in what was referred to a moment ago as the foot soldiers. Because in my experience those are vastly different people in terms of how they believe and how you can potentially divert their beliefs.

Right now if you look at the leadership of ISIS, my judgment based on what we at the CIA used to interrogate Al Qaeda guys, and Al Qaeda is not the same by a large margin as ISIS, but when we used to interrogate the leadership, they are true believers. Once they go down that path of indoctrination over the course of years or decades, you can't turn them back. They are never going to go home again in that case to be blunt that's a kill or capture operation at the upper one percent of an organization like ISIS.

To contrast that with the foot soldiers, in my experience both in the United States and overseas, the foot soldiers may believe that they understand the message of ISIS, including the senseless killing. They don't. I do believe over the course of years that there will be thousands or even tens of thousands of members of ISIS who you can bring back to some sort of political process because they are not true believers.

They're signed up because they get a paycheck, because they may have some superficial belief. Let me take one final step to offend about 80 percent of the people listening today. If you look at the history of insurgency, the way to strip off the sort of foot soldiers from the leadership is in the - if the Iraqi military starts to win you start offering things like amnesty programs. You tell the foot soldiers you don't have to stay with the ISIS guys. We will give you an opportunity down the future in a future government if you separate off from the organization. So to be clear, strip away the leadership from the foot soldiers, different story.

MALVEAUX: All right, Phil, we've got to leave it there. Phil, Haroon, Graham, thank you so much. Very good discussion. I wish we had more time.

And very extensive article in "The Atlantic" been reading over it a couple of days now. It's really quite fascinating. Great discussion. We'll have you guys both on later. Really appreciate it.

MOGHUL: Thank you.

WOOD: Thank you.

MALVEAUX: We'll have much more after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Different, not defective. That is the theme for this week's human factor.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta has the story of actress Wendy Davis who struggles and rises above a disorder that affects millions of Americans, including herself.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Defective. That's how Wendy Davis labeled herself growing up.

WENDY DAVIS, REALITY SHOW ACTRESS: I had a tough time staying seated in class, always found the window next to my desk and the things that were happening outside of the classroom far more interesting. So I just knew that something was different. GUPTA: It wasn't until Davis' first-grade daughter was diagnosed with

ADHD decades later that she discovered she had it as well.

DAVIS: My entire childhood was explained in that moment. I became a person who studied twice as hard as anyone else. I just

became super diligent in the areas that I was interested in.

GUPTA: For Davis, that was acting. She did find success on TV.

DAVIS: We need to get something straight.

GUPTA: With her award-nominated role on Lifetime's "Army Wives" and on parts like shows like "Scandal."

DAVIS: I have a vivid imagination. Also am very emotional. This may not be such a great quality in a corporate office, but it really just works in my profession.

GUPTA: Now the actress is passing along her positivity. She volunteers for the nonprofit organization CHAD, which provides education and support for people with ADHD.

DAVIS: I'm really here for those kids who aren't feeling good about themselves.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Good for her.

Still ahead, Rudy Giuliani gets personal with Barack Obama, questioning the president's patriotism, even some Republicans say it was too much. We're going to have that reaction, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Backlash from some fellow Republicans is not enough to compel Rudy Giuliani to apologize for suggesting that President Obama does not love America. If anything, the former New York City mayor has dug in his heels, saying he stands by his remarks that the president is unpatriotic.

Former Obama adviser David Axelrod says Giuliani's comments were out of bounds and out of touch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID AXELROD, FORMER OBAMA ADVISER: There's no doubt that race enters into some of these criticism. No other president has had his citizenship persistently challenged. No other president has had a man stand up in the House of Representatives, a member of the Congress, and shout "you lie". And I do think some of that is rooted in people's resistance tots to the notion that we're a more diverse country and there's an African-American named Barack Obama. Now, whether that motivated Rudy Giuliani or whether he was pandering to that view, I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Some Republicans like Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, they were quick to distance themselves from Giuliani's comments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: I think it's a mistake to question people's motives. There's one thing to disagree on policy. And I think it's one reason why like John Yarmouth and I get along. He's the Democrat congressman from Louisville but we have a good friendship because I don't question his motives. We don't always agree. We agree on some things, though, and acknowledge our agreement. But I don't question his motives and I try not to question the president's motives as being a good American or a bad American.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Contrary to Giuliani's assertion, there are plenty of instances where President Obama says he love America. And a bunch of other things, too. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI (R), FORMER NYC MAYOR: I very rarely hear him say the things they used to hear Ronald Reagan say, the things I used to hear Bill Clinton say about how much he loves America.

(MUSIC)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I love America.

God bless this country we love.

I will let no one question my love of this country.

Now, first of all, I love Michelle Obama. I love her bangs.

And part of the reason I love campaigning is you travel around the country. Folks are just good.

I love nurses.

I love Australia.

Listen, I love you.

I love listening to their stories.

I love Meryl Streep. I love talking to ordinary people.

We love our coast guard.

I love shaking hands and getting hugs and --

I love you back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: All right. Who doesn't love a good hug, huh? Going to dig deeper into the controversy over Giuliani's comments in

the 7:00 hour. We're going to speak with our senior political analyst David Gergen about how this might shape up the run up in 2016.

Also when you go to get your car fixed, how do you know if you've got it right or they got it right unless you are a mechanic you probably really don't understand it. Well, now, there are claims that some insurance companies, they're steering you towards body shops that skimp on repairs.

Our Drew Griffin, he is investigating up next.

And time now for CNN heroes to recognize a 13-year-old boy who is proof that young people can change the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSHUA WILLIAMS, JOSHUA'S HEART FOUNDATION: I'm signing up people. Everybody here signed in?

When I was four-and-a-half years old, I found my purpose in life.

We're going to help around 100 families, we're going to give them food.

I looked for a foundation that would accept somebody my age. I didn't find any, so I came up with the idea for Joshua's Heart Foundation.

You guys ready?

Joshua's Heart Foundation has no age limit, so as long as you're able to pick something up, just come out and help us make a difference.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It feels really good to be here. It's really nice.

WILLIAMS: Since I started, I have given out over 650,000 pounds of food to over 30,000 individuals.

We're going to do one tuna.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One tuna?

WILLIAMS: One tuna. We need enough for everybody.

Right now, we have over 1,200 youth volunteers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm grateful to know there's still young people that care for other people.

WILLIAMS: Very important to develop connections and relationships with these people that we're helping.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: God bless you. And thank you.

WILLIAMS: If you want to make a difference, I have three bits of advice for you. One, use your passion and purpose in life to help make a change in the community. Two, get your friends to help.

And three, never give up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: If you ever needed your car repaired, it can be kind of hard to trust whether an auto shop is being honest, right? We've all experienced this. Maybe they're taking you for a ride.

Well, imagine your insurance company scheming with the body shops to save them money and potentially putting your life at risk. Well, this has happened to thousands of people across the country.

Our senior investigative correspondent Drew Griffin, he's going to show us how the scam works and what is being done to stop it in its tracks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): To see what's really going on, you've got to do something you probably can't do at home: lift what you think is your repaired car, get out something called a boroscope, and check inside the car, inside the frame to see if the auto body shop actually fixed it. The auto body shop your insurance company most likely recommended.

BILL BURN, AUTO REPAIR EXPERT: There's the riff in the rail right here.

GRIFFIN: Bill Burn, a national auto repair expert, testifies in court about bad repairs and this, he says, is one of them. The result of a system designed to save money for insurance companies.

BURN: What they did was they replaced the new end cap on there, and the end cap actually covers that, so the consumer would never see this. It is unsafe.

GRIFFIN (on camera): And yet they put it back on there.

BURN: Correct.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Burn is now part of a major lawsuit involving more than 500 auto body shops in 36 states, all suing dozens of insurance companies across the country. The shops believe the insurance industry is involved in a deliberate system to send you and your car to shops that are pre-selected by insurers to do the absolute bare minimum to fix it, even telling body shops to use used or recycled parts because they're cheaper.

Matt Parker is an auto shop owner in Monroe, Louisiana who said he sees the same problem. He said State Farm told him to use a remanufactured headlight in a Toyota Tacoma. This is what he got.

MATT PARKER, AUTO SHOP OWNER, MONROE, LA: So, it's got a hole in it here, and then you can see where they screwed this bracket back on the vehicle. Now, you can see here where all these parts - where these were knocked off and glued back together.

You can also see here where the top corner and the lens is busted, and this part of the headlight is broken.

GRIFFIN (on camera): This came out of a box wrapped like it was supposed to be --

PARKER: Oh, absolutely. It's like -- supposed to be like a new part. The insurance company wants us to put this stuff on their car. Now, if we refuse to put it on the car, then they label us as a shop not willing to go along with their program. And then try to steer our business away from us.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Attorneys general Jim Hood of Mississippi and Buddy Caldwell of Louisiana, they believe it, too. Mississippi is preparing a lawsuit. Louisiana has filed, claiming State Farm's practice is putting drivers in danger.

(on camera): And what is the practice? What's being put in their cars?

BUDDY CALDWELL, LOUISIANA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, aftermarket parts, junkyard parts, and all of this without any communication with the consumer. And that's the main issue: the safety issues and the knowledge that their product is being devalued by the practices of the insurance company.

JIM HOOD, MISSISSIPPI ATTORNEY GENERAL: I mean, Buddy has found numerous cases here in Louisiana. We found them in Mississippi, where they would force a body shop to put junk parts and weld and patch.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): And when auto shops don't go along, Mississippi's attorney general says those auto shops business gets cut. It's called steering. Insurance companies steering business elsewhere.

HOOD: They're going to say, we'll blackball you. We won't put you on our select service list, and we're going to make you send us estimates to us five different times just to aggravate you. That's what they do. They use their economic power to grind down working people.

GRIFFIN: U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, who used to be Connecticut's attorney general, says not only is there a potential for small business to be hurt. He too believes cars repaired through insurance companies' 'preferred service centers" pose a safety risk. And he's asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D), CONNECTICUT: Salvaged parts, inferior or even counterfeit parts certainly raise safety concerns. And often, those kind of parts involved in this practice of steering. And that's why I have been concerned for years about it and why I think the Department of Justice should be investigating.

GRIFFIN: Louisiana's attorney general chose to sue State Farm Insurance because State Farm is the biggest insurer in his state. In legal filings, the company denies all the allegations, including the allegation that State Farm mandates using aftermarket parts.

State Farm would not grant and interview but sent a statement instead. It says, "Our customers choose where their vehicles are going to be repaired. We provide information about our Select Service Program while at the same time making it clear they can select which shop will do the work."

State Farm told us to bring our specific questions to Neil Allredge with the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies.

NEIL ALLREDGE, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANIES: It's not just in the economic interest of the insurer to have a car go in and out of an auto body shop three or four times to get it right.

GRIFFIN (on camera): Why would insurance companies require or recommend used parts, fixed parts off market?

ALLREDGE: Sure. Most companies don't require this. Most companies offer a choice to consumer.

Most of the -- any sort of aftermarket part you might hear about are usually cosmetic parts. So they're nothing related to the safety, the mechanical parts of the operation of the vehicle. There are laws in almost every state that require consumers to be told that they're -- if aftermarket parts are used and then what those parts are.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): We found that notice on page four of this estimate, on page six of this one.

ALLREDGE: In many cases, these parts are no different. They're made in the same factories. One just comes out with an auto manufacturer's name on it and others don't.

GRIFFIN (on camera): Well -- you know, that's not true.

ALLREDGE: It is true.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): It certainly isn't true in the case of this replacement hood for a Honda. It's made in Taiwan, but already coming apart. This aftermarket bumper straight out of the box not only doesn't fit, but the fasteners have been glued back together.

And then there's the question about that broken and repaired Toyota Tacoma head lamp.

(on camera): It's obviously a repurposed part from a junkyard. And if you look closely, you'll see how it was glued together, snapped together and in some cases, even welded and screwed together. And this is what the insurer told the preferred body shop to put on a car. I mean, look at this. You wouldn't want that in your car. I wouldn't want that in my car.

ALLREDGE: I really don't know the circumstances of the picture, so I really can't comment on it. GRIFFIN: So, are the attorneys general wrong in saying that the

insurance industry as a whole, State Farm in particular, is steering their customers to preferred body shops -- preferred because they save the insurance company money, not the consumer?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: And we're going to get the answer when we return. And Drew test drives one of those repaired cars. Wait until you see what happens.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Dishonest insurance companies pressuring auto repair shops to perform cheap and potentially unsafe repairs on cars.

Our CNN's drew griffin is back with the second part of his investigation into this scheme.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: So, are the attorneys general wrong in saying that the insurance industry in the whole state farm in particular is steering their customers to preferred body shops -- preferred because they save the insurance company money, not the consumer?

ALLREDGE: The insurance company may provide a list of auto body shops. And the customer can say no, I want to go to Joe's Body Shop around the corner. And that's their choice.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): That is certainly what Progressive Insurance told us happened for this car. Remember, it's the car we told you about earlier with the rip tail frame that you could only spot with the boroscope. It was hit from behind, repaired at a "preferred" insurance company shop and sent back on the road with a ripped and hidden tail frame.

It turns out the ripped tail frame isn't old; it wasn't repaired. Three of four tire rims are still damaged. The undercarriage of the car has been pushed in, according to auto expert Bill Burn. And outside, the paint job is filled with pockmarks.

Progressive Insurance says they didn't choose the body shop, the owner did.

Well, this is the owner. Eugenia Randle, a single mom who needs the car to carry around her 2-year-old son, Roman. And she remembers the conversation with Progressive much differently.

EUGENIA RANDLE, CAR OWNER: They didn't give me a choice as to where I wanted to take it. They just told me to take it to their preferred body shop.

GRIFFIN: Randle says she though because it was a preferred shop, it would actually be repaired to a higher standard. But when she picked it up, she immediately knew something wasn't right. RANDLE: Well, cosmetically to me, it looked fine. But once I got in

and got down the street, it just started driving really crazy. And I immediately took it back.

GRIFFIN: So how crazy was Randle's car driving? I decided to find out for myself by getting behind the wheel.

(on camera): Anything over 50 miles per hour, this thing just shakes. All right, this baby's really shaking now.

(voice-over): Not only the tail section ripped and unrepaired, three of four tire rims were damaged. And as I drove, the steering wheel was shaking so violently, I had to grip down from veering to the right. The front left tire was just wobbling.

I carefully drove this shaking car right back to the insurance company's preferred auto body shop, where the general manager promptly told us to leave.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't turn that on without Service King's permission if you don't mind.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: Suzanne, Service King, the auto body chain that supposedly fixed that car, says they fixed it to exact standards of what the insurance company told them to do and that their work is lifetime guaranteed. They also said they had no idea anything was wrong with that car, even though it was eventually totaled. As for Senator Blumenthal, he is renewing his request with the Department of Justice to open up a federal investigation to find out if this steering and the use of used auto parts is widespread enough to warrant a federal investigation -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Thank you, Drew.

Next hour, CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.