Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Obama Authorizes Surveillance Over Syria; Arab Nations Reportedly Strike in Libya; Alleged New Audio Of Brown Shooting

Aired August 26, 2014 - 06:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, the United States now sending reconnaissance aircraft over Syria, tracking the terror group ISIS. The Pentagon drawing up plans to hit ISIS there. Could these airstrikes come now at any moment?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Also breaking, exclusive audio of the gunshot that killed Michael Brown. The tape revealing what sounds like far more than six shots. Will this tape shake up the investigation?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, family first. "Modern Family" wins big again as "Breaking Bad" proves it's gone, but not forgotten. We have all the must-see moments like that kiss and a heartfelt send off to Robin Williams.

BERMAN: Your NEW DAY starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY, with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan and Michaela Pereira.

BERMAN: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, August 26th. It is 6:00 in the East. I'm John Berman. And in an upset victory Alisyn Camerota decided to come back and join me again.

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: Why an upset?

BERMAN: I thought after the first day, I don't know that I would get a second one.

CAMEROTA: You did not scare me away, John Berman and I also had to come back because today is a very special day. It's Michaela's birthday. Happy birthday.

PEREIRA: And holding.

CAMEROTA: Thanks for spending it with us.

BERMAN: We do have a lot of news to tell you about. We're going to start with breaking developments in the fight against ISIS. President Obama giving the go-ahead for reconnaissance flights over Syria.

The move is an effort to get a better idea of where the militants are stationed and where they are training right now so the big question. Are these flights a precursor to air strikes against ISIS in Syria in addition to the strikes already under way to slow the militants down in Iraq?

CNN's Barbara Starr has been way ahead of this story from the very beginning. She has the latest developments for us from the Pentagon. Good morning, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. A U.S. official does confirm to CNN that President Obama has authorized those reconnaissance flights to collect intelligence about ISIS positions inside of Syria. But the question, of course, now is what exactly will trigger a decision for air strikes?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STARR (voice-over): U.S. reconnaissance flights could begin over Syria at any time, according to U.S. officials using possibly drones, U2 spy planes or F-18s. The Pentagon is drafting options to strike inside Syria.

But the U.S. won't warn the Syrian government, who says carrying out airstrikes without their consent would be a breach of its sovereignty and an act of aggression.

It's unclear, however, how much the president's top military adviser, General Martin Dempsey, supports immediate U.S. military action. A spokesman confirmed Dempsey is preparing options to address ISIS, both in Iraq and Syria, with a variety of military tools, including airstrikes.

But the lack of action so far is prompting critics like hawkish Republican Senator Lindsey Graham to charge the White House is trying to minimize the threat we face in order to justify not changing a failed strategy. Before any bombs could fall, the U.S. has to get fresh intelligence.

REAR ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: We don't talk about reconnaissance and intelligence matters, but in general when you are thinking about conducting operations like that, you certainly want to get as much of a view on the ground as you can.

PETER THEO CURTIS: My name is Peter Theo Curtis and I'm a journalist in the city of Boston, Massachusetts.

STARR: The debate comes as American, Peter Theo Curtis held hostage by the Islamic militant group, Al Nusra for nearly two years in Syria gets his first taste of freedom.

NANCY CURTIS, MOTHER OF THEO CURTIS: He was over-the-top excited. I think obviously he's -- he has to decompress. He's been through so much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STARR: U.S. officials so far are not saying much about the release of Mr. Curtis, which the government of Qatar apparently helped to facilitate, but they are saying that the U.S. policy of not offering ransom to terrorists still holds -- John.

BERMAN: All right, interesting. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thanks so much -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, John, this is breaking overnight, exclusive audio coming to light from the very moment police shot unarmed teenager, Michael Brown. It was recorded inadvertently we're told during a video chat by a man who lives near the scene of the shooting in Ferguson, Missouri.

CNN has not been able to independently able to verify this recording yet. CNN's Stephanie Elam has the very latest. What do we know, Stephanie?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, when you take a listen to this audio, for some people it might be a bit disturbing, but when you're listening try to listen past the man you hear speaking and see what you hear behind him for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Listen closely. You are pretty. You are so fine, just going over some of your videos. How can I forget?

ELAM (voice-over): This audio obtained exclusively by CNN allegedly the gunshots fired during the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, a lawyer for a Ferguson resident says her client recorded this audio while video chatting with a friend when the unarmed teen was shot by Ferguson police.

His lawyer says he was questioned by the FBI about the audio. Listen again as you hear a series of gunshots fired and then a brief pause, followed by another round of shots.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are pretty. You're so fine. Just going over some of your videos. How could I forget?

LOPA BLUMENTHAL, ATTORNEY: Not just the number of gunshots, it's how they are fired and that has a huge relevance on how this case might finally end up.

ELAM: CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of the tape and has reached out to the FBI for confirmation, facing the possibility of charges in the shooting, 28-year-old Officer Darren Wilson, the grand jury not expected to return a decision until mid- October. Heavy police presence, protests and violence on Ferguson's streets thrust the small community into the spotlight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today is for peace, peace and quiet.

ELAM: Inside the Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church Monday, a sombre home going to lay Michael Brown to rest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we call him the Gentle Giant. We call him Big Mike. We call him Mike, Mike. He said one day the whole world will know my name. ELAM: Standing before her son's photos and his casket his mother, Lesley McSpadden, grieving, wiping away tears. Among the thousands gathered inside were friends and family, and many who came to pay their respects to the slain teen having never known Big Mike personally.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're still not defeated.

ELAM: Including well-known public figures like the Reverend Jesse Jackson and Spike Lee who tweeted during the service, "Our brother Mike Brown's St. Louis Cardinals cap lays upon the casket. On this day protesters stayed silent, but mourners reminded of the need for change.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Michael Brown's blood is crying from the ground, crying for vengeance, crying for just justice.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ELAM: And back to that audio recording, the question on many people's mind, what exactly was happening during that pause in that shooting -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right, let's look into, that Stephanie, so stick with us for a second because we want to bring in Paul Ginsberg, he is an audio expert who has examined this new recording. Paul, thanks so much for being with us. Let's play the recording one more time and then see what you hear. Let's listen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are pretty. Just going over your videos. How can I forget?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: The reason that sounds so strange is because there's a man simultaneously having an audio chat with a woman and we think that he had ear buds in so he doesn't respond to the gunshots that we hear caught on that ambient audio tape. What do you hear as an expert?

PAUL GINSBERG, FORENSIC AUDIO EXPERT: I hear six shots being fired in rapid succession followed by a pause of about 3 seconds. I'll have to measure that precisely, and then there are I believe four more shots. I made a plot and I've examined it both in realtime as well as in halftime to be able to get more precise information.

CAMEROTA: So you hear six shots and then you hear a pause and then you hear four more shots.

GINSBERG: Exactly, that's right, and they all appear to be about the same type of signature. Another, the same type of weapon.

ELAM: Let's play that again and see if we can hear what you, the expert hears. Let's play it one more time.

Paul, we should mention you have analyzed many audio tapes from crime scenes, including the gunshots from the Newtown massacre in Connecticut, so how vital -- if this tape is proved verifiably true to be of Michael Brown's shooting, how critical o you think that this could be in the investigation?

CAMEROTA: Well, this will test the credibility of the officer and whatever else is included in the official report as to how many shots were fired, what type of weapon was used? Was it reloaded and was it from the same gun?

Stephanie, we were told, as you well know, that Michael Brown was shot six times. How do you think this changes the investigation?

CAMEROTA: Well, we know that he could have been hit six times, doesn't mean that there weren't more shots fired and that's where the lack of clarity has been. Like the only thing we know for sure is there were two young men walking in the street when an officer engaged them.

After that, it becomes a game of he said, he said so that's what we don't know. What this could possibly help do is add another plane, another texture to this investigation, and, really, I do think it comes down to that pause. What was going on there?

On the politician side they are saying that Mike Brown was reaching for the officer's weapon. On the other side they say that he had his hands up and he was saying don't shoot. I'm unarmed. What this pause does it adds texture from that question.

ELAM: From the police side, Stephanie, we understand that Darren Wilson, the officer, said that he believed that mike brown was charging him or preparing to charge towards him, so that pause might have been what was happening there?

GINSBERG: Well, that's the thing, it could have been. The distance between where his body was found and where the officer was, from what we know was charging him or preparing to charge towards him, so that pause might have been what was happening there?

ELAM: Well, that's the thing, it could have been. The distance between where his body was found and where the officer was, from what we know at this point, remember, there's a lot of questions out there still, it was not when he was right up on top of the car so that lack of clarify, again, this is just audio. It just adds another layer to that investigation of figuring out exactly what was happening then.

CAMEROTA: Paul, do you have any theory on what those three seconds mean?

GINSBERG: Well, it could have been reloading. It could have been turning around and so on. They may want to do an acoustic analysis of test firing a gun and setting up the fellow's iPad or whatever at the location where this chat occurred to take measurements and to see under different circumstances what they hear.

CAMEROTA: Paul, you did a time domain wave form pattern. How did that differ from what you're suggesting investigators do? GINSBERG: OK. That's just a pretrial representation of what exactly we hear. They will do the same thing, but they may do it under test circumstances to compare, to see how long does it take to reload? In other words, shoot six shots, take the clip out, reload and shoot some more and see whether that compares to what I've got.

CAMEROTA: Stephanie, very quickly, do people in Ferguson have a chance to respond to this new audio yet?

ELAM: This is all just coming out. I spent a lot of time on the street where Mike Brown was killed yesterday, and the people there are hoping that this investigation, they seem to be hopeful in the FBI investigation will shed more light on this, but how this audio is being received, we'll have to see as sun comes up here in Ferguson.

CAMEROTA: Paul Ginsberg, thanks so much for your expertise. Stephanie Elam, we'll check back in with you.

ELAM: Of course.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much to both of you. We want you to weigh in on the new developments. Join Chris Cuomo at 11:00 a.m. Eastern on our Facebook page for a chat of what happens next. Go to facebook.com/new year's day, and you can also find me on twitter @alisyncamerota -- over to Michaela.

PEREIRA: It's 12 minutes past the hour. We begin in the Middle East where Palestinian officials say new Israeli air strikes destroyed one of Gaza's tallest office and apartment buildings. Israel says the building was a Hamas command center.

Palestinian officials say nine people were killed, 20 others wounded. Also overnight rockets from Gaza hit a home in Israel, but the family had escaped when warning sirens went off. Egypt is meanwhile reportedly trying to revive these ongoing cease-fire talks.

Ukrainian President Poroshenko is expected to meet with Vladimir Putin in Belarus. They are attending a regional trade summit. They will meet to discuss the crisis in Eastern Ukraine obviously as well.

This meeting comes as fighting continues between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists. Ukraine says it captured Russian troops across the border. Russian media though says they crossed by mistake.

Voters are headed to the polls for primary elections in Arizona, Vermont and Florida. Democratic candidate Charlie Crist is expected to win and not many high-profile races today, but some could affect the balance of power in the chamber next year.

Can we talk about the Emmy Awards, past my bedtime two nights in away? "Breaking Bad" took top honors winning outstanding drama series, "Modern Family" winning for a record fifth time. The night's most memorable moment, however, was this.

Did you see this, Bryan Cranston? Plants one on "Seinfeld" Julie Louie Dreyfuss. Passionate kiss when she went to receive her award for leading actress in a comedy. So good.

And finally an emotional tribute that Billy Crystal paid to his good friend, the late Robin Williams, really touching, and I think you couldn't help. But feel the emotion in the moment from somebody who knew him so well.

Mention, a big mention to Alison Janney, two Emmys, a guest role for in a drama series and for the TV show "Mom." Not a bad night, get all dressed up and walk away with two statues.

CAMEROTA: Still your birthday.

PEREIRA: It's been a real great 15 minutes so far. Thanks.

CAMEROTA: We're going to do this all morning.

PEREIRA: All morning. Sorry, America.

CAMEROTA: All right. Next on NEW DAY, President Obama is expanding the fight against ISIS. He's approved surveillance over Syria to monitor the terrorist group. What advantage will that give us? We will dissect it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY, everyone.

The United States may be one step closer now to taking military action against ISIS inside Syria. President Obama has authorized air surveillance, spy planes, drones, to gather intelligence on ISIS strongholds. How far will the U.S. go to contain or destroy terror in that region?

Let's talk about that. We're going to bring in Bobby Ghosh, the managing editor of "Quartz." He joins us here now.

Bobby, these flights -- let's take a look at the map right now. These flights that will go over Syria, we're talking about drones, spy planes, U2s, what will they be looking?

BOBBY GHOSH, MANAGING EDITOR, QUARTZ: Well, they'll be looking for clusters of military equipment. We know ISIS has stolen or ceased a lot of tanks, armored vehicles, both within Iraq and Syria. They will be looking for where those are.

They'll be looking for training camps. They'll be looking for movements of large numbers of SUVs and also armored things like this, exactly.

They'll also be looking for -- they will be trying to confirm intelligence that they are collecting from the ground, for safe houses, where ISIS is keeping its prisoners, its captives. We know, for instance, we learned last week that the U.S. did send in Special Forces to try and get Jim Foley and the other American captives. The intelligence was a little out of date but the time the Special Forces got to the scene in Syria. The prisoners had been moved. If we had eyes over that scene for a few days, we might have known

that.

BERMAN: We talked about boots on the ground. It already happened as you say. They went in to try to rescue James Foley, these other hostages, it didn't work. We had boots on the ground briefly in Iraq where we also had airstrikes already against ISIS. There is another component though us a talk about moving into Syria, and that's Bashar al Assad, the regime in Syria.

I had Clark Kent Urban, a respected man in national security on the show yesterday, and he told me, and he's not alone, that he's in favor of working with Bashar al Assad to fight ISIS in Syria. What do you make of that?

GHOSH: I'm very skeptical about that. One is you don't fight one sort of bad actor with another bad actor. Bashar al Assad has killed over 100,000 of his own people, most of them Sunnis.

If you join forces with him, assuming that he's even trustworthy enough to join forces with, if you join forces with him, you're sending forces you're sending the wrong kind of signal. You're empowering ISIS because ISIS is able to say, the United States is fighting with the Shia against us Sunnis, come and join us.

You're making ISIS' propaganda for them.

BERMAN: So, without Assad and without large numbers of ground troops or boots on the ground, what can these airstrikes against ISIS do?

GHOSH: Well, the administration has already been talking about strengthening the non-Islamist opposition to Assad. There are plenty of groups involved there, that we've had connections with for a while now. They have been fighting, and with varying degrees.

BERMAN: Are they giving us intelligence, by the way?

GHOSH: I'm sure they are. How could they not be? If we're smart, we're collecting intelligence from them.

They are outgunned. They don't have the kind of equipment ISIS have or Assad had, and there are many in the administration and outside it that are arguing that, for instance, John McCain, that we should be arming these people, giving them better weapons, and enabling them to fight. They can be the boots on the group that we need in addition to whatever aerial campaign is being waged.

BERMAN: I want to talk to you about another major development over the last 24 hours that we learned about coming from the region, right now and that's in Libya -- word that I should point out that Egypt right here and the United Arab Emirates have launched airstrikes in Libya.

Now, this also apparently happened without the knowledge of the U.S. Let me break this down into two parts. First of all, do you buy the possibility without the knowledge of the U.S.? GHOSH: I find that very hard to believe. They may not have formally

asked for permission, but the United States has eyes all over that piece of ground, and the UAE, Egypt can be an unreliable actor, but the UAE, I find very hard that the UAE would have spent planes all the way across without the United States knowing about it.

BERMAN: And what does this mean then for the United States, the fact that you have these two Arab nations, Egypt and the UAE, launching airstrikes in that region? What does that mean for our country facing other threats in that region?

GHOSH: Something it means -- it means for the whole world. For years now, people everywhere have been asking, why is it only the Western countries that are putting boots on the ground, military hardware? Why aren't Arab countries who are very well-armed, they put all this equipment from us, why are they not participating in the fight against Islamist groups in their own lands?

This is the first time we've seen this kind of concerted action to large significant Arab countries participating, collaborating and attacking Islamists in a third Arabic country. This opens up the possibility that now, we can see to the Egyptians and to the UAE. If you can do that in Libya, why aren't you helping in Syria and Iraq?

BERMAN: Of course, it does put them in direct conflict with other regions in the area. Qatar is aiding the different half of what's going on inside Libya right now.

GHOSH: Well, the Qataris are trying to be on the fence. They're trying to be brokers. They're trying to be helpful. There's a lot -- there are a lot of accusations that they are funding groups like al Nusra which gave up this -- the other captive this week.

We don't know that for certain. We know that Qatar has been in talks with these groups in the past. It's not a bad thing in itself. It's useful to have somebody who is in communication with some of these groups. Nobody talks with ISIS. ISIS talks with nobody but there are many other groups in the region.

BERMAN: So much going on now in that region. Right now, a lot the U.S. is involved in, a lot clearly now the U.S. not involved in. It will be interesting to see what happens really over the next several hours because it's changing so fast.

Bobby Ghosh, great to have you here with us. Really appreciate it.

GHOSH: Anytime.

BERMAN: Next up for us on NEW DAY, we're going to have much more on the new alleged new audio of the Michael Brown shooting. Do the number of gunshots heard in the tape, and we want you to listen to them, do they match up with what we've been told all along? How will this now affect the investigation?

And a hurricane has formed in the Atlantic. Cristobal is set to churn north. Will it hit the United States? We're tracking the storm. Everything you need to know, right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Good to have you back with us here on NEW DAY.

Let's take a look at your headlines.

In the Middle East, an Israeli airstrike blasted a residential tower in Gaza overnight. Palestinian officials say nine people were killed and 20 more were injured. The Israeli military said the building housed a Hamas command center.

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh in a New Hampshire hospital this morning. He was seriously injured in a car accident. A police official tells CNN that Freeh underwent surgery for unspecified injuries. State police say that his SUV went off the road, struck a mailbox before landing in some bushes. Freeh was director of the FBI from 1993 to 2001.

To the latest now in the fight against Ebola. The World Health Organization calling the death toll among health care workers in Western African unprecedented. So far, 120 health care workers have died, twice in a number have been infected. These are really huge numbers, considering that in the three hardest hit countries the WHO says only one or two doctors are available to treat 100,000 people. We'll keep an eye on that.

We want to show you this drone's eye view of damage from that powerful earthquake that shook California's wine country. Private drone owner Evan Kilkus recorded the damage to some of the historic buildings, homes and businesses in the downtown area of Napa.