Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Emotional Testimony At Tsarnaev Trial; Harrison Ford Survives Plane Crash; New Video Shows Jihadi John as Teen

Aired March 06, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Gut-wrenching testimony for victims of the Boston marathon bombing, face Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in court. Most notably, Bill Richard, his 8-year-old son Martin was killed in that attack. He left some jurors winching, some in the gallery in tears.

Our Deborah Feyerick is live in Boston with more.

What a day in court.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it really was, Michaela.

And, what makes all of this so powerful is that we're hearing from people who have lived with the effects of this bombing every single day since the day it happened.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK (voice-over): New photos released on day two of the Tsarnaev trial reveal the unsuspecting crowd outside the Forum Restaurant before police say Dzhokhar Tsarnaev places the second bomb.

And then moments later -- complete carnage, smells of sulfur and burning hair, witnesses say filled the air.

The same spot as where Bill Richard's family was all together for the last time. His 6-year-old daughter Jane loses her leg in the explosion and his 8-year-old son Martin lost his life.

On the stand Thursday, Richard said it was difficult talking about his son, recalling, "I saw a little boy who had his body severely damaged. I just knew from what I saw, that there was no chance."

Richard also testified he lost some hearing due to the blast. But says, I can still hear the beautiful voices of my family.

Football coach Allen Hearn described how he found his badly injured 11-year-old son outside the forum. He said it really hurts, dad, it really hurt on the outer left thigh there was a crater about as big as my hand. It was mangled flesh, full of blood.

Twenty-nine-year-old Crystal Campbell couldn't be saved. Officer Frank Chiola fought for her life. As I applied chest compressions, smoke was coming out of her mouth.

This is Jeff Bauman whose rescue was captured in this iconic photo recalled seeing Tsarnaev moments before the explosion. "Everyone else was clapping," he said. "I looked at him and he stared down at me and I thought it was odd."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: And one of the things we're hearing in court is how people simply made life-and-death decisions, Bill Richard saying he grabbed his 6-year-old daughter, whose leg had been blown off and he ran to his wife and said, if I don't help her, we're going to lose her as well as Martin. It was incredibly powerful.

More witness testimony expected to continue when the trial resumes on Monday -- Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The pain so present and real in that courtroom. But a very tough standard for this jury do decide whether or not to take this man's life. We'll stay on it.

Deb, thank you for giving us the action.

Two aviation calls very close, one on each coast. Actor Harrison Ford badly banged up, but alive after crash-landing his World War II era plane on a golf course in Los Angeles after takeoff. Ford reported an engine failure and he is expected to make a full recovery.

Back here a much bigger deal in New York, a Delta jet 127 passengers on board skidding off an icy runway at New York's LaGuardia airport. Two dozen nonlife-threatening injuries, but it could have been so much worse. In 1992, the same thing happened, but on takeoff, and two dozen lives swallowed up. This plane as you see stopped a few feet from shore.

PEREIRA: Incredible, really.

ISIS once again destroying irreplaceable relics in Iraq. Terrorists bulldozed the site of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud which flourished between 900 and 612 BCE. Iraq's Ministry o Tourism and Antiquity saying letting ISIS go without punishment will encourage them to destroy even more priceless treasures, officials say. Last week video emerged of ISIS taking sledgehammers to centuries old items in the Mosul Museum.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The attorney for Michael Brown's family says they will file a wrongful death suit and soon. This comes after the Justice Department cleared Officer Darren Wilson for killing Brown.

Also, as Ferguson police chief dodges questions about his police department and future in a CNN exclusive. Here's a look at that interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FERGUSON POLICE CHIEF: I'm going to analyze the report and take action where necessary.

REPORTER: Does that mean you're going to stay around?

FERGUSON POLICE CHIEF: I'm going to take action where necessary. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Harrison Ford living out of a scene out of one of his movies, escaping death after crashing his plane in Venice, California. Not the first time we're going to be talking about Ford's skills as a pilot and his passion for flying. We'll talk with someone who knows him an of his aviation expertise.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Actor Harrison Ford suffered moderate injuries after crashes his World War II era plane on a golf course in Venice, California, Thursday. The 72-year-old actor was forced to make the emergency landing when the plane's engine suddenly stalled. He was able to maneuver the plane to avoid disaster in a residential neighborhood nearby.

Joining us now is the editor in chief of "Flying Magazine", Robert Goyer. He has spoken with Ford on several occasions about flying.

Good morning to you, Mr. Goyer.

ROBERT GOYER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, FLYING MAGAZINE: Good morning, Michaela.

PEREIRA: So, tell us more about this passionate pilot we know Harrison Ford is said to be. He really is viewed within the aviation community as a pilot's pilot, is he not?

GOYER: Yes, that's absolutely true. He's somebody who you know sometimes you've got celebrities who are kind of dilatants about their flying, who learn to fly and fly occasionally with people.

But for Harrison, it's really all about the flying. He loves aviation. Wants nothing more than to sit around talking about airplanes and he really is a very proficient pilot also. He trains regularly and is, he's keeping his skills up is job one for him.

PEREIRA: He's had other scary situations, one involving a helicopter, we understand a few years back. In this incident, it seems as though he did everything right. Tell us what you know about how he handled this accident.

GOYER: Yes, no, I agree, he did everything right. It's a scary situation for sure. When you have -- these airplanes have just one engine. It's a little two-seat airplane.

PEREIRA: And he sits in the back of it, right?

GOYER: Yes, when you're solo in that airplane, you fly it from the back. It's kind of an unusual thing. It makes it harder you know to land the airplane in this situation, because you don't have very good visibility from back there. It's one of the problems with the design.

So, yes, when you lose an engine, it's a glider, and this airplane is really bad at flying as a glider. It handles at slow speed very poorly and very dangerously. It has a tendency, if you get too slow, to go into a very quick, let's called a snap stall, and it killed a lot of people when the airplane was first designed before people started flying it in a way that would prevent that from happening.

PEREIRA: Your father had the same World War II plane, I understand.

GOYER: He did.

PEREIRA: Is it the challenge of flying such a difficult aircraft with such dangerous characteristics that is what entices as pilot?

GOYER: Well, I don't really think so -- and I don't want to give you the wrong impression, this isn't a dangerous airplane to fly, as long as you fly it within its envelope.

PEREIRA: OK.

GOYER: And so that's something. But the problem is, when you lose an engine, you're by definition going to be going pretty slow when you're trying to get back to the airport, and so you're at that area where you're right on the edge of the envelope. So, it's really a testament to Harrison's skill that he managed to get this airplane back on the ground in a survivable way.

Yes. So, but the reason why we love these airplanes is because they're really cool. I mean you've got this round engine up front and you've got this beautiful design and this cool noise coming out of it. An open cockpit, they're a blast to fly.

PEREIRA: They love them in southern California because you've got all of those great days to get throughout and have the nice flying days. I do know that for sure.

You're a seasoned pilot yourself. You have actually survived your own crash. But yet, you still fly. Some would wonder about your -- if you're a little crazy or not.

GOYER: Yes, a lot of people wonder that about me. But it's -- and there's some pilots out there who have survived a crash. Mine was in a little two-seat airplane. It crashed on the water.

I had to take over the controls at the last second from the inexperienced pilot at the last second to let us walk away from it and it was really scary, and I got banged up pretty good. But I went flying the very next day because I knew I loved to fly and I wanted to get back on the horse.

PEREIRA: Do you think it's going to be tough for him to get back on the saddle. You think he'll be back to it as soon as he can.

GOYER: As soon as he can.

PEREIRA: Yes.

Robert Goyer, really a pleasure to speak to you and get your insight on Harrison Ford, we're all very glad that he's said to be recovering from his injuries and hopefully he'll be back to doing what he loves soon.

GOYER: Likewise, and at "Flying", we send our best wishes to Harrison for a very speedy recovery.

PEREIRA: All right. As we do, too. Thanks so much.

GOYER: Thank you.

PEREIRA: Alisyn?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Michaela.

Let me tell you what's coming up, because law enforcement officials warning of ISIS connecting with more American teenagers. So what is the attraction? And what can be done to reverse that trend? Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: New this morning, CNN has obtained exclusive video of Jihadi John as a teenager. Fifteen years old, playing basketball, years before he became an ISIS terrorist. This comes as law enforcement officials release a chilling warning about the growing trend of ISIS recruiting young people.

Here to discuss all this, let's bring in Paul Cruickshank, he's our CNN terrorism analyst, and co-author of "Agent Storm: My Life Inside Al Qaeda".

As well as Dr. Jodi Gold, psychiatrist and author of "Screen-Smart Parenting: How to Find Balance and Benefit in Your Child's Use of Social Media, Apps and Digital Devices."

Welcome to both of you. We have a lot to talk about this morning.

Paul, I want to start with you. Let's play some of the new video that CNN has obtained of Emwazi, aka Jihadi John. Can you tell us the significance of this video?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, in this video you see him high school, he's 15 years old. This is a high school in West London. But within just a few years, when he was in his late teens, he became part of a radical recruitment network. In West London, for al Qaeda, in East Africa.

Some of his circle went to train with al Qaeda in East Africa and they were tasked to return to the U.K. to set up this recruitment network.

There are a couple of other kids in this school who were also radicalized. One of those kids was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Somalia in 2012. Another was killed in Syria in 2013, fighting with al Qaeda. So, radicalization of very young people in the United Kingdom, in the West, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: So, Paul, is the thinking he became radicalized here in high school or it happened later at university?

CRUICKSHANK: It's not clear yet exactly when he became radicalized, whether that radicalization started perhaps in his late high school years. But by the time he's 18 or 19, he's believed to be part of this very radical circle, with connections back to al Qaeda, in Somalia.

So, somebody who was radicalized at a very, very young age and, of course, we have that DHS FBI warning about teenagers being radicalized, potentially being recruited by ISIS, a lot of concern about this right now.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Exactly and let's talk about that.

Dr. Gold, I want to bring you in, because as Paul said, there's an FBI warning that here at home, teenagers are becoming radicalized by ISIS and somehow they see this group as attractive. You, of course, have studied social media and it's effect on teenagers, what do you make of how ISIS is using that to even recruit Americans?

DR. JODI GOLD, PSYCHIATRIST: Yes. So I think that at-risk teens are vulnerable of being radicalized, whether it's a home-grown extremist group or whether it's ISIS. But I do think that ISIS is attractive at this moment. I think these kids are alienated, their brains are developing and they want to feel validated and heard, and ISIS is offering them a community that's validating them.

CAMEROTA: You know, yesterday, I had this fascinating discussion, I got to moderate a panel here at the Bush Center, about women in the Middle East. And I talked to a woman named Zainab Salbi. She's an Iraqi, and she has devoted her life to empowering women in the Middle East.

She had an interesting theory, Paul, about how ISIS is recruiting teenagers and she says that it's not just ideological, she says it's also financial. They are promising them money. They're paying them good money and giving them jobs. What do you know about that?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, I think that's significantly the case in Syria and Iraq. I don't think for these Western kids, they're going to join ISIS because of any sort of financial gain. They're going to join because they have this religious conviction that ISIS is fighting a holy war and the caliphate is part of a sort of historical divine Islamic destiny. Clearly, a very distorted interpretation of Islam.

But a lot of these kids spend a lot of time on social media. ISIS is putting out this message on social media. They get all their news feed from sort of Jihadi Twitter accounts and there's this whole interactivity on social media as well. So, this world view is constantly being reinforced that it's their

duty religiously to join the struggle, to help ISIS. And that's why we're seeing increasing numbers of teenagers, even young teenagers, those young girls from the U.K., three young girls, 15 years old, who disappeared into Syria just last week, the growing problem in the West.

CAMEROTA: So, Dr. Gold, what is the answer here to stopping ISIS' reach here into the United States via social media? What should parents do?

GOLD: Well, first of all, there's not one profile of who in the United States is drawn into ISIS. I think as parents, the one commonality is that they're being drawn in through social media. So, as parents, what we need to do is be aware of what our kids are doing online. Their digital identity should reflect their true identity.

You don't have to be following your kids every minute on every social media site. But you do need to understand how your children are presenting themselves online, who they're liking, are they endorsing radical Islamic groups, if they are, it's not that hard to figure out and intervene.

CAMEROTA: OK. Dr. Jodi Gold, Paul Cruickshank, thanks so much for your expertise. Great to talk to you this morning.

GOLD: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: We're following a lot of news this morning. Let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRISON FORD: 53178, engine failure. Request immediate return.

PEREIRA: Actor Harrison Ford, battered and bruised, but very much alive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When he was right by the house, the engine cut out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This plane slid off Runway 13 at LaGuardia Airport.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aircraft just don't veer off the runway when they're landing in a safe environment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you think when you see this? Get ready to swim.

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: The State Department had access to a wide array of Secretary Clinton's records.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Republicans painting Clinton as secretive, circulating clips like this one from 2007 when she blasted the Bush administration. HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETERY OF STATE: We know about the secret

wiretaps, the secret White House email accounts. It is a stunning record of secrecy and corruption.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security has sent a joint warning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Young Americans wanting to fight with ISIS.

CRUICKSHANK: It's easy for them to be brain-washed.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: A good shot of the moon there.

Good morning. Welcome back to NEW DAY. Alisyn Camerota is with us, but she's at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, looking very presidential.

We'll tell you why she's there in just a moment. Hello, Alisyn.

But we're going to begin with one of America's most beloved actors and 132 people on a Delta airlines jet, all getting to live another day, thankfully after disasters in aviation.

New York's LaGuardia airport -- terrified travelers braced for the worst when their plane skidded off a runway, stopping just short of the frigid Flushing Bay.

PEREIRA: But, first, we begin with a close call for actor Harrison Ford, the man who brought Indiana Jones to life nearly lost his own when he was forced to crash-land a World War II era plane on a golf course in Venice, California.

We have live reports bon both of these very close calls, one each coast.

We'll start with CNN's Paul Vercammen in Venice, California. Good morning to you, Paul.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michaela, Harrison Ford is trying to get himself back to the airport, he's scrambling, but there are homes all around here. So, he finds a soft place to land between a putting green and a tee box.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh no, oh no.

VERCAMMEN (voice-over): This cell phone video capturing moments before a two-seat plane piloted by actor Harrison Ford crash-lands on a golf course in California. Ford had just taken off from Santa Monica airport when the World War II-vintage plane experienced a problem, the actor instantly calling for help.

FORD: 53178 engine failure. Request immediate return.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: Ryan 178 run A21, clear to land.

VERCAMMEN: The Hollywood legend and experienced pilot clipping a tree top as the single-engine plane attempted to land back at the airport. But fell short, crash-landing on a course just steps away from a residential neighborhood.

JENS LUCKING, WITNESS: I heard it having problems and then he turned round. When he was right by the house, the engine cut out. And then he turned round.

VERCAMMEN: Ford was pulled from the plane by doctors who happened to be playing golf on the course. First responders say Ford was conscious and is lucky to be alive.

Ford's son tweeting, "Dad is OK, battered, but OK. He's every bit the man you would think he is. He's an incredibly strong man."