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New Day Sunday

Rally in Moscow to Honor Murdered Opposition Leader; Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Prepares to Address U.S. Congress Amid Controversy; President Maduro Bans Several Current, Former U.S. Officials From Ever Entering Venezuela

Aired March 01, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: We want to take you live to Moscow right now. Look at all of the people, 50,000 expected for this huge rally and march that is honoring murdered opposition leader Boris Nemtsov getting under way right now here.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: The prominent opposition figure and outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin was gunned down on a Moscow bridge two days ago Friday night. He was supposed to lead an opposition rally against the Ukrainian conflict and Russian's poor economic conditions today, but now that rally has become a rally and a mourning march for him.

PAUL: And the march wasn't going to go from the center of Moscow to the spot where Nemtsov was shot and killed. And authorities have given permission for as many as 50,000 people to take part and all of this, of course, as his killers are still at large.

BLACKWELL: Right now Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on a plane to the U.S.

PAUL: Yeah, his trip is really enveloped by controversy here. Tomorrow, the prime minister is speaking before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Tuesday, he gives his address to Congress. And that is an address some people are calling destructive.

BLACKWELL: Now, he has said that he will talk about Iran's nuclear program and something that many Israelis believe would spell doom for the Jewish state. CNN's Elise Labott who's traveling with the prime minister, took a closer look at the threat of a nuclear power of Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELISE LABOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For the state of Israel, a nuclear Iran would position Tehran as a super power in the region, allowing it to continue to threaten Israel, but now as a weapon of mass destruction in its arsenal. A threat to its very existence that many Israelis believe the United States, half a world away, can't possibly understand.

YUVAL STEINITZ, ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE MINISTER: We have no doubt about the seriousness and the good intentions of the Obama administration about it. Maybe we are more concerned because we feel the threat, because they are speaking about the elimination of the Jewish state. We are here. We are under a constant Iranian threat, terror threat and nuclear threat and we want the Iranian threat to be over.

LABOTT: The U.S. has pledged to safeguard Israel's security but there are fears here that the thaw in relations between the U.S. and Iran since the election of President Hassan Rouhani has clouded the Obama administration's judgment.

DAVID HOROVITZ, TIMES OF ISRAEL: The sense in Israel, and it goes way beyond Netanyahu, is that the administration, the president underestimate Iran's duplicity, underestimate Iran's ruthlessness, the religious imperative behind its ideology.

LABOTT: For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Tuesday's address to Congress is a warning that in his view, beneath its friendly new image Iran is still intent on wiping Israel off the map.

HOROVITZ: I think he feels fated that he is leading the Jewish people and it potentially faces a genocidal threat. That's the sort of Netanyahu mindset that the people are in peril, he needs to stand for them and say what needs to be said, and if necessary, act in the way that needs to be, you know, to take the steps that need to be taken.

LABOTT: Even an Iranian nuclear threshold state would threaten one of the main tenants of Israel's national security that no enemy would be permitted to develop a weapon of mass destruction, even if it means a preemptive strike.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are afraid that at the end of the day, if negotiation fails, if Iran relaunched its project, Israel would be left alone to make the call whether to accept this, to contain an Iranian nuclear ability, capability or capability, or to make the (INAUDIBLE) strike.

LABOTT: Israel worries that a nuclear Iran would spark a nuclear arms race in the Middle East and that it could find itself surrounded by a group of nuclear armed enemies in a region of turmoil.

Elise Labott, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Let's bring in CNN politics.com senior reporter Stephen Collinson and Washington correspondent for "The Jewish Daily Forward" Nathan Guttman. Good to have both of you. Nathan, I want to start with you. You wrote recently that a new reality of overt partisanship has now tinged the U.S. Israel relationship. What do you mean by that? And what's the damage of that relationship? Does it reach the level suggested by Susan Rice that it is destructive to the fabric of the relationship?

NATHAN GUTTMAN, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, "THE JEWISH DAILY FORWARD": Well, I think it's probably too early to know if it's really destructive to that and fabric of the relationship. That the only time will tell. But definitely it is clear that all this event of the past month since Prime Minister Netanyahu announced his agreement to come and speak to Congress have led the partisan approach towards Israel. Democrats feel offended. They feel that the prime minister has slighted their president, and, therefore, they are angry and this could turn out to be a problem for Israel, because, obviously, now Republicans control Congress but they won't control Congress forever. Sometimes it would be under Democratic control and sometimes it would be Republican control and sometimes you have a Democratic president and sometimes you have a Republican president.

And one of the fundamentals of the pro-Israeli activity in the United States has been all these years that you have bipartisan support, that both parties accept the idea that Israeli is America's greatest ally in the Middle East. And once this starts cracking, many people in the pro-Israel community feel that there is a real problem. Now, Prime Minister Netanyahu is aware of that, but he believes that the Iranian issue is so serious that the concern is so real that he would rather, first, take care of Iran and then deal with any consequence that he might have regarding U.S. relations.

BLACKWELL: Let's take to that to Stephen then. Stephen, more than 30 Democrats have said that they will not attend the speech on Tuesday by Prime Minister Netanyahu. Do we know that if this disagreement, this conflict will hurt his chances when Democrats, with Democrats getting tougher sanctions placed on Iran?

STEPHEN COLLINSON, SENIOR REPORTER, CNNPOLITICS.COM: Yeah, you know, if you think about it, this is an extraordinary occurrence. You have the leader of a close ally of the United States, one of the closest allies, coming to Washington to openly campaign against the president's top foreign policy priority in his second term. So this is a very interesting occurrence and it's very unusual. And I think you could definitely see some sort of windowing down of support for stronger sanctions against Iran that have been contemplated in the Senate especially.

BLACKWELL: Nathan, the prime minister said before boarding the plane this morning in route to the U.S., he said and I think we have - to put up on a screen, if not, I read it here. "This is a crucial trip, even a historical one. I fear for the fate of the state of Israel and, therefore, I'll do everything I can to ensure the security of our future." He seems to be ratcheting up the expectation of this trip. Who is the audience for that? Is that for the domestic Israeli audience or it's for Washington?

GUTTMAN: There are two audiences here, basically. The first would be members of Congress. Netanyahu really believes that in his speech on Tuesday, he can convince enough members of Congress, especially Democrats, that this deal that the Obama administration is discussing with Iran is a bad deal, and, therefore, they should do anything in their power to stop it, including imposing new sanctions or later on voting against it, in any other way if they have that possibility. That is his primary audience.

But there is also a secondary audience in Israeli that Netanyahu would like to address. He would like to position himself as the leader of Israeli, that is in saving his country from grave danger. And we should keep in mind, elections in Israeli are only two weeks away, and Netanyahu is running neck and neck with opposition leader, Herzog. So definitely while he's speaking on Capitol Hill, his eyes would also be set on Jerusalem and on Israel, where voters would be listening to the speech as well.

BLACKWELL: All right, Nathan Guttman, Stephen Collinson, thank you both so much.

Just a reminder, CNN's Elise Labott is traveling with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Be sure to stay with CNN throughout the day and into Monday and Tuesday ahead of his address to Congress.

We also have new details about Jihadi John.

PAUL: Just ahead, new information about his background, what may have pushed him into a life of terror. Also, we want to show you the live pictures of this massive rally and march. That is Moscow at this hour. The marchers are mourning and protesting the shooting death of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, taking to the streets in the shadow of the Kremlin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: We are learning new information about Mohammed Emwazi. The 26-year-old ISIS terrorist known as Jihadi John.

PAUL: A newspaper in Kuwait reports he still has family in Kuwait, some of whom are British citizens, and the paper says his family is not allowed to have citizenship because of their cooperation with Iraqi regime during Saddam's invasion of Kuwait. Now, Jihadi John was banned from entering Kuwait in 2011 after he was found to have connections to the London bombing.

New video apparently shows the three British girls who ran away from home to join ISIS. Now, it was taken from closed-circuit cameras at a bus station in Istanbul on February 18th. Police say the girls got off the bus before it reached its final destination. This is the first time the girls have been seen since they disappeared from their London homes. Authorities say the trio flew from London to Turkey and may have made their way across the border into Syria.

PAUL: Jordan's King Abdullah II told CNN he didn't even watch the video of his country's pilot being burned to death by ISIS. He called it propaganda that has backfired on the terrorist group, he says. We have an exclusive television interview, his first, in fact, since that pilot was killed, because the king spoke to CNN's Fareed Zakaria about the ongoing war on ISIS and President Obama's refusal to label the fight a war on radical Islam. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN : President Obama has gotten into a little trouble or at least has received some criticism, because he says he doesn't want to call groups like ISIS Islamic extremists, because he doesn't want to give them the mantle of legitimacy by acknowledging they are Islamic. Do you think he is right? KING ABDULLAH II, JORDAN: I think he is right, and think I think this

is something that has to be understood on a much larger platform, because they are looking for legitimacy that they don't have inside of Islam. When we're on this debate, are you a moderate or an extremist, what these people want is to be called extremists. They take that as a badge of honor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: You can watch the entire interview with Jordan's King Abdullah II on "Fareed Zakaria GPS," that is this morning at 10:00 a.m. Eastern.

BLACKWELL: Still ahead, Venezuela's president is hyping tensions with the US after he says they have detained several Americans.

Coming up, we will tell you how in an even crazier move, Nicolas Maduro has banned many U.S. officials from ever stepping foot in his nation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Nine minutes until the top of the hour this morning. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is ratcheting up tensions with the United States. The president has announced that an unspecified number of Americans were arrested a few days ago, accused of engaging in espionage and recruitment activities.

PAUL: Among those detained, we know of an American pilot who Maduro claims was arrested and found in possession of quote, "all kinds of documents." The pilot's being interrogated by authorities but has not been identified.

Now, that announcement happened the same day four missionaries were released after being questioned for several days by Venezuelan authorities. According to a pastor in that group, the government attempted to link them to espionage activities. The Venezuelan president is requiring now U.S. citizens to obtain visas before visiting, and a group of prominent U.S. officials will be banned from entering Venezuela altogether.

BLACKWELL: Listen to part of the list. Former President George W. Bush. Former Vice President Dick Cheney and several members of Congress. Maduro has banned them because of what he says is their involvement in bombing Iraq, Syria, Vietnam, other terrorist actions as well. You see the former CIA Director George Tenet on that list as well.

PAUL: Let's talk to CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director Tom Fuentes. Tom, wondering what kind of precedent is there for one nation, say, to ban, you know, former and current lawmakers or heads of state?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, actually, it's happened before, Christie, it doesn't happen that often, and it's usually not senior government officials, but somebody within the government. We have done that with countries that we have sanctions with, will say, okay, certain officials from that country are no longer allowed to visit the U.S. And other countries will do the same. We have had similar circumstances, particularly the Russian Federation and a few other countries where they may evict a few of our diplomats, we will evict a few, an equal number of theirs. And kind of go back and forth, so it's not totally unprecedented.

BLACKWELL: So there haven't been ambassadors between the two countries for some time now, but tell us how, Tom, authorities or officials there at the embassy in Venezuela, there are U.S. officials there, can verify the reports of the arrests of these Americans?

FUENTES: Well, the other agencies are still present and working with the Venezuelan authorities within that agency, and that would include organizations like the FBI that has had an office there all along. Back when I was running international operations, we had, in the late 2008 and 2009 time frame, where DEA was evicted, the ambassador was asked to leave, several government agencies were asked to leave Venezuela, but not the FBI. At that time, the reason was there was an individual named Robert Allen Stanford out of Houston, Texas, who was running a Ponzi scheme, actually turned out to be a $7 billion scheme, and he had a branch bank in Venezuela, and defrauded Venezuelans out of about $2 billion. So Venezuela said, OK, you other agencies, get out, but FBI, don't go anywhere. We want you to help us in this case, because in the event the money could be recovered it would be repatriated to Venezuela. So they wanted the FBI to help do that. So that's - it's something that has happened before.

There has been no ambassador since 2010, which means the charge is running the embassy and running U.S. operations down there. As far as the visa requirement, the U.S. requires them to pay, and that is typical. Any country in the world where we require their visitors to get a visa and pay, which I believe is about $140, to obtain a U.S. visa, those countries usually require the same. Again, just you know, if we do it, they do it. So that is not uncommon either, and we do require them to pay for a U.S. visa.

PAUL: All right. Tom Fuentes, good to see you this morning. Thank you, sir.

BLACKWELL: Thank you, Tom.

FUENTES: Thank you, Christi. Thank you, Victor.

BLACKWELL: So we have reported on this measles outbreak at Disneyland in California. This time, another breakout. A fire breaks out. What officials say may have caused this.

Right now, marchers are gathering in Moscow, protesting and morning the killing of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.

PAUL: Plus, Nemtsov in his own words, one year before the opposition leader was gunned down, he spoke to CNN's Anthony Bourdain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BORIS NEMTSOV: People outside the country are not interested in corruption inside Russia, because this is Russian money. You know, Russian people own this money, not America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: We will give you more never before seen video from that interview next hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Want to look at some of the other stories that are developing for you right now. First of all, a small fire broke out at Disneyland in California last night.

BLACKWELL: It happened a little after 9:00 local there in a tree near the "it's a small world" attraction. The fire was quickly put out and no one was hurt. Authorities say it may have been caused by fireworks.

PAUL: A volcano in Russia forced the cancellation of at least two Alaska Airlines flights over the weekend. Ash from the volcano shot some 30,000 feet into the atmosphere, then winds blew it across the Bering Sea into western Alaska, creating unsafe conditions for the planes, but this is the second time the ash has interrupted air travel in the region.

BLACKWELL: NASA will go forward with a space walk this morning. The six and a half hour mission will begin at about 7:10 this morning. Two astronauts will continue fitting the International Space Station with parts that will allow private commercial spaceships to dock. We have got live pictures here from NASA as the astronauts, it looks they are beginning to start this space walk. We will bring the space walk to you, more of it, as it continues.

PAUL: And best of luck to them.

Thank you so much for sharing part of your morning with us.

BLACKWELL: We have got much more ahead on the next hour of your NEW DAY. It starts right now.