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CNN Interview with U.S. Prisoners in North Korean; Will Ripley Visits North Korea; Congress Members Criticize Obama on Foreign Policy; Islamic Militia Members Charged with Protecting Libyan U.S. Embassy

Aired September 01, 2014 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIANNE KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. I'm Brianna Keilar, reporting from Washington. Wolf Blitzer is on assignment today.

We're back with our coverage of Will Ripley's interview with American detainees in North Korea. One of the men that he spoke with was Christian missionary, Kenneth Bae, charged and convicted of planning to overthrow the North Korean government. Let me play a bit of that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENNETH BAE, HELD PRISONER IN NORTH KOREA: Well, American governments right now, I've been asking the American government to act upon getting me released here, and I do believe that special envoy need to come in order to resolve the situation that I'm in right now. So I do ask the U.S. government to send an envoy as soon as possible. I think that's the only hope that I have right now in order for me to go home, be reunited with my family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Brian Todd joining me now with more.

Brian, Kenneth Bae has been detained for quite a while at this point. Tell us about that and also what he did, how he came to be charged with these crimes.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bae has been in custody for almost two years. Now, in April of last year, he was sentenced for, quote, "hostile acts against the country." His sister said he was conducted tours but Bae is also a Christian missionary. Bae said he was working to spread Christianity inside North Korea. The North Korea views any kind of religious activity from people from the inside as a threat to their national security, Brianna. That's basically how he came to be charged with those particular offenses.

KEILAR: This clip that we saw, Brian, it's pretty striking. He wasn't the only detainee who was asking for a U.S. special envoy to be sent to Korea. We remember the two female American journalists who Bill Clinton went to North Korea to secure their release. Obviously, it sounds like North Korea wants something like this again. I know you've spoken with the State Department today. Did you get any reaction to these interviews?

TODD: We did, Brianna. The State Department came out with a statement saying out of humanitarian concern for Jeffrey Fowle, Matthew Miller and their families we request the DPRK release them.

Also what we've got from Jen Psaki is they request the North Koreans pardon Kenneth Bae and grant him special amnesty and immediate release so he may reunite with his family and seek medical care. So splitting his case apart from the other two a little bit and emphasizing the urgency of him getting home to seek medical care.

We also got a statement from Patrick van Trel (ph), a spokesman for the National Security Council and the White House saying, quote, "Securing the release of U.S. citizens is a top priority and we continue to do all we can to secure the earliest possible release."

There you have the White House and the State Department reacting to CNN's interviews with the three men. Especially interesting coming from the State Department, separating Bae's case out from the other two, saying he needs to get back and get medical treatment.

KEILAR: Without a release or a pardon, how long -- how much time is Bae looking at serving?

TODD: He was sentenced to 15 years hard labor in a labor camp. That sentence was handed down last year, Brianna. If there's nothing done, you can presume he'll there be for quite some time. The North Koreans do not want Kenneth Bae's health to deteriorate and for him to, heaven forbid, die in their custody. They do not want that. Whether he actually serves 15 years remains to be seen. We're going to see what this particular message may mean for the long term, you know, duration of the stay of these men in custody. Analysts do say the North Koreans see them as leverage to open up a dialogue with the United States. So we'll see if anything like that happens.

KEILAR: You can see in this picture from less than a year ago, how much weight Kenneth Bae has lost.

TODD: That's right.

KEILAR: Interesting to know.

Brian Todd, thank you so much.

Before our Will Ripley sat down for an interview with the American detainees, he was on a rare tour inside North Korea. He was there with a handful of other journalists to cover an international wrestling festival, actually, under the constant supervision of North Korean government handlers. As Will explains, it was as much a tour of the monuments.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For the first time since arriving in North Korea, our government bus strays from the regular route. We're not allowed to stop. We can only look out the window. Fields full of people tending crops by hand, others working at construction sites. The few public buses packed. Most have to walk.

Our bus takes us here, a brand-new equestrian center.

(on camera): This is another pet project of Kim Jong-Un. We're told anybody can come here and ride these horses if they can pay the equivalent of 10 U.S. dollars an hour.

(voice-over): Most North Koreans are lucky to earn that much in a week.

"I feel privileged to ride a horse," this girl says.

And she is. We only see a handful of people here.

Our next stop, the government wants us to see a park outside Pyongyang, full of scaled down versions of the capital city's monuments and architectural treasures built at great expense. And within site of the even more expensive originals.

(on camera): You can actually see the real monuments there off in the distance in Pyongyang.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're 50 meters from the Jutjai Tower.

RIPLEY (voice-over): The Jutjai Tower is named for a national founder's ideology of self reliance while putting your country first. Fucha (ph) says if this is the brain, citizens are the limbs. You can live without a limb but not without a brain.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We choose it as our faith.

RIPLEY (on camera): You choose to be a part of the growth? .

(voice-over): But studying is not a choice, it's compulsory for everyone. One place to do it the Grand People's Study House. Supposedly 30 million volumes here. The few books we see are well worn. The rest, locked away.

(on camera): To get to then, you have to ask this woman. They come out a chute at the bottom.

(voice-over): Another place to learn, a freshly renovated war museum. Above this display, a large graphic photo of a dead American pilot who crashed in North Korea.

(on camera): Why show the photo of the dead pilot?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because it is going to show anybody who violate the sovereignty and intrudes on us, to conduct espionage.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Everywhere we go, we see countless millions of dollars spent on sending a message that North Korea is a modern, moral, military force. Money not being spent by this cash-strapped country on the millions of citizens struggling just to get by.

Will Ripley, CNN, Pyongyang, North Korea. (END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Still ahead, President Obama criticized by a fellow Democrat for being, quote, "too cautious on foreign policy." Just what is the president's strategy for solving world problems and for silencing his critics? Stay with us. We'll be talking about that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: To the crisis in Ukraine now, where Russian tanks attacked a regional airport in southeastern Ukraine. And New Jersey Senator Menendez is in the capital, Kiev, and he says the international community must step in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ROBERT MENENDEZ, (D), NEW JERSEY: This is no longer about rebels fighting with Russian assistance. This is clearly an invasion of Ukraine. It seems to me we have seen the international order up-ended by Russia, and we need to send a very clear message that you cannot invade a country, take territory by force, as a new international norm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Russia moving into Ukraine and ISIS terrorists tightening their grip in Syria and Iraq. These are just two of the foreign policy problems facing Obama, which has critics lining up on both sides of the aisle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R), ARIZONA: I was astounded when the president of the United States said the world has always been messy and it's been accentuated by social media. That means a president of the United States is either in denial or overwhelmed.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, (D), CALIFORNIA: I think I've learned one thing about this president, and that is, he's very cautious. Maybe in this instance, too cautious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: The criticism is bipartisan.

Our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger, joining me now.

Gloria, what's the impact of this, when you have top Democrats and Republicans taking aim at the president's foreign policy?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: I think it puts a little more pressure on the White House to come up with a strategy, particularly as it pertains to Syria and is. This is a president who's clearly presiding over a cabinet that is split on what to do. He's also personally conflicted, as you can tell, about the question of the use of force. His own narrative that he would like to retire with as his legacy is kill bin laden, got out of two wars. Inching back to war again is not anything like what he had in mind. Now you have the polls showing that other half of the American public believes that he's not tough enough when it comes to foreign policy. It's very difficult for him. On the one hand, the president doesn't want to get involved in another war. On the other hand, they want to see a president of the United States who can lead incredibly in the world. He has to tell the American public exactly what he's going to do and why.

KEILAR: It's interesting, I sort of have deja vu from a year ago, Gloria. I was with President Obama in Russia. We were covering the G-20. Trying to seek some international consensus on what to do about Syria and having used chemical weapons. He's heading to Europe tomorrow. He'll be talking to NATO allies. What really can he accomplish? What are the chances that he comes back empty-handed? How important is it that he doesn't?

BORGER: Well, he's got to lead. You're right, about a year ago, remember, that red line, as you were covering that and I was covering that, and he walked right over to that red line and he decided he wasn't going to use air strikes in Syria and the issue of chemical weapons. Now, a two-pronged job. Ukraine is a big problem. You just showed the clip with Senator Menendez. The president has led on Ukraine. He has called for tougher sanctions against Russia. He will continue to do that. It's the European community that's been a bit more reluctant on that. He will continue to push for more sanctions.

On ISIS, you see, the British are getting a bit tougher. They haven't committed to the use of air strikes, I might add, by the way, and it's up to the president to get the international coalition together to discuss ISIS and to talk about what they can potentially do. Syria is not Iraq. It's different terrain. There are limitations about air strikes. He's getting conflicting advice in his own cabinet. He has to talk to other European leaders. If they don't do something together, it's going to be much, much less effective.

KEILAR: He needs a little help from his friends.

BORGER: You're right.

KEILAR: Gloria Borger, thank you so much.

It might look a lot like, I don't know, a raucous Labor Day pool party. Hopefully, you're not jumping off your roof today. This is actually the U.S. embassy in Tripoli, Libya. Those men diving into the water, they are militia members assigned to guard the abandoned compound. Is this just an embarrassing video or sign of a country in chaos?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: On "This Day in History," 10 years ago today, the first day of school for Russian children goes horribly wrong. 32 armed Chechen rebels take hostage in Besslon (ph). The hostage crisis lasted three days while the militants exchanged gunfire with Russian government forces. 334 people died. Nearly half of them were children. It may look like a wild frat-house pool party, but it's actually the

abandoned U.S. embassy in Tripoli Libya. It was evacuated last month amid heavy violence. And the U.S. ambassador to Libya says the embassy is being guarded and dismissed rumors it had been ransacked. A Libyan official says they are militia members charged with protecting the embassy.

Joining me to talk about this, senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson.

And, Nic, besides being embarrassing, what is the importance of this video?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it raises questions about who precisely was left in control and what are the affiliations of this militia? The militia that now dominates security across Tripoli is an Islamist militia, the same that recently took control of Tripoli's international airport. So that does appear to put Islamists militiamen in control at the U.S. embassy. And although a government spokesman says they're not attacking it, they're not looting it. If you look at some of the pictures, there is a bedroom. We have seen what looks like an office or a work type space, a gym. It's not too badly damaged. But these people have free reign in this building. And some of those residential areas, according to people who spent time in that compound, are also using workplaces, as well. So it raises a lot of questions about, you know, who is in there now and precisely what are they doing? We're not getting video updates every day. We have just seen this one video so far.

KEILAR: Why are Libyan officials farming out the protection of the U.S. embassy to militia members? Is there no other option?

ROBERTSON: There's no other option. I mean, Libya is militias. And the militia that's currently in control in Tripoli came from the city of Misrata. The mission in control of part of Tripoli before came from the Western side of the country, from Zentan (ph). And Libya is being fought over by militias that have different tribal affiliations, different religious affiliations. The government in all of this, the sort of original government, if you will, is being marginalized, the country being divided. There is no national army. There is no national police force that can control or have any influence over these militias. The strongest militias are in control. These Islamist militias in Tripoli right now control some of the government buildings. There is no one there who can force them out.

KEILAR: All right, Nic Robertson, thank you so much.

And coming up, a mission to help kids with cancer feel better by keeping them connected with their friends. Don't miss this remarkable story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. And today we bring you the story of a father and son who made it their mission to treat a side effect that doesn't get a lot of attention. That's social isolation.

Here's Randi Kaye with today's "American Journey."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In 2002, when Matt Forkas was just 9 years old, he was diagnosed with cancer, acute lymphatic leukemia. He was too ill to go to schooling.

GLENN FORKAS, FATHER OF MATT: It was lonely. It was depressing.

KAYE: So Matt's father, Glenn Forkas, came up with an idea to combat his son's loneliness. He used web cameras. Remember, this was 2002, long before Skype.

FORKAS: It flicked on and right when it flicked on, it was almost like an internal soul flicker.

KAYE: Sharing his ups and downs with classmates made treatment easier. The hope, Matt felt, was the inspiration for Hopecam, the charity his dad started a year after Matt's diagnosis.

It costs $1200 to connect each child and they pay for every. Hopecam has connected 400 children with cancer to their classrooms in 26 states, including Ava Buhr. In 2011, when she was just two and a half, Ava was diagnosed with leukemia. She needed chemotherapy and lots of rest. But Hopecam helped her stay in touch with her friends at preschool.

AVA BUHR, HOPECAM CONNECTED CHILD: We listen and learn. We dance and sing. Hopecam is my favorite. I can see my classmates and my teachers.

KAYE: Today, Ava is in remission, and starting kindergarten in the fall.

FORKAS: No one thinks about the mental health of the child. And that's really what Hopecam does, is fills that empty void.

(SINGING)

KAYE: Randi Kaye, CNN, Vienna, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: That's it for me, but I will be back at 5:00 eastern on "The Situation Room." And we will be talking -- as we look more into these interviews with three Americans detained in North Korea. We'll be talking about the sister of one of them, Terri Chung, the sister of Kenneth Bae.

NEWSROOM with Brooke Baldwin starts now.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Brianna Keilar, thank you so much.