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Deadly Afghan Bomb Blast; Londoners United For Ferguson; Forensic Examiner Comes Into Question; British Security Officer Killed In Kabul Attack; British Nationals Jailed On Terror Charges; Arrests In Possible Arch Bomb Plot; Streets Quiet In Ferguson; Protests Planned For Black Friday; Looted Businesses Restoring in Ferguson; Credentials of Private Pathologist's Assistant in Michael Brown's Case Questioned

Aired November 27, 2014 - 13:00   ET

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

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: A massive blast in Kabul. Five people are dead, including embassy workers from the United Kingdom, just part of a recent uptick in violence leading up to the withdrawal of American forces in Afghanistan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: No peace, no justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And the Ferguson protests aren't limited to just the United States. London residents unite and rally behind Ferguson and the Brown family.

And remember this guy? He assisted in the autopsy of Michael Brown. But CNN did some digging and he may not be exactly who he appears to be.

Hi there, I'm Brianna Keilar in today for Wolf Blitzer. It is 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 8:00 p.m. in Jerusalem, 10:30 p.m. in Kabul, Afghanistan, and, in much of America, it's almost dinner time on this Thanksgiving Day. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks for joining us.

We start with a deadly suicide attack that killed five people in Afghanistan. Among them, two civilians attached to the British embassy in Kabul. They were in a convoy which was passing by when a vehicle loaded with explosives was detonated.

Our Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon and Atika Shubert is in London. Original reports said a British diplomat was killed in the attack. Atika, what do we know about this attack and the victims.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know it wasn't a British diplomat that was killed but we -- but there were two employees of the British embassy that were killed. And one of them was a security staffer. The other was a local Afghan staffer. And it appears that a British embassy vehicle was specifically targeted by a suicide bomber. It happened on Jalabad Road which is a busy road where a number of embassies are. It was right in the middle of mid-morning traffic when the attack happened. Dozens of people were wounded. Another three people were also killed nearby. So, it's the first time we've seen this kind of an attack on a diplomatic vehicle for some time. The Taliban has claimed responsibility. But one of the questions still hanging is why the British embassy, in particular, seems to have been targeted?

KEILAR: And, Barbara, this attack follows another blast earlier this week. It killed two American soldiers. What do we know about that one?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, it killed two soldiers in an IED blast, Brianna, and wounded six additional Americans. It was one of the most significant IED attacks against the Americans in a very long time. You know, I think U.S. officials have believed for some time the Taliban would try and make additional moves as U.S. and the coalition began to draw down their force levels in Afghanistan. Not a big surprise but it really does underscore the Taliban effort to keep moving back in to try to regain territory to try and provoke instability across Afghanistan to make people feel unsecure and make them feel like Afghan security forces cannot control the situation. Right now, the U.S. withdraw remains very much on track and the U.S. believes the Afghans can maintain control -- Brianna.

KEILAR: And, Barbara, there's been what seems like this uptick in violence in Afghanistan. We're getting closer now to the withdraw of American forces. Is that kind of the way you're reading it that there is this increase?

STARR: Yes, I think -- I think it's -- I think so. The U.S. expects to be down by the end of this year, just in a few weeks, obviously, to about 10,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, a few thousand additional NATO forces. You know, always hard to say, is it an uptick? The less forces you have there, the less attacks there's going to be, the less targets there are. So, it may be now that we will begin to see the Taliban shift their priorities. If they can't find troops to attack, attack embassy vehicles. They have done that in the past. You know, attack aid groups, they have done that in the past. The Taliban are all about provoking instability. They know they're not going to be able to take control of Afghanistan, but they can certainly make life very miserable and very bad for the people who are there -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Barbara Starr, thank you, at the Pentagon. And Atika Shubert for us in London, thank you as well.

The British security officer and two American soldiers are a small part of the carnage that we've seen in Afghanistan this week. More than 50 people were killed in bombings across the country.

And joining me now to talk about it is CNN Military Analyst Lieutenant General Mark Hurtling. He's the former commanding general of U.S. Army forces in Europe. There's been an escalation of violence in Afghanistan. General, is this just the beginning because the clock is ticking as American troops will be pulling out?

LT. GEN. MARK HURTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, Brianna, first of all, good afternoon. And, secondly, I think what Barbara -- the picture Barbara has painted is an accurate one. This always occurs when there is a -- the start of a withdrawal of forces, although, you know, the American forces, as the president has said recently, are going to stay in a greater strength than they originally were -- had planned to stay.

But what's interesting to me is this was an attack on a British convoy. And the British forces had left long ago with the exception of those who are at the Kabul military academy right there in the area that are training the future of the Afghan forces. They are training the officers that will be part of the Afghan army. So, there's a continued attempt by the Taliban to intimidate, to strike fear, as Barbara said, to contribute to the insecurity that people of the country, and this will continue on.

Just as we saw in Iraq, the same thing is happening in Afghanistan. There is an attempt to retake over the control of the government. It's a -- it's a constant insurgency.

KEILAR: When you look at this, this is unique. There's been violence, obviously, but this is unique with the British convoy being hit in the capital. What does this do to security concerns going forward?

HURTLING: Well, this is the fourth suicide bombing this week in Kabul. This one against the diplomatic force of the -- of the U.K. is pretty interesting to me because it shows that I think the Taliban is now going after diplomatic official, policymakers, the ones who will determine whether or not allies will stay in Kabul, that contribute to the continuation of the Afghan security forces building themselves to take security to folks.

So, I think the shifting of targets away from military personnel and more toward diplomatic and, as you said earlier, the non-governmental officials, the people who are trying to build stability in Afghanistan, is very important to continue to watch.

KEILAR: And, General, while I have you here, I want to ask you about a big story we saw this week. Earlier in the week, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced his resignation and President Obama said that he wants to name his choice to replace Hagel as soon as possible. How quickly do you think he needs to act in picking a nominee?

HURTLING: Well, the speed is not as important as getting the right person, Brianna. I know there's already been a few who were at the top of the list of ones that might take over for Mr. Hagel. But I think the president is shifting strategy a bit. Mr. Hagel was hired to over watch the drawdown of both Iraq and Afghanistan, mostly Afghanistan, but also transform the Defense Department under the age of the sequester.

Well, now, with all the security issues that are coming to the forefront, General Dempsey has often said, hey, we've got a strategy that is, in fact, expanding to address things like ISIL, continued presence in Afghanistan, American forces in Africa to fight Ebola, some forces on rotational efforts, both in Europe and in the Pacific to counter expansionism of several other governments.

So, all of these things seem to be contrary to what Mr. Hagel was hired for a few years ago to do. So, I think the new secretary of defense has to be a very strong policy maker. He has to understand certainly what's going on with the budgetary concerns within the military. But also the security issues and of deployment of forces throughout the world that we did not anticipate a year ago.

KEILAR: General Hertling, thanks for being with us and happy Thanksgiving to you.

HURTLING: And the same to you. And, Brianna, all those forces all over the world, they're celebrating Thanksgiving in their own way, too. So, I wish all of them a happy Thanksgiving.

KEILAR: That's right, Happy thanksgiving to them as well. Thanks, General Hertling.

Well, a pair of British nationals have been sentenced in what Scotland Yard is calling a landmark case. The two brothers are the first Brits to be jailed for attending terrorist training camps in Syria. The pair were arrested in September as they tried to get back into England after several weeks at the training camp. Mohammad Nawaz was sentenced to four and a half years and his younger brother, Hassan Nawaz, got three years. There's no evidence that they were planning attacks in the United Kingdom.

And in Missouri, two men are facing charges related to a possible plot to bomb the St. Louis Arch. They allegedly tried to purchase a single pipe bomb from undercover officers. Authorities say the men also talked about wanting to kill St. Louis County prosecutor, Robert McCullough. McCullough, of course, has been at the center of the Michael Brown case in Ferguson. Both men pleaded not guilty to illegal gun charges.

When we return, we're going live to Ferguson, Missouri. The streets there are quiet for now but we're wondering if that will change. Stay with us.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: No justice, no peace. No justice, no peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Well, the protests in Ferguson, Missouri have gone international. Demonstrators turned out yesterday in London voicing their support for Michael Brown and other victims of alleged police violence. Braving the cold November drizzle, they chanted slogans in solidarity for Ferguson and waved signs saying, no justice, no peace.

Meanwhile, in Ferguson, it is Thanksgiving Day and the weather is gloomy, much like the mood but the streets are quiet for now.

Our Sara Sidner joining us now live. I wonder, Sara, are we expecting this to remain calm tomorrow or are there more protests planned?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, there are protests planned but I, you know, want to talk a little bit about what's planned for today. Today is, you know, Thanksgiving Day and tomorrow is Black Friday when a lot of people go out and start their shopping for the season. The protesters have something planned for that as well. They are telling people to boycott Black Friday and they say they're doing that because they do not feel that they got justice in this case.

But they also want to highlight what they feel is a, basically, police brutality across the country. And so, they've asked people to stop shopping for the holidays on Black Friday. They're going to target the Galleria Mall here in St. Louis.

I do want to talk to you a little bit about what we're seeing now in the daylight here. You know, on Monday and part of Tuesday night, there was a lot of destruction that we saw that, basically, kind of, went from two different streets, West Florissant and South Florissant. But it also hit some other communities. And we're in Dellwood, right now, which is on West Florissant just a few minutes away from Ferguson. I want to give you a look at what things look like in the daylight.

These were -- there was a shot of these on CNN on Monday night. These cars went up in flames and you could see the flames from the sky and you can see why. I mean, this destruction here is widespread when it comes to this particular car lot here in Dellwood. And you'll notice that on the back of these cars, there's BNA (ph) and that likely indicates that there has already been an investigation out here to check on this particular situation. And they are looking for -- the governor himself mentioned that they are looking for those who are responsible for the looting, for the burning, for the destruction.

It is pretty - it's pretty bad in some parts, but mostly just two streets, West Florissant and South Florissant. The rest of Ferguson is operating in some ways as normal although the whole town has been sort of on edge and on hold as it tries to go further and tries to basically try to rebuild. Brianna.

KEILAR: There is, Sara, I've been told one uplifting story in all this. Tell us about it?

SIDNER: There's a couple, actually. We learned of a couple of businesses who got their windows broken, had some problems with folks who were just simply being criminals out here, and they are staying in the community and they are rebuilding and reopening. One of those is Kathy's Kitchen. That family the Jenkins family, opened that business because they had already retired from many, many years of work, but Kathy, who is the namesake of the restaurant had always wanted to open a restaurant and her husband helped her open it. He's also a coach, a basketball coach for a lot of the young men, African-American young men, in this community, and they reopened the day after all this happened. There were protesters that stood outside of their business and stopped

people from being able to loot, but they weren't able to stop some of the vandalism so this business has decided to reopen. It is full of people. They are wonderful people. And they're basically saying, we have always been here to serve this community, and we are not going to stop. We are going to keep going. Brianna.

KEILAR: Such resilience. Sara Sidner. Thank you.

Still ahead, this man played a big role in one of Michael Brown's autopsies. Now there are questions about his qualifications. We have CNN's investigation next.

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KEILAR: When the Brown family insisted on a private autopsy on their son they brought in Dr. Michael Baden, a well-known forensic pathologist and former medical examiner from New York City. But it was his assistant who seemed to capture the media spotlight. Now, there are serious questions regarding Shawn Parcells' credentials and the CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen found out this isn't the first time he has been under scrutiny.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, the Ferguson, Missouri case created a media star out of an assistant pathologist, but a CNN investigation shows he may not be exactly what he appears to be.

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COHEN: Out of the death and violence in Ferguson, Missouri, this summer, a turn to be a media star for a man named Shawn Parcells.

SHAWN PARCELLS: First of all I'm professor Shawn Parcells.

COHEN: He dazzled with details on the private autopsy of Michael Brown.

PARCELLS: Two gunshot wounds to the head. Indicating that Mr. Brown was bending over as they were coming down at him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're back with Shawn Parcells who assisted in the autopsy of Michael Brown.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now Shawn Parcells --

COHEN: Even here on CNN.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much.

COHEN: He's appeared in the media time and again as a forensic pathology expert. We know he assisted Dr. Michael Boden in the private autopsy commissioned by Michael Brown's family. Boden said he was a good assistant. Parcells is not a doctor. We know he calls himself a forensic medical consultant, a medical investigator and a professor. But is he what he says he is? (on camera): So, you call yourself a professor?

SHAWN PARCELLS: Yes.

COHEN: Where are you a professor?

PARCELLS: I'm an adjunct professor at Washburn University, in Topeka, Kansas.

COHEN (voice over): But that, as far as we could tell, isn't accurate. We contacted Washburn University, they say while he has spoken to nursing students he's not now, and never been an adjunct professor there.

(on camera): Washburn University says that's not true.

PARCELLS: I have a contract that states it is true.

COHEN: Can you show us that contract?

PARCELLS: I can.

COHEN: But he never sent us that contract showing he was an adjunct professor. He later said it was proprietary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see him as a fraud. I mean that's the best word I would say describes Shawn Parcells to me.

COHEN (on camera): How about you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Manipulator.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very good con artist. Is the way I put it.

COHEN (voice over): In Missouri deputy sheriffs Grant Gillett and Dustin Jeffers say Shawn Parcells performed an autopsy procedure in a criminal case without a doctor present.

(on camera): So he introduced himself as a pathologist, as a medical doctor?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is correct.

COHEN: And he seemed believable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very much so, yes.

COHEN: I mean, you two are both experienced law enforcement officers. And even you were duped.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, that's right.

COHEN (voice over): The deputies say without a medical doctor's signature on Robert Forrester's autopsy report, it's not valid.

(on camera): It's been more than two years since the crime. Can you move forward with the prosecution?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We cannot move forward at this time with that case at all.

COHEN: Why not?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because the autopsy was not performed legally. So, we cannot use any evidence found from the autopsy in a court of law to be used to prosecute any suspects on the case.

COHEN (voice over): That means, according to the deputies, Bobby Forrester, suspected of killing his grandfather, was set free, and he went on to beat up his grandmother. Shawn Parcells says he never told the deputies he was a doctor.

PARCELLS: If they want to think I'm a doctor, that's their issue. People assume stuff all the time, and they may never ask. It's -- it's bad that they're assuming and that they never ask.

COHEN: Parcells, who has a bachelor's degree, says he's supervised by medical doctors, but sometimes they're not present when he performs an autopsy procedure.

(on camera): So you do autopsies where there's not a pathologist or an M.D. anywhere in the room?

PARCELLS: At times. Sometimes a pathologist is there and sometimes they're not.

COHEN: You're not an M.D.

PARCELLS: I'm not an M.D.

COHEN: But it's legal for you to be cutting up bodies, taking organs out, making observations.

PARCELLS: Yes.

COHEN (voice over): This, even though a letter on his own company's letterhead states unequivocally, that during each and every forensic autopsy conducted, the attending pathologist is present at all times. "We always have the attending pathologist present and directing the autopsy examination."

And if you think that's shocking, the owner of this funeral home says Parcells promised to arrange for an autopsy on the remains of an unidentified body, but didn't show up for more than a week. Maggots appeared, and where's that body now? Phelps County Deputy Coroner Lennox Jones would love to know. He says he's not heard from Parcells in more than a year. When we asked Parcells where's the body, we got a barrage of obscenities.

(on camera): Lennox Jones says that he's never heard back from you.

PARCELLS: He has. Holy [EXPLETIVE DELETED]. Excuse my language but I got [EXPLETIVE DELETED] e-mails to prove him and I going back and forth and the fact that he ignores me. He's a [EXPLETIVE DELETED]. You want to be truthful. He is a [EXPLETIVE DELETED]. And I'm sorry to curse like this on your cameras, but this particular case pisses me off.

COHEN (voice over): Parcells added that the coroner can pick up the body from his morgue in Topeka any time. So, with coroner's and law enforcement so angry, why haven't they gone after him? Dr. Mary Case, chief medical examiner for St. Louis County, says prosecutors might be worried. She says some of them may have used his autopsy reports to get convictions, convictions they don't want overturned.

DR. MARY CASE, CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER, ST. LOUIS COUNTY: It could be a problem for that prosecuting attorney if that prosecutor has prosecuted somebody based upon Shawn's findings. Of course, that's a problem.

COHEN (voice over): For the prosecutor?

CASE: For the prosecutor.

COHEN: So no one wants to go after him.

CASE: No one has, no one has to this point.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: One county in Missouri did file a complaint with the state's medical licensing board. The complaint said they expected a pathologist to be at the procedure and instead Parcells did it on his own. The board closed the case without taking any action. Brianna?

KEILAR: Elizabeth Cohen.

Boarding up their stores didn't help some business owners in Ferguson. Many of them lost everything in the looting. Ahead, what will it take for them to rebuild and do they even want to?

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