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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Deadly Danger In Your Car; Pentagon Briefs On U.S. Troops Headed To Iraq; Kim Jong Un More Dangerous Than His Dad?

Aired November 07, 2014 - 16:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Good afternoon. This is THE LEAD. Our Money Lead, it is entirely possible that there are nearly 8 million of you out there potentially driving cars with air bags that could injure or even kill you.

And now the big question, was this fact covered up? What did air bag manufacturer, Takata, know about exploding air bags that could kill drivers? And when did Takata know it?

New allegations against the company first reported by "the New York Times" claim tests were done as far back as 2004 and revealed to management that the danger of air bags rupturing and violently spraying shrapnel in all directions was real.

Now rather than coming clean to safety regulators, Takata executives, according to the "Times" ordered that the data be destroyed. Rene Marsh has been looking into this and joins us. Rene, these are very serious allegations if proven to be true. What do we know?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: You know, if the company did, indeed, know these details for years and did nothing about it, it truly is criminal. We're talking about four deaths and multiple injuries that have been linked to the faulty air bags.

In one case police say the woman suffered what looked like stab wounds in her neck, but it's believed the metal shrapnel from the exploding air bag caused it.

Now today, two senators, Richard Blumenthal and Ed Markey, they called on the Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation. Just a short time ago, Jake, we received a statement from Takata. They say that the disturbing allegations are false.

They go on to say that Takata takes very seriously the accusations made in the article. And they are cooperating and participating fully with the government investigation, which is now under way.

TAPPER: And, Rene, there are obviously government authorities in charge of auto safety. What are they doing? What's their response?

MARSH: So this morning I reached out to NHTSA and of course, they're --

TAPPER: The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.

MARSH: Exactly. They are the federal agency essentially in charge of keeping the vehicles that we drive safe. And they had this to say, they say, any additional information that may aid our ongoing investigation is welcome. They even encourage current and former employees to contact them directly.

They also go on to say claims such as these have raised additional concerns about Takata's handling of the air bag issues. We do know that they are actively investigating the airbag manufacturer. They've demanded internal documents. They also say they want very specific questions answered under oath.

TAPPER: Well, speaking of under oath, there have been lawsuits, civil lawsuits, filed against Takata and against Honda, the automaker most affected by the faulty airbag recall. How does this news affect those lawsuits?

MARSH: Yes. I spoke with a few attorneys today representing some of those individuals who say they were injured as a result of that shrapnel once the airbag explodes. And they tell me at this point in light of this new information, they're actually amending their lawsuits.

They say that this information of a cover-up, they're adding that language in to reflect that they believe that this manufacturer knew about it a long time ago and didn't do anything about it.

TAPPER: The shocking allegation if true. Rene Marsh, thank you so much.

Coming up on THE LEAD, with all the focus on ISIS in the Middle East and midterm elections, Ukraine accuses Vladimir Putin of sending tanks over the border. Is a larger invasion under way?

Also in world news, head butting stacked tiles, smashing slabs of granite on your chest with a mallet. This is what it takes to protect the dear leader of North Korea and now one of Kim Jong-Il's former bodyguards is talking about one of the most mysterious families on the planet to CNN.

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TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. We are now hearing from the Pentagon Spokesman Admiral John Kirby talking about the deployment of 1,500 additional troops to Iraq. Let's take a listen.

REAR ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: -- I'd like to put out this afternoon as well and I'm sure we'll dive into whatever is on your minds. First, the Department of Defense issued today -- I'm sorry, issued supplemental civilian employee medical care guidance today for those employed to Ebola outbreak areas. Those employees deployed in support of operation united

assistance who become ill, contract diseases or are injured are authorized to receive medical care at a military treatment facility at no cost to the civilian employee.

Additionally those treated in theater will continue to be eligible for care in a military treatment facility or civilian medical facility upon their return at no cost to the employee.

Second, as directed by Secretary Hagel, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued guidance today for the implementation of a 21- day controlled monitoring period. This was the implementation guidance that he asked the chiefs to come back and put into place while we continue to assess the efficacy of this controlled monitoring.

This policy applies to all military services that are contributing personnel to the fight against Ebola at its source. In addition to providing guidance for how control monitoring will occur, the policy states which installations have been approved as controlled monitoring sites.

And they are Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas, joint base Langley in Hampton, Virginia, Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, joint base Louis McCord out in Washington, and then overseas, the U.S. Army Garrison in Bumholder, Germany and U.S. Army Garrison in Italy.

Selection criteria for these installations included proximity to medical facilities capable of treating Ebola and the ability to conduct twice daily temperature checks, medical screenings and the controlled movement and access.

Third and last, General Trept Dekobi, the commander of U.S. Northern Command has requested 30 additional personnel be identified and trained in order to provide backup capability to our existing 30 person Ebola medical support team.

This request is currently being sourced and we expect these 30 personnel will come from each of the services. I want to stress that this is not being driven by an anticipation of additional need and it is not a second team per se.

It's rather an effort to establish additional cadre of personnel that will be given the same specialized training as the first group we trained last month. Training that focuses on helping them train civilian medical professionals on equipment while assisting with patient care.

This additional group will begin their training in San Antonio around November 17th. With that, I'll take questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks, Admiral. For the purpose of television it would actually be helpful if you did have a brief statement on what you've announced today in your paper statement and what the Pentagon has decided to do with regard to these troops and why. KIRBY: Sure. The commander-in-chief has authorized Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to deploy to Iraq up to 1,500 additional U.S. personnel over the coming months in a noncombat role, to expand our advice and assist mission, initiate a comprehensive training effort for Iraqi forces.

Secretary Hagel made this recommendation to the president based on the request of the government of Iraq, U.S. Central Command's assessment of Iraqi units, the progress Iraqi Security Forces have made in the field and in concert with the development of a coalition campaign plan to defend key areas and go on the offensive against ISIL.

U.S. Central Command will establish two expeditionary advice and assist operation centers in locations outside of Baghdad and Erbil to provide support for the Iraqis at the brigade headquarters level and above.

These centers will be supported by an appropriate array of force capabilities. U.S. Central Command will establish several sites across Iraq that will accommodate the training of 12 Iraqi brigades specifically nine Iraqi army and three Peshmerga brigades.

These sites will be located in northern, western, and southern Iraq. Coalition partners will join U.S. personnel at these locations to help build Iraqi capacity and capability.

The training will be funded through the request for an Iraqi train and equip fund that the administration will submit to Congress as well as from the government of Iraq.

Over the coming weeks as we finalize the training site locations, the United States will work with coalition members to determine how many U.S. and coalition personnel will be required at each location for the training effort.

Ultimately these Iraqi forces when fully trained will enable Iraq to better defend its citizens, its borders and its interest against the threat of ISIL and it is perfectly in keeping with the mission that we've been assigned there to assist ISIL from Peshmerga forces again as they improve their capability against ISIL.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is helpful. Last week General Dempsey said, he hinted at this need. And he said the precondition for that is that the government of Iraq is willing to arm the tribes in Anbar. Do you have any assurances that the government of Iraq is going to work closely with these Sunni tribes and arm them? And is part of this plan to arm them yourselves or pay them or do anything akin to the awakening the previous strategy?

KIRBY: Well, through the Iraqi train and equip fund the department has requested funding to provide training to tribes that are operating under the auspices of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. Ultimately, we expect they will be able to conduct some of that training at the same locations where we will train Iraqi army and Peshmerga brigades. I would also add that the prime minister has made it very clear

that he intends to continue outreach with the Sunni tribes. He was out in Anbar very recently doing exactly that. He's encouraged his Iraqi security force leadership to do the same, to continue that outreach.

And while I can't put a fine point on exactly what all that cooperation will look like, we certainly, as I said at the outset of my answer, expect that there will be a role for Sunni tribes in this effort.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Admiral, can you tell us when the Iraqi government made this request for this additional deployment of troops?

KIRBY: I don't have an exact time and date on that. This is something that's been in discussion for several weeks, though.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On another question, has Secretary Hagel committed to staying for the final two years of the Obama administration?

KIRBY: The secretary is fully committed to his job as defense secretary and leading this department, and he looks forward to doing that for the remainder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Different than ten years ago, they ran away.

KIRBY: Well, they didn't all run away. We did spend a lot of money and effort training the Iraqi army. And when we left in 2011, we left them capable and competent to the threat that they faced. That opportunity they were given, the skills, the leadership were squandered by the Maliki government over the last three, three and a half years.

They weren't properly led. They weren't properly resourced. They weren't kept properly trained and that led -- that and a lack of will, both political and military will at the top in some units --

TAPPER: You've been listening to Rear Admiral John Kirby, the spokesman for the Pentagon. He's been going into some of the details about the Obama administration's decision to double the number of U.S. troops in Iraq from 1,500 to 3,000.

Let's talk about this now with CNN chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto and global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott. Jim, I mean, it seems like, to me, this is a pretty big announcement.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: There's no question.

TAPPER: I mean, some of the Pentagon reporters might have been a little nonplussed because they're used to covering deployments all the time. But doubling the commitment in Iraq, a war President Obama campaigned on ending it seems rather --

SCIUTTO: Right. And frankly more than doubling, you know, we've talked about this earlier. It's double where the troops are now, but it's ten times as many advisers as the president initially sent in June this year describing a very limited mission at the time. That's the number of troops.

And then it's also greatly expanding where those U.S. forces will be on the ground. To this point, they've been confined to Baghdad and Erbil, you know, as close as you can come in the Iraq space to relatively safe ground.

So they are going to be at two additional operation centers outside of Baghdad and Irbil most likely we're told in Anbar Province, which is you know, very dangerous part of the country --

TAPPER: Very close to Baghdad, though.

SCIUTTO: Absolutely. Close to Baghdad and that's one reason it's important, right, because Anbar is so close and ISIS has gained so much ground there and also the possibility of Taji, just north of the capital.

But then in addition to that, you have them at several other sites around the country where they can train these 12 Iraqi brigades in closer quarters, in effect. So this is greatly expanding their footprint on the ground, still not combat troops.

But let's be frank here, they will be closer to combat by being outside of those two main population centers in Erbil and Baghdad.

TAPPER: Elise Labott at the State Department, what are your sources telling you about this announcement? She's not there, OK. Never mind.

Jim, let's talk about this right now because the administration has these terms of no boots on the ground, no combat troops. But there are now going to be 3,000 U.S. troops wearing boots and --

SCIUTTO: The laws of gravity on the ground.

TAPPER: Armed and in the middle of combat in some cases whether they're there as advisers, whether they're there to gather human intelligence, do reconnaissance, whether they're there to train. The American people should be prepared for the fact that it's quite possible that there is going to be some combat and hopefully not but the worst might happen.

SCIUTTO: Well, if not combat, they will be closer to combat, but they will be facing danger. And the fact is U.S. pilots flying over the zone are facing danger today, even in jets. U.S. helicopter pilots, we've talked about this before, Apache aircraft, low flyers, slower flyers, they're facing danger.

Now you're putting these advisers in more places around the country, which while not on the frontlines are not necessarily insulated from the kinds of attacks that ISIS is capable of carrying out. TAPPER: Speaking of pilots flying jets in Iraq, joining us on the phone is Congressman Adam Kinzinger, Republican from Illinois, who flew for the Army in Iraq. Congressman, did I get that right? Are you Army or Air Force? I apologize if I got that --

REPRESENTATIVE ADAM KINZINGER (R), ILLINOIS (via telephone): I'm Air Force.

TAPPER: You're Air Force, I'm sorry. So in any case, more importantly what is your reaction to the announcement today?

KINZINGER: Well, you know, it's not overly surprising to me. I said at the beginning few, maybe 1,000 troops as advisers and some airstrikes are not going to stop this explosion of ISIS in the Middle East. Frankly, the more success they get, the more they're able to recruit.

Success leads to success. So you know, I support the president and what he's doing. I support him in understanding the needs there and we have to stop it.

The problem is I do think he just needs to very much level with the American people and say, look, this is a threat that we have to defeat and we're going to use whatever force is necessary. I think where the concern is people are going to start hearing echoes of Vietnam where we advise and advise and we're in a full-blown war.

The president needs to take the bull by the horn, explain to the American people what he's doing and the real issue. This is something we can't walk away from.

TAPPER: Congressman, do you think 3,000 troops is enough?

KINZINGER: Probably not. Look, I'm a believer -- I don't think we need 200,000 American troops in Iraq again. I do believe we have to have an option on the ground to head off movements where it's happening, to stop ISIS.

I got back from Iraq a month ago and the Peshmerga themselves, the Kurds, have a 1,000 kilometer border with ISIS. On top of supposedly being the ground force or one of the ground forces that we're going to expect to liberate Iraq when it took us years to do it with the best Marines and Army in the world.

I think this is going to be a long time war and it will take more troops. The president ought to level and say, this is a big deal. It's going to take a lot. I know you don't want to go back to Iraq, but here's what's at stake.

TAPPER: Congressman, where are our Arab allies? I understand the Emirates and Bahrain and Jordan and Saudi -- there's another country I'm forgetting -- have been flying missions and contributing to the coalition. But some of them have boots on the ground that they could send in. Why aren't they doing so?

KINZINGER: Well, look, I agree with you they need to step up. A lot of them have stepped up in a big way. Arab troops on the ground, it's very easy for us in the west to say they need to have the large force or whatever, but it has a very different ring.

People have talked about this being a civil war. I think this is something different. But to the extent that you have a Sunni country that now puts troops in the middle of a Shia area or vice versa, it's a huge problem and that has the potential of exploding and not just in Iraq.

Keep in mind each of these Arab partners have their own jihadist movement they're worried about, Jordan specifically and their refugee camps. They have their own borders that they have to defend. And the last thing in the world we want is to lose another Arab ally in the Middle East. That would be devastating.

TAPPER: All right, Congressman Adam Kinzinger, thank you so much for calling in. We appreciate it.

Coming up, brainwashing, hand-to-hand combat and unending loyalty, they were all just part of the job according to a former bodyguard for the late North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Il. What he is revealing, this bodyguard, about his ten years of terror and why he says his old boss' son, the current dictator of North Korea, may be even worse.

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TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. In other World News, we're getting some new insights today into the reclusive leader, Kim Jong-Un of North Korea. He recently limped back on to the world stage, you might recall, after vanishing from public view for more than a month.

What we're learning from one man who should know is that the dictator of the Hermit Kingdom is a dangerous man, a bodyguard, who worked under Kim Jong-Un's late father spoke exclusively with CNN international correspondent, Paula Hancocks.

Listen to how he described two different sides of the father, Kim Jong-Il.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When he's happy he says he will give gold bars to people. When he's not, it doesn't matter how loyal you are, he could kill you in an instant. His advisers were too scared to tell him the truth about the country.

Sometimes they'd even run away when they saw him coming and hide in the grass. To survive, he says, they'd flatter him. Kim Jong-Il was cruel, he sent one senior official to a concentration camp for using his private elevator and ashtray. The official died here according to Lee.

(END VIDEO CLIP) TAPPER: His bodyguard tried to defect. He ended up in North Korean prison camps, eventually escaping. He's now a duck farmer in South Korea. Jaime Metzl joins me now with some more perspective.

Metzl is the author of "The Genesis Code" just released this week. He served with President Clinton's National Security Council and was in North Korea earlier this year. Thanks so much for joining us. So what is the significance of the story from the bodyguard?

JAIME METZL, FORMER MEMBER OF NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: Well, this is another defector from North Korea. There are lots of defectors. Sometimes they're high-up people like this. There have been even higher level people who have defected.

And every time we learn just a little bit more about this cult of personality around the Kim family and basically the way it works in North Korea is there's a small percentage of people who get everything of what little there is and there's everybody else who get nothing and many of whom are starving.

So when somebody from the elite deflects, that reflects badly and certainly could weaken the Kim regime. They're certainly very firmly entrenched right now.

TAPPER: And the United Nations is now talking about crimes against humanity, North Korea being charged with that.

METZL: Yes. So earlier this year, in February, there was a special commission on human rights in North Korea, the Kirby Commission, they submitted their report to the general assembly saying that the crimes against humanity -- they compared it to the Nazis.

So there are hundreds of thousands of people in terrible conditions starving to death in prison camps. Now there's a U.N. General Assembly resolution put forward by the E.U. and Japan calling for a referral to the Security Council and ultimately to the International Criminal Court. So there's a lot that's happening now in New York around this issue.

TAPPER: They are a source of mystery, a source, sometimes, of bemusement. They're really horrific. I mean, what can be done to stop this?

METZL: It's really horrendous. I mean, sometimes it's entertaining and you see stories of people smashing things on their heads. But really the core story is one of the worst violations systemic violations of people's human rights in the world.

So we need to be constantly raising these issues. We need to be putting pressure on China because the North Korea regime can only survive because of China. As long as China wants this regime in control of North Korea, it will be there. That's really the pressure point.

TAPPER: And do we do enough? Does the United States do enough to put pressure on China? Do we have enough issues with China on our own without trying to get them involved with North Korea more.

METZL: If we were just thinking about North Korea, we would say we're not doing enough. Because we have so many issues that we to deal with China on, it makes it very difficult for us to balance how much pressure should be exerted on North Korea versus Iran, South China Sea, versus a host of other issues. The key thing is this is just an issue of monumental significance. I don't know if you've ever been to South Korea --

TAPPER: I have.

METZL: You fly into China Airport and you're 20 miles away from the north. You're shopping duty free and living this life. There are people, hundreds of thousands of people in terrible prison camps so it's really --

TAPPER: And you go to the DMZ and you look at that fake village that they created. It's spooky and quite terrifying. Jaime Metzl, thank you so much. We appreciate your insights.

That's it for THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. I now turn you over to Brianna Keilar. She is stepping in for Wolf Blitzer. She's right next door in "THE SITUATION ROOM." Thanks for watching.