Return to Transcripts main page

The Lead with Jake Tapper

Remembering Fallen Officers; Game Systems Attacked; Moviegoers Flock to see "The Interview"; Sony, Microsoft Gaming Networks Hacked

Aired December 26, 2014 - 16:00   ET

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

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: The body of a murdered police officer arrives at his wake as his colleagues monitor potential threats on their lives.

I'm Dana Bash and this is THE LEAD.

The national lead, after two police officers are ambushed by a man who posted on social media he would put wings on pigs, police arrest several others who made their own scary threats online.

Also, in national news, what Santa giveth, hackers take away. Gamers who got a new Xbox or PlayStation under the tree shut out of their networks by a major cyber-attack. It is a message from the world's grumpiest movie critic, or is it? That's Kim Jong-un.

And the world lead. How do you compete with old Saint Nick? How about spilling millions of free cash on the street? But now people who scooped it up are paying the price.

Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Dana Bash, in for Jake Tapper.

We begin with the national lead. Just a day after Christmas, family and friends pay their respects to a man who loved ones say didn't just see a steady paycheck in being a cop. He saw it as his duty and the streets as his ministry. Memorial services began for the two officers who were shot as they sat in their police car in Brooklyn, New York.

Today, the wake for Rafael Ramos. And, tomorrow, there is expected to be a sea of blue lining the streets to the sound of bagpipes and drums, as Vice President Joe Biden joins 25,000 officers from across the country for Ramos' funeral.

As they prepare to bury one of their own, officers are fearing for their lives.

Alexandra Field is live for us in Glendale, New York -- Alexandra.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dana, there are already thousands of police officers here. It is a powerful symbol of their solidarity and their unity. It's also a picture of the enormity of their grief.

For two hours, we have been watching them file into that church behind me. They're here to pay respect, and they're here to pay a final tribute. But at the same time, there are also concerns about their security and serious steps are being taken to keep them safe. We're seeing heavily armed agents at the intersections and even on the rooftops of nearby buildings.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD (voice-over): The final salute for one of New York's finest, officer Rafael Ramos, his casket brought for his wake to his family's church attended by his brothers and sisters in blue.

RALPH CASTILLO, CHRIST TABERNACLE CHURCH: As a community, nevertheless, it's one thing to pray for something in another part of the country. It's a whole other thing when it hits this close to home.

FIELD: Ramos was set to graduate from a chaplaincy program the same day he was gunned down in his patrol car, his partner, Wenjian Liu, by his side. He joined the force two years ago. He turned 40 this months. The married father of two remembered as a hero by his oldest son, Justin, who said, "I'm going to miss his loving presence and I can't even begin to fathom what life's going to be without him."

Despite the tragedy, the hate and rhetoric continues.

BILL DE BLASIO (D), MAYOR OF NEW YORK: Any statements suggesting violence towards the police need to be reported to the police, so we can stop future tragedies.

FIELD: This week, seven people arrested for allegedly making threats against officers, one person targeting the 84th Precinct, home of the fallen partners.

RUDY GIULIANI (R), FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK: Make no mistake about it, they died for you, they died to keep you safe. This isn't a matter of, oh, a little charity here and there. You owe them this money.

FIELD: The Tunnel to Towers Foundation announcing the mortgages of both officers will be paid. The New York Yankees will pay for the children's education.

JetBlue airlines says it's working to fly in more than 600 officers from around the country for Ramos' funeral Saturday, the airline also working to bring in officer Liu's family from China once arrangements are made. His widow, racked with grief, comforted by loved ones, both families seeing an outpouring of support from an entire city.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is sad. It's really hurt me. I know I'm not a police officer. But it just -- it really got to me to watch this on TV with my family.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD: New York City's police commissioner, Bill Bratton, is inside the church right now paying his respects. He will of course be here tomorrow for the funeral along with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and a number of other dignitaries.

And, Dana, we're again expecting to see some 25,000 police officers coming from all across the country who will all be here to pay tribute to officer Ramos.

BASH: Unbelievable. You can see that sea of blue behind you. Alexandra, thank you for that report.

And right now with so many communities across the country on edge, police are investigating another shooting that sparked protests and arrests. It involved a white officer and a young black man. It happened in the Saint Louis area just a couple of miles from where Michael Brown was shot and killed.

But the mayor of that town is saying this is not another Ferguson because there's video of the confrontation which appears to show 18- year-old Antonio Martin holding a gun. The mayor of Berkeley, Missouri, Theodore Hoskins, will join us in a minute.

But, first, I want to go to our George Howell with the latest on what exactly is going on there -- George.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dana, good evening to you.

That video, it will be a key part of the investigation because it shows exactly what happened. Police say, you can see their officer being confronted with a man who pointed a gun at him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: There were heated protests. People demanded answers after 18-year-old Antonio Martin was shot and killed by a Berkeley police officer. And, online, conspiracy theories about what happened ran amuck. People feared this could light the fuse for another Ferguson.

THEODORE HOSKINS (D), MAYOR OF BERKELEY, MISSOURI: When I got there, we were all saying the same thing. Here's a white policeman killing a black young man. So when does this stop? And I can assure you that did not happen.

HOWELL: Berkeley Mayor Theodore Hoskins insists this case is very time because, this time, he says, there's visual proof clearly showing his officer fired in self-defense when confronted by an armed teen, specifically three surveillance views from the gas station that investigators released to show exactly what happened.

In one, you see two men in the parking lot face to face with the officer who responded to a report of shoplifting. Look closer and one of the men raises his arm, pointing what authorities say is a gun directly at the officer. Another angle shows much more, presumably after the officer fires his weapon. He falls backward as if retreated. Then he quickly gets back to his feet.

Despite this video proof, the mayor knows some will remain skeptical in this community just a few miles from the place that sparked tremendous national controversy.

HOSKINS: When it comes to a policeman that's doing the right thing and protecting himself, I'm going to support that, and it doesn't matter if he's black or white. (END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: There could have been more video proof of this incident. We know that that officer did have access to a body camera as well. But, Dana, at the time, he just didn't happen to have it on him.

BASH: Shows the perils of that solution there. George, thank you so much.

There were a handful of arrests in Berkeley of protesters who were blocking a highway overnight. In nearby Ferguson, a driver plowed over a memorial for Michael Brown. It sits in the middle of a street near the Canfield Green apartment complex where Brown was shot. The memorial was already cleaned up and rebuilt by this morning by volunteers who saw pictures of the mess on social media.

And joining me now is the mayor of Berkeley, Missouri, Theodore Hoskins.

Mr. Mayor, thank you for joining us.

We heard you say there in George's piece that this is not like the case with Michael Brown for lots of reasons. What is the biggest reason, aside from the fact that we have videotape of it? What is the biggest differentiator, from your point of view?

HOSKINS: First of all, thank you for having me.

The biggest is we have a video, a video that details exactly who occurred. And I think the majority of the African-American community is in shock. And then when they see the video, I think they will come to the same conclusion that I have, that this officer acted protecting himself and the threat of his life.

And for that reason, it's not only the city of Berkeley, but the total community should be behind this officer.

BASH: But do you, not just as a mayor, but as a black mayor, understand why there are people out there, protesters who you have seen maybe not in the last day or so, but in the immediate aftermath, who just don't buy it, they just don't believe it, that they think that this is racial?

HOSKINS: Yes, I understand it very clearly.

There is a significant number of members of the African-American community that feels that everything a white policeman does is in brutality or is fatally wounding some innocent, as they say, in the black community, innocent African-American.

But I can assure you, in this case, that the officer acted in protecting his life. And I'm asking the community to, first of all, allow us to complete the interview and the investigation, so we can completely disclose all the information that's associated with this case. BASH: And on that issue of information and evidence, do you think

that there is enough evidence to prove what you're saying beyond what we have all seen with this videotape?

HOSKINS: Well, I don't want to disclose all the information I received to date in reference to our investigation.

We intend to hold a news conference Monday or Tuesday to disclose additional information that will substantiate the position that I have taken.

BASH: Now, in the wake of what happened in Ferguson, there was a lot of discussion from the president on down about assigning body cameras to police officers. This officer was assigned a body camera, but he wasn't wearing it. Why not?

HOSKINS: Well, the city of Berkeley only has three body cameras. And each body camera has to be downloaded each day.

This body camera that the officer was assigned was not downloaded. And he was brought the body camera three or four hours after he started. And it was just an error that he did not turn it on. We have indicated in the future after experiencing with the body cameras, there will be a severe punishment if the body camera is not turned on.

BASH: I just want to follow up on that. There are three body -- three cameras that you give to your police officers. How many officers are on patrol or on the beat at any given time?

HOSKINS: Five. We have five officers on the beat. But you have got -- you must understand that each day, we have to download the information off the body camera.

That takes significant -- when you're working 12 hours, by the time one shift ends, the other one has to download, the other officers have to wait. That's why we are asking that if anyone is in a position to provide us with additional 25 body cameras, we will accept those.

BASH: I'm sure you will.

Mr. Mayor, thank you very much for joining us. And clearly wasn't such a merry Christmas there in your town. We thank you for your time and for shedding light more on what went on there.

HOSKINS: Well, we thank you for having us. And we need to keep in your prayers not only the officer, but the family that lost a young man.

BASH: Yes. Absolutely. Thank you very much.

And other major national stories making news today, a Christmas hack taking down Sony's PlayStation on the busiest gaming day of the year. Also affected? Microsoft's Xbox, which was streaming "The Interview." Is this attack connected to this month's massive Sony hack? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Dana Bash filling in for Jake Tapper.

In other national news, call it the public's patriotic duty or just plain curiosity. Whatever the motivation, moviegoers flocked in droves to hundreds of independent theaters across the country on Christmas Day to see Sony's controversial film "The Interview." The movie's star and co-director Seth Rogen surprised fans at a midnight screening Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SETH ROGEN, ACTOR: Just wanted to say thank you. If it wasn't for theaters like this and for people like you guys, this literally would not be (EXPLETIVE DELETED) happening right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: The limited release went off without any direct retaliation from North Korea. But now, Sony is now dealing with another security breach.

CNN's Rene Marsh joins me live.

Now, Rene, I have to say, maybe it was my patriotic duty and I do have an inner 12-year-old boy somewhere in there. But even I -- it took a lot for me to watch "The Interview." But I did.

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You did. You watched it last night, and, you know, today, fast-forward to the day after it was premiered, the headaches continue for Sony. This time a different division of the company, this time another hack or another attack but from a different source.

The problem started Wednesday into Thursday and the company's online gaming network at this point remains knocked offline. Meantime, the company premiered "The Interview," which we just talked about, that happened yesterday, despite threats from hackers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kim Jong-un wants to do an interview with Dave Skylark?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a fan.

MARSH (voice-over): Sony Pictures' controversial comedy "The Interview" pulled in more than $1 million at the box office Christmas Day and it could make millions more through the weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We should be able to see anything we want.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought it was really funny. I thought it was really good.

MARSH: Sony is now responding in a statement, quote, "the audience reaction was fantastic. Despite a threat from hackers promising a Christmas gift if the film was released, the only gift that showed up on Christmas Day, lots of moviegoers, lining up at 331 theaters across the country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First time was frankly intimidated. I was embarrassed that I felt intimidated. So I thought, now I have to man up and do this silly thing of standing on our own.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello, North Korea!

MARSH: The movie, about an assassination plot against North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was also streamed online.

Sony won't give out numbers but the film was the number one streamed video on YouTube and Google Play on Christmas day.

But Sony didn't escape the holiday unscathed. Its gaming division, PlayStation Networks, crashed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not alone, neither.

MARSH: A hacker group known as Lizard Squad claimed responsibility saying it also took down Microsoft's Xbox on the busiest gaming day of the year.

DAVID KENNEDY, INFORMATION SECURITY EXPERT: This attack is really difficult to protect against because it floods the infrastructure with a lot of information that it wasn't intended and receiving, and it caused the services to shut down.

MARSH: There's no indication the gaming disruption is linked to the massive hack on Sony Pictures that's been linked by U.S. officials to North Korea.

KENNEDY: Hackers have the edge. I mean, hackers are much better at attacking than we are at defending right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH: Well, at this hour, Sony PlayStation remains offline. Xbox mostly back up, but not completely. As for the film "The Interview," more than $1 million it grossed at the box office, it really pales in comparison to what they could have made.

You look at a regular release, usually talking about 2,000 to 3,000 theaters. They could have netted some $10 million. But instead we're talking about more than $1 million. Also, we know about these illegal downloads, roughly 750,000 illegal downloads. You have to bet that that most likely will cut into profits as well.

BASH: Yes. But I'm thinking at this point, they're not as worried about their bottom line. They just need to get over all the publicity and national security issues. MARSH: True.

BASH: Thanks, Rene.

Now, how -- that is the question -- how did hackers infiltrate and shut down Sony and Microsoft gaming networks?

I want to turn to Hemu Nigam, a cyber security expert and former vice president of worldwide internet enforcement of the Motion Pictures Association of America. Also with me, Gordon Chang, a foreign affairs columnist for Forbes.com, and author of the book "Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes on the World".

Thank you both for being with us.

Let's just start with Lizard Squad. This is the group that's claiming responsibility for hacking into these games. What do we know about them?

Gordon, I'll start with you.

GORDON CHANG, FOREIGN AFFAIRS COLUMNIST AT FORBES.COM: Lizard Squad is really interesting because they were actually implicated in the initial attacks on Sony. And some people suspect that Lizard Squad actually started to cooperate with the North Koreans and with another shadowy group Guardians of Peace.

So, you know, Lizard has had a history with Sony, going against Sony many times this year. And so, this is interesting in that it shows up on Christmas Day. Probably not a coincidence from all that we can tell. It's still very early days, but probably not a coincidence.

BASH: It almost seems like this is part of the movie, Hemu. Again, I watched it last night. The idea that hacking group called Lizard Squad would coordinate with the North Koreans. Do you think that's possible?

HEMU NIGAM, FOUNDER, SSP BLUE: Well, Dana, you couldn't -- and it's unfortunate, but you couldn't ask for a better Hollywood script. But that said, the lizard squad, I think, is independent from the Sony "Interview" attacks and hacks. And not only independent, but even what they're doing is completely different. In the Sony "Interview" attack, there was an infiltration and then in this particular case all they did was turn the lights off.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: Interesting.

Now, Gordon, what do you think the purpose of shutting down these game networks are? Gamers are not a bunch that I would think hackers would want to make enemies of.

CHANG: There's a lot that we don't know about this because this is first of all still ongoing. It very well may not be related to the North Koreans. But one thing we do know, that is the North Koreans are not going to take the threats and the attribution that the FBI made to them, they're not going to take that lying down. They are going to retaliate in some way, maybe against the U.S. government, certainly against Sony and probably against South Korean activists who want to get the DVD of this movie into North Korea. So there's going to be a lot of action. It may not be now, may not be a week from now. But we can be sure the North Koreans are going to make sure that they have the next word.

BASH: And I'm guessing people watching this who might not be gamers who might not even be interested in this movie might be very interested in the fact that these are breaches. And the question is whether or not personal information can be compromised and whether this is an example or a prelude to that.

Hemu, I'll start with you. What do you think?

NIGAM: Well, this is a denial of service attack. What it means is everybody through bogus sites is going to Xbox Live or going to Sony PlayStation, the connected part, not the part that you can play a game on your own. So, at least those kids who are playing their game on their own are not affected.

But they're not going and breaking into anything to steal anything. What they're really doing is just making the servers not work anymore by flooding them with traffic. So, it's really more of a, shut it down, as opposed to taking stuff out. So, the positive in all this is, there is no personal information even at stake here because of the kind of attack this was.

BASH: Gordon, what do you think?

CHANG: You know, I think one of the interesting things is that, you know, North Korea didn't need to attack the same way twice and also we've got to remember that North Korea has infiltrated about more than 100 terabytes of data. So, they don't need to do the same thing again. They have that data and they're probably going to release it in retaliation, because the Guardians of Peace did say that when Sony first decided not to show "The Interview", they did say, great decision, but if you change your mind and show it, we will retaliate and we will show more e-mails.

So, that's probably on the way coming because Sony now has made this decision to show it and has actually shown it.

BASH: And we didn't see what they threatened, which was a 9/11-style attack against anyone who went to see it. Obviously, thank god needs to probably be said. But what does that say about the bluster from North Korea versus the reality of what they can pull off?

CHANG: Well, you know, North Korea always engages in misdirection. And sometimes they tell you what they're going to do and sometimes they don't. And North Korea just generally didn't have the infrastructure in the United States to launch sustained attacks against theaters and theatergoers. But that probably was never in the cards. They've got other tricks up their sleeve, which we probably will see some time down the road. And this is an interesting way, because North Korea has always viewed

the United States as a primary enemy and so, therefore, it's no surprise that they're going to go after us.

BASH: And, Hemu, I want to just ask you about the legal side of this, you are a former federal prosecutor. Do you think law enforcement will be able to find -- let's just talk about the hack on the gamers, Lizard Squad people -- members of Lizard Squad, the people responsible for the latest hack?

NIGAM: Well, I think -- let's make one thing really clear, this is definitely criminal acts that we're seeing here. And I think one of the best things that's happening right now is that Lizard Squad is on Twitter talking and talking and talking. And the more they talk, the more evidence and pieces of evidence they leave behind, even if they're jumping from place to place and trying to hide their identity, there's another group that's trying to out them and maybe this is part of all the crossfire that people are getting stuck in.

The reality is, the more they talk, the more evidence, the more law enforcement gets to pursue. I think maybe you won't take the entire group down but at least there's probably going to be somebody who makes a mistake along the way, leaves just enough evidence for them to find and prosecute.

BASH: Hemu Nigam and Gordon Chang, thank you both. I learned a lot from you. Great discussion. Appreciate it and have a happy holiday.

NIGAM: You, too, Dana.

And coming up, if your holiday vacation isn't living up to your expectations, just be thankful you don't work for Vladimir Putin. The bad news the Russian president shared with members of his government, next.

Plus, $15 million spilled onto the street as dozens of people dodge traffic to grab as much as they can. Now, authorities are looking for those who took the cash. Will they face jail time?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)