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Chaos in Egypt; Monster Storm Strikes Heartland
Aired February 02, 2011 - 14:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Ali, thank you. We'll continue the conversation on Egypt, but I want to get this in here off the top of the hour.
We're getting word of a school shooting in California. Here's what we know. The assistant superintendent for the El Dorado County school system is confirming it. In fact, he says there is an elementary school on lockdown right now. We are told the children and teachers are safe. Of course, we're keeping a close eye on the situation. As soon as we get updates on that, we will pass them along to you.
But I want to get back to our big, big story, and I want to show you what is happening in Egypt right now and explain how things there are changing and dramatically so. You can see now it is nighttime. They're seven hours ahead of us here on the East Coast, so that's about 10:00 p.m. there in Cairo. Grainy images, some smoke there. This is near Tahrir Square, the center of the popular uprising against their current president, Hosni Mubarak.
Now, Egyptian state television is telling everyone who has sort of coalesced around the square to get out, to leave. So, keep that thought, though, because that is what the whole conversation has now changed. It started with this, a throng of Mubarak supporters.
And they have been quiet really until today. But here they are. You can see the masses of people there. They're massing blocks from that particular square. Now watch what happens. Mubarak supporters led by men look at all those horses and even some camels -- you looking at that picture? They begin to charge toward the square. And this is what happened when they arrived. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": -- forces are rushing forward. In terms of weapons, they have knives, there are clubs. There's a big roar now from the crowd. Oh, look at this.
This is really bad. This is going to get ugly. The pro-Mubarak forces now are just absolutely rushing forward. Anti-Mubarak forces are rushing back to try to link up it looks like back in Liberation Square where there are greater numbers of anti-Mubarak forces who can back them up.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: So you were hearing the voice of Anderson Cooper overlooking this chaotic scene. And as these different scenes played out today, the Egyptian army just stood there, stood on the sidelines. They watched. They watched as all the violence started. They watched as it escalated.
And then after dark those supporters of the president, according to CNN's Anderson Cooper, trapped the anti-government force inside Tahrir Square and began hurling -- and you will see it here in this video -- began hurling Molotov cocktails. As of this moment, we are getting reports of hundreds of people injured. This is just today. And at least one dead.
Want to go live to Cairo now to CNN's Ben Wedeman.
And , Ben, let me just ask you there straight up, as you have been in the thick of things there for days and days, has the conversation changed from will Mubarak leave office to who will stop Egypt from spinning out of control?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly that was the question on many people's minds today as they saw these scenes of utter pandemonium in Tahrir Square.
The army as you said simply stood there passively, huddled down in the turrets of their tanks, as this violence went on around them. They did nothing to stop this massive crowd of pro-Mubarak demonstrators from getting to the square. And I was basically in between the two groups, and a clash of some sort was inevitable. The riot police that used to be in such evidence in downtown Cairo have left the center of the city. They are no longer around to impose any sort of order. The army did nothing. And in the opinion of many people here in Cairo, what we saw today was Mubarak's revenge, revenge for the protesters putting on these demonstrations in Tahrir Square.
BALDWIN: Right.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: And, Ben, I want to get to your point about why the military just sort of essentially stood there passively. But I want to bring in Fred Pleitgen, who is also there in Cairo.
And, Fred, I know you're on the phone. And we're looking at live pictures at what seems like nighttime, very close to Tahrir Square. What are you seeing?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN BERLIN BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, that's our nightscope video, Brooke, that we're taking here from our elevated location.
And what you're seeing there is a big plume of smoke which seems to be coming from right in front of the Egyptian Museum, which is, of course, one of the big treasures here of this country. It appears to be coming -- you see another Molotov cocktail being hurled down there.
BALDWIN: There it goes down to the ground.
(CROSSTALK)
PLEITGEN: Yes. Those are the things we're seeing. It appears as though there's some automatic weapons fire that's also coming from somewhere down there in the square. Now, those might be soldier because those are soldiers who are stationed down there. Those might be soldiers firing into the air, telling people not to get close to their location. It appears that those soldiers are near the Egyptian Museum.
But, yes, you see that big plume of smoke right in front of the Egyptian Museum. That appears to be either a burning barricade or something close to the soldiers at least. There you see another Molotov cocktail that just fell on that roof. So, it seems like both sides are now bombarding each other. The strange thing is, Brooke, looking at the scene from our position here, there aren't really that many people there anymore. The number of protesters has really diminished. There's now a fire on a side street that I'm seeing as well, by the way.
The number of protesters has really diminished but they're now using these fires. They're throwing petrol bombs. So the level of violence really hasn't gone down. And now you see a lot of people there running away from the scene. There's fires in the street. Those look like the pro-Mubarak protesters are retreating at this point, at least many of them, while others appear to be throwing Molotov cocktails at each other in that area.
BALDWIN: Yes. You can see them from that top perch of the roof of that building lighting them one after another and launching them down on the protesters below.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: So you're saying the more pro-Mubarak supporters, they seem to be leaving. What about the military? What about police? Is there any sort of order at all?
PLEITGEN: There's absolutely none. There's zero order. The military is obviously in the streets. Now, as I said, it might have been just now as you heard that, that burst of automatic weapons fire, that might have been the military. There are tanks in Tahrir Square. They're there, but they're not doing anything. They're standing there, they're stationary, they're not trying to get in between the lines. And basically it seems as though every once in while -- there's another Molotov cocktail you're probably seeing that's being thrown there.
Every once in while they seem to be firing into the air to tell people don't get close to the military. You can fight it out amongst each other. But the military, even though it has been here in force, hasn't done anything to try and get in between the lines. And the police, that is a different story. Because we haven't seen the police on the scene in the past couple of days. They have basically retreated from the streets. And there are people who believe that among the protesters on the pro-Mubarak side there might be some people who are actually members of the police. That has not been substantiated. But right now you can see again a lot of Molotov cocktails flying. And it really, really is a melee down there -- Brooke.
BALDWIN: Right. These are amazing night-vision images right around Tahrir Square, Molotov cocktail after Molotov cocktail being thrown. Fred, thank you.
Ben, to you. We were just listening to Fred. He was discussing sort of the back-and-forth between the anti-government and the pro- government protesters there and the whole melee and the fact that perhaps some of these pro-Mubarak supporters are leaving at least this particular area. But with this just after 10:00 at night, things don't seem to be calming down whatsoever. And my question is, what happens next? What are the rumblings you're hearing in speaking to the people on the streets?
PLEITGEN: Well, that's a very difficult question because right now the two sides are so entangled that it's really hard to say what might happen next.
The first thing that has to happen is obviously that the violence has to die down between these guys. The interesting thing that happened earlier today is when these two sides fist mingled was when all these pro-Mubarak protesters marched onto Tahrir Square. In the beginning it appeared as though the scene might remain peaceful.
But then one stone was thrown, then another was thrown, and then all of a sudden you had many stones throw and all these camel charges and other things. First of all, these two sides have to be pried apart by some force or simply by fatigue, just because they're tired of throwing rocks at each other and these Molotov cocktails. And then maybe we can look forward to what comes next. Right now there's no indication that that is happening. As I said, the lines are thinning out, but the violence still is at a very, very high level with those Molotov cocktails being thrown.
BALDWIN: Right.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Fred, let me get to Ben, because I do have one more question for Ben Wedeman, who's been living in the region, covering the region for decades and decades.
What about Hosni Mubarak? We heard from him on state television yesterday saying, I'm not going to run come fall, but you know what, I'm going to oversee this transition government. What role would he play here in the midst of this back-and-forth on the streets?
WEDEMAN: He doesn't seem to be playing any role at all at this point. He's made no public pronouncement since last night. So we don't really know. We do know that --
(CROSSTALK) WEDEMAN: -- officials believe that someone near to Mubarak is behind -- is what is behind these demonstrations that resulted in the violence that we're seeing now. So, it's unclear --
BALDWIN: So, Ben, if he is, if Mubarak is behind these pro- Mubarak supporters, what then would be his motivation down the road?
WEDEMAN: Well, you know, he recently told some people that he has a Ph.D. in stubbornness.
(LAUGHTER)
WEDEMAN: And certainly he doesn't seem to be very happy with the fact that so many of his people are demonstrating so openly against him. And there's obviously a good deal of resentment within the ruling circles over the fact that these protesters have been able to grab the attention of world media. That might explain why they are targeting, some of these protesters are targeting the media systematically. Almost every journalist I ran into in the streets of Cairo today had in some way been harassed, beaten, had their equipment broken or stolen. So there's a good deal of bitterness over the situation, over the fact that President Mubarak has been forced by circumstances or by pressure from Washington to make significant concessions.
BALDWIN: Yes. Yes. Ben, to your point, and Ben Wedeman and Fred Pleitgen, I'm going to let you go. But I want to thank you both.
And to Ben's point about many of these correspondents, camera men and women, producers, many of them have been roughed up as they have been covering this, and that includes our own CNN's Anderson Cooper today. He was punched, he was kicked by some of these Mubarak supporters, and he later returned to his post to explain what was happening in the streets down below. I want you to listen to just a portion of that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: The pro-Mubarak forces came here looking for a fight, or individuals in the crowd came here looking for a fight. These anti- Mubarak demonstrators have been peaceful for the last nine days. They have been occupying the square.
There have been hundreds of thousands of people over those days peacefully demonstrating in this square. They would check people as they entered the square to make sure they didn't have weapons. They would tell people to be peaceful.
It is only this morning when you had these large numbers of pro- Mubarak demonstrators who have come that the violence has erupted. And the Molotov cocktails that we see being thrown are all being thrown from pro-Mubarak forces toward the anti-Mubarak forces.
I was in the crowd with the pro-Mubarak forces about three hours or so ago, and I can tell you, I make it about -- just about to the area around the Egyptian Museum before the first punch was thrown at me and my team. And we very quickly -- and look at that, another large incendiary device being dropped in the area of the military vehicles, in the area where the anti-Mubarak protesters are.
We were set upon by a crowd about three or four hours ago, a crowd that grew from just a few people to anywhere from 10 to 20 people who followed us as we tried to hastily make our exit from the area. And for about five minutes there, as it took us to quickly get back to a safe location, people would just come up, try to throw a punch, punched me in the head, punched my producer, punched my cameraman, tried to grab his camera. It was a melee. I mean, there was no control over it.
Egyptian soldiers were standing on their tanks just watching. And it wasn't just us. There were many melees going on.
There were a number of people -- a number of thugs, basically, males, in the pro-Mubarak crowd who were clearly looking for a fight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: What a day it's been there in Cairo. And again, I just wanted to show you some of these live pictures as Fred Pleitgen was explaining this is from our night-vision camera overlooking some of these people there right around Tahrir Square. And we were watching it looked like from the tops of one of the roofs of the buildings and you can see people just lobbying one after another of those Molotov cocktails.
So it's 10:13 in the evening. And there it goes again. Clearly the violence, clearly this back-and-forth between these two groups, pro-Mubarak, anti-Mubarak, they are there, they are still warring back and forth. Live pictures, Molotov cocktails still being thrown hours and hours later, a new dimension of these demonstrations here, day nine in Egypt. We're going to keep a close eye on what's happening there.
Also, in terms of injuries, we're hearing more than 600 people have been wounded just today. Also, one confirmed dead. We're going to have much more on this breaking story out of Egypt coming up.
Also ahead, there is a disturbing story I'm going to share with you. A couple poses as a sex trafficker and a prostitute. They walk into this Planned Parenthood clinic and secretly videotape this manager telling them how to get medical help for prostitutes, child prostitutes as young as 14. I'm going to speak with the activist behind the video. We will also get reaction live here from Planned Parenthood.
But first, this: The monster storm rocking the country is wreaking havoc on roads and runways, a busy, busy day here at CNN. Don't miss a thing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Now to the other big story, the massive winter storm that is crippling a huge section of the country. Watch this. You can hear the wind. And guess where this could possibly be? This is Chicago, the Windy City. And really the pictures tell the story. Look at these guys or gals perhaps trying to walk along. The storm is bringing bone-chilling temperatures, lots and lots of snow, wind and ice. Thousands of flights are canceled and roads and schools are closed as well.
Now to this, live pictures -- where is this? WGN. This is also Chicago here. There is so much snow on Chicago's Lake Shore Drive that traffic was brought to a halt.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And then people abandoned their cars.
BALDWIN: Yes. I guess these people are just sort of hanging out on the bridge and looking at stranded buses and cars.
MYERS: Oh, there's a line of cars.
BALDWIN: Oh, there they are.
MYERS: Not going anywhere. When the guy in front stops, where are you going to go?
BALDWIN: And this is Chicago, where they really know how to handle this stuff. I want to get to that, Chad, in just a second here.
But I want to show you another picture, a salt truck that overturned in Ferguson, Illinois. The driver -- look at this. A salt truck overturns. The driver got a little too close to a steep curb and, boom, over he goes.
And then to Iowa City, Iowa. And watch as this snowplow pulls into a parking lot pushing snow as it goes until there's just a little too much snow and this plow gets stuck. The storm is being called a monster. Anyone trying to travel in it would probably agree with me.
(WEATHER UPDATE)
BALDWIN: Have you heard about this story? Listen to this. I was tweeting about this, this morning. This is kind of fun.
MYERS: Oh, yes.
BALDWIN: Maybe not too much fun for the sheep and the dog. But bear with me. Rescue crews, there they are, they're dangling on the side of the cliff. Why, you ask. Because a sheep and a dog needed saving. This is a fairly dramatic piece of video. Look at them climbing down, repelling down. And here's how it all played out. We will actually show you on the other side of the break. You have to hear this.
Also, a manhunt under way for the people who robbed this gun store. They broke glass, they stole more than two dozen firearms. Now they're on the run. That's next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Want to take you back to this situation. You can listen to that. You can hear the crowd. This is right around Tahrir Square. These are live pictures, night-vision images there in Cairo.
And I want to bring in Anderson Cooper who has not gotten very much sleep. He along with his crew arrived in a town just a couple of days ago.
And, Anderson, walk me through what you're seeing from your vantage. From what I have seen, these Molotov cocktails just keep coming.
COOPER: That they do.
What we have seen right now is in front of the Egyptian Museum, there seems to be sort of a barrier that's been set up by the anti- Mubarak protesters, who have been in that square now for this going on the ninth day. It looks like sort of they have taken down steel plating or metal plates from storefronts or some sort of barricade that they themselves have erected.
It's literally like a barricade of shields, makeshift shields that they have set up. There's kind of a no man's land between them and a smaller group now. The group of pro-Mubarak protesters has definitely gone down in number from the height earlier today. Maybe there's several hundred to 1,000 or so. It's hard to estimate from the vantage point I have. But they're clearly not as strong as they once were, though they are still there. We are still seeing Molotov cocktails being thrown back and forth. And all of this happening right now in front of the Egyptian Museum.
BALDWIN: Anderson, to a point you made on your show last night, you were talking about these lasers. And I think perhaps I'm seeing some glimpses of them from the crowds. What's the purpose of these lasers?
COOPER: Well, it's not really clear. There's laser pointers that people just use which some pilots have complained about. They're very powerful, they go a great distance.
The possibility also is that they're attached to some sort of weaponry or sighting for some sort of long-range rifle. So that's obviously the most dangerous possibility. You know, so they're sort of just being pointed around right now. There's also Molotov cocktails being thrown from the top of the rooftops of several buildings right in front of the Egyptian Museum and even between two buildings it seems like there may be pro-Mubarak supporters in one building -- on the top of one building and anti-Mubarak supporters on the top of the other one.
And we have seen Molotov cocktails being thrown between the two buildings, hitting -- and these are maybe 15-, 10-story buildings. So, again, it's still a very volatile situation. We have actually at one point seen twice now in the last 15 minutes or so pro-Mubarak forces actually fall back, running away, and then in one case an armored personnel carrier, an Egyptian armored personnel carrier, kind of advancing forward toward the square, and that sort of rallying pro- Mubarak forces who also moved forward along with the armored personnel carrier. But right now there's also a tank that's moved into position to the north side of the Egyptian Museum.
BALDWIN: So you do see a military presence there? There are members of the military on the ground?
COOPER: Well, there's definitely armored personnel carriers and tanks as there have been all day. We're just now seeing them move a little bit. But exactly what they're doing I can't really tell. But the tank right now is slowly moving north out of the square toward the -- through actually I should say the pro-Mubarak crowd. Why that tank is doing that I can't tell you.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: I know it's so hard to tell. I can't imagine even just from vantage point looking on our television the night vision who is whom. Anderson Cooper, stay safe to you and your crew. But thank you so much for calling in. We just can't get over these live images of this back and forth, this melee there outside of Tahrir Square.
And you can see the tank. I know it's hard to tell but in the middle of your screen there's a tank that is just sitting there. And a lot of our correspondents have been speaking to the fact that the military for the most part have just been standing by passively, and a lot questions as to whether or not they will act.
Also coming up here, moving off of Egypt into a story that is most definitely sparking a firestorm. A couple poses as a sex trafficker and a prostitute. They secretly videotape inside this Planned Parenthood clinic and talk to this manager, telling them how to get medical help for their young prostitutes. I am going to speak with the activist who is behind this whole thing. We will also hear from Planned Parenthood live on the show. Stay right there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: OK. I'm going to show you some hidden camera video that purports to show an employee at a Planned Parenthood clinic who agrees to cover up a child sex ring. It's becoming the centerpiece of this new campaign to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood and it's very, very similar to the series of videos that used a fake pimp and prostitute to target the community group ACORN.
But in this particular video I'm about to show you here, you see a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute. They go into the Planned Parenthood clinic in New Jersey. They say they want health services for their prostitutes, including girls as young as 14. What happened inside the clinic has obviously been edited, but I want you to watch the response they got.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But so mainly, like, on the paperwork there's going to be a point that asks, you know, like, "Are you sexually active?" Stuff like that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If they're under a certain age - you know me and my other counselor, like, for the most part, we want as little information as possible because - you know, excuse my words.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I appreciate that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Once we get to the nurse practitioner, she's a little bit more anal so she like to kind of - so that's where, even if they lie and just say, "Oh, he's the same age as me, 15." So you know if they're mainly 14 and under we have to report.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Now Planned Parenthood says the clinic did call the national office to report the encounter right after it happened. Also Planned Parenthood national office notified the FBI as soon as it found out about this particular incident and others like it, they say, in five other states.
So I'm going to speak with the Planned Parenthood representative, actually the vice president of communications here live in just a moment. But first the video was shot by this anti-abortion group calling themselves Live Action. It's led by 22-year-old Lila Rose.
Lila, I want to begin with this. We hear two voices in the video, this alleged pimp and alleged prostitute. Is that your voice in the video posing as a prostitute?
LILA ROSE, ANTI-ABORTION ACTIVIST: Brooke, Live Action has been doing undercover investigations of Planned Parenthood for years. We're using actors. Those are the voices you hear in the footage.
BALDWIN: So that wasn't your voice?
ROSE: No. These are actors. And they investigate the sexual abuse cover-up going on across the country institutionally at Planned Parenthood clinics. And we've documents it now in 11 clinics over the past three and a half years. This is the 11th clinic where it shows the worker aiding and abetting who they think is a pimp, sexual abuser who commercially exploits young girls.
BALDWIN: Planned Parenthood, they did confirm they've had alleged pimps coming in, alleging these sex rings in six different states, 12 different instances. And so you just said your group Live Action is behind every single one those.
ROSE: Not just those, Brooke, but, as I said, for the past three and a half years we've documented young girls, actors posing as young girls, I've gone in undercover. We've documented the sexual abuse cover-up where the clinics are not mandatory reporters. They are mandatory reporters but they're not reporting the abuse as they're required by law.
So you have these young girls being sent in here who are sexually abused. They are required to immediately report and help the girls out. Instead they're streamlining the process for secret abortions.
BALDWIN: To be fair to Planned Parenthood, they said they have indeed called the FBI, the called local authorities after any of these alleged pimps came in talking about the alleged prostitutes, to be fair to Planned Parenthood --
ROSE: Brooke, let's --
BALDWIN: Let me just ask you Lila -- let me get to this point, which is ultimately perhaps your motivation behind these videos on exposing Planned Parenthood in the way that you are. What is the end game for you?
ROSE: The end game is protecting young girls across the country from abuse cover-up that goes on at these clinics. And to set the record straight, Planned Parenthood fired their employee yesterday, the same one they claimed, although we haven't seen evidence of the claim, the same one that they claimed reported the incident.
It's very clear. Watch the footage for yourself and see it for yourself. It's very clear this manager is intent on giving the pimp and abusers advice on how the girls can do sexual acts. She's working to fudge the paperwork. They are aiding and abetting this abuser.
And Planned Parenthood, even though they're claiming they reported it, went ahead and fired their employee yesterday. So it's clear a lot of abuse cover-up is going on. And you can look at the videos over the past three years that show is it again and again where we've documented in 11 cases --
BALDWIN: I did watch all 11 minutes of this particular video that we're talking about here. .
ROSE: But do you approve -- can anybody approve of this?
BALDWIN: I can't answer that question. I'm here journalistically and am not on either side of this issue. I can't answer that.
But I want to point to one scene in this 11-minute video that appears the more egregious points in the video when this employee, who has been fired and that is confirmed by Planned Parenthood, appears to give this actor pimp advice as to what to do with the young prostitutes after they've had an abortion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Question - if it comes down that they do need an abortion, how long until they can be sexually active again?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, they still have to make money, you know? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Waist up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Waist up?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Or just be that extra action walking by.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: So we heard her Lila. She says "waist up." What is your reaction?
ROSE: This is an organization covering up sexually abuse. They're not reporting it required by law and they're receiving a third of their billion-dollar budget from the government. These clinics need to be defunded, these abuse covering up clinics, and these licenses need to be taken away. It needs to happen soon.
Young girls are at risk in our country, Americans, the vast majority of them don't support abortions anyway. Young girls are at risk and these clinics are still operating. So we're glad the attorney general of New Jersey is investigating them.
BALDWIN: Here is what Planned Parenthood says. They say a lot but here's one snippet from the statement. They say, quote "The group that has undertaken the secret taping is On the Record as saying its goal is to take down Planned Parenthood over the next 10 year," they go on to say, "by creating controversy in the organization and making Planned Parenthood not feel safe."
Do you, Lila, have this myopic agenda to take down this federally funded group, and do you think you'll be successful?
ROSE: First of will all, Brooke, you can read our mission. We state it clearly on our website. Our goal is to expose the abuse, cover-up, the corruption, illicit activity going on in Planned Parenthood clinics, abortion clinics across the country that are being tax funded. We believe strongly the American people are sick of this. These clinics issues will be defunded and they need to be held accountable.
BALDWIN: Lila Rose, thank you for coming on and sharing your side of the story.
ROSE: Thank you, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Coming up next, we'll share the other side of the story. We'll hear live from Planned Parenthood. I'll be asking if the group is taking action, if this sort of thing is common, what you see in these videos, and how they feel about this undercover video. Parenthood's vice president of communications is standing by. I'm sure he heard my conversation. He'll have a chance to respond, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Welcome back. We've been talking in the last couple of minutes about this undercover video that purports to show this employee at Planned Parenthood showing a couple how to get health exams and abortions for underage prostitutes.
And this hidden camera video was made by this anti-abortion group that wants to cut off the funding for Planned Parenthood. Joining me now is Stuart Schear. He is vice president of communications for Planned Parenthood Federation for America. Mr. Schear, I appreciate you being on with me. If I may, I would like to show another clip here from this 11-minute video, and then I want to talk about your reaction.
STUART SCHEAR, VP FOR COMMUNICATIONS, PLANNED PARENTHOOD: I want to say thank you so much for having us on the show.
BALDWIN: Thank you for coming on. Let's watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What if they need an abortion, though?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's a completely different story now. This is just more for testing and stuff like that. If they come in for pregnancy testing, at that point you'd still be - you never got this from me, but just to make all of our lives easier -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If they're 14 and under just send them right there if they need an abortion, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will they ask questions or anything? Will they need an ID or something?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They won't need an ID. They're going to be a little bit more different but their protocols are as strict as ours and they don't get audited the same way that we do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: So, Stuart, obviously we blurred her face but in the video I've watched, you've watched, she purports to be the office manager. Do you acknowledge she vie lighted Planned Parenthood policy, and have you fired her?
SCHEAR: Brooke, without a doubt -- first of all, thanks for having me on. This is an incredibly important topic. To be absolutely clear, what you saw on the tape was completely inconsistent with Planned Parenthood's guidelines for providing health care to the three million patients that we see each year. It was repugnant and the employee who was involved in this was fired yesterday. Immediately upon seeing the tape, she was suspended without pay, and then she was fired.
What I would like to make the point is we take care of the women who come to us very, very seriously. There's nothing more important to us than providing high-quality health care to women who come to us.
BALDWIN: Sure. SCHEAR: The point that -- wait. The point that needs to -- one last point, which is that the organization that is coming in and secretly taping within Planned Parenthood health centers, they are not concerned about women and they are not concerned about abused young girls. They have a very extreme political agenda, which is to outlaw abortion for all women in the United States, to take the constitutional right away. And they are working with other groups to make sure that federal funds which Planned Parenthood receives for birth control, for family planning, for cancer screenings and preventative care, are taken away.
BALDWIN: Let me bring this back on point, sir, if I can. Speaking to the video and really the issue at hand we see in these 11 minutes. Is this woman, who you said you fired yesterday, a rogue employee, or is this indicative of a more systemic problem?
SCHEAR: Well, it's not indicative of a systemic problem. She's not an employee of Planned Parenthood.
BALDWIN: She was.
SCHEAR: She was fired yesterday. Yesterday, she was fired. And, most importantly, two weeks before, when Lila Rose and her team started coming to our health centers lying that they were a pimp and a prostitute and looking for advice, we started to hear from our staff that there were -- was a patient coming in who was saying he was part of a sex ring. They reported it to their superiors what was going on. We called the local prosecutor in New Jersey to report it immediately. We wrote a letter to the attorney general, which we've made public and anyone can read.
BALDWIN: I understand you've reached out --
SCHEAR: -- to report our concerns.
But I really want to come back to the point. Lila Rose was saying that we do not report. The fact is we report it to the highest authorities in the land.
BALDWIN: And she also mentioned not just this particular, we'll call it a sting, but she admitted to being behind several others. I think it's 12 in total. I guess my question to you is, are other employees part of these other stings that I haven't seen any video of, but have they been fired?
SCHEAR: This is the only videotape that Live Action has released from their current taping. The main point is that live action is an extreme political group. Their goal is to take away health care from women, to end legal abortion in the United States. They're targeting Planned Parenthood. They are not concerned about our patients. What --
BALDWIN: Sir, let's bring this back to the point because the question and the reason why we wanted you on was to talk about Planned Parenthood. A lot people, a lot of women watching this video think, hang on a second, this group and these clinics nationwide must have policies in place to ensure this kind of behavior does not happen.
My question to you, Stuart, is, how are those policies enforced? With 10,000 employees is it even possible to check each and every person?
SCHEAR: Well, first of all, our employees get a very serious message. When someone does not comply with our high standards of care, there's zero tolerance. They're fired. That's as clear a message you can deliver. Planned Parenthood's staff are highly trained. When any one of our staff doesn't meet our high standards they are terminated.
BALDWIN: And you --
SCHEAR: That's what you saw happened yesterday. That is what we did.
BALDWIN: Given what happened yesterday and what we see in these 11 minutes, would this change at all, how you train your employees on the front end?
SCHEAR: First of all, we offer excellent training to our staff, and to our staff. And, two, there's no training that could prevent this from happening. This was a complete breakdown in judgment. We don't understand what happened with this employee, but her behavior was completely not in keeping with how we handle health care, and she was terminated.
BALDWIN: Stuart Schear, vice president of communications for Planned Parenthood, I appreciate you coming on. Thank you.
SCHEAR: Thanks so much.
BALDWIN: I want to go back to live pictures there of Cairo near Tahrir Square. Night vision, you can see the lights, you can see it appear that's the crowds have disseminated a little bit from what we saw in the last few hours. More, though, Molotov cocktails still being thrown. We will continue to follow what's happening there in Egypt, live pictures. Be right back.
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BALDWIN: I want to take you back to those live pictures there in Cairo, and actually I'm going to stop talking because I just want you to listen to the scene.
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BALDWIN: So again, these are live pictures right around Tahrir Square. It's been the centerpiece of a lot of these demonstrations and it was right about this time yesterday when we were live on the air listening to the President Hosni Mubarak saying he had no intent -- and there went another Molotov cocktail. Keep a close eye. There goes another one on the screen there.
He said he had no intent of running for president again this fall, this September. But if you count the months, it's about eight months away, and he says he plans on overseeing and being part of the transition before that next president.
And a lot of these people, a lot of these demonstrators who we've seen in great, great forces here, not just in Cairo, but in Alexandria and Suez, they say that is not good enough. Many of them waving Egyptian flags, patriotic, but patriotic and anti-Mubarak.
The new dimension today in terms of these demonstrations, and there goes another Molotov cocktail, the new dimension is simply the fact that there are now two sections here. You have the pro- government, pro-Mubarak. I think Nic Robertson were saying they were referring to themselves as pro-stability demonstrators. And then you have the anti-government, anti-Mubarak demonstrators who we've seen over the course of the last nine days.
Just again live pictures here of Cairo, and I want to bring in, as we watch this image together, Randa Abul-Azm, Cairo bureau chief of Al Arabiya. And Randa, talk to me about where you are, what you see and what happened with your correspondent earlier today. I understand he or she was beaten up a bit.
RANDA ABUL-AZM, CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF AL-ARABIYA (via telephone): Yes, Brooke, actually we've, of course, been monitoring and reporting what's happening in Egypt since the whole thing erupted in the 25th of January. So I'm always there whether in Tahrir Square or our office because sometimes it's very dangerous to go down on the streets, especially with Al Arabiya, because it's the most watched channel in Egypt and the Arab world. Everybody is watching, so we are being pressurized to an extent you can never believe, what to say, what not to say, and it's been very, very difficult, circumstances that we've been operating under actually.
BALDWIN: What happened? What happened to Ahmed Abdullah, your reporter?
ABUL-AZM: It's not just Ahmed Abdullah, it's Ahmed Abdullah and our reporters. This morning also was doing his job. He went to one of the demonstrations in the pro-Mubarak in Giza, and all of a sudden the mobs just surrounded him. "Where are you from? You're an agent. You're betraying us." And they started hitting him from everywhere, on his head, stole his watch, stole his mobile, stole his -- stole his wallet.
And finally he was rescued by some people. Who was hospitalized, he has a concussion and is in intensive care. That was in the afternoon.
BALDWIN: Who did this? Do you know who did that to him?
ABUL-AZM: The Pro-Mubarak demonstration actually, the one that we were just reporting what was happening there. And then this Ahmed Abdullah, our colleague from Dubai, an Egyptian actually. This is actually a historic moment for many Egyptians. I know a lot of people wanted to come in and not just leave the country. My nephew is an American-Egyptian, studying in Chicago, and the minute he saw what's happening, he just headed back to his country to be part of this.
And so Ahmed Abdullah came. He came right from the airport. He went to Tahrir Square. His mobile got stolen first, and then as he was talking to a pro-Mubarak actually crowd that he was standing with, and then he started talking to them. Why are you staying here? Instead of having this friction, you should have stayed elsewhere.
And then all of a sudden he was surrounded by another mob, and they started hitting him, took him -- when he was telling me he couldn't believe what's happening.
BALDWIN: Can you believe, Randa, because I know you are a native Egyptian, and, again, looking at these pictures, this is day nine, Molotov cocktails, and we've also -- there's reports of semi-automatic weaponry being fired off and on here. What is it like for you speaking from an Egyptian perspective to see your country being ruined?
ABUL-AZM: I cannot tell you how devastated I am, but as a reporter, I mean, on the first day, on Friday, I cried twice on air, and this is highly unprofessional, but could I never believe myself that this is happening in Egypt which -- this is a generation that we haven't been in war. Egypt is such a safe and stable country, and all of a sudden to see that this country is falling apart like this, it's on fire.
BALDWIN: In front of your very eyes.
ABUL-AZM: My daughter, she's 21 and she kept crying. No one can believe, no Egyptian can ever believe.
BALDWIN: One thing for us to sit here over here.
ABUL-AZM: It's so devastated.
BALDWIN: It's devastating for you and it's one thing for us to see these images on television, but for you to be sitting there watching your home in ruin, Randa Abul-Azm, thanks for sharing your perspective, Cairo bureau chief of Al Arabiya.
I want to bring in Ivan Watson, our own correspondent in the thick of things there. Ivan, tell us where you are. I know these Molotov cocktails keep being thrown, but do the crowds at least seem smaller now?
We lost Ivan, but we do have Wolf Blitzer, who I know is preparing for his show, "THE SITUATION ROOM" coming up in about an hour, and Wolf, I know you'll be all over the situation in Egypt. And I was just saying it's really just this new dimension, the protesters on one side who are pro-government, pro-Mubarak, and those who we've seen the last nine days, anti-government. WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": It's really taken a very dramatic turn today from the previous days, because all of a sudden we're seeing what we have not really seen, Molotov cocktails, as you say, and machetes out there, and the violence that has erupted, and the anger that's being leveled by those who support President Mubarak largely against not only the demonstrators who want to see change and they want to see it right away, but are going after journalists, western journalists, American journalists. And you saw a journalist from Al Arabiya and other Arab satellite networks as well.
So this is -- this is a major change. If anyone thought that President Mubarak's speech last night, followed by President Obama's speech, 30-minute phone conversation they had would quiet things down, and allow what the U.S. would like to see and some others would like to see an orderly transition of power from president Mubarak to the next government.
BALDWIN: Right.
BLITZER: That certainly doesn't look like it's happening any time soon. It certainly looks like the situation is getting a lot more heated and a lot more intense.
BALDWIN: Also interesting, and an interesting dimension here, Wolf, and you sitting here in Washington, it's what the White House is saying publicly versus privately. We know former ambassador Frank Wisner went to Cairo, directed ultimately by the president to urge Mr. Mubarak perhaps not to run, but he -- President Obama has stopped short of saying, you know, you need to leave power now. It's a delicate balancing act.
BLITZER: Right. It's a very delicate balancing act because on the one hand the U.S., the Obama administration and earlier the Bush administration, didn't like many of the anti-democratic or the human rights abuses in Egypt.
At the same time, they deeply appreciated President Mubarak's cooperation in the war on terror, the strategic military cooperation, the economic relationship that's developed, the peace process between the Israelis and the Arabs, so there was some positive things.
He's been seen as a very close friend and ally of the United States. So it's a delicate balancing act that the U.S. has tried to walk. On the one hand, I think Obama administration is ready right now to move on. On the other hand, they don't want to completely abandon the Egyptian leader and public say you must step down right away because of the signal that that would send to other friends in the region and the world.
BALDWIN: Right. The Middle East is watching, the world is watching what is happening in Egypt and also how Washington, D.C., reacts. Wolf, I want to thank you.
