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Insurgents Breach U.S. Base; Russia Sending Ships to Syria? Potential Privacy Concerns Over Google Services; Prostitution Sting; Hosni Mubarak's Health Deteriorating; Interview with Harry Belafonte
Aired June 19, 2012 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
A developing story out of Afghanistan, an American military base breached. We're told at least eight insurgents somehow got inside the security perimeter. This is the outpost near Kandahar, which has become really a hot spot for militants. We know shots ran out. Seven of the insurgents are now dead. No U.S. soldiers were killed. But there's word that the insurgents may have possibly had help from Afghan security forces. We're monitoring that for you.
But, first, I do want to begin here with news that could further ratchet up the tensions between the United States and Russia. Despite earlier signals from Russia, the Pentagon is now saying the country getting ready to send ships to Syria, multiple ships here, not with arms, supposedly, but with supplies for the Russian naval base in Tartus.
I want to go straight to the Pentagon to our correspondent Barbara Starr.
And, Barbara, I was listening to your exchange there in the Pentagon briefing earlier today. You were sort of pressing them a little bit on these three vessels. Tell me about these vessels. Tell me about that exchange.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's been a bit of confusion about this, Brooke, because there's a fourth vessel actually that turned back to Russia. It was carrying those attack helicopters.
So that one is off the table, but it was a bit of a surprise earlier today when the Pentagon announced that it has information indeed that three amphibious warships from Russia were headed to Syria. I want you to have a listen to what they had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPT. JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON: The Russian military is preparing to dispatch some vessels. We think it is about three with supplies and perhaps personnel to their base there at Tartus.
And we have no indication that these vessels and that material is being sent to Syria for any other purpose than that which the Russian military has acknowledged themselves, that it's for resupply and to help with force protection needs they have there at that facility.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: What is interesting, Brooke, is so far the Russian government is not openly talking about these vessels being sent. In fact, they are saying that nothing is under way yet.
The U.S. agrees with that. They think these three vessels are still in port, but clearly U.S. satellites watching, imagery being gathered that shows these vessels are loaded up and all indications on their way to Syria to help reinforce the Russian presence there for the self-defense of what the Russians already have there -- Brooke.
BALDWIN: What about though also just the timing, Barbara, of all of this? This is just one day after we were reporting on that meeting between Vladimir Putin, Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Obama at the G20 summit. Talk to me just about the timing of this.
STARR: Well, look, you're absolutely right. We can all get into the niceties of maritime ship movements, what these ships are doing at any given point in time.
But the big picture here is that the United States still is very much pressing Russia to stay out of Syria, not to get involved in the war there, and, in fact, to take a position to try and get Bashar al- Assad out of government. That's the real U.S. effort.
And underlying all of this is the growing concern that as the violence in Syria grows, you see sectarian warfare, you see people talking about civil war, the instability grows. That becomes very destabilizing across the Middle East. That becomes, as tragic as Syria is, an even broader problem for both the U.S. and Russia and all of the allies to have to deal with -- Brooke.
BALDWIN: Barbara Starr, thank you.
We talk of course about Russia when it comes to Syria, a key player there. Also though we have to talk about China. I want to let you know that President Obama, he's going to be meeting with China's President Hu Jintao in just a couple of hours. Their sit-down comes amid all this new talk about perhaps a wider role for China in Mideast politics and especially in Syria.
Writing in The Daily Beast, Harvard professor Niall Ferguson says it's time to carry its own weight. Let me quote him -- quote -- "In terms of geopolitics, China today is the world's supreme free rider. China's oil consumption has doubled in the past 10 years, while America's has actually declined. Yet China contributes almost nothing to stability in the oil-producing heartland of the Arabian deserts and barely anything to the free movement of goods through the world's strategic sea lanes."
So, I was talking to our foreign affairs correspondent, Jill Dougherty, asking her if it is actually realistic at all to believe that China could play a larger role in solving the crisis in Syria. Here's what she told me. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Nobody at this point is talking about military action. And certainly having China involved would be very different from the way things are normally done.
It's usually NATO that takes actions like this and they are not even talking about it. Now, that said, the U.S. certainly wants China to do a couple of things. They want them to join the sanctions, carry out the sanctions against the Syrians, and do whatever they can to bring about this political transition. In other words, have Assad step down and go into some type of democracy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Jill went on to say that really it's Russia, it's not China that has the political leverage to make a difference with the Assad government in Syria.
And we have been reporting in Syria the slaughter the last 15 months, more than 10,000 since the crackdown began. And sometimes just one single piece of video really brings the story home like the one we're about to show you. You're going to see a man who has just returned to his home and finds it destroyed purportedly by government rocket fire. His reaction -- you don't even have to speak the language. His reaction says it all.
And that is just one man and one story in Syria. You heard the gunfire. That was just outside his home. This is the fact of life now in Syria these days. And I always have to remind you CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of videos such as these. And that's because the Syrian regime has restricted media access to the country.
A lot more news happening for you this hour. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: This affects everyone, Google and Apple using planes to take 3-D pictures of American cities. And now one U.S. senator wants to know if this is really just a high-tech Peeping Tom. I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.
(voice-over): Forget rogue nuns. Another group taking their anger straight to Republican Paul Ryan. I will ask one what she is demanding.
Plus:
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're a few blocks away. White Dodge Caravan.
BALDWIN: Inside that van, a convicted pimp and he's about to get busted. CNN is along for the ride.
And he's outspoken, he's controversial and he's an entertainment legend, never short of opinions. Harry Belafonte joins me live.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: It is summertime, folks, or close to it. Let's say you're out front. Cocktail hour. You're having yourself a cold one, just one beer, singular.
Next thing you know, that's you on Google, yes, you tipping back a tall boy and looking like the neighborhood lush. It could happen. It does happen. People's private moments are being exposed to the whole world via Google like this poor guy just guy taking a nap. Here's another guy napping on Google. Here is a woman chose a bikini in which to tend her garden. She might have done otherwise had she known she would appear on Google.
Ditto to this guy flying his shorts at half-staff. Where are we going with this, you ask? The photos we showed you, that is the old Google. And now Google and Apple are in this race to develop new -- quote, unquote -- "mapping techniques." Mapping techniques may seem like surveillance already.
New York Senator Chuck Schumer calling on Google and Apple to hit the pause button. Schumer says -- quote -- "Sunbathing in your backyard should not be a public event." He actually said a lot more than that. We are going to touch on some of that here with my next guest, Noah Shachtman contributing editor of "Wired" magazine.
And, Noah, you laugh and you see these people. It's kind of funny, but at the same time it's not. Tell me first just what are they rolling out as far as these mapping techniques, specifically Apple and Google?
NOAH SHACHTMAN, "WIRED": Well, Google especially because they have got -- they're way out in front.
BALDWIN: Yes.
SHACHTMAN: They're using satellites. They're using planes. They're even using robotic cars to map out more and more of the world to get us better driving directions, to get us a better sense how to get from point A to point B.
They are even mapping the inside of buildings like airports so that we can navigate around places like LAX and JFK easier. But with all that extra information, those are great services to have, but they do come with a bit of a privacy cost.
BALDWIN: You mentioned the planes. Sure we have seen the Google cars. We had a picture of it. But Senator Schumer saying the new mapping technology might be using these spy planes, could peer through windows and photograph objects as small as I read something like -- here's my iPhone -- something like four inches long. Is that actually accurate that you could see my iPhone? SHACHTMAN: I think as President Obama once said famously about Vice President Biden, I think Senator Schumer might be a little ahead of his skis here.
I don't think the surveillance technology is quite as grim and dystopian as Senator Schumer would make out.
BALDWIN: OK.
SHACHTMAN: Google already incorporates in algorithms to blur out faces. And you can get your face blurred out by request. And also I would note that while it's embarrassing to have your picture in Google, the overhead shots that NBC might take of a football game or that CNN might take of Times Square, those are much more likely to get you exposed to the public.
So, having your picture buried somewhere in Google isn't exactly the same thing as making you a celebrity.
BALDWIN: Unless the whole thing isn't really fuzzed out. Maybe you're not going through all the Google images, but your neighbor is and they say maybe that was you I saw in your bikini barbecuing.
But Senator Schumer also wants Google and Apple to let folks know when let's say Google is out mapping and where Google will be out mapping, kind of give them a heads up if they are barbecuing in the backyard in said bikini. So, I have to ask you, though, Noah, is that really realistic?
SHACHTMAN: Well, first of all, it's not realistic that I would be barbecuing in my bikini. I swear that never...
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Very funny. Ba-dum-bum.
SHACHTMAN: Yes. I think that actually -- some sort of prior notice is actually kind of a good idea by Senator Schumer.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Is it realistic, though?
SHACHTMAN: Yes, I think you could post notices up and say, hey, look, we're going to be flying over Brooklyn today and stay indoors if you don't want to be on Google Maps.
BALDWIN: OK. Noah Shachtman, thank you. And that was a mental image I really didn't need anyway. So thanks for that as well.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Noah Shachtman, "Wired" magazine, appreciate it. Good to see you. SHACHTMAN: All right.
BALDWIN: Now this:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SGT. GRANT SNYDER, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE DEPARTMENT: We're a few blocks away.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Police Sergeant Grant Snyder has spent more than a decade combating sex trafficking in the Midwest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: White Dodge Caravan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Inside that Caravan, a pimp about to get busted. CNN is going inside this top-secret operation. Wait until you see what we found. We take you along for the ride next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: These girls are not for sale. Minnesota is spending millions of dollars on that slogan. Why? Because sex slavery is rising, and not necessarily in big cities. You're about to get an inside look at the race to track down pimps and their new targets.
Here's Deborah Feyerick.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SNYDER: We're a few blocks way.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Police Sergeant Grant Snyder has spent more than a decade combating sex trafficking in the Midwest.
SNYDER: White Dodge Caravan.
FEYERICK: In the van is a convicted pimp. He's about to violate probation meeting with a prostitute he picked up online. The transaction is under way when Sergeant Graham Schneider his team enter, confiscating potential evidence.
SNYDER: Got a bag here. Appears to have condoms.
FEYERICK (on camera): Is that a normal amount of money?
SNYDER: Considering that she has been here for a day, this is more than one client. Minnesota is a place where a lot of women, a lot of girls are recruited in the sex trade.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Many travel these highways known as Spaghetti Junction, arguably the crossroads for the Midwestern sex trade. With hundreds of conventions and year-round sporting events, traffic online is so brazen, ads offer game day specials. The FBI ranks Minneapolis-St. Paul among top 13 cities in the nation for child prostitution and adolescent sex trafficking.
JOHN CHOI, RAMSEY COUNTY ATTORNEY: We have this misconception that the children that are being trafficked are not the children that live in our communities. And all time what I see is that they have come from our communities.
FEYERICK: The majority of those children are runaways. Survival sex is not uncommon, teens trading sex for a warm meal or place to stay.
She asked we not use her real name, so we will call her Violet. Her daughter first ran way when she was 14.
(on camera): What do you understand of her life on the run?
VIOLET, MOTHER OF TEEN: I just know that she was doing what she has to do in her mind to survive.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Vulnerable and alone, the teen was a perfect target. At a bus stop, she met man who seemed friendly.
VIOLET: Wanted to know if she wanted to hang out with him and his girlfriend. She got in the car with him and that's where it all started.
FEYERICK: Like many teens, by the time she realized, it was too late.
VIOLET: Threats were made that if she told anything about what she was doing or told on him, that he would come back and kill her family.
FEYERICK (on camera): And she believed him?
VIOLET: She believed him.
FEYERICK (voice-over): And that happens all the time. FBI figures show children as young as 12 and 13 are coerced or forced into prostitution by someone they initially trust.
VEDNITA CARTER, BREAKING FREE: They don't say they're pimps. They say they're boyfriends.
FEYERICK: Vednita Carter has heard the horror stories. Her group Breaking Free has helped hundreds of women escape what they call the lifestyle. Just like victims of international sex trafficking, American girls are kept isolated and moved from place to place.
CARTER: It's very hard once they have been taken to find them.
FEYERICK: It's why police officers at New York City's Port Authority work tirelessly to find hundreds of teenager runaways first before the pimps and traffickers.
The missing from around the country are too many to name.
DET. JACK COLLINS, NYPD: For the people who are looking to exploit kids, they will throw a broad net out. It's not that they are just looking to get one two kids at a time. They might be speaking to as many as 10 kids a day.
FEYERICK: This teenager from the Midwest turns up with only $5 to meet a stranger.
DET. JAY CARD, NYPD: I called the mother up. The mother is petrified. The mother wants a home.
FEYERICK: At 17, the girl is considered an adult in her state and is therefore, released.
CARD: I said you don't know where you're going. You have no means of support. You don't know who this person is. He could be a serial killer.
FEYERICK: Roughly 300,000 kids run away every year. The figure most quoted by advocates, though difficult to confirm independently, is that within 48 hours of running away a teen will be likely approached by a pimp or someone in the sex trade.
TAMARA VANDERMOON, SURVIVOR: There's so many men out here who prey on young women, who -- that excites them or it's something sexual for them. I was just a baby. I was 12.
FEYERICK: Now 30, Tamara Vandermoon and these other victims are teen prostitution are trying to move past the men who abused them as part of breaking free.
(on camera): By show of hands, how many you have were raped? How many you have scars because of what you went through, physical scars? Emotional scars? How many?
(voice-over): Minnesota changed its prostitution laws last year so underage girls are treated as victims, not criminals. A $4 million campaign was recently launched with the slogan "Minnesota girls are not for sale."
(on camera): Do you think laws have to come down harder on the buyers, the people who are putting the money out?
SNYDER: I think so. I think we need to treat the men that are clients of women in the sex trafficking industry as part of the conspiracy, as part of the conspiracy to kidnap, to imprison, to enslave and to traffic these women.
FEYERICK: Ironic, Sergeant Grant says, that prostitution is a felony, while paying for it is a misdemeanor, a cycle of supply and demand with no end in sight.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BALDWIN: And Deb's story comes as the State Department is getting ready to release its annual report on human trafficking in America.
And don't forget CNN has really join the committed to the fight against modern-day slavery and is shining a spotlight on its horrors. For more, check out the Freedom Project Web site. That's on CNN.com.
And this just in to us. We have been covering this Jerry Sandusky trial in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. We have now learned his wife, Dottie Sandusky, is on the witness stand right now. Sandusky, you know he's a former Penn State football coach on trial facing all these child sex abuse charges. So we're waiting to see if Jerry Sandusky will also testify today.
Moving on, he is a legend in the entertainment world no doubt only for his talent, but for his strong opinions about politics and the state of America. Harry Belafonte is standing by. We are going to speak with him live next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: There's a fantastic HBO documentary that's just out here, voila, on DVD about the King of Calypso, Harry Belafonte. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here is Harry Belafonte.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, Harry Belafonte.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Harry Belafonte.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: The film is called "Sing Your Song." And while it's filled with fantastic like this performance footage and clips you really won't see anywhere else, this isn't the glossy version. "Sing Your Song" is really concerned with Belafonte's activism.
And there's a gripping moment here in this film where Belafonte describes flying down to Mississippi with Sidney Poitier right after three civil rights workers were infamously murdered there back in 1964.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRY BELAFONTE, ENTERTAINER: All of a sudden, these highlights went on, and I turned to Sidney and said (INAUDIBLE) said (INAUDIBLE) he said that's the Klan. And they decided to put us up in this little house. And, outside, one of the man said, man (INAUDIBLE) a shotgun.
REP. JOHN LEWIS (D), GEORGIA: Harry, he stayed in this house with the family in the Delta. It was so dangerous. The house had been fired on. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: And the legendary Harry Belafonte joins me live right now.
Mr. Belafonte, it's a pleasure. Nice to meet you. And thank you for joining me.
BELAFONTE: Thank you for having me, Brooke.
BALDWIN: You have quite the textured story. You marched with Dr. King. You put your life on the line for what you believe. You talk about doing battle with police for many years.
My question to you bringing this to today in 2012, do you think that celebrities right now, Harry, are just playing it safe by comparison, attaching their names to safer causes?
BELAFONTE: I think there's no question that they are playing it safe.
I think a certain degree of self-serving has far outweighed the service for the greater humanity. I think there are some nice things going on. I think people do pleasant things from time to time, but from the point of view of passionate social change and commitment, very few, if any artists are really deeply engaged...
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Who do you see today as really sort of falling in your true, true activism footsteps and doing so in this country, in the U.S.?
BELAFONTE: Well, I think it's unfair in a way to talk about in my footsteps.
I think that many artists are doing things at a certain level that are quite remarkable and quite appreciated. But in my footsteps? First of all, we don't live in the same history, the same time. The society isn't mobilized. Back in the days of Vietnam and the civil rights movement with Dr. King and the kind of leaders we had, none of that is visible today.
So I think the canvas is very different. I do say that there are artists like Bruce Springsteen, his current album called "Wrecking Ball," and I think from an artistic point of view, decided to sing songs of human degradation. In ways, it reminds me of Bob Dylan and the early days of Pete Seeger and others who had a social consciousness.
BROOKE BALDWIN, ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": We were just talking about Bruce Springsteen and his film, also "Wrecking Ball," and he very rarely voiced his anger with America right now.
Also, back to your film, there are these incredible clips of you interviewing JFK, interviewing RFK. JFK, of course, pushed for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but you didn't necessarily -- tell me if this is the right word to characterize your feelings -- trust the Kennedys. Did you trust the Kennedys early on?
BELAFONTE: In the beginning, I had a great sense of caution. I needed to trust them. I needed to see in them the key to the future. After all, John was the president of the United States and Bobby was the head of the most important agency in the United States government as far as black aspirations were concerned. He was the head of the Justice Department.
When both of those gentlemen came to their positions of power, there was no indication that they had ever come from a history that had any familiarity with the problems facing the poor and certainly problems facing black America.
And some of the things that they said early on and when John Kennedy was the senator -- he had a few years tenure -- had not worked favorably towards the civil rights bill that was on the table during the days of his Senate existence.
So we had reason to be suspicious and to be concerned, but Dr. King said something very critical. Once, we were discussing the facts that these were now the heads of state and men we had to deal with. He said we understand all of the problems that we face. Your task is to find their moral center.
BALDWIN: The moral center.
BELAFONTE: Find their moral center and to win them to our cause. Because he saw in both of those men good and our job was to go find that good and to keep programming them and to keep giving them information and keep informing them about what our struggle was about.
And in the end, I think we had an incredible alliance of -- John didn't live long enough to fulfill his mandate ...
BALDWIN: It was LBJ who you talk about, of all people, initially surprised that he would be the one, civil rights, voting rights, ultimately passing under his tenure.
But I do want to ask you about something else. There's a moment in the film, sir, when you talk about police stopping you for -- and I'm quoting -- "walking while being black" in Beverly Hills in the early 1950s.
Do you at all see parallels between that experience and the Trayvon Martin shooting?
BELAFONTE: Absolutely and, certainly, nothing to the extreme happened when I was walking in Beverly Hills. I was not shot, but I was stopped and under very slim interrogation. I couldn't even tell them who I was and what I was doing there before I found myself in the Beverly Hills police station.
And if it had not been for some of my friends in Beverly Hills that I could call that were quite influential -- calls were made to get to the responsible forces in the police department to tell them that you have somebody who you had better reconsider what charges you are bringing and what he has done.
When they got that message, they released me, but I was never, ever quite the same with Hollywood, knowing that the tentacles of racism could reach so deeply into such a community of liberal thinking as existed among the actors and the superstars that lived in Beverly Hills.
But let me say this ...
BALDWIN: Sure.
BELAFONTE: ... I find great similarities because, on the issue of race, I think America has never come square. I think we've never had that debate, never had that discussion.
BALDWIN: You don't think we've talked race in America?
BELAFONTE: Quite the contrary. As a matter of fact, what we've done is we've buried it. We have taken it into a subterranean place where, before, when we were in the civil rights movement, we had signs and we had laws and things that were quite visible to our mission.
Now, we have these things that are no longer written in law. There's no signs that say "No niggers allowed." Excuse the N-word, but that's the way it was. "No coloreds allowed." No this, no that.
Now, I think the kind of racism we experience is far more is up subliminal. It's far more hidden.
BALDWIN: Do you think that's worse, sir?
BELAFONTE: Not only is it worse, but it expresses itself in the political landscape today. I don't think that Barack Obama is just a Democrat to a lot of people from the right who look at him.
They don't like the fact that he's black and that he's in that office. And I think that's being played out here. I don't think he's done anything that makes him either a socialist or a communist follower. It's just absolutely silly to think of him as a man of Islamic faith and that he's betraying the nation's mandate or our Constitution. Those things have no place in truth.
What is it that makes it survive? And I think it's the issue of race.
BALDWIN: You bring up the president and I just want to ask you -- this is my final question to you. You sort of famously, infamously, spoke about George W. Bush back in 2002. How do you see Mitt Romney?
BELAFONTE: I find Mitt Romney as an extension of the very same campaign and the very same principles that were put in place by the Bush administration. I think that there is an insidious thing going on in America that's beyond just the cycles of elections. I think there's a constant, daily, working machine that's undermining the best interest of this country, not only in our public spaces, like the legislatures of America, but everywhere else.
What's happening in the school systems, what's been shut down in terms in education, what's been shut down in a number of programs that could benefit the health of this nation, racially and economically.
BALDWIN: The documentary is "Sing Your Song." Harry Belafonte, thank you very much.
Weigh in on the conversation. How do you feel about what Harry Belafonte just said? Send me a tweet, @BrookeBCNN.
We are just now getting in some new video of a rowdy Joe Biden, the vice president firing up union crowds. We'll play that for you and see what he said, next.
Also just in, we're getting word that Hosni Mubarak's heart stopped, but the former Egyptian president has been revived. We'll take you live to Egypt, as well.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: We're just getting word here that Hosni Mubarak's heart stopped, but the former Egyptian president has now been revived. For a little bit of more as to what exactly is happening, we want to go straight to Ivan Watson, joining me live from Cairo.
Ivan, just start at the beginning. What happened?
IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, Adel al-Saeed, the spokesman for the Egyptian state prosecutor, tells CNN's Cairo producer, Mohammed Fahmy, that the 84-year-old deposed Egyptian president, his heart stopped today and he was revived with electric shocks and CPR and is on an artificial respirator.
Military doctors will be inspecting him and he may be moved within a matter of hours to a military hospital. Now, it's important to note a couple of things. There have been a lot of health scares about Hosni Mubarak since he was ousted from power last year after 30 years as president of this country, with some suspicion that the health scares were being used to improve his prison conditions.
He was just sentenced at the beginning of this month to life in prison after being found guilty of being an accomplice to the deaths of protesters here in this very square a year-and-a-half ago after the protests that ousted him from power.
But it does seem like his health has deteriorated. That's, again, according to the state prosecutor's office here.
Brooke? BALDWIN: And, again, Ivan, I know we have live pictures. Let's just show some of the live pictures behind you, the images you mentioned that we saw a year or so ago, Tahrir Square. Here, they are.
Look at this. Thousands of people, Ivan, I know in the square. These are the people supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and claiming victory from the run-off election, correct?
WATSON: That's right and I'd hazard to say tens of thousands of people. I'll get out of the way here so you can see a bit of the square. There are fireworks going off.
Brooke, this is a case, to me, of deja vu, all over again, because, of course, the protests helped drive an authoritarian ruling out of power a year half ago, but this was supposed to be over. There was supposed to be a transfer to civilian democracy in this country.
And Egypt just had presidential elections just last weekend. The problem is it coincided with a power-play by the ruling military council here which dissolved the recently elected parliament last week, just two days before the presidential elections and has since announced that it's taking the powers of the parliament and a lot of the powers that, in the past, were reserved for the post of president, basically making it a very weak position, I would argue, a puppet position.
And the supporters here of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood candidate who is claiming victory, they are out here denouncing the military in what many here are calling a soft military coup d'etat.
Brooke?
BALDWIN: Wow, tens of thousands. Ivan Watson, thank you. We're monitoring that right along with you from Cairo.
Also hear new video in from the campaign trail today. You'll see Vice President Joe Biden. He's in Los Angeles. A little background here, he talked to members of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal employees about the importance of the middle class. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: .. be able to live in a safe neighborhood where your kids can walk the streets, where there's a playground that's not polluted, where you can send your kid to a decent school, knowing if they do well they have chance to go to college and, if they have that chance, knowing you have the chance to get them there.
That's what being a middle class person is. That's not asking too much. That's who we are. That's what we believe. That's what you're about. That's what you built.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's about knowing you can not only take care of your family, it's about knowing there's a hospital nearby that you can go to if you need it, a good hospital.
It's about being able to put away a little bit of money for your retirement and maybe, in the process, help your mom and dad if they're in need and pray you won't need to be helped by your children. That's what this is about, ladies and gentlemen.
And guess what I just described, I just described you. You're the ones who make that possible. We owe you. You shouldn't be vilified. You provide the safe neighbors. You provide the good schools.
You provide the school lunch program. You provide the daycare centers. You provide the hospitals. You provide the roads. You provide the ability of people to live a decent, middle-class life. We owe you.
God bless you and may God protect our troops. Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Wow. Joe Biden firing up that crowd. Sounds like they are right along with him there in Los Angeles.
Taking you to Capitol Hill, next. A powerful bank CEO back on the Hill, saying his bank is too big to fail, despite losing $2 billion in a risky trade.
Also, "Nuns on a Bus," traveling the country to say what's wrong with the new Republican budget plan.
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POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there. Thanks for joining us today on "The Help Desk."
We're talking about your financial priorities. Joining me this hour, Lynnette Khalfani-Cox is a personal finance author and founder of the financial advice blog, AsktheMoneyCoach.com.
And David Novick is a certified financial planner and adjunct professor of finance at NYU.
David, this question, an interesting one, comes for you. Take a listen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's more important to start saving for, retirement or college education for your kids?
HARLOW: You've got to pay for your daughter's college?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct.
HARLOW: How many years away?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two or three away for my daughters right now.
HARLOW: That's a tough choice.
DAVID NOVICK, ADJUNCT PROFESSOR OF FINANCE, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: It's a tough choice and it's a choice that I see all the time. The conflict between retirement and college and the reality is that he's always going to have to fund retirement. There's no financial aid for retirement. There's no student loans for retirement. So he can't stop funding retirement.
However, with college only two or three years away, my suggestion would be fund whatever you can between now and when they go to college so at least they have some of it funded and then double up on retirement once they start school.
HARLOW: What about the best information that his daughter and he and the family can get about what financial aid, what scholarships are out there?
LYNNETTE KHALFANI-COX, FOUNDER, ASKTHEMONEYCOACH.COM: That's a great option for him and that's really what they have to aggressively pursue right now.
Fastweb.com is a great scholarship resource for anybody who wants to get scholarships for their kids. But the alternatives to loans, of course, is doing a couple of things. Scholarships, grants, departmental aid and work study, those four other alternative ways to finance a college education can be done without loans.
HARLOW: And also, if a child is invested, they're working towards paying for their education, they're going to take it more seriously. Absolutely.
All right, thank you guys. Appreciate it.
If you have a question you want our financial experts to tackle, just upload a 30-second video with your "Help Desk" question to iReport.com.
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BALDWIN: Remember that alarm that went off May 10th? That was JPMorgan Chase acknowledging losses of at least $2 billion in a single trade portfolio.
JPMorgan Chase weathered the meltdown better than the other banks because JPMorgan Chase steered clear of risky investments and Congress is looking for answers as to how exactly this happened.
Lizzie O'Leary is in Washington and are they getting answers?
LIZZIE O'LEARY, AVIATION AND REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Some. Some. Jamie Dimon, the bank CEO, with his second appearance on Capitol Hill. W saw him in front of the Senate. Today, he was in front of the House and, essentially, I want to play you some tape of him arguing a bit with the top Democrat on that panel about whether his bank really was strong enough to withstand something and whether all the other banks which aren't as strong would be.
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REPRESENTATIVE BARNEY FRANK (D), FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE: You said you have a "fortress balance sheet." That assumes there's something special about the way you are that makes us have to worry less, but we can't assume that's going to be the case for every financial institution.
JAMIE DIMON, CEO, JPMORGAN CHASE: But I also said that we'd be solidly profitable this quarter, so relative to earnings ...
FRANK: That's not the question. Mr. Dimon, please don't filibuster.
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O'LEARY: The House has reputation for being maybe a little more lively than the Senate, Brooke, and you got that today.
But this is important because, when Jamie Dimon talks, people listen and his views on regulation could really shape that financial reform bill that was passed, but is still being put into practice. It hasn't really been finished yet, all the little tweaks that regulators are making.
So that's why listening to him after the fact is also something that members are doing.
BALDWIN: Lizzie O'Leary, thank you.
"Nuns on the Bus," we're going to speak with one of them about why she is protesting Republican Paul Ryan in, by the way, his own backyard today.
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BALDWIN: It is the last thing a good Catholic boy wants, having a nun mad at you. Even worse, a whole bus load of them.
Congressman Paul Ryan is catching the wrath of the Network lobby, a liberal Catholic group run by nuns. Right now, the nuns are on a nine-state bus tour, protesting the Ryan budget which critics say will result to severe cuts in Medicare and social programs.
And the nuns are led by Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, and, Sister Simone, what exactly is it about this Ryan budget that has become a Catholic issue?
SISTER SIMONE CAMPBELL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NETWORK: Well, Congressman Ryan raised up the budget and said that it met his understanding of Catholic social teaching and he was so wrong about it that we had to speak out.
And so we've come here to Janesville to lift up an alternative budget. We need to be responsible as a nation and the Ryan budget actually is irresponsible in that it doesn't really deal with the deficit. It shifts tax cuts to the wealthy, more money to defense ...
BALDWIN: Let me jump in --
CAMPBELL: ... and it decimates social services in our nation.
BALDWIN: Let me jump in. I have half a minute with you.
CAMPBELL: OK.
BALDWIN: The congressman says his budget will eliminate the national debt and that Obama's budget will add $11 trillion to the debt. Aren't we at a point where we need to consider painful cuts to stay afloat?
CAMPBELL: Actually, we're the richest nation on the planet and where there's a will, there's a way. We are not bankrupt as a nation.
We believe that there needs to be reasonable revenue for responsible programs. That's what we're about. I presented a faithful budget to the congressman's staff and it's created by 65 offices in D.C. ...
BALDWIN: Sister Simone Campbell, I apologize. I'm running up against time here. Thank you so much for a brief interview here.
And that's it for me; now to Wolf Blitzer. THE SITUATION ROOM begins now.
