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Girl, 8, Escapes Kidnapping Attempt; #LOL: Study Says Limit Kids' Screen Time; Sebelius to Face Fireworks on the Hill; "You're High Right Now?" Video Admission after Fatal Hit and Run; Surf's Up: Monster Wave Off Portugal; Drone Survivors Speak to Congress; Clapper: Spying on Foreign Leaders Fundamental

Aired October 29, 2013 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: You heard this story out of Colorado today. This brave little girl screams for help and manages to break free from her kidnapper. Now this all-out man hunt is underway in Aurora. Police say the 8-year-old girl was in her bedroom. This was overnight when this unknown man popped the window screen and snatched her out of her house. The girl kicked and she screamed and managed to escape back toward her home. Her cries woke up her father, who came running to her rescue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF DAN OATES, AURORA, COLORADO POLICE: This young girl immediately cried out, immediately put up a fuss and a struggle, who knows if that might have saved her life. She was pulled out through the window, but she managed to escape. Part of the reason for this press conference is to alert the entire Denver metro area that this predator is on the loose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So this predator, take a look at this. This is the guy police are looking for. This is the sketch. They're offering $10,000 for his capture. That is actually the largest reward in the history of the Aurora Police Department.

OK, a major pediatrician's group is recommending two hours tops for kids, two hours screen time. That's TV, laptop, cell phone. Two hours tops per day. I can hear it right now. Your kids are going, LOL, mom and dad. You know why? Because they know as well as we know that the tech world is their world. This is their home turf.

So the author of the guidelines, they're being issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics, he's putting this bluntly. His advice to parents, read the quote with me. "This is the 21st Century, get with it." That's right, mom and dad. Get with it.

Kelly Wallace is a CNN digital correspondent. I should add, a mother of two kids, ages 6 and 7-1/2. So Kelly, as a mom, let's cut to the chase because compared to their parents, the parents I know, no offense, guys, are digital amateurs. What do they need to know as parents now to be able to police what their kids are doing?

KELLY WALLACE, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: I know. And I'm cracking up because I really did love that quote. You know, it is time, parents, to get with it. Here's the thing, Brooke. We don't have to become digital experts, right. For many of us, that's really intimidating, but we have to get with the program. We have to understand what our kids are doing. We have to learn a little bit, talk with them about what they're doing.

If you don't understand it at all, talk to a friend, talk to teachers, talk to people in the community. You have to learn, because as you said, this is their world. We have to inhabit their world and help guide them. The only way we can do that is by knowing something about it.

BALDWIN: Exactly. When you read through the guidance here of this study, it says that two-thirds of kids have zero restrictions on media use at home, zero, goose egg. But we all know it's the one thing to issue rules to the kids. It is quite another to have to enforce them. And I've talked to parents in doing my homework on this today, they're like, Brooke, it's world war iii if you try to curb their screen time. What is realistic, Kelly Wallace?

WALLACE: I know. I have to say, I was surprised by that statistic. Two-thirds saying they have no rules at all, no boundaries at all when it comes to electronic devices. That number seems really high, and there does seem to be room for improvement. Let's face it, Brooke, parenting is hard. It's a whole lot easier to say, go ahead, Johnny, do whatever you want. But is that really good for Johnny?

And I really think -- I've done stories, Brooke. I've talked to parents who are rules such as phones go off at 9:00 p.m. no phones during meal time. Once you reach your maximum data allotment, the phone is done. The kids don't love it --

BALDWIN: Does it work?

WALLACE: Yes. I mean, one mom said, you know, my daughter boss and she said, mom, mom. No other parents do this and you know what she said, Brooke. We are not the other parents. We are your parents. So I think the message is you have to be a parent, not your kid's BFF.

BALDWIN: I'll take your word for it, mom. Thank you very much, Kelly Wallace. I appreciate it.

A top deputy in the uncomfortable spotlight today on Capitol Hill, but tomorrow it will be Kathleen Sebelius' turn to testify before Congress. Fireworks are expected. The Health and Human Services secretary has taken a ton of political heat for the troubled rollout of the Obamacare web site. So our own Joe Johns has more now on how Secretary Sebelius came to her current position.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She's the target of jokes about the healthcare.gov web site. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Unfortunately, the site was only designed to handle six users at a time. So if you're in a rush, consider using our low-res website with simpler fonts and graphics.

JOHNS: But it's the more serious questions about the web site's rollout that can put Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on the spot.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Why didn't they bring their A-team in, in the first place?

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, SECRETARY, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: I can't tell you --

GUPTA: Why are we seeing it three weeks now?

JOHNS: Sebelius told Dr. Sanjay Gupta she expected more when the web site went live October 1st.

SEBELIUS: Well, I was optimistic that things would go smoothly.

JOHNS: But she couldn't have been further from the mark. Sometimes it has seemed like she was digging a hole for herself, at a time when dozens of Republicans were calling for her to step down.

SEBELIUS: I didn't realize it wouldn't be operating before the launch.

JOHNS: Which has raised questions about her leadership and President Obama's, how could they be in the dark about something so important to their legacy?

SEBELIUS: I think we knew that if we had had another six months, we would probably test further, but I don't think anyone fully realized that both volume cause some problems but volume also exposed some problems.

JOHNS: Sebelius will face more tough questions Wednesday when she heads to Capitol Hill where she's likely to face a hostile audience in the GOP-controlled House and it may not be her only appearance in the hot seat. House Republicans launching an in-depth investigation into the rollout of Obamacare have threatened to subpoena Sebelius.

So who is the secretary of Health and Human Services anyway? The Kansas Democrat and former governor, she was never part of the White House inner circle. The president's second choice for HHS secretary, nominated after former Senate Leader Tom Daschle dropped out.

But she helped to get President Obama's signature accomplishment, Obamacare passed into law, just a handful of cabinet secretaries to stay on in the president's second term, and she's given no indication she's ready to leave the job.

SEBELIUS: My job is to get this up and running the way it should have been running on day one. It's the most important work I've ever done in my life. JOHNS: Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Joe, thank you. Coming up, the best video of the day, including this crazy story out of the Florida, look at this, a clerk survives a shooting thanks to his cell phone.

Plus, surfers in search of the big one find this monster wave. Find out where and how we'll know if it breaks a record, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Question, are you high? The answer to the question sealed the fate of a 19-year-old in Florida. He had just hit 53-year-old Forest Flanagan as the father of three rode his bike along this road here. After hitting him, Anthony Moffa left him there to die, but he was followed. Someone in a car witnessed the whole thing, eventually getting him to stop where he shot this video using just his cell phone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anthony, that's your pipe right there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, and you were the one driving the car?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're high right now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: How about that? So he was high on synthetic marijuana. Highway patrol didn't have the roadside equipment to test him for it at the time, but this admission here on this cell phone camera was enough to see him locked away. He has just begun a 30-month prison sentence. His license suspended for eight years.

So you thought they had big waves in Hawaii, right? Well, the place to go for surfers in pursuit of the big one these days is Portugal. What we're looking at here just might be a world record run by Brazil's Carlos Brulet, look at this thing, gives me goose bumps just to watch it. Here's Carlos Brulet after his rode on Monday. That wave estimated at ten stories high. We're talking 100 feet.

Chad Myers, our guy for all things oceanography. I remember, it was two years ago we talked to the last guy who set this record here, which was considered unbreakable at the time. What is it about Portugal? How are the waves so huge?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Same beach, same place, same canyon in the ground. Underground, there's a canyon. Think about taking the water that would come out of a fire hose, but shoot it through a garden hose. You have a good stream of water there. Well, you have all this water in a deep canyon. It gets pushed up toward the shore. The shore gets shallower, but the canyon gets skinnier as well.

All that water just really propels itself upward. This was at least a 100-foot wave. It was rode yesterday. It was an amazing sight. They take jet skis and tow these guys. You can't catch up to this wave. They take jet skis. The jet skis move ahead. The guy here on the surfboard is holding a rope, like he's water skiing. Then he lets go. He goes down the hill.

Let me show you the graphic I have. It might really give you an idea of why. You asked why this happened. The canyon itself starts in the Atlantic very deep. Then it rolls up. This water rolls right on up into this canyon. Then you get to the shore and all of the sudden you get something significant. There you go.

That's what the canyon looks like. One more shot here. I'm going to show you what's going on. You'll see -- it's not moving. That's OK. You imagine the canyon, the funnelling effect of the water going right toward that shore.

BALDWIN: I remember with Garret McNamara a couple years ago, that record 78 feet. How did they ultimately say, OK, this was 100 and "x" feet.

MYERS: There's the picture. This is the surfer. He's six feet. They just keep adding them up. They'll take multiple pictures, multiple angles and say, OK, there's six feet, there's six feet. How high is it? They think at least 100 feet on this one.

BALDWIN: I thought I was pretty cool for catching some waves in Costa Rica. He has me beat.

MYERS: Yes, he beat Greg Brady too.

BALDWIN: Good for him. Chad Myers, thank you very much.

Coming up next, drones, we are talking are a major part of the United States offensive in the war against terrorism. But what happens when innocent people are targeted, injured, and even killed? Lawmakers in Washington got an earful today as victims of drone strikes testified on Capitol Hill. Congressman Al Grayson heard many of those chilling details. He'll react to some of the stories heard today live with me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A missile falls from the sky killing a grandmother and nearly killing her two grandchildren, not because of what they did, but who they were possibly near. That's the tragedy that lawmakers heard today in this unprecedented meeting here on Capitol Hill. For the very first time, member of Congress heard from two reported survivors of a drone attack in Pakistan one year ago this week. These survivors, and here they are, these are children of a primary schoolteacher whose story is featured in a documentary released tomorrow. It's called "Unmanned: America's Drone Wars." A clip of that was played during today's briefing. Then the boy and the girl described the day they say a drone nearly killed them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NABILA REHMAN, 9-YEAR-OLD DRONE STRIKE SURVIVOR (through translator): Everything was dark and I couldn't see anything, but I heard a scream. I don't know if it was my grandmother, but I couldn't see her. I was very scared and all I could think of doing was just run. I kept running, but I heard -- I felt something in my hand. I looked to my hand. There was blood. I tried to bandage my hand, but the blood kept coming. The blood wouldn't stop.

ZUBAIR REHMAN, 13-YEAR-OLD DRONE STRIKE SURVIVOR (through translator): I no longer love blue skies. In fact, I now prefer gray skies. The drones do not fly when the skies are gray and for a short period of time, the mental tension and fear eases.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Representative Alan Grayson from Florida invited that Pakistani to the U.S. to come and speak. He joins me now from Capitol Hill. So Congressman, welcome.

REPRESENTATIVE ALAN GRAYSON (D), FLORIDA: Thank you.

BALDWIN: We hear -- you heard, members of Congress heard from some of these drone strike victims, an incredibly unique perspective. You organized this briefing. What was your takeaway?

GRAYSON: My takeaway is we're undertaking something that's simply beyond anyone's capability, trying to decide on the basis of what we see on a computer screen in the United States who lives and who dies 8,000 miles away in a foreign land. It's inherently difficult. It's virtually impossible and we're making many mistakes. There have already been as many as 200 children, children, who have died through these drone attacks in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Yemen.

BALDWIN: You know very well the argument for drone strikes. For the viewer, let me show a list CNN compiled of the top 20 terrorists killed in 2012. All killed by drones. The first one had a $1 million reward for his capture then this perspective. This is a former adviser to be the Pentagon saying this recently. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY BASH, FORMER DEFENSE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: So the question really for the United States is, how do we go after terrorists who hide in areas where we can't send in tanks, where we can't send in Special Forces, where we can't barrage the camps with artillery? So we've developed a very precise, very effective weapon that can take out terrorists before they plot attacks against us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Congressman, how do you answer that question? What is the alternative?

GRAYSON: Well, the alternative is to rely upon other countries to clean up their own messes instead of having us send our death equipment to the other side of the world to perform those acts for them. In this case, we're talking about Pakistan. Pakistan just received $1 billion in U.S. aid. In fact, Pakistan receives about $1 billion in U.S. aid every single year, and Pakistan is a 1 million man army. We're talking about capturing no more than 100 or 200 or 300 people.

BALDWIN: I have to jump in. We immediately think of Osama Bin Laden granted he was not taken out by a drone. Can you really trust these other countries?

GRAYSON: Well, the alternative is to see casualties that are staggering among innocent people. The 200 children I mentioned. All the estimates are that between 10 percent and 30 percent of the people whom we kill by drone attacks are completely innocent, including this grandmother in her 60s.

BALDWIN: I hear you, and I know that so much of this for you and so many others who I've talked to on this program say so much of this is about what's dubbed this phrase collateral damage, the killing of innocent civilians. But how much of this also is about the secrecy of this drone program?

GRAYSON: Well, that's part of it. But I think people look at the pros without considering the cons. Public opinion in Pakistan is completely enflamed against us. We are losing the cooperation of an important regional ally because of these drone attacks. The same thing is true in Yemen. Same thing is true in many countries across the Middle East and, in fact, around the world.

The reason why we're killing these people is because we want to prevent them from taking action against the United States. But we're enflaming the opinions of millions of people against us when there are alternatives that don't require that, that are far more effective, less dangerous.

BALDWIN: I know that critics have called for some sort of, you know, judicial review or process, sort of a counter. I return to this family, these youngsters you brought from Pakistan. Do they have any legal recourse against the United States for what they say happened to them?

GRAYSON: Well, that, of course, remains to be seen, but we are talking about a whole class of people who are killed upon the command of one man. Generally speaking, it's God who decides who lives and dies, unless you're talking about drone attacks.

BALDWIN: Congressman Alan Grayson, thank you so much.

GRAYSON: Thank you very much. BALDWIN: Also on the Hill today, just in to CNN, James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence answering a direct question about reports the administration spied on world leaders, allies, including the personal cell phone of Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES CLAPPER, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: It's one of the first things I learned in intel school in 1963. This is the fundamental given in the intelligence business. Leadership intentions, no matter what level you're talking about. That can be military leaders as well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe the allies have conducted or at any time any time of espionage activity against the United States of America, our intelligence services, our leaders or otherwise?

CLAPPER: Absolutely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: We will analyze this exchange at this hearing in just a matter of minutes.

Plus, forget the bugs. Listen to this. What expert has found a way to hack into users' accounts on the Obamacare web site? Find out how and who could be at risk.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Top of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin. We may never know why the NSA is tapping the phones of some of America's closest allies or even how extensive U.S. spying really is. But you're looking at these men. They know. Today the head of the NSA and the president's top intelligence chief were talking. They have been grilled on the question everyone wants to know. Did the president know?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would it be fair to say that the White House should know what those collection priorities are?

CLAPPER: They can and do, but I have to say that, that does not necessarily extend down to the level of detail. We're talking about a huge enterprise here with thousands and thousands of individual requirements. So we don't necessarily review with the White House what the forthcoming collection deck is, say, for overhead collection for tomorrow or which asset is recruiting, which source or in the case of NSA, which selector is being used to fulfill specific requirements. That is done at levels below the white house or the national security staff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: This congressional hearing happening in Washington, this all comes as the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Diane Feinstein, who has been a loyal defender of the NSA, she broke ranks. She's now said they've been kept in the dark about just what the NSA was up to, demanding a total surveillance review.