Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Monster Storm Ravages the Philippines; U.S. Navy Bribery Scandal; Silk Road Resurfaces

Aired November 09, 2013 - 16:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: To say this storm was huge is really quite the understatement. It covered an area the size of Germany, packed incredible winds, measured at more than 230 miles per hour. That's triple the power of Hurricane Katrina. Trees, houses in low spots, electric and phone lines, none of that stood a chance.

So, here's the one good thing if there's anything good out of this is that the typhoon was moving really fast, so the wind has now stopped. But the damage left behind is nothing short of catastrophic. Rivers are flooded. Thousands of buildings are torn apart or wiped away. And that number of casualties, that number may still go up. It may still go way up.

CNN has correspondents throughout the Philippine islands today, Ivan Watson is in Manila. But first I want you to listen to our Andrew Stevens. I want you to listen how he describes a scene a few 100 miles south.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The devastation in this city is staggering. No building escaping damage. The destruction caused by the super typhoon Haiyan is everywhere. It has left a city cutoff from the rest of the country. Its people increasingly desperate. Roads are still impassable. All communications are down. Medical supplies are running out. Food and water are becoming scarce and reports of looting are widespread.

It is impossible at this stage to estimate the cost in human life. We have seen bodies on the streets and we have seen bodies washing up on the beaches. The Philippines' Interior Minister can only say the number of deaths can be high. It is estimated that perhaps one million people live along the low-lying coastline, the majority of them in rough built shacks. Even if they could have withstood the wind, they would not have survived the storm surge, a huge perhaps five-meter wall of water, that spread across the city at the height of the storm at devastating speed.

The water receded as quickly as it came leaving a trail of destruction. People have been warned to evacuate, but not everybody took the advice. The priority here now is to clear the road to the airport so relief supplies can start moving in.

24 hours after the storm, the first military helicopters began arriving. But it will be a massive task ferrying in food and supplies for so many.

In the meantime, the people of Tacloban City search for food and water and for missing loved ones.

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Philippines, this is a country that is accustomed to typhoons, facing more than a dozen of these storms a year, but this has been classified as a super typhoon and what's making it even harder to assess the scale of the damage is the fact that the provincial airport in Tacloban has been heavily damaged and that authorities are having a difficult time getting to the worst affected areas and then getting information out from there due to the loss of communications and electricity as well.

The government estimates of the death toll just a fraction of what organizations like the Philippine Red Cross have put out as of Saturday night. More than 1,000 people estimated to have become victims of this storm. And, of course, this hitting close to an area where there was a deadly earthquake a month ago that killed scores of people.

In that area of Bohol, the locals there who had been so heavily affected by the earthquake perhaps were spared some of the worst damage from this super typhoon because authorities moved many of them to more secure shelters as the winds struck that island on Friday.

Ivan Watson, CNN, Manila.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Thanks Ivan Watson and also to Andrew Stevens, both reporting there.

Some remarkable images are emerging from the Philippines many in the heart of the destruction. Storm chaser James Reynolds captured video of a CNN crew braving the elements to bring people to safety. Look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over here.

OK. I have you.

One more. Any more in there, Josh?

Two more.

Two more. One more?

I think we got everybody.

We're good, everyone?

Everyone.

I can feel electricity in the water, guys, my legs are tingling. (END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Just amazing images there. James Reynolds joins us now from Cebu, a city in the Philippines. James, we're seeing the images now that you shot in the hard-hit coastal city of Tacloban, describe to people who have never lived or experienced a storm like this what it was like.

JAMES REYNOLDS, STORMCHASER: It was just absolute screaming mayhem, Don. The winds were so ferocious it was like a blinding, deafening whiteout. Huge chunks of debris were hitting the concrete building we were in and you could feel the building shake and the water was just entering every corner of the building, flowing down the stairs in the hotel like a waterfall.

And then storm surge came and it rose very, very rapidly, within minutes the entire first floor of the hotel was swamped and they didn't have time to get out of their rooms, escape to the higher floors to safety. And it was really a desperate situation, Don.

LEMON: As we're looking, we're looking at people being rescued it looks like rafts or mattresses or cardboard, I'm not exactly sure. But in the video of the rescue, CNN producer Tim Schwartz and CNN international anchor Andrew Stevens helped pull people to safety and you shot the video.

Walk us through what is happening in this video.

REYNOLDS: Yes, absolutely. It came to our attention that one family was trapped in one of the hotel rooms. They couldn't open the door. It jammed somehow and we heard a woman scream desperately and smashing the glass windows with her fists in a desperate attempt to get out and it was clear it was basically a life-or-death situation.

One of my colleagues, Jeff Morgan, he went out there trying to - another colleague actually injured himself. (INAUDIBLE) managed to get some sort of flotation device, a mattress, I think, something to float to get that family out which included some elderly and infirm people who could not get up by themselves. But with those flotation devices we managed to put them on and get them to safety, Don.

LEMON: It is just unbelievable. I hear you guys talking about, you're talking about electricity in the water. When there's that much water I would imagine it's probably a good thing that there is no electricity in the town because that would be another disaster, correct?

REYNOLDS: Yes. Absolutely. Communications are out right now. But the floodwaters are extremely dangerous and electrocution threatened at the height of the storm. You know, one of my colleagues (INAUDIBLE) injured himself (INAUDIBLE) very severely. And at the height of the storm it was just really an extremely hazardous situation there.

LEMON: So, this storm could go down as one of the strongest storms to hit land ever. You've chased a lot of storms. How was this one different? Was it the intensity? Was it the wind? Was it the water? REYNOLDS: Don, the line's not too good so I didn't fully hear your question. In terms of the strength of the storm, it was one of the most severe landfalling tropical cyclones in recorded history anywhere in the world. That puts it in perspective and that's not an exaggeration. This was the top end of the strength of these storms that is possible and it hit a vulnerable country like the Philippines without infrastructure. It's just (INAUDIBLE) other countries in the region. It's just a double whammy of perfect ingredients for a massive disaster which is unfolding right now. Don.

LEMON: Yes. Where are you off to next? Are you staying put, or are you going to continue to move around?

REYNOLDS: I am miraculous managed to get on a military flight. All my recording gear either has sustained major damage or has to be left behind so my plan is to get to Hong Kong and try and salvage more images which I managed to take of the height of the storm and the aftermath and get it out there so people can see what happened in this devastating storm, Don.

LEMON: You know, this storm is far from over. What do you say to the people living along the coast in Vietnam?

REYNOLDS: Yes, absolutely. I haven't been able to see much data (INAUDIBLE) of the storm. It looks like the trend is it is weakening. It's late in the season in Vietnam for bad storms, so hopefully if the storm behaves like others in the past, (INAUDIBLE) on maximum alert. Vietnam has been hit hard by typhoons this month and this year, I should say. So with another storm coming they should be extremely vigilant and evacuate and get away from the coastal areas if possible. Don.

LEMON: James Reynolds, we appreciate you. Stay safe.

Aid agencies mobilizing to help the victims of the typhoon and to find out how you can help, here's what you can do, you can go to cnn.com/impact. Again, cnn.com/impact.

Just those images are just amazing to see what's going on over there.

In the meantime, it's a bittersweet day for the U.S. Navy. Its newest aircraft carrier with some mind-boggling technology gets christened and in the meantime bizarre accusations against a navy commander involving leaked secrets and prostitutes and Lady Gaga, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Welcome back, everyone, the U.S. Navy christened its newest ship this morning, the "USS Ford." It was named after former president Gerald Ford, of course. And it took more than a decade to build. Donald Rumsfeld told the former president before he died that the ship would carry his name. The carrier has all the latest technology like catapulting planes off its deck with electromagnetic force. In fact, the planes that will land on it haven't even been built yet. It's also being held as the Navy's most energy efficient ship. Meanwhile, the U.S. navy is immersed in a bizarre bribery scandal one that accuses a Navy commander of selling secrets in exchange for free travel, prostitutes and even Lady Gaga tickets. Details from CNN's Kyung Lah.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): ... that the U.S. attorney is implicating you in a bribery scheme.

(voice-over): dressed in civilian clothes for court -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry, I can't comment.

LAH: Navy commander Michael Micevisz had nothing to say about his role in a multimillion dollar international bribery scheme. Prosecutors say Commander Micevisz received thousands of dollars in gifts.

In Tokyo, tickets to see "Lion King." In Thailand, more tickets. This time to Lady Gaga. Then there were prostitutes and free hotel rooms. Why? This man, Asian businessman Leonard Glen Francis known as Fat Leonard for tipping the scales at more than 400 pounds. Francis runs defense contracting firm Glen Defense Marine Asia that helps port U.S. naval ships.

Prosecutors say Fat Leonard and Micevisz became close friends over private e-mails, calling each other big bro and little bro. After Micevisz received some gifts the government said a Fat Leonard associate eventually declared "We got him." Prosecutors say the two men moved U.S. Navy ships around East Asia like chess pieces using classified information ending up at ports where Francis' firm would over bill the U.S..

CAPTAIN KEVIN EYER, U.S. NAVY (RET.): I think it would be fair to say that they were seduced by Mr. Francis.

LAH: Retired Navy Captain Kevin Eyer understands this like few others. He served 30 years and was the commanding officer of a ship in Asia that frequented some of the same ports where Fat Leonard operated. He even attended parties with the lavish businessman.

(on camera): Having looked this man in the eye, can you see how that seduction could happen?

EYER: I do. He's very charming. He's very social. You know, whereas I might go - I might be at this party and I'll have a Budweiser, no, Leonard is drinking Dom Perignon.

LAH (voice-over): Only the finest for Fat Francis, says Captain Eyer. The big man loved the big life, fast cars, women and travel and he seemed eager to share with his military friend. In court Francis appeared next to his alleged co-conspirator trading in his tuxedo for a jail jumpsuit and shackles.

EYER: You can kind of see how if you fell into the mode of socializing with him, it might be possible to get swept up by that. And that's why, you know, so many military officers are a little bit wary of him.

LAH (on camera): Court documents reference a wolf pack. It's unclear how many other people that pack includes and how far this will widen as far as the three officers who have been charged they've all pled not guilty.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: That was Kyung Lah reporting.

And, you know, for more than two years federal agents worked diligently to take down the biggest online illegal drug seller out there and it seems it took less than a month for it to come back. Laurie Segall have details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The Food and Drug Administration is making a major recommendation which is to get rid of trans fats. They're in just about every piece of junk food. This could happen. The question is how soon. We'll tell you. Also you might be in for a shock when you see the potential replacement. We got it at the bottom of the hour.

LEMON: You know, there's been a lot of talk recently about the legalization of marijuana. In fact, this past week three cities in Michigan voted to allow personal use of small amounts of pot. But for tenacious users of marijuana and other drugs, listen to this, they always find alternative ways to get their stash and one of those ways is a Web site called the Silk Road. We've talked about it on this show numerous times. Last month, though, the feds took the site down but a new Silk Road has popped up.

Our Laurie Segall sat down with CNN money's Adrian Colbert to look at what's being called the dark web.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN TECH CORRESPONDENT: Tell me what we're looking at right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the front page for what is apparently the next Silk Road. And so the front page was their sort of mission statement and linked to whatever you want to buy in this case since it was silk roads, drugs.

SEGALL: Silk road was like the Amazon of drugs, a couple clicks online and you could have drugs delivered to your doorstep. What is the blackberry kush?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just a strain of weed.

SEGALL: (INAUDIBLE) divide, conquer and eliminate with their strategies but four weeks of temporary silence is all they get. So now what we're looking at is essentially Silk Road reborn.

(voice-over): Right after the site was taken down, we sat down with a former customer who didn't want to be identified.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I imagine especially if you look at the amount of money he made on that, I imagine somebody will attempt to learn from what happened here and try to do something similar in the future.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, you know, there are multiple sites like that have popped up, it's just what was the original Silk Road was the biggest one and that's sort of what got the reputation.

SEGALL: And customers were waiting for the service to come back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They killed the server, they didn't take down the technology used to make it happen.

SEGALL (on camera): This site right here talks about another one, Pandora - Smooth as Silk. I'm assuming this is almost competition for the new one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a whole (INAUDIBLE) people will be looking around for these other sites.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: OK. So Laurie Segall is here, CNN money tech expert, Laurie Segall. You know, it's been, what? More than two years now since the FBI tried to take down that site. So, in less than a month another one has popped up. Is it impossible to stop Silk Road? You know, how these - I can't believe it's back up. Is it impossible?

SEGALL: I will say it's a game of whack a mole, every time the feds try to take them down, you have them rebuilding. I mean CNN Money we obtained exclusive e-mails talking about the rebuilding of the site. And this happened within days after the site was taken down. The same users fund the site starting building a safer version so (INAUDIBLE)the feds couldn't find -

LEMON: Let me jump in?

SEGALL: Sure.

LEMON: If you are an internet sleuth, like if you want to find anything, we go to you.

SEGALL: Right.

LEMON: But you said, you found this yourself. Is it - can anyone - you found Silk Road?

SEGALL: It's easy. Very simple to do. It's all accessible with the tour network and what the tour network does is it essentially scrambles your IP address so no one can really track it and that's what makes this very significant and that's this whole idea about the free internet and that's why these guys no matter how many times the feds try to take it down they start rebuilding and they believe that they can't completely be taken down.

LEMON: So if you want your pot, you can go to Silk Road and get it.

SEGALL: Not. I mean, listen, people can go to Silk Road and buy all sorts of things.

LEMON: It is your choice if you do that.

SEGALL: Absolutely.

LEMON: And if you get it through and you can get in trouble from it, obviously, right?

SEGALL: Absolutely. You have to think when we talk about pot and when we talk about the idea that, you know, it could be legalized in certain places, it's already legalized, people - one of the things our source told was, you know, I didn't really buy drugs in a back alley, I didn't really want to do that kind of stuff, but with the internet I can click add to the cart and do that. So people will start doing this even more.

LEMON: Listen, I've been talking about this probably for about five years now in CNN. I think we have this really provincial 1950s attitude about pot and everything that we're reporting now is so five years ago, like, society progresses and changes and we get different attitudes but for some reason the way we have been reporting on marijuana for the last five, 10 years has been really behind how the public really feels about it.

And you can see, if people want it, they are going to go on the internet and they're going to find a way to do it.

SEGALL: All they do is they click, add to the cart, very, very simple and a lot of people are doing it and millions of dollars are being spent on this site.

LEMON: All right. Laurie, make sure you stick around, 6:30 Eastern we're going to be talking about the business of pot now that it's legal in some areas, what can something like Silk Road and other illegal sites tell us about the legal sale of marijuana specifically. We will be right back.

6:30, 6:30 Eastern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: I'm Don Lemon, thank you so much for joining us.

You know, it's morning in the Philippines right now. Power is out all across that area, and still, we're trying to get our Andrew Stevens up for the very latest on this. He's part of the folks in this rescue right here. He's going to explain this rescue which he took part in, he and some other members of our crew.

The "CNN Newsroom" is going to continue live at the top of the hour with more breaking news and more developments. And make sure you join us at 6:30 Eastern tonight because we're going to be talking about a very interesting subject. We're talking about the business of pot. The business of pot.

Some people say it is the fastest-growing business in the country right now and it has the potential to make millions if not billions for businesses. We're going to check it out. Do you want to get involved in this business? Maybe so. Sanjay Gupta now. We'll see you back live at the top of the hour.