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Train Crash In New York City; NTSB Has Data Recorders; Man With T.B. Taken Off Plane In Phoenix; Police Probe Stadium Parking Lot Death; U.S. No Safer than 2011; World AIDS Day

Aired December 02, 2013 - 13:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. We start with a deadly commuter train crash in New York City. This morning, crews started picking up derailed cars and putting some of them back on track. Investigators are poring over the wreckage to try to figure out how the train crashed. Four people died, 67 others were injured. One of the survivors spoke on CNN's "NEW DAY" this morning describing how she rode out the wreck.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANDA SWANSON, TRAIN CRASH SURVIVOR: I wound up going kind of up one side and then just rode into where I was technically on the ceiling. And when it landed, I fell to the side where the windows had been smashed out into the ground. All of those windows had broken through, gravel and glass. Those big rocks that lined the track were all flying into the windows. I managed to put my bag in front of my face. I don't even have any cuts. And then once I stood up, I just immediately was, like, I still have my phone. It's shattered but it works. And I just dialed 911.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Joining me with more are, our own Nic Robertson and Rene Marsh. Nick, you're there on the scene. Any update, first of all, of the condition of some of those injured in the crash?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we know 16 people were taken away for treatment -- 67 people, rather, taken away for treatment, 16 of those at least remain in the hospital, three of them are in critical condition. At St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, there are nine patients still there. Seven of them are in ICU. The doctor there we talked to earlier today described how this isn't just a physical recovery. There's going to be a tough emotional recovery as well ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. DAVID LISTMAN, ST. BARNABAS HOSPITAL: For a lot of these people, the metro north train from upstate to New York City was their way of commuting to work. And I think a lot of these people are going to have to contend with, you know, getting back to normal life at some point and having to get back on a metro north train that goes right through, you know, that the same area at some point. And I -- you know, I think that's going to be very difficult for them. Honestly, you know, I don't know how they're going to deal with that. I assume with the support of their family and, you know, whatever mental health providers. I -- you know, I'm sure there will be some degree of post- traumatic stress for a number of the people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: And Wolf, the doctor also told us that some of those injuries are going to be life-changing injuries for some of the passengers -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Do we know, Nic, how long this line is going to be out of service?

ROBERTSON: Well, it seems to be going relatively smoothly and quickly, lifting the cars off the -- off and back -- off the dirt and back onto the track. We've been told that it could be seven to 10 days for the investigation part to play out here before the tracks can be handed back to the MTA. So, it could be a number of days. But the early stages seem to indicate that it's progressing relatively smoothly, relatively quickly at the moment -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Now, let me bring Rene into this conversation. I know investigators, they're trying to figure out what happened, Rene. They -- I assume they found the data recorders, is that right?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They did, Wolf. The NTSB recovered two recorders, one in the back of the train, the other in the front. They downloaded information from one recorder at the site. And today, they tweeted out this picture of them downloading data from the second at the NTSB lab in Washington, D.C. We may get details about what is on these recorders at their press briefing that's expected about three hours from now. We know that the NTSB says the two recorders likely captured much of the same information, but there could be some nuances between the two.

Additionally, Wolf, we've learned from the -- from Metro North that the railroad conducted routine drug and alcohol tests on the crew yesterday following the crash. The train did not have video cameras. And additionally, Metro North says it does inspect its tracks twice a week and as of the inspection before the incident, they say the track was OK for normal operations -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, it's pretty surprising to me they didn't have video cameras. You would think in this day and age at least they would have that to review for investigators if there is an accident to review what happened. I know there's a technology called positive train and control or PTC designed to automatically stop or slow a train before certain accidents occur to prevent train to train collisions or derailments. Do we know if this train had that technology?

MARSH: We know that this train did not have that technology. Now, let's talk a little bit about the technology. It's a communications and signaling system that the NTSB says is capable of preventing accidents caused by human error, specifically excessive speed. Also, failure to obey signals. Now, the technology, what it does is it uses Wi-Fi and GPS signals along with sensors along the railroad track to essentially track the train's location and speed restrictions. If the train is going too fast, well, onboard equipment automatically either stops or slows down the train. Again, this train did not have that technology. However, Congress has set a December, 2015 deadline for all passenger trains and freight trains carrying hazardous materials to have this technology -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And Rene is going to have a lot more on this story coming up. Thanks very much, Nic Robertson, we'll get back to you, as well.

Let's move on now to a health scare for passengers on a U.S. Airways express plane that landed in Phoenix. One of the passengers is being tested for tuberculosis. It was taken off the plane when it landed, stopped short of the terminal. The other passengers were quite shocked to see it happen and were told to see their doctors.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN DAVIDSON (via telephone): We have been exposed to a person who has active tuberculosis. That was the extent of the information. Nobody from U.S. Airways said a word.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's bring in our Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. The passenger also says they were told that their chance of infection is low. So, how concerned should these passengers be about getting T.B.?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, I think the concern is quite low, Wolf. Let's take a look at what the CDC told us today. First of all, we don't even know that this gentleman has T.B. They're testing him. No infectious disease has been confirmed so far in the passenger. And even if a passenger had infectious T.B., the duration of the flight was so short that there would likely be no risk of exposure to other passengers.

And the reason for that, Wolf, is that T.B. is not the easiest disease in the world to get. It's not like a chicken pox or a flu which is -- really goes pretty easily from person to person. T.B. is tougher. You usually need exposure to someone day in and day out to get T.B. from them.

BLITZER: Let's just say that the man was on a no-fly list, a medical no fly list. What do we know about that?

COHEN: Right. A medical no-fly list is when a local board of health gets concerned or the Department of Health gets concerned about someone that they have an infectious disease, they're not following doctor's orders not to get on a plane and they can report that up to the CDC. The CDC then asks the TSA to put them on a no-fly list, a medical no-fly list

Now, according to the TSA, this gentleman got on the medical list but it was halfway through the flight. I mean, it was part way through the flight. So, obviously, that's kind of problematic. But it is important to note the CDC tells us that they believe that this man was going to get on an international flight and they certainly stopped him from doing that. An international flight would be much riskier because it's much longer. It's easier to give someone T.B. if you're sitting next to them for, you know, hour after hour after hour.

BLITZER: How exposed to germs are we when we fly?

COHEN: You know, we are exposed to germs. I mean, you certainly can catch a cold or catch the flu where, you know, you've got -- you're next to a lot of people in a pretty confined space. But I will say that for T.B., again, it is much harder to get. There have been many, many reports of people sitting next to someone with infectious T.B. and they haven't gotten T.B. from them even when they're on one of those long haul flights.

BLITZER: Elizabeth Cohen, thanks very much. I know people, by the way, who will sit down in their seats on planes. They take out their sanitizers. They start wiping off everything, the little tables, the head sets, everything they've got there because they're so worried about germs. I guess it can't hurt to do that, right?

COHEN: It can't hurt to do that. I always say it depends how anxious you are about those things. If you're anxious, go ahead and do it. Other people will say, you know what? I'll be fine. It's just in some a ways, it comes down to personal preference. But I will say, Wolf, the most important thing is to watch your hands as much as possible whether you're on a plane or on the ground.

BLITZER: Good advice from Elizabeth. Thanks very much.

A suspicious death outside an NFL game. Three people now in police custody. We'll have the latest on the incident and the investigation and we'll have a live report. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Police are investigating a suspicious death outside the Kansas City Chief's stadium. It happened during yesterday's game. Three people are now in custody.

Ted Rowlands is on the scene for us. He's following the story. Walk us through what we know, Ted. What happened?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the Denver Broncos were playing the Kansas City Chief's and apparently during the game, according to police, three men came out to find a stranger inside their vehicle. An altercation ensued and that stranger, a 20-year-old man ended up dead. The first thing police have to figure out as they talked about it last night after the game is what caused this young man's death?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DARIN SNAPP, KANSAS CITY POLICE: We've talked to the hospital. We're trying to figure out exactly how this person died. They're saying there was no obvious signs how he died so he doesn't appear to be shot or stabbed or anything. But, like I said, the medical examiner is going to have to determine exactly how the person passed away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: And we talked to the folks in Kansas City from the police department just a few minutes ago and they say an autopsy is going on today. They have three people in custody, Wolf. But they don't expect to file charges against them until they do figure out a cause of death and do more investigation. There's a search warrant out so they're actively investigating this. However, they do believe that the three individuals that were in custody overnight will be released over the next few hours. They could be facing charges down the line once they figure out exactly what happened.

BLITZER: And as far as figuring out what happened, there have been some violent incidents at NFL games recently but is there any reason to suspect that may be the case this time?

ROWLANDS: They don't think it's a case of fan rivalry by any stretch of the imagination because they found this individual in the car. But was alcohol a factor? Was fan adrenaline a factor in? If this scenario happened in a shopping mall, would this young man be dead? They're looking into those aspects of the cause, potential cause, but they don't think it was a case of a Bronco fan and a Chief fan going at it. There's no evidence of that.

BLITZER: All right, good. Thanks very much for that. We'll see what happens in investigation. Ted Rowlands reporting.

Osama Bin Laden is dead. Al Qaeda leaders are on the run but is the U.S. any safer from the threat of a terrorist attack? Two prominent lawmakers say, no. You're going to find out what National Security Analyst Peter Bergen has to say about all of this. He's standing by to join us live when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The leaders of the intelligence committees in Congress have stark warnings about the fight against terrorism. They say terrorists are gaining ground right now and America is no safer than it was two years ago. The lawmakers say the killing of Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders has given the U.S. a false sense of security. Listen to what they told our Candy Crowley on CNN's "State of the Union."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CANDY CROWLEY, ANCHOR, CNN'S "STATE OF THE UNION": Are we safer now than we were a year ago, two years ago, in general?

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D-CA), SENATE INTELLIGENCE CHAIRWOMAN: I don't think so. I think terror is up worldwide. The statistics indicate that. The fatalities are way up. The numbers are way up. There are new bombs, very big bombs, trucks being reinforced for those bombs. REP. MIKE ROGERS (R-MI), HOUSE INTELLIGENCE CHAIRMAN: I absolutely agree that we're not safer today for the same very reasons. So the pressure on our intelligence services to get it right, to prevent an attack are enormous. And it's getting more difficult because we see the al Qaeda as we knew it before is metastasizing to something different.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's bring in our national security analyst Peter Bergen, who's joining us right now.

Peter, one of the things that Dianne Feinstein just said, we heard her say it, it jumped out at me, she said -- when she said that we're not safer than we were two years ago. There are new bombs, she said, very big bombs, trucks being reinforced for these bombs. There are bombs that go through magnetometers. The bombmaker is still alive. There are more groups than ever and there's huge malevolence out there. When she starred talking about these huge trucks reinforced that can go through magnetometers, that sounds pretty ominous to me.

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think we're talking about two different things here, Wolf. One is, what is a threat to the United States and, two, how is al Qaeda and affiliated groups doing around the world. And on the latter question, clearly al Qaeda in places like Iraq and Syria is building the kinds of truck bombs that were described by Senator Feinstein and is, unfortunately, enjoying a renaissance in both countries.

The next question though is, to what extent is that a threat to the United States. And for the moment, these groups are being very focused on overthrowing the Assad government in Syria or attacking the Shia -- the largely Shia led government in Iraq. And they've shown no indication of a willingness to attack the United States or even any interest so far. They have recruited a very small number of Americans to go and fight in Syria, maybe 10. We've had an American citizen die in Syria fighting alongside one of these groups. But does that mean, you know, you have a real threat to the homeland? That's a separate question.

BLITZER: Well, what does she mean when she says there are bombs that go through magnetometers?

BERGEN: I think she's referring to this extremely skilled bombmaker in Yemen who has smuggled, you know, bombs onto a variety of planes. The underwear bomber of Christmas Day 2009 that was supposed to blow up over Detroit. October 2010, two bombs that were put on cargo planes, eventually headed to Chicago. Luckily those plots were interrupted. But, clearly, this is a very skilled bombmaker. He's still out there and that is a problem.

BLITZER: When she says there are more groups than ever and there is, in her words, huge malevolence out there against the United States, do you agree with her on those two points?

BERGEN: I certainly don't agree on the, you know, the more groups out there. If you look back five years, Wolf, there were probably eight countries in which al Qaeda or affiliated groups had a significant presence. And now there are 16. You can say that's good news or bad news. Bad news, obviously, there's more of them. The good news is, it's sort of more diffused. They may exist in more countries, but often they're not doing well. In Yemen, they've taken a lot of heat. In Mali, they basically controlled half the country at the beginning of the year and now they don't because of the actions of the French army. And you can go on around the world. In some place they're doing well, in some places not so well.

BLITZER: So what is the status of al Qaeda right now? Not just al Qaeda led by Ayman al Zawahiri, the successor to bin Laden, but the al Qaeda affiliate groups. Those groups that support al Qaeda, they may not necessarily be well coordinated, but they sort of pledge their allegiance to al Qaeda.

BERGEN: Well, in Syria, they control much of northern Syria. And that speaks for itself. In Iraq, they've created so much violence in Iraq that it is as bad as it was back in 2008, Wolf. And you recall that was a very bad time in Iraq. So, you know, it kind of depends where we're talking.

In Somalia, these groups have suffered real reverses, in Yemen, in Mali. And, you know, so it depends where you look in the world. But sadly some of these affiliates are doing well, some are not doing well and the, you know, the parent organization, al Qaeda central, is, you know, really in deep trouble.

BLITZER: Peter Bergen, always with a good strong analysis of what's going on. Thanks very much for joining us.

BERGEN: Thank you.

BLITZER: Let's go to the White House right now. The president is delivering remarks marking World AIDS Day right now. Let's listen in.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The prime of their lives and spread from city to city and country to country seemingly overnight. Today that picture has transformed. Thanks to the courage and love of so many of you in this room and around the world, awareness has soared, research has surged, prevention, treatment and care are now saving millions of lives, not only in the world's richest countries, but in some of the world's poorest countries, as well. And for many, with testing and access to the right treatment, the disease that was once a death sentence now comes with a good chance of a healthy and productive life. And that's an extraordinary achievement.

As president, I've told you that in this fight you'll have a partner in me. And I said that if the United States wanted to be the global leader in combating this disease, then we needed to act like it by doing our part and by leading the world to do more together. And that's what we've done in partnership with so many of you.

We've created the first comprehensive national HIV/AIDS strategy rooted in a simple vision, that every person should get access to life-extending care regardless of age or gender, race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or socioeconomic status. We've continued to support the Ryan White Care Act to help undeserved communities and we lifted the entry ban so that people with HIV are no longer barred from the United States, which led to the International AIDS Conference being held here last year for the very first time in over 20 years.

This summer, I issued an executive order creating the HIV Care Continuum Initiative to boost our federal efforts to prevent and treat HIV. Last month I signed the HIV Organ Policy Equity Act to finally allow research into organ donations between people with HIV, a step achieved with bipartisan support. And thanks to the Affordable Care Act, millions of insured Americans will be able to get tested free of charge. Americans who were uninsured will now be able to have access to affordable health care coverage and beginning in January no American will be again denied health insurance because of their HIV status.

You know, on World AIDS Day two years ago, I announce an additional $35 million for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which helped people pay for life saving medications. At one time, the need was so great that over 9,000 people were on the wait list. We vowed to get those numbers down. And I'm proud to announce that, as of last week, we have cleared that wait list. We are down to zero and we're going to keep working to get it down.

So we're making progress. But we're all here today because we know how much work remains to be done. Here in the United States, we need to keep focusing on investments to communities that are still being hit hardest, including gay and bisexual men, African-Americans and Latinos. We need to keep up the fight in our cities, including Washington, D.C., which, in recent years, has reduced diagnosed infects by nearly half. And we're going to keep pursuing scientific breakthroughs.

Today I'm pleased to announce a new initiative at the National Institutes of Health to advance research into a HIV cure. We're going to redirect $100 million into this project to develop a new generation of therapies. Because the United States should be at the forefront of new discoveries into how to put HIV into long-term remission without requiring lifelong therapies, or, better yet, eliminate it the completely.

And, of course, this fight extends far beyond our borders. And when I became president, I inherited President Bush's phenomenal program PEPFAR, which has helped millions around the world receive life-saving treatment. And we haven't just sustained those efforts. We've expanded them, reaching and serving even more people, especially mothers and children.

Earlier this year, PEPFAR reached a wonderful milestone. The 1 millionth baby born without HIV. And that alongside -- that alongside the rapid decline in new HIV infections and deaths from AIDS in sub- Saharan Africa. On my visit to South Africa this year, I visited a clinic run by Bishop Desmond Tutu and had the honor of spending time with some of their extraordinary young patients and counselors and outreach workers and doctors. Every day they are doing extraordinary work. And when you visit this facility, you cannot help but be inspired by what they do each and every day. In part thanks to the support of the United States of America. They're saving lives and they're changing the way their country and the world approaches this disease. And that's work that we have to continue to advance.

On World AIDS Day two years ago -

BLITZER: The president making the case for important research and funding for AIDS to make sure that on this World AIDS Day we do not forget those in need. The progress that already has been made. Much more, though, needs to be made. We're going to continue to monitor the president speaking on this important subject on this World AIDS Day.

Other news that we're following including the top news we're following this hour, diagnosing a disaster. The NTSB has the data recorders now in hand, but what can they tell them about the deadly train derailment in New York City? I'll talk about that with a former NTSB managing director. That's next.

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