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President Obama on Marijuana; Alleged Terror Plot Foiled in Israel; Winter Blast

Aired January 22, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: We take you now to the top of the hour with some breaking news. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Out of Israel, this is what we are learning. The security agency says it has busted a terror cell that was plotting to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. The plot allegedly involved a double suicide mission that also targeted the convention center in Jerusalem.

Let's go straight to Jerusalem to Ben Wedeman, who joins us here.

Ben Wedeman, tell me what you know as far as these three men who according to security have been arrested and more about this purported plot. Ben Wedeman, this is Brooke Baldwin. Can you hear me?

OK. We are going to work on establishing contact with him in just a minute. Stand by for that.

Moving along, if you are or someone you know are among the thousands headed to Russia for the Sochi Games, want you to listen very carefully here, because CNN has learned a number of new terror threats, including one to the U.S. Olympic Committee.

All of this of course as the hunt continues for the so-called black widows, the female terrorists seeking to avenge the deaths of their husbands. How deadly are these black widows? Let me take you back first to 2002.

Back in 2002, here's what we know. At least 12 black widows attacked a Moscow theater, the capital's deadliest attack, 170 people killed there. Two years later, in 2004, black widow bombers among those to strike a school in the Russian city of Beslan. And 300 people were killed and half of them children.

In 2010, black widow suicide bombers attacked two Moscow metro stations, killing 40 people then, and most recently here, let's get to 2012, an attack on five policemen in Dagestan also carried out by a black widow.

The concern now is that these black widows are ready to strike key Olympic sites. This is the greater -- let me show you. This is the greater Sochi area. You hear us talk about security in the so-called ring of steel, that intensely monitored security perimeter. But once we start zooming in, watch for this. This is Sochi. This is the Olympic Village here right along the coast. And as we move north, again, this is where the athletes will be living, eating, breathing most of the time. Northward, you have these mountains. You see this? A lot of skiing evens are held of course in the mountains. But all of these sites we're pointing out, these are all soft targets. Russian authorities believe these black widows may have breached this perimeter, this so-called ring of steel, and they are embedded inside.

Back to our breaking news story here. Israel's security agency said it has busted this terror cell that was plotting to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv.

Ben Wedeman, let's try this again. Ben Wedeman, live for us in Jerusalem.

Ben, if you can hear me now, tell me about these arrests, tell me about this alleged plot.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This was put out in a statement by the Israeli prime minister's office.

According to that statement, it appears that a man in Gaza through Skype, through Facebook recruited a man in East Jerusalem to carry out -- or, rather, a mastermind series of terror attacks within Israel.

According to the statement from the prime minister's office, this man would have traveled from here to Turkey and from Turkey into Syria where he would receive training, military training. Then he would come back to Israel and join upon with jihadis who would have entered the country with forged Russian passports.

And those jihadis would have attacked the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, the convention center here in Jerusalem, which is not very far from the CNN office. In addition, they would have attacked an Israeli bus in the West Bank as well.

This man who lives in East Jerusalem was arrested by the Israeli police on the 25th of December. So, this does seem to be a fairly complicated plot. It's not altogether clear how far along it was -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Ben, so I'm clear, on the arrest, you talk of one man. We are hearing from Israeli security it's arrested three. Do we know if there are others?

WEDEMAN: There are three, but they only named one of them.

Now, what is really sort of disturbing or worrying in this whole scenario is the whole Syria angle. Just yesterday, I was speaking with a senior Israeli analyst, intelligence analyst, who said they fear as many as 10,000 foreign jihadis are currently operating in Northern Syria, and we know there are wide swathes of the country which are in fact controlled by these jihadis. It appears that this may be increasingly a source of trouble, not just for Israel, but many countries around the world. BALDWIN: For the region. Ben Wedeman in Jerusalem, Ben, thank you.

And now get ready. Many of you are already ready and experiencing this, the big chill. Now that some of the heaviest snow of the season has already fallen across the Northeast, this is where you are getting ready, because part two of an arctic winter blast is already moving in here. The storm is being driven by frigid air, many of the temperatures, seven degrees in Albany, feeling for you, 15, somewhere upwards of 30 degrees below normal expected to linger for the weekend.

Alison Kosik is in it for us at New York. Margaret Conley is watching flight changes at La Guardia.

And here he is. Step out of his way. We have Chad Myers, who we stuck in Plymouth, Massachusetts. We're going to talk to all three of you here.

But, Alison Kosik, let me begin with you.

You are in Islandia, New York. How much snow are you seeing?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK.

What this storm did, Brooke, it dumped anywhere from six inches to more than a foot of snow on Long Island, where I am. That's where Islandia is. It looks really pretty, doesn't it? Look at the sun through the tree there, the beautiful white snow.

But, uh-uh, this sun is not giving any warmth to us today. It is bone-chilling cold out here. When this wind whips, whew, it makes it even colder. Yes, look, these cold temperatures, icy, let me show you how icy. Underneath this snow is like -- is a full sheet of ice. It's very dangerous. I can really slip on this.

But one thing that had to happen today, a lot of students had to be out of school. There were a lot of school closings. Still, some people had to go to work and we caught up with them earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I was surprised. I knew that we had more snow here than in Manhattan. But I still thought maybe they would close the schools, but they kept it open. So, that's why I am having a really late start, because I was anticipating the schools being closed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: So they had to go to work. Kids got a snow day out of this. We got to the play with snowballs. This is pretty hard. It's like an ice, just a ball of ice. It's amazing. I poured some water on it, Brooke, and it turned to ice instantly.

And here's the unfortunate thing. This snow is not going away any time soon, not melting. It's right now 13 degrees and it really feels like four below zero -- Brooke. BALDWIN: Yes, I don't want to see you in the thick of things. I saw the video from Jason Carroll last night being pelted by Columbia University students with snowballs.

(CROSSTALK)

KOSIK: These can hurt somebody.

BALDWIN: Yes, they look like they could. So, careful there, Alison.

We will move along from you to someone in a safer spot.

Margaret Conley is standing by for us at La Guardia Airport. We have been reporting on all these different flights.

I know more than 1,500 flights, Margaret, have been canceled today. Are a lot of people just sitting around and still stuck where you are?

MARGARET CONLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, but, Brooke, it's a very different scene here today.

Yesterday, the airport was pretty empty. And, as you can see behind me, we got a lot of travelers, a lot of traffic in and out of this airport. This is despite 20 percent of the flights in this region, they were canceled today. But we have been talking to people. They planned ahead and they got here earlier and they have been paying attention. And they are also happy about the fact that a lot of the snow was cleared around La Guardia. So, they are very happy about what the airport did to clear that snow out fast.

Here's more on what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAK CALVO, PASSENGER: It was very hectic last night in New York. There was -- some plowing the streets. So, I said, well, better be early than miss my flight, because I have missed flights before.

JANE SCHWARTZ, PASSENGER: I'm very surprised at how clean they got the streets out here to pull up at La Guardia. They did a good job at La Guardia.

JERI SAGEN, PASSENGER: We notified that our flight was canceled the day before yesterday during the night. We got a phone call from American Airlines saying our flight was canceled, and that they put us on another flight. And it's all been fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONLEY: A lot better luck with the travelers today. Brooke, we are expecting operations to resume back to normal here at La Guardia by later on today.

BALDWIN: OK. That's good news for so many. Margaret, thank you.

(WEATHER UPDATE) BALDWIN: Now, coming up next here, this is the scene of a deadly plane crash in Denver. CNN has been showing the moment of impact. Actually, I believe it was Aspen.

Coming up next, we are going to talk to a former pilot about what happened and how the video can be used to keep future flights safe.

Also, President Obama making news this week about his comments about marijuana. He says marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol, but what does his former drug policy chief think about that? We are asking him. Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Just a quick heads-up, a warning, because we are about to show you some graphic video of this plane crash, the final moment of this small plane's flight into Aspen, Colorado, that ended in a ball of fire. Here it is.

A co-pilot was killed when the plane missed the landing earlier this month, ended up upside-down on the runway. We will show it to you in just a minute, but the other two people on board were injured. Again, the video is graphic, but it could provide important clues as to what went wrong. And we will talk about that in just a moment.

But, first, CNN's Ana Cabrera walks us through this newly released video.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chilling new video shows the terrifying moment this private jet crashes into the runway of the Aspen, Colorado, airport earlier this month, bursting into flames, sending a plume of smoke rising into the air.

Surveillance cameras positioned around the runway capture each harrowing moment of the plane's failed landing. The small plane first approaches the runway, then aborts the landing because of difficult conditions.

PILOT: Missed approach, November 115 Whiskey Fox, 33 knots of tail wind.

CABRERA: Minutes later, in the eerie black and white video, the pilot appears to attempt to abort the second landing as well. But tragically he's too late. The plane nose dives, flipping upside down on impact, and skids down the runway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These pilots were attempting to land at a high altitude mountainous terrain airport, with a tail wind, which is very, very challenging.

CABRERA: Ground workers raced to the scene, watching in horror as the plane burns in the distance. One kicks a box, perhaps in frustration.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BALDWIN: Ana Cabrera with the video.

And now to aviation safety consultant Steve Cowell, also a former pilot.

So, Steve, welcome.

Thank you for having me.

BALDWIN: You're in Denver, but I know that you have flown into that airport in Aspen, I'm told, hundreds of times. What are the challenges other than -- you see all the mountains around -- challenges of landing there?

STEVE COWELL, AVIATION SAFETY CONSULTANT: Well, the challenges of Aspen are fairly unique.

We have an airport that is located at 7,800 feet. That presents a unique challenge in the performance of a pilot and his aircraft landing at a high-altitude airport. In addition, we have the wind that flows over the terrain just like the water flowing over rocks in a stream. That will also present a unique challenge to any given pilot flying into Aspen.

BALDWIN: You mentioned the wind. I read there was a reported 33 knots of tailwind, which I'm told is a lot. You can answer me. Also the pilot told the control tower he missed the approach. What role really could the wind have played? Because something else I notice, just that it landed, it crashed nose down there.

COWELL: Well, first and foremost, 33 knots is an extraordinary amount of wind for any airplane even on an airport located in the Plains.

Most jets, if not all jets, are not certified to land at more than 10 knots of a tailwind. It affects your descent rate. It affects your speed over the ground. It affects the pilot's picture that he is seeing out the window of that runway. In addition, it's wreaking havoc as those winds are coming over the terrain with the amount of turbulence that pilot may have experienced on the way down during the approach.

BALDWIN: So, then why would you continue to land if you are that high of knots?

COWELL: Well, that's something that the National Transportation Safety Board is going to be trying to answer.

They are going to be examining the decision-making process of these pilots, not just from that last approach, but from the two previous approaches, as well as why they decided to continue landing, knowing what the weather was when they were maybe even 150 miles away.

BALDWIN: Steve Cowell, we will wait for that, all those questions being asked and those investigation results. Steve, thank you so much. And now to the president of the United States. He is standing firm behind his controversial comments about marijuana that he gave in this massive "New Yorker" magazine essay. Here is White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president's position on these matters hasn't changed. I think he was making a couple of points, one, that we ought to use discretion appropriately in our prosecution priorities, prioritizations, A.

B., when it comes to marijuana use, he made clear that he sees it as a bad habit and a vice and not something that he would encourage. And this is a quote: "It's not something I encourage. And I told my daughters I think it's a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: This is the quote that has really made news this week.

President Obama told "The New Yorker" -- quote -- "I don't think it, being marijuana, is more dangerous than alcohol."

Now it was President George Bush's former drug czar set to seek on CNN about the president's marijuana views. John Walters is his name, former director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, will appear on "THE LEAD" in just about 45 minutes from now.

But the host of the show, Jake Tapper, you are talking to him and I imagine you posed the question, just sort of reacting to Obama's comparison to marijuana and alcohol. And what does he have to say?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, he said what the president said goes against all of the science on this issue.

What's interesting, though, this is not just about Bush's drug czar against President Obama. You might expect there to be disagreements. This is about the drug czar now against President Obama. If you go to the White House Web site for the Office of Drug Control Policy, you will see a number of statements that seem to contradict in letter and in suggestion what President Obama said about marijuana.

First of all, President Obama said he thought the experiments in Colorado and Washington State legalizing marijuana for recreational use, not just medicinal use, should go forward because in terms of the justice system, he doesn't think it's fair. But if you look at the Web site for the White House, they are very clearly against any legalization of marijuana.

BALDWIN: So, that's contradictory.

TAPPER: Yes, no, absolutely.

And I think the president was offering his personal point of view, including personal experience, as he noted in the interview, but then also just the idea of seeming to downplay marijuana as a bad habit, as a vice. But if you read what the Office of Drug Control Policy has to say about marijuana, it's a schedule one drug.

They consider it a very addictive and very serious drug. What the president said about it not being any worse than alcohol, that is not directly contradicted on the Web site Office of Drug Control Policy, but the suggestion, the downplaying of it certainly is.

BALDWIN: It's amazing, because there was so much to this 16,000-word piece in "The New Yorker." But this is what has really buzzed the last couple of days. Jake Tapper, we will see what the former drug czar has to say about marijuana and also what the White House's stance is. Jake Tapper, thank you. We will see you in 40 minutes on your show.

TAPPER: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Coming up next here this afternoon, police released new details in the bizarre disappearance of a doctoral student, Teleka Patrick, last seen just about six weeks ago. Now we're learning what investigators found inside her car, her behavior moments before she disappear and a change to her online social networking accounts.

Plus, her husband was shot and killed inside a movie theater. Police say it was because her husband was texting. And today his widow describes what happened and the husband that she has lost.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICOLE OULSON, WIDOW: And just to think that in the blink of an eye, my whole world just got shattered into a million pieces and now I'm left trying to pick them up and put them all back together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A young couple went to the movies. It was a rare date and their nearly 2-year-old daughter was at home with a baby-sitter.

Nicole Oulson never imagined it would be the last time she would spend with her husband, Chad. An ex-police officer allegedly shot and killed Chad Oulson in this argument over texting at a movie theater in Florida. Nicole sobbed as she described her loss.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OULSON: It's just unimaginable.

Me and my husband didn't get a date night very often, much less a whole day to spend together. So, I was just excited and looking forward to spending the day with the love of my life at a place of entertainment, family entertainment.

And just to think that in the blink of an eye, my whole world just got shattered into a million pieces and now I'm left trying to pick them up and put them all back together, and it's so hard and it so unbearable.

But I want to thank you all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Her world and the world of her little girl who she will now be raising as a single mother. Nicole Oulson says she was shot in the hand by the same bullet that killed her husband. Her attorney says she is recovering as expected from the hand injury.

An attorney for the alleged shooter said his client, a former police officer in the community for many years, their defense, self-defense.

And now to the case of a missing doctor out of Michigan. This just gets stranger and stranger. Teleka Patrick seen in these YouTube videos, several videos, singing and cooing to someone, we just don't know who that someone is. That is just one of the bizarre details investigators uncovered as they're trying to figure out what happened to her.

The 30-year-old woman failed to show up on her hospital job on the 6th of December. Today, the sheriff came out with more information, including the fact that Patrick left her cell phone inside her work locker.

CNN legal correspondent Jean Casarez has been watching this for us today as well.

And, Jean, I know that investigators went into a lot of detail about her last known movements, including the fact that a co-worker gave her a ride, what, to the hotel?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Learned so much about a timeline. You are right. She wanted to go to a hotel.

The one thing about that Kalamazoo County officials wanted to emphasize, this is a missing persons investigation. There is nothing in what they know that tells them she is deceased, but here's what we learned today.

December 5, a normal day at work. She told friends she was going to go visit a relative in Chicago over the weekend. About 7:30 in the evening, she told a co-worker, I don't have a car. Can you give me a ride to the local hotel downtown? She did have a car in the parking lot, but she got in with the co-worker. She gets in there and starts to erratically talk to the co-worker, saying, I don't have any money. Can you give me some money?

She was given $100, went down, got into the hotel and started walking around in the lobby and it is believed she wanted to check into a room, but finally said she needed to leave. The hotel van took her back to the hospital. When she gets out, once again, erratic talking, saying, I can't get back in with you. The hotel van driver watches her as she goes not into the hospital, where she is a resident.

Remember, this is a female doctor. BALDWIN: Right.

CASAREZ: She goes into the parking lot, gets in her car. That's about 8:00 at night. Two hours later, someone is reporting a lone person in a white car driving erratically on Interstate 94 in Indiana.

The Kalamazoo Police Department said that the car was abandoned and that was the last time they believe that Dr. Patrick was ever seen, and it was her white vehicle. Today, the sheriff of Kalamazoo County spoke directly to Dr. Teleka Patrick. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD FULLER, KALAMAZOO COUNTY SHERIFF: My message to her if she is watching is that if for whatever reason that this is an event that may have gotten out of hand, meaning a temporary situation that became permanent because of the tension, I would say all is forgiven and please come forward, because we need you to help your family and help everyone else understand what your situation is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: And her social media accounts were deleted, Brooke, which is another thing that is so strange.

When they were, we don't know. But we just spoke with the undersheriff right before going on the air. Her car was found 40 feet off the road. They took a bloodhound dog and traced her scent back to the roadway. There is where it ends.

They think she may have gotten into the vehicle with someone else. But at this point, they have no evidence of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So bizarre. Jean Casarez, thank you.