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Army Shrinking to Pre-World War II Levels; Ukraine's Ousted President Faces Arrest; Netflix Deals with Comcast to Improve Streaming; Sochi Winter Olympics Comes to an End; Jason Collins Takes the Court; Arizona Bill Goes after LGBT Community; NFL Bans Slurs on the Field
Aired February 24, 2014 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: He does look creepy.
(LAUGHTER)
CUOMO: Me?
BOLDUAN: Yes.
PEREIRA: Yes, you.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: Thanks, guys. Have a great day. NEWSROOM starts now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, cutback. The Pentagon about to shrink the size of the army to pre-World War II levels. Defense Secretary Hagel to make the sweeping announcement today. The big question, will our country be safe?
Plus, breaking this morning, an international manhunt for Ukraine's former president. As our reporters go inside his lavish presidential palace.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Where did all the money go? Here is part of the answer.
COSTELLO: A zoo, a boat, a Bentley and that's just the beginning.
And the snowflake screw up. That closed the most expensive Olympics ever. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. In just a few hours we could see the beginning of the biggest transformation of the U.S. military in decades. According to the "New York Times" Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will propose a reduction so wide and so deep it would create the nation's smallest army since World War II. The proposal sure to fuel debate in Congress signals a changing world and America's role in that world.
Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon for us with more. Good morning.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, a lot of people say oh, goodness, it's going to be the smallest army since before World War II but look at it this way. In 70 years technology has advanced to the point, the Pentagon simply doesn't need, they say, the number of people that they had 70 years ago during World War II.
Look for Hagel to make cuts across the board, to proposed cuts in weapons spending, in personnel, cutting things like the A-10 aircraft which has been around since the time the U.S. was planning to fight the Soviet Union, possibly cutting the famed U-2 spy plane. Now all of these kinds of things taken over by precision weapons, remotely piloted vehicles, advanced technology.
The question may be one of politics and national security risk. Will Congress go for these kinds of cuts because, of course, in every district in every state it means jobs and military spending, things like pay, health care for veterans could be impacted, that will be very controversial.
But what about the risk to national security? The Obama administration's view is Iraq and Afghanistan are over, there's no real scenario on the -- in the foreseeable future for another major land war. If something breaks out they will deal with it with that advanced technology. That is their hope. In all cases the enemy gets a vote -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Barbara Starr, reporting live at the Pentagon this morning.
A crushing setback for the American soldier being held captive by the Taliban and the family that's been fighting for his release. Talibaners suspending talks with the United States over a possible exchange of Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban prisoners. The Taliban states a complex political situation for breaking off negotiations but offers no real explanation. Bergdahl has been held by insurgents in Pakistan since 2009.
A stern warning from the United States this morning to Russia. It would be a grave mistake if Vladimir Putin sends military forces to seize power in Ukraine. This morning pro-Western rebels are celebrating the Ukrainian president's departure and still ogling the president's opulent palace.
Their pictures tell the story. Here's one visitor posing for a picture while perched atop a palace toilet. Others strolling the grounds, admiring the artwork, and most of all gloating over the people's victory that toppled an unpopular government.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WALSH (voice-over): The ousted president is wanted for mass murder and on the run in the south, probably Crimea, seen leaving a private house there. And Ukraine is still on the streets watching a new government form, mourning the dead and enjoying a strange period when the people are the only real power around.
Moscow has been pretty silent so far about losing its main ally here. The ex-president and the United States hope it stays out militarily.
SUSAN RICE, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: That would be a grave mistake.
WALSH: Ukrainians still digesting the rapid collapse of their past and also aghast at the absurd wealth of Yanukovych here at his personal retreat.
Remarkably no looting, nothing stolen, because that's what they say he did. A day out to forget the dead the political power vacuum and see what money can buy if you really don't have anything sensible to do with it. Soon it may be Yanukovych, their former owner, who's behind the bars.
(On camera): He didn't even drive these '50s Bentley, a Soviet armored Limo. Whatever this is, an American Army jeep.
(Voice-over): In the end he fled of course in the presidential helicopter. And not in this, a massive river boat for partying. Outside fascination at the life he led and they could only look in on while their country stagnated.
Inside, gifts from guests.
(On camera): When months ahead when Ukraine comes to terms with a troubled economy and asks where did all the money go, here is part of the answer, the president's own vodka.
(Voice-over): Did you even know Versace made plates? Even the presidential waste gets (INAUDIBLE).
We later got inside his house, a bizarre, enormous empty mansion with this girl's bedroom a rare sign of life being lived here. Otherwise, it was gaudy but vacant. Everything laid on, even a tunnel linking the houses across miles and miles of grounds. The luxury literally never seemed to end.
In his bedroom, one bell for sex, one for alcohol. It was presumably a joke, but how he lived to the people whose money this was isn't.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: No joke at all. Nick Paton Walsh reporting.
Right now authorities in Ukraine have issued an arrest warrant for the Ukrainian president. He was last seen in Crimea, a pro-Putin stronghold within the country.
We'll keep you posted.
Attorney General Eric Holder is calling on Congress to pass a law that would require companies to notify customers more quickly about data breaches. Holder says strong national standards need to be set so Americans can better protect themselves if they are put at risk. Right now no such federal standard exists although some states have notification laws.
Holder pointed to the recent data breaches at Target and Neiman Marcus in making the new push. The Target hacking exposed the personal information of nearly 100 million customers.
If you're one of Netflix's 44 million users there's nothing worse than trying to watch your favorite TV show only to get that buffering message on the screen. The good news streaming is about to get faster for some customers.
Let's bring in CNN's chief business correspondent, Christine Romans. Tell us more, Christine.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Well, right now this is Comcast customers only. For now. Look, it reached a deal with Netflix. It's going to make streaming movies, the TV shows faster.
Here's the how. Netflix is going to tap directly into Comcast network. Until now, you know, Netflix movies first went through a middle man before reaching Comcast. There's been a lot of dispute, big point of contention about how fast or slow Netflix is on those big pipes, those broadband pipes that are controlled by Comcast.
Now Netflix has been battling with the broadband providers about getting that direct access. It's a huge issue. You know, the pipeline is only so big and at its peak, primetime peak, Netflix content fills up 32 percent of that pipe. That creates a traffic jam, a slowdown, and until now it's always been whose fault is that. Is that the people who own the pipe or the people who own all the stuff that goes through the pipe. Now it looks like they're starting to talk about how to fix it for consumers.
COSTELLO: What if you have a different cable provider?
ROMANS: They're still waiting on that. Comcast, this deal with Netflix, it could be a precedent, though. We're assuming that all of these other companies are all talking about what they can do. The question is who will pay for it.
The consensus this morning, Carol, likely we'll end up paying for it. I mean, consumers always pay for it at the end, right? Although there's no official statement from any cable company or a content provider that they're going to pass that charge along, but I think we can safely assume cable bills have been rising, Carol, and if we want to gobble up lots of stuff and watch them whenever we want with no buffering, we'll end up paying for it in the end.
COSTELLO: I think you're right. Christine Romans, many thanks.
(LAUGHTER)
So long to Sochi, 16 days of competition, 98 gold medals and one snowflake that headlined the opening ceremonies. Russia says bye-bye to the Winter Olympics with a little laugh. See, Vladimir Putin does have a sense of humor.
Our senior international correspondent Ivan Watson has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In an explosive closing ceremony, Russia waved farewell to the world's Olympians with style and grace.
In a show of class that won applause from within the stadium, the host country even poked fun at itself, mirroring the mistake in the opening ceremony, one ring seemingly unable to form until the spectacular finale.
For Russia, it was this final event that sealed the host country's fate atop the games medal table. The nearly two-hour, 50-kilometer race all came down to this heart-pounding sprint. A dramatic ending as Alexander Legkov crossed the finish line just seven-tenths of a second ahead. A one, two, three sweep for Team Russia.
And on the bobsled track, Russia's veteran athlete, Alexander Zubkov, piloted his four-man team to the top of the podium. Russia clinching the lead by less than a tenth of a second. 39-year-old Zubkov who left this season's World Circuit Competition empty handed ended the Olympic Games with two gold medals, the first driver to do so in bobsled for a host nation.
The race marked a historic victory for Team USA as well. Stephen Holcomb steered the Americans to bronze securing third place by just 300ths of a second. His victory in the four-man and two-man bobsled ended USA's dry spell. The 33-year-old becoming the first American pilot to win medals in both races in more than five decades.
But out on the hockey rink, it was the Titans from Team Canada who left the ice celebrating. In a power pack 3-0 shutout against Sweden, Jonathan Toews, Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz, all sunk the puck cementing Canada's win, the first hockey team undefeated in 30 years.
Now at the close of the 2014 Sochi Olympics, Russia hands the games flag off to South Korea, a passing of the torch to the host of the 2018 Winter Games in Pyongyang.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Ivan Watson reporting. Russia won 33 medals, the most overall, 13 were gold. That was also tops. The United States came in second with 28 total medals. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, it is a waiting game in Arizona. Will business owners be allowed to deny services based on their religious beliefs? A bill some called anti-gay now sits on the governor's desk.
Nick Valencia is following that story.
Good morning.
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. We'll lay out both sides of the debate and tell you how long Governor Jan Brewer has before she has to decide whether or not she'll sign this law into effect.
I'm Nick Valencia here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Checking our top stories at 15 minutes past the hour, a shock for a pilot of a single-engine plane. Watch this. That's a bird smashing through the cockpit window while the plane was flying over Fort Myers, Florida.
The pilot, Rob Weber, was the only passenger on board and amazingly enough he was able to land safely. He just had a small cut on his forehead.
Police are looking for the driver of a gray Honda Accord that hit an elderly man at a Las Vegas gas station. Police say the attack followed a road rage incident and they are treating the case as attempted murder. The victim was taken to a hospital; the suspect described as a white man in his 30s. The car had California license plates.
A growing concern in California where 25 children over the last three years have come down with a mysterious polio-like illness. The first case popped up in 2012 when a 2-year-old Berkeley girl started wheezing and had difficulty breathing.
At first doctors thought it was asthma, but then the child suffered paralysis in her limbs. Docs have determined that while the illness mimics symptoms of polio it is not polio. They suspect it's actually an Enterovirus, a family of viruses that include polio but also milder illness like foot-and-mouth disease, which is common in children.
Since polio was eradicated in the United States in the 1950s, docs say these new viral symptoms are easily overlooked by younger physicians not trained to be on the lookout for such illnesses.
A major barrier broken in sports. It happened in the second quarter of last night's Brooklyn Nets-Los Angeles Lakers game.
That would be Jason Collins. He checked into the game for the Nets and became the first openly gay athlete in the four major professional sports. Collins was a free agent last April when he revealed he was gay in a "Sports Illustrated" cover story. After last night game the 12-year NBA veteran said he was just glad to be back on the court. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON COLLINS, NBA PLAYER: It was weird in that, you know, I'm usually like the background, one of the background players, and it's weird, obviously this, but at the same time it is what it is and it's part of life. The most important thing is that the team got the win. But it's all I've ever cared about.
I don't care about scoring. I don't care about -- I care about my team winning and helping my teammates get open and making their job easier.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Collins signed a 10-day contract with the Nets which could be extended.
So on a day America's first openly gay pro basketball player takes the court and the first openly gay college athlete tries out for the NFL, Arizona's governor is busy deciding whether to sign a law that would allow businesses to deny service to gays and lesbians. Jan Brewer has rejected a similar law in the past, but it's -- but she's taking her time with this one.
Nick Valencia is here with more.
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Religious conservatives are arguing that this isn't about trying to discriminate against the gay segment of the population; rather this is about the burden laws have right now on laws exercising religious freedom.
Democrats and gay activists are not buying it. They say that this will make it harder for gay people to live in Arizona. And this is a psychological play on the gay community.
You spoke to a House Democrat in Arizona last week and on "ANDERSON COOPER 360," we had a House Republican. They laid out their sides of the debate. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KAVANAGH (R), ARIZONA STATE REPRESENTATIVE: All this law does it says that before the government can put a burden on religion, a substantial burden on religion, they have to prove a compelling interest in doing so and they have to do it in the least restrictive way.
The law has been in effect since the 1990s. What we did the other day was put several tweaks to it.
CHAD CAMPBELL (D), ARIZONA STATE REPRESENTATIVE: Let there be no doubt about what this bill does. It will allow people to discriminate against the gay community in Arizona. It goes after unprotected classes of people and we all know that the biggest unprotected class of people in this state is the LGBT community.
And the supporters of this bill, the Republicans on the floor yesterday, admitted as much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VALENCIA: The governor has until Friday to decide whether or not she will sign this law into effect. She's in Washington, D.C. right now. We've got a crew staking her out.
You mentioned she has vetoed similar legislation in the past, but recently, Carol, she came out saying she supports the right of private businesses, small businesses as a former business owner to deny services to some people.
COSTELLO: What?
VALENCIA: Yes. That's what she's saying right now. She's not coming out. She hasn't spoken so far today.
COSTELLO: No, I mean the part about small businesses having the right to deny service to some people.
VALENCIA: To some people. And you know, interestingly enough it's not just Arizona. I know we're focusing on Arizona but it's one of five states that has this so-called unique provision that allows to it deny services or employment to the LGBT community. There's a lot of other states, a handful of states.
I think we have a graphic showing exactly how many other states, but we're talking Oklahoma, we're talking about Hawaii, we're talking about Idaho. These are just some of the states that have this unique provision that the gay activists are saying this discriminates against us.
So far we have not yet found a private business in Arizona that supports this legislation. We have been trying very hard. But we have found a business that says that they are reserving the right to refuse service to Arizona lawmakers.
COSTELLO: Because you know why? Because money is green. Right?
VALENCIA: This is an economic hit. It could be taken as an economic hit against the State of Arizona.
COSTELLO: Nick Valencia, thanks so much.
VALENCIA: You got it, Carol.
COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, NFL arrest could throw a flag if a player hurls a racial slur. This will be a major rule change, Andy Scholes.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Carol. This would be big. But how in the world would they police this? We'll discuss after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: A potential NFL rule change is trending on social media this morning. Get this. The league is considering a 15-yard penalty for any player who uses the N word or other racial slurs on the field. Statement from the NFL reads in part, "It is a potential rule modification being discussed by our Competition Committee. The committee has not decided on a formal proposal to our clubs which have to approve the rule changes by a three-fourths vote."
Andy Scholes is here to talk more about this.
I don't see how you can enforce that.
SCHOLES: That's the biggest issue people are debating this morning, Carol.
How do you enforce it? Like in a place like Seattle where there are earthquakes for how loud the fans are.
How would an official be able to listen to players that are not standing next to them and decide who said what, when and then do you penalize players for saying to it to their own teammates?
Like how in the world would you actually enforce this? Now the GM of the Baltimore Ravens, Ozzie Newsome (ph), he's part of the Competition Committee, he's one of the people debating this rule right now and he said they actually would be able to police this. He talked at the NFL Combine yesterday about this potential rule.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OZZIE NEWSOME, BALTIMORE RAVENS, NFL COMPETITION COMMITTEE: With any rule that we put into play we have to look at it from A to X and find out what are the unintended consequences as much as the consequences.
So -- but, as it was stated in our meeting, there are mikes everywhere. So if something is being said, it's probably going to be captured somewhere. So it would be an opportunity to get it verified if we had to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: And the NFL, as you read part of their statement that they released to us earlier, and the rest of that statement read, "The game officials already have substantial authority to police verbal abuse, unsportsmanlike conduct and they understand the league's focus on respect."
If you watch NFL games like we all do, Carol, we see -- there aren't unsportsmanlike penalties called unless usually physical contact is made, you know, a scrum happens; someone hits someone in the helmet. You get unsportsmanlike conduct.
Verbal is not anywhere part of that right now.
(CROSSTALK)
SCHOLES: So it's going to be interesting to see how this happens.
And I had a question that I posed to someone. They thought it was interesting. So if a Native American player is called say a redskin is that a 15-yard penalty? Wouldn't that be pretty hypocritical?
COSTELLO: Ooh. But I liked your other point, too, because players can still use these words in the locker room and they're not going to be penalized, but isn't that where they should be penalized?
SCHOLES: Yes, so who is policing the locker room? Then you have practice, the locker room. This isn't like the NBA where there's fans are sitting right here, where fans hear everything, single thing the NBA players say on the court. That's why NBA players get technical fouls left and right but you got to police that right away.
No one really hears what players are saying on an NFL field, other than we hear Peyton Manning yelling, Omaha, Omaha, because the mike's pointed right at him.
But again, I don't see how they are going to police this, at least effectively -- and think about this, Carol. The first time this penalty is called and it ends up affecting the outcome of a game, can you imagine the blowback after that?
COSTELLO: Oh, yes.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: (INAUDIBLE). (INAUDIBLE) for the team.
Andy Scholes, interesting conversation. Thank you so much.
Still to come, El Chapo captured. But will the United States get its hands on the world's most powerful drug lord? Ted Rowlands coverage that story for us.
Good morning, Ted.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. We got some great details on the capture of El Chapo. We'll talk about that when NEWSROOM continues after the break. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
Just ahead in the NEWSROOM, the U.S. Supreme Court front and center today with two high-profile controversial cases, the NRA appealing a nationwide ban on selling handguns to minors and the other could test the limits of President Obama's push to use executive power.
Plus, arctic blast. Frigid polar air sinking south by the middle of the week. When will it end?
And the CDC investigating another possible outbreak on a cruise ship. More than 100 people got sick. What can to be done to keep our cruises safe?
NEWSROOM continues now.
