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58 Bodies Recovered In Ferry Disaster; Second Airstrike Kills More Terror Suspects; Boston Readies For Tomorrow's Marathon; Christians Celebrate Easter

Aired April 20, 2014 - 14:30   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. We're getting new details now about the sinking of that ferry off the coast of South Korea from a crew member who was on board. A radio transcript was released just a short time ago. It reveals a dramatic conversation that took place as the ferry sank Wednesday with 475 people on board. Most of them students and teachers on a class trip.

According to the transcript, an unidentified crew member said passengers aboard the doomed ferry could not board lifeboats because the ship had tilted too much too fast. That may have caused at least 58 deaths so far. Search crews brought more than a dozen bodies to shore today. Police were seen crying as they watched families grieve. With at least 244 people still missing, this heart breaking scene is expected to play out over and over again.

CNN's Will Ripley is on a boat nearby with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Another day of searching. Another day of grim discoveries. Body after body from the sunken Sewol ferry.

(on camera): We watched as several bodies were pulled out of the water from Korea coast guard ships. What's been happening is the dive teams have been going out in groups and teams and they enter in the ferry using five different entry points.

(voice-over): Hundreds of divers, ships, and dozens of aircraft are searching.

(on camera): We know the divers are facing very gruelling conditions right now. The underwater currents are very strong and they're constantly shifting. Plus visibility is really limited partly because there's a big oil slick coming up from the ferry. There's also equipment here that will be used for a salvage operation including a very crane that could actually help pull the boat out of the water, but that crane, that salvage equipment is not being used right now. It is only the divers.

Because these families do not want anything done that could disturb the ship and potentially disturb an air pocket if there's a slim chance that somebody may still be alive under there. But sadly as we see each body found, it appears that this search mission is turning more into a recovery mission, but still they're holding out hope. Will Ripley, Jindo Island, Korea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, no survivors have been found since the 174 people were rescued on Wednesday. Straight ahead, I'll speak with an expert on the Korean culture and what the families might be going through.

A second deadly air strike targeting al Qaeda hit Yemen today. A suspected drone strike killed at least a dozen people including a number of suspected al Qaeda militants in the south western province. That's according to a Yemeni government official. Yesterday another strike in a neighboring province killed ten suspected al Qaeda members. A source says Saturday's strike was targeting three well- known operatives linked to a terror training camp. Three civilians were also killed in that attack.

Sunlen Serfaty is following the story for us from Washington today. Sunlen, do we know specifically today's target?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: well, it's still unclear if any of the hits today were high-value targets. Yemeni government officials confirms to CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom that the strike was a joint U.S.- Yemeni operation targeting what this official describes as the core of one of the strongest al Qaeda affiliates. This one operating out of Yemen. Now the attack took place in the southern province of Abyan.

Yemeni officials says the target could have been a training camp or militants on the move in vehicles. As you see this wasn't all that far from Saturday's attack in the Al Bayda Province that confirmed drone strike killed at least ten al Qaeda militants and three civilians. Now sources say that it isn't unusual to have strikes close together like this.

They often happen in successive days or even on the same day in different locations. Now House Homeland Security Committee Chairman McCaul has been briefed on this today and he called this group the greatest external threat to the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE MICHAEL MCCAUL (R), TEXAS: They're the one who is are involved with bomb-making devices to go undetected on airplanes. They are the ones who create the magazine that inspired The Boston marathon bombers. I think it is a positive sign given the prior narrative that al Qaeda's on the run and this is all over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: Now, the White House never comments about strikes like this, but to note, Fred, this is the ninth strike in Yemen this year alone.

WHITFIELD: All right, Sunlen Serfaty, thanks so much in Washington. As you heard there, there's no word from the White House on these strikes, but lawmakers see them as a strong sign. CNN law enforcement analyst, Tom Fuentes joining me now live from Washington. So Tom, the White House isn't taking responsibility. Yemen is saying, however, it's a joint mission with the U.S. so who will get credit or blame for this?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Hi, Fredricka. Well, obviously the U.S. has the equipment and Yemen has provided assistance to the U.S. for many, many years. People forget that the first attack against the U.S. and Yemen was in October of 2000 when the USS Cole was bomb in Aden Harbor killing U.S. sailors on that ship. And the U.S. has been launching drones in Yemen for more than a decade.

In 2002, an al Qaeda leader and another couple of leaders that were riding in a car got into a traffic accident with a hellfire missile fired by a predator drone and they were killed. So the assistance of Yemen to the United States has been ongoing for a long time. Then in the recent past, we have the underwear bomber on Christmas day 2009. A year later in 2010, we had the attempt to mail printer cartridges with PETN, a very powerful explosive and the same explosive that the underwear bomber had.

And those packages were destined for the U.S., specifically a Jewish community center in Chicago. So this has been a continuing attempt by what has now evolved into al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to attack the U.S. They've probably been the most aggressive al Qaeda affiliate in the world that actually goes after the U.S. rather than just local attacks against their own country.

WHITFIELD: So let's talk more about this, you know, terror group, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and you know, how it continues to pose a threat to the U.S. and other countries. Is it intensifying in strength?

FUENTES: I don't know that -- I don't know that it has to intensify in too much strength, because it only needs a few people to carry out these attacks to try to get on an airplane with a PETN-based explosive or to mail packages to the U.S. or attack other U.S. interests around the world. So it doesn't take a lot. You see in that video about a hundred people. There's many people speculating about that video and why nothing was done at the time to fire a drone.

My guess and it's just a guess is that there were probably intelligence agents among that crowd that the United States and Saudi Arabia did not want to have killed and sacrificed by attacking that group. But wait until they're in smaller pockets and go after them. And that may be what we're seeing now in the latest two attacks back- to-back that have identified a smaller group of people and, you know, go after them.

WHITFIELD: OK. Tom Fuentes in Washington, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

FUENTES: You're welcome.

WHITFIELD: All right, Bostonians are ramping up for what's expected to be the biggest crowd ever at tomorrow's Boston marathon. But after last year's deadly bombing, security will also be at historic levels. We're going live to Boston for a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, new details today about the sinking of that ferry off the coast of South Korea. According to a radio transcript that just came out, a crew member says passengers aboard the doomed ferry could not board lifeboats because the vessel had tilted too much too fast. If you recall, a lot of people who were on board said they were told to stay put. Sometimes they heard it over the loud speaker like ten times. And many did just that. Followed those orders.

I want to bring in Stephen Noerper, senior vice president of the Korean Society. Steven, good to see you.

STEPHEN NOERPER, SENIOR VP, THE KOREAN SOCIETY: Good to see you.

WHITFIELD: So we know hundreds of students apparently obeyed those orders to stay where they were. There were some students who did abandon ship and they were the ones that were told this story that most kind of followed the orders they heard on the loud speaker. So is there something in Korean culture that can kind of explain that. Obeying what many thought was authority giving them instructions.

NOERPER: Sure. A great question. I mean, first of all a sad Easter for the Korean people. But there is a confusion victim, which is that one respects elders and certainly the focus in Korean Society on education where 55 percent of Korean household expenditure goes to education. It means that students are trained and taught to listen to authority. It could have been a factor in terms of them remaining in cabin and a sad one indeed.

WHITFIELD: And then I don't know if there's a cultural difference or any real comparisons to make, but when you hear so many of these children's parents who are expressing their grief and talking about how they want to return to the sea themselves, sacrifice themselves out of the sheer agony that is coming with the loss of their children, do you feel like this is indicative of, you know, the Korean culture or is this just simply a human response?

NOERPER: Well, it's really both. I mean, one, it's agony for any parent and any of us to consider. But I think in Korean society where the birth rate is particularly low at the present time of industrialized countries, it's among the lowest at 1.2 children per mother. So most families may only have one or two children. Again, so much is put into their upbringing and education and many of those parents feel just terribly sad.

In Korean culture there is something called a han or a grievance, which is a feeling nationally of the deep sadness that a century really of hardship, most of the 20th Century saw either colonial occupation of division, which is still the case on the Korean Peninsula. And this type of tragedy just drives that all the more home.

WHITFIELD: And then of course, there is shame and honor. That too very high principles in the Asian culture really broad brush kind of way. And you learn about the suicide of the vice principal who was working to escort the high school students. And do you think that speaks to culturally the shame that was coming with the fact that so many kids died under his watch as he explained in his suicide note.

NOERPER: Sure. And he did explain it that way and he probably considered that a ritual suicide in that manner. He certainly felt an obligation. He expressed in that note a desire to hopefully teach them or meet them beyond. But it certainly caused a tremendous amount of grief. One of the interesting aspects that allude to of confusion culture is there's an expectation that teachers and officials have a responsibility downward as well. So that's one of the reasons why you're seeing such public displays of grief and some anger towards officials at this time.

WHITFIELD: All right, Stephen Noerper, thank you so much. Our thoughts going out to all those involved. It is just universally painful to watch and empathize with what they're going through. It's tough. All right, thank you so much.

NOERPER: Our condolences. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Appreciate it.

All right, back here on U.S. soil, tomorrow, the Boston marathon promises to be even bigger than last year. We're looking at the city's unbreakable spirit and the security measures that will be tighter than ever.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Just over a year ago, twin bombings killed three people and wounded hundreds more at the Boston marathon finish line. But the city's spirit of perseverance survived and grew even stronger. In fact, tomorrow's race will have more runners than last year and more spectators than ever. CNN's Brooke Baldwin is in Boston. Brooke, overall are people excited or nervous or both?

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: I think probably a little bit of both, Fred. Nice to see you. But I think the excitement is really palpable here. Less than 24 hours to go, of course, until the big race tomorrow morning, which begins in Hopkins in Massachusetts and makes its way to Boylston Street. It is absolutely gorgeous here. We're live in Boston common on this Easter Sunday. Just talking to some runners this morning, they were saying, Brooke, this really reminds us just even the weather of marathon Monday on Patriots Day one year ago.

And you know it's really, you know, marathon time when you walk all around the city as we have for the last day or two and you see people in their turquoise and yellow jackets, their marathon jackets. It's this badge of honor especially those from last year. The 36,000 people will be running this marathon. That's the second biggest in the race's history. This is the 118th running of it.

And there will be thousands of people who will be, of course, running. Those of whom were injured last year and many of whom who couldn't finish because of those bombings. I talked to a man, his name is David Fortier. He is from Massachusetts. His first marathon running Boston last year and you're about to hear from him -- we spoke to him this morning because he was right there, he and his family. He was running on Boylston, took a look to the left and that is when that first bomb went off at 2:49 people right as he was crossing the finish line. He remembers it like it was yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID FORTIER, BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING SURVIVOR: All of a sudden everything changed. It was this huge flash, incredibly loud noise. I felt my foot get knocked sideways. I was pushed sideways and it felt like I'd been hit by a truck. And as I turned, I turned to my right, and I looked back to where I had just seen a whole lot of people standing there cheering and it was just complete devastation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: So his injuries to his right foot, lost a lot of his hearing in his left ear. But he will be back out tomorrow morning with the 415 strong group. Several dozen who were injured or couldn't finish last year. Just quickly on security, you know it's going to be tight this year. They have doubled the police presence. There is a no-bag policy. No backpacks or ruck sacks. No bulky clothing. Be extra careful given what happened one year ago. But the final note just in terms really of the spirit in the air and people showing up, it will be the biggest race as far as spectators, 1 million people are expected to line this race route all those 26.2 miles up into the finish line.

WHITFIELD: Incredible, 1 million Boston strong. All right, thank you so much, Brooke Baldwin. We'll be watching we know you'll be there tomorrow as well.

All right, Christians around the world pausing to celebrate the resurrection. Coming up, we'll go to Rome where Pope Francis has delivered his Easter message for peace.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: Christians around the world are celebrating Easter Sunday, the day they believed Jesus Christ rose from the dead. In his second Easter message since becoming head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis prayed for an end to conflicts around the world. CNN Delia Gallagher has been covering Holy Week for us and has more now from outside the Vatican in Rome.

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Over 100,000 people joined Pope Francis this morning in St. Peters Square for Easter mass. This is the culmination of a week of activities leading up to today. And the people here received a special blessing and message from the pope called urbi et orbi to the city and to the world, which the pope gives from the central balcony of St. Peters Basilica looking out over the square.

His message today was go out and be with the needy. He said leave yourselves behind and be with people who are crushed by life's difficulties. This is something we've seen the pope himself do. On Thursday he went to a home where there are disabled people and he washed and kissed their feet. On Friday while he was at the coliseum for the Stations of the Cross, he instructed one of his priests to go hand out money to the homeless at the train stations around Rome.

So this is the pope's message for Easter. In addition, of course, he prayed for peace in countries of conflict around the world. In particular he mentioned Syria, the Ukraine. He mentioned Venezuela. He mentioned countries in Africa which are suffering from disease and poverty. And a special prayer for peaceful negotiations between Israel and Palestine.

Today marks the end of Easter celebrations, but the celebrations will continue next week on Sunday at the Vatican for the canonizations of John Paul II and John XXIII.

Delia Gallagher, CNN, Rome.

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