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Vice President Biden Travels to Ukraine; Search and Rescue Continues around Sunken Ship; Boston Marathon Kicks Off; Bluefin-21 on 9th Mission Scanning Seabed; 40 Terror Suspects Killed in Yemen Strikes

Aired April 21, 2014 - 09:00   ET

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

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All right. A lot of news this morning. So let's get you to the "NEWSROOM" with Miss Pamela Brown.

Pamela, good to see you.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey. Hey, good to see all three of you, Chris, Kate and Michaela. I'll take it from here.

NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning. I'm Pamela Brown sitting in for Carol Costello. And we are following a busy morning of news.

Just minutes ago Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Ukraine. He'll meet with embattled leaders who are trying to survive a new surge of pro-Russian protests.

And new arrests and blistering condemnation in South Korea's ferry disaster. That country's president says the failures of the ship's captain and crew are, quote, "akin to murder."

And just within the last hour the death toll has jumped dramatically from 65 to 87 and sure to be climbing. South Korea's coast guard tells CNN that divers have found, quote, "a bulk of bodies" on board that submerged vessel. Those victims will not be added to the death toll until they are brought to shore. For the divers, the task is almost too much to bear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHOUNG DONG-NAM, PRESIDENT, KOREAN RESCUE OPERATION (Through Translator): Finding survivors is the strong desire of the whole nation. Our position is the same as the missing people's families. We're all volunteers. We're in the same position. We cry every day and search for the missing people. I cry whenever I think about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And CNN's Paula Hancocks is in Jindo, South Korea with the latest developments -- Paula.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, we are seeing more boats coming into shore. It is possible that they are bringing more bodies into shore. As you know, they have increased significantly the death toll in just the last hour alone. So even though there are bodies coming ashore and no survivors being found at this point, we understand from officials it is still a search and rescue operation.

They said they haven't found air pockets yet but there's a possibility there may be because the ship hasn't completely sunk.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANCOCKS (voice-over): This morning, the investigation into what went wrong is ramping up. Four additional crew members arrested overnight as the country's president blasts the ship's captain directly, calling his actions, quote, "akin to murder." He's now charged with negligence. Though he was not at the helm, his third officer was, prosecutors still accused him of failing to slow the ship down, causing the ship to make an excessive turn.

Newly released calls between an unidentified crew member and boat traffic control shed new light on what exactly happened.

"Our ship is in danger," he says. "The ship is rolling right now."

By that time, the ship had already tilted too far for the majority of passengers to move or to deploy lifeboats. Five minutes later, boat traffic control urged the unidentified crew member on the radio to prepare for evacuation saying, "Please put on the life vests and get ready as people may have to abandon ship."

Then after 30 minutes, boat traffic encouraged the captain to take charge and make the final decision to escape. The crew member questioned the retreat asking if passengers would immediately be rescued.

And now the grim task of retrieving the dead continues as families, angry and anguished, wait for news.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HANCOCKS: And over the past hour just behind me at Jindo Harbor, we have been one official on a loud speaker describing the people who have been recovered from that ship. They are talking about the gender of the bodies, the height, the weight, what clothes they are wearing. And families have been crowded around him trying to see if they could recognize the sound of their child -- Pamela.

BROWN: Just heart-wrenching, Paula. And obviously the search and rescue crews really have their work cut out for them there. Can you tell us about the conditions of the search site?

HANCOCKS: Well, conditions have definitely improved over the last 24 hours. On the weekend they were not particularly conducive to allowing the divers to get inside the ship where they wanted to. Now we know from the Joint Task Force spokesman that they are trying to get into the cafeteria at this point. This is where they believe there may have been many passengers. This did happen at 8:55 a.m. and of course that is breakfast time. They believe there may have been a lot of people within that area.

Now I spoke to one civilian diver a little earlier today. He had tried on Saturday and on Sunday to be part of the search. He went all the way out to the site. But he said the visibility and the conditions were so bad, he couldn't even get into the water. He said that it was the hardest to come back knowing that he was coming back empty-handed and he could not look at the families.

The official, though, from the Joint Task Force tells that it's something like 30 to 40 centimeters, the visibility. So the divers can barely see their hands in front of them. So not only is it a very grim task for them, it is an extremely difficult and dangerous task -- Pamela.

BROWN: Just unimaginable. But as you pointed out earlier, it is still a search and rescue operation.

Thank you so much, Paula Hancocks.

Moments ago Vice President Joe Biden touched down in Kiev, a day before a high stakes meeting with the acting Ukraine president and other top lawmakers. The purpose? To help reduce tensions in the region after two deadly shootings in the last several days there including this attack at a checkpoint near the city of Slavyansk. Pro-Russian groups say several vehicles opened fire on the roadblock's defenders and that six people were killed in the resulting shoot-out.

Now important to point out here, CNN has been unable to confirm the number of dead.

And while both Russian and Ukrainian groups are denying responsibility for the incident, Ukraine's prime minister had this warning about Russia's actions going forward. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARSENIY YATSENYUK, UKRAINIAN PRIME MINISTER: Putin has a dream to restore the Soviet union. And every day he goes further and further. And God knows where is the final destination. The world has a reason to be concerned about Putin's intention. Because what Russia federation did, they undermined the global stability.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: All right. I want to bring in White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski in Washington.

Michelle, tell us, the vice president is the latest in a series of U.S. lawmakers visiting Ukraine. Obviously diplomacy the focus here. But what happens if diplomacy doesn't lead to a resolution?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's a good question. Senior administration officials have been very careful to say repeatedly that they do not see a military solution out of this crisis, that there should not be one. And thus far, you know, the U.S. has not provided any military support at all to Ukraine.

Diplomacy is still the route taken here, and the administration sees this one-day visit by the vice president as a very important high- profile show of support and commitment for Ukraine at an extremely critical time. So far U.S. support has been economic, it has been political. And what we might see, though, in a very near term is an expansion of those sanctions that the U.S. has really led the world in imposing on Russia, because up to now we have not seen any visible sign that Russia has taken significant measures to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine even though it signed an agreement to do so last week. In fact, Russia is now blaming Ukraine for not de-escalating.

Well, last week we saw Secretary of State John Kerry in Geneva at the signing of this agreement. He said that the U.S. would wait and see through the weekend what Russia did before imposing those sanctions which, by the way, are ready to go at any time. That sounded a lot like a deadline, right? Well, soon after, the president himself expressed not much optimism that Russia would do much to de-escalate.

National Security Adviser Susan Rice didn't want to put a time frame on it. She said the U.S. was watching and waiting in coming days to see what happened and still continued to urge diplomacy in this extremely tense situation -- Pam.

BROWN: Absolutely. And you mentioned Geneva, Michelle. I want to talk more about that with Frederik Pleitgen, he's in Kiev.

And Frederik, obviously another source of tension here. A Geneva deal that calls on Russian forces to vacate occupied buildings and disarm. But obviously This agreement is not being followed. Today Russia's Foreign minister putting the blame on Ukraine. Any response from the other side?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, I mean, Pam, the Ukrainians are saying they believe that what's going on in the eastern part of Russia right now is -- in the eastern part of Ukraine right now, I should say, is being steered by the Russian federation. They say that Russia is looking for a pretext to invade eastern Ukraine. And they've actually threatened to continue a military operation that they started last week but which was put on hold over the Easter holidays if, in fact, those buildings are not vacated soon.

It's interesting, though, when you speak to people on the ground here in Ukraine, a lot of them when you ask them about the visit of the vice president that's going to start here today, they're very realistic about what the U.S. can actually do at this point. There's many who say they want moral support first and foremost. They think it's a very good thing that the U.S. is moving troops into Poland and also into Estonia as well as part of those military exercises.

They say at this point they're perfectly fine with not getting any military aid, they're perfectly fine with the U.S. not threatening to put boots on the ground. They do like the idea of additional sanctions against Moscow if there is no movement. And also, I was able to speak to the prime minister of this country, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, late last week and I asked him what do you want America to do with Vice President Biden coming soon?

And he says he feels at this point the U.S. is doing what it can. However, any additional help would be welcome. I asked him what he actually meant by that. He said he didn't want to further elaborate. But he says he is very satisfied with the way the U.S. is handling this crisis at this point in time -- Pam.

BROWN: All right, and Michelle Kosinski, I want to go back to you quickly. We have this high stakes meeting in Ukraine tomorrow with leaders in Ukraine as well as Vice President Joe Biden.

Can you tell us what we can expect in that meeting?

KOSINSKI: We don't expect to hear very much. And it is a very short meeting. I mean, first Biden will meet with American staff of the embassy there in Ukraine. Then he'll be meeting with Ukrainian leaders.

I don't know that this is much, much different than the meetings we've seen in the past as well as the phone calls and the other contact that has been happening, especially between with Secretary of State John Kerry and the leaders of Ukraine. What it is, is high profile, that the U.S. clearly wants to send a message to not only Ukraine but of course Russia that the U.S. is serious, that those sanctions are imminent if Russia doesn't do more.

That the U.S. is ready and continuing to stand behind Ukraine in this. And -- we've been talking about diplomacy, diplomacy, diplomacy. But I think what is interesting is that, remember last week and we did see a visit by CIA director John Brennan to Ukraine. And then it --days, two days later we saw Ukraine starting to roll tanks, taking part in their own military -- although not with a lot of force, but their show of military movement toward the border.

Was that backed or sanctions by the U.S.? The U.S. isn't of course going so far as to say that. But the U.S. has made it clear that they feel that Ukraine's response is appropriate and necessary based on Russia's actions -- Pam.

BROWN: All right. Michelle Kosinski, Frederik Pleitgen, thank you.

And also this morning, Boston Strong and ever defiant. Just moments ago what might be the most important and emotion Boston Marathon ever kicked off. A record one million spectators are amassed along the race's 26.2 mile route right now where 36,000 runners are proving that last year's ruthless act of terror cannot define this iconic tradition.

CNN's John Berman and Brooke Baldwin are live near the race's starting line where security is in full force.

Hi, good morning, guys. JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR, EARLY START: Good morning, Pamela. Yes, we're in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, population 15,000 but the population here is swollen by an additional 36,000 because those are the participants of the Boston Marathon.

Right behind us right now is actually the wheelchair division which starts in about 10 minutes.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, less than 10 minutes. And it's just crazy to believe -- this is my first trip to Hopkinton. And just to think of 36,000 people, you don't see a lot behind us right now because they'll go in waves. Over the course of the next couple of hours 36,000 people in this beautiful quaint New England town.

We have to talk of course about security. I've been watching a state police helicopter above head. Even just to get here, to get on a bus, to get to the starting line, you're wanted. Zero bag policy of course along the race route. But even if you're coming, you know, to spectate, of a million people, they're saying really leave your handbags at home. They're watching liquids, nothing more than one liter. Nothing covering your face, no bulky clothing. They're not taking any chances.

BERMAN: Yes, 3500 security personnel will be lining this 26.2 mile route. One hundred additional cameras than they've ever had before. And you've heard the race officials saying it over the last few days, they say this race course today is the safest place on earth. It certainly today I think is one of the happiest places on earth. It's a celebration the city has been waiting for.

BALDWIN: Yes. Can I just say, Pam, as we send it back to you, you know, it is so nice to be back here. We were here for weeks. You were here for weeks covering the story. And it was such a tragedy for of course the nation, but really for Boston. And it's just awesome being back and seeing smiles in the city.

BERMAN: That's right.

BALDWIN: And ready to report on smiles as they cross the finish line -- Pam.

BROWN: And we saw back then, Brooke and John, just how resilient that city is and it's great to see such a big turnout there today. Thank you so much.

And still to come right here on NEWSROOM, 45 days in and still no sign of missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. So will a high-tech underwater robot be able to locate the missing jet?

Coming up, why search crews may have to come up with a plan B in the next few days.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Eight missions down and still no sign of debris. Right now, an underwater robot called the Bluefin-21 is carrying out its ninth search to try and find missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.

Today's search zone is more than 18,000 square miles. Now, that's about the size of Maryland and Massachusetts combined, in case you're wondering, to put in perspective there, and as many as 10 planes and 11 ships are also helping out in today's search.

Malaysia's acting transport minister says the next few days are critical. And that's because the Bluefin-21 could be done scouring this part of the motion floor within a week.

So, for more on this, I want to bring in Thomas Altshuler. He's the vice president and group general of Teledyne Marine Systems. And his company specializes in data collection and communication products for remote environments.

Tom, great to have you here with us.

First I want to ask you, obviously, as we mentioned, this is the ninth mission for the Bluefin. How many more times should officials send it down before considering another device?

THOMAS ALTSHULER, TELEDYNE MARINE SYSTEMS, VICE PRESIDENT: Well, if you look at the system, it doesn't cover a lot of area maybe 40 square kilometers a day. So, if you have a well-defined search area, which I think they defined about 300 to 400 square kilometers to search, this is a good way to search. After that, you mentioned the 18,000 square miles, it will take too long for this instrument to search that.

So, you're going to have to start reassessing -- do you bring in other types of towed systems to try to find a wreckage field.

BROWN: And a lot of people are asking, why don't we send more Bluefins in there? But there are some pitfalls that could come with that, right?

ALTSHULER: Well, there are a couple of things. First of all, there aren't that many of these types of systems around. So trying to find enough to really change the problem is going to be hard. I mean, adding a second Bluefin or a third Bluefin or some other type of system that does the same as the robotic system, is still going to require take months if the search area -- or years if the search area grows a lot.

So, it really -- it really is going to lead to different times of towed systems that might allow you to search if you can ever actually search a large enough area.

BROWN: Hmm. And, Tom, officials said the Bluefin-21 has returned with clear and sharp images of the ocean floor. But this part of the ocean is really foreign to experts.

Is it possible that the Bluefin could pass over wreckage and miss it?

ALTSHULER: It's unlikely. I mean, if you think -- the bottom has a soft layer on it. It's not that deep. These are large pieces of wreckage -- you would assume large pieces of wreckage coming from an air frame as big as the 777.

So, chances of something that size being missed is very, very slim. The image quality coming out of this type of sonar that's on the Bluefin is quite good for large objects like this.

BROWN: And you think about other situations where a similar device was deployed. Air France, for example, it took four extensive underwater searches. I believe it was nine days into the fourth search before wreckage was actually found.

In light of that, here we are, the ninth mission for the Bluefin in this case. How long do you think this could take? Are you surprised it hasn't found anything yet?

ALTSHULER: Actually, I'm not surprised. So, the first thing is in Air France, there was a wreckage field. So already, although they didn't find the pingers, they had a well-contained area they were searching. They had a pretty good idea what they wanted to look for.

Here we had potential pings that have come back from potentially a pinger and that's defined the search area. Since the search area is so large and there's such a risk that either the pings that were heard were not from an aviation pinger or there's a propagation both the sound to the water has not really defined a small enough area, it's not surprising that you haven't seen anything yet.

BROWN: All right. Thomas Altshuler, thank you so much for offering your perspective.

ALTSHULER: Thank you.

BROWN: And still to come right here on NEWSROOM: a massive assault in Yemen targeting one of the world's most dangerous terror groups and the U.S. believed to have a hand in it?

CNN's Elise Labott is following the developments -- Elise.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Pam, the operation is still ongoing against al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula, what U.S. officials call the biggest threat to the U.S. homeland.

More after a few minutes. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: What's being called a massive and unprecedented assault is under way targeting al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. It's considered to be the most dangerous branch of al Qaeda in the world. A Yemeni government official tells CNN at least 30 suspected terrorists have been killed in strikes in the southern part of that country. And this comes after 10 militants were killed Saturday in a suspected drone strike in a neighboring province.

CNN foreign affairs reporter Elise Labott is live in Washington. She's been following the story.

Elise, first off, how much do we know about the U.S. involvement in these strikes?

LABOTT: Well, Pam, we understand the operation is still on going. All the Yemenis will say is that this was a joint U.S.-Yemeni offensive. And that that Yemenis are still on the ground going after more targets.

But, you know, the U.S. is the only country known to conduct drone strikes in Yemen. Although the U.S. as a general rule won't comment on these strikes, we understand they're involved.

The U.S. is very concerned about this group, AQAP. They're the group responsible for every recent attack in the U.S., including the underwear bomber that tried to strike down a U.S. airliner in 2009, and the effort to put bombs in printer cartridges.

I was speaking to some officials last week who said that AQAP is the group they're most concerned about attacks on the U.S. homeland and believed to always be planning attacks.

BROWN: And on that note, Elise, are we seeing the U.S. and Yemen turning a corner in trying to destroy al Qaeda, especially this particular branch of it?

LABOTT: Well, in a word, no. This comes a week after the release of the videotape that shows the leaders of the group and about 100 of their operatives in plain sight, comfortable in their meeting talking about future plans. That was seen as a huge embarrassment with regard to the joint U.S.-Yemeni counterterrorism efforts to go after AQAP.

So, you might say is this propaganda to recover from that embarrassment. But, you know, these types of operations are, as you said, unprecedented. It will take time to confirm with DNA how many of the leaders were killed. But the U.S. and Yemenis both hope this will make a dent in the strength of the group, Pam.

BROWN: All right. Elise Labott, thank you.

And CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen calls the drone campaign in Yemen President Obama's war. He joins us now.

So, tell us, Peter, why is this President Obama's war? Why do you think that?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Pamela, you know, under President George W. Bush there was only one. Under President Obama, there have been at least 90. And also, additionally, some cruise missile strikes.

So, it's really something -- a campaign that President Obama launched, as Elise mentioned. It came in the context of the failed plot to bring down a plane over Detroit, the underwear bomb plot, and U.S. officials are very concerned about this group which keeps trying to build bombs that are very hard to detect and trying to get them onto American aircraft.

BROWN: So, Peter, what do you believe is behind the acceleration and how is it different from the drone strikes in Pakistan under President Bush?

BERGEN: Well, the acceleration has been going on really since 2011. I mean, this has been a sustained campaign. The fact that we've had two confirmed drone strikes over the weekend isn't actually that unusual. We've seen drone strikes even happen in different parts of the country in Yemen on the same day.

So what I think is different is this large-scale U.S.-Yemeni operation that we've seen at the same time that we've seen two confirmed U.S. drone strikes on the weekend.

BROWN: And, obviously, Peter, these drone strikes can be controversial because of the civilians that have been killed. How much are these strikes building up resentment toward the U.S. do you believe?

BERGEN: Well, I think there's certainly some resentment. It's not off the charts as it is in Pakistan where the drone campaign which is now being suspended. It is deeply unpopular. But in Yemen, we've certainly seen some protests and, in fact, this weekend, we've had three civilians who have been confirmed killed. Every time that happens, it certainly doesn't help the United States.

BROWN: All right. Peter Bergen, thank you.

BERGEN: Thank you.

BROWN: Still to come right here on NEWSROOM: in South Korea, the death toll grows and anger explodes.

We'll have the latest on the criminal case involving the ferry disaster and talk to an attorney who specializes in maritime accidents. Stay with us.

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