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Pentagon Working on Nigeria Rescue Strategy; Parents of Kidnapped Girls Speaking Out; CNN Poll: Americans Say Keep Searching; Monica Lewinsky Opens Up On Clinton Affair

Aired May 07, 2014 - 09:00   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Time for "NEWSROOM" with Ms. Carol Costello.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks a lot. Have a great day.

NEWSROOM starts now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COSTELLO: Hey, good morning to you. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me. And we do begin with breaking news. Plans for American help in Nigeria are now in motion. Right now the Pentagon is working out options on how to help Nigeria rescue nearly 300 school girls held hostage by terrorists there.

Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon with the newest developments and CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes is on the phone with us.

But, Barbara, I want to start with you. What are these new plans?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, a senior U.S. military official told me a short time ago, and I want to give everyone the very specific wording. Here is what the official said. And I'm quoting, "The Pentagon has initiated planning efforts to determine how we can offer options for support of the Nigerian government in the current situation."

So that's a big clue here about what is going on behind the scenes, planning options for support. Don't look for boots on the ground, so to speak. Don't look for U.S. military operations on the ground. What we are talking about is how to offer the Nigerian government the support, the help that it needs to get these girls rescued if that is even possible.

Some of the examples that are under discussion with the military and the intelligence community are intelligence sharing, investigation help, hostage experts, not really included at this -- again at this point, expected to include rescue mission personnel. Don't look for special forces on the ground kicking doors down so to speak.

All of this is coming from the center of the effort, which is the U.S. embassy in Nigeria. There have already of course regularly been military intelligence, law enforcement personnel there, they work out of that embassy all the time. The president talking about putting this coordination cell in place. That will build on what the embassy already has going on.

And of course, the bottom line, Carol, is it is up to the Nigerian government to agree to accept any help that the U.S. offers. This is a sovereign nation. It is a very proud government there. The U.S. can offer the help. The Nigerian have to accept it -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. But U.S. boots on the ground, not in the picture, right, Barbara?

So let's ask Tom Fuentes this question. Some U.S. lawmakers are calling for special forces to go in and help rescue these girls. Why -- why might not it be a good thing that U.S. special forces won't have boots on the ground in Nigeria, Tom?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST (via phone): Well, Carol, that's a question for the military and what their capabilities are, and whether they can safely rescue these girls or whether an attempt to rescue them might actually get them all killed. So that's a military issue. But as far as personnel on the ground, the FBI has two offices in Nigeria. The main office in the U.S. embassy in Abuja.

So they've already been there to offer assistance and provide assistance all along to efforts by Nigeria to deal with Boko Haram which has been, you know, battling the Nigerians and the people in the local areas out there for the last decade.

So the FBI is already there, already providing assistance and is in the position that it can provide much more, send in more personnel if it's deemed appropriate. And again, as Barbara mentioned, she's exactly right, and that's really the basic thing in this, is what kind of assistance will the Nigerians allow?

It's one thing to say OK, fine, U.S., give us some assistance. They have to -- they have to allow every single person that's going to arrive to help permission to actually come and do it, in addition to who already are there full time. And as I said, the FBI has two full- time offices already in Nigeria.

But it's goings to be up to the Nigerians. And they're the ones that seem to be asleep at the switch here for the last three weeks in trying to figure out what exactly they really want to do about this whole issue. They have to be pressured by the entire world to appear to even want to respond to this.

COSTELLO: And that pressure is being felt in Nigeria. We're going to talk about that now.

Barbara Starr, Tom Fuentes, many thanks for your input.

As the United States works out how to help Nigeria rescue these girls, Nigeria's Information minister is defending his country's actions. And here's the pressure I was talking about.

In an exclusive interview with CNN's Isha Sesay, he brushes off complaints that his government has so far mustered only a tepid response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ISHA SESAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This place is under a state of emergency. The government said they would crush Boko Haram. Instead what we have seen is 200-plus girls are missing. This without a doubt undermine the Nigeria government's claims that they can beat Boko Haram, does it not?

LABARAN MAKU, NIGERIAN INFORMATION MINISTER: But let me understand, you know that his soldiers Boko Haram is a very difficult operation. For example, the Americans are unable to defeat the people in Afghanistan. In Pakistan which has been in insurgency for more than 10 years, they still continue with it. In Iraq, there have been insurgency for the last 10 years. They are still bombing places in Iraq.

We are not fighting a standard army. We are not fighting an army that wears uniforms and stays on one side. We are fighting urban and rural guerrilla warfare. And listen --

(CROSSTALK)

SESAY: But you'd accept you're going to have to change your strategy because it's not working.

MAKU: It's not working. But Nigerian security forces succeeded far more in many of the areas that this has been operating.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN is doing its part to put pressure on the Nigerian government to help these girls. But even as Nigeria seemingly is bowing to pressure and finally accepting Washington's offer to send help, new details are trickling out about terrorists snatching another group of girls. Also in the rural northeast section of the country, gunmen reportedly going door-to-door, rounding up at least eight girls between the ages of 12 and 15.

And we're now hearing from the parents of the abducted girls who have been afraid to speak out.

So let's head to Nigeria's capital now and check with CNN's Vlad Duthiers. He has an exclusive interview with the mother and father of two of the kidnapped girls.

Tell us about it.

VLADIMIR DUTHIERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol. Well, we're learning more about what life is like under this reign of terror that Boko Haram has perpetrated against the northeastern portion of this country since 2009. We spoke to a family who risked their lives to come forward and talk to us because they want the world to know what they are dealing with, what they have been suffering through, what they have been going through since their girls were taken on April 14th when these armed assailants burst into their classroom in the middle of the night and hauled them away to God knows where.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I went into the school compound, nobody will ever stand it. You will see their dresses cut out all over. The hostel and the dormitory, everything was burned into ashes. So the watchman told us that they have gone with our daughters. We couldn't believe him.

DUTHIERS: Describe for us what life is like living in Chibok with the threat of the Islamist insurgency there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Life is very dangerous in Chibok right now. Since on 14th of April to date we don't sleep at all.

DUTHIERS: You don't sleep at home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't sleep at home. Around five, six people will disappear to the bush because there is no security. There is no security.

DUTHIERS: You sleep in the bush?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We sleep in the Bush with all our little ones. Life in Chibok, it looks like we have no hope.

DUTHIERS: Have you seen any large groups of soldiers, any kind of search and rescue operation that you can tell is meant to bring your daughter?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I'm hearing this over the media even it provokes me. That the federal government, all the rulers are playing with we parents. They are looking at us as we are fools. Had it been there is military men who went into the bush to rescue our daughters, we would have to see them.

Why can't they bring military men and ask even one of the parents, we would want to show them the place where our daughters are.

DUTHIERS: When you saw and heard the video of Abubakar Shekau yesterday and what he said on that video, what did you think?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (Through Translator): When I heard the story of Shekau yesterday, most of the women, we mothers, we started crying because we have nobody to help us. Our daughters have been abducted or have been captured as slaves. Now since that day we cannot even eat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is pleading let them release these girls. They don't know probably, there is -- one of them are born a president, or a doctor, or a pastor or a lawyer who will be helpful to the country. Why would they molest these little ones? Please let him release them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUTHIERS: There you have it, Carol, this family is just one family in Chibok but there are over 200 families going through exactly what this family is going through, having to sleep in the bush because you are too afraid to sleep in your own beds. Whenever they hear any kind of commotion, any noise outside, they run out into the bush.

The mother's heartfelt plea to Abubakar Shekau, the supposed leader of Boko Haram, to please return their daughters to them. At this point, Carol, it's not clear if that's going to happen.

COSTELLO: Vladimir Duthiers, thanks so much.

We will continue to follow this story for you in just 30 minutes, I'll talk with the woman who began the rallying cry to bring back our girls and find out what inspired her to get involved. I'll also talk to the deputy director of "GIRL RISING," a CNN special documentary about the struggle of young women around the world to get an education.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I will read. I will study. I will learn. If you try to stop me, I will just try harder. If you stop me, there will be other girls who rise up and take my place. I am change. I am my own master now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is now entering a new stage. Today officials from Malaysia, China and Australia are meeting trying to figure out how the search should move forward. One thing they do know, from here the search only becomes more difficult and much more expensive.

In the meantime, a new CNN/ORC poll shows Americans are just about split on whether or not we'll ever know what happened to that plane with 46 percent saying it will remain an enduring mystery.

Joining me to discuss things, CNN safety analyst and author of "Why Planes Crash", David Soucie, and CNN aviation analyst and former NTSB managing director Peter Goelz.

Welcome, gentlemen.

PETER GOELZ, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Hi. So I guess I'll pose the first question to you and the toughest, David. Will this plane ever be found?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: I believe that it will. I really do. You just can't let this mystery go unsolved. It's one of those things that without it, will we ever get confidence and fly internationally again? We have to know what happened in order to be confident in our air system at all. COSTELLO: Well, I must admit, Peter, that when I fly and I fly every other weekend, I do think about that. I think about the pilot and whether he's OK and whether he can fly my plane and if he's psychologically sound. I do think about that.

GOELZ: Well, that's right. The industry has to search until they find this aircraft. We have to figure out what happened.

Commercial aviation cannot stand a vacuum such as this. So, it's going to take a long time. We've indicated that on CNN that this was going to be months if not years from the beginning. We're now into a very long, tough stage.

COSTELLO: David, 66 percent of poll respondents said they believe the pilots or crew members were involved in the plane's disappearance. And, of course, as we know, the Malaysian authorities have cleared all the passengers, cleared the crew as far as I know, but not the pilot and copilot.

Have they done a thorough investigation of these people, though?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: I think they have. Even at that, you know, these types of things, when it is suicide, when it's that kind of situation or psychology, you don't really know. You know, how can you vet someone before that? So, it's very difficult for that.

I see this as one of the least likely scenarios, I really do. You'd have to have two pilots working together. At that time you don't leave the cockpit. When you're changing in one control area to another, you don't leave the cockpit. That's when they're both there. That would be a very unlikely time for them to be separated which is typically when that type of scenario occurs.

COSTELLO: Interesting.

Peter, what do you think?

GOELZ: Well, David and I disagree on this. David continues to look skeptically or a concern way at the lithium batteries. I tend to think that there's no other explanation right now outside of the cockpit that explains how the plane behaved as it did. But the truth is we simply don't know. And all our energies ought to be focused solely on trying to figure out where this plane is and how to get the information back from the wreckage that helps us solve the problem.

COSTELLO: On the subject of the lithium batteries, the poll also found people are just split on whether mechanical failure could be to blame, you know, with those flight changes and the altitude changes seem to be very pointed, as though by design, and not --

SOUCIE: That's right. But they are by design, they did come from the cockpit, they are of human hand. But the question is why? You know, what was the pilot trying to do? Was the pilot trying to avoid further fatalities or further damage to other people on the ground by staying over the water this entire time? That makes sense to me. Was it not only lithium batteries? There's other things, there's (INAUDIBLE) directive against the oxygen tank, which is right underneath the radios. So, if something had happened there, it would have taken the radios out.

So, again, Peter and I are torn back and forth on this. But it just -- we don't know. And we're simply speculating at this point.

COSTELLO: All right. So, Peter, nearly 70 percent of respondents say Malaysia's government has done a very bad job of managing the search. I think they're right about that. But things are supposedly about to change.

Do you think in the end Australia will take charge of this investigation?

GOELZ: No, I think Malaysia cannot give up overall control. But I think they're going to work with China and Australia and the United States, divvy up responsibility, map out from most likely to least likely the areas of the ocean they've got to search and then bring in the right equipment and do it. But it's going to take a very long time.

COSTELLO: A very long time.

So, David, I'll pose the last question to you, the CNN/ORC poll found 69 percent of respondents say the search should go on. But, of course, you have to look at things realistically. At some point, searchers are going to get really frustrated if they can't find and it's going to become more and more expensive.

SOUCIE: It is. It is. But, again, they're doing things to make it more efficient as well. They're going back and looking at data making sure that that's correct. You don't want to spend a lot of time and resources on wild goose chases, which obviously we've done that in the past with this investigation. So, I think reorganize, refocus and start using the resources a little smarter is the thing to do at this point.

COSTELLO: Well, maybe that's what they're deciding now in Australia. We hope so.

David Soucie, Peter Goelz, thanks so much. Welcome your insight as always.

Checking other top stories this morning 19 minutes past the hour: newly released surveillance video may silence skeptics who did not believe a 15-year-old boy could survive flying in the wheel well of a plane. Take a look at this grainy video. It shows the teenager dropping out of the plane and onto the tarmac in Hawaii after a five- hour flight from California. He appears a little woozy. And shortly after this, he actually talks to one of the ground crew members who was quite surprised by his appearance.

The man accused of causing a lockdown at the White House is due in court today. The Secret Service arrested Matthew Goldstein for following a motorcade through the security gates. Goldstein reportedly holds a pass for the treasury building which is right next door to the White House.

The Beverly Hills City Council is calling for the billionaire sultan of Brunei to sell the famed Beverly Hills Hotel for implementing Sharia law in his country. The stringent criminal code includes death by stoning for adultery or homosexuality. Jay Leno and Ellen DeGeneres are part of the protesters.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM: Monica Lewinsky breaking her silence on the White House scandal that has followed her for nearly two decades. So, why is she talking out now and why are we still blaming her for everything? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Monica Lewinsky's affair with Bill Clinton nearly brought down the presidency and turned the former White House intern into a global punch line. Now, in what Lewinsky calls an attempt to take back her narrative, she's writing about the scandal for the first time in vivid detail.

Randi Kaye has more on what inspired Lewinsky to come forward after 10 years out of the spotlight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the arms of the president to the pages of "Vanity Fair" magazine. It's been a long road for Monica Lewinsky, but she's found her voice, and she has plenty to say.

In her tell-all essay for the magazine, she writes, "It's time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress."

The world's most famous intern, opening up to "Vanity Fair" about her affair with President Clinton. The scandal it created in 1998 and what she calls the global humiliation. Now 40, she is determined to have a different ending to her story and hoping to give a purpose to her past.

(on camera): Lewinsky says she was inspired to speak out by Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers University student who jumped to his death in 2010. He was humiliated after being caught on a Web camera kissing another man in his dorm room. Lewinsky tells "Vanity Fair" his story brought her to tears, that after her affair, she too had strong suicidal temptations. She's hoping to help others in their darkest moments.

(voice-over): In her essay, Lewinsky dishes on the affair and the ugly aftermath. "I myself deeply regret what happened between me and President Clinton," adding, "It was a consensual relationship." That she was made a scapegoat in order to protect his powerful position.

At the time, the president tried to protect himself, too.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.

KAYE: But seven months later, President Clinton spoke to the American people again. This time, a different story.

CLINTON: Indeed I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong.

KAYE: Monica Lewinsky spoke with ABC's Barbara Walters about that.

MONICA LEWINSKY: I felt like a piece of trash. I felt -- I felt dirty and I felt used. And I was disappointed.

KAYE: We haven't heard much from Lewinsky since then. This interview with Larry King on CNN in 2002 was one of her last.

LARRY KING, FORMER CNN HOST: Was there a little, like, you know, flirtatious thing going on?

LEWISNKY: Sure. There had been this flirtation and that really was where it began. And that's where it started. And from there it's sort of the --

KING: Took off.

LEWINSKY: That's -- the match lit.

KAYE: Silent for more than a decade, she's quick to note in her essay that the Clintons did not pay her off to keep her quiet. Though she's done little professionally over the years besides promote her own handbag line, it wasn't for lack of trying. In fact, she can't even get a job.

After getting her Master's Degree at the London School of Economics, she told the magazine, "Because of what potential employers so tactfully referred to as my history, I was never quite right for the position."

Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Later this hour, we'll talk more about Monica Lewinsky's "Vanity Fair" article and why one of my guests say we should all stop judging her. In fact, I kind of feel that way, too. Why do we continue to judge Monica Lewinsky differently than we judge Bill Clinton? We'll talk about that in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)