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CNN Poll: Americans Say Keep Searching; Massive Bust Targets Synthetic Drugs; Pentagon Working On Nigeria Rescue Strategy; Nigeria's Huge Role In Human Trafficking; Knight: Arial Castro Did Not Like Me

Aired May 07, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. The search for that missing plane, Flight 370, now entering a brand 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 over whether or not we'll ever know what happened to Flight 370 with 46 percent saying it will remain a mystery. So let's discuss. Will Ripley is in Kuala Lumpur this morning and CNN safety analyst and author of "Why Planes Crash," David Soucie, is with me.

But Will, I want to start with you. What do we know about this next phase in the search?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know as you mentioned, Carol, it's going to be greatly expanded. It will be very expensive. Most importantly it's going to take a lot of time. Let me put this in perspective for you. The Bluefin-21 has done 18 dives so far. Each dive takes 20 hours and that device has covered 154 square miles.

They need to search 23,000 square miles. So clearly the Bluefin-21 needs backup and more technology. Some will come from private companies that will be working with government agencies to search this massive area in the Southern Indian Ocean. But before that happens, there's a team of experts, the same team that met right here in Kuala Lumpur in the initial days after the plane disappeared, members of that team and new members as well are now in Australia.

You have representatives from some of the top aviation investigation agencies in the world representing Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. You have Inmarsat, the satellite company, Boeing, the 777 manufacturer and all of these minds are sitting in one room. They will meet again in just hours, Carol, to go over all of the data that they know so far to make sure that they still believe that this plane is in that spot in the Southern Indian Ocean.

That they are about to spend 12 months searching, $60 million. They're also going to map out this area, Carol, which so far has never been mapped before. This is really unknown territory they are about to explore.

COSTELLO: So that CNN poll I was talking about, 46 percent say it will remain an enduring mystery. What are the folks there who are doing the actual searching say, Will?

RIPLEY: Publicly, they believe that they are searching in the right place, Carol. If you think that we are now tomorrow marks the two- month anniversary of the plane's disappearance, they've searched more than 4.6 million square kilometers. Planes have spent literally thousands of hours in the air and yet nothing has been found.

You can understand why there is concern and understand why there is skepticism and you have to think of how painful and difficult this is for the families who are stuck in this limbo where they don't know what happened. They don't have any answers. That's what makes this work so important and why it is still taking on a sense of urgency two months in.

COSTELLO: David, you do think the mystery will be solved. You do still have hope.

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: It has to be solved. It has to be solved for us in the safety community. It has to be solved for the families and for the general flying public. If we don't know what happened to this aircraft or why it happened, how can we say we're safe to travel again? It's going to always be on people's minds. It's going to be wondering what was this, maybe it was that. It has to continue. We have to put whatever resources necessary to ensure a safe flying public. We really do.

COSTELLO: It sounds like that's what we're doing. Let's go back to that poll for a second, 66 percent of poll respondents say they believe pilots or crew members were involved in the plane's disappearance, but Will Ripley, we know that Malaysian authorities have pretty much cleared the crew and the passengers on board, but they're still looking into the pilots. Any new information coming out in the investigation above water?

RIPLEY: You know, we know the Royal Malaysian police, Carol, have conducted more than 200 interviews. We don't know the content of those interviews or who they spoke to, they did tell us about a month ago that they have been able to clear at least for now all of the passengers on the plane. As far as we know, they haven't publicly cleared all of the crew members, but there is nothing that's stood out.

Remember they searched the flight simulator that was in the pilot's house. That didn't turn up anything. Nothing in the pilot or co- pilot's background that would raise suspicion. Perplexing to find motivation for someone to do this. The big unanswered question is who was at the controls of this plane when is it made this turn and headed to this area and the big question is why and where is the plane?

COSTELLO: So the poll also says people are just about split over whether mechanical failure could be to blame. David, that's sort of the direction you're going, right? SOUCIE: Well, remember in all of the accident investigations I've ever done and in fact through history, it's never one single event. The public demands this. What happened? Did the pilot do this? Did the mechanic do this? They want to put a handle on it. So do I, that's my job is to put a handle on it. So in putting a handle on it for me, there was mechanical failures. Systems are interdependent on each other.

Oxygen system under the radios. Radio underneath the pilot. All things are connected together. To think it was a single point of failure isn't what I'm thinking. It had to be many things. To think it was pilots only, I think there were other things involved as well.

COSTELLO: As for today the mystery does endure. David, will, thanks so much.

I have a bit of breaking news to pass along to you right now. Federal officials from multiple agencies taking down a massive synthetic drug bust that spanned more than 20 states. CNN justice reporter, Evan Perez, joins me now. The most fascinating part about this story, Evan, is where these synthetic drugs came from.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: A lot of these drugs are brought from Asia and this morning the DEA and Customs and Border Patrol agencies did a big bust in 20 states, in more than 20 states. They say they made over 100 arrests. They were targeting these drugs called synthetic marijuana and bath salts. The names sound a little innocuous, but they were very, very dangerous. According to the authorities, these cause about 28,000 emergency room visits last year. They can cause everything from heart attacks to death. These are very serious drugs -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I guess specifically I was under the impression that most of these synthetic drugs were coming from China.

PEREZ: That's right. China and a few other countries in Asia are the source of this. The name sounds not that dangerous. Synthetic marijuana. Sounds a lot like pot. They say there are dangerous chemicals in here. People don't know what they are taking when they do these drugs and they can be very dangerous. They can cause -- they have caused a lot of deaths and a lot of young people are moving to these drugs despite the fact that regular marijuana has become a lot more readily available and legal in many states.

COSTELLO: Evan Perez, I know you are still working your sources on this story. More to come on CNN. Thank you so much for filling us in. We appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, plans now in motion for American assistance in Nigeria. Hundreds of school girls remain hostages of terrorists and the desperate situation shows no sign of ending any time soon. We'll be right back.

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COSTELLO: Right now American help is on the way for those 200 school girls abducted by Nigerian terrorists. The Pentagon is now working out options on how to help rescue the girls before the captors make good on their threats to sell them into slavery. In an exclusive interview with CNN, Nigeria's information minister brushes off the popular complaint that his government has so far mustered only a tepid response.

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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 undermines the Nigerian government's claims that they can beat Boko Haram, does it not?

LABARAN MAKU, NIGERIAN MINISTER OF INFORMATIONA: But let me understand, you know that his soldiers, Boko Haram, is very difficult operation. For example, the Americans are unable to defeat the people in Afghanistan. In Pakistan 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 stay on one side. We are fighting urban and rural guerrilla warfare.

SESAY: You are going to have to change your strategy.

MAKU: Our security forces succeeded far more in many of the areas that this has been operating.

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COSTELLO: So the United States wants to help, but it is getting involved in all of that. Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon with the latest developments. How does the United States plan to help, Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is going to be a very difficult problem, Carol. The U.S. wants to help. The president talking about sending that coordination team to Nigeria to offer help to the Nigerians. They have to be willing to accept it, but things are being put into place. Make no mistake about it.

Earlier today, a senior U.S. military official told me -- I want to read the words very specifically. He said, quote, "The Pentagon has initiated planning efforts to determine how we can offer options for support of the Nigerian government in the current situation. Options for support."

This is support. The issues will not revolve around U.S. troops on the ground kicking down doors so to speak. Officials say what they are looking at things like intelligence sharing, helping with the investigation, experts in hostage negotiation. Don't expect to see, they tell us, U.S. troops on the ground.

All of this -- all of this coordination with the U.S. military, the U.S. intelligence community, U.S. law enforcement, the FBI, all of this basically centers around the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria, which has the sort of nucleus of ability to interact with a Nigerian government and talk to them and say here's what we can offer you, can you please accept it?

Again, it comes back to that fundamental question, Carol. Once it is offered. Once the assistance is offered, will the Nigerians take it and how will they find these girls -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All great questions still unanswered. Barbara Starr reporting live for us this morning.

Want to pass along an unbelievable statistic. Nearly one in four of all kidnappings in the world happen in Nigeria. There's a black market for trafficked women. Zain Asher is here with more. This is awful.

ZAIN ASHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm from Nigeria personally so I grew up there. I spent time in Nigeria. What's sad about it is that nobody is immune. The president of Nigeria's cousin was recently kidnapped. The finance minister's mother was recently kidnapped. Nobody is immune. They will look at you, size you up based on how you speak, how you dress, your race, whether you're black or white, what country you're from, and they'll work out how much they think your family will pay to see you again.

A native Nigerian can be held for ransom for $100,000. If you're an oil worker, if you're from the western world, you can be held for as much as $200,000 up to several million. They'll hold you ransom until you pay. There are reports of people being held ransom for over a year in Nigeria. The situation is out of control.

COSTELLO: Talk about this horrible terrorist group that takes all of these girls hostage and they're going to sell them to whom?

ASHER: Well, there are reports they will sell them across the border to neighboring countries. The fear right now is that actually they are still in the forest, which is where Boko Haram has a stronghold and where their camp is. The forest is three times the size of New Jersey so looking for those girls in that forest is just an incredible feat. It's an impossible feat. In terms of surveillance, Nigeria doesn't have the same capabilities as the United States in terms of wiretapping and a data base in terms of tracking and catching terrorists.

COSTELLO: We are offering those things and Nigeria has been slow to accept our offers of help. I don't understand that.

ASHER: The president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian population is angry with him because he waited three weeks to talk about this. The Boko Haram kidnappings and killing happen so often that it is like they are numb to this because they see it happen so often. It's only because the western world is putting international pressure on him that he is finally taking steps to change things.

COSTELLO: Just from a personal perspective because it must hurt you when you look at what's happening in your native country right now, what goes through your mind?

ASHER: For kidnappings on a personal note, my uncle was kidnapped several years ago, three years ago. Now, we're from a region of Nigeria in the south. Opposite end of the country from where Boko Haram's stronghold is. He was kidnapped and pulling into his driveway. People hit him over the head. Drove him for five hours in the middle of the night and then the car broke down and kidnappers panicked and let him go. It happens so often in my country. Kidnapping, one in four kidnappings in the world happens in Nigeria. The situation is out of control. With terrorism or kidnappings, the root of it is always poverty. That needs to be dealt with.

COSTELLO: Thank you for sharing your story. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

The outcry on social media to get these girls home just keeps growing and growing. I-Reports are pouring in with videos demanding action.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need people out there, the U.S. Government, the United Nation and CNN and everybody to try to get in touch with the Nigerian government to know what is happening about the whereabouts of these missing girls.

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COSTELLO: The outrage on Twitter also ramping up with photos and tweets posting to hash tag bring back our girls. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi tweeting I support the president's decision to help a team to help Nigeria bring back our girls. We cannot rest until these young women are returned safely.

Whoopi Goldberg posted #bringbackourgirls, "Fear of education for girls in any country condemns the future of that country. Why hurt your own future?"

And the senator from New Hampshire, Kelly Ayotte, wrote, "Boko Haram's abduction of more than 200 girls in Nigeria is horrific, and we demand and pray for their safe release."

Here at CNN, we are not going to give up on those girls and we'll bring you the latest developments as this story unfolds. If you would like to help girls worldwide trying to overcome barriers to education, you can go to our web site, cnn.com/impact.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Cleveland kidnapping survivor, Michelle Knight, reveals she had a baby with Ariel Castro.

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MICHELLE KNIGHT, KIDNAPPING SURVIVOR: The baby came out not breathing. And at the point in time, I knew what he said. The baby didn't come out breathing, I'll kill you.

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COSTELLO: Michelle Knight survived a decade of torture locked up in a Cleveland home. She was one of three girls Ariel Castro kidnapped, abused, and raped. One year after finally being set free, Michelle Knight, sat down with Anderson Cooper to share her story.

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ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, CNN'S "AC360": You had a feeling that he did not like you but he treated her differently?

KNIGHT: Always.

COOPER: Always. How so?

KNIGHT: She got better food. She got clothes. She got blankets. She got basically whatever she wanted except for home.

COOPER: Why do you think that was?

KNIGHT: He had a fascination with her more than me.

COOPER: Was that physical?

KNIGHT: It's more unlikely she was the wife type of person. I was a punching bag.

COOPER (voice-over): Michelle's captor often talked about getting yet another girl, and almost a year after Amanda was taken, he did just that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gina's family spent the last three days posting these missing flyers.

COOPER: On April 22nd, 2004, he abducted 14-year-old Gina DeJesus, and soon after, Michelle and Gina were chained together in that boarded-up room.

KNIGHT: When we were sad and we got knocked down by things that he said, we would tell each other, you know, it's OK. That one day it would be over. We'll try to encourage ourselves to keep hope that we will go home, even though sometimes we didn't feel like we were.

COOPER: Hope was hard to come by until December, 2006, when Michelle was forced to deliver Amanda Berry's daughter, Jocelyn.

KNIGHT: I was just so amazing to actually bring a new life into the world, but it was also traumatic at the same time.

COOPER (on camera): You write that you saved the baby's life.

KNIGHT: Yes. The baby came out not breathing. And at the point in time, I knew what he'd say if the baby didn't come out breathing. I'll kill you.

COOPER: He told you that he would kill you if the baby didn't survive?

KNIGHT: Yes.

COOPER: He wanted that baby?

KNIGHT: Yes.

COOPER: Who did he consider his family, all of you?

KNIGHT: Yes. But I was like the traitor of the family.

COOPER: The tough one.

KNIGHT: Yes.

COOPER: You smile when you say that. That was important to you to remain defiant?

KNIGHT: Yes.

COOPER: And now it's a source of pride.

KNIGHT: Yes.

COOPER: That you remain defiant? Explain that.

KNIGHT: All my life, I was made to feel insecure, like I was worthless. For the first time in my life, I stood up to a person that was a demeaning person and it felt good to stand up for myself, because I never did before.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: She is now. She's amazing. Part three of Anderson Cooper's revealing interview with Michelle Knight airs tonight on "AC360" at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN.

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