Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Amnesty International Says Nigeria Government Knew About Boko Haram Attack in Advance; Flight 370 Families Demand Officials Reanalyze; Democrats Debate Joining Benghazi Joint Committee; Benhams Don't Hold HGTV Grudge; Kim Goldman's New Book on O.J. Simpson; Helping Harlem Girls Learn to Ice Skate; Two From CNN Make "Most Powerful Moms" List

Aired May 09, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: CNN has learned U.S. military advisors arrived in Nigeria today, forming an elite group to help find hundreds of schoolgirls kidnapped by the terror group Boko Haram, this rescue attempt coming after the families of the girls tried it on their own.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They said an army will be there, a civilians detail will be there and we will accompany -- they will accompany us to go into the bush.

ISHA SESAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Were they there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. We went there, and none of them were there, only the parents.

We enter the bush almost 86 kilometers away from Chibok. We were over there. They says, look at that very tall tree, thick forest. Your daughters are there.

But, you people, you will lose your life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And we are now learning about an explosive report from Amnesty International claiming it has evidence that Nigerian security forces knew Boko Haram was going to strike four hours before they did.

But government officials mostly set on their hands, according to this report, because, apparently they couldn't scramble together enough forces to respond.

CNN has reached out to the Nigerian government, but we haven't heard back from them yet on these claims.

But to talk about this, joining me now Cristina Finch, managing director of the identity and discrimination unit at Amnesty International USA. So, Cristina, if you would, just starting off here, tell us where did you intelligence come from and the evidence come from to support this report?

CRISTINA FINCH, IDENTITY AND DISCRIMINATION UNIT, AMNEST INTERNATIONAL USA: Absolutely.

Amnesty international spoke with senior military officials in Nigeria and local officials in the region to gather evidence that we released this morning that the Nigerian government knew up to four hours in advance that these attacks would happen and did not take adequate action to prevent them.

BROWN: You said they didn't take adequate action. In what way? Did they not respond at all? Did they try to respond? What happened?

FINCH: We have evidence that there were a little more than a dozen Nigerian military troops, if you will, that attempted to repel the Boko Haram attackers, but were unsuccessful in that.

And given that they knew many hours in advance that this attack was going to happen, indeed we found evidence that a Boko Haram fighter had gone through the town asking where the girl's school was, and the Nigerian military forces did not take action to get reinforcements and do what they needed to do to protect the civilians.

BROWN: As we mentioned, we have reached out to the Nigerian government. We haven't heard back.

But how about Amnesty International? What is the government's response to this explosive report?

FINCH: Unfortunately, none that we have been able to have from them. We reached out to the Nigerian military in Abuja, no response.

BROWN: Cristina, the Nigerian government first told the world they had rescued the girls when we learned they haven't. The girls are still kidnapped.

What do you think that this all means, the way this is played out, the way the government has reacted? Do you think it's a reflection of them trying to save face, more than rescuing these girls?

FINCH: That's certainly what it looks like. Our first and foremost concern is the safety of these girls, and the response from the Nigerian government has been wholly inadequate.

We're asking them to take every lawful action they can to save these girls. And the fact that they have been inactive for several weeks when there have been reports of the kidnappings, of the potential location is a gross dereliction of their duty.

BROWN: All right, Cristina Finch, thank you, and, of course, we will be awaiting a response back from the Nigerian government on this. We appreciate it.

FINCH: Thank you.

BROWN: More than two months after Flight 370 vanished, the heartbroken families have sent another open letter, demanding officials take the search back to the drawing board and reanalyze the information they have.

They question how authorities can be certain the Boeing 777 crashed into the Indian Ocean since there is no physical evidence.

And their concerns are now being echoed in a new report today in "The Atlantic," which claims that many satellite experts believe the search could be happening not just in the wrong spot but in the wrong ocean.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARI SCHULMAN, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE NEW ATLANTIS" : The math of the satellite pings is actually somewhat straightforward. I describe it as being a game like Marco Polo played across 22,000 miles of space.

You've got the satellite sending pings, and it's responding. So you get these basic characteristics of what you would expect the responses to look like.

One of those, for example, is that the plane is stationary on the runway before take-off and the satellite isn't moving relative to that position, so you would expect there to be no what-you-call Doppler frequency shifts. You would expect that shift to be zero.

If you look at the beginning of the graph that they published, it's up at about 85 hertz, so basically what it shows is that the plane is moving on the runway. So something is off with that interpretation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: All right, joining me now to discuss this is David Soucie, CNN safety analyst, accident investigator and author, "Why Planes Crash."

So, David, explain it for us. How exactly did they come to doubt the data that has -- that this whole investigation has really hinged on?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: From the very beginning we have been hearing from these scientists, who are very legitimate scientists -- they are specialized in this particular area of science -- and they have been asking us to communicate as much as we could to Inmarsat and anyone in the investigation that they needed the base frequency offsets, the BFO information. And, indeed, Malaysia did release that information.

So when they took a look at that information, they said, wait a minute. This doesn't make sense. There's something that doesn't calculate properly here. The analysis is wrong.

It's important to point out the data is not incorrect, that Inmarsat provided the correct data. It's the analysis that's a little bit askew. So what they tried to figure out is how are we going to figure out where this came from? There's still one piece of information missing, and that's what the Voice 370 and Sarah Bajc and that group has put in their letter. They want more information from the scientists.

BROWN: David, this report compares the Inmarsat pings to a game of Marco Polo, essentially, the satellite shouts, "Marco!" The plane shouts back, "Polo!"

But the article says the pings only tell you how far away the plane is, as you mentioned, not the direction.

So in that light, what do you think led searchers to this southern arc, especially because there were peer reviews going on, there were a lot of people involved with that decision-making?

SOUCIE: What it's telling you is that the relationship between how far away or how close the handshaker, the airplane, is to the satellite.

So as it goes further away, remember it can be further away south or it can be further away to the north, what they did was they said, well, we're going to look at the information from similar aircraft that are flying in the northern and then the ones that are flying the southern route.

And let's compare the two together and see which one are distinguishably different. And the ones that they received from the north were distinguishably different that those from the south.

What this report questions is there is a relationship, again, between the movement of the satellite and the receiving ground station, the -- where the ground station is.

So the question is, is the relationship between that ground station and the aircraft in the north different than the relationship between the ground station and the aircraft in the south?

So those again raises more questions about this Inmarsat data, and it goes right back to why is this information not being shared, and why is it not? That needs to come out.

BROWN: And, again, you know, this is a communications company. This is sort of a new technique to old technology, and here we are two months out, no plane. So no surprise that people are questioning this.

David Soucie, thank you.

SOUCIE: Thank you.

BROWN: We told you about two brothers about to star in their own TV show fired by the network for their personal beliefs.

Now the Benham brothers are speaking out. They're not upset with the cable channel Hear what believe really caused them to lose their show. But, first, a House committee gets set to investigate the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. Democrats aren't so sure they want to take part.

The latest from Washington after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: House Speaker John Boehner has rewarded seven Republicans with highly sought spots on the select committee established to investigate Benghazi. As previously announced, the committee's being led by Congressman Trey Gowdy of South Carolina.

Democrats for their part are yet to decide whether to claim their spots at all on this committee.

The Benghazi attack with its four deaths of Americans, including the U.S. ambassador, already has been the subject of eight congressional probes.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said today that naming the special committee is a stunt.

CNN's Jake Tapper, up next with "THE LEAD," so, Jake, of course, the big question, what are the Democrats going to do here?

Pelosi, the Democrats, now considering naming no one to this new Benghazi investigation, a boycott, as it were. What's the calculus here?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE LEAD": Well, the question right now is, it hasn't yet come to a boycott. Democrat leaders, as I just got off the phone seconds ago with a top Democratic House aide, says that they are not willing to participate if they can be guaranteed that the process is going to be fair and this is actually going to be a legitimate investigation into what happened.

Their concern, they say, is that there have been abuses on the House committee run by Congressman Darrell Issa, the House government reform and oversight committee. Issa obviously doesn't agree with that.

And they want -- the Democrats want to make sure that this is fair, that they have the same access to witnesses that the Republicans have. They are no longer still pushing for equal representation on the committee, but they want to make sure it's fair.

So right now, there has not been a decision in terms of a boycott or not, but it really seems to be touch and go.

BROWN: It seems like they would have a lot to lose, though, Jake, if there was not Democratic presence in that committee, because that means there wouldn't be, you know, a voice from a Democrat. I mean, isn't that part of what's being considered?

TAPPER: That's one of the arguments, those who say we should -- the Democrats should participate no matter what, who argue, quote, "we should participate no matter what."

But the counterargument would be that Democrats say, if we participate, we are lending this committee a legitimacy, we're lending it a bipartisan stamp that we don't want to do.

So those are the internal arguments that I'm hearing when I talk to Democrats on the Hill.

And right now I really think it could go either way. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sending John Boehner a letter with a counterproposal. Boehner had earlier sent back a different proposal.

I -- if I had to predict right now on today's facts or even just this second's facts, I would predict the Democrats end up boycotting the committee, but it really could go either way.

BROWN: All right, interesting. Of course we will be hearing more on your show coming up in just a few minutes, "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper. Thanks, Jake.

TAPPER: Thank you, Pamela.

BROWN: President Obama today announced a new slate of actions for climate control and jobs creation. During a visit to a Walmart in Northern California, the president said hundreds of businesses have agreed to upgrade their buildings and make better use of solar energy.

The initiatives are meant to boost green construction jobs and combat carbon pollution.

President Obama also announced an additional $2 billion in energy- efficient upgrades to federal buildings. The move would save taxpayers billions of dollars.

Up next, they were about to star in their own cable show, but instead, that was canceled, all because of their personal beliefs.

Amazingly, the Benham brothers aren't mad at HGTV. Now they're speaking out about the controversy, and hear who they say forced the network to cancel the show.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well they didn't hold onto their TV show, but it turns out the Benham brothers also don't hold a grudge, at least not against HGTV.

The cable network just dropped the brothers upcoming reality show, "Flip it Forward." The move happened after a recording surfaced showing one of the brothers making anti-gay remarks.

The Benhams say HGTV knew their views all along, and the network was bullied.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID BENHAM, SHOW CANCELED BY HGTV: We would love to work with HGTV. We absolutely love the executives there.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": So you don't feel wronged at all in all of this, is what you're telling?

D. BENHAM: No.

JASON BENHAM, SHOW CANCELED BY HGTV: We don't feel wronged at all. We just -- as David said, this isn't HG versus us --

D. BENHAM: Versus the Benhams.

J. BENHAM: -- or us against the gay community.

This is an agenda, and we're getting to witness it right now. I mean, check it out.

We believe in Jesus Christ, and David has specifically said some things, and an agenda says you believe this, I believe this, now you can't say your belief. That's not right.

D. BENHAM: And so they're --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: "Flip It Forward" was going to feature the Benhams helping families buy homes that they otherwise could not afford.

Next month, it will have been 20 years -- can you believe it -- 20 years since the nation sat glued to our TVs, watching this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING, FORMER CNN HOST: Now they're telling me that they believe that this vehicle is registered to Al Cowlings, one of O.J.'s oldest friends, a teammate at Southern Cal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: You probably recognize it, the infamous white Bronco chase, with O.J. Simpson in the Bronco, his buddy A.C. Cowlings, behind the wheel and police in a long, steady pursuit.

They were trying to arrest Simpson for the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

Every moment of the murder trial that followed was carried live on TV and quickly became known as the "Trial of the Century."

It transfixed the country and spawned a cottage industry of legal analysts and brought a wider audience to a whole network devoted to court TV.

But for a small group of people in that courtroom, the case was much more personal and painful, especially so for Ron Goldman's father Fred and his sister, Kim, who sat side by side throughout the O.J. Simpson trial. CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin talked with Kim Goldman, just moments ago.

Sunny, Kim has written a new book, "Can't Forgive -- My 20-Year Battle With O.J. Simpson." Tell us what she said to you.

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, she's a lovely person. And we spoke for quite some time. I've read the book. It really is a must- read.

And she explained that she is -- that closure really for her is not really possible when the your loved one is murdered in the "crime of the century." It's something that comes up all the time.

But in terms of her journey and trying to become healthy and honoring her brother, the one person that she has reached out to is the man she calls the killer.

Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIM GOLDMAN, RONALD GOLDMAN'S SISTER: For years, I have listened to what everybody has to say about you, the lawyers, the media, but never from you. We've been tied to each other for all this time, and I've never had the chance to talk to you.

I realize our few interactions have not been great, but I'm wondering if you would grant me a visitation to let me to get to know the real you.

HOSTIN: Do you still want to meet with him?

GOLDMAN: I don't need it as much, because actually writing this letter, what I didn't anticipate was how soft I had to become, how vulnerable I had to become.

And then the second that I was able to put his prisoner number on the front of that envelope before I dropped it in the mail was like mind- blowing.

I just didn't realize how much of an impact that would have on me.

If I was ever --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOSTIN: So she has not met with the man, again, she calls the killer of her brother. She refuses to mention his name, and I won't do that in honor of her.

But she certainly is on her way, I think, to healing from this.

She did mention, though, Pam, that every June 12th, which is the anniversary of the murder of her brother, she really goes into somewhat of a depression. She replays every single moment of that day, and it's still very, very, very difficult for her.

BROWN: As we can see her getting so emotional, understandably.

Sunny, the Goldmans got a very small measure of justice in the civil trial in which he -- I won't say his name now, out of respect for her -- is ordered to pay them millions of dollars in damage.

Do you know? Has Kim Goldman received any of that money?

HOSTIN: You know, they got $33.5 million civil settlement and she felt good about that. At this point in time it's worth about $40 million. She's only received 0.075 percent of that settlement.

She says that the killer of her brother has basically been able to hide any funds from them, and they really haven't been able to really retrieve much of that settlement.

BROWN: Sunny Hostin, thank you. We appreciate it.

HOSTIN: Thanks.

BROWN: Up next, breaking barriers on and off the ice, young girls skating their way to success.

And who do you think are the most powerful moms of 2014? We're proud to say that two of our own made the top five, and here's a hint. This one, right here, is one of them.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Around the country, people are gearing up for summer, but one group of girls in New York City's Harlem is focused on ice, all year round, ice skating, that is.

The pricey sport is out of reach for many kids in this neighborhood, but one woman has made it her mission to help these girls succeed, on and off the rink, and that's why she's a CNN Hero.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love the crispy feeling of the air, the sound of my skate crunching on ice.

Skating relieves me from everything. I just want to fly. I just don't want to stop.

SHARON COHEN, CNN HERO: I heard that there were some girls that wanted to figure skate in Harlem.

Growing up, I was a competitive figure skater, and I knew that skating wasn't a diverse sport. There was not access for kids in low-income communities.

They were so eager to get started, I began teaching them and it was really inspiring to me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Slow.

COHEN: And now we serve over 200 girls a year.

Look at those spins. You did it.

The best part about skating is that it gives you qualities that you use for the rest of your life. They gain discipline, perseverance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMLAE: Step cross, step cross. Excellent, girls.

COHEN: They fall down, they get back up, and they learn that they can do that in anything.

It's a building block.

Skating is the hook, but education comes first.

Before they even get on the ice, they have to get their homework done. They get tutoring, a minimum of three afternoons a week.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Algebra was not my best subject, and I failed it.

Miss Sharon hired a special tutor for me. It felt like, hey, you have to get back up.

It was that simple?

Now I'm doing way better in school. I was like, yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ladies and gentlemen, Harlem Ice.

COHEN: You want girls to believe and know they can do anything they put their hearts and minds to.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not all about skating.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Miss Sharon is teaching us to be the best that we can be in life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And every week we honor a CNN Hero, an everyday person doing extraordinary work to help others.

If you know someone who deserves recognition, tell them about us at CNNHeroes.com.

And speaking of heroes, let's talk about Mother's Day coming up this Sunday. We at CNN want to tout two of our own for making the top five of Working Mother Magazine's Most Powerful Mothers.

Chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash is number five on the list. She's mother to 3-year-old Jonah.

And chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour is number three. Her son Darius is 14-years-old.

And in case you're wondering, singer Christina Aguilera is number one on that list.

So, of course, happy Mother's Day -- early Mother's Day to all of you moms out there, and a special happy Mother's Day to my mom, who I know is watching right now as she normally does.

Have a great weekend, everyone. Thanks so much for being here with me.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts now.