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U.S. Sends 80 Troops to Look for Kidnapped African Schoolgirls; Democrats Appoint Five to Benghazi Committee; V.A. Rescinds Phoenix Director's Bonus; "L.A. Times" Reports Sterling Tried to Convince Stiviano to Lie; Tornado Warning for Denver

Aired May 21, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Once again, breaking news in to CNN, as the calls have been made for involvement, and specifically U.S. involvement, in helping find those 200-plus missing Nigerian schoolgirls who were taken by that terror group Boko Haram in Nigeria, we now have learned -- this is from President Obama, specifically notifying the speaker of the House and the president of the Senate, so John Boehner and Harry Reid, that 80 members -- just glancing down at my notes here -- 80 members of the U.S. armed forces to Chad to assist in locating the missing schoolgirls from Nigeria, part of the War Powers notification. So that is huge.

We have General "Spider" Marks joining me now to talk a little bit more about this.

General, can you -- what specifically, as we think about Chad, we think about Nigeria, how will these 80 troops go about this mission?

MAJOR GENERAL JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST (via telephone): Well, Brooke, what we're looking at primarily on this initial statement is that 80 folks in Chad are there primarily to conduct ISR-type missions. Those are intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance-type missions.

I would assume that those are primarily drones, unmanned aerial vehicles. There might, in fact, even be some manned aircraft, which have some very significant capabilities to do not only imagery intelligence but also what I would call imagery as well as signals intelligence, which would more precisely define the areas that they're looking for and then the condition of the hostages, these young girls, and then their relationship, i.e., are they connected to and intermingled with the hostage takers, or if there's some separation, what type of a picture does this allow an operational commander in order to make -- you know, how does that facilitate a decision in terms of maybe there's an opportunity to help the Nigerian forces who are on the ground conduct an operation to free them? That's an initial step.

BALDWIN: So when you say separation, let me just jump back to one of your points, because it is quite plausible -- we've seen this video that they released of these girls sitting there. This by no means is the entire group. It's quite possible that Boko Haram has separated these girls, correct?

MARKS (via telephone): Absolutely. The girls could be in multiple locations, and then Boko Haram, because of those multiple locations, are going to have an increased demand in terms of their ability to maintain the security of these girls in these different locations.

So it becomes a stress in terms of Boko Haram maintaining command and control, connection with their different elements that have these different pockets of these girls, if, in fact, that's confirmed.

BALDWIN: We know, of course, the U.S. doesn't negotiate with terrorists. That was initially on the table as far as Nigeria went with possibly negotiating with Boko Haram. They then said, No, we will not do that.

So as you mentioned drones and perhaps manned aircraft. What else, tactically speaking, can the U.S. troops do? And how much can we trust Nigeria to help?

MARKS (via telephone): Well, the answer to that -- Brooke, the answer to your second question is not much.

It's not a -- first of all, it's not a significantly professional military. I would imagine that corruption exists throughout the breadth and depth of that military.

BALDWIN: Right. That's why I asked.

MARKS (via telephone): You're looking at a society that's incredibly fractured, a lot of wealth on the coast and then you've got abject poverty almost everywhere else, to include where these girls are primarily being held.

But what this allows the United States to do is further refine the picture they're dealing with.

And then also, if the United States is acknowledging they have U.S. forces in Chad, which they are there because Chad has given authorization, we've been invited , n and it's a secure sanctuary, so the United States can operate with a certain degree of freedoms.

I'm certain also that there are probably additional special forces folks that have been brought in so that if there is a targetive opportunity, we can do something, but it would have to be very, very precisely defined in terms of what the rules of engagement are and what type risks are we willing to put our American service members at in this environment.

BALDWIN: General, stay with me.

Let me bring in our senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta. And, Jim, I understand as we're getting this news, this was actually in letter form from the president, from the White House, announcing these 80 troops. JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brooke. I have the letter right here.

It basically explains -- and this is a legal requirement for the president to abide by in informing the speaker about this deployment of U.S. forces. And you've probably already read it. But I'm just joining you now.

It says approximately 80 U.S. armed forces personnel have been deployed to Chad as part of the U.S. efforts to locate and support the safe return of those Nigerian schoolgirls who are kidnapped.

We should point out that part of the reason we believe the forces have been sent in there are really in a support capacity, because they've been using these drones, as your guest was just mentioning, using these drones to find these girls, locate these girls, because that has been sort of the problem over the last couple weeks as we've heard it described to us by administration officials.

You know, you've heard John McCain and others up on Capitol Hill saying, Why aren't we sending in special forces? Why aren't we sending in troops to find these girls? We need to do this, right away.

And what administration officials have said is that, wait a minute, we need to find them first. We need to locate their position first and then we can make a decision after that.

And because they're using drones to fly over these areas to locate these girls, they need support forces in that area.

My understanding is is that that is why the president is sending this notification to Capitol Hill, to notify the speaker that these additional forces are being sent in to support that mission.

Of course, if it results in finding the schoolgirls, all the better, but this is a legal requirement for this White House. And that's why the president signed this today.

BALDWIN: Jim, do we know why today? Certainly over the last -- however many -- four or five weeks since this story really broke, that the chorus has grown louder for involvement in Nigeria.

But why today from the White House?

ACOSTA: I don't really know the answer to that question. We've gone back to officials to find out exactly why this is happening today, what exactly are these forces going to be doing. We don't have the answers to these questions yet.

I mean, but you said it, I think, correctly, Brooke, in that this administration has come under a lot of criticism in its response to the Boko Haram militant group, in response to finding these girls.

There are Democrats and Republicans who want special forces sent in to find these girls, but the White House has said, wait a minute, we need to be cautious about this. You know, we need to locate their position first, you know, before moving any ground forces into the area.

And at this point the White House has said that they're not really interested at this point in sending in, say, SEAL Team 6 in that sort of mission to find these girls. They're just not at that stage yet, Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK. Thank you, Jim.

Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, Barbara, we're talking about these 80 members of the U.S. armed forces heading to Chad.

Tell me more about these individuals, when they leave, the mission?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, we've had here at the Pentagon just a few minutes ago one of those sort of infamous Pentagon hallway briefings by an official explaining to reporters behind the scenes what is happening.

Let me walk everybody through it. There are 80 members of the U.S. military that are going to Chad to basically operate an unmanned aerial vehicle, a Predator drone.

There will be about 40 people from the Air Force, doing what they call launch and recovery, sending the drone up, operating while it's up and bringing it back.

There are going to be another 40 people from the Air Force, conducting ground security, protecting the 40 people operating the drone, protecting the drone while it's on the ground, all of the equipment.

So it's a package of troops to both conduct the mission and protect the mission in Chad.

Perhaps the most significant thing is, now, for the first time, Chad has said, OK, you can search over our territory, as well. As you fly in and out of Chad, as you go into Nigeria, to fly overhead to look for the girls, you can also search our territory from overhead and look and see if you see anything.

But I will also tell you we are very aware that the U.S. military had already been doing some of that very quietly while it was conducting those missions over Nigeria. But now you have Chad's permission.

But why is this happening today?

BALDWIN: Right.

STARR: We can't answer that question.

BALDWIN: That's the question. That's what I was just asking Jim. The White House hasn't had an answer on that one, yet.

STARR: Well, there's -- as always with the U.S. military, there's more and less to it than meets the eye.

The military -- pardon me -- the military had been using manned aircraft to conduct these missions over Nigeria. Those aircraft basically had to go into the shop for maintenance.

The UAVs, the Predators that they were using, were a long distance away. They didn't have time on station, so to speak. They could come this distance, they could fly overhead for several hours, but by now, having the manned aircraft back in the shop and the Predator, the unmanned drone, closer in Chad, you can keep it up in the air longer.

So they can do more productive missions. They think they can keep this drone up in the air longer, keep it flying, keep it looking.

That's a real military benefit. But why today? It's because some other aircraft, we are told, had to go for maintenance.

BALDWIN: How about that?

STARR: Yeah, it's just the reality of how the military works.

But make no mistake, it does give them now perhaps a broader area to look in. So these missions are now -- we're told the troops are arriving today.

We are not being told where they came from because the U.S. military doesn't like to really talk about the fact that it does operate some classified missions out of Africa, out of the east coast of Africa, out of Niger on the west coast.

These are pretty sensitive surveillance missions that they conduct, so they're not exactly telling us where they came from, but they're going to send this unit into Chad to see if they can get some of that broader, long-range, long-time-in-the-air, aerial coverage to see if they can get clues where these girls are.

But, Brooke, let me add, at the same time, Pentagon officials tell us the intelligence they do have still lead them to believe that the girls probably, most likely, have been broken up into various groups.

BALDWIN: That's what I was just discussing with General "Spider" Marks, in terms of strategy from this terror organization, that finding that specific target, to find these girls, gosh --

STARR: Very tough business.

BALDWIN: It is incredibly complicated.

STAR: Very tough.

BADLWIN: Barbara Starr, thank you so much, at the Pentagon here with this breaking news.

We now know from the White House they are sending in these 80 troops, 80 U.S. armed forces to Chad to help bring our girls back.

We have a correspondent in Nigeria. We'll talk to Zain Asher, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: As promised, we'll take you to Nigeria here in just a minute. But first, just a short time ago, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi named these five -- here they are -- five fellow Democrats to the special Benghazi committee.

Now Leader Pelosi's decision followed days of discussions among her Democratic colleagues, some of whom argued actually for boycotting the probe as pure politics.

Eight committees have held hearings on the matter, including the oversight committee led by Republican Darrell Issa, whom Democrats charge with being heavy handed.

Here was Nancy Pelosi.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE NANCY PELOSI (D), MINORITY LEADER: Regrettably the Republican approach does not prevent the unacceptable and the repeated abuses committed by Chairman Issa in any meaningful way.

That is all the more reason for Democrats to participate in the committee, to be there to fight for a fair hearing and process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So that's the why, as far as participating, Jake Tapper. What about why these five?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: These are five individuals from very powerful respected committees. Elijah Cummings is also, of course, Darrell Issa's Democratic counterpart on the House government and oversight committee.

Other individuals named there include members of ways and means, intelligence and armed services, so it's a group of individuals who are fairly respected within the Democratic caucus.

This was a very difficult decision as you just suggested, Brooke. Democrats feared that these hearings would be not fair. They wanted to be able to have access to witnesses. They wanted to be consulted when it came to subpoenas.

At the end of the day they didn't get any of that, but instead of boycotting as a result of that, they decided they had to be present because they were worried how much attention this hearing -- these hearings were going to get without their participation. They thought it would be not balanced

BALDWIN: And then on that same vein, wouldn't that apply if and when Hillary Clinton were called to testify, they want to make sure, as you could be tossing her hat in the ring in 2016, they want to be sure she is treated fairly.

TAPPER: That's right. I mean, when we had Congressman Trey Gowdy on my show a week or two ago, he said wanted to call Secretary of State -- former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as national security adviser Dr. Susan Rice and others to testify before the committee.

He wouldn't say if he would subpoena them if they didn't come willingly, but he definitely said he wanted them to appear.

And I think you're right. Democrats want to make sure that there is at least some balance when it comes to questioning those women if and when they do testify before the committee.

But, again, they still feel like they are not being treated fairly, they are not given access to witnesses and not being consulted when it comes to subpoenas.

So this could have gone either way. At the end of the day they decided their presence is better than their boycott.

BALDWIN: OK, Jake Tapper, we'll see you in 10 minutes on "THE LEAD," live out of Washington. Thank you, sir, for that.

Let's take you back to our breaking news. As we have now heard, it came in the form of a letter from the president of the United States to the head of the Senate, head of the House, that the U.S. will, in fact, be sending 80 members -- 80 service members to Chad, which neighbors Nigeria.

We have gotten permission from Chad to use a Predator drone as our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr was just telling me. This news had just broken, and as she was saying, sort of in this classic, impromptu news conference in the hallways of the Pentagon.

They were discussing how it would be 40 members of the U.S. Air Force who would be helping work this drone, 40 on the ground, and so that is the news.

The question is, why announce this today? We don't know that yet. But what we can find out with Zain Asher here, Zain Asher joining me live from Abuja in Nigeria -- so as night has fallen there Zain, and this news has just broken, have you gotten any kind of reaction from Nigerians?

ZAIN ASHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, not really, Brooke. This news has just broken as you mentioned, 80 members of U.S. armed forces now working towards Chad to assist in finding these missing girls.

Now, here's what you have to understand about that part of Nigeria. The northeastern part of Nigeria that borders Cameroon and Chad, those borders are extremely porous. These bodies are not well defined.

And, in fact, Boko Haram militants have been known to slip in and out of Cameroon to buy arms. So it is crucial that the United States finish this, because Goodluck Jonathan, the president of Nigerian, actually mentioned, over the weekend, he had 20,000 troops in that area, 20,000 troops in northeastern Nigeria.

But in order for them to travel to Cameroon or to Chad they need the permission of those countries. This is why it's important that the U.S. helps with that, because that does slow down the process.

But we aren't sure if there is any specific intelligence that the U.S. is working on about the location of these girls.

Does this mean that they're necessarily all in the deep Zambezi forest? Does this mean that some of the girls have been split up into groups?

We're not entirely sure yet, we'll bring you more information as we get that information.

BALDWIN: Zain Asher, thank you so much, live in Abuja, Nigeria, here with the huge, huge news.

As we've been saying, the chorus has been louder and louder to go in and help get those girls.

Coming up next, the NBA reportedly claims Donald Sterling tried to convince V. Stiviano to lie about his racist rants, and that is just the beginning here.

We'll talk to the reporter from the "L.A. Times" who got his hands on the officials NBA charges, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: More fallout on this V.A. story here, this just into us at CNN. The Veteran Affairs secretary has now rescinded a bonus that one of his directors received just last month.

The director, Sharon Helman, who led the Phoenix V.A. hospital, big time under fire now for CNN revealed the existence of doctored wait lists that showed vets getting treatment in a timely way when that was not happening.

The real wait lists showed, according to sources that 1,400 to 1,600 sick vets waited as long as 21 month to be seen.

So this woman, this Director Helman, received a bonus of nearly $8,500 last month, and now V.A. Secretary Eric Shinseki is taking it back.

No word as far as what will happen to the bonus Helman received last year. She is on administrative leave.

And now to the NBA, dropping bombshell charges against L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling, the "L.A. Times" reports that the league says Sterling asked companion V. Stiviano to lie about his racist comments that, as you well know, went public.

The charges are compiled in a 30-page document summarizing why Sterling should be forced to sell his team. The "L.A. Times" says the document not only accuses the 80-year-old of asking Stiviano to lie, but also says team president Andy Roeser knew about the recording before it went public and that he offered a staffer -- not offered, I should say -- ordered a staffer to erase it. So here now with me, "L.A. Times'" Jim Rainey who helped to break the story wide open. And I read this first thing this morning and, Jim, let's first talk about what specifically -- what do you have on Sterling as far as what he told V. Stiviano?

JAMES RAINEY, "L.A. TIMES" COLUMNIST: Well, what we have is this declaration that was made by the chief investigator, David Anders, for the NBA, and what he said was that he talked to Stiviano, and kind of amazingly, she's at this hotel , the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. Donald Sterling is there with her.

And she -- and the two of them meet in this conference room, and he allegedly tells her, Hey, let's just tell everybody now that that is not my voice on the tape or that you doctored the tape and let's kind of smooth this whole thing over.

In addition he tries to get her to settle the lawsuit which his wife Shelly has filed against her, and says, look, if you settle the suit, make a payment, I'll pay you kind of sub rosa and make you whole on that.

So that was all stuff we hadn't heard before.

BALDWIN: That was new, also the stuff about Clippers president Andy Roeser discussing this recording with Sterling -- what, was it two weeks before it came out?

RAINEY: Yeah, it was actually on April 6th, so it was a little bit -- or April 9th, rather, so a little more than two weeks before this all broke on April 25th.

And what happened is they got a text message with a part of the recording attached to it. An employee got it with the Clippers, handed it to Roeser.

He listened to it. He in turn had Mr. Sterling listen to it. And then they decided, well, apparently Mr. Roeser ordered this employee to destroy the copy of the tape and -- or the recording -- and also destroy it on her main computer.

She had it on her phone and they destroyed it there and then destroyed it on the main Clippers computer. So that was never known before, either.

BALDWIN: And a quick reminder on Roeser, he is now where?

RAINEY: He has been ordered suspended by the NBA, so he is on the sidelines right now and he has not said anything publicly about all this.

Of course everybody would love to talk to him, because he'd been the Sterlings since he was in his early 20s, for about 30 years.

BALDWIN: OK. All right, thank you so much, Jim. I appreciate it.

Because I am being told in this final 60 seconds I have on this show, Chad, I see you putting on a suit.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

BALDWIN: Chad Myers, walk toward me my friend, because what are we hearing? Breaking news in the world of weather, a tornado warning --

MYERS: For Metro Denver.

BALDWIN: Denver?

MYERS: Really Commerce City, moving to the northeast, and this thing has had a history of very, very large hail, as well.

There's rotation in the storm. It is moving to the northeast, away from the city of Denver, but it's moving right toward the airport.

Now that is still Denver. The airport has been annexed by Denver, so if you're near the airport or anywhere in that northeast corridor of Denver, you need to take cover right now.

This is a tornado warning with a rotation, very significant, like a tornado developing or already on the ground.

BALDWIN: Chad Myers, thank you so much for that.

And just a final, because we had to go so quickly, Jim Rainey and his colleague Nathan Fenno with "L.A. Times," read the article in the "Times." He said he's got more to come, as well.

That's it for me. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.