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Five Released Taliban Living in Lap of Luxury; Passenger Steps In When Pilot Falls Ill; "People" Magazine Interviews Hillary Clinton; Questions Grow Over Bergdahl's Capture

Aired June 04, 2014 - 14:30   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: The bottom of the hour. You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Let's talk about these five members of the Taliban returned to a hero's welcome. These men are brutal commanders. They are senior leaders. They're hardened terrorists, mean who have contributed to the deaths of Americans. And these men are now free. Guantanamo detainees exchanged for U.S. Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl as this intense exchange took place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

BALDWIN: Meantime, those five terrorist went to Qatar where they are supposed to live under strict security measures, including a one-year travel ban. But right now, we hear they are living in the lap of luxury with their families.

Joining me know, our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson -- Ivan Watson.

Ivan, let me begin with you.

You are in Doha. When we say "living in luxury," let's be specific. How are they living? With whom are they living? And what are their parameters for this next year?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, to be honest, we're trying to find out their location. We have been able to confirm that they would be living in some kind of alleged lap of luxury here. We haven't been able to confirm some media reports that they would be living in some kind of alleged lap of luxury here. What they have presumably come here to the area, they have been brought here, and we have been informed they will not be able to leave for at least a year.

There is a representative office of the Taliban in this country. It's in Doha in a neighborhood of mansions. We don't know if they'll be going to that place or some of other kind of housing here. Doha is a city of high-rise buildings, villas. But there is also some pretty poor housing in this country, too. So a question of whether these guys will be playing on the beaches or perhaps living in far more modest circumstances, that's something we will have to dig up in the days and weeks ahead -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: Will they be able to use the phone, the Internet? Will Qatar have the resources and the will to keep a close eye on these Taliban members over the next year?

WATSON: We've been told they will be free people. They will be able to move around freely. They won't be manacled. It doesn't appear they'll have any tracking devices on them.

A big questing for the future, what citizens of what country will they be? Will they be provided travel documents, passports from Afghanistan, for example? They are not terribly popular right now with the Afghan government. Will Qatar give them passports and citizenship? It seems unlikely. Will a country like Pakistan provide them that sort of citizen ship? I imagine right now these men, just like Sergeant Bergdahl, are coming to grips with the immense changes they have gone through. Some of these guys have been in Guantanamo for more than a decade.

BALDWIN: We spent the first 20 minutes of the show really dissecting the video the Taliban released of Bergdahl being handed over from the Taliban to U.S. Special Forces.

Let me ask you a video about the five former detainees released in Doha. Why did the Taliban release that video? What kind of value would that have to them?

WATSON: Well, certainly, you have got a conflict underway. And it's not only fought on the battlefields and mountains of Afghanistan but it's also fought in public relations. The initial video of Sergeant Bergdahl being released comes with pretty propagandist message, don't come back to Afghanistan, don't go to Afghanistan, with warnings like you'll be killed if you come here.

Clearly, you have elements of the Taliban trying to make this appear like a victory, the release of men, some very senior officials in the Taliban regime, of more than a decade ago. We're going back to the year 2000, 2001, when they were effectively flushed out of Afghanistan. They will naturally try to portray this as a victory to their other people that are still out there, to their funders who still send the Taliban money to get guns for their fight against the Afghan government and the U.S. military in Afghanistan.

BALDWIN: It's incredible to think of the Taliban premeditating both of these videos, bringing cameras, the optics of the whole sit. They are well aware, Ivan Watson.

Ivan, thank you so much, in Doha, Qatar, for us.

Coming up, imagine this. We all fly right? Imagine someone getting on the loud speaker and saying is there a pilot on the plane? That happened. And my next guest was a passenger on that flight and he actually hit the call button and helped. We will talk to him next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: You're in the air and the flight attendant asks is there a pilot on board. That is what happened during a United Airlines flight to Denver last December. The pilot had a heart attack. The crew was in luck. A passenger, and not just any passenger, helped save the day.

Here he is, U.S. Air Force Captain Mark Gongol, onboard, traveling with his wife, and he joins me now live.

Captain, welcome.

CAPT. MARK GONGOL, U.S. AIR FORCE PILOT: Hello, Brooke. Thanks for having me.

BALDWIN: OK. My goodness. So you hear over the loudspeaker this announcer. And the thing that we thought was fun is you turned to your wife, Captain, and what did she tell you?

GONGOL: She said I think you better ring your call button.

(LAUGHTER)

An understatement.

BALDWIN: So you did?

GONGOL: Yes. I rang my call button. I sat there and realized I know what they're going to ask me to do so I may as well start getting up and moving to the cockpit, so that's what I did.

BALDWIN: You get up and start heading that way. Describe the moment for me when the first officer takes a good long look at you.

GONGOL: After a couple of other passengers got the captain out of the cockpit and got him laid out, I walked into the cockpit, and the first officer heard me walk in and she turned around and said, OK, who are you, like a, "Oh, what now" thought.

BALDWIN: Not like you had a resume on you.

GONGOL: Exactly.

BALDWIN: She had to trust that you knew what you were doing, yes?

GONGOL: That's exactly right. She looked at me and I said, I'm a pilot, and she said, what's your experience, what do you fly? I said I'm an Air Force guy, I flew D-1s. She said OK, shut the door and have a seat. She said, we're going to Omaha and I want your help on the radios and checking the checklist. I said, OK, you've got it.

BALDWIN: How recent had you been flying D-1s? How good did you feel about this once you hopped in the seat?

GONGOL: I have not been flying D-1s since December 2011. I have since transferred to the Ohio National Guard to fly C-130s now. It had been just over two years since I had last flown a military airplane. I had been flying private general aviation aircraft off and on again. But it had been two years since I had flown anything substantial, shall we say, any heavy iron.

BALDWIN: Did you actually have to do any of the steering of the plane or was that all the first officer and you sat there just in case?

GONGOL: That was all the first officer. She did all of the flying. And thank you for asking that. I wanted to clarify that, too. There's been some unintentionally misleading headlines from other news sources.

BALDWIN: None of that around here.

GONGOL: No. Your report was absolutely fantastic yesterday. Thank you.

BALDWIN: Good, good, good.

GONGOL: And she did all the flying. I just backed her up. I just made sure she hit every checklist item. And she did. I did about 80 to 90 percent of the talking on the radios after I got to the cockpit. Just something that I could do to ease her workload, that gave her a little extra time to do other things.

BALDWIN: Meantime, the pilot, he's OK. Have you had a chance to say anything or vice versa?

GONGOL: Yes, actually, he gave me a call probably a few weeks after the incident. He was very gracious and said thank you. And of course, I said you're very welcome. He survived, obviously, and is doing very well. It's voluntarily stepping away from flying now. But he's still got, I hope, a lot of years left in him and a lot left to offer. I was just happy to help out, happy to be at the right place to help a brother pilot or sister pilot, in this case.

BALDWIN: We begin with your wife, let's end with your wife. So the plane lands. You finally meet her eyes. What did she say to you?

GONGOL: Good job, Honey.

(LAUGHTER)

A woman of few words.

BALDWIN: I love it. Captain Gongol, wonderful job. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me. I appreciate it.

GONGOL: Thank you for having me, Brooke. Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, separating facts from fiction in the capture and release of Bowe Bergdahl. There are all kinds of different accounts of exactly what happened. We will tell you what we know.

And have you noticed who is interviewing Bill Clinton (sic) during her book tour? There is a common theme. That's next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Hillary Clinton is on the campaign trail but the campaign is for the release of her new book throughout next week. Clinton's media blitz is cranking up the speculation about whether she will run for president. So in this new issue of "People" magazine that hits the newsstands Friday, Clinton talks about politics, her marriage, even her hair.

Senior political correspondent, Brianne Keilar, has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hillary Clinton, sitting down for an exclusive interview with "People" magazine at her Washington home as her newest book, "Hard Choices," hits shelves next week.

On her presidential aspirations, Clinton tells people, "I know I have a decision to make." She says, "We need to break down that highest, hardest glass ceiling in American politics. To have a woman president is something I would love to see happen, but I'll just have to make my own decision about what I think is right for me."

(CHEERING)

KEILAR: Her book rollout is certainly starting to look like a campaign. A busy schedule of appearances.

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Let me shake a few more hands.

KEILAR: Interviews and calculated releases of parts of her memoir about the State Department. Just Monday, she dropped this hint at a speech in Denver, talking about the grueling nature of a presidential race. She assured the crowd she has --

CLINTON: A lot of resilience, a lot of stamina.

KEILAR: She also talks about her husband's health, saying he's had that tremor for years. "It's nothing serious, just some sort of nerve pinch. People say he's too thin. He doesn't think so. And he has an enormous amount of energy."

And Monica Lewinski, who recently resurfaced with an essay in "Vanity Fair." Clinton tells people she hasn't read it, saying, "I've moved on. I think everybody needs to look to the future."

Clinton also reveals her indulges since taking time off.

(MUSIC)

KEILAR: "Dancing with the Stars" --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's all about location, location, location.

KEILAR: -- and "House of Cards," which she and Bill, quote, "totally binge watched."

And she was not demure when asked if she has a hair strategy for 2016. "I'm at an age where I can pretty much do what I want. Here I am whether you like my hair or not."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Staying on the topic of the 2016 presidential race looming, this is no ordinary book tour. A lot of thought and calculation and orchestration is going into every single detail of Hillary Clinton's interviews. Just look at the line up. Of the journalists that talk with her, first up, you have ABC's Diane Sawyer, also ABC's Robin Roberts, a live town hall on June 17th right her on CNN moderated by our own Christiane Amanpour. She'll be talking with Hillary Clinton. There is also Jane Paulie for CBS. NBC's Cynthia McFadden, and FOX's Bret Bair and Greta Van Susteren set to do this joint interview.

So let's bring in our senior media correspondent, host of "Reliable Sources," Mr. Brian Stelter.

And listen, when you look at the lineup, it's all ladies.

(CROSSTALK)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT & HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES: Is it a coincidence or a conscious choice?

BALDWIN: Come on.

STELTER: A lot of people say, when it comes to Hillary Clinton, nothing is a coincidental.

BALDWIN: Nothing is a coincidence.

STELTER: On the other hand, I did reach out to Clinton's camp. They declined to comment on the record. But a person close to the decision -- you can guess who that might be -- said, no, it was unintentional. In fact, we didn't notice until you, Brian, told us about it. I don't know if I believe that. But that's what they said.

Whether or not it is intentional it's interesting. When you are sitting by whoever you're being interviewed by, it affects the tone of the conversation. I might argue that if it was seven men, not seven women, that might be just as interesting, and maybe even weirder, more troublesome. You look at diversity in the media, there is an unbalance between men and women. I wonder if, in her own little way, if she is tipping the scale.

BALDWIN: Sure. Of course. Obviously, I love seeing the different women who get a chance to sit down with Hillary Clinton. You wonder if they are thinking in terms of voters, get that female vote. Who knows, that's way down the line.

STELTER: By the way, you might get asked tougher questions.

BALDWIN: Absolutely. (CROSSTALK)

STELTER: You might get asked more about the hair or Monica Lewinski. There might be more tough questions that you can deliver more effectively. A lot of this is theoretical. It's hard to say for sure. But every detail of this book rollout is scrutinized so closely, even the gender balance of the women.

BALDWIN: Yeah. Can we talk about the hair still?

STELTER: Don't mention the hair.

BALDWIN: Let's mention the hair. Much ado about the hair. Other people made the point, first of all, it's "People magazine. Second of all, much of the -- I mean this is not, to quote my friend, John Berman, "This is not 'The Economist'."

STELTER: Right.

BALDWIN: At the same time, our friend, Jonathan Wahl (ph), what is he --

(CROSSTALK)

STELTER: One of the most Twittery producers her at CNN.

BALDWIN: Very Twittery.

STELTER: Let's put up his tweet on the screen. He was making the point that this hair thing is valid because she puts it in our Twitter bio.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Hair icon --

STELTER: Hair icon.

BALDWIN: -- pants suit aficionado.

(LAUGHTER)

There we go.

STELTER: She has leaned into this idea. It's a reasonable question to be asking. Do men get asked about their hair? I don't. But some do. I remember back in the 1970s, Jimmy Carter changed his hair style. Got a lot of press for that at the time.

BALDWIN: You talk about Barack Obama going gray.

STELTER: Yes. Yes. I think we've all paid close attention to his air color over the years. It is different. If you're a politician, there is some interest in hair. She's in a league of her own.

BALDWIN: We will look for your article. (CROSSTALK)

STELTER: Yes, just posted a column on this on "CNN Money" --

BALDWIN: "CNN Money"

STELTER: -- about this issue of the female interviewers and whether it's a coincidence of or not. Each interviewer is for a very specific reason. For example, Christiane Amanpour, chief foreign correspondent here at CNN, chief international correspondent, excuse me. The book is a lot about Hillary Clinton's time as secretary of state, so that makes a lot of sense. Diane Sawyer, first interview, makes a lot of sense. She has one of the biggest nightly newscasts in the country. But that gender dynamic is very interesting.

BALDWIN: (INAUDIBLE)

STELTER: Absolutely. It's a prime time interview. A lot of tough questions.

BALDWIN: And eyeballs on the screen.

Brian Stelter, thank you very much.

STELTER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Be sure you read his piece at CNNMoney.com.

Just ahead, I will talk, live, to a former CIA operative about the fascinating video of Bowe Bergdahl's release. Hear what he says about that handshake between U.S. Special Forces and the Taliban. Plus, how the U.S. forces were ready for a surprise if something went awry.

Also ahead, separating fact and fiction in the capture and release. We will bust some myths, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, the former prisoner of war held by the Taliban for nearly five years, is recovering at a hospital in Germany right now. But when it comes to how that ordeal began and where he was when he was captured, there are a lot of questions here.

Tom Foreman is just sorting through some of the answers -- Tom?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Brooke, we've been trying to get real true and false is difficult. Did Bergdahl simply walk away from his post? That will be important if the Army takes up this question of whether or not he is guilty of desertion. We know he stacked his body armor, left his weapon there and disappeared. That's their version of events. And they say people in neighboring places saw a guy going through there at some point. So that's version. We have still to hear his version.

Another question that has been coming up a lot, did six or more troops die searching for Bergdahl? Talk to some of the troops in the field and they will say yes, because initially their primary objective was finding him. Everyone who was hurt or killed during that was hurt searching for him. Military officials say it might not be that clear because those people would have been on patrol anyway. They don't necessarily draw the line between Bergdahl and these other troops being hurt or killed in all of that.

And another question, did Bergdahl seek contact with the Taliban? Was he trying to reach them? Again, we have this same circumstance. People who said they were close to him and considered him a friend say that he talked about this idea of reaching out to the Taliban. Again, some said when they were in villages right after he disappeared, local people said, there is an American roaming around here asking about getting in touch with the Taliban. Does that prove the case? It doesn't prove the case. We still have to hear Bergdahl's side of it. That's one of the reasons, as you sort through, it's very hard to figure out, at this point, without hearing from him, what really is true and what is really false. That's what we know at this point.

BALDWIN: What about one more question. This is something we've worked through this week as far as breaking the law. Because we know the president of the United States is supposed to notify Congress within this 30-day time period as to whether or not they would do this. Jeff Toobin has said, yes, absolutely, the president broke the law. What have you found?

FOREMAN: Not just Jeff Toobin. Jonathan Turley, other legal experts have all said the same thing. Did the president break the law in this case? They almost all say, yes, he did. There may be constitutional question, which excuses him because he was doing his job as commander- in-chief, but that will have to be determined by the court of public opinion and by Congress and the courts -- Brooke?