Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Bergdahl's Journal Raises Question on Mental State; Shooting in a Catholic Church; Humanitarian Crisis on U.S.-Mexico Border; Iraq Open to U.S. Airstrikes

Aired June 12, 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: Have been saying by doing it the right way.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Fantastic organization. Love that.

INDRA PETERSONS, METEOROLGOIST: Education is key on this.

CUOMO: Hand-up is often all people need. Just a chance and they're proving it, that it's cheaper, too.

PETERSONS: Running in your name. 200k, right?

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, I know.

CUOMO: Right. 200k. Well done.

BALDWIN: Let's go. Change it.

CUOMO: So a lot of news this morning. We're going to take you right to the news desk. Miss Carol Costello who has it all.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I do. Thanks.

BALDWIN: Hi, Carol.

COSTELLO: Have a great day. NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, Iraq 2.0.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is no longer a messy situation. This is a catastrophe.

COSTELLO: A country in crisis. Terrorists taking control of cities. One by one. America two years after we pulled troops out now considering, quote, "a range of options."

Troubled soldier.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Bergdahl's journals and e- mail paint a picture of what it calls a complicated and fragile young man. COSTELLO: Calling himself the lone wolf of deadly nothingness

struggling to maintain mental stability, frustrated and longing to travel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got this layering effective leadership that should be looking at this young man who apparently is a bit delusional.

COSTELLO: Chaos on camera.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's knocked down.

COSTELLO: The Vegas cop killers in the final moments.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The female just shot herself in the head.

COSTELLO: And power vacuum.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: He's been a very good leader for our party.

COSTELLO: Cantor's out. So who will take his place as the second most powerful Republican?

Let's talk live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COSTELLO: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

We do begin with breaking news this morning out of Iraq. And new fears this morning that the United States could be drawn back into the quick sand of a new conflict.

The big story this morning, Iraq is saying they are open for America to conduct air strikes in their country. Terrorists are rapidly seizing the towns where American troops fought and died and they're now marching on Baghdad. And with the American gains of a long and bloody war being erased, the White House, just a few hours ago, says it's looking at a range of options to stop this advance.

So who are these fighters who are so easily toppling Iraq's U.S.- trained forces? If their military successes are not chilling enough, consider this. These militants so extreme even al Qaeda has disavowed them.

Our correspondents and analysts are covering all the angles of this rapidly deteriorating situation. But let's begin in Washington with our correspondent Jim Acosta.

Jim, what exactly does a range of options mean?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think that's a very good question, Carol, but it is very obvious at this point that senior officials here at the White House are becoming increasingly concerned about the destabilizing situation in Iraq with this militant operation, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, also known and reported by various news outlets including CNN as ISIS, but when I talked to a senior administration official earlier this morning and asked whether or not the president is being briefed on developments in Iraq, this official replied, yes, absolutely, so that gives you some indication.

But while we do know that the Iraqis are now open to this possibility of U.S. air strikes, or at least the potential for U.S. air strikes to control that militant operation in Iraq, especially if it's creeping towards the capital city of Baghdad, it does sound at this point at this moment that the White House is cool to that option.

Let me show you a statement that I got from Bernadette Meehan who is the National Security Council spokeswoman over here at the White House. She said, "While the National Security team always looks at a range of options, the current focus," here are the key words. "The current focus of our discussions with the government of Iraq and our policy consideration is to build the capacity of the Iraqis to successfully confront and deal with the threat posed by ISIL" I-S-I- L, that is the term that the White House is using for ISIS at this point.

So that is an indication that they're really looking at sending arms, sending weapons to the Iraqis and just last week we can point out that the Iraqi ambassador's Web site, the Iraqi ambassador to the U.S. Twitter handle, put up these pictures, we can show you of F-16s, U.S. F-16s that the Iraqi government was accepting just last week. Those F-16s won't arrive in Baghdad for another couple of months. But it just goes to show you that the U.S. is at least at the moment ramping up military assistance to the Iraqi government if not calling on those air strikes at this point.

The White House it appears at this moment, Carol, is just not there yet.

COSTELLO: All right. Jim Acosta reporting live from Washington.

Let's go now to CNN's Nic Robertson. He's in Amman, Jordan, and Nick, tell us what's happening in Iraq on the ground.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We know that the Iraqi government was supposed to meet today to declare a state of emergency. Well, guess what? They couldn't get enough MPs to show up to make the vote happen. That is an indication of just how politically divided the country is. That's the issue that underpins ISIS's rapid advance through the country.

The prime minister clearly not in control. Not able to bring about enough influence to make political compromises, to even get a state of emergency declared.

Despite that, we have heard from the state television saying that the government troops have now taken control of Tikrit. That city about 100 miles north of Baghdad. They say they've taken control of it from ISIS but they haven't offered any evidence of taking control of it yet. Even if they did, it is a long way from Mosul. There are other towns ISIS controls between Baghdad and Mosul for the government to be able to reinforce the forces there.

We've also heard now that the Kurdish forces, the Kashmir Kurdish forces in Iraq, have taken control of Kirkuk Province. That is not going to sit very well with Nouri al-Maliki and many Iraqis. We are hearing that Shia militias are being stood up to protect their monuments. The signs at the moment are of no compromise politically to force out ISIS and deteriorating along ethnic and sectarian fault lines.

COSTELLO: All right. Nic Robertson reporting live for us.

I want to dig much deeper into this crisis. The stakes involved, the options available. James "Spider" Marks is a CNN military analyst and s retired major general in the U.S. Army. Jacob Siegel is a reporter with "Daily Beast" and himself an army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Welcome to you both.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: General Marks, I want to start with you. These terrorists --

JACOB SIEGEL, REPORTER, THE DAILY BEAST: Thanks for having me.

COSTELLO: You're welcome. I'm glad you're here.

General Marks, I want to start with you. These terrorists are vile. These are the people who tweeted out images of crucifixions in Syria. Should the U.S. get involved? And if it does get involved, how intimately should it?

MARKS: Well, the United States has an obligation to get involved and just not necessarily with military force and clearly diplomatic efforts need to take place but the key issue right now, Carol, is someone, whether it's the United States or it's a coalition of the willing needs to step in and stop the bleeding. If the United States wants to try to build capacity for the ISIF, the Iraqi Security Forces, that becomes a secondary step after stopping and holding the advances that are in place right now.

To build capacity there may not be sufficient time and that's the concern I think the administration's dealing with right now.

COSTELLO: Jacob, you're an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. After seeing the American sacrifices there, how does this current situation make you feel?

SIEGEL: Well, obviously, the advance of a murderous jihadist group like ISIS is not only disturbing to me as a army veteran. It's disturbing to me as an American. And, you know, to see Mosul fall and this group advance this close to Baghdad is -- it's a very dangerous situation.

I would just add one thing to what the general said which is that we spent a lot of time in Iraq focusing on building capacity in the security forces. That's not a quick process. And I agree that the first step now needs to be facilitating, stopping the ISIS advance.

COSTELLO: But the problem is, General Marks, the United States isn't exactly thrilled with the new Iraqi government. What must the Iraqi government do if the United States decides to step in and help?

MARKS: Well, it's a government that's sectarian in its policies. Maliki has to be far more open in terms of including Sunnis into not only his circle of counselors and consiglieries but there has to be real participation and, in fact, he needs to really shift the dial to what I might even describe an overthrust in terms of trying to embrace Sunnis. He then has to be able to reach out the Sunni tribed and to try to get their cooperation to make this thing stop as best he can.

Otherwise, he becomes an irrelevant government leader and he might, in fact, be in exile quickly if the military cannot do what it needs to do which is to take the insurgency on. In fact this is more than an insurgency. This is an armed conflict. Very conventional in its nature and he's got to be able to confront it.

COSTELLO: Well, Jacob, you know the United States finds itself in a difficult position once again. How serious would it be if a city like Baghdad falls? Because that city seems to be next on the agenda.

MARKS: I'm sorry, Carol. Are you talking to me or Jacob?

COSTELLO: Jacob.

SIEGEL: Well, you know, I'm sorry. If Baghdad fell, it would be incredibly -- an incredibly dangerous development. I don't see that happening quickly. I mean, clearly, there are already ISIS forces inside Baghdad because they've been conducting attacks there for months. But the Maliki policy so far has essentially been a fortress Baghdad approach and that's where the concentration of the hard core loyal security forces are so I don't think that will happen quickly.

COSTELLO: I hope not. Jacob Siegel, Spider Marks, thanks so much for your insight. I appreciate it.

MARKS: Thanks, Carol.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, kicked out of the coast and heading to Afghanistan for the army. We'll dive into Bergdahl's reported personal journals and the portrait they paint of what some call a fragile young man.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: "I am the lone wolf of deadly nothingness." Those are the words of former POW Bowe Bergdahl that cane from a series of journal entries, stories and essays written before Bergdahl's time in captivity and given to "the Washington Post" by a confidant and friend who says she wants to protect Bowe Bergdahl.

Now these journal entries revealed a fragile young man at odds with life in the military. Before entering basic training Bergdahl reportedly wrote, quote, "The closer I get to ship date, the calmer the voices are. I'm reverting. I'm getting colder about his deployment, Bergdahl wrote, a feel like I'm pulling away from the human world but getting closer to people. Almost as if it's not the people I hate but societies, ideas in reality that hold them. I want to change so much all the time but then my mind just locks down."

These journal entries make you wonder, who is Bowe Bergdahl? Is he imbalanced? Is he a deserter? And most importantly should he have been in the army in the first place? Let's talk about this with Dr. Terry Lyles. A combat stress coach.

Welcome.

DR. TERRY LYLES, COMBAT STRESS COACH: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Bergdahl wrote some of these things before he ever deployed to Afghanistan. What do you make of his musings?

LYLES: You know, I was reading this yesterday as it came out and watching this, and even as you were reading it now, I mean, it is quite bizarre, as you can tell. So, I mean, as I -- I don't read fiction much because life is stranger than fiction every day. So I really don't know what's going on with this troubled guy. Obviously he has a lot of issues before he was ever deployed, spending time in Alaska before he was deployed. I don't know what was going on but his writings are very alarming I think to anyone that would read them.

COSTELLO: Well, we now know, too, he was discharged early from the Coast Guard. Yet, the army let him in. In retrospect, was that wise?

LYLES: No. I think we would all look back and say, no, it was not wise because, I mean, obviously, if he was discharged there was a reason and even his friends kind of laughed off his example, that he said, it was like a mishap that he was psychologically discharged. I mean, that's a pretty serious allegation to be discharged on, so how he slipped in to get into the army I think is going to be answered by a lot of people that we'll be talking about for days to come.

COSTELLO: His platoon-mates described Bergdahl as eccentric and removed, but they never described him as mentally unbalanced. Yet the diary says things like, this is according to "The Washington Post," he hears voices. There are journal entries where he wrote the words "Velcro" and "zipper" repeatedly over two pages. What does that say to you about him?

LYLES: Well, I think, psychologically, you have the look under the surface. It's like a lot of us. We all look pretty good on the outside, all of us have demons and things inside of us. But when he is expressing them, the way that he is expressing them and the strangeness of those expressions, he's obviously very troubled. He's been ostracized from his parents for years it appears. He was staying on couches in friends' homes. So his writing is a lost person looking for something psychotically, which is troubling.

COSTELLO: Would this kind of man become so delusional that he would walk off base in search of the Taliban for some sort of deeper meaning?

LYLES: Absolutely. I could see that happening very easily, because when one comes delusional in that way and narcissistic in their thoughts and self indulged, they'll do just about anything. I mean, we cover stories every day of crazy things happening to interesting people, so nothing would surprise me now after we've read what we read. We just didn't know until really yesterday what was going on inside his mind. Now we can really see he was very troubled and probably still is.

COSTELLO: Dr. Terry Lyles, thank you so much for your insight. CNN has reached out to Kim Harrison, the friend who released these journals to "The Washington Post." She has declined comment.

In other new this is morning, two priests attacked inside a Catholic church, one shot and killed, the other critically injured. Police say it started with a 911 burglary call from one of the victims. Then, when they arrived, they found both priests badly hurt.

Javier Soto with affiliate KTVK joins us now from Phoenix with more. Good morning, Javier.

JAVIER SOTO, REPORTER, KTVK: Good morning. Just the unthinkable here in downtown Phoenix. As you mentioned, one priest is shot and killed. Another one brutally beaten, able to call 911.

Now we just got the updates on the names of the two priests. The priest who was shot and killed is Father Kenneth Walker, a 28-year-old priest with archdiocese here in Phoenix. The one badly beaten, a 56- year-old by the name of Father Joseph Terra.

Now, according to Phoenix police, it was about 9:00 last night they got a 911 call from the rectory. Let me move out of the way and show you the rectory. This is right next to Mother of Mercy Mission here in downtown Phoenix. That call went in to 911 saying there was a robbery. That was the 56-year-old Father Terra making that call saying he was badly beaten.

Once police got here, they found Father Kenneth Walker, who had been shot, and also Father Terra, who had been badly beaten. Both were rushed to the hospital. Unfortunately, Father Kenneth Walker was pronounced dead at the hospital.

At this point, they are a loss as far as suspect information. But late last night, at about 11:00, just two blocks north of here, that's where they located a vehicle that is connected to the church here. It was described as a Mazda Tribute. Now, police cordoned that area off. They went in. No suspects were found inside that vehicle. And they took that to the impound where they will look through it for any evidence connected to this murder.

Now, we just got an update and a notification from the Phoenix archdiocese saying that they are at a loss., they are shocked. Deeply saddened. Asking for the community to pray for both priests -- Father Kenneth Walker killed, as well as Father Joseph Terra, who remains in critical condition.

COSTELLO: All right. Javier Soto, thanks so much. We appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the humanitarian crisis along the U.S. border with Mexico. We'll take you to a Texas town hit hard by a surge of undocumented children coming out of Central America.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: There is a humanitarian crisis unfolding along the U.S. border with Mexico. It involves thousands of children, some as young as 4 years old. Many of those children have been abandoned with notes pinned to their shirts begging for a better life.

CNN's Polo Sandoval takes us there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sunset in the South Texas city of McAllen nestled along the banks of the Rio Grande on the border with Mexico. It's when shadowy figures emerge from the dark, desperate to cross the river and enter the United States.

These are the faces of a humanitarian crisis and the subject of fierce political debate. Thousands of families from Central America are flooding the nation's southwest border, overwhelming immigration officials and its resources. Most shocking, thousands are children as young as four traveling alone, a note pinned to the shirts telling authorities who to contact when they arrive.

Isma (ph) crossed the border with her son, 15-year-old Wilmer (ph) and her 2-1/2 year old daughter. They rely on what little to carry and on each other.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING SPANSIH)

SANDOVAL: Isma(ph) says she and her family left Guatemala because of what she described as tough times. Belqui (ph) also turned herself over to police after crossing the border. Her dream was for her son to get medical care so that he could see properly again. She says working in the U.S. will make that easier.

She tells us word is spreading in Guatemala some who are caught released with money for a bus ticket and a date to appear in immigration court.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANDOVAL: I heard people are getting passes to stay, she says. Others are not.

But officials here say they don't show up for court. They disappear and add to the number of undocumented workers already here. SGT. DAN BROYLES, DEPUTY CONSTABLE, MCALLEN, TEXAS: I think there's

too much dwelling on the problem and not dwelling the solution.

SANDOVAL: For officers, seeing the children traveling on their own is the most difficult.

BROYLES: I'm a father of three boys, you know? Men now. But, you know, at the age of 6 and 7, you wouldn't think that a parent would send their child on a thousand-mile trek across Central America and into -- all the way through Mexico into the United States.

SANDOVAL: Sergeant Dan Broyles is a local deputy constable. He helped border patrol in the area for decades. He says the beat isn't what it used to be.

BROYLES: We're not having to chase them down anymore. Like I said, they're family units or unaccompanied children and they come over here, they want to get caught. They make no quarrels about being caught.

SANDOVAL: He says an encounter with border patrol no longer means a quick deportation for most who cross; rather, it's one more way to get into the U.S.

Isma (ph) and Belqui (ph) hope that's the case.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL (on camera): And in driving the border really much of the evening, the hardest part to ignore here are the emotions involved. Those two women that we spoke with clearly having to struggle at some point through these tears as they begin to tell the story of their journey. And then it's not just them but law enforcement here on the border. They're getting ready for yet another round. Today, up to 13 people, yet another 13 people expected to be apprehended up and down this border, clearly adding to the numbers and, Carol, also adding to the frustration, as well.

COSTELLO: I'm interested in the fence behind you. How far does it go?

SANDOVAL: We're not far from the city of McAllen, which is about four hours south of San Antonio. This is a four, five-mile stretch of the border wall. It's about maybe a block or two from the river. The Rio Grande, which is the actual river that serves as a divider between the U.S. and Mexico not far from here.

These border crossings actually make their way through the gap, eventually have access to one of the main roads you see here. You can see there's not a whole lot of people around. Now, once they're here, they're able to actually flag down help, catch a ride, and as you saw in the piece lately, it's been really calling on police to try to flag down border patrol and eventually get them in custody and then back out on the streets. Carol?

COSTELLO: It's a huge problem. Polo Sandoval, thank you so much. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, chilling new video. The last desperate

moments of the couple who killed three people in Las Vegas.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)