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Mounting Violence in Iraq; CNN Crew Injured in Protests in Brazil; Ruby Dee Dies; ISIS Behind Iraq Violence; Conspiracy Theories in American History; Vegas Shooter Deemed Not Threat By Cops Previously; Study Says Nerds More Successful Than Cool Kids

Aired June 12, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: If Iraq falls to a group that is too extreme even for al Qaeda, whose fault is it, the United States for leaving too soon, for going in at all? Or is it Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki?

Admittedly, he was more or less hand-picked by the U.S., he has done little more than consolidate power. Listen to what President Obama said just a couple of hours ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: This should be a wakeup call for the Iraqi government. There has to be a political component to this, so that Sunni and Shia who care about building a functioning state that can bring about security and prosperity to all people inside of Iraq come together and work diligently against these extremists.

And that is going to require concessions on the part of both the Shia and Sunni that we have not seen so far.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Fred Kaplan is here. He's the national security columnist for "Slate"

magazine and Edward R. Murrow fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations.

Fred, nice to see you.

All right, so you write that the fall of Mosul has little to do with the withdrawal of American troops and everything to do with Nouri al- Maliki.

Explain that.

FRED KAPLAN, NATIONAL SECURITY COLUMNIST, SLATE: I think we need to dispel this myth, this business about Obama pulled the troops out of Iraq and that's why it's falling apart.

President Bush signed a treaty at the end of 2008, the status of forces agreement, which said that all U.S. forces, not just combat forces, all U.S. forces will be out of Iraq by the end of 2011. There was one clause which said that this can be amended with the approval of the Iraqi parliament, and the Iraqi parliament was not going to approve this.

So John McCain and other people can talk about how Obama blew it, he should not have negotiated a deal, it was not going for happen.

The problem, the reason why this is going on now is that, as we were pulling out, Maliki had promised that he would run a more inclusive government, that he would bring in more Sunnis. He's a Shiite leader. He would bring more "sons of Iraq" militias into the national army. He would strike an agreement on oil revenue sharing.

KAYE: And the Sunnis believed that?

KAPLAN: Yeah, the Sunnis laid down their arms and came into the government, quite a lot of them, and he betrayed that. Not only that, he went off and arrested, or tried to arrest, chased into Kurdistan, the top Sunni political leader. He's running a very exclusionary government.

KAYE: But was there anything the U.S. could have done to prevent him from behaving the way he did.

KAPLAN: We couldn't prevent it when we had a hundred thousand troops there.

Actually, we could put him on a leash when we had a hundred thousand troops. And if we had 5,000 troops there, which we wouldn't because they didn't want us to be there, we could also put a little bit of a leash on him.

KAYE: So the president is saying now that we need concessions on both sides. Is that even a possibility, that the Shiites and Sunnis will each give a little something?

KAPLAN: Well, it depends on both sides. If you're talking about ISIS, that is not going to happen. As you mentioned, al-Qaeda kicked them out because they were too nutty. So they're not into joining politics.

There are still some Sunni leaders who I think are still open to conciliation. But I think -- I don't know if anything is possible if Nouri Maliki is prime minister, quite honestly.

KAYE: So Obama has a tough time he here, or should the U.S. not intervene?

KAPLAN: Well, if we intervene, you have to keep in mind how this will be looked at on the ground. It won't be that we're protecting Iraq. It will be that we're protecting Maliki. And we don't want to be in that position.

I think one thing very interesting to watch for is what the Turks do. ISIS, when they were on the rampage in Mosul, sacked the Turkish embassy and is holding several Turks hostage. This is an attack on turkey. So I would hope that Obama is on the phone with the leaders of Turkey, and you know, don't exclude the possibility of bringing Iran into this. This is one of these situations where the United States, Turkey and Iran have the same interests.

KAYE: Yeah. Certainly an interesting problem for all of them.

Fred Kaplan, nice to see you.

KAPLAN: You too.

KAYE: Thank you.

All right, try to imagine a terrorist group so extreme and radical than even al-Qaeda that even al-Qaeda kicked them out. That's the enemy threatening to take down Iraq's democracy.

We'll tell you what you need to know about ISIS.

The last thing Brazil wanted to see this week were scenes like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONALCORRESPONDENT: Looks like protesters want to start moving, and there's some pushing back, as you can see. We may have -- if they shoot the -- got to go!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Protests in the streets, police dressed in riot gear, firing tear gas, inches from a CNN reporter, all of this happening while Brazil is welcoming fans to the World Cup.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back.

In Brazil, the biggest sporting event in the world takes center stage, the World Cup kicking off today, but not everyone is enjoying the opening day fanfare.

Several protests throughout the streets of Sao Paulo today, demonstrators are furious that the Brazilian government spent nearly $11 billion on the World Cup when the country is in dire need of low- income hospitals, housing, and schools.

One of CNN's producers was caught in clashes and injured near the World Cup stadium. She was with Shasta Darlington who was live on the air when this happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DARLINGTON: Things are getting pretty crazy here. There was a skirmish a short while ago. The police fired tear gas. They ended up arresting one person.

Looks like protesters want to start moving, and there's some pushing back, as you can see. We may have -- if they shoot the -- got to go!

Here, I can come back up. I can come back up now. As you can see, they -- if you guys can see us -- if you can see us, they did -- OK, they shot the tear gas. This is obviously getting very tense.

There isn't actually a large group of protesters, but the police are firing tear gas. It's clear they do not want protesters getting anywhere near the stadium.

At this point we're 11 kilometers away. The idea is to march as close as they can get, but police have said they will keep a perimeter of at least five kilometers and we're obviously not going to get much closer than that.

I've got to say, things are very tense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Very tense moments there, that was CNN's Shasta Darlington.

Hollywood has lost another venerable star of the stage and screen. Award-winning actress and civil rights activist Ruby Dee has died at the age of 91.

CNN entertainment correspondent Nischelle Turner looks back at her legendary career.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUBY DEE, ACTRESS: Who are you thinking of marrying, Mr. Robinson?

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: The camera always seemed to love actress Ruby Dee.

She stepped into the spotlight in "The Jackie Robinson Story" in the 1950. She then followed up on her burgeoning stardom in "A Raisin in the Sun" opposite Sydney Poitier.

DEE: And I say it loud and good, hallelujah!

It was a happening in my life. It was a -- that I shall never forget it, a turning point in terms of possibilities.

TURNER: Ruby Ann Wallace was born on October 27th, 1922, in Cleveland, Ohio. However, she grow up in New York's Harlem, dreaming of the possibilities.

The actress began performing in various plays for the American Negro Theater. It was in the theater she met her husband, Ossie Davis, in 1948. They were inseparable. In fact, the couple often shared the stage and screen, including films such as Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" and "Jungle Fever."

Both were supporters of the civil rights movement. They marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Davis delivered the eulogy for Malcolm X. In 2004 the couple became Kennedy Center Honorees for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts.

DEE: It is a good feeling, you know, that one of the nation's highest awards to be granted that. (Inaudible) deserve it.

TURNER: Their marriage produced three children and seven grandchildren. Their storybook love lasted over five decades until Ossie's death in 2005.

Dee accepted the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for "With Ossie and Ruby, In This Life Together."

Ruby Dee was a force in her own right. Her star quality allowed her to work continuously in all mediums of entertainment. She was nominated eight times for Daytime and Primetime Emmies.

Dee won the Best Supporting Actress Emmy for the 1990 made-for-TV movie, "Decoration Day." In 2007, the 83-year-old starred opposite Denzel Washington in "American Gangster."

Her fiery portrayal of Mama Lucas earned Dee a Screen Actors' Guild award, and her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

DEE: It finally all comes together at this time in life. And I've written stuff, and I've been on television, I've done lots of work, so to finally get an Oscar nomination is a heady kind of business.

TURNER: The Oscar are nomination was revered within the entertainment business and the African-American community, and to many she was seen as a legend.

With an extraordinary career that spans six decades, Ruby Dee will be remembered as a gifted artist who broke down barriers and lived a life less ordinary.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: The crisis in Iraq leaves President Obama with a hard decision. At one point, America had 166,000 troops in Iraq, but as the president promised, by the start of 2012 all of them had been pulled out.

That triggered this grim prediction by former CIA and NSA director, Michael Hayden -- I'm quoting here -- "Each of the factions are going to their sectarian corners and are preparing to come out fighting."

That is exactly what's happening. Militants are marching on Baghdad itself. If Obama agrees to airstrikes, it will look like America is jumping back into Iraq, and if he doesn't, what about the sacrifice of all that U.S. blood and treasure?"

Jake Tapper, anchor of "THE LEAD," joining me from Washington to talk more about this, so, Jake, who is this militant group, ISIS, which we're talking so much about today? JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: It stands for the

Islamist State in Iraq and Syria. It is a group that has evolved since the early years of the Iraq war.

It was focused, initially, on a lot of terrorist acts, but more recently, in the last few months, analysts say, while they are certainly terrorists, they are also a militia, an army trying to take control of land, and their goal is to establish a Sunni Islamic state, extremist, of course, in Syria and Iraq.

And obviously, they have proven very effective fighters against the Iraqi military.

KAYE: Yeah, and they're even so extreme I guess that al-Qaeda doesn't even want to be a part of them.

Jake Tapper, thank you very much, much more on this breaking news, coming up on "THE LEAD" with Jake in just a few minutes from now.

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy was not only a national tragedy, but it has become an enduring national controversy.

Tonight CNN takes a look at the key conclusions of the Warren Commission Report as well as the conspiracy thinking about the assassination throughout American history.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president has been hit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: John F. Kennedy died at approximately 1:00 today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whole world is poorer because of his loss.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: America was a different place on the day before John F. Kennedy was killed. The assassination changed the trajectory of the '60s.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll remember November the 22nd, as long as I live.

ROBERT CARO, AUTHOR, "THE PASSAGE OF POWER": Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you killed the president?

LEE HARVEY OSWALD, KENNEDY ASSASSIN: No, I have not been charged with that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lee Harvey Oswald has been shot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Information concerning the cause of the death of your president has been withheld from you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The story has been suppressed. Witnesses have been killed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a right to know who killed our president and why he died.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Here now are historian and University of Richmond President Ed Ayers and Brian Balogh, a professor of history at the University of Virginia. Thank you both for joining us both to talk about this.

Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed President Kennedy, but some, even today, still question whether or not he acted alone.

Brian, what are some of the assassination theories still out there and why do you think they live on?

BRIAN BALOGH, HISTORY PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, a lot of people do question the notion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted by himself. More than 50 percent of Americans think that he didn't.

The theories out there run the gamut, from Lyndon Johnson being behind it, to the CIA being behind it, to the Mafia being behind it. You name it; there is a conspiracy theory for it.

KAYE: Yes, one of them that sticks with me is the guy with the umbrella standing on the grassy knoll, who may have signaled the shooter or maybe even fired a poisoned dart at the president.

People have talked about that even though he came forward and said he was not a part of it.

But, Ed, what about the skeptics who say the media failed to uncover the truth about Kennedy's assassination.

ED AYERS, HISTORY AND PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND: Well, as a circular process, if you think the truth is something that's not been uncovered, the fact that the media's not uncovered it is just indication that there really is a conspiracy.

It's the sort of thing that can never really satisfy those who are skeptical that the Warren Commission really did its job.

KAYE: And Brian, I guess in terms of what -- why other conspiracy theories persist, what is it about them? What are people looking for? Why do we hang on to them?

BALOGH: Well, I think a particularly American reason that we hang on to them is we have a strong belief that people should be equal in the United States, yet we know that power is not distributed equally.

And so I think that there's an inherent tendency to look behind the scenes, look behind the curtain at those people who really wield power.

In my century, the 20th century, we looked at the government as having excessive power, but in Ed's century, the 19th century, it was often big business, for instance, that was feared to have undue power.

Is that right, Ed? AYERS: Yeah, and even before that, Brian. The entity that people were

most afraid of was the Catholic Church. There was the sense that the United States was a Protestant nation and the pope and his minions were out to control the United States.

And the first big conspiracy theory in American history turns around the suspicion that there's a whole network of popes -- of monks and nuns who are basically infiltrating the nation.

So as you can see, the history of this goes back a long time before the Kennedy assassination.

KAYE: Yeah, it's so fascinating, because there are so many of them. Some have more traction than others but a fascinating conversation.

Thank you both, Ed Ayers and Brian Balogh.

"THE SIXITES -- THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY" airs tonight, by the way, on CNN. That's at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time and Pacific.

So were you a nerd in high school? Well, good news, you are probably living a better life than the cool kids, or the so-called cool kids. And they're probably wishing they were a little more like you, back in the day, a little nerdier.

We'll explain, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Just a short time ago, a funeral began for one of the officers who was killed in Vegas by that so-called anti-government couple. This is Officer Igor Soldo. He was 31-years-old. He leaves behind a new baby and a wife.

Police say Jerad and Amanda Miller ambushed him and Officer Alyn Beck, Sunday at a pizza restaurant. The Millers then ran to a nearby Walmart where they killed Joseph Wilcox before barricading themselves inside the store during the shootout with officers.

Police shot and killed Jared Miller. His wife shot herself.

Wilcox had tried to stop the Millers with his concealed handgun inside the Walmart.

CNN learned that authorities had three previous encounters with the Millers this year. A sheriff says they were all without incident, but that statement is raising some eyebrows because, in February in a call to the DMV, Jerad Miller threatened to shoot authorities who came to arrest him.

He was angry because his suspended license was taken during a traffic stop. We have some of that audio for you now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JARED MILLER, ACCUSED VEGAS SHOOTER: I'm looking at a $525 ticket for driving while on a suspended license and, you know, that's a whole month of rent. I can't get a job.

Like, I'm really [bleep] sick tired of all these [bleep] laws and regulations. It's absolutely insane.

As a person of the DMV, can you tell me how many laws are on the books concerning drivers?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unfortunately, no, I can't tell you like an exact number. I can only refer you to go online to our Web site at MyDMV.com -- or not MyDMV -- NV.gov.

MILLER: Well, I'm going to court down here in Nevada and contest this ticket, and I'm just going to tell them straight up that Indiana's whole court system is messed up.

It's not my fault and that he needs to drop the case, and if he doesn't then I'm going to be forwarding this bill to you guys.

And if they come to arrest me for noncompliance or whatever, I'm just going to start shooting people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Nevada detectives who interviewed Miller about that incident did not see any sign of potential threats.

All right, how many of us remember going to school with nerds or what about longing to be in with that cool crowd?

There's a new study out that says that those cool kids aren't actually so hip once they have grown up. In fact, they have more problems with relationships and other successes.

CNN digital correspondent Kelly Wallace, joining me now with a much closer look at this study, "The Revenge of the Nerds," can we call it that?

KELLY WALLACE, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: You sure can.

KAYE: What problems are these so-called cool kids having now?

WALLACE: More likely to be doing drugs and alcohol or using alcohol and having problems with alcohol and drugs, more likely to be committing crimes.

And then when they are young adults and have you people and say how long did they get along with their friends and acquaintances, they get much lower ratings than their not so cool friends.

KAYE: They were popular, got invited to all of the parties and the behavior, for some reason, I guess coolness doesn't lead to success?

WALLACE: No. And part of it is what is cool back when you're 13, at 23, if you're like drinking three six packs a weekend people say that's not so cool. That's pathetic. Also, they are taking shortcuts. They are not doing things that we in the not so cool crowd did, working on relationships, and they are not doing those things that help you on that path to better relationships and things that are viewed as more success down the road.

KAYE: All right. What are the implications, then, for today's teens and parents? What do they take away?

WALLACE: Big implications for middle schoolers. If you don't feel like you're the cool person and you're not in the in crowd, don't worry, right?

KAYE: What if somebody else told us that?

WALLACE: I know. And for parents who might be worried if their kid doesn't seem so popular at 13 or 14 not invited to the parties not so cool, don't focus on the short-term. Look at the long term on the paths to success.

KAYE: It's so hard when you're in it and you want to be cool, it's hard to tell your kids it's OK not to be.

WALLACE: We laugh and say it seems so obvious but it didn't seem so obvious when you were 13.

KAYE: No. It's fascinating. I want to read the rest of that study, see what I can learn about the not-so-cool kids.

Kelly Wallace, thank you very much. Sure appreciate it. Nice to see you.

WALLACE: Great to see you.

KAYE: And thank you, everyone, for joining us this afternoon. Have a great rest of your afternoon.

Time for Jake Tapper to pick it up with "THE LEAD." Have a great day.