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Militants Threaten to March on Baghdad; Ukraine: 49 Dead as Rebels Down Plane; Violent Militants Move toward Baghdad; Bergdahl's Second Day Home

Aired June 14, 2014 - 11:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: You guys have a good one. Thank you, I'll need it. I appreciate it.

It is the 11:00 hour of the NEWSROOM which begins right now.

Coming up, the crisis in Iraq, as the Prime Minister there promises to fight the Islamist militants who are threatening Baghdad. He could get help from the U.S., but President Obama says that help won't include American troops on the ground.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will not be sending U.S. troops back into combat in Iraq, but I have asked my national security team to prepare a range of other options that could help support Iraq security forces. And I will be reviewing those options in the days ahead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Plus the crisis in Ukraine. The President there is promising to punish the people who shut down a military plane with nearly 50 people on board.

And an immigration crisis in the U.S. hundreds of children coming into the country every day illegally and in many cases alone. The problem is -- where will they stay after they cross the border?

Hello, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. First up Iraq's government is recruit volunteer fighters in the face of brutal militants who want to take over Baghdad. Shiite supporters are answering the call in Baghdad, boarding buses, ready to take up arms and fight. They're trying to beat back radical militants from the Islamic state out in Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS.

The group took over Mosul this week, Iraq's second largest city. And they didn't meet much resistance from Iraqi defense forces. Police and soldiers ran from their posts, taking off their uniforms and fleeing. This video shows militants stomping on those uniforms right there. The United States is watching the situation very carefully. President Obama said yesterday the U.S. will not send troops back into combat in Iraq, but he will review a range of options.

The rapid collapse in Iraq has put the U.S. and the whole world on edge. And everyone is watching to see if ISIS will follow through on its threat to march on to Baghdad. We have crews covering this story around the world. Nic Robertson is on the phone for us from Baghdad, Athena Jones is live at the White House. Let's start in Baghdad. Nic, the situation there today, what is it? And what are Iraq's leaders saying this morning?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, there is concern in Baghdad. There is some amount of panic buying, there is an increased level of security and we are seeing young men volunteering to join the Shia militia and go and on fight with the Iraqi army north of Baghdad.

There is a sense here today that ISIS' rapid advance towards Baghdad, has been slowed by some of these fighters being deployed to the north of the city. The Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki went to a very important town Tamara which was a scene of a very bloody attack on an important Shia shrine in 2006, it led to a massive onslaught of sectarian bloodletting that year and continued the following year.

Mr. Maliki said this is the town where the defense would begin and he said it was no -- it was no, it was not by chance that so many army officers put down their uniforms and run away. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NOURI AL-MALIKI, PRIME MINISTER OF IRAQ (through translator): What happened recently did not result from a lack of weapons, but it was a conspiracy. It was a trick. There was no collusion when orders made by people we know we are made to some army formations to withdraw, which resulted in confusion, that we do not want to happen in the ranks of our army.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: Now, I know by talking to tribal leaders that offers were made to senior army officers to tell them to put down the weapons if they left their posts, they would be allowed to go free. And today I have talked by phone with an army officer who is now in hiding in northern Iraq. He said that he found all the soldiers at his post had deserted. He was forced to take off his uniform and is now hiding with a family in a small town, he says, where ISIS has now arrived and are negotiating with the leaders of that town to take control of that town in the north of Iraq -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right Nic Robertson, we'll check with you later. Thanks so much.

Let's bring in Athena, Athena Jones now live at the White House for the latest on how the President is planning to respond to this developing and growing crisis. Athena if ISIS carries out its threat to march toward Baghdad, what if anything can the U.S. do?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well that's the question -- hi Fredricka -- that the President and his national security team are trying to answer this weekend and in the coming days. The President himself is spending father's day weekend in California, but he's maintaining close contact with his national security team, which is working to come up with a range of options short of putting U.S. troops on the ground to try to help Iraq force back these Sunni insurgents.

But the President has said that any larger solution to this is not going to be purely a military one. In order to have a long-term resolution to this crisis it's going to require Iraq's government to make some political changes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Iraqi security forces have proven unable to defend a number of cities, which has allowed the terrorists to overrun part of Iraq territory.

JONES (voice over): Three years after President Obama pulled U.S. troops out of the Iraq, he says the growing sectarian crisis there now threatens America's national security.

The President and his advisers are discussing a range of options, including air strikes, to help Iraq fight off the Sunni militant group that has captured its second largest city, Mosul. He says Iraq's government won't get any U.S. military help unless Iraq 'Shiite minister, Nouri al-Maliki makes big changes.

OBAMA: This should be a wake-up call. Iraq's leaders have to demonstrate a willingness to make hard decision.

JONES: Maliki has long resisted calls to strike power-sharing deals with his Sunni Muslim and Kurdish rivals. Deals that could help bring stability to the oil-rich country.

KENNETH POLLACK, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Unfortunately what we've seen from the Prime Minister over the eight, nine years that he's been in office is that this is a man who is very reluctant to bargain with his rivals.

JONES: Shiite Iran have any interest in preventing Iraq from falling to Sunni militants and could help the U.S. push Maliki to bargain.

POLLACK: Iraq is one of those places in the Middle East where the United States and Iran actually have something of a confluence of interests.

JONES: Meanwhile, Republicans are criticizing the President's Iraq policy, saying it was a mistake not to leave some U.S. forces behind.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I predicted that this would happen when they decided not to have a residual force. Anybody tells you they couldn't isn't telling the truth.

JONES: A president under pressure at home, pressing Iraqis to do more to help themselves.

OBAMA: Our troops and the American people and the American taxpayers made huge investments and sacrifices in order to give Iraqis the opportunity to chart a better course, a better destiny. But ultimately they're going to have to seize it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Now the President is going to be reviewing the options his team provides in the coming days, but it's going to take several days. Any plan for U.S. action is going to take several days to put together. So this is not going to be happening overnight -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right thanks so much, Athena Jones. We'll return to the topic a bit later.

All right. So now let's talk about the crisis in Ukraine. The government there says rebels shot down a Ukrainian military plane in the eastern part of that country killing all 49 people on board. And now security officials say a homemade bomb was left outside the President's office in Kiev.

Our Matthew Chance is live for us now in Moscow with the latest. So Matthew what can you tell us about these two developments?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, the bomb, that's right the Ukrainian security services say that an explosive device was found near the President's office, President Poroshenko just sworn in week ago the presidency of Ukraine. A device found outside his office in the center of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.

They described the device as being made up of several hand grenades and then some metal screws and things like that that would have caused terrible damage and mobile phone there.

Also a threatening note attached to the device addressed to President Poroshenko calling on him to end his military activities in eastern and southern Ukraine. But that's where, of course, the government is conducting what it calls its antiterrorism operation and also bring rebel controlled areas back under government control. And it's where the biggest single loss of life since the crisis in Ukraine began several months ago took place earlier today with an aircraft, a giant jumbo jet sized transport plane of the Ukrainian air force, shot out of the sky as it attempted to land at an airport in a city called Lahansk which is near the Russian border.

The government and the defense ministry blaming pro-Russia separatist rebels for carrying out that attack; 49 people on board, nine crew members, 40 members of the parachute regiment that were going to eastern Ukraine to reinforce government position -- so as I say, the biggest single loss of life since the outbreak of possibilities in Ukraine -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And then we also learned at least three Ukrainian soldiers were killed in a battle with pro-Russian separatist. The government had said earlier that it was making some progress against separatists.

How much of a setback is this? CHANCE: Well, I mean, it's sort of six steps forward and six steps

backwards, if I can mix my metaphor in that way. Yes, the government has made a lot of gains. It recently took rebel positions in a city called Maripol (ph) in which they had been held by rebels for some time. It reestablishes positions there, so it's made some gains.

At the same time you can see that there are sort of regular attack that cause a great of damage in the east on government forces. And so the battle is far from over, and it could be a long-lasting struggle for control of that part of the Ukraine.

WHITFIELD: And then Russia's response in all of this?

CHANCE: Well, Russia has been pretty tight-lipped on the issue of the downing of the transport plane. There have been a lot of accusations circling between Moscow and Kiev -- Kiev and Moscow, rather over the past couple of days, particularly regarding a very important and significant development is the deployment of Russian tanks inside Ukraine. Now the Kremlin denied that that is taken place, but Kiev says that Moscow allowed three tanks to cross its border into eastern Ukraine in support of the rebels.

That's been backed by the State Department in Washington they say those tanks also came from Russia. And NATO, the western military alliance has within the past few hours put out some images, which it says supports the accusation as well. And so if it's true, that could have serious consequence for that relationship between Moscow and the West.

WHITFIELD: All right Matthew Chance in Moscow, thank you so much. Keep us posted.

All right. Coming up, more of the crisis in Iraq. That country has seen some vicious militants in the past, but nothing like these terrorists that are now storming through the country. So who are they? Even al Qaeda says this group is too violent for them.

Plus, what's life like on the ground for Iraqi civilians? Many of them are running for their lives now. Coming up, next I talk to an Air Force Reservist who served in Iraq about what it is like there on the ground.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: More than two years now after U.S. troops left Iraq, the country is falling into a crisis. As militants take over a major city, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS took control of Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq this week, and is threatening now to take Baghdad. That is setting off a political firestorm in the U.S., Senator John McCain telling Wolf Blitzer it's time for Obama -- President Obama to make serious cuts to his security team.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Who specifically should the President fire, from your perspective?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, number one; the national security advisor number two, who should probably spend time with her family on Sundays. I would certainly have all of her deputies, national security advisors gone as well.

Kerry and Hagel were not there when some of these most crucial decisions were taken, but I don't have a lot of confident in their performance, either.

And former secretary of state Hillary Clinton also weighed in. She said the biggest problem is with Iraq's leadership.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The underlying problem though, here, is not one of the military preparedness and security, although we have seen neither is present in the current conflict in Iraq. The problem is the conception of leadership and governance that Maliki brought to the job of prime ministership.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. So its not just a political crisis. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights says it's a brewing humanitarian crisis as well. She says as many as 500,000 people have fled Mosul, and her agency has received disturbing reports of militants executing Iraqi army soldiers. The number of people killed in recent days could be in the hundreds.

I'm joined now by Congressman Doug Collins. He is currently a chaplain for the Air Force Reserves. He served a combat tour in Iraq in 2008. Congressman, good to see you.

REP. DOUG COLLINS (R), GEORGIA: Good to see you as well.

WHITFIELD: When you were there, did you get a feeling then that the Iraqi citizens would be worried that upon the U.S. troop pullout something like this would happen; that their country would be so volatile to militant extremists?

COLLINS: I think there was a concern about that. As you look back in that time and while I was serving -- I was in Balad, which my understanding is now being overrun as well in the Balad, just down from Tikrit -- is that the people were concerned their infrastructure was not in place, the security was not in place, and they wanted their country back. They wanted to run themselves and be a country whole again, yet at the same point they understood that without that they were scared that the leadership and future leadership would not hold the security of the country together. And now we see what's happening today.

WHITFIELD: Was there an expressed concern then whether you were to have a Shia versus Sunni leader, that that choice would kind of lay the groundwork for what would be to come in terms of its vulnerabilities to extremist groups? In this case it's the Shia leadership that's getting a lot of blame for not doing enough for the Sunni majority?

COLLINS: Exactly. I think what you saw was just a desperate people wanting to have their country whole, stable and back to some accept ambulance of normality, which is going to be very hard in that country anyway given the years of the dictatorship under Saddam and progressing to the war.

I think the problem we've seen is there has been a lack of leadership. There has been a real parochialism, as Shia or Sunni, and the leadership of Maliki has done frankly a terrible job at managing this crisis internally as well as through the military. Now we see that what we have done in training, what we did leave behind is being squandered and wasted away and the people now are back fleeing from their homes again.

WHITFIELD: It's not so simple. We hear from John McCain now is the time for air strikes. He put it simply with Wolf Blitzer last night saying, you know, how difficult is it to launch air strikes into the desert? But it's far more complicated than that, isn't it? And if the U.S. were to get involved militarily, whether it be ground troops or whether to launch air strikes, isn't the U.S. being perceived as taking sides when you have a now a Shia/Sunni conflict?

COLLINS: Well, I think there could be a perception of that, though this group ISIS is very radical and even some in their own community don't want to be associated with them.

WHITFIELD: Meaning the Sunni community?

COLLINS: The Sunni community because of the extremism that it has exhibited.

I have great respect for Senator McCain, but I just believe that simply a casual air strike or a series of air strikes with nothing that's followed up from the ground from the Iraqi perspective is probably not the best alternative. I mean we can't simply -- we've gotten into (inaudible) about the world where we believe if we just throw some cruise missiles at it, if we just have a strike then that will solve all the problems.

This is inherently a little bit bigger than that. You could maybe do an air strike that would stall the progressions a bit in Baghdad or maybe make them regroup, but ultimately the Iraqi side or the security forces in Iraq have got to stand up. They've got to quit taking off their uniforms and they've got to fight. It is their country. And we've got to see that happen. And Maliki has to lead in that regard.

WHITFIELD: And the President, you know, underscored that yesterday by saying it is this country that must -- that enjoyed some training, pretty significant training and an investment from the U.S. to get its military, you know, up and running. Now that this has happened it's up to the Iraqi leadership to take care of it, but is there confidence that the Iraqi leadership can take care of it on its own? COLLINS: Well, there's always been a concern about the leadership and

what they were doing on multiple fronts, but I do have to take at least exception with the President in saying they did have training but I believe that we did have an opportunity to form a status of forces agreement where we could have left at least a security force there of American troops --

WHITFIELD: You think it was a mistake for the U.S. to pull out completely?

COLLINS: I believe it was because that was what we were hearing even from the folks that I had dealt with and I left about two years before.

WHITFIELD: Even when the Iraqi government says we want you to leave --

COLLINS: Well, again part of that was --

WHITFIELD: And that's what happened.

COLLINS: Well, it is. It's political calculus, though. He's looking at elections, Maliki is looking at trying to form his own leadership coalition, but at the same time there had to be voices and there could have been voices in the room saying you're not ready yet. You're looking at (inaudible) that you're getting better but we're still not where we need to be.

And now the equipment is there, I think, you known even if it was acknowledged by the government, the equipment and the training they had, but when they're not fighting, that presents a whole different issue. So I just -- this is where we're in a position right now of not having folks on the ground, not having the control that we could have on input, so now we're having to do it from afar and trying to help get others to help us with that.

WHITFIELD: All right. Congressman Collins, thanks so much. Good to see you. Thanks for coming in.

COLLINS: Good to see you as well. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Appreciate it.

All right. Coming up -- Sgt Bowe Bergdahl's second day home and he's already being moved to the next treatment phase after a long journey and five years in captivity in Afghanistan. We'll take you live to his San Antonio hospital to get the latest on his condition.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Today is the second day on U.S. soil for Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. He's the last American prisoner of war and he is in San Antonio after arriving yesterday from a military hospital in Germany. He's been recuperating there since his release May 31st in exchange for five Taliban prisoners who were held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. CNN's Martin Savidge is outside Brook Army Medical Center where the 28-year-old soldier is now being treated. So Martin, what is happening now? What do we know about his condition and what he is enduring there at that facility?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Fredricka. Yes, he's in the building behind me here. He's got a special section that's reserved all to himself. There is security to keep people from coming in, not to essentially keep him from going anywhere.

This is where the work is going to begin on his recovery effort. Up until now, getting his freedom, making sure he's medically stable, that's what they did in Germany, making sure that he was fit enough to travel to come here. But here's where the long road, both mentally and physically, where they are out to make him well. It's going to be a long process. Everybody's unique.

Right now they say his medical condition is stable. They also say that mentally he's doing about as well as you can expect for a man that's been held captive for five years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. BRADLEY POPPEN, U.S. ARMY PSYCHOLOGIST: Family support is a critical part of the reintegration process, making sure the family understands the reasons why we do it, the necessity of decompression, that they understand and that process. Overall though it is the returnee's choice to make that -- to determine when, where and who they want to re-engage with socially. And I believe the family understand that process at this point in time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: What you are listening to there is basically the senior psychologist, who is talking about the issue that has really stood out here, Fredricka. That is, where are his parents? They fought so hard to get his release. Everyone was expecting to see this emotional reunion.

WHITFIELD: And what's the answer?

SAVIDGE: And it hasn't happened. The answer is they're not here. And of course, you know, that indicates there's some underlying tension. It's a private matter, we don't know. A lot of people would want to speculate, but it's clear right now, as you heard that psychologist say, he's not ready. He's not wanting to have this kind of reunion.

It may be a temporary thing. It maybe something he just needs to readjust. It is a big emotional step to be reunited as much as people want it.

WHITFIELD: All right. Really complicated. It really just underscores, you know, how complicated this transition is.

All right. Thank you so much, Martin Savidge. Appreciate that outside Brook Army Military Medical Center there in San Antonio.

All right. A terror group racing toward Baghdad -- it's so notorious, not even al Qaeda wants anything to do with them. An inside look at who they are, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A fast-rising terrorist group is wreaking havoc capturing one city after another in Syria and Iraq. ISIS aims to create an Islamic state in Iraq and Syria, vowing to protect the rights of Sunni Muslims. This week they took over Iraq's second largest city, reportedly executing Iraqi army soldiers and now have threatened to march on the capital of Baghdad.

We're about to show you some very graphic images. Some of you might just want to look away for this story. The images are an inside look at this group known as ISIS. Again, some of these images are graphic. Here now is CNN's Jonathan Mann.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, driving toward Baghdad. This video posted on YouTube purports to show militant fighters in captured American Humvees, firing their guns in celebration. Another video posted fighters parading hundreds of prisoners before a crowd. The captured men now in civilian clothe, said to be members of Iraqi police.

And in this video an ISIS fighter speaks to a large and vocal crowd of supporters in Mosul. The fighter, his face covered, tells the crowd his group will establish a state that will protect the rights of Sunni-Muslims. Over the past year, the militant group has gained control of dozens of cities in north eastern Syria and now, according to some experts, nearly half of Iraq.

FAWAZ GERGES, DIRECTOR, MIDDLE EAST CENTRE, LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS: Not only it controls 50 percent of the Iraqi territories. It controls large chunks of territories in Syria. What they are trying to do is really have a contiguity between Iraq and Syria in order to do what? In order to establish what they call a caliphate, or centralized state governed by Islamic law.

MANN: This group is so extreme that even al Qaeda wants knolls to go with them.

ABBAS BARZEGAR, GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY, MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE: We're in a pretty scary place in al Qaeda is disavowing people for their violence.

MANN: In recent months, the group has executed enemies in Syria and then staged their deaths to look like crucifixions. ISIS is apparently looking to the future, openly recruiting young boys, and running schools to radicalize the next generation. Women have to wear full black veils. They burn cartons of cigarettes, part of a ban on smoking. Being accused of theft is enough to lose a hand. For those who refuse to obey the rules, the consequences are clear -- torture, then death. Jonathan Mann, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Back in this country, President Obama has put the pressure back on Iraq, saying it's time for the leaders there to step up. At the top of the hour, I'll talk with former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Chris Hill about that.

Also still to come, protesters dominating the first day of the World Cup. What's the security situation there now in Brazil, as the U.S. prepares for its World Cup opener?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: OK. On the pitch at the World Cup, the big story was Friday's 5-1 rout of defending champ, Spain by the Netherlands. The protest, venue, safety and security concerns all continue to be subplots in Brazil. Let's bring in Frederik Pleitgen who is in Rio. The U.S. playing Ghana. Are we expecting anti-American protests? Because it seems as though all of protests are really upstaging the games.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's certainly a lot of people that are angry at the way the games are being staged. Angry so much money has been invested into the stadiums and feel that many of the regular Brazilians aren't even able to attend the games and yes, there are anti-American protests also scheduled for when the U.S. will play against Ghana up in Nepal, which is in the north in the country.

Those protests have various themes to them. On the one hand, it's against American capitalism, as people there say, but it's also once again against the way this World Cup has been organized. One of the things that happened is because of the stadium construction and the infrastructure construction, you had a lot of people evicted, federal slid from the poor areas around the stadiums.

The people want to try to march to the stadium. However, it doesn't seem as though that's potential going to disrupt the games. Certainly we are expected a lot of security to be present there, especially since they're expecting Joe Biden to watch the game.

WHITFIELD: Frederik Pleitgen, thank you so much. I wonder if that scares some ticket holders away. We'll talk about that later on. Appreciate it.

All right, next a doctor tells us many school shootings can actually be prevented. What he says needs to be done.

But first the incredible story of rediscovery. Sue Mac is the author of "I forgot to remember" she talks about how at age 22, a bizarre accident erased all of her memories, Anderson Cooper talked with her about her long journey back.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "360": This is an incredible story. I know you don't remember the actual incident that started all this, but you've been told about it. What occurred?

SU MECK, LOST MEMORY AT 22: It was in May of 1988. My husband and I lived in Texas with our two small boys. Sunday afternoon Benjamin is in his high chair and Patrick crawled across the room to me, and Patrick is my 9-month-old. I picked him up like you would a baby. And his back or legs or bottom or something lifted, a ceiling fan that was hanging was off a hook, so it wasn't hung properly, and the fan came crashing down on me, hit me in the head. I then hit a counter, then the floor.

COOPER: When you woke up -- I don't want to say when you remembered, because you don't remember, but when you woke up, you didn't recall anything.

MECK: Correct.

COOPER: So the people in the room, your husband, your children, you couldn't --

MECK: No, I didn't recognize them for a long time, actually.

COOPER: What does that feel like? That's kind of terrifying.

MECK: Well, it is what it is. It's not terrifying if you don't know any different.

COOPER: You could still speak? You knew how to speak?

MECK: Yes.

COOPER: But you couldn't read anymore?

MECK: I had a very limited vocabulary. In the records it says 60 words, I don't know how they came up with that.

COOPER: You learned to read while your children have?

MECK: I re-learned how to read when they did.

COOPER: I found it to be a fascinating sentence. It shows the difference of who you were after the incident and who you were before. You really liked different things. You write -- she knew me and I knew nothing of her except what people told me. She rebelled, I conformed. She broke rules, I followed them. She drank and smoke pot, I don't even know the taste of beer and wine, and the smell of smoke makes me physically ill. I like vegetables. She hated them. She loved to swim. I'm terrified of water. That's fascinating.

MECK: I'm a very different person.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The parents of a 15-year-old boy who killed another students in the Oregon school shooting this week say they are sorry. Jared Padgett's father wrote a letter offering condolences and an apology for his son's shooting.

The letter says, quote, "I, Michael Padgett and my ex-wife, Kristine, are grieved in our hearts for the tragic event that involved our beloved son, Jared at Reynolds High School. We're finding it very difficult to put into words our state of mind and emotions," end quote.

The 14-year-old Emilio Hoffman was killed and Padgett turned the gun on himself. Police say they know of no link between the two boys and they still don't know the motive. Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman is the chair of the Psychiatry Department at Columbia University, and he studies school shootings.

Dr. Lieberman, you know, since the Sandy Hook shooting in December of 2012, there been roughly 35 similar school shootings, according to the Oregonian newspaper. CNN has a lower figure at 15. Either way, the figures are startling. In some cases the mental health of the shooters has been blamed.

You say that young people should get mental fitness tests, so you believe that many of these shootings could be preventable if only we did a better mental examination of a lot of kids early on?

DR. JEFFREY LIEBERMAN, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PSYCHIATRIST: Essentially yes, Fred. It's nice to talk with you again. As my good friend, Patrick Kennedy says, as everybody gets a physical every year, why shouldn't we have a checkup from the neck up as well? We can't say much about this latest school shooting in Oregon, because we don't know much about the perpetrator or his motives, but it does seem to be one of another in this endless series of public mass violent incidents involving youth.

This is unfortunately one of these reap what you sow issues because there are elements that seem to be contributory to this phenomenon. One is we live in a very permissive culture where we celebrate personal freedom and individual freedom of expression. We have availability of guns.

But then -- and here's where I come in. Youth is really in the sweet spot of the onset of many mental disorders and we do not proactively try and evaluate and then come to treat people who may have them. We wait until the illness develops, festers, and gets to a point of severity where they have to be brought in to see somebody, or if they're not, they do things like this, which are socially destructive.

WHITFIELD: Well, then I wonder, you said something with youth in that sweet spot of mental disorders, is that in large part an explanation why it is hard to identify, because it may be formulating, or perhaps it may not be formulating, but there are certain behaviors or characteristics that are outgrown as a person matures.

So I guess I'm asking is it really reasonable to think that you can do a mental evaluation of a child that's developing in order to really definitively be able to determine whether there's a propensity of violence or any other kind of mannerism or characteristic. LIEBERMAN: You're absolutely right. There's tremendous overlap between just the normal vicissitudes or range of behavior that adolescents and young adults go through as they're growing up and maturing, as they are defining their identity, becoming independent, as they are going to college, entering the work force, getting married, or the military. But mental health evaluations can be done and can distinguish pathology from normative behavior.

WHITFIELD: I'm sorry to interrupt. Help me understand what is a mental evaluation? And at what age do you start conducting that evaluation and know that it is going to tell you something with some real clarity?

LIEBERMAN: Well, an evaluation of somebody's mental status is no different than having a physical exam by your pediatrician or your general practitioner. You go to your pediatrician when you're an adolescent, but they pay attention to how you're doing, but they don't do an in depth evaluation of your mental status to determine whether the early signs of a mental disorder, whether it's ADHD, whether it is depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia are occurring.

WHITFIELD: But you have been quoted as saying that, you know, the diagnosis of ADHD has been misdiagnosed and over diagnosed a lot in recent years, so how do you know that the medical community is getting it right by labelling your kid as having a certain condition early on?

LIEBERMAN: Well, you have to be very rigorous in your diagnostic assessment, and have to be very certain or at least probabilistic in the way you tell the parents and the person, the patient involved, that there may be the beginning signs. And it doesn't mean we have to give you a label, doesn't mean we have to give you a treatment that you're going to be on the rest of your life. It means we have to watch this and follow it along as opposed to say go have a nice life and come back if something bad happens.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right, Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, thanks so much. Always a pleasure talking to you. Appreciate it.

LIEBERMAN: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Hundreds of children are coming into the U.S. illegally every day, sometimes alone, with no parents or adults at their side. What happens after they get here? Predicting the future is a pretty difficult thing to do.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Every day, hundreds of children are crossing illegally into the U.S. some come in with their mothers, but so many others are coming all by themselves. Border officials are getting overwhelmed. Our Gary Tuchman is at the border to tell us why this is happening.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL ANCHOR: Fredricka, the influx of children crossing from here in Mexico over the border to our north is continuing. The reason it is happening is complex.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN (voice-over): They came without their parents. Children from Honduras, traveling into Guatemala, Mexico, crossing into the Rio Grande and just now arriving in Texas. This girl said she made the dangerous journey because she wants to see her parents in Austin.

Another child saying that the journey was frightening. Unaccompanied children crossing the Mexican border isn't new. What's different now though is that the numbers have dramatically increased and almost all of them are coming not from Mexico, but from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

CHRIS CABRERA, NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL UNION LEADER: They know once we get to the station they're going to get the paperwork and set free into the United States.

TUCHMAN: But it's a bit more complicated than that. Each child's family background in the U.S. is investigated before they can be set free. So what's being done is the hundreds and hundreds of children who have arrived since Memorial Day are being transported to the U.S. Border Patrol Station in Arizona where they are temporarily living.

This picture from a local radio station shows many children sleeping with thermal blankets. Many of them are then being transferred to military facilities from California, Texas, and Oklahoma while their family ties get examined.

(on camera): White House senior administration officials say they are working as efficiently and as effectively as possible. But what happens when they find out a child has no family here in the United States. Will that child stay here? Will that child stay here? Will the child be sent back? At this point, it's not clear.

(voice-over): Officially removal proceedings are initiated for all of the children, but when minors come from countries not contiguous to the U.S., the law does not allow expedited returns to where they came from.

CABRERA: We are seeing people in the hundreds turn themselves in daily.

TUCHMAN: Also arriving across the border in huge numbers mothers and their small children. Ruth Gonzales is from Guatemala. She left her country and her daughter's first birthday on May 30th arriving in Arizona 11 days later. She gave her life savings to a coyote to make the journey.

(on camera): How much money did you pay? It's $6,000.

(voice-over): Mothers with their children are treated differently than unaccompanied children. Ruth and many other mothers who also took blesses hiked through the desert for days are dropped off by the border patrol at the Tucson, Arizona Greyhound Station. Surprisingly too many are told they can travel to their family members and stay in the U.S. for now provided they register after they arrive where their families are. These mothers had never left Guatemala before. They don't speak English and now they are navigating multi-day bus trips to various points of the U.S. with almost no idea what direction they are traveling and how far they are traveling. In a nation that is far larger than many of them knew.

Ruth is going to Washington, D.C. to be with her brother. She left her parents behind. She says her baby has been vomiting.

(on camera): Hard to smile?

(voice-over): She says it's very much difficult to smile and she's very sad. So why has she done this? Well, all the immigrants we talk to say the same thing, they say they're scared to stay in their home countries. A lot of violence. Ruth says she doesn't want her daughter growing up with the violence.

The U.S. government doesn't give them any necessities when they're dropped off at the bus station. Charity groups are there to offer that assistance. Ruth declares she is happy to be here. And then the Greyhound bus arrives.