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Benghazi Suspect on Navy Ship to U.S.; GM CEO Testifying in Congress; Exposing Bergdahl to Media Coverage; Pope Reduces Schedule

Aired June 18, 2014 - 10:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Don Lemon in for Carol today. Thanks for joining me here in the CNN NEWSROOM this morning.

U.S. Navy ship in the Mediterranean heading back to America, carrying on board the man believed to be a mastermind of the 2012 deadly attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Investigators are being given maximum time to question Ahmed Abu Khatallah after his arrest by Special Forces Sunday in eastern Libya.

He will likely face a federal trial for that attack that ended with the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others. Khatallah's arrest comes nearly a year after CNN's Arwa Damon spoke with him in Libya. He denied responsibility saying he was just trying to examine the situation, and the ambassador suffocated and died because he was trying to burn important documents. This is part of Arwa's report.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Did anyone from the American or Libyan government trying to get in touch with you?

AHMED ABU KHATALLAH, (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Never.

DAMON: No American official or Libyan official ever tried to contact you?

KHATALLAH: Even the investigative team did not try to contact me.

DAMON: You are talking about the FBI? And if they tried, are you ready to meet with them.

KHATALLAH: Yes, no problem but not as an interrogation -- as a conversation like the one we were having with you now.

DAMON: Reporter: but in a long rambling interview he also accuses the Americans of using al Qaeda as a bogeyman man whenever it suits them and add.

KHATALLAH: al Qaeda is nothing to be ashamed of. Al Qaeda is people who are devout, protecting their region and people. America is the terrorist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Our senior international correspondent Arwa Damon joins me now live. Good morning to you -- interesting that you were able to talk to him before U.S. forces were or U.S. officials. What were your impressions when you met Abu Khatallah?

DAMN: Well, he seemed to be very confident. We met in a public place at a well-known hotel in the coffee shop there. For security he had a handful of members of another small extremist militant group that had been operating in Benghazi. It's also important to look at the security situation that existed at the time, though. Benghazi had increasingly been turning into a city that was growing more extremist, more conservative. We've noticed a lot more pro al Qaeda Graffiti at this on the wall.

There was a lot of anti American sentiment at that pointing time. Those voices of moderation or voices of the Libyan time had been ground out. The Libyan government had very little authority over the city and following the attack on the U.S. Consulate and the CIA annex, America lost a lot of intelligence abilities on the ground which may have contributed to them taking a year to be able to actually bringing him in custody.

If we look at the situation in Benghazi on the ground right now in Benghazi, we're seeing a concerted effort by the Libyan security forces to go after these types of extremist militias. The U.S. was carrying out this operation presumably with all the trying to calculate any sort of potential fall out. And it seems that the situation on the ground and much more conducive to this sort of thing.

The Libyan government, however, the justice minister has said that he does believe that Abu Khatallah should be tried in Libya. He said that there wasn't arrest warrant out for him but The security situation in Benghazi, prevented Libyan authorities from capturing them himself.

LEMON: Arwa Damon. Arwa we'll see you on the network through throughout the day. Thank you very much. Iraq

Joining me now is Kimberly Dozier, contributing writer for the "Daily Beast". Good morning Kimberly I've read your piece that you wrote to the "Daily Beast". Very interesting, you broke down exactly how this happened. What went on? You just heard what Arwa had to say about her interview with Khatallah. What are your thoughts about what he had to say?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, DAILY BEAST: Well, what U.S. investigators say is that they have managed to gather enough evidence, putting him at the scene and they have charged him with three crimes. Being at a federal building where a person was killed and taking part in that attack. The second one is possessing a firearm during a violent act and the third one was helping terrorists in an act that led to a death.

Now, none of those are connected to directly to the Ambassador Steven's death but it does show that in those intervening months between now and the attack, they were able to gather enough, putting him at the scene and taking part in perhaps it was the death of one of the Libyan guards who was trying to defend the building. They think they have got their man or they wouldn't have moved in.

LEMON: One of biggest questions, probably the biggest question is why did this arrest take so long when you see where Arwa and journalists were able to speak to Khatallah but not U.S. officials? What have you learned about that?

DOZIER: Well, they were building this case. The justice department, not the Pentagon, had the lead on this, so they wouldn't move forward until they were satisfied that they had enough to stand up in a U.S. court.

But then the second thing that was going on is that the Libyan government was very unstable. It got dissolved at one point. The U.S. feared that moving in and conducting this unilateral raid without Libyan security forces support might destabilize the government further. The last time they conducted a unilateral raid there to capture Abu Faraj al-Libbi, the old al Qaeda operative. That was a moment of destabilization for the government that lead to kidnap of senior Libyan officials. They didn't want to trigger that again.

LEMON: So no shots fired, Kimberly. Khatallah didn't put up a fight. Missions like this don't usually go this smoothly . Is it fair to say that this went off without a hitch? Except for taking, you know, the time that it took to find hm.

DOZIER: Well, officials tell us that they had several different plans in mind but in the end they were able to trick their way through the front door, and capture him without a single shot being fired. They don't always have to kick the door down.

LEMON: It's a great piece in the "Daily Beast" by Kimberly Dozier. It's good to see you. I'm glad that you're well. Thank you, Kimberly. Take care.

DOZIER: Thanks and my colleague Eli Lake.

LEMON: Thank you -- I like you as well, appreciate it. Mutual admiration club here at CNN. The Redskins name no longer trade marked. We're following breaking news from the patent office. That's next.

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LEMON: The breaking news here on CNN, a big shock for the Washington Redskins, the football team with the controversial name was just told it cannot have federal trademarks for its name. Our legal analyst is Paul Callan. He joins me now by phone with more on this major development. So where does this leave us. What happens now, Paul?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it's a major development. The Redskins now are being deprived of the ability really to use that name in a commercial context, and if that's the case, they will clearly have to change the name of the team.

Now, this thing can be appealed and we don't know that ultimately the decision will hold, but it's a fascinating decision. I mean the Redskins got a trademark on this and they put it on shirts and hats and all the other commercial items that get sold in connection to the team so it's very important to them that they have the trademark.

The trademark, the court ruling on this trademark issue essentially said this was improperly granted. It disparages Native Americans, 30 percent of native Americans find it to be deeply offensive, and we don't grant trademarks to racially disparaging teams. I guess it would be like the New York Knicks calling themselves the New York Coloreds or New York Negroes. Or something that would be even more offensive than that it terms of racial disparagement. So it's pretty much unheard of decision though to have such an important name that's been out there for so many years taken away from a franchise.

LEMON: Paul Callan our legal analyst here at CNN with breaking news. The breaking news is that football team with that controversial name, Washington Redskins has just been told it cannot trademark that name. No federal trademark for that team, possibly going to lead to the changing of the name. We shall see, we'll follow here on CNN.

Paul Callan thank you very much.

Still to come, General Motors CEO Mary Barra facing a congressional grilling on Capitol Hill right now. You're looking at live pictures where lawmakers are going to be pressing her on GM's ten-year delay in recalling vehicles with a deadly ignition defect. Don't go anywhere.

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LEMON: Live pictures now, Capitol Hill, congressional committee hearing now. GM CEO Mary Barra getting grilled by lawmakers -- second time in just two months. Congressional committee pressing her on why GM -- why there was a ten-year delay in recalling vehicles that they deadly missed some defect linked to at least 13 deaths. Poppy Harlow following it all for us on Capital Hole.

So what's to come out of these hearings so far, anything?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN HOST: Good morning Don.

Actually, Mary Barra, the CEO of GM just gave her prepared remarks, followed by Anton Valukas. The U.S. -- former U.S., attorney who did the internal investigation. The questioning has been going on by lawmakers for just about five minutes or so. It was kicked off b the chairman of this committee, Tim Murphy, followed by another lawmaker, really jumping right in, diving in, grilling her. We'll get to that in a moment but I want you to take a listen to some of the remark that we got this morning from GM's CEO.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY BARRA, CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL RESERVE: The Valukas report as you know is extremely thorough, brutally tough and deeply troubling. It paints a picture of an organization that failed to handle a complex safety issue in a responsible way. I was deeply saddened and disturbed as I read the report. For those of us who have dedicated our lives to this company, it is enormously painful to have our shortcomings laid out so vividly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: And now Barra has been insisting for months since this recall happened and again on the hill today that this is a new General Motors that she is leading. That the company will never again not tell the public about a safety defect that turns out to be deadly -- insisting on that. But you know, one of the key questions (inaudible) coming from a lawmaker saying you have been at the company for 33 years, you may be the new CEO but you've been within GM for 33 years. How can the culture of this company can change when so many people including you have been there for so long? Also we heard her -- we heard the U.S. attorney Anton Valukas after that big GM nod. This is really important.

The internal investigation found that there was a culture within GM where there would be a quote, "GM nod". Executives would have a meeting about implementing change, and then apparently walk and say someone's going to do something about give a quote, "GM nod" and then nothing happened. One of the lawmakers brought that up to the U.S. attorney and said, there were only 15 people at GM that did that GM nod because 15 people were fired last week as a result of this investigation. And Anton Valukas said no. So the lawmaker pointing to there, have you really made enough changes within this company Don to end what turned out to be heartbreaking for a lot of the families that lost loved ones. That's the key question.

LEMON: Poppy Harlow on the Hill watching that for us. Poppy thank you very much.

You know what, there has been a stream of often negative commentary surrounding Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl's release by the Taliban nearly three weeks ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think what bothers people is having our commander in chief on television putting a glow of euphoria around the return of this guy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A feel good story quickly turns bad. President Obama under fire for trading five Taliban commanders for an American soldier.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Did the President break the law by engaging in this deal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh I think he clearly broke the law.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One guy saying I'm quote, "pissed off" about this because he believes that Bergdahl's a deserter. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think there are a couple of issues here. One is negotiating with terrorists and two is the issue with the law and thirdly is really what is the message it sends around the world?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: That is just a smidge of the coverage including that criticism from former comrades who accuse Bergdahl of being a deserter has been kept from him I should say -- well, until now.

As part of his reintegration, Bergdahl is being exposed to media coverage of his story, but slowly. Ed Lavandera joins us now from Dallas. They wanted to keep this from him as long as they possibly could. Is this a little early? What's going on here?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is what military official call phase three of the reintegration process and that is why Bowe Bergdahl was flown from Germany to this medical center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas and has a team of psychologists working with him as well as medical experts and they say that this is part of that reintegration process. That this is something he's going to have to be made fully aware of and be prepared for as he enters back into normal society.

So part of that process would be to include all of the media coverage dating back five years which we have to presume he hasn't been exposed to especially all of the media coverage that has erupted since his release by his Taliban prisoners and the controversy surrounding that.

Don as you well know, you played clips there, it's been, you know, a stunning kind of turn of events for many of his family and friends who have been watching this closely, who thought there would be some controversy given the unknown facts and a lot of the unknown -- unanswered questions surrounding his disappearance and his capture in Afghanistan, but I think the intensity and the vitriol that has really been shot his way has stunned a lot of his family and friends and they need to prepare him for that.

LEMON: It's stunned a lot of Americans as well, who said you should wait to pass judgment until he is questioned and we get to the bottom of it.

But you know, there is a hearing on Capitol Hill today looking at possible fallout from the exchange of those five high profile Taliban prisoners -- Ed. What do we expect to hear in that hearing?

LAVANDERA: This is a hearing led by two Republicans. They are looking at the exchange and the implications for what they national security questions but two of the people that will be testifying include one of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl's unit mates there that served with him in Afghanistan. Many of these soldiers as you've mentioned have been extremely critical, calling Bowe Bergdahl a deserter. We'll hear from them.

And then some of the accusations have also been that several other soldiers, as many as six other soldiers died in the hunt and searching for Bowe Bergdahl after he had been captured. And we will hear from one of the family members of those deceased soldiers. So that will be interesting to watch that develop here later on this afternoon.

LEMON: Ed Lavandera, thank you very much.

Still to come on CNN, concerns are raised about the health of Pope Francis. We're going to look at the signs being talked about.

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LEMON: Checking top stories here on CNN.

Startling new information on the Veterans Affairs scandal this morning. "Arizona Republic" reports that some $10 million in bonuses were paid over the past three years at the VA health facility in Phoenix.

CNN first broke the story that staff there falsified patients' wait time while some veterans died waiting to be treated.

For the first time since a botched execution in Oklahoma seven weeks ago, lethal injections have been used in the U.S. The procedure has been on hold in many states but overnight Georgia executed convicted rapist and murderer, Marcus Wellons. And just minutes later, Missouri administered a lethal injection to convicted murderer John Winfield.

Seven acrobats severely injured in a Ringling Brothers circus accident in Rhode Island last month have announced they will sue for damages. The incident occurred when a rigging the performers were hanging from collapsed and then plummeted to the floor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As you can see, all of us, we are terribly injured. Some of us require many surgeries and still may need more surgeries. We are trying to come to terms with knowing we will never be the same, but we know that we are lucky to be alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: That incident happened at the beginning of May.

Questions are being raised today about the state of Pope Francis' health. Concerns following the Vatican announcement that the pope significantly is cutting his schedule for next month. The Pope has also been canceling meetings lately.

CNN's Barbie Nadeau joins us now on the phone from Naples Italy. Any time you talk about him canceling events and his health, people get really concerned. What's the truth here Barbie? What's going on?

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, you really have to keep all of this in perspective. This is a man who is 77 years old, who has only one lung capacity, and he's dealing with a very hectic schedule. He's kept up since he was elected in March of 2013. He has canceled some audiences in July, he usually has a Wednesday audience. Tickets were distributed to some of those audiences and they were canceled which of course sends a red flag.

Because last summer, he didn't hold audiences in the summer months, Rome is very, very hot place to be outside. But (inaudible) some of the tickets were distributed has caused alarm. We also saw last week he had two days off, Monday, Tuesday that were quite spontaneous cancellations. And you know, the Vatican press office does very little I think to help in terms of transparency. They say it's nothing serious, nothing to be concerned about. He's just taking it easy. He's had a minor indisposition last week.

But people are concerned I think because this is a man who's doing a lot of good work for the Vatican, who's working very hard on reforms. People are worried about him. There is a joke around Rome that this is a man who definitely needs a food taster for all the feathers he's ruffling within the Vatican Don. -

LEMON: Yes absolutely. And speaking of that, speaking of there's concern about his weight gain, some say up to 20 pounds since he was elected. And that that may be some sign of a deteriorating health because of -- I guess he can't get to the gym. Lack of more physical activity because he has so many activities that he is doing, so many appearances.

NADEAU: That's right, and that coupled with the fact that he only has one functioning lung in an extremely hot and humid weather is going to cause a problem for him, you look at the pictures of him when he was elected, you look at the pictures of him now, it's very undeniable that he has gained some weight in his time in office.

But when he was in Buenos Aires, of course, he had a more active schedule. He walks to work, he did things like that. In Rome he gets out among the people but he is not as mobile and active as he was. And his schedule is a lot tougher. He's dealing with a lot of diplomatic issues here. It's more of a desk job, let's say, in Rome.

His life has changed. It's a lot more stressful, a lot more difficult. But people are really watching because I think there has always been concerns. He wasn't healthy when he took the job. And of course, as he gets older, he's less healthy.

LEMON: Everybody needs a break from time to time. There are concerns again -- Barbie Nadeau reporting for us. Barbie thank you -- about concerns about the pope's health, the Vatican downplaying that though. We will follow for you here on CNN.

Thanks for joining us. I'm Don Lemon, in for Carol.

"@THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA" starts right now.