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Terrorist Group Threatens Baghdad; Iraqi Prime Minister Criticized for Excluding Sunnis from Government; President Discusses U.S. Policy in Iraq; Tens of Thousands of Unaccompanied Children Crossing Southern U.S. Border; U.S. Government Granting $250 Million to Central American Countries to Help Stop Immigration of Children

Aired June 21, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Christi and Victor, I started by asking the president about Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki who the president just a few months ago commended for ensuring an inclusive and democratic Iraq. But Maliki has done none of that. So how can anything get fixed there with him in power?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We gave Iraq the chance to have an inclusive democracy, to work across sectarian lines, to provide a better future for their children. And unfortunately what we've seen is a breakdown of trust. There's no doubt that there has been a suspicion for quite some time now among Sunnis that they have no access to using the political process to deal with their grievances. And that is in part the reason why a better armed and larger number of Iraqi security forces melted away when an extremist group, ISIS, started rolling through the western portions of Iraq.

So part of the task now is to see whether Iraqi leaders are prepared to rise above sectarian motivations, come together, compromise. If they can't, there's not going to be a military solution to this problem. There's no amount of American firepower that's going to be able to hold the country together. And I made that very clear to Mr. Maliki and all the other leadership inside of Iraq.

BOLDUAN: But by going into the country to support this Iraqi government, to support Iraqi forces now, there's a real risk that you will very well likely be seen as supporting the Shiite side. Isn't that inflaming the tensions further and thus doing exactly what ISIS wants?

OBAMA: Yes, actually not, because the terms in which we're willing to go in as advisers initially is to do an assessment of, do they still have a functioning chain of command and is their military still capable, particularly in some of the western and northwestern regions of the country? But what we've also said in a joint operations center that we might set up and any advising that we may do, if we don't see Sunni, Shia, and Kurd representation in the military command structure, if we don't see Sunni, Shia, and Kurd political support for what we're doing, then we won't do it.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BOLDUAN: We'll much more of that conversation, the full interview, on NEW DAY on Monday. Christi, Victor?

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Kate, thank you very much. And you just heard President Obama urging Iraqi leaders to come up with a politically inclusive solution to of course the nation's crisis.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: We want to bring in CNN military analyst Major General James "Spider" Marks and former U.S. ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill. General, let me start with you. Is there anything you think these 300 special ops can do that the president see sending that will really make a difference politically?

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, what this will do is it will give Maliki some -- it will give him an opportunity, what we call in the military some breathing room. He's going to trade space for time. He needs to be able to ensure that he can preserve his government and it can move forward with all of its flaws and with all of its problems. So number one is, let's preserve what exists. And these 300 advisers when they get there will certain be the right step in the right direction. These folks are exceptionally mature, very talented, very senior guys at some very low levels. And primarily what this will help the Iraqis do is in a very tactical level enhance their targeting capability through enhanced intelligence, and it will, in fact, give the ISF a better fighting chance against is.

But a political solution, clearly, as Ambassador Hill will describe, is a much lengthier process. But we have to start the process by ensuring that Maliki doesn't get decapitated, and then we have a failed state, and now we have a much larger problem on our hands. But Maliki clearly is not the solution moving forward. It must, must be inclusive.

BLACKWELL: Mr. Ambassador, let's talk about that, Maliki moving forward. Does he have the credibility with Sunnis to, I guess, try again at this reconciliation? He chose consolidation and purging before. Does he at least have the vote of confidence?

CHRISTOPHER HILL, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ: Well, first of all, he's had two terms, and the issue right now is should he step forward for the third term? I don't think any Sunnis want him to do that or the Kurds want him to do that, or, frankly, a lot of the Shia want him to do that. So the real question is, is there someone to replace him? And, secondly, will he be willing to step down? This is not the first instinct of Middle East leaders to step down. So the U.S. diplomats who are kind of working this with the Iraqis have a really tall order.

But I do want to emphasize that -- because I think there's been a tendency to lay this all at Maliki's doorstep. As difficult as he has been, this is a Sunni community in Iraq that's never reconciled themselves to the Shia in any way being in charge of that country, even though the Shia are the vast majority of that country. So this is a difficult situation. And I think the task will be to get Maliki to step down but to get the Sunnis to accept a new leader who most likely will be a Shia leader.

PAUL: All right, gentlemen, do stay with us as we want to continue this conversation here. Coming up, we're going to hear more from President Obama, why he says the U.S. cannot fix Iraq on its own and talk more about where we go from here.

BLACKWELL: Plus, routine and his personal story, that's what Bowe Bergdahl is focusing on right now at a Texas medical facility. We have new details from the inside about his treatment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: The U.S. may be at a pivotal point here with the crisis in Iraq because this is the first of as many 300 U.S. military advisers that are due to arrive in Iraq very soon.

BLACKWELL: As early as today possibly. Meantime, President Obama says Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki needs to be able to govern inclusively with Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Do you believe in your gut this change can happen, that they can unify in Iraq?

OBAMA: I think we'll know soon enough. They don't have a lot of time. There's a timetable that is in place under their constitution. The good news is that so far, at least, all the parties have said that we want to abide by the constitution. You had a preeminent Shia leader inside of Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Sistani, saying we need to follow the constitutional order and form a government quickly. So they had the chance.

But ultimately what I think the vast majority of Americans understand is that we can't do it for them. And we certainly can't redeploy tens of thousands of U.S. troops to try to keep a lid on a problem if the people themselves don't want to solve it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: All right, let's bring back CNN military analyst Major General James "Spider" Marks and former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill. Hello, Gentlemen, again.

MARKS: Hi, Christi.

BLACKWELL: Ambassador, I want to start with you. You said a few moments ago that Maliki is likely not the person to lead the country forward. He's been a caretaker for a little more than a month, elections at the end of this month. Is there a leader who possibly is, you know -- that could build a consensus moving forward? There's been mention of Ahmed Chalabi and others. There has been Ayad Allawi, the former prime minister. Is there a leader who is likely next?

HILL: You put your finger on the biggest problem there. In 2010 there were a lot of people who didn't want to see Maliki have a second term. But when you started discussing who could follow him, no one had any compelling names. You mentioned a couple of people. Chalabi is a divisive person in Iraq, to the extent that people even know him. He's a person who's much better known in neoconservative circles in Washington than he was by the voters in Iraq. And those people who knew him saw him as divisive with very strong opinions and not the kind of person who reaches out.

Ayad Allawi is, for many Americans -- he speaks perfect English. He's a very easy person to deal with. He certainly is a tough-minded person. His problem is, even though he's a Shia, he doesn't really lead any Shia. So he's not a Shia political leader. So the idea that you put in a person whose only qualification is that he's a Shia but doesn't have any Shia political formations behind him, that's a problem.

Now, there are other names, and I don't mean to suggest by any means that Nouri al-Maliki is the only person who can lead that country. But the problem of coming up with a successor did bedevil the process in 2010, and I'm sure it's really what is going on behind the scenes today.

PAUL: General, there's something that a lot of people have recognized. The war in Vietnam started by sending advisers there to resolve the situation. And some people are saying it seems very parallel to what we're seeing here. How can President Obama avoid a larger entanglement in Iraq?

MARKS: He has to lean on the leadership in Iraq to step up, do the right thing and ensure that, number one, there's a professional military that has something that they're fighting for beyond some immediate sectarian gratification. And that has -- that's a lengthy process, Christi. You don't raise an army overnight.

But we've been doing that. That's the sad part of all this. We've been raising this army and training this army for the last decade. And we're just not there yet, primarily because over the course of time bad decisions were made in terms of how that military would be organized and who, in fact, the senior leaders would be.

If we can get beyond that, and there is an effort that could take place, and you could have a result. But if you're going to have essentially a Shia militia and Sunni extremists, you're never going to have a professional military. You're not going to have a form of reconciliation that will go forward. The worst outcome would be a failed state, and an alternative could be a balkanization with the Kurds and a Sunni-stan and a Shia-stan, for lack of a more precise terms. That's not a great outcome. But the Iraqis have to figure that out. And a professional military has to be the foundation of any step moving forward politically. Otherwise you end up with this type of chaos again and again.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And we've seen it again and again. Thank you, Major General James "Spider" Marks and former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill. Thank you both.

PAUL: Thank you, gentlemen. MARKS: Thanks.

PAUL: OK, something else we are really keeping our eye on. As many as 80,000 children is the number now without their parents are expected to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally this year. Now the Obama administration has a $250 million plan to face that growing crisis. But is the money going to solve the problem?

BLACKWELL: Then, some experts say new computer models could tell us where to find flight 370 and the 239 people who were on board. They say the previous search was hundreds of miles off the mark.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: It's 19 minutes past the hour. And it is the humanitarian crisis the U.S. is now dedicating, listen closely, a quarter of a billion dollars towards. Not talking about Syria, not Iraq, but one right at our doorstep, the mass surge of child immigrants trying to enter the U.S. on this mistaken belief that they're going to be allowed in and allowed to stay.

Now, the White House just announced it's spending more than $250 million to help Central American countries like Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, keep their citizens local and, as I quote the White House here, "address the root cause of the migration." Let's bring in CNN's Nick Valencia who's been studying up on this and knows all about it. I think people here, $250 million, they say, whoa, whoa, whoa, what are they using that money for?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's supposed to, in theory, intended to go to these governments in Central America, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, to help them with this so-called reintegration process. I just actually got back from the border and we saw the conditions that the immigrants are coming into this country. In fact I saw a family group across, you're looking at them there, from Honduras. They had just come out of the Rio Grande River. I got a chance to speak to them briefly and they said they were happy to be here.

Part of what's new about this, not just the numbers, Christi, but it's how it's going down. This group turned themselves in to the border patrol. Usually the border patrol is going after these groups trying to catch them. It may have something to do with this misinformation that's being spread in Central America. Criminal syndicate groups, cartel-like groups, according to the White House, are telling migrants that the time is now to come, and if you turn yourself in to the border patrol agents, you will be given a court date and you will be released on your own recognizance. Many of them don't show up to that court date. So many U.S. official and border patrol officials that we spoke to said that this is part of the issue.

Now, here's the money, $250 million going to these central governments. Accountability could be a factor. Senator John McCain says that this money won't altogether solve the problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: The first step, I think, would be for the president of the United States to announce that if you come here illegally, you can't stay. And that message would get down. Right now over radio and television in these Central American countries, they're telling them they can get here and stay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: And we spoke to some of these migrants and we spoke to some of the border patrol agents in charge and tasked with capturing these migrants. They say it's now so much a resources issue. It's just a processing issue. The facilities are overwhelmed and there's not enough space for these thousands and thousands of migrants that have come to the United States illegally.

PAUL: I still think people are maybe a bit alarmed when they hear that figure of $250 million and think, how do we trust these governments are going to do with what they say they're going to do with it when the problem, and it's been widely reported, that these criminal organizations that are taking them across the border.

VALENCIA: That's right.

PAUL: And it's not the governments that have control of that.

VALENCIA: That's a great point. And I'm sure many people are watching this report and saying where was the $250 million when we wanted to secure our borders? Why are we all of a sudden outsourcing this money that we may not be able to keep track of when we send it to these Central American nations? The idea that the White House has is that this will keep the migrants there in this reintegration process. We don't know what that all together means, but they hope that that will keep these thousands of influx of undocumented -- many of them unaccompanied. And that's a real issue. These kids, Christi, children, some as young as four years old traveling with their sisters or brothers who are essentially acting as de facto parents to these young children.

PAUL: I know you saw some of them. And we just see the pictures. But it's just heart-wrenching to see these kids. They're coming here and they have no idea. And there's nobody to take care of them. So Nick, thank you so much.

VALENCIA: Thank you.

PAUL: We appreciate it. Victor?

BLACKWELL: Christi, we remember months and months of searching below the surface of the water, from the surface, from the sky. How about this? Maybe it's the right ocean but the wrong spot. A group of experts say that the search for flight 370 missed the mark by hundreds of miles. So should the search zone shift?

Also, the U.S. facing Portugal in the World Cup this weekend, but Portugal's top player, Cristiano Ronaldo, could be out of the game. What could that mean for team USA? (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: It's 27 minutes past the hour right now. Welcome to your Saturday. Take a nice, deep breath, because you're in the middle of it.

BLACKWELL: And it is pretty. I'm Victor Blackwell. Here are five stories we're following.

PAUL: Number one, 65,000 troops in Russia are being put on full combat alert. President Vladimir Putin is ordering them to carry out a surprise combat readiness test. The military exercise will last about a week, we know. This comes amid escalating tensions with neighboring Ukraine. Moscow is not saying if the matters are linked, but it is tightening its border security.

BLACKWELL: Number two, a decision made in the U.S. is resonating in the Middle East. The Presbyterian Church votes to shed its investment in three companies that it says helped Israel occupy Palestinian territories. It's the first such move aimed at pressuring Israel to pull out.

PAUL: Number three, Rick Perry now admits he, quote, "stepped right in it," unquote, when he compared homosexuality with alcoholism. The Texas governor said this week, quote, "We need to be a really respectful and tolerant country to everybody," unquote. Remember Perry last week gave this answer when asked whether homosexuality is a disorder. Quote, "I may have the genetic coding that I'm inclined to be an alcoholic, but I have the desire not to do that. And I look at the homosexual issue the same way."

BLACKWELL: Number four, President Obama has sent a message to Cuban President Raul Castro asking him to free imprisoned U.S. government contractor Alan Gross. Gross was convicted in 2011 for bringing satellite communication equipment into Cuba. The U.S. officials say Gross was simply trying to help Cubans bypass their government's tough restrictions on Internet access.

PAUL: Number five, new hope for the folically challenged among us. The brightest drug transformed the baldheaded man you see on the left to that full head of hair after picture on the right. An autoimmune disorder had caused his hair loss. And it appears an autoimmune treatment kick-started all the new growth. Finally, a cure more baldness may really be at hand, folks.

So guess what. There is a new theory about where the wreckage of Malaysia flight 370 really is right now. If this theory is correct, researchers have been looking in the wrong place the entire time.

BLACKWELL: Yes, a group of outside experts say that fresh analysis of raw satellite data actually points to an unsearched area just south of where those pings were detected. Could this be the answer to the big mystery? Here's CNN aviation correspondent Rene Marsh.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Right ocean, right arc, but wrong spot. A group of independent experts say they believe flight 370 went down here, hundreds of miles southwest of where crews spent weeks searching.

MICHAEL EXNER, CO-FOUNDER, AMERICAN MOBILE SATELLITE CORPORATION: My personal opinion is that we're at the 80 percent to 90 percent confidence level.

MARSH: Michael Exner and about a dozen other experts pushed for the release of raw satellite data which government officials used to calculate the plane's possible final resting place. Now that they have it, they agree the plane almost certainly went south. But the group says five computer models place it in this tight cluster and say the search should focus here.

EXNER: This is our recommended search area. No one is claiming that we know it's at this location. But we think it has the highest probability of any area in the southern Indian Ocean.

MARSH: There have been multiple aerial searches in the southern Indian Ocean with no trace of the missing plane. But they say their new target area was unexplored.

EXNER: They have already searched areas very close to the area that we have recommended but not exactly on it.

MARSH: The group says the four underwater signals detected in April unintentionally distracted search teams from looking at other areas Inmarsat that were flagged. But the outsiders Inmarsat and Australian authorities all agree the underwater pings were a lead that needed to be pursued.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: That was CNN's Rene Marsh reporting for us.

Now we want to go to our expert Mike Exner, who you saw in Rene's piece there. He joins us from Boulder, Colorado. He's a member of this outside group of experts.

PAUL: Mike, thank you so much for being with us. I know that you say your 80 percent to 90 percent confident the plane is in this particular place in the southern Indian Ocean. But in laymen's terms, can you explain to us why you are so certain?

EXNER: Well, first of all, I wouldn't say that we're certain. I think this is the highest probability location. It has to be somewhere along the arc. It's along this seventh arc. Inmarsat and our group agree that it's somewhere along this so called seventh arc. And the question is, where along the arc. The primary assumption that drives where you end up on the arc is the speed of the aircraft. And after interviewing a number of 777 pilots and looking at a lot of analysis, we just believe it's more likely that the average speed was much higher. And that takes you to a point quite a bit further southwest of the next location that Inmarsat is planning to search. BLACKWELL: So we know that as soon as those pings were detected, that

focused in the search for five to six weeks on that area. Do you think that was a mistake?

EXNER: No, I wouldn't say it's a mistake. I think every step along the way the authorities have been trying to work with the best data available. And when the acoustic ping data appeared to offer important clues, it was important for them to search that area.

Keep in mind that all these searches have been along this seventh arc. And our search area is also on the seventh arc but just further south. And we base that, again, on our belief that it's more likely that the aircraft had a much higher air speed, true air speed, over the last four or five hours of the flight. And that just takes you about 680 miles -- nautical miles further southwest of where the next location is thought to be. So we just think it's more likely it would be down there. In all honesty, it could be anywhere along that seventh arc, but the most likely location is a point further southwest.

PAUL: Mike Exner, thank you so much for bringing us this newest theory and helping us understand where it came from. We appreciate it. Again, Mike Exner with the American Mobile Satellite Corporation, thank you.

BLACKWELL: Thank you, Mike.

EXNER: Thank you.

PAUL: Still to come, World Cup fever. It's hot.

BLACKWELL: I was expecting the other music, but this is good too.

PAUL: The temperature in Brazil is even hotter.

BLACKWELL: Even hotter. How the steamy, sticky humidity could affect the games this weekend.

Then, he's been back in the U.S. for a week now. Now Bowe Bergdahl is focusing on his personal story. How it could help him recover after five years of Taliban captivity.

PAUL: And in just a bit, this horrible story out of Georgia, a toddler dies in a hot car after his father allegedly forgot about him. Now that dad charged with felony murder. How does that happen? The story is coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Look at that beauty. Live pictures of the stadium in Rio there. The U.S. team --

BLACKWELL: Beautiful day. Speaking of the U.S. team, tomorrow's the next test for the team. They play Portugal. But the challenges are mounting for this big match.

PAUL: Yes. CNN's Lara Baldassarra is live in Rio with more for us. I'm really wondering -- down there, we're all like, go, team U.S. But down there, how much support do they have? Do people think they can pull it off?

LARA BALDESARRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A ton of support, Christi. There has been an overwhelming amount of American fans that we saw in the first match. They were absolutely the majority of the crowd, and they were singing their hearts out. They were all in their red, white, and blue. It was something that helped this team move on and play as well as they did. And we're expecting the exact same thing. And that's kind of crazy to think about, that so many people are will to travel to Manaus. This is a city that's in the Amazon rain forest. This is not a comfortable place to be by any stretch of the imagination. We're not just talking about high heat here. We're talking about a heck of a lot of humidity that everybody's going to have to deal with, those being the fans with their faces that are painted, their paint just dripping off their faces, but also the players out there.

The players, they actually arrived in Manaus last night. They flew from their base in Sao Paulo. They will be there all day today. They're not going to head out to the training pitch until later this evening, around 5:00 eastern time. And that's because they want to avoid having to train in this humidity at all. It's just so draining on a player's body.

Now, luckily for the U.S. team, the game is actually going to be in the evening as well. It will be at 6:00 p.m. eastern time. So the humidity won't be as great as if it were to be 1:00 p.m. in the afternoon. But it's still going to be a huge factor and something we're going to see the players dealing with and certainly all those that are going to fans sweating it out in the stadium.

BLACKWELL: Speaking of the players, Lara, are we expect to see Portugal's star player, Cristiano Ronaldo? Is he going to return?

BALDESARRA: Yes, there was a big question about Ronaldo, because he left the training pitch the other day with ice wrapped around his left knee. This has been a huge problem area for him in the past few weeks. But all signs point to yes. And I would not be shocked whatsoever to see him playing.

Now, he might not be 100 percent fit. But 90 percent fit Ronaldo is an amazing Ronaldo. So it's going to be very, very crucial for the USA to really try to cover him. So that means limiting ball possession for Ronaldo. And the USA definitely has their work cut out for them.

However, I do want to add something, because if the USA does manage to beat Portugal in this match and that ends up eliminating Portugal for the World Cup, don't be surprised to hear that Ronaldo's injury is pretty severe and he wasn't playing even close to his best.

PAUL: Already thinking up an excuse, I suppose. Lara Baldassarra, enjoy yourself, my friend. You've got a great view there. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Thank you, Lara.

BALDESARRA: Of course.

BLACKWELL: This is a sad one. This is a tragic story.

PAUL: And it's getting bizarre.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

PAUL: It's taken a weird turn.

BLACKWELL: That is the right word for it, bizarre. A toddler dies in what appears to be an accident, a mistake. So why is the dad now charged with murder, and why are investigators questioning the father's initial story? We'll take a closer look at what police told me about this twist in this heartbreaking tragedy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: It's 46 minutes past the hour. So we've got the music, the lights, all the noise at a baseball game. That can just be too much for a kid with autism. But this week's CNN hero is doing everything she can to help families with autistic children get past that sensory overload and just experience a great night out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Going to new experiences with my son is a gamble. You are on edge all the time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Help.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just breathe.

When he's having a meltdown on the floor and the whole store is looking at you like you're a bad mom, you just want to go and crawl under a rock. It's challenging.

I stay in sometimes because it's easier for him to be around all of his toys. I'm afraid.

DR. WENDY ROSS, CNN HERO: As a developmental pediatrician I do a lot of diagnosing of autism. When I heard that families were afraid to go out, I felt like I needed to find a way to help them. Everyday experiences like going to a baseball game can be terrifying for a child with autism. The music, lights, noise, there's a lot of unexpected sensory things happening.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you ready to go?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

ROSS: I work with the Phillies to train all 3,000 people that work at the ballpark. Autism is a social disability, so it needs to be addressed in the community. We prepare the families with a storybook of experiences that may happen at the park. And then we provide supported game experiences sort of like a safety net. If you start taking steps outside of your door, your world gets bigger and bigger. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's having fun. One success means more

success.

ROSS: It's about more than a game. It's about opportunity.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hopefully there will be zoos in our future and aquariums. The world is our oyster.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: You just hope that for those kids, don't you? You don't realize how much they miss out on.

BLACKWELL: It's amazing someone thought about it.

PAUL: I know. I love that. o if you'd like to nominate someone, by the way, visit CNNheroes.com.

BLACKWELL: In suburban Atlanta, a case turned almost as perplexing as it is horrifying, essentially. Murder charges are filed against 33- year-old Justin Ross Harris. He's a panicked father who shrieked for help in a parking lot. A crowd watched there in this parking shopping center helplessly as he tried to revive the lifeless body of his 22- month-old son.

PAUL: I think this has haunted every parent who watched this. The father says he went to work forgetting that his son was in the backseat on this sweltering day. He has pled not guilty to felony murder and cruelty to children charges, but police will only hint at a gruesome possibility now, that the child's death may not be the horrible mistake his father claims. Victor, I know you've been working on this one. We hear felony murder, we know felony murder means they believe there was some possible intent involved.

BLACKWELL: The question here is, is the father telling the truth when he says I put the boy in the car at about 9:00, forgot to drop him off, went to work, and then on the way home from work, seven hours later, that's when I realized he was there. When I spoke with the sergeant, Dana Pierce, with the Cobb County Police Department, he said this to me. He said, I'm going to put it up on the screen, "I've been in law enforcement for 34 years. What I know about this case shocks my conscience as a police officer, a father, and a grandfather."

And the essence here, they're questioning this father's story. First say they can no longer confirm the boy was in the car at 9:00 in the morning. They cannot confirm that there was not a stop between home and work and then work and this parking lot where he allegedly then found his son. They also say that when the first responders, the firefighters, the EMTs, the police officers questioned him in that parking lot, his answers to their questions just did not make sense.

We also asked, OK, possibly will there be more charges filed? That's something that they say is possible. And essentially, when will we know what was the cause and manner of death here? When will we know what he knows? He says because this is something that's not a public safety risk, it's not a risk to other people, people may have to wait until the trial. But he says that after 34 years in this industry, in law enforcement, he is shocked by what he knows about this case.

PAUL: It's frightening. As soon as they talk, we'll get you the latest. I think it's something everybody's paying attention to.

BLACKWELL: We'll have more on this next hour, as well.

PAUL: So stay close.

Also, think about this, routine and a personal story. That's what Bowe Bergdahl is focusing on right now at a Texas medical facility. And we're going to talk with a former military psychiatrist about the former POW's treatment options. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: By now you know part of the story, at least. He was held captive in Afghanistan for nearly five years and has now been a free man for about three weeks. But as Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl recovers as an army medical center in Texas, his parents wait, and they have yet to see or even speak with their son.

PAUL: Joining us now, military psychiatrist Dr. Elspeth Ritchie. Dr. Ritchie, thank you so much for being here. We talked to you last week, saying, why do you think he hasn't seen his parents? Did you think we would be talking to you a week later asking you the same question?

DR. ELSPETH RITCHIE, MILITARY PSYCHIATRIST: I did not think that, although this situation and this case seems to have more twists and turns than you can imagine. And clearly what is happening here is that the SERE psychologists and mental health personnel are taking their time to make sure they reintegrate Sergeant Bergdahl correctly. But SERE of course I mean survival, escape, resistance, evasion, the psychologists that are trained in working with prisoners of war and hostages and detainees.

BLACKWELL: We know that Sergeant Bergdahl has a comprehensive recovery program. It's going to take some time. You said, I believe, months the last time we spoke with you. But this wait is also difficult for his parents. What toll could this be taking on them?

RITCHIE: What a rollercoaster ride this must be for them. First of all, five years of their son in captivity, not knowing whether they'll ever see him again. And then all the excitement, the hoopla, the Rose Garden when they thought he was coming back home. Now he's home, but for whatever reasons, we still don't know what it is, he still doesn't want to see them. So I think it must be tremendously difficult for his parents. I would say not just his parents, but he's from a small town that everybody was concerned about him and cared and there were "Welcome home, Sergeant Bergdahl" signs up everywhere. What must that be like for the town that he lives in?

PAUL: No doubt about it. Something we're hearing, too, want to share with you about Bergdahl's reintegration process, that it's very structured. That caught my attention because we know children -- when we talk about raising children as they are little, they need a very structured environment. Why is it so important for healing in this regard?

RITCHIE: Well, he's been in a very deprived sensory state, again, for five years. I say deprived, but to the best of my understanding, there were periods of very, very boring being in the dark for months at a time. But there must have been periods of terror as well when he was moved, when he didn't know whether he would live or die. And so coming from that alternating terror and boredom, it is important to give somebody control over their surroundings and to do things in small steps. In your last segment, you were talking about an autistic child. You could think of it almost being like autistic, in that you can be overwhelmed by too much sensory simulation. And you have to take is slowly and have control, go one step at a time.

BLACKWELL: One step that we're understanding about his recovery is this storytelling, that they want him to tell the stories about his time in captivity. What's the importance of that in this new routine?

RITCHIE: So storytelling, or some of the other modalities we might do, such as art therapy, is very important to try to get a sense over what happened, to master it. You're trying to make sense of coming back into the society. What actually happened? At the same time, there's a balance. We don't necessarily go right for the traumatic stories right away because that can also be overwhelming. So you want to have the make sense, tell what happened, but not necessarily go into the fear and horror and terror yet. Wait until the person is ready to get there.

PAUL: All right, Dr. Elspeth Ritchie, thank you for walking us through what this is all about. We appreciate it.

And just want to say that we hope you have a great Saturday. Make some great memories today because we are out of here.

(LAUGHTER)

BLACKWELL: Yes. That's it for us. We're going to hand it over to Fredricka Whitfield.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: I feel like a big exhale in that, Christi.

BLACKWELL: This was fun.

PAUL: I hope you have a big exhale, too, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, appreciate it. You all have a great afternoon.

BLACKWELL: You, too.

WHITFIELD: It's the 11:00 eastern hour of the Newsroom, which begins right now.