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CNN's Wolf Blitzer In Air Raid In Israel; Lebron James: "I'm Coming Home" To Cleveland; Inside Facility Born From Border Crisis; Conspiracy Theorist Torments Murdered Boy's Mom; A 6.8 Earthquake Hits Off Fukushima, Japan

Aired July 11, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: So that was Wolf Blitzer earlier in Southern Israel and now live in Jerusalem. We're glad you're safe, Wolf. I talked last hour to Michael Oren. He is a former Israeli ambassador to Washington. He said the rocket attacks by Hamas despite killing no one have served to traumatize 5 million Israelis. What is it like for you trying to get to shelter, and do you still feel shaken and traumatized by this?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": You know, I've covered earlier confrontations similar to this one here in Israel with Hamas and Gaza or Hezbollah in Lebanon. This was the first time I personally have been driving in a car with our whole CNN crew and all of a sudden we stopped at a light and we heard the sirens and everybody jumped out. You could see the other cars stop immediately and people just put their car in park.

Some didn't even turn off the engines, they ran out, kept doors open, ran to the nearest bomb shelter and there's plenty of them, especially close to the Gaza border. We weren't that far away. You hear the sirens, go inside the bomb shelter, wait for about 5 minutes, get the all-clear, you go back, the cars are all there, everybody gets back in their cars. Keep on driving. It's a frightful situation.

There's a lot of tension and clearly, it's a bad situation. What's going on in Gaza is clearly a lot worse, as you point out, 100 people have been killed. Most of them civilians and 700 or 800 have been injured. Israel has got a very good anti-missile defense system that so-called iron dome system that works pretty well.

But it's still a pretty frightening situation for Israelis and obviously very, very frightening for the Palestinians and Gaza, as well as Israel keeps pounding with those air strikes.

LEMON: Wolf Blitzer, we want you to stay safe, Wolf. Thank you. We know you'll be anchoring "THE SITUATION ROOM" live, 5:00 Eastern. Make sure you tune in here on CNN.

Next, so Miami or Cleveland? Where would you choose to live? The best basketball player on the planet, he chose Cleveland. Lebron James announcing he is going back to Ohio today. Why? Former NBA player, Greg Anthony is going to join me, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: So why don't we head over to Cleveland now, where the party has already started, because Lebron James is headed back home to Cleveland. He will once again be a Cavalier. Look at all those excited fans. Some ran for miles just to be near the media because they were so excited. And that may be surprising to some people, because you remember this scene. This was after his decision to leave Cleveland four years ago. Fans burning jerseys.

The Cavs' owner even called him a coward back then. Well now Dan Gilbert says this. He tweeted, "Welcome home, King James. I am excited for the fans and people of Cleveland and Ohio. No fans and people deserve a winner more than them." OK.

I want to CNN sports commentator's Greg Anthony's reaction to all of this. Greg, what's going on? All of a sudden everything is forgiven now in Cleveland. And he just wrote one article and he's coming back and everybody is we forgive you, come on back.

GREG ANTHONY, CNN SPORTS COMMENTATOR (voice-over): Yes. It is, you know, what a difference four years makes. Four years ago, Lebron James was probably the most hated athlete in professional sports in North America. Now for about 90 percent of the country he's probably the most beloved. I mean, you know, you have to put in perspective, too, when you think about the era of free agency, really for all sports, but particularly in basketball.

You have never seen a guy that's considered without question the best in his profession go to a small market. You know, that also in and of itself is a bit shocking to some respect. But also to what you said earlier, Don. He is going back home. He's got the familiarity there. He's also going back as a world champ, which I think also helps the situation.

And I think truly, he also believes that Cleveland now has in place the beginnings of what could become a championship caliber team for many years to come because they have such a young, bright nucleus with a lot of flexibility to make more moves to try to validate their opportunity for the upcoming season.

LEMON: So Greg, I have someone on the phone you may recognize their name. I'm not sure if you will. It's Isaiah Thomas. Isaiah, thanks for coming on. I understand you're driving. I really appreciate you accepting the invitation to come on. What do you make of this? This is a lot of people in the league were waiting to see what happened with Lebron James before they made a move. This shook up the league.

ISAIAH THOMAS, NBA HALL OF FAMER (via telephone): Well, first of all, (inaudible) thanks for letting me steal both of you guys' moves. Anyway, with Lebron, I look at what he has done in terms of going back home. It is an emotional issue for him in terms of raising his family. I know he's a Midwestern young man or Midwestern man.

And when I look at basketball, he realizes the impact that he has on the young men and women in the state of Ohio, in the city of Cleveland, in his hometown of Akron. And I look at what he's doing from compassion and forgiveness standpoint, he's going forward. Hate is a thing that drives and compels a lot of negativity.

And what Lebron has done in terms of forgiveness and compassion, I think he's put himself on not only a championship stage from a basketball standpoint, but also a championship stage in life by leading by example.

LEMON: Yes, well, Isaiah Thomas, I have to thank you for joining me. You broke up for a little bit, but we got the gist of what you were saying. Isaiah Thomas. Greg Anthony, thank you, as well, sir. All right, appreciate it.

ANTHONY: All right, take care, Don and Isaiah.

LEMON: Coming up next, CNN gets an inside look at a detention facility for those waiting for immigration cases to be heard. What we found inside, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Now I want to get to the border crisis that has burst the immigration system at its seams. So many undocumented kids are trying to come to the U.S. They have forced police to look for space beyond federal holding centers. They've converted facilities never meant to hold immigrants.

And earlier today, the Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson visited one of those places and he was in Artesia, New Mexico. His visit happens one day after he urged lawmakers to spend nearly $4 billion to help stem the tide of migrants. So what exactly did Jeh Johnson see? CNN's Ana Cabrera joins me live. Ana, you went inside. What was it like?

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don. Probably not what you would expect, especially after you've seen those pictures inside some of those Texas holding facilities that are just so crammed and overwhelmed. Really, when we went inside here, felt more like a college campus, complete with dorm rooms that have bunk beds, desks. A lot of rooms have television sets.

They showed us the bathroom area. Private or separated by gender. Private shower stalls. We also got to see some of the toys the children have access to, hula hoops, baths, balls, stuffed animals. We learned there are more than 400 women and children bussed here to this, again, temporary housing facility. They came here from Texas.

And this facility is on the grounds of the federal law enforcement training center. It's a 3,600-acre sprawling facility. We have learned that these women and children pretty much have free rein, but they are monitored very closely and nobody is allowed to leave until their fates are decided. The goal here is expedited repatriation and that's something that Secretary Jeh Johnson spoke about today. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JEH JOHNSON, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: I think it's fair to say that a good number of them were surprised that they were being detained. I think they expected to be apprehended and simply let go into the interior and they're surprised that they're being detained and sent back so quickly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: In fact, we have learned this facility opened on June 27th and Secretary Johnson says the first group of people who were brought here will be deported starting next week. Now that they have a bit of a more efficient system for processing and housing some of these undocumented immigrants, he says they hope to make the legal cases go quickly. The goal here is two to four days of when they arrive. Again, that is the goal. Certainly some cases could take a little bit longer -- Don.

LEMON: Ana, we have seen other towns protest the immigrants coming there. What about Artesia? What's the mood there?

CABRERA: Well, certainly people here are not happy about immigrants being brought here. We heard from the townspeople concerns about border security, concerns about other immigrants, people who may be considering making this journey. Now seeing how nice the accommodations are here, and wanting to come on this journey.

And there are concerns still about the health issues that may arrive with having an influx of people coming. I can assure you on that issue, we talked to the medical staff here and they said they aren't seeing anything that's out of the ordinary, nothing that you might not find inside an American daycare -- Don.

LEMON: OK. Ana Cabrera, thank you very much.

Up next, a tragic story, a mother dealing with the death of her son sees his image online. She asks the person to quit using the picture, and that's when things escalate. The uploader refuses to take down the video. So what can this mother do now? We're going to talk to her live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right, we know about the anonymity of the internet and just how low haters online can go. But one case crosses a line from mean to cruel and it involves this Texas mother who has already experienced a parent's worst torment, the murder of her 5-year-old son, Brendan, in 2003 by his father, Ivan Hink.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep your mouth shut!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Intentionally, pre-meditatively, under God's will, I killed him.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: Hink is now in a Nebraska prison. Brendan's body has never found. And that detail has now fueled this YouTube video. It claims the 5-year-old boy is still alive and shows images that show the dead boy at an older age. What's worse, the uploader is refusing to take the video down, saying she wants the truth to come out.

On top of that, the video has been duplicated by another account under Ivan Hink, the name of the murderer. Brendan's mother has asked repeatedly for the uploader and Google to remove the video, but it is still online. The boy's mother, Rebecca Gonzalez, joins me live now. Rebecca, my condolences, and really thank you for being here. When you see this video, what does it do to you?

REBECCA GONZALEZ, MOTHER OF MURDERED BOY: It angers us. It angers me because we know it's not true and that just is really frustrating, when your wishes don't go heeded, right?

LEMON: We reached out --

GONZALEZ: We don't think that Brendan deserves that for his memory.

LEMON: We reached out to the woman who uploaded the video and so far no response. We've also repeatedly called Google which owns YouTube. Again, no response from them. Who do you blame more? Is it Google or the uploader?

GONZALEZ: I guess, I would have to say it's the uploader because it's ultimately their responsibility for the video itself. But Google on the hand that I want to understand that they must get thousands of these kind of requests a day also need to pay attention when things get flagged so heavily in such a short amount of time. You would think there would be a way to act contact them to get it removed, right?

LEMON: We have seen on YouTube that you have replied to those who support the video. Doesn't that feed the conspiracy by generating more reaction, do you think?

GONZALEZ: I think it was a lot of it in the beginning was trying to get friends and family through social media to help get the attention of Google to get it down and then it just got to where her replies started fueling almost harassment of us in that term.

LEMON: The videos are using current posters from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the vice president says policy dictates that a case isn't closed until a body is found. We want to make sure that it is clear. So is there no truth behind those videos at all?

GONZALEZ: There's no truth behind those videos at all. As much as we would like that, we would love Brendan to still be with us and not have to have gone through everything we've gone through. Unfortunately, the evidence that the police and the FBI uncovered and, of course, Ivan's confession all point to that not being a possibility. And we had to come to that reality and come to peace with that

11 years ago. And things like this don't help us rest, right? It's just disturbing especially it's one thing that if somebody posts it, but if the family comes and says please remove it to ignore that and keep pushing it further. It's posted in several different places now. It's indescribable.

LEMON: Rebecca Gonzales, let us know what happens. We appreciate you. Thanks so much.

We have breaking news we want to tell you about now. We're learning about a 6.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Fukushima, Japan, that is the same area that was devastated by a 2011 tsunami. Details coming up. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Here's a breaking news on CNN, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake just struck off the coast of Fukushima, Japan, that is the same area that was devastated by a tsunami three years ago. You see her there. Jennifer Gray, what's going on?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Don, the major concern a tsunami. This area far too familiar with that. The 6.8 earthquake hit about 175 miles northeast of Tokyo a tsunami warning was issued about 15 minutes ago. It looks like no tsunami has been generated. That is very good news. We're not thinking a tsunami will be generated.

We're going to keep a close eye on it. We haven't heard any reports of damage. Of course, aftershocks are a possibility. They're normally less than the initial magnitude of that earthquake. We're going to be looking for that the next couple of minutes and monitoring those tsunami warnings. But as of right now, doesn't look like a tsunami was generated.

LEMON: Jennifer Gray, in CNN's Severe Weather Center in Atlanta, keeping an eye on that. Thank you very much, Jennifer.

This weekend people around the globe will be watching the finals of the World Cup. And this week's CNN hero has made it his mission to focus on philanthropy for poor kids in host countries like Brazil.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The atmosphere at World Cup is like nothing else. It's electric. You get that the rainbow kaleidoscope of all the different nations that come together. Football is the only worldwide sport really. In 2004, I suddenly saw all the fans around me. It was like it was an untapped army. Some of the children that love football the most live in very poor areas.

I started asking myself, what could I do if we could mobilize some of these people to do some good? So we bring people to the world cup. They get to the watch games. We find local charities working with children and ask how can we help you?

There's going to be three classrooms. To come and to do this for us, for the children, this is the World Cup spirit. In Brazil, we've got about 300 volunteers here from about 12 countries. Within a couple of days, part of the team full of fun and working really hard.

When we invest in a place, it's for the long-term. We've got lots of guys coming and getting it in their blood. This is my second go. This time my son has come with me. A bit of bonding and building things together.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're tired out are every morning but look how far we've come in a week. It's fantastic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Football has always had the ability to break down barriers. We're trying to harness it the passion of football fans to make a difference.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Why don't you tell us about someone you think should be a CNN Hero? Go to cnnheroes.com to nominate them. Germany faces off against Argentina in the World Cup final on Sunday. But Catholic fans may have a dilemma, do they will cheer Argentina the homeland of Pope Francis or do they go back to Germany, their native country of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI.

Pope Francis said that this is his Swiss guards jokingly it's going to be war. That's what he said. And finally, it seems sorry is just not going to cut it because the biggest movie star on the planet is rejecting an apology from Britain's most popular newspaper. George Clooney slamming "The Daily Mail" after the paper published claims the actor's future mother-in-law was against her daughter marrying the movie star for religious reasons.

The cool Clooney calling it a completely fabricated story. The "Mail's" web site promptly took the post down, apologizing, but Clooney is not buying it and he is saying they knew ahead of time that they were lying. I thank the mail for its apology, not that I would even accept it but because in doing so, they've exposed themselves as the worst kind of tabloid.

That's it for me. Have a great weekend. Here is Jake Tapper in "THE LEAD" right now.