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Israeli Government: "We Don't Target Children"; American Teen Beaten By Israeli Police Returns Home After Arrest; GM CEO, Top Lawyer Testify Before Congress; NASA's Next Giant Leap: Send Humans To Mars

Aired July 17, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Israel and Hamas appear on the brink of war this morning, as another attempted a ceasefire lasts only two hours. During the latest ceasefire the Israeli military says three mortars and a rocket were fired from Gaza. No one was hurt.

It was a different story before that temporary truce. Agony in Gaza City over the deaths of four children, none of them older than 11. They were killed by an Israeli gunship while playing on a beach Wednesday. Hamas is calling this a war crime.

Last hour I spoke with a spokesman for the Israeli government about the investigation now under way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK REGEV, ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN: The preliminary results are as such, that there was a tragic misidentification of the target. We didn't want to kill those four boys. That was not our intention. Not even -- say the opposite is true. Had we known the missile was aimed at four young men like that we would have not sent the missile. We don't target civilians. We do not target children. That's our policy. We don't do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Joining me now is Yousef Munayyer, the executive director of the Palestine Center. Good morning, sir.

YOUSEF MUNAYYER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE PALESTINE CENTER: Good to be with you.

COSTELLO: Yousef, you heard what the Israeli spokesman said, this was a tragic accident. From your perspective, what was it?

MUNAYYER: Well, I think it's very clear to anyone who saw the pictures and the videos of those four children who were struck by an Israeli air strike on the beach, that this can only be described as a war crime. I understand that the Israeli spokespeople are saying it was not their intention. But at the end of the day, what their intentions are, are really irrelevant when you see time and time again, a reality on the ground where there are large numbers of civilian casualties. So this talk about intention or not intention, is really irrelevant in the face of these continued acts of aggression against the civilian population.

COSTELLO: Well, it is true, though, that Hamas uses civilians as human shields. How does Israel avoid hurting or killing civilians?

MUNAYYER: What we've seen in the past several episodes of what we are seeing today, both in the Israeli operation in 2008/2009 and, of course, the most recent version of this in 2012, is that the Israeli decision to bombard the Gaza strip or go in on the ground, has only led to really these large civilian casualty counts without changing the military dynamic and without really achieving the stated military objective of the operation.

So because one side here, the Israelis, continues to retain almost a complete monopoly over the ability to inflict civilian casualties in large numbers, one really has to question the decision making of a campaign, which is only going to create inevitable civilian casualties without achieving military objectives. So what is the reasoning behind all this?

COSTELLO: A ceasefire in place, it seems like Hamas violates it?

MUNAYYER: Unfortunately, that's just empirically untrue. If you look at the previous --

COSTELLO: It's not untrue.

MUNAYYER: Look, I'm happy to point you to, in fact, your own reporting on CNN when in 2008, the ceasefire that was established by --

COSTELLO: I'm talking about now, this latest ceasefire, was supposed to be in place for five hours and there were rockets fired into Israel?

MUNAYYER: I know we had a statement earlier from leadership in the United Nations that said that truce was more or less abided by, by both sides and there is an ongoing situation on the ground that's not really easy to control. Most ceasefires that are initiated on a short notice and last for a short period of time are not going to be perfect in terms of a complete absence of fire.

But it's just simply untrue that cease-fires are broken by the Palestinian side. It's actually the opposite that's true. Both in 2008 and 2012, we saw ceasefire agreements that were shattered by Israeli strikes. And so I think it's important to place this in the proper context and realize there simply is no military solution to this.

The only solution to this, as has been proven time and again, is to address the legitimate grievances of the civilian population in the Gaza strip. When the rockets stop, the siege does not stop. The occupation does not stop. And the use of violence against the Palestinian civilian population to perpetuate those projects does not stop either. So if we're talking about a ceasefire, violence really has to stop on both sides, not only one.

COSTELLO: All right, Yousef Munayyer, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate it.

MUNAYYER: Thanks for having me.

COSTELLO: A Palestinian-American teenager beaten by Israeli police is back home. Crowds of supporters cheered Tariq Abu Khdeir who had been in Jerusalem visiting relatives following the death of his cousin. He was at a protest when he was attacked by Israeli police. It was all captured on cell phone video further escalating tensions in the region. Khdeir returned to America after completing his house arrest for participating in a protest against Israeli authorities. Alina Machado is in Miami covering this for us. Good morning.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Those who know Tariq Abu Khdeir are relieved now that as you mentioned he is back in the U.S. where he will be able to continue to heal. His flight arrived late last night and as you just saw, there were dozens of people at the airport to welcome him back home. Israeli police brutally beat the 15-year-old earlier this month.

That video sparked outrage throughout the world. Last week we learned that Israeli authorities suspended a police officer accused of beating the American teen. Take a listen to what Tariq had to say about what he's gone through.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TARIQ KHDER, AMERICAN TEEN BEATEN BY ISRAELI POLICE: You only know my story because I am an American. But I hope you will also remember my cousin, a 16-year-old Palestinian, named Mohammed Abukhdeir. He was just a kid like me and this whole thing started because he was killed. I know he must have been terrified like I was.

I was in a new place and suddenly attacked by mass police. It was by far the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. No child, whether they are Palestinian or Israeli, deserves to die that way. I am so glad to be back home again. Thank you. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACHADO: Now Khdeir as you just heard made reference to his 16-year- old cousin Mohammed who was kidnapped and killed a day before his beating. That incident, as you know, Carol, fuelled tensions between Palestinians and Israelis.

COSTELLO: All right, Alina Machado, reporting live from Miami this morning.

Checking other top stories for you at 7 minutes past the hour. Microsoft says it will cut up to 18,000 jobs over the next year in its largest round of layoffs ever. This after reporting a $7 billion first-quarter profit. More than 12,000 of the cuts are from recently acquired Nokia. Microsoft's president says it's part of a new strategy of focusing on mobile and Cloud productivity software. Russia's government is reacting to sweeping new sanctions from the United States. They predict the sanctions will complicate U.S./Russia relations and promises a strong response. The tougher sanctions target banks, energy companies and the defense industry. Earlier sanctions targeted individuals and had only a moderate impact.

Stunning details this morning in a tragic end to a bank robbery complete with the robbers armed with AK-47s and hostages. Those bank robbers took off after robbing the bank, hostages inside their car and they went on a high-speed chase through Stockton. Listen to the gunfire. When it was over, one of the hostages was dead, so were two of the robbers. It's not clear if one of the hostages was killed by the robbers or the fire fight with police.

General Motors CEO Mary Barra is making her fourth appearance on Capitol Hill answering questions about GM's long delayed recall of cars with deadly ignition defects. Barra is testifying alongside the automakers top lawyer and the CEO of the company that made the faulty ignition switches.

We're joined by Poppy Harlow on Capitol Hill and Alison Kosick in New York. Good morning to both of you.

Poppy, has the hearing gotten under way?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We can make have live pictures for you. Ken Feinberg is testifying first, he will be testifying, the man that decides on compensation for all of the victims and their families. I want to give you a little what we've heard so far from Senator Claire McCaskill talking about where the really tough questions are going to come. It's going to be GM's top lawyer, the first time that Michael -- that he is Michael Millikin is speaking.

He's been at the company for years and years through all of this. She said how in the world in the aftermath of this report did Michael Millikin keep his job? Talking about that internal investigation that turned up years of incompetence and neglect at General Motors. She says the questions will be including what did he know and why didn't he know it?

Why did he not know that this ignition switch detect was leading to death after death after death. So that is what I would really hone in on today, Carol, is, of course, what the CEO says, but also what did the top lawyer at General Motors know and what did the top lawyer at General Motors know.

And what did the top of Delphi the company that manufactured this switch that was designed by GM, but what did Delphi know as they were making this switch? Did they know that it wasn't up to standards?

COSTELLO: After each of these hearings, damaging testimony comes out of these hearings. I want to ask Alison about this. But GM continues to do pretty well, stock price is up?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right. I know. I know, Carol. It does sound crazy, it is crazy. Strangely enough these recalls can actually wind up helping sales because you have going on here are more people shuffling through the showroom. There is more traffic in there, as they bring their cars in for repairs, browsing at other cars. This is part of the reason you saw sales rise 1 percent last month.

In fact, GM had its best June in seven years. As far as Wall Street sees it, you're right, shares are up 7 percent since the recall was announced in February because what investors are doing is betting the worst is over for the company. Look at GM, it's already said it's taking a $1.2 billion charge for the recalls in the second quarter.

That's on top of a $1.3 billion charge it took in the first quarter, so there's a certain end to this, at least as shareholders see this. Also, you've got a third part of this. You've got GM out there trying to reassure the public. GM is insisting that the cars that had been recalled are still safe to drive.

In fact, GM is putting out these full-page ads in "The New York Times" and "Chicago Tribune" with the one key saying the key to safety. It's working hard to repair the cars that have the ignition switch defect. Urging people who haven't had their cars fixed yet to only use a single key, nothing else on the key ring.

You're seeing them get out there schooling people on how to operate the cars. In the meantime to hopefully -- hopefully you know we don't see any accidents related to the ignition switch defect happen any time soon again.

COSTELLO: We hope not. Poppy Harlow, Alison Kosik, thanks to both of you.

Let's talk a little history, shall we? I can remember that day clear as day. Watching television with my dad and he was recording this awesome event off the television screen which served as a camcorder in those days, one of the big film cameras. I had to do it because it was history.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It was the rivalry back in the '60s and this Sunday marks the 45th anniversary of Neil Armstrong becoming the first man to walk on the moon. The question today, though, where is NASA now? Where is its next giant leap? Could it be to send humans to Mars? But that won't happen for quite some time. Maybe not for 20 years.

Let's talk about that with Astronaut Chris Hadfield, former commander of the International Space Station, he's also the author of "The New York Times" best seller "An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth" and "If You Are Here" and that book is coming out in October. Welcome, Chris.

CHRIS HADFIELD, ASTRONAUT: Hi. Nice to be talking with you, Carol, and the anniversary is exciting.

COSTELLO: It is. What do you remember about that day?

HADFIELD: In fact, I'm sitting here at the same island where I watched that as a 9-year-old boy, all of us jammed into a living room. We weren't filming it with a camera like your dad was, but as a 9- year-old kid, to see the human species do something that had been impossible until that morning, they didn't do it because they had to. We did it because we just barely could. It was immensely inspirational and enabling and it helped me make the choices that eventually allowed me to fly in space three times and command the International Space Station.

COSTELLO: Wow. When I was looking at it, I remember as a child, it didn't seem real to me.

HADFIELD: You know what made it real for me, it was late night, of course, on the east coast, was to walk outside afterwards and look up at the moon. That's what somehow really smacked it home for me, is that little grainy image on the black and white TV, there were two people walking on the moon. Getting ready to go to sleep on the moon and it inspired the entire world. It led to the six people living on the space station today and so many other things that are happening across the solar system.

COSTELLO: I'm just curious, why haven't we been back to the moon lately?

HADFIELD: Part of it is just phrasing it that way, back to the moon. It's, you know, we send out probes everywhere. That's how we've always explored everywhere through all over the surface of the world, you send out probes, you find out what's going on and then eventually you start moving there. That's how we've spread over the entire planet, including Antarctica and we were in the probe phase over the last 50 years in space, about a dozen or 13 years ago we started permanently living on the space station.

So we've sort of moved into the settlement phase and eventually it will go from the space station to the moon and to Mars. But, you know, it's just a natural explorative process and the six people up on the station right now, they're celebrating the anniversary but they're also testing the equipment that will let us go further. They're pretty proud people from all around the earth.

COSTELLO: We forget they're doing work up there. It seems these days, there's really nothing to inspire kids to join the space program. You know, most of the space program has been turned over to private industry, for example, so we don't really see it anymore.

HADFIELD: Well, you know, there's a launch all the time. The commander of the space station, Steve Swanson, he reached out and use the huge station arm to grab an unmanned cargo rocket that was launched from Virginia. A launch is exciting, but the actual exploration of the universe is incremental and slow. It's -- you can't have a first landing on the moon every week. It's just a natural process. But I'm lucky enough as an astronaut to have spoken in schools for the last couple decades and that same interest that you had when you were with your dad watching the moon landing, the same one I had, it burns brightly.

You just sort of forget as you turn into an adult, but for 20 years I've been speaking in schools and the interest from the kids, the question they ask and inspiration they get from it is palpable and real. So I wouldn't lose heart. It's an amazing part of everything that we're doing. And I was really delighted to have had a chance to be part of it for so many years also.

COSTELLO: Chris Hadfield, thanks for sharing your insight. I appreciate it.

HADFIELD: Thanks, Carol. Nice to talk with you.

COSTELLO: Nice talking with you. The space race the focus of tonight's CNN series "The Sixties," be sure to tune in at 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, it is a long and dangerous journey from Central America to the United States.

Music on top of a train known as the beast. It's certainly not a song of celebration. Jason Carroll is here this morning. Good morning.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol. The U.S. government is experimenting with a way to stop illegal immigration and they're doing it through music. I will have that story coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The Beast, that's what they call the train used by migrants trying to get into the United States. Now the name for this train is well deserved. Customs and border patrol are taking special actions to keep would-be migrants from getting on board. Jason Carroll is here to tell us more. Good morning, Jason.

CARROLL: Good morning to you, Carol. Customs and Border Protection says this is part of a broader campaign and what they're trying to do is send a humanitarian message through music. Their main goal, they say, is to save lives but critics say they should call it what it really is, propaganda.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (voice-over): The roar of a train -- mixed with the melody of the marimba, a musical combination creating translation, "The Beast." Also called the train of death, which immigrants take from Central America risking robbery or murder to get to the United States border. La Beastia is in on radio station rotation in countries such as Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Eddie Genz did the vocals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I appreciate the song.

CARROLL: Carlo Nicolau composed the music. CAROL NICOLAU, COMPOSER: This is a very important message. It is very dangerous to cross the border.

CARROLL: Neither the composer nor singer created the message. U.S. Customs and Border Protection did. Though La Bestia has no disclaimer behind it they said they wanted it unbranded. Part of a U.S. government campaign to deter dangerous border crossings.

EDDI GANZ, SINGER: Just called me and said Eddi big propaganda. I said, yes, but there's a great message behind it.

JAIME RUIZ, U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION SPOKESMAN: I don't think it's propaganda. What we're doing here, sending out a humanitarian message.

CARROLL: Border Protection worked with an advertising agency to create the lyrics. It's not the first time. Back in 2004 they launched a campaign in Mexico, "no more crossings or crosses." Several songs released with the same theme as La Bestia. Border Protection credits the songs with helping to reduce crossing deaths from 492 in 2005, to 390 in 2008.

GANZ: They think it's a pop song and they're getting into the lyrics of it and it's sinking in. Wheat wrong with that?

CARROLL (on camera): What's wrong? Some immigration groups say with so many trying to escape violence in their home countries what's not needed is propaganda disguised as pop music. What is need is more transparency and a better immigration policy.

ANGELA FERNANDEZ, NORTHERN MANHATTAN COALITION FOR IMMIGRANT FLIGHTS: I think it's absolutely misleading when a song that has been produced by the U.S. government. They don't actually spell out they are the ones responsible for it.

RUIZ: We know there are some risks involved, but at the same time, we wanted the message to be heard. We want the message to be effective.

CARROLL (voice-over): It's music with a message, one still not powerful enough to stop many from coming.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: And ultimately that spokesman from Border Protection says he knows if the song was branded, created by the U.S. government, for example, it probably would not have been as effective but again, critics say government, even though with well intentions, they say putting messages into songs without disclaimers is just a slippery slope.

COSTELLO: Jason Carroll, reporting live this morning, thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a former Yahoo! employee accusing her female boss of sexual harassment. She's speaking out sitting down with our own Laurie Segall with an exclusive interview. LAURIE SEGALL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. It's a she said/she said and some serious allegations at play. I have the exclusive details coming up after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you for joining me. I don't feel safe, that's what a former Yahoo! employee told the Human Resources Department when she reported her female boss was sexually harassing her. The accuser, a woman named Nan, is speaking out, sitting down with CNN Money tech correspondent, Laurie Segall for an exclusive interview.

NAN SHI, FORMER YAHOO EMPLOYEE: Look, we are friends and you are my manager. We shouldn't be doing this.

SEGALL (voice-over): That's what a former Yahoo engineer says she told her boss, Maria Zhang, when she allegedly came on to her.

SHI: Then she hug me all over and she took my hands, you know, and put it under her. I just felt like, you know, I was being forced.

SEGALL: Nan Shi, a former Microsoft engineer left to work with Zahn's start-up acquired by Yahoo! The company transferred the women to Yahoo!'s Headquarters, where according to Shi, Zhang requested to stay in her apartment. Shi is suing Yahoo! and Zhang for wrongful termination and sexual harassment. Yahoo! has defended Zhang saying that they will fight to clear her name and now Zhang is fighting back too filing a defamation suit against her accuser.

(on camera): Did you tell her it made you uncomfortable?

SHI: No. I just told her that I didn't want to do it.

SEGALL (voice-over): According to Nan Shi, Zhang joked her future hung in the balance.

SHI: She said, well, if we don't have this, then, you know, you may not get your stocks and, you know, you may not even stay at a Yahoo!

SEGALL: In the suit, just filed against Nan Shi, Zhang adamantly denies ever having a sexual relationship with her, claiming the engineer is looking for financial gain and that she simply wasn't making the grade. Nan Shi tells us another story claiming after she cut off the sexual advances her work was affected. Nan says she was removed from projects and separated from her teammates.