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Critical U.S. Team Heading to Cairo; U.S. Major General Killed by Afghan Soldier; Kansas Senator Survives Tea Party Challenge; Ukraine Braces for Possible Russian Attack

Aired August 06, 2014 - 09:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks so much. Have a great day. NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

COSTELLO (voice-over): Happening now in the NEWSROOM: peace talks.

MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI, MEMBER, PALESTINIAN PARLIAMENT: We need to give our people in Gaza some hope.

COSTELLO: Israel and the Palestinians coming together.

NACHMAN SHAI, ISRAELI KNESSET MEMBER: Once and for all bring peace to the region.

COSTELLO: Also breaking word of an expanded cease-fire.

LT. COL. JUANITA CHANG, U.S. ARMY: The army as well as Afghanistan and America has lost a true hero.

COSTELLO: Attack on an American general.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The shooter dressed in an Afghanistan military uniform used a Russian-made machine gun.

COSTELLO: Brand new details on just how close the shooter was to Army Major General Harold Greene.

SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R), KANSAS: Help us replace the Obama way with the Kansas way.

COSTELLO: A Senate stunner, enter Pat Roberts.

ROBERTS: Something big is happening in Kansas.

COSTELLO: The Republican establishment scoring another win over the Tea Party.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Making it spread quickly and become very dangerous in a short period of time.

COSTELLO: Health alert for a major summer vacation spot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People can go into shock, and without good medical care, fatality rates can be as much as 50 percent.

COSTELLO: A dangerous bacteria lurking below the surface of the Chesapeake bay.

Let's talk, live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

COSTELLO: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

We start this morning with that breaking news out of the Middle East. CNN had just learned that the U.S. State Department will send a small team to Cairo where Israeli and Palestinian delegations are holding cease-fire talks.

This is a critical development.

CNN's Jake Tapper broke the news just a short time ago. He's in Jerusalem. Also joining us, Reza Sayah from Cairo, Egypt.

But, Jake, I want to start with you and this team. Tell us more.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER": Well, the State Department has sent this small team to the Cairo negotiations. They are led by acting special envoy Frank Lowenstein. He's a longtime aid to Secretary of State John Kerry.

The group, a source tells me, will be there strictly in what's called a supportive advisory and monitoring capacity. They are not there to mediate or get involved directly in the talks.

Lowenstein and his team are scheduled to arrive in Cairo, Egypt this evening, Carol. Of course we already know what some of the sticking points could be in the cease-fire talks. Israel wants the demilitarization of Gaza. The Palestinians want what they call the siege of Gaza lifted. The blockade ended.

And those are just the short-term issues not even touching the things that have made long-term peace here seemingly impossible, such as the settlements, the final status of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees and Israel security needs among others -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And Jake, is it unusual that John Kerry himself is not part of that team?

TAPPER: No, I don't think so because, of course, this group is just serving in advisory and monitoring capacity. They're not leading anything when direct negotiations are involved so that's when you would be more inclined to see somebody who is a secretary of state or an undersecretary of state but for the monitoring, I don't know that that would be the best use of his time, and frankly it might actually make the monitoring and advising more difficult to have somebody of that status, because everybody would want that person playing a role and wielding his influence one way or the other to benefit their side -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Understand.

Jake Tapper, thank you.

Let's head to Cairo, Egypt now and check in with Reza Sayah.

Have the negotiations begun?

REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They have not, Carol. We understand that the two delegations, the two negotiating teams are here, the Israelis and the Palestinians, but the talks have yet to get under way.

We've been speaking to Palestinian delegate who is part of the negotiating team from the Palestinian territories and he tells us they're still waiting in the hotel room, waiting to hear back from Egyptian government officials.

We should point out that in talking to this Palestinian delegate, yet again, you start to hear this mistrust, this lingering mistrust that's fueled this conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. This particular delegate telling that CNN he's not quite convinced that the Israeli delegation in Cairo at this hour is authorized to talk about lasting truce, permanent peace.

We should emphasize that we have yet to verify what this Israeli delegation is authorized to do, if and when these talks happen, they're going to be indirect talks in one location. You're going to have the Israelis talking to the Egyptians in a separate location. You're going to have the Palestinians talking to Egyptian government officials and Egypt is going to be the go-between, the messenger, so some important hours ahead, Carol.

We have until 8:00 a.m. local time Friday for these groups to make something happen. If that doesn't happen, increasingly you're hearing reports about all parties extending this cease-fire -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So will these groups welcome a U.S. presence in Egypt?

SAYAH: I think as a monitoring factor, yes. I mean, Washington has long been a part of this peace process, these negotiations. So there was very little doubt, there's very little surprise that they're going to be part of it as a monitoring and advising element, a much smaller role than what they were supposed to play in the previous cease-fire plan that fell apart on Friday. You'll recall in that U.N.-U.S. in fact plan.

It was to be the deputy secretary of state, William Burns, coming this time. It's a much smaller team, a lower level envoy in Frank Lowenstein, as Jake mentioned, just a monitoring advisory role.

COSTELLO: All right. Thanks, Reza Saya, live from Cairo, Egypt.

Jake Tapper, live from Jerusalem. And of course Jake will have all the latest developments on the Mideast cease-fire and push for peace in Cairo today on "THE LEAD." That's coming your way 4:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

Israel also says this morning a man arrested in connection with the kidnapping and killing of those three Israeli teenagers is a senior member of Hamas.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Benjamin Netanyahu, tells CNN the man was trying to cross the border into Jordan when he was captured. But when pressed for proof of a link to Hamas, Regev said he would have to provide that evidence later. Hamas had previously denied any involvement in those teenagers' deaths.

We now know Major General Harold Greene was standing outside of a building in Kabul, Afghanistan, when a gunman, an Afghan soldier, opened fire from a building about 100 yards away. The general died. He was the first high-ranking U.S. official to die in a combat zone since the Vietnam war.

General Greene was known as an inspiring leader. His friends said he also had a wonderful sense of humility. Flags flew at his home in Falls Church, Virginia. He had just been sent to Afghanistan in January to become deputy commander of training. He leaves behind a wife and children, all of whom serve or who have served in the military.

A family spokesperson talked of how proud they were of General Greene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHANG: He really believed in what he was doing over there and was really proud to serve. And the family has asked that I pass along that they believe that the Army as well as Afghanistan and America has lost a true hero.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Of course the general's death raises concerns about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the continuing insider attacks. Just today officials say an Afghan police officer killed seven of his colleagues.

Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has more for you.

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STARR (voice-over): U.S. Army Major General Harold Greene was killed and several others wounded, some seriously, when the gunman opened fire at Marshal Fahim National Defense University, a training facility in Kabul.

The shooter, dressed in an Afghan military uniform, used a Russian- made machine gun. He was shot and killed by others on site.

DAVE SWANKIN, GENERAL'S NEIGHBOR: It's bad enough to be shot, even in the battlefield, but the way that happened, somebody pulled a gun that was supposed to be on his side. Just terrible. STARR: The general was the highest ranking U.S. officer killed at the

hands of an enemy in a war zone since Vietnam. He was the deputy for all U.S. training programs in Afghanistan.

CHANG: He really believed in what he was doing over there, and was really proud to serve.

STARR: Pentagon officials say they believe the shooter was an Afghan soldier who had been with his unit for some time and had been rigorously reviewed to make sure he was not a Taliban sympathizer. By all accounts, he passed the seven-step review process.

The Pentagon, well aware the so-called insider threat, death at the hands of Afghan troops, is almost impossible to stop.

REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: The insider threat is probably -- it's a pernicious threat and it's difficult to always ascertain, to come to grips with the scope of it, anywhere you are, particularly in a place like Afghanistan.

STARR: After peaking in 2012, coalition deaths from such attacks dipped last year in part due to new security measures and reviews, but the risks remains.

(On camera): The attack unfolded when General Greene and several others were standing outside. The shooter was firing from inside a nearby building.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: All right. We want to take you to Kabul, Afghanistan now.

Pam Constable reports for "The Washington Post," she's in Kabul this morning.

Thanks so much for joining us, Pamela.

PAMELA CONSTABLE, WASHINGTON POST: You're very welcome.

COSTELLO: What are Afghans saying about this incident?

CONSTABLE: They're saying a mixture of things. I talked with several analysts today, both military and civilians, and they -- they all agree that symbolically it's terribly embarrassing for the Afghan military. The timing is terrible. The location at the heart of the training, et cetera, the fact that you have such senior American and European VIPs visiting. Apparently the army was caught off guard by this.

All indications are it was a lone soldier, not a plot. He just happened to be there, and had his rifle with him, and apparently was near a complex of bathrooms in the compound, and gotten near to this group that was coming in. Of course, he was killed, so we will never really know, but as you said earlier, you know, he was a soldier. He had received several years of training and obviously screening. There were apparently no indications of him being disgruntled in any way.

What they are saying is that, you know, soldiers, like all Afghans, are exposed to all sorts of international news, about what's happening in other Islamic countries, what's happening in Gaza and Israel, and they tend to get very emotional about international issues relating to their religion as well as to other issues relating to their own defense.

So, you know, this young man could have had a variety of motivations, could have been -- could have had some personal grudge, could have just seen some foreign western military officials and suddenly decided to somehow take revenge on western military policy. So the Taliban, as you know, have said they had nothing to do with it, although they did praise the shooter, and there is no indication that this is any sort of a broader conspiracy, but nevertheless, deeply concerning, of course, that the army that's been trained with enormous international effort, money, expense, personal training for many years, it's still unable to weed out or predict or prevent when some of these young men get ideas in their head about, you know, who is the enemy.

COSTELLO: That is sadly true.

Pamela Constable from "The Washington Post," thanks so much for joining us from Kabul, Afghanistan this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the Tea Party comes up short in the Kansas Senate primary as incumbent Senator Pat Roberts scores another victory for the establishment.

Dana Bash is covering that story for us.

Hi, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Carol. And the victory that he scored was over the second cousin of President Obama, who is so conservative that he says he wanted to be the next Ted Cruz. How he was stopped from doing that, coming up after the break.

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COSTELLO: Checking some top stories for you at 16 minutes past the hour.

One of the drivers of the two tour busses that collided in New York's Times Square has been arrested. Police have charged him with driving while impaired by drugs. Police are not saying what drug or drugs the driver had taken. At least 13 people were injured, one seriously in yesterday afternoon's accident.

Plus --

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COSTELLO: OK, that would be scary. Landslide hit a north Salt Lake City, Utah, neighborhood, destroying one home and prompting the evacuation of two dozen families. Most of those residents have now been allowed to return, but they may have to leave again at a moment's notice. The mayor has declared a state of emergency but there is no plan to shore up the slope over this neighborhood.

Watch the man in the circle as he tries to get on a commuter train in Perth, Australia. He slips into the gap between the platform and the train and he gets stuck. The train's driver was told to stop. Passengers and crew members got off and actually rocked the train away from the platform. Look at him.

Those are several hundred Good Samaritans, right? They were successful. The man escaped, he was not seriously injured.

In money news this morning, Rupert Murdoch has withdrawn his offer to acquire Time Warner, CNN's parent company.

The reason? Time Warner had rejected the deal and 21st Century Fox shares had dropped on reports of the bid. Time Warner today reportedly quarterly earnings that topped Wall Street expectations.

To politics now, where the Republican establishment has scored another win over the Tea Party in what's been a tough and at times downright nasty primary season. Incumbent Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas surviving a challenge from Milton Wolf, and urging state Republicans to come together to defeat their Democratic rivals.

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SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R), KANSAS: Join with me, stay with me, come with Sam and with all the other Republican nominees across our state tonight as we prepare to take another hill in our fight, our fight to stop the liberal agenda, and misguided path set in Washington.

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COSTELLO: Chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash joins me now.

So, Dana, can Republicans come together in Kansas?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Probably.

Look, this was such an interesting Republican versus Republican fight, because many of them that you see, the incumbent really does tend to be more moderate than the conservative challenger. In this case, there was very little daylight between the two of them on policy issues. This was much more about the challenge coming against somebody who conservatives said has just been there too long, been there for more than four decades and Pat Roberts got himself in a lot of trouble having residency issues, not really living in Kansas, secretly living primarily in Virginia and suburban Washington, D.C.

So it was much more about incumbency, careerism establishment than the actual issues of whether or not he was conservative enough. I mean, make no mistake about it: Pat Roberts, I've been covering him for a long time, is a very, very conservative senator. And what is also interesting is the way that he won, because they were a little worried in the so-called establishment for a while because he had some unforced errors. They sent a lot of staff, a lot of money and really worked hard as one source said to me, to drag him over the finish line.

COSTELLO: What does this mean for the Tea Party?

BASH: You know, ever since the Tea Party really became a strong force back in 2010, each election cycle we have seen incumbent Republican senators be toppled, be defeated, people who have been there for a long time from Senator Robert Bennett in Utah, to Richard Lugar in Indiana last cycle, toppled by challenges from the right.

If in tomorrow's last primary of this kind, Lamar Alexander in Tennessee, if he wins as is expected, with he never know these days but as expected, this means that all of the conservative challengers to all of the incumbent Republicans this election year have lost, that no incumbent republican has won.

So, you know, it might raise a question about whether or not this conservative movement to challenge the incumbents is dying down. I will tell you that they argue that just the threat of a challenge from the right always pulls the senators to the right, and makes them more conservative while in office, and they have a point there.

COSTELLO: They do. Dana Bash reporting live for us this morning, thank you.

As Hillary Clinton continues to promote her memoir "Hard Choices", Stephen Colbert is taking aim at the book, saying it consists of nothing more than Clinton bragging about her famous friends. His comments led to a face-off of sorts between the comedian and the former diplomat. Watch.

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STEPHEN COLBERT, COMEDIAN: This book is 656 pages of shameless name dropping.

Jim?

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Tanzanian Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda and I do some planting at a women's cooperative in Mlandizi.

The first time I met the Burmese Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi in December 2011, we were both wearing white.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has a great sense of humor.

COLBERT: I just don't buy any of this. There's no way on earth one woman can be in so many places at once.

(CHEERS)

COLBERT: Hillary Clinton!

CLINTON: Now who's a name dropper, Stephen?

COLBERT: Oh, really? Name dropper? That's not what my good friend Tom Hanks calls me. When we're hanging out at George Clooney's place.

CLINTON: Oh, I love George. I wish he could have joined us when I had lunch with Meryl Streep and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa.

COLBERT: Rafi, he is such a cut-off, especially when we go camping with Oprah.

CLINTON: O?

COLBERT: Oh, did that surprise you?

CLINTON: No, O is just what all her real friends call Oprah.

COLBERT: I once did an entire show with President Bill Clinton.

CLINTON: Oh! I hate to break this to you, Stephen, but I've met him, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK, come on, that was funny. But I think I would have rather had lunch with George Clooney.

Coming up in THE NEWSROOM, Russian troops are massed along Ukraine's eastern border and an attack could come at any moment. But inside Ukraine, fighting between the rebels and military is intensifying. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is there.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, I'm in Donetsk, where we've heard jets over the skies and distant rumble of artillery as the Ukrainian army moves in.

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COSTELLO: Twenty thousand Russian troops are at Ukraine's doorstep, poised for a cross border attack that some fear could come at any time. World powers closely watching for Vladimir Putin's next move. Ukrainian forces bracing for the worst, while battling pro-Russian militants just miles from Flight 17's still smoldering crash site.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh found himself dangerously close to the fight.

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WALSH: But intermittently we've heard heavy gunfire now in what looks like the very center of Donetsk. It seems like an exchange of fire, RPGs being used, too.

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COSTELLO: Nick Paton Walsh joins us now from Donetsk.

How long did that close range fighting continue around you? WALSH: Not too long, about 10 minutes, Carol.

It's quiet this morning. We went out from where we're standing to see the source of the explosion and gunfire we heard last night actually were, saw some massive craters caused by what probably was either very heavy artillery or air strikes that we heard explosions late last night. That will shatter the hopes of some that air power wouldn't be used in the fight for this city.

The gunfire we heard, that seems to be emanating from a fight for a building not far from where I'm standing, bullet holes in its door and walls and looks like a grenade hole in the bottom. Clearly, somebody fighting for control of that, a financial building for the local government.

But tensions still high here in Donetsk. We've heard a jet in the skies over the last hour or so. The key separatist leader gave a press conference just here in the center of town. Concerns that the temperature is beyond rising here. We know the Ukrainian military is moving closer and closer. We've heard explosions far away from where we're standing, and the key concern is does Russia react.

Twenty thousand troops crossed the border, double than a week ago and the fear amongst NATO officials they could, quote, "seriously" intervene, perhaps under the pretense of some sort of humanitarian assistance here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Is there any indication of who has the upper hand?

WALSH: At this stage, it's the Ukrainian military, it's fair to say. They are moving fast towards the city center here. But the hidden hand, the one we don't know belongs to Vladimir Putin. Is he so worried about sanctions from the West that he won't intervene here or is he biding his time and perhaps going to plan something slightly stealthier and more limited incursion as some are concerned about -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Nick Paton Walsh, reporting live for us from Ukraine.

Still to come in THE NEWSROOM, Hamas rockets fired from outside of a hotel. Take a look at these images. These were captured by an international news crew and they seemed to prove that Hamas does indeed fire rockets from the middle of neighborhoods. We'll talk about those tactics, next.

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