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Kerry Lays Out Demands for Russia; Jordan Launches Airstrikes; Brian Williams Issues Apology on Mistaken Reporting

Aired February 05, 2015 - 09:30   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: To those of us just -- to those of you just joining me, good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Strong words from Secretary of State John Kerry as he calls out Russia amid the escalating violence in Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: We don't view this as a zero sum game. We have never viewed it that way. This is not meant to be nor should it be a divide between east and west. This is about rule of law. It's about the norms by which nation states behave.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: At the top of the hour, John Kerry will hold a press conference with the Ukrainian prime minister. When that happens, we'll bring it to you live.

But Mr. Kerry has already laid out three demands for Russia, pull back heavy weapons that can reach big cities and towns, remove foreign troops and equipment, and close the border between Ukraine and Russia. So, what is Russia's reaction this morning? Let's head to Moscow and check in with Matthew Chance.

Russia has its own peace plan. Is anyone taking that seriously?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a bit unclear what's meant by that. I mean a couple of weeks ago Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, sent a letter to his Ukrainian counterpart suggesting ways to de-escalate the situation. That's something the two leaders have been discussing. But it's something that, you know, is being seen by western diplomats as nothing new.

But I think it's important, Carol, to remember, there is already a truce that's been agreed and that is on the table and that has essentially has been signed by all the parties in this conflict, including the Russians, the Ukrainians, and the pro-Russian rebels. It was agreed in Bella, Russia, in Minsk, on September the 5th 2014. I've got the date written down in front of me. And it's still the peace plan which all sides are supposedly signed up to. But the political will just hasn't been there. The fighting has continued and that's why John Kerry was there today reiterating just some of the points from that Minsk protocol, as it's called, getting Russia to withdraw its armor, withdraw foreign fighters and seal the borders between Ukraine and Russia. So, really, it's nothing new, it's just a restatement of what has already been agreed to but hasn't been implemented by any of the sides.

COSTELLO: Well, Secretary Kerry and the Ukrainian president, Poroshenko, pulled no punches. They went right ahead and they called Russia out. They've ratcheted up the language, in other words. How might President Putin react to that?

CHANCE: Yes, he's not going to act well to that. I mean let me read to you what John Kerry said. "We cannot close our eyes to tanks crossing the border from Russia into Ukraine. Russian soldiers crossing the border and leading so-called separatists." Again, alleging that it's Russian troops, Russian equipment that is prosecuting that battle and winning in many cases against the Ukrainian government forces.

That's something the Kremlin categorically denies. It's something -- they haven't reacted to it this time, but if they -- when they do, I can almost guarantee they're going to deny it again. They say they don't have any regular soldiers there. They only provide political and diplomatic support to the rebels in eastern Ukraine, although they admit there are some volunteers, as they call them, from Russia fighting in that country.

So, again, these allegations from John Kerry, something that Russia categorically denies. And so that's not a sort of good basis on which to proceed towards a peace deal.

COSTELLO: All right, Matthew Chance reporting live from Moscow. Many thanks.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Following ISIS' horrific murder of a Jordanian pilot, the nation has vowed what a government spokesperson calls, quote, "earthshaking retaliation." Some of that playing out earlier today. Jordan confirming to us it has launched a round of airstrikes in Syria as U.S. war planes flew along in support.

So let's talk about that. Lieutenant General Mark Hertling is a CNN military analyst and a former commanding general for the U.S. Army, Europe and Seventh Army.

Good morning, sir.

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning, Carol. How are you?

COSTELLO: I'm good. Thanks for being here.

Experts have said to win against ISIS, this has to be an Arab-led war. Are we finally there? HERTLING: Well, I think the attack earlier this week against

Lieutenant Muath al-Kasaesbeh certainly galvanized much in the Middle East. We're seeing reports across the Arab countries today that there was such revulsion at that execution that there are many more people willing to not only take up arms against ISIS but also speak against them. We've seen many radical -- Islamic clerics talking about what a horrible thing this was and what a bein (ph) on Islam this particular burning of this pilot was.

COSTELLO: I know Jordan has a strong military, but is it equipped to fight ISIS?

HERTLING: Certainly. First of all, their air force is extremely capable, Carol. They train alongside our U.S. Air Force. We do several exercises with them during peace time. A lot of training. Some of their pilots train in the United States. But beyond that, they also have an extremely good special operations force. They have been training with many folks, not only U.S., but other special operations forces. And their intelligence capabilities are first rate. They have provided intelligence to the United States and the coalition in both Iraq and other places over the last several years, and I think what you're going see, after King Abdullah suffered this attack against his own country, is, again, the galvanizing of his population in support of what he wants to do along with the political institutions, the tribes, and the religious figures in Jordan.

COSTELLO: OK. So supposedly Jordan is targeting ISIS in Syria, right? They're lobbing bombs within Syria's borders. What -- how will Bashar al Assad react, do you think?

HERTLING: Well, I don't think he has much of a choice. What's interesting is even Mr. Assad has condemned the ISIS video, which I think is fascinating, but it also shows that when you have these kinds of dysfunctional governments all around the Middle East and in other places like we've seen in Africa, you're going to see this kind of terrorism. If you don't have a functioning government, these things are going prosper.

And what's interesting about what we've seen over the last couple of months is, there's a lot of focus on the military actions against ISIS. But, truthfully, they're what we in the military call seven lines of operations against ISIS. Only two of those are kinetic lines. The rest are things like better governance, reduction of terrorist ideology, countering their information operations. So there's a lot of things going on against ISIS, and I think the burning of the pilot is just an indicator that ISIS is struggling right now to maintain their power base.

COSTELLO: All right. Lieutenant general Mark Hertling, I have to leave it there, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

HERTLING: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, NBC News Brian Williams forced to apologize for not telling the entire -- actually, he didn't tell the truth, as we came to find out. We'll talk about why, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams is issuing an apology over his own reporting. For several years, he's told this story about a 2003 trip to Iraq where the helicopter was on was forced to land because of enemy-rocketing gunfire. Well today, he admits that story, which he has told many times before, is not true. Here's what he said on NBC News last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN WILLIAMS, "NBC NIGHTLY NEWS" ANCHOR: On this broadcast last week in an effort to honor and thank a veteran who protected me and so many others after a ground fire incident in the desert during the Iraq War invasion, I made a mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago. It did not take long to hear from some brave men and women and the air crews who were also in that desert. I want to apologize. I said I was traveling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire, I was instead in a following aircraft.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That must have been so incredibly painful. Senior media correspondent Brian Stelter joins me now. Good morning. You know, this initial story, I watched it, it aired 12 years ago and it was fine. He didn't say his helicopter was shot down in Iraq. But as the years went on, it's just like the proverbial fish tale. The fish just kept getting bigger.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Right. The story took on more substance and more drama, and you might even say more heroics, as the years went on. I actually just got off the phone with the pilot of the helicopter that Brian Williams was traveling in. He tells quite a story. I'll work on this and get it online in a little bit. He essentially says we were flying. We did not take on an RPG. It was a dangerous situation, but there was definitely no RPG attack in the helicopter that Brian Williams was on.

COSTELLO: It was the helicopter in front of him, right?

STELTER: It was the helicopter in front of him. That's right. The pilot doesn't think that Williams was able to see it, either. So it wasn't as if it was personally witnessed, but it did happen nearby. Then there were a couple of days in the desert that were rather harrowing, according to the accounts. I don't want to take away from the fact that Brian Williams was doing important work in the middle of a war zone while all this was going on. But the pilot said to me, you know, he messed up, he said some things he shouldn't have. I started hearing it, he says, a few years ago. This is not something that just happened last week on NBC. I think that might be the most important point. Let's play, if we can, a little bit of examples of pastimes when this came up on air.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: Two of our four helicopters were hit by ground fire, including the one I was in.

DAVID LETTERMAN, LATE NIGHT TALK SHOW HOST: No kidding?

WILLIAMS: RPG and AK-47.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: The story actually started with a terrible moment a dozen years back during the invasion of Iraq when the helicopter we were traveling in was forced down after being hit by an RPG. Our traveling NBC News team was rescued, surrounded, and kept alive by an armored mechanized platoon for the U.S. Army third infantry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STELTER: So you can hear there, Carol, some of the shifting stories over the years. This is troubling for Brian Williams. There was that apology last night. I don't think anyone that I've talked to at NBC was satisfied with it. They don't feel it went far enough. People at the network are openly wondering whether there's going to be some sort of disciplinary action taken against him. It's a little bit hard for me to imagine that and I've been told there are no plans for that at the moment. But this is a story that's growing as we go along, and right now Brian Williams' name is trending on Twitter for the worst possible reasons.

COSTELLO: Oh, yeah. There are some terrible hashtags out there. Really embarrassing. I will say -

STELTER: You know, it goes to the heart of credibly. That's why this is -

COSTELLO: If NBC's ratings continue to dip, there will probably be some sort of action taken against Brian Williams. If there's no change --

STELTER: Right. What you're saying is if viewers still trust him -- If viewers still trust him and don't believe that he was maliciously trying to mislead people about his time in Iraq, rather if they believe he made an innocent series of mistakes, then people will continue to come in and watch him and love his program every night. By the way, he's the most watched nightly news anchor in the United States. 10 million people were watching last week. So he has a fan base out there.

COSTELLO: Yeah, but he dissed one of the most admired group of people in the United States and that would be the U.S. Military. And you just don't do that.

STELTER: All of this started on Facebook from soldiers who spoke up and said, we've been hearing Brian Williams tell these stories for years and we know they're not true. That is a very tough place for him to be in.

COSTELLO: All right. Brian Stelter, I will let you get back to it. I know you've got work to do.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, hackers hit one of the biggest health insurers in the entire country. Oh, Christine Romans, it's happened again.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It has, Carol. A database with 80 million people's information and your information could be among them. Hacked in a sophisticated external assault. We'll tell you exactly what you need to know right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: You might want to make sure your Social Security, employment info, and other confidential records are safe this morning. Hackers have hit the second largest health insurance company in the country, that's Anthem. More than 80 million people could be affected. Anthem's CEO apologizing now, the FBI is investigating. We've been down this road before, Christine Romans.

ROMANS: We've been down this road too many times. The company pointing out this was a sophisticated external attack leading many cyber experts to say, why didn't you have sophisticated systems in place to prevent this? But they're not alone. This has happened to Anthem, this has happened to a lot of different companies. Here is what was compromised: a database with 80 million records, names, birthdays, medical IDs, Social Security numbers, addresses, email addresses, employment information, including your pay information. Now, it doesn't look like credit card data and medical information were hacked yet, but watch this space, the medical information, that still could leak. Here is what Anthem is doing about it, Carol: They're going to notify you if you are a current or former client, they'll notify you, they're going to do free credit monitoring services, use it free, ID protection services, use it. You can go to that website, anthemfacts.com. you can call that tool-free number. Now the CEO, Carol, said even his information -- he knows how you feel, even his information was hacked. It doesn't make anybody feel better. But this was a widespread, broad-based --

COSTELLO: They got people's Social Security numbers.

ROMANS: And this is the long con, right? It looks as though, they're not seeing this yet, in the dark web for sale in these marketplaces where your good valuable name is for sale for 20 bucks or something. It's not out there yet, but the long con here is that it could pop up eventually, it could be sold eventually in batches on the web. So what you have to do: Monitor your credit card statements every week. You know, you can do this online. Just eye check every week. Just check every week and make sure you know every single thing that is being purchased in your name.

COSTELLO: Has anyone ever been caught?

ROMANS: Not really, no. You get a lot of prosecutions of petty criminals, two or three people, you know, who steal somebody's information because they're working behind the counter. Some of the stuff, these are happening on servers all around the world. It's very difficult. What must happen here, these companies need to spend more money on the front end making sure this doesn't happen. Hospitals, insurance companies, retailers. The banks are spending a fortune. JPMorgan Chase is spending $250 million a year. It's interesting because just last night a job posting went up for a senior encryption specialist to work for Anthem. They maybe should have had that person beforehand. I'm not sure exactly what their...

COSTELLO: You have to laugh before you cry.

ROMANS: ...what their cyber -- you know - But this has got to be the No. 1 concern for anybody -- Any company that's dealing with our information. Look, they've got to get control of this. It's a big concern with government agencies, business, banks, and obviously the health insurers.

COSTELLO: Christine Romans, thanks, as always. The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.

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