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Crowds Gathered to Protest Trump Rally in New York; Iraqi Army Fighting to Retake Mosul; Democratic Contest Examined; Panama Papers Scandal. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired April 07, 2016 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(03:00:00) ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN NEWSROOM SHOW HOST: After Donald Trump's stunning loss in Wisconsin, crowds gathered to protest outside his rally in New York. Plus, CNN exclusive behind the scenes in the Iraqi Army's battle for control of Mosul. And later, the use of the death penalty surges to the highest level in more than 25 years. Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world, I'm Rosemary Church and this is "CNN Newsroom."
For Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump losing in Wisconsin is just a memory. Trump was campaigning in his home state of New York where he's a heavy favorite in the April 19th primary. A small crowd of protesters gathered outside his rally Wednesday. Trump hit Cruz hard for criticizing New York values. Trump said the city's response to the September 11th attacks speaks for itself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There was never anything like it in this country. The worst attack in the history of the United States. The bravery that was shown was incredible. We all lived through it. We all know people have died and I've got this guy standing over there looking at me talking about New York values with scorn in his face, with hatred, with hatred of New York. So, folks, I think you can forget about him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Well, Ted Cruz says the values of Liberal Democratic politicians have been hurting New York for a long time now. He was in the Bronx Wednesday meeting with Hispanic and African-American pastors after winning the Wisconsin primary the night before. He met Trump's criticism with a healthy dose of sarcasm.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TED CRUZ, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald can always be counted on to take the high road and to demonstrate class. If he wants to engage in insults, he's welcome to do so. He gets very angry when the voters reject him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Well, the stakes are getting higher for the Democratic primary in New York after Bernie Sanders win in Wisconsin. Now, Hillary Clinton is stepping up her criticism of her rival's policy plans as he tries to overcome his delegate short fall. CNN's Joe Johns reports.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE JOHNS, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hillary Clinton is ratcheting up her attacks on Bernie Sanders.
HILLARY CLINTON, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You've got to know what you want. You've got to have a plan for getting it.
JOHNS: She's trying to blunt Sanders momentum following his victory following in Tuesday's Wisconsin primary.
BERNIE SANDERS, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have now won seven out of eight of the last caucuses and primaries.
JOHNS: While he has gained some momentum, the math is not on his side. The big Wisconsin victory earned him a net gain of ten pledged delegates. Clinton still holds a lead of 229. The margin grows to 681 when Super delegates are included.
SANDERS: I think a lot of these Super delegates are going to be looking around them and that are going to be saying, which candidate has the momentum.
JOHNS: The Clinton campaign is eager to bring an end to the primary fight launching a new offensive against Sanders, looking to halt his momentum in the weeks leading up to the New York primary on April 19th. Clinton today telling union workers in Pennsylvania that Sanders policies aren't realistic.
CLINTON: I am concerned that some of his ideas just won't work because the numbers don't add up. The number of important areas, he doesn't have a plan at all.
JOHNS: And questioning Sanders' party loyalty in an interview with CNN.
CLINTON: Senator Sanders by his own admission has never even been a Democrat. He never ran as a Democrat until he started running for president.
JOHNS: Sanders also facing scrutiny after struggling to explain a key part of his agenda -- how he would break up the Wall Street banks during an interview with the "New York Daily News" editorial board. Clinton seizing on the stumble, her campaign even sending the full transcript to supporters in e-mail.
CLINTON: It seemed unclear as to whether he understood how Dodd Frank worked, how we would go about breaking up banks. So I was, I think, a little bit, you know, surprised that there didn't seem to be a lot of substance to what he was saying.
JOHNS: As the race continues to intensify, the Sanders campaign firing off a warning shot to its rival.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That destroyed the Democratic Party to satisfy the secretary's ambitions to become president of the United States, right. We want to have a party at the end of this so we can unify.
JOHNS: Clinton's response today.
CLINTON: I mean, it's just ludicrous on the face of it.
[03:05:00] JOHNS: The Sanders campaign has responded to the dust up over his interview with the "New York Daily News" by suggesting its much ado about nothing. Senator Sanders expected to appear before a meeting with the AFL-CIO here in Philadelphia on Thursday. Joe Johns, CNN, Philadelphia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Joining me to talk more about what's happening with the Democratic presidential candidates is CNN's political commentator and democratic strategist, Maria Cardona. She's also a Hillary Clinton supporter and a super delegate. Thank you so much for being with us. Quite a mouthful there.
MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you for having me.
CHURCH: Now, Bernie Sanders was at a massive rally in Philadelphia Wednesday night and really went after Clinton. I want to listen for a moment and get your reaction to what he had to say.
CARDONA: Sure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: She has been saying lately that she thinks that I am "not qualified to be president."
(BOOING)
Let me just say in response to Secretary Clinton. I don't believe that she is qualified if she is -
(CHEERING)
... If she is, through her Super PAC, taking tens of millions of dollars in special interest loans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: And he went on to say that voting for the war in Iraq and supporting trade deals also disqualify her. So, Clinton not qualified to be president according to Sanders. Your reaction to that and what impact will this likely have going into the New York primary.
CARDONA: I think it's really unfortunate that Bernie uttered those words, Rosemary because first of all, let's be very clear, Hillary Clinton has never said that she doesn't believe that Bernie Sanders is qualified to be president. What she has said time and again and what she will continue to say is that as she lays out her proposals, as she talks about her record, her experience, her knowledge and what she has done for 30 years in public service, that she believes she is more qualified than him to take on the role of commander in chief and hit the ground running on day one.
That is very different than saying that she doesn't think that Bernie Sanders is qualified to be president, which she has never said. So I think it's very unfortunate that he uttered those words, that he said that. I think it does damage to the whole Democratic Party and, frankly, you know, given the math, given the fact that she's ahead by more than 230 pledged delegates, that she's ahead by more than 2.5 million votes, it is all but done, the fact that she will be the next Democratic nominee.
CHURCH: Of course, Bernie Sanders proved weak on policy specifics in the "New York Daily News" interview that he did.
CARDONA: Yes.
CHURCH: What impact is that likely to have? Will he lose credibility and support as a result of it? Could this prove to be his Achilles heel?
CARDONA: Well, I do think that it has frankly proven to be his Achilles heel because if you look across the board at the exit polls of the primaries and caucuses that have happened so far, you see that Hillary Clinton is actually winning across the board Democrats. And when you look at the number of democrats who believe that she is more qualified to be president than he is, you know, those numbers are pretty staggering. What you saw in the "New York Daily News" is that you saw that out in the open.
I think what you have seen in the past debates is a real contrast to who understands what the role of commander in chief is and in terms of foreign policy, she is heads and shoulders above him and frankly above the rest of the Republican field as well when it comes to knowing how to keep America safe. What the "New York Daily News" interview did though, was I think, really peel back and let voters really look into, well, does he really know what he's talking about on the issues that he cares most about?
CHURCH: Right, Maria Cardona, always a pleasure to speak with you.
CARDONA: Thank you, Rosemary. Great to be with you.
CHURCH: And don't forget, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will face off in a CNN Democratic presidential debate a week from now. That starts at 9:00 p.m. Eastern standard time.
All right, turning to global corruption now and the so-called "Panama Papers", many consider the trove of 11 million documents to be the biggest leak of information in history, which is leading to investigations and political resignations. A group of news organizations jointly published reports which CNN has not been able to verify directly implicating a dozen world leaders. But Panama says, keep us out of it. This is a misnamed issue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[03:10:00] JUAN CARLOS VARELA, PANAMANIAN PRESIDENT (TRANSLATED): Panama wants to make clear that this situation that has poorly been called the "Panama Papers" is not a problem of our country but many countries who's legal and financial structures are still vulnerable to being used for purposes that do not represent the common good of the citizens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Meanwhile, UEFA says it is cooperating fully with police who raided its headquarters Wednesday. Officials are investigating the agency which governs European football as a result of these leaked documents and they're looking at a TV contract Gianni Infantino signed when he worked at UEFA. He now heads FIFA and denies any wrongdoing.
And Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson will be sworn in as Iceland's new Prime Minister in the coming hours. His predecessor stepped down after the "Panama Papers" leaked him to an offshore company. Johannsson says this has been a trying time for him and the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIGURDUR INGI JOHANNSSON: Certainly (ph) in this situation, it's not the most happy situation when I am taking the prime minister seat, but I will try to do my best hoping that the people of Iceland will see the new government will increase the stability both in politics and in government (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How would you describe the last three days?
JOHANNSSON: They have been dramatic.
CHURCH: To say the least. And CNN Money Asia Pacific editor Andrew Stevens has been following these developments from Hong Kong. He joins us now live. So, Andrew, the pressure of course, as we saw was just too great on Iceland's prime minister and he was forced to step down. Can we expect to see more resignations like this across the globe as a result of the leaked "Panama Papers"?
ANDREW STEVENS, CNN MONEY ASIA PACIFIC EDITOR: Certainly there's going to be pressure across the globe as more and more information comes out about the activities, particularly of political leaders, individuals whether they be high profile or not. Slightly different case, obviously, Rosemary, but this is such a massive data leak. It's 5 million e-mails, 3 million database files, 2 million pdfs. It is an extraordinary amount of information, and the investigators and journalists are still trolling through that. Bear in mind though that they have been looking at these leaked documents for a year or so. At least a hundred investigative journalists has been working on this.
So, you would assume that they have sort of identified the standout stories, the headline stories and as we know, there have been implications of close associates of Vladimir Putin, also family members of the Chinese leader Xi Jinping. As we know, Iceland's prime minister has now fallen on his sort. There is pressure on the Ukrainian prime minister as well. And there is also now investigation, formal investigations being carried out by authorities in Australia, in the U.K., in Mexico among other countries. So, there are these investigations going on. It depends on whether
they can connect these shell companies to nefarious activities. Remember, they're actually establishing this sort of companies is not an illegal activity. It's what they're used for and it is very clear that they lend themselves because of the privacy that's involved to activities which are illegal.
Tax evasion is a big one, and that is what a lot of the authorities are looking at, but it also could be money laundering, it could be sanctions busting, it could be nondisclosure of conflicting interest, that sort of thing. So, are the big heads likely to roll, sort of a high profile heads in the political world, hard to say, but the heat is going to stay on for some time I suspect.
CHURCH: Yeah. The reach is really far, isn't it, far and wide? So what might other likely ramifications be as a result of these leaked documents?
[03:15:00] STEVENS: Well, I think what it shows as you suggest, how clearly it is that people with money, in many cases the ruling class have been using these off shore vehicles to either hide money from prying eyes or to minimize their tax obligations and to play perhaps to a different set of rules than the rest of us. So is that fair? Well, at the moment legally it is fair. Will it stay like that? There has been, as you know, such a push in recent years to try to create more transparency, better governance of the movement of money and the ownership of money pretty much around the world.
There are these still safe havens, these off-shore entities like the British Virgin Islands. That's just one of them, there are several. What happens now to their rules and regulations? Will the global financial community, will there be a real push for them to become much more transparent, to break down the barriers on privacy? David Cameron, the British prime minister is going to be hosting a summit on that, on off-shore companies, on financial dealings in general in London in May so, something could come out of that.
But certainly this will add to the drum beat, add to the pressure for more transparency pretty much across the globe. I mean, we've seen it with the Swiss banks, we've seen it in many areas in banking already, these tax havens, these areas where you can get preferential treatment on private and/or privacy. That may change, too.
CHURCH: Yeah, it certainly puts the spotlight on the middle class yet again right across the globe, they're always the ones responsible for popping out the taxation system. They pay their taxes, others, we'll see if they find a way to avoid it. Andrew Stevens, many thanks for joining us from Hong Kong. We appreciate it.
Well, next here on CNN, we go to the front lines with Iraqi forces in their battle against Isis to recapture Mosul. Please stay with us on that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KATE RILEY, CNN WORLD SPORTS HEADLINE SHOW HOST: I'm Kate Riley with your CNN World Sport Headlines. Starting with football now when the Champions League draw was made last month, one match really stood out. Paris Saint Germain head (ph) to Manchester City. PSG hadn't made it past the quarterfinals in the Champions League since 1995. Meanwhile, City had never made it this far in the competition before.
This one was 1-1 at halftime. Goals by Zlatan Ibrahimovic and de Bruyne, Rabiot gave PSG the 2-1 lead but Fernandinho would equalize the City. The game would end 2-2. Wednesday's other match was a shocker. Real Madrid away to Wolfsburg I Germany and Ricardo Rodriguez scored a penalty just 18 minutes in giving the Germans the 1-0 lead. And they would double their lead just a few minutes later. This time it was Maximilian Arnold from close range and the upset was complete, 2-0, it would end for Wolfsburg.
On to the NBA now, and the Golden State Warriors can still make history with the best single season league record ever. But they must win all four of their remaining games, this after the Warriors lost at home for the second time all season and second time in five days. It looked like Golden State had it sealed sitting on a double digit lead late in the third quarter on Tuesday, but the Timberwolves pull back to send it into overtime to win the game 124-117. And that's a look at all your world sport headlines. I'm Kate Riley.
[03:20:00] CHURCH: Village by village Iraqi forces has begun their push to liberate their country's second largest city from Isis. Right now, in towns and outposts south of Mosul, they're struggling to achieve and hold small but significant victories. Senior international correspondent Arwa Damon accompanied the Iraqi forces to give us an exclusive look at what they're facing. And we warn you, her report contains some disturbing scenes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Bursts of gunfire and artillery explosions. A constant reminder that the enemy Isis is relentlessly probing for vulnerabilities in the Iraqi army's defenses.
NAJIM AL-JABOURI, COMMANDER OF NINEVEH OPERATIONS (TRANSLATED): Isis and especially now, we are on the perimeter of what is their so-called caliphate. They are using waves of suicide bombers backed by fighters.
DAMON: Coalition airstrikes leveled this building Isis militants had snuck into the night before we arrived. The hillside is strewn with the bloated bodies of dead Isis fighters. One of them looks particularly young, a teenager the Iraqi say. General Jabouri's men only recently recaptured this village and a handful of others.
The first tentative steps in the battle for Mosul, Iraq's second largest city that humiliatingly fell to Isis after security forces abandoned their positions around two years ago. These are men retrained under new command, forces that will repeatedly be put to the test. Will they hold this ground and fight? Or, again, flee? Key, of course, to the equation is U.S. support.
AL-JABOURI(TRANSLATED): For us, we have enough ground forces. The most important thing is to see ongoing U.S. backing with the air support, advisers and logistical support.
DAMON: But not boots on the ground?
AL-JABOURI(TRANSLATED): It's not an urgent thing for us right now, boots on the ground. We can liberate our lands.
DAMON: Isis has had plenty of time to fortify its defenses in Mosul and here, still some 45 kilometers or 30 miles away from the main battleground. Deep in one of the hills, a labyrinth. This is not just a tunnel complex, it's actually a tunnel and sleeping quarters complex that has been dug well underground.
Winding passages that veer off in multiple directions. This one leads to a small opening for oxygen circulation, we are told. This is just the start of the impending bloody battle to try to liberate Mosul, one that will be a defining chapter in this nation's history and beyond. Arwa Damon, CNN, (inaudible) Iraq.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Preparing to confront Isis in battle is only one concern. There's also the matter of helping refugees who fled the militants. Next, Arwa introduces us to people used as human shields.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAMON: Isis put five families into each home in the middle of the village, Abu Jira (ph) recalls. Like many here, he does not want his identity revealed. He still has loved ones at the mercy of Isis and has already witnessed and lost too much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: We're taking you to the front line against Isis and Iraq. That premiers on Thursday on "Connect the World" at 4:00 p.m. in London, 5:00 p.m. Central European time only here on CNN.
Well, after the terror attacks in Brussels, NATO has been criticized for not doing more to fight Isis in Iraq and Syria. The NATO Secretary General has been on a visit to the United States. Jens Stoltenberg met with troops in the states of North Carolina and with President Barack Obama. He also spoke with our Wolf Blitzer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN THE SITUATION ROOM SHOW HOST: NATO countries individually are fighting Isis, which is a grave threat as you well know, but NATO as an organization has not gone in to fight Isis as it did to fight the Taliban, for example in Afghanistan. Why can't NATO play a role as an organization in trying to crush Isis?
[03:25:00]JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL: As I said, all NATO allies participate, contribute to the international efforts to fight Isis.
BLITZER: Why can't NATO do against Isis what it did against the Taliban?
STOLTENBERG: What NATO then does is that we have started to build local capacity to fight Isil and because we believe in that the long run it's better that we enable local forces to fight Isil instead of us deploying large number of --
BLITZER: But NATO is headquartered in Belgium, right, outside of Brussels. We saw what recently happened. You would think that the NATO alliance would say, you know what, this represents a threat not just to the region, whether Iraq or Syria or elsewhere, it represents a threat to Europe. Most of the NATO allies are in Europe so why not get together and say as an organization, we're going to get the job done and crush Isis?
STOLTENBERG: Well, that's the reason why we are stepping up our efforts by, for instance, now starting to train Iraq --
BLITZER: Who's resisting?
STOLTENBERG: There's no resistance that NATO shall support the efforts of the coalition but we are doing that in different ways. NATO's alliance has a presence in Turkey bordering Syria and Iraq. We have increased our presence there. We have started to train Iraqi --
BLITZER: But Turkey is a member of NATO.
STOLTENBERG: Yes. But it's very important for us to be present in Turkey and provide the service - military service to Turkey because Turkey is so much affected what's going on in Iraq and Syria. Moreover, we have started the training of Iraqi officers because we strongly believe that by building local capacity -- by enabling forces in the region to fight Isil, that's more sustainable solution in the long run.
BLITZER: Is anyone proposing that NATO do to Isis what it did to the Taliban?
STOLTENBERG: Well, NATO and NATO allies are doing that.
BLITZER: NATO -- individual NATO countries are doing that like the United States, U.K., other countries, but as an alliance because that's what the Americans -- a lot of Americans want to hear, that NATO is getting its act together and going to crush Isis which is seen as a grave threat.
STOLTENBERG: It's important to tell you is that we are able together to fight Isil in an affected way. We have reviewed that NATO has the capacity building, train, assist and arrest (ph) and then the high end airstrikes shall be done by the coalition and all allies support those efforts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Stoltenberg also said that some NATO members need to spend more on defense. Next here on CNN, Belgium's prime minister acknowledges security failures in the Brussels attacks. Hear why he's also criticizing Turkey's role in it. We're back with that.
[03:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: And a warm welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world, I'm Rosemary Church. I want to update you on the main stories we've been following this hour. U.S. presidential Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders is slamming rival Hillary Clinton following his primary win in Wisconsin. During a campaign stop Wednesday, he said Clinton is not qualified to be president because of her positions on the Iraq war and trade agreements.
Sigurdur Ingi Johansson is expected to be sworn in within hours as Iceland's new prime minister. His predecessor resigned after the leak of the so-called "Panama Papers." The documents revealed he had ties to an off shore company which triggered protests in Iceland.
Police in Bangladesh say another secular blogger has been killed. A 26-year-old graduate student, Nazimuddin Samad, was hacked and shot to death in the capital Dhaka. He was described as a campaigner against religious extremism. Four other secular bloggers were murdered in Bangladesh last year.
South Korea says North Korea might be able to mount a nuclear warhead on to a medium range missile, but a South Korean government official says there's no real evidence to prove it. If true, the official says the missile could reach parts of South Korea and Japan.
I want to turn to Belgium now and one of the terrorists who carried out last month's attacks on Brussels briefly worked as a cleaner at the European Parliament. Reuter's reports that 25-year-old Najim Laachraoui held a summer holiday job there back in 2009 and 2010. A spokesman for the European Parliament says he did not have a criminal record during his time of employment. Belgian officials believe he blew himself up during last month's attack at the airport.
Well, meanwhile one of the Paris terror suspects, Salah Abdeslam is due in court Thursday for a custody hearing in Belgium. He was arrested near Brussels March 18th after months on the run. Belgian security forces have come under heavy scrutiny for their failure to prevent the Brussels attacks. CNN's Alexandra Field joins us now live from Brussels with that part of the story. So Alexandra, what were the errors made and why did Belgian security services fail to prevent this attack from happening?
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, there are two big questions that have to be answered here. Was it a lack of intelligence or was it a failure to share intelligence? We know that this is country has administrative and bureaucratic complexities. There are several national languages. There are number of different police authorities. So while they begin to investigate what happened, what led to these attacks, they'll have to start to look at whether or not better coordination between different departments could have helped to prevent any part of this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FIELD: After Paris, Charlie Hebdo, November 13th. After Brussels, the metro, the airport, taking out the threat posed by jihadists who left Europe for Syria and came back planning to attack could take ten years says Andre Jacob, the former head of counter terrorism for Belgian State Security.
ANDRE JACOB, FORMER HEAD OF COUNTER TERRORISM FOR BELGIAN STATE SECURITY (TRANSLATED): There were definitely errors in the function of the intelligence service here but the nature and how serious these errors were will be determined by the parliamentary inquiry.
FIELD: The Belgian prime minister announced new investigation into what went wrong and how to stop it from happening again.
JACOB(TRANSLATED): We have to tell people that an attack is still possible, that if we give more means, the intelligence to the police services they can do a better job.
[03:35:00]FIELD: Before retiring in 2010 he watched the rise of Islamic radicalism in Belgium, first in the '90s surveilling a network with ties to Osama Bin Laden, then seen the rise of recruitment of Belgian youth by Sharia for Belgium (ph), a dismantled terror group whose leaders have now been convicted or jailed. Finally, an exodus of fighters.
Per capita, Belgium has sent more foreign fighters into Syria and Iraq than any other western European country. The number estimated to be around 500 since 2012. As many as 100 made their way back. But resources to counter a mounting threat didn't keep pace, Jacob says.
FIELD: Were you under staffed?
JACOB(TRANSLATED): Yes, absolutely. For the past ten years different governments in Belgium have let down the intelligence services in terms of the number people hired and the budget for it.
FIELD: And there were shortfalls, he says, in Belgian law that complicated counter terrorism efforts.
JACOB(TRANSLATED): At the beginning, security in Belgium did not have the ability to carry out wire tapping. The only wire tapping possible was done by the federal police and only in cases of judicial inquiries.
FIELD: That has changed. Other obstacles remain, difficulties in coordination, communication, as well as police operations. Some raids can only be carried out between 5:00 in the morning and 9:00 at night. Proposals to change that have been made since Belgian police started hunting for Paris bombing suspect Salah Abdeslam. He was found last month hiding out in the Molenbeek neighborhood of Brussels. Even before the Brussels bombing, authorities were searching for the brothers who would carry them out. The Bakraoui's were, we now know, also in Brussels. FIELD: What do you say to people in Belgium who feel their government
is fading a losing a battle against terrorists?
JACOB(TRANSLATED): It's a difficult question. I don't know if the Belgian government is losing the battle but I think the European democracy is losing the battle. We have to work together.
FIELD: U.S. officials believe as many as 2,000 fighters who traveled to Syria and Iraq are back in Europe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: So, Alexandra, what efforts are being made now to try to improve the security services there in order to prevent the possibility of another attack like this?
FIELD: Well, Rosemary, really that's the question that will ultimately be answered by the parliamentary inquiry. The goal of that inquiry would be to implement legislation that would enable better counter- terrorism efforts that would enable police to do their work and to communicate information and share information more effectively. So, that's the piece from the legislative end.
In terms of security and what happens on the streets, what we saw in the aftermath of the Paris and Brussels attacks, that the terror threat level was raised in Brussels that put more security forces on the streets because remember, you've still got a manhunt going on in the city, across this country, really across Europe for the third potential airport bomber and a second potential suspect who could have been involved with the bombing at the metro station.
Beyond that, beyond any efforts that could be made domestically here in Belgium, you also have the prime minister saying that Belgium cannot fight this battle alone, they cannot ensure safety by themselves. They need further participation from other European Union countries and that's why he's calling for something like a European CIA to facilitate more information sharing.
CHURCH: Right. Alexandra Field joining us here live from Brussels. Many thanks to you.
Well, Belgium's prime minister is acknowledging the attacks were a security failure, but Charles Michel rejects the notion that Belgium is a failed state. His comments came during an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour and here's more from their conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLES MICHEL, BELGIUM PRIME MINISTER(TRANSLATED): Following the terrorist attack in London, in Paris, in New York, there was a failure there because there was a terrorist attack in Belgium or elsewhere, there is no zero risk scenario. In the United States, for example, there was a before and after 9/11. In Belgium there will be a before and after March 22nd.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The president of Turkey has said publicly and said to me exactly a week ago that they alerted you to the fact that one of the Bakraoui's was being radicalized, they got him, you know, because of his visits to Syria and they alerted you.
MICHEL(TRANSLATED): The Netherlands nor the Belgians see to have understood what jihadists stood for. We've been calling the nations for common stance against terrorism and many of the European member state seem to have failed to attach the significance what this call for action deserves.
AMANPOUR: What is your response to that specific warning from the president of Turkey?
[03:40:00] MICHEL(TRANSLATED): On two points. First point, it is very surprising from a country such as Turkey and its president to see that if that person was dangerous, to leave that person board a plane going to the Netherlands without Turkish officers and without early information given on the fact that that person was about to arrive there and at that time, first point.
Second point that I want to indicate, in Belgium obviously there will also be parliamentary investigation and commission and the parliament will be able to check how communication was managed with Belgium and various countries, including Turkey, which really shows that the main priority for our generation and all democratic societies is to make sure that we improve communication intelligence sharing.
I was one of the first European leaders a few months ago already before (inaudible) to ask for setting up of a European CIA or FBI to have a European platform that would be better structured, better organized to continuously share information.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: After the short break, the human rights group Amnesty International says 2015 saw the most executions around the world in 25 years. Which countries topped the list and why? We'll take a look at that. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:45:00] CHURCH: Amnesty International says 2015 saw an alarming surge in executions around the world, the most in more than 25 years. At least 1,634 people were put to death last year, the highest number since 1989. And this doesn't include figures for China where the data is treated as a state secret. Amnesty says executions took place in these 25 countries last year. The United States was the only country in the Americas to have carried out the death penalty.
There were no executions in Europe. Now let's look at the five countries performing the most executions. Amnesty estimates the number in China to be in the thousands, but if you take China out of the equation, Iran, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia accounted for 90 percent of the executions. The U.S. is fifth with 28 executions last year. So let's break down the significance of this report with Salil Shetty, he's the secretary-general of Amnesty International. And before we begin, we should point out Amnesty International opposes
the death penalty in all cases regardless of the crime. Thank you so much for talking with us. So, Salil, let's start with the surge of executions in Pakistan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. What is happening in these countries?
SALIL SHETTY, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SECRETARY-GENERAL: I think each of these countries are different, drivers are different. I think in the case of Pakistan you may recall that after the army school was attacked by armed groups in Peshawar, that's when they decided that they're going to bring back the use of death penalty or judicial executions. And since then, we've seen a massive surge, literally from zero wind up to 326.
This is the highest recorded for Pakistan, so they started off saying that we'll use it for terrorism-related offenses, but now they've gone far beyond it. So that's Pakistan, very varying trend there. Iran has always used drug-related offenses have been a major driver in Iran, but let's not forget that, you know, in both Iran and Saudi Arabia it is shrouded in secrecy so it's very difficult to find out all the facts exactly.
Saudi Arabia has got a particular peculiarity because they also use it on migrants, construction labor, domestic labor so, foreigners are also executed in both Saudi Arabia case.
CHURCH: Right, and what about China? You mentioned secrecy there. Of course, the government in China so secretive. What do you know about the executions that took place there?
SHETTY: We know for sure that China, the number of executions there is probably equal if not more than the rest of the world put together. So that's fairly certain. So -- and that continues to be the case and, again, what happens is that as it happens in all countries related to the death penalty, the people who suffered the most, the ones who executed the largest numbers are always minorities and the weakest people, like the (inaudible) for example in China tend to be discriminated against.
They use the death penalty against (inaudible). On the positive side in china, it is also true that they have reduced the number of offenses for which death penalty could be used and they're reviewing the cases now, they've brought in some safeguards, Supreme Court review is happening. Overall, we understand that the number of executions might have reduced compared to the previous year, but we don't really know. This is really one of Amnesty's big campaigns in China, is to ask for bigger transparency.
CHURCH: And we also learned in that report that four more countries abolished the death penalty, Fiji, Madagascar, the Republic of Congo, and Suriname. Mongolia will join them later this year. Now, that means for the first time ever a majority of countries have abolished the death penalty. Does this give you hope that more countries will follow suit perhaps?
SHETTY: So this is the paradox of what's happened in 2015. On the one hand this is the single largest, you know, alarming growth we've seen in execution executions. Over 50 percent increase compared to the last year. Also worrying that six more countries who, traditionally have not executed, have joined the group of executing countries.
Some very big ones, we talked about Pakistan, there's also Indonesia, India, Bangladesh which didn't execute. So, there are a lot of worrying signs of what happened last year. But on the up side, four new countries have joined as countries abolish death penalty and effectively saw the art (ph) of history turning towards a complete abolishment of death penalty (inaudible).
Two countries have now fully abolished it and in practice, 140 countries are now not using death penalty. So the long-term trend is clear. Death penalty is a thing of the past. So, the 25 countries or so are still using it today. They're really isolated. They're in the minority including unfortunately the United States of America.
CHURCH: All right, Salil Shetty, thank you so much for talking with us. We appreciate it.
SETTY: Thank you.
CHURCH: And in the U.S. state of Texas, just hours ago in fact, it carried out its sixth execution this year. This man, Pablo Vasquez, was put to death on Wednesday. Vasquez was convicted of killing a 12- year-old boy in 1998. He reportedly told police he drank the boy's blood and that the devil was telling him to cut off the boy's head. Texas denied an appeal to stop the execution. We'll be right back.
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PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN WEATHER ANCHOR: Thank you for making CNN your choice to watch the news and weather. Right now, we'll show you what's happening across the eastern U.S. Big frontal boundary beginning to push right and across the southeast over the major metro cities such as Atlanta, eventually Charlotte, giving us some strong thunderstorms. In fact, just a 30-minute period in the early morning hours brought in almost 2,700 lightning strikes across portions of Alabama, on into Georgia, even eastern Tennessee so, a very active pattern across this region. And notice the storm quickly moves up toward the eastern seaboard and major metro cities get in some rain showers.
It will be heavy at times on Thursday morning across this region. New York, about 15 degrees. Montreal makes it to about 8 degrees. Chicago, 6. And the heat is on by their standards at least, Vancouver, B.C., as beautiful as they come, 18 degrees. Sunny skies Seattle will in the upper 20's across that region. The warmth that's in place across the western U.S. replaced by extreme cold that really pushes towards the eastern U.S., in fact, look at the bottom drop out in the nation's capital, even New York City.
Temps coming back down to more I say, early March in nature, maybe even late February in nature. Certainly cold stuff out there. Some showers beginning to push in eventually by late week up towards California, maybe intermountain west, a good news across the region. Quick glance, across the south we go, Havana, temps into the upper 20s. Mexico City remains dry around 29 degrees and we leave you with South America.
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(COUNTRY MUSIC PLAYING)
CHURCH: Country music great, Merle Haggard. He died Wednesday on his 79th birthday of complications from pneumonia at his home in California. Haggard's legendary career spans six decades. His fans say the country music Hall of Famer's songs such as "Okie from Muskogee" and "Fightin' Side of Me" made him a voice for working people and outsiders.
Business is booming at a small factory in Central Mexico. It's turning out the likenesses of a billionaire drug lord and another billionaire you may recognize right away. Rafael Romo went to check it all out.
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RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: It's a factory bustling with activity with workers pouring liquid plaster on to molds, painting, refining, and creating all kinds of different designs.
RICARDO ESPONDA, FACTORY EXECUTIVE: It's a very manual process.
[03:55:00] ROMO: This mass factory in central Mexico has been busier than ever in the last few months and it's all thanks to the unexpected popularity of not a Mexican but an American presidential candidate. Take a look at the strands of artificial hair neatly placed in craft (ph) by this worker.
ESPONDA: We're not making this mask with natural hair but some of our customers ask for it.
ROMO: It's got to be the hair?
ESPONDA: Yeah.
ROMO: This is the deluxe version.
You've probably already guessed its Donald Trump's mask.
ESPONDA: Definitely.
ROMO: And this factory executive believes demand will only grow in the next few months.
ESPONDA: We think maybe because of the pulse that he will be the candidate.
ROMO: The last shipment of the Donald Trump masks came out of this factory two months ago. It was 10,000 masks, 80 percent of them were sold in the United States and the rest here in Mexico. There's only one mask beating Donald Trump's in sales, that of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the drug lord captured in January after a spectacular tunnel escape from prison last summer. The mask that comes with the prison outfit has been flying off the shelves.
ESPONDA: Yeah, totally sold out. We sold El Chapo masks and costumes in all Mexican territory, in all America U.S. territory and we sold in Australia for example.
ROMO: Wait a minute, El Chapo masks being sold in Australia?
ESPONDA: Yeah.
ROMO: There's still a chance for Trump to compete with El Chapo Esponda says, but only if he can win the Republican Party's presidential nomination. The great irony, making a fortune off of two highly controversial men whose only thing in common is dominating the headlines. Rafael Romo, CNN, Jiutepec, Mexico.
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CHURCH: Great looking masks there. And thanks for watching CNN. I'm Rosemary Church. "Early Start" is coming up for our viewers here in the United States. And for everyone else, stay tuned for "CNN Newsroom" with Hannah Vaughan Jones in London. Have a great day.
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