Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Reuters: 25 Plus Wounded in Turkey Bus Blast; U.S. President Goes after Russia Over Hacking; Obama: Russia Responsible For Hacking DNC; Trump Taps Adviser as Ambassador To Israel; Civilian Evacuations Halted; Philippine Pres. Defends Killing Drug Suspects; Thousands Protest Plan To Limit Media Access. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired December 17, 2016 - 03:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[03:00:11] BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: Not much happens in Russia without Vladimir Putin.

CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR: U.S President Barack Obama pointing to Vladimir Putin for the U.S. election hacking. And ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

VANIER: Anguish from the innocent, thousands of civilians caught in the middle of evacuations from the bombed out city of Aleppo come to an abrupt halt.

Plus, below freezing the U.S. braces for more frigid temperatures over the next week, we'll have the latest forecast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Hello everyone, thank you for joining us. I'm Cyril Vanier live from Atlanta and CNN "Newsroom" starts right now.

And we'll get to all those stories in the moment. But first, Reuters is quoting hospital sources in central Turkey who say that an explosion wounded more than 25 people. Sources an apparent car bomb detonated near a bus that was transporting soldiers and civilians near a university campus. We to get to learn any details on the death toll, only that some people were indeed killed. This comes a week after a blast in Istanbul have killed dozens of people and that attack was claimed by a splinter group of the Kurdish rebel group, PKK.

U.S. President Barack Obama says that Russian cyber attacks during the U.S. presidential campaign stopped after he told the Russian leader at the G-20 summit to cut it out. In his final news conference of the year, Mr. Obama said that there is no doubt the Kremlin was behind last summer's breach of the Democratic National Committee's e-mail server, and he warned Putin of serious consequences if the hacking continued.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: Based on uniform, intelligence assessments, the Russians were responsible for hacking the DNC. And that as a consequence it is important for us to review all elements of that and make sure that we are preventing like kind of interference through cyber attacks in the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: Now the Russian hacking raises two unanswered questions. What was Moscow trying to gain and what can Washington do about it? CNN's Jim Sciutto has more on that for us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I told Russia to stop it.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF U.S. SECURITY CORRESPODENT: President Obama for the first time publicly blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin for hacking the 2016 U.S. election.

OBAMA: With the intelligence that I've seen. It gives me great confidence in their assessment that the Russians carried out this hack. The hack of the DNC and the hack of John Podesta. Not much happens in Russia without Vladimir Putin.

SCIUTTO: And the CIA and FBI agree as to why, director John Brennan telling the CIA workforce in an internal message that "There is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature and intent of Russian interference in our presidential election."

U.S. intelligence and law enforcement assess that Moscow had multiple possible motives, undermine confidence in the vote, weaken Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump. The President said he delivered a stern warning to Putin at the G-20 summit in China in September.

OBAMA: When I saw President Putin in China, I felt that the most effective way to ensure that that didn't happen was to talk to him directly. And tell him to cut it out and there will going to be serious consequences if he didn't.

SCIUTTO: Still, U.S. officials say that Russia's hacking of U.S. political organizations continues unabated. Since the election one attempted breach targeted the Clinton campaign, though unsuccessfully. President-elect Trump however continues to dismiss the U.S. assessment that Russia is responsible.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: We had a meting.

SCIUTTO: Despite the fact that he is being provided the intelligence behind that assessment, it is classified prefix. And he sought to divert attention back to one of the revelations gleaned from the e- mails stolen by Russia, tweeting, are we talking about the same cyber- attack where it was revealed that the head of the DNC illegally gave Hillary the questions to the debate.

SCIUTTO: I'm told that the CIA director's message comes as many CIA staffers are frustrated, even angry to be accused of partisanship in their response to the Russian hacking. The GOP chairman of the Senate intelligence committee also coming to the defense of intelligence staff saying that they leave their politics at the door. Jim Sciutto, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: Let's bring in CNN counterterrorism analyst and former CIA officer Philip Mudd, who joins us from Washington. Philip, what kind of things can the U.S. do that would make Russia think twice about trying this again?

[03:05:06] PHILIP MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Look, I think the quickest reaction you've seen in Washington is whether there need to be some other type of sanction on Russia. I think though the answer and in that case is too simplistic.

Remember what we've got here. It's not just an incident of hacking. It's a new administration coming in Washington that is going to have to deal with things like Russian activity in Eastern Europe, Russian agreement on a way for with Iran nuclear deal and obviously Russian cooperation with the Syrian government. So before Washington goes too quickly into what the knee-jerk reaction is let's just increase sanctions. I think new people coming into office with the Trump administration are going to have to step back and say, how does that coincide with the cooperation we might have to get in another arena. This is more complicated than it looks.

VANIER: And by the way, as far as we know has the hacking stopped because we heard in that report that U.S. officials have said the hacking continued after the elections?

MUDD: And I would expect that to continue. We're talking about not something that relate specifically to the American election. We're talking about hacking for major enterprises including Russian enterprises, Chinese enterprise. It goes back to the 1990s. So I think people in the American public, and elsewhere around the world might see this as an isolated incident but they've got to see this as a brave new world of not just conventional warfare where we see tax and airplanes but now digital warfare that goes back to the 90s in terms of stealing defense secrets. For example, designs for aircraft and defense industry. So, the continuation of hacking shouldn't be a surprise. It's been going on for years.

VANIER: By the way, you wanted to weigh in on the intelligence assessments that have been done.

MUDD: I think we need to be careful about making a clear distinction, something that always gets lost in the heat of the moment between what we know and what we think. Let me give you two clear categories. We have forensic information about Russian activities and American systems going back to 1990s. We can use that information coupled with what were finding in this hack to make what I think is a clear and concrete case and I believe the intelligence officials are doing this about Russian involvement and stealing secrets and then exposing them during the election. That's what happened. VANIER: That's what the CIA has done.

MUDD: That's correct. There is a second question that I find is that intelligence officers much more difficult. Who did this and why. You notice when intelligence officials and political officials talk about this. They talk in terms of not what we know. But for example, President Putin must have known. That's a judgment. It's not a fact. We need to be careful here. What's a fact in the forensic information about the hack and what the judgment about who did it and why.

VANIER: My understanding is that's really the main difference between the CIA and the FBI. The CIA making inferences, extrapolations, the FBI saying we don't have a concrete evidence. Am I getting this right?

MUDD: That's right, but I think that's changing even in recent days. There's more conversation, including comments by the CIA director that the agencies are in the same place. At some level I don't think it makes a difference. We have concrete information and we have a consensus view in Washington D.C. that Russian entities hacked and exposed information about the U.S. election before the election. Regardless of whether this was approved by the Kremlin or not, this is not about Democrats and Republicans and it's not about President Trump. It's about a foreign government interfering in a profound Democratic process. Whether or not President Putin knew early on I think is significant. But that's not the key factor. The key factor is interruption of the election.

VANIER: All right. Philip Mudd, CNN Counterterrorism Analyst and former CIA officer, thank you very much for joining us on the show.

MUDD: Thank you.

VANIER: The debates about how to handle the alleged hacks is growing louder and more partisan by the day. But security experts say Russia is still doing it and they're urging other countries to shore up their cyber defense before it's too late. Our Brian Todd reports.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Moscow says the hacking allegations against Russia are groundless, Vladimir Putin's spokesman challenging America to prove them. But U.S. officials tells CNN the Russian hacks continue around-the-clock phishing attempts, targeting private e-mail accounts associated with Hillary Clintons campaign as recently as December 6th.

ADAM MEYERS, V.P. OF INTELLIGENCE, CROWDSTRIKE: It's a continuing effort to collect intelligence.

TODD: Adam Meyers specializes in cyber intelligence with the firm CrowdStrike which investigated the Russian hacks for the Democratic Party. Meyers and other experts have new information on operations inside Putin's hacking teams which they say are as talented as they come. JASON HEALEY, CYBER SECURITY EXPERT, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: When it comes to espionage and offense they are fantastic. They are close to the best in the world probably right after our own here in the United States.

TODD: CrowdStrike discovered that a Russian hacking team called "Cozy Bear" first penetrated the DNC in the summer of 2015. CrowdStrike says that team also known as "The Dukes" or APT 29 for advanced persistent threat is tied to Russian intelligence. In March of this year, CrowdStrike says another Russian hacking team "Fancy Bear" began targeting the Democratic Party. "Fancy Bear" is believed to be commended by the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency.

[03:10:10] MEYERS: What are the tools they use. What these tools allow them to do is to access the computer to download files, to upload files, to execute commands, to even take pictures of what's going on the screen.

TODD: This is apparently the bogus email that opened Pandora's Box of the Clinton campaign. "Someone has your password" says an e-mail to campaign chair John Podesta in March posted online by WikiLeaks. It says to click on this link to reset the password.

MEYERS: Once they go to that link it will actually take them to what looks like a Google login and they'll be asked for their username and their password. And when they provide that username and password, it will forward it to Google but the attacker actually now has a copy of their username and password.

TODD: A technique used by what's believed to be an army of at least 4,000 Russian cyber agents.

Are these the shell hackers who happen to be wearing military uniforms, who are they?

MEYERS: I think that there's people in military uniforms, there's people that are probably more business-focused and then there's going to be a technical cadre that that maybe a little bit more informal and maybe a little bit more casual.

TODD: A key question now who are the next targets of the "Fancy Bear" and "Cozy Bear" hacking teams. CrowdStrike says NATO should have its guard up. Any company that has major business deals going in Russia and they say political leaders in France and Germany should have their cyber defenses ready. Those are countries having political elections next year. Countries where Russia cares a lot about the outcome of those elections. Brian Todd CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: President-elect Donald Trump has made his choice for U.S. ambassador to Israel. He has tapped his close campaign advisor David Friedman for the job. And as CNN global affairs correspondent Elise Labott reports Friedman's comments about Israel are grabbing attention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: In tapping his longtime friend and bankruptcy lawyer, David Friedman as his ambassador to Israel Donald Trump moved to make good on a campaign promise.

TRUMP: We send a clear signal that there is now daylight between America and our most reliable ally the state of Israel.

LABOTT: Israel's right-wing education Minister Naftali Bennett praised Friedman calling him a "Great friend of Israel". By appointing the hard-line Friedman's as ambassador. Trump could be signaling plans to reverse decades of U.S. policy towards Israel.

Friedman, an Orthodox Jew has no experience in diplomacy. He strongly supports legalizing settlements and Israel anything the West Bank. And his question the need for a Palestinian state writing that a two- state solution appears "Impossible as long as the Palestinians are unwilling to renounce violence against Israel or recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state."

AARON MILLER, DISTINGUISHED SCHOLAR, WILSON CENTER: I'm reminded of the lion from Wizard of Oz when Dorothy lands and says to her little dog Toto, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." The issue is the positions that have been attributed to him on issues like two-state solution, settlement activity that clearly contradict decades of U.S. foreign policy.

TRUMP: We will move the American embassy to the internal capital of the Jewish people Jerusalem.

LABOTT: In his statement, Friedman said, he looked forward to doing his job "from the U.S. in Israel's internal capital Jerusalem," echoing his promised to Israelis in Jerusalem in October.

DAVID FRIEDMAN, U.S. AMBASSADOR OF ISRAEL NOMINEE: The law provides the obligation to move the embassy to Jerusalem can be waived at the desire of the State Department. The reaction from Donald Trump is going to be "You know what guys? You're all fired."

LABOTT: For decades U.S. presidents have argued the status of Jerusalem, which both Israelis and Palestinians see as their rightful capital can only be settled as part of the peace deal. Friedman has criticized the left-leaning Jewish lobby, Jay Street, which has criticized some Israeli policies calling them "Far worse than kapos- Jews who turned in their fellow Jews in the Nazi death camps.

As a response to those comments Friedman said "they're not Jewish and they're not pro-Israel". In his statement, the group that supports the two-state solutions for Israelis and Palestinians said it was "vehemently opposed" to Friedman's nomination calling it reckless and putting America's reputation in the region and credibility around the world at risk.

LABOTT: Current and former diplomat stated by picking Friedman as ambassador and promising to move U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, Donald Trump is running counter to his professed desire which is making what he called the ultimate deal between Israelis and Palestinians because it raises serious doubt about whether the U.S. can continue to be an honest broker in future Mideast peace talks. Elise Labott, CNN Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: And just as a reminder, let's run you through some of the other people that Trump wants in his cabinet. They include a long- time Trump supporter Senator Jeff Sessions. He's been tapped for U.S. Attorney General.

[03:15:11] Goldman Sachs Veteran Steve Mnuchin nominated for treasury secretary, and retired generals John Kelly and James Mattis to head Homeland Security and Defense. Now remember the Senate must approve all cabinet level appointments.

Still coming up on the show, groups of civilians finally escape Aleppo only to find that they're forced to turn back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VANIER: Civilian evacuations have stalled in Aleppo in Syria. It's not clear exactly why as both sides shift blame for the holdup elsewhere. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon puts his stake on the crisis in very bleak terms.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BAN KI-MOON, UN SECRETARY-GENERAL: The carnage in Syria remains a gaping hole in the global conscience. Aleppo is now a synonym for hell. As I told the Security Council three days ago we have collectively failed the people of Syria.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: Now there are conflicting reports from Syrian state media as well as witnesses on the ground about what exactly is causing that holdup. In the meantime our Fred Pleitgen shows us what civilians there are going through.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They were supposed to be brought to safety. Instead, they're running for their lives once again. The convoy then to take east Aleppo residence out of the besieged areas under fire. This eyewitness says he was part of a convoy stopped he claims by Iranian militia fighting on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

PLEITGEN: The Syrian government has a very different account. It says rebel fighters in the convoy were carrying concealed weapons and that they are to blame for the violence that reportedly left a number of people dead. Evacuations that had already succeeded in getting thousands out of eastern Aleppo ground to an immediate halt as the blame game begin. Russia making a puzzling announcement saying it believed evacuation of east Aleppo was complete and that only hard- line rebel fighters remained in the enclave.

Turkey which helped negotiate the agreement shooting down those planes. The Red Cross and UNICEF for their part say tens of thousands of people including more than 1,000 children are still trapped inside the war-torn city. For those that made it out, the anguish was almost too much to bear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking Foreign Language).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking Foreign Language).

[03:20:10] PLEITGEN: But for those still trapped inside the tiny rebel enclave in eastern Aleppo, the situation is even worse. Stuck in the bitter cold with no food and no medical supplies left to pray that the violence won't begin again. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Beirut.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: The Philippine President continues to defend his controversial war on drugs. On Friday, Rodrigo Duterte implied that he will not stop until all drug dealers are dead. Even told CNN's Will Ripley how many he kills personally and why he makes no apologies for it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RODRIGO DUTERTE, PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT: I did kill, I was only three months mayor in 1988.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte making no apologies, elaborating on his stunning claim that he shot and killed suspected criminals.

DUTERTE: I grabbed my M-16 American made, mind you. To kill criminals.

RIPLEY: Nearly 30 years before he was president. In his early days as mayor, Duterte's hometown of Davao was considered one of the Philippine's most dangerous cities. Today, police say it's one of the safest. And many here credit Duterte.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You cannot invest if no danger.

RIPLEY: No danger anymore.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, because we have no addict.

RIPLEY: No drug addict?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No drug addict.

RIPLEY: As mayor, the former prosecutor encouraged the mass killing of drug suspects, earning him the nickname "The punisher". Do you recall how many people you killed? Are you certain that all of them were guilty?

DUTERTE: I'll count one to three. One, two, three. But I'll tell you know that I killed -- do not term them a suspects because all of them died while they were fighting government people.

RIPLEY: As President, he's taking his drug war nationwide, in less than six months, nearly 6,000 people have died.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the name of human rights it's bad, but if in terms of for the safety of the people it's good.

RIPLEY: In a nation fed up with crime and corruption, Duterte's approval rating is still almost 80 percent, though it's down from 90 percent in July.

Voices of opposition are growing louder.

LEILA DE LIMA, PHILIPPINE SENATE: These are mass murderers. Mass murderers certainly fall under the category of high crimes. And high crime is a ground for impeachment under a constitution.

RIPLEY: Duterete's most prominent critic Senator Leila de Lima is calling for his impeachment. Duterte has fired back accusing de Lima of ties to illegal drugs. Some critics say Duterte has used his drug war to weed out political adversaries, a claim he denies this.

DUTERTE: At least I kill to protect people. I am not a dictator killing my political opponents to stay in power.

RIPLEY: Just this week, a newspaper quoted Duterte waning so-called corrupt politicians to resign or face death. Judging by the president's own words, it may not be an empty threat. Will Ripley, CNN, Davao, the Philippines.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: The U.S. is accusing China of unlawfully seizing one of its underwater drones. The U.S. military says the incident took place in the contested South China Sea, about 160 kilometers from the Philippine port of Subic Bay. This U.S. research vessel, the Bowditch was in the area on Thursday to retrieve two unmanned underwater vehicles. That's when the Pentagon says a Chinese warship swooped in and snatched one of the drones of the small boat. The U.S. explains that the drone was measuring ocean conditions and not spying.

In the Polish Capital Warsaw, thousands of people have been protesting outside the country's Parliament. Police reportedly used force to remove demonstrators from the building's exits. The protesters are furious over a plan by the ruling party to restrict media access. Under that proposal, only five chosen T.V. stations would be allowed to record parliamentary sessions and just a few journalists would be allowed into the building. Inside the parliament opposition lawmakers also protested the restrictions on Friday. You can see them right there saying "free media." When we come back after the break, we'll be telling you about frigid arctic air which has swept across much of the northern U.S. and is going to be pretty cold for a while. In fact let's go to that now. Meteorologist Karen Magginis joins us with the details. Karen?

KAREN MAGGINIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. It is really a wild coat -- a roller coaster ride as far as weather is concerned where most of the country, about 39 states are going to be impacted by either frigid temperatures, blowing snow, ice, thunderstorms, dangerously called windchill factors.

[03:25:16] So all of these areas from California into Colorado, Montana, Viscotis into the Great Lake, Ohio River Valley and the Northeast. This is so widespread and I've taken a look at some of the DOT cameras, that's Department of Transportation, throughout the Midwest where they're looking at temperatures that will be as cold as 15 degrees below zero windchill factor.

Now Celsius and Fahrenheit meet up at minus 40. So that gives you some idea just the depth of this cold air. Well, in Iowa also to Nebraska they have seen very dangerous conditions, and this is the time of year a lot of people hit these interstate highways, but they're going to find it especially slow, especially treacherous because this roads have a layer of ice on them. And then they get the snow fall and it just can't tell how dangerous these roads are.

And look at some of the Department of Transportation cameras out of Iowa and it looks empty. People are not going out, that is a good news. But the bad news is there's reinforcing cold air, this arctic air and it's plunging across the south and I dare say less than 50 percent of the country will see temperatures at the freezing mark. Most people are going to be below that.

Take a look at what happened in Mitchell, South Dakota. This picture coming from a driver who's on one of the interstates there in Mitchell, they closed some of the schools down, some business because it was just too cold. Very poor driving conditions, that doesn't look like a lot of snow but more snow is in store. It is exceptionally dangerous, but not just there, even into the Northeast and New England where you see these purple shaded areas, it tells us we could see eight to 12 inches of snow fall or up to 30 centimeters is expected.

But where you see the pink, that's where we could see that combination of icy weather conditions and it's going to be frigid cold for that NFL football game coming up on Sunday could set a record. But we'll keep you updated on that.

VARIEN: All right. Karen Magginis thank you very much. We'll continue to follow that story throughout the weekend of course and here in the U.S. Midwest heed those warning signs. There is danger on the Roads.

Now, since Karen has been telling us about these icy conditions, here's a pretty fantastic skating rink. It's in Moscow. It sits very high up in the Russian capital which is literally one ups the rest of Europe by putting an ice rink on top of a high rise building. This is what it looks like the icy track circles, the observation deck more than 350 meters above the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through interpreter): It's located at such height that one can see the whole of Moscow. It is very interesting.

VARIEN: And just so you know, access is not cheap. A turn on the ice will set you back 3,000 rubles, that's almost $50. So that panoramic view comes at across.

Thanks for watching CNN Newsroom. That's it for us for now. I'm Cyril Vanier. I'll be back with the headlines in juts a moment. You're watching CNN, do stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)