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David Amess Remembered; U.S. Missionary Group Kidnapped In Haiti; Venezuelan President's Alleged Moneyman Extradited To U.S.; FDA Backs Booster Shots; Police Officer Killed In Texas Shooting; The Trial Of Adolf Eichmann; NASA Launches Mission To Explore Asteroids. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired October 17, 2021 - 03:00   ET

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

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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): And a warm welcome to our viewers here in the United States and right around the world. I'm Paula Newton.

Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, a diplomatic problem brewing: Venezuela's apparent retaliation after president Maduro's alleged moneyman was extradited to the United States to face charges.

We now know the identity of the man accused of killing a British MP, as police continue to investigate a possible extremist motivation behind the stabbing.

And to go where no mission has gone before: the U.S. taking the space race to the next level by exploring the beginnings of the solar system.

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NEWTON: First, we have new details on a breaking story that we've been covering out of Haiti. An Ohio-based group called Christian Aid Ministries has confirmed that 17 missionaries and family members abducted in Haiti on Saturday are affiliated with it. That comes in a report from "The Washington Post."

A source in Haiti security services told us earlier that 14 adults and three minors were kidnapped north of Port-au-Prince. We have more details now that we spoke to Matt Rivers a little earlier. Take a listen.

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MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Basically, this is an ongoing situation at this point. I can tell you, is we were doing stories about kidnappings months ago. When we were, there after the Haitian president was assassinated, July 7th. This has been an issue that is played Haiti for a long time.

This year, specifically, a significant spike in kidnappings. And I have a couple statistics I can read to you.

Since January, at least 628 kidnappings have taken place, 29 of, them before this latest kidnapping 29 of whom, were foreigners. That is according to data from a nonprofit group, that tracks this, in Port- au-Prince.

All these gangs, do this for ransom money, which they are were often paid, sometimes to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Depending on the analyst you speak to, 50 percent of Port-au-Prince is in the hands of gangs, Robyn.

So it is an extremely dangerous time, for people, right, now in Port- au-Prince. And, this latest kidnapping, is just further proof of a horrific situation, right now, in that country's capital.

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NEWTON: And our thanks to Matt Rivers, who will continue to bring us updates on that story.

Now to the U.K., where a government source tells CNN the suspect in the fatal stabbing of MP Sir David Amess is Ali Harbi Ali. He's described as a 25-year-old British national of Somali heritage. Police are treating the case as a terrorist incident.

And crown prosecutors say they are supporting the investigation. The fatal attack, the second in five years against a member of Parliament, has heightened security concerns for all lawmakers.

Prime minister Boris Johnson and Labour leader Kier Starmer paid their respects at the church where Sir David was murdered. The prime minister called him a much-loved colleague and friend. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz joins from us London.

It was an important show of unity there yesterday.

But also, you know, the issue that we do have more information on the investigation, what more do we know, especially now that the suspect has been identified?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What we know so far that is counterterrorism police are investigating this individual. They are speaking to him.

But we also are waiting for more information about the motivation, because the authorities say there is a potential motivation linked to Islamist terrorism. We don't know anything further than that at this time.

But this was a truly brutal crime, that happened in a very quiet seaside community in broad daylight at a church. It sent this area of Leigh-on-Sea absolutely reeling. People said they want his life remembered, not the way he died. Take a look.

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ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): David Amess doing what he loved the most, serving his community.

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DAVID AMESS, BRITISH CONSERVATIVE MP: These people have proved that music is magic and that dreams can come true.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): He helped organize this event in 2019, where 200 people with learning disabilities performed at the famous Royal Albert Hall. It was a dream he accomplished with his friend of 25 years, David Stanley.

DAVID STANLEY, FOUNDER AND CEO, MUSIC MAN PROJECT: I think Sir David Amess was probably the proudest he had ever been and he was in his element at that moment, telling the audience that, we have done it, we have achieved our goal.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Stanley teaches music to people with disabilities. And as news of the brutal stabbing broke, he was with his students.

STANLEY: Some of them were becoming aware of what had happened. And as we always do we, used music to somehow come to terms with what was happening on that Friday.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): The 69-year old passionately represented Southend and Essex for nearly 4 decades. First elected to Parliament in 1983, he was one of Britain's longest serving MPs. Amess was a Conservative but seen as a moderate voice at a time of divisive politics.

AMESS: I would ask my right our noble friend if you would find time for debate on World Animal Day.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): The father of five was also a dedicated animal welfare advocate and a huge dog lover. He was also fiercely dedicated to the needs of his constituents. His friend, Father Jeffrey Woolnough, told us.

JEFFREY WOOLNOUGH, EASTWOOD PARISH PRIEST: He was just so easy to like. If you wanted something done, you just had to ask Sir David Amess. And you can bet your bottom dollar that would happen, you really could.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Now Woolnough is consoling a heartbroken community.

WOOLNOUGH: We are carrying this together, there is not an individual loss unless you're the family but, the community, we must grieve together.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Grieve and come to terms with the life of a public servant extinguished too soon.

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ABDELAZIZ: And that's what's at stake here, Paula, because the conversation across this country is about much bigger than this incident. It's about the safety of lawmakers. It's about their ability to do their jobs and get home unharmed at the end of the day.

Some of them saying that this attack is not just an attack on one lawmaker but on the democratic process as a whole because this is something this country holds very dear, especially on a local level, the right of a politician to sit with his constituents and hear the issues of the day.

Is that now under threat, Paula?

Will that tradition continue in this country?

That's the question being asked right now.

NEWTON: So interesting that a few of the MPs actually went back in the last 24 hours to those surgeries or what we would call open office hours. Salma, thank you for the update, appreciate it.

A close ally of embattled Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro has been taken into U.S. custody, accused of money laundering and it looks like Caracas is retaliating. Stefano Pozzebon has details.

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STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Five U.S. citizens and a U.S. (INAUDIBLE) resident, who were serving house arrest in Caracas, Venezuela, were picked up by the country's security service on Saturday, just hours after Alex Saab, a Colombian financier, who works very close with embattled leader, Nicolas Maduro, was extradited, from the Cape Verde, to the United States.

He was first arrested, in Cape Verde 2020. Saab faces charges of money laundering in Florida, related to his activity as a government contractor in Venezuela. The men, detained in Caracas, are known, collectively, as the CITGO 6.

They are former executives of U.S. oil refinery CITGO. And their arrests, in Venezuela, since 2017. They are facing corruption charges, which they deny and, they were moved to house arrest, just in April, this year.

One of them was able to send a video message to his family, shortly before his detention.

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JOSE PEREIRA, VENEZUELAN DETAINEE (through translator): We are here, recording this video, because at this time, we are very worried and our families are very worried. We don't know what's going to happen to us, now that Alex has been extradited. We are worried.

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PEREIRA (through translator): And our families are very worried.

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POZZEBON: Saab is now expected to face a U.S. court, in the upcoming weeks -- for CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, Bogota.

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NEWTON: COVID vaccination numbers are slowly ticking up in the United States. As of Saturday, nearly 57 percent of the population had been fully vaccinated. Now that's about two-thirds of everyone who is actually eligible.

And more Americans could soon qualify for vaccine boosters. On Friday, an FDA advisory panel recommended boosters for all adults who have received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Experts say those who did, should get an extra shot as soon as it's available. The CDC needs to weigh in now, though, before it makes a final decision. Public health officials are also considering whether to mix and match boosters. Here's the director of the National Institutes of Health.

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DR. FRANCIS COLLINS, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: There was data presented yesterday from NIH about the mix and match question. And there was data that suggested, if you are going to get a booster for J&J, maybe getting a Moderna or Pfizer booster would actually have some advantages, in terms of giving you an even stronger immune response.

So don't run out, anybody who got J&J. I would wait another week right now and see what CDC's advisory committee does with this next week. And by maybe a week from today, I'll tell my grandkids what I think they ought to do.

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NEWTON: Dr. Peter Drobac is an infectious disease and global health specialist at University of Oxford and joins from us Oxford, England.

Really good to see you. We keep turning the pages on this pandemic quite quickly. We're at boosters now. There is a lot of conflicting information about whether or not they are even truly needed.

I mean, from your survey of the recent studies, what do you think?

How vigilant should people be, especially if they are more than six months out, on any vaccine?

DR. PETER DROBAC, INFECTIOUS DISEASE AND GLOBAL HEALTH SPECIALIST, OXFORD UNIVERSITY: New data coming in all the time. So we're learning as we go here. It really depends on your risk and your age group.

I think at this point, the data are pretty strong, particularly for those who are immunocompromised and those over 65, that there is evidence of the immunity waning. And there's a strong evidence base to get a booster.

With Johnson & Johnson, it's a little bit different. I think the preponderance of the evidence is suggesting to us that perhaps it really should have been a two-dose vaccine in the first place and that the single dose had a little bit lower efficacy than some of the other vaccines.

So it may well be that, as the advisory panel recommended last week, that everybody, at least every adult who's had the J&J vaccine, should go ahead and get a second dose.

But it might just be appropriate to think of that as a two-jab course, like the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. So it is a confusing time at the moment.

The most important thing is to remember that we have really good evidence that vaccines work. And first and foremost, for those people who have not yet been vaccinated, the most important data I saw in the last week from the CDC suggested that the unvaccinated are six times more likely to die, 11 times more likely to get infected with COVID-19 than those who are vaccinated, across all age groups.

So we just need to get people vaccinated.

NEWTON: And the studies are definitive, it seems, on a lot of that data in terms of the risk. Yet so many people who are fully vaccinated are still worried about those breakthrough cases, which is why boosters certainly seem to be a topic of conversation of many people right now, even if fully vaccinated.

DROBAC: That's right. We have to remember, even though we see a little bit of evidence of waning efficacy with some of the jabs after about six months, they still do provide very good protection, well above 80 percent for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, for example, and very, very, very good protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death.

So it's still extremely rare, particularly for those under the age of 65, for a fully vaccinated individual to get infected with COVID-19 and get very sick or die. You can get infected but it tends to be a milder course.

So across the board, we're seeing these vaccines do provide extraordinary protection. And you still need to be cautious about COVID-19 and getting infected. But your risk of severe disease and death is really minimal if you have been vaccinated.

NEWTON: And it is that tough decision, the fact that maybe you're fully vaccinated and you still need to take those precautions, whether it's masking, social distancing or only doing the essential activities.

I want to ask you, in fact, about something we hear a lot about but is very difficult for someone untrained to understand. How worried are you now about the way this virus is developing and

whether or not another variant may still be out there that will escape the defenses of the vaccine?

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NEWTON: I know we've spoken about this over and over again. But there are some people wondering as to whether this is truly the end.

DROBAC: Yes, well, first off, I think, at this point, most of us agree that SARS-CoV-2, the COVID-19 virus, is becoming endemic, meaning it will be in circulation; it's not going to go away, it's something we're going to have to learn to live with and continue to have vaccines for, et cetera.

Six months ago, we were worried about all kinds of variants that seemed to be popping up every couple of weeks. What's happened recently is the Delta variant, because it is so transmissible, has outcompeted all the other variants, including some of the variants that had a bit more evidence of vaccine escape.

At the moment, the Delta variant is the dominant variant everywhere. And we're not seeing other variants really have a chance of out- competing. That doesn't mean the risk doesn't exist.

And the bottom line is that the more virus is in circulation anywhere in the world, the more cases that we're seeing, the more chances that a random mutation may lead to an advantage and emergence of a new variant.

Every new case is a lottery ticket for the virus to produce a variant. So we need to remain vigilant about that. But at the moment, Delta remains dominant everywhere.

NEWTON: I like the way you put that, the lottery ticket issue. I have been -- this thing has been very complicated. A lot of people have been trying to put their hands around it and it's important to be able to lean on experts like you, Dr. Peter Drobac, thank you very much.

DROBAC: Thanks, Paula.

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NEWTON: Now some European countries are seeing a backlash against COVID restrictions. In Italy people protesting the so-called green pass requirements for workers that took effect on Friday. The pass shows proof of vaccination, a negative test result or recent recovery from the virus.

There were also protests in Switzerland. A pass is required there to enter bars, restaurants and fitness centers.

Meantime, Argentina has started vaccinating children as young as 3. Right now the rollout is focused on children with weakened immune systems and other high-risk conditions. COVID cases are, unfortunately, surging in Russia. On Saturday, the

government reported more than 1,000 deaths for the first time ever. For more, we are joined by CNN's Nada Bashir in London.

The breaking of the record is so tragic, yet things could still get worse. Case loads continue to climb.

What is the fear in Russia now?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There is major concern that, over the next few weeks and months, this concerning trend could continue, particularly as we head into the winter months.

As you mentioned, the data that we received from Russian authorities in the last few days has been worrying, an upward trend in the number of deaths and cases as of Saturday. In the last 24 hours, 1,002 deaths recorded, a record high. So there are serious concerns.

But also in the spread of coronavirus, the number of cases reaching record levels, 33,208 new cases announced on Saturday. So that is the picture that we're seeing now in Russia.

But what is of more concern is that low vaccine uptick. Just over 30 percent of the country getting the coronavirus vaccine jab. And that is a worry, because, as we enter those winter months and tend to go indoors more, engaging in indoor activities, the seasonal flu virus is spreading.

There are concerns that we will see an increase in the number of people getting coronavirus, particularly with this low vaccine uptick but also as a result of more transmissible variants like the Delta variant.

Of course this will be the first winter we're going into with this Delta variant. There are serious concerns. Russian president Vladimir Putin has urged citizens to get the coronavirus vaccine, speaking on Tuesday, saying citizens should listen to the medical advice, the medical experts and get that jab.

We've seen other countries in Europe battling this vaccine hesitancy, although on a smaller scale than Russia. There are concerns from governments across the continent that health care sectors in Europe could be put under renewed pressure come winter.

Countries like Italy, Switzerland, France introducing tougher measures, vaccine passes, allowing people to prove that they've had either a full jab or have recently recovered from coronavirus or even have taken and received a negative test in the last 48 hours.

This is all part of efforts to really control the spread of the virus, to stem the spread of the virus and prevent the health care sector and the country from falling under the pressures we've seen in the last few months of this pandemic.

NEWTON: Unfortunately, especially with the Delta variant, even if a small portion of the population isn't vaccinated, it can still overwhelm the hospitals. Nada, appreciate it.

Coming up, a Texas police officer is dead after officials say three deputies were totally ambushed outside a bar in Texas.

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NEWTON: Now the hunt is on for the gunman behind the attack.

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NEWTON: A manhunt is underway in Houston, Texas, for a gunman who opened fire on three police officers outside a sports bar on Friday. One deputy was killed in the ambush; two others were wounded. CNN's Jean Casarez reports.

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JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We were told this happened about 2:12 this morning at a Houston sports bar in the package lot. Deputies were called to that lot, because of something that was happening. They believed it was a robbery. They thought they had the person that was responsible.

They were arresting the person. He was on the ground and all of a sudden, someone came from around a car with an AR-15 assault rifle and started shooting at the deputies.

One officer was shot in the back. Another officer succumbed to his injuries and a third deputy came out, hearing what was happening, and was shot in the leg with multiple fractures.

We know the identities of these officers. We want to show them to you.

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CASAREZ: First of all, Kareem Atkins. He was 30 years old. He just returned from paternity leave. He leaves a wife and a 2-month-old baby.

Darryl Garrett, 28 years old, he was shot in the back. He has been in surgery for much of day. He is now in the intensive care unit.

And finally, Juqaim Barthen, 26 years old, he has been at the precinct since 2019.

Now these officers, they work together. The deputies knew each other. They were buddies, we are told. I want you to listen to what the constable, Mark Herman, told us about what one officer was told as he was just about to be wheeled into surgery this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CONSTABLE MARK HERMAN, HARRIS COUNTY PRECINCT 4: He found out laying, bleeding out on a gurney, that his buddy he'd just been with was deceased. And -- but I can tell you, all three of them, they work the same area. They're good friends. They -- they -- it's just a complete tragedy, is what it is.

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CASAREZ: The criminal investigation continues. The deputy that did succumb to his injuries, his body is at the Harris County medical examiner's office.

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NEWTON: That was CNN's Jean Casarez reporting.

And the tragic death of that deputy comes on a poignant day for law enforcement. The annual national memorial service for fallen police officers was held in the nation's capital on Saturday.

During the service, President Joe Biden noted the deadly shooting in Texas, saying, "We mourn the fallen and pray for the wounded."

He also hailed the police officers who protected the Capitol during the July 6th insurrection.

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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Nine months ago, your brothers and sisters thwarted an unconstitutional and, fundamentally, un-American attack on the nation's values and our votes.

But because of you, democracy survived but only because of the women and men of the U.S. Capitol Police force, the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police department, other law enforcement agencies, who once again literally put their bodies on the line to protect our democracy.

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NEWTON: Joe Biden there at that national memorial service.

Coming up, a special report from CNN's Elie Honig, 60 years after the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi responsible for the murders of millions of Jews.

And a NASA spacecraft is on its way to study ancient asteroids for clues about the beginning of our solar system. We'll tell you why Beatles fans will be thrilled.

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NEWTON: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States, I'm Paula Newton and you are watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Sixty years ago, Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann, known as the architect of the Holocaust, was on trial in Israel, charged with organizing an unthinkable genocide under Hitler during World War II.

Millions around the world watched the trial on TV, as survivors and witnesses described the unspeakable horrors he orchestrated and that they lived through.

Elie Honig is a CNN senior legal analyst and former U.S. federal prosecutor. His grandparents lived through that dark period of history. He sat down with key participants in the trial to talk about their quest still, today, for justice and the threat anti-Semitism and ethnic hatred still pose today.

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ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST (voice-over): Sixty years ago, the world saw evil. In 1961, millions of people across the globe watched as Adolf Eichmann, the notorious Nazi official known as the architect of the Holocaust, stood trial in Jerusalem for crimes against humanity.

MURRAY HONIG, SON OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS: But I do remember it happening and I remember more the aspect of like -- I think I -- it struck me as more, "they got this guy." And I remember, from that point on, it certainly -- people began to understand what this was about.

E. HONIG (voice-over): Eleven months earlier, as wary Mossad agents had captured Eichmann in Argentina, where he'd been living as a fugitive for a decade, they brought Eichmann to Jerusalem to face justice for his role in the systematic execution of more than 6 million Jews during World War II.

M. HONIG: Your grandma is here. She's the fourth from the right.

E. HONIG: Right. So the vast majority of the people in this picture did not make it.

M. HONIG: Did not survive.

E. HONIG (voice-over): My father, the son of two Holocaust survivors, remembers the trial as a turning point.

M. HONIG: You have to understand, now everyone knows the Holocaust with a capital H. When we grew up, this was not a thing. The Holocaust was not a thing. It was a private tragedy. It was a -- it was a tragedy of the Jewish people.

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M. HONIG: So a lot of it wasn't spoken about until Eichmann.

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GABRIEL BACH, EICHMANN PROSECUTOR: You, together with others, during the period 1939 to 1945, caused the killing of millions of Jews in his capacity as the person responsible for the execution of the Nazi plan for the physical extermination of the Jews, known as the "final solution of the Jewish problem."

E. HONIG (voice-over): Gabriel Bach, now 94 years old, was one of the prosecutors who tried Eichmann in Israel's newly formed court system.

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BACH: The courtroom, we had a special room, where all the prosecutors sat together and the defense counsel sat together. And then they had -- in order to protect the accused, they had a special glass booth where he was kept.

This was really a very, very special moment, that, here in a Jewish state, a Jewish trial, we are the representatives of the Jewish people. And we can show that the men who murdered millions of people from our society, that this was very, very justifiable and very just that we should do that and not leave it to the court of another country.

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E. HONIG (voice-over): It was one of the first televised trials the world had ever seen. And it was a pivotal moment in the world's reckoning with the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis.

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MICHAEL GOLDMANN-GILEAD, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR (through translator): I was about 16 when the Nazis took over. In July 1942, my parents and my sister were taken onto a train. We did not know where at the time but later found out it was the Belzec extermination camp.

My sister was 10 years old. The last time I saw them was on my birthday. It was on July 25, 1942, and I saw them for 15 minutes.

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E. HONIG (voice-over): Like my grandmother, Michael Goldmann-Gilead, now 96 years old, lost most of his family to the Holocaust. He survived the horrors of multiple concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and he survived the infamous death march.

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GOLDMANN-GILEAD (through translator): It was January 18th, 1945. We were taken out in rows of 1,000 each. And there were SS officers with dogs. And we were made to march. It was heavy snow and it seemed implausible but we marched 60 kilometers that night.

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E. HONIG (voice-over): Thousands of people died during that brutal death march. Little did Goldmann-Gilead know he would go on to play a pivotal role as an investigator in the trial of Adolf Eichmann.

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GOLDMANN-GILEAD (through translator): I was in my investigation room. And when he entered the room, I saw a poor, frightened person, shaking. And in comparison to Eichmann in his SS uniform, this ubermensch, I couldn't believe it.

It was the same person standing in front of me, responsible for the death of my parents. But when he opened his mouth -- I cannot forget this -- when he opened his mouth, I saw the doors of the crematorium open.

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E. HONIG (voice-over): Goldmann-Gilead and the investigative team, many of them Holocaust survivors themselves, interrogated Eichmann over the course of several months.

They went through thousands upon thousands of documents, piecing together the horrific events and building a volume of evidence that they hoped could prove Eichmann's role beyond a shadow of a doubt.

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GOLDMANN-GILEAD (through translator): One of the documents was from Poland, documenting a single transport to Auschwitz in November 1943. And it has a list of numbers of those who arrived, those who were sent to the camps, those sent to the crematoriums.

I realized my number is part of that list, 161135. So I look at them and I said, "You need not look elsewhere, the proof is here because I was part of that transport. The number is still on my arm."

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E. HONIG (voice-over): The Eichmann trial served dual purposes. First, to bring the Nazis' chief architect of the Holocaust to justice; second, to highlight in detail what had happened to the Jewish people from firsthand eyewitness testimony of survivors, people who turned the statistical 6 million figure into personal stories of horror that the world would be unable to forget.

BACH: There was a witness called Martin Foldi. He was one of the witnesses -- he was one of the persons who was sent to Auschwitz with his family and his wife and his little daughter and his son.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DR. MARTIN FOLDI, EICHMANN TRIAL WITNESS (through translator): Then they told us, men to the right, together with boys after the age of 4. And women and the children to the left.

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BACH: Somehow everyone knew that people who were caught by the SS people, they were sent either to the left or to the right in Auschwitz. To the right meant they could stay alive because they wanted their work or something. To the left meant to their death.

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FOLDI (through translator): And we saw that the women were already going and we were still standing until they all almost disappeared. My girl wore a red overcoat. And I still saw that red spot.

And that red spot was the sign that my wife was also there. But the red spot was waning, of course, and was smaller and smaller. I went to the right and I never saw them again.

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BACH: Now I had a daughter exactly 2.5 years old. I had bought her, two weeks before that, a red coat. When he spoke about that, the little girl, 2.5 years old, with the red coat and the little red dot getting smaller and smaller, this is how his whole family disappeared from his life.

I, standing there as a prosecutor, suddenly couldn't utter a sound.

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BACH: Eichmann had practically unlimited power to declare who was to be killed among the Jews, chronologically and by segment of population, what countries geographically and throughout.

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E. HONIG (voice-over): After months of the prosecution presenting its case, Eichmann finally took the stand in his own defense.

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ADOLF EICHMANN, HOLOCAUST ARCHITECT: (Speaking German).

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BACH: I wanted it to be clear to everyone in the world that this was -- this man was given a just trial, that he was given the possibility to have a defense counsel, who would be covered by the government.

He asked for a German and, therefore, the government agreed to that. And I certainly agreed with that. And that whole trial, in every way, in every field, should be handled in a just manner.

E. HONIG (voice-over): Under cross examination, despite being confronted with documents that showed his direct involvement, Eichmann repeatedly claimed he was just following orders.

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EICHMANN (through translator): I did not give these orders, whether the people should be taken to their death or not. This was the administrative routine. This is how it was arranged. And my task in this was just a tiny particle in this.

I am not beating about the bush. I was in Hungary also, one of those receiving orders and not giving orders.

GOLDMANN-GILEAD (through translator): He lied through and through. He was acting. He was acting all the time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: September 1939, the accused committed acts of expelling, uprooting and exterminating the population in coordination with massive --

E. HONIG (voice-over): Finally in December 1961, the trial was over and the verdict was in. The court found Eichmann guilty and sentenced him to death.

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BACH: Here was a man who was appointed to be in charge of causing the carrying out of the murder of millions of people. So if any person deserves it, it was him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOLDMANN-GILEAD (through translator): That was the sentence for one person.

But what about the other Eichmanns, who fled Germany and died at good old ages and were never brought to trial?

You can give a sentence for one person but you cannot avenge. There is no vengeance for what was done to the Jewish people.

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E. HONIG (voice-over): After Eichmann had exhausted all of his legal appeals, he was hanged just a few minutes past midnight on June 1st, 1962. Michael Goldman-Gilead witnessed the execution and was part of a very small group chosen to spread Eichmann's cremated ashes at sea.

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GOLDMANN-GILEAD (through translator): I remember seeing the ashes, how little the ashes were. I thought, wow.

How can this be so few ashes for a whole human being? And this brought me back to an incident in Birkenau, when about 30 of us were taken from our barracks to another building. That building had a chimney. It was a crematorium. And next to it was a mountain.

When I got closer, I realized that mountain was a mountain of ashes, a mountain of human beings. I remember it was cold and it was icy.

And we were ordered to take wheelbarrows and shovels and take the ashes and spread them on the road so that the soldiers who were patrolling would not slip on the ice.

After we spread Eichmann's ashes, we stood quietly at the edge of the boat. I thought to myself about my parents, my family and those who did not have the privilege to see one of the greatest murderers brought to justice.

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E. HONIG (voice-over): Sixty years later, with the number of living witnesses to the Nazi campaign of terror shrinking by the day, the risk of Holocaust distortion and denial is a threat that makes the lessons of the Eichmann trial more relevant today than ever.

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PROTESTERS: Jews will not replace us.

E. HONIG (voice-over): The fight against hate based on race, religion, ethnicity, sex is a battle that is still being fought. White supremacy and racial hatred remain serious threats and they're on the rise.

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GOLDMANN-GILEAD (through translator): With the death of Eichmann, the murderous ideology of nationalist socialism was not scattered. It's still existing here and there, in the form of hatred, hatred that is dangerous.

And we must be on guard so that catastrophes do not repeat themselves. Hatred can cause catastrophes and bring an end to this world, to this planet. And we must educate the new generations not to hate and to avoid such hatred; otherwise, our struggle against evil will be in vain.

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[03:45:00]

E. HONIG (voice-over): As the grandson of two Holocaust survivors, I am part of one of those new generations. Sixty years ago, Gabriel Bach and Michael Goldmann-Gilead stood up and fought for justice, for their own families, for mine and for millions of others -- I'm Elie Honig for CNN.

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NEWTON: And our thanks Elie for bringing us those very powerful testimonials.

We'll be right back.

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NEWTON: We're seeing new pictures of Saturday's docking of a Chinese spacecraft with the country's space station. Three Chinese astronauts will remain on the unfinished orbiter for at least six months. They'll set up equipment and test technology needed to complete construction.

And they should have the station operational by the end of next year. The U.S. space agency, NASA, has just started a different kind of mission. It has launched a spacecraft named Lucy toward Jupiter's orbit. Its mission is to help learn how the solar system formed billions of years ago.

And as CNN's Kristin Fisher explains, Lucy's name is a tribute to an ancient human ancestor and a famous Beatles song.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 3, 2, one, lift off. Atlas 5, takes flight.

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE & DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Lucy is finally in the sky. The NASA spacecraft is on a 12-year mission, covering 6.4 billion kilometers, to fly past eight ancient asteroids.

Lucy is the first mission to investigate the Trojan asteroid swarms, which are asteroid clusters along Jupiter's orbital path. Armed with cameras, a thermometer and an infrared imaging spectrometer, Lucy will collect the first high-resolution images of these asteroids.

[03:50:00]

FISHER (voice-over): The spacecraft gets her name from the Lucy fossil, an ancient human ancestor, whose remains transformed the study of hominid evolution. NASA hopes its Lucy transforms the understanding of the evolution of the solar system. Both the fossil and the spacecraft's name are nods to The Beatles' hit, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

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RINGO STARR, FORMER BEATLE: Lucy is going back in the sky with diamonds, joining all the love there (ph). Anyway if you meet anyone up there, Lucy, give them peace and love from me.

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FISHER (voice-over): And Lucy does indeed carry a diamond as part of a beam splitter assembly. About 3.5 years from now, after making a few fly-bys of Earth for a gravity slingshot boost, Lucy is expected to reach her first objective, an asteroid named Donaldjohanson, in the asteroid belt between Earth and Jupiter.

She'll then travel to the Trojan asteroids, all named after the heroes of Homer's "Iliad."

KEITH NOLL, ASTRONOMER, NASA'S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER: The power of what Lucy is able to do by having so many targets, we can construct all these comparisons between all the different varieties and the diversity that we see in the Trojans, the unexpected diversity, the different colors, the different collisional histories.

It's really a repository of fossils, as we like to say, of things that happened at the earliest stages of solar system evolution.

FISHER (voice-over): The spacecraft, a little more than 14 meters from tip to tip, is powered by two giant solar arrays, that will expand outward like Chinese folding fans. They'll carry Lucy farther away from the sun than any other solar-powered spacecraft.

Lucy will never return to Earth but she won't be the last to visit the asteroids; NASA plans to send more. China and Russia are teaming up on an asteroid mission in 2024 and the UAE in 2028 -- Kristin Fisher, CNN.

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NEWTON: Incredible.

Singer Adele has a new hit. After the break, her latest single is smashing records in just 24 hours. See who she dethroned.

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[03:55:00]

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NEWTON: Well, that didn't take long, did it?

Spotify says Adele's new single, "Easy on Me," is the service's most streamed song in a single day.

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NEWTON (voice-over): Adele released the song on Friday, along with a music video that already has almost 60 million views on YouTube.

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NEWTON: I'm Paula Newton. Thanks for your company this hour. I will be right back in just a moment with more CNN NEWSROOM.