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CNN International: Lebanon Health Ministry says 37 People Killed in Back-to-Back Attacks, Nearly 3,000 Injured; Harris Slams Trump Over Immigration Proposals; Kamala Harris Praises Fed's Rate Cut as "Welcome News"; Lebanon Reels After Two Days of Deadly Exploding Devices; Israeli Government Brief Media Amid Soaring Tension; Team Buys 100K Hot Dogs for Sunday's Game in Atlanta. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired September 19, 2024 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:00]
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, and this is the CNN Newsroom. Just ahead, Hezbollah's leader will be speaking in two hours after another wave of deadly blasts across Lebanon. First it was exploding pagers, then walkie talkies. What happens next?
Closing the gap will have new polling in the U.S. on the presidential race and the battle in swing states. Plus, a new legal loss for Sean "Diddy" Combs, why prosecutors claim he is too dangerous to be out of jail before his trial.
Just hours from now, Hassan Nasrallah, the Leader of Hezbollah is set to give a speech. It comes as tensions are rising, with Israel launching air strikes on Southern Lebanon overnight and signaling what the Israeli Defense Minister called a new year of war. Lebanon, meanwhile, is reeling after a second day of attacks targeting members of the militant group.
Scores of walkie talkies exploded across the country on Wednesday, after hundreds of pagers blew up on Tuesday. Lebanon's health ministry says at least 37 people have been killed in both attacks thousands are injured. The twin attacks are causing panic, fear, confusion and chaos across Lebanon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MUSTAFA SIBAL, LEBANESE CITIZEN: Can we expect any good from Israel. Children are being killed. Their parents had small devices, and they are detonated. Of course, we're scared, my children, my siblings, children, all of us who can feel safe in this situation. We have 5000 injured in just two days. This isn't a small matter. It's war. Who can even secure their phone now? When I heard about what happened yesterday, I left my phone on my motorcycle and walked away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: CNN's Ben Wedeman spoke to CNN's Kate Baldwin in the CNN News Central earlier from Beirut. BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Certainly, what we've seen in the last two days, Kate is a death toll among Hezbollah members, the likes of which have not been seen in a 48-hour period going back to the initiation of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel on the 8th of October.
According to figures put out by Hezbollah itself, 38 of its fighters have been killed within the last 48 hours, five of them, if you break down the numbers, in the southern part of the country, really in the war zone, but 33 of them, it appears, are the victims of these exploding pagers and walkie talkies that have been going off throughout Lebanon within the last 48 hours.
And of course, this is causing a great deal of concern among ordinary Lebanese. The Ministry of Transport here, for instance, has banned walkie talkies and pagers from all flights leaving out of Beirut. And the government, the army, has been busy essentially detonating suspicious devices.
Just last night, right next to where we are at the American University of Beirut Hospital, the army blew up some suspicious devices, and many people are essentially putting their phones and other communication devices as far away as possible, given the fear that perhaps the third day of these attacks will take place.
WHITFIELD: Ben Wedeman, thank you so much. CNN's Paula Hancocks is joining me now live from Abu Dhabi. And Paula I also understand we have some live pictures of the funeral services that are taking place for several people who were killed in Beirut. And while we're looking at that, I wonder, you know, the mood in Lebanon is of fear we heard it from the sound bites that Ben tossed to. How is the country preparing for possibly a third straight day of attacks?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Fredricka, there's certainly a sense of fear and paranoia in Lebanon, the fact that these were attacks which did target the pagers of Hezbollah fighters, but there were others that were injured and killed as well. We know that children are among the dead.
And we've seen the images of when those pagers and the walkie talkies were set off. They were in public places. We saw one in a grocery store, one at a checkout counter. So, there is a concern that there could be a third day after there was Tuesday, the pagers, Wednesday, the walkie talkies.
And as Ben mentioned, there we are here anecdotally, we're also seeing many people saying that they are staying away from electrical devices and wireless devices because they simply do not have the confidence that they will be OK.
[08:05:00]
So, there is a great concern across the country. And also, the fact that this was not just in one location. It wasn't just in Southern Lebanon where this ongoing clashes between Israel and Hezbollah have been going now for months. This was in the heart of Beirut. It was also in the Bekaa Valley and some cities in Southern Lebanon.
Now we've heard from the UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk also has condemned what has happened in these attacks, saying that it's a violation of international humanitarian law, saying that that law effectively prohibits the use of booby traps, which could conceivably be encountered by civilians.
Now what we have seen is that some civilians have been caught up in this, but it does appear as though the target certainly was Hezbollah Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: OK. And then what do we know, if anything about the Hezbollah Leader's expected speech today?
HANCOCKS: Well, what we've heard in previous speeches, and there have been many over recent months is that he has been trying to pull away from all-out war. He has not given the impression that Hezbollah wants to have a full-blown war with Israel. It will be very interesting to hear what he says in the coming hours.
Because, of course, this is a devastating blow to Hezbollah, the fact that thousands, potentially of their fighters and their reservists have been injured. The fact that they do not really have a communication ability at this point, the pagers have been taken out the walkie talkies, there is a concern and a fear of using any other wireless devices to try and communicate with each other.
So, what we will be listening for is whether Nasrallah can actually ease concerns and reassure not just those within Hezbollah, but also those within Lebanon. Because this is an attack on Hezbollah, but it is an attack that has affected the entire country.
Civilians who have no affiliation whatsoever with Hezbollah are feeling just as paranoid and fearful as others. So, it will be a very interesting speech to listen to. Hezbollah, obviously has, has said that there will be retribution. There will be a retaliation for what Israel has done. Now CNN has learned that Mossad and the IDF was behind at least Tuesday's attack. Of course, the question is, what would that retaliation look like, Fredricka?
WHITFIELD: All right. Paula Hancock in Abu Dhabi. Thank you so much. In Northern Israel, one border town scarred by war has turned into a ghost town. In Kiryat Shmona, streets are deserted schools are empty and most businesses are closed. CNN's Nic Robertson visited the largely lifeless city amid spiking tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): A ghost town close to the Lebanese border, Kiryat Shmona, a shadow of its former self, most of its 25,000 residents evacuated last October. Silence and weeds where once there were people.
ROBERTSON: Almost all of the stores here are shut and frozen in time now for close to a year, and it feels as full-on as some of the few people who stay behind sound.
NISAN ZEEVI, JVP IMPACT DIRECTOR INVESTMENT: So now everything is empty --
ROBERTSON: Empty offices.
ZEEVI: -- empty offices, empty labs. Before October 7th, we have had here in the upper -- 72 startups.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): From fungal plastics, the fake eggs, the EV sourced hundreds of millions of investment dollars for Israel's up and coming high tech hub in the north.
ZEEVI: It's a very sad feeling, because in each one of these offices, there were people, entrepreneurs from all over Israel that came here to build the next big thing in Agritech, in Foodtech, in Climatetech. Welcome to my humble house, humble place.
ROBERTSON: So, on this side, a beautiful view of Mount Hermon, and on this side, Hezbollah.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): When we last met Zeevi nine months ago, he was hopeful his evacuated family and his old life would be back soon. Fast forward to now it's a distant memory.
ZEEVI: We thought that we living the dream, building startups, not in Tel Aviv and living in a small shoe box, but living here in the Galilee -- at the Galilee.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): A new reality is setting in getting his family back the dream and the startups --
ZEEVI: It is going to be a challenge, challenging time. I think we went back like 30 years.
[08:10:00]
ROBERTSON (voice-over): So too David Azuli, Mayor of nearby frontline town, Matula, much more optimistic when we met him in January. Now ground down by Hezbollah's incessant attacks and the government's failure to stop them.
DAVID AZULI, MAYOR OF METULA: Things got a lot worse. Almost half the houses in Matula are damaged. The government has forgotten about us. The prime minister only cares about his own political survival.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Not helping the mood Hezbollah's attacks have been spiking lately, and despite the minister of defense promise to get families home by the beginning of September, the IDF's response falling short of everyone's expectations here.
ROBERTSON: Was it burning when you arrived?
RON MOISESKO, ARMY RESERVIST: Yeah, it was always burning the trees. There's a school over there, right over there, that's got some -- as well. ROBERTSON: The school was hit as well?
MOISESKO: Yeah, the school was hit as well.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Even soldiers like Moisesko, who is from Kiryat Shmona, there is frustration.
MOISESKO: It's tiring to wait that long. The war is endless. We need to do something, maybe in a more aggressive way or in a peaceful way just need to do something.
ZEEVI: Eventually we are the one that paying the price. We'd like -- just like a player on a chess. Now we want to come back home.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Not down, not out, but flagging Nic Robertson, CNN, Kiryat Shmona, Israel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And 47 days until America chooses its next president. And in the last few hours, we got a brand-new snapshot of the state of the race. A poll from "The New York Times" and shows Kamala Harris and Donald Trump still in a dead heat nationally tied at 47 percent. It also has Harris holding a slight edge over Trump in the critical battleground a State of Pennsylvania.
Today, Harris is focusing on another key swing state. She's headed to Michigan, where a huge online event with Oprah is planned. More than 90,000 people are expected to tune in. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is covering the latest from Washington for us. So, tell us more about this online event with Oprah.
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is an example of the types of ways that the campaign wants to try to shore up support some unconventional methods, using a Zoom with Oprah, no small name, to get out the vote and to try to get black women in particular, to mobilize voters where they are.
Of course, remember, this is a reliable voting bloc for Democrats, and in 2020 90 percent of black women backed President Joe Biden. Now this Zoom is an outgrowth of what was the win with black women's Zoom that happened shortly after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race this summer, that garnered tens of thousands of participants.
So, this is going to be piling onto that. And again, the idea here is to have this moment with the vice president, alongside Oprah, and also get these women excited, to get them out to help influence and organize and mobilize voters, because it is also something Democratic strategists often talk about, which is that black women play a really critical role in their communities to get people to come out to vote.
So, all of this is an effort to do exactly that. It also comes as part of the broader push that we've seen over the course of the last week by the Harris campaign to focus on voter registration, not only with this live stream event tonight, but also earlier this week with young voters and trying to meet them where they are, online and on college campuses.
So clearly, as you mentioned there with the poll, it's a tight race. So, these are the types of methods that the campaign is looking toward to try to mobilize voters and get their supporters to help in that effort.
WHITFIELD: And then Harris, in an appeal to Latino voters, is slamming Trump's immigration proposals. What's her message?
ALVAREZ: Well, her message is that his agenda is extreme, and that message, in and of itself, is not new for the vice president or for Democrats. But she doesn't often dive into his exact policies and the most controversial proposals that he has put out. Often, she frames this as wanting immigration reform while also pushing for border security.
So yesterday was different when she was delivering remarks ahead of the -- or before the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, she went a little bit further than she has before in detailing those controversial policies, take a listen.
[08:15:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They have pledged to carry out the largest deportation, a mass deportation in American history. Imagine what that would look like and what that would be? How is that going to happen? Massive raids, massive detention camps. What are they talking about?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALVAREZ: Now, what she's referring to there is what the former president has outlined as his immigration proposals that he himself also talks about on the campaign trail. Now I will tell you, the polls continue to show that Former President Donald Trump holds a lead over the vice president when it comes to immigration.
If this continues to be a political vulnerability with them, even as the vice president says on the trail that she is pushing for border security, that the actions that the administration has taken over the last several months has led to a drop in border crossings, but this is still an issue that she hasn't been able to get an edge over Former President Donald Trump on.
So, this is something that we may hear more of over the course of the next few weeks, but clearly trying to draw the stark contrast there with the former president in her remarks.
WHITFIELD: All right. Priscilla Alvarez, thanks so much. All right, Donald Trump heads to Washington today, where he is set to speak at an anti-Semitism event. The former president spent Wednesday in New York stumping on Long Island where he vowed to win the state, which is a Democratic stronghold. He also took shots at Democrats.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's time to stop the lies, stop the hoaxes, stop the smears, stop the law fair or the fake lawsuits against me, and stop claiming your opponents will turn America into a dictatorship. Give me a break, because the fact is that I'm not a threat to democracy, they are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: And new today, Trump is promising to visit Springfield, Ohio in the next two weeks, after repeatedly promoting an unfounded conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants eating people's pets in that town. CNN's Steve Contorno is covering the Trump campaign and joins us live from St. Petersburg, Florida. Great to see you this morning.
So, Trump says he's heading to Springfield. We've heard from a lot of -- you know local folks there who have said no, they don't want him to come there. So, what's going to be the outcome, and what would be the purpose of Trump visiting?
STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Well, it's very clear, Fred, that Donald Trump is very comfortable with this race, and the focus of this race being on immigration for the next seven weeks. If you look at the new "New York Times Poll" that came out today, Trump continues to outperform Vice President Harris on this issue.
54 percent of registered voters, likely voters, said that they think Trump would handle this issue better than Vice President Harris. She finished around 42 percent. So, that is why you were seeing him not only double down on this divisive rhetoric about migrants eating pets, but now threatening to triple down and actually visit that city that these conspiracies have originated from. Take a listen to what he told, that New York crowd yesterday night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They've got to get much tougher. I'm going to go there in the next two weeks. I'm going to Springfield and I'm going to Aurora. You may never see me again, but that's OK. Got to do what I got to do. Whatever happened to Trump? Well, he never got out of Springfield.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CONTORNO: It's quite unconventional for a presidential candidate to be in a space like New York, Long Island so close to an election, it would be just as unconventional for him to go to Ohio with just seven weeks left in this race. It's not a swing state by any stretch. It's a strong Republican state, and Colorado as well.
He mentioned going to Aurora. That is another city that has been sort of the source of some rumors and speculation about the migrant community there. Colorado is a strongly democratic state going into this election, but Trump is going into these spaces nevertheless. WHITFIELD: All right. Steve Contorno, thanks so much. All right, still to come, the Fed's latest rate move is being called a milestone for the U.S. Central Bank. How's it playing on the campaign trail? We'll take a closer look next. Plus, Rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs will remain in custody after he was denied bail for a second time. Those details straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:20:00]
WHITFIELD: Federal Reserve policymakers have been offering signals of what could be ahead for U.S. interest rates. They're indicating rates could be cut again in the Fed's final two meetings this year. And of course, Wall Street is very interested in any Fed projections, and already the futures are looking pretty positive.
This all comes after the U.S. Central Bank moved aggressively to ease interest rates Wednesday, slashing its benchmark rate by half a percentage point. Fed Chair Jerome Powell says U.S. economic strength quote can be maintained, and with only weeks to go until the U.S. Presidential Election, he is also adamant the rate cut has nothing to do with November 5th.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEROME POWELL, CHAIR, U.S. FEDERAL RESERVE: The U.S. economy is in a good place and our decision today is designed to keep it there. We're not serving any politician, any political figure, any cause, any issue, nothing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: The Republican Presidential Nominee offered his own take on the rate cut.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I guess it shows the economy is very bad. To cut it by that much, assuming they're not just playing politics, the economy would be very bad, or they're playing politics, one of the other but it was a big cut.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: You'll know from watching this program that the economy is the number one issue for Americans going to the polls in November. With that in mind U.S. President Joe Biden is set to speak in the coming hours at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. He says the combination of falling inflation and interest rates amounts to what he calls an important moment in the post COVID economic recovery.
Let's go live now to the White House. And CNN's Arlette Saenz with more on all this. All right, so the president is likely to sound very optimistic at the same time what kind of pressure is on the White House? ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, President Biden today is expected really to try to mark a turning point in the U.S. economy with just one day after the Federal Reserve announced that they would be lowering interest rates.
Now it comes as officials say that the president is not necessarily going to take a victory lap here, but he will talk about the progress that he believes his economic policies have made on the U.S. economy, while also talking about the fact that more work needs to be done.
Some of the areas where the officials say that the president will say that more work needs to be done, is when it relates to housing issues, also high cost of groceries and other everyday costs for Americans. But for President Biden, this moment does serve as a vindication of sorts.
He had faced years of criticism people arguing that his economic policies would further harm the economy, even potentially leading to a recession. And with this announcement from the Federal Reserve, the White House is really viewing this as an opportunity to tout how they believe their policies have led to this moment.
The president yesterday, in a post on X, wrote quote, we just reached an important moment, inflation and interest rates are falling while the economy remains strong. The critics said it couldn't happen, but our policies are lowering costs and creating jobs. Now already out on the campaign trail, both of the candidates are trying to use this to their advantage.
For Harris and for Biden, this really gives them an opportunity to point to an accomplishment, trying to argue that their stewardship of the economy has been successful, especially when you consider the state of the economy after the COVID-19 pandemic.
[08:25:00]
For Former President Donald Trump, he's trying to point to this moment as a sign that the economy is currently weak. And he and his allies are arguing that the Federal Reserve is simply playing politics in this moment. Of course, the Federal Reserve, its hallmark is the fact that they operate independently of politics.
Yesterday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell stressed that this was not a political decision, even in a campaign year, but what they're trying to achieve is some price stability and also ensure that employment remains strong in the U.S.
WHITFIELD: And why is the Fed's jumbo size rate -- you know cut being seen as a major economic milestone for the U.S. Central Banks long fight with inflation.
SAENZ: You know, Jerome Powell yesterday said that they aren't really declaring this as a mission accomplished moment when it comes to the fight against inflation. But they do believe that enough progress has been made on that front to go ahead and make these cuts to high interest rates. It comes at a time when Americans have been dealing with the issues of
high borrowing costs for everything from housing to car loans and even credit card payments and instalments and so what the Federal Reserve is hoping that they can do here is try to bring some more stability to prices.
But another chief concern for them is the job market. They have been closely watching the unemployment rate, which has been ticking up just slightly. And so, what the Federal Reserve is trying to do here is strike a very careful balance. You already have Powell saying that there could be further interest rate cuts in the coming months.
The big question is how soon that could be and when exactly that will start to be felt by Americans in their pocketbooks, as they're paying for so many things across this country.
WHITFIELD: All right, Arlette Saenz at the White House thank you so much. Art Rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs will stay in federal custody after his -- after a judge denied his legal team's appeal for bail. Combs was indicted on Tuesday on charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. If convicted, he could face life in prison.
Kara Scannell is following the developments from New York. Kara he is going to have to stay put and how long before his trial?
KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Fred. He is going to stay behind bars -- you know until he either gets an appeal that releases him, or until he is on trial and he would be transported by federal authorities.
Now, the judge, yesterday, after an hour and a half meet -- hearing, had denied Combs' bail, saying that his -- there were no conditions that he felt would ensure that witnesses would not be tampered with, and that would protect the public from what he had found to be Combs who has engaged in some dangerous activity.
I mean, one thing that the judge homed in on was the video that CNN had obtained. It was a hotel surveillance video from 2016 that showed Combs kicking and dragging a woman, one of the women that the prosecutors say was trying to leave the freak off party that is part of these allegations, in this case, the central sex trafficking allegation.
And the judge went back to that, pointing to the physical violence on that video, and raising that at multiple points during the hearing. He also highlighted several contacts that prosecutors had told him that Combs had made with witnesses who had received Grand Jury subpoenas. Specifically, there was a witness who was subpoenaed in June and July, and the prosecution said that Combs had reached out to that witness after having not been in touch for years.
That was something that the judge highlighted to Combs' his attorney as one of these as the high bar that he would have to achieve. And Combs' lawyers were saying that they would hire a private security firm to be in Combs' Miami home to monitor him. They wouldn't allow Combs access to a cell phone or to the internet.
But the judge saying that that was just not enough to ensure that there would not be obstruction activities that would take place because what the prosecution had laid out were multiple points of contacts between Combs and either alleged victims or witnesses in this case.
The prosecutor also telling the judge that Combs' influence has made it difficult for witnesses to share their experiences with the government and to trust that the government can keep them safe. So, there was a real concern here about Combs' outreach to witnesses, and that is the main reason why the judge has said that he will be detained.
Now Combs' attorney said that they are going to fight this. They are going to appeal. He spoke outside of court to reporters. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARC AGNIFILO, ATTORNEY FOR SEAN "DIDDY" COMBS: The fight continues. We're not -- we're not -- we're not giving up by a long shot. I told Mr. Combs, I'm going to try and get his case to trial as quickly as possible. I'm going to try and minimize the amount of time he spends in very, very difficult and I believe, inhumane housing conditions in the special housing unit of the Metropolitan detention facility, and I'm going to do everything that I can to move his case as quickly as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCANNELL: Now Combs' attorney is also asking the judge if he could recommend the Bureau of Prisons to transfer Combs to a county jail in New Jersey, where he said there are a few federal inmates.
[08:30:00]
The judge said he has not ever been asked that before he's asked them for some legal briefing on that that that also does seem like a long shot. So, Sean "Diddy" Combs could be in this federal jail in Brooklyn, New York, until he goes to trial, and then if he is convicted, I mean, Fred, one of these counts, has a minimum sentence of 15 years.
WHITFIELD: My goodness. All right, Kara Scannell, thank you so much. Israel says a new era of war is beginning after devices explode across Lebanon targeting Hezbollah, the latest on the highly coordinated attack straight ahead. Plus, Israel's spy agency Mossad, has a long history of targeting the country's enemies in ways big, small and surprising. We take a look at the agency's past.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: At least 38 Hezbollah members have been killed since Tuesday afternoon that's, according to the group. The deadliest period for the group since the October 7th attacks. Beirut's International Airport bans all pagers and walkie talkies from flights in the wake of back-to-back deadly explosions in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah.
On Wednesday, walkie talkies exploded across the country, killing at least 25 people. It comes one day after hundreds of pagers blew up nearly simultaneously across Lebanon, killing at least 12 people in both attacks, nearly 3000 people have been injured, according to Lebanon's Health Minister.
Meanwhile, Israel says it struck several Hezbollah infrastructure sites in Southern Lebanon in a series of airstrikes. CNN's Will Ripley has more on the exploding devices and their mysterious origins. A warning his report contains graphic images.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A new wave of explosions across Lebanon, this time walkie talkies being used for crowd control, a security source tells CNN one of them blew up during a funeral. On Tuesday, it was beepers blowing up by the thousands. The shocking attacks triggering global investigations from the Middle East to Europe to Asia, an urgent race to find out how simple communication devices, long abandoned by most of the world, ended up in Lebanon becoming explosive, deadly weapons?
BOB BAER, FORMER CIA OFFICER: Getting into thousands of pagers, implanting explosives, detonators, switches and the rest of it, and not changing the weight of the pagers very much, is a complicated operation. And shows extraordinary technical ability.
[08:35:00]
RIPLEY (voice-over): Lebanese security source says militant group Hezbollah bought the pagers in recent months, using them ironically, to prevent Israel and the U.S. from tracking their communications. Israel planted explosives next to each pager's battery along with a detonation switch. "The New York Times" reports, citing U.S. and other officials, thousands of beepers blew up Tuesday, all receiving the same message at the same time.
The pagers have the name AR924 made by Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese company that calls its product extremely robust and durable. 85 days of battery life, fully charging in 2.5 hours. A senior Taiwanese security official tells CNN, Taiwan has no record of Gold Apollo Pagers being shipped to Lebanon. Records do show Gold Apollo shipped about 260,000 pagers from Taiwan, mainly to the U.S. and Australia over the past 2.5 years.
CNN went to the company headquarters in New Taipei City. We saw investigators going in and out. We also talked to the CEO. He strongly denies making the explosive pagers bearing his company's name.
HSU CHING-KUANG, FOUNDER, GOLD APOLLO: I have been in this industry for a long time. I don't want this to ruin our brand.
RIPLEY (voice-over): He blames this Hungarian Distributor, BAC Consulting, claiming Gold Apollo sold them the rights to use its brand name. CNN tried reaching BAC no response. As families of the dozen dead in Lebanon say goodbye.
I was lucky to have you, my love, says the mother of nine-year-old Fatima (ph) the pager, went off as she was doing her homework on the first day of elementary school. Will Ripley CNN, Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And America's top diplomat, is headed to Paris to talk about the situation unfolding in the Middle East with European allies. U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, spent the last couple of days in Cairo, his 10th trip to the Middle East since the war in Gaza began working to revive faltering efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas. But this week's device explosions in Lebanon could further derail those efforts.
Joining me right now is Firas Maksad, a Senior Fellow and Senior Director for Strategic Outreach at the Middle East Institute. Great to see you. So how concerned are you that these pager and walkie talkie explosions will lead to a larger Middle East conflict?
FIRAS MAKSAD, SENIOR FELLOW AND SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR STRATEGIC OUTREACH AT THE MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE: Very --
WHITFIELD: I apologize because the signal is so terrible, we can't understand what it is that you're able to say there, so we're going to try and clean that up and get back to you Firas as best we can. All right, meantime sources tell CNN the pager attack on Tuesday was a joint operation involving the Israel Defense Forces and the country's spy agency Mossad. Mossad has a long and deadly history of tracking down Israel's enemies, as CNN's Brian Todd explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pagers and walkie talkies explode throughout Lebanon over the course of two days, the latest in a long line of audacious, lethal, sometimes high-tech operations by the legendary Israeli Intelligence Agency Mossad.
BAER: The Israelis are the best if you find your name on one of their hit lists. You know, you probably can't get insured.
CHRIS COSTA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL SPY MUSEUM: They have excellent operational security. They don't leak.
TODD (voice-over): This past July, a bomb secretly planted in a Tehran guest house two months in advance, is how a source tells CNN Hamas Leader Ishmael Haniyeh, was killed, which Iran and Hamas say was done by Israel. Another assassination in Iran of a top nuclear physicist in 2020 was allegedly conducted by an explosion plus a remote-controlled machine gun in a car parked nearby. And a Palestinian bomb maker, nicknamed "The Engineer" was killed in 1996 using a cell phone with perhaps just over an ounce of explosives.
BAER: He put it up to his ear, the phone said, hello, dad. And then the Israelis remotely exploded the phone and blew the side of his head off. So, it was a very sophisticated operation. It was very precise. TODD (voice-over): In the 1970s in Baghdad, according to one historian of the Mossad, an Israeli hit squad placed poison in toothpaste used by a Palestinian militant who later died an excruciating death. But there have also been unsuccessful operations.
In 1997 Mossad agents in Jordan sprayed a lethal dose of fentanyl into the ear of Hamas Leader Khaled Mashal (ph), but some of the agents were captured. Israel was forced to provide the antidote and to release at least 19 prisoners. Mashal is still alive today.
[08:40:00]
One of Mossad's earliest successes in 1960 agents tracked down notorious Nazi Adolf Eichmann, an Architect of the Holocaust. He was located and captured hiding in Argentina and spirited back to Israel to stand trial.
COSTA: They managed to grab Eichmann, drug him, and send him back to Israel as a patient.
TODD (voice-over): Eichmann was executed in 1962. Mossad also tracked down almost every terrorist who killed Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. During "Operation Wrath of God" suspects were assassinated one by one, but so was a Moroccan waiter in Norway who, in a case of mistaken identity, was killed, but turned out not to have been involved. Still, operations like these recent ones against Hezbollah have a lasting effect on Israel's enemies.
COSTA: Psychologically, they're going to turn on one another. Who are the informants? How could this happen? They're going to be fearful. They're going to be, in short, disrupted.
TODD (voice-over): "The New York Times" citing officials and security experts reports that earlier this year, Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah put strict limits on the group's use of cell phones because he thought they were too vulnerable to Israeli surveillance.
Intelligence Expert Chris Costa tells us that what Hezbollah will likely have to do now in the wake of these beeper and walkie talkie attacks, is go back to more-old fashioned, physical methods of communication, like couriers and dead drops, Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
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WHITFIELD: And live pictures right now, the Israeli government spokesperson is having a press conference answering questions of reporters. We're continuing to monitor, and as we are able to decipher what information comes out of this, will bring it to you.
Meantime, we're going to try again that conversation I'd love to have with Firas Maksad. He's back with us, a Senior Fellow and Senior Director for Strategic Outreach at the Middle East Institute. OK, hopefully we can hear each other loud and clear now, let's try this again. So, I'm wondering you were answering my question how concerned you are that these pager and walkie talkie explosions might lead to a larger Middle East conflict?
MAKSAD: Hello, Fredricka. I can hear you. I hope you can hear me clearly too. Very concerned. This is certainly a shift, a significant shift in the tempo of the conflict. The parameters seem to be changing over the past 11 months, although taking the fight to Israel in what Hezbollah calls a second front, or a support front, to support Hamas in Gaza. They very much wanted the parameters of this conflict to be contained, short of a threshold of an all-out war, but keeping Israel busy and engaged.
WHITFIELD: My huge apologies Firas, even though we can hear each other clearly now I do need to now go to that live Q&A session happening with the Israeli government spokesperson, let's listen in.
DAVID MENCER, ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON: -- is simply not sustainable. Now, the prime minister has said that the change in the balance of forces on our northern border is needed and necessary. So, Israel will do whatever is necessary to -- purely to their homes.
The government is committed to this, and we will not suffice with anything less. We will do this thanks to the heroism of our fighters and the unity amongst us as a united people rising up against the enemies in order to ensure our future. Now we've had more than 8000 rockets and drones, often more than 100 a day, 63500 people displaced from their homes in the north for almost one year.
Again, no other country would put up with this. 850 fire incidents, close to 200,000 dunams of land burnt. 46 of our people killed by Hezbollah, incessant firing of rockets and UAVs by the Hezbollah terrorist organization, which is aimed at killing our people with no other reason just to kill our people, trying to impose this terror and disrupting daily life.
So, Israel is responding with force to this aggression by Hezbollah. We will use all means necessary to restore security to our northern border and to safely return our citizens to their homes. We will respond with force to this unprovoked aggression from Hezbollah.
We've had thousands of these rockets since October 23. UAVs from Lebanese territory. Now the state of Lebanon and the Hezbollah terrorist organization, which operates under the guidance of Iran, it's always Iran behind all of this violence. They are responsible for this escalation in the security situation.
In our north, it's in violation of international law and United Nations Security Council Resolutions, 1559 and 1701. The Israeli government has a responsibility to defend its people, and that is precisely what we are mandated to do, and it's exactly what we will do, and we are doing.
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OK, next question here from David Clement from "The News Forum in Canada". Can you provide any specifics about the plot by Hezbollah to assassinate Former Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon. Thank you for that question, David Clement from "The News Forum in Canada". The details of the unveiling of that plot to kill our senior security personnel from our security echelon, is on the IDF's website or on the IDF telegram. So, I would advise you to look there for details of the unveiling of that plot, for the foiling of that plot.
Next question here I can see is from, OK, oh, it's from Sebastian Ramspeck (ph) from Swiss Television, SRF. Yesterday, the United Nations General Assembly has given Switzerland the mandate to convene a conference of the parties to the Geneva Conventions with regard to the Middle East conflict. Does Israel intend to take part in this conference? Thank you for that question. Sebastian, I haven't got any information.
WHITFIELD: All right, we're going to continue to monitor the comments there coming from the spokesperson with the Israeli government. I want to bring back with us now Firas Maksad, before we were interrupted. I do want to get your response to what the government spokesperson there is saying that they will, Israel will continue to use drones and respond with force to secure the northern border. What do you read into those comments about the road ahead?
MAKSAD: Yeah, I think what we just heard Fredricka is the Israeli case for broadening this war, much to the chagrin of the American administration that continues to push against that and try to contain the conflict to its current parameters. We heard the spokesman reference UN Security Council resolution 1701 this is the UN Security Council Resolution that ended the last major Hezbollah Israel war in 2006 and which call for Hezbollah to withdraw north of the Litany River, some 15 kilometers away from that Israeli border.
So clearly here the Israeli government spokesman trying to add legitimacy and legitimize the action that the Israeli military that is about to undertake by referencing that UN Security Council Resolution, but also very clearly putting the blame on the footsteps or at the doorstep of Iran, referencing that this is not only a conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, but part of the broader confrontation in the region between Israel and Iran so often taking place, but via proxy.
WHITFIELD: And then, as it pertains to the explosions of these pagers, these walkie talkies. I mean there is now -- you know conflicting reporting. CNN has learned that the explosions were the result of a joint operation between Israel's intelligence service, Mossad and the Israeli military.
"The Washington Post" is reporting that Israel has not claimed or denied responsibility for the attack, but informed Washington of its specifics after the operation through intelligence channels. So, what's your reaction?
MAKSAD: Yeah, I mean, there's a long history of Israeli undertaking -- Israel undertaking covert action without necessarily having to claim it officially. That allows some plausible deniability and gives the adversary an exit if, in fact, they are looking for an exit, not wanting to respond, or at least, at least not respond forcefully.
But I can tell you, sitting here in Washington, I mean, all American government sources indicate that Israel was, in fact, behind this, that it did give them a heads up, informed the Secretary of Defense here a few minutes earlier, even though they did not specify what kind of action they will be taking.
So, for all practical purposes, we can expect that this is Israel behind it. I would very, very quickly add that if on October 7th -- you know the Israeli intelligence services looked like Johnny English, better known as Mr. Bean, to many viewers, it very much looks like James Bond now, after these operations. And I think the Israeli intelligence services very much needed such an operation to recoup their image and the damage that was done to that on October 7th.
WHITFIELD: And in your view, you know, how does the U.S. not get involved?
MAKSAD: Well, the U.S. is time and again, committed to Israel Defense. This is something that you hear from the Biden Administration, despite the fact that they are extremely frustrated. This is not something that the administration wants to see happen and unfold on the heels of a pivotal elections, with the polls being so close.
The administration very much having pre negotiated the deal between Hezbollah and Israel. One that would be Hezbollah withdraw away from that border in return for Israel also redeploying from key border points, disputed points along that that borderline.
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However, Hezbollah and Iran have insisted on a ceasefire in Gaza as a precondition. We all know that, that ceasefire remains elusive.
WHITFIELD: All right, Firas Maksad, thank you so much for hanging in there and for being adaptive. Appreciate it. We'll be right back.
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WHITFIELD: Investigators believe Iranian hackers have attempted to tip the scales in the upcoming U.S. Presidential Election, saying they tried but failed to send stolen Trump campaign documents to his political rivals. CNN's Evan Perez explains.
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR U.S. JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. government says that Iranian hackers sent unsolicited emails with information that they stole from Donald Trump's presidential campaign to people who were affiliated with Joe Biden's campaign over the summer.
There's no indication that the people who received the information replied to the unsolicited emails. And the Kamala Harris campaign says that the campaign itself did not receive any information and that the personal email accounts of campaign staffers were targeted with what looked like spam or phishing campaigns.
The latest update from the FBI, the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, says this is all part of an Iranian effort to try to influence the U.S. Presidential Election. The agency said in a statement on Wednesday that the hackers sent unsolicited emails to individuals that they were then associated with President Biden's campaign that contained an excerpt taken from stolen and non-public material from Former President Trump's campaign as text in those emails.
Now the hackers also sent the Trump campaign documents to news organizations. The Trump campaign says that the incident is an indication that Iran is trying to interfere in the election to help Harris. A spokesperson for Harris says that we condemn in the strongest terms any effort by foreign actors to interfere in the U.S. elections, including this unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity. Evan Perez, CNN, Washington.
WHITFIELD: Iran's mission to the UN issued a statement on the hacking, denying any involvement. It says, in part, already devoid of any credibility and legitimacy. Such allegations are fundamentally unfounded and wholly inadmissible. The Islamic Republic of Iran does not engage in the internal uproars or electoral controversies of the United States.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to meet with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington next week, according to multiple sources. Separately, Donald Trump says he will probably meet with him as well. The Ukrainian Leader will also attend the UN General Assembly next week in New York. He wants to present what he calls his victory plan to both Harris and Trump, as well as to President Joe Biden.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: You can say that our victory plan has been fully prepared. All the points, all the key accents, the necessary annexes with details to the plan have been identified. Everything has been worked out.
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The most important thing now is determination to implement it. There is no and cannot be any alternative to peace, any freezing of the war, or any other manipulations that will simply move the Russian aggression to another stage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: And finally, the Atlanta Falcons are set to host the two- time defending Super Bowl Champs, the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night. The team is making sure every fan, meaning the Falcons, is heading to the stadium and that they will be well fed in celebration of owner, Author Blank's induction into the Falcons Ring of Honor.
The team is giving away two free hot dogs, two bags of chips and unlimited free Coca Cola in a souvenir cup. The team bought 100,000 hot dogs and chips for Sunday according to reports, that's roughly 15,000 more than the total sold during the entire season last year. Eat up and enjoy. Thanks for joining me here in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. "Connect the World" with Eleni Giokos is up next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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