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Erin Burnett Outfront
Anger Over Benghazi; Officials: U.S. Believes Israel Conducted Airstrike On Syria; L.A Area Wildfires Raging Across 18,000 Acres
Aired May 03, 2013 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, Vice President Biden and John Kerry honored the victims of the Benghazi attack today and yet we still don't know what really happened that night. Will the Republican-led hearing finally get answers?
Plus the National Rifle Association begins a three-day convention in Houston today. How does it plan to ward off a second wave of Americans looking to improve background checks?
New development in the Boston terror attack tonight, we're going to tell you the latest we have just found out about the suspected bomber's wife and we'll be speaking with one of the victims tonight. Let's go OUTFRONT.
Good Friday evening, everyone. I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, answers on Benghazi. Merely eight months after the attack on the American consulate killed four Americans including the U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, no one has been brought to justice. Crucial questions still remain.
Today, Vice President Joe Biden joins Secretary of State John Kerry to honor those killed on the attack on September 11th unveiling their names inscribed on a wall at the State Department.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I wish we didn't need a wall like this. I wish I could tell all of you and all of you brilliant young State Department personnel up there, I wish I could tell you we're not going to add anymore names to this wall. I wish I could say that with certainty, but the truth of the matter is there will be more. There will be more, but with God's guidance and a little bit of luck, there will be fewer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: A little bit of luck. Are we relying too heavily on luck? Are we any closer to holding someone accountable for the American lives lost? Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence has an OUTFRONT investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The State Department is honoring the four Americans killed in Benghazi.
JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: It's a hard day. It's a day that brings back pain.
LAWRENCE: But just this week the White House called it ancient history.
JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: But let's be clear. Benghazi happened a long time ago.
LAWRENCE: The mission was attacked on September 11th, less than eight months ago. The FBI is still searching for the attackers and just released this video in Arabic. It's an appeal for the public to help find three men who were at the mission when it was attacked.
(on camera): How confident are you that putting out these pictures is really going to pay off?
STEVE BUCCI, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: It's worth a shot. They are not exactly high fidelity pictures. I'm not sure it's going to help that much. They look like a lot of people running around the world.
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Steve Bucci is a former Pentagon official and retired Special Forces officer. He fears the trail to find the attackers may have grown cold. A Tunisian man was arrested and then released for insufficient evidence. The FBI interviewed a man detained by Libyan authorities. And sources tell CNN western intelligence agencies now believe three al Qaeda operatives from Yemen were involved in the Benghazi attack.
(on camera): Are you confident in how the Obama administration has handled Benghazi before, during and after?
BUCCI: No, I'm not. I'm not one of those people that are going to scream cover up and conspiracy and all that stuff. It's just we don't have all the information yet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: Chris, you know, watching your report, there's obviously so much frustration by a lot of people. Are there any leads? Someone was talking about how the trail may have gone cold. Are there leads on those operatives that could have been involved from al Qaeda in Yemen?
LAWRENCE: Intelligence sources are telling yesterday they did trace them to Northern Mali, but there the trail went cold. Erin, you did a ton of reporting right here on this show a few months back on the French offensive Mali. One of by-products of that it drove a lot of the militants out and created sort of a chaotic situation.
Look, if these militants just happen to be in Benghazi and join in the attack afterwards that's one thing. But if they were dispatched by AQIP thousands of miles away, that shows a significant area and level of coordination -- Erin. BURNETT: Significant level of coordination, which is perhaps more than anybody thought could have been possible. Chris Lawrence, thank you very much with the investigation tonight.
OUTFRONT now, Bob Baer, CNN contributor and a former operative with the CIA and retired Army General James "Spider" Marks, also a CNN contributor. General Marks, let me start with you. Eight months since Benghazi. The administration just this week put out some photographs of people that they thought might have information and also said, look, we think these three men who were there that night may have been partly responsible. Is this the way it should go or is this too little too late?
GENERAL JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, U.S. ARMY (RETIRED): Well, I think it's way too late. I don't know it's too little. Let's look at history a little bit. Eight months is a long time. We had a reward out for information about Saddam. We had a reward for information about Osama Bin Laden. And within 48 hours we had good pictures of the Tsarnaev brothers and information on all points bulletin, if you will.
Within about 12 to 15 hours, we started to round those guys up. It's been eight months and we haven't gotten anything in terms of the murder of a U.S. ambassador and three other great Americans. So I think it's very, very slow. Something must be up and certainly we can discuss what those possibilities are.
BURNETT: I want to ask you about that. Bob, let me ask this though. To the point about how much time has passed. It was within 24 hours that the CIA said, look, we intercepted a phone call from al Qaeda-linked operatives in Libya who were calling somebody saying "congratulations" in Arabic. It turns that person was Moktar Belmoktar who we became familiar with when we covering the Mali story this summer. But if they knew all that then and those guys spent a few more days in Libya, why didn't they find them then?
ROBERT BAER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Erin, I think the problem with Libya is it's a mess. It's getting worse by the day. You've got numerous Jihadi groups all over the country training. The central authority in Tripoli is limited to a few square blocks. Benghazi camps all over. It is such a mess in Libya. It's never really been able to form a central government. In any of these investigations, you need the local police, local intelligence services to go to check out leads. We just don't have them.
BURNETT: What do you think about that, General? This is perhaps not mistakes that were made, but just an impossible situation.
MARKS: Well, it's not impossible. I would totally agree with Bob in that it's completely chaotic in Libya and under those circumstances of chaos, you've got to drop a lid down on it. The United States has to walk in and start doing its really strong investigative work. We had leads early on. Why they went dry or why they ended up into cul-de-sacs, if you will, do an about face and come back out. I mean, there might have been -- I'm not sure there's evidence we're aware of, but the number one mission was to try to round up missiles. Maybe there was a buyback program. I don't know that. I'm not suggesting there was an Iran deal, but there might have been and the United States has to really dig at that and the investigation has taken quite some time to try to uncover some of this information. We have to get it out to the light of day and hopefully that will happen this week.
BURNETT: Bob Baer, Republicans are holding hearings now. House Oversight Committee are going to be holding one next week. You know, they are continuing to put the pressure politically on the president to try to find out who did this. From what you're saying, Bob, do you think they ever going to be able to find who really did it or not?
BAER: You know, I don't think so. This isn't like the Boston bombing. It's not even like 9/11. I worked the Libya target before. It's really hard because it's a tribal country. There are so many factions. The fact is we can't get people on the ground. It would be great if we could, but it's too dangerous.
BURNETT: Well, thank you both very much. We appreciate it. And all of our viewers, we know a lot of you have strong opinions on this. Please let us know on Twitter. We will be covering this next week as those hearing go on in Washington.
Still to come, the National Rifle Association takes a victory lap holding a massive convention in Houston, massive, after the Senate rejected background checks. Did the NRA win the gun debate?
Plus residents ordered to evacuate as wildfires blazed through California. We're going to go into the center of the danger zone live tonight.
And Georgia police release video of Reese Witherspoon's arrest and it's even wilder than we thought.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REESE WHITHERSPOON, ACTRESS: You better not arrest me. Are you kidding me? I'm an American citizen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Our second story, OUTFRONT, the NRA's political big guns. They are out today in force kicking off the NRA's three-day convention in Houston. They have a three-day convention, that's a big deal. It's part pep rally, part victory lap after the Senate rejected a plan to expand background checks last month.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WAYNE LAPIERRE, NRA EXECUTIVE V.P.: We know how they play the game. President Obama or Michael Bloomberg or some other official trots out on national television to scold and shame us suggesting that there's something wrong with owning firearms.
CHRIS COX, NRA CHIEF LOBBYIST: Where we see tragedy, Barack Obama and Michael Bloomberg, they see opportunity.
SARAH PALIN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The politics of emotion, it's the opposite of leadership. It's the manipulation of the people by the politicians for their own political ends.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OUTFRONT tonight, liberal radio host Stephanie Miller and Michael Medved, conservative commentator for Salem Radio. OK, good to have both of you with us, the perfect pairing here. Is the NRA winning? I mean, look the majority of Americans supported expanding these background checks. A bill sponsored by a conservative Republican and a Democrat and it didn't get through. Pretty much everyone credits the NRA or blames the NRA for that.
MICHAEL MEDVED, SALEM RADIO: I don't think that you either credit or blame anybody. I mean, what I would do is blame the Obama administration for making this a priority. This is the most meaningless, distracting, stupid debate. Honestly it is. I'm embarrassed by both sides. I've got to tell you because we have real problems. You were just doing a great piece on Benghazi.
We have problems with North Korea. We have problems with Syria. We have big problems with the budget and the economy and we're talking about background checks as if it matters. It doesn't matter that much. And all of the passion it and all of the focus that president Obama decided to make on this issue, I do think was political exploitation. He hadn't talked about gun issues one bit during his campaign. I think this was a huge political mistake on the part of the president.
BURNETT: Do you think he's lost a lot of political capital? The point that Michael is making, obviously you agree with the president, but do you think that this was a mistake to use as capital in this way?
STEPHANIE MILLER, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Well, you know what, it matters to 90 percent of the American people, Erin. So you want to call that being political, that's fine. Yes, we have problems around the world. Guess where else we have problems? Newtown, Connecticut, Aurora, Colorado, Tucson, Arizona, we have a lot of problems here.
That's why all of these senators that voted against background checks are seeing their numbers plummet and the senators that had the courage to vote for it are seeing their numbers come up. There's a reason why Pat Toomey said the reason Republicans didn't vote for it is because they didn't want to be seen as helping Obama. They are happy to not help grade schoolers as long as they are hurting the president, really?
MEDVED: Stephanie, I don't believe we're reading the same polls. There was a brand new poll out that was out in the "New York Times" at the end of last week. People are just about evenly divided on whether they want stricter gun control legislation and regulation or they want it to be the same or even looser gun control regulation.
The point is that most people, they may express we would like to see this. But the only people this would impact are legal gun owners. And I do think there's a lot of passion and resentment on the part of one-third Americans who own firearms and it's only one-third of Americans who own firearms.
People are angry that all of this would change their lives, but it won't necessarily have any impact on anyone else. You mention Aurora and Newtown. There's nothing in this legislation that would have prevented either Adam Lanza or James Holmes or any other killers from doing their dastardly deeds.
BURNETT: Michael --
MILLER: We shouldn't do anything about gun violence. We just do nothing about gun violence?
MEDVED: No, I think we should absolutely do more for the treatment of mental illness. I think there should be easier to put people in commitment situations in mental hospitals. I think we should have increased law enforcements. I think there should be more care with security in schools. But the idea that gun regulation is actually going to cut down crime, when we had the assault weapons ban, we had it for ten years. There are studies that showed when we had the ban on assault weapons, it didn't work.
MILLER: That's not true. That's where it tripled. After the assault weapons ban expired. We absolutely have those numbers.
MEDVED: Simply not true that they went down after the ban was instituted.
MILLER: Simply is. It simply is true.
MEDVED: OK, take a look at the government's own figures, Stephanie. It simply isn't true.
MILLER: I have looked at many figures. Is there a reason why there's so little gun violence in countries all over the world and here we have a carnage that's more than we are losing in Iraq and Afghanistan? Do you think there's nothing wrong with that?
MEDVED: There is something wrong with it, but I will tell you one of the tightest gun regulations anywhere in the country is in the city of Chicago, which has some of the highest murder rates.
MILLER: That's a false equivalency. You can get guns anywhere quickly right outside of Chicago when you know it.
BURNETT: I have to hit pause there. Thank you very much for a great conversation. I have to hit pause because we have breaking news right now.
Two U.S. officials are telling CNN that the U.S. believes Israel has conducted an air strike into Syria. Western intelligence agencies are reviewing classified data and they say they believe Israel conducted the strike today or late yesterday. Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has more on this it breaking news. Barbara, obviously significant that Israel would have done this.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Erin. Two U.S. officials confirming to me that U.S. and western intelligence agencies are tonight reviewing classified data showing indications that they believe Israel did conduct an air strike into Syria. The other data point that they are looking at is the Lebanese are reporting in the last 24 hours 16 Israeli war plane flights over Lebanese air space coming into Lebanon violating the air space going towards that Syrian border. So clearly something has happened here.
U.S. officials say they need to get more information about all this. They are not confirming it publicly. As for the Israelis, they are not confirming it either. But they issued a statement to our Sara Sidner saying, quote, "We will do whatever is necessary to stop the transfer of weapons from Syria to terrorist organizations. We have done it in the past and will do it if necessary in future."
We know that the Israeli position is they will strike at Syria if they see weapons being transferred from Syria to Hezbollah forces in Lebanon.
BURNETT: Right. And Barbara, let me ask you. Obviously, there have been reports that Secretary Hagel said there were chemical weapons used in Syria that had formerly been a red line for the U.S., but was unclear if it's still wise. Do you know whether the Israelis struck a chemical weapon facility?
STARR: These two U.S. officials telling me tonight they do not believe chemical weapons, per se, were involved. They see no evidence of that. They feel very strongly they would know that specifically. What they are looking at is the Israeli vow that they have made to strike at Syria if they start to transfer those weapons out to Hezbollah in Lebanon or other terrorist organizations. Also they don't believe that these Israeli war planes actually entered the air space to conduct the strike. Typically, they stay outside air space and can shoot in.
BURNETT: Barbara Starr, thank you very much with that breaking news on an Israeli air strike on Syria.
Still to come, new evidence discovered in the Boston bombing investigation today. And you'll meet a man who made a decision right before the bomb went off that saved his life and that of his friends.
Plus the Canada you don't know, Anthony Bourdain takes us on a tour of our neighbor to the north. Maybe you'll see something you don't know about your own country's food.
And wildfires blazing out of control through Southern California tonight in the center of the danger zone, live, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BURNETT: Our third story OUTFRONT, breaking news, in California, fire officials are giving us new numbers right now of the raging wildfires that are burning in the Los Angeles area. Now burning across can 18,000 acres, the fire has crossed part of the Pacific coast highway and there are new evacuation orders tonight as the winds shift.
As of now, 4,000 homes, hundreds of businesses in Ventura County are at risk. The blaze started inland yesterday morning and in about a day had traveled 9 miles to the coast and as we said in just one day, it went from just about 10 acres to 18,000.
Kyung Lah is there tonight and I know things are a little bit calm where you are right now, but a huge change from earlier as this moves so quickly.
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's almost doubled in size from the last report that that Cal Fire and Ventura Country Fire Department gave us. It was at 10,000 through most of the day. This latest update now says it's 18,000 acres, a very large fire. But we are hearing that there is a bit of good news, 20 percent containment.
We had been reporting throughout the day that it was 10 percent containment. Firefighters beginning the turn to begin to contain this fire so 20 percent containment. That is some good news. But basically what firefighters are dealing with, even though as you mentioned, Erin, things on this flank have become relatively calm.
This hillside was on fire through much of the day. You can still see some of that heavier black smoke over that hill. This is still very much an active fire so 4,000 residences are still threatened. There are still evacuation orders in effect and firefighters are still going house to house trying to save homes.
So a very difficult fire, much of this is being fought in the canyons. Firefighters, though, saying what they are seeing now is a turn in the weather. You notice that the wind isn't as high as we saw throughout the day. Things are beginning to shift very, very slightly -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right, thank you very much, Kyung Lah, reporting there and hopefully some good news on the containment.
Still to come, the latest on the Boston bombing investigation, we have new evidence on the explosives that we have just learned tonight and why there will be a funeral for suspect number one.
Plus customers thought they were eating lamb, but it wasn't lamb. We'll tell you what animal it was.
And the video of Reese Witherspoon's drunken rant is released by Georgia police. We're going to play it for you in tonight's outtake and speaking of strange video, we do this every night.
Tonight's shout out a squirrel running the bases. It ran out during the fourth inning of a baseball game between the University of Kansas and Wichita State. It was a frenzy. They kept trying to catch him. The runner at second able to -- that was a pretty good move -- catch the squirrel in his helmet and take the squirrel off the field.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: We start the second half of our show on this Friday with stories we care about where we focus on our reporting from the front lines.
And I want to begin with a statement that we have obtained from one of the more than 100 detainees in a hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay prison. In it the detainee who has been held for more than a decade says he's lost 42 pounds. Attorneys for the detainee tell us they tried to get the declaration submitted in another case but weren't able to do that in time. Since then, they have been wrestling with the Justice Department to release his account to the public.
Calls to close Guantanamo has been growing since the hunger strike began. In three days, more than 126,000 people have signed a petition started by a former Guantanamo prosecutor asking the president to make good on his promise to close it. The problem is, even the people recommended to leave there, he hasn't been willing to send them away. And it's unclear where they could go.
Today was the fourth day of jury deliberations in the trial of Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortion doctor charged with four counts of first-degree murder. Today, the jury asked for a description of the four babies he's accused of killing as well as guidance on legal definitions. Authorities alleged that some of the infants were born alive and viable during the sixth, seventh, and eighth months of pregnancy. CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin tells us deliberations could end early next week. If found guilty, he could be sentenced to death.
The Somali pirates haven't had a successful hijacking in nearly a year. Can you believe that? Donna Hopkins (ph) oversees the State Department's initiative on piracy and says there's been a 75 percent decline in attacks. Much of it attributed to crews defending themselves better. One thousand one hundred forty-seven Somali pirates are now in jail in 21 countries. Piracy, though, is on the rise on the Gulf of Guinea, near Nigeria. The difference though is pirates interested in stealing oil rather than kidnapping for random as the Somalis do.
Well, if you thought horse meat scandal was stomach turning, how about this? You go to a restaurant and you think you're having some nice lamb. But it's not lamb, it's rat. Police in China have seized 20,000 tons of bogus meat and arrested 904 people for passing fox, mink and rat off as beef and mutton. This is according to the Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
In some cases, the meat was diseased or chemicals were used illegally, kind of like using hydrogen peroxide to process chicken claws. When we told Jeremy Russell of the North American Meat Association about it, he was stunned and says he's never heard such a practice. It has been 638 days since the U.S. lost its top credit rating. What are we doing to get it back? Well, today, some good news. The U.S. added 165,000 jobs in April. The unemployment rate went down to 7.5 percent. Stocks rose both heading first time highs today, although the Dow didn't manage to close above 15,000 for the first time. For the week though, pretty solid.
And now our fourth story OUTFRONT: new evidence in the Boston bombing investigation. Sources tell CNN explosive residue was found at the apartment Tamerlan Tsarnaev shared with his wife Katherine and their young daughter. Residue samples tested positive in at least three areas of the home -- the kitchen sink, the kitchen table and the bathtub.
Deborah Feyerick is in Boston for us tonight.
And, Deb, what's the significance of this find? Very small apartment, bombs built there, and now, a lot of evidence on explosives.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what it does is it simply substantiates what we have been told by a law enforcement source that they believe the bombs were built in the home. And it could be the pressure cooker bombs, but don't forget there were smaller devices like pipe bombs that the two men had and that they used during that shootout in which Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed.
And again, we're talking residue. Not talking about huge explosive material. But we're being told by a source is residue testing positive for the presence of explosives. So, in terms of what we're learning, that's what the source is telling us -- Erin.
BURNETT: And, Deb, you know, I know we learned yesterday that the younger suspect who is in custody, Dzhokhar, told investigators the attack was originally planned for July 4th, which was a significant revelation. Have they found evidence they were planning an attack on that date or not?
FEYERICK: Well, you know, what we have right now is we have a statement from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who allegedly told investigators that they were looking at July 4th. But according to one of my sources, no, they have no physical evidence yet that they were going to be -- that they were going to actually target any event on July 4th.
Now, it doesn't mean it couldn't have happened. It just means right now there's no evidence it was going to happen.
One thing you have to think about, and it's something I have been talking to people about today, that is the way this was executed, the technical, the logistical, the strategic execution of this plot, the way the two men walked behind one another and then one stayed while the other continued, the timing of this, how they were communicating via cell phone, how one blast was able to go off and then the other one sort of went off. So, you look at all this and this is what sources will tell you is trade craft. They learn how to do this and they do dry runs to make sure that this happens. So the suggestion that they just sort of randomly picked the Boston marathon a day or two before it doesn't fit with what we have been seeing on all those tapes of how this all happened, Erin.
BURNETT: Yes, it certainly doesn't seem to. And just a quick follow-up. They are still looking at people to try to find out whether anyone was involved. They are focused intently still on the widow of Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
FEYERICK: Well, they are, they are, because if she was in this apartment while the devices were being built or whether the ingredients for these devices were present, then, clearly, she may have seen, she may have known what was going on in the apartment and never said anything. You know, whether she was a co-conspirator or whether she saw and said nothing or what statements she's making, you know, they are looking at that very closely.
But this was a very, very small apartment. It would be hard to sort of get away with something in that apartment -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Deb Feyerick, thank you very much.
And there's also anger in Boston tonight as we learn the funeral for the terror suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is actually going to be held, and held in Worcester, which is just outside the city.
Brian Todd is OUTFRONT with the growing controversy about the burial.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): He's causing emotional turmoil, even in death. Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body finally claimed by his uncle and sisters drew protesters to one funeral home and that home only had him for a few hours.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Send him back to Russia.
TODD: The director of the funeral home in Worcester, Massachusetts, which currently has the body, says he's had trouble finding a cemetery that will take Tsarnaev for burial. A family spokesman says the body won't be taken to Russia, that he'll be buried somewhere in the general Boston area.
We went around Boston and Cambridge asking people how they felt about that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's too sad for words. It's too sad. He shouldn't be here. He should never have come if he had had never come, it would have been -- none of this would have happened. He had every advantage he could have here. He shouldn't be buried here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't really care where he's buried. To me, he's dead already. How much more can you punish him? I just -- to me, it's too petty.
TODD: The issue of how to bury Tsarnaev is also hugely controversial, especially within the Muslim community.
(on camera): As for leaders here at the Islamic Society of Boston mosque in Cambridge, where the brothers sometimes prayed -- well, they want nothing to do with funeral. They're not involved with it and they no longer even want to talk about it. As one official here told me, they understand the Tsarnaev's family's pain, but they are, quote, "utterly devastated" by this entire experience.
IMAM IBRAHIM RAHIM, YUSUF MOSQUE: The prophet of Islam is the prophet of mercy, not bombs.
TODD (voice-over): After midday prayers at the Yusuf mosque in Brighton, I asked Imam Ibrahim Rahim why so many top imams, including him, won't preside over Tamerlan Tsarnaev's funeral.
RAHIM: Addressing his issue over addressing his concerns over the concerns of the entire commonwealth of Massachusetts, it just doesn't balance out. So, we don't touch it to be respectful and regardful of all the sentiments that are out there.
TODD: So in place of traditional burial with an imam, Rahim says he would advise the family to have a relative or another layperson preside. Do it privately with the traditional rights of washing the body, shrouding it, praying, placing him in the ground.
(on camera): Do you think he should be buried in Massachusetts or in the United States?
RAHIM: You know, I don't know what his nation status is. But if he's not from here, and I've seen Americans speak (INAUDIBLE), I think he probably should go back to his nation to be buried. But that's not up to me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TODD: Aside from the questions of how and where Tamerlan Tsarnaev is buried, there's also the continuing question of when. The family spokeswoman says relatives will not bury the suspected bomber until an independent autopsy is conducted -- Erin.
BURNETT: Brian, thank you very much from Boston tonight.
And still to come, a survivor of the Boston terror attack comes OUTFRONT. Jarrod Clowery and his friends they were just three feet from the second bomb. And one split second decision by Jared saved their lives.
Plus, Anthony Bourdain takes us on the tour of Canada. Bourdain, beer, beaver -- what's not to like?
And the video of Reese Witherspoon's drunken rant is released by police. We'll give you a chance to make your own judgment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REESE WITHERSPOON, ACTRESS: You better not arrest me. Are you kidding me? I'm an American citizen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: More than 260 people were injured in the Boston marathon bombings. Many will live the rest of their lives with permanent injuries.
Jarrod Clowery was standing three feet away from the second explosion. He was severely injured. He spent more than two weeks in the hospital and he's now at a rehabilitation facility on the long road to recovery. That's where we caught up with him.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will be testing your muscle strength. We're going to look at the wound.
JARROD CLOWERY, BOSTON BOMBING SURVIVOR: You're going to open it up? It's like hell. So --
BURNETT (voice-over): Thirty-five-year-old Jarrod Clowery is slowly getting his life together. The carpenter from Stoneham, Massachusetts, was standing three feet from the second bomb when it exploded. He was hit with 40 pieces of shrapnel, carpenter nails, ball bearings and plastic. Nearly three weeks ago, on Monday. April 15th, Jarrod was on Boylston Street watching a friend run the Boston marathon.
Here he is moments before the first blast. That's bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev just a few feet to his left.
Jarrod says he and his friends started running away from the first explosion but had to jump over the railing to get into the street.
CLOWERY: I got my right foot up and my left foot up and I'm a pretty nimble guy. I stop for just a split second to tell the young lady here, Jackie, who is my friend's girlfriend, Jackie, get your butt in the -- boom.
BURNETT: The second explosion came 12 seconds. Jarrod's decision to jump over the railing likely saved his life. Battered and bloody, Jarrod says two off duty says policeman came to his aid.
CLOWERY: So, he looks at me and says you're going to be OK. I tell him, you tell anybody that, you know? He says, Jarrod, believe me when I tell you, there's worse out here than you. And that's when I remembered my friends and I said, oh, my God, my friends are all dead.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BURNETT: Jarrod Clowery considers himself blessed and lucky. His three friends were standing right near him. While they all survived, each of them lost a leg in the explosion.
I spoke to Jarrod just before the show from the Spaulding Rehabilitation and Hospital in Boston. And I asked him how he's doing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLOWERY: I'm actually doing unbelievable. I got a lot of shrapnel and a couple more surgeries in my leg, but you know, from five days ago, if you could have seen me, I mean, I'm 100 percent better. And u actually walked down here. I'm pretty it's the longest walk I have taken. But I'm blessed. I'm blessed compared to some of the other victims.
BURNETT: And I know that, you know, you mentioned another surgery. You have had surgeries. Doctors have had to remove, you know, the carpenter nails, plastic, the things that are so hard for all of us to comprehend. And I know you still have 20 BBs inside your body.
Can you feel them all? I mean, how painful is it for you?
CLOWERY: I have a spring behind my right knee that the surgeon told me they can't get out and they have to try to the let it work out. I can feel that almost, I think. And there's some -- I don't know if it's nerves, I'm not a doctor, so I don't know, but, yes, I get sensations definitely in my right leg where the 20 BBs are.
But it's just kind of funny. Normal things you try to do and then it's like, your body tells you, no, that's not going to work. So, it's -- I can feel it.
BURNETT: You know, you're a carpenter, you're a professional pool player. You know, Jarrod, it was amazing, I was looking -- you're in the New England Pool and Billiard Hall of Fame. You're a guy who was so physical. This explosion has changed you with your arms and your hands.
Is your goal -- are you hopeful you'll be able to go back to your job and your life as it was?
CLOWERY: Yes, and to be honest with you, I haven't really thought about that. I have three friends that I was with that day. There was six of us, and three of them lost their legs and lost one leg each. Two of them are still getting surgeries in the hospital. My job after I get this done is to stay with them so we can leave Boston the same way we came.
BURNETT: Jared, when you all were together that day -- I mean, you were all side by side. You were three feet away from the second explosion. And, you know, you heard the first one. You were trying to get your friends to safety. There was just one act of God, one moment that made your fate different than your friends. You were up on that rail trying to get your friends on to the street. If you weren't on the rail, you would have lost a limb, you may not even be here today.
What do you remember about that moment?
CLOWERY: I was pretty aware the whole time. I remember everything. By the grace of God, for lack of better words, I happen to be there that split second the bomb went off. I hesitated just long enough to tell Jackie to get her butt in the street.
And I think before I could even say "street" -- it went off. It shredded -- you know, I got shrapnel underneath from my butt to my ankles, you know, in both legs. But I mean, even that is a miracle. That's the best place I could have taken it.
So I'm truly a blessed human being. And, my friends, you know, my friends are blessed too. They know it. We're all breathing and we were all standing, like you said, side by side within four feet of that and we're all breathing. And my thoughts and my prayers and everything I do during this goes out to the people that did lose their lives and their families, and I want them to know that I'm going to -- you know, I'm not going to let them be forgotten, either.
BURNETT: And, Jarrod, I know it will be your mission and your friends. I mean, you have this beautiful friendship that is going to last forever, but you've had high profile visitors, Michelle Obama, the cast from "Wicked Tuna" and you're a serious fisherman, so that was special.
But he world is watching right now. Eventually obviously that changes, but you are going to keep fighting this and your friends will keep fighting this. What do you need the most, for the long term, what do you need the most?
CLOWERY: I feel like I got everything I ever wanted or needed right now. A larger glance of what I need the most, I would like the world to stop giving those guys air time 24/7 and look at the good that's happening in the recovery and pieces like you're doing right now, Erin, on what's the good that's happening. That's what I need and I think that's what the world needs is to not let those guys win.
You know, just -- I know we have to have the coverage and the people want to see that, but to be honest with you, I don't even know those guys' names. I haven't thought about them. Only in interviews do I even think about it.
But every time the TV's turned on, that's what's on there and I just, you know, maybe we could go 50/50 instead of 24/7 bad guys.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: For more on Jarrod's recovery and our full interview, please go online to our Web site. Also, how you can help the survivors of the Boston marathon. There are lots of things you can do. Go to CNN.com/OutFront and learn more. >
Well, this just in. President Obama is using some very strong language about Syria's chemical weapons. He actually just made these comments to reporters traveling with him in Costa Rica, obviously significant with breaking news tonight. I want to play it for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If, in fact, we see strong evidence that we can present and that allows us to say that the Syrian military and the Syrian government is using chemical weapons, then that is a game changer for us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Unclear what game changer means. The president when asked about his comments in follow-up questions said, quote, "He didn't see how putting boots on the ground would be good for America or Syria."
Obviously every word the president says about Syria is being scrutinized and this comes as two U.S. officials this hour tell CNN's Barbara Starr that the U.S. believes Israel has actually moved and conducted an airstrike on Syria today or yesterday.
I want to check in with Anderson Cooper now with a look at what's coming up at the top of the hour -- Anderson.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to be following up on that breaking news. Sources telling CNN Israel launched the air strikes into Syria.
Also, a second wildfire roaring just outside Los Angeles. We'll speak with men who have been in the middle of the fight. Remarkable pictures he brings.
Also, extraordinary perspective to what it's like both as a three decade veteran of fighting wildfires and a documentary filmmaker.
Also, the mom who disappeared 11 years ago dropping her kids off at school and then vanishing. Now, we are learning new details of the life that Brenda Heitz was living in the last 11 years. The time from when she left her hometown outside Philadelphia and reappeared this week in the Florida Keys. I'll speak with a friend who says there's much more to the story than the picture she has painted to police of a life of hard knocks living on the run and homeless on the streets. She says her life was actually not that bad at times, out drinking with friends.
Those stories, new developments as well tonight in the Boston bombing case and the "RidicuList."
A lot to cover at the top of the hour, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Anderson, we're looking forward to seeing you in just a few minutes. And now, to tonight's "Outer Circle" where we reach out to our sources around the world. Tonight, we go close to where a lot of you are, Canada, with focus of this weekend's parts unknown. I asked Anthony Bourdain why he chose to visit our neighbor to the north.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTHONY BOURDAIN, PARTS UNKNOWN: Canada suffers from this sort of ill-defined nebulous entity in the minds of so many people in the states. And I think to some extent, in Anglo-Canada, that there's a struggle as well to say, who are we?
The Quebecoise do not suffer from this problem. They know who they are, they know how they are different, they have their own language and their own culture. They are obstinate about it if not outright militant in some instances.
In my personal experience, this often leads to good food. There will be food porn. There will be gluttony. There will -- there will be drinking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Food porn, gluttony and drinking -- what is not to like? "ANTHONY BOURDAIN PARTS UNKNOWN", catch it all this Sunday, 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.
Well, a video of Reese Witherspoon's arrest and drunken rant has been released and, well, you know ,we told you about last night, the apology. And so, we had to follow up. The outtake is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Every night, we take a look outside some of the day's top stories to find what we call the OUTFRONT "Outtake". And last night, we showed you Reese Witherspoon apologizing for her drunken rant and at the time, we pointed out how genuine it was. She admitted her mistake, took full responsibility and vowed to make amends to the people she wronged, apologizing to the cop who arrested them.
It appeared to be the perfect way to apologize for what she did. But, you know, we hadn't really seen what she did until today, when we actually saw what she did. So let's show you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OFFICER: Ma'am, what did I just tell you to do?
WITHERSPOON: I would like to know what's going on.
OFFICER: He's under arrest.
WITHERSPOON: I'm a U.S. citizen. I'm allowed to stand on American ground and ask a question I want to ask.
You better not arrest me. Are you kidding me? OFFICER: Nope. I told you --
WITHERSPOON: I'm an American citizen. This is harassment. You are harassing me.
I have to obey your orders?
OFFICER: Yes, you do --
WITHERSPOON: I do not. Do you know my name, sir?
OFFICER: Don't need to know.
WITHERSPOON: You don't need to know my name? You're about to find out who I am for obstructing your justice.
(CROSSTALK)
WITHERSPOON: Really? I'm being anti-American?
OFFICER: Yep.
JIM TOTH, WITHERSPOON'S HUSBAND: I'm sorry. I'm absolutely 100 percent sorry. I had nothing to do with that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, now, do you think her apology was appropriate? Let us know. Have a great weekend.
"A.C. 360" starts now.
