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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Snowden: I'm No Criminal; Profile Of A Terror Leader; Doctors Ordered To Torture Detainees
Aired November 04, 2013 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And now, the White House is firing back. CNNs Diana Magnay is in Moscow with that. Good morning, Diana.
DIANA MAGNAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Christine. Yes. It's interesting. This manifesto of truth Edward Snowden says he has done the world a public service effectively to have brought the issue of unchecked mass surveillance into society's demand into the hands of the global citizenship. And he singles out GCHQ, the NSA and GCHQ, which is its British equivalent as the worst offenders of sort of criminal activity by the intelligence agencies.
And he also says that some governments have engaged in a kind of witch hunt to try and suppress journalists or people who wanted to expose the activities of these kinds of agencies. I'll just read you out a quote from that editorial. He says, "The debate they wanted to avoid is now taking place in countries around the world and instead of causing damage, the use of this new public knowledge is causing society to push for political reforms oversight and new laws."
And this follows, obviously, Christine, that meeting he had last week with a German lawmaker where he basically told him that he wanted to testify before U.S. Congress, but that he wanted to see the charges of felony in the U.S. dropped -- Christine.
ROMANS: How is the U.S. responding to this, Diana?
MAGNAY: Not particularly well. The White House hasn't issued any kind of formal response yet, but there have been some voices out there who've said this won't happen and it's unacceptable what he's done. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. DIANE FEINSTEIN, (D-CA): He had an opportunity. If what he was a whistleblower to pick up the phone and call the House Intelligence Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee, and say, look, I have some information you ought to see. That didn't happen. And now, he's done this enormous disservice to our country. And I think the answer is no clemency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAGNAY: You know, one of the conditions for Edward Snowden's asylum here in Russia as per President Putin is that he doesn't disclose any more information that could further damage U.S. interests and there are calls for him to testify in Germany and he's saying, I'd like to testify but only if you grant me asylum and the Germans aren't very keen on that. So, he's in a very tricky situation here. Russia, as a whole, as a state, doesn't really marry with his values of sort of open government without any kind of surveillance. But for now, this is where he is stuck -- Christine.
ROMANS: A bit of irony, isn't it, that he is in Russia trying with his manifesto. All right. Thank you so much, Diana Magnay.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Thirty-three minutes after the hour. And jail member of a now famous Russian punk rock band has gone missing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN (voice-over): That's according to her family. Nadia Tolokonnikova (ph) was scheduled to be transferred to a new penal colony on October 21st, but her husband and family say they have not received any information about her whereabouts since then. The 23- year-old musician was sentenced to prison after insulting Russian president, Vladimir Putin, last year.
ROMANS (voice-over): A Texas woman is recovering this morning after a brutal attack by an army soldier. Thirty-one-year-old Rachel Poole (ph) was nine months pregnant and video chatting with her husband, Justin Poole (ph), who's currently deployed overseas when her attacker, 19-year-old Corey Moss (ph) begin to viciously stabbed and beat her while her husband watched helplessly on the other end from Asia.
Rachel managed to call 911, was taken to an El Paso Hospital in critical condition, successfully delivering a healthy baby girl.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN (on-camera): So feared and (INAUDIBLE) in almost equal measure. Al Qaeda in Somalia, al Shabaab is failing at home but now lashing out beyond its borders. In September, its gunmen attacked the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya, killing more than 67 people. Within weeks, the fabled U.S. Navy SEAL team six which killed Osama Bin Laden set out to capture al Shabaab leader, Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulkadir, but failed.
The twist? The terrorist rise was virtually enabled by the U.S. Nic Robertson now has a CNN exclusive.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Known as Ikrima, he rocketed from obscurity to global terror threat in just a few years. He did it with the help of the CIA. CNN can reveal how and why they even hooked him up with al Qaeda in Yemen before they tried to kill him.
MORTON STORM, FORMER CIA SPY: I was offered a million Danish Kroner which is occurring to $200,000 if I could lead the Americans to kill him. ROBERTSON: Ikrima (ph)?
STORM: Yes.
ROBERTSON: Storm, a former Danish biker turned jihadist turned double agent says he was working undercover when he first met Ikrima.
STORM: I met him in 2008 in Nairobi. I was working on a mission from the Danish intelligence and the British and the Americans --
ROBERTSON: The CIA?
STORM: And also, the CIA and the British five (ph).
ROBERTSON: Ikrima was not a fighter. He was to rise through al Shabaab's ranks with the help of Storm for the intelligence agencies he worked for.
(on-camera) This is one of the places they used to meet, a shopping mall in the heart of Nairobi, a nondescript hotel tucked away inside. Storm, he says, handing over material to Ikrima, material he says that intelligence officials knew all about.
STORM: He'd been asking me for money. He'd been asking me for equipment and I had been giving him what he asked for.
ROBERTSON: Why?
STORM: That was to gather intelligence information and to maintain our network in Somalia.
ROBERTSON: And this essentially builds him up because he has money he can provide?
STORM: That's right.
ROBERTSON (on-camera): Money and equipment wasn't all Storm gave Ikrima. He was introducing two major al Qaeda franchises.
STORM: This is Ikrima (ph) since the 23rd of February, 2010, where -- and where our rookie is asking me to pass on an e-mail to Ikrima.
ROBERTSON: These e-mails and dozens of others, Storm says, evidence he connected Ikrima to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP, to the American cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki killed in a U.S. drone strike last year. Together, he says, Ikrima and Awlaki plotted attacks on the west.
STORM: Ikrima and Anwar al-Awlaki had been in touch and had agreed to send people from Somalia to Yemen to receive the training and then AQAP in Yemen would arrange the traveling to the west. That would be for terrorist attacks over there.
ROBERTSON: Storm lost touch with Ikrima last year when he retired from spying, but he blames intelligence services for building him up and leaving him at large to, perhaps, be involved in the Kenya shopping mall attack.
STORM: I could really frustrated to know that Ikrima had been maybe involved in Westgate's terrorist attack and also is a high rank person within that organization, it frustrates me a lot, so --
ROBERTSON: Because he could have been stopped?
STORM: He could have been stopped.
ROBERTSON: Stopped, if western intelligence had fully understood who they were dealing with.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Nairobi, Kenya.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: And our thanks to Nic for that report. The CIA has declined to comment on this story to CNN.
ROMANS (on-camera): A Cirque Du Soleil performer remains hospitalized this morning after falling during a show in Las Vegas. The male artist whose name has not been released yet was performing in the wheel of death act Friday night. He slipped and fell off the wheel. The show was stopped. The performer taken to an area hospital where he's listed in stable condition. They pulled the curtain quickly and then the show did go on.
BERMAN: Yikes. All right. Time for a check now on the weather. Karen Maginnis live at the weather center for us in Atlanta.
ROMANS: Good morning.
BERMAN: Good morning, Karen.
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, John and Christine. Yes. If you are wondering just how cold it feels outside, yes, it feels like it's in the 20s to 30s, which is way below where we should be for this time of year. Look at this, in Buffalo 25 degrees there. Syracuse is 24. Montpelier is 16 degrees!
Now, you go a little bit further towards the east and those temperatures in the 30s, but these are a good five to 10 degrees below where it should be for this time of year. And Albany, 25 degrees should be around 34. In Boston, temperatures not even at the freezing mark, but typically, for this particular day, we would see temperatures right around 41 degrees when you wake up in the morning. Into the southeast where temperatures took a nose dive over the last several days, but we'll start to see them increase as we go through the workweek.
In Atlanta right now, 43 degrees looks pretty nice at the Hartsfield- Jackson International Airport. Now, you may have gotten up early enough in the morning on Sunday to see the hybrid partial lunar eclipse or solar eclipse. Take a look at this. This is out of New Jersey. Now, the reason why you don't see a total eclipse is because, typically, you would see all of the moon and the earth and the sun would all be aligned, but they weren't.
But essentially, it looks like it was just a nick out of the sun. So, we didn't see a total eclipse, but they did in the southern hemisphere. John, Christine, back to you.
BERMAN: Thanks so much. There are known write (ph) songs about a partial eclipse of the heart. Did you ever notice that?
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: All right. A horrifying scene Friday night at the Denver Nuggets And Portland Trail Blazers NBA game. That's Rocky, the Nuggets' mascot. He's being lowered from the rafters just before tip- off, looking limp and lifeless because the man inside the costume was unconscious. He fainted on the way down and collapsed in heat on the floor. He's OK, eventually, walking off under his own power, later tweeting feeling much better.
BERMAN: What a weird, weird night between the mascot, NFL head coaches, Cirque Du Soleil.
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: Must be hot. (INAUDIBLE) for the raptors.
All right. Coming up, a shocking report about the way the United States is treating detained terror suspects. Is the CIA and is the Department of Defense using doctors to torture inmates?
ROMANS: And a terrifying attack at a South Florida beach. How two strangers helped save the life of a six-year-old boy who was about to be pulled under again by a five-foot shark.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN (voice-over): An NYU student rescued from really, really tight spot. Nineteen-year-old Asher Vontu (ph) spent nearly two days trapped between a dorm building and a garage. Now, the space he was trapped in is just two feet wide. It's believed he fell out of a fifth floor window and got wedged in there somehow. Firefighters had to break through a wall to rescue him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was on his side. He was moving his right arm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They would not have found him for who knows how long and he would probably be dead right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Vontu is in stable condition this morning. Very lucky. ROMANS (voice-over): One person killed, several others injure inside in a church bus crash in Indiana. Local affiliate reports a passenger car ran a red light, slammed into this bus carrying 18 passengers, including 14 children. Officials confirm the bus driver died in the crash. The driver of the car reportedly fled the scene but was later caught. Police say alcohol may have played a role.
BERMAN: All right. A six-year-old Alabama boy lucky to be alive this morning after a shark clamped down on his leg and tried to drag him under the water. Logan Handey's (ph) parents heard the screams and they were trying pull their son and the shark apart. Luckily, there were people nearby. Two strangers. They jumped into action.
They punched the shark's head repeatedly until it let go of the little boy. Logan is doing OK after getting five deep puncture wounds. They're all stitched up.
ROMANS: And I guess that's the right thing to do. You punch the nose and the snout. Right?
BERMAN: I guess. I mean, that is a presence of mind to do that, not to mention the courage. Good for them.
ROMANS: Wow. Wow.
All right. Quite a disturbance at O'Hare's airport in Chicago. An alligator on the loose in terminal 3 on Friday. At first, airport police laughed when they got the call figuring it was some kind of a prank, but they weren't laughing when they saw the little gator's teeth. An officer managed to trap him by placing a trash can over him. No one was sure how he got there. He was late for his flight, you know?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN (on-camera): It's O'Hare, man. O'Hare is crazy. That's why you don't --
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: No connections to O'Hare.
ROMANS (on-camera): If you're in the terminal and you got to get to over to -- you're in trouble.
BERMAN: I always (ph) say there alligators -- let's take a look at what's coming up on "NEW DAY." Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan join us now.
(LAUGHTER)
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, guys. Good morning. I almost spit out my coffee. Good morning.
(LAUGHTER)
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You need it. We need something to warm us up in here. It's cold in the studio this morning, JB.
All right. We have an exclusive interview with a woman who knew the alleged L.A.X. shooter. Important. Why? Well, there are details about what happened the morning of the attack and also how the crime may have been plotted days in advance. Remember, we're always trying to learn from these situations and figure out why this happened. We're also talking to a couple who was at L.A.X., saw the entire thing unfold.
BOLDUAN: And we're also digging into allegations of bullying in the NFL, most specifically, the Miami Dolphins. One player has left the team honestly just walked off. Another has now been suspended. Some are saying that the macho posture in football has gone too far. But what is really going on here? We're going take a look at it this morning. Lots to talk about.
ROMANS: Just a fascinating story. I want to know more about that. I want to know more about --
CUOMO: Good. Watch the show.
ROMANS: They think it was hazing. They thought it was OK as part of the culture or was it something --
BERMAN: A lot of questions and not a lot of information, I have to say.
ROMANS: All right. Thanks, guys. We'll see you in a minute.
The Washington monument this morning temporarily going dark. It's been covered with decorative lights since July while workers fixed exterior cracks caused by -- remember that earthquake in 2011 that crack the foundation? Those lights are being removed. Right now, scaffolding that's been there since February will be taken down starting next week. External pairs are now about 80 percent complete, we're told. The monument is expected to re-open to the public next spring.
BERMAN: That will be welcomed to be sure.
ROMANS: Yes.
BERMAN: All right. Time now for our "Morning Rhyme." This is really best tweet of the day comes. It comes from someone called Dana Church Lady who writes "Roses are red. Violets are blue. I got an extra hour of sleep this weekend, so why do I feel like" -- you can see it there on the screen. Lots of point for creativity there and the celebration of daylight saving time -- you can come up with your own tweet any time. Send us your morning rhyme. The hash tags are morning rhyme and EARLY START.
ROMANS: And the answer to her rhyme is why you feel that way, my dear? It's because it still is Monday. The beginning of the week.
BERMAN: Can't get past that. Sorry.
ROMANS: But thanks for rhyming with us.
BERMAN: All right. Coming up for us next, an arrest in the attempted kidnapping of an eight-year-old Colorado girl. How police say they were able to find a suspect so quickly.
ROMANS: Plus, the markets. Wow! On a record run this year. And with two months to go before the end of the year, I'm going to tell you why the upward trend may not be over yet!
BERMAN: Oh, wow. There's more to come?
ROMANS: Yes. We'll see. I'm going to tell you in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Welcome back. It's "Money Time," Berman. I'm Christine Romans. Good morning for you. I got a good morning for you. Stock futures up across the board. If the market trend continues, we're likely to finish the year with the biggest annual gain since 1997. That's if there's nothing that mucks it up. Right now, we're looking at pretty outstanding scoreboard for the year.
The Dow is up 19 percent year to date. The NASDAQ is up 30 percent. The S&P up 24 percent. The last time the S&P had bigger returns first was for the first ten months was 16 years ago. There are few reasons bolds (ph) are optimistic the market can keep going. Number one, the S&P has gained in November more than 60 percent of the time over the past 30 years. Look at the (ph) calendar on your side.
Number two, December has had the second best returns for any month over the past 80 years. Again, the calendar on your side. Number three, investors poured $10 billion into equity funds during the final days of October. So, put it all together, you've got the makings of a rally especially when investors feel the Federal Serve is likely to hold off on scaling back at stimulus until sometime next year.
The other big story I'm watching this week, the most anticipated initial public offering of the year, Twitter. It prices Wednesday. It will begin trading on Thursday. And it comes at a good time for IPOs. Companies entering the market are out 50 percent this year. The stock prices are (ph). Shares will debut between 17 and $20 a share. That's the initial sort of target range of the company.
You probably will not be able to buy it at that price. Why? In most tech IPOs, only about 20 percent of the shares go to ordinary investors. Those people like John Berman, you, me. The rest goes to employees and institutions back into company. And sometimes, it pays to wait. I want to show you two recent social offerings.
First, Facebook. The biggest IPO ever, tech IPO ever was one of the biggest flop. The stock debuted at 38 bucks a share, but three months later, you could get it for half the price, right? So, you didn't need to rush into that. Now, today, trade for three times is low. So, it paid to wait on Facebook.
LinkedIn, another one, a smoother first day. The company priced shares at 45 bucks. They opened at 83 then fell below to 60 seven months later. Today, it's trading above $200 a share. I just wanted you to know why everyone is talking about Twitter, Twitter, Twitter this week. And I think a lot of a lot of people are saying Twitter is just going to skyrocket on the open. No one knows for sure but recent history shows it pays to wait.
BERMAN: Yes. The pattern is patience --
ROMANS: Warren Buffett doesn't buy initial public offerings. If Warren Buffett doesn't do it, why --
BERMAN: He's very, very rich.
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: Coming up, terror suspects tortured. There is the disturbing new report that said the defense department and CIA forced doctors and health care professionals to do physical harm to detainees. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN (voice-over): The prosecution expected to wrap up its case this week against Martin MacNeill. He, of course, is the Utah doctor accused of killing his wife. The outcome in this case could hinge on the final witnesses. Prison inmates who claim MacNeill confessed to them while he was serving time for forgery. MacNeill's daughters have already testified against him. And prosecutors allege he killed his wife so he could be with his mistress.
ROMANS (voice-over): A 26-year-old Colorado artist has been arrested for the attempted kidnapping of an eight-year-old Aurora girl. Investigators say John Snorsky (ph) snatched the girl through her bedroom window last Monday. She fought back and managed to escape. Snorsky was jailed Tuesday on a parole violation in an unrelated case. Police say the victim's description and more than 200 tips helped make an arrest so quickly.
BERMAN: There's a new report claims the CIA and the defense department forced military doctors and health professionals to breach ethics when dealing with detainees. A task force of independent military medical and ethics experts (ph) reporting that since 2001, military health professionals have been ordered to design and participate in, quote, "cruel inhumane and degrading treatment of detainees," including torture.
The review concludes the practices are still in place today. That report is sure to get a lot of attention in the coming days.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS (on-camera): All right. That's it for our EARLY START. "NEW DAY" starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hopefully, he's going to be all right. I know he's a great football man and a great person.
CUOMO: Breaking overnight. An NFL coach collapses on the sidelines. The team rushes to his aid. The second NFL coach health scare this week. We have the latest.
BOLDUAN: A CNN exclusive. The new details on the alleged LAX gunman from a woman who knew him well. Just how far in advance was he plotting his attack? She's only talking to CNN.
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Close call. Two planes collide mid-air. The trained sky divers on board leaping for their lives. Everyone survives. We hear from one of the jumpers on board
CUOMO: Your "NEW DAY" starts right now.
ANNOUNCER: This is "NEW DAY" with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan, and Michaela Pereira.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to "NEW DAY." It is Monday, November 4th, six o'clock in the east. Coming up this morning, we're going to be talking elections. Now, before you say it's a little early to be talking about the midterms, let alone 2016, it's all about moves that indicate later moves when it comes to politics. So, there are some very real ones, including Election Day for New Jersey governor, chris Christie.
We also have a major senator in the Democratic Party essentially endorsing Hillary Clinton over the weekend. What does that mean for everyone else? We'll take you through it.
BOLDUAN: Also, we have a couple of stories rocking the NFL this morning. You see there, that coach collapsing on the field, but also, we have new information this morning about the Miami Dolphins player who left the team over alleged bullying. Now, there's new reporting as to just how this 320-pound offensive tackle was bullied and how one player reportedly involved is suspended.
PEREIRA: And if you look at the calendar, you know that we're still weeks away from like Black Friday shopping, right?
