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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Peaceful Protests in Ferguson; Secret Mission to Rescue Foley Failed; Israeli Airstrikes Pound Gaza

Aired August 21, 2014 - 04:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning. Calm on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri overnight as controversy grows over the deadly police shooting of unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown. Attorney General Eric Holder meeting with investigators as more witnesses come forward. And another deadly police shooting, caught on camera, keeps police in the spotlight.

We are live.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: A new push to find and punish terrorists behind the murder of American journalist, James Foley. This morning the ransom ISIS militants demanded for Foley's life and of course we're learning new information about a failed secret mission to rescue the captured journalist.

We're live in Iraq with the very latest.

Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Victor Blackwell in for John Berman.

ROMANS: Nice to see you this morning, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Good to be with you.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It's Thursday, August 21st, it is 4:00 a.m. in the East. We welcome all of our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world.

In Ferguson, Missouri, tensions remain high but order is slowly being restored. It was another night of mostly peaceful protests, steamy rain keeping crowds down and tempers cool. Earlier in the day Attorney Eric Holder met with community leaders and the family of Michael Brown, the unarmed teen whose deadly encounter with a Ferguson police officer has touched off nearly two weeks of violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC HOLDER, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Hopefully, we'll have a calming influence on the area. And people know that a federal thorough investigation is being done.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: Meanwhile, prosecutors have begun presenting evidence to a grand jury to determine whether the officer who shot and killed Michael Brown should be criminally charged.

Stephanie Elam live from Ferguson this morning.

Stephanie, first tell us about what happened on the streets last night. Another night of relative calm.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was very calm, pretty much. I mean, I have to tell you, Christine, the tone, the energy level, the engagement level of people on the street was much more calm than it was the night before. We saw a lot of people out there who were holding signs. People we saw the night before. We saw some faces we hadn't seen before.

One thing that may have helped is that there was a big thunderstorm that rolled through here just after the sun went down. But still people stayed out there. They stayed protesting, maybe took shelter for a little bit. But it's interesting to listen to the police talk about how the night went and also listening to how some residents have said that this entire 11 days has been.

I want you to listen to some sound from this press conference that we had here with Captain Ron Johnson talking about how things went last night. I can tell you right now, there were only six people arrested last night compared to 47 the night before. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. RON JOHNSON, MISSOURI HIGHWAY PATROL: The train is good. Yesterday's crowd was smaller than Monday's. And as I said the crowd was even smaller tonight. We also had to respond to fewer incidents tonight. There were no Molotov cocktails tonight, no fires, no shootings. We did not see a single handgun. There were no confrontations.

LEON NELSON, FERGUSON PROTESTING VICTIM: I was in a parking lot. And I guess a kid threw a water bottle towards a police officer. And they got mad, started chasing everybody. And while I was standing in the court, I was with my cousin and friend. And someone -- they just started chasing us. And we started running. We went the other way. We split up from each other. And I started running. They said turn around, and when I turn around I see three officers behind my back with a taser aiming at my back.

And I turned around, going forward, three more officers in front of me. They grabbed me and they threw me on the ground. And I told the officers that I didn't do anything. And they cuffed me up and they beat me in the my head so I (INAUDIBLE) in my jaw.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: And that young man there telling us that he was roughed up during that entire event and saying that he was released around 4:00 in the morning yesterday and was not charged with anything. So he came out here, again, he said he was back out protesting because he felt like that was the right thing to do and that he didn't want to be scared away even though he got caught up in the melee that he says he had nothing to do with, Christine and Victor.

So if you -- if you listen to people, they're saying we need to be out here. We need to continue. And they don't have any intention of stopping. But at the same time, I can tell you there were by far less people out here last night than there were the night before.

ROMANS: Stephanie, tell me a little bit about the attorney general. He arrived yesterday, met with community leaders, met with Michael Brown's family.

ELAM: He did, indeed, do that. He was here during the day, going around shaking hands, meeting with people. Some people telling us here in Ferguson that they do believe that that helped calm some nerves. That they feel like their voices are being heard by the upper echelons of this country. And that's what they wanted to see here.

But at the same time, we also heard from -- some people who were saying that if this officer who is involved in the shooting of Mike Brown is not arrested, indicted or anything happens to him, that there will probably be more people coming out here to protest because they do not want Michael Brown's death to be in vain. And that's what they're saying here. But overall, the reception for the attorney general coming to Ferguson from the people I talked to was positive.

ROMANS: All right. Stephanie Elam for us again tonight. Thank you, Stephanie.

BLACKWELL: A St. Louis County police officer has been relieved of his duties and suspended indefinitely for pointing an assault rifle at peaceful protesters and threatening to kill them. Now the officer's name has not been released. The entire incident was captured on camera earlier this week. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll (EXPLETIVE DELETED) kill you, get back. Get back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to kill him?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you trying to kill me?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your name, sir?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go (EXPLETIVE DELETED) yourself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your name is go (EXPLETIVE DELETED) yourself. All right. Go (EXPLETIVE DELETED) yourself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello, Officer Go (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Yourself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: So you may not see it right here at the end of the video but a county police sergeant eventually forces that officer to lower his weapon and then leave the area.

ROMANS: All right. A new witnesses is coming forward claiming Michael Brown never rushed Officer Darren Wilson in those seconds before he was shot and killed. Officer Wilson claims Brown taunted him then charged him after a confrontation near his patrol car. But listen to neighbor Michael Brady tell Anderson Cooper what he saw on that tragic day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: What the officer's claim is that Michael Brown was running toward the officer. Did you see him running toward the officer in any way?

MICHAEL BRADY, WITNESS: No, no, not after -- when he was running away, no, not at all. Like I said, by the time I come outside, I'm thinking that he's now hit after I seen the officer shooting at him while he was running away. So I'm thinking that he's hit because now he's turned around. Now like this, like he was going down. It didn't even look like that he was getting up. It just looked like, you know, I'm hit, you know, I'm going to go down now. That's what it looked like.

COOPER: That was your impression?

BRADY: Yes, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Brady goes on to tell Anderson Cooper he saw Officer Wilson get out of his car and immediately start firing at Michael Brown while he was trying to get away -- while Michael Brown was trying to get away.

A lot of conflicting eyewitness accounts to be sorted through here.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And we'll see how those corresponds with what they tell --

ROMANS: That's right.

BLACKWELL: -- investigators.

Another case of deadly force by St. Louis Police has been captured on camera and released to the public. A 25-year-old Kajimi Powell came at police with a knife on Tuesday -- watch this here -- and shouting, shoot me, kill me now.

Well, watch and listen for yourself as the two officers fire six shots each after the suspect refuses to drop his weapon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my god.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The video, obviously still there as the man was killed. The names of the officers who fired those fatal shots, those are being withheld for their own safety. The St. Louis police chief took the unusual step of releasing the video he says in the name of transparency in the wake of the Michael Brown shooting.

Of course you want to stay with CNN all morning for a continuing coverage of the very latest developments there in Ferguson, Missouri.

ROMANS: We are learning this morning the U.S. launched a secret nighttime mission to rescue abducted Americans in Syria earlier this year. But that operation failed. Among the captives, President Obama was hoping to save American journalist James Foley. Two dozen Delta Force commandoes raiding an oil refinery in northern Syria earlier this year but the hostages had apparently been moved before they arrived.

Foley was beheaded by ISIS extremists earlier this week. According to his family, the terror group demanded a multimillion dollar ransom for his release. A ransom the Obama administration refused to pay.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No just God would stand for what they did yesterday and what they do every single day. There has to be a common effort to extract this cancer so that it does not spread.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Meanwhile, U.S. military commanders in the Middle East are pushing the Pentagon to step up the air war against ISIS targets.

Nick Paton Walsh tracking the latest developments. He is live this morning from Irbil, Iraq -- Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Obviously news of that attempted rescue operation will in some ways enheartened those who still have those captured inside that at least the U.S. did what it possibly could to try and rescue Foley when it thought it had appropriate information. But of course there's a sad element to it, too, that it means security around those remaining Americans held captive will of course be increased now there's that confirmation American Special forces were at one point dispatched to try and rescue them.

But the complexity around these kidnapping cases often extraordinarily hard to navigate particularly for those Special Forces trying to find that site in northern Syria. It's hard to get pictures, we ourselves as journalists, of ISIS controlled areas, and particularly in that time right around about July or so, when it's thought that this raid was launched, then ISIS would be an extraordinary tight control. The videos they allow out are often videos they've shown themselves and the kind of operational security they would have used around the sites. They would be holding American hostages extraordinarily tight.

So you can imagine the complex task ahead of those commandos going off into an area where they may not have had anybody on the ground that would have confirmed to the people they were hunting there were actually there. And of course, obviously, that rescue mission didn't go as planned.

But today, as you say, people are waiting perhaps with potential of further airstrikes here in northern Iraq to push ISIS back away from Kurdish-held areas here in the north. The Pentagon say there 14 more strikes yesterday, bringing the total to 84 now and really, I think, most people here are thinking of the broader U.S. operation against ISIS now in its opening stages, rather than coming to an end.

ROMANS: All right. Nick Paton Walsh for us in Irbil. Thanks for that, Nick.

BLACKWELL: James Foley's parents, they are pleading with the militants who killed their son to spare the lives of their other hostages. John and Diane Foley, they met with reporters outside their home in New Hampshire and remembered their son as a proud journalist with deep courage and an incredible heart.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN FOLEY, FATHER OF JAMES FOLEY: Was trying to become free.

DIANE FOLEY, MOTHER OF JAMES FOLEY: Yes. He -- and he had witnessed so much suffering. I mean, he just -- because he was there very early. I mean Jim was there the entire year of 2012. He went in before many reporters were.

J. FOLEY: We know Jimmy is free. He's finally free. And we know he's in God's hands. And we know God's work and we know he's in heaven. So we're so proud of him. We have to be happy for him.

D. FOLEY: We are the ones that --

J. FOLEY: We need the courage and the praise (INAUDIBLE). Because he was an inspiration for us and for so many others. So we miss his courage, his love, his determination.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The Foleys say they believe ISIS chose to kill their son first because they knew he symbolized the best of America.

I mean, the strength that it must take to come in front of cameras and speak about your son after that horrid video was released. Unbelievable.

ROMANS: Our condolences to them.

BLACKWELL: Absolutely.

ROMANS: And we wish them that strength and grace and courage they're looking for.

BLACKWELL: Of course we'll continue to follow the hunt for ISIS and the Michael Brown shooting controversy all morning long.

ROMANS: But first Israel escalating its attacks on Gaza this morning. Peace talks collapsing with Hamas. We are live with what's happening right now after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Now to the latest on the conflict in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to continue ramping up attacks on Hamas targets. Israeli military launching nearly 100 airstrikes on Wednesday. Hamas confirms that three senior members of its military ring were killed in that attack.

Now Gaza is now in ruins. The U.N. says 350,000 people have been displaced during six weeks of violence with the damage so severe it could take nearly 20 years to rebuild.

Let's go live to Gaza and bring in Frederik Pleitgen now.

And I guess, Frederik, these peace talks, the cease-fire, at least that's over.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's absolutely over. It certainly seems as though the rocket attacks are picking up again this morning, Victor.

What we had overnight is that they were actually very few rockets launched at Israel from Gaza territory. The Israeli Defense Forces are saying that only two rockets were launched overnight. That changed dramatically this morning. There's not a lot of rocket launchers that we have seen towards Israeli territory. There was apparently one person who was injured in the Eshkol region.

What we're seeing now is some Israeli airstrikes as well. In fact there was one right before we went to air. So it seems as though things are picking up somewhat. At the same time, you're absolutely right, it seems as though the Israelis are following sort of a two- pronged approach to all of this. They are trying to take out rocket infrastructure in the outskirts of many of these Gaza towns while at the same time going after Hamas' military leadership.

As we said, two days ago, there apparently was an attempt on the head of the Qassam Brigade, Mohammed al-Deif. It's unclear whether or not he was injured or killed in that attack. We know that his wife and his son both died in that attack. And then overnight as you said in Rafah, in the southern part of Gaza there were these rocket strikes that apparently killed three top-level Hamas operatives and they are right under the senior leadership. So certainly this is a very big blow to Hamas and a very big success as the Israeli Defense Forces say.

But at this point and time, the conflict shows no sign of letting up. Israeli still flying the airstrikes and Hamas is certainly showing they do have the capability to launch a lot of rockets very far into Israeli territory -- Victor.

BLACKWELL: And even after the death of those three leaders of the military wing.

Frederik Pleitgen there in Gaza for us, thank you so much.

Also this morning a bleak outlook on the widening Ebola crisis from the World Health Organization. The head of the group says there is no end in sight. And the outbreak is likely to last many more months. The death toll rising in West Africa with more than 1200 deaths and 2200 suspected or confirmed cases there.

Violent clashes also now breaking out between residents of an Ebola stricken community and police in Liberia. Thousands in Monrovia angry about barricades designed to keep them from leaving the neighborhoods.

And new fears this morning the Ebola virus has spread to the Republic of Congo. Several people have died there from Ebola-like symptoms.

Now as researchers report, progress with an experimental vaccine being developed in British Columbia that has successfully protected monkeys from an Ebola-related virus.

Also in California a patient who may have contracted Ebola remains in isolation. In Sacramento, a hospital there, health officials still are waiting the results of blood tests from the Centers for Disease Control.

ROMANS: All right. Nineteen minutes past the hour, time for an EARLY START on your money. European stocks higher this morning. Asian stocks ended the day mixed after a report showed relatively weak manufacturing in China. U.S. stock futures higher this morning. Stocks real close to record highs, folks. The S&P 500 yesterday just ended just a few points away from an all-time high.

Bank of America getting very close to a $16.5 billion settlement over mortgage securities fraud. That agreement could be announced as early as today. It would be the largest settlement ever between the government and a single company. $16.5 billion is roughly equal to the bank's profit for the last three years.

The government has accused the bank of duping buyers into purchasing toxic mortgage securities before the financial crisis. The settlement includes penalties and relief, we're told, for homeowners. So watch this space on that.

BLACKWELL: All right. Some new developments this morning in the death of Michael Brown. That shooting of the unarmed teenager there in Missouri. Overnight protests remain peaceful as new witnesses come forward. ROMANS: Plus two teenagers accused of plotting to kill as many people

as possible at their high school. New developments in this really frightening case, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: A friend of the Boston marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev expected to plead guilty today to impeding the investigation into that deadly attack. Twenty-year-old Dias Kadyrbayev was scheduled to stand trial next month on obstruction and conspiracy charges. Now he's accused of removing a backpack and computer from Tsarnaev's dorm room days after the bombing. His roommate was convicted last month in the same case. His roommate faces up to 25 years in prison.

BLACKWELL: Two California teenagers are now facing charges for allegedly plotting a school massacre when classes resumed in South Pasadena. They each face one count of making criminal threats. Now the district attorney says that the boys researched weaponry and explosives and planned to kill as many people as possible. The suspects are 16 and 17. Their names have not been released.

ROMANS: A 21-hour hostage standoff in Harvey, Illinois, is over. A SWAT team break into the front door of a home to release two women and two girls being held and arrest two suspects. This ordeal began Tuesday when a pair of gunmen barricaded themselves in a house with eight hostages. Six of them children. Negotiators managed to get the four youngest children released by Tuesday night. Police say the suspects threatened to kill the children several times. None of the hostages were hurt.

BLACKWELL: NASCAR driver Tony Stewart will sit out this weekend's race at Bristol Motors Speedway in Tennessee. It's the third straight sprint car event Stewart skipped since his car struck and killed 20- year-old driver Kevin Ward, Jr. That was during a dirt track race earlier this month.

Now Stewart has been in seclusion since the deadly crash that happened in upstate New York. The head of his racing team says Stewart is grieving and is not yet ready to get back into the car.

ROMANS: All right. 25 minutes past the hour. We're following breaking news out of Ferguson, Missouri. Overnight protests remaining peaceful as the investigation into the deadly police shooting of Michael Brown accelerates.

The attorney general is in town. The grand jury convenes. What we are learning this morning, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)