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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

More U.S. Airstrikes against ISIS; Medical Supplies Arrive in West Africa; White House Faces Two Security Breaches; WHO to Release Ebola Report

Aired September 22, 2014 - 05:00   ET

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: They used to need a 700 credit score. Now lenders are accepting scores as low as 650 for rich people.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: What could possibly go wrong?

ROMANS: What could possibly go wrong?

EARLY START continues right now.

ROMANS: Isis flexing its muscle. Gaining new ground in Syria, forcing tens of thousands from their homes. This as the former Pentagon chief criticizing the president and explains why ISIS is a real threat here at home.

We're live in Iraq with the very latest on the ground.

BERMAN: Security breach at the White House. New information this morning about the man armed with a knife who walked right past White House security and opened the president's front door.

ROMANS: Ebola epidemic. U.S. troops and supplies arriving in West Africa. But as the virus ravages communities, is it too little too late?

We are live in Liberia with the very latest.

BERMAN: Good morning, everyone. Great to see you today. I'm John Berman.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It is 5:00. On the nose. It's Monday, September 22nd, 5:00 a.m. in the East.

BERMAN: American and European military advisers in Iraq this morning are training Kurdish fighters to battle ISIS. U.S. and allied trainers are rushing to teach Kurdish guerrillas how to defend cities and hold battle lines, and how to use the sophisticated weaponry that they will soon receive.

ISIS gains in certain regions are sparking a humanitarian crisis, especially in northern Syria. Officials say many thousands of Kurdish refugees from northern Syria are fleeing into Turkey ahead of advancing ISIS forces. More than 70,000 fled on Friday and Saturday alone. 70,000. That number may be on the low end of estimates. At the same time, the U.S. military continues to push back against ISIS from the air in Iraq. One air strike on Friday and two more on Sunday bring the total number across Iraq to 186.

CNN's Anna Coren is standing by in northern Iraq with the latest.

And Anna, you have seen this refugee crisis, at least the Iraqi part of it, up close.

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, John. We spent time in a refugee camp very close to the Syrian border. And it is just alarming to see the conditions that these people are living in. Yes, they're in safety, but you are talking about them living in these plastic tents in the searing heat in these dusty, desolate conditions. They want to go home, but as we know the reality is they won't be.

And they won't be going home anytime soon. So these refugee camps are fundamentally becoming little townships in themselves. The agencies, UNHCR saying that they are running out of funds and they are appealing to the international community to -- for more help to meet up with demand.

So that is just one part of this crisis. You mention what's taking place up in the Syrian-Turkish border, UNHCR saying 70,000 have crossed from Turkey -- into Turkey, I should say, and that, as you mention in the introduction, a conservative number. The deputy prime minister of Turkey saying that the number is more like 130,000 of these Syrian Kurds who fled into safety.

Initially the Turkish forces were not allowing them to come in. They were firing warning shots into the air, weren't opening up the border crossing. But there were TV cameras there at this particular border crossing, beaming these images, these alarming images to the world, and so Turkey relented.

It's important to note, however, that Turkey has allowed, you know, up to a million refugees since the Syrian war -- civil war began three and a half years ago. But with what is unfolding in northern Syria right now with ISIS targeting the Kurdish population there, the president here of Kurdistan, President Barzani, is saying that this is ethnic cleansing. And the international community must get involved. He is appealing to the United States to stop launching air strikes in Syria now.

He says the time is of the essence. That there is a massacre unfolding. The fighting is continuing. Certainly there are Kurdish militia taking the fight to those ISIS militants, who have taken over dozens of villages and townships in northern Syria. They are free to go whenever they want. They are really not meeting much resistance. So those calls, those desperate calls for the U.S. to start those air strikes in Syria as soon as possible -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Anna Coren, such a region of crisis right now. Our appreciation for you being there.

ROMANS: Former Defense secretary, Leon Panetta, says President Obama ignored his pleas to arm moderate Syrian rebels sooner. Panetta says that in 2012 he and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, they urged the president to provide training and equipment to Syrian fighters. And he says the president's reluctance to do so is probably to blame for the rise of ISIS. Panetta calls the Islamic militant group a genuine threat to the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEON PANETTA, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY: I think they are a threat. I think they're as dangerous, as fanatical as terrorists, as al Qaeda was. And they have a large number of foreign fighters with foreign passports that make them particularly dangerous to the safety of this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: U.S. officials said on Sunday that America will not be the only country launching airstrikes against ISIS in Syria.

U.S. Ambassador Samantha Powers said on Sunday morning talk shows that she's going to lead it to the allies to announce for themselves that they'll join in anti-ISIS attacks in Syria.

Friends has already participated in airstrikes against ISIS targets in Iraq.

BERMAN: The Iraq war veteran who jumped the White House fence will hear the charges against him in a federal court later today. Omar Gonzalez got all the way across the White House lawn, through the front door on Friday before Secret Service agents stopped him. President Obama expressing full confidence, however, in the Secret Service.

But that security breach and another on Saturday involving a New Jersey man arrested after driving up to a security barrier. All that has officials scrambling right now for answers.

CNN's Erin McPike has more now from the White House.

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, Secret Service beefed up the patrols and surveillance around the White House while they review Friday's breach and check their other protocols.

Now we could be seeing a congressional hearing on this at some point because a number of Republicans have been appalled. Listen to how Peter King put it on Fox News yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PETER KING (R), NEW YORK: There could be a lot of conspiracies against the president, a lot of very complex assassination plots. This is the most basic, the most simple type of procedure, and how anyone, especially in these days of ISIS and with concern about terrorist attacks, someone could actually get into the White House without being stopped is inexcusable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCPIKE: The Secret Service also said after Friday's breach that Gonzalez appeared to them to be mentally disturbed. But they have had in person contact with him before. Now also, Gonzalez's former stepson, Jerry Murphy, told us that Gonzalez was suffering from PTSD from his time in the military, but the military would not confirm that to us.

Murphy also said that the war, quote, "messed up his head" and that he was a great guy, but he lost his mind while serving his country -- John and Christine.

BERMAN: There can be a lot of questions there.

All right, Secretary of State John Kerry is trying a new tack this week to get stalled nuclear talks with Iran back on track. The secretary met Sunday with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif with a possibility of more meetings later this week.

Discussions on slowing Iran's nuclear development in exchange for ending economic sanctions -- they've been sidetracked for months. A new U.S. proposals would focus less on lowering the number of Iranian centrifuges used to enrich uranium and more on removing piping between the centrifuges.

Interesting (INAUDIBLE).

ROMANS: Happening now a desperate search to find a missing nursing student who police are now targeting in their investigation.

BERMAN: Plus Ebola epidemic. New round of U.S. troops and supplies arrives in West Africa. But will it be enough to stop this deadly virus. We are live in Liberia next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: A second contingent of U.S. troops has now arrived in Ebola- ravaged Liberia. The mission now, to focus on training local health workers and setting up treatment facilities to help stop this deadly virus from spreading even more.

Also arriving in West Africa from the U.S., $6 million worth of medical supplies donated by humanitarian groups. Talking about 100 tons of badly needed gloves, masks, antibiotics, pain medications. In Liberia medical help is so scarce that people are drying right now from treatable everyday conditions.

That outbreak of Ebola has now claimed more than 2600 lives. And the World Health Organization is set to release its latest report on the deadly virus today.

Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now live from Monrovia, in Liberia.

Elizabeth, this is being called an unprecedented health crisis. You are there on the frontlines. What do you see?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: John, I was talking to a diplomat here who called it a nightmare. And when you're here, you can see exactly what they mean.

It has gotten so bad that even just managing the dead has become a challenge. I went out with what's called the Dead Body Management Team. It's one of many teams in Monrovia. These men work 12 hours a day, six days a week, to take the dead and then either bury or most cases, they cremate the bodies.

And you also see the real burden here, the real challenge, the reason why this is happening is that they don't have enough isolation units for the people who are sick. You have to isolate sick people. It's a basic premise of containing this epidemic. They need 700 more beds in Monrovia alone.

Hospitals here are locked. They are -- many of them or most of them actually are closing down. They're scared of their staff getting Ebola because many of them already have -- John.

BERMAN: The president, President Obama has pledged to send some 3,000 U.S. troops, also set up facilities that will be many more -- include many more hospital beds. How will that change things?

COHEN: You know, the Liberians I talked to here are very excited and very grateful for this aide, but they are realistic. One of the major things the Americans will be doing is building 17 much-needed hospitals with 100 beds each. That's certainly a lot of beds. But first of all, it'll take time to build those hospitals. That does not happen automatically.

Plus The U.S. is not sending staff for these hospitals. And of course hospitals without staff are not so useful. Now the U.S. has promised to train Liberians, but how do you instantly train doctors and nurses, or do you train lay people to take care of patients with Ebola? There's a lot of unanswered questions and Liberians know that they won't be answered immediately.

BERMAN: You know, one of the issues in that region has simply been disbelief or unwillingness to believe. Health authorities say that many people there have been in denial about Ebola, even hostile and violent to people trying to help.

Have you seen any signs of that changing?

COHEN: You know, it is interesting, in some areas, of course, that is happening. And it's still happening here. But I have been talking to folks, including a pastor at a church in nearby (INAUDIBLE), Liberia. And he says, you know, my parishioners were in denial. But now we set up chlorine washes. People are washing their hands.

And also what's interesting, in August, he told the parishioners, you know what, I know we used to all drink from one common chalice to take communion, but he said no more. And he said they kind of give him a hard time. They said this is part of our tradition, this is part of our religion. And he said no, we're going to stop. And he said now they don't challenge him as much. So he is starting to see a change in attitude. And what everyone here agrees, John, is that a change in attitude

needs to be the first step. You can get millions and millions of dollars and still if people don't change their attitudes, it's not going to help.

BERMAN: It's a necessary step to be sure.

Elizabeth Cohen really on the frontlines right now. Thanks so much for being with us this morning.

ROMANS: You know, the fight to stop Ebola extremely underfunded. The World Health Organization estimates a need for $1 billion to fight the outbreak in West Africa. So far only $388 million has been donated or pledged. This week the Obama administration said it hopes to donate an additional $500 million this year. Even if that proposal goes through, there still will be a shortage. Many countries are contributing aide. They're sending workers, they're conducting research instead of giving cold hard cash. Instead of giving money.

Fifteen minutes past the hour. Time for an EARLY START on your money.

European shares lower after leaders from the G-20 warned about slowing growth in Europe. Asian shares much lower as well. U.S. stock futures, as you could see, pointing down right now. The Dow closed at a record high on Friday.

BERMAN: More than 1,000 volunteers have been searching nearly everywhere for Hannah Graham. That's the 18-year-old University of Virginia student who went missing more than a week ago. She was last seen leaving a party alone during the early morning hours of September 13th. Police in Charlottesville are on an urgent hunt right now for 32-year-old Jesse Matthew.

Now he is a nursing assistant at the University of Virginia Hospital and is believed he is the man seen on security video following her right before she disappeared.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF TIMOTHY LONGO, CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA POLICE: I believe Jesse Matthew was the last person she was seen with before she vanished off the face of the earth because it has been a week and we can't find her. But somebody knows where she is. Somebody has got to know where she is. And we want to know who that person or persons are.

I have made no mistake about it. We want to talk to Jesse Matthew.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Powerful words from that police officer. Police have already searched Matthew's car and apartment. They are now waiting the results of forensic tests this morning.

ROMANS: All right. The monster King Fire in Northern California has now spread to Tahoe National Forest and fire officials say it is barely 10 percent contained this morning. 128 square miles have been scorched over the last nine days. Nearly three dozen homes and buildings already destroyed. Right now 21,000 homes and structures threatened by that big fire.

Indra Petersons has a look at your forecast this Monday morning.

Hi, Indra.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning. We are talking about change in the forecast. We are talking about yesterday is the last day of summer. Fall technically, officially starts tonight. And I think some of us are looking forward to that. But look what we're talking about. Even as we go through fall the three-month outlook still talks about above-average temperatures in the northeast and the southeast. And even all the way into the west.

We are not really talking about that cooler weather unless you're going to be down in the south. Rain pretty much matching that forecast as well, well, it needed. We're definitely be having seasonal drought conditions here to the south. It looks like that three-month outlook will produce more rain and that region of course for the last week, they've seen way too much of that rain. And today will be the last day they'll be looking at showers into the southwest.

Otherwise, northeast, we saw that system kind of kicked through yesterday. So what is that going to do? You talk about high pressure moving in. Low pressure moving out. Only need to know. Two systems close to each other so you're talking about windy conditions today into the northeast. If you are flying, you want to be checking for flight delays with that in the forecast.

Otherwise, temperatures slowly going back up, 60s going back into the 70s. It's going to be feeling nicer, at least for the next several days. The one thing we're going to be watching, yes, high pressure building in the northeast. Hence the reason warming up. But into the southeast, we're going to watch another system kind of crop up along the coastline. So more showers will be kind of picking up in the forecast there.

But otherwise, yes, tonight is officially fall, guys. Looking forward to it.

BERMAN: Feels like just yesterday it was summer.

(LAUGHTER)

PETERSONS: Right.

BERMAN: All right. Indra, thank you. Thank you so much. It can only do that four times a year. But I look forward to it every time.

Nineteen minutes after the hour. A Super Bowl rematch keeping fans on the edge of their seats. Keeping me up later than I should have been. The Seahawks versus the Broncos. Peyton Manning, did he have another dramatic comeback in him?

Andy Scholes with the answer in the "Bleacher Report" next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: The Minnesota Vikings playing without star running back Adrian Peterson for the second straight week and for the second straight week they lost.

ROMANS: Andy Scholes is in New Orleans and has more on this morning's "Bleacher Report."

Hey, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: Hey, good morning, guys. Yes, the Vikings, they did their best to try to block out all the off-field distractions involving Adrian Peterson, but you could tell watching this game that they just really, really miss him on the field.

You know, they were able to hang around with the Saints until the fourth quarter, but without Peterson, they were unable to score a touchdown in this game. The Vikings ended up losing this one 20-9.

Now I talked to some of the players after the game. They said they know they can't replace what Peterson brought to the table, but they can't worry about when or if he is going to return.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPTAIN MUNNERLYN, VIKINGS CORNERBACK: It's tough. Everybody knows it's Adrian Peterson, man. He's a Hall of Fame running back. But I always believe in next man up.

JEROME FELTON, VIKINGS FULLBACK: At this point we're just going forward, you know, thinking he's not going to be here. And just focus on the people who are here, trying to get better every day. So, you know, it's tough not having him here. We wish he was here. But we'll get better as a team and keep moving forward.

MUNNERLYN: I know he is dying to play with us to see what we are doing. And just to get back on the football field. But, you know, he's just going to let the legal process play out and go from there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Broncos and Seahawks hooked up yesterday in a rematch of last year's Super Bowl. And this game had all the drama that the Super Bowl didn't. Peyton Manning led the Broncos on a game tying drive going 80 yards in 41 seconds with no time-outs. It was capped off by a two-must-have two-point conversion in the back of the end zone was Marriot Thomas. The Seahawks, though, got it done in overtime.

Marshon Lynch gets into the end zone. That's your game winner. Seahawks win the rematch, 26-20.

Late-night NFL action. Steelers in some Panthers, Pittsburgh had gone eight quarters with scoring a touchdown until Ben Roethlisberger ended that drought in the third quarter finding Antonio Brown twice in the end zone. On the ground and in the air, the Steelers just dominated the Panthers on this one. They win easily, 37-19.

Trending on bleacherreport.com this morning, a heated moment during the Eagles-Redskins game after throwing an interception, Eagles quarterback Nick Foles gets absolutely blindsided by Washington who nose-dived for Chris Baker. Foles' teammates come to his defense in old school bench-clearing hockey-esque brawl ensues. Two players ejected including Baker for his cheap shot.

The Eagles won this game in a shootout. 37-34.

And guys, I have to say it was very nice to have a lot of exciting games to talk about this morning. Hopefully we can keep the attention on the field as opposed to all the off-the-field issues that keep happening in the NFL.

BERMAN: Roger Goodell whose attempt to put focus back on football on Friday was less than stellar, shall we say, Andy Scholes.

ROMANS: Yes.

SCHOLES: Yes.

BERMAN: All right. Thanks so much, Andy.

SCHOLES: Sure. All right.

BERMAN: 25 minutes after the hour. The war on ISIS escalating. The terrorists taking new ground in Syria. This as former defense secretary Leon Panetta share what he thinks the president has done wrong. We are live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: The war on ISIS intensifies. The U.S. now training troops in Iraq and launching new air strikes. This is a new wave of Syrians leave their homes pushed out after is came barreling in. We are live on the ground with the latest ahead.

ROMANS: The Secret Service stepping up security at the White House after a man armed with a knife, that's right, walks through the front door. What we are now learning about the man and the new changes coming to keep the president and the White House safe.