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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

First U.S. Case of Ebola; Secret Service Blunders; War on ISIS: Terrorists Gain Ground; Protests Swell in Hong Kong on National Day

Aired October 01, 2014 - 04:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Ebola reaching the United States. A man in Texas testing positive for the deadly virus. Now, the frantic search to find anyone that patient had contact with before he was hospitalized.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Another Secret Service blunder -- missing the unauthorized armed man riding in an elevator with the president of the United States. This, as the agency's director gets grilled by Congress over another security scare. Is the first family really safe?

BERMAN: The war on ISIS intensifies. As the terrorists gain new ground, moving closer to crucial cities in both Syria and Iraq. This, as the wife of an ISIS hostage makes an emotional televised plea. We have live team coverage ahead.

Good morning, everyone. Great to see you. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It's Wednesday, October 1st. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East.

Ominous news out of Dallas this morning. Officials there on high alert after the first Ebola diagnosis on U.S. soil. CDC Director Thomas Frieden saying the unidentified man traveled from Liberia to the U.S. to visit relatives, arriving on September 20th, developing symptoms four or five days later.

The patient is now in isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. The Dallas ambulance could have brought the patient to the hospital, also now under quarantine.

Chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John and Christine, we do have some more details about what happened here. We know this is a patient who arrived in the United States on September 20th, arrived from Liberia. We know the person was not sick when they got on a plane in Liberia or when they deplaned in the United States.

It was four days later, on the 24th, when this first started to feel ill, and then two days after that, on the 26th, when they first went and sought out care at the hospital. We don't know what happened at that point exactly, but the person was sent home only to come back to the hospital two days later now on the 28th by ambulance, quite sick, ended up in the intensive care unit and got a blood test for Ebola. That blood test did come back positive, where it was tested there in Texas. And that was confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control.

Dr. Frieden spoke about this at length last night, he said obviously the first concern is to take care of this patient. But also to try and figure out what happened between the four days when the patient first got sick and then subsequently was isolated. How many people did this person come in contact with? Do they have any symptoms?

They're going to be observed. They're going to have fevers checked for 21 days, twice a day, to see if they're starting to develop any symptoms. If they do, and they're confirmed to have Ebola, then they've got to find all of their contacts. What I'm describing is something known as contract tracing, and that is a big part of what is happening right now, John and Christine, down in Texas.

Now, I will tell you, Dr. Frieden, very optimistic that while the mortality rate for this disease is 50 percent in West Africa, while the numbers of people who have been infected, does obviously continue to rise, he's very confident here in the United States, they said undoubtedly, they could stop this from becoming an outbreak here in this country.

This patient is the first patient to have been diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. It is historic. Obviously, it has a lot of people concerned. But again, the good news if there is any in this, is Dr. Frieden believes, there's no chance, he's 100 percent confident that this will not turn into an outbreak.

John and Christine, back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Our thanks to Sanjay for that.

A hundred percent certain this will not turn into an outbreak. But that contact-tracing now will be going on furiously over the next several days, until they know they have everyone that man came in contact with over those few days between this first to the hospital and the second one.

Other news, we're learning this morning of another shocking breach of security, just a few feet from the president. A private security contractor with a gun, and according to "Washington Post," a record of assault charges, shared an elevator with President Obama when he visited the CDC in Atlanta two weeks ago. That is a violation, big one of Secret Service protocol.

The revelation Tuesday seems to conflict with testimony given in a congressional hearing just hours earlier by Secret Service Director Julia Pierson. She said she briefs the president on every serious breach. And the only briefing she's given the president is the one related to the fence jumper Omar Gonzalez.

On Tuesday's hearing, Pierson was given a bipartisan thrashing by members of the committee over that September 19th White House intrusion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DARRELL ISSA (R-CA), HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: Why was there no guard stationed at the front door of the White House?

REP. STEPHEN LYNCH (D), MASSACHUSETTS: This is -- the Secret Service against one individual with mental illness. And you lost. You lost. And you had three shots at this guy.

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D), TEXAS: I wonder if there is a fitness problem here. Chasing this gentleman who could not capture, all six of them in this picture, could not capture him.

JULIA PIERSON, SECRET SERVICE DIRECTOR: We're all outraged within the Secret Service of how this -- how this incident came to pass. And that is why I have asked for a full review. It's obvious. It is obvious that mistakes were made.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Pretty scathing questions there. I do not think we've heard the last of them.

We're also learning new details about the agent who finally tackled Omar Gonzalez in the East Room. "The Washington Post", which is way ahead of the story, reporting that the agent was a member of the Obama daughters' security detail and he was not on duty. So, it was sheer luck where he was to tackle this intruder in the White House. Gonzalez is scheduled for arraignment in a Washington, D.C. courtroom this afternoon.

ROMANS: All right. The U.S.-led coalition keeping the pressure on ISIS this morning, with one of the heaviest rounds of bombing since the war was expanded to include targets in Syria just a week ago. A total of 11 airstrikes in Syria and 11 in Iraq over the last 24 hours, some hitting targets around Kobani on the Turkish border.

ISIS fighters advancing on this Kurdish city. They've shaken up the Turkish government. The Turkish parliament debating now whether to send ground troops to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria. This is happening right on the Turkish border.

Britain carrying out its first air strikes in Iraq on Tuesday, four days after its parliament authorized airstrikes.

CNN's Ben Wedeman joins us now from Iraq with the latest.

And, Ben, there are concerns, big deepening concerns this week, about these ISIS advances both in Iraq and Syria.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, particularly, in Iraq, there are very profound concerns about what's happening outside Baghdad. What we've seen in the last few days is a series of sort of probing hit and run attacks on the western edge of Baghdad's defensive perimeter. And more concerning than that, just to the northwest of Baghdad, about a 40-minute drive, ISIS managed to overrun an Iraqi army position.

Now, there were about 180 Iraqi soldiers there. Most of them were able to flee. But here's the most concerning thing, Christina, they left most of their ammunition and weapons behind, which, of course, fell into the hands of ISIS.

ROMANS: Yes, that is a big concern because we are seeing that ISIS is operating with, in some cases, American-made Humvees that were sold or given to the Iraqi army. The Iraqi army loses control, possession of those. And then you've got further emboldened ISIS.

What is the feeling how they can be repelled at this point? Is the Iraqi military, Iraqi army security forces, up to the task of keeping ISIS out of Baghdad?

WEDEMAN: Well, we understand that there are some units that are fairly capable of doing that. And, of course, one of the problematic issues is they are joined by Shia militias, along that defensive perimeter. These are militias which have a long and bloody history of essentially running death squads in Baghdad. And, of course, it was some of their excesses that led to the alienation of so many Sunnis within Iraq itself.

Now in the north of Iraq, in the Kurdish areas, there's the Peshmerga. And they seem to be fairly well-organized, even though they say they don't have enough weapons. But when you speak to Kurdish commanders in this part of the country and you ask them about their assessment of the abilities of the Iraqi army, their assessment is almost across the board fairly bleak. They don't have a lot of confidence in the Iraqi army's ability to face up ISIS.

ROMANS: Ben Wedeman for us this morning in Irbil in Iraq, thank you so much for that, Ben.

Iraqi officials are investigating an accidental air drop of supplies to ISIS terrorists. According to NBC News, Iraqi military pilots mistakenly gave food, water and ammunition to ISIS militants instead of their own soldiers. One Iraqi defense official blamed lack of experience of some air force pilots for that mistake.

Meantime, there may be civilian casualties in the U.S. airstrikes on ISIS terrorists. White House officials have acknowledged that the much publicized policy that President Obama last year barring U.S. drone strikes, at least there is near certainty, there will be no civilian casualties, does not cover the current strikes in Syria and Iraq.

Meanwhile, the wife of ISIS hostage Alan Henning making an emotional televised plea for her husband's safety. We're live in London with what she had to say, in about 15 minutes. BERMAN: The international efforts to destroy ISIS tops the agenda

when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with President Obama at the White House today. The two men, of course, also plan to discuss the crisis in Gaza, also nuclear talks with Iran. A spokesman for the president says the Israeli prime minister's visit is a demonstration of the enduring bonds between the two countries.

ROMANS: All right. Time for an EARLY START on your money.

European stocks mixed this morning. U.S. stock futures barely moving so far to start the new month -- new trading month of October. September, not so great for stocks. The Dow fell slightly. The S&P 500 lost about 1 1/2 percent. That's the worst monthly performance in January. The NASDAQ fell about 2 percent. Tech stock has a tough-go of it in September.

Now, October has been historically the scary month for stocks, the epic crash of 1929, Black Monday in 1987, even the crash of 2008 all happened in October.

BERMAN: Banish that thought from your mind.

ROMANS: Banish that thought. But, you know, October is that month people get nervous about Wall Street. We're currently in the fourth longest bull market in history. Haven't had a true correction since 2011.

Some say it's time for a pullback. They've been saying that all year. It hasn't happened. A lot of people still sticking with stocks as the company continues to improve.

The S&P 500 fell last month. Remember, it's still up 7 percent this year, Berman. So your 529 is doing OK.

BERMAN: We meet them (ph).

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: All right. Happening right now: Hong Kong protesters defying calls to clear out, demanding change from their government. We are live in the middle of these growing protests, next.

Plus, the man accused to abducting missing student Hannah Graham, linked to the rape and murder of another girl now being investigated in a third case. We'll bring that to you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: A huge protest in Hong Kong growing even bigger this morning. Today is national day in China. That's a day of celebration, supposed to be from Beijing to Hong Kong, all across the country.

The crowds of pro-democracy demonstrators are swelling, it seems, with more people off work.

CNN's Andrew Stevens is live right in the middle of the protests. Good morning, Andrew.

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

Day four, yes, indeed, the crowd is now certainly the biggest size I've seen it. Not surprising, it is a public holiday today. So, a lot of people who were working the past few days have come down here to show their support, to show their solidarity on a very singular course which is unusual here in Hong Kong, a very singular course which is the pro-democracy movement.

And it is a quite sobering sense of community down here, just how calm things are, how happy people are and how they're helping each other. Just around me here, John, a lot of them obviously students, they're sitting here, they're working, of course, on their social media sites. They're having lunch. Behind me here, doing phone work.

But they're all still here. And that's big part of it. And they know there's been no movement whatsoever on the side of Hong Kong administration, or Hong Kong leadership, or Beijing towards their demands. And they say, the protest leaders we've been speaking to earlier today are saying, it is up to Hong Kong, up to the leadership to make a move. It's not up to us. We are not going to move until we hear what the Hong Kong leadership has to say.

And all they're saying at the moment, this remains an illegal gathering and we will not listen to you.

It is interesting, John, on this of all days, China National Day, this is an enormous embarrassment to Beijing, to the leadership in Beijing. On this national day, they had tens of thousands of Chinese nationals protesting specifically against their policies, and this is, as we keep saying, in different faces, it has many more, more political freedoms than the rest of China, but even so, they are protesting very, very strongly here about what Beijing wants to impose. It is at the same time a massive loss of face for the Chinese leadership, John.

BERMAN: Andrew, we've heard incredible stories about how behaved and respectful in a way the protester are there. But you say these are the biggest crowds you've seen yet.

Any sense of what could turn this from a peaceful demonstration into perhaps something more dangerous?

STEVENS: Sorry, John, you're cracking up. I didn't quite get that, but if I can answer about that sense of community down here, I don't get a feeling that this is going to change.

They are going out of their way, these students, to make sure that they don't do anything that could antagonize authorities, the police here. If you look around, look around, I'm being here for the last three days, I have seen a heavy police presence. They've melted away. I cannot see. I cannot pick out a single policeman here in this crowd watching.

And on the students' side, just a little example for you, someone had spray painted some graffiti, supporting the democratic movement. Actually spay-painted on the road not particularly subversive, we may think, but a group of students quickly came down and got their scrubbing brushes out and got it off the road because they didn't want to give any indication to the police to move because they might be doing something unlawful.

And they were telling protesters here if you want to write something, write something in chalk so it be washed off. That's another sort of thing that's going on here.

One other quick example, just a few minutes ago an ambulance came through this massively dense crowd very, very smoothly, they parted very quickly. And this ambulance went through. The Hong Kong government has been specifically saying, because it is impeding things like emergency services, the organizers here have either very, very well-drilled into the protesters that you have to behave or they're just doing it naturally.

My sense is, this is a Hong Kong-style protest.

BERMAN: All right. Andrew, it's an incredible picture of you in the midst of thousands of people protesting peacefully for democracy in Hong Kong. Our thanks to Steven.

ROMANS: Pictures you will not see in China, in mainland China. They're being blocked.

All right. The man suspected in the disappearance of UVA student Hannah Graham has now been linked to a third case. Investigators in Virginia say Jesse Matthew could be linked to the 2009 murder of 23- year-old Cassandra Morton.

On Monday, Virginia state police said Matthew's arrest provided a forensic link to the death of 20-year-old Morgan Harrington who went missing after attending a concert at UVA in 2009.

Harrington's mother spoke to Anderson Cooper about Matthew's arrest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIL HARRINGTON, MORGAN'S MOTHER: I don't have any desire or need to tear him limb from limb or hurt him. I just want to prevent him from hurting anybody else. And that, I am vehement to do. I don't really feel angry because I -- my mind -- I can't comprehend how somebody could hurt and, you know, killed our beautiful Morgan. I mean, it's unfathomable to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Campbell County sheriff says they're trying to find any evidence that places Matthew in a town where Morton's body was found in 2009.

BERMAN: A wife of British man held hostage by ISIS pleads for his safety. We're live with her message to the terrorists, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: The wife of ISIS hostage Alan Henning, imploring the terror group to let him go.

Barbara Henning saying she can't understand why ISIS won't open their hearts and minds to his humanitarian motives for traveling to Syria. At one point she speaks directly to her husband saying she misses him and she's concerned for him.

Karl Penhaul is in London with more of her impassioned plea.

It's a guy by all accounts who had a heart of gold and who has a heart of gold, and his family and friends are just terrified about what could happen to him.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Christine. And yes, of course, this is an emotional plea to ISIS to release the taxi driver with the heart of gold, who gave up his own Christmastime, family time, and his own weekend to do aid work for Syria.

But it also goes beyond that. It also, this message appears to be an effort to jump-start communications with ISIS as well. Two points in this relatively short statement, Barbara Henning says that we haven't been able to communicate with you any further. She also says the last communication they had from ISIS was an audio recording of Alan Henning's voice pleading for his life.

This statement has carefully been worded by some kind of expert in hostage in negotiations to send a certain number of messages to ISIS to see if they can get them to respond to open some kind of dialogue. But let's listen a little bit to what Barbara Henning had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARBARA HENNING, WIFE OF ISIS HOSTAGE: Alan, we miss you, and we're dreadfully concerned for your safety. But we are giving so much hope by the outcry across the world as to your imprisonment. I ask Islamic State, please release him. We need him back home. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PENHAUL: Now, as bleak as the situation is for any of the hostages being held by ISIS, perhaps there is some case for optimism for Alan Henning. Many Muslim leaders in Britain have been calling on ISIS for his release.

And also, if you look at the timings, between the time that James Foley was killed and Steven Sotloff was killed two weeks went by. And then, between the death of Steven Sotloff and the death of the other British hostage David Haines, 10 days went by, it's now been two weeks since David Haines has been killed and since Alan Henning was first shown, we don't know if he's been killed right now.

So, perhaps he is on borrowed time. Of course, what's going to complicate any outcome here now is that Britain has joined the air strikes on ISIS inside Iraq -- Christine. ROMANS: Just a heartbreaking situation for his family not knowing and

not being able to negotiate directly with ISIS just -- just -- just terrible.

Karl Penhaul, thank you for bringing that to us, following that story.

So, close (INAUDIBLE)

BERMAN: Twenty-six minutes after the hour.

The first case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States. A man in Texas now in isolation, and now the search is on for anyone he came in contact with. We're going to have the latest, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)