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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

War on ISIS: More U.S. Troops Arrive; Obama Seeks Common Ground with China's Leader; South Korean Ferry Disaster Captain Sentenced

Aired November 11, 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: Happening now: New U.S. troops arriving in Iraq to join the fight against ISIS. We are live with what their mission is ahead.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: In just hours, President Obama meets one-on-one with China's president, hoping to find common ground in an important and tense relationship. We are live with what the president is hoping to accomplish.

BERMAN: And breaking this morning, the captain of the South Korean ferry, the man at the helm during that disaster, is sentenced for his role in the 300 deaths onboard. We are live in South Korea with the latest and surprising developments.

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

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It's Tuesday, November 11th. It's 4:00 a.m. in the East. Good evening, everyone.

New for you this morning: 50 American service members on the ground in Iraq, paving the way for a larger continent in the war against ISIS. Now, the Pentagon says they are the first to arrive since the president ordered 1,500 more troops to arrive.

A Pentagon spokeswoman says the troops are there to advise and train Iraqi forces. They are not there in a combat role. We have new information on an air strike that may have wounded the head of ISIS, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. And U.S. officials say coalition and Iraqi forces did launch air strikes in two different parts of Iraq, targeting ISIS leaders. There is still no confirmation that al Baghdadi was injured in either of those attacks.

An Egyptian Islamic militant group has now pledged obedience to ISIS. Up until now, this group had almost exclusively on attacks against the Egyptian government.

A lot of developments this morning to get through.

Our senior correspondent Arwa Damon is in Southern Turkey with more.

Good morning, Arwa.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine.

Let's try to sort through all the muddiness surrounding what air strikes --

ROMANS: All right. Arwa Damon in Southern Turkey for us -- you can see that shot went down. A lot of developments this morning. We go back to Arwa just as soon as she's ready.

BERMAN: Yes, the key there -- no confirmation yet that Baghdadi has been injured. But there are sources in Iraq saying it did happen.

In just a couple of hours, President Obama has his first one-on-one meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two presidents set to enjoy a walk, a private dinner and tea.

Now, hanging over their meeting, an array of tensions between the two governments. Among them, U.S. concerns that pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong could end in violence. And word that emerged Monday that the U.S. Postal Service suspects Chinese government hackers are breaking into its computer system and stealing data on more than 800,000 of its employees.

Let's go now to CNN's David McKenzie live in Beijing with the latest.

Good morning, David.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

Yes, those latest serious allegations against the Chinese of the hacking into an important U.S. government Web site and into that employee information won't sit well with the Chinese or perhaps the Americans today, because today, the U.S. and China announcing a negotiated deal that they could improve trade with the information technology agreement, bringing down the tariffs of important goods like medical equipment, GPS equipment, and other assets that the U.S. said could bring many jobs to the U.S., and also trillions of trade globally. So, that's the positive sign.

As you said, the U.S. President Obama is meeting with his counterpart just moments away. They will be discussing those issues and thorny issues like human rights, freedom of the press and whether the China- U.S. relationship can improve from it's been in a very frosty place in recent years -- John.

BERMAN: David, that is one of the big meetings set for this three-day summit. I saw a picture of President Obama very near Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday. Will these two leaders have a chance to talk given the very thorny issues separating these nations right now?

MCKENZIE: Well, right now, it's a very tense time because of the two nations, of course, because of the issues in Eastern Ukraine and from the Russian president's perspective, the harsh sanctions that the U.S. has pushed through. So, there have been two moments when the two presidents have met in a sort of unavoidable when you have 20 leaders in a closed room. It's unclear yet what they talked about and whether those have been substantive discussions.

But, certainly, U.S. officials say they could use this moment to really push through the U.S. agenda and to try to persuade Vladimir Putin to stop what they say is support of rebels in the Eastern Ukraine.

BERMAN: A lot going on where you are this morning. David McKenzie for us in Beijing, thanks so much.

ROMANS: Clear skies behind David McKenzie. Sometimes you see him in Beijing, and it looks like soup behind him with the pollution.

BERMAN: Well, why is that?

ROMANS: Because the Chinese government said no cars on the road and try to make it look nicer for the APEC Summit.

BERMAN: A beautiful line in "The New York Times" yesterday, the government-mandated blue skies.

ROMANS: So, usually, David McKenzie looks like he is in a smoking lounge of an airport. But instead he is actually in the blue skies of Beijing. All right. Thanks for that, David.

Let's get back to a U.S. troops arriving in Iraq. Senior international correspondent Arwa Damon back with us from Southern Turkey with more.

Arwa, you were saying before we went to David, that you've got new troops arriving. You also have this sort of mystery now about whether al Baghdadi was injured in air strikes recently. What can you tell us about the developments happening where you are?

DAMON: Right, sorry about that.

So, as I was saying, it's an incredibly muddy situation. The Ministry of Interior is continuing to say that al Baghdadi was wounded in an airstrike carried out by Iraqi forces in the town of al Qa'im. That is right along the Iraqi and Syrian border.

Now, the minister of defense himself posted on Facebook a statement that said that al Baghdadi had been wounded and his number two had been killed. That would be Abu Muslim al-Turkmani, but the strike was carried out by the coalition outside of the city of Mosul.

The U.S. so far only going so far as to confirm that yes, they did conduct an airstrike, numerous strikes potentially against an ISIS convoy. Ten vehicles in all outside of Mosul. They don't know who those vehicles were carrying. Al Baghdadi was not the target, but that collection of ISIS vehicles provided them with an opportunity that they decided to take.

What is important, though, in all of this, is if al Baghdadi was injured or potentially killed, ISIS structure and the way he personally restructured it after he took over from Abu Omar al- Baghdadi is one so that if the top leadership is taken out, the entity can still continue to survive. And that is one of the many challenges that is facing U.S. forces and the coalition as they try to advise and assist the Iraqi security forces.

Those 50 troops you mentioned arriving in al Anbar province at the al- Assad air base. This is a province that has a very dark history for the United States. A lot of fierce battles were waged there against back then al Qaeda in Iraq. It is from the ashes of al Qaeda in Iraq and evolution that we now today have ISIS.

So, in some ways, history is not necessarily repeating itself, but we are seeing transpiring today most certainly has echoes of the past, Christine.

ROMANS: Echoes of the past or baggage, depending on how you look at it.

Arwa Damon, thank you so much for that, Arwa.

Now, President Barack Obama taking his most aggressive stand yet in favor of net neutrality, a free and open Internet. Now, he called on the FCC to adopt the strictest rules possible to regulate Internet service providers like Verizon and Comcast, basically treating broadband as an essential public utility like water and electricity. The president endorsing a popular proposal that would provide Internet service providers to treat all traffic equally and not charge content provider for better access.

Our Jim Acosta was noting this announcement came from China where they can't even surf the wave.

BERMAN: That's a good point.

Obamacare enrolments are likely to be significantly lower than the White House expected by the end of next year. Administration officials now projected between 9 million and 9.9 million people to be insured under the Affordable Care Act by the end of 2015. The Congressional Budget Office had been predicting 13 million enrollments. The sign up period for the exchanges begins on Saturday.

There's an overhaul on the way at the Veterans Affairs Administration. Veterans Affairs officials announcing plans for a new customer service bureau that will train employees to focus on customer satisfaction. The idea is to make the V.A. more accountable to the millions of veterans it serves. The department is also looking to consolidate why the range of functions under a handful of regional offices. There is no timetable for those changes.

ROMANS: You know, these are not run of the mill customers. These are veterans who served our country, and they have got to do a better job. They know they've got a better job, but especially today. But they have got to do a better job. It's not customer service.

BERMAN: No.

ROMANS: This is -- anyway, we'll hope they do well and we hope they know the public is really pushing for that. Time for an early start on your money this morning.

Stocks are at record highs. Futures pointing higher right now. It could be in another record day if it holds. Yesterday, the Dow climbed 40 points to close at a high, the 23rd record high this year.

The S&P 500 also closed at a high. The NASDAQ hit a highest level since the dotcom boom in March of 2000. It has been a great run for stocks. Most companies reported solid earnings this quarter. The economy is steadily improving.

The Dow is now up 6 percent for the year, the S&P has gained more than 10 percent, and the NASDAQ is up more than 11 percent. Those are strong gains and great news for 401k.

Oh, that old scare in the beginning of October --

BERMAN: That was fast. We were like down for a minute and a half.

ROMANS: I know, but we never even went down 10 percent.

BERMAN: All right. Breaking news overnight, the captain of the South Korean ferry that capsized sentenced in court for his role in the deaths of more than 300 people. Not everyone happy about this, this morning. We are live in South Korea, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Breaking overnight: a court in South Korea sentenced the captain of the ferry that capsized in April to 36 years in prison. More than 300 passengers died in that disaster, many of them high school students. The captain was convicted of negligence but acquitted of homicide.

I want to turn to CNN's Paula Hancocks live in Seoul.

Good morning, Paula. How is this being received?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, as you can imagine, the families of the victims are absolutely livid. They gave an emotional press conference after the verdict was announced. In fact, many of them were in court and shouted at the judges, how can you call this law? What about our children's lives?

They wanted to see the death penalty, they say, for all 15 of the crew members who are on trial. But, as I say, none got the death penalty. The prosecutors wanted the death penalty for the captain. They wanted him to be charged with murder. He wasn't.

It was basically up the prosecutors to show that there was intent to murder. Now, the captain has already said in court that he believes with his crime he deserves to die, but he did not intend to murder anybody.

Now, prosecutors will be appealing. They have got seven days to formally launch that. They are trying to decide if they appeal against the captain's sentence or against everybody's sentence.

But families are very upset. They say that they believe the verdict was outrageous. In the court of public opinion here in South Korea, these 15 had been tried and convicted many months ago, and the captain in that court certainly wasn't acquitted of murder.

We are listening to some pundits talking on South Korean television and all of them believe this is lenient sentences that we are seeing today. So, we can expect appeals to happen.

And, of course, on top of this, we know the underground search for nine bodies that still haven't been found since April has now ended today. The families of those that still have not been reunited with their loved ones have said that it was a very painful decision to come to, but it is too dangerous for divers to continue the search as the ship is starting to crumble -- John.

BERMAN: What a difficult day it must be for those families. Nothing will bring their loved ones back.

Paula Hancocks, thanks so much for being with us.

ROMANS: All right. Fifteen minutes past the hour.

The United States is now Ebola-free.

BERMAN: Amazing, isn't it?

ROMANS: Yes.

A New York City doctor has fully recovered from the deadly virus. He will be released from the hospital today. Health officials say Dr. Craig Spencer poses no public health risk and how that he has recovered, there are no known Ebola cases in America. Now, Spencer's case touched off a national debate the governors of several states to update their quarantine policies for travelers from West Africa.

BERMAN: With his banjo and his exercise bike which he had in the last few days.

The Canadian government is tightening air travelers from West Africa to try to prevent any Ebola outbreak there. High risk travels are now being required to self quarantine at home or in a designated facility for 21 days. Low risk travelers will have to self-monitor for 21 days and check your temperature twice a day.

Officials say returning Canadian health care workers will not automatically be categorized as high risk.

ROMANS: Beginning next week, in New York City, if you're caught possessing a small amount of marijuana, the penalty will not be an automatic arrest, even a slap on the wrest. It will be a ticket to be paid later.

Under this new policy, really a sea change in New York. Anyone found with less than 25 grams will be issued and summoned by police. New York's mayor says African-Americans and Latinos have been disproportionately affected by pot arrest, and the system clogs with people for minor, minor violation.

BERMAN: It's going to be interesting to see how they deal with all those summons, though. It won't be necessarily, you know, not a logistical challenge then.

Lava from Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano has claimed its first home on the outskirts of the village Pahoa. Look at that. Now, the residents have been evacuated already. Officials say no other houses are in immediate danger, but it is still not clear what path the lave flow will take. The lava destroyed the structure in less than half an hour. I mean, there's nothing you can do. The lava has been inching towards towns since June.

ROMANS: Millions of Americans in the grips of arctic this morning. Heavy snow pounding parts of Wisconsin, Montana and Minnesota, shutting down schools and snarling air travel. Just look at this mess in central Minnesota, this is the city of St. Cloud, expected to get slammed by up to 16 inches of snow and finally stops falling this afternoon.

Police in the area responding to nearly 400 car accidents, 200 flights canceled in Minneapolis, St. Paul Airport.

BERMAN: Yes, the slick roads are making it dangerous for drivers in Wisconsin. The woman who flipped this SUV was able to walk away uninjured. Wow. She's lucky.

Police say they simply couldn't keep up with all the accidents.

ROMANS: Well, the first ice of the year always catches you by surprise, even though it happens year after year.

South Dakota also getting slammed by the first winter storm. Eight inches of snow. Freezing rain, too. That makes it so dangerous. Shutting down roads and also regional airport in Rapid City. Temperature there fell from 53 degrees from 16 in minutes.

BERMAN: That's tough. You are outside in a tube top and then it is all of a sudden, it's 16 degrees.

ROMANS: You're tube top. Oh, Berman.

BERMAN: There I said it out loud.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: There they are in Billings, Montana. They are shoveling up to 14 inches of snow there. The temperatures dipped into the single digits, not tube top temperatures. It gets colder tonight with below zero temperatures.

ROMANS: All right. This deep freeze spreading across the country. Who better to ask than Chad Myers with an early forecast.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: A very early good morning to you.

A very cold morning here across parts of the Midwest. Oh, my gosh. Temperatures dropped 30 to 40 degrees from where they were yesterday for highs.

And then on the other side of the front, it's warm on the East Side, because that's where the south wind is there. When you are in the middle, or when you're along that front, you will know it, because temperatures have been dropping dramatically. The highs today in the Northeast, 60s. In Minneapolis, 27. In Billings or Cut Bank, or all those places up in Montana, well into the single digits for temperatures today after many morning low temperatures, 20 below zero still coming up this morning in the coldest part of the morning still to come.

Now, for tomorrow, that cold air works its ways to the East, but mainly to the South. This is a storm that will really drive the weather to the south rather than drive it to the Southeast at least for now. But that will all change as the front moves by as well. Tomorrow's forecast is still warm in New York, but enjoy that day. It will be the last warm one for quite some time.

And this weather looks like on the computer models that it could be the cold in many spots for the next 10 days. Yes, warming and cooling, but certainly below normal on the eastern half of the U.S. for quite some time.

Guys, back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: And no one asked for that. No one asked for that.

ROMANS: All right. Chad, thanks for that.

BERMAN: Tensions rising in Ferguson this morning as the public waits to hear if the grand jury will indict the police officer who shot and killed unarmed teenager Michael Brown. Gun sales soaring as Brown's parents before a United Nations panel. We are live of what they are expected to say.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: In Ferguson, Missouri, gun sales on the rise. Tensions is mounting there in the anticipation of the grand jury's decision on whether to indict officer Darren Wilson. It was officer Wilson who shot and killed Michael Brown who was not armed at the time.

Gun shop manager John Stephenson says his sales are up 40 percent to 50 percent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN STEPHENSON, MANAGER, METRO SHOOTING RANGE: The bottom line is, there's a lot of people that are scared and not necessarily -- I don't like to use the word "scared", I'd say very concerned. But there is an element that is -- they are fearing what's going to turn to violence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Michael Brown's family flew to Geneva in Switzerland on Monday. They're set to speak before the United Nations Committee Against Torture later in the week.

International correspondent Erin McLaughlin is live for us now from Geneva.

Good morning, Erin.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

Well, the parents of Michael Brown are expected to testify later today before a closed-door session before that committee. They are expected to give a brief written-in-part with help of some legal experts about the circumstances surrounding Michael Brown's death, as well as the police response to the protests that followed.

The brief is expected to include some allegations of racial profiling, as well as the militarization of police in Ferguson, Missouri. I spoke to one of the legal experts who helped to write a brief. He told me that this is about systematic change across the United States. And he said that they went to great efforts to be able to be here, crowdfunding the entire trip under the #FergusontoMissouri (ph) -- John.

BERMAN: What is the United Nations role in all this? I mean, it is interesting. President Obama actually brought up Ferguson while speaking in front of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

MCLAUGLIN: That's a really good question, especially when you consider the grand jury is still considering whether or not to indict the police officer in question, as well as there are other Department of Justice investigations currently ongoing.

But this is part of a much broader review into U.S. compliance into the U.N. Convention Against Torture. It is one of three human right treaties that the United States ratified out of ten. So, this is part of a much broader review, looking at a range of issues expected to take place over the course of three days in which a panel of eight experts are going to be asking U.S. allegation a series of questions potentially about Ferguson. United States delegation is going to have an opportunity to respond.

And on November 28th, we're expecting a report for the U.N. outlining a series of recommendations and according to the convention, the fact the United States has ratified it, the U.S. is legally obliged to follow-up on the series of recommendations from the committee -- John.

BERMAN: Interesting. All right. Erin McLaughlin live for us in Geneva this morning, thanks so much. ROMANS: All right. Happening now: more U.S. troops arriving in Iraq

to help in the fight against ISIS, not in combat roles. What will their role as U.S. strategy shifts? After the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)