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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

U.K. Prime Minister To Meet With Egypt's President; U.S. Intel Suggests Bomb Brought Down Plane; Egypt: Sharm El-Sheikh Airport Is Safe; Illinois Cops Death A "Carefully Staged Suicide"; Trump Versus Rubio. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired November 05, 2015 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00] MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: It will be tense because tourism is so important to the Egyptian economy and this lifeline of British tourists has been cut off by Downing Street and the prime minister's decision to stop the flights between the U.K. and Sharm el-Sheik.

And what is at the bottom of all this? Some intelligence that the British lives are at risk at Sharm el-sheikh airport so there is a British team on the ground and going through the security screening measures there.

They feel as if things are improving, but they have not got some level where they are comfortable for British tourists to travel through that particular airport.

If you listen to what the ministers are saying today, the language they are using, the concern is about making sure anything that gets on to those flights coming from Sharm el-Sheikh to the U.K. is properly screened.

They are not comfortable they've got their yet, but it does give an indication about the concerns of the plane crash, which is something to do with the airport and luggage getting on board. It lends to the theory that a bomb was snuck on the plane somehow through Sharm el- Sheikh airport -- Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Max, thanks so much for that. Joining us now is CNN military analyst and former Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. It's so good to have you here today.

You know, ISIS immediately claimed responsibility for this, but it's not that ISIS claim that is raising the concerns and interests of intelligence community.

It is the internal communications they say that they have been monitoring inside ISIS and also infrared imagery from satellites that show this was most likely a bomb on board, not a missile strike.

CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: That is right, Christine. What we have is a confluence of different sources that are coming together here. On the one hand you have the intelligence related to the internal chatter you described within ISIS itself. You also have the external technical means that we have via satellite to detect infrared events. That can be a number of things. But basically when there is an explosion anywhere on the surface of the earth, it is possible to detect it.

But we don't know what caused that explosion. That depends on a lot of other factors and you have to bring all those sources together.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We talk about this being an ISIS affiliate likely behind this attack in the Sinai Peninsula. Who are the militants operating in that region?

LEIGHTON: John, you basically have a group known as ISIS in the Sinai. ISIS in the Sinai has several goals. One of them is to create havoc for the Egyptians, the Egyptian government which, of course, controls the Sinai Peninsula.

There are other groups, one of them affiliated with Hamas, which is in essence the Palestinian government in Gaza. They run a lot of smuggling routes in and out of the Sinai Peninsula. They have a vested interest in maintaining those smuggling routes for nothing else than economic reasons.

Then some Bedouin (ph) groups who are interested in essence being in a separatist movement for the Sinai Peninsula and the Bedouin (ph) peoples that live there.

So those are the three major groups out there, ISIS in the Sinai being the most dangerous and the most likely to have done something like this at this juncture.

ROMANS: And the suggestion here from intelligence, the very, very early read on intelligence, I should say, but the early read is that there could have been inside help inside the airport to get that bomb on that plane. What do we know about that? What are your experience will be the next step to confirming that?

LEIGHTON: Christine, one of the big things that you have do in a case like this is start questioning airport personnel. So it becomes a law enforcement issue, kind of like the FBI does here in the United States.

The Egyptian security services will have to go through and question all of the employees that came into proximity of the Metrojet airplane. When you look at what they are able to do and what they are able to find out, they'll have to determine things like are these people doing things for others?

Are they on other's payroll? Are they doing things that are not part of the normal airport security protocol? Are they avoiding the security measures that are in place at the airport?

And are those security measures sufficient by themselves to prevent something like this from happening? The initial answer seems to be no, they are not. But we really have to look at that and examine whether or not that was the way the path that was taken in this case. BERMAN: And quickly, what is the Egyptian interest here? How much can the United States and the international community trust intelligence services to investigate this thoroughly right now?

[05:35:04] LEIGHTON: Well, the Egyptian intelligence service is a very good intelligence service from a technical standpoint, John. What they do is they work very much in concert with western intelligence agencies to provide information not only in what is going in Egypt, but what's going on throughout the Middle East.

So there are elements of the Egyptian intelligence service that can be trusted. However, there are other elements that maybe working for somebody else.

BERMAN: Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you so much for being with us. Appreciate it.

LEIGHTON: You bet.

ROMANS: The security enhanced at Sharm el-Sheikh airport, but what now at this hour are officials in Egypt saying about these terrorism accusations? We are live with that right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Breaking overnight, Egypt is insisting that Sharm el-Sheikh airport is still safe this morning despite the United Kingdom suspending all flights to and from Sharm el-Sheik citing security problems at that airport.

I want to bring in senior international correspondent, Ben Wedeman, live in Cairo. Ben, you have been through that airport many times, spent many years in that country. From your experience, what is security like at Sharm el-Sheikh International?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Under normal circumstance, Christine, I would say it is a light touch. Of course, if you look at the spectrum of security that you have in the Middle East, on the one hand, you have the international airport in Tel Aviv, Israel where security is extremely tight.

You are asked multiple questions by a variety of people. In Sharm el- Sheikh, my experience is you are met with a smile, perhaps sometimes a question. Do you have anything for me?

[05:40:13]But in terms of real security, not much at all. We received a statement from the Egyptian minister of civil aviation responding to the suggestions by American and British officials that a bomb may have been placed on the Metrojet airliner.

He said regarding the hypothesis of having brought down the plane through an external explosion, the investigation committee has not found any evidence or data that would confirm this hypothesis so Egyptian officials remain cautious about these suggestions about a possible explosive device on board. They insist that they are cooperating with British and American Federal Aviation Authority officials to make sure that security measures at Sharm el-Sheikh are up to international levels.

ROMANS: Top officials from Egypt in London for a three-day state meeting already. Clearly those conversations will be happening. Thank you so much for that, Ben Wedeman.

BERMAN: All right, Donald Trump back on top in a new poll, but lashing out at one competitor who is rising fast. That's next.

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[05:45:05]

BERMAN: A stunning twist in the shooting death of the veteran Illinois police officer. When the body of Lt. Joe Gliniewicz was found in September, there was a huge manhunt launched for his alleged killers.

But now investigators say Gliniewicz pulled off a carefully staged suicide and they are accusing him of committing the ultimate betrayal. This story is fascinating. Let's get more now from CNN's Rosa Flores.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, Illinois investigators making a shocking revelation saying that Lieutenant Gliniewicz was no hometown hero. He was a con-artist that lived a secret life. He made his suicide look like a homicide to investigators to distract them.

So how did he do that? Investigators believed that he planted evidence on the scene to distract them. Things like leaving pepper spray and then a few feet away, dropping a baton and other objects. The distraction did work. It took authorities two months to determine that this was indeed a suicide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are no winners here. Gliniewicz committed the ultimate betrayal to the citizens he served and enforcement community. The facts of his actions proved he behaved for years in a manner completely contrary to the image he portrayed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: So what was the motive here? Investigators believed that authorities were zeroing in on Gliniewicz for alleged criminal activity that spanned seven years and that Gliniewicz was using the explorers program, which is a mentorship program for teens, to launder money.

Now those monies, according to authorities, were in the thousands of dollars and were used to pay his mortgage, to access adult web sites and among other things. Now, as for his family, they are asking for privacy. And as you know, there was a pouring of support not only emotionally, but financially for the family. CNN has learned one organization that gave the family $15,000 is asking for the money back -- John, Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Rosa Flores, thank you for that. The White House says Iran's Revolutionary Guard has been on a hacking spree in recent weeks. The military force targeting e-mails and social media accounts of administration officials, U.S. journalists, and academics have also reportedly been hit.

These attacks are believed to be connected to the recent of an Iranian-American businessman, (inaudible). Namazi's (ph) friends and associates say the Iranians confiscated his computer when they raided and ransacked his family's home in Tehran.

BERMAN: President Obama could take executive action trying to shut down the military prison in Guantanamo Bay. Right now, the White House is finalizing a plan to transfer many of the detainees to other nations and some facilities here in the United States.

The White House at this point is sending a plan to Congress in the next few days. The White House says it is not expecting much support or action to be taken on Capitol Hill.

ROMANS: All right, let's look at what is coming up on NEW DAY. Michaela Pereira joins us now. Hi, Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. We are following these breaking developments in the mystery surrounding the crash of that Russian plane. U.S. and U.K. officials are suggesting that a bomb could have been put on this plane.

Now is that an indication that ISIS or one of their affiliates are getting more advanced or sophisticated? The question, of course, is how this going to affect security at airports around the globe? We have our terror experts. We will ask them to break it down.

Also GOP presidential candidate, Ben Carson, says he displayed violent behavior in his past. He says this in his autobiography. There is a lot of questions about his claim especially coming from people who knew him back in the day.

We are going to break it down with our reporters. They are digging into Dr. Ben Carson's past. We will tell you what they found out coming up on NEW DAY.

ROMANS: All right, Michaela, thank you for that.

All right, 49 minutes past the hour, if you are a homeowner, you and me, listen up, home prices and home values are up. Can it continue? Where your home value is headed next.

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[05:53:23] ROMANS: Candidates both Republican and Democrat are now converging on New Hampshire to officially file for the state's crucial first in the nation primary. GOP frontrunner, Donald Trump, was first in line when the filing period began Wednesday.

Trump used the occasion to go after rival Marco Rubio on his personal finances. Rubio is now moving up in the polls, is returning fire. We get more from CNN's Dana Bash in New Hampshire.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, it is always busy here in New Hampshire this time of year in an election year, but especially now because it is filing time for these candidates to actually get on the ballot in the primary.

Later today, Marco Rubio will sign his name and make sure that he is going to be there. Yesterday, it was Donald Trump. Of course, as he tends to do, came with a lot of fanfare. It was a big event.

He signed it, but then he also took a couple of shots at some of the opponents who seem to be giving him more and more of a run for his money. Marco Rubio is one of them.

Speaking of money, that is where Trump decided to hit him the hardest on questions about finances from way back when Marco Rubio was in a statehouse with the credit card that he used. Here is what Donald Trump said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Marco Rubio has a disaster on his finances. He has a disaster on his credit cards. When you check his credit card, take a look at what he has done with the Republican Party when he had access. What he had to put back in and whether or not something should have happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:55:00] BASH: Rubio says this is a non-issue. He will release the statements from back when he was in the statehouse to prove he did not use the Republican Party's credit card or money. He paid everything that he spent on his personal expenses himself. He had this to say to me in response to Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That's Donald being Donald. Whenever there is a bad poll, he gets weird. He doesn't know what he's talking about. Bottom line, you need to understand this is an American Express card. If there were personal expenses, I paid them directly to American Express at the time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: And there is a pretty good reason for Donald Trump to be setting his sights on Marco Rubio more than he has in the past, particularly here in New Hampshire because Rubio is climbing big in the polls here.

He went from just 2 percent a couple of months ago to 11 percent which puts him third. New Hampshire is such a key place for so many of these players. Donald trump wants to remain on top and continues to push the others down.

But it is still a long three or four months until that first in the nation primary here -- John and Christine.

ROMANS: It sure is. Dana Bash in New Hampshire, thank you.

Let's get an EARLY START on your money this morning. Stocks falling after comments from Fed Chairman Janet Yellen told Congress a December interest rate hike is still very much alive. It's the fed's final chance to raise rates this year for the first time in almost a decade.

Concerns about global the economy still linger, but Yellen said she sees improvements in the job market and consumer spending, plus cheap oil prices that have been keeping inflation are only temporary.

Now the details of that controversial TransPacific Partnership, TPP, are out. The big question is will it actually boost American exports and jobs? The U.S. reached a deal with 11 other countries. Critics complained about the secrecy surrounding the agreement.

The White House says the deal will increase U.S. exports and protect American workers. Opponents say it is bad for business and bad for workers. Congress must still approve that agreement.

Great news for the housing market, folks, home sellers in the third quarter saw an average gain of almost $41,000. That's their appreciated gain, a 17 percent gain. The lowest share of all cash sales fell to the lowest level since 2008.

That means more first time home buyers are getting into the game. Three years now we had steady home price appreciation. It is starting to slow a bit. Higher mortgage rates are coming eventually.

There is no industry where women earn as much as men. That's according to brand new data from Pay Scale. Married men with children earn the highest overall salary. Single moms have the lowest. Men's salaries tend to rise until age 50 to 55.

Women's salaries plateau much earlier. More education doesn't necessarily mean more equality. In fact, these numbers show PhD holders have the biggest pay gap between men and women. It's really interesting statistics there.

It's 58 minutes past hour. Did ISIS bomb a Russian plane killing 224 people on board? What new intelligence is saying? "NEW DAY" picks that up now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Intelligence suggests it was a bomb planted by ISIS. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a definite feeling it was an explosive device planted in the luggage.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Suspending all flights to Sharm el-Sheikh.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It would the most significant terror attacks since 9/11.

ROMANS: Are American airports safe?

BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would go after people with rocks and baseball bats.

TRUMP: Marco Rubio has a disaster on his finances.

RUBIO: Bottom line, people need to understand that this is an American Express card. If there were personal expenses on there, I paid them.

BASH: Marco Rubio doing much, much better. What do you say to that?

TRUMP: All I know is I'm number one.

BERMAN: Blasted by George H.W. Bush.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After 9/11, I saw my role to be carried out with the president's policy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to NEW DAY. There's a major twist in the Russian plane crash investigation. Bone the U.S. and U.K. now saying, it was likely a bomb and with ISIS likely behind it.

We're parsing the words because that's the way to do this right now because the kremlin is pushing back calling it, quote, "unverified speculation." And the Egyptians also say there's no evidence of a bomb.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Let's go through what we know because there was a dramatic turn of the events that unfolded. It started with British Prime Minister David Cameron announcing that the plane, quote, "May well have been downed by an explosive device."

Three hours later, the U.S. agreed. An official telling CNN it's likely that a bomb brought down the plane. And it was possibly planted by ISIS or an affiliate. Two hours after that, a Middle East source confirms the bomb theory is likely.