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In case You Missed It
Blow To NSA Surveillance Program; Colorado Shooting Victim In Critical Condition; What The Newlywed Killer Told Police; Documents Obtained By CNN Reveal Cruise Fiasco Was Disaster Waiting To Happen
Aired December 16, 2013 - 23:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. I'm Brooke Baldwin. And welcome to ICYMI, showcasing CNN's best reporting all day and the news breaking tonight.
We have a lot to get to, including this late development on that school shooting in Colorado. For the very first time, we hear from the parents of the boy who brought a rifle into Arapahoe High School and opened fire.
Also, day after day of stifling heat, no power and the stench of human waste, a CNN investigation into Carnival Cruise Lines' infamous "poop" cruise. And you will not believe what they knew and when they knew it.
Also ahead, you will see what happens when a war correspondent shows his softer side. CNN's Ivan Watson with a new generation of baby pandas in China tonight. And a lot more IN CASE YOU MISSED IT. So let's get started.
We begin tonight with a federal court ruling that deals a major blow to the NSA surveillance program that has outraged so many Americans, the massive and secret collections of our phone records. A judge ruled this huge data stash is almost certainly unconstitutional.
Tonight, we got the first reaction here from Edward Snowden himself all the way from Russia where he has got asylum. He says in part, quote, "The American public deserved the chance to see these issues determined by open courts. Today a secret program authorize bade secret court was when exposed to the light of day, found to violate Americans rights. It is the first of many.
It was earlier this year that Snowden again leaking information on secret NSA programs and if you think he did damage with those leaks we are learning now that he has only released a small fraction of the 1.7 million documents he confiscated from right under the NSA's nose.
In an interview with "60 Minutes" the man leading the Snowden task force for the NSA described those millions of documents as a treasure trove for America's enemies. NSA Deputy Director Rick Ledgett says the U.S. should consider granting Snowden amnesty in return for all those classified documents.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RICK LEDGETT, HEAD OF NSA'S SNOWDEN TASK FORCE: My personal view is, yes, it's worth having a conversation about. I would need assurances that the remainder of the data could be secured and my bar would be very high.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: The National Security Council backed away from that statement pretty quickly here. They release a statement saying, quote, "There is no change in U.S. policy on this issue" and they say he will face felony charges if in fact he comes back home. Glen Greenwald is the journalist who first published the stash of information and he says the NSA leaker wants to make a deal to come back home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GLENN GREENWALD, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: What Edward Snowden has always said from the start is if I could be guaranteed fair treatment and wouldn't be persecuted for the stories that I brought to life, I would love to return to the United States as part of an agreement with the Justice Department, but in general, the U.S. government tends to be vindictive in these cases when it comes to people who expose wrong doing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Now CNN's Jeffrey Toobin joins me to talk a little bit about this and we talked earlier on my show and you have said, yes, this is a limited ruling and it begs the question that this would open the door to many other cases. But we learned there are many other cases currently pending.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Absolutely. There is a big one here in New York filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and two plaintiffs have won, anyone who is in a similar situation, which is basically all of us who have had our phones looked at by this program can file a same lawsuit. So it's going to be open season on the NSA now.
BALDIWN: There is a big meeting tomorrow, the president of the United States and tech companies getting together and talking about their roles. What do you think they will tell President Obama?
TOOBIN: They are going to say you need to fix this program. Our customers are mad at us. We are cooperating with you. You have to give the data, but we don't want to be in the position of being your bad cops.
BALDWIN: They are irked at the president.
TOOBIN: Absolutely. You have the trouble in two directions coming for President Obama. This court ruling saying it's illegal. The tech companies saying we don't want to do it anymore. But you have the national security community saying this protects lives and presidents take that very seriously. BALDWIN: Jeff Toobin, thank you.
And now turning now to the high school shooting in Centennial, Colorado, for the very first time, tonight, we are hearing from the family of the shooter, Carl Pierson. His parents expressed their sympathy for the victim, 17 year old, Claire Davis who remains in critical condition tonight. They talked about their son.
This is part of their statement. I'll read part of it for you here, "As parents, we loved our son, Carl dearly and we are devastated by what happened Friday. We cannot begin to understand why Carl did what he did. We ask for privacy during this unthinkably difficult time and hope you going to respect our need for time to grieve."
We've also learned this that it took only 80 seconds on Friday afternoon for the shooter to walk into that high school and shoot Claire Davis in her head at point-blank range and then take his own life. We know that he was targeting his debate coach, Tracy Murphy, who suspended him from the team. Listen to what Pierson's friend and debate team captain had to say about this young man.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know that they did not get along on the trip to nationals. Carl threatened to kill Mr. Murphy kind of half-jokingly and Mr. Murphy brought that to the administration and Carl got suspended for that. He felt like the suspension had ruined his chances into college and ruined his future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: As for the victim here, Claire Davis, she is in a coma tonight. The governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper has asked for all Americans to pray for her recovery. And for many folks in Colorado, this shooting was far too familiar. After a series of some of the worst mass shootings the country has ever seen, the school is eight miles away from Columbine High School and 15 miles from the Aurora movie theatre.
After all of that violence, Colorado is one of the first states to actually enact tougher gun legislation, but some Colorado sheriffs are refusing to enforce the law because they say it violates second amendment rights.
Weld County Sheriff John Cook is one of them. He is among 55 of the 62 elected sheriffs in Colorado who is challenging the constitutionality of this new law and I should tell you also tonight this is not just Colorado, it is happening in New York where sentiment runs high for gun control. You have several sheriffs reportedly ignoring new laws passed in the wake of the Newtown massacre.
Now to Montana, to the newly murder case there, there are newly released tapes of police interviews with Jordan Graham, she is the young woman who agreed to plead guilty to second degree murder in the death of her husband last week. This happened this summer. This was eight days after the two exchanged vows. Graham pushed her husband, Cody Johnson off a cliff to his death in Glacier National Park. We are seeing police interviews with her after her husband disappeared. She denies nothing anything about what happened to him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's going on as far as where he might have gone or who he might be with?
JORDAN GRAHAM: Well, I got a message saying he was going to go for a ride with one of his friends. He said he would take them to Glacier Park, he walked out or made a call or something I got a text saying he was going to go and he left.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: But then after repeated questioning and once the body had been found she changed her story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRAHAM: He went to grab my arm and I said no, I'm not going to the top. I'm going to defend myself. I pushed and he went over and then I took off and went home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Sentencing in the case is scheduled for March. Graham faces a maximum of life in prison.
In Utah, conservative anger tonight after this whole ruling that strikes down a ban on certain kinds of polygamy and this move is sparking some of the same outrage that surround same sex marriage. For those who say marriage should only be between one man and one woman. A case was brought on by Kody Brown, the star of the reality series, "Sister Wives." CNN's Pamela Brown tells his story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In 2011, Brown fled from Utah to Nevada along with his four wives and 17 children, days after their controversial television debut triggered a police investigation. Brown sued the state two years ago claiming their privacy rights were being violated by the decade's old law. Now he has 21 reasons to celebrate after a Utah judge threw out the law section prohibiting cohabitation saying it violates constitutional guarantees of due process and religious freedom.
But the ruling does not make polygamy legal. It families with multiple husbands or wives who live together, but don's seek more than one marriage license cannot be prosecuted.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a huge deal and there is work to be done. BROWN: Darger family, friends of the Browns and fellow Utah polygamists shared an overjoyed phone call with Brown minutes after the ruling.
JOE DARGER, POLYGAMIST AND UTAH RESIDENT: Kody is like Joe, we won. And I'm like really? He said we got everything we worked for.
BROWN: But not everyone is jumping for joy over the ruling, Russell Moore, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention said polygamy was outlawed in this country because it was demonstrated again and again to hurt women and children.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: We are told that an appeal to a higher court on that polygamy ruling is already in the works.
I need to take a quick break but in a moment, the CNN investigation, the real story of the called "poop" cruise. What really happened behind the scenes on that infamous Carnival ship? If you are a planning a cruise, you will want to see this story.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Welcome back to ICYMI. I'm Brooke Baldwin. And now "IN CASE YOU MISSED IT," an important investigative piece, exclusive documents obtained by CNN reveal that the entire fiasco on board that Carnival Triumph earlier this year was actually a disaster waiting to happen. More than 4,000 passengers were stranded on board what is known as the "poop" cruise after a fire knocked out the ship's power.
You remember this one, a ship drifted for four long days, no airconditioning, largely without lights, water, food or flushing toilets. And now CNN has learned that the crew set sail in February with only four of six generators operational and without installing recommended safety equipment. CNN investigative correspondent, Drew Griffin has the story tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This was supposed to be the fun ship and we were having to fend for ourselves.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bettina Rodriguez and her daughter, Isabel, had planned this cruise for half a year. They would said on the Carnival Triumph and celebrate Isabel's birthday. It was a trip of a lifetime until they awoke to a fire alarm, smoke in their hallway, then days and days of misery. Human waste was actually piling up just outside their door.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just on our deck alone there were the biohazard bags lined up across the floor, raw sewage at just the end of our deck alone. It was just repulsive.
GRIFFIN: It was according to Rodriguez, a nightmare now made even worse because of these, the cruise lines own reports, inspections and maintenance records detailed a problem that had been developing on board the Carnival Triumph more than a year before Rodriguez and her daughter were on board. This attorney obtained the documents in his lawsuit against Carnival.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That ship never should have set sail in February. It was unseaworthy at the commencement of the voyage. These documents tell you that the company and I'm saying to you the corporation back in Miami had knowledge of the fact that this vessel had a propensity for fires. There were things that could have been, should have been and weren't done in order to make sure that fires didn't take place.
GRIFFIN: The first trouble with triumph, diesel generator number six, the one that ended catching fire starting a year before the cruise, diesel generator number six was overdue for maintain, out of compliance with the safety laws of the sea. Over and over again, Carnival's own maintenance reports say the same thing. Diesel generator number six overdue for maintenance.
And during that same time period, Carnival learned about a more alarming safety problem in the engine room, fuel lines. A dangerous pattern of leaks emerged in other ships. It would be the ultimate foreshadowing, consider this. Carnival's investigation shows the fire on board the Costa Allegra was believed to be caused by a fuel leak on one of the diesel generators, similar to what started the fire on the Triumph a year later.
Carnival says it proactively began investigating and found a big problem in a different type of fuel line. There had been nine -- that's right -- nine incidents resulting from fuel leaks associated with flexible fuel lines in two years.
On January 2nd, Carnival issues a compliance order, giving ships two months to address the problem and ensure a suitable spray shield is installed for all diesel engines using the flexible fuel lines. Mark Jackson is Carnival's chief engineer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After that internal study, the company came out with a new policy to, again, shield all of the flanges and the hoses that were below the deck plates.
GRIFFIN (on camera): But you didn't shield the one hose that wound up causing this tragedy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That hose was beneath the deck plates. It was believed that the deck plates would act as that shield. In this case it found that gap in the bilge plates and caused the fire.
GRIFFIN: On February 7th with a diesel generator in need of overhaul and shields on some, but not all of the flexible hoses, triumph set sail from Galveston, Texas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were totally in compliance with all the rules and regulations. We had the regulating bodies on board the vessel that certified the ship safe to sail. You learn things on an incident such as the triumphs. GRIFFIN: Three days later fire breaks out when fuel sprays from a flexible fuel line, a line that was less than six months old. Drew Griffin, CNN, Houston, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Drew, thank you so much. A quick break here, when we return our best videos out of the hundreds that feed into CNN from around the world each and every day. Next on IN CASE YOU MISSED IT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Welcome back to ICYMI. I'm Brooke Baldwin. And the jackpot is growing and so are the lines to buy the tickets. Tuesday night's Mega Millions up to $586 million with a payout of $316.5 million. If there is no winner tomorrow night the jackpot going to start at $800 million for Friday's drawing and if then it would be a Merry Christmas for someone as the payout is $1 billion on Christmas Eve.
Now to the strongest videos that have come to CNN in the last 24 hours. This is from India. This is Aleppo on Sunday. Army helicopters dropped barrel bombs filled with explosives on neighborhoods filled held by rebels. At least 83 people were killed, among the dead 27 children.
Next in the Ukraine, Senator John McCain made an appearance in Kiev over the weekend to express support the demonstrators saying this is their moment. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators are protesting their president who they see as a puppet of Vladimir Putin.
Who can forget the fire last summer that surrounded the Hotshot firefighting crew, leaving them with no escape? Nineteen heroes died that day and we'll play you a little bit of this. It's tough to hear the newly released recording knowing what happens next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Granite Mountain 7.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The escape route has been cut off. We are preparing a deployment site and burning out around ourselves in a brush. I'll give you a call when we are under the shelters.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Absolutely tragic. Back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: We leave you tonight on IN CASE YOU MISSED IT with this. You may have seen him on the front lines. But today, Ivan Watson was on the front lines with some of the world's cutest creatures, pandas. While visiting the giant panda breeding center he got close to one of the animals and fell in love with one of the animals named Moo Moo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This panda is too cute for words getting close to this little animal. She is one of the oldest of the 14 pandas born this summer. For a donation you get to sit next to one of these animals. This female who is chowing down on bamboo shoots dipped in honey and you get to hug her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: That's what we leave you tonight, that's does it for me. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for joining me. We'll see you again tomorrow night on IN CASE YOU MISSED IT.
