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New Day Saturday

CDC: 10 People At "High Risk" Of Ebola; Another Ebola Patient Returns To U.S. Monday; ISIS Beheads British Hostage; 248,000 Jobs Added In September; Should U.S. Ban Flights From Ebola Countries?; Cold Front Hitting the East Coast; Confusing Situation in Syria; Violence about to Erupt in Hong Kong; Choosing CNN Hero; Coming Changes for the Secret Service Following Investigation of Security Breach in the White House; Interview With Rep. Elijah Cummings Of Maryland

Aired October 04, 2014 - 06:00   ET

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

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. It's 6 a.m. here on the east coast and of course, the big story that everyone is talking about, Ebola now here in the U.S.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Fears are really ramping up it seems. Federal officials, health officials I should say, ten of the 50 who came into contact with the Dallas Ebola patient are at high risk of contracting the virus. This morning, Thomas Eric Duncan is still in isolation. He is in serious condition we know.

BLACKWELL: His partner and three of her family members are among those at high risk. They have been quarantined in their apartment for the past week, but they have since been moved to another location and you see here the hazmat crews gave the apartment a good cleaning and the process, we understand, could take days.

Meanwhile, the White House is trying to tame the fears that an outbreak could happen here at home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LISA MONACO, WHITE HOUSE COUNTERTERRORISM ADVISER: I want to emphasize that the United States is prepared to deal with this crisis. Both at home and in the region. Every Ebola outbreak over the past 40 years has been stopped. We know how to do this and we will do it again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Now, Duncan's fight against Ebola isn't his only worry. The Dallas County District Attorney's Office is now, quote, "Looking into whether he knowingly and intentionally exposed the public to a deadly virus." Basically that means Duncan could possibly face criminal charges.

BLACKWELL: Now, of course, we know Duncan traveled from Liberia to the U.S. last month and has already been accused of lying on a pre- flight questionnaire about whether he had contact with any Ebola patients while abroad. PAUL: CNN's Nick Valencia has been on the ground in Dallas there and reports that there's fear taking hold at that apartment complex where Duncan first got sick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At Texas Presbyterian Hospital Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan remains in serious condition days after becoming the first person to be diagnosed with the illness on American soil, Dallas County health officials are monitoring at least 50 others for Ebola symptoms.

At the apartment complex where Duncan stayed, fear has taken hold. Resident Mohammad Hussin originally from Somalia, worries about the outcome.

MOHAMMED HUSSIN, NEIGHBOR: Somebody, yes. If it happened.

VALENCIA (on camera): At the apartment complex where Duncan was staying, it is a very active scene. You see behind me a hazmat crew has just shown up here and is about to enter.

(voice-over): Hours after arriving, two people in hazmat suits emerged placing a tarp across the balcony of the apartment. The neighbor watches on with wonder, but mostly concern.

RAMON ESTRADA, NEIGHBOR (through translator): Yes, everyone is alert. They're nervous and scared. They don't know what else could happen. If it's contagious or if there will be an epidemic.

VALENCIA: Community leaders have had their hands full. Local church volunteer, Chris Read, has been tempering neighborhood alarmists and educating others to take the situation seriously.

CHRIS READ, FELLOWSHIP BIBLE CHURCH DALLAS: The greatest need for this man is medical care and for his immediate family his medical care. That should be where the attention is. Let's take care of that family. Let's take care of that person.

And not try to push them aside for any political reasons or anything else. Let's try to make sure that that's where the focus is because if we show we care for them.

VALENCIA: Dallas County health officials say things are under control and with Thomas Duncan quarantined they say everyone should ease their fears about the potential for an outbreak.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Nick is joining us live. Of course, they said we should ease our fears but, Nick, is fear dissipating there now that they're seeing these people there and the apartment is getting cleaned?

VALENCIA: Well, during the first phase of the cleaning process yesterday at the apartment, there was certainly a lot of people looking on with concern, some curious. City officials mentioned yesterday in a press conference that there is fear outside of the community with at least one report of someone who lived in that apartment complex being turned away from their job because of fears that they may have contracted something.

There's reports at the local high school of students from Africa from that apartment complex being called Ebola, being bullied by other students. There certainly is fear not only in that community where we were yesterday, but also surrounding that community.

City officials though say this is really concentrated to one part of Dallas and the north eastern corner of Dallas and they are trying to educate the public by telling them what they're doing, monitoring those 50 people, taking their temperatures. So they're really trying to educate the public to temper those concerns -- Christi and Victor.

PAUL: All righty. Good to know. Nick, take good care out there. Thank you, sir.

VALENCIA: Thanks.

BLACKWELL: Another American in effected with Ebola in Liberia is expected to return to the U.S. on Monday. The State Department says freelance cameraman, Ashoko Mukpo will be treated at the hospital in Omaha, Nebraska.

Now it's still unclear how he can contracted the virus, but Mukpo's father says his son remembers getting fluid sprayed in his face while he was cleaning a chair inside a clinic where he was filming.

PAUL: And then in Maryland, hospital officials say a patient admitted to the hospital after exhibiting flu-like symptoms yesterday has tested positive for malaria, not Ebola.

Meanwhile, another patient is being tested for Ebola at Howard University Hospital in D.C. Apparently they recently traveled to Nigeria. Officials say the patient is in isolation and is in stable condition right now.

BLACKWELL: Now to that brutal killing of a British aid worker and taxi driver by ISIS.

PAUL: The terror group has released this video showing the apparent beheading of Alan Henning. He was kidnapped in Syria the day after Christmas. He's the fourth western captive killed by is since August.

BLACKWELL: In a statement, President Obama condemned Henning's killing and said the U.S., quote, "standing together with a broad coalition of allies and partners will continue taking decisive action to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL."

PAUL: Now British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted that he met with his security chiefs this morning and just minutes ago, he said Britain and its allies will go after Henning's killers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: The murder of Alan Henning is absolutely appalling. It's senseless. It is completely unforgivable. As a country, we must do with our allies, is everything we can to defeat this organization in the region, but also to defeat it at home and we must do everything we can to hunt down and find the people who are responsible for this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Well, ISIS is now threatening to kill another hostage, American aid worker and Iraq war veteran, Peter Kassig. Kassig's family it tells CNN the 26-year-old medic went to Syria to do humanitarian work and care for wounded refugees and he disappeared last year.

CNN's Arwa Damon joins us now from the Turkish-Syrian border. Arwa, you actually met Kassig in 2012. Tell us more about this man?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Peter Kassig, sadly like those who were so horrifically beheaded before him, whether it's journalists or aid workers, decided to work and put his life on the line in Syria because he had a profound belief that he had a responsibility to try to make a difference.

And given his medical background, he believed that was the field that he needed to be assisting in. We met him in Lebanon in the summer of 2012. Back then he was volunteering at a hospital in the Lebanese city of Tripoli helping to treat wounded Syrians.

Take a listen to what he told us back then.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER KASSIG, AMERICAN AID WORKER: We each get one life and that's it. We get one shot at this. We don't get any do-overs. For me it was put up or shut up. The way I saw it, I didn't have a choice. This is what I was put here to do. I guess I'm just a hopeless romantic and idealist and I believe in hopeless causes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAMON: It was those sentiments, those emotions that drove Peter to do even more. He was always trying to take on even more, make an even bigger difference and so a few months after we met him, he established his own non-profit, SERA, Special Emergency Response and Assistance.

It was based here and it was focused on training up volunteers in those makeshift field clinics inside Syria trying to get them additional medical assistance and it was during one of those trips into Syria while on his way to Deirezor where Peter was kidnapped on October 1st, 2013.

During his captivity, it seems that he did at some point convert to Islam taking on the name Abdul Rakman. The family says it understands from previously released hostages, that Peter gained great strength from his faith. BLACKWELL: All right. Arwa Damon reporting for us. We read his family hasn't said much during his captivity, but now they're, of course, speaking about their son. Arwa Damon on the Turkish side of the Turkish/Syrian border. Thank you so much.

PAUL: Well, have you heard? Hackers have attacked JPMorgan accounts and they got their hands, people, on tons of personal information. We'll tell you what is reported to be stolen.

BLACKWELL: Plus, good news, for the economy and anyone looking for a job. Details on the falling unemployment rate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Welcome back to NEW DAY. A lot to tell you about. Let's get some quick reads here with your morning reads.

PAUL: Yes, in Dallas the family of four people who came into contact with a Liberian man diagnosed with Ebola have been moved out of their apartment and are now in a home secluded from neighbors. Meanwhile, crews are cleaning the apartment where Thomas Eric Duncan had stayed.

BLACKWELL: Three top North Korean officials paid a surprise visit to South Korea today. According to South Korean officials, Pyongyang says it is willing to hold a second round of high-level meetings this fall.

Now the first round of talks were held in February. Meanwhile, North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Un has been out of sight for three weeks suffering from, quote, "discomfort."

PAUL: In business news, JPMorgan says, yes, it's been hacked. Cyber criminals have gathered information on more than 80 million account holders including names, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses. However, apparently the hackers didn't get any account information and so far the bank says it hasn't noticed any customer fraud.

BLACKWELL: Tech news, Yahoo! is thinking about investing in Snapchat, the app that allows people to share photos and messages that are deleted from the Snapshot server after a set time. Few seconds, couple minutes maybe. If the deal goes through, it would give Yahoo! access to the messaging phenomenon and help increase their appeal to young customers.

PAUL: All right, crack the door open or the window wherever you are today because several parts of you -- the people in the country will be facing some cooler temperatures. Freeze warnings already for the northern plains this morning. Highs today are anywhere between 10 to 25 degrees below normal. Wow.

BLACKWELL: I love it.

PAUL: I'm totally ready for it.

BLACKWELL: Some good news for people who are looking for a job, maybe you're looking for one. The job market is getting better.

PAUL: Yes. According to the now jobs report, employers didn't just add 248,000 jobs last month, but the nation's unemployment rate fell below 6 percent and that's for the first time in six years.

CNN chief business correspondent, Christine Romans has more.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Christi and Victor, a strong jobs report. Let me show you what it looks like here. You can see 248,000 jobs created. That brings us back to this trend that had been going on for six months before August of more than 200,000 jobs created.

A really important point of this report as well, the jobless rate, hit a six-year low. The lowest in six years, 5.9 percent. We haven't seen a rate like that since all the way back to July 2008.

It was broad-based job gains, by the way, professional and business services, in retail, in health care. When you look at the unemployment rate you can see that those broad-based gains are now accumulating and lowering that jobless rate.

How does it look when you take a look at the trend? This is what's important here. The trend is, 226,000 jobs on average each month this year. You want to see job creation continue like this so you can continue to absorb people into the labor market and grow the economy.

You still have an underemployment rate that's too high. You still have wages that are not growing very briskly, not at all actually. You still have people who have been out of work six months or longer, all of those trends continue.

But for the recently unemployed and people who have a job right now, Christi and Victor, the job market is getting better.

BLACKWELL: All right. We'll take the good news. Christine Romans, thank you.

PAUL: So here's a question I think a lot of you are asking. Should flights from countries where people have Ebola be banned? Some U.S. lawmakers, they think they should. Would such a ban help contain Ebola, though? We're going to ask our experts to weigh in on that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: It's 19 minutes past the hour right now. We're grateful for your company. A growing number of lawmakers now want to tighten restrictions on people traveling with Ebola, including possibly a ban on flights to and from countries that are stricken with the disease.

Thomas Eric Duncan, the first patient diagnosed with Ebola on U.S. soil, flew from Liberia to Brussels and then to Virginia to Dallas. While the CDC said he was not contagious while he was traveling, Liberian airport officials said he answered no when asked if he had been exposed to Ebola.

CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the Department of Transportation, Mary Schiavo joining us now. Good morning, Mary.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Good morning.

PAUL: Good morning. Jordan Tappero, he's the director of the CDC's Division of Health Protection and the Centers for Global Health. First of all, listen to what the head of the CDC told CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. THOMAS FRIEDEN, DIRECTOR, CDC: The fact is that people travel, people move and if we restrict travel it will make it harder to control Ebola there and ultimately increase the risk in other parts of the world including here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: All right. So Mary, should there be a flight ban on planes going to and from countries that are experiencing this Ebola outbreak?

SCHIAVO: Yes, because it's just a matter of common sense. Now, I'm not saying you ban all people traveling to and from the United States. I'm saying that you need to get the aircraft, you need to get the flights and the people serving the airlines out of those areas. Why?

It's just common sense because an aircraft and aircraft flight is like moving a small city back and forth between the Ebola stricken areas and the United States. You have to take care of the crews, the fuelers, the caterers, the people who clean the planes, pilots and flight attendants have to have eight hours behind a door somewhere to sleep before they can fly.

You're increasing the number of threat factors that can introduce the problem into the United States. By the way, British Airways, an international giant carrier, has already banned flights from the Ebola stricken areas as have three African carriers including Kenya Airways.

PAUL: All right, Dr. Tappero, you were just in Liberia. You've been back I think you said, what, 23 days. What's the situation on the ground there like?

DR. JORDAN TAPPERO, CDC'S DIVISION OF HEALTH PROTECTION: Well, the situation in Liberia as in Sierra Leone and in Guinea is challenging. We have a number of patients that are in need of beds and we have a number of facilities providing care, but we need more of them.

The whole point is we need to provide places for people to get care so that they can improve their chances for survival, but it also gets people with the virus out of their communities and decreases the risk of transmission to others.

PAUL: Is it a possibility to really restrict those areas and keep it from spreading? Because, you know, from the outside from where we are it doesn't look to be so?

TAPPERO: I think you're talking about airline travel. Is that your question or just -- PAUL: Well, no, in Liberia.

TAPPERO: I think it's impossible to really control people's movement. When you have a long incubation period, people need to self-monitor if they know they've had low-risk exposure, but there really is no way to limit people's travel throughout that region of West Africa or anywhere else in the world when you're talking about something on a national scale.

PAUL: Scale like that. Well, Mary, Liberian airport officials say Duncan told them no when asked if he had been exposed to Ebola. How can you prevent passengers, though, from traveling who have been exposed, you know, without a flight ban in place?

SCHIAVO: Well, that's exactly right. That's what I'm saying. If you take the -- if you remove the U.S. carriers, if you take the airplanes away from the area, will people still travel to other parts? Where they -- will they go to other airports, et cetera, yes.

Because people who are desperate to get health care from the United States, for example, are going to do anything they can to get here. Then you don't have the added risk of the aircraft, the pilots, the flight attendants, and the crew.

What you have is you have known travelers and why? Because we now since after 9/11/2001, of course, we have a much better control on who's coming into the country and we know who they are.

So then we have to track the passengers as opposed to if we continue to allow flights coming and going from Ebola countries we have to track everyone who has touched the plane and for each flight that can be hundreds of people we don't know who they are.

PAUL: Well, not only that, but like we said, he said he had not been exposed to anybody with Ebola, essentially he lied.

SCHIAVO: Exactly.

PAUL: So how do we even keep track of people and know that they're being forthcoming with everything? So Dr. Tappero, I wanted to ask you, the U.N.'s Ebola chief says that there's this risk, that this could mutate and become airborne. How likely is that to happen and I'm assuming that would really be a game changer, obviously?

TAPPERO: Well, we have no evidence to date that suggests that there's any evidence that there's airborne transmission of this current virus. In fact, we have looks at and others have looked at the virus that's currently circulating in West Africa and there's been little evolutionary change of the virus over many years.

So we have no evidence of that. I would also address the comment about the risk of the individual who's now in Texas. That individual was screened at the airport.

There was no evidence of a fever. And so even -- even in the scenario which didn't happen, had the person become febrile on the airplane, he would still be very low risk transmission to others.

PAUL: So until the symptoms show up, there's not a huge risk?

TAPPERO: If the person is without fever, which this person was, and we've had our staff in Dallas as well as Texas authorities, talk to the individual and there is absolutely no evidence that he developed febrile symptoms until several days after arrival.

SO there was no risk to anyone on the airplane on that flight. In addition, the risk, even if someone were to become febrile on an airplane and it turned out to be Ebola those early hours of infection are still very, very low risk.

We would, of course, have, you know, good, you know, contact with all the individuals on the airplane and screen for them for direct contact with the individual and do all those things.

But really, the risk is direct patient contact with someone who's not only had fever, but had fever and the symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea and the kind of things that increase the likelihood of transmission.

PAUL: OK, good to know. Dr. Jordan Tappero, we appreciate your expertise. Mary Schiavo, always good to see you as well. Thank you for being here.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

PAUL: Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right, thank you, Christi. A fire at a memorial dedicated to 9/11 victims. Clouds of smoke rising. Look at this. The crews there are rushing to the scene. Ahead, some of the items that may have been damaged.

Plus, the week's long manhunt for suspected cop killer leads to a hunting ban in Pennsylvania. We'll tell you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: We're waiting for you here and so glad to see you. I'm Christi Paul. It is the bottom of the hour.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to have you with us this morning. Let's go to a few things we know that you need to know for your new day.

PAUL: Yeah, number one, President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron condemning the beheading of British aid worker Alan Henning by ISIS. The terror group released a video showing the brutal killing of the 47-year-old taxi driver. Now, it's - it's now threatening to kill another hostage, American aid worker Peter Kassing.

BLACKWELL: Number two, the CDC says ten people who had contact with Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan are at higher risk of contracting the deadly virus. Health officials are also monitoring the 40 others he came in contact with. Duncan's girlfriend, her son and two nephews who had been quarantined in an apartment, have now been moved to a larger residence. Hazmat crews, they started cleaning their apartment yesterday.

PAUL: Number three, the search for a suspected cop killer has led to a hunting ban in seven Pennsylvania townships. The state's game commission issued this indefinite ban after state police found two pipe bombs in the wooded search area. That's where Matthew Eric Frein is believed to be hiding. He's suspected of shooting and state trooper to death and wounding another. That was three weeks ago.

BLACKWELL: Number four, officials are assessing the damage that fire may have caused to the 9/11 memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. That's where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed. Now, among the artifacts in four damaged buildings, the American air -- American flag, rather, that flew over the U.S. Capital on the day of the terrorist attack, fire officials are investigating.

PAUL: And number five, look at what was happening at the Texas fair in Waco. This was on Thursday. You see people there, they are just scrambling to get into some shelter. It was strong wind and hail. But 90 miles north. Ft. Worth didn't fair a whole lot better. Storms hit that city as well causing significant damage we're told. CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray is here. Where did those storms end up?

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah.

PAUL: Are they still powerful?

GRAY: Well, they've basically pushed off the East Coast. So, this came through Dallas on Thursday. We had 293 wind reports on Thursday and Friday across much of the south and that extended even into the Great Lakes area. These showers have now weakened considerably bringing rain to the northeast for today and even some snow. This is a very powerful system with a lot of cold air behind it. And that's going to be the big story as we go through the next couple of days. Already getting snow around portions of Wisconsin, even northern Michigan.

So chilly temperatures behind this front. That cold air is going to settle in for much of the weekend. Temperatures dipping very chilly as far south as say Georgia and even Tennessee. So, we even have freeze warnings in effect this morning. Bismarck, Sioux Falls, you're included in that with temperatures 25 degrees in Minot. Sioux Falls, 31, 40 in Minneapolis, 43 in Chicago at this hour.

Your high temperature in Chicago today only getting up to 47 degrees. You will be at 57 by tomorrow, 61 by Monday. So temperatures will quickly rebound. This isn't going to last long at all. But look at lows tonight, Atlanta 44 degrees tonight. So these temperatures, guys, are dipping very far south and it's finally feeling like fall across much of the country.

PAUL: 44 is like winter.

GRAY: Yes.

PAUL: More than -- more than fall.

GRAY: It's very chilly for us in Atlanta.

PAUL: Yes. But we'll take it. Thank you so much, Jen.

GRAY: All right.

BLACKWELL: All right, thank you, Jen, thank you, Christi.

More now on the brutal beheading of a British father, husband and aid worker in Syria by ISIS. British Prime Minister David Cameron said the U.K. and its allies will do everything it can to defeat the terror group. ISIS is now threatening to kill American hostage Peter Kassing. A CNN military analyst, Retired Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona joins us now. Colonel, good to have you back. And what is ISIS hoping to gain with these beheadings? I mean they now have the U.S. and the U.K. And we know the trajectory of what's happening there. Now, the fourth Westerner killed in just two months. What's their goal with the videos?

LT. COL. RICK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: They're continuing to extract a price from the West for conducting these operations. There's no other reason to be doing it. It's not going to increase resolve anymore. The British have already made their decision. They're going to participate. The Americans are already involved. So, this is just extracting retribution where they can. I think the airstrikes are having an effect and they're trying to strike back any way they can.

BLACKWELL: Sol, let's talk about Kobani, it's this town near the Turkish/Syrian border. By many accounts ISIS has now taken that city or they are inside the city. There have been airstrikes in Kobani's vicinity, but they don't appear to be holding off ISIS. If they take this city as they've taken Raqqah and Mosul and many other cities. What would be the strategic value? How would this be a game changer?

FRANCONA: Well, this gives them more control of the Turkish border. They already control quite a bit of it, but there's parts out to the west of Kobani that they don't control. And this is just their effort to control all of that territory. They're about the territory up there. They don't really care too much about the Kurds because as the Kurds were escaping into Turkey, there was no effort made to stop them. They want that territory. They believe it to be part of their state. And they're going to try and consolidate that entire border. Now, I don't see them going into Turkey. I don't think they're threatening Turkey right now. That would be a big mistake because the Turkish army is much more fit for -- formidable than anything they faced in Iraq or Syria.

BLACKWELL: Now, Turkey has held off in large part engaging ISIS, we know, for some period because there were those 49 hostages. Well, those have now been freed. Turkey is now going to get involved, sending some of their troops to start this fight or continue the fight joining the coalition. Do we know how committed Turkey is to this fight now and if they will be more successful than the Iraqi army has been?

FRANCONA: Well, I can tell you they will be more successful than the Iraqi army. That's a given. But the question is, Victor, what are they going to commit to do? We really haven't seen them do anything yet. They've joined the coalition and they have the authority to conduct ground and air operations in both Syria and Iraq. But we haven't seen them move yet. They've got great capabilities. Their air bases are very strategically positioned just north of the Syrian border. They've got a good air force. It's just we're waiting for the political decision from Ankara on what the Turks are going to do. But they bring a lot of force to bear. They have got the sixth largest army in the world and the largest in NATO outside the United States. So, they're a force to be reckoned with if they'll commit. And we haven't seen yet what they intend to do.

BLACKWELL: Now, from the Turkish side of the border, let's go back to the Syrian side of the border. We've seen this continued fighting between those loyal to Bashar al Assad and the rebels. There's been shelling there, bombing, these deadly attacks, I should say, in Homs, dozens of children the focus there. How will this continue to play a major role here and is this coalition actually playing into the hands of Assad?

FRANCONA: Well, you have to think that Bashar al Assad is looking at this and thinking this is playing into his hands. Because now you have got the coalition bombing one of his probably the strongest of his enemies. You know, ISIS is by far the most formidable force in Syria after the regime. So now you've got the westerners and Arab countries bombing his primary adversary. So, he can focus his forces on the Free Syrian Army, which is what he's doing up in that central corridor, say, between Damascus and Aleppo. So, right now this is a positive for the regime, which kind of backfires on U.S. policy because we'd like to see Bashar go. So it's -- it's really kind of a confusing situation in Syria. Iraq much more easy to understand.

BLACKWELL: Yeah, that was at least the rallying cry a year ago, that Assad must go. Colonel Rick Francona, thanks so much for your insight.

PAUL: Fears this morning that more violence could erupt really any minute in Hong Kong as pro-democracy protesters refuse to back down. Our Will Ripley is there on the scene and we're taking you there next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Forty-one minutes past the hour. You know, Hong Kong is on edge this morning after another night of violent clashes between pro- democracy protesters and police as well as anti-occupy opponents. Listen to crowds that were facing off with police just a short while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CROWD NOISE)

(END VIDEO CLIP) PAUL: It was a - in the seven days of protest, 148 people have been injured. More than a dozen are still in the hospital. And now students have called off talks with government officials. Our Will Ripley is joining us live from Hong Kong where it's just about 7:00 in the evening there. Will, what's it like?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Christi. I'm just going to start talking here although I have to apologize that the telephone gives me a signal to speak to you just disconnected. The reason that keeps happening here is because I want to show you just how many people are gathered behind me. Cells service, data service very spotty because we have many thousands of people who are lining the streets of Hart Fok (ph) Road in the central business district of Hong Kong here for this protest which is now more than a week on and despite warnings from the Hong Kong.

Here for this protest, which is now more than a week on, and despite warnings from the Hong Kong police to disperse from this area immediately, despite those continuous warnings, the crowds just keep growing here. They keep growing and, in fact, as you saw, a lot of tension last night. It was a very quiet evening. There were fewer people than there are right now when all of a sudden there was a shout in the crowd. People saw on that pedestrian bridge just across the way there, a row, a line of police officers, dozens of them moving along that bridge towards that barricade that they forced their way through to deliver supplies to officers, but Christi, the lingering fear here and the reason why the crowd was so concerned when they saw police in this area, which is the heart of the Hong Kong protest center, there are other smaller flashpoints around the city, but this has been the home base for these protesters, you see their tents down there where they're delivering supplies, distributing supplies and what not, they feel it's only a matter of time before a much larger police effort will be under way and officers will move into this area and try to break things up and they're very concerned that police may use some of the tactics that they considered unnecessary violence one week ago when police used tear gas and pepper spray on some of the unarmed protesters.

Christi, I'm going to send it back to you. I still don't have an earpiece signal but I know we are going to be talking more in the next hour.

PAUL: All right. Will Ripley, thank you so much. And he's right, because one of the other things we have to talk about, Victor, is the fact that, you know, this morning, top North Korean delegates are saying they're open to a second round of talks with South Korea and will, of course, are going to help us talk about that as well. But we want to get it back to you right now.

BLACKWELL: Yeah, that's surprise visit, a few things on the table.

PAUL: Yeah.

BLACKWELL: We'll talk about that. Another question, who will be CNN's hero of the year? You, you will get to decide. And our colleague Anderson Cooper will show you how. . (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: One of the things about CNN, is the top ten CNN heroes, each of them receives $25,000 and a shot at the top honor, of course, CNN hero of the year.

BLACKWELL: Yes, and the winner gets $100,000 to give to their cause and you get to help decide who that person will be. Here's Anderson Cooper with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Now that we've announced the top ten CNN heroes of 2014 I want to show you how you can choose who should be CNN hero of the year and receive $100,000 for their cause. Take a look. This is the main page of CNN heroes.com where you'll see all the top ten and you can learn more about each one of them. Here's how you can vote for your favorite. Once you've decided who inspires you the most, click down here on vote.

And then a new page comes up. It shows you all of the top ten heroes. Now choose the person to vote for. I'm going to randomly select say Ned Norton over here. Just an example. His photo will show up down here under your selection. Then just enter your e-mail address, type in the security code and click on the vote button right down there. It's even easier to vote on Facebook, just make your selection and click over here. You can vote once a day every day through Sunday, November 16TH with your e-mail address and through Facebook. Let's go to CNN heroes.com.

And rally your friends by sharing your choice on Facebook or on Twitter. We'll reveal your 2014 hero of the year during CNN heroes and all-star tribute, a CNN tradition that promises to inspire.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Again, you can as you heard him say, vote once a day every day at CNNheros.com.

BLACKWELL: A call for a deeper investigation into problems at the Secret Service. Congressman Elijah Cummings joins us live to explain why he's joined forces with a key House Republican to call for an independent investigation. That's coming up.

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BLACKWELL: Six minutes before the hour now. And a call this morning for a deeper and independent investigation into how the Secret Service operates. Of course, this is happening after the widely publicized security breaches at the White House.

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa of Republican and ranking Democrat, Elijah Cummings wrote, and this is a quote, "The frequency and gravity of recent security breaches highlights significant flaws within the Secret Service's culture which the independent investigation must examine in depth." Elijah Cummings of Maryland 7 joins us now. Good to see you again, congressman.

REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D) MARYLAND: Good to see you, Victor.

BLACKWELL: What's to be gained by this independent probe? I've got the letter here. It says you believe this panel must conduct a broad assessment of the agency. What specifically are you looking for?

CUMMINGS: Well, we definitely have a problem with -- we have a number of problems with regard to culture, Victor. These security breaches, complacency, morale, these are all symptoms of a culture that has major problems. And, you know, one of the things that I'm hoping is that we can try to figure out why it is that Secret Service agents feel more comfortable going to members of Congress to talk about their problems than going to their superiors. And I told the former head of the Secret Service, Miss Pierson, this week that unless she could establish that trust, and it has to be a trust, between herself and her agents, there was absolutely no way that we could get back on the right track. And so hopefully, by having an outside view, people from the outside looking in, we can then have a very robust and clear examination of exactly what has gone on here and try to correct it. Because we cannot afford to have the reputation of the Secret Service damaged.

BLACKWELL: Yeah. You know, I think it's obvious that, of course, that the White House and Congress lost confidence in former Director Pierson and she resigned. Do you expect there will be more resignations or there will be more firings throughout this process?

CUMMINGS: I think that's quite possible. The gentleman who's now taking over, Mr. Clancy, is a person I understand is a no-nonsense person and so it may -- some may come then, now, and -- because I think a lot of people may feel that maybe it's time for them to go because believe me, this culture situation didn't just start with Miss Pierson and it's not going to stop with her leaving. There are probably people in the higher ups of the Secret Service that probably need to take an exit. But that's one of the things, Victor that I think this examination, this external examination, will do. It will examine leadership, for example. It will look at whether there is a problem between the uniformed Secret Service agents and those who are in plain clothes. There are all kinds of issues, and I want to make sure that they try to figure out whether or not we have an agency which is distrusting of itself and fighting within itself. Because if that's what's going on, we're going to have to have somebody to come in there eventually to head up this agency who will clean it out and get the right people in there.

BLACKWELL: Quickly, I want to get to another angle of this conversation. I read this piece in "The New York Times" this week in which you had a conversation with an older black woman in a grocery store who shared the sentiment that I've heard that there are a lot of people who share that -- let me - let you talk about this conversation. What did this woman come up to you and say?

CUMMINGS: Yeah. Basically what she said, and this is not an unusual conversation, by the way, I would say 80 percent of African-American people who ask me about the Secret Service, make a comment that they believe that the Secret Service has let its guard down because this is an African-American president. I don't believe that. But it is out there and people feel as if, you know, as soon as he became president we had a situation where they were not as strict in doing all the things that they used to do. And the reason why I say I don't believe that, and I think that these problems have been happening long before this president came in to office. It's just that I think that now, with this culture that I talked about a moment ago, you have whistleblowers who are coming out and telling about what is going on or what has been going on. And so I think that as time goes on, we're going to see evidence of the fact that this is not new and unfortunately, it has not been exposed in the past, but I guarantee you if this is done right, a lot of those problems will be exposed and people will see that this came before President Obama became president. It's just been highlighted more now.

BLACKWELL: All right. Congressman Elijah Cummings from my home district in Maryland, Maryland Seventh, thank you so much, sir.

CUMMINGS: Good seeing you, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Likewise.

PAUL: Nothing like a little glimpse of home --

BLACKWELL: Yes, home --

PAUL: The first thing in the morning.

BLACKWELL: A little bit.

PAUL: That was sweet. Good morning, I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. 7:00 on the East Coast.