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New Day Saturday

Obama Names Ron Klain as Ebola Czar; Doctors: Nurse Nina Pham "Doing Well"; Biden's Son Booted from Navy After Drug Test; Coalition Airstrikes Ramp Up Against ISIS; Bermuda Recovers, Hawaii Waits for Storm

Aired October 18, 2014 - 07:00   ET

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

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: We've been waiting for you, and so glad that you're with us. I'm Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. 7:00 o'clock here on the East Coast.

And this morning we're hearing that nurse Nina Pham is doing well; she's eating and sitting up, so some progress there.

PAUL: Yes, she is of course one of the two Dallas nurses who got Ebola after treating Thomas Erc Duncan, the Liberian man who died of the virus earlier this month.

BLACKWELL: We have new pictures from inside the CDC's private Gulfstream jet that Pham took from Dallas to the National Institutes of Health in Maryland. It was a three-hour flight. Pham flew in the back of the plane in a specialized containment tank. Frontier Airlines, on the other hand, says it's contacted up to 800 passengers who may have flown on a commercial jet with the other nurse Amber Vinson before her Ebola diagnosis.

PAUL: Now, a Dallas health worker who may have handled Duncan's lab specimens is still in quarantine in her cabin on a Carnival cruise ship Magic. I think this was a self-imposed quarantine, she said. It's heading back to Galveston, though, now, Texas. That ship. Belize refused to allow her to disembark and catch a flight back to the U.S. despite a personal appeal by Secretary of State John Kerry to Belize's prime minister. The ship also could not get permission in time to dock there in Mexico.

BLACKWELL: Well, some believe it was a bow to public pressure. Either way, the White House has tapped Democratic insider Ron Klain to be the country's so-called Ebola czar. His main mission is to leave the Federal Response to the deadly virus. Klain has really an impressive resume including as a stint as the former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden. But as his critics are quick to point out, he has no medical experience.

Here's CNN's Erin McPike.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After weeks of mistakes dealing with Ebola --

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Frankly, I'd like to know who's in charge.

MCPIKE: -- President Obama caved to critics, anointing an Ebola czar. Long time Joe Biden aide Ron Klain to coordinate the administration's response.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've got an all-hands- on-deck approach across government to make sure that we are keeping the American people safe.

MCPIKE: But Klain is best known for managing political messaging and has no experience in health. Complaints came fast and furious from Republican, including House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce, who said, quote, "I have to ask why the president didn't take an individual with a noteworthy infectious disease or public health background."

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It's not solely a medical response. What we were looking for is not on Ebola expert, but rather an implementation expert. And that's exactly what Ron Klain is. He is somebody who has extensive experience in the federal government. He's somebody that has extensive management experience when it comes to the private sector.

MCPIKE: The White House is also fending off growing calls from both sides of the aisle to ban travel from affected countries in West Africa.

GOV. RICK PERRY (R), TEXAS: Air travel is in fact how this disease crosses borders. And it certainly has gotten to Texas in the first place. And based on recent and ongoing developments, I believe it is the right policy to ban air travel from countries that have been hit had hardest by the Ebola outbreak.

MCPIKE: Erin McPike, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: All right, Erin, thank you.

And we want to get more on nurse Nina Pham.

CNN's Athena Jones is outside the National Institutes of Health in Maryland where she's being treated.

Athena, good to see you. What do we know this morning, at this hour, about her condition, not just physically, but emotionally as well?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christi.

Well, Nina Pham arrived here at NIH just over 30 hours ago. So, she hasn't been here long. She's being cared for at a special care unit with has experience dealing with the sickest patients. Now, we haven't got an update on her condition, but we were told that

we would be updated on any change on her condition. So, what we know as of yesterday is that she is in fair condition. She's stable, she's resting comfortably.

They said she's sitting up, eating. She's in good spirits able to interact with hospital staff and caregivers. We know that her mother and her sister are in the area to be near her to offer their support.

And we talk about a team that's taking care of her. We're talking about a team of highly specialized, highly trained, doctors, nurses, technicians and other experts. The nurses are working in 12-hour shifts, about four or five nurses on each shift. Anytime a nurse, anyone has to go into the room where Nina Pham is being kept in isolation, they have to go in pairs, and that's being done out of abundance of caution.

They want to make sure that these nurses follow what's called a buddy system. They want to make sure there's no breach in protocol. Nothing wrong with the hazmat suits that the nurses are wearing, just to make sure the nurses are not exposed to this virus as well.

Now, doctors were asked about Nina Pham's prognosis. They wouldn't specify what they think will happen, but they did say people can recover from this disease. Let's play a little bit about what Dr. Anthony Fauci had to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: When you say recoverable in the sense of recovery, absolutely. We fully intend to have this patient walk out of this hospital and we'll do everything we possibly can to make that happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: And we do know that Nina Pham received a transfusion of blood from Dr. Kent Brantly. He is, of course, that Ebola patient who recovered from Ebola and has been donating his blood to several other patients. It is believed that his plasma does contain Ebola antibodies that could be of help. Doctors say other experimental treatments are on the table. And that's the latest update -- Christi.

PAUL: OK. So, that was my question, experimental treatments are on the table, but they haven't necessarily utilized them yet?

JONES: Not that they've been able to report yesterday. What they told us, they're going to be in discussions with Nina Pham to talk about how much they can share with the public and the press without violating her privacy, violating patient confidentiality. We do know about that blood transfusion.

But, of course, doctors have stated that it's unclear which of these drugs are working. Even if patients have been given other experimental drugs, it's not totally clear that is what caused them to recover. And so, this is a clinical study, research hospital, they're going to be doing a lot of research on her, hopefully, to help them learn how to treat other Ebola patients. And to learn more about the virus, what works, how it develops -- Christi.

PAUL: All right. Great. Athena Jones, we appreciate the information. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: The second Dallas nurse with Ebola is being treated at Atlanta's Emory University Hospital. Amber Vinson has been in the hospital since Tuesday but not before she had flown to Ohio and back to Texas, possibly exposing other passengers to the deadly virus on those flights.

National correspondent Susan Candiotti has more for us this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New details emerging about nurse Amber Vinson who began feeling ill during a trip to Ohio one week ago. She wasn't showing any visible signs of illness at a bridal shop last Saturday at a fitting for her bridesmaids.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was having a great day, yes. She was with her friends, and they were very calm, cool, and collected.

CANDIOTTI: Then things changed. Officials say something wasn't quite right the next day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She rested for a long time on some days. She said she felt funny, those types of things but nothing specific. And the judgment that we came up to is that we can't rule out that she wasn't ill, OK, for the time that she was here in Ohio.

CANDIOTTI: Of the 16 people under quarantine in two Ohio counties, only one, her stepdad with whom she was staying is under a close watch at home. The other 15 had less contact, including someone from the plane she flew on, her bridesmaids, those with them, and two people who work at the bridal shop she visited. All are allowed to monitor themselves, staying at home, at the health department's direction.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are -- have talked to them. We have seen them every day since we identified who they were. They are not having any symptoms either.

CANDIOTTI: The CDC admits the first advice it gave nurse Vinson was wrong. She should not have been cleared to get on a flight back to Dallas, even with a low grade fever.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wish that we had a different policy at the time that we're following. Now, we are following it more stringent.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: And Susan joins us live from Akron, Ohio.

Susan, first, how is Amber Vinson doing? And have any of the people she had contact with shown any symptoms of Ebola? CANDIOTTI: A good question. You know, we haven't had any recent

updates about Amber Vinson's condition there at Emory Hospital in Atlanta. But the last we heard was on Thursday had from one of her uncles who said that she was doing all right.

In terms of other cases in the state of Ohio, health department officials, from the state and county assure us, that they have no Ebola cases here. And perhaps as importantly, no one else is showing any symptoms at all. And they're very happy about that Victor.

BLACKWELL: So, of course, the most controversial element of this case was were flight from Dallas to Cleveland and then back. We know that Texas has made some changes. Has had Ohio instituted any change?

CANDIOTTI: Well, they sure have. One example of that is how they define when you have contact with someone who has Ebola. So, for example, they've cast a wider net, you could say, in terms of that. If you perhaps were in a room with someone, as we have the case here, maybe three feet away. It goes beyond that -- it doesn't mean you're necessarily in any danger. But they would want to talk to you to find out how close were you? How did you interact? How was the other person, the victim, the patient, reacting so they could reach out and gather more information in order to try to prevent the spread of the disease?

BLACKWELL: All right. Susan Candiotti live for us this morning in Akron, thank you.

PAUL: Well, the man accused of killing a teen over blaring loud music from his car has been sentenced.

BLACKWELL: Plus, how would you like to be a waiter who had to tell the president, sorry, Mr. President, your card has been declined. Yes! It happened.

PAUL: Ouch!

BLACKWELL: We've got that story just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Welcome back to NEW DAY.

A lot to tell you about this morning. Let's get back to your "Morning Read".

PAUL: Yes, "The New York Times" is reporting new details in the death of Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer. It says Officer Darren Wilson fired his weapon twice inside his cruiser.

Now, forensics tests show Brown's blood was found on the gun, uniform and cruiser. "The Times" reports Wilson says he was pinned inside his car and feared for his life. His accounts of events does contradict, though, what some witnesses have said. Brown's death led to weeks of protests in Ferguson as you might remember. BLACKWELL: Another shooting case here. The man who shot a teen over

loud music Florida has been sentenced to life in prison without parole. Michael Dunn was convicted of first degree of murder for killing Jordan Davis in 2012. The prosecutors did not seek the death penalty in this case.

PAUL: In business, Netflix says it will team up with actor Leonardo DiCaprio to distribute a documentary film on endangered gorillas. It's going to be out in select theaters and Netflix as of November 2nd.

BLACKWELL: President Obama, oh, he was in for a bit of surprise when he was dining out with the first lady last month at a New York City restaurant, his credit card was declined.

PAUL: Ouch.

BLACKWELL: He says it's because he doesn't use it enough. OK. But not to worry, Mrs. Obama, she was able to cover the bill herself.

PAUL: Leave it to the woman to come to the rescue.

BLACKWELL: Took care of it. The president told the story while signing an executive order protecting against identity theft.

PAUL: Love it.

All right. In weather, hurricane Gonzalo has now been downgraded to a category 2 hurricane not before it slammed Bermuda, though. High winds and heavy rains is what they got. Meanwhile in the Pacific, we've got hurricane Ana, now a category 1 storm. It is not however expected to make landfall into Hawaii, thankfully.

BLACKWELL: The youngest son of Vice President Joe Biden has been dismissed from the Navy Reserve after testing positive for cocaine. Revelation came out after a "Wall Street Journal" report this week.

PAUL: CNN national correspondent Suzanne Malveaux has more about the circumstances surrounding the Navy's handling of Hunter Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTER BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN'S SON: Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., my dad.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Forty- four-year-old Hunter Biden, Vice President Joe Biden's youngest son, was discharged from the Navy Reserve after testing positive for cocaine. Hunter was commissioned in May 2013 and assigned a coveted position as, a public affairs officer in Norfolk, Virginia.

But U.S. officials confirmed, the very next month, after reporting to his unit, Biden was given a routine drug test which he failed.

Biden's brief military career ended with this statement, "It was the honor of my life to serve in the U.S. Navy and I deeply regret and am embarrassed that my actions led to my administrative discharge."

Hunter Biden comes from a proud military family. His older brother Beau is a major in the Delaware Army National Guard and served a year in Iraq.

Military service has been a big part of the Biden family's public platform.

JILL BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN'S WIFE: I'm looking forward to stand by our son Hunter when he is commissioned as an ensign into the United States Navy. He follows in the footsteps of his two grandfathers who have also served in the Navy.

MALVEAUX: A source familiar with Biden's case confirms Biden received two waivers to join a special Navy reserve program. Because of his age, the cut-off is 42. But he was 43 when he applied. The source said his strong academic record pushed him through.

The vice president joked about his son's timing, unknowingly, just a month before Hunter was discharged.

JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a lot of bad judgment in my family. My son, who is over 40, has joined the United States Navy. He's about to be sworn in as an officer, Hunter Biden.

MALVEAUX: The source says Hunter was granted a second waiver for a drug related incident that took place in the late '80s, when Hunter was a teen. The source saying it's not uncommon because the incident happened so long ago.

Hunter Biden, the lesser known of the vice president's two sons is a married father of three, a managing partner of an investment firm, and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. Earlier in his career, he worked as a lawyer, lobbyist and policymaker under President Clinton before joining his father on the campaign trail in 2008.

(on camera): Sources familiar with Biden's case tell me that the Navy never contacted the vice president's office about the discharge because like handling other 44-year-old Navy reservists, they wouldn't call their mother or father to tell them they were kicked out. It would be a private matter up to the individual.

The vice president's office also sees this as a private matter and is not commenting.

Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: All righty. Suzanne, thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: All right. One West African nation has been declared free from Ebola. So what can the U.S. and other countries find the deadly virus learned from Senegal. PAUL: Also, the Nigerian government is declaring a ceasefire with a

terrorist group Boko Haram. But does this include the release of hundreds of missing kidnap school girls? We'll tell you what we've learned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: All right. A rare bit of good news in the ongoing Ebola crisis. The World Health Organization has declared the Ebola outbreak over in Senegal. But this deadly virus continues to spiral out of control in the neighboring Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Let's talk about the situation with Gavin Macgregor-Skinner. He's an infectious disease expert and a professor at Pennsylvania State University.

It's good to have you with us this morning.

Let's start first with Senegal. The World Health Organization declaring the outbreak, the crisis over in Senegal. Senegal closed its border with neighboring Guinea. There's some in this country who say that the U.S. should close its border. It's hard to argue with the result.

What do you think?

GAVIN MACGREGOR-SKINNER, PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY: No, Victor, we should not close the border in the U.S. The border with Senegal is contiguous with countries that have active cases of Ebola. It's a very porous transparent border. There's no actual regulated border crossings. So, they made a good decision there.

They also increased their surveillance. But at the community level, they incentivized contact-tracing by using text messages, and actually rewarding people for responsible behavior.

BLACKWELL: Of course, closing the border here would mean banning flights from those three inflicted countries. And you, I'd assume, would say that banning those flights is a bad idea?

MACGREGOR-SKINNER: It is because so many people require transport to West Africa right now to fight Ebola but also back. What are my friends and colleagues in West Africa going to do when they're actively fighting Ebola right now? And they get fatigued, this is really mentally intensive and they need to come back to the U.S. to see their loved ones, their families and relax. We all want to go back to West Africa.

And I want to just say that I've had had contact with many Ebola patients. I've never put myself into quarantine. I never put my team in quarantine but I do control the movement of my team for 21 days.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk about contact. Because we've heard from Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, he said this, I'm going to quote him, that if someone has Ebola at a cocktail party, they're contagious and you can catch it from them. We do know there are some health officials, some researchers,

including Lisa Brosseau at the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois in Chicago, they believe that Ebola could spread through the air. And here's a quote, let's put it up.

"We believe there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that the Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via infectious aerosol particles both near and at a distance from infected patients. Is that possible?

MACGREGOR-SKINNER: Victor, this is a great question, an important question. We need someone to manage the event, both in the response, but also the research. We need to create a platform of transparency and collaboration for research so that we have many experts, many of my colleagues and friends, around it working actively with Ebola every day.

As they get those results, they need a plat tomorrow so other scientific experts can look at those. We haven't even incentivized the research.

Now, the research we're seeing at the moment is that there has not been sufficient mutations in this virus for it to become aerosolized over a long distance. In the training that I do at many hospitals here at the U.S., we teach the six feet rule. If you're not wearing the PP, take the six-feet rule. You are in close contact with the patient, (INAUDIBLE) come within three feet. And that's something we are teaching in every hospital in the country.

BLACKWELL: Carnival cruise lines, we know that they have this worker who was possibly exposed to the specimen from Thomas Eric Duncan and now on a self-quarantine on the ship. They also receive to let any passenger who has a ticket to board one of their ships. But if they've been from Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the last 21 days, they will not be allowed on board. Do you expect we'll see more of these de facto bans from independent companies?

MACGREGOR-SKINNER: Not if I get your help, Victor. I need the help of every journalist in this country.

We are seeing so much irrational behavior when it comes to Ebola. Let's stick with the facts. And the facts have to be reiterated all the time -- direct contact with all those body fluids that we reported about. Then you have to put your hands or whatever part of the body fluids in your eye, your nose, your mouth. It doesn't get absorbed through your skin.

Patients, people cannot spread the Ebola unless showing the symptoms of fever, vomiting and diarrhea. If we can get that message out every hour of the day, I need every journalist to help me on this, then we can decrease the fear, we can prepare the hospitals here in the U.S., and we can alleviate all the worries and concerns that the U.S. public has.

BLACKWELL: All right. Gavin Macgregor-Skinner with Pennsylvania State University -- thank you so much. MACGREGOR-SKINNER: You're welcome, Victor.

BLACKWELL: All righty. We're going to continue that conversation, also talking about what's been going on for weeks now. ISIS, they've been trying to capture a Syrian town that's right on Turkey's door steps. Here are some pictures of what's going on.

We've been seeing plumes of smoke above Kobani this morning already. We'll tell you the latest regarding the battle against ISIS, next.

Also, NASA is keeping a really close eye on this comet. It could cause some problems when flies by Mars this weekend. We'll tell you why.

Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: All righty. We'll help you out with the time. 30 minutes past the hour. You don't have to look at the clock. I'm Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell.

Let's start with five things for your NEW DAY this half.

Up first, pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, you see here about 9,000 demonstrators. More than 30 people were arrested during violent clashes with police. Scores of injuries have been reported. Now, the situation, we're told, remains calm but demonstrations are expected tonight. Government officials confirmed to CNN that they will meet with student protest leaders on Tuesday.

PAUL: Number two, 16 people fell to their death at a concert in South Korea. Look at this. A ventilation grate apparently that they were standing on collapse, then it sent fans plunging four stories to the ground. At least 11 other people injured, three of them seriously. Official handling measures for the concert has been found dead in an apparent suicide.

BLACKWELL: Number three now. Nine people were killed in Baghdad after a car bomb exploded outside of a theater last night.

According to officials, 27 people were injured. Police say the bomb went off as people were leaving the concert. It's suspected that ISIS is behind this attack. The terror group has claimed responsibility for a series of other bombings in recent days.

PAUL: Number four, the Nigerian government says it's reached a cease- fire agreement with Boko Haram. The deal came Thursday night includes up some undisclosed concessions to the Islamist terror group. Nigerian officials saying though the deal includes the release of more than 200 kidnapped school girls. The girls would be released in phases, but they did not get a timetable.

BLACKWELL: Number five, a comment will come. Just far too close to Mars tomorrow afternoon. The comet is called Siding Spring. How close, Victor? Glad you asked -- 87,000 miles. Now, that's close when you're talking about infinite space.

PAUL: Sure.

BLACKWELL: It might not sound close, but, you know, for comets, it is. The scientists say the comet's trail of dust and gas could damage satellites orbiting Mars.

PAUL: The top American commander in the Middle East says ISIS' efforts to capture the Syrian city of Kobani may be back firing now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. LLOYD J. AUSTIN, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: My goal is to defeat and ultimately destroy ISIL. And if he continues to present us with major targets as he has done in the Kobani area, then clearly, we'll service those targets and we've done so very, very effectively here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Let's bring in Christopher Harmer. He's a senior naval analyst for the Institute of the Study of War.

Thank you for being with us, sir.

He was talking there about these modified movements, that even they're traveling as civilians rather in large groups. Would that not hinder the ability to target them?

CHRISTOPHER HARMER, SR. NAVAL ANALYST, INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR: Good morning. Pleasure to be with you. Thanks for having me.

Yes, as long as ISIS continues to mix in with the population, it's going to be increasingly difficult for American warplanes to strike them. Initially around Kobani, what ISIS has done is surrounded the two, set up fighting points, set up checkpoints. And when they're out there exposed in the open in the deserts and on the hills and on the plains, it's relatively easy to attack them. Once they get embedded with the civilian population, it's almost impossible for fixed wing aircraft operating at a high altitude to take that type of action.

PAUL: OK. General Austin also went on to say and I want to quote here. "I think you have to take away their ability to sustain themselves, finance themselves."

How do you do that? What's the first thing you look to destroy in the regime?

HARMER: Well, the first thing you have to do if you're looking at the long war, if you're looking at it from the strategic perspective, is you have to remove the supportive population for the Islamic State. I don't think that the Islamic State method of governance is sustainable. I think over the long term, people are going to rebel this sort of top-down, very fascist religious organization, if you will. I just don't think there's that many people who want to live under that type of theocracy.

So, long term, I think the deck is stack against the success of ISIS. In the short term, what we really need to do is to make sure that the political process in Iraq is working and we apply significant pressure or at least a solution in Syria.

The problem in Syria is there is no political solution that anybody can point to right now. We've got a completely dysfunctional central government in Damascus under the Assad regime. We've got a highly fractured rebel alliance set up against that. So, until there's a political solution in Syria, there's going to be no way to defeat the Islamic State in Syria.

PAUL: All right. I just want to make note that the pictures we're looking at here are live pictures of Kobani. You can see a plume of smoke there to the left on your screen. It had been relatively quiet. Maybe some sort of fighting or attacks are alive once again there in the city.

But I want to get back to you, Christopher, because, I'm wondering, you talk about the governments, you know, in Syria and Iraq and they're unstable. What about the leadership of ISIS itself? Do they have a central command? Is Baghdadi still in charge?

HARMER: Yes, that's a great question and they do have a central command, and Abu Bakr al Baghdadi is in charge. One of the things that's remarkable about ISIS is how disciplined their military commanders are, and how disciplined their civilian workers are. That's one of the reasons they've been so successful, is they've got a specific chain of command, they follow that. And there's really no sense of pushback against that internal to ISIS.

Pretty much everybody who's in ISIS knew what the deal was when they got involved, that this is a theocracy. It's highly hierarchical. It's very structured and for the most part, there's no internal pressure inside of ISIS.

What I'm talking about is creating a split between ISIS and the population that it governs. ISIS is already doing that. They're making enough mistakes in their methods of governance. But I think the civilian population eventually is going to rebel against ISIS. What we need to make sure is, once that split between ISIS and the civilian population that controls the Kurds, we got to make sure that the central government in Baghdad is ready to pick up the pieces in governing a holistic, respectful manner.

PAUL: Yes. Real quickly, Bob Baer many weeks ago had said it's really difficult to get inside ISIS because they're so hostile. But we're getting these new reports that Syrian Kurds are giving some intel. How might that help?

HARMER: Yes, it's going to be very helpful, because one of the problems that fixed-wing military aircraft has, if they are striking a static target, like a bridge or an oil refinery. That's a very easy target. If they're trying to strike dismounted foot infantry, they really need live intel on the battleground to get that. What the Kurds are going to be able to give us is that live intel, as long we enabled the Kurdish to give us that to the proper communication and proper technology.

PAUL: All right. Christopher Harmer, so appreciate your perspective today. Thank you for being with us.

HARMER: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right. If you're looking for the latest information on Ebola, you probably want to rethink going to Ebola.com. We'll explain why the Web site's owner might be more interested in making money than preventing an outbreak.

Also, we're going to take you to Hawaii -- well, not really. But we're going to show you how a storm is taking aim at the island chain. Will this storm take a direct hit on Hawaii? That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Mortgage rates dropped this week. Here's your look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: If you're trying to go to Ebola.com, you know, just trying to get some information about the virus -- well, there is some info there, yes. But the owner of that domain name is putting it up for sale.

PAUL: According to "The Washington Post", John Schultz wants $150,000 for Ebola.com. He bought it six years ago for a little more than $13,000. And people would say, hmm, that's smart.

This isn't the first time that this guy has done this. The Schultz owns birdflu.com and H1N1.com. And even owns terror.com and fukushima.com.

So, got a wide range of interests there that I say.

BLACKWELL: Yes, CNN technology analyst Brett Larson is with us now.

So, good morning. Let's take --

BRETT LARSON, CNN TECHNOLOGY ANALYST: Good morning. Yes.

BLACKWELL: This guy, we know, profiting on a deadly disease, but gobbling up domain names, that's nothing new. People squat on these names all the time, right?

LARSON: Absolutely. I mean, this was -- this was huge during the first rush back in the late '90s and early 2000s. There are many anecdotal stories of people who became overnight millionaires by, you know, properly purchasing a domain that later became a very popular company or purchasing a domain similar to another name, if you say, this is -- if you owned Amazons.com, maybe Amazon would want that in case somebody created a typo. But this is a new twist on domain squatting, where this guy is

actively is reading headlines and following news stories and finding the value and specific words so that he can go out and buy these domain names. Ebola.com, for example, he bought back in 2007, 2008 for about $13,000. So he stands to make a pretty significant amount of money if this virus continues to be a tragedy.

PAUL: Well, if anybody is willing to pay what he's asking for. But is there any way -- because this could be, you know, a global crisis, is there any way to wrestle that domain name away from somebody without having to pay those -- that kind of money?

LARSON: There is some possibility of doing that, usually that involves where things are trademarked. If you, for example, happen to get your hands on cocacola.com. You can't squat on that because that's a trademark, it's a company name, and you don't it.

Unfortunately, Ebola is a name of a virus and no one actually owns that name. But I'm sure, if there's probably a loophole that somebody could thread a needle with, and say this is a protected name and this is something that doesn't belong in the public domain and we need to take control of that. Or somebody could just usurp him and create Ebola.gov and really put all of the information there.

BLACKWELL: Or Ebolainfo.com or something like that.

LARSON: Ebolainfo.com, yes.

BLACKWELL: Yes, let's switch gears here just for a moment. A big week for Apple, right? New iPad Air. What's the big deal with this? And what's new here?

LARSON: You know, it's interesting for tablet makers, Apple being one of them, Samsung, Google and what have you. It's the market has been saturated now with tablets. And unlike smartphones, we don't replace our tablets every two years. Apple came to the table with another iPad Air. It's thinner, significantly thinner than the last one. It has more power. It has the same bright, high resolution and a new touch ID, you know, you can unlock it by tapping your finger on it.

I think it will sell well. I think they were hoping, you know, to inject a little enthusiasm back in the tablet space. We'll see how that goes. Preorders haven't started yesterday. I haven't had problems when people hear the new iPhones come out. They also have new Macs and we hear that now Apple Pay will be starting on Monday. So, you can start to use this as your pay thing.

PAUL: And what is your take on that? I mean, 220,000 stores, we understand. Like McDonald's, Whole Foods, places you can use this. How confident are you in the security of it?

LARSON: I'm pretty confident. And I think the retailers they picked were smart choice. They didn't go with random out of the way places. They went with big names, you know, big places, McDonald's, Dwayne Reed and Walgreens, places where people may or may not think they want to use a contactless payment system or they want to use their phone to pay. But it's going to be right there in front of them and they're going to see the convenience of it.

And that's what consumers really need to say. We've had these types of payments before. Google Wallet, PayPal has tried to get into the space. But it's always sort of been like on a random coffee shop, or you can try at a different Starbucks if it's at that Starbucks, maybe not everyone has it.

In this instance, I think it's really smart, because it's going to be everywhere. And people are going to see other people doing it. It really boils down to, I'd like to use my sister as an example, sorry, Tiffany. It needs to be convenient for her.

When she's checking out at Target or Walgreens or Whole Foods, she needs to say, oh, that's it. That was really easy. I want to do that again. That's what the consumer experience needs to be like. I think Apple is going to be able to pull it off.

BLACKWELL: All right. Well, thank you, Brett. Thank you, Tiffany.

(LAUGHTER)

PAUL: Giving a shout-out on Saturday morning.

LARSON: I know, right? I'm sure she's up.

PAUL: Thank you.

LARSON: Thanks, guys.

PAUL: So, we're talking about a couple hurricanes. One is Gonzalo, slammed into Bermuda. Lights are out in a lot of places there. The island is grateful, though, that it was not worse. We'll have the latest on that.

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BLACKWELL: In Bermuda, Hurricane Gonzalo has knocked power four out of five homes there. But it could be even worse, could have been actually. There are no reports of deaths, or serious damage there. Meantime, in Hawaii, hurricane Ana is just another reason to hang out on the waves there for some surfers. But the governor has declared a state of emergency, so a really serious situation.

PAUL: Yes, it is. So, let's go to CNN meteorologist Chad Myers who's got more info for us.

How serious, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, you know, Ana is another storm that's going to affect Hawaii. Three storms are going to affect Hawaii this year, and that hasn't happened since like 1994. You think Hawaii gets a lot of hurricanes, they don't. Let me show you a graphic here a little bit.

Let's go back to Bermuda for a second, the owner of that sailboat not a happy camper this morning, that's a mast and a stay, probably a roller furling, under water submarine this morning. It depends on how much he liked his boat anyway, you know, because some of this -- I just wanted my boat to go. The happiest days when you get it, the happiest days when it actually goes away. There you go, this will be working out.

But not a lot of damage, I've looked at this picture for a long time today from portbermudawebcam.com. And we haven't seen all that much. The waves are, yes, are there. But so are, a lot of the areas still have the palm trees are there. And so, the palm fronds, so, we know that things didn't get too bad overnight when you see the palm fronds ripped away and palm tree literally snapped in half, then you know you had problems.

Here's Ana now. Ana had the potential last week of going right through the big island, something like that. That is not going to happen. It's going to stay well south of the big island and then turn to the north.

Now, there will be plenty of south-facing shores here with big, big swells. So, you think about Oahu. You know think about the south facing shore. Even the West facing shore here, Kohala coast could see something. Most of the time, you hear north shore, which means most of the time, that's where the waves come in along the north shore of Hawaii. That is not the same story for this storm here.

Here's what Ana looks like. Here's the official track. There's the big island right through there. So, it is a complete miss. Good news there, 85 miles per hour other than some upslope winds, when they blow up the hill or up the volcano.

You can get a lot of rain on top of the volcano, and get that flash flooding, mudslides coming back down. Other than that, there's no real threat. Now, surfers are happy, but if you're a surfer, you better be a good surfer because the waves are pretty big and they are on the wrong side than what you are used to.

PAUL: Good point.

BLACKWELL: No novices out there.

MYERS: That's right, not today.

BLACKWELL: Chad Myers, thank you so much.

PAUL: Thanks, Chad.

After weeks of criticism, the White House has finally named an Ebola czar.

BLACKWELL: Yes. His name is Ron Klain. He's no stranger to Washington. But not everybody is happy about the pick.

Stay with us. At the top of the hour, we'll tell you why some critics say Klain is not the right man for this job.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PAUL: Well, portrait painting is the age-old art of capturing a face on a canvas. That's what British artist Jonathan Yeo does better than most, a lot of people say. CNN's "One to Watch" gets an exclusive look inside his studio as he meets a new sitter, a famous ballerina.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Princes and politicians, actors and fellow actresses. Among those who have been captured on canvas by the artist Jonathan Yeo. Many were captured here in Jonathan's London's studio. He's about to meet a new sitter. The Spanish ballerina Tamara Rojo is a principle dancer and artistic director of the English national ballet.

TAMARA ROJO, SPANISH BALLERINA: How long does it take you usually to do a whole painting?

JONATHAN YEO, BRITISH ARTIST: It varies, totally. A portrait is basically a document of a relationship between the artist and the sitter. Each one is different.

ROJO: Have you found someone too ugly?

(LAUGHTER)

YEO: Ugly is good.

ROJO: Possibly. Thank you.

YEO: Ugly is good. Ugly is interesting. Bland is not good.

It's obviously good. I haven't really done justice to (INAUDIBLE) your eyes are.

ROJO: Thank you.

I do recognize myself in it. I know sometimes I look like that at people.

When you go to a gallery or museum, you always wonder, who is this person? Why did they choose to paint them? So it would be quite fantastic if it happened to this painting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: You can watch the full show at CNN.com/onestowatch.

BLACKWELL: Stay with us. We've got a very busy morning of news ahead.

PAUL: The new -- the next hour of your NEW DAY starts right now.

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