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"The Interview" in Theaters & Online; U.S.: ISIS Didn't Shoot Down Plane; Report: Gitmo Closure to Hit Fast Track; CDC Lab Tech Possibly Exposed to Ebola

Aired December 25, 2014 - 13:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there. I'm Brianna Keilar, in for Wolf Blitzer. Wherever you're watching from around the world -- merry Christmas and thank you for joining us.

Right now, people all across the United States are packing in the theaters, observing that annual tradition of going to the movies on Christmas Day.

But this year, the tradition has an unprecedented twist. Many moviegoers are defying hackers' threats and buying tickets for "The Interview," the Seth Rogen/James Franco comedy about an assassination plot against North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. It's debuting today at about 300 independent theaters and you're looking at one of those theaters outside of Baltimore, Maryland, where an audience is watching "The Interview" as we speak.

Our Rosa Flores is outside another movie house in New York.

And, you know, it makes you wonder, Rosa, if this kind of backfired on North Korea, if in a way the country unintentionally gave this movie a whole lot of promotion. I wonder what you're seeing where you are.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, we're seeing a lot of moviegoers. I want to show you the movie poster, Brianna, because it went up minutes ago. This was not even here. This is how fresh all of this is because of the rapid release.

Now, I want to take you -- I want you to see the marquee here because many people didn't even think this movie was ever going to make a cinema in the United States. Now, of course, we know that more than 300 theaters, independent theaters like this one, are running this movie.

Here, you pay $12, you buy your ticket right here, you walk in, a few people just walked out moments ago because the first showing wrapped up and we talked to them. There's mixed reviews. Some of them said, you know, it was great. All we wanted was just laughs and those laughs were delivered. Other people were like, you know, a little hesitant about the plot you were talking about.

Here's what one gentleman had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was political satire over the top comedy for sure. I mean, there was a real controversy because of the issues of pulling it out of theaters and threats of blowing up patrons. So, you know, there was certainly a controversy. But this was a goofy, political satire movie that is straightforwardly entertaining but it does -- it is certainly anti-North Korea. I mean, it said bad things about North Korea and about their leader for sure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Now, this particular theater received an e-mail from the FBI, a call from the FBI, and a visit by the NYPD to give them information about terrorism. They also have a poster that is going to be posted that's going to be going up just letting people know what number to call if they see anything suspicious, Brianna.

But here is the little tidbit of information. The gentleman you listened to, I talked to both him and his wife, and he tells me his wife wanted to come watch the movie but didn't want to use her credit card to pay for the tickets. So, she made him use his credit card because, of course, aside from the threats, the physical threats of violence they received a lot of people were worried about the hacking. Not so much the physical violence at a movie theater -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Wow. You're really seeing concerns about that.

All right. Rosa Flores, thank you so much for your report.

Seth Rogen and "The Interview" co-director Evan Goldberg made a surprise appearance at a sold-out midnight showing of "The Interview" at a movie theater in Los Angeles and had something to say before the movie started. Take as listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHEERS)

EVAN GOLDBERG, CO-DIRECTOR: This is our neighborhood, we live around here. WE live near here.

SETH ROGEN, ACTOR: We've been here before. The fact that you guys all came out is super exciting. So, we just really wanted to say thank you. If it wasn't for theaters like this and for people like you guys, this literally would not be happening right now.

GOLDBERG: Thank you guys, so much.

ROGEN: We really appreciate it.

GOLDBERG: Hope you like the movie.

ROGEN: Hope you like the movie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Is he holding a beer? That's sort of a -- that's a cool movie theater, I guess.

"The Interview" also available online, streaming on YouTube, Google Play, other digital outlets.

And joining me from Irvine, California, to talk about this, CNN intelligence and security analyst, Bob Baer, and right here with me in Washington, our global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott.

So, Elise, from the get-go here, I thought wow, poor Sony but Sony is a loser in all of this, put money into a move year, it's not going to pay off. Now, we're seeing the opposite of that. And when it comes to, you know, geopolitically who are the winners and losers here?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, some people say all publicity is good publicity, Brianna, and, clearly, Sony started off as the big loser here between the hacking -- those embarrassing e- mails, and then all of the threats and having to pull the film and then the rebukes from President Obama, the industry, now kind of forcing them really to do something and release the film.

If this film does really well, obviously, you know, that's good publicity for them. But I think on the whole they didn't come up looking so favorably, even though they're releasing the film.

Now, North Korea started off here as a winner because this is what North Korea loves to do.

KEILAR: To force the hand -- to make --

LABOTT: They love to get attention. And the fact that Kim Jong-un and the North Korean regime was able to get this big Sony studio to pull a movie that was derogatory about Kim Jong-un, I think initially they came out to be a winner here.

Now, they could end up to be a loser because now they're going to have to deal with the repercussions of that. President Obama has threatened, promised there will be action against North Korea. And the film is out now, I don't know how many North Koreans really would need to kind of see this because they're fed so many myths about Kim Jong-un to make them revere him.

I think that in North Korea, that movie is not going to be shown. But, clearly, this demeaning movie about portraying Kim Jong-un's assassination is out there, and he doesn't look so good.

I think President Obama comes out pretty strong here, you know? Initially, these racist e-mails about President Obama by Sony executives were so mean and derogatory. It made people really sympathetic to President Obama. He then gave a very sharp rebuke to Sony, saying he thought it was a mistake, that the film was going to be pulled, and he forced them --

KEILAR: Basically forced them.

LABOTT: Along with the industry. He could be a loser too because now he has to deal with the North Korea problem and there could be some, you know, another serious confrontation with North Korea which nobody wants. So, I think everybody has a little bit of winning and losing in there.

KEILAR: Yes. Spread around I guess.

Bob, you have these hackers, they call themselves the guardians of peace, they're threatening a Christmas surprise if Sony releases the movie. Well, Sony has. So, what do you think might happen if anything?

BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: I think if anything is going to happen, they're going to release some more Sony e-mails. I think so far they don't -- Sony doesn't look all that bad. Just, you know, stupid traffic back with each other, the executives, but I think what this tells us is that North Korea is still a very dangerous country. It's got nuclear weapons.

Clearly, the tactics they're taking on this was to simply ignore the movie. They were advised six months ago, let this pass. It's a B- rate movie, a comedy, nothing to with your politics. They ignored that. So, you know, we're still dealing with a hermit kingdom, we don't really understand and unfortunately it's a hermit kingdom, as I said, with nuclear weapons.

KEILAR: Bob, you know, you have people watching "The Interview." In fact, I've spoken just anecdotally with people I know who never would have watched this movie, but because of the publicity they have gone and watched it online.

Some people wonder if maybe they shouldn't, afraid they might open themselves up to hacking. You heard possibly in that last report, there was a woman who went to the movies, didn't want to use your credit card, she told her husband to use his credit card. She didn't want to open herself up to retribution.

Do you think that's a real concern?

BAER: I don't think it's a real concern. The North Koreans would have to hack into, for instance, Visa or American Express and run an algorithm through it to see who went to the movies and, you know, just way too complicated. I think they -- the -- they'll go for a bigger cyber bomb likes against Sony, more Sony e-mails.

But at the end of the day, I think we all did the right thing. Sony did releasing this movie, not going to stand for external censorship, we can't. So, I think it's a Christmas day victory for us all.

KEILAR: Do you think, Elise, you're hearing a law enforcement source tells CNN that FBI and also the Department of Homeland Security, has sent out a joint intelligence bulletin. What's this about?

LABOTT: It's just a warning to be alert. Obviously, there have been a lot of threats out there both by the Guardians of Peace that claimed responsibility for the hacking, but also, they're worried about co copycats, letting law enforcement and everybody know to be aware of those threats a and be careful. But there's no specific threat just now. But everybody is. You know,

they want to see the movie. They're curious. Everybody as we saw at that movie theater, a little jittery.

KEILAR: Yes. Quick to both of you before we go, are you going to see it? Have you seen it?

LABOTT: I haven't seen it yet, but I'm going to see it. I follow North Korea very carefully and I can't resist.

KEILAR: It's part of the story. What do you think, Bob?

BAER: Well, this for me is a busman's holiday. I was tasked to get rid of people before, but I guess it's a good comedy. I'll see it for sure.

KEILAR: I'll see it too. There you go. So, maybe Sony is the winner to sort of bring it if full circle.

Elise Labott and Bob Baer, thank you to both of you joining us today.

And still ahead, questions remain over how a coalition plane went down over ISIS territory. We are going to the Pentagon for an update on that.

And later, he's exploring the idea of running for president. The latest hints that Jeb Bush may be closer to a decision on running.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi. My name is (INAUDIBLE) Travis Powell. I would like to wish my family in North Carolina a merry Christmas and happy New Year and also to my beautiful wife Jessica and daughter Lee Ann. Daddy misses you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: The father of a Jordanian pilot is pleading with ISIS militants to put mercy in their hearts and release his son.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YUSUF AL-KASASBEH, FATHER OF CAPTURED PILOT (through translator): He is now in the hands of Islamic State fighters and I do not want to describe him as a hostage. I call him a guest. He is a guest among brothers of ours in Syria's Islamic State. I ask them in the name of God and ask for the dignity of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, to receive him as a guest and treat him well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Twenty-six-year-old Moaz al-Kasasbeh was captured yesterday when his plane went down during a mission over the self-proclaimed ISIS capital of Raqqa in Syria. ISIS claimed that it shot the plane down, but the U.S. military says evidence indicates militants did not take down the aircraft. U.S. Central Command adding this, quote, "We will support efforts to ensure his safe recovery and will not tolerate ISIL's attempts to misrepresent or exploit this unfortunate aircraft crash for their own purposes."

Joining me now, our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

So, Barbara, you have CentCom indicating that perhaps they have a reason to believe that ISIS couldn't do this. Is there any like strict evidence about why they wouldn't have been able to?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, I mean it's very unusual for Central Command to come out with such an adamant, clear, unequivocal statement, they say the shoot-down did not happen, the plane went down for some other reason. We don't know what that reason is.

But if you think about it, it's sort of logically how could they come to this conclusion. Did the pilot perhaps make a mayday call? Was he having technical problems? Were there some other problems with the plane, some equipment failure?

Did a wing man see something? If a wing man flying nearby they would have seen a missile launched. Maybe the wing man didn't report it. He didn't see anything.

We don't know. There's a lot of very typical factors that can go into the military coming to an initial understanding of what happened. Clearly, they want the pilot back, to be able to talk to him.

And if it was some sort of technical, maintenance issue, or equipment problem with the plane, they're also going to want -- they don't have the wreckage obviously -- but they're going to want to know what went wrong, the F-16 is a real work horse, for so many air forces around the world so they need to figure out here what exactly did happen.

KEILAR: Could there be any element, Barbara, of the Pentagon trying to downplay ISIS' capabilities here so as not to raise fears?

STARR: Well, I suppose anything is possible. But again, if there's some sort of evidence that it was shot down and the Pentagon knew that and lied in an open press release from a four-star general, I think that is pretty unlikely. One can only assume at this point that General Austin, the head of central command, has good reason to put out a statement to say evidence is clear.

If new evidence, different evidence comes to light, you know, so be it. But they are pretty clear in their public statement and that's something the military doesn't really take likely.

KEILAR: Yes. So, all indications that the Pentagon has reason to believe ISIS doesn't have these capabilities to take down a Jordanian plane.

Since I have you here, I want to shift gears. There is a "Washington Post" report and it says that the White House wants to accelerate the closure of Guantanamo. This was something obviously President Obama wanted to do from the very beginning of his presidency.

What can you tell us about this?

STARR: Well, what we all know now is that -- not sure accelerated but they are moving in the direction, the president making very clear that he continues to try and get as many detainees from Guantanamo Bay sent back to their home countries or it find third countries to take them.

Expect to see another five or so detainees in the next five days, and perhaps another five or so early next year. One of the stumbling blocks right now, there's 50 plus detainees there from Yemen. They cannot be sent back to Yemen right now. Yemen is very unstable. Al Qaeda is very active there.

So, nobody wants to see those detainees go back to Yemen and possibly readily return to the battlefield. So, they're looking for a third country to take them.

But the president making no bones about it. He wants to get the population at Guantanamo Bay down as far as possible, as fast as possible. He is facing big congressional opposition, though, to close it once and for all to put the remaining detainees in stateside prisons is something Congress has been very opposed to.

KEILAR: Yes, for years now.

Barbara Starr, thank you so much from the Pentagon for us today.

And American veterinarian got the best present she could ask for this Christmas, her freedom. Stacy Addison was arrested in September in East Timor after police found drugs in the cab she was in. The 41- year-old maintained her innocence throughout her detention. Addison will remain in East Timor until she gets a new passport and after that she says, without a doubt, she is going straight back home to Portland, Oregon.

Just moments ago, the State Department issued a statement saying the U.S. welcomes Addison's release.

And just ahead, a CDC worker is being monitored for symptoms of Ebola. We'll tell you how the lab tech was possibly exposed to the virus and how the agency is responding.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: The CDC is dealing with another embarrassing an potentially dangerous mistake, this time involving the Ebola virus. A technician may have been exposed at one of the agency's Atlanta labs. The CDC says there's no danger to the public but the incident certainly raises concerns.

And we have Joe Johns with us to talk about the details.

I mean, how is a lab tech exposed to Ebola?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I know. I mean, think about it, though, this is probably a lot about procedures and we might not even know about this, but for all the other things that have happened over the last year.

This apparently happened on Monday, discovered on Tuesday, the CDC said a small amount of material from an experiment was mistakenly transferred from one lab to another, might have contained live Ebola virus. CDC says we're talking about one individual who's being monitored and that the technician has no symptoms of illness and that others who entered the lab have been contacted and will be assessed for possible exposure.

But so far, CDC says only that one person is going to need monitoring at this point. They say they don't believe anyone else in the lab actually could have been exposed, Brianna.

KEILAR: How do they deal with these lapses? You alluded to the fact that this is kind of what like the third one I think.

JOHNS: Right, it's the third one. There was one with anthrax recently. There was another one, H1N 5 bird flu. And now, they have sort of a whole list of notifications. First, you close down the lab, then you decontaminate it and then you notify everybody up and down the chain. You launch an investigation.

All these steps have to be followed so it really wouldn't have been feasible for them to keep this quiet. They had to go through the protocols and deal with this one situation which hopefully that person is going to be okay.

KEILAR: And there's some comfort in that, but I think if you work at the CDC, you've got to be --

JOHNS: Right.

KEILAR: You're concerned about your safety at that sort of work environment.

JOHNS: Yes. I mean, it's all about procedures and when dealing with something as serious as Ebola, this is a whole new world we're dealing with right now and people have to be very careful and everybody has to know when you got a problem.

KEILAR: Yes, very little room for error. Joe Johns, thanks so much.

Well, the controversial movie "The Interview" debuts today in hundreds of theaters across the U.S. but many people are watching it from home. They're doing it online. Is it safe to stream this film or are you perhaps opening yourself up to a hacking attack? We have the answer, next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello. I'm Sergeant First Class James Hudler (ph) with the 1100th TASMG at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. I would like to say merry Christmas to my wife Susan Hudler, son Ben and daughter Jamie in Delta, Pennsylvania. (END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Welcome back and Merry Christmas to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Brianna Keilar in for Wolf Blitzer.

"The Interview" has made its premier in independent theaters across the U.S. moviegoers filed in this morning at a theater outside of Baltimore. And many say they are glad hackers intimidating tactics didn't stop Sony from ultimately deciding to release the film.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a bit annoyed at the fact that you have one country telling this country what to watch and I am very upset about that. So I was really upset when they -- especially if it's North Korea. So I was just mad. I mean, I just wanted to come over here because I felt obligated as an American to watch "The Interview."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: If you're planning to watch "The Interview" from the comfort of your own home on-line, you might be wondering how safe it is given all of the talk about hacking. Could your computer perhaps become a target for hackers?

Let's ask our Alison Kosik.

You know, I've heard this, Alison, they're concerned about this. Should they really be worried?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: They really shouldn't be worried. They should relax, grab the popcorn, watch the movie if you want to watch it.

You know, chances are just because you're streaming the movie you're not going to get hacked either during the movie or after. I mean the reality is, yes, Sony was easy to hack into, but there really -- it doesn't mean that the movie itself has that malware or that malicious software attached to it.

Now, it doesn't mean that hackers won't try. And if they do, cyber experts still say you would be safe but there are a couple ways they could try and ruin your viewing experience. For one, they could try to block the movie. They could try to flood Google or Microsoft with a lot of internet traffic, kind of like jamming too much garbage into a traffic shoot.

Many cyber experts say, good look with that. Google and Microsoft have excellent defense measures against that sort of denial of service attacks. That's what it would be called.

Secondly, hackers could also try to lace online ads with malware, but that's pretty rare. Even if they would try once again, you know, you see Google and Microsoft and ad companies, they have a way of detecting it before it gets to your computer and it's pretty save to say that you're going to see a lot of these companies on high alert looking for hackers who are trying to kind of get in anything attached with the movie -- Brianna.

KEILAR: So, I will ask this next question with the disclaimer that I did not major in computer science. I know you're surprised. I major in communications and psychology.

KOSIK: That's OK.

KEILAR: So, this doesn't help. But, you know, it makes the lay person wonder if it's so hard to hack into someone's personal computer, why was it easier or possible for the hackers to get into Sony which you would imagine would have so many precautions against lacking.

KOSIK: Well, surprise, surprise, Sony actually wound up leaving a welcome mat out for hackers.