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AROUND THE WORLD

Police Missed LAX Suspect by Minutes; Snowden Manifesto Slaps U.S. and U.K.; Google Outraged at NSA Snooping; Toronto Mayor Apologizes, Won't Resign; Anti-U.S. Protest in Tehran; Westgate Mall Terrorists Plead Not Guilty; Former CIA Spy Says Westgate Could Have Been Prevented

Aired November 4, 2013 - 12:00   ET

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


UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Third roommate comes back. He said, oh, I just dropped off Paul at L.A.X., you know, to go alone. And they just knew. I think that you just dropped off Paul to a shooting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, we learn police were just minutes from stopping the attack. And should TSA officers be armed? How the shooting at L.A.X. has some pushing the TSA to train them like police officers.

Then, Edward Snowden, he's at it again. This time he is calling out the NSA and its British counterparts saying they are among the worst offenders for spying without oversight. He says this in an open letter entitled "manifesto of truth."

Welcome to AROUND THE WORLD. I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Michael Holmes is off this week.

Well, police came within minutes of stopping the alleged L.A.X. shooter from heading to the airport before Friday's murderous rampage. That is just one of the new details that we are learning today. This is from an exclusive interview with a woman who knows the suspect and his three roommates.

Twenty-three-year-old Paul Ciancia is charged with murdering a TSA officer. Ciancia is in critical condition after being shot by police officers. Well, the FBI says he set out to kill TSA employees. And now a woman who knows the suspect tells our Miguel Marquez that one roommate, who had no idea what was going on, even drove him to the airport.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He asked one of the roommates if he could have a ride to the airport. He said that --

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Why did he need a ride?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He said he was going back home. Either that his dad was kind of sick and that he had to deal with some family issues.

MARQUEZ: Did anyone ever see a ticket or -

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

He also didn't mention what day he had to leave. That morning, yes, he doesn't knock, just opens the door and says, 'I need to leave. Can you take me now?'

MARQUEZ: Did he ever express any hatred toward the government or toward the TSA?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All the NSA findings that came out, you know, this year that -- he was very upset about it and he also thought that the TSA abused their power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Police officers showed up at Ciancia's apartment. This was about 45 minutes after he took off to the airport. Well his father, who's back in New Jersey, had asked the police to check in on his son after the family got a disturbing text message, including one that indicated that something bad might happen.

So we're talking about 45 minutes between life and death for those who were the victims of that shooting. If the police officers had gotten to the suspect's apartment just a little sooner, the attack might have been stopped. CNN's law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes joins us now.

And, Tom, first of all, I know this is a pretty unusual situation. It is not often that police have that kind of window, that amount of time to intervene in potentially a deadly shooting scenario. So what was this text message and what was the warning?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST (via telephone): Well, I think, Suzanne, you know, from what they're saying about it is that the police were notified that there was something wrong with him and that they should check on his well-being, or that he had said in his messages that something bad was going to happen.

Now, imagining the -- or speculating about what the police would do, had they gotten to his apartment before he left and find that he's, you know, appeared -- if he had appeared healthy, normal and if he was fairly articulate, I don't know what the next step would have or could have been for the police beyond that, other than to call the parents back and say, we've checked on him and he's fine and said he's doing fine and normal and he's just depressed or just upset, you know, like many people often are.

I don't know if there was anything in the messages to tell the police that he had access to an assault rifle, whether it was his rifle or someone else's, and that he was capable of using the type of weaponry with multiple magazines and bullets. But, you know, it's highly speculative to say that the police, you know, could have stopped this thing. They could have gotten there early -

MALVEAUX: Right.

FUENTES: Talked to him, thought he's OK and just left. Then the next day he goes to the airport. You just don't know.

MALVEAUX: Sure.

And I want to tell you, Attorney General Eric Holder, he just weighed in on the L.A.X. shooting. I want you to listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL: The function of the TSA is to ensure that people can board planes safely, take flights safely. The responsibility for protecting airport security is not a TSA function. But something that I think we need to certainly examine given what happened in Los Angeles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So, Tom, he's referring to the potential here, the notion that some are suggesting arming the TSA. Do you think that's a good idea?

FUENTES: Well, I - you know, there's a lot of questions about doing that. You know, the tens of thousands of TSA employees, if you start trying to train every one of them, that's going to require classroom training, training on the range, and then recurring training. It's not something you do once and forget about it. So it's a very expensive proposition.

They might have to hire many, many more people to make up for the time that some of the people are going to lose while doing that kind of training. And now you're talking, you know, you're introducing many, many more weapons into an airport environment and people -- with people who probably are not going to have quite as much training or ability as the local police officers who get expensive training.

So, you know, the question in this is, I think for my mind isn't so much whether TSA should be armed. Think the decisions have been sound for them not to be. The questions are, if they're not armed and if the police know it, where are the police? Then it is incumbent on the police to have enough officers there to back them up, because those TSA officers are the first line of inspection before someone goes to the boarding/departure areas of aircraft.

MALVEAUX: Right.

FUENTES: And that's the - that's the story here is that Ciancia has time to shoot the first TSA officer, take an escalator up, take the escalator back down -

MALVEAUX: Right.

FUENTES: And shoot him again. And there's still no officer in sight.

MALVEAUX: Right.

Tom, thank you very much. Appreciate your perspective, as always. We also want to take a moment to talk about the victims of the shooting. TSA Officer Gerardo Hernandez was shot at point-blank range as he stood near his checkpoint in terminal three at L.A.X. He is the first TSA officer to die in the line of duty. His wife says he took pride in serving the American people. And Hernandez, as you see him there, he had two children. Two other TSA officers, James Speer and Tony Grigsby, were wounded but are now out of the hospital, we're learning. And a traveler who was shot in the leg, still in the hospital and listed now in fair condition.

Edward Snowden, we're following this, the man wanted, of course, for leaking NSA secrets, has angered U.S. officials again. This time he is releasing now - he's released a manifesto calling out the U.S. and Britain for their spying programs. His manifesto was published in a German magazine. And he writes that his actions have prompted debate and that the U.S. and Britain are among the worst surveillance offenders. Snowden is living now in Moscow under asylum from the Russian government. That is where we pick up the story with Diana Magnay, who's also gauging reaction from the Germans.

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's a growing chorus of voices in Germany calling for Edward Snowden to be granted asylum there. There's talk also about a parliamentary investigation into the tapping of Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone, where Snowden would be called on to testify. He says he's willing to testify, but he'd have to be granted asylum.

It's possible, of course, for him to provide testimony from Russian soil, but that might go against the grounds for his asylum. President Putin's made it quite clear that he's a free man, but he can do nothing more that will damage U.S. interests. The German government spokesman has said that asylum is out of the question. That U.S./German relations must come first.

Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right, Diana Magnay in Moscow, thank you.

Now, if Edward Snowden was attempting to get people to talk about spying, he has certainly done that. Everybody from people at their jobs and coffee shops, world leaders have an opinion on this. Well now the head of Google, Eric Schmidt, he is also weighing in. He's speaking out about the NSA snooping against the users, of course. He was interviewed in our Hong Kong bureau. Here's what he told our Kristie Lu Stout.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC SCHMIDT, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, GOOGLE: It's just terrible policy, right. So as an example, in the United States, it appears as though, according to the documents, that the National Security Agency tracked everyone's phone calls. In order to identify 300 suspects, we had to track, according to the disclosures, 300 million people's activities. It doesn't seem right. It seems like overreach. Over and over again this needs to be organized, right. There are legitimate uses of this. This is clearly an overstep. In this particular case, we assume that there was monitoring between different computer systems. With encryption we can stop that.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Google is calling this overreach. You're clearly angry about this.

SCHMIDT: We are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Want to bring in Christiane Amanpour, our chief international correspondent in New York.

And, so, Christiane, when you hear world leaders and you've got the heads of companies like Yahoo! and Google and Facebook now, you know, they stake their reputations on the ability to safeguard users information here. There are a lot of people who are very upset with what they are learning. Is this - is this genuine here? Is this genuine backlash that we're hearing from world leaders and how this is going to impact our relationship with others?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think a lot of it is genuine. Some of it is they have to say these kinds of things because of the public outrage. For instance, you heard what the Google chairman, Eric Schmidt, said. He said that they were outraged and they've complained many times to the NSA, to Congress, to President Obama.

I spoke from Europe last week with the foreign minister of Germany, Guido Westerwelle, who basically said in relationship to the tapping of Angela Merkel's phone, look, you can't catch terrorists by tapping your friend's phones, and laid down the thesis that, yes, there are legitimate areas of espionage, of spying, of tapping, yes, we have to find the bad guys, but that doesn't mean to say we can't find some kind of balance vis-a-vis all our citizens and all those people who think that they're being tapped in and for which we find this unacceptable. So that's the debate that's going on in Europe right now, whether it's in Germany, in Spain, other places. Having said that, they all know very well that there is a big link of intelligence-sharing and, you know, between each other and with the NSA.

MALVEAUX: And do they -- do they -- how do they see Snowden? Do they think of him as a traitor? Do they think that he has provided some sort of public service to the world by revealing these kind of, the methods that the U.S. gets its information, its intelligence, sensitive intelligence?

AMANPOUR: Well, it depends on who you speak to. I mean, obviously the United States calls him a traitor and says what he's done is stealing the documents. They say that he, you know, needs to be held accountable. You know, in Great Britain, a U.S., you know, very close ally, they also don't think that this is helpful. Prime Minister Cameron has spoken against the leaking of all this material.

It depends on, you know, where you -- where you sort of seek information and description of what Snowden has done. You heard just now from Diana Magnay, as angry as the Germans are, they are not willing to grant Snowden the asylum because they say the relationship with the U.S. comes first. As angry or as accommodating as Putin has been, allowing Snowden into Moscow and saying that he's a free man, he apparently has put at least some conditions on saying that you can't further damage U.S. interests. So there is a balancing act going on all over the place.

MALVEAUX: All right, Christiane, good to see you as always. Thank you. Appreciate it.

AMANPOUR: Thanks, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Also coming up around the world --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ROB FORD, TORONTO: I do not use crack cocaine, nor am I an addict of crack cocaine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: That was Toronto's mayor back in May after journalists claimed to see him smoking crack cocaine in a video. Well now he is apologizing for what he calls "stupid things."

Then the president uses Twitter and it helps start a revolution in the Middle East. Well coming up, how you can own a piece of it. Twitter now going public.

Plus, what the world needs now, is it nuclear energy? Well that is what a stunning new documentary claims. We are going to talk with one of the men behind the CNN documentary "Pandora's Promise." We're going to see what an anti-nuclear power attorney has to say about that as well coming up on AROUND THE WORLD.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Toronto's troubled mayor says he wants everyone to see the video that reportedly appears to show him smoking crack. Now, Rob Ford admits he's made a lot of mistakes, but other than drinking too much, he has not specified exactly what those mistakes are. And even though he's apologizing, he still says he is not going to resign.

Our Paula Newton, she's covering the story from Ottawa. So, Paula, he made these comments and a lot more, appearing on a radio station in Toronto. How does he explain the video, first of all?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, believe it or not, Suzanne, he's come a long way since basically claim that there was no video. That's what his staff told me months ago.

He now says there was a video, but he was not smoking drugs on it. He says he won't say that, because the video is part of a criminal investigation.

What caught everyone's attention, and I have to tell you, Suzanne, it made international headlines. I was in Europe over the weekend on assignment for CNN. It was front-page news there, too. Why? People cannot believe that a mayor who's under criminal investigation in this way is still in office and is hanging onto his job.

I want to you listen now to the -- shall we call it -- mild mea culpa that Mayor Rob Ford made yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ROB FORD, TORONTO: I'm not perfect. I have made mistakes. I have made mistakes, and all I can do right now is apologize.

I'm not going to sit here and say I'm never going to drink again. That's not realistic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything in moderation, Rob.

FORD: Everything in moderation's fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: You know, Suzanne, what he's talking about there is just really getting a hold of his drinking, and there's video and pictures of him being a little bit drunk at certain events.

That does not address what is a criminal investigation, a legal video, stills coming out, last week, in a court case that clearly show the mayor basically involved with people that now have very serious charges against them, drug possession charges, drug trafficking charges and even extortion.

It's all a very tangled web right now, and Rob Ford only apologized for a little bit of it.

MALVEAUX: OK, so, Paula, explain this for us here. He's still under police investigation. He has acknowledged some wrongdoing.

And -- but he's still going to run for re-election, is that right?

NEWTON: Absolutely. He's certainly not acknowledged any criminal wrongdoing, and he's saying, look -- he's kind of taunting the police.

And I add, Suzanne, the police that he's in charge of -- he's in charge of the police department. He's got their budget right in front of him right now. And he's saying, I want everybody to see that video, assuming, he's saying, that it's going to vindicate him, that it does not show him smoking crack cocaine.

In the meantime, absolutely unrepentant in terms of what this has done to Toronto, the fact that it's made world headlines, a distraction, when there are many other concerns in Canada's largest city.

He says, look, I'm running again. I'm running again next fall.

And even from people close to him who want to see him redeem himself through this, many are saying. look, he's going to have to do so much more and show through his actions in the coming months that he's a responsible caretaker for Toronto.

MALVEAUX: All right, we'll see what the voters decide.

All right, thank you, Paula. Appreciate it.

Soccer fans, out of control in Serbia, how they started this huge fire during a heated match.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Fiery demonstrations against the U.S. today in Iran's capital, Tehran. Iranians tore apart and burned a U.S. flag at the site of the former U.S. embassy.

The protests marked the 34th anniversary of the 1979 U.S. embassy takeover by Iranian students in the early days of the Islamic revolution.

The streets were packed with thousands of protesters. It is believed to be one of the largest anti-U.S. protests in years.

More hard-liners in Iran are criticizing its relatively new president, Hassan Rouhani. They're upset that he called, by phone, President Obama.

The four suspects in the deadly attack on Kenya's Westgate Mall pleaded not guilty today in a court appearance that's raising some rather bizarre new questions. All four suspects are believed to be from Somalia, but authorities say that two had fake identification cards from another country. So authorities aren't even sure of two of the defendants' real names.

Somali terror group al-Shabaab claim responsibility for September's attack where at least 67 people were killed.

Nima Elbagir is tracking the case in Nairobi.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Nima Elbagir, here in Kenya, where over a month after the Westgate terror attack that shocked and outraged Kenyans, four men finally appeared in court today to face charges of supporting, commissioning and harboring terrorists.

Although the four men are believed to be Somali, none of them have I.D.s that check out. And in fact, two were carrying fake Kenyan identification, a fact which has led to the firing of several Kenyan immigration officials and a broadening investigation.

Back to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: And Secretary of State John Kerry is in Saudi Arabia now. This is the second stop of the Middle East tour. Now Kerry is trying to mend fences with some allies. High on the agenda are concerns about the U.S. reaching out to Iran and what to do about the civil war raging in Syria.

There have also been differences between U.S. and Saudi Arabia over Egypt. Now the U.S. froze hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Egypt, while Saudi Arabia supports Egypt's new military-backed government.

And still to come, Cleveland kidnapping survivor, Michelle Knight is now breaking her silence. She and two other young women were held for nearly 10 years, locked in a Cleveland home, that home of Ariel Castro.

Still to come, a look at what she told Dr. Phil about the ordeal.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: A CNN exclusive, Somali terror group al-Shabaab is both feared and reviled, failing in Somalia, but going beyond its borders.

In September, gunmen attacked the Westgate shopping mall in neighboring Kenya, killing at least 67 people.

Within weeks, the U.S. Navy SEAL Team 6, which killed Osama bin Laden, set out to capture al-Shabaab's leader, but failed.

The twist? Some believe that his rise was virtually enabled by the U.S.

Nic Robertson has the terror leader's story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Known as Ikrima, he rocketed from obscurity to global terror threat in just a few years. He did it with the help of the CIA.

CNN can reveal how and why they hooked him up with Al Qaida in Yemen before they tried to kill him.

MORTEN STORM, FORMER CIA SPY: I was offered a million Danish krone, which is equivalent to $200,000, if I could lead the Americans to kill (ph) him.