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CNN NEWSROOM

More Details Known About Man Accused of Abducting Carlesha Freeland-Gaither; Home Depot: Hackers Stole 53 Million Email Addresses; 9 Months in a Row with Over 200,000 Jobs Created; How Did Spaceship 2 Test Pilot Survive?

Aired November 7, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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


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POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: A dream come true for a four-year-old girl fighting Stage Four pediatric cancer. Leah Still attended her first NFL game last night, seeing her father, Devon, play for the Cincinnati Baengals. She got to hang with the Bengals' cheerleaders, posing for a really adorable photo.

Our Andy Scholes joins us now. I love this story, I love this little girl, and I know she even got to go on the field, right?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: Yes, what a great night for her, Poppy.

This was the first time Leah got to go to a game and watch her dad play in the NFL. Through social media her battle with stage four pediatric cancer has touched a lot of people all over the country. Now, this was such a special night for Leah, all over the stadium you could see "Leah Strong" signs, tons of fans were wearing her dad's jersey and chanting Leah's name. And between the first and second quarter, Leah took the field as the Bengals announced a donation in the amount of $1.3 million to Cincinnati's Children's Hospital in Leah's name. And after the game Devin, he spoke about what an awesome night this was for him and his daughter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEVON STILL, CINCINNATI BENGALS DEFENIVE TACKLE: I'm extremely proud. I didn't know that she had this in her. You know, you never think that your child will face a battle like this, but the strength that my daughter has shown me, the courage that she's shown me is nothing short of inspirational.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: And over the past few weeks, Devon still has befriended 19- year-old Lauren Hill. Lauren was sitting at the game with Leah. And if you haven't heard Lauren's story, she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. In September doctors only gave her a few months to live. Her dream was to play college basketball for Mount St. Joseph University and she realized that this dream this past Sunday in front of a sellout crowd. Lauren, she sat down with CNN's Rachel Nichols this week. She said despite her diagnosis she is not going to stop living life to the fullest and she will continue to fight for her -- and, you of course -- tonight at 10:30 Eastern on CNN's "UNGUARDED" with Rachel Nichols. Poppy?

HARLOW: Andy, thank you. Those are two wonderful stories to hear. We'll see you in a few.

The next hour of NEWSROOM begins right now.

Good morning, everyone, I'm Poppy Harlow in today for Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me. Police call him a vicious predator and the length and depravity of his alleged crimes is shocking even some seasoned detectives. This morning, Delvin Barnes awoke in a Virginia jail cell after being whisked to the state to face new charges. He is accused of attacking a teen with a shovel and then stuffing her into a car trunk. And police say that was just a month before he violently snatched another woman off a Philadelphia street in this surveillance video that ultimately helped lead to his capture.

Our Alexandra Field is live in Philadelphia with this unbelievable story. What can you tell us about the more that we've learned about Delvin Barnes?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as we dig here a little bit, Poppy, we're seeing a lengthy and a violent criminal past. Dozens of charges over the last few years. First of all, police in Philadelphia are confident that Delvin Barnes is the man who snatched Carlesha Freeland-Gaither from that street corner on Sunday night. You saw in that horrible surveillance video. Down in Virginia, officials there say the DNA tests have linked the suspect to the abduction of a 16-year-old girl who they say was sexually abused and tortured. And now we're learning about another 2005 incident. Barnes in that case charged and convicted of an attack on his estranged wife. That woman's father now speaking to a TV station in Houston saying that he always believed that Barnes was pure evil. Those are his words. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY, FORMER FATHER-IN-LAW OF SUSPECT: I hope that he spends the rest of his life in jail or give him the death penalty. He really don't deserve to be living. Give him the death penalty or spend the rest of his life in jail. What about the three strikes you're out thing? I mean, he got a lot of strikes. Why is he still walking around in the streets? He ain't got no business walking around in the streets. You know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FIELD: Poppy, some pretty impressive police work here in Philadelphia led to the arrest and capture of Barnes, but a lot of this had to do with the collaboration with those investigators down in Virginia. Again, they had those DNA tests, they had named Barnes as their suspect, but they saw similarities in that case in Virginia with the case here in Philadelphia. They were able to put some pieces together, work with the police in Philadelphia to finally make that arrest on Wednesday.

HARLOW: Now, it is astounding what they were able to do and thank goodness she is home with her family. Alexandra Field for us in Philadelphia. Thanks so much.

And now that that terrifying ordeal is behind her, at least physically, the focus becomes for recovery. What she is going through now, let's discuss that with clinical psychologist Jeff Gardere. We are also joined by Michael Newall. He is a crime reporter for the "Philadelphia Inquirer."

Let me begin with you, Jeff. You think about this, you can't imagine what it's like to go through until you have to go through an ordeal like this. What is she facing right now? How can people help her most?

DR. JEFF GARDERE, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, we really don't know what happened in that three days of captivity. We can assume certain things based on the profile of this criminal. However, what we need to see happen for her, she has to have a stabilized environment. She has to know that she's safe with her mother who I know she's very, very close to. She has to be able to debrief. In other words, talk, talk, talk and talk some more as to what happened. But no one can really push her in that direction. That has to come naturally. But the most important thing is she has to have a stabilized environment and then later on ...

HARLOW: Feel safe.

GARDERE: And feel safe.

HARLOW: Yeah.

GARDERE: And then later on we'll see more of the symptoms of PTSD, for example, starting to come forward.

HARLOW: And Mike, let me ask you this. We know the authorities on the ground, they have done a really remarkable job collaborating across state lines in digging up all of these other charges against him and things that did -- that Delvin Barnes has allegedly done in the past. What do we know about how they are digging into whether there are more victims here?

MIKE NEWALL, CRIME REPORTER, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: Police in Philadelphia do not think there are more victims in the short time that he was here last week. I think the focus right now is in -- on Virginia because of the victim down there told police that he actually told her and showed her pictures of other women that he did similar -- that he- said that he might have abducted.

HARLOW: And in terms of ...

MIKE NEWALL: Who is here or not, they think that ...

HARLOW: Go ahead.

NEWALL: I'm sorry, police here do not believe that there are other victims.

HARLOW: Let me ask you this, Jeff. When it comes to family and friends, we talked about how she has to have a stable situation, but a lot of people don't know whether they should say "Are you OK? Do you want to talk about it?" What's the best way to approach her that's most helpful?

GARDERE: Well, if she is open to it. First, it's going to start with a smaller circle of family, certainly and very, very close friends. And then eventually, in time that circle will begin to widen where people that she knows perhaps not as well but who are very supportive, will give her as much positive reinforcement as possible. The important thing here, Poppy, is that she fought -- she fought while she was being abducted. She fought for the three days from what we know so we are not going to see something like Stockholm syndrome or some other dependency begin to develop where others may have had, Jaycee Dugard and so on, may have had with their abductors.

HARLOW: Michael, let me ask you this, you are a crime reporter there in Philadelphia. Given all the different cases that you have covered, what stands out to you most about this case?

NEWALL: Well, I think what law enforcement here has been saying it's just the -- how this was almost a case study of how you would want something like this to go investigation-wise. You had a witness on the scene who stayed for police, who gave them vital information and evidence. You had police right away determined working with the family, a mobilized family, you had a media, and engaged media and most importantly you had police across many law enforcement, across three states, cooperation that you want to see in this type of thing, and then in like any police investigation, sheer luck with the GPS system that was in this car and what we reported today in the " Inquirer," a father of a sheriff in Virginia noticing similarities between the case here in Philadelphia and the case his son was working in Virginia.

So I think you saw a lot of -- like the law enforcement said yesterday at press conference, this is how you would almost want a case study of an investigation like this to go. But if one piece of the puzzle wasn't there, we might not have had the outcome we had.

HARLOW: Wow. Absolutely. Well, you've done great reporting on this, Mike, thank you very much.

NEWALL: Thank you, Poppy.

HARLOW: And your team there on the ground. Dr. Jeff Gardere, thank you very much as well.

GARDERE: Always a pleasure.

HARLOW: I appreciate you being with us.

Home Depot is one of those retailers that allows customers to opt for email only receipts. Unfortunately, that convenience has been compromised. The company says hackers managed to steel 53 million email addresses from that system. That's on top of the 56 million credit and debit accounts that were earlier hacked this year at Home Depot. Let's bring in Alison Kosik. Good morning, Alison.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy. So yes, we're learning yet more information about this hack that happened a few months ago. What we're learning now once again as you said it's 53 million customer email addresses were basically compromised and although email addresses by nature by themselves aren't necessarily the most private, they are semipublic, so it's not as big a deal as if, let's say, the hackers got ahold of your financial information or your password.

The issue here, though, is fishing. And what's fishing? It's when you've got these hackers sending emails that look official and they get you to click on something, where you click on something and maybe get a virus on your computer or you click on something and give your personal information so you really have to be careful about not clicking on things that look a little suspicious. Also keep in mind that Home Depot has been offering free identity protection credit monitoring since this happened.

Also, it's not a bad idea to maybe even change your email address or keep a separate email address for let's say your shopping needs. And if you're looking to get that free credit monitoring service, you can just go to Home Depot's Website and request your free identity protection. Poppy?

HARLOW: Wow, It's amazing to see how -- really, no company is immune when it comes to all of this. And the fact is -- go ahead ...

KOSIK: I just see this -- I was just going to say it's funny you say that. It was a month ago from my Visa card. I got a letter saying my credit card was compromised because of the Home Depot situation and they were saying I should get the credit monitoring protection but funny thing is I already have it from another breach. So it's almost like it's becoming this layered ...

HARLOW: Yes.

KOSIK: ... effect with how much this is happening these days.

HARLOW: Yeah, absolutely. All right, Alison, thank you for that. And if you want to know more about this hack, big story on cnnmoney.com.

Also new this morning, the nation's unemployment rate has hit its lowest level in six years. The government announced the October jobless rate slid one-tenth of one percent to 5.8 percent. But as we've seen so many times in this slow recovery from the recession, you know, it's incremental steps and it's better but, it's still not great. Meantime, 214,000 jobs were created last month, that's a little bit fewer than expected, but this does extend nine months now. A nine-month streak with job gains over 200,000.

Christine Romans, our chief business correspondent, nodding her head in approval. This is overall a very good headline. CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's the trend

that is so important to look at here. You know, 214,000 jobs created in a month. A few years ago we would have been so happy to see that. Right? Now we've seen it nine months in a row, more than 200,000. And I'm seeing a broadening out of the kind of jobs that we're creating, broadening out of the kind of jobs that we're creating and a trend here that is -- the trend is your friend as they say in economics.

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: You know, one month can have a lot of noise in it, but this shows some consistency. It shows the American economy adding jobs and adding jobs in business and information services, those are office jobs, these are lawyers, these are attorneys -- they are -- lawyers or accountants, but you know, you get the drift. Retail jobs gearing up for the holidays, those can be lower paid jobs, but for a long time in this recovery it's only been low-wage jobs that have been holding things up.

Now you've still got consistent good performance in health care. Some of those are great jobs, they are ladder jobs that you can grow with. So we like to see these kind of sector gains.

HARLOW: What about the long-term unemployed? Because we always talk about if you've been out of work six months or longer in this country it is increasingly hard for you to get a job. You're almost discriminated against, even if people aren't meaning to do it, frankly.

ROMANS: And it's true. There are head hunters and there are recruiters who will only look at you if you currently have a job ...

HARLOW: Right.

ROMANS: ... which is preposterous because there are people out there who have been out of work and have great skills. What I can report on that trend is over the past year or so 1.1 million fewer long-term unemployed. Some of those might be people who simply dropped out of the labor market.

HARLOW: They are not counted.

ROMANS: Some of them are people who have gone back to work. I see that money -- that number moving slowly in the right direction. 5.8 percent, Poppy, you and I both covered the financial crisis, we were at 10 percent there in 2010. We could not imagine a day, we'd be back to 5.8 percent.

HARLOW: You are right.

ROMANS: I'm proud to say that this is not really the top headline of the day today because now we are accustomed to job growth again and it's not the crisis that it once was. If you look at the midterm exit polls, though, Poppy, I'll say there are enough people out there who think that the job market isn't good enough, but that's still a political issue.

HARLOW: Many of them aren't feeling it, because their wages aren't growing.

ROMANS: Their wages aren't growing very much. Productivity increases, technology does wonderful things on the factory floor and in the office but it doesn't mean you're going to get paid more.

HARLOW: Yeah.

ROMANS: That's a big story.

HARLOW: And it's also about changing skills and changing education for the jobs that exist today.

ROMANS: It really is.

HARLOW: All right, Christine, thank you. Good to be with you as always.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

HARLOW: Still to come here in the NEWSROOM, sharing a common enemy but not sharing in direct talks. The U.S. reaching out to Iran. Jim Sciutto covering that story for us this morning.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: President Obama writing a secret letter to the Iran Supreme Leader asking for cooperation against ISIS. We'll have more on that and other communication right after this break.

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HARLOW: The U.S. is reaching out to Iran for help in fighting ISIS. But sources tell CNN many of the countries already part of the U.S. coalition in this battle, they don't want Iran involved. CNN chief national correspondent Jim Sciutto is here with details. You got some really stunning information from your sources on this. What are they saying?

SCIUTTO: Well, it's interesting. First America's Sunni allies in this coalition against ISIS, this is Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, adversaries of Shia Iran, they're uncomfortable with any form of cooperation. Still the president has written to the supreme leader of Iran Ali Khamenei saying that the U.S. and Iran have shared interests in combating ISIS. At the same time, we're seeing that the U.S. and Iran are making an effort to de-conflict their forces fighting in Iraq by sharing information about their military movements with the Iraqis.

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SCIUTTO: The communications have become necessary, says a U.S. military official, because the U.S. and Iran are now operating in the same spaces against a common enemy, ISIS. As a result, "Accommodations must be made indirectly," this official said. This includes airspace management so that U.S. and Iranian aircraft do not conflict while carrying out military operations in the same airspace. The U.S. is also reaching out to Iran via the White House. President Obama addressing a letter to the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei last month saying that the U.S. and Iran have shared interests in fighting ISIS, but that prospects for cooperation hinged on resolving the nuclear issue.

JEN PSAKI, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESWOMAN: Obviously we understand that they have concerns about the threat of ISIL, which they have expressed as well, but I would not look at it as a path to a different type of coordination.

SCIUTTO: On working with Iran, Republican leaders are skeptical.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH) HOUSE SPEAKER: I don't trust the Iranians. I don't think we need to bring them into this. And I would hope that the negotiations that are under way are serious negotiations. But I have my doubts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Those nuclear negotiations face a November 24 deadline, which was already an extension from the previous interim agreement. Though both parties say that deadline is not necessarily sacred. They might have some wiggle room a few days in either direction. Secretary of State John Kerry is flying to Vienna just days before the deadline in hopes of coming to a final agreement. Poppy?

HARLOW: Right. And I know there's a lot of optimism here and hope and talking to the administration that they believe they can get this done, but still there are roadblocks, stumbling blocks. What are they right now in those negotiations?

SCIUTTO: The big question is how to verifiably limit Iran's ability to enrich uranium to the point where the U.S., the West and others are comfortable that they don't have enough to build a bomb. I mean that's the basic issue here. Now, Iran on the other hand, doesn't want to give up all of that ability to enrich uranium because they say they have a right to a civilian nuclear program.

So, the question is how do you get confidence in the West that that program and that the production of uranium is only able to have civilian uses, not military uses. So this comes down to numbers of centrifuges. There's also another path to a bomb, a plutonium plant there called the Iraq heavy water facility. How do they control that? How do they change that so it's not -- so you block off that other path to a bomb? These are the real issues here.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: And I'd say the bottom line, Poppy, it's confusing stuff, is that the president and other officials I've spoken to have said they see a less than 50 percent chance of agreement. That's better than zero, but it still shows there's a long way to go.

HARLOW: And they can't just trust, they, of course, want to verify as well.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: Jim Sciutto, thanks so much this morning.

SCIUTTO: Thank you.

HARLOW: Still to come here on the NEWSROOM, the Virgin Galactic test pilot who fell to Earth from 50,000 feet. It is a miraculous story, it's really amazing. He's already been released from the hospital. So, how did he survive? That's next.

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HARLOW: One of the unanswered questions from the crash of Virgin Galactic's Spaceship 2 is how one of the test pilots survived? Peter Siebold was not wearing a pressurized suit when the vehicle disintegrated at 50,000 feet, but he managed to parachute safely to Earth. Our Dan Simon has more.

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DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It may not be clear yet what exactly brought down Spaceship Two. What is clear is the surviving pilot miraculously defied the odds. The spacecraft came apart just seconds after it detached from its mother ship and fired its engines, traveling faster than the speed of sound at 50,000 feet with the temperature about 70 degrees below zero. Somehow, pilot Peter Siebold managed to escape with just a shoulder injury.

Dr. Robert Schoene is an expert in high altitude medicine.

DR. ROBERT SCHOENE, HIGH ALTITUDE MEDICINE EXPERT: Why didn't he pass out? And if he did for a minute or two did he then regain his facilities and be able to save himself -- ejecting him into his chutes?

SIMON: Questions that will likely be posed by the NTSB which is investigating the crash. 39-year-old co-pilot Mike Alsbury did not survive. His body found in the wreckage which spanned more than 30 miles. It's still unclear how Siebold escaped, but according to the "Washington Post," Siebold's co-workers describe his escape like something out of a movie script saying Siebold found himself flying through the air while still attached to his ejection seat. When he spotted the chase plane, he managed to give the pilot inside a thumb's up and then unbuckled himself at about 17,000 feet, deploying his parachute.

ART THOMPSON: For you to be exposed at 50,000 feet for any duration of time is a very severe condition because it's a really hostile environment.

SIMON: Art Thompson was the technical project director for Red Bull Stratos.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All I can see. SIMON: The amazing feat of engineering that allowed skydiver Felix Baumgartner to jump from the edge of space. Thompson knows the dangers as well as anyone and finds it surprising that Virgin Galactic pilots don't wear pressurized suits.

THOMPSON: At least for the flight test portions of the flights because you run the risk of something like this happening.

(on camera): What do you think enabled him to survive?

THOMPSON: He came down to a lower altitude very quickly is really what probably saved his life.

SIMON: Of course, Siebold was up even higher than that and at a minimum experts say they would expect most people to lose consciousness. We don't know if he had a blackout or not, but doctors say he was also at risk for a brain hemorrhage making his survival all the more remarkable. In fact, he's already been discharged from the hospital. Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Wow. That is an amazing story, and thank goodness he is OK and already out of the hospital.

Still to come on the NEWSROOM, a holy city on edge, tensions on the rise. Our Erin McLaughlin is live in Jerusalem. Hi, Erin.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Poppy. Well, it's a volatile situation here in Jerusalem today. Clashes broke out in the eastern parts of the city and the West Bank. I'll have more on that after the break.

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