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NEW DAY SUNDAY

Chokehold Protests Turn Violent in California; Racing the Clock to Rescue Hostages; Top Al Qaeda Commanders Killed; President Makes Unscheduled Doctor Visit

Aired December 7, 2014 - 07:00   ET

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


VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: We've got much more ahead on the next hour of your NEW DAY. It starts right now.

(MUSIC)

BLACKWELL: New details this morning of the dangerous and risky mission to rescue American hostage Luke Somers. Special Force Commandos under cover of darkness and under an urgent deadline to free Somers.

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, protests turned violent in Berkeley, California. Police resort to flash bang grenades and tear gas.

BLACKWELL: And President Obama whisked to the hospital by motorcades because of a persistent sore throat.

(MUSIC)

KAYE: Good morning, everyone. I'm Randi Kaye, in for Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. It's 7:00 a.m. here on the East Coast.

KAYE: We begin with those protests in Berkeley, California, now.

Bricks, pipes and flaming objects, those were just some of the weapons used by protesters against California police last night.

BLACKWELL: This was the dramatic scene in Berkeley after 1,000 people filled the streets to protest the controversial chokehold death of Eric Garner.

KAYE: The situation escalated when a small group of masked vandals started breaking car windows and then storming into the local stores. At least two officers were injured, including one who was treated at a local hospital after being hit with a sandbag.

BLACKWELL: Police say they were forced to use smoke and tear gas after crowds refused to let up. Now, at one point, other protesters tried to restore peace. One woman even stood in front of a broken window to prevent other looters from vandalizing a store.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why are people looting? There's no need. We're peacefully protesting.

We shouldn't be taking things from stores that aren't bothering us. We shouldn't be starting more crime on top of that.

REPORTER: Why do you feel you need to guard the window here at Trader Joe's?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because people are taking things. That's not right! I'm sorry, but they're not fighting against us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: This morning, the Berkeley Police Department says crowds are thinning. About 50 protesters now still on the streets.

BLACKWELL: Meanwhile, at least seven other police departments have now stepped up to help.

KAYE: Earlier today, the Berkeley Police Department told CNN police made several arrests and charged people with assault and vandalism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER COATS, POLICE INFORMATION OFFICER, BERKELEY POLICE (via telephone): Berkeley is known for, you know, protests and the First Amendment, and we do everything we can to ensure that people can peacefully express their freedom to express themselves. In this case, a response occurred, because you know, the group of the protesters did become violent. They did start throwing rocks and bricks and bottles, also small pipes were thrown at our officers, and including later on in the evening, we also had objects that were lit on fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: So, let's bring in CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes.

Tom, good morning to you.

What a mess there in Berkeley overnight. I mean, do you think what happened there is an isolated incident? Or is this, would you say, a turning point in the protests?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: You know, we hope it's an isolated incident, but you know, in these events, it only takes a couple of people to come out and spark violence and cause the mayhem that we see. And unfortunately, you know, we're getting into a situation where we're asking store owners to protect their own property, or we're asking community leaders or protest leaders to try to keep the hoodlums from causing violence and looting.

And we need the police to be the police, whether it's popular or not, that's their job, to protect the property, protect the lives, protect the protesters themselves from these kids and anarchists and the people that come out to do the damage that we've seen.

Those people breaking the windows and looting, we need to get something straight, they could care less about Michael Brown or Eric Garner or any other person that's had an altercation with a police officer. They don't care about that. What they care is that there's going to be a big crowd, there's going to be a large number of police officers and it gives them a great opportunity to do the kind of things they like to do.

KAYE: Right.

And when you look at some of the video -- I mean, the protesters, at least some of them, are really getting in the face of these officers. How do these police officers control their response, when the protesters are throwing objects at them? I mean, what are they supposed to do?

FUENTES: Well, for the most part, they're supposed to be disciplined and restrain themselves and try to really get to where they just have no alternative, they have to take the action to protect themselves and protect others and defuse a violent situation. It is a judgment call and it takes the expertise of the commanders that are out there to make the call of how many police, what's their deployment, when are they going to go into action, when are they going to deploy tear gas and other measures and actually disperse the crowd, and that's a difficult situation.

And we are asking a lot of people, a lot of commanders across this country, to make that call night after night.

KAYE: And how do they decide that? I mean, how do they know when to make that call exactly? How do they know when to, you know, release the tear gas? I mean -- and do you think that maybe in Berkeley, they might have waited too long, or was it about the right time, would you say?

FUENTES: Well, I don't want to second guess how long. But you know, what they're looking at is when they see from observation and the reports of their officers on the front line, when they see that there are some individuals that are starting to sway the crowd into more violent action. As I mentioned, you know, cheerleading to take on the police, to throw things at the police, you know, that's when they start to realize that they cannot have their police like they're in a shooting gallery.

And you know, I've heard some of the protest leaders over the other protest days say, what's the big deal if they throw a bottle of water at a police officer? What, you know, that can't kill you.

Well, yes, you can. It is a big deal. I'd like that person to allow a bottle of water to bounce off their head and see what that's like.

So, you know, this is -- this is not a game out here. And you know, the peaceful protest is great, and the police are allowing it, and in many ways, have to support it -- but not the violence.

KAYE: Yes, seems certainly they accomplished a lot more with the peaceful protests than what we saw overnight in Berkeley.

FUENTES: Well, it does hurt the whole argument. That's true, Randi.

KAYE: Yes. Tom, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Nice to see you.

FUENTES: Nice to see you, Randi. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Six minutes after the hour now.

And we're learning stunning new details this morning about the risky and dangerous and unsuccessful mission to try to rescue American photojournalist Luke Somers and South African teacher Pierre Korkie in Yemen.

KAYE: A team of Navy SEALs armed and wearing night vision goggles had to get to both men under cover of darkness.

Administration officials believed that al Qaeda militants would carry out their threat and kill Somers on Saturday if rescuers didn't get to him in time, but a walled compound, armed militants and even a barking dog stood between the rescuers and Somers.

BLACKWELL: All this was happening as a South African relief group Gift of the Givers says it was negotiating for fellow hostage Pierre Korkie to be freed today.

A senior State Department official tells CNN the Obama administration did not know that.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty has more details about the failed raid.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The mission extremely risky and made urgent when U.S. intelligence shows American Luke Somers would be murdered by Saturday morning.

By midmorning Friday, the president authorizes the rescue, giving no hint of the drama about to play out.

Just a few hours later, according to U.S. officials, two B-22 Ospreys under cover of darkness touched down in a remote area of Yemen, some six miles from the compound where the hostages are held. About 40 Special Force commandos, mostly Navy SEALs, move undetected over the rough terrain.

But suddenly, everything goes wrong, when just 300 feet away, they are exposed, maybe by a barking dog. A firefight breaks out. And as a U.S. drone watches overhead, one terrorist runs back inside and shoots both hostages.

U.S. forces kill five AQAP terrorists. The rest flee. And in one of the most dangerous parts of the mission, a combat medical team needs to spend a tense half hour on the ground, trying to stabilize the two gravely wounded men.

Finally, they are flown back to the USS Makin Island off Yemen's coast, but one dies on the way and another dies on the ship.

JONATHAN GILLIAM, FORMER NAVY SEAL: You have to really look at this from a surgical point, just like a heart surgeon or a brain surgeon. Some will live, some will die.

SERFATY: As word of the failed rescue mission leaks out, the president called Luke Somers' killing a barbaric murder.

Vice President Biden promises the U.S. will be relentless in seeking justice.

JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The women and men who, the Special Forces who are engaged in these two rescue missions, did an incredible job and inflicted serious damage on the captors. But this time, this time, they were unable to the save Luke.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right, our thanks to Sunlen Serfaty for that report.

KAYE: Coming up, we are going to take a closer look at that failed rescue and what could have gone wrong.

Plus, we're hearing a top al Qaeda figure has been killed in a suspected drone strike. More on that story as well.

BLACKWELL: And President Obama whisked to the hospital by motorcade because of a persistent sore throat. We are going to talk live with CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Our developing news out of Pakistan this morning, 13 minutes after the hour -- according to Pakistani intelligence officials, a suspected drone strike has killed Umar Farooq. It's believed he headed up al Qaeda's operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan. And four other suspected militants were also killed.

And this follows reports that Pakistan killed another senior al Qaeda commander yesterday morning. That target had once been indicted for his alleged role in a planned attack on the New York City subways.

So, two key al Qaeda commanders dead this morning, and stunning new details we're getting about this failed mission to rescue hostage Luke Somers.

Let's dig deeper into all of this and another element of news that's breaking this morning. We've got CNN military analyst and retired Major General James "Spider" Marks joining us from Washington.

So, let's talk first -- your response to and reaction to the reported death of Umar Farooq.

GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, what it tells you is that the United States and its partners are going to be persistent in going after known terrorists, and we're going to use every element of national power, primarily our intelligence capacities, and our alliances and our intelligence-sharing to go after these guys in a very aggressive way. This is really, Victor, I mean, in a very broad sense, this is the new normal, if you will, in terms of our perception of conflict moving forward.

We're in a persistent state of conflict. We're going to have to address that. We have to square with the American public that as a matter of routine, we're going to see operations like this.

BLACKWELL: Are we seeing a refocus on al Qaeda, or has that focus been there constantly, although the fight against ISIS has certainly been at the top of mind?

MARKS: Yes, we're doing multiple things at once. That's a very good question.

Al Qaeda remains at the forefront. And what you see with ISIS is really the metastasizing of different forms of terrorism into different groups, often regionally identified. But clearly, there's -- it's global motivation and manifestation, and you know, the hijacking of Islam. That's, frankly, what we're looking at.

So, the United States has multiple targets within this broader effort against terrorism.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk about the failed mission in Yemen also, to rescue Luke Somers.

MARKS: Victor, can I jump in here quickly?

BLACKWELL: Go ahead.

MARKS: I'd be careful about calling it the failed mission. This is a mission that was based on some very precise intelligence. At the end of the day, you're absolutely correct, so I'm not trying to be impolite here.

But I think we need to be very careful about calling it a failed mission. We did not rescue the one hostage we knew about. There was another hostage that was in the compound with Somers, based on great intelligence, incredible work up front, an immensely risky operation with this immense enterprise of support from drones and fighters, a joint operation of SEALs, all the services were involved, the Navy, the Air Force, the Army, et cetera. Everybody gets involved in this thing.

I don't know, I just feel very sensitive about calling it a failed mission.

BLACKWELL: And I hear that. And as valiant as the effort was, and again, they had to trek six miles from where they landed to try to get to this spot to rescue them, success would have been safely bringing Luke Somers home.

MARKS: You are correct.

BLACKWELL: Although the word failed seems a little harsh, they did not accomplish what the mission set out to do.

MARKS: You got it.

BLACKWELL: So, let's talk about a detail. And for the sake of this conversation, we won't use that word and let people at home decide if it was a failed mission or not. But considering that there was this attempt just a couple of weeks ago and this negotiation with the South Africans to bring home Pierre Korkie, would those militants have been at unusually high alert? And should the U.S. have known that?

MARKS: Yes and yes. The U.S. tried to conduct an operation, and in fact, conducted an operation a couple of weeks before to go after Somers. Korkie, again, was an unknown in this entire equation until the operation was conducted on Saturday morning in Yemen.

Clearly, the terrorists were at a heightened state of alert, you're absolutely correct. Based on that, obviously, there was additional intelligence that said irrespective of their heightened state of alert, Somers is at increased risk. There is the possibility that he's going to be murdered. The United States has to act based on the intelligence they had.

So, there is a constant intelligence collection effort that takes place. So, you have a persistent stare, what we call an unblinking eye, hopefully, on the target and all of the environment around it. You have the forces that are in the region. So, there's cover for action, if you will, for those forces to be there so that another operation could take place.

So, the short answer is, sure, they're probably at a heightened state of alert. But the United States and its partners in Yemen that are trying to solve this problem are equally prepared to go walk into this circumstance.

BLACKWELL: All right. General James "Spider" Marks, thanks very much for your insight this morning. And your point is well taken on the characterization of this mission.

MARKS: Victor, thanks very, very much.

BLACKWELL: Thank you, sir.

President Obama was hit with a diagnosis of acid reflux yesterday. Could his former vice, smoking, have played a role here? We'll ask our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, in a live report coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back.

President Obama is back at the White House this morning after making an unscheduled trip Saturday to the Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland.

BLACKWELL: And the White House says the president had been complaining of a sore throat for the last couple of weeks, and with his schedule clear yesterday, he fit in a trip to the doctor.

KAYE: So, to discuss this, let's bring in CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, who joins us now by phone.

Sanjay, good morning to you.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Good morning.

KAYE: So, first of all, we're talking about acid reflux. What is it and why is it making the president so uncomfortable?

GUPTA: Well, you know, it sounds like he had a sore throat for a couple of weeks. This is what we're hearing from the White House and finally decided to get it checked out. And what they did was put a little camera -- fiber-optic camera down the back of his throat and found some changes in the back of his throat that were consistent with acid reflux.

And what it is, basically, you have acid in your stomach. There's a couple of, sort of what are called sphincters in the esophagus that typically prevent that acid from bubbling up from the stomach into your esophagus. The esophagus is your food pipe. If it's not working properly, for whatever reason, the acid comes up. Sometimes people will have heartburn, but also, that acid can get into the back of the throat and cause this acid reflux and sore throat sort of problem.

What they saw on that exam, where they put that little camera down his throat, you know, warranted enough concern for him to go and get a CAT scan at the hospital, and that was the visit to Walter Reed yesterday.

KAYE: Right.

GUPTA: We're told that CAT scan was normal, but that was sort of done out of an abundance of caution.

KAYE: And from what we understand, the president, he was at the hospital for about 28 minutes or so. So, a pretty quick visit. He did both of those exams, as you mentioned, the fiber-optic and the CT scan. Is that pretty standard, to have both of those?

GUPTA: Well, you know, first of all, 28 minutes is really fast, right? I guess maybe things move quickly if you're a president of the United States. But the -- I wouldn't say that it's typical. To do the camera exam is not that -- is pretty common.

What would normally happen is you think it's acid reflux, someone would be given medications or given treatments for that acid reflux. And if it didn't go away after a few weeks, maybe then they would get a CAT scan.

But to get it done, as you point out, in the same day, is a little bit unusual. But you know, this is the president of the United States, so things are probably done in a more expeditious way.

KAYE: Yes.

GUPTA: Josh Earnest mentioned that he happened to have an opening in his calendar and some free time, so he went ahead and had it done yesterday, as opposed to waiting until another time.

That's our guess, but of course, we're going based on what the White House is telling us.

KAYE: Right.

All right. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much.

GUPTA: You got it. Thank you.

KAYE: And, of course, you can catch "SANJAY GUPTA, M.D." at the bottom of this hour. This morning, he is featuring an incredible brain surgery, where the patient is actually awake. But the real story is why she's having this surgery. That's this morning, 7:30 Eastern, just a few minutes away.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: All right. Let's get you caught up with "The Morning Read."

BLACKWELL: Let's do it.

Two police officers are recovering from injuries after protests in Berkeley, California, over the chokehold death of Eric Garner turned violent. Police responded with tear gas after looters hit local businesses and threw rocks and bricks at officers.

Elsewhere in this country, from Oklahoma to Atlanta, protests have largely been peaceful.

KAYE: Pakistani officials report a high-ranking terrorist was killed in a suspected U.S. drone strike. Umar Farooq is believed to have been the head of al Qaeda's operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He died along with four other suspected militants.

BLACKWELL: Republicans added a ninth pickup this round to their Senate sweep last night. Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu lost her bid for re-election in Louisiana to Republican Congressman Bill Cassidy. Landrieu could not cut off the GOP attacks targeting her for a vote on Obamacare, and Republicans will now control 54 Senate seats next session.

KAYE: There is a cold front approaching. The Southeast U.S. is due to bring temperatures down by about ten degrees. And on the West Coast, a rain system stretching from Northern California to Washington will soak the region through Wednesday.

BLACKWELL: All right. We'll see you back here at the top of the hour.

KAYE: "SANJAY GUPTA, M.D." starts right now.