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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Delta Baggage Handler Smuggled Guns; Dow Tops 18,000 for First Time Ever; Independent Theater to Show "The Interview"

Aired December 23, 2014 - 12:00   ET

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


ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. And welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

This is certainly the busiest time of year for air travel. And as you line up and take off your shoes and empty your pockets and open all your baggage for all to see, perhaps consider this -- a Delta baggage handler and a former Delta worker have been arrested and charged with smuggling guns on nearly 20 flights from Atlanta to New York. In total, the number of firearms, 153 and some of them were loaded. And at least two of them were assault rifles.

Ammunition allegedly smuggled onto planes in guns, allegedly on flights that originated at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport and then flew right to JFK in New York where a criminal affidavit says the guns were delivered.

How these guns got through security will absolutely blow your mind.

I want to bring in CNN's aviation correspondent Rene Marsh.

OK, Rene, spill it. How on earth in this day and age could that many guns, some of them loaded, end up not only in a terminal or on a tarmac but on a plane that flew?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You know, Ashleigh, oftentimes whether it's airline or airport workers, they go through this security vetting process in which they receive that badge that gets them into the secure areas of the airport. And they do not have to go through TSA checkpoint.

So in this situation, investigators say what happened was a Delta Airlines baggage handler got into the secure part of the airport using his badge and met an accomplice who went through TSA security just like you and I would. The two men communicated via text message and arranged a meeting inside one of the airport bathrooms. And that's where the handoff of the weapons went down, Ashleigh.

The baggage handler working for Delta had the bag with the weapons, some of them loaded, did the handoff and then the accomplice got on the plane and traveled to New York.

You mentioned it off the top. This happens multiple times on board Delta Air flights between Atlanta and New York City. They were tracking this operation. Here's where they went wrong, though. They tried to sell these weapons to who they thought was just someone looking to buy. But it turns out it was an undercover officer. And that is how these two individuals got nabbed, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: So the Brooklyn D.A. is going to give a live news conference about this whole mess quite three, not quite three hours from now, 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Hopefully we'll learn more details about how exactly they could have done this. But ultimately it ends up not the D.A.'s issue about the security, but moving forward.

Moving forward, is anything going to change? Should anybody who's at an airport right now or headed to an airport today or tomorrow, or the next day, expect things are going to be different?

MARSH: You know, that is -- you're absolutely right. You hit the nail on the head. This has really come down -- this is coming down to being an airport security issue. You know, it raises the question and a very critical question as to whether there are enough layers in place to make sure that any bad actors, even if they are employees of an airline or an airport are being screened to make sure that they are not doing something that they are not supposed to be doing.

We did reach out to Atlanta Hartsfield Airport to find out what do they plan on doing about this, when will we see changes, will we see changes? I have yet to get a call back or e-mail from the airport.

I will tell you this. The same sort of situation happened before in Orlando back in 2007 where they had airport workers smuggling things, whether it was weapons or drugs. And what Orlando did is they put in place a situation where they do screen all of their employees and they have been doing that -- Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Rene Marsh live for us, thank you for that.

I have so many more questions about how this could have happened. Especially post-9/11. When I get to take off my shoes every time I fly. And this guy just drives up with a bag of guns and gets it on a plane.

I want to bring in CNN's aviation analyst Miles O'Brien in Washington and CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest here in New York.

Miles, first to you, you're a pilot, I can see the look on Richard's face. It's exactly how I feel as well. Pilots, pilots like you, pilots have to go through not only a magnetometer but they've got to put their carry-on baggage through an X-ray before they get anywhere near a terminal and certainly near a plane. And yet some guy who's a baggage handler can drive up to his work, take out his bag full of guns and somehow get on to the tarmac, and up on to the jet way and into a plane.

How does this happen today?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: This is the dirty little secret about aviation security. And if you're not outraged, American taxpayers, you should be. We're spending billions of dollars for security theater on the front end. We're pouring out our bottles of water, taking off our shoes, turning in our nail clippers and there are tens of thousands of people coming in the back door who are not going through any screening whatsoever.

Yes, there's a background check. But clearly this is a vulnerability. And to say it isn't is just a lie. The Transportation Security Administration is engaged in security and what this points out is how vulnerable we really are.

BANFIELD: So Richard Quest --

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: I don't know. I'm just going to interrupt you, Ashleigh, because I don't know which adjective to use.

BANFIELD: I know.

(LAUGHTER)

QUEST: Mind-boggling, extraordinary, unbelievable. What they have found, of course, what this man found was the loophole. He spotted the loophole that said if he went through -- if he drove into the employee parking lot and he went through that entrance and he did it in this way, he wouldn't go through security.

BANFIELD: Security.

QUEST: But that is not -- but that's quite unusual because in many airports, employees do go through security. If you're going to get to a secure area where you're going to get to the aircraft, you do have to go through it. So what -- this is -- I'm not saying this is unique. But it's an unusual situation. And it's exactly the sort of situation that the terrorist looks for.

BANFIELD: Well, then now, it's widespread now. It's know. We're on CNN with this, for crying out loud. What's frustrating to me is, like you said, it's not unknown. There was a woman --

QUEST: Yes.

BANFIELD: I'm just looking for my notes to find out where it was and what airport it was, but effectively she drove herself to the airport, got mixed up about where to park, ultimately accidentally ended up in an employee parking lot on an employee bus wearing a sundress with a suitcase. Was driven onto a tarmac and let out on a tarmac.

QUEST: Right. But you're never going to get 100 percent infallibility. The system is too big. You aim for the best you can. There will always be these -- I mean, this is actually an extreme situation. But your woman on a sundress, that's one -- she could have been a flight attendant, she could have been there on vacation, whatever.

BANFIELD: But she could have been a terrorist dressing in a sundress getting onto a tarmac with a suitcase full of something awful, like a bomb.

QUEST: She could have that, she could have been. This one is much more worrying because this was systematic. BANFIELD: Yes.

QUEST: They spotted --

BANFIELD: Twenty flights.

QUEST: They spotted the way to get through the system and they did it repeatedly. Remember, terrorists have to -- don't have to just be lucky once. They've got to find a way that's going to do it and it's going to work for them.

BANFIELD: So Miles O'Brien, my crack team just told me that incident also at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airport.

Miles, is this an Atlanta problem or is this a problem throughout federal agencies that are supposed to be regulating our security and not just the TSA, the entire airport system and their employees?

O'BRIEN: I don't think there's been an honest look at what the real vulnerabilities are at airports. We're talking about Hartsfield- Jackson Airport, the world's busiest airport, one or two on the list, depending on how you count, in the United States of America. And if this can happen here, what about Kuala Lumpur, MH-370? Or any number of incidents all throughout the globe.

And this is because the security system that has been created post- 9/11 is more about public relations and calming people's fear as opposed to the really expensive difficult job of truly making an airport security. Let's -- don't forget. We've had people that have snuck into the wheel wells of airplanes. These back entrances leak like sieves for people that don't even have badges. So this is --

BANFIELD: Yes, one last --

O'BRIEN: This is the vulnerability.

BANFIELD: Go ahead one last time.

QUEST: Just going to take -- my good friend Miles, I'm just going to take a little offline there. (INAUDIBLE) because you've got to also have a system that's going to work for the size and scale of the industry. Of course you could have 100 percent security --

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Well, I -- you know, Richard, if you're going to admit that, then let me keep my shoes on and keep my bottle of water. OK.

BANFIELD: I'm with you. And my baby formula.

QUEST: Well, you can't -- well, you can ask --

(CROSSTALK)

QUEST: TSA pre-check. The TSA pre-check --

O'BRIEN: They're not secure when they get on the plane, OK?

BANFIELD: Yes, I agree -- I mean, I've got to say. Knowing this has happened 20 times with loaded guns and assault rifles, I don't feel the least bit good about flying. It doesn't have to do with Jennifer Gray's weather report.

QUEST: Hey, I'm the one who's flying today to Atlanta Hartsfield airport.

BANFIELD: Oh, dear lord. Well, good luck to you. It's been nice knowing you.

QUEST: Good luck.

BANFIELD: Richard Quest and Miles O'Brien, happy holidays.

By the way, Miles, I think someone was trying to get ahold of you during your segment. We saw your friend --

(LAUGHTER)

Skype-ing out, I think. Anyway, listen, happy holidays to both of you. I'm going to keep you around for just a little break.

QUEST: Yes, Marcus.

BANFIELD: Yes, Marcus, holy cow.

This just in, happy holidays on the stock market. It is up and up and up. And by the way, folks, see the big 18,000 on the bottom? That's a record. It's official.

Also how to take a huge leap forward when it comes to how we are all feeling about the current state of the economy. We're going to dig into the numbers next on LEGAL VIEW.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Happy holidays to your 401(k) as the Dow tops 18,000 for the first time ever. I want to take a look at the big board right now. Nice, nice. 18034.

So there's more than just those numbers, folks, because today we learned that the United States economy grew -- are you ready -- 5 percent in the third quarter. And that is the fastest rate since way, way back in 2003.

I want to talk more about these developments and what they mean with CNN's chief business correspondent, host of "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS," as well as Poppy Harlow, CNN business correspondent as well.

First to you, Richard. Holy cow, 5 percent in third quarter. That's massive.

QUEST: On an annualized basis, yes. Falling off from the 4.6 -- falling off from the 4.6 in the second quarter and a little blip down in the first one. This is good news. There is no -- there's no other way to put it. Look at these numbers. 4.6 percent, 5 percent. The U.S. economy is no longer the cleanest of the dirty shirts in the laundry. The U.S. economy is now brand spanking clean, roaring forward, creating jobs. I'm not making a political comment here. It's a simple fact.

BANFIELD: Wait, wait. Did you just say roaring ahead with jobs? Did you just say that?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: We have gained back all of the 8.7 million jobs lost during the recession. That happened this year. That, coupled with the fact that gas prices are down for the 89th consecutive day at $2.38 a gallon. That is unbelievable. And it puts a lot more money in people's pockets and they're spending it.

QUEST: And the stock market puts on this last 1,000 because we had a bit of a blip a week ago. On the December 16th, it was around about 17,000. It's put on 1,000 points in a week.

BANFIELD: In a week.

QUEST: In a week.

HARLOW: And so in part that's people reacting to what the Fed said. Yes, they're going to raise interest rates but they're not going to do it as quickly as some had worried, probably second half of next year. So that means getting your mortgage, et cetera, is going to remain incredibly, incredibly inexpensive to borrow money.

I will say, though, I'm going to be a little bit of a Mrs. Grinch here.

BANFIELD: Scrooge.

HARLOW: And a Scrooge.

BANFIELD: Yes.

HARLOW: Because I was just on the phone with a market analyst who said look, this is the third longest rally like this without a 20 percent correction. And history shows that when the market gets stretched like this, something bad happens. Do you believe that this is really propped up by -- because it's not just about the U.S. economy. We've got huge questions about Russia, how much Europe relies on Russia also. And these companies respond not just to customers in this country --

BANFIELD: You know, stuff it to OPEC --

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: But to Euros as well.

QUEST: They did.

HARLOW: But they're going to keep producing oil at these prices. BANFIELD: Yes.

QUEST: And they said that they will not cut production, too, as the swing producer.

BANFIELD: Yes.

QUEST: So oil is cheap for the foreseeable.

HARLOW: Yes.

QUEST: So that's a given now. So you can price in oil, maybe not at $60 or $50 a barrel. But you can price oil in at under $90 --

BANFIELD: I'm going to do Debby Downer as well again, and I'm going to do this version of her, here she goes. I figured this is sort of the Santa thing. This happens all the time at this time of year. It's the fancy way of a bunch of fund managers all saying, look how good I am and look at my performance.

HARLOW: It's not that it's up to the fund managers, I mean, also a lot of us that have our money invested in the market. We move this market as well.

QUEST: What you are seeing here is the true U.S. economy at its very best in the sense that it's flexible, it has fewer restrictions, actually doing business in this country is easier. There are many other places to start a company, to hire people. And, yes, to fire people as well. So put all these pieces of the jigsaw together and you see Europe in terrible mess, right?

You see Russia a basket case and going to get worse. The Middle East, Latin America all have difficulties. But because of the structural nature of the U.S. economy, you're reaping rewards --

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: So the safest house in a tough neighborhood, as this analyst put it to me. But keep in mind two things. In the U.S. starting in January, 20 more states will have a higher minimum wage. That is going to mean more money in consumers' pockets and they're likely going to spend it.

BANFIELD: I'm glad you brought it back to jobs because look, we still hear a lot of people out there saying, sure, you may have recovered those lost jobs, so we're flat after all of these years.

HARLOW: Right.

BANFIELD: And some of those people who took those jobs took lousy jobs just to get --

HARLOW: (INAUDIBLE) what we'd like it to be.

BANFIELD: Fairness. That's -- and the income inequality, that gap, on a chasm gets bigger and bigger and bigger. QUEST: That is the serious question in 2015. It's not growth. It's

not stock markets. The issue in 2015 is going to be income inequality.

HARLOW: I couldn't agree more. And I think it's also going to be what is the populous reaction to the growing income inequality. We've seen the protests on the streets and we have seen the Arab spring. And some -- some economists have said that if we continue to see growing wage gaps in this country and around the world, people are going to rise up.

BANFIELD: The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. And that's what America has always looked around the world and said, that's you, developing nations, not us. Right? Isn't that effectively? We would become the model we always never wanted to be?

HARLOW: What do you think, Richard? I mean, I think that there is a risk to social instability.

QUEST: America -- the U.S. traditionally has always had quite a large gap. The situation of the gap is it's getting wider.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: It's wider and wider and wider.

BANFIELD: You have a show that you have to do? You do like 100 shows on this network.

HARLOW: And he's anchoring on Christmas and he's working around the clock.

BANFIELD: Happy holidays to both of you. Thank you for coming.

HARLOW: Thanks, guys,

BANFIELD: Poppy Harlow, Richard Quest, two of my favorites.

I got some breaking news I want to bring you right now out of North Korea as well. Can you believe it? The Internet down again. Funny thing because overnight the internet went down. It was restored. And then it went down again last hour. How many people actually have Internet access in North Korea anyway?

About the same amount as one apartment building in New York City. Think about that over the break. You're going to get the details about all this next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: All right. Breaking news for you. It might be the breaking news you've been waiting for considering all the hullabaloo over that movie "The Interview." The controversial movie that the North Koreans were so incensed about. It shows their leader Kim Jong- Un being blown up assassinated. Here's some of the clips that leaked after hacking, et cetera. This

was a trailer. Effectively whatever the threat was from North Korea in terms of whether they would release more e-mails or blow people up in movies, it hasn't worked. And I'll tell you why it hasn't worked. Sony may have not been able to distribute it for its Christmas Day big premiere. But now it is going to air on Christmas Day.

I can tell you this, two independent movie theaters are getting a copy of this movie from Sony and they say they do plan to open on Christmas Day.

Brian Stelter, CNN host of "RELIABLE SOURCES" joining me live now.

What happened? How did this come about?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: This is Sony trying to find some way to get this movie out to the public. I think partly what we're seeing is an act of defiance by Sony and some theater owners. The last thing that anyone wants to feel, as if these hackers won and Sony lost. So what Sony is going to announce this afternoon is they have agreed to send the movie to a limited number of movie theaters that are going to hold special screenings of the movie on Christmas Day. That, we know for sure.

The movie could also come out on video on demand so you can watch it from the comfort of your couch at home. But those details are not concrete yet. I think Sony is going to probably announce it from the next few hours, but they've been a little bit startled because a couple of movie theaters in Atlanta and Austin have already started announcing these special screenings on Christmas Day. So I imagine some people now are trying to get tickets for these.

BANFIELD: You know, I had Congressman Ed Royce on the program not even an hour ago who was saying that Sony should just put this out over the worldwide web and give it to everyone for free, which of course gets everybody excited. They all seem to want to see this movie now because of -- you know, what's happened, the controversy. But is that not going to be the case now? Is this actually going to be a movie you can pay to see, albeit right now in limited release? But ultimately, could it be a wide release?

STELTER: Sony would like to charge people for the movie. You know, there's financial considerations on the one hand and freedom of expression considerations on the other hand. How nice it would be to make a statement about the stone release of those three, they do still have to think about the bottom line and their shareholders and investors. So this is a film you have to pay for initially.

If it does come out on video on demand, you know, maybe they would charge $5, or $10 or even more, maybe they're $10 or $20 for you to rent it from home. You know, movie theaters, movie studios have been very cautious about releasing movies like this at home. You know, that's what Netflix wants to do. But lots of studios and theater owners have been sensitive about that. But this could really be an experiment for the industry to put this movie out over the Internet and let you charge to watch it. BANFIELD: Well, so far what's happening is the news breaking expected

today that it's going to actually be released in two cinemas, one of them in Atlanta, one of them in Austin, seems to be a very small experiment.

STELTER: Right.

BANFIELD: And I'm just going to --

STELTER: But I do think there will be more than that. I think we'll hear about other theaters that accept.

BANFIELD: Well, this could be the tip of the iceberg then. All I can tell you right now, Brian, is that "Atlanta Journal Constitution" is printing out some of the tweets that came from these independent theater owners.

The Plaza is one of them, teasing on its twitter account that the biggest plaza news in its 75-year history is about to be released. And that was followed by, quote, "breaking Plaza news, 'The Interview' will open exclusive on 12-25." It will be one of the few theaters in the nation to open the film.

Again, just two theaters, one in Austin, one in Atlanta. Why only two? How is this -- why would this break like this with a company as big as Sony?

STELTER: This speaks to how much of a scramble there's been behind the scenes at Sony because for four or five days now, they've been trying to come up with a distribution plan. And the truth is, they would like this movie to be out wide. They would like this movie to be able to be seen by as many people as want to. And they'd like people to pay for it. But a lot of the companies, a lot of the partners that they sought out for help to release this film were not very helpful. There's understandable security concerns.

So imagine if you're an online distributor and you decide to put this film out and then you get hacked just like Sony got hacked. You could also imagine that some moviegoers might be concerned to go to these theaters because of the threats from hackers last week. But obviously there are some movie theaters that are standing up and saying, absolutely not. We're not going to let vague threats from hackers affect the movies that we choose to play.

And one of the theaters that has already said we've agreed to play it is the Alamo Drafthouse, the most famous theater in Austin that is well known, you know, to film fans across the country. It's going to be theaters like that, maybe independent theaters that are at the front of this that are helping this movie get shown.

BANFIELD: Well, I'll tell you this, the Plaza in Atlanta has already tweeted out show times for Christmas Day so they're going full steam ahead.

STELTER: What do you think? Do you think it's going to be sold out? BANFIELD: Yes, I do. And I would want to go as well, although I'm a

New Yorker who has lived through 9/11. And so that is a really daunting prospect to ask a bunch of New Yorkers to go into theaters after a direct Internet threat that theaters would be, you know, blown up or at least the theater that aired the premier on Christmas -- on Christmas Day.

Anyway, Brian, keep looking into this for us and let us know when you get any additional news, and any additional theaters, too, additional locations across the country.

STELTER: Will do.

BANFIELD: Thank you, sir. If I don't see you, happy holidays.

Brian Stelter, the host of "RELIABLE SOURCES" joining us with that breaking news.

And we have other breaking news on the Sony story as well. The Internet performance company Dyne Research says that North Korea has lost its Internet service again. Now you probably, if you watch CNN a lot, you probably heard in the morning that it was out last hour. Seems to be back up right now. It was also out overnight.

We're going to keep checking this for you. But this is the second blackout that we can report. The entire nation lost service for about nine hours and 31 minutes overnight and yesterday, which led Bill Maher to tweet out, quote, "We knocked out North Korean Internet, what a blow to the three people there who have it. Next up, North Korean state TV, A.K.A., the no food network."

Yes, it is an exaggeration. But I do find some very funny. And it's not that far off in fact. Our Will Ripley checked into it and he gives us the reality check from Xiangyang, China.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When it comes to the Internet, North Korea is one of the least connected places on the planet. So that more than nine-hour Internet disruption probably affected fewer people there than had it happened just about anywhere else. Just until about four years ago, North Koreans actually had to dial into servers here in Xiangyang, China just to go online. Today they have very limited Internet connectivity. Only about 1,000 known IP addresses. Compare that to over 1.5 billion IP addresses in the United States.

Keep in mind, though, you can connect a lot of devices to a single IP address but we know for a fact that only a handful of people, you're talking top government officials and the most elite in Pyongyang have actually been on the Internet. The average North Korean doesn't even own a computer and they might have limited access to the Intranet, about 5,000 or so strictly controlled government Web sites.

Here in China, though, there is new scrutiny about North Koreans using the Internet and specifically here in Xiangyang, where there's a very strong North Korean presence, including this restaurant, the Pyongyang Restaurant, which is actually owned by the North Korean government. Investigators believe that North Koreans have been utilizing Chinese servers and perhaps hackers have even crossed into China to launch cyber attacks like the one on Sony.

The reason for doing that is simple, much more bandwidth available and also cover because you couldn't be able to directly link the attack to North Korea if it was launched from a country like here in China. That's why the United States is asking the Chinese government for help as they continue investigating North Korea and its alleged role in the cyber attack.

Will Ripley, CNN, Xiangyang, China.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: Our thanks to Will Ripley for filing that report.

By the way, Congressman Elijah Cummings is asking Sony for information on all of those data breaches, including all of the breaches over the past year and details of investigations regarding those hacks.