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CNN NEWSROOM

ISIS Seizes American-Made Weapons in Iraq; Manhunt Underway after Police Ambush; Road Rage Suspect Bragged to Friends about Shooting; Fire Rips through Luxury Dubai Skyscraper; Right Wing Extremists May Be Biggest Threat; Government: 24 Sovereign Citizen Attacks In U.S. Since 2010; Rudy Giuliani Receives Death Threats; Bobbi Kristina Brown's Breathing Tube Removed; Report: FDA Knew Device Could Transmit Infection; NASCAR Suspends Kurt Busch

Aired February 21, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Happening right now in the NEWSROOM, ISIS flaunting fire power in a new video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I counted at least 35 M-16 assault rifles made in the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: What we can learn from the pictures and why it gives another insight into the challenges of battling ISIS.

Plus -- quote, They were after me and I got them. Friends tell police that's how the man accused of gunning down a Las Vegas mother in a road rage incident bragged about the shooting.

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: I think it's a mistake to question people's motives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Rand Paul saying Rudy Giuliani's comments are a mistake. Giuliani saying his secretary is now receiving death threats over them. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

All right.

New evidence today that American-made weapons are falling into the hands of ISIS fighters in Iraq. The militants apparently attacked an Iraqi military post in Anbar Province. They seized dozens of weapons, M-16s and heavy machine guns and even armored vehicles.

ISIS fighters left the post, but not before committing more horrific acts -- they burned bodies of Iraqi soldiers. And CNN has not confirmed when the video was shot, but this comes as the U.S. and Iraq plan a major offensive to take back the ISIS stronghold of Mosul. New U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter arriving in Afghanistan this morning and he talked about the plan to retake Mosul and any timetable that has been publicly discussed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASHTON CARTER, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: That is one that will be Iraqi-led and U.S.-supported and it's important that it be launched at a time when it can succeed. And so I think the important thing is that it will -- it get done when it can be done successfully. And even if I knew exactly when that was going to be, I wouldn't tell you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. We're covering this for you with our senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman in Irbil, Iraq, and CNN global affairs analyst, retired Lt. Colonel James Reese. All right -- good to see you both.

So Ben, to you first, ISIS is very adept at using videos like this as propaganda, but is there a greater concern here being raised about their ability to seize U.S. supplied assets?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, once again, we should stress, we cannot confirm the veracity of this video that was posted yesterday on Facebook, but we do know that there was an incident early in the month similar to what is -- what you're seeing there. It really is more of the same.

You know, going back to last summer, ISIS has overrun scores of Iraqi army positions. The Iraqi army, of course, has a lot of American- made, American-supplied weaponry. In this video, you see lots of M- 16s, you see piles of AK-47 assault rifles, mortars, ammunition, magazine clips. You also see, as you mentioned, humvees and armored personnel carrier, all appear to be American-made.

And really, this has been the pattern going back to last summer, when is took over Mosul, a city of two million, and the Iraqi army fled. They left millions and millions of dollars worth of very good American weaponry behind and every time ISIS takes over one of these bases, their supply grows even more.

Of course, it contrasts rather starkly with, for instance, the Peshmerga, the Kurdish forces in the north, what they have. Yesterday we spent the whole day with a senior Kurdish commander who said that he believed that ISIS as a result of these victories over the Iraqi army, has more than a thousand American Humvees compared to the Peshmerga who have at best, he says, 100. Some of those humvees, he said, they had bought on the black market after they were sold by corrupt officials in the Iraqi army.

Now, when the Americans are talking about a possible move on Mosul in April or May, the whole question comes up, is the Iraqi army up to the task? Now the Americans are training, they're giving a crash course to select units of the Iraqi army. 2,000 have already graduated from these courses; 3,200 are in it. But the question is, is that enough to retake a huge city like Mosul -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Let's find out more. Ben Wedeman, thanks so much.

Colonel Reese, let me bring you in to this equation. How advantageous is it for the U.S. to make public that there will be this retaking of Mosul, this attempt come April or May in the first place?

LT. COL. JAMES REESE, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, Fred, good morning. You know, this wasn't a unilateral decision by CentCom and the U.S. and the Pentagon.

As you recall the Iraqis, this is the Iraqi fight and they have been talking about this several weeks now about how they're planning. They're moving up the Tigris River Valley up north, they're making these attacks. The Peshmerga have positions to the northeast of Mosul, so this is nothing new. And ISIS is prepared for this.

They know it and at the end of the day, the Iraqis are going to get positioned, the Peshmerga are going to get positioned and the coalition air forces are going to help start to attrite ISIS in Mosul and when that day comes that the Iraqis decide to assault in Mosul that could be a month from now, it could be three months from now.

WHITFIELD: And we heard the new defense secretary say, you know, not long ago that the U.S. will be supporting Iraqi troops in this operation. Is this the case that without the U.S. support Iraqi troops just really don't have the capacity to hold on to Mosul, to really fight ISIS?

REESE: Well, I think the Iraqis will -- they have some capability. You know, all the reports we had in the past about when the forces just kind of left their stuff, a lot of them didn't have ammunition to help them fight and they just ran.

Right now, there's a big push to get them the supplies they need, plus also, if they are able to mass 25,000 soldiers -- a division's worth -- and right now the intelligence coming out of Mosul, there's about 3,000 ISIS, that's a pretty good odds on top. And then you have the Peshmerga in the northeast.

So right now, we'll just have to watch how the Iraqis handle this. The U.S. and the coalition is doing a great job trying to get their positions in and enabling them with the fires, the intelligence, that we can bring to the table. And over the next couple of months it will be interesting to watch to see what the Iraqis do.

WHITFIELD: And then in your view, how will progress be gauged because I think it's difficult for most Americans to try to understand what kind of dent is being made by the current strategy, but what are the measurements of success?

REESE: Well, right now, so your measurements of effects really and success, we're starting to see already. The Iraqi forces have done very well right now at shutting down logistics and resupply lines from the west at Mount Sinjar where ISIS has been trying to push additional assets in to Mosul. We've gotten reports that ISIS has moved their families out of Mosul, prepared for this fight.

The other aspects will be, once the Iraqis are set and their assault positions ready to go into Mosul and that coalition surgical air strikes start in Mosul it really looks at how long before that air strike and the follow on ground assault happens. If that happens very quickly that could show great success. If it shows weeks before they start going in, that could mean that the air support in the Mosul, which can be difficult in a city, is not getting great success.

The last piece, the best success will be to see how does the populace of Mosul react to when the Iraqi forces come in and do they help against ISIS or do they turn and fight with ISIS which will be a critical measure of effectiveness?

WHITFIELD: All right. Colonel James Reese, always good to see you. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

REESE: You're welcome Fred. You, too. Have a great day.

WHITFIELD: Thank you.

All right. Still ahead More new twists in the so-called road rage shooting case in Las Vegas. Ana Cabrera joining us, live from Las Vegas.

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Fred. We have one suspect in custody. There's another person who's still at large. And this morning, we're learning new details about why the prime suspect may have opened fire killing a 44-year-old mother of four.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. We're following this breaking news out of Minneapolis. A manhunt is under way after a police officer was ambushed and then shot while sitting in his patrol car. Here's what we know. The wounded officer was one of two who had just finished responding to a reported burglary. The incident took place around 6:00 a.m. Eastern. The wounded officer was then taken to the hospital by his partner. He is now in stable condition.

And just a short time ago a police spokesman talked to CNN's Christi Paul.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT SEROKA, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE: The chief has met with this officer. His family is with him as well. He's doing ok. Folks at the Minneapolis police department would like to thank a lot of folks who have sent well wishes, thoughts and prayers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: We'll continue to monitor this story and bring you the latest developments as soon as we get them.

All right. Now to a development in another shooting we're following. The man accused of gunning down a Las Vegas mother in a so-called road rage incident reportedly bragged about the shooting. His friends telling police he said, quote, "They were after me and I got them," end quote. 19-year-old Eric Milton Nowsch is charged with murder. Police say he gunned down Tammy Meyers in front of her home after a confrontation while she was giving her daughter a driving lesson.

Ana Cabrera is in Las Vegas for us. Ana, we know the mother knew the suspect who lived just a block away. Tell us more about this relationship.

CABRERA: Well, Robert Meyers, the victim's husband, says his wife spent quite a bit of time at a nearby park with the suspect giving him food, money and at times advice according to Meyers. And he says that makes this incident, the shooting that much more shocking and that much more heartbreaking.

Now police are still investigating exactly what happened in this apparent road rage incident that turned deadly. We are learning a few more details today from a police arrest report. We're learning that Nowsch apparently confided in a couple of friends who then later talked to detectives. And those friends told the detectives that Nowsch told them that he was being followed by a green vehicle.

He thought that the people in that green car were after him and he says that it was after one of those people pointed a gun at him that he opened fire. Now the friends said he even showed them the murder weapon which was a .45 caliber handgun and that did, indeed, matched shell casings that were found at two separate shooting scenes. They were 17 shell casings that were recovered by police detectives.

Nowsch is still here at the Clark County Detention Center. He'll have his first court appearance on Monday -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: He's facing a growing list of charges?

CABRERA: It is adding up. He's facing murder charges, attempted murder, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon and another charge of firing a weapon in a vehicle in a prohibited area. Keep in mind police are still looking for yet another suspect. They aren't giving us any details on this suspect's identity but Nowsch did tell those friends according to the arrest report that he was a passenger in the vehicle that was involved and presumably police are looking for the driver of that car. But again, no word just yet on whether they're close or who that person is -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Ana Cabrera thanks so much for the details out of Las Vegas.

All right. Still ahead, one of the tallest buildings in the world engulfed in fire. Hundreds of people are forced to run for their lives as debris just flies everywhere. We'll look at how investigators are trying to piece together how it all started.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Checking our top stories right now. A labor dispute among West Coast dock workers could finally be over. The workers have reached a tentative five-year deal, but it still has to be approved by union members. The dispute caused a serious disruption in shipping at 29 U.S. ports. If the deal is approved it could take up to eight weeks for things to return to normal.

And scary images of a fire in a luxury skyscraper in Dubai. It forced hundreds of people out of their homes overnight. John Defterios has details.

JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The fire ripped through one of the world's tallest residential towers early Saturday morning. The blaze broke out just before 2:00 a.m. local time on the 50th floor of the building called The Torch which is 336 meters or just over 1,100 feet high housing 676 units.

A Dubai civil defense spokesperson told CNN that the fire took more than two and a quarter hours to put out with extremely winds due to a sandstorm making conditions much more difficult for firefighters. There were no injuries. At least six fire engines were dispatched to fight the fire and hundreds of residents were evacuated.

Witnesses described the scene with falling glass and building materials on fire hitting the ground. In a city full of skyscrapers the torch is one of the best known due to its architecture, height and its position on the Dubai Marina, a fashionable and densely populated residential area.

Occupants have been told that anyone who lives on the 50th floor or above will not be allowed back in the building until a safety clearance has been made.

John Defterios, CNN, Abu Dhabi.

WHITFIELD: And millions of Americans continue to feel the wrath of a bitter winter that has been blamed for at least 23 deaths this week alone, 18 of them in Tennessee. The relentless ice, snow and bitter cold has been enveloping huge sections of the country from the Midwest and the southeast and all the way up to New England.

In Massachusetts, several horses had to be rescued by overworked emergency crews after a structure collapsed under the weight of the heavy snow. And right now some 100 million people are under a wind chill advisory and hundreds of flights already have been canceled.

It's a bad situation. Doesn't seem to be getting better any time soon.

Then take some live looks right now of the wintry conditions in our nation's capital. It's so beautiful outside the White House, and you can actually see a little bit of a shadow of the Capitol building there.

IVAN CABRERA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

WHITFIELD: It's beautiful but believe me, I know Washington. That is not a place where people drive that great when the snow covered roads can hinder things. So folks, be careful. Stay indoors or just do the metro.

Ivan Cabrera with us now.

I. CABRERA: And it's Saturday so it's a good thing.

WHITFIELD: It is pretty, I love that shot all the time.

I. CABRERA: Yes, this is the shot but you can barely see it. I would telestrate over it but I don't want to get in trouble with that because of the shape of the dome here. But yes, indeed it is snowing in the nation's capital.

Here's what's going to happen. We're going to be talking about one to three inches that's going to fall, accumulate and then we're actually going to be talking about some warmer air pushing in. And this is the way it's going to go.

There is the snow with the cold air but we have this nose of warm air that's going to be coming in. And so the great thing right now is that Kentucky, where we've been seeing some icing this morning has now switched over to plain old rain. So that is excellent news for our friends there in the mid south.

There is Nashville -- they were under an ice storm warning -- that has also been lifted. Now it's just plain old rain. And in fact, we had some flash flood warnings. That's how heavy the rain is coming down. But as we move further to the north and east that's when we're going to be talking about additional snow accumulations and yes that includes Philly and Boston as well. But it will turn over to rain at some point.

My concern is the transition between the snow and into the plain rain there's going to be a period of freezing rain. Temperatures right at the ground at 32 and it's going to be coming down as rain. That could freeze on some of the highways or at least the untreated roads. We'll have to watch that closely.

Sunday morning lows, not bad actually with that "warmer air pushing in", quote/unquote, upper 20s there. But look at this, Fredricka, getting ready for another arctic blast. We're not quite done. I'm sorry. It's going to be coming in.

WHITFIELD: It's unbelievable winter or month really.

I. CABRERA: It is going to be -- coming in and there you see the rain going away but behind that temperatures below normal once again.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. Ok. I have a feeling we're going to be talking about this again tomorrow and the days to come.

I. CABRERA: Yes. Broken record.

WHITFIELD: Ivan -- thanks so much. Appreciate it. All right. Still ahead, a stunning new intelligence report from the

Department of Homeland Security on homegrown terror and the threat from right wing citizen extremists right here in the U.S. They may be in some cases more dangerous than foreign Islamic terror groups.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Good morning again, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

A stunning new intelligence report from the Department of Homeland Security showing that threat of homegrown terror is growing. The report focuses on the threat from the so-called right wing Sovereign Citizens Movement. It cites two dozen attacks against law enforcement or other government agencies since 2010.

Joining me right now: Mark Potok a senior fellow at the southern Poverty Law Center; and CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes former assistant director of the FBI. All right. Good to see both of you.

So Tom, let me begin with you. Hasn't the threat of homegrown terrorism been a primary concern, especially since Oklahoma City and Timothy McVeigh, the Unabomber -- hate groups that have been in this country historically for a very long time, what is different now?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, they have been for a long time and I think that just the rise of other organizations that they look at as enemies of them may be stirring increased membership, but you know, the FBI has been fighting KKK for about 100 years.

WHITFIELD: Right.

FUENTES: And back in the 80s and 90s, fighting groups like, you know, Aryan Nation and a group called The Order who were white supremacist groups. And the interesting thing there is that in two months will be the 70th anniversary of the death of Adolf Hitler and yet Hitlerism or Nazism is alive and well as Mark is going to say shortly in many places in the United States and in Europe still. And that's without benefit of the Nazis did not have the Internet and Hitler wrote one lousy book compared to what we're facing with other groups.

But in the modern era these new groups, domestic and international, are using the Internet, are using their connections and their ability to communicate and find followers through mass media and social media and that makes them increasingly dangerous now.

WHITFIELD: And Mark, your center has been studying homegrown terrorism for a very long time, keeping track of supplying the information to the federal government. The Department of Homeland Security now classifying this threat from Sovereign Citizen Groups, that's how they're classifying it, equal to or greater than threats from foreign groups. Is that in sync with what the Southern Poverty Center has been observing over the years or is this a new discovery?

MARK POTOK, SENIOR FELLOW, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: Well, I mean I'm not -- comparisons are a little bit invidious. I mean, you know, al Qaeda murdered 3,000 Americans in a single day. I'm not sure what we gain by saying one is a greater or lesser threat.

The fact is, is that they're both very real and substantial threats and I think that there are signs, particularly at this White House Summit last week, that the federal government has been taking to some extent its eye off the ball with respect to domestic terrorism.

I mean, it's a fact that more Americans have been killed by domestic, non-Islamic terrorists, since 9/11, than by Jihadists of any strife. So you know, none of this is to diminish the threat of Jihadist terrorism, which is obviously very, very real.

But we have a substantial movement. I mean, when we talk about sovereign citizens we're talking about perhaps 300,000 people in this country.

WHITFIELD: Who are they? How do you describe -- I know there isn't some monolithic thinking but describe for us or help us understand, you know, who is being defined as, you know, a member of this sovereign group?

POTOK: Well, they're kind of a subset or a derivative of the old militia movement. They are bound up in all kinds of conspiracy theories about the illegitimacy of the federal government.

Sovereign citizens in particular have a very bizarre set of beliefs, which tells them that they do not need to respect virtually any of the laws, especially of the federal government.

That leads to a lot of conflict with law enforcement in particular because these people believe that police are enforcing totally illegitimate laws.

That they are agents in effect of evil, and so what we've seen happen quite a few times, is sovereign citizens being pulled over in normal traffic stops by police officers and opening fire.

WHITFIELD: OK, Mark Potok and Tom Fuentes, thanks to both of you, Gentlemen. I appreciate it.

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, coming up, a significant development in the medical case of Bobbi Kristina Brown, the only daughter of the late singer, Whitney Houston. We'll have the latest on her condition next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, checking our top stories, today Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States and its allies are discussing additional sanctions against Russia over what he calls Moscow's land grabbing in Eastern Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: We're not going to play this game, we're not going to sit there and be part of this kind extraordinarily craven behavior at the expense of the sovereignty and integrity of the nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Tomorrow, Kerry will head to Geneva to address another pressing global issue, Iran's disputed nuclear program. He is expected to hold two days of talks with senior Iranian officials.

And the first of three planned spacewalks is under way right now. NASA astronauts, Barry Wilmore and Terry Verts, are outside the International Space Station working on installing new docking ports for future private space taxis.

The taxis will ferry new crews to the orbiting lab starting in 2017. The astronauts are about halfway through their six-hour space spacewalk.

And former Mayor Rudy Giuliani doubling down on remarks he made about President Obama's patriotism. This week, Giuliani objected to the president's refusal to label the terror problem an Islamic extremist issue and says President Obama doesn't love America.

Giuliani is standing by his comments telling CNN that he, quote, "Doesn't regret making the statement." But he is getting a lot of heat, even from people in his own party. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul told CNN affiliate, WAVE, that he believes Giuliani's comments were a mistake.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: I think it's a mistake to question people's motives. It's one thing to disagree on policy and I think it is one reason why like John Yarmuth and I get along.

He is the Democrat congressman from Louisville and we have a good friendship. We don't always agree. We agree on some things and we acknowledge our agreement, but I don't question his motives and I try not to question the president's motives as being a good American or a bad American.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani has received death threats according to his office after comments about the president, but Giuliani says the majority of feedback to his office has been positive.

All right, sources tell CNN that Bobbi Kristina Brown has had her breathing tube removed, but that's not necessarily good news. The daughter of the late Whitney Houston will now be ventilated through a hole in her throat. Here's CNN's Alina Machado with the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two sources close to the Houston family tell CNN that doctors at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta performed a tracheostomy on Bobbi Kristina Brown this week. Those same sources say doctors are slowly trying to bring her out of a medically induced coma.

Now the tracheostomy was done to replace a breathing tube that had been in Bobbi Kristina's mouth. She will now be ventilated instead through a hole in her throat.

According to CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, this is a standard procedure and it is often done to reduce the risk of infection.

Now, as you know, Bobbi Kristina has been hospitalized since January 31st after she was found unresponsive in a bathtub at her home just outside of Atlanta. The 21-year-old has been in intensive care and on a ventilator for three weeks now.

We've also learned this week that her boyfriend, Nick Gordon, has tattooed her name on his forearm. Gordon's attorney says his client has been trying to see Bobbi Kristina, but is staying away from the hospital to respect the family's wishes. Alina Machado, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And still ahead, the anti-resistant superbug, the outbreak at a UCLA Hospital contributed to two deaths, now there are growing concerns about the safety of certain endoscopes and whether the FDA guidelines on sterilizing them go far enough.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In 1882 on Pearl Street in New York City, Thomas Edison opened the world's first commercial electric grid. Lighting up local homes and businesses with cables connected to his power station.

Today, while the cars, fashion and skyline may have all changed the way we power our cities substantially hasn't. What if we could bring the whole grid up to date? Let's visit Manheim in Germany.

(on camera): Every house in Manheim is connected to a smart energy network making the most of renewable energy. This is not just a set of smart homes. It's a smart city.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I think is that the power grid can become a brain for the city by all that information that are generated in the grid.

QUEST: At the heart of the network lies a butler, a small box that monitors how much power you're using when boiling the kettle or watching your favorite movie, for instance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were using power line communication technology in order to transfer data from A to B over the power grid itself.

QUEST: The network is designed to use as much renewable energy as possible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The availability of renewable energy always leads to a lower price of electricity and we use that and forward it to the private customers and we develop this architecture and it can be implemented everywhere.

QUEST: With a smart grid in place the future of our cities may just be a little brighter.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The Centers for Disease Control says it has discovered a new potentially deadly virus doctors call it the bourbon virus named for the county in Kansas where a man died three days after becoming ill.

The CDC says the virus is likely spread by tick or insect bites. No other cases are reported and the CDC advises everyone to protect themselves from tick bites by using bug repellants.

We're also learning new information about what may have led to an outbreak of the antibiotic resistant superbug at a UCLA Hospital, which contributed two deaths this week.

Reuters is reporting the FDA has known for more than five years that approved sterilization procedures for the medical scopes at the centers of this controversy are not adequate, but the agency failed to recommend any new safety requirements.

CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta talked to doctors, who use this type of medical scope to find out more about the growing concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Simply put, what went wrong?

DR. CHRISTINA ZURAWSKI, INFECTIOUS DISEASE, PIADMONT HEALTHCARE: I think what exactly went wrong is yet to be determined, but it appears that the tip of the scope has some places where it needs to be cleaned --

GUPTA: You're talking about right here?

ZURAWSKI: -- in a special way.

GUPTA: Doctor, what are we looking at here? What's the purpose of this part of the piece?

DR. RANDY YANDA, GASTROENTEROLOGIST, PIADMONT HEALTHCARE: This is a special scope that we only use when we're doing a procedure to look in the patient's bile duct, pancreatic cancer and stones in the bowel, this particular scope looks out the side instead of the end compared to the usual colonoscopes, endoscopes used in colonoscopies and upper endoscopies. On the handle here that can move the whole tip up and down and then the force is here. So when a catheter comes through this part of the scope we want to, you know, change the -- where we're putting the catheter we move this up and down, much more complicated area in here than with a typical scope.

GUPTA: So we got access to the cleaning room where these scopes are actually cleaned. Keep in mind, these are $30,000 scopes. Sometimes a $1 toothbrush is part of the cleaning process. Come take a look.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to put the scope into the water. The problem with these scopes is what's behind the elevator. Go behind the scope right here, $1 disposable brush we're going to do just to be on the safe side. We're going to take it under water and brush in here. It's ready to go.

GUPTA: This is what you do. You do these procedures. I mean, everything is risk/reward in life. How worried are you when you're trying to help somebody by doing this procedure, that you may inadvertently be infecting them?

YANDA: To me, I've been doing this for 24 years, I've never had an infection in any procedure that I've done with a scope that we know of. I'm not worried about it. The people here do a really good job of getting the scopes cleaned out. I'm sure they have the same thing in California. That's not a big concern of mine. It just never happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm 100 percent sure that this scope is sterile. I would use it on my two sons, on my mom, on me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, that was Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Dr. Anthony Fauci is with me now. He is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases joining us from Washington. Good to see you.

So this is really unsettling even if you see how they try to clean and sterilize with the best efforts. You know, tell me first, though, about this superbug, which is the root of the problem here particularly at the UCLA Hospital. How common is this?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: It's not common, but it certainly is not so rare that we almost never see it. This is not the first time that there has been an outbreak of CRE, which is shortened for the word Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae, which is a long way of saying it's a specific type of a bacteria that is quite resistant to antibiotics.

And there have been other outbreaks related to other types of contamination. The contamination in question is pretty problematic right now because you're talking about a procedure with the duodenoscope that can be life-saving and can decrease the risks for other types of interventions like surgery. And yet there is a very small risk, not zero, small risk that you can get the kind of contamination of the instrument that type you described in your piece with Sanjay.

So it's really a risked benefit ratio. We have to figure out how we can get those scopes better cleaned even though the risk is still very low. You want it to be zero, but it's not zero.

WHITFIELD: And so before I get to the whole cleaning of it, because I do want to ask about that, help me understand this super bug or this virus, or is it a collection of bacteria?

So if you're talking about an instrument that wasn't cleaned properly, as it's inserted from one body to the next, is an accumulation of bacteria and that's what makes it the super bug?

FAUCI: No. It's a super bug in and of itself regardless of the procedure. So it's a type of bacteria that we have known about for a while now. That is resistant to most antibiotics.

So it's really a tough problem if someone gets infected with it, particularly people and this is important to point out, particularly people who have compromised immune systems, people who have immunodeficiencies, people with cancers, who are on chemotherapy, particularly susceptible, who are in the hospital, getting procedures, of getting infected with this so the bug itself is resistant.

The issue here is how it's getting into people and contaminating, and it is accidentally, as it were, through this instrument that's used for good reason. I mean, the instrument that's being used is in many respects a life-saving instrument.

Unfortunately, this microbe, this bacteria, can get into the little crevices of the instrument that you showed on your piece that even with the toothbrush cleaning, may not be able to 100 percent get it out.

WHITFIELD: My goodness and then if I could ask you to respond to -- Reuters is reporting there have been complaints that the procedure that is FDA approved has not been thorough-enough, the sterilization procedure, if that is the case, you know, where is the -- where does the fault lie?

Is it that hospitals are -- or the medical community is not reporting to the hospitals, who report it to the manufacturer, to the FDA? Where do you find the hole?

FAUCI: No, I don't think you can point the finger at a fault here. It isn't as if there is a procedure that's easy to do that's not being recommended. Even with the pretty stringent procedures, there's still the rare situation where this bacteria can get through, as you have shown on your piece.

The FDA is struggling now about what to do regarding working with the company, working with the CDC, to see how they can address the problem to get the risk to approach zero. But I don't think you can point finger that someone was at fault here. This is just a very difficult situation.

WHITFIELD: Very bad situation. All right, Dr. Anthony Fauci, thank you so much from Washington. Appreciate your time.

FAUCI: Good to be with you.

WHITFIELD: All right, still to come, a former Daytona 500 champion will not be racing in NASCAR's premier event tomorrow, as he adamantly denies allegations of physical abuse toward his ex-girlfriend, but first, here is this week's "Fit Nation."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (voice-over): Just last month, 67-year-old Linda Garrett started her journey with the "Fit Nation" team.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This looks good!

GUPTA: Swimming, biking, running, all to get ready for the Nautica Malibu triathlon in September. But now, just a few short weeks later, the first major hurdle for Linda to overcome.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a big one, yes. Yes.

GUPTA: An old knee injury flared up, and she needs surgery.

DR. CHRISTOPHER CAREY, ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON: So Ms. Garrett had a tear of her medial meniscus, which is sort of the cushion pad on the inner side of her knee over there.

GUPTA: Dr. Carey was able to do arthroscopic surgery just a few days after he found the injury and all went smoothly.

CAREY: Everything went very well, pretty much everything we expected in there, big meniscus tear, which is what we are looking because that's something that we can eliminate those symptoms right off the bat.

GUPTA: Recovery time says Carey.

CAREY: I usually start my patients pretty quickly with regards to range of motion, things like a stationary bike. She can start on that in a few days. I usually try to hold everybody back from anything vigorous, specifically for her, running or anything for about six weeks or so after the procedure.

GUPTA: But overall, he says Linda will be as good as new.

CAREY: She'll do well. She had some arthritis, but a good looking knee overall.

GUPTA: As for Garrett herself, she says she is a little sore but also looking forward to getting back in the game.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like I can catch up, just a minor setback. GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, Daytona 500, it is the stock car racing kind of Super Bowl and it will run tomorrow without one of its famed racers, Kurt Busch. He has been indefinitely suspended by NASCAR over allegations that he attacked his former girlfriend.

Clint Wire is here with more on the former champion's suspension.

CLINT WIRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, this is a crazy situation and the -- NASCAR has suspended drivers before, but Busch is the first driver ever to be suspended by NASCAR for domestic violence. NASCAR made the decision yesterday after a family court judge ordered Busch to stay away from his former girlfriend.

Patricia Driscoll said that Busch grabbed her by the throat, slammed her head into the wall of his RV last fall. Now Busch is denying any type of wrong doing and he's even saying that she's the one you should be concerned about here saying that she's portrayed herself to be an assassin. Busch doesn't currently face any sort of criminal charges in this situation.

WHITFIELD: OK, so indefinitely suspended. Clearly, he wants to get back on the track. What are his options? Can he appeal, will he appeal?

WIRE: He can, and it's expected that he will. Matter of fact, in moments, actually, at noon, he's supposed to meet with NASCAR, there will be a hearing and it's expected that he will appeal.

Here's the problem, though. His team, Stuart Haas racing, already decided to put Regan Smith in to drive for him in the Daytona 500. So the damage is already done here.

These are just allegations, again no criminal charges, but he's suspended indefinitely. Starting off the season about the biggest race, the Daytona 500, the Super Bowl of them all, he's not going to be there.

WHITFIELD: I guess his appeal process will take some time. Somewhere mid-season he'll be able to race again. Meantime, what is everyone out there, particularly on social media, saying about this, him, the situation?

WIRE: You're seeing two ends of the spectrum here. There is no doubt that people are livid about it, some people are mad at Busch. They're not giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Some people are mad at NASCAR. Let's take a look. Someone left the driver a message on the window of his garage.