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CNN NEWSROOM

FBI, DHS Warn About American Youth Joining ISIS; Highly Toxic Environment in Ferguson; U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Attacked; Police: Drivers Stuck on I-65 for Hours; Boston Bombing Trial: New Video Shown to Jurors

Aired March 5, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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


ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

We do begin with breaking news from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security who are warning police today -- they're warning police across the country about a disturbing trend involving young Americans and ISIS.

CNN's Brian Todd joins us now with more details.

Good morning, Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. We have this from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. This is according to a law enforcement official who spoke to our Pamela Brown about this development. This official says that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have sent a joint warning to law enforcement agencies across the country about the concern of a growing trend of girls and boys wanting to fight with ISIS.

This is in the wake of the arrest and detention of a 17-year-old young man from northern Virginia. We reported on this last night and this morning. This young man was detained last Friday by the FBI.

This law enforcement source says that law enforcement is now tracking, quote, "lots of cases like that around the country," and they're growing increasingly concerned about this issue. The warning was sent out over the weekend. This is according to a law enforcement source who spoke to our Pamela Brown just a short while ago.

Now we did, as I mentioned, we reported on the detention of this young man. A law enforcement official confirming to us that this young man was arrested on Friday. He is under -- he is in detention right now. He is being charged for the moment as a juvenile but they are trying to possibly get those charges changed so that he can be charged as an adult.

This young man, according to law enforcement officials, was not just some kind of a passive supporter of ISIS, maybe supporting them online. According to officials, this young man was a recruiter.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): He allegedly helped a man travel to Syria to fight with ISIS, went online to connect the recruit to the terror group. The alleged recruiter, a 17-year-old boy in the suburbs of Washington. That's according to a law enforcement official. "The Washington Post" reports the boy lives in Woodbridge, Virginia.

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: ISIS are putting out their propaganda message over social media. Teenagers are using social media more than any other demographic. So it's no surprise that somebody who's 17 would become involved in pro-ISIS activities.

TODD: FBI agents raided the townhouse where the alleged recruiter lives, leading him outside in handcuffs according to the "Post." The FBI is not commenting. The boy is in custody and is charged as a juvenile.

An official with the Prince William County Public Schools tells CNN the young man is enrolled at this high school, Osborne Park in Manassas, Virginia, but is not currently attending classes.

This follows other high profile cases of young Americans being enticed to try to join ISIS. Two men from the New York area, including a 19- year-old, picked up last month. A 19-year-old Somali American from Minneapolis, Hamza Ahmed, grabbed by federal agents at JFK Airport just before his plane was to leave for Turkey. A law enforcement source says Ahmed posted these tweets saying he wanted to become a jihadist and, quote, "be a martyr."

What prompts a young person to want to leave America and join ISIS?

CLINTON WATTS, FORMER FBI AGENT: They usually are those that are very isolated, very upset about one issue or another, and have, you know, some variety of motivations. Sometimes it's psychological. Sometimes it's family issues. Other times it's social.

TODD: A top FBI counter terror official recently said over the past year or two ISIS and other groups have gotten better at spotting potential recruits and that younger and younger people are being recruited. This official said in the U.S. the FBI has seen children as young as 15 recruited by ISIS.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Brian, I understand you talked to a guy who employed this young man. What did he say about him?

TODD: That's right, Carol. We spoke to a gentleman named Dustin O'Brien. He lives in Alabama. He runs a news Web site that focuses on digital currency. And he said he hired this young man as a freelance workers, and the young worked from -- for him from May until November of last year. And he described this young man as brilliant, very, very intelligent. He said he didn't even know he was a high school student because his resume listed some college courses.

And he said there was never any indication to him that this young man might be radical in any way. He said he's very, very surprised at all of this. He said he's hoping that there's some kind of misunderstanding and that maybe this young man didn't know quite what he was doing. But he was very impressed with the young man's intellect.

That's another frightening aspect of this that ISIS is able to spot people like this young man and recruit them to actually be recruiters of other people.

COSTELLO: Brian Todd reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

In just a couple of hours we'll hear from the parents of Michael Brown, the unarmed teenager shot and killed in Ferguson, Missouri. They'll respond to news that federal investigators have cleared the man who fired the shots, Police Officer Darren Wilson. They've already said their son's death is not in vein, though, if Ferguson confronts the racism exposed in the Justice Department report. Their attorney spoke this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to take a major overhaul of this department and everyone has their own opinion as to whether -- what type of change to be made in the leadership. It isn't my decision but without question this report calls out and screams for change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Ed Lavandera has spent a lot of time in Ferguson covering the August shooting and the protests and riots that followed.

Tell us more, Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, you know, this report is full of anecdotal stories of what people have experienced during a two-year period and it really resonates with a lot of people who say that the police department here in Ferguson has practiced harassment for years.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LOISTINE HOSKIN, FERGUSON RESIDENT: Oh, my.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): This is a pile of frustration for Loistine Hoskin and her daughter Kimberly. Several dozen citations courtesy of the city of Ferguson, stacked inside a file like a memory book of bad dreams.

L. HOSKIN: I don't think you could ever put a dollar amount on the stress that it cost me.

LAVANDERA: A few years ago after Loistine's husband passed away Ferguson officials started issuing Loistine a string of minor code violations around her home for the way her cars were parked in her driveway, for a downed tree knocked over in the storm. She tried to fight the citations. Then this happened. L. HOSKIN: I was arrested. When I went to court for failing to

appear, which was ludicrous because I had been coming to court all the time.

LAVANDERA (on camera): So you appeared in court.

L. HOSKIN: I appear in court.

LAVANDERA: Then they arrested you for failing to appear?

L. HOSKIN: He said, I was under arrest. And I said, what am I under arrest for? And he said, well, I'm not sure but they said something about failing to appear.

LAVANDERA: But you're there?

L. HOSKIN: And I'm there, yes. So I went to -- they handcuffed me, put me in the back of the squad car. I was locked up for four hours.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): This isn't Loistine's most stunning story. In 2009 she says a city inspector claimed her car was derelict and needed to be moved from her driveway. She says the 1998 Oldsmobile wasn't much to look at but it was the car that took her to work every day until police officers showed up with a tow truck.

(On camera): So you saw them tow the car from your driveway?

L. HOSKIN: I was standing out there when they towed it, yes?

LAVANDERA: Did you feel like your car was stolen?

L. HOSKIN: It was stolen. It was stolen from right out from under my eyes.

(LAUGHTER)

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Kimberly Hoskins says black residents in Ferguson drive around with the constant fear of seeing red and blue lights in their mirror. She says she's been issued nearly a dozen traffic citations.

KIMBERLY HOSKIN, FERGUSON RESIDENT: I've had police officers, like, coming towards them, we're coming towards each other, turn around, follow me.

L. HOSKIN: Make a U-turn.

K. HOSKIN: Make a U-turn, follow me. Run my plates, find out everything is OK and turn around and go back in the direction that they were going.

LAVANDERA: Loistine and Kimberly Hoskins say their citation battles have cost each of them nearly $5,000. They're hoping the fight is now finally over.

K. HOSKIN: I think that if nothing happens, it will be worse because they'll think they got away with it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: And, Carol, you know, the mayor here in Ferguson spoke briefly yesterday afternoon, but what a lot of people here in Ferguson are talking about and asking, where was the police chief during that press conference? He has not spoken out publicly yet after -- hours after the DOJ report has been issued -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. We're going to talk a lot more about that a little later.

Ed Lavandera reporting live from Ferguson.

Also stay with us this morning because at 11:00 Eastern we'll have live coverage of Michael Brown's parents and their reaction to this Justice Department report.

A knife attack of justice. North Korea praises a gruesome attack on the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Mark Lippert.

This was the scene earlier in the capital city of Seoul. Authorities say this man, a 55-year-old North Korean sympathizer, ran up to the ambassador screaming anti-American sentiments and then slashed him with a 10-inch knife. Officials believe the suspect was protesting current joint South Korea-U.S. military drills.

Plus this new video into us shows the suspect leaving his home and arriving at the venue just moments before the attack.

This morning the American ambassador is in stable condition. But surgeons say if injuries to his face had been any deeper, they could have been life threatening.

Let's bring in CNN's Andrew Stevens, he's live in Hong Kong with more.

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Carol, 80 stitches and that was just in the facial wound alone on the right side of the face there. He also suffered deep cuts to his left forearm and surgeons are saying that he could suffer nerve damage there. So luckily, though, no lasting damage in that -- in that cheek wound.

But the man who is now in police custody was known to police, Carol. He'd actually been -- sentenced to two years in prison which was suspended back in 2010 after he threw a lump of concrete at the Japanese ambassador to South Korea. Police say he was a man of unpredictable behavior. And he certainly has been seen in North Korea on several occasions. So he is known for his leanings towards North Korea.

He was a member of this Council for the Reconciliation of Korea and cooperation of Korea, basically trying by peaceful means to get the two Koreas together, although he did commit this vicious attack on Mark Lippert.

Mark Lippert's parents also have been talking about this horrendous attack. This is what they have to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM LIPPERT, FATHER OF AMBASSADOR MARK LIPPERT: When I saw him, I mean, you're distressed because it's yours. I mean, he's -- you know, he's part of us. I think the whole experience to him was traumatic to say the least, and I think that was part of his expression.

I think he totally enjoys the people of South Korea. I'm proud of him. I mean, he's serving our country. You know, I think this is a risk. But how do I feel about him? I feel proud of him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEVENS: Well, certainly is a risk. Actually, Mark Lippert, they're actually tweeting out his thanks for the support of the South Korean people. The president, Barack Obama, has been in touch with Lippert. They are close allies. They've been -- they've known each other and worked together since 2005 when Mr. Obama was in the Senate.

Also the South Korean president, President Park, saying it was an intolerable attack and also an attack on the -- on the relationship between Korea and the U.S. It does raise questions, obviously, about security surrounding Mark Lippert. Indeed all ambassadors, American ambassadors throughout the world.

What the Seoul police are saying that they weren't asked to provide any extra security detail for this particular event. It looked like a pretty routine event. He was due to speak about the prospects of peace in the Korean Peninsula when that attack happened -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Andrew Stevens reporting live from Hong Kong for us this morning. Thank you.

Let's talk a bit more about this with Balbina Hwang. She knows the region well. She served as a senior adviser to former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Christopher Hill. She now works at American University in Washington, D.C.

Welcome, Professor. And thank you so much for being with me.

BALBINA HWANG, FORMER SR. ADVISER TO AMBASSADOR CHRISTOPHER HILL: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. North Korea praised this attack. Your thoughts?

HWANG: Well, I'm not surprised. There's no evidence that North Korea had any direct involvement, but much as we see, for example, these lone wolf attacks throughout the Western world and then afterwards ISIS sort of praising these attacks, again, there's no sense that there's a clear conspiracy, but there is no doubt that these North Korean sympathizers are dangerous to South Korean society.

COSTELLO: And you heard -- you heard Ambassador Lippert's father saying he was proud of his son but there are risks and he worries. In light of this certainly -- he's certainly right to worry, but how afraid should we be for our ambassador in South Korea?

HWANG: Well, we -- as Americans we should remember that, first of all, there are about 28,000 U.S. servicemen that actually put their lives at risk every day against the North Korean threat that are stationed in South Korea, but we also forget that our diplomats throughout the world are often put in danger without the protection that the military often has.

Now South Korea is and has been a very safe society. One in which most South Korean citizens respect and revere particularly the U.S. ambassador. And in fact, it's a tradeoff. The U.S. ambassador needs to be able to mingle with South Korean public, needs to be accessible.

This is one of the most important aspects of diplomacy. And so I think this attack certainly threatens that accessibility from now on.

COSTELLO: Professor Hwang, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, more than 90 million people in the path. Hundreds of drivers in Kentucky stuck on the highway for up to 10 hours.

I'll talk to one of those drivers who are in agony this morning next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Two thousand miles of misery, a wintry mix is impacting 90 million people. I-65 south of Louisville, Kentucky, shut down. State police say hundreds of drivers have been stuck for hours and the National Guard is now being activated to help those stranded.

Now, this road is quite steep making it tough for cars to get through.

Sue Ellen Kilgallon is one of those drivers. She's been stranded since 10:00 last night.

Ellen, are you there?

SUE ELLEN KILGALLON, STRANDED ON I-65 (via telephone): Yes.

COSTELLO: I feel for you. Oh, my goodness, so what happened? Like take us through the night.

KILGALLON: We thought we would move out of Louisville before it got bad hoping to get to Nashville. We got 20, 25 miles south of Louisville and we just hit nothing but dead stop. And supposedly, there's a semi and a bunch of cars are in a collision at the head. We've been sitting here. Others have been there an hour or two longer than us that are further up. Yes, we've been here since 10:00 last night.

COSTELLO: So, how are you surviving, Sue Ellen?

KILGALLON: We have two bottles of water and a package of crackers. We took a couple of naps. I've been trying to stay awake and keep up with what the weather is going to do.

COSTELLO: This brings to mind the terrible ice storm in Atlanta where people were trapped in their cars for, you know, 10 hours or more.

KILGALLON: Right. Right.

COSTELLO: So what happened to cause the awful situation in Kentucky?

KILGALLON: They said it was a semi-tractor had had a collision with a bunch of cars. That's all we've been told. And they had -- the semi had gotten towed out a little while ago but other reports are saying they didn't have enough tow trucks to come and get the rest of the cars so we're not quite sure, you know, which way. You know, we've been trying to listen to the scanner to see what's going on. That's how we've been getting information.

COSTELLO: So, at this point how are you feeling about your city and state officials?

KILGALLON: Well, I'm on my way home to Florida. We're traveling with a few dogs in the car.

COSTELLO: Oh, no. So how are you feeling about the state of Kentucky right now?

KILGALLON: Well, I think they're doing the best they can. I know we heard the National Guard supposedly coming out, but we've seen a little bit of traffic coming northbound but it's very sporadic. I don't know how they're getting through. We're just hoping they get something cleared up. My husband, he's working out of the car today.

COSTELLO: What was that, your husband what?

KILGALLON: Hanging in there.

COSTELLO: Your husband, what, Sue Ellen? I didn't hear you.

KILGALLON: He's actually working today. We're on our way working. He's supposed to be working. Now, we're stuck, so he's working out of the car today.

COSTELLO: Oh, my -- at least you're doing something.

KILGALLON: He's on the Internet.

COSTELLO: I don't mean to laugh, but I know you're laughing otherwise you'd cry.

KILGALLON: I'm laughing because it's so amusing.

COSTELLO: Sue Ellen Kilgallon, much luck and stay safe. Thanks for sharing your story. We appreciate it.

In other news this morning, new video of the Boston marathon bombings. Four never seen before videos played day one of the Boston marathon bombing trial. I want to warn you, some of the video is graphic. Here's more from Deborah Feyerick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In opening statements, the defense team for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev made one thing perfectly clear -- it was him. Hoping jurors will now focus on the influence his brother had, to carry out the senseless attack and spare Dzhokhar the death penalty.

The jury also saw four never-before-seen videos of the bombings.

Bloody bodies laying on the ground. First responders scrambling and the shock and dismay of onlookers, these videos shown in court yesterday during the trial, images that make an impact.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can move. I'm with her. Here you go.

FEYERICK: This point of view video on the ground level revealing scenes of terror, with some images too gruesome to show.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tourniquet, tourniquet.

(CROSSTALK)

FEYERICK: Legs shattered by shrapnel from the pressure cooker bomb lay on the ground. Their blood staining the pavement.

In court, some of those victims testify about the blast.

Sydney Corcoran, a high school senior, told the jury she could feel a tingling in her body. "I was getting increasingly cold," she said, "I knew I was dying." Her main artery had been severed. Her mother lost both legs in the blast.

Besides the violence and the explosions, these new videos show people rushing to help the injured. This was the scene inside Marathon Sports. A running store located at the finish line. The blast shatters windows causing confusion in the store. You see people running out. Some bombing victims stagger inside and clothe something grabbed off the store shelves to make tourniquets to save so many who simply came to watch a race.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Alexandra Field is following this for us.

Alexandra, how did people inside the courtroom react to this new video?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Carol, when the jurors were selected for this trial they were warned that they were going to have to look at graphic images, graphic video. The prosecution set the tone in their opening statements speaking in frankly excruciating details about the injuries that killed three of the victims at the finish line.

But when you saw them played out in court, even in the media overflow room where I was watching them, it sends a chill up your spine. I think people were visibly moved even fellow journalists who had seen a lot of similar raw video, video that was deemed from the start simply too graphic to broadcast, not necessary to broadcast, because it showed the extent of the suffering out there on Boylston Street.

When you saw those images in the courtroom, though, when the victims were on the stand testifying to their pain sharing it in open court, I think it resonated very deeply with a city that is nearly two years past the events of that really horrific day. This is what the prosecution needs to be doing right now. They are establishing the facts of this case. They are showing the pain, the suffering, the extent of the injuries, the lives that were taken in all of this.

The defense for their part which has conceded that their client, the defendant, was behind these attacks, they're not, of course, cross examining these victims as they take the stand, they are simply allowing them to tell their story and to come down and step off the stand, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Alexandra Field, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

Of course, a phrase was born shortly after those bombs went off. It was called "Boston Strong." And if you caught the image of the bombing victims entering the courtroom to face their attacker, you know what I'm talking about.

But nothing says Boston strong like Rebecca Gregory. Gregory, who lost her left leg, wrote a powerful in your face letter to the man who changed -- to the man who changed her life.

The letter reads like this, "Dear Dzhokhar Tsarnaev: My name is Rebecca Gregory. We don't really know each other and never will, but over the last two years, I've seen your face not only in pictures but in almost every one of my nightmares. Moments before the first blast, your stupid backpack even brushed up against my arm, but I doubt you remember because I am no one to you, a complete stranger.

And although it was merely just a blip on your radar, someone that happened to be standing three feet from your designated good spot for a bomb, you have been so much more to me, because you have undoubtedly been my source of fear since April 15th, 2013. After all, you are one of the men responsible for nearly taking my child, for the permanent image embedded in my brain of watching someone die.

Up until now, I've been truly scared of you and because of this fearful of everything else people may be capable of. But today, all of that changed because this afternoon I got to walk into a courtroom and take my place at the witness stand just a few feet from where you were sitting. I was walking. Did you get that? And today I explained all the horrific details of how you changed my life to the people that literally hold yours in your hands. That's a little scary, right? And this afternoon before going in, I'm not going to lie, my palms

were sweaty. And sitting up there talking to the prosecution did make me cry. But today, do you know what else happened? Today I looked right in your face and I realized I wasn't afraid anymore.

And today, I realized that sitting across from you was somehow the -- somehow the crazy kind of step forward that I need all along. And I think that's the ironic thing that happens when someone intends something evil to happen because somehow, some way it always ends up good.

But you are the coward, a little boy who wouldn't even look me in the eyes to see that. Because you can't handle the fact that you -- what you tried to destroy you only made stronger.

And if your eyes would have met mine for just one second, you would have also seen that what you blew up really did blow up, because now you have given me and the other survivors a tremendous platform to help others and essentially do our parts in changing the world for the better. So, yes, you did take a part of me. Congratulations. Now you have a leg up, literally.

But in so many ways, you saved my life because now I am so much more appreciative of every new day I've been given, and now, I get to hug my son even tighter than before, blessed that he is thriving despite everything that has happened.

So, now, while you're sitting in solitary confinement awaiting the verdict on your life, I will actually be enjoying everything this beautiful world has to offer, and guess what else? I will do so without fear, without fear of you because now to me, you're a nobody and it is official that you have lost.

So, man, that really sucks for you, bro. I truly hope it was worth it. Sincerely, someone you shouldn't have messed with. Boston Strong."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)