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Amtrak Restores Full Service After Crash; NTSB: Engineers Didn't Tell Dispatchers Train Was Struck; Iraqi City Falls to ISIS; U.S. Special Ops Forces Kill Top ISIS Leader; Nine Killed in Biker Gang Shootout. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired May 18, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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


ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: ... to get these trains up and running again today. They have also activated the speed control systems that were mandated by the Federal Railroad Administration in order to restore service.

[07:00:10] We spoke to commuters this morning. They've been making alternate arrangements for the last week or so. They were greeted at 30th Street Station by Mayor Nutter in Philadelphia this morning, who told them that he was confident in the repair work. He was encouraging riders to get out here, get back on board these trains -- Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Alex. Happy to hear it's smooth sailing there so far. Thank you so much. We'll check back in.

It is still a mystery as to what caused the engineer in that derailment to accelerate to deadly speeds. FBI investigators are on the scene today, trying to figure out if something hit the train first.

CNN's Erin McLaughlin is following that part of the story, and she is live in Philadelphia for us -- Erin.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. That's right. FBI forensics investigators are expected to take a look at a fist-sized circular marking on the left-hand side of the train's windshield as the NTSB continues to investigate the possibility that some sort of projective struck Amtrak 188 prior to the crash.

Now there are new doubts, as well, about information from the train's assistant conductor. She had told investigators that she thought she heard the 32-year-old train engineer, Brandon Bostian, tell radio dispatch that Amtrak 188 had been hit prior to the crash. But the NTSB says they went through all radio transmission from that night. They found nothing to suggest that Bostian had did that.

Meanwhile, new evidence has emerged from the train's black box. Investigators say the data shows that Bostian manually pushed the train's throttle forward, which could have caused the deadly acceleration. The question remains why, Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Erin, thank you very much for staying on that. Let's bring in Republican Congressman John Mica. He's the

chairman of the House Subcommittee on Transportation and Public Assets. So Amtrak is right in his bailiwick.

Congressman, thank you very much for joining us. To understand the safety issue, the infrastructure issue, our audience has to understand the problem with Amtrak overall as you see it. Tell us.

REP. JOHN MICA (R-FL), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC ASSETS: Well, unfortunately, this situation, the unfortunate death highlights that Amtrak is a third- world rail operation, and the United States is falling further behind. And unfortunately, we have a Soviet style management of Amtrak. We're one of the few countries that doesn't have now state-supported rail open to competition. And they wait -- they continue to waste a lot of money. So they don't have much confidence from Congress.

CUOMO: So you're saying privatize it. We'll discuss that, as well. But when it comes to management of Amtrak, the government owns it. When it comes to why there's no positive train control on this stretch of track and many others right now, they'll say it's because the FCC hasn't done what they need to do with the frequencies and the technology as needed. But that's government also. So shouldn't the buck stop with accountability, that government and its agencies didn't get this done?

MICA: Well, that's a -- that's part of the problem. Big government, whether it's FCC or Amtrak, doesn't do it. We've also had policy in the past.

Actually, just a few weeks before the crash for the first time, Republicans in Congress separated the money between the Northeast Corridor and other huge money-losing routes. So we actually put money dedicated, for the first time since 1971, when they created Amtrak and also revenues instead of spending to underwrite huge losses. Some of those tickets actually are underwritten more than $300. In fact, last year, every ticket on Amtrak was underwritten by the federal government $42.

So it's not how much you spend. It's how much you spend and then diverting money out of the Northeast Corridor revenues. For the first time, we put the money back into the Northeast Corridor, so they'd have the money.

But you do need the management. And we should be running high- speed trains in that quarter. It's the only quarter that we own and the federal government has an interest in. All the rest of Amtrak's 20,000-plus miles runs on private freight rail. People don't understand that.

CUOMO: Well, and also, Amtrak will say, "By the way, we're doing better than a lot of these freight guys and other guys in terms of putting in positive train control and making other improvements that the government required," that "there are people who are worse than we are." That's frightening for people. MICA: Well, that's true -- that's true, because they're getting

huge amounts of public money, but they're still not doing the job. Because the job is...

CUOMO: Why don't you oversee it -- why don't you oversee it better?

MICA: We do. We do.

CUOMO: If you're overseeing it well, we wouldn't be in the situation we're in right now, Congressman.

MICA: Well, again -- again, for four years, the Democrats controlled the whole thing. We've just had a shot at doing the reauthorization this year. You saw that we took steps.

[07:05:01] I've been on them for -- they've lost over a billion dollars in a dozen years in food service. That's selling food to a captive audience. They have spent money on bonuses. These aren't my reports. These are inspector general reports. Huge bonuses going to these executives that are getting the job done.

So we're hammering them; we're going after them. And for the first time we're actually changing some of the law. It was 2008 after the Metrolink crash, remember...

CUOMO: Right.

MICA: ... that we put in positive train control. They had a bipartisan proposal. And all the trains are supposed to have that done...

CUOMO: Right.

MICA: ... the lines by the end of this year.

CUOMO: So right, and now we hear that Amtrak and others are asking for an extension, and it looks like Congress is going to give it to them. And, you know, very often when you reward people for inefficiency, you don't get more of efficiency.

And you say you're hammering them. I would suggest, well, maybe now you will hammer them. But you know, PTC is something that the NTSB -- not to through alphabet soup at you -- but NTSB has been asking for it since 1990, they told us.

MICA: Well...

CUOMO: And it does seem to be an ineffectiveness of cracking down on this agency that everybody agrees is inefficient. Why isn't more done to manage them better?

MICA: Well, again, I think you've got to change the whole system out. You can go around the world today, and trains are going 150 miles on average. Competition was opened up in the United Kingdom ten years ago. CUOMO: Right.

MICA: They're taking routes like we have, doubled the ridership. Turned huge losses into a significant revenue for the taxpayer.

Italy, all of Europe now has to have state-supported routes competed. I just saw the Italian train, which has been in operation for three years Ferrari picked up the franchise.

In England, you have Richard Branson, Virgin Rail operating...

CUOMO: Yes.

MICA: ... lines.

Here we have a Soviet-style management. We have no competition, and people continue to protect that in Congress. And it shouldn't be.

CUOMO: But there are also -- that's a great point that you just made there. It's a good one to end on, Representative. Because that was the pushback on Speaker Boehner. When he was like, "Oh, this is a stupid question. Don't talk to me about infrastructure. This speed -- this train was just going too fast."

You know that that's a simplistic analysis of this situation. You know that positive train control would have made a difference here. And we should be honest about it and address the failing. That's the only way you get better. Don't say it's a stupid question.

MICA: Well, again, if we had better management, if decisions had been made. There's actually been another system, automated train control, that could have been put in. But that was a management decision. I've researched back to see if anyone...

CUOMO: But it's relevant. But it's relevant. It's not a stupid question. You went back to look at it, because it's not a stupid question. It would have stopped this accident.

MICA: Well, again, it still appears speed was the major factor, and that -- that is a serious issue. We need to investigate the rest of it.

CUOMO: But Congressman, you know -- talk about simple questions. We've been joking about the Republican presidential candidates not getting the Iraq question. This is a simple question. If you had ATC or certainly PTC on that track, would Train 188 have crashed?

MICA: I don't think it would have. But again you go to the whole system. And Mr. Boehner and other Republicans have supported bringing in the private sector, getting us into the 21st century in rail operations like they have all over the rest of the world.

CUOMO: Understood.

MICA: There is no reason we can't do it. We should be on top of this. CUOMO: But you've got to be able to talk about it honestly in

order to change it. It's always a first step.

Congressman, we'll stay on top of you in terms of what changes are being made, because obviously, we don't want to see a repeat of this. Thank you, sir, for being on NEW DAY.

MICA: We don't. Thank you.

CUOMO: Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: ISIS making advances in Iraq, taking control of Ramadi and sending Iraqi troops into full retreat.

CNN's coverage begins with senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh. What do we know, Nick?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, this is a deeply troubling development. Much else for the Baghdad government bid to try to push ISIS out of the vital Anbar province to the west of Baghdad but generally for the American campaign there, too.

Five hundred lives lost in the last 48 hours, by some estimates, as ISIS swept into that city using bulldozers to sweep the fences out of the way. Over a dozen suicide bombings at least.

The coalition, well, they're trying to slow that down with potentially 19 strikes in Ramadi in the last 24 hours alone. But ISIS are in control there. They seem to even be trying to push further westwards, as well.

Reports of the Iraqi military, having put up a lengthy fight there -- many will ask why this telegraph assault wasn't potentially boosted, reinforced with better supplies, those Iraqi soldiers there, pictures of them departing. Even some of them are elite divisions.

The U.S. has tried to say Ramadi isn't vital. But there are clearly some U.S. officials concerned. This is what John Kerry had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[07:10:10] JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: It is possible to have the kind of attack we've seen in Ramadi. But I am absolutely confident in the days ahead that will be reversed. Large numbers of DAISH were killed in the last few days and will be in the next days, because that seems to be the only thing they understand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: Now that is obviously the hardest task. We're taking an urban area from a group like ISIS, who don't really care much about civilian casualties.

That will fall, it seems, according to Iraq's prime minister, to a predominantly Shia militia. They'll be moving into this Sunni city, and that will inflare (ph) the sectarian Sunni-Shia divide that's across the Middle East right now.

And Iran's defense minister has just flown into Baghdad. That sense of regional significance here boosted, and questions to be asked: How did Ramadi fall? Iraq's army, possibly not resupplied hard enough. This has been something that's been in the offing for months now. That's the big question now, Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Nick, thank you so much.

While ISIS was taking over Ramadi, the terrorist group also suffered a serious blow in Syria: U.S. Special Ops raid killing a top ISIS commander. Let's bring in CNN national correspondent Sunlen Serfaty with that.

Hi, Sunlen.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Michaela.

Well, the administration is characterizing this as significant, the significance of this kill. The National Security Council says that the man that they refer to as Abu Sayyaf was a senior ISIS leader, someone who had a role in overseeing the oil and gas operations.

Also, his wife, referred to as Um (ph) Sayyaf, who they captured at the mission site, who senior administration officials believe could have some information on the hostage operations. She is now being detained and interrogated by the United States.

A U.S. official says that there was a lot of intelligence captured at this site. Reams of data, they say, including computers, equipped with valuable information: how ISIS operates, how they communicate and how they raise their money.

There are, of course, still a lot of questions, though, about this mission. Was the risk of putting U.S. Special Forces on the ground in Syria, was it worth the reward? And also the very most basic, Chris, is what Abu Sayyaf's real name actually is -- Chris.

CUOMO: It's always good to start with that. Thank you very much, Sunlen.

So the president of Burundi has made his first public appearance since a failed coup against his government. He spoke in the country's capital Sunday but did not address last week's attempts to remove him from power.

Instead, he revealed he had spoken to the presidents of nearby African countries to discuss the growing threat of Somalia-based terror group al-Shabaab.

CAMEROTA: Listen to this story: nine people dead in Texas after a shootout between rival biker gang members. Authorities calling the scene the, quote, "most violent and gruesome" they'd ever seen.

CNN correspondent Nick Valencia is live in Waco, Texas, with the latest. What is the scene, Nick?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Still a heavy police presence here, an active crime scene in the last 30 minutes, police holding a press conference, saying at least 150 people have been detained as a result of yesterday's shootout.

They also say, interestingly enough, that there is an active and credible threat against law enforcement officers. Police here say they're prepared for whatever happens next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SGT. W. SWANTON, WACO POLICE: These are very dangerous, hostile biker gangs that we are dealing with.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Erupting in broad daylight: close to 200 members of rival biker gangs broke out in a deadly fight Sunday. First, fists, chains, a club and knives, escalating into a fierce gun battle.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was really, really scary. We didn't know if somebody was going to come back.

VALENCIA: One hundred miles south of Dallas in Waco, Texas, at a Twin Peaks restaurant, as many as five criminal motorcycle gangs started fighting over a parking issue, according to police. You can see some of the groups' names, like The Cossacks, on the back of their jackets. The gang meet-up, known to police for weeks. Members of the SWAT team were already monitoring the scene when the brutal fight began.

SWANTON: We were in marked cars. They knew we were here. It matters naught to them. That tells you the kind of level of people that we're dealing with.

VALENCIA: Police also exchanging fire with the bikers. The parking lot filling fast with law enforcement officials to secure the scene. At least nine are now dead and nearly 20 more injured. Some customers and employees taking cover in the restaurant's freezer.

SWANTON: There were a lot of people. A lot of innocent people could have been injured today.

VALENCIA: Police say they recovered more than 100 weapons at the scene, a frightening indication that this may not be the end to the deadly rivalry.

SWANTON: We have been getting reports throughout the day that bikers throughout the state are headed this way.

(END VIDEOTAPE) VALENCIA: Police say the threat is not against the public but

against them. Even still, they've decided to close off this strip mall for the time being -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: You don't want to be anywhere near where that's happening. All right, Nick. Thanks for that update on such a bizarre story.

Something different here now. For $127,000, you'd think a fancy new Tesla would have no issues, right? Well, think again.

[07:15:08] "Consumer Reports" magazine says their testers were locked out of the Model S sedan because of a glitch with the car's retractable door handle. So the high-tech handles are supposed to pop out. They're flush with the car, but they pop out when the driver approaches. It detects when the driver's getting close. Well, the handles didn't pop out for the test drive until a Tesla technician came and repaired the issue.

CAMEROTA: You have to pay more to get into the car.

PEREIRA: Well, there's that.

CUOMO: I argue that it wasn't a glitch, that it actually helps you use the car less. It's one of these...

PEREIRA: Oh, I see.

CAMEROTA: It's the environmental feature.

PEREIRA: Less charging. Yes.

It's a health thing. That's what it is. Walk. Walk.

CAMEROTA: An explanation. There you go.

All right. Well, U.S. intelligence officials pouring over information seized in that daring raid in Syria. We're going to take a closer look at what they're finding.

CUOMO: Last week, it was Jeb Bush. This week it may be Marco Rubio who has to rethink his answer on the 2003 Iraq invasion question. He says he had trouble understanding the question. "Inside Politics" with guest host Gloria Borger will tell you why this question is so vexing for Republicans.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[07:19:54] KERRY: Every single country in the region, bar none, is opposed to DAISH and is engaged in fighting them. So I'm confident about the longer road, but yes, there will be moments like yesterday in Ramadi, and there will be some difficult challenges ahead.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CAMEROTA: That was Secretary of State John Kerry, confident in

the fight against ISIS, despite the loss in Ramadi over the weekend. This weekend also, U.S. intelligence officials begin the process of combing through data seized in that daring raid in Syria.

Joining us now to discuss all of this is CNN national security commentator and former chair of the House Intelligence Committee Mike Rogers; along with CNN counterterrorism analyst and former CIA counterterrorism official Philip Mudd. Gentlemen, thanks so much for being here. We have a lot to talk about. It sounds like a win over the weekend and a big loss over the weekend.

Mike, let me start with you. Do you share Secretary of State Kerry's confidence that this will all be turned around with ISIS?

MIKE ROGERS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY COMMENTATOR: You know, the problem is, if you look at the territorial map that ISIS held almost two years ago and what they hold today, it's almost the same. So unless there's some change of tactic by engaging all of those countries to actually take and hold ground by pushing ISIS back, you're going to see these -- they're all nibbling around the edges here.

So, yes, Ramadi will fall. We'll probably take it back. And who knows? It falls again. Unless they change that tactic, we're going to be going through this for a long time.

And again they're also using this as a recruiting tool. They're showing that they're beating all these countries, that they're beating the west. That's a dangerous recruiting tool for ISIS to use against western countries.

CAMEROTA: So what happened in Ramadi? How did ISIS get control of it?

ROGERS: Well...

CAMEROTA: Hold on, Mike.

Go ahead, Phil.

PHILIP MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: I'm sorry. First, we have -- they organized a major campaign using things like car bombs, suicide bombs, which they used very effectively through this campaign.

I think you have a big question of what's going on with the Iraqi military in contrast to last summer going through the fall. You didn't have the element of surprise, so you have to wonder whether the Iraqi military had the will to fight.

I think long term the problem we face, though, is what's going to happen afterwards. You've had the Iraqi government talk about bring in Shia militia, and the Sunni tribesmen in this province where Ramadi is say, "Hey, wait a minute. If you bring in the Shia militia, that adds a whole new dimension, a religious dimension to this fight." So I agree with Mike. I think this is a long-term problem, not

just because what ISIS is doing but because of whether the government and the Iraqi military has the will to fight and whether this becomes a Sunni-Shia battle.

CAMEROTA: Mike, the numbers are pretty staggering when you hear what happened over the weekend: 500 civilians and security personnel killed in Ramadi. How precarious is Baghdad today?

ROGERS: I think Baghdad is fine, candidly. I think that with the Shia militias that they used to protect Baghdad today, they're probably going to be OK. I'm not necessarily worried about that.

What I'm worried about is how they're setting in, in the territory of which they hold.

You know, they were clever. Baghdadi did something. The leader of ISIS did something pretty interesting when he was marching up to Baghdad. He realized the sheer toll it would take on his forces and stopped, which shows a good decision-maker in combat in a pretty tough environment.

And so now what they've tried to do is solidify where they are. And that's what I worry about.

Now, eventually, could Baghdad be in trouble? I think the longer this goes, the longer they get set in, the longer they get to recruit, the longer they get to refinance, train, put new bodies in the fight, we could have a problem.

CAMEROTA: Phil, let's talk about a victory against ISIS over the weekend. What's the significance of this leader Abu Sayyaf being killed?

MUDD: Look I think the White House has overplayed this. This is a step forward. I thought it was remarkable that the operation went as smoothly as it did. But this is one guy in an organization that's been around for years. I think the conversation isn't about who we took down. It's about, if I'm sitting in in my old seat in the CIA, it's about the intelligence take. That is are the hard drives, what are the cell phones, what are the DVDs?

What you want to do quickly is you take in this information, and the intelligence community -- the military, the CIA, the FBI -- are very good at this take it in. Take this information in and start to map out who else you can locate, who else you can raid as a result of, for example, communications that are shown on hard drives and cell phones that you picked up in the raid. The intel take from this ought to be terrific.

CAMEROTA: But Mike, let's talk about the tactics. What is the significance of the U.S. Delta Force going into Syria in this raid?

ROGERS: Well, it's not the first time they've been there. They tried to rescue the hostages, the journalist. Unfortunately, when they got there, it was an empty hole. Two things: This shows the capability of our Special Forces

community and the intelligence was accurate. That's important. That they got to the right place with the right targets. And they were able to engage in the target and get out without any casualties. That's a big deal. We shouldn't under estimate it.

We shouldn't overestimate the value of the event, itself. If they don't have tempo following grabbing all of this intelligence, as Phil Mudd said, and then turning it around to something actionable, that's when you lose the effectiveness of this particular raid.

The other part is, it shows that we're having a difficult time getting a broader sense of intelligence. If they needed to get this intelligence, which is really important, it tells you that we're having a little bit of a difficulty getting a broader sense of strategic intelligence and tactical intelligence across Syria.

[07:25:21] So it's both a great thing; it's shows great capability. Hopefully, they'll, with tempo, use this information for actionable intelligence. But at the same time, it shows, hey, we had to take a pretty serious step here in order to get that intelligence.

CAMEROTA: Hey, last, Phil, do you think that his wife, who's now in custody, will provide any intelligence?

MUDD: I think limited. Look, she's going to know a little bit about what was swirling around him. For example, she might not know patterns of activity; what kind of couriers were coming in; who was talking to.

But you're talking about traditional cultures where women are segregated. I think her intelligence value is limited. The real take here is digital: what's on a phone and what's a hard drive.

CAMEROTA: OK, Philip Mudd, Mike Rogers, thanks so much for being on NEW DAY. Great to see both of you.

MUDD: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: Over to Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, Alisyn, the crowded Republican field may be about to get even more crowded. Who 's about to join? You are going to find out "Inside Politics" with a special guest host, Gloria Borger.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Amtrak is back on track this morning, this...