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CNN NEWSROOM

Lasers Hit Four Passenger Planes After Takeoff; Dennis Hastert Indicted; Free Speech Rally in Phoenix Includes "Draw Mohammed Contest"; D.C. Transit Officials Ban Issue-Oriented Ads for Busses and Trains; A Look at Rescues and Damage in Texas. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired May 29, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:00] CUOMO: And the kids are giving the extra money to other disadvantaged kids so they can go.

PEREIRA: Genius.

CAMEROTA: All right. Happy Friday.

PEREIRA: You too.

CAMEROTA: Let's get now to "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello.

PEREIRA: Hi, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happy Friday. Back at you. Have a great weekend.

NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, a call for armed bikers. Drawings of the Prophet Mohammed, a Phoenix mosque.

JON RITZHEIMER, ORGANIZER, "FREEDOM OF SPEECH RALLY": True Islamist terrorism.

COSTELLO: The cartoon contest organizer saying he is not to blame for whatever happens.

RITZHEIMER: I would feel horrible, but, no, I'm not responsible for that violence.

COSTELLO: Are we about to see another Garland, Texas?

Also it ain't over yet. Houston under a flash flood watch this morning, and Bill Nye's tweet about climate change sparking a storm of its own. We'll talk to him.

Plus the Pentagon looking to cut off the middle man in the fight against ISIS. The new plan to give weapons directly to tribal fighters. Will it turn the tide?

Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM. (END VIDEOTAPE)

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

We start with breaking news this morning. Hundreds of airline passengers put at risk by someone or multiple people targeting jets with laser pointers. We're talking about four jets hit between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m. Eastern last night. With the green beams after taking off from JFK's airport.

Here is the view from the cockpit when this kind of laser hit. For pilots it can be blinding.

CNN aviation and government regulation correspondent Rene Marsh is following the story from Washington.

Good morning, Rene.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. We're talking about four commercial passenger planes with people onboard struck with lasers last night. This happened in the skies over New York. All of the laser strikes happened in the area of Farmingdale, New York. We know that the aircrafts were at about 8,000 feet. At that level they were likely, they're coming in for a landing or had recently taken off, and that is the most dangerous point of flight.

Take a listen to one of the pilots onboard, one of those flights who had just been struck with that laser.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought it was just a rogue laser, but they were definitely aiming for us a couple of times because we caught it a couple of times into the cockpit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got two aircrafts right over where you are got struck by a green laser. American 185, if you see a green laser be careful. A green laser might be in your vicinity right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: American 185 we just had a laser strike, left side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARSH: All right. So again, four commercial flights in the New York area, experiencing this. You saw that video, that FBI video because they oftentimes get involved in these sort of cases because it is so serious. I mean, we're talking about hundreds of lives here and that is what the pilot experiences.

It is very blinding especially when the pilot has to be so focused either at takeoff or landing. Their eyes have to be focused. They have to be able to see where they're going and that is why this is so troubling. We do know that New York state police, they are now investigating.

In the past when this has happened before they -- they do hunt down these individuals, they do face charges. So this is something that they do not take lightly. Of course the search is on now for who is responsible, who is behind those laser strikes on those four commercial flights last night -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Rene Marsh reporting live from Washington.

I want to bring in our aviation analyst, Miles O'Brien, to talk more about this.

So they hit these planes with a laser at 8,000 feet. That's a powerful laser, or seemingly it is.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Yes, and you can get them for about a buck online, Carol. That's the problem. They're ubiquitous. Particularly the green ones. The green ones are much more visible to the human eye. And as they have proliferated and you can get them online for next to nothing, the problem -- there is really an epidemic of these laser strikes aimed at aircraft. And there are some serious federal charges associated with this. So it's just a complete jackass move and really people who do it should stop and think about what they are doing for just a moment.

COSTELLO: I was just going to ask you, why are people doing this? Is it just because they think it's fun? Do they really want to bring the plane down? What's the point?

O'BRIEN: You know, you put a laser pointer in the hands of certain people who may not have the maturity or the understanding of the consequences, and yes, that seems like fun. Let's aim it at the airplane. I mean, can you think of anything more reckless than that? There was one guy in California who was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for this. This is a federal offense, kids.

COSTELLO: Good.

O'BRIEN: So it's not --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Because they deserve it. Is there any way you can put protective glass, you know, around the cockpit so the lasers don't penetrate?

[09:05:00] O'BRIEN: Well, the problem is, at nighttime, that same protective glass would make it hard to see the runway. Now the good news in this case is that at 8,000 feet there's time for the crew to recover. What worries me is somebody getting the idea that this is a good thing to do on short final, just as you're on approach to landing. That's a critical time, of course, and there's not a lot of time for you to recover.

The good news is you have two pilots in a cockpit on an airliner, and the chances of both of them having night blindness, maybe there is a backup there. But there's nothing to be done about this except banning these laser pointers. That's not going to happen. And just -- we just need to encourage people, and I don't want to just make a blanket statement about young people, but these are people not thinking through their consequences, so they're acting like, you know, a teenager might.

You have to stop and think about what you're doing here. This is extremely dangerous and people could get killed.

COSTELLO: Miles O'Brien, many thanks. I appreciate it.

It is the buzz of all of Washington and beyond. The man who was once in line to the White House, second only to the vice president, is now at the center of a mysterious and intriguing federal indictment. Federal officials say former House Speaker Dennis Hastert lied to the FBI about $3.5 million in cash withdrawals. The sizeable fortune according to investigators paid as hush money to cover up something in Hastert's past.

Let's bring in senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns. Tell us more.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's a fascinating story, Carol. When the feds got into this, they wanted to know among other things if Hastert was paying someone off as a cover- up perhaps, if he'd been a victim of a crime, maybe extortion, or even if there was some innocent excuse for big cash withdrawals from four different bank accounts, the federal indictment, however, only tells us part of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS (voice-over): The former speaker of the House once second in line to the presidency now facing federal charges. Accused of making false statements to the FBI, and trying to hide large financial transactions that the government alleges was hush money.

According to the indictment, Dennis Hastert agreed to pay $3.5 million to someone only identified as Individual A after meetings between the two five years ago. Payments meant to compensate for and conceal Hastert's, quote, "prior misconduct."

The indictment does not describe what that misconduct was, but does say Individual A knew Hastert most of Individual A's life and was a resident of the Illinois town where the former speaker of the House was high school teacher and coach for years.

In December of last year, the FBI launched an investigation on the payments and whether Hastert was trying to avoid currency transaction reporting requirements as well as using the cash to cover up past misconduct.

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: That's why they would be looking into this. If there was a pattern of withdrawing around $10,000 from the bank without another explanation. JOHNS: Hastert told FBI agents that the withdrawals were because he

did not trust the bank system. The government alleges that was a false statement.

It's a stunning turn for the former Republican leader who was House speaker from 1999 until he stepped down in 2007. Since then he's been a lobbyist at this Washington firm which quickly removed Hastert's biography from its Web site after the indictment was announced.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: So Hastert is expected to have to stand in front of a federal judge magistrate at some point for his initial court appearance, likely next week. Our attempts to get a statement from him through his former law and lobbying firm haven't been successful, Carol.

COSTELLO: And no clue as to why he was allegedly paying someone this hush money?

JOHNS: No clue at all. It's a big mystery in Washington right now, talking to people who worked on the hill years ago with Dennis Hastert, pretty shocked. The question apparently could be resolved back in his old home district. We just don't know.

COSTELLO: OK. Tell us more when you get it. Joe Johns reporting live from Washington. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a Phoenix mosque caught in the center of a Mohammed cartoon contest. Is it free speech or hate speech?

[09:09:15]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Bad news for the economy. We have just learned it shrank in the first three months of the year.

CNN Money digital correspondent Paul La Monica is following the story.

So put it in perspective for us.

PAUL LA MONICA, CNN MONEY DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: It's not great news when you see a negative number but there are some encouraging signs the economy is getting back on track in the second quarter. We had better-than-expected numbers for our jobs in April and hopefully we'll have a good job report next week. And if you look at the chart here on the screen, the economy did this last year as well. We had a rough winter in 2014, first quarter stunk, but then the economy came back to life in the later part of the year.

Everyone is hoping that that's going to be the case again this year because we had another rough winter.

COSTELLO: All right. Paul La Monica, many thanks to you. I appreciate it. Let's head to Phoenix now. An event labeled as a rally for free

speech is raising eyebrows. The reason? The rally is taking place outside this Phoenix mosque. It will feature a cartoon contest depicting the Prophet Mohammed. An action considered blasphemous by many Muslims.

As you'll recall a similar contest was held in Texas and it led to the deaths of two gunmen who drove to Texas to shoot up the cartoon contest. At least one of the gunmen attended that Phoenix mosque.

The organizer of tonight's rally says it's a response to the Texas incident and he addressed concerns about potential violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RITZHEIMER: I would feel horrible, but, no, I am not responsible for that violence.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: For inciting?

RITZHEIMER: Nope. We're just out -- we're just out utilizing our First Amendment. I meet like-minded individuals every day that say they wish something was going on. Something was happening. I wish someone would do something. Well, I'm someone.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And do what exactly?

RITZHEIMER: Something. This. Do a rally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Sara Sidner has more from Phoenix.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The words on Jon Ritzheimer's shirt make his stance very clear. The former Marine is against Islam. He and more than 450 others have signed up to do something about that.

[09:15:03] They're going to hold a Prophet Mohammed cartoon drawing contest.

RITZHEIMER: The cartoon test especially, I think it's stupid and ridiculous but it's what needs to take place in order to expose the true colors of Islam, true Islamist terrorism. Yes. The ones that are out committing these atrocities and stuff. They're following the book as it's written.

SIDNER: After the contest, he says, they'll hold a peaceful protest where the depictions of the prophet are held up for the world to see. And just in case there's trouble, the Facebook page says people are also encouraged to utilize their second amendment right at this event, just in case our first amendment comes under the much anticipated attack. In other words, they are telling folks to bring their guns. They say their protest is in response to the recent attack in Garland,

Texas, where police say two armed men tried to go on a rampage against another group holding a Prophet Mohammed cartoon drawing contest. Those two men were killed by police. Both lived in Phoenix and at least one attended the mosque Ritzheimer is planning to protest.

They call if it free speech, Muslim leaders call it hate speech saying it's caused fear in their community.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Recently the mosques here in Phoenix actually received threatening letters, very specific threats saying that we are going to massacre your congregations. And this has all happened within the last week. So, this adds to that, you know, that intersection of Islamaphobia and gun culture.

SIDNER: The reaction: They're telling congregants to steer clear of the protesters, but police will be there, prepared just like the protesters, just in case there is trouble.

Sara Sidner, CNN. Phoenix, Arizona.

COSTELLO: And in Washington, D.C., transit officials have now banned issue oriented ads for city busses and trains for the rest of the year after requests to show Mohammed cartoons on the sides of the buses.

Before that announcement was made, the woman behind the request, conservative blogger, Pamela Geller, told CNN her fight to make the ads public is rooted in the first amendment.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

PAMELA GELLER, CONSERVATIVE BLOGGER: But the fact is that it's a fairly innocuous cartoon. And interestingly enough in Europe after the Charlie Hebdo jihad slaughter, all of the media there ran the cartoons. And those cartoons were profane. Those cartoons were obscene. No media will run this cartoon. We did not elect the media to relinquish our freedom or our freedoms of speech.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

COSTELLO: Here to talk about this, conservative talk radio host, Ben Ferguson. Welcome, Ben.

BEN FERGUSON, CONSERVATIVE TALK RADIO HOST: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So, in a statement Geller called the board of the Washington metro, quote, "cowards" and said they're rewarding terror with submission. What do you think?

FERGUSON: I actually agree with her on this one. I think in this country if we truly have freedom of speech and freedom of expression and we truly are a free country, you don't cower to terrorists when you have a cartoon as she described, and I've seen this cartoon, this is not one that is in any way near what Charlie Hebdo had or other people even submitted to her contest. Saying, you know, having someone say you can't draw me and it's saying that's why I'm drawing you is probably one of the most G-rated cartoons that you could run in this ad. And it should be there.

There have been issue-oriented cartoons or issue-oriented advertising on the metro for years. When I lived there there was pro-Israel, anti- Israel.

COSTELLO: No, no, no I get it.

FERGUSON: But no one worried that someone was going to blow it up.

COSTELLO: I get it, but you could argue there are people riding inside that bus, and the people who run the bus system in Washington, D.C, were probably saying to themselves, why should we take the chance?

FERGUSON: I understand people are saying why should we take the chance, but the fact of the matter is terrorists are always terrorists and this will always find an excuse and/or reason to be terrorists. They're not normal individuals. They're crazy and they will do anything they can and find any reason to attack and kill innocent people.

COSTELLO: Exactly. Exactly.

FERGUSON: I mean, so my point is - my point is ....

(CROSSTALK)

FERGUSON: ...do we live in a world...

COSTELLO: ... risk peoples' lives onboard the busses?

FERGUSON: I would say this, do we live by the rules that the terrorists give us and play by their rules? When would it stop? What is next? You can't have a Christian church talk about other religions, that you can't talk about terrorism connected to Islam?

I mean, if we play by the rule of the terrorists, the question is, where do you draw that line, because they will always move that line and say, well, now you can't do this, you can't show, you know, American sniper movie because we're going to - it kills Muslims and so we're going to come and blow up your theater. There will be no end to this, and that's why this country, even when it may not be the smartest idea - I'm not saying this is a smart idea, I'm saying this is what truly makes America free.

COSTELLO: Okay. And I just want to end on what you think about what's happening in Phoenix, because you're from Garland, Texas, and you know what happened there.

FERGUSON: Yes.

COSTELLO: So, should what's happening in Phoenix tonight take place?

FERGUSON: Look, I think as soon as we don't allow it to take place we're no longer a free country. Again, it's not a - I wouldn't say it's a smart idea, but the reality is there are other people that have rallies for all sorts of reasons and they never worry about being murdered or killed when they have a rally. Why is it that we put the illness (ph) on the person having the rally to not do it to save lives instead of saying to the terrorists, we're not going to allow you to terrorize us.

Ultimately, if you don't like it, don't go to it, don't look at it, don't support it. You can...

COSTELLO: Okay, but you keep saying it's not a smart move. What would be a smart move?

FERGUSON: Well I'm saying - I'm saying it's not as if it's some brilliant idea to do this, but it is brilliant that our country allows it to happen.

[09:20:14] That's the core of this issue. Would I go out there and be one of the people that starts one of these rallies? Probably not, but I'm glad that there are people that are willing to do it to make it very clear that we will not be controlled by possible threats from extremists and we're not going to change out lives to fit what they say is acceptable in this country.

COSTELLO: All right, Ben Ferguson, thanks for your insight. I appreciate it.

FERGUSON: Thanks.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, more flash flooding strikes Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

COSTELLO (voice-over): The water rescue still happening, even police officers getting stranded. This drama happened just moments ago. It was amazing. We will show you more when we come back.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: All right, a dramatic rescue in Texas. It happened just moments ago. You see the police officer who drove his car into high water and got stuck. There's a helicopter, obviously, above. He's putting the harness around himself, the police officer, and soon he'll he hoisted into the air.

I actually watched this drama unfold in the commercial break and it was - it was astonishing because you think they would, like, lift him up to the helicopter and put him on board, but the actually don't. They sort of had him dangling from the end of this rope as they flew to a dry area where they could safely deposit him. To me this would be, of course, I guess it would be less frightening than being trapped in that car with the raging water all around me, but you can see how precarious these rescues are and how frightening. And it serves as another reminder, you just shouldn't drive into high water. You should just not take a chance.

[09:25:11] Of course this officer may have been on his way to help someone, we don't know, but take a look at this rescue and how they do it. They took him over fields with cows grazing, they look him over a large body of water, and then they found this field where they could safely set him down and someone was waiting to take that harness off. And it all ended well, and that's the best part about that dramatic rescue.

Storms do continue to hammer Houston right now, though. A flash flood emergency issue overnight. Officials warning again people to stay off the roads. It can be a life saving choice. Just watch this powerful PSA.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): It doesn't look that deep, so you decide to drive through it. Bad decision, and it may be your last.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO (on camera): Pretty powerful, right? I want to head to San Marcos, Texas, now. Debra Diaz lost her home earlier this week as the Blanco river raged. She joins me now on the phone. Good morning, Debra.

DEBRA DIAZ, LOST HOME IN TEXAS FLOODS: Good morning. How are you doing?

COSTELLO: How are you doing? That's what I want to know. I know that you lost your home and it's damaged, and how are you doing?

DIAZ: I'm doing a lot better. There for a while I was lost, but I found myself. I'm just thankful that I have the boys and my family and my friends. Material stuff comes and goes. It was a very scary experience.

COSTELLO: Yes, and I know that you wanted to talk to us today because you wanted to tell people to head the warnings. When emergency officials ask you to stay off the roads and ask you to leave your homes, people should listen, right?

DIAZ: Yes. I think they should have a better alert to alert people that there are floods. We were, I mean, dead sleep when my friend came banging on the door. If it wasn't for her, we would have been stuck in there.

COSTELLO: So, when you woke up, Debra, what did you see?

DIAZ: Water just coming towards us, gushing. I mean, I'm talking about water to my waist, it was high. We just had to get through it and the scarier part was that you couldn't see the water because it was so dark. It just..

COSTELLO: So, tell me what that moment was like when you saw that waist-deep water inside your house. Did it seem unreal? DIAZ: I was still in shock because it just came in, gushing it. I

mean, like, you just turned a faucet on and it's over pouring.

COSTELLO: How did you get out?

DIAZ: It was just - I scared everybody in the house because I was scared myself.

COSTELLO: How did you guys manage to get out and get to safety?

DIAZ: We got out through the back door. Actually we were going out through the front door to go get in the car, but the car was already full with water. I mean, it was like the river was in the street. We headed out the back way, and we just had to walk through the apartments to find a way to get out, and then somehow we saw a school bus and we waved it down. And it stopped and it picked us up.

COSTELLO: Oh, thank goodness. So where are you...

DIAZ: The water was already past the tires of the school bus, that's how high the water was.

COSTELLO: Well, we're glad you're safe this morning. Debra Diaz, many thanks for joining me. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, as Iraqi troops go head to head with ISIS, the U.S. is now considering arming Sunni tribes. Will it work? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)