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CNN Heroes: Film Editor Helping Hollywood Diversify; Devastating Report on ISIS Culture of Sex Slavery; New Developments: Pollen on 'Baby Doe' from Trees and Plants Around Boston. Aired 8:30- 9a ET

Aired August 14, 2015 - 08:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:32:15] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, here are the five things you need to know for your new day.

At number one, 20 presidential contenders heading to Iowa State Fair looking for votes. Jeb Bush, who's sliding in the polls, he will take center stage today.

ISIS may be using chemical weapons against Kurdish fighters in Iraq. The Pentagon calls these reports credible after dozens of Kurds experienced breathing problems and blistering following a recent battle.

Secretary of State John Kerry in Cuba today to formally re-open the U.S. embassy there. It will be the first time the American flag has flown in Havana since 1961.

The death toll in the explosions in northern China now at 56. Twenty- one of the dead are firefighters. More than 200 chemical specialists are on scene. The nation there now launching a nationwide inspection of toxic chemicals.

Here at home, the FAA is warning about a spike in drones near commercial jets. Six hundred and 50 drone sightings have already been reported by pilots this year. That's double all of last year.

Of course, for more on the five things, visit newdaycnn.com for the latest.

Christopher, widen the shot.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Can I get in on this? I have something funny for you.

PEREIRA: Yes, yes, what you got?

CUOMO: We've been trying to figure out what's the best way to tell the story of what's going on with the debate and the election.

PEREIRA: Yes. Yes, yes.

CUOMO: I think - I think somebody - PEREIRA: You found something.

CUOMO: Yes. Yes. They're all coming down to Iowa now here, right?

PEREIRA: Yes.

CUOMO: But it's - so it's all about, how do we get you to really connect with what's going on. This group of young voters, funny or die, put them to the task -

PEREIRA: Uh-oh.

CUOMO: Of representing how they feel that the debate went.

PEREIRA: Oh, no.

CUOMO: Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Paul, broadly the size of government is a big concern for FaceBook users, face book persons, as well -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) fire. Look at him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a completely ridiculous answer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to cut more record from terrorists but less records from other people.

How are you supposed to know, Megyn?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you supposed to -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How you supposed to -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, senator.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I'll tell you how you -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You gave them a big (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're having a hard time tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: I don't know who I love more. I don't know. Ben Carson's reactions to all of it -

CUOMO: He may have snuck in there without saying a word.

PEREIRA: I know.

CUOMO: It has a perfect head gesture.

PEREIRA: The Donald Trump hair on point.

CUOMO: The Trump hair was good. A little obvious, but good. But good.

PEREIRA: I mean the whole thing.

CUOMO: The Rand Paul had the hair and - the senator's not going to be happy about that-

PEREIRA: Oh, not happy at all.

CUOMO: But that was funny.

PEREIRA: Oh, funny or die. Well done.

OK, to something else now. A UCLA report on diversity in Hollywood has some troubling findings. White film directors out number minorities two to one, screen writers three to one. This week's CNN Hero is opening doors to people of color in tinsel town. You can remember also to nominate a CNN Hero by visiting cnnheros.com.

[08:35:03] (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the film industry, there are very few people of color.

I think people feel shut out.

As an editor, for over 40 years, picks up the pace, makes it more exciting. I thought, I'm going to help the people who need the help most.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In improv you always say yes. Yes to everything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We bring in industry professionals to teach low income and minority youth on how to make films.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And action.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The training we provide is hands on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once a camera is set, you want to shoot everything you possibly can from that angle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Screen writing, directing, camera, editing, producing, casting. It's necessary that they learn all these skills.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're trying to make emotionally impacting films here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The students who graduate find jobs through contacts with studio personnel.

NESTOR ARCE: I can't even imagine a world without the program. Words can't say much about how much appreciation I have for Fred. He's given me good advice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're looking for a more diverse future for our students in Hollywood. And they're achieving that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:40:02] CUOMO: We have a new and very painful look into a shocking movement within ISIS. There is an internal system of sex trafficking. Thousands of Yazidi girls and women taken from their homes and families, used as sex slaves by ISIS fighters. The details of what's happening to these girls being uncovered in an article in "The New York Times." There's also a documentary from Frontline on the same topic. Here to discuss, the author of "In the Land of Invisible Women," Dr. Qanta Ahmed, friend of show.

Doc, thanks for being here. I am sorry it is to talk about this.

Let's start broadly and then get into the specifics of the delusion that makes this OK in the minds of ISIS and others. What is happening?

DR. QANTA AHMED, AUTHOR, "IN THE LAND OF INVISIBLE WOMEN": This report has uncovered extraordinary bureaucracy, systemized human trafficking of women and girls. Specifically of the Yazidi sect, which is a venerable minority in Iraq. The details have shocked me to the core even though I've dealt with many aspects of trauma. And what offends me deeply as a believing Muslim is the association ISIS fighters have made with raping a child, raping a woman and immediately juxtaposing that to prayer. And they are told this is Islamic worship. It's a desecration.

CUOMO: Rape, terrible, not knew. However, this delusional rational justification is a magnification of what's wrong with ISIS. So how do they convince themselves that what they're doing is not only OK but somehow righteous?

AHMED: ISIS has developed an extraordinary literature (ph) in their own department of (INAUDIBLE) justifying that this is Islamic somehow. First, they dehumanize the Yazidis by labeling them as completely separate infidels and somehow Satan worshippers. A terrible label on these venerable, defenseless people. Then they teach the fighters, just like in Pakistan, the children that I met were taught that they would get salvation through suicide or martyrdom operations, they're teaching recruits that there is redemption through rape and justification based on elements that they claim to be Islamic or Koranic (ph), which are elements that I don't know about.

CUOMO: Common sense says you should never believe that. You must know - some part of you must tell you that this is not OK. So how does this work? Are they just accepting it out of convenience or do you think that these guys really under - really believe that this is good what they're doing?

AHMED: Well, rape is a weapon of war. It's well described in many conflicts. And I think part of this is the profound objectification of the women. They describe slave markets. Women who have survived this, even a heroic Yazidi man posing as a slave - as a buyer of potential slaves has rescued women and provided documentation of this, numbering them, determining if they are menstruating at the age of 12 or younger. It's first turning the human being into an object and then also seeking these candidates, who some of them are traveling from overseas recruiting to offer them sexual license. They often come from countries where sexuality is extremely taboo. Incidentally, countries like - of my heritage, Pakistan, or other Muslim majority countries, are some of the worst offenders in sex trafficking because of that puritanism.

CUOMO: Just to be very clear, they sell it to themselves as something that is somehow purifying for them and legitimate. But the cost on these young women, often girls, is forever. And let's take one sound from - one piece of sound from the Frontline documentary just so you get a sense of what these young women have to deal with.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): They did everything to me, that's why I'm still in pain. I can't sleep. I wake up at 3 a.m. because I remember their smell. Their smell makes me brush my teeth more than 10 times a day. It will stay with me forever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Let's finish this part of the discussion on a point that you feel often needs to be made. This feeds the impression that these Muslims are animals, savages and their faith makes them that way. And it feeds an impression of what Islam is. What is your response to that?

AHMED: This is Islamism at work. We've talked a lot about this on this show. Islamism is totalitarianism. Sometimes that's hard to understand. Totalitarianism means absolute domination of the self. These Islamists are dominating to extinction girls and women. It's very calculated.

[08:44:57] Number one, it destroys the individual. That's a lady that has fortunately survived. Others will die in the process of sepsis or bleeding or hemorrhage. An entire people is being emasculated. They're being separated from their men and women and girls are lost forever. Sixty percent of Yazidis are abducted and remain in disappearance.

CUOMO: Doctor, thank you for the perspective on this. It is not an easy discussion to have but it is important to keep shining a light on why ISIS needs to stop.

AHMED: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: Mick?

PEREIRA: All right, Chris. Thank you so much for that. This is a story and a mystery that has captivated the nation. Who is "Baby Doe?" The little girl whose body was found at the edge of the Boston Harbor. Well, there is a new clue in the case. It's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: A possible breakthrough in the case of that little girl known as "Baby Doe." She was found dead on the shore of Boston Harbor in June. This computer generated image was seen by tens of millions of people online. Investigates have a new lead on where the girl could be from, thanks to pollen.

Joining us now, CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem.

[08:50:00] Juliette, thanks for joining us to talk about this. This is such a heart-rending story, but I think so many people want to find out who this little girl is, to finally put her at peace, I guess.

So this pollen, help us understand how this could be significant in this case.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, pollen is just a type of forensic evidence. So there was pollen found on her body, which investigators determined was only from the New England area - essentially only from the Massachusetts area.

So evidence like this is very good in limiting the scope of the investigation so that now we know, OK, well, she wasn't from Oklahoma or California and brought here, or she didn't come from Florida through the oceans. Because there was some question about was she actually placed there or had she been in the water a long time. So this kind of evidence is good at limiting the investigation in terms of focusing it.

PEREIRA: So that's very interesting, the idea that the pollen on her body could tell them that she was placed and not washed up, because the pollen was still present?

KAYYEM: That's exactly right. I think we, unfortunately or fortunately, live in a sort of post-CSI world where we think, oh, the mosquito bite is going to tell us who did it, right? And it just doesn't work that way. But what forensic evidence can do is give us some sense of geographic scope, timing of when the death occurred and things like that.

But we're no further along - at least investigators are -- in terms of the who is she. And that's going to probably take members of the community waking up and realizing, wait, there was a four or five- year-old girl in this neighborhood before, where is she now. PEREIRA: Well, and we understand that thousands upon thousands of tips

have been coming in. The public has been very good about jogging their memory and thinking back and calling into investigators. But that also makes their work that much more challenging when all these calls come in.

I suppose that this will narrow their focus in terms of where they're searching, but it doesn't lead them any closer perhaps, does it?

KAYYEM: That's exactly right. I have a belief that I think that when things stabilize in terms of people's schedules in September, we'll probably get more evidence coming in that's helpful. The thing with summer months is children go away to camp, they go away to visit their grandparents. So people's schedules are not the same. I mean, I'm in a different place right now. And I do think that when September comes around and communities are sort of back together that people might call forward then with better evidence about who she may be.

PEREIRA: You make a really good point. Even a little one that people are used to seeing at a daycare or a preschool. You make a very good point. We're so all off our schedules.

Here's a question. We just flashed that image again of this computer generated image that they put together. Obviously, it's hard to say this, the body was so decomposed they weren't able to show a picture.

KAYYEM: Yes.

PEREIRA: But is there a chance that this image could be not correct and it's sort of sending people - I don't know - sending them on a wild goose chase, essentially?

KAYYEM: There's always that possibility. I mean, remember with the D.C. Snipers, everyone was looking for a white van and then it ended up being a black Cadillac or whatever it was? There's always that possibility, although computer generated visuals in almost all phases of criminal justice or national security are actually pretty good. You know, the weight may be a little bit different. So I have some confidence in this image.

But I have to be honest with you. I mean, a lot of - you know, I have kids -- a lot of five-year-old girls sort of look that way. You know, she's cute, and there's nothing terribly descript about that image and so it may be that people just aren't putting two and two together in their head.

PEREIRA: We hope, we hope, we hope, we hope that they're going to find out some answers soon. There's always the concern, are there other kids that are at risk, was this nefarious, was it accidental. I mean, there's so many questions that come up with this.

Juliette, I'm really glad you were able to talk us through some of this and, again, we hope that somebody comes forward with some answers. Thanks for joining us.

KAYYEM: Thank you. [08:54:07] CUOMO: All right, Mick. Cops are caught on tape again, but

this time it is "The Good Stuff." You've got to see this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: Tell us "The Good Stuff."

CUOMO: So the violence in Chicago is bad.

PEREIRA: Yes.

CUOMO: It is getting worse. It is somewhat ignored and it is in need of answers. But two police officers there have given us a rare moment of "The Good Stuff" Chicago style. They're on patrol at an elementary school. OK? And they get out --

PEREIRA: Oh my goodness, look at this.

CUOMO: And they start taking time to play with the kids. One officer is over there taking to whatever that thing is, the other one takes to the monkey bars. And they are just playing with the kids. Now, here's the best part. This is what I think the gooder [SIC] stuff is, all right? Who was watching them? Who was videotaping them and why? Take a listen.

PEREIRA: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL EDWARDS, LOCAL RESIDENT WHO RECORDED COPS: Nobody never posts the good stuff. They always post the bad stuff. Well, I'm showing you what good officers do.

I'm just grateful and I told them, hey, we appreciate you. I don't know how often you hear it, but I'm going to tell you.

PEREIRA (voice-over): Look at him upside down.

EDWARDS: We appreciate what you did, appreciate what you just did. You didn't have to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Oh, no. He full-on got upside down on the monkey bars.

CUOMO: I think he's stuck. That's local resident Michael Edwards, by the way. He happens to be black and why didn't he want to be on camera? Because there's a lot of tension in the community. But he did want the video to get out there to prove that, in his words, not all officers are bad.

PEREIRA: And that is so important. It is so important. We've got to rebuild communities together, people. We got to.

CUOMO: And those two cops were doing the right thing and that man was doing the right thing by getting the message out.

PEREIRA: I respect it. I don't think I could do that on the monkey bars anymore. It's been a long time.

CUOMO: Don't sell yourself short.

PEREIRA: Oh, I will. On a Friday, especially. Hey, it's Friday. That's good news for Carol Costello in "NEWSROOM." She loves Friday.

CUOMO: Every day is like Friday when you watch "NEWSROOM."

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, I love that, Chris Cuomo. Thank you so much. But Michaela is right, Friday. You're in, you finally said something I agree with! You guys have a great weekend.

PEREIRA: You too, darling.

COSTELLO: Have a great weekend. "NEWSROOM" starts now.