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Kurdish Forces Launch Offensive to Retake Sinjar; Putin Flexing Muscle in Syria, Europe and North Korea; Russia Needs Its Own Doping Investigation; Exposing Human Trafficking in Mexico; Egyptian President Insists Egypt Safe for Tourists; Russia to Conduct Its Own Investigation Into Allegations of Doping Athletes; EU to Wrap Up Migrant Summit on Thursday; Kurdish Forces Launch Major Offensive to Retake Sinjar; Band Queen Honored with Living Legend Award; Crabbing Season in Danger in California. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired November 12, 2015 - 00:00   ET

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


[00:00:10] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.

ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour, Kurdish forces backed by coalition air power begin a major offensive to retake the Iraqi town of Sinjar from ISIS.

VAUSE: Putting on a show of defiance. New concerns as the Russian president makes aggressive moves from Syria to North Korea and to Europe.

SESAY: At the same time, though, Mr. Putin takes a softer line on allegations his athletes routinely doped before major athletic competitions. The Russian president orders his own investigation.

VAUSE: Hello, everybody. Great to have you with us. I'd like to welcome our viewers all around the world. I'm John Vause.

SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

SESAY: Breaking news this hour. Kurdish forces have just launched a major offensive in northern Iraq to retake the town of Sinjar from ISIS. The town lies just across the border from Syria and is home to hundreds of thousands of Yazidis, a religious minority targeted by ISIS.

VAUSE: Operation Free Sinjar will include 7500 Peshmerga forces advancing on three fronts to cordon off the city. Warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition are providing close air support.

SESAY: Well, senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh joins us now on the line from Sinjar.

Nick, what can you tell us about this ongoing offensive?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Isha, right now I'm outside of Sinjar. I'm not allowed to give the exact location of the Peshmerga forces that we are traveling with. But they say when they announced the beginning of this operation they call Free Sinjar that they are 7500 in number.

Now I can definitely tell you I can corroborate what seems like that from seeing the sheer number there amassed in here. And this will be a three-pronged offensive we're told from the north, from the mountain of Mt. Sinjar, where we saw those terrible scenes last year of Yazidis fleeing for their lives from the onslaught of ISIS. They'll be moving from that mountain towards the town. Also from the west and the east as well.

Now obviously Sinjar itself is vitally important, both the symbolism of this week's result being reversed, but also for the fact that it lies on a vital supply of artillery between Raqqa, the capital of the self-declared ISIS caliphate, and Mosul, the city late of last year kind of marking the beginning of their Syrian and Iraqi joint enterprise.

Now if that road was to be retrieved it would mark a substantial problem for ISIS because it would slow down their ability to reinforce Mosul or Raqqa in the event of either town being moved against by coalition forces. But right now this morning we are in the beginning of an operation. We're told by the Peshmerga who are leading this, praises a lot of Kurdish groups here, but it is predominantly the Peshmerga.

We're told this began at 9:00 last night, where they began moving in with lots of coalition air power backing them up. Now we see that ourselves from Mt. Sinjar during the night. A lot of explosions in the night sky. Frankly Sinjar has been pummeled by the coalition over the past three, four days. We've seen a lot of aircraft in the skies. Almost an omnipresent roar of the jet engines. But quite how quick this victory is, Isha and John, we just don't know.

SESAY: And Nick, to that point, do we know about the ISIS presence there in Sinjar, the scale of it, and the level of resistance they're posing?

WALSH: There are two questions you can't get a really clean figure. The first one is how many civilians are still inside Sinjar. The Peshmerga ranks will tell you very few indeed. Far more than there are some Sunni Arabs and Yazidis around there as well. We just don't know. And that's the major issue for the Peshmerga forces and the coalition as they move into the city. Are they going to be dealing with pockets of civilians potentially being used as human shields or simply caught up in the fighting.

Now the Peshmerga in there are referring to the need for a, quote, "buffer zone" around Sinjar to protect innocent civilians from artillery exchanges. That's one issue. The other issue, too, is this isn't something that is coming as a surprise. As you mentioned, this being possibly telegraphed now for a number of weeks by frankly leaks or discussions from the Peshmerga and other sources to the media.

So ISIS have plenty of time to prepare for this. They probably don't expect sheer volume of Peshmerga force here. The other question you can't get an answer to is how many ISIS are still in Sinjar. You can get estimates from maybe 200, possibly as high as 600. We don't know if the rumors are true that they have been trying to reinforce the town in the past days or so. We may never know the answer to that.

The real question will be how long does this offensive last. ISIS have in the past chosen not to take on and just melt away. We understand this town is potentially laden with booby-traps, minds, IED, all over the place to really slow down the Peshmerga as they try to move house to house and clear and make it safe. Really the question in the days ahead is how long is this going to take. Optimism in the ranks of the Peshmerga we're with now, this could be a matter of hours.

[00:05:06] Obviously, you know, John, Isha, you've heard that kind of talk before a major offensive like this. A real proof of quite how much longer they will find themselves engaged in clashes for this city.

SESAY: Many unanswered questions. Our Nick Paton Walsh joining us there on the line from outside Sinjar in Iraq.

Nick, stay safe. Thanks for the reporting.

WALSH: Thank you.

VAUSE: OK. For more on this military operation, let's go to our military analyst Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona. He joins us from La Quinta in California.

Colonel Francona, how complicated is this military offensive? It's coming in from three different fronts. There's air power involved as well as artillery and a number of different factions involved here.

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes. This is a pretty sophisticated operation. You know, the Peshmerga have really stepped up their game over the last year. Of course, we've had people working with the Kurds now for over a year. That Irbil operations room. A lot of U.S. Special Operations forces in there working with the Kurds, teaching them how to coordinate air power with their assaults. So that's what we're seeing.

And as Nick described quite accurately, the coalition air power will go in first and, you know, try and soften up the target to prepare the battlefield is what we call it. And then they will launch this three- pronged offensive.

That's a fairly sophisticated operation because coordinating these efforts, you know, while things are happening very quickly is very, very difficult. You don't want to have a friendly fire incident. And what I'm worried about and Nick described this quite well is booby- traps. They've had over a year now to build this city into a fighting zone.

Remember what happened when the Iraqis tried to go into Tikrit? A very small number of defenders, a large number of attackers. But they had a lot of time to prepare the battlefield for that attack. So I don't think this is going to be over in a matter of days because the Kurds are going to have to go through here very slowly. They have to bring in engineers to clear all these obstacles, clear the explosive, clear the IEDs.

And ISIS is going to be ruthless with the car bombs which tends to be their signature weapon right now. So this is going to be a long hard slog for the Kurds.

VAUSE: So when we look at the forces involved in this, as the YPG, the Syrian Kurdish force, and then there is the Iraqi Kurdish force, the Peshmerga, is there any conflict? Are there any problems with these two groups working together?

FRANCONA: Well, they have not always gotten along in the past. In fact, the Iraqi Kurds have not always been very supportive of the Syrian Kurds and their goals because many believe that the Syrian Kurds are more in bed with the terrorist association that the Kurds are fighting, what's called the PKK. So the Iraqis have tried to stay out of that fight. This is between the Syrian Kurds and the PKK and the Turks. Not with -- with pretty good success.

But now that we've got a common enemy, now that we've got ISIS taking over that area regardless of whether it's Syria and Iraq, the ISIS doesn't care what country there. To them, it's their own state. So we're seeing increased cooperation between the YPG and the Kurdish Peshmerga, the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga. There is a little bit of a language dialect problem. But they're generally able to work that out.

VAUSE: And we touched on this before. The presence of Western military advisers, in particular U.S. military advisers. They've been involved up until this point. Will they be involved on the ground right now at this point in time?

FRANCONA: You know, that's a really good question. And I have a sense that they're there. Maybe not on the front line. But I think they're there advising and assisting. As you know, Secretary Carter and even the president has said that we're going to be, you know, using our forces, expanding that train and assist role. We're not going to call it a combat role. We're not going to call it boots on the ground. But that's exactly what it is.

VAUSE: Colonel Francona, as always, good to speak with you. We'll be checking in with you throughout the night as the story develops. Thank you, sir.

FRANCONA: Nice to be with you, John.

SESAY: Now we have new details of a report on Russia's plans for the future of Syria. Reuters says Moscow has produced a draft document laying out an 18-month process of constitutional reform. It would end with a presidential election in which current President Bashar al- Assad could take part.

VAUSE: Russia's Foreign Ministry denies the report but says it is trying to identify who should be involved in peace talks. Diplomats from the United States and about 20 other countries are meeting in Vienna to work on a peace plan.

It isn't just Russia's involvement in Syria which has the Americans concerned.

SESAY: President Vladimir Putin is also flexing his muscle in Europe and Asia.

Brian Todd reports from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Vladimir Putin ratchets up his aggression and again teams up with America's enemies, drawing new concerns from U.S. officials. The Russian president extending his reach and ambitions from Syria to Europe to North Korea.

[00:10:01] In recent days, according to Russian officials, Putin's forces have turned up the heat in Syria. Russian air power helping Bashar al-Assad's army recapture a military airport near Aleppo.

A U.S. official tells CNN it's troubling that Putin's boosting the strength of Assad's military. Human rights observers say Russian warplanes killed dozens including more than 20 civilians when they bombed the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa. That was just days after the downing of the Russian passenger plane, which U.S. intelligence believes might have been bombed by ISIS in Sinai.

STEPHEN BLANK, AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY COUNCIL: It's quite plausible that this was a retaliation against ISIS for the bombing of the plane. It makes a lot of sense to see it that way.

TODD: Other analysts say Putin's stepped-up campaign in Syria is more of a direct challenge to America.

MASHA GESSEN, AUTHOR, "THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE": Every single bombing is a demonstration of Russian military might and it's also a message to the United States you have to talk to me, I'm going to blackmail you until you start dealing with me as an equal party in Syria.

TODD: U.S. officials say if Putin continues to hit ISIS and works toward a political solution, they could actually embrace his campaign in Syria.

ASHTON CARTER, DEFENSE SECRETARY: It's possible, just possible, we'll see, Russia may play a constructive role in resolving the civil war.

TODD: But Putin's not stopping in Syria. His anger has been building over the U.S.-led missile shield in Europe. And now he's saying he'll construct a missile that can pierce that shield.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (Through Translator): We will work on assault systems able to counter any antimissile systems.

TODD: And Putin's military advisers are inside North Korea for a secretive meeting with Kim Jong-Un's top generals.

Could all of Putin's aggressive military moves backfire at home?

GESSEN: There isn't a danger for of losing public support at home because public support isn't an issue for a leader who controls the public, who controls the media. That affords him the possibility of fighting a dead end war or a losing war for a decade like the Soviet Union did in Afghanistan.

TODD: U.S. officials tell us Putin may already be in that dead-end war. One U.S. official telling CNN Putin's improvised his way into a quagmire in Syria. A U.S. military official says Russia is making itself a target for violent extremists, is isolating itself, and is making, quote, "a huge strategic mistake in Syria."

(On camera): A Russian official counters by asking how can you call this a quagmire when Russia hasn't lost any troops in Syria yet? And he says those comments by U.S. officials about Putin's military moves are an attempt to demonize Russia.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Well, Mr. Putin is dealing with another major issue. Allegations of state-sponsored doping among athletes and a reported cover-up.

VAUSE: Now on Wednesday, Putin said the country needs to start its own investigation into those allegations, and Mr. Putin also says Russia must do everything to protect its athletes from banned substances.

SESAY: Jill Dougherty is a researcher at the International Center for Defense and Security. She joins me now via Skype from Seattle, Washington.

Jill, always great to speak to you. President Putin pledging cooperation now, but initially the Kremlin dismissed the findings of this report. Why the reversal?

JILL DOUGHERTY, RESEARCHER, INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR DEFENSE AND SECURITY: Well, the stakes are very high, Isha. I mean, if they are excluded from the Rio Summer Olympics in 2016, that is a very, very big deal. So that's why you've seen this switch. As you mentioned, on Tuesday, the Kremlin basically said that these charges were groundless. One other official said it was an attempt to damage the image of Russia. But now President Putin is saying we want an investigation and we want to end any type of doping.

So it's very serious. And they also have a deadline of this Friday where they have to answer those allegations. So stakes are high and the timing is very tight.

SESAY: You mentioned that Friday deadline. Any indication that Russia has plausible answers to avoid that suspension?

DOUGHERTY: You know, I'd have to say there is a problem and that is exactly the phrase that was used by the secretary general of the Russian Sports Federation or athletic federation who said we do have a problem. So I think the question will be how big a problem will they admit to, and also what are they going to do about it. That's really the issue here.

SESAY: The report declared that what was going on in Russia was state-sponsored doping. That being said, are there -- are the positions of any Russian government officials in jeopardy here?

DOUGHERTY: You know, so far one has resigned already, the head of that laboratory. It's unclear. I think that really will depend on President Putin and whether he is serious. And it sounds as if at this point he is in getting to the bottom of it. You know, in Russia, when it gets to who falls on his sword, it's not always clear.

[00:15:04] But obviously Putin wants to make sure and says that they will be cooperating with international bodies. And if they want to be in the Olympics in 2016, they're going have to do that.

SESAY: Interesting comments coming from the minister of sport, who made the point that, well, if Russian athletes only now are being detected of doping now and not back in 2012 when there were the London Olympics, then it's an indictment of the doping testing that they had there in the United Kingdom. I guess it's back and forth in the finger-pointing that they're trying to establish, begs the question as to whether we're going see a diplomatic spat between the UK and Russia on this issue.

DOUGHERTY: There really kind of is, or at least coming from the Russians, because they're saying the British system is really bad. Of course, you know, this is what it could turn into. I think we have to look at exactly what the definition that President Putin has for that investigation. Is it a purely Russian investigation? Will they come up and say sorry, we looked into it, and it really isn't as bad, or remember his spokesperson on Tuesday was saying let's see the evidence. If these are a serious allegations, let's see exactly what they're talking about.

So the definition is important. What kind of an investigation will this be. Will it be credible internationally and can they answer these allegations on an international basis?

SESAY: We shall see what happens next. Jill Dougherty joining us there from Seattle, Washington. Appreciate it as always, thank you.

VAUSE: Still to come here on CNN we go to a dangerous Mexican village known as the sex trafficking capital of the world, and we'll talk to a reformed human trafficker.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:21:05] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. Well, activists who fight human trafficking say there is one tiny town in Mexico which is the epicenter of a vast criminal syndicate which exploits women and girls. Hundreds of victims in the U.S. and other countries say rings based in that town have forced them into prostitution.

SESAY: CNN's Rafael Romo traveled there to interview a convicted human trafficker who is now telling the secrets of the operation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SR. LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR (voice-over): Across the United States, law enforcement officials are fighting an international crime said to be worth $150 billion in illegal profits.

SUSAN COPPEDGE, AMBASSADOR, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT: The high volume, low cost business. We're told the highest they charge is $35 for that 15 minutes of time. And oftentimes the trafficker will count out the condoms that he gives the girl at night, and then count when she comes back how many are left. And they do expect them to see 20 and 30 men a night.

ROMO: Susan Coppedge is the U.S. State Department's new ambassador to combat human trafficking. A former federal prosecutor, Coppedge has seen a troubling trend. Many of the victims and the traffickers who abuse them have a tie to a single place. A small village in central Mexico that has become known as the sex trafficking capital of the world.

COPPEDGE: Well, we've been told by the traffickers themselves and by the young girls that this town raises pimps. That's what they've done for generations.

ROMO: But who are these cold-hearted criminals? In 2011, Coppedge helped convict Amador Cortes Mesa. Four of his victims were juveniles, the youngest was 14.

COPPEDGE: He took a broomstick and he beat her. And he beat her so much that the broomstick broke. And then after that when the broomstick broke, he went and got one of those thicker rods out of a closet and started beating her with that.

ROMO: We travelled to the village of Tenancingo in Tlaxcala region of Mexico. Locals tell us many organized crime families call Tenancingo and several other towns around it home. Their main business widely known to be the selling of girls and young women in the sex market.

In the town center, an older woman selling fruit whispered a dire warning.

MARIO HIDALGO-GARFIAS, CONVICTED HUMAN TRAFFICKER (Through Translator): Tenancingo, Tlaxcala is the hub. This is where everything happens.

ROMO: Mario Hidalgo-Garfias was once a human trafficker.

HIDALGO-GARFIAS (Through Translator): I got to the point of raping some of the girls that used to work for me. I used to beat them up and not just with my fists. I used baseball bats to beat them up so they would work for me.

ROMO: He spent more than a decade in a Mexican prison for his crimes.

HILDAGO-GARFIAS (Through Translator): I took their children away, so they were forced to work for me. I could tell you 10,000 more things like that.

ROMO: Mario says he would pimp several girls at the same time. Rehabbed, he says he agreed to talk to CNN despite the danger because he wants to see an end to the practice of exploiting women and children by kidnapping, drugging and forcing them to have sex with dozens of men each day.

(On camera): There's been reports over the last few years that there are girls as young as 9 years old that are trafficked in and around Tenancingo.

HIDALGO-GARFIAS (Through Translator): There are things beyond your imagination. Much more than what you can fathom. People only get to see about 3 percent of reality.

[00:25:04] ROMO: Making it absolutely critical, these human trafficking operations are broken up before they reach the next child's front door.

Rafael Romo, CNN, Tlaxcala state, Mexico.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Truly horrific. Well, many of you have gone online to find out more about one of Rafael's reports that we showed you yesterday. The story of a young woman forced into prostitution in Mexico when she was 12 years old. She estimates she was raped more than 43,000 times.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARLA JACINTO, HUMAN TRAFFICKING SURVIVOR (Through Translator): When I remember all that, it still hurts a lot. I'm going to fight against this until the end. Every day when I wake up, I wonder if I'm going to be alive at the end of the day because of what we do, and what I have experienced makes me a target. Death is lurking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The entire report is on our Web site, and our investigation into trafficking in Tenancingo, Mexico continues on Friday. And then you'll hear Rafael speak with a victim who is trapped in the town and recalls she says was her time in hell.

Also coming, Kurdish forces have launched a major offensive to retake the Iraqi city of Sinjar from ISIS. Ahead we'll ask our military analysts about some perspectives and prospects for success.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.

[00:30:00]

I'm John Vause.

SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay; the headlines this hour: Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, insists the crash of the Metrojet airliner is an isolated incident and his country is safe for tourists. He was at the Sharm el-Sheikh airport on Wednesday and promised transparency in the investigation. Authorities suspect a bomb brought down the plane.

VAUSE: Russian President, Vladimir Putin, says his country needs to open its own investigation into doping allegations against Russian athletes. The World Anti-Doping Agency says it uncovered a deeply rooted culture of Russian athletes using banned substances and the destruction of more than a thousand samples by a Moscow laboratory.

SESAY: European Union leaders will wrap up their Migrant Summit Thursday with some ideas to ease the growing crisis. They're offering African leaders nearly $2 billion to crack down on human smuggling and stem the flow of people leaving the continent. Meanwhile, Sweden is putting up temporary border controls to help manage the migrant influx.

VAUSE: And we are following breaking news in northern Iraq where Kurdish forces have launched a major offensive to retake the town of Sinjar from ISIS. The town lies just across the boarder from Syria, home to hundreds of thousands of Yazidis, a religious minority targeted by ISIS.

SESAY: Operation "Free Sinjar" will include 7500 Peshmerga forces advancing on three fronts to cordon off the city. Warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition are providing close air support.

VAUSE: Let's bring in CNN Military Analyst, General Mark Hertling, live with us in Orlando, Florida. General, thank you for being with us again. Just how important is this town for ISIS? Can they afford to retreat and come back and fight another day, or are they going to stay there and fight until basically the bitter end?

LT. GENERAL MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: They're going to fight to the death, John. This is a critically important town both psychologically but also tactically. It's a key route between Raqqah and Sinjar and Tal Afar into Mosul; so it's a critical resupply route for it -- it lies along the critical resupply route into Mosul. They've had this time for quite the time. The Yazidis are considered by the ISIS fighters to be apostates; so they're trying to kill them completely, as we've seen a year ago when they first attacked the town. It's very difficult terrain. So I would suggest that over the last year, they've built fortified positions throughout the town. They have many house-borne IEDs. They have probably prepared vehicle- borne IEDs to go against the fighters. So this is extremely critical, not only psychologically but tactically for these fighters.

VAUSE: One thing which we're learning from the Kurds is that the Kurdish forces want to establish a buffer zone around the city. They also want to try to cut off the supply of the lines to the ISIS fighters. Does that look like they're going to move in and try to go door to door, or is this going to essentially lay siege to the town?

HERTLING: Well I think they'll initially lay siege and then they're going to push into the town to try to go door to door. They're going to have to do that because they're going see a lot of booby-traps throughout this small town on the side of Sinjar Mountain; but what you have to understand is this is also in the Kurdish, what they consider, the Kurdish territory, the area that they are fighting for, and that they will defend. Now this Iraqi Kurdistan, this is very different than the fighting we've seen in the Syria Kurdish area, because of its difficult political parties involved. They want to help the Yazidis retake the town. Yazidis are considered part of the Kurdish population in northern Iraq and this is going to be tough terrain. I think this time you're going see a lot more Coalition air support fighting for them. You're going see different fighters coming together from three different sides to retake this town.

I also think what is important, John, is you can't take this in a vacuum. This is one of many fights going on. The Iraqi government is also fighting ISIS in Ramadi. They're attempting to reclaim Baiji. I think we'll soon see Syrian Kurds, along with the Syrian Arabic front, attempting to go back in to Raqqah and the area around there. So ISIS is being struck on several sides by different groups of fighters. It's not that well coordinated but they are -- ISIS is going to face many fronts here in the near future, which they haven't faced since this fight has begun.

VAUSE: So possibly ISIS could be facing, I guess, one of their biggest military tests so far?

HERTLING: I think so, but they have had time, again, to build up their defenses. You have a lot of desperate fighters. They are willing to die for their cause. They are willing to become martyrs and suicide attacks. You will see those in cars. You will see those in houses. The problem is, with the Peshmerga, they have very strong fighters, very strong infantry fighters. They now have the air support, but they don't have the ancillary equipment to clear bombs, to clear mines, to clear house. So they are going to take a lot of casualties and this is going to be a long slog.

[00:35:00]

This won't -- they claim, as we've seen many of the press reports from the Kurdish region that they're quickly going to get there. Don't expect that; this is going to take much longer than anyone thinks.

VAUSE: You touched on this, General, that, you know, this is Iraqi Kurdish territory; and we've heard from our Nick Paton Walsh, who is just outside Sinjar, saying there are 7500 Kurdish fighters involved in this. Is there a comparison here to be made to the 30,000 Iraqi troops who simply dropped their weapons and ran, when it came to defending Mosul from a few hundred ISIS fighters?

HERTLING: Well, you had the Kurdish division - I'm sorry, you had the Iraqi divisions in Mosul, and as you know, John, I'm very familiar with this area. I was there in 2007 and '08 when the Iraqi divisions were attempting to stand up. But the problem there is they did not, the Iraqi force did not have a government to rely on; they didn't trust the central government in Baghdad. It's such a mixed bag in Mosul, in the north, that they literally did desert their post, but it wasn't because they were afraid of ISIS. They just thought ISIS might be a better way to go. They thought they would get more support from these new people coming in that would counter the Shia government in Baghdad.

The difference with the Kurds is they have a nationalistic fervor. They have a government in both in Kut and Erbil that they are fighting for. They are looking to gain a Kurdish homeland in all of this territory that not only stretches across northern Iraq into Sinjar and, in fact, includes the northern part of Mosul and around into Erbil and the areas around there. They are fighting to defend this territory, and they have a very strong government that they are fighting for. That's the difference between the Kurdish Peshmerga and the Iraqi security forces.

VAUSE: The motivation is very, very difficult. General, thank you for being with us; we appreciate your perspective. Thank you, sir.

HERTLING: You bet.

SESAY: Two members of the Venezuelan president's family are under arrest in Haiti's capital. One of the men was raised by the wife of Venezuela's President, Nicolas Maduro; the other is her nephew. A source says the two men are accused of trying to smuggle 800 kilograms of drugs into the United States.

VAUSE: There are some reports which say these men will appear in New York court on Thursday. A former U.S. drug enforcement official tells -- says the two men, rather, insisted they had diplomatic immunity.

SESAY: Well, crab fishermen in California are headed elsewhere because there is a dangerous toxin closing around. You'll see how it's affecting the industry and seafood lovers ahead.

VAUSE: Also, the band "Queen" is a name of a living legend, but they are celebrating the iconic "Bohemian Rhapsody"; what one band member did to commemorate their former frontman.

(MUSIC - QUEEN'S "BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY")

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:40:00]

SESAY: Crabbing season should be starting soon here in California, but sport fishermen are being told to put away their traps for now.

VAUSE: No crabs because some crabs may be unsafe to eat because of algae. CNN's Dan Simon has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tom La Torre and his family have been in the restaurant business for more than 80 years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get some fresh crabs for you. Come on, everybody.

SIMON: Fresh crab the signature item at this eatery in the city's famed Fisherman's Wharf, but this year is different. Can you recall a situation where you have not been able to get California crab?

TOM LA TORRE, RESTAURANT OWNER, SAN FRANCISCO: Not because of this reason. There's been strikes and there's been bad weather and there's been problems with fishermen, never because of an algae. This is something new to us.

SIMON: Algae has forced state wildlife officials to suspend the start of the Dungeness crab fishing season, always slated for the middle of November. The algae is producing a toxin, domoic acid, that gets caught in the food web, eventually making its way to the crabs. If the infected crabs are eaten by humans they could pose serious health problems. Domoic Acid can be fatal.

DR. CLAIR SIMYON, VETERINARIAN, THE MARINE MAMMAL CENTER: And it targets a specific part of the brain that can cause brain damage, seizures, coma in marine mammals, but also in humans.

SIMON: It's all part of an algae bloom fuelled by rising temperatures in the water known as El Nino. Blooms are common but scientists say this is the largest and most persistent one they have seen in 15 years. It's already had a huge impact on sea lions. More than 200 sickened animals treated at the Marine Mammal Center outside of the city. Dr. Claire Simyon, a veterinarian here, estimates that 80- percent of them have died.

SIMYON: The magnitude that we're seeing, the number of cases and just the persistence throughout the whole year, is unprecedented for us.

SIMON: Unprecedented as well for crab fishermen whose boats and traps are sitting idle. What is the economic impact to people like you?

LARRY COFLIN, CRAB FISHERMAN: Well, last year, you know, November 15th I'm making a living. This year, November 15th, I'm not making a living. So I guess have I 100-percent less income than I did last year.

SIMON: What do you make of this postponement?

BRETT SMALLEY, CRAB FISHERMAN: It's a disaster.

SIMON: Brett Smalley is headed back to his native Oregon. No crab means no paycheck.

SMALLEY: It's like gambling in a way, you know, you don't know what you're going to get, if you get anything at all. We lost this time it look like.

SIMON: Now crab is to San Francisco what lobster is to Maine; it's part of the culture and heritage. Now you can still get them at the famous Fishermen's Wharf, except these guys are from Washington. Scientists anticipate the toxin levels will decline, the question though is when. Crab samples are repeatedly being collected. But until the fishing begins, it will be a difficult time for all who depend on these California crustaceans.

Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: That was an awfully large crab --

VAUSE: It was a very big crab.

SESAY: -- that Dan Simon had there.

VAUSE: Big crabs.

SESAY: The band Queen was honored with a Living Legend Award on Wednesday.

(MUSIC - QUEEN'S "BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY")

VAUSE: Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody turned 40 this week. It's artist, Brian May, accepted the honor awarded by the Classic Rock Magazine in London. May dedicated the award to former frontman, Freddie Mercury, and said Mercury would have been very proud. He died back in 1991, but his legacy lives on through hit likes "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions." Great music; great songs and still good today, as good as it was 40 years ago.

SESAY: Yes.

VAUSE: Because most of my music is 40 years old.

SESAY: You in you're heyday there.

VAUSE: Still off cassette tapes.

SESAY: Oh, gosh. You are old aren't you? Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: And I'm John Vause. World Sport is up next. we'll be back in 15 minutes with another hour of world news. You're watching CNN.

(WORLD SPORTS AIRED)