Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Nuclear Power Russia Shuns Obama's Invitation; Inside Ancient Palmyra after ISIS; Garissa Survivors Reflect on School Massacre; America's Choice 2016. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired April 2, 2016 - 03:00   ET

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


[03:00:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Cautious optimism from the U.S. president, as this week's nuclear summit comes to a close in Washington, D.C. But some harsh words for a presidential hopeful aiming to take his place.

Plus, tense times for the Democratic candidates ahead of two primary contests that could decide their fates.

And the ancient city of Palmyra. First look at its liberation from ISIS and a sobering realization of all that was lost there.

Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers here and around the world. I'm George Howell. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

HOWELL: A good day to you. We begin with the nuclear summit in Washington and the race to secure radioactive materials around the world. The U.S. president, Barack Obama, wants to make nuclear disarmament part of his legacy. And on Friday he told world leaders that Iran is sticking to the deal that limits its nuclear program.

He also acknowledged that U.S. drone strikes targeting terrorists have killed civilians. Washington is promising to try to prevent any more civilian casualties.

The U.S. president also weighed in on Donald Trump and his foreign policy knowledge, Mr. Obama saying the Republican presidential candidate doesn't have any.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The person who made the statements doesn't know much about foreign policy or nuclear policy or the Korean peninsula or the world generally. It came up on the sidelines. I've said before that, you know, people pay attention to American elections. What we do is really important to the rest of the world. And even in those countries that are used to, a carnival atmosphere in their own politics wants sobriety and clarity when it comes to U.S. elections because they understand the president of the United States needs to know what's going on around the world and has to put in place the kinds of policies that lead, not only to our security and prosperity, but will have an impact on everybody else's security and prosperity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: The U.S. president there.

And for his part, Donald Trump is refusing to back down. We'll have more on his positions a little later in this show.

World leaders at that summit also focused on keeping radioactive materials out of the hands of terrorists. Russia is a major nuclear power that could contribute to the fight against nuclear terrorism. But Moscow decided not to show up to the summit. Brian Todd has this for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the Brussels and Paris attacks, a clear message from ISIS. They can and will hit Western cities and kill as many civilians as they can. And it appears ISIS wants to create more devastation. After the Paris attacks investigators in a raid found surveillance footage of an employee at a Belgian nuclear facility.

ANDREW BIENIAWSKI, NUCLEAR THREAT INITIATIVE: And that nuclear facility had highly-enriched uranium, but also produced these radiological sources. So now we know that they actually are trying to take steps to try and acquire these materials. And so therefore we need specific action coming out of this Nuclear Security Summit.

TODD (voice-over): But at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington one leader who could make a huge difference in securing nuclear material was a no- show. Vladimir Putin has once again snubbed President Obama.

BEN RHODES, DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: Russia's lack of participation obviously in our view is frankly counter-productive.

TODD (voice-over): Russia has more than half the world's stockpile of nuclear materials and its safeguards haven't always been air tight.

BIENIAWSKI: There was an example several years ago where an insider employee at one of the Russian facilities at Luch was slowly taking out small quantities of nuclear material from that site.

PETER BERGEN, AUTHOR, "UNITED STATES OF JIHAD": Certainly historically -- I mean I've been to Russia and gone to some of their nuclear facilities and, you know, in the years after 9/11 it was very amateur the way they were, they were holding these radioactive materials. TODD (voice-over): But experts say the Russians have since gotten better at securing nuclear material. Security analysts say, if Putin had shown up at the summit, he could have shared intelligence on how to keep ISIS away from nuclear and radiological material. Either way, the terror group would have a --

[03:05:00]

TODD (voice-over): -- tough time getting its hands on a nuclear weapon.

But radiological material for a dirty bomb, often stored in hospitals and industrial complexes, is far less secure. ISIS can access that. And ISIS supporters in the U.S. haven't been bashful about where they want to strike.

This kind of target is really their aspiration, right?

BERGEN: Yes. So mass casualty attack clearly their aspiration. The radiological bomb, if it went off here, many people dead in the immediate vicinity, but the much bigger deal, Brian, is that it would disperse radioactive material all around downtown Washington, several block area. It would close down the city for maybe years.

TODD: Responding to the criticism of Putin for not showing up at the summit, a Russian official told us they're not sending a bad message and there's much more to nuclear security than this summit.

The Russians have also ticked off some reasons for Vladimir Putin's absence from the summit. They say some countries with nuclear material, like Iran, are not participating. They say most of the key goals for nuclear security have already been reached, so no need to show up.

And they say the U.S. is unfairly pushing its agenda on international groups like the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog and Interpol -- Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: On to Syria now, where the country's army personnel are detonating thousands of mines that they say were planted by ISIS militants in the ancient city of Palmyra.

Syrian troops recaptured the city from ISIS last weekend with the help of Russian airpower. But much of Palmyra is now a shell of what it once was. In the past year, ISIS militants blew up many historic monuments there. ITN's Lindsey Hilsum gives a look at Palmyra today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LINDSEY HILSUM, INTERNATIONAL EDITOR FOR CHANNEL 4 NEWS: Palmyra's arch may have been demolished by the Islamic State. But triumph is exactly what Syrian soldiers feel. The officers know the symbolism of stones.

"The people without a past," he says, "is a people without a future."

No one knew the propaganda value of Palmyra better than ISIS. They destroyed columns and temples, supposedly in a campaign against idolatry, but really to shock the world.

They left the Roman amphitheater intact because it made a dramatic back drop for their videos of horror.

Imagine, just last year local men were forced to come and sit here and watch an extraordinary spectacle, as 25 teenage jihadists came on to this ancient stage. With them 25 Syrian soldiers who they murdered.

It's just extraordinary to think of such barbarity, such a theater of cruelty in the modern world.

A group of Russian officers arrived, but they are camera shy even though it is their bombing that may have saved Palmyra.

Towering above the site, looms a Medieval citadel. This damage was caused by months of mortars and government bombardment, but it was only in the last few weeks, when Russian aircraft took to the skies with Iranian and Hezbollah fighters on the ground that the Syrian army could prevail over the jihadis.

MAJDI AL-SHAMLAT, SYRIAN ARMY (through translator): There were many explosives and mines and the heaviest battles were with the terrorists around the castle. They had all kinds of weapons and as soon as we appeared they fired everything at us. We killed many of them. We saw them dragging away the bodies and the wounded.

HILSUM: Before fleeing, ISIS militants rigged the streets of the modern town adjacent to the site with explosive devices and mines right up to the flagpole where last year they hanged the Khaled al- Assad (ph), 81-year-old keeper of the Palmyra museum, a brutal message to anyone who might want to stop the looting and destruction.

The beauty of Palmyra is stunning. Syrian archeologists say they can rehabilitate the site in five years if they get the money and if there can be peace. The current calm is more fragile than carving on stones.

Signs of the ISIS presence, a jihadi must have slept here.

The graffiti says keep out by order of the Islamic State.

The devastation at the temple of Baal is shocking.

This is what the sacred sanctuary of the Temple of Baal used to look like. Tens of thousands of tourists flocked here to see it. And this is what it looks like now, just rubble, a ruin, completely destroyed. Islamic State militants packed it with explosives and blew it up. And it is almost impossible to imagine how it can be restored.

The stones are shattered and some archaeologists think it would not only be futile but wrong to try to rebuild as exactly as it was.

[03:10:00]

JOANNE FARCHAKH, ARCHAEOLOGISIST, BLUE SHIELD: The identity of Palmyra can't be the same anymore. It's true, Palmyra is a world heritage site, but for now Palmyra is a site that has witnessed massacres, 400 people have been killed inside the Roman theater.

People will not look at this site against as it was before. It's now a place where there is blood. The ruins have blood on them. And it is modern blood, it's not old blood.

Can we treat it the same way as if this never happened before?

HILSUM (voice-over): In Syria, the past isn't over. It's not even past. The battle for Palmyra has not only changed the course of this modern war but changed forever this precious ancient site.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: That before and after image was quite telling there, from reporter Lindsey Hilsum of ITN.

You can find out more about the antiquities that were lost by ISIS in Palmyra and what's being done to salvage some of the ruins. You can go to cnn.com for that information.

HOWELL: A construction company faces numerous charges, including attempted murder in connection with the collapse of an overpass in Kolkata, India. That bridge was under construction when a section of it crashed on Thursday. At least 24 people died.

An executive at the company denies any fault for it. CNN's Sumnima Udas has been in Kolkata's Girish Park area, covering the story for us. And she spoke with some of the victims' families.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUMNIMA UDAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Despair and mourning, Ajay and Surika Kannoy (ph) were on a hand-pulled rickshaw, headed to a nearby hospital to visit an ailing relative when a roughly meter- long chunk of concrete and metal came crashing down.

In seconds, their lives ended. While at home the world turned upside down for their two sons, their shaved heads a sign of grieving in Hindu families.

Twenty-five-year-old Abi Sheikh Kannoy (ph) had to identify his parents' bodies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not (INAUDIBLE) to mankind and explain your (INAUDIBLE).

UDAS (voice-over): Twenty-five-year-old Abi Sheikh Kannoy (ph) had to identify his parents' bodies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) very bad. They were not (INAUDIBLE) see (INAUDIBLE) very. Full body was burned (ph). UDAS (voice-over): Their father was the sole breadwinner running a timber treating (ph) business. He was Bidna Davies' (ph) only son.

"We didn't hear from them for hours. We couldn't get in touch with them and then we heard the overpass collapse. I just went cold," she says.

After a frantic four hours of searching, calling, hoping and praying, she found out what happened.

"There's no limit to hardship and sorrow in life. Sometimes it's happiness, other times it's all darkness. My heart bleeds with pain. He was my only son," she says.

In a neighborhood across the country, people want to know how it happened, who is accountable. But here there's no anger.

"Who can we blame?"

"We don't all blame anyone. We blame our faith."

They're still in a state of shock, aware of what's happened but unable to make sense of it -- Sumnima Udas, CNN, Kolkata, India.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: It has been one year now since Al-Shabaab militants stormed Garissa University in Kenya and gunned down 148 people. That attack has left behind a lasting sense of unease throughout the region. Many students have moved to a new school in the city of Eldoret. And that's where many survivors have a chance for now a fresh start.

CNN's Robyn Kriel is there now and joins us live this hour.

Robyn, it's good to have you. So this is a very difficult day for so many of those survivors who are just thankful simply to be alive. But now reliving that nightmare, after seeing so many of their fellow classmates killed.

ROBYN KRIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and here at Moi University, the largest university in Kenya, they have been receiving counseling. Around 600 students moved from Garissa University college after that attack to Moi University. They have been receiving extensive counseling for the posttraumatic stress disorder that most of them have been suffering from.

George, just today at this memorial, where they are remembering those who lost their lives as well as celebrating the survivors and celebrating the lives of those lost to those gunmen, we've seen a number of students walk out in tears. So really, a very tragic day, a very terrifying day for many of these students. We sat down with some of them. Here's what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRIEL (voice-over): Like many university students, Ben Nwete (ph) is on a journey. But his is different than most.

BEN NWETE (PH), UNIVERSITY STUDENT: I tried to crawl. I crawled up to the door. That's where now I was rescued. And as they were rescuing me, some Al-Shabaab said they were coming in and they killed that person who was rescuing us.

[03:15:00]

KRIEL (voice-over): Shot by terrorists during an attack on his university, Ben lay for hours motionless, playing dead.

One year on after suffering debilitating injuries, Ben is moving again.

NWETE (PH): I am good that I am able to work. Currently I am using a bicycle. I cannot walk for very long distance. But I can run. I can play. I can do very many things.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They caught us when they were in the prayers in the hall. And when they shoot us, I fall down. They first threw us at grenades, which hit on my face.

KRIEL (voice-over): Evelyn Chepkemoi can finally walk unassisted and is proud of it.

This school houses almost all of the survivors of the Garissa University massacre. Hundreds of miles away from the site of the attack, it's much more secure and allows for diversion.

Still, students fear more attacks and remember the friends they have lost, like Judith Chepkemboi (ph). She was one of Evelyn's roommates. Of the six girls in their dorm room, only three survived. Two of them still live together. Roommate Juliet Nunjala (ph) carries one reminder of her best friend.

JULIET NUNJALA (PH), UNIVERSITY STUDENT: This picture of mine (INAUDIBLE) reminds me of Judith. But I don't want to do whatever she is, to distribute. I will be glad to have you.

KRIEL (voice-over): Judith is not here anymore. But her friendship, an everlasting gift.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KRIEL: The question that a lot of students of that -- who survived that attack, that many of them still have, George, is why did it take security services so long to respond on that day?

Around six to seven hours for Kenya special forces to reach the site.

And a lot of them are saying, why did it not take them a shorter time?

Because many of their friends, they say, bled out in that time, when they could have been rescued and perhaps even saved.

I want to talk more about that in terms of security, the security here at the event. It's fairly tight. A lot of metal connectors, scanners, for people coming in. Those mourning, those celebrating the lives of the people who died during that attack.

But across Kenya, there has been praise for the intelligence operations and military operations as well, to stem further Al-Shabaab attacks. This was the last major attack, one year ago today, from terror group Al-Shabaab.

Also, in Somalia, we've seen a tremendous upsurge really of movement against Al-Shabaab. We've seen several U.S. airstrikes, including just two days ago, where the U.S. Pentagon released a statement saying they were targeting a very high-level Al-Shabaab commander. They're not saying whether or not he was killed. They're still investigating.

But we've seen a lot of different airstrikes from the U.S., one in which killed 150 people. We've seen an A.U. offensive just launched in the last few days. AMISOM, the A.U. mission to Somalia, including the Kenyan defense force, trying to take Al-Shabaab out on their turf, to stem attacks from crossing over the border here in Kenya.

We understand that that offensive is going to be continuing for the next few weeks and that they really are trying to make sure that Al- Shabaab does not have time to plan attacks like the one on Garissa University college, like the attack on Kenya's West Gate Mall back in 2013.

They're trying to make sure that those gunmen do not have time or preparation to come across the border and launch further bloody attacks here in Kenya against Kenyans as well as internationals -- George.

HOWELL: On this sobering day, you point out that security is definitely a high priority now at this event. And Kenya, now taking the fight, continuing to take that fight to Al-Shabaab militants.

Robyn Kriel, live for us, thank you so much for your reporting.

This is CNN NEWSROOM. And straight ahead, what used to be a cordial Democratic presidential race. It is now heating up. The gloves coming off between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. We'll explain (INAUDIBLE).

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:20:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

HOWELL: America's choice 2016, the race for the White House. And a rough week for Donald Trump. The past few days have been the most challenging of his campaign so far. There have been those critics knocking his foreign policy and a backlash over controversial statements made. Our chief political correspondent, Dana Bash, has this report. DANA BASH, CNN SR. U.S. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When all else fails for Donald Trump, he tries to change the subject, like he did today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Ted Cruz was my roommate. I did not like him at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH (voice-over): Slamming Ted Cruz in a new Instagram video after one of the billionaire front-runner's worst weeks since the campaign began, causing a bipartisan firestorm with these comments, when asked if women should be punished for having an abortion if it became illegal.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment.

MATTHEWS: For the woman?

TRUMP: Yes. There has to be some form.

BASH: That, Trump recanted within hours and later added this:

TRUMP: It could be that I misspoke, but this was a long, convoluted subject.

BASH: But he has not taken back what he said at CNN's town hall, advocating for more nuclear weapons in Asia.

TRUMP: At some point we have to say, you know what, we're better off if Japan protects itself against this maniac in North Korea.

BASH: Now Trump is refusing to rule out using nuclear weapons in Europe.

TRUMP: Europe is a big place. The last person to use nuclear would be Donald Trump. That's the way I feel. I think it is a horrible thing. The thought of it is horrible. But I don't want to take anything off the table.

BASH: Trump's rivals continued to blast him, including John Kasich, who until this week mostly held his fire.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The problem for him with town halls is he actually has to answer questions in a specific way.

BASH: Kasich also went after Ted Cruz for having a thin leadership record.

KASICH: His record is shutting down the government and making everybody he works with upset. BASH: As Trump sees his unfavorable ratings rise and support among women fall, he's quick to point out that he is still the front-runner by a long shot and that even if he arrives at the GOP convention in July without winning the nomination, if he is close, it should be him.

TRUMP: I really think that whoever has that kind of an advantage should get it.

BASH: But the first-time politician is also learning that seizing the Republican nomination takes more than just winning contests. It takes winning over delegates in some states where rules vary.

Sources tell CNN that educating Trump about the complicated delegate process was the subject of Trump's meeting this week with Republican Party chair Reince Priebus as RNC headquarters in Washington.

TRUMP: Very -- actually a terrific meeting, I think. And it's really a unity meeting.

BASH: CNN is told that Priebus used the meeting to ask Trump to ease up on trashing the RNC, as Trump did this week at CNN's town hall.

TRUMP: I have been treated very unfairly. I will give you an example.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Unfairly by who?

TRUMP: I think by basically the RNC, the Republican Party.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: That was CNN's Dana Bash reporting for us.

Let's turn to the Democratic race, where the tensions are rising, just ahead of a crucial primary, primaries in both Wisconsin and New York. Hillary Clinton says that she is sick of the Sanders campaign, quote, "lying" about her campaign donor sources. Just listen to her angry exchange with a climate change activist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you protect -- with climate change, will you act on your word and reject fossil fuel money in the future of your campaign?

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I do not -- I have money from people who work for fossil fuel companies. I am so sick of the Sanders campaign lying about that. I'm sick of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: And Bernie Sanders spoke out about Clinton's finger-pointing at that rally and a rally in Wisconsin --

[03:25:00] HOWELL: -- on Friday. The Vermont senator says that his campaign was not lying and that the former secretary of state owes him an apology.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VT., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: According to an analysis done by Greenpeace, Hillary Clinton's campaign and her super PAC have received more than $4.5 million from the fossil fuel industry.

In fact, 57 oil, gas and coal industry lobbyists have directly contributed to her campaign, with 43 of them contributing the maximum allowed for the primary.

And these are not just workers in the fossil fuel industry. These are paid, registered lobbyists.

Secretary Clinton, you owe our campaign an apology. We were telling the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Stay with us here on Tuesday for all of the coverage, of the critical Wisconsin primary. This could be a game-changer for candidates on both sides, only here on CNN.

A marketing promotion backfired for the U.S. professional ice hockey team, the Florida Panthers. In Panthers lore, a player killed a live rat in the team's locker room 20 years ago. So before Thursday's game, the Panthers gave 10,000 plastic rats to the fans.

Guess what happened next?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL (voice-over): Whenever the Panthers scored, the fans tossed the rats onto the ice in celebration. And you can see it here. They kept doing it despite the warnings. The Panthers were penalized twice but won that game anyway.

Ugh.

Sticking to the animal theme now. "National Geographic" has announced -- and keep in mind yesterday's date when I tell you this story -- but has announced that it is taking a stand against the degradation of our furry friends, starting immediately.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL (voice-over): The media group said it will no longer publish pictures of animals in the nude. Instead you see here, it will only show them wearing clothes like this.

Sounds adorable, right?

Of course this is just an April Fool's joke. But cute pictures there, right?

Fortunately you can log on to "National Geographic's" website to enjoy more snapshots of these stylishly dressed four-legged friends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: We end on that note. And we thank you for watching. I'm George Howell at CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. "POLITICAL MANN" is next. But first I'll be back with another edition of CNN NEWSROOM at the top of the hour with our U.S. viewers as well. Stay tuned for your world headlines just after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)