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President Travels to Germany; Documentary Released on TWA Plane Crash; Mother and Daughter Held Captive for Two Years; Interview with Steven Dettelbach; Miami Heat Battle to Game Seven; NSA Claims 50 Terror Plots Foiled; Paris Jackson Testimony Played in Court

Aired June 19, 2013 - 07:00   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Your NEW DAY starts right now.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What you need to know --

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan, and Michaela Pereira.

CUOMO: Good morning, everybody. Welcome to NEW DAY. I'm Chris Cuomo. We have Kate Bolduan -- let me do it.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Sorry, thank you.

CUOMO: And we have Michaela Pereira here as well.

BOLDUAN: You make me giggle. It's Wednesday, June 19th, 7:00 in the east. We are in the middle of 30 minutes of commercial free news. A lot happening right now. President Obama holding a news conference with Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel. These are live pictures from Berlin. He is speaking live and we are listening and going to bring more of that to you.

And in just a few hours the president will speak to Germans at the famous Brandenburg Gate. Our Brianna Keilar is live in Berlin. So Brianna, what are we hearing from the president today?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He's reacting, Kate, to news that the Taliban is going to open this office in Doha, Qatar, which is seen as key to them engaging in the peace process in Afghanistan. Certainly this is something that is encouraging to the U.S. and its allies, but President Obama just warned in this joint press conference that this is a difficult process. The fighting's been going on for a long time and it's not going to be an easy process.

But meantime, as we watch this press conference and we monitor it, the big thing today in Berlin is President Obama's speech. As far as speeches on the state of the free world go, Berlin is very much where it's at. You think back to 1963, President Kennedy's speech there near the Brandenburg Gate, I will say, and also in 1987 president Reagan's president challenging Gorbachev to tear down the wall.

President Obama giving the speech on the eastern side of the Brandenburg Gate today the first president to do so. He gave one five years ago where he got a crowd of about 200,000. We're not expecting such a big crowd today. Certainly his stat news Germany and Europe has diminished since then, although he's still very popular.

And we're expecting him today to talk about nuclear disarmament. He'll be talking about how he wants to reduce strategic nuclear stockpiles by a third in the U.S. and he'll be challenging Russia to do that as well.

BOLDUAN: A big challenge and hugely important topic. We'll talk more about it today. Brianna Keilar in Berlin, thanks so much, Brianna.

CUOMO: Remember TWA flight 800, everybody watched on their TV screens an accident. Here's the deal, this morning new acquisitions that the NTSB falsified information in its official report on the crash. Now 17 years after the plane went down six officials who investigated the crash are telling a very different story. CNN's Rene Marsh is following the story in our Washington D.C. bureau. Good morning, Rene. What do you have?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. Very interesting here. The theory that sinister forces brought down this plane, that is not new. But the twists now is, who is making the claim? New this morning, former accident investigators say they have evidence to prove this was no accident.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH: It was a crash as horrific as it was mysterious. TWA flight 800 explodes in midair in 1996 off the coast of Long Island.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It blew up in the air and then we saw two fireballs around it go down to the water.

MARSH: All 230 onboard the 747 dead. The cause after a four-year 17,000-page NTSB investigation, a spark from faulty wiring leading to the center fuel tank. But now six retired members of the original investigation team are breaking their silence. In a new documentary they are challenging the NTSB's findings and calling for the investigation to be reopened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was convinced that the part had been damaged by a high explosion because of the entrance hole and the exit hole.

MARSH: These former investigators, whose credentials range from the NTSB, TWA, Airline Pilots Union, and forensic experts claim that radar and forensic evidence shows the wiring was not the cause of the crash.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What would your analysis have been? HANK HUGHES, NTSB ACCIDENT INVESTIGATOR: The primary conclusion was the explosive forces came from outside the airplane, not the center fuel tank.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would that statement have been in your analysis?

HUGHES: If I got the right one.

ROBERT YOUNG, TWA AIRLINE ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION REPRESENTATIVE: The agenda was that this is an accident. Make it so.

MARSH: These investigators say that the evidence they examined proves that one or more explosions outside the aircraft caused the crash. However, they don't speculate about the source of the explosions.

Among the theories considered and rejected by the NTSB at the time was that a missile was responsible. The filmmakers plan to petition the NTSB to reopen the investigation. In a statement, the NTSB left that possibility open if new evidence is uncovered, saying "Investigators and staff spent an enormous amount of time reviewing, documenting, and analyzing facts and data. While the NTSB rarely reinvestigates issues that have already been examined, our investigations are never closed and we can review any new information not previously considered by the board."

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MARSH: Well we haven't seen this evidence, so right now it purely their word against the government. The film, it premieres next month on the 17th anniversary of the crash. Chris?

CUOMO: Thanks, Rene. Let's talk more with Fran Townsend, a CNN counterterrorism analyst and a former adviser to President George W. Bush. Great to have you. Fran, important here is that you know about the parallel investigation that went on. It wasn't just the NTSB, the FBI as well. So I ask you, how confident are we that we know what took this plane down?

FRAN TOWNSEND, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Well, Chris, look, there had been initial indications of witness statements that there may have been something shot at the plane. What you had is the FBI, the New York office was headed by Jim Callstrom, a very respected, well-known FBI official. This is post the initial World Trade Center bombing. These are people, the New York office had deep expertise in counterterrorism investigations so the FBI comes to this from a counterterrorism perspective. They were looking to either confirm or eliminate terrorism as a possibility.

And so they looked at all of the forensics. They looked at all the witness statements. They went through all of this, and they felt pretty confident I think based on talking to them, I was in the Justice Department in Washington at the time, they really did feel like they had eliminated the possibility that this was a, an act of man, someone in terrorism or a crazy person who tried to take the plane down.

CUOMO: No group ever came forward to take credit which ordinarily would happen.

TOWNSEND: That's exactly right.

CUOMO: We look at the flip side, why would these men come forward, respected investigators, why do you think they come forward now doing this kind of thing?

TOWNSEND: This was, having grown up on Long Island, this was a seminal event in the history of Long Island. It was tragic. There were schoolchildren. There were real concerns about why this happened and because there were these conflicting witness statements, there has been this concern out there for a long time.

CUOMO: When we talk about it, another thing we have to think about with this documentary it sounds very threatening. There were explosions outside, that's what we think did it. However our understanding about the documentary is that they stopped short of saying what those explosions may have been, how it happened. Isn't that what this is really all about, if you're going to make that suggestion you better be able to back it up.

TOWNSEND: That's exactly right. And look, there was this whole examination of the electrical system, and it was believed it was a short in the electrical system that ignited fumes from the fuel tank. And what they found in the forensics was consistent with that. And so, look, it's understandable these men who devoted years of their lives, many of them four or five years of their professional lives, had these outstanding questions. And the NTSB has obviously left open the possibility to go back and look at it.

CUOMO: It has been a haunting event, good for you, Fran Townsend fighting for the frog in the throat. That's someone who cares more about the story than their own health. Thank you very much.

TOWNSEND: Thanks, good to be here.

CUOMO: Kate?

BOLDUAN: Fran is a pro, that is one thing we know for sure. Thank you so much to both of you.

Now to the disturbing case out in Ohio, police say a mentally disabled woman and her daughter were held captive for nearly two years. They charged these three people with forced labor in the case. CNN's Pamela Brown is in Ashland, Ohio, with the very latest. It's clear, Pamela, there's a lot we still need to learn about this case, but what do we know so far?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kate, very disturbing details we're learning this morning and what's a pretty confusing case here. It started off as a simple shoplifting case and turned into so much more. A mother and daughter allegedly forced to live unthinkable horror and held against their will.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: Inside this house, an Ohio woman and her child deprived of their freedom, dignity, and basic needs for a year and a half according to federal authorities.

STEVE DETTELBACH, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR NORTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO: These individuals deprived this woman and her child of the most fundamental of American rights, freedom. This case is nothing less than a case of modern day slavery.

BROWN: And 26-year-old Jordie Callahan, his girlfriend, 31-year-old Jessica Hunt, and their friend Daniel Brown all charged with imprisoning a mentally disabled woman only identified as Essie and her child. Prosecutors say Essie was forced to do household chores and threatened with a pit bulls and a python. And according to a law enforcement source, she and her daughter were sometimes forced to eat dog food.

DETTELBACH: We're talking about people who were locked in rooms, forced to work all the time, people who were threatened and beaten and injured.

BROWN: According to court documents, Essie was also questioned at gunpoint and one of her alleged captors took out his knife and threatened to cut her finger off. Medical records show Essie visited the emergency room at least three times between 2011 and 2012 with a variety of injuries. Ashland police were tipped off after Essie was arrested for trying to steal a candy bar. When police showed up at the home Callahan allegedly showed the video of Essie beating her daughter but Essie says she was forced to do so on Callahan and hunt. On Piers Morgan's show Callahan's mother denies the allegations.

BECKY: The girl that supposedly hit them went when she wanted to go, whenever she wanted to go.

BROWN: This comes on the heels of another disturbing case in nearby Cleveland, the shocking rescue of three women held for a decade by Ariel Castro, both of these cases of alleged abuse stunning their neighbors, left wondering how this could be happening in their backyards.

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BROWN: According to a law enforcement source I spoke with, Essie and her daughter knew the suspects before they were held captive. Authorities say the suspects collected Essie's government disability benefits. We could see more charges in this case and more arrests. Authorities say it's purely coincidental we're seeing another case here in Ohio involving captives in just a six-week time span. Kate and Chris?

BOLDUAN: Just as shocking. Pamela Brown, thanks so much in Ashland for us.

Let's get to more on the shocking and bizarre case. And I still always want to find out how can we avoid this from happening again if there's anything we can do. Let's bring in Steven Dettelbach, U.S. attorney for the northern district of Ohio, joining me now from Cleveland. Thank you so much for coming in this morning and joining me. We were just hearing some of these subhuman and horrific conditions this woman and young girl were kept in. What more can you tell us about the victims?

STEVEN DETTELBACH, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR NOTHERN DISCTRICT OF OHIO: The victims in this case, obviously one of the most disturbing things about this is that the people who were charged preyed on their human vulnerabilities, their physical disability and then preyed on a mother's love for her child as a way of manipulating the victim to force her, among other things, other ways of forcing her, assaults, depriving her of food, treating her worse than the animals in the house to basically try to rob her of her human dignity.

BOLDUAN: What do we know about how they ended up in this situation?

DETTELBACH: Well, there's not a lot in the public record about how it started other than that they were sort of lured into this situation. And, you know, I've done these cases for 20 years and one thing I've discovered over the time is that the people who do these crimes are good at targeting people with vulnerabilities. So whether it's somebody who doesn't speak the language or not lawfully in the country or in this case with a physical or mental disability, they get targeted and lured into these situations, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, but they take advantage of the sort of natural vulnerabilities of the victims.

BOLDUAN: One thing that I found unique about this situation is that the woman and this young girl and her daughter, they were allowed to leave the house from time to time, obviously coerced back into the home, which, of course, you know anyone who is not familiar with this case will wonder why would they return. And also how did this fly under the radar then for so long?

DETTELBACH: That's a great point. By its very nature these kind of modern day slavery cases are cases that have to happen to some degree in the open because you're forcing somebody to provide labor, whether that's in a field or a home or a nail parlor or a restaurant, wherever. And we see over and over that people, we have to be better neighbors, I think, in our community, everywhere around the country. We have to not be afraid. If we see something that doesn't quite look right or if we're talking to somebody, they're not quite responding right, the little girl isn't exact acting the way you expect a girl, to just act, are you OK. And if you don't get the response you think is right, you need to pick up the phone and call the police. And even if you're not sure what happened, let them look into it.

And that's not to cast blame. Look, we all get caught up in our lives and the things that are driving us every day, but you know, I found in doing these cases year after year after year there are a lot of people looking back saying that didn't seem right. I wish I had said something earlier and this is your chance and we need your help in law enforcement.

BOLDUAN: People who saw something but didn't say something or didn't think it was their place. Steven Dettelbach, U.S. attorney for the northern district of Ohio. Thank you so much for the work you do, and thanks for coming in this morning.

This is one of the situations, Chris, that you think this doesn't happen in my neighborhood, this doesn't happen in my community but as we see it can.

CUOMO: Anywhere, any time. That's why as the man said we all have to be on our guard.

Very busy morning with a lot of news. We get to Michaela with the headlines.

PERIERA: Good morning to the two of you and good morning to you at home.

The Taliban claiming responsibility for an attack inside Baghram Air Base in Afghanistan that killed four U.S. soldiers. That attack hasn't affected formal talks set for tomorrow between the U.S. and the Taliban about ending the fighting in Afghanistan. But now, U.S./Afghan talks are on pause. President Hamid Karzai decided to suspend them.

Police questioning New England Patriots' tight end Aaron Hernandez as part of a murder investigation. Both ABC News and "Sports Illustrated" reporting he's not a suspect in the killing but a 2013 Chevy Suburban rented in his name has emerged as a key piece of evidence in the investigation. A jogger found the body of a 27-year- old associate of Hernandez in a clearing less than a mile from his home. The New England Patriots, for their part, say they don't plan on commenting since that investigation is ongoing.

Do you worry about an asteroid striking the earth? Apparently so does NASA so it's launching a grand challenge, focused on finding all asteroid threats to human populations on earth. The large scale effort will include the efforts of government agencies, U.S. industry, academic institutions, and even citizen scientists. So if you're a budding astronomer, get out your telescope.

This is kind of a big deal at least to us news types, the full trailer for "Anchorman 2" is out.

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WILL FARRELL, COMEDIAN: I'm going to do the thing that God put Ron Burgundy on this Earth to do, have salon quality hair and read the news.

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PERIERA: Salon quality hair, people. Will Farrell and company back. The sequel includes some new faces to the franchise: Kristen Wiig, James Marsden. That's coming out in December. I think I'm going to buy tickets for the three of to us go together.

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BOLDUAN: You know, I did hear that that was your exact pitch why you were coming to CNN, because you have salon quality hair, you were made to read the news.

CUOMO: And I can say San Diego. It comes from the German -- whatever they said it was untrue.

BOLDUAN: The king still has his crown this morning, barely. LeBron James and company escaping elimination in game six of the NBA finals last night and it was a thriller. You can see very exciting Chris Bosh I believe. Rachel Nichols live from Miami where game seven will be played tomorrow night, a nail biter. Rachel?

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Kate. LeBron James said this was the best game by far that he had ever been a part of, and this is how dire things got for the Miami Heat. The Spurs were up by five points with less than 30 seconds to go. Bunch of fans actually started streaming toward the exits, I guess deciding that the game was over, looking to beat the traffic and security officials started putting up yellow tape around the court. That is to allow the championship trophy presentation to happen without fans rushing the court.

So that yellow tape started going up and Dwyane Wade and LeBron James said they and their teammates saw that and said whoa, whoa, whoa, we are not done yet. We still have 30 seconds to go, let's see what we can do. That amazing jaw-dropping shot dropped from Ray Allen who shots that three more than anybody else in the history of the game, they come back in overtime and guys fans who had left the building heard on the radio what was going on and on this plaza here where I'm standing tried to get back into the building.

You see the glass doors here, they started pounding on the glass doors trying to get back in. Most of them unsuccessful, because of the security guards. But the Heat, they were successful, and there will be a game seven.

BOLDUAN: See, you got to stay till the end, people, you've got to stay till the end. You don't need to get to your car as fast as you think you need to. Rachel Nichols has a great job tonight. Thank you so much. Talk to you soon. You wonder the Spurs, such a big win for the Heat, the Spurs such a huge defeat. How will they bring it back?

PERIERA: They're going to.

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CUOMO: Game sevens are tough. You're going against the champs, LeBron. The Spurs have been a stronger team in my opinion but it comes down to one game. Anything can happen, The bags will be back after that game.

Coming up on NEW DAY, Michael Jackson's daughter heard in court. How will her testimony affect the trial over her father's death?

BOLDUAN: Plus it sounds crazy maybe but sidewalks are actually exploding in one of the world's most -- you see that, most popular cities. What may be causing it, coming up.

CUOMO: And my girl is back, you won't believe who, you know who this is.

BOLDUAN: If you don't know who this is, you better watch.

CUOMO: Guess who is a member of the Prancercise pack.

BOLDUAN: Are you a card carrying member? His membership is still in question.

PERIERA: They'll revoke it if do you that.

CUOMO: I feel pretty.

BOLDUAN: Oh, you're a very pretty man.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY. New details expected today on those terror plots security officials claim were foiled by government surveillance programs. NSA director, General Keith Alexander testified at a House committee hearing Tuesday. It was watched very closely, and during that hearing he said more than 50 plots have been thwarted worldwide because of those programs. CNN's Dana Bash is on Capitol Hill with the latest this morning. So what more -- here's a question. Do you think that Keith Alexander's testimony satisfied lawmakers, Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's too early to tell, but one thing we do know, Kate, is that when those details are going to be delivered later today, giving lawmakers more information about those alleged foiled terror plots, it's all going to be classified. Members of Congress will be able to go into private and read it but can't talk about it in public which makes it a lot harder for them to convince worried constituents that all of the secret programs are really keeping them safe.

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BASH: A plot to blow up the New York stock exchange was disrupted. The planners arrested and convicted, thanks in part to a secret monitoring program. That's one of two new terror plots intelligence officials declassified for a hastily arranged congressional hearing hoping to prove government surveillance is worth it.

GENERAL KEITH B. ALEXANDER, NSA DIRECTOR: These programs are critical to the intelligence community's ability to protect our nation and our ally's security. They assist the intelligence community efforts to connect the dots.

BASH: Intelligence officials described safeguards, preserving civil liberties while tracking millions of phone numbers, records dates and length of calls.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does the NSA have the ability to listen to their phone calls or read their e-mails under these two programs.

ALEXANDER: No we do not have the authority. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does the technology exist at the NSA to flip a switch by some analysts to listen to American's phone calls or read their e-mails.

ALEXANDER: No.

BASH: This lawmaker was unconvinced.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Verizon disclosures which quite frankly trouble me because of the breadth and the scope of the information collection, if a capability exists from time to time, it will be abused.

BASH: To really reassure the public the bipartisan committee heads wanted to declassify many more terror plots the programs helped foil but they couldn't.

ALEXANDER: If we give all those out we give all the secrets of how we're tracking down the terrorists as a community and we can't do that. Too much is at risk for us and for our allies.

BASH: All they got was a new number.

ALEXANDER: Over 50 times since 9/11.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: The NSA director added that ten of those alleged terror plots were threats here in the United States, but again, it really is important to underscore that we cannot really verify that or any of the other information they're giving us on a classified basis because it is still top secret so the details about the plots and maybe more importantly really how integral the secret programs were to disrupting the alleged plots, we have to take their word for it.

BOLDUAN: That's a key question and one we'll dig into later next hour with our national security analyst Peter Bergen. Dana Bash on the Hill. Thanks so much.

CUOMO: New this morning, we're following a developing legal case. Paris Jackson made her first court appearance in her father's wrongful death case. Jurors watched clips from video deposition months ago. Paris is still in the hospital recovering from a suicide attempt. We'll play you a little bit of what the jurors got to hear. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PARIS JACKSON, MICHAEL JACKSON'S DAUGHTER: My dad didn't like her, so he tried to keep her away from us. He said she was sneaky, she wasn't an honest person, and she lied a lot. The doctor like, I don't know, like when he would stay in the hotel or whatever, like she would call like the hotel and say that she was his wife, like she was obsessed with him. She called and said that she was his wife and they'd let her in and he'd wake up and she'd be like in his bed.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CUOMO: So what does this mean for the case? Let's bring in Sunny Hostin, CNN legal analyst, former federal prosecutor. Great to have you on.

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.

CUOMO: Let's look at Paris' impact on two levels. One, anything we know about the jury being influenced by it being here, and why is she talking about the nanny when this case is supposed to be about Conrad Murray I thought?

HOSTIN: The case certainly still is about whether or not AEG hired and controlled Conrad Murray and she was, this deposition was actually filmed and played by the defense, so they think that it helps their case and that's really what's fascinating because you know, AEG is saying I didn't control Conrad Murray. The Jackson family says not only did you control Conrad Murray, you hired and fired all staff. You hired and fired the nanny, you hired and fired the chef, and this nanny is supposed to be a star witness for this case for the Jackson family and Paris Jackson is saying actually she was a little crazy. She was obsessed with my father and he didn't like her. I think that her deposition was pretty helpful to AEG.

CUOMO: What does that mean, if she says the nanny wasn't helpful, we didn't like her, whatever, that's going to the character of the nanny a little bit. How does that help AEG establish that they were or were not in control? Or from their perspective that they weren't in control of these employees.

HOSTIN: AEG is saying listen to what Paris said, Paris said that her father didn't like the nanny and Paris said her father fired the nanny. We had nothing to do with it, just like we had nothing to do with Conrad Murray so they're duking it out. This is what a $40 billion case, a lot, a lot at stake here but I think that she was unfortunately pretty helpful to AEG.

CUOMO: They're saying we may have been paying Conrad Murray but he was in control, we were just a pocket.

HOSTIN: Absolutely.

CUOMO: Any notion of the influence of Paris? People seeing her. She's obviously been in the media.

HOSTIN: Sure. I can't imagine that there wasn't that influence. She is Paris Jackson. We heard unfortunately about her suicide attempt, we've heard how important her father was to her and by all accounts in that jury room, the jury was riveted by her testimony.

CUOMO: How many money at stake?

HOSTIN: $40 billion.

CUOMO: That's the suit.

HOSTIN: That's the suit. CUOMO: Sunny Hostin, thank you very much. Great to have you. Kate?

BOLDUAN: You may think I'm kidding with this next story, but I promise you I am not, and we have video to show for it. There has been an outbreak of sidewalk explosions in London.