Return to Transcripts main page
AROUND THE WORLD
Toronto City Council Meeting Becomes Contentious; Situation Desperate, Violent After Haiyan; House Subcommittee Secretly Questions About Benghazi Attack; Airline Merger Cleared; Kate Middleton on Hacker List; Californians Losing Health Plans
Aired November 13, 2013 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CO-ANCHOR: Welcome back to "AROUND THE WORLD".
We're keeping our eye on a few things right now. In Toronto, Mayor Rob Ford predicted he would get a public flogging today, the first day before the city council since he admitted smoking crack cocaine, and he predicted correctly. Council members let him have it with both barrels and hit him with some very direct questions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Mayor, have you purchased illegal drugs in the last two years?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Be careful.
MAYOR ROB FORD, TORONTO: Yes, I have.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CO-ANCHOR: Rob Ford has said again and again that he would not step down as mayor of Toronto, and he repeated that today, as well. He even predicted he would win re-election next October.
HOLMES: Well, five days after Super Typhoon Haiyan decimated parts of the Philippines, aid still just trickling into the hardest hit areas, which seems absolutely extraordinary.
MALVEAUX: Because we're talking about hundreds of thousands of storm survivors growing desperate every day, with each passing day. The numbers are just staggering. Imagine this. We were talking about more than 11 million people directly affected by this storm. As many as 2 million of them are in need of food and water.
HOLMES: Tons of food from around the world have started arriving in the Philippines, but there's now a shortage of aircraft and trucks to get them out to the people who need it most, people who have gone for days without food and many of them without water, as well.
Let's go live to the disaster zone. Anna Coren, part of our team, she is in Cebu.
Anna, reports of survivors so desperate for food that the situation has turned violent, even deadly. There have been reports of gunfire, criminals getting involved in taking the food. What is the latest there?
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Michael, we're getting the same reports. There was apparently a stampede at a warehouse that was stocking rice, and eight people were killed.
You know, Michael, it's not surprising that this level of desperation has led to this. Recently, we were out with the military on an aid drop in Guiuan in Eastern Samar Province, which is the first town hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan, and people raced to the airfield once we landed. They're desperate. They have been without food, without clean water, without basic necessities for days now. They are scavenging whatever remains they can find, and they were basically begging us. They need help.
We were on the ground for all of 20 minutes, delivering supplies. There were bags of rice; there were pallets of bottled water, but perhaps it was enough to go around for several hundred families. There were 50,000 people in this township, and much of this area has not been accessed. So that just gives you an idea of the level of frustration, of confusion, of desperation, really, here on the ground. And that is only one township.
So people are taking desperate measures. They are taking matters into their own hands and sadly, that is leading to violence. That is leading to looting. And you know, when we did travel to that particular township, there were several dozen police on that plane there to really restore law and order, Michael.
HOLMES: Anna, thanks so much. Anna Coren, there in Cebu, thanks so much.
MALVEAUX: One of the hard things about this, too, is that you're talking about security, but you're talking about people who left their homes who can't come back. There's really no place to go, no place to go at all.
HOLMES: They just had bad weather. There was a lot of rain in the last 24 hours. People couldn't go inside because there is no inside in Tacloban, which is one of the biggest cities that's been hit.
It's just an extraordinary situation. There is nothing left
MALVEAUX: Yeah. And U.S. troops, they are joining the mission to try to help the people in the Philippines. Marines are stationed in Okinawa. They're now bringing tons of food, airplanes capable of delivering it to the people in some remote areas that we have been talking about. They have been cut off from communications or any way really to seek some shelter and to get some place safer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need more people to help the current situation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (via translator): Is this what you call OK? There's no OK. There's no OK here. All the dead bodies over there are all underneath the galvanized metal roofing and wooden debris. It stinks over there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Really, you really don't blame them for being angry. Five days in, a lot of people have had no aid.
And while aid organizations are doing the best they can, given the logistics, the damage they have to deal with and all the rest of it to get this stuff out of there, a lot of people are saying the central government acted too slowly, has not done enough to coordinate this.
MALVEAUX: And now you have a health crisis because there is no safe water, there is no food -
HOLMES: There's bodies.
MALVEAUX: -- and there are bodies in the streets.
If you would like to help, you can do something about this, the people who have been impacted by the storm. Want you to do this. Check out our website to see how you can lend a hand. There are many different ways, CNN.com/impact. You can make a difference here.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: So right now on Capitol Hill, the House Subcommittee on Intelligence is meeting. We can't actually show it to you or tell you who is there yet. That is a secret. But we do know that it's part of an ongoing quest for answers about the terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Drew Griffin is here from the CNN investigative unit to talk a little bit about what we suspect is going to happen in that room.
First of all, who is on the hot seat today?
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIONS UNIT: Well, what we believe, if my sources are correct, that these House members are going to be hearing from three members of the CIA's security team that were in Benghazi the night of the attack.
And, Suzanne, and Michael, these would be the people that actually led a kind of renegade rescue mission in these two black SUVs. They were assigned to the CIA annex. Their job was to protect the CIA in whatever mission the CIA was conducting in Benghazi. And there's a lot of questions just about that.
So that's who we think are behind closed doors, testifying. That does include the leader of this security team. It's a five-man team. We think it's three people involved, all of them contracted to protect the CIA.
HOLMES: You've got, of course, powerful senators blocking appointments, presidential appointments, because of this and saying they want answers.
But, I mean, is your sense -- so much of this has been so political. You know, the real question to me anyway is why was the ambassador there on such an anniversary? The decision to even go? What's your sense about the politicizing of this?
GRIFFIN: You know, I think you can't look at this in a vacuum. There's a lot of animosity up on Capitol Hill between, primarily, Republicans in Congress and the administration, on all matters.
They think they're not getting the truth on the IRS, the fast and furious, the Obamacare issues, so this is just, yet again, one more issue which they feel they have had really not all the details, and that includes the details of, before, what was the CIA doing there?
What was the ambassador doing there on that day? Why were there not military assets in a position to save him during the attack? Who, if anybody, withheld any kind of rescue? And after the fact, you know, one of the big questions they have is why hasn't anybody been arrested, or why haven't more people been arrested in this attack?
Those are real legitimate questions that I have been told these congressmen want. But there also is a strong element of mistrust and politicizing going on, as well.
MALVEAUX: Drew, do you think we'll get to the bottom of that? Do you think we'll get those kinds of answers?
Are we going to hear the same thing we've heard from some of those in Congress who are part of this process who are saying this is the reason why former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton can't run in 2016 and become president?
That's the political part here. Are we going to get to the meat part of this, do you think?
GRIFFIN: You know, I think that the congressmen involved on this committee will now get to the meat part. They specifically want to interview people who were on the ground in Benghazi, not their bosses who are getting filtered information.
But the question is now, it's in this intelligence committee where all this stuff is supposedly secret, will we find out? I think the best we're going to learn is whether or not these congressmen and perhaps Senator Graham are now satisfied with the answer they have.
HOLMES: Yeah, fascinating.
Drew, good to see you, Drew Griffin here.
MALVEAUX: Thank you, Drew.
Justice Department is now clearing the way for the world's largest airline carrier.
How this merger between American Airlines and US Airways could actually impact how much it costs to fly, that's next on "AROUND THE WORLD".
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: A new poll finds in a match-up for president. We're talking about this already?
MALVEAUX: I know.
HOLMES: 2016. What, we're still three years off -- Hillary Clinton and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. This poll found they would actually tie each other.
MALVEAUX: So check it out. This is the poll from Quinnipiac University. About 43 percent of American voters would back Republican Governor Chris Christie. Forty-two percent would vote for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Now, Clinton actually leads other possible Republican candidates by nine points, including Senator Rand Paul, Senator Ted Cruz, and Congressman Paul Ryan. Yes, we're already talking about it.
HOLMES: We are. We are.
One more hurdle has been cleared, meanwhile, for what may soon be the biggest airline in the world. The Justice Department -- we talked about this here yesterday -- opening the door for American Airlines and U.S. Airways to become one big super airline. Well, what does that mean for you?
MALVEAUX: All right, we've got to bring in our Richard Quest. What does - what does it mean? I mean we're all flyers. We love to travel. Are we talking about higher ticket prices, skinnier aisles, bigger seats? What do we know?
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I think that's what everybody wants to know. In terms of the second part of your question, no, absolutely there will be more aircraft. American Airlines has put in the largest single order for aircraft, more than 400 narrow body planes. They're taking delivery of one new plane each week. And all the airlines in the United States, Delta, American, United are all spending huge sums of money on refurbishing what are, frankly, rather aged and tired interiors.
Now, on the fares front, yes, there will be an effect, slightly less competition, but I don't see there's going to be a massive rocketing up in prices. Instead, I think what this consolidation will do, and what the industry seems to think it will do, it will create certain definite areas of competition. Some people will pay a bit more, but ultimately I think competition will keep prices under control.
And look at - and you'll see there, in that graph, you see perfectly matched United at 15 percent of market share, Delta, 16.3. The new U.S. Airways/American has 20 percent. But it won't be long before Southwest and JetBlue and Virgin America are all nipping at their feet to try and take some of that.
HOLMES: Yes. Yes. You know, I always like your thoughts on this because I - I mean, I'm just one of the punters, you know, sitting down the back end of the plane and everything, but I don't know, your gut feeling is, when they all consolidate, as we put it, I don't know, I'm immediately suspicious.
QUEST: Yes. But they're not making much money. Get over it! I mean the margins that airlines make at the moment is pitiful compared to the amount of revenue that they bring in. Yes, they may make $400 million or $300 million in a quarter, but they're bringing in billions of dollars in revenue. Their margins are wafer thin. Oil is 30 to 40 percent of their cost. You've got another 30 odd percent that goes to labor. They've got antiquated air traffic control systems.
So any idea that this is some ridiculous cash cow of an industry spewing out money wherever it can is absolute nonsense. This is an industry that if you were starting from scratch, you would put your money in a sock under the bed because, frankly, you would have lost more money with airlines than you would ever have made.
MALVEAUX: But, Richard, how do you explain the fact that, you know, we're all crammed in there at this point? You don't get the blanket. You don't get the peanuts. You don't get anything. You pay for your bags. You're nickel and dimed. I mean, how do explain what's happening to us, the passengers?
QUEST: Economics.
HOLMES: Too bad. That's what you're saying
QUEST: No. What do you want? What do you want, Suzanne? You -- I know what you want. You want --
HOLMES: I want a back rub.
QUEST: You want a seat. You want a meal. You want a blanket. You want to have extra room around you. You want a bag (ph) in the (INAUDIBLE), but you don't want to pay for it. And then somebody comes along, a Southwest or a Spirit and says, well, hang on, you don't need that. So, we won't charge you for it, but somebody else will. You can't have it both ways. This is an industry that was born in the last century; it matured late in the century and is still losing money at the first whiff of geopolitical problems.
HOLMES: Yes. Yes, you're right. I don't --
QUEST: Oh, and -
HOLMES: I don't want to put you on -
QUEST: And, don't forget, while the U.S. carriers have to pull themselves back, you've got Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, --
MALVEAUX: Right. QUEST: All the big Gulf carriers that are bringing 380 -- Emirates is bringing three or four A-380 super jumbos every day into New York. What does that do? Sucks out the passengers.
HOLMES: The market.
MALVEAUX: Yes.
HOLMES: Yes. Yes.
MALVEAUX: Well, Richard, you're absolutely right, I do want it all, so, there you go. That's it.
HOLMES: Including the back rubs.
MALVEAUX: That's right.
HOLMES: I'd be frightened to know - because he knows these airlines. I'd be frightened to know how many frequent flyer miles he's got. A gazillion, I think. Would that be right, Questy?
QUEST: I'm sorry, the line's gone very bad.
HOLMES: Oh, yes, two gazillion frequent flyer miles.
MALVEAUX: All right.
QUEST: (INAUDIBLE), come in. Hello. Hello. Hello.
MALVEAUX: They're telling us - they're telling us we've got to go.
HOLMES: Yes, yes, all right.
MALVEAUX: All right.
QUEST: If you think I'm - if you think I'm revealing that -
HOLMES: Two gazillion. Questy, good to see you my friend, there in New York City.
MALVEAUX: All right, coming up, she was a duchess. Kate Middleton's name shows up on a target list. How her phone could have been hacked.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Welcome back. A British man who has pleaded guilty to hacking cell phones apparently had a member of the royal family on his list of potential targets, or a now member of the royal family.
MALVEAUX: The Duchess of Cambridge, her name was on a handwritten list of targets found on a private investigator arrested in connection to Britain's "News of the World" hacking scandal. Max Foster is our royals correspondent in London.
So, Max, tell us about whether or not was she ever hacked to begin with? MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's no evidence of that, but what's interesting about this charge, ongoing, quite complicated trial largely about phone hacking, is that at the very center of it is lots of evidence from Glenn Mulcaire. He was a private investigator hired by "The News of the World." He's admitted to hacking.
And what they found in his offices in 2006 was a piece of paper, a handwritten piece of paper, the title of it was "target evaluation." With it, 18 names, which included Kate Middleton, obviously, the Duchess of Cambridge now. No evidence that she was actually hacked, but it does appear that she was a target. That's the case that the prosecution are making at least.
And also on the list, various other people very close to the royal family, so two senior members of staff in Prince Harry's household. And also one of Prince Harry's very close friends. So Glenn Mulcaire providing a lot of the information coming out here. Some of its circumstantial. But the case the prosecution is making is there was a clear strategy here, a plan of action, who they're going to hack, how they're going to hack.
HOLMES: Yes, they're looking very much into that, proving that planning side of it. Some surprising names on there. Angelina Jolie. Now, not her name, but an interesting link.
FOSTER: Yes, and, actually, this whole bit about Kate Middleton was really part of that case that they were making, because they're not saying that Kate Middleton was hacked, but they are saying that Angelina Jolie's body double was hacked. She's called Eunice Huthart. They were friends at the time. And she talked about how she constantly had these problems accessing her voice mail and the access code to it. She struggled to get it right. And the prosecution say that evidence in Mulcaire's office showed that he had access to her voice mail.
So stories about the relationship that Angelina Jolie may or may not have had with Brad Pitt are linked into this. And they're suggesting that the paper got this information from hacking the body double's voice mail. So we're getting a bigger picture of what the prosecution is actually claiming in this trial.
HOLMES: Really is an extraordinary case.
MALVEAUX: Yes, a lot of different links there going on.
HOLMES: Oh, it is. It is. Max, good to see you, following things for us.
MALVEAUX: We appreciate it.
HOLMES: Well, the United States set to become the world's top energy producer by 2015. That's the word today from a report from the International Energy Agency. Now what's fueling this U.S. boom is huge investment in producing natural gas and oil from shale. Now, one thing that's made that possible is new and controversial, to many people, technologies like hydraulic fracking. Right now, the biggest global crude oil producers are Saudi Arabia, Russia, huge in that industry, China, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates. But the party won't last forever as, of course, limited resources are expected to slap a cap on shale oil production within the next 10 years.
MALVEAUX: And thousands of Venezuelans are flocking to electronic stores. This is after President Nicolas Maduro took over five stores. He demanded the owners to lower the prices. So the National Guard is carrying assault rifles, believe it or not, to keep order at the stores as these bargain hunters, they all rushed in to get the best deals. Well, just two weeks ago, the president declared an early Christmas season complete with bonuses. Critics say this is all a part of a political stunt in time for December's elections.
HOLMES: Well, in Moscow, check this out, this is hilarious. A subway station offering free tickets. But guess what, there's a catch, you've got to do 30 squats within two minutes for one free ride.
MALVEAUX: The Russian Olympic Committee unveiled this special vending machine that counts the number of squats before issuing these free tickets. The machine is part of a campaign to promote exercise and, of course, the upcoming Winter Olympics in 2014. Can you do that many squats in like -
HOLMES: Are you kidding? No. I've got a (INAUDIBLE) knee, I've got a bad knee.
MALVEAUX: No.
HOLMES: All right, thanks for watching "AROUND THE WORLD". That will do it for us.
MALVEAUX: CNN NEWSROOM with Wolf Blitzer starts right now.