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@THISHOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA

Hackers Breach USPS; Arctic Blast for U.S. This Week; Obama Announces Student, Business Visa Deal With China; Did U.S. Strike Kill ISIS Leader? Obama Doubles Number of U.S. Troops in Iraq; Massive Overhaul for VA in the Works; Cries for Justice in Mexico

Aired November 10, 2014 - 11:00   ET

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


MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN CO-ANCHOR: Makes you smile, I like that.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CO-ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm John Berman.

PEREIRA: He just had this beautiful grin on his face. Good morning, John Berman.

Good morning to all of you at home. I'm Michaela Pereira. So glad you begin with us this hour.

We start with breaking news, a cyber breach to the tune of 3 million customers. Who is it? USPS.

Let's bring in our Evan Perez, our CNN justice reporter. I don't know that people might equate the USPS with a cyber breach, but it's happened.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Michaela, this one is pretty big. It affects not only 2.9 million customers, but also 750,000 Postal Service employees and recent retirees.

The Postal Service is acknowledging the breach. They're not providing a lot of details but they're notifying their customers today. They're notifying their employees today that their information has been compromised.

Now, for the employees and the recent retirees, this includes their Social Security numbers, so this is pretty sensitive stuff. So now they're going to have to get credit monitoring paid for by the U.S. Postal Service.

And then customers can start calling around to try to see if their data has been affected and what they need to do for help.

BERMAN: Evan, at this early stage, any sense who might be behind this breach?

PEREZ: Not yet. The FBI and Homeland Security looking at this. Also, the U.S. Postal Inspectors are also investigating this, and I don't think they've really pinned it down yet.

They were working over the weekend to try to fix the breach and try to make sure that more information was not compromised. We're told that they might have to take down some of the websites while they're doing some of that work.

PEREIRA: Again, 2.9 million postal customers, some 750,000 employees and retirees being affected by this breach.

Evan Perez, thanks so much far.

BERMAN: Breaking news left and right @ THIS HOUR over the last few days.

PEREIRA: Is it a little chilly in here? If it isn't here or where you are, you might want to get ready, because a serious arctic blast is likely coming your way.

Is it too soon and too much? Freezing cold weather is going to reach most states starting this week affecting some 200 million people. Winter storm warnings already in effect for Montana, North and South Dakota, Wyoming and Minnesota, even though winter is officially still a month away at least.

BERMAN: I don't think winter has to abide by the letter of the law. But look at Minneapolis here. Looks like the movie "Fargo" right there. A lot of states clearly not prepared for this to be coming this early.

Chad Myers joins us now from the CNN Weather Center. Chad, we just saw that snow in Minneapolis. My sources tell me they could get up to a food of snow there?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's still snowing right now, and the storm hasn't even wound up yet. You bet. I mean, six to ten inches up toward Hennepin County. The farther grow north of Minneapolis, it may get a little bit heavier because we're going to get what's called a little dry slot down across the south part of the city. But it is going to be a mess here.

And, yes, it's too soon. Is it too much? No. Is it too soon? Yes, it is. Because I know you can put a coat on, but maybe your pet doesn't have the winter coat just yet. Think about that when you leave him or her out tomorrow morning. Don't leave them out too long. They still have summer coats. They're not ready for this weather. You can bundle up. They can't. They have to grow more fur.

Here you go. Here's the cold air, all the way into Montana. The highs in Montana and South Dakota will not get above zero later on this week. Zero, that will be the high of the day, so this is the weather we're talking about. A lot of cattle in this area as well. Farmers and ranchers will be taking care of them. You should take care of your pets just the same.

There goes the storm. It's going to avoid Chicago, but it's going to spit a bunch of weather here, from Minneapolis right on up toward the U.P. of Michigan, very, very heavy, cold snow, and that cold, heavy snow will be hard to shovel the closer you get to that 32-degree line, called "heart-attack snow" because it will have a lot of weight in that snow as you try to throw it over your shoulder.

Here comes the cold air for the East Coast, and it does get there. Sixties all the way down eventually into the 40s and highs in some spots across parts of Maine probably in the 20s by the end of the week.

PEREIRA: Chad, even parts of the Northeast here, it's amazing. There's still green leaves on the trees. I think the snow is going to --

BERMAN: Not for long.

PEREIRA: It's going shock them.

Thanks for that.

Look, it's nice it's skirting Chicago, giving them a bit of a reprieve there.

BERMAN: Stinks for Minneapolis but nice for Chicago. Choosing Chicago over Minneapolis right there at 11:04 Monday morning.

Big news this morning, overseas, the president is on a weeklong, high- stakes trip through Asia. A few hours ago, he announced a new agreement with China. The idea is to strengthen ties between the two countries by extending visas.

He delivered the news at a speech at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Beijing. The president says Chinese student visas will be good for five years now, business and tourist visas good for 10 years.

Now this will also apply to U.S. citizens in China. This is a very big change. Previously, visas were granted only on a yearly basis, and this agreement goes into effect Wednesday.

PEREIRA: Another focus for President Obama is, of course, the fight against ISIS, as the U.S. prepares to send more troops to Iraq. @THISHOUR, there are conflicting reports whether or not the leader of the terrorist group was hit in a series of air strikes over the weekend.

BERMAN: Yeah, Iraq's interior ministry says Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was wounded in the attacks, but Iraq's defense minister hasn't commented, nor has the country's prime minister.

I want to bring in our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. Barbara, I have a long history with the interior ministry in Iraq, and sometimes they say things that don't always turn out to be, shall we say, 100 percent accurate.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Really? Yeah, that is correct. You threw me there for a minute.

Look, what we have here is some parts of the Iraqi government saying this and the U.S. saying we can't confirm it right now. There was a coalition air strike near Mosul in northern Iraq over the weekend. They hit a convoy of 10 vehicles in an area the U.S. says they know that ISIS leaders congregate.

They thought they were hitting battlefield commanders. No confirmation, no reason at this point to think Baghdadi was actually there, but now they're seeing all these statements from these various parts of the government, so they're looking into it.

But what they don't have right now are those precise, confirmed intelligence indicators. They don't have cell phone chatter. They don't have statements on social media that they can verify that he's wounded or perhaps killed.

So they're -- what we're told is they're looking at all of that now. They're looking at all the indicators and seeing if there is something that they can come up with that would confirm it for them.

It would be good news, but most experts will tell you, even if Baghdadi was wounded, out of commission, or even dead. it's not something that's going to make ISIS suddenly fold up and go away.

PEREIRA: Certainly not.

BERMAN: We'll wait for confirmation of that report.

Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thanks so much.

Ahead for us @THISHOUR, 1,500 more U.S. troops headed to Iraq, is that enough? Will there be more after that? What is the reality on the ground?

PEREIRA: And we'll take you to Mexico where protesters are taking to the streets for the fate of dozens of missing and feared-dead college students. We'll have a live report ahead for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: President Obama says the U.S.-led effort to destroy ISIS in Iraq is working and he calls the decision to add 1,500 additional troops a, quote, "new phase" in the fight.

BERMAN: New phase, indeed. Those troops will help train Iraqi soldiers and Kurdish militia fighters.

The president is almost doubling the number of troops in Iraq with this deployment. He says sending more troops now should keep him from having to send a lot more in the future.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, as commander in chief, I'm never going to say never, but what the commanders who presented the plan to me say is that we may actually see fewer troops over time because now we're seeing coalition members starting to partner with us on the training and assist effort.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: I want to bring in our military analyst Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona. Colonel, thanks for being with us.

It's interesting. The fact the president waited until after the election to announce this indicate he is does appreciate the fact that there is some political sensitivity here.

A thousand troops here, a thousand troops there, it starts to add up. Is this the definition of "mission creep"?

LIEUTENANT COLONEL RICK FRANCONA (RETIRED), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I don't think we're creeping just yet, but we are getting very close. I think we've increased the size and scope of the training-and-advise mission, but I don't see how it gets any bigger. There's no more left we can do.

We've set up five training centers. I think the fact that we're doing that and we're doubling the size of our commitment tells us how bad the Iraqi army really is, what poor shape it is in, how emasculated it has become.

What's left, though? If we can't do it with what we have there, then we're going to see mission creep because we're going to have to expand what we're doing into the realm of actually putting American forces in these Iraqi units in the field.

And at that point, we enter a new phase, and I think we're almost there. This is 3,000 troops. We saw 300 go to 3,000 very quickly.

PEREIRA: Yeah, add a "0" there. My question is, you've talked to us at length here in studio about the fact that you didn't have great confidence in the Iraqi security forces.

Do you think the -- I want you to expand on more of that. So these 3,000 men and women, is that enough? Can you train them so they're amply ready to fight this battle?

FRANCONA: Well, they're trying to -- they're going to set up five more training centers. Remember, when we talked about 300, we were going to two operation centers, two joint centers, one in Baghdad, one in Erbil.

Now we've expanded this to a training mission where U.S. trainers are going to be doing hands-on training with Iraqi troops. We're going to be recreating what we did three and four years ago.

So we're -- we've just rolled back the clock. I don't know that this is going to be enough troops to get it done, but what we don't have, Michaela, is time. And training troops takes time.

And what happens if the air power doesn't blunt ISIS enough? Do you let them just roll into the outskirts of Baghdad without putting any American forces in there? And I think any coalition forces that are going to commit themselves are going to wait to see American boots on the ground before they even talk about committing.

So I think we're on the verge of either mission creep or mission expansion, but I am very pessimistic that the Iraqis are going to be able to do this without us.

BERMAN: Colonel, if you can still hear me, I'm not so sure that the mission right now is defensive in nature. I'm not as sure that they're concerned about protecting Baghdad as they are to train and plan for a possible offensive six months down the line, to get the Iraqi troops and Kurds somehow ready to begin the process of taking back Mosul.

How complicated that would be, and can they be trained enough to do that?

FRANCONA: Well, we've seen how ineffective they've been just trying to take these small towns up the Tigris Valley and up the Euphrates Valley. They have -- they've had lots of trouble doing that.

Taking Mosul back is going to be a major effort and I think six months is being very optimistic, John. I think we're looking maybe nine months to a year before they even attempt something that large, because we're trying to get battalions ready to fight. To take Mosul, you're going to have to have divisions, brigades and divisions, and they're nowhere there yet.

PEREIRA: And that means we'll be talking about it with you again in the very near future, I sense. Lieutenant Rick Francona -- Colonel Rick Francona, good to -- let's promote him. I've always wanted, I've been for this for a long time. It's nice to speak with you, we miss having you around here, but good to have you with us on our air today.

FRANCONA: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right, ahead for us @THISHOUR, some sick veterans waited months to see a doctor. Now a day before Veterans' Day, a huge overhaul of the Department of Veteran Affairs is in the works. A lot of people, a lot, could be losing their jobs.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, a significant restructuring at the Department of Veterans Affairs is now in the works.

PEREIRA: It all comes in the wake of a massive scandal, more than 100,000 veterans waiting months for health care. CNN broke the story. Last night on CBS' "60 Minutes", the new head of the V.A. spoke about some of the changes, including firings and hirings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT PELLEY, CBS NEWS: How many doctors and nurses and medical professionals do you need to hire right now?

ROBERT MCDONALD, VETERANS AFFAIRS SECRETARY: If we could do it today, we would tell you we probably need about 28,000 is what we said in our committee testimony.

PELLEY: I'm sorry, 28,000?

MCDONALD: Yes. PELLEY: But wait a minute -- how long is that going to take?

MCDONALD: Well, it's going take time, because every adverse outcome that gets amplified by the media doesn't help me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, Drew Griffin is our senior investigative correspondent. He of course broke the story of the delays --

PEREIRA: He amplified.

BERMAN: Yes. Drew, talk to me about the layoffs here. When all is said and done, how many people could lose their jobs here?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, let's just be clear -- these aren't layoffs. What Secretary McDonald has talked about is he's got a list of 35 people he'd like to fire that he's sent to the Senate committee. And he said he's got another naughty list of about 1,000 that he could get rid of.

These are not doctors and nurses. These are -- the problem with the V.A. has been management, not care, but the management of that care. And there has been a systemic problem with a cover-up about these waiting lists, about poor care, about people who knew about those waiting lists, said nothing, people who knew about the waiting lists and maybe even tried to silence the whistle-blowers who were trying to say something.

So those are the people that he is targeting. And the question has been, you know, from a lot of critics is, hey, if you've got the goods, fire them. Let's get on with this and change the V.A. into what you, Secretary McDonald, want to make it.

PEREIRA: He has been on the job for, what, three months now? I suppose he probably wanted to take his time to sort of get to the bottom of what the problem was. He could take everybody's word for it, but I get the sense maybe he wanted to look at it himself? Or is he getting criticized for not taking action sooner?

GRIFFIN: Well, both, Michaela. This is part of his Road to Veterans Day plan. He wanted to make significant changes by Veterans Day, and when you think of the size of the V.A., that's a pretty heavy task. However, a lot of the investigations, a lot of the bad doings, a lot of the trouble, was already uncovered before he came into office. Remember, this scandal has been going now since before his name even came up. So what members of Congress are saying is get rid of these people. We've got people -- taxpayers are paying people whom the V.A. wants to fire. The question is why? And basically he told us he's hamstrung by the rules.

BERMAN: All right, Drew Griffin, thank you so much, and thanks for your continued reporting on this subject.

Later today, the V.A. Secretary is going to be a guest with Wolf on his show; that's at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. Set your DVR. PEREIRA: Ahead @THISHOUR in Mexico, dozens of students go missing.

Dozens of them. Authorities blame a corrupt mayor, police, and a drug gang. We're going to be live from the ground in Mexico. We'll bring you a live report on the investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: They are crying for justice on the streets of Mexico, as protests intensify over the fate of dozens of missing students, college students, 43 of them, in fact. They vanished late September on their way to a protest.

BERMAN: Let that sink in for a moment. Think of what the reaction would be in your hometown if 43 college kids just went missing. What's more, the government there has said a corrupt local mayor and his wife ordered the police to abduct these students and hand them over to a drug gang. This is just unbelievable.

Rosa Flores with the latest on this shocking story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tensions erupt in Mexico's southern state of Guerrero.

(on camera): Take a look around, you can see charred vehicles.

(voice-over): And in Mexico's capital as the parents of 43 missing college students lose patience with authorities. It's been more than a month and no trace of their children, not even after the arrest of more than 70 people, including a political power couple that Mexico's attorney general says is the possible mastermind of the kidnapping.

This is cell phone video showing the Mayor of Iguala and his wife being arrested. Authorities say the cartel-connected pair colluded with the police chief and drug traffickers to kidnap, kill, and dispose of the missing students. Neither the mayor nor his wife has commented.

Even before the couple was taken in, protesters were determined to take them down, burning their seat of power.

(on camera): This is a perfect example. It's Iguala City Hall, but take a look. It's a charred building, a shell of what it was. Protesters actually came in and wrote on the walls, "Vivos los queremos" -- alive, we want them back.

(voice-over): Fueling anger in the community, taped confessions by three recently arrested cartel members saying they burned the bodies in a public dump and tossed the remains into a river.

Edmundo Delgado, a community activist, says too many people disappear in Mexico and are never found.

(on camera): He says if today there's 43 students who have gone missing and we don't find them, 10, 15 years from now, what can we expect?

(voice-over): The parents of the missing students say they've lost patience.

(on camera): He says that this group has one message, that their response will get more and more radical.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: What adds to the anger and frustration down there right now, words from the attorney general as reporters flooded him with questions on Friday. He just said, "I've had enough." Now that phrase is trending on social media.

PEREIRA: We have reporters on the ground in Mexico. Our Rosa Flores joins us in Guerrero State. With her is our senior Latin American Affairs editor, Rafael Romo. Rosa, I want to talk with you first. give us an update. Are Mexican authorities making any progress at all?

FLORES: You know, at this point, what they're doing is they've collected these heavily-charred decomposed remains and they've sent them to labs. They're trying to I.D. these remains. But they do say that they're heavily charred, they're heavily decomposed, so they don't know if they're going to be able to I.D. any of these bodies.

BERMAN: What about any U.S. involvement? Are we getting involved?

FLORES: You know, not at this point that we've heard. The only thing that we do know is that there are other, I guess, people from other countries that are involved. You've got Argentinean forensic experts that are looking at the remains and then they've sent those remains to Austria because they were trying to figure out the location where they'd have these -- I guess the best forensic experts -- given the decomposition of the remains.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Yes, the Austrian team is going to take a close look at those DNA samples and they're going to try to come up with a positive identification of any of the remains that they have recovered.