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CNN NEWSROOM
Tentative Deal with Rebels Reach in Yemen; New Video of Ferguson Store Looting; Parents Try to Prevent "Dark Knight" Trial from Becoming Spectacle; High-Level Delegation Meeting in Cuba; U.S. Audiences Love "American Sniper"
Aired January 21, 2015 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: You have been to Yemen, spent a lot of time in Yemen. Who's in charge?
BOBBY GHOSH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: At this point, it's hard to see there's one authority over the entire country. East is where the al Qaeda in the Peninsula is headquartered. Government is always run loose even before AQAP existed. There are parts of the country where the government exists only in theory. In the south, you have a separatist movement that is lying low key, but can pop up any time they like. The center was run by the government, less so now. The north, along the border with Saudi Arabia, a crucial point, is run by the Hauthis for now, exerting influence.
BALDWIN: These are rebels pounding the presidential palace?
GHOSH: They're Shiite rebels backed by Iran with training and money and materials. That makes Saudi Arabia very uncomfortable. Saudi Arabia, a Sunni majority country, regards Shia-run Iran as a mortal enemy. Both are facing each other off in a bizarre of chess they're playing across the Arab world. You have now an additional element in a very, very poor and unstable country and an additional element of sectarian violence with Shia and Sunnis. That's bad news for everybody.
BALDWIN: What about the U.S. presence, the U.S. embassy. I read it was a 20-minute drive from the presidential palace. Do you think embassy workers should get out of there?
GHOSH: It's a long way from the palace. I've been there. It's guarded. However, it has been attacked before. Even if there's no direct threat, you'd think the moment when the presidential palace is overrun would be a moment of exercising caution with the embassy. This would seem a good moment to get them out. They're there and they have the best dynamic. Caution is wise. I'd be more comfortable if they went south, far away from the violence, if there is a secure area there.
BALDWIN: We'll see if this deal -- healthy skepticism on this deal, I hear from you.
GHOSH: Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed.
BALDWIN: Bobby Ghosh, thank you. GHOSH: Thanks.
BALDWIN: Next, brand new video of looting in Ferguson inside one of these stores. Hear why police are just now releasing this.
Plus, the parents of a girl murdered in the "Dark Knight" movie theater massacre will join me live on how they're trying to prevent this trial from turning into an absolute spectacle. Stay with me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
Police releasing this video showing how bold looters were in Ferguson in the chaos. More than 180 looters were caught on camera after the prosecutor revealed the police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown would not be indicted.
CNN's Sara Sidner was in Ferguson through all of this. She is back standing in front of that store.
It's been, Sara, two months since that on this indictment was announced. Why today? Why now release this video?
SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's a good question, a question a lot are asking. It's twofold really. I got off the phone with the police. They said look one of the things is that our detectives, we only have so many. They're working daily cases as well as the load of Ferguson. The other thing is they do not want to flood everybody with a lot of different pictures. They want to do bits at a time. There is a lot of surveillance video out there. As you remember from that night, there were a lot of buildings that were burned and/or looted. This being one that was looted.
They also told me the video you're seeing of people going in that they have released is just a very tiny portion, only five minutes of a very long surveillance video from that night. Police told me there were more than 400 people they saw going in and out of this particular store here in Dellwood, which is one minute's drive from the city of Ferguson. We're right next door. Yeah, there were more than 400 going in and out of the store.
What you see there are those that could possibly be identified. Again, not wanting to flood the neighborhoods with all these pictures out there on the Internet because they want people to focus on the people they can actually see faces. We know they released last couple of Tuesdays ago about 28 pictures and some video. Again, a different store, Phillips 66 of people caught in the store taking things out, looting that store as well. What they're going to do, every Tuesday, Brooke, they're going to start putting these videos out.
And the businesses here are hurting. They are having a difficult time.
BALDWIN: Of course, they are.
SIDNER: This one, though, is doing OK. Yeah, yeah.
BALDWIN: Of course, they are. This is really one thing to see, seeing you and talking to you outside the looted stores. To see inside, it definitely tells the story.
Sara Sidner, thank you so, so much.
9,000 potential jurors are being summoned for the "Dark Knight" shooting trial. It could mean the death penalty for the gunman that walk into the movie theater, in 2012, killed 12 in cold blood and hurt 58 others with his gunfire, all as this "Batman" movie played out behind him. Now, more than two years after the military style assault, the judge has ruled the cameras will, indeed, be allowed in the courtroom. It's something Lonnie Phillips says will turn the trial of his daughter's murder into a spectacle and perpetuate his family's grief.
Jessica Ghawi's parents, Lonnie and Sandy Phillips, joining me now.
We've talked before. Nice to see you in person. Again, I'm truly sorry for your loss.
LONNIE PHILLIPS, STEPFATHER OF JESSICA GHAWI: Thank you.
BALDWIN: You wrote this stunning piece.
Let's begin how you started talking, Sandy, about the night. Take me back to the night you got the phone call from Jessica's friend who was with her and moments that ensued.
SANDY PHILLIPS, MOTHER OF JESSICA: Actually, Jesse and I had been texting before the movie started. The last thing she texted to me was she couldn't wait for me to come see her the following Tuesday and that she needed her momma. I wrote back that I needed my baby girl. That was the last thing we said to each other. That was exactly 1:06, my time, so 12:06 her time, which was when the movie started. I didn't know for quite a while if she had gotten that message or not. Found out later she had.
BALDWIN: She had?
PHILLIPS: She had. That gave me a sense of peace.
But Brent called about 25 minutes later. I could hear the screaming going on in the background. He said that there had been a random shooting. I asked him if he was OK. He said, I've been shot I think twice. Went on to hear the screaming going on. I asked him -- all of a sudden I realized why is he calling? Why isn't Jesse calling? I said, where's Jesse? He said, she's been hit. I said, is she OK? He said, I tried. I said, oh, Brent, tell me she's not dead. In that instant, I knew my life was forever changed. And --
LONNIE PHILLIPS, STEP-FATHER OF JESSICA: That's the instant, I woke up because the screaming was so horrific. I was sound asleep.
BALDWIN: Her screaming? LONNIE PHILLIPS: Yeah. That got to her -- I knew something really
bad. I thought probably someone had broken into the House. When I got to her, she was backed against the wall screaming. I grabbed the phone and tried to talk to Brent. It was bad noise. I could hardly hear him. I just tried to comfort her. That's the moment that we knew or I knew that my daughter was dead and my wife would never be the same again.
BALDWIN: Whew.
You lost your daughter. Yet, you still -- what really struck me, in this incredible piece, was there was a little bit of a blessing that she was in that police car. Explain this to me.
SANDY PHILLIPS: We didn't know for the first three days that she had actually been taken from the theater. I was unable to sleep because I kept having visions of my baby on a theater floor dying, bleeding out, not being there with her. I couldn't sleep. My son, who had gone to Colorado to take care of things -- he wouldn't let us go -- he went to Colorado and called me. He said, I don't know how to tell you this. I said, what more do you have to tell me? How much worse could this be?
He said, Jesse didn't die in the theater. She was taken out of the theater by two police officers who tried to save her. It was too late. I said, oh, my gosh, that's such a blessing for me. Our hearts really went out to the other family members whose children weren't taken out, that they were left there. We know most of those families now. We know the pain that they have gone through. We do feel blessed.
LONNIE PHILLIPS: It was at the trial in one of the police officer's testimony, where fortunately, Sandy and I weren't there -- but he described what happened. The police got there first because they were ahead of the fire department because of proximity. When they started taking victims that were breathing -- Jessica was one of them. That had taken so many victims that the officer commented he could hear the blood sloshing in the back floor board when he would take a corner. When he continued that story, he broke down and started sobbing on the witness stand.
So it was horrific. I can't imagine what we're going to go through when we get to the trial.
BALDWIN: That's not just reliving what happened a couple of years ago, but you wanted to come forward and talk about this campaign, the "Don't Name Him" campaign.
SANDY PHILLIPS: Yes, don't name him and no notoriety. Karen Teeves (ph), who lost her son in the theater along with our daughter, has been adamant at pushing forward no notoriety, don't give this -- any killer the fame they're seeking, especially mass murders. There's been studies, the FBI, don't name them, where they've proven these sick individuals are really wanting fame. We give it to them. We feed the beast.
(CROSSTALK)
SANDY PHILLIPS: We've got to quit doing that.
LONNIE PHILLIPS: We had a personal interview with Christopher Cullens, the FBI agent in charge of the region. He's working in conjunction with Pete Blare, who works with Texas State University in San Marcos. They have an $8 million grant from the government that studies these phenomenons where each one of these killers will study a previous killer.
And the killer in the Columbine was studied by the killer in Aurora. The killer in Aurora was studied by the killer in Sandy Hook. This can actually prevent future mass murders. We know mass murders aren't the biggest killer of people, but they're the most horrific and most attention getting. Sandy and I are in gun prevention working with other groups. We're based in San Antonio. We try to work together with groups. And each one of us has a different avenue, things we work with. That's one of the main things we want to stop.
BALDWIN: I appreciate the time of you coming to talk to me. I hate the circumstances in which we're talking. It's important for your voices to be heard with this huge, huge trial that is coming up.
Thank you both very much. Again, I'm so sorry for your loss.
Sandy and Lonnie, thank you both very much. Appreciate it.
SANDY PHILLIPS: Thank you.
LONNIE PHILLIPS: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Again, I'm sorry for your loss.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Cuba today is hosting the highest-level delegation to that country in 35 years.
CNN's Carl Penhaul is with me live from Havana.
Carl, let's begin with this delegation. What exactly are they hoping to accomplish?
CARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, Roberta Jacobson, the assistant secretary of state, she is the one in charge of normalize relations with Cuba after a Cold War that lasted more than 50 years between the two nations. We caught up with her around midday as she arrived around the airport terminal three. Let's look at exchange.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PENHAUL: Good afternoon, Ms. Jacobson. How does it feel to be here in Cuba after all this time?
ROBERTA JACOBSON, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: I'm delighted to be here.
PENHAUL: Great. Good to see you here as well. Do you think we can do business with Mr. Castro?
JACOBSON: That's all. Thank you.
PENHAUL: What do you think is the first thing on the agenda? What's the most important thing for you and Mr. Obama?
(CROSSTALK)
PENHAUL: Thank you very much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PENHAUL: Now Jacobson is set to be in action Thursday. She'll meet with one of her counterparts. One of the first items on their agenda will be the baby steps, the nuts and bolts of how to put a diplomatic relationship together after Dwight Eisenhower, in 1961, in the one of the last acts of his presidency broke off the relations. The first items on the agenda are to open an embassy here. Can they get enough staff members to do it? Cubans will ask for the same thing.
Then, over the coming weeks and months, Cubans and Americans will meet many more times to talk about further steps, which will include trade and commerce. Cubans will look for an overall lift of embargo on this island as well -- Brooke?
BALDWIN: Maybe she'll be more communicative as this process goes on. The spotlight is on this delegation.
Carl Penhaul, thank you so much, in Havana.
Coming up next, why a war movie about Iraq is resonating with such a wide audience. Our media correspondent, Brian Stelter, goes beyond the box office of "American Sniper."
Plus, terror hunt. New concerns just in that associates linked to the terror attacks in France have fled to Syria and could be plotting a return to Europe. We're live in Paris, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: "American Sniper" is without a doubt one of the biggest war movies in a long time. It's opening weekend eclipsed box office records for January. But it's generating a lot of controversy.
Our senior media correspondent, Brian Stelter, finds out why audiences are loving it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES (voice-over): Iraq is a war Americans want to forget, or do they?
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(SHOUTING)
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STELTER: It has been nearly 12 years since the invasion. Since then, none of Hollywood's Iraq war-themed movies have resonated with viewers, until now.
(MUSIC)
STELTER: Until "American Sniper." Clint Eastwood's film about Navy SEAL Chris Kyle has made $110 million in the U.S. alone.
PAUL DERGARABEDIAN, SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST, RENTRAK: "American Sniper" broke all kinds of January records.
STELTER: So why is sniper, a film by CNN's corporate cousin, Warner Brothers, connecting with viewers? Well, it's a heroic story, one with special meaning for U.S. military veterans.
CODY MCGREGORY, FORMER SNIPER: It shows the fight we incur in camouflage and in civilian clothes. I think a lot of veterans appreciate the movie and that it shows it's not over when it comes home. Quite frankly, that's not what you see in most films.
STELTER: Veteran activists hope the movie is a bridge to civilians, a conversation starter, a way to help others understand their service overseas.
Former Army Captain Matt Gallagher tweets, "It's exposing people to a conflict they've gone out of their way for a decade to ignore."
The popular Twitter of the late Navy SEAL Michael Murphy, who was portrayed in the 2013 movie "Lone Survivor," has been inundated support for the new movie. And some people have taken sides after Michael Moore tweeted, "Snipers weren't heroes, they were cowards." He later said he wasn't referring specifically to the movie.
"Hey, Michael Moore," wrote, Charlie Daniels, "these are the ones who defend the fight for you to say the stupid things you say."
All the controversy, all the ticket sales may now drive Oscar moment.
DERGARABEDIAN: Controversy sells. This is no different. I think it will help the movie down the road.
STELTER: Brian Stelter, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
