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CNN NEWSROOM

Storm Breaches Seawall, Floods Streets; Connecticut Buried By As Much As 30 Inches; Meteorologists Apologize for Wrong Forecast; Purported ISIS Video Pledges Hostage Release

Aired January 28, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO (voice-over): Happening now in the NEWSROOM, after the storm, folks not digging this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just the wind. The winds are killing us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mother Nature's winning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So like 23 inches.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 28.8 inches.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not even sure how I'm going to get out of here. I'm stuck.

COSTELLO: But for others.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A little disappointing but it's still so much fun to be out here. It's a snow day.

COSTELLO: Plus, new info about that drone that wound up on the White House lawn.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The drone that landed on the Whites House you buy at RadioShack.

COSTELLO: Its operator, a Department of Defense employee, may have been drinking up before that drone went down.

And the markets spiraled downward on news that earnings aren't looking up for some top companies, but when the Opening Bell rings in 30 minutes, can Apple help take a bite out of that 300-point drop?

And Michelle Obama snubbed in Saudi Arabia. Most of the dignitaries lining up to shake the president's hand, but the first lady, skipped. And the look on her face, priceless.

Let's talk, live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

New Englanders returned to the roads and the region tries to return to normal. Just hours after Massachusetts lifts its travel ban, drivers are slogging through the morning commute. The mayor still urging people to stay off the roads this morning, though.

Here's a rundown of some snowfall totals for you. While New York was largely spared, parts of suburban Long Island were buried. The town of Orient is reporting 30 inches. In Hartford, Connecticut, a relatively modest 13 inches. And in Boston, just over 24 inches.

To the south of the city rough seas have breached a seawall that protects beach side homes. The pictures from the town are amazing. Ice encrusted homes frozen solid from sea spray and streets now flooded from high water.

In Scituate just north of Cape Cod, howling wind gusts topped at 52 miles per hour. They're not only slamming those waves into the seawall, they've also created an endless explosion of sea spray that are encasing ocean front homes in a sheet of ice.

This photo posted on Twitter is from one of our field producers there.

Nick Valencia is one of our correspondents on sight.

Good morning, Nick.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Here in Scituate, a coastal community that's no stranger to catastrophic events, one of the hardest hit areas in the state of Massachusetts with more than two feet of snow, 60-mile-per-hour sustained winds at one point, but now things are slowly getting back to normal here. We've seen cars emerge as you see behind me here. That travel ban was lifted as of midnight.

We're also seeing people coming out of their homes and taking care of what's left. You see behind me here, let's just pan over. People shoveling the driveways, getting back to normal. I talked to that gentleman. He's been here with his family for about 50 years in this community. He remembers back in 1978 when things were really, really bad here. That storm caught everybody off guard.

This time around, though, local officials, the state officials, including the governor, heeding warning, giving warning to the residents here. Most of them took that guidance except for a handful of people here who decided to ignore that warning. They had to get rescued by the National Guard.

But here this morning most of what's left is just a lot of this stuff behind me here, a lot of snow. They'll be cleaning up for a couple of days ahead here, a couple of days to come. But right now, they say they're just ready to get back to business -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I'm thinking that poor guy shoveling snow behind you needs to go across the street and borrow that guy's snow blower, right?

(LAUGHTER)

VALENCIA: Yes. People have really good attitudes here about it. It's remarkable, Carol. I mean, somebody just offered us breakfast a little while ago. Here, though, they say they're used to it. They just want to get through this. And they're just glad that the worst is over -- Carol.

COSTELLO: You've got that right.

Nick Valencia, reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

Let's travel along down the coast, shall we? To the town of New London, Connecticut. The storm dumped just over 20 inches of snow there, and the mounds are much larger along those freshly plowed roads.

CNN's Michaela Pereira joins us live from New London.

Are you still buried? You've got out of the snow drift. Yay.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR, NEW DAY: I'm ready. I'm in a snow drift. I stood up for you ahead, Carol.

Good morning to you and good morning to our viewers that are watching from around to watch this snowstorm. It's past us, Carol. It was a different situation here yesterday.

We were in the heart of a blizzard. Blizzard conditions really existing here. Swirling winds, swirling snow, almost 26 inches of snow here in New London. Very different day today. It is bitterly cold. About 12 degrees. If you add the wind chill factor, that's about minus two. And you can feel it in your bones. No wind. Almost pretty blue sky. It's great.

The roads you were talking about, that's the biggest concern. We looked at the conditions over night and we know road crews were out here doing yeoman's work, getting these roads cleared. Major arteries through town are clear and bare. We're told that some of the on-and- off ramps to the freeway, some of the other back roads, they're not quite as clear. And folks are being urged to either take caution or just not go out at all.

The mayor of New London, Mayor Finizio, joined me a little earlier. And he told us that the National Guard from Connecticut has been called in to add to the resources they have on the ground here. Nearby Bridgeport has sent some of their resources to add to the crews.

I also asked him if he thought that they would be seeing any sort of federal aid any time soon. And this is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR DARYL JUSTIN FINIZIO, NEW LONDON, CONNECTICUT: Any federal or state assistance is very, very welcome, but we are fortunate that this is our first major storm of the year so our budget so far is holding up. Our salt supplies so far are holding up. But we get two, three more big storms. We're going to be in a lot of trouble. And it's still early in the season. So any federal assistance would be welcome here in New London.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Yes, it's certainly welcome. You can see one of the big trucks. We've been seeing trucks and plows. We've seen some emergency vehicles, we saw police go by. They're all getting through.

No emergencies to report here, Carol, which is really good news. We have heard very minimal power outages. Also very good news. So interesting to see how different this storm hit if you're in the northern part of the state of Connecticut, 33.5 inches of snow. Western Connecticut saw only about five inches of snow. So it depended on where you were in the state.

One thing I'll agree with for sure what Nick Valencia had to say where he was. Attitude is everything. There have been smiles on people's faces here. They're resigned to the fact that this is just the reality of what's going on. They're being very patient. They're being very hospitable to strangers like us who got snowed in here and had to rely on their hospitality.

But overall, they're just working on getting themselves ready to get back to business as usual here in New London -- Carol.

COSTELLO: You have to laugh or you cry, Michaela.

(LAUGHTER)

Thanks so much. I appreciate it.

While Connecticut continues to dig out, New York City is sitting pretty. That historic blizzard was not historic. It wasn't even a blizzard. Queue the critics who say Mayor Bill de Blasio overhyped the storm.

As for how the mayor responded, whatever. Mr. de Blasio actually performed a dramatic reading of his dire predictions after the satirical Web site "The Onion" mocked the city's pre-storm warnings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK: The furious hoarfrost bearing down upon us knows neither mercy nor reason, and all within the five boroughs will perish, cowering in their brittle dwellings. This shall be a tempest the likes of which has never been glimpsed by man or beast.

It's so brilliant I had to do a reading of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Well, meteorologists are not laughing. Some are actually apologizing for their forecast.

Gary Sakowski from the National Weather Service issued a series of apologies on Twitter. Here's one of them. Quote, "You made a lot of tough decisions expecting us to get it right. And we didn't. Once again I'm sorry."

Now it is unheard of for weather people to apologize. Predicting weather is not an exact science.

Well, let's ask Eric Holthaus. He's a meteorologist from "Slate" magazine. He joins us now on the phone from Wisconsin.

Good morning, Eric.

ERIC HOLTHAUS, SLATE MAGAZINE METEOROLOGIST: Hi, how are you?

COSTELLO: I'm good. You actually apologized to your readers yesterday, as well. You said, and I'm going to quote, "I sided almost exclusively with the numbers from the National Weather Service because, one, they seemed reasonable. Looking at much of the same data myself that thye used to construct this forecast, and, two, they're the official forecast source. Entire governments make plans based on their forecasts so I figured that's good enough for 'Slate.' I was wrong."

Why did you feel the need to apologize?

HOLTHAUS: Well, I think on storms like this, I mean, people get their expectations up. And then, you know, you're stuck at home with an unplanned day off and you see cars driving by just like nothing ever happened. So it was -- it was very clear in the first few hours yesterday that New York City was kind of maybe upset a little bit about the forecast, but keep in mind, though, that the National Weather Service did a great job in New England as you guys have been showing.

They have a full-out blizzard there and in Boston this is ranking right up in the top five, six storms in their history dating back to 1870.

COSTELLO: That is absolutely true. I think a lot of people were upset because the forecast was so wrong here in New York City because it's become sort of, well, a tradition for weather people on television to overhype things and worry us because, you know, cynics would say it brings ratings.

HOLTHAUS: Sure. Yes. And we've had a history of really big storms in the last couple of years. You know, Irene and Sandy, and for the city, you know, Sandy was a big hit as far as the impact, but Irene didn't quite pan out as much as the forecast said even though it hit upstate New York pretty hard. So it's just kind of a matter of on days like this, these big storms, I think meteorologists should give a better idea of kind of the uncertainty of which way these storms could go.

You know, two days before the storm hit on Sunday I wrote that there was about a 66 percent chance of 18 inches or more in New York City. And, you know, that leaves a big margin of error for something less than that, which is what we got. So, you know, in the future I'm just going to try to play the downside just as much as the upside and kind of try to give the full range of options.

COSTELLO: Well, Eric, thank you for talking with me and thanks for your apology. And thanks for like, you know, standing up and explaining things and taking it. We appreciate it.

Eric Holthaus from "Slate" magazine.

HOLTHAUS: Sure, no problem.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a deal could be in the works to free one of those ISIS hostages. A Jordanian fighter pilot. Jordan could actually be considering a swap for a failed female suicide bomber.

What would that mean for the Japanese hostage, though? Will Ripley is following the story from Tokyo.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's the big question here right now, Carol. So much concern about the fate of Kenji Goto left out of this apparent hostage swap that the Jordanian government is proposing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A 24-hour deadline is now up, as a frantic scramble to free two ISIS hostages plays out. Right now, we do not know the fate of a Japanese journalist and a Jordanian fighter pilot. ISIS is threatening to kill both of them unless their demands are met for an Iraqi woman long held inside a Jordanian prison.

But there are now signs that the militant group may get its way. Jordanian officials say they are now willing to release this woman in exchange of the safe return of their fighter pilot. Now, this woman is a would-be suicide bomber on death row for a 2005 attack, where 57 people were killed in a series of suicide bombings at Jordanian hotels. She says her suicide vest malfunctioned.

Now, I've made a decision not to show the ISIS video released yesterday. It's propaganda and I have no interest in spreading that kind of terror.

But I do want to talk about the Jordanians and why they made this decision.

Joining me now are CNN's Will Ripley and Jomana Karadsheh, Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, and former CIA operative Bob Baer, he's also CNN's intelligence and security analyst.

Good morning to all of you. Thank you so much for being with me.

Jomana, I want to start with you and exactly what the Jordanians are considering. JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, just a few hours ago,

Carol, as that deadline was nearing the Jordanian government for the first time, perhaps under so much pressure, that they had to come out publicly in a very brief statement coming out through state media.

They have been closed off. They're not talking to anyone. They are tight-lipped about what may be going on behind the scenes. In that statement, the Jordanian government said for the first time that it is willing to release that convicted would-be suicide bomber Sajida al- Rishawi in exchange for the Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh, if he is released unharmed.

What you have here, Carol, is an offer by the Jordanian government versus the demand from ISIS. This is not what ISIS was asking for 24 hours ago. They wanted the swap. They wanted to exchange. Sajida al-Rishawi, this prisoner, with Kenji Goto.

There was the -- the stakes were really raised by ISIS yesterday when they said unless this happens, they said the Jordanian government has been stalling, that unless this happens they were going to kill both the Jordanian pilot and Kenji Goto. There has been no comment from the Jordanian government at this point about the Japanese journalist, Kenji Goto.

COSTELLO: So, Will, what's the reaction from Japan?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, any discussions that are happening, Carol, as you know are happening behind closed doors. If there is a prisoner swap underway as we speak, we will not know the details of it until it's over and until either one or both of these men are safe or if there's another more tragic outcome.

But the hope here in Tokyo is that some sort of a deal could be able to be worked out. The one thing that we have to think that Kenji Goto may have in his favor is that ISIS has kept him alive thus far. They've used him in two of their propaganda videos. If ISIS feels that Goto is no longer valuable to them, but perhaps they can gain something by handing him back over to the Japanese even though they didn't get the $200 million, but they are getting this terrorist al- Rishawi, then perhaps there is hope.

But right now, here in Tokyo, Carol, people just don't know, and that's what's so terrifying for his wife, you know, the mother of his two young daughters and his mother who has had such an ordeal, as has all of these families.

COSTELLO: And, Barbara, this is another change in tactic for ISIS, right?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, to some extent. You know, they're not getting the ransom in this case that they demanded so now they want this terrorist back that is being held in Jordan.

Look, ISIS has made all kinds of demands over the months, and I think most U.S. officials will tell you, it's just sheer terror tactics on their part. The question is -- one of the questions is however this all turns out, ISIS certainly is expected to take propaganda value from the whole thing -- more videos, more threats, more statements.

So, I think people here in Washington understand that the governments in Jordan, the governments in Japan, they need to do what they need to do on a national level. There is very much a compassionate feeling about all of this. But nobody's thinking that this is anything by ISIS other than sheer terror.

COSTELLO: Well, Bob, if Jordan goes ahead and agrees to this prisoner swap, doesn't that set a dangerous precedent?

BOB BAER, FORMER CIA OPERATIVE: Of course it does, Carol. But on the other hand have you to look at it from the Jordanian point of view. The pilot was from an important family, it's a tribal society. They have a lot of reasons to get him released from ISIS.

Secondly, the Jordanians, as I understand it, are furious that pilot was taken in the first place. There should have been a rescue mission. He was wandering the desert for a couple of hours. They could have sent in helicopters, they didn't.

There was a lot of back channels between the Pentagon and Jordan about why this didn't happen. So now the Jordanians, you know, to put it cynically, Japanese hostage is one thing, but one of their own from an important family is something entirely different.

COSTELLO: All right. I want to head back to Will Ripley because I understand you have some new information to share.

RIPLEY: Yes, Carol. I was just informed one of the Japanese television networks, TBS here in Tokyo is now broadcasting what is purported to be a new ISIS video, and I haven't seen the video. This was just described to me by our Tokyo producers as them standing under a flag saying, "In the name of Allah we are releasing the hostages." No names, but a new ISIS video being broadcast as we speak in Japan.

We are working to learn more about this video. This is just happening right now being shown live on television as I'm telling you this.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: So, Will, by hostages -- by hostages do you mean the Jordanian pilot and the Japanese hostage?

RIPLEY: That is certainly the hope of people here in Japan, but this is -- this is breaking as we speak and so -- and there are no names in the video so what they mean by that. Of course, here if you have anything else to add come over and shout it to me, because we're in on right now -- anything else new.

Yes, just the video that we're seeing. One channel here and so we need to get new information. We wanted to share with you as this is developing, there is apparently a new ISIS video talking about some sort of hostage release. There have been reports so far unconfirmed of this happening for several hours.

Again, you know, we aren't expecting to get any information through official channels until all of this is done. So if ISIS is now putting out its own propaganda, perhaps, Carol, we can see a government statement coming through. We'll let you know the minute we get confirmed information. This is a bit of a promising development here in Japan if, indeed.

COSTELLO: So, Jomana, are you hearing -- for sure, you're in front of the camera. I know you're not in a position to gather information, but what might this mean from your perspective?

KARADSHEH: Carol, just a short time ago colleagues have been speaking to the Jordanian government spokesman who said that there is no update. They have no new statements. And a short time ago before we came on air, the Jordanian foreign minister in a tweet said that Sajida al-Rishawi, that prisoner, had not been released and that she had not left the country as some had reported. They were denying her release, saying it was conditional. It was based on the release of the Jordanian pilot.

So, it's very unclear what's going on right now. But so far, the Jordanian government is being very tight-lipped. No new information coming from the Jordanians.

COSTELLO: OK. So, Will Ripley, he's watching the video right now. We'll let him do that so he can give us more information.

But I'll go to you, Bob Baer. What do you make of this?

BAER: You know, if this -- this is a constantly evolving threat, the Islamic State. We see attacks in Tripoli played by the Islamic State. We see attacks all over the Middle East by Boko Haram.

The fact that they have asked for a prisoner from 2005, a suicide bomber, tells me this is a very unified movement. It's much bigger than a small group in Mosul, and it has the capacity to project power. If you can get the Jordanians to release Sajida al-Rishawi, a very crucial step backwards for the Jordanians, and it tell us this organization is very much a threat and will continue to be.

COSTELLO: Well, I do find it interesting, Barbara, that, you know, this woman's been in prison in a Jordanian prison for the past 10 years. ISIS didn't exist 10 years ago.

So, why are they so interested in her?

STARR: Well, clearly, they feel she's a lever they can pull against the Jordanian government, a symbol of value to ISIS and that they can bend the Jordanian government at will.

I think what Bob is saying is really key. You have to put yourself inside the head of what is going on in that region. Jordan is a very small country. It is vulnerable. The Jordanian regime must keep the loyalty of the military and the loyalty of its people.

This pilot comes from a prominent family. His uncle served in the Jordanian military. There was a demonstration in Amman seeking his release. People in Jordan very angry that this pilot was taken, whatever the circumstances were.

The U.S. wants to see Jordan, wants to see every Middle Eastern country it can stay within the coalition. So, there's going to be some behind the scenes understanding by the U.S. of the Jordanian position. They don't want to lose Jordan as an ally right on the border with Syria and Iraq in this coalition.

But make no mistake, there's a lot of feeling that if this were to prove to be true, that ISIS clearly would have achieved a propaganda victory here. I think there's no question about that.

COSTELLO: That's right.

STARR: Humanitarian issues, compassion towards the families. Let's remember, in the United States the U.S. released Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Bowe Bergdahl. So, the United States has released prisoners it has to get one of its service members back.

This is done, but it's very delicate and very sensitive.

COSTELLO: All right. I want to go back to Will Ripley. He's had a chance to watch this video. What did you see?

RIPLEY: Yes, again, I'm watching it live on television along with all the other viewers in Japan that are seeing it. But it was a man dressed in all black with a beard. I couldn't identify him just from sight. He was standing in front of what appeared to be an ISIS flag. I don't know for sure if it was an ISIS flag. We need to have an expert take a look at that.

But, again, he was saying according to the translation on Japanese television that "in the name of Allah, we are releasing the hostages" but no names were mentioned. Not Kenji Goto, not Muath al-Kasasbeh. So, we don't know if he's talking about the pilot and the journalist, if he's talking about other hostages.

But this is coming out in the past few minutes, another piece of propaganda. This time propaganda saying hostages of some nature are being released. As soon as we learn more, we'll let you know.

COSTELLO: All right. So, if all of this is true, Bob, will we see more of this from ISIS since this appears to be a win?

BAER: It's a win but I think they're running out of prisoners and they've got other problems. They're losing ground in Iraq. They're losing ground even in parts of Syria.

So, I think they're going to reach out and get more prisoners but I don't think they'll be successful. I think they're going to change in tactics. I think they'll be going back or turning back to attacks in Western Europe, based on their attempt.

But it's a movement even though it's expanding on one hand it is on the defensive on the other. We'll have to wait and see. It's not exactly a rational movement. COSTELLO: All right. Bob, Barbara, Jomana, Will, thanks to all of

you. I appreciate it. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)