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NEW DAY

Are ISIS's Hostages Alive?; Prisoner Swapped for Bergdahl has Contacted Militants; More Snow to Hit New England; Aaron Hernandez Trial to Resume Today

Aired January 30, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The deadline has passed to save two hostages held by ISIS.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have asked for a proof of life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am very pessimistic about the fate of the hostages.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are attempting to elevate themselves into a political movement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of these five Taliban Guantanamo detainees who were traded for the release of American Bowe Bergdahl has attempted to return to militant activity.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was attempting to communicate with Taliban associates.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're confident that we would be able to mitigate any threat of reengagement by any of these members.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You will see, ladies and gentlemen, the defendant holding a gun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aaron Hernandez did not murder his friend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here he is, celebrity, rich, successful, why does he kill him?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no smoking gun.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela Pereira.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to your NEW DAY, and not just any day, it is Friday. That's 100% correct. It is January 30th, almost 6:00 in the East. And this morning, here are the facts. Several deadlines have turned out to be fake, hundreds of millions requested and then forgotten, and it is still completely unclear what the terrorists called ISIS are up to, and lives are on the line. ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The Jordanian government said they need proof that their captured pilot is still alive, but at this hour, ISIS is silent. All of this amid more criticism over negotiating with terrorists. Let's bring in CNN's Will Ripley, he is live for us in Tokyo. What's the latest, Will?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right now the feeling here, Alisyn, is that it only is a matter of time before ISIS comes out with another propaganda message.

But what is unknown right now is what will be the contents of that message. Will Kenji Goto relay yet another message, relay yet another ultimatum? Or, as many fear, could there be another -- could there be something else? Perhaps what happened after the first deadline passed and 24 hours later, it was announced that Japanese captive, Haruna Yukawa, had been executed.

Nobody wants to -- nobody wants to talk about that, but it's on everybody's mind here right now.

Meanwhile, the situation in Jordan continues to get more volatile, as we see protests continuing outside of the palace where King Abdullah is facing a growing amount of criticism from the public over his handling of this. There is anti-Japanese sentiment that has caused the Japanese government to send an alert to Japanese citizens in that region to be extra careful in the coming hours and days, and they're also requesting additional security for their diplomats in that region, including that special envoy on the ground in Amman trying to do whatever he can to secure the safe release of Kenji Goto and the captive pilot Mu'ath al-Kaseasbeh -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Will, thanks so much. Please keep us posted throughout the show this morning.

Another troubling story to tell you about. When Bowe Bergdahl was swapped for Taliban prisoners critics of the move warned that the militants would return to the battlefield. U.S. military and intelligence officials now suspect that one of those five freed prisoners has made contact with suspected Taliban associates.

CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has more for us -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

All of this coming to light because the U.S. intelligence community conducts a classified intercept surveillance program over the communications of all five of those men now back in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar after being traded for Bowe Bergdahl from their detention in Guantanamo Bay.

Over the last several weeks, something popped up where one of them was noticed to be making communication, telephone calls it's believed, to militants, Taliban associates. So you know, now where does all of this stand? The U.S. says it's got all five under even closer surveillance than before. That they can mitigate any threat that is posed. They don't believe it was a direct threat. But I will tell you there

are some in the intelligence community I have spoken to, who express a good deal of concern about all of this. And believe that this is a clear example of someone returning to militant activity.

The detainees, this isn't the first one that's done it. It won't be the last. About 12 to 15 percent of them released from Gitmo do return to militant activity. But as you know, this was a very controversial political case when the president made the decision to trade the five for Bowe Bergdahl -- Chris.

CUOMO: It really does highlight the dilemma of these situations. Barbara, thank you, and keep us up to date on further developments.

There's no question that this is a horrible melding of military and politics. Luckily we have bright minds on both sides to help us figure out what to do in a situation like this.

We have CNN military analyst and former commanding general of U.S. Army Europe, Lieutenant General Mark Hertling and CNN political commentator and contributing editor to Atlantic Media, as well as professor at the City University of New York, Peter Beinart. Thank you, gentlemen, for joining us. Appreciate it.

General, let's just look at this from the military perspective of what you do in situations like this, with terrorists like this, missed deadlines, no proof of life, asking for hundreds of millions and then backing off it. It doesn't seem like they know what they're doing. But is the right thing to do to engage?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: The right thing is to engage, Chris. You have to continue to engage when there are lives at stake. When you're in conflict, when you're in a conflict situation, you have to continue to attempt to make inroads, political inroads with your enemy. In this case, with the Japanese/Jordanian/ISIS issue, they were willing to talk and potentially trade.

But I think the Jordanian government played their cards brilliantly by saying we want to see our pilot first to make sure no harm has come to him.

Comparing that to the Bergdahl situation, you know, prisoner swaps have been going on without conflict through the ages. So, you know, whereas there were some that didn't agree with this swap of one for five, Bergdahl for five former Talibani operatives, al Qaeda operatives. At the same time, you know, we have value on our soldiers, and we want to get each one of them back from conflict.

CUOMO: Right. And look, you know the specific push-back on that particular trade was about who Bergdahl was and how he came to be captured. But the general opposition was, the U.S., what is it? Do you negotiate with terrorists or do you not? Do you believe the political position on that is a little deceptive, General?

HERTLING: If you're talking, Chris, about the exchange as to whether or not the Taliban was a terrorist organization or a counterinsurgency, yes. That's a little bit deceptive. Anyone who's fought in Afghanistan, in the less than 1 percent of the American people who have fought there will tell you they are definitely a terrorist organization, because they do the kinds of things that a terrorist organization does.

CUOMO: Right, right.

HERTLING: So yes, I think that's a little bit tongue in cheek.

CUOMO: And I'll tell you what. It's a bad thing to be tongue in cheek about those, isn't it, Professor? Because when you have the U.S. saying, "We don't negotiate with these guys, and these other countries should be very careful," not only is that not true but it's also not really productive. So how do you think that projects onto the situation? To allies and to enemies?

PETER BEINART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's always very easy when it's not your people. When it's not your country's people, to take this position that you should never negotiate.

When it's your people, then the pressure becomes enormous, especially in a country like Jordan, where the population wasn't really behind this war to begin with. I think that the larger drama in Jordan here is how does Jordan stay in this war? This is a regime that was pressured by the United States to take part in it. It was very important diplomatically that we get some Arab participation. But the population is not for it.

CUOMO: Why?

BEINART: Because -- because there is a lot of hostility to the idea of fighting a war in another Arab country on behalf of western countries that are perceived often in a kind of colonial perspective by the population in Jordan.

CUOMO: So it's not that they're pro-ISIS or pro-terrorism.

BEINART: No.

CUOMO: It's that we don't fight our own unless we absolutely have to. Especially when it's something that's contrived by outsiders.

BEINART: Remember, also Jordan has suffered a lot of the spill-back from this war. Remember, Jordan has all these refugees from the Iraq War going back to 2003. So the Jordanian perspective is these wars don't end up very well for them.

CUOMO: Do you think this winds up making a material change in their posture towards the coalition efforts?

BEINART: Well, I think the government is clearly under a lot of pressure. This guy who was a hostage, we hope still alive, came from a powerful tribe, a powerful family. You can see the government in Jordan would not be willing to negotiate unless they felt like there was some real political danger there. CUOMO: General, the obvious, if unsophisticated, take on this

situation is that we're being played by these guys. They like the attention. The media is fanning the flames. This is all upside for them, and life is cheap. Are we playing the game of the terrorists? Whether -- who's the we, it doesn't matter. Everybody else versus the terrorists. Do you think we're being played?

HERTLING: I don't think I would go that far, Chris, but I do -- I would say they are being very manipulative in terms of their messaging, and they're attempting to do things that we've never seen done before with these kinds of terrorists organizations.

Going back, I'll push back a little bit. Jordan is clearly in the sights of ISIS. Had ISIS not been blunted, I think their next move would have been across the border into Jordan. So I believe the political apparatus in Jordan realizes the danger of this organization. But perhaps the local populace does not.

So I think that the joining of the coalition was more than just being pushed from the west. They realize that there is a security concern in that country, as well.

Getting back to your question, though, yes, to a degree, all of this, because it's gone on for days now, continues to help ISIS be at the forefront and, as we see in other parts of the world, there are a lot of other terrorist organizations that are now signing up to be on the side of those they believe or they perceive to be garnering the world's attention.

CUOMO: The one thing that has revealed them, to a large extent, is that they haven't provided the proof of life, Peter, right? Because that would only help their leverage in the situation. And they're not doing it. So it shows who you're really dealing with here, right?

BEINART: Right. And they seem more interested in trading their Japanese hostage than the Jordanian hostage from the beginning here.

I think the one thing that seems very likely is ISIS will do whatever it can to humiliate and weaken the government of Jordan. Because they have -- they're in conflict with the government of Jordan in a different way than the government of Japan. They really want to weaken ultimately, if they could, would love to try to bring down this government.

CUOMO: Well, because their goal, as stated, is to be rulers of all of these different places.

BEINART: Exactly. Absolutely.

CUOMO: So that's what they want. But of course, you know, the big concern is what happens next time? Because this is what these people do, is they take innocents, and they kill them for some kind of sport and popularity.

BEINART: Right. I don't think there's any way, tragically, that this kind of behavior changes, until the military campaign against ISIS really starts to bear fruit. And what we're seeing is that, although there was this victory in Kobani, where the Kurds defeated ISIS in this town near the border with Turkey, the larger goal, which is like the retake of Mosul, for instance, the larger Iraqi city that ISIS took back in June. I don't think there's any timetable that I know of for that to take place.

CUOMO: But as the academics know in their heads and men like the general know in their hearts from their actions on the battlefield. It will never be won just with force. They're going to have to find a way to address the kernels of these ideas, where they come from and how to stop them at that root. We're nowhere near that yet.

General, thank you very much.

Professor, always a pleasure.

Back to you, Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Chris.

Taliban is claiming responsibility for the murders of three U.S. military contractors on a military base at Kabul's international airport in Afghanistan. The terror group says a suicide attacker who opened fire was a Taliban agent who penetrated the security forces and waited for a target. That attacker was also killed in the gun battle.

CAMEROTA: Breaking overnight, a surprise ISIS assault on the Iraqi city of Kirkuk has killed a top Kurdish Peshmerga leader. The brigadier general was the highest ranking operational commander of that brigade in Kirkuk. The attack allowed ISIS to take over an area southwest of the city. But anti-terror units and Peshmerga forces managed to reclaim some of the area after a gunfight.

CUOMO: A former taxi driver in the D.C. area, now on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists. The FBI says Liban Haji Mohamed, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Somalia, provided material support to both al Qaeda and al Shabaab. The 29-year-old left the U.S. In 2012, now believed to be in Somalia.

CAMEROTA: Well, it is the last thing folks in the northeast want to hear: more snow is coming. Communities still digging out from this week's big blizzard. Our Sara Ganim is live in Portland. This is a spot that has a bull's eye on it.

Look, it's already snowing.

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look, Alisyn, hey, guess what? It's already snowing again here in New England. And this snowfall, what we're expecting is really nothing even close to what they got earlier this week with the blizzard. But it's significant because of the snow that's already on the ground here.

Just take a quick look here in Portland, Maine. Look how much know snow is already on the ground, untouched, unplowed. Twenty-seven inches of snow have -- had fallen earlier this week in Portland, Maine. And now they're expecting even more on top of that. Earlier this morning, we saw crews racing in the city to try to remove some of that snow before the snowfall, which is already coming down. We see that streets already had not been cleared completely from that previous blizzard. And now like I said, it's already snowing here again. Six to ten inches could fall today, between today and tomorrow, actually here in Portland, Maine.

Plus in addition to that, they're expecting that next week, Sunday into Monday, another system could come through, bringing even more snow to the city. That's significant, because it causes problems for snow removal, rooftop safety concerns and also always, Alisyn, the potential for power outages.

Back to you guys.

CAMEROTA: All right, Sara, stay warm.

PEREIRA: Let us get some scientific knowledge behind this and talk to our meteorologist, Jennifer Gray, who's joining us now.

CUOMO: What is snow?

PEREIRA: We need to know. But in all seriousness, Jennifer, talk to us about these systems and just how bad this is going to be, sort of a one-two punch, right?

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it really is, you know, just as Sara was saying, we already have a lot of snow on the ground. Now we're getting more snow. We have two rounds of this, two snowstorms coming in just a couple of days. The first one basically already happening. And this one is going to linger into tomorrow. You can see snow all across the northeast, even a little bit of snow on the outskirts of Boston.

You saw Portland getting some snow. Even on the outskirts of New York, getting a little bit of that. So it is going to be scattered this morning, and we could pick up several inches across the northeast.

The other big story with this, the winds. We could see gusts up to 40 and 50 miles per hour by the time we get into tomorrow morning. So here are your snowfall totals. If you want the big-time totals, those are going to be in northeastern Maine, Bangor picking up about 10-12. Portland possibly picking up 4-6 inches. Boston could pick up 2-4.

But that's only the first system. It's going to stay very cold over the weekend, with temperatures, wind chills well below zero. This is the next system, guys. This is the one coming in on Monday. There is a little bit of uncertainty with it.

Still, but we could pick up an additional eight to ten inches around the Boston area. And places north could pick up additional snowfall, as well, guys. So they'll be digging out for quite some time from these systems.

PEREIRA: I was looking at Maine. They already got hit by that last one. I don't know how much the accumulation was there. But to get 12-24 on top of it?

CAMEROTA: But they can't be surprised, because they do live in Maine.

CUOMO: It seems as though you are blaming them for the snow. If you don't like it, move, people? Are you like...

CAMEROTA: No, I feel for them. I feel for them there.

CUOMO: You are wearing white, which is a little taunting, to be honest.

PEREIRA: Bring it, she's saying.

CAMEROTA: Happy to hear from you, Maine. We love you, Maine.

All right. Meanwhile coming up, there's testimony set to resume this morning in the Aaron Hernandez murder trial. Prosecutors say the former NFL star's DNA was found at the crime scene. But our legal expert says he will be acquitted, anyway. How is that possible? She'll explain.

CUOMO: And Hillary Clinton taking her time. Here's the latest. She's considering delaying any announcement until the summer. We have some insight into whether Hillary really wants it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Testimony resumes this morning in the murder trial of former NFL star Aaron Hernandez. During opening statements, the prosecution seemed to present an open-and-shut case. But the defense says not so fast.

CNN's Alexandra Field is live for us in Fall River, Massachusetts. What's the latest, Alexandra?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

One of the first witnesses called to testify in this case, a teenager who discovered Odom Lloyd's body. The prosecution says Aaron Hernandez orchestrated the killing and the cover-up of Odom Lloyd.

But the defense says that police and prosecutors only went after Hernandez because of his celebrity status.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD (voice-over): A distraught mother leaves the courtroom, the pictures of Odom Lloyd, shot to death in an industrial park, too much for Ursula Ward. At her side in court Lloyd's girlfriend, Shaneah Jenkins.

On the opposite side of the courtroom, Shaneah's sister, Shayanna Jenkins, Aaron Hernandez's fiancee. The former NFL star fidgeting in his seat on his first day standing trial for murder.

MICHAEL FEE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: The police and the prosecutors targeted Aaron from the very beginning.

FIELD: Hernandez' attorney referring to Lloyd and Hernandez as friends some 40 times during opening statements, going on to say the former Patriot, a celebrity, had no motive to kill. He was generous with friends.

But the prosecution paints a different picture. Hernandez became angry with Lloyd at a nightclub two days before the 27-year-old semi- pro-football player was shot execution style in an industrial park. The evidence for their murder case: a series of surveillance videos. One shows Lloyd getting into a car with Hernandez the night he dies. Another, from inside Hernandez' home, recorded after Lloyd's death. Prosecutors say that's a gun in his hand.

PATRICK BOMBERG, BRISTOL COUNTY ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY: The crime of possession of a firearm. That he committed the crime of murder.

FIELD: DNA evidence also a key part of the prosecution's case. They say a shell casing has Hernandez' DNA on it. They say his DNA is also on a joint found near the body. And that of Lloyd's is, too.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD (on camera): And later this morning, when court resumes, the prosecution will continue to make their case, calling more witnesses to the stand. We could be in for some emotional testimony from Odom Lloyd's mother and his girlfriend -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. We'll be watching that, Alexandra Field. Thank you.

Let's get insight now from CNN legal analysts, Mel Robbins and Danny Cevallos. Danny is also a criminal defense attorney.

Mel, I want to start with you, because you have an interesting take on this case. The prosecutors presented, in their opening statements, what sounds like damning evidence to me. Aaron Hernandez' sneaker print found near Odom Lloyd's body. Hernandez' DNA on a joint found at the crime scene, meaning he was smoking pot. An empty shell casing found in his car. You say, I believe, that none of that will be enough to convict him?

MEL ROBBINS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, you know, I think we've got another Casey Anthony on our hands, and the reason why I believe that -- and good morning, Danny, and good morning, Alisyn -- is because there is simply no motive. And when you think about motive, it's not required. But it's sort of like the gravy on a meal; it holds everything together.

And so let's just concede that Aaron Hernandez was at the scene. With all of that evidence, you've basically just proven that he's there. But what you have not proven beyond a reasonable doubt, is that he substantially contributed to the murder. And without that level of proof, in a joint venture case, in the state of Massachusetts, there's not going to be a conviction. Because you don't know, as a juror, what the heck happened. You don't

know if it was intentional. You don't know if there -- if it was involuntary. You don't know what went down. So how the heck could you convict somebody on evidence that doesn't prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Yes. Danny, who motive, no murder weapon found at the scene. So is Mel right? No conviction?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: First, and Mel alluded to this, motive is not an element of any crime. It can be evidence of intent. And while Mel is right, for many people, it's sort of like the gravy, a lot of people like me don't like gravy, don't care about gravy. You don't need motive to get a conviction.

And understand that if this defendant is acquitted, it will not be because he's a celebrity. It will be because this is a high-profile trial. And there is a difference. Because when you have these facts, four guys go into a yard with a gun, three come out. In the run-of- the-mill criminal case, day to day, that isn't on TV, jurors say, "Are you kidding me?" And they convict.

But in high-profile cases, there's the fear of scrutiny. And when that happens, people look at these same facts and the argument of, "Well you don't absolutely know what happened," which would never fly in the run-of-the-mill case, now actually has a prayer.

That being said, there is an un-overwhelming amount of circumstantial, powerful circumstantial evidence linking this defendant to the crime.

CAMEROTA: Mel, you used the term "joint venture." And I want to talk about this, because it's specific to Massachusetts law. It says that anyone in Massachusetts who participates in a murder can be found guilty of that murder. In other words, they do not need to prove that he pulled the trigger. Isn't that all the more reason that jurors will -- who know that Aaron Hernandez was at the scene, will find him guilty?

ROBBINS: Only if they think his presence at the scene substantially contributed to it. The fact that he may have been in the car. The fact that there may be a joint there -- and by the way, even though I conceded it for the first point, you better believe the defense is going to argue just because there is a spliff at the scene that has his DNA on it, doesn't mean that he was actually there smoking it. As we know...

CAMEROTA: What about his sneaker print found near Odom Lloyd's body?

ROBBINS: They don't have the sneaker that matches it. They're alleging that there was a sneaker print of his at the scene. They don't actually have those pair of shoes that match the sneaker print. So I think they're stretching the facts on that one.

So I think you're going to see the defense argue that it doesn't mean that he was even there. And if you look at the video, guys, you can't -- you can tell a car is pulling in. But you can't tell who's in the car.

And so this -- again, I go back to Casey Anthony. We all in our guts think she's guilty. We all in our guts think we know what happened. But because the motive in that case, that she wanted to party, just didn't fly and because, at the end of the day, the prosecutors couldn't tell the jury exactly what went down and why. And I think it's going to be a major problem in this case, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Danny, very quickly. Let me read for you the evidence that is not permitted at trial. Because it's interesting.

Odom Lloyd sent a text to his sister before he was killed, where he said, "Just so you know, I'm with NFL." That's not going to be allowed.

He's not allowed to mention that Aaron Hernandez has pending trials for assaulting an inmate, threatening a correctional officer. Or that he was involved with the shooting of his buddy, Alexander Bradley. Or that he was charged with shooting two men outside a nightclub or video of Hernandez holding a gun. Now, these seem to be to me to be relevant to this case. Why isn't any of this allowed?

CEVALLOS: If the defense wins this case, it will be because of these pretrial motions which have allowed them to prune and sculpt this case and get rid of evidence that was incredibly damaging.

The text messages, for example, were deemed by the judge to not be a dying declaration, which is a fascinating study. We don't have time to get into it, but the study of hearsay law. And it is fascinating, because a lot of these pieces of evidence are certainly interesting. We would want to hear them. But there's lots of evidence that's interesting. And under a rule we call 403, it basically means a judge, in most evidence decisions does a balancing test. Is it interesting to the jury? But is the potential prejudice from that evidence, does did outweigh however interesting it might be to a jury?

CAMEROTA: Well, it will be interesting to follow this case and see what happens. Mel Robbins, Danny Cevallos, thanks so much for your expertise. Great to see you.

Let's go over to Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Alisyn.

Here's the question: Are they still even alive? Terrorists continue to change their demands, and the fate of two hostages is on the line. Now, the ISIS captors have gone radio silent. We have the very latest, coming up.

PEREIRA: Sounds a bit like 2012 all over again. President Obama taking a swipe at Mitt Romney. Wait until you hear what he said about his former rival's reemergence. Straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)