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Kenneth Bae Interview Tough for Family; Islamic Militia in Libya Guards U.S. Embassy; Obama Speaks in Milwaukee

Aired September 1, 2014 - 14:30   ET

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


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BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: You're watching CNN. Just past the bottom of the hour.

And back to the families, the families of the American detainees in North Korea, they have barely seen or heard from their loved ones during their imprisonment. As for Kenneth Bae's family, specifically, seeing him sit down with our CNN crew was tough.

During that interview, our correspondent, Will Ripley, asked Kenneth Bae about a message to his family. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENNETH BAE, AMERICAN PRISONER IN NORTH KOREAN: Well, I'm sure they're very worried about my health at this time. And even though right now I've -- last month-and-a-half or so, my heart has been failing. So right now what I can say to my family and friends is to it continue to pray for me and also ask them to continue the effort on getting me released here.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When you say your health is failing, do you have any specific details?

BAE: Well, I do have sleep disorder right now, and severe back pain. And also blister condition not doing so well. So I get numb and I have tingling hands. And so it's been very difficult. Sleeping at night. And also working in the field every day.

RIPLEY: Your message for the American government?

BAE: For American government right now, I've been asking the American government to act upon getting me released here. And I do believe that special enjoy needs to come in order to resolve this situation that I am in right now. So I do ask the U.S. government to send an envoy as soon as possible. I think that's the only hope I have right now in order for me to go home and be reunited with my family.

RIPLEY: When you acted the way you did, can you tell me what you did? Did you know at the time that you were breaking the law here in North Korea?

BAE: Well, I did have some assumptions, but I did not quite agree with the charges until I got here. So -- and after being on trial for, you know, that period of time, I realized that what I did in a sense offended. And has violated their law. But at that time that I was quite sure that it was as serious as they were charging me.

RIPLEY: What is the bottom line about your situation here and the message you want to put out to the world?

BAE: Right now, is that I'm here, I've been here for almost two years now. And then -- I do believe that I'm -- I've been treated humanely as possible. They have been doing that for me. But at the same time, I realize that at this point, I've been here -- I'm the American who has been here the longest since the Korean War. And I do believe that the sooner this gets resolved, it would be better, not only for myself, for the rest of the other Americans who may come here in the future as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So his family, Kenneth Bae's family, watched that interview. And as encouraging as it was for them to see him, they still found the interview profoundly disturbing.

Earlier today, Bae's sister, Terri Chung, talked with CNN's Ashleigh Banfield. And Ashleigh's first question was about how he looked and sounded to those who knew him best.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERRI CHUNG, SISTER OF KENNETH BAE (voice-over): He doesn't sound like himself. He seems like he's under an incredible amount of stress. And he's lost so much weight. We're concerned for his health.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And did you take from anything -- keeping in mind, there are guards in the room, and this interview was highly orchestrated, did you take anything from the manner in which he said he's confessed to these crimes and he's seeking forgiveness from the DPRK?

CHUNG: You know, I think that's -- you know, under their laws, he has been convicted and tried and sentenced. And I think nobody, including myself, is in a position to dispute that. But we do need to pay more attentions to what he's saying and what the other detainees are saying, and saying that they need help, and intervention from the United States government.

BANFIELD: And your brother says he's suffering from some afflictions. He's feeling numbness in his hands. He has been back and forth from the labor camp to the hospital. Do you think or are you able to ascertain with a very brief, you know, appearance you've seen in video from him, do you think that his health is worsening?

CHUNG: Yes. I do believe that. And I think he's -- his health isn't great, but he was still sent back to labor camp. And that's our biggest concern, is that he has been back already only a month and he's already lost 15 pounds, just in the last month at the labor camp. And, you know, he's doing hard labor out there in the fields, eight hours a day, six days a week. So we just are afraid his body is not going to be able to withstand the toll it's going to take on his body.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Terri also told us here at CNN, the last time they heard from Bae was a rare phone call three weeks ago.

They are the pictures you would expect to see from some wild spring break. You know, these guys jumping off the second floor, belly flopping into a pool. Yeah, this is not spring break. It's apparently the U.S. embassy in Tripoli. What is going on? We'll take you there, live, next.

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BALDWIN: The U.S. embassy compound in Libya, abandoned weeks ago because of military, crashes looks more like a water park. So when you look at this video, obvious questions, who are these people? Sources tell CNN, they are the guards who are supposed to be protecting that embassy. This amateur YouTube video posted online shows Libyan militia members diving, fully clothed, two stories up, into a pool. U.S. ambassador, Deborah Jones, says the pool is actually part of a residential annex on embassy grounds, but that the embassy itself, she says, is safe. How did this happen?

Let's talk to our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, who joins me, live from London.

Nic, what more do we know? Who exactly are these people in the video in the first place?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Precisely who they are, we don't know. We understand they're from the town of Misrata, from a militia from Misrata, which is a town sort of in the center of Libya. Sort of halfway along that 800-mile coastline. And they came into Tripoli about a month ago. They are certainly a lot of the militia that came from Misrata, are an Islamist-based militia and they have pushed other militias out of Tripoli, took control of the international airport there. It appears that from sources I've talked to, that the guards who were guarding the embassy there allowed these other people, brothers, they call them, fellow jihadists, allowed them into the compound there.

Now, a spokesman for the Libyan National Congress says these men were not attacking it, they weren't ransacking it. But there are other photographs that purport to be from within the compound. There is a gymnasium we have seen, a living space, a bedroom. We're told that windows are broken. Nothing has been looted, we're told. But you can see there are papers lying around.

The question is right now, you know, what -- we're not getting daily updates. We've had this one video of diving in the pool. But what else has been going on since then? We don't know. There's -- this begs a lot of questions. I'm told, as well, that while this is a residential area, these buildings are also used by the people who live there for working as well. What documents, what might be lying around? BALDWIN: Can you just also remind us, Nic, for an American audience

-- I mean, know the U.S. evacuated that Tripoli compound in July because of heavy violence. What kind of presence, if any, does the U.S. still have there?

ROBERTSON: In Tripoli, none that's being publicized. It's the British embassy evacuated. When they evacuated a couple days after the U.S. embassy, their convoy was shot at as it left the country, armored vehicles. No one hurt. Contractors, security contractors, representing U.S. interests, out of the country, as well. There may be one or two people there. But most people I talked to who spent time in Libya, who have been trying to sort of generate business contracts, et cetera, just throwing their hands up in the air and getting out for a while. They just don't feel it's safe.

And it isn't safe. The country is fractured, in the hands of these militias. And right now, Tripoli is in the hands of a more Islamist militia than it has been at any time recently.

BALDWIN: All right. Nic Robertson, thank you so much for filling in some of the blanks, connecting some of the dots, some of the questions still there in that video. Thank you so much.

While some U.S. cities have grass-roots campaigns to keep kids out of gangs, an organization in Minneapolis is trying to prevent youngsters from joining radical groups. The group began in an effort to counter the negativity surrounding the exodus of Somali-American men who headed to their native country and joined an al Qaeda-linked terror group.

CNN's Chris Welch reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MOHAMED FARAH, CO-FOUNDER, KA JOOG: Can you guys hear me?

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: Yeah!

FARAH: Please stay in your groups.

CHRIS WELCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (VO: Mohamed Farah has a job ahead of him.

FARAH: Guys, guys, let's get moving.

WELCH: And it's bigger than simply getting this group of a couple dozen young Somali Americans through the crowds at the Minnesota State Fair.

FARAH: We wanted to make some changes, take ownership of the community.

WELCH: That's because in recent years, this community has become a target for radicals.

FARAH: 2007, 2008 was sort of a low point for the community. WELCH: The FBI says close to two dozen young Somali men here in the

twin cities disappeared. They had been recruited, radicalized and ready to fight with al Shabaab, the al Qaeda-linked terror group.

But now a new threat: ISIS. Within the past week, two Americans were found dead in Syria, both fighting with the ISIS terror group and both from Minnesota.

One of these men, Abdu Raqqman Mohamed (ph), a member of the local Somali community.

FARAH: ISIS was a shock to all of us, sort of a smack to my face, to the faces of the community members, because it shows us that we're not doing enough.

WELCH: A particular blow to Farah, because ever since the very first young men vanished seven years ago, he's worked to create after-school programs to keep them away from drugs, gang violence and, yes, radicalization. The group's name? Ka Joog, which in Somali means "to stay away."

FARAH: What we're doing is play a preventive role, rather than -- an active role.

WELCH: He says he's creating the next crop of this country's leaders. And at the state fair, they're here to observe 4-H. Next year, they'll compete.

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: It helps me academically, mentally and stuff like that.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: We talk about how we can make the place around us better.

WELCH: For their mothers, many born in Somali and single parents who work, it's already difficult. On top of that, they're now guarding their children from terrorist recruiters. Ka Joog relieves many of their fears.

SAFIA MOHAMED, MOTHER: It really helps with my 16-year-old. Guiding him to the right formations, to give them -- to be, you know, stay away from troubles. Alcohol, crimes, and all of these things we see on TV. And that could be my son. They could be like, you know, one of our American children.

WELCH: Many of their kids, they say, don't completely understand what's been happening. But that's all right, they say, at their ages, kids should be kids.

(on camera): Was it good?

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: No.

WELCH: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: It was nasty. WELCH (voice-over): Chris Welch, CNN, Minneapolis.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Chris, thank you.

Coming up on CNN, celebrities hacked. Nude photos of huge stars, like Jennifer Lawrence, out there on the Internet. How did this happen? How can you protect yourself? We'll talk about that, coming up.

Also ahead, Americans held prisoner in North Korea, speaking to CNN in these unprecedented interviews. You're about to hear from one man who has negotiated with the North Koreans. Ambassador Bill Richardson will join me live in a couple minutes to let us know what the U.S. is up against.

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BALDWIN: We've been keeping an eye on the president. Here he is. He is speaking at Labor Fest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Let's listen in.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- 40-hour workweek, overtime pay, a minimum wage, weekends like this one. All that didn't happen by accident. It happened because America's workers organized for it, fought for it. History shows that working families can get a fair shot in this country, but only if we're willing to fight for it.

The first time I came to Labor Fest was -- I was still a candidate back in 2008.

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OBAMA: And during that campaign, I promised, if you send me to the White House, I would stand with you in that fight.

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OBAMA: Now, two weeks later, our financial system collapsed. A recession almost became a depression. And in the years since, our country has faced a choice. There are some folks who wanted to place an even bigger bet on top-down economics, the kind of economics that helped cause the crisis in the first place: More tax cuts for those at the top, fewer rules for big banks and corporations. This blind faith that maybe prosperity would finally trickle down on the rest of us if folks up at the top just kept on doing better and better. But you know what, Milwaukee? I didn't run for president to double down on top-down economics. I ran for president because I believed in bottom- up economics. I believed in middle-out economics.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: I placed a bet on you. I placed a bet on America's workers.

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OBAMA: I put my money on American workers and the belief that our economy grows best when everybody has got a shot, when folks who are willing to work hard can get into the middle class and stay in the middle class.

I've come back to Labor Fest to say because of your hard work, because of what we have been through together, that bet is starting to pay off. America is stronger because of the decisions we made to rescue our economy and rebuild it on a new foundation, asking the simple question, is this good for ordinary Americans? Is this good for working people? Not just a few, but for everybody?

And over the past 53 months, our businesses have created nearly 10 million new jobs.

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OBAMA: We're on a streak where, last six months, we created more than 200,000 jobs each month. That's the first time that's happened since 1997.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: Construction is rebounding. Energy and technology are booming. American manufacturing is steadily creating jobs for the first time since the 1990s. Our businesses export more goods made right here in America to the rest of the world than ever before.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: America is stronger because we saved the American auto industry and more than one million jobs that depend on the auto industry.

BALDWIN: President Obama firing up the crowd, sleeves rolled up on this Labor Day, talking economics, touting some of his accomplishments, again, on this Labor Day in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the Labor Fest. So we'll keep an eye on the president there.

One issue we do know, at least that the administration, the big-day driver story, CNN's interview with those three American held prisoners in North Korea. We know the administration has acknowledged the interview, saying they continue to work actively to secure these three U.S. citizens' release. Again, we have heard from all three of them in these unprecedented sit-down interviews with our correspondent, Will Ripley, in Pyongyang. We will play them for you and talk to someone who has spoken and gone to North Korea several times. Ambassador Bill Richardson joins me live, coming up. You're watching CNN.

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