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FBI Investigating If Chapel Hill Murders Was Hate Crime; Boston Braces for Another Blizzard; Battle Rages With ISIS Near Al Asad Air Base in Iraq; Brian Williams Investigation Expands to SEAL Team 6 Statements

Aired February 13, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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


JOHN BERMAN, CNN CO-ANCHOR: Was it a hate crime? The FBI now on the case of the three Muslim students killed in North Carolina, the new details in their investigation.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CO-ANCHOR: And it's really getting to the point of cruelty. Boston expecting not only more snow but blizzard conditions and brutal cold. What to expect this weekend.

BERMAN: And the Brian Williams saga deepens, new, questionable statements surface, new stories now in focus as NBC says its investigation is nowhere near done.

Hello, everyone. Great to see you. I'm John Berman.

BOLDUAN: Happy Friday, everybody. I'm Kate Bolduan.

We have some new details emerging about the shooting deaths of three Muslim students in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The FBI is now looking into it trying to find out if any federal hate crime laws were violated.

BERMAN: A hate crime, that is what distraught family members believe. That is what so many in the Muslim community fear. But police say indications now point to a dispute over parking.

CNN's Jean Casarez joins us now, live from Chapel Hill. Jean, what's the latest in this investigation?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The FBI did announce this parallel investigation, but they used the word preliminary investigation -- preliminary versus full-force investigation -- but at least there will be something separate and distinct.

Now today the Muslim advocate group distributed a letter with 150 faith-based and civil rights organizations. They are all writing to the U.S. attorney general, Eric Holder, asking for a full and rigorous investigation on whether this in fact was a hate crime. They believe they are due that, and they want the U.S. government to show that it cares about all groups in this country.

We also have received word that the organizations in this country that had so many vigils around the country last night are uniting together in full force to show dignity.

The largest vigil was right here in North Carolina. And the dignity and pride that they showed, I think they want that heartfelt caring to be distributed throughout the country.

But still, the question remains was this a hate crime?

BERMAN: And that question still out there, dual investigations into that question. Jean Casarez, thank you so much.

Happening right now, Boston bracing for a blizzard, the last thing it needs -- I mean the very last thing it needs.

BOLDUAN: You said that last week too.

BERMAN: It is unbelievable, a possible blizzard on top of the storm after storm after storm that has dumped six feet of snow in some places in the last three weeks.

They could get over a foot more. This breaks every record ever set in the universe up there.

BOLDUAN: The "Boston Globe" has been asking this. Is this the storm that killed valentine's day? We'll find out by the end of tomorrow, I guess.

The mayor has already announced the shutdown of the subway system this weekend.

Jennifer Gray is joining from us the CNN Weather Center. Jennifer, this is hard to believe, but what --

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It really is.

BOLDUAN: What's the reality?

GRAY: Yeah. Deja vu all over again, ruining Valentine's Day and much more, I'm sure. This will go down as the snowiest February on record in Boston. And when you look at the entire season, we rank number eight, but all we need is about 10 more inches and you'll break number three as snowiest winter season ever on record.

Guess what? We could actually get 10 to 12 more inches of snow. Here's Boston, eight to ten inches forecasted. Of course that could fluctuate just a little bit.

Coastal Maine will get hit the hardest with 12 to 24 inches. Inland locations looking at about two to four. Very cold air in place. Wind- chill values well below zero this morning. And we're looking at more snow on the way.

This will begin during the day on Saturday. We'll see some pretty good bands set up Saturday evening into Sunday morning. Still going on. Sunday morning, this is 10:00 in the morning, windy conditions, and then it finally pushes out Sunday evening. But the cold air stays in place, and the winds stay in place. We're talking about 60- to 70-mile-per-hour gusts right around the Cape. Nantucket, we're looking at 40- to 50-mile-per-hour gusts around Boston. Forty to 50 around Maine as well.

So as far as temperatures go, this is Sunday morning. And you can see four below in Philly, New York. Boston, one below zero. That's the feels-like temperature. That's with the wind chill.

But look at these temperatures to the west. Buffalo, 27 degrees below zero is what it will feel like on Sunday morning. That cold air will make it to the coast by the time we get to Sunday evening, so, guys, temperatures are going to be dangerously cold, and we're talking the coldest temperatures of the season coming this weekend to the beginning part of next week.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. The snow is the stuff a lot of folks -- I would be complaining about if I were in Boston, but are you kidding me. Those temperatures? That's brutal.

BERMAN: It's offensive. Not you. You're not offensive, Jennifer. But that information is offensive.

BOLDUAN: Right at you, Jennifer.

Jennifer, thank you. Thank you very much.

Let's turn to this now, though. Happening right now, there is a battle raging near a strategic air base in Iraq, which also houses U.S. soldiers. The U.S.-led coalition says that so far Iraqi and coalition troops have killed eight attackers and resecured the facility. But there are no plans right now to evacuate they say.

BERMAN: Look at that map.

Also this morning, militants took full control of the town of al Baghdadi. That is very close to that base.

CNN's Phil Black is in northern Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At this location in the west of Iraq, al Baghdadi, there's been fierce fighting there over the last 24 hours, and what we're now hearing from Iraqi officials is that the entire town is now under the control of ISIS.

It is yet another piece of land that they have grabbed, it would seem successfully, in a region where they maintained considerable military momentum against the Iraqi army and local Sunni tribes.

Concerning because it's so close to the Iraqi capital, but when it comes to this particular town, it's also just ten miles from the Al Asad Air Base which is where hundreds of U.S. military personnel are involved with training the Iraqi military, the Iraqi army. What we are now hearing is even more concerning this morning from Iraqi officials and that is that not only have they taken the town of al Baghdadi but they are now moving towards the Al Asad Air Base. These are ISIS forces, and Iraqi officials say that ISIS has sent at least eight suicide bombers in that direction toward the air base. They say so far they have killed that number, eight.

So it's clearly still very much a fluid situation, but one where that base is under, it would seem, some degree of threat. The U.S. military has said that it's often consistently come under mortar and rocket fire, nothing serious, nothing damaging. This could be very different.

We can hear gunfire in the distance. We've also seen at least one likely air strike today, seen two fast-moving aircraft overhead.

But as I say, the grip that ISIS has on this town is still very firm. It shows that for all of the progress that's been made against ISIS in this region -- the Kurdish fighters from around here have rolled back thousands, 5,000 square miles they estimate, of territory that ISIS once held -- ISIS still holds key pieces of real estate here, the town of Sinjar behind me, the town of Tal Afar, and of course that major city of Mosul.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Phil Black, thanks so much. Again, the fighting at that air base, Al Asad Air Base, and city, Al Baghdadi, ongoing right now.

BOLDUAN: And at that air base, remember, there are almost 400 U.S. personnel there that have been working with Iraqi forces, and so this is a very real concern that they are looking at. It's an ongoing situation as we speak.

BERMAN: Yeah, we're going to address some of the questions this raises in a little bit.

Meanwhile, this just in, dozens of militants aligned with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula have attacked a key prison in southern Yemen, freeing six of their imprisoned fighters.

This attack comes a day after militants seized and looted all the weapons from the 19th Brigade in that province.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and Germany, they have shut down their embassies in Yemen due to the situation there. Of course, the United States, Britain, France, they've all done the same thing.

New revelations in the Brian Williams investigation, NBC's investigation widens as new stories surface. We have the very latest.

BOLDUAN: And a high-speed chase takes front and center at the "American Sniper" murder trial, the video of the suspect fleeing police and what he then told them, it shocked the courtroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BOLDUAN: "Nowhere near done," that's what some at NBC are saying about the investigation into "Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams, his take on even more stories in question beyond how he had described taking fire during the Iraq War and also seeing a body float by in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

BERMAN: So, under the microscope now, stories he has told about the Berlin Wall in the 1980s, also stories he has told about meeting the pope, Pope John Paul II in the 1970s, but perhaps most controversial the way Williams has described a long relationship with the mysterious SEAL Team 6.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: May 2011, an MH-60 Blackhawk helicopter is engulfed in flames after Navy SEAL Team 6 successfully killed Osama bin Laden at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The special ops team set fire to the stealth aircraft after it crashed in this courtyard, an attempt to destroy the helicopter's critical technology.

In an interview with David Letterman in January of 2013, Brian Williams had this to say about a piece of the burned-out wreckage.

BRIAN WILLIAMS, "NBC NIGHTLY NEWS" ANCHOR: About six weeks after the bin Laden raid, I got a white envelope, and in it was a thank-you note, unsigned, and attached to it was a piece of the fuselage, the fuselage from the blown-up Blackhawk in that courtyard.

And I don't know how many pieces survived.

DAVID LETTERMAN, TALK SHOW HOST: Wow.

Sent to you by one of --

WILLIAMS: Yeah. One of my friends.

BERMAN: Those friends, according to Williams, members of the highly secretive SEAL Team 6, but that relationship is being questioned by members of the special operations community and could be one of the things an internal NBC investigation is focused on

In 2011, Williams described a long relationship with SEAL Team 6 when talking about the bin Laden raid in another Letterman appearance.

WILLIAMS: We have some ideas which of our special operations teams carried this out, and it happens to be a team I flew into Baghdad with on the condition that I would never speak of what I saw on the aircraft, the aircraft we were on, what they were carrying, and who they were after.

But all of it was shared with me. It's common when covering a war because to reveal that would be to endanger Americans.

BERMAN: Then, in 2012, during yet another Letterman appearance that perhaps raises the most questions, Williams goes further.

WILLIAMS: I have a throat cutter on my desk at 30 Rock, which is helpful in staff meetings. It just sits there. It was sent to me by a member of SEAL Team 6.

LETTERMAN: Did you say a "throat cutter?"

WILLIAMS: Yes, SEAL Team 6, I flew into Baghdad, invasion plus three days, on a blackout mission at night with elements of SEAL Team 6, and I was told not to make eye contact with them or initiate any conversation.

It was like horses in the gate right before a mission. This guy had a wristband with his human target that he was after when we landed. It was one of the members of the deck of cards, one of the leadership targets.

They are amped. This is the best we have. And until he reached into my box of Wheat Thins, my last remaining American food, it could have been a Wheat Thin commercial, because this hand, the size of a canned ham, goes in. I lost half of my net supply of Wheat Thins, but then I chatted him up and admired a knife as part of his utility belt. Darned if that knife didn't show up at my office a couple weeks later.

BERMAN (voice-over): Whether Brian Williams will be allowed back at that office is now being decided by NBC.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: An investigation is nowhere near done. That's what sources at NBC are telling our Brian Stelter. That's interesting and important to note, right?

BERMAN: Sources also say to CNN analyst Peter Bergen that there's no way that those stories are true. We're going to talk about that with a military analyst and Brian Stelter next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: NBC News tells us their investigation into Brian Williams is nowhere near done. And it has to be said, his stories about SEAL Team 6, these new stories that have surfaced, they will be shocking if it's proved that it's not true.

BOLDUAN: Sources in the SEAL community have told CNN's national security analyst Peter Bergen this about Williams' account of flying into Baghdad with SEAL Team 6. He said this -- his sources have told him this: "We do not embed journalist with any element of that unit. Bottom line -- no." Another source saying Williams' story about getting war memorabilia from SEAL members, saying that it doesn't pass the sniff test.

Senior media corespondent Brian Stelter is here, along with our military analyst and retired Colonel Peter Mansoor.

Brian has been doing a lot of the legwork in trying to figure out where this investigation goes. Colonel, I want to ask you first, though, about this last point, what Peter Bergen is hearing about this SEAL Team 6 story, or tale, if you will.

Do you believe that Brian Williams could have gone into "Baghdad, invasion plus three days," as he put it, with a SEAL team element?

COL. PETER MANSOOR (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I find it incredible to believe that SEAL Team 6, or really any special operations forces, would have carried a live reporter with them on a highly classified and clandestine mission. You know, these guys are going behind enemy lines, they're trying to get high-value targets, and you're going to bring the anchor of one of the major networks in the United States along with you? I don't think so. I mean, it's really incumbent upon Mr. Williams to show evidence that he was on that flight, but I find it incredible to believe.

BERMAN: And Colonel, along those same lines, his claim that he was sent a piece of this super-secret stealth helicopter that was blown up, by the way, after SEALs left -- It was on a timer, presumably - It was blown up after they left the scene at the Osama bin Laden raid, his claim that he was sent a piece of that helicopter as some kind of a gift. Does that strike you as possible?

MANSOOR: Perhaps someone claimed it was a piece of the helicopter. I find that hard to believe that it was because the SEALs are too busy with the mission to collect memorabilia while they're on the ground. Then to -- the piece of helicopter that did come back to U.S. possession after it was destroyed was given to us via Pakistan and it was part of the stealth technology. I doubt that the military is going to allow people to strip pieces of that off and send that as souvenirs to TV anchors. As the SEAL said, it doesn't pass the sniff test.

BOLDUAN: Brian, you have been told from sources within NBC that this investigation is nowhere near done. So you have this SEAL Team 6 story coming out, another story about Brian recalling, in 1979, meeting the pope in person when the pope came to Catholic University. It feels, on one level, like there's piling on of these tales. What do you hear from NBC in terms of why they are saying the investigation is nowhere near done?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: It's because these stories keep coming up. You know, this one was reported yesterday about SEAL Team 6. These things have been, in some ways, hidden in plain sight. These comments are on YouTube. They're visible. I recall, at the time, actually hearing Brian Williams tell this story about the chopper, about getting this piece of the chopper allegedly. If it's true, very easy to prove. He can take a picture of it and show it to people today. Theoretically, some of these claims should either be provable or disprovable pretty easily. Flying into Baghdad may be a little harder to disprove, but we've already heard SOCOM come out and deny it. Williams, of course, is not being able to speak, he's not being allowed to speak by NBC. He's under a contract and under a suspension. I'm told there is no imminent plan for him to speak, even though he would - I'm told also -- love to apologize. So there's a tension here between what he would like to do and what the network would like him to do. We're seeing that play out.

BERMAN: You said something very interesting, these stories were hidden in plain sight. And Kate, you were mentioning to me either, you know, at what point does NBC have to take responsibility for allowing this to go on if he was making things up? I guess we still don't know, to a certain extent, how much or if - But if they knew this was going on for years, how come they didn't do anything?

STELTER: I think we're past the point where we have to ask those questions about responsibility of management. And some of the leaks we're seeing, we've seen them in "The New York Times" and the "The Washington Post" and elsewhere, feels to me like folks are trying to pin the blame just on Brian Williams, when in fact there may have been a systemic issue here.

Let's just consider the apology that was said on air last week. He was apologizing for something he had said on Nightly News the prior Friday. That script had to have been approved by someone and vetted the same way that our scripts here at CNN are vetted and approved, and if it was shown to be wrong, that apology would have also had to have been vetted and seen by a number of executives beforehand. So you have to wonder why there hasn't been more supervision or more involvement of executives at NBC News. Maybe that's because he's been there so long, maybe that's because he's been winning in the ratings. I don't want to guess about what the reasons are, but it seems very strange.

And that may be why, and I'm told they are considering bringing in a third-party investigator to pursue some of these claims, some of these allegations. They may feel that they need to, for their own credibility, bring in someone from the outside because their internal investigators are doing a lot of hard work and fact checking, apparently finding a lot, but there are questions about inside management, as well.

BOLDUAN: Brian, thank you so much. Colonel, thank you, as well. One of the most interesting things is that a lot of these comments that are getting him in trouble right now were not said on NBC News broadcasts; they were said on David Letterman, most of them, that we're seeing that are really tripping him up now. I don't think that makes it any better or worse. It just is.

BERMAN: Good point.

Coming up for us, the FBI is now looking into the killings of three Muslim students in North Carolina. Was it a hate crime? The families say yes. The FBI will now investigate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)