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White House Turmoil; Confederate Monuments; Spain Terror Attacks; Sierra Leone Disaster; Finland Stabbings. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired August 19, 2017 - 05:00   ET

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


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GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The man right there, Steve Bannon, fired from his role as White House chief strategist to the U.S. president, Donald Trump.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Bannon has already rejoined the right-wing news site Breitbart and is telling associates he can be a more powerful force for Trump's agenda from outside the White House.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): And Spanish officials have identified a suspect wanted in connection with Thursday's deadly van attack in Barcelona.

HOWELL (voice-over): We want to welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm George Howell.

ALLEN (voice-over): I'm Natalie Allen. It's 5:00 am on the U.S. East Coast.

ANDERSON (voice-over): And I'm Becky Anderson in Barcelona for you. It's 11:00 am here. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

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HOWELL: Around the world, good day to you.

The ex-White House strategist, Steve Bannon, says that the Trump presidency is now over. Now that he's been fired, no longer part of the administration. Steve Bannon fired on Friday, seven months into his job at the White House.

Hours later he was back in his previous position as the executive chairman of Breitbart news right-wing site, which he calls his, quote, "killing machine."

ALLEN: Yes, he's not going quietly. After being fired, Bannon told "The Weekly Standard" the following, quote, "The Trump presidency that we fought for and won is over. We still have a huge movement, and we will make something of this Trump presidency.

"But that presidency is over. It'll be something else. And there'll be all kinds of fights, and there'll be good days and bad days, but that presidency is over."

HOWELL: One White House official tells CNN that Bannon's firing was originally intended to take place two weeks ago but was put off.

ALLEN: The Trump White House has suffered now a steady erosion of its biggest players since the earliest days of the administration. And Steve Bannon is just the latest.

HOWELL: Our colleague, Tom Foreman, now has a closer look at Bannon's short but stormy tenure at the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the whole, improbable, unexpected roaring rise to power, the man whispering in Donald Trump's ear was Steve Bannon, a true believer at the ultra- right-wing Breitbart.com when few were.

STEVE BANNON, TRUMP CHIEF STRATEGIST: They were laughing at me when I was saying, hey, this guy Trump is going to be -- this is going to be very serious. So it's good to see that you're in the heat of combat now.

TRUMP: I remember you looked and you said , boy, those are big crowds you're getting.

FOREMAN (voice-over): More than a cheerleader, Bannon was the campaign's ideologue, pushing explosive and persistent themes, some of which he'd crafted over years on terrorism...

BANNON: We are in an outright war against jihadist Islamism, Islamic fascism.

FOREMAN (voice-over): -- on big money interests...

BANNON: Our financial elites and the political class have taken care of themselves and led our country to the brink of ruin.

FOREMAN (voice-over): -- on opponents within the Republican Party and on his holy grail (ph)...

BANNON: Deconstruction of the administrative state.

FOREMAN (voice-over): -- once called the most dangerous political operative in America, Bannon is a former Navy officer and a former banker who made an early investment in the "Seinfeld" TV series that led to money and media experience which he transformed into political battering rams.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): We do not want our kids and our grandkids' futures taken away from us and we're going to stand up and do whatever we need to do to make sure that that doesn't happen.

FOREMAN (voice-over): He produced a series of blistering films promoting conservative views on immigration, climate change and the Obama administration. Bannon's movies praised Sarah Palin and the Right while savaging Hillary Clinton and the Left.

BANNON: With the Clintons, nothing is sacred. Everything is for sale. But we are the ones who are paying the price.

FOREMAN (voice-over): And through it all, he preached the gospel of a government run amok.

TRUMP: Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

FOREMAN (voice-over): By the time he and Trump joined forces, Bannon was fiercely going after the media and elites of all stripes.

BANNON: I say everyday these working class men and women, middle class men and women are 10 times smarter than this intellectual group --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: I say that, too.

FOREMAN: But Bannon's outsider status caused friction with the D.C. insiders. He was never able to push any major legislation through to passage. He fell out of favor with some Trump family members and critics never stopped howling his ties to the nationalist alt-right movement with its racist overtones.

BANNON: We're a nation with a culture and a reason for being. And I think that's what unites us. And I think that that is what is going to unite this movement going forward.

FOREMAN (voice-over): And even though he's now out of the White House, as he takes a familiar role as Breitbart's executive chairman, you can expect --

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FOREMAN (voice-over): -- his war on Washington to roar on.

BANNON: If you think they're going to give you your country back without a fight, you are sadly mistaken.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: Tom, thank you for the report.

Bannon isn't the only Trump aide leaving his post. Another, Carl Icahn, he says that he's leaving, too. The billionaire investor was the president's special advisor on regulatory reform. He said he's leaving because he didn't want partisan bickering about his role to cloud the administration.

ALLEN: A religious advisor to the president says he's also stepping down. Pastor A.R. Bernard explained to CNN's Don Lemon why he quit Mr. Trump's evangelical advisory board. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

A.R. BERNARD, FORMER TRUMP RELIGIOUS ADVISER: As time progressed, you look for change. You look for consistency. You look for responsibility and leadership. And I didn't see consistency in a set of core values that influenced and shaped his thinking.

And when he vacillated over the last week, especially over Charlottesville, I'd come to point where I had to make a decision to more than just step away. I had to fully disengage myself.

And when you vacillate like that, it means that there's not a set of core values that you have determined to guide your thinking, your decision making. Instead, it demonstrates that you're being tossed between opinions of those around you. And I've got a problem with that kind of lack of leadership.

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HOWELL: All right.

And now take a look at this photo. It certainly tells a story. Taken in the Oval Office shortly after the inauguration, surrounding Mr. Trump and the vice president, Michael Flynn, Sean Spicer, Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon, the president's original inner circle.

All of them except Mr. Pence gone in less than seven months.

The U.S. president is also facing harsh words from the mother of the woman killed in Charlottesville, Virginia. Susan Bro condemned Mr. Trump's response and says she doesn't need to hear anything the president has to say. Earlier she explained how she never ended up speaking to anyone from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN BRO, HEATHER HEYER'S MOTHER: At first, I just missed his calls. The first call looked like it actually came during the funeral. I didn't even see that message. There were three more frantic messages from press secretaries throughout the day and I didn't know why that would have been on Wednesday.

And I was home, recovering from the exhaustion of the funeral. So I really hadn't watched the news until last night. And I'm not talking to the president now. I'm sorry. (CROSSTALK)

BRO: -- after what he said about my child. And it's not that I saw somebody else's tweets about him. I saw an actual clip of him at a press conference, equating the protesters "like Ms. Heyer" with the KKK and the white supremacists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Even before Steve Bannon lost his job at the White House, at least one prominent Republican was commenting on Mr. Trump's shrinking inner circle. Here's what former House Speaker and Trump adviser Newt Gingrich told FOX News just hours before it was announced that Bannon was out.

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NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: I think he's in a position right now where he is much more isolated than he realizes. On the Hill, he has far more people willing to sit to one side and not help him right now.

And I think that he needs to recognize that he's taken a good first step with bringing in General Kelly. But he needs to think about what has not worked. And you don't get down in the 35 percent range of approval and have people in your own party shooting at you and conclude that everything is going fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: And it is not just Gingrich; other Republicans, notably Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, have begun to question Mr. Trump's competence.

HOWELL: Let's now bring in Ellis Henican, political analyst and columnist for the Metro Papers, live with us this hour via Skype in New York.

It's good to have you with us, Ellis. We've been talking about Steve Bannon this hour.

So what impact will it bring to the White House now that Steve Bannon is out?

ELLIS HENICAN, METRO PAPERS: At first glance it seems like a pretty major move. This is a guy who's had a big impact on the policies that the president focuses on, on the energy around the White House. He's certainly been a great leaker to those of us in the media.

But, you know, every time we get one of these moves, we're disappointed by the level of impact it has because Donald Trump is the president. He runs the place very much in his own image and likeness.

So if I'm betting, sitting here right now, I'll bet you the Trump presidency will be pretty similar in a week or two as the way it's been in the past couple of weeks.

HOWELL: Steve Bannon has released several quotes suggesting that he will in be --

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HOWELL: -- stronger now that he, quote, "knows what he knows."

What impact could he have on his Breitbart media that he refers to his killing machine?

HENICAN: Here's the first question.

Is Breitbart under Bannon a friend or a foe of the Trump administration?

HENICAN: We don't really know the answer to that. It was a hugely important media organization in helping elect Donald Trump. Lately it's been a little hard to play -- there's been some positive stuff, some negative stuff. But more pushing one agenda over another.

But with Bannon back there, is Donald Trump going to say, well, you know, it was frustrating sometimes to have Steve Bannon inside the tent. But, boy, he's much more dangerous outside the tent?

That's what I'm going to be watching.

HOWELL: So with Steve Bannon now out, let's talk about other people involved in this White House. One, for instance, the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, who has many times gone head to head with Steve Bannon.

Will this move essentially make operations for Secretary Tillerson easier now that Bannon is out?

HENICAN: Well, again, it's one player removed from a complex puzzle. Keep your eyes on General Kelly, the chief of staff. I mean, under a normal administration, he would be a key, key figure in terms of setting the tone, in terms of figuring out who it is that has access to the president.

Now he has not yet had that impact that we can see in his short time as chief of staff of Donald Trump because life just goes on. In fact, last week, and this week together were probably the roughest patch so far. And that was after General Kelly arrived. So in the end, it really all does come back to the president himself.

HOWELL: Ellis Henican with context there, thanks so much for your time today.

HENICAN: Good seeing you guys.

ALLEN: We're following police shootings that have occurred in this country and we're learning more about them. Three in the U.S. all targeting police. Authorities say one officer has died after a shooting in Kissimmee, Florida, that's just south of Orlando. Another is in grave critical condition there.

The police chief says they're investigating if this incident was an ambush. They have several suspects in custody.

The U.S. president is sending his support, tweeting, "My thoughts and prayers are with the Kissimmee police and their loved ones. We are with you."

Another one was in Jacksonville, Florida. Authorities say two officers were shot with a high powered rifle. And police say two state troopers were shot late Friday night in Fayette County, Pennsylvania; the suspect there was killed.

HOWELL: After the break, we go back to Barcelona for the very latest on this complex investigation around multiple terror attacks that took place on the coast of Spain. Stay with us.

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HOWELL: Welcome back to NEWSROOM.

Police say that the deadly stabbings in the Finnish city of Turku are new being treated as acts of terror. At least two people died, eight others wounded, during Friday's incidents that took place at two markets. Police say the suspect was injured while being apprehended by authorities. He's an 18-year-old Moroccan citizen and known to police.

And, of course, we continue to follow the terror attacks that have occurred in Spain. Our Becky Anderson is in Barcelona and she joins us once again.

ANDERSON: Thank you.

Reuters quoting Spanish police who say the driver in Thursday's van attack in Barcelona may still be on the run. They also identified this man, Younes Abouyaaqoub, as a suspect at large but would not confirm if he was the one behind the wheel.

Now four other suspects are currently in custody. And police killed another five in a shootout in Cambrils, which is about 70 miles down the coast here from Barcelona, after they also ran a car into civilians Thursday night.

There were three connected events then along the coast, leaving 14 civilians dead. The first incident, a house explosion in Alcanar. Investigators say explosives were being made and stored there. And a premature detonation leveled the house.

Police found traces of TATP, the same substance used in deadly bombings in Paris, Brussels and Manchester within the last two years. And they believe the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils could have been far bloodier if the explosives had made it out of that house.

Joining me now from Alcanar is CNN's Isa Soares.

What are our sources telling you there, Isa?

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Becky, before I talk to you I want to show you what I'm seeing just behind me. You've just seen a bulldozer go past our live shot position here. It's going to the house in Alcanar.

And we know this because we've speaking to the local officials, they're basically saying they brought this bulldozer in because one of the other bulldozers they've been using the last two days, Becky, that has actually been damaged.

It was an explosion they weren't expecting in the early hours, about 5:00 pm on Thursday and that damaged the bulldozer.

So now another one has been brought in to move the rubble, move the stones and try and have a more controlled explosions being carried out here, which we have seen the last half an hour or so.

So what they're doing, they are moving the stones bit by bit, they're putting all the explosions it into small piles, according to this official, and they're then having those controlled explosions. So this very house very much the focus of the investigation from what police have been telling us.

They believe it was from here that those 12 individuals operated, that this was their cell. And it was from here that they planned the attack in Barcelona but also in Cambrils.

In the last few hours we've also been putting the names and the faces to the people behind this horrific attack. One man is still on the run, in the loose. His name is Younes Abouyaaqoub, a local media here saying he is 22 years of age and he is a Moroccan.

We also know that he comes from a town, a city north of Barcelona, it's called Ripoll. He is one of three other individuals who have been arrested who are from Ripoll. So police looking at Ripoll as part of the investigation but clearly focusing their attention on this house.

In this house they have found traces of the explosive TATP, according to one source close to the investigation.

Why is that important?

Because it helps us paint a picture perhaps of what these men were planning and how big of an attack they were planning. We know that TATP has been used in explosions in the Paris and Brussels attacks and also in the Manchester bombing in May -- Becky.

ANDERSON: You've been speaking to people locally. Let's just step back from the information you've just given us, which is hugely important in what is this complex web that the police are now trying to sort of pick apart here.

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ANDERSON: You've been talking to locals.

How do they feel about the possibility that there was an active cell in their area that could have pulled off -- I mean, they pulled off what was huge terror both here in Barcelona and down the coast close to Tarragona. But the idea this could have been even bigger is awful.

What are locals telling you?

SOARES: Look, Becky, I was in Cambrils yesterday. You and I were talking from there yesterday. A state of shock; many people, having seen what many saw in the late hours of Thursday night. But also a sense of defiance.

But here where I am in Alcanar, I mean, if I just step to the side, there are about three or four properties on the main road where the house is sitting. But to the right of the camera, you'll be able to see another three or four.

These houses almost like summerhouses or almost like beacon houses. So many of the people here, they wouldn't have come across the group, the alleged terrorists inside. Although, we have been speaking to one lady who owns a house here and she said that her windows were actually blasted because of one of the explosions.

But she said she saw them coming and going on several occasions but she didn't think anything of it, Becky. So people very much in a state of shock as to the information that is now coming in.

ANDERSON: An all-too familiar scene, it seems, over the past couple of years here on mainland Europe. Isa, thank you.

Well, some of the victims who lost their lives in Barcelona are being identified; 43-year-old American Jared Tucker was on delayed honeymoon with his wife of one year. His father described the moment he learned his son was dead.

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NUNES TUCKER, JARED'S FATHER: And it was just a few minutes after he left is when the terrorist's truck hit. And they were there but they weren't hurt. But then they tried to find Jared afterwards. And nobody could find him.

And they thought, well, maybe he was just in one of the hotels that they secured until the police released it. When they released people from the hotels to come back out on the streets, Jared didn't show up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Two Italian nationals were also killed in the attack, Bruno Gulotta was on holiday with his partner and two children.

And 25-year-old Luca Russo was vacationing as well with his girlfriend, who was also wounded. In all, nationals of at least 34 countries were killed or wounded. All those countries you see in yellow on this map.

For more on the attacks here in Spain, I'm joined from London by Sajjan Gohel. He's a terrorism expert and the international security director at the Asia Pacific Foundation.

Sajjan, I just want our viewers and you to see the headlines on two of these newspapers today. The cell of 12 jihadis was going to spread terror in Catalunya. The cell manufactured explosives to cause hundreds of deaths. Isa has just been reporting from Alcanar. You'll have heard what she said, the possibility now it seems or

certainly the evidence is building to suggest that that house outside of which she has been reporting from, could have been what effectively is a bomb factory.

And that could have wrought terror the likes of which we cannot imagine. I mean it's been bad enough, it's been awful what we've seen here in Barcelona and down the coast near Tarragona. But just reflect on what we are beginning to learn, if you will, about what happened here and what has developed over the past, what, 72 hours.

SAJJAN GOHEL, ASIA PACIFIC FOUNDATION: Well, Becky, it's important that the Spanish authorities have been able to piece this very complex web together. There's talk about a cell but I would actually argue that it appears that there is a network.

And that house in Alcanar that you described as being a bomb factory. They could have been plotting multiple attacks to hit Spain, not just Barcelona, not just Catalonia but perhaps travel beyond the province to go across Spain to carry out the attacks.

It brings very eerie, very painful memories of the 2004 Madrid train bombings, when you had a coordinated attack on the Madrid transportation system, killing 190 people.

Now the vehicle attack may have killed over a dozen. But it's possible that if they were able to use those explosives, they could have killed dozens more, scores more. And it's an illustration of the fact there are these networks that exist embedded within Europe.

They cooperate, share resources, recruit individuals and they may also be a virtual network in the terms of ISIS communicating with people online to plot and plan attacks.

ANDERSON: What does --

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ANDERSON: -- your intelligence, Sajjan, tell you about the scope of any possible networks here in Spain?

GOHEL: The Spanish authorities have been warning months before the attack in Barcelona that there is a concern that potential terrorist activity is on the rise. They were seeing a spike in electronic chatter. There have been arrests taking place. Plots have been disrupted.

If you piece those failed disrupted plot together with the successful attack in Barcelona, you're actually seeing a series of coordinated efforts by those inspired by ISIS, those directed and those assisted by the group.

And we have to remember that we've seen a whole spate of these vehicle attacks, turning cars into lethal weapons. London, where I am, has experienced it several times this year; also in Stockholm. And the worry is that this is a low-cost, low sophisticated attack but nevertheless high intensity and inflicts mass casualties.

ANDERSON: Authorities here appear to be building a picture of a cell, network as perhaps we might describe it, of characters who seem to have familial ties. And some of those ties are to Morocco.

Again, what do you know -- what is your intelligence on the scope of affiliation outside perhaps of Spain in North Africa?

GOHEL: Well, again, it brings back similarities to the 2004 Madrid train bombings. The cell was largely comprised of North African Salafists. Now that was tied to Al Qaeda. But nevertheless, the demographic that ISIS will want to try and tap into is from North Africa, those that are based in places like Catalonia.

We know also that there's been a North African connection to Paris, with plots there, as well as the Brussels airport and train bombings. So that is a concern.

The thing is this, is that ISIS will recruit anybody that they can tap into, using a physical network, using a virtual network. If they're able to recruit people online, using the dark web, using encrypted messaging, it doesn't matter what the ethnic group is; they're looking for someone that is susceptible to the ideology, who wishes to be part of this death cult, to kill and be killed.

ANDERSON: Your analysis is always extremely important to help us build a picture as indeed authorities continue to try and pick apart this complex web. Sajjan, thank you.

Well, still ahead, the firing of one of President Trump's top advisers caps off what has been a tumultuous week for the U.S. administration. Ahead, we'll have the details.

Plus the debate over Confederate monuments is heating up in the United States. Some say they symbolize racism and should be taken down.

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GEORGE HOWELL, CNN: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. It is good to be with you. I'm George Howell.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): And I'm Natalie Allen. Here are our top stories right now.

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ALLEN: Steve Bannon's ouster capped off a week of extraordinary political upheaval in the Trump administration.

HOWELL: CNN's Joe Johns has more now on how the Bannon firing became reality.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Yet

another bombshell shakes the foundation of the Trump administration, Mr. Trump's controversial chief strategist forced out after a short and stormy tenure at the White House.

STEVE BANNON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST: I can run a little hot on occasion.

JOHNS: Bannon's departure comes at the end of a brutal week for the administration.

TRUMP: I think there's blame on both sides.

JOHNS: But what may have been the last straw for Bannon, a controversial interview the former Breitbart News executive gave to the liberal publication "American Prospect," undermining the president's North Korea strategy, saying there is no military option to deal with the threat.

The official White House statement cited the tough new White House chief of staff, John Kelly, who has been trying to restore order to the West Wing.

"John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve's last day. We're grateful for his service and wish him the best."

Bannon the latest in a long list of top Trump advisers to head for the exit, including Sean Spicer and Reince Priebus. The president has signaled Bannon's days were numbered in his impromptu news conference this week.

TRUMP: He's a good man. He is not a racist. I can tell you that. We will see what happens with Mr. Bannon.

JOHNS: A darling of the alt-right, Bannon saw part of his role as keeping the promises the president made during the campaign.

BANNON: Hold us accountable to what we promised. Hold us accountable for delivering on what we promised.

JOHNS: The blowback coming from the left and the right. Breitbart editor Joel Pollak reacting to Bannon's ouster on Twitter with one ominous word, "War."

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi welcomed the firing, but said, "It doesn't disguise where President Trump himself stands on white supremacists and the bigoted beliefs they advance."

Bannon's ouster may not quell the blowback from the president's controversial remarks earlier this week. The mother of the woman who was killed in a car attack by an alt-right sympathizer said she has no interest in meeting the president.

SUSAN BRO, MOTHER OF HEATHER HEYER: I have just missed his calls. The call -- the first call, it looked like, actually came during the funeral.

[05:35:00]

JOHNS: And there was more fallout still. Besides having to shut down his manufacturing council and policy forum because so many CEOs were resigning, there was news on Friday that a number of top-shelf charities had pulled out of events at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, including the American Cancer Society, the Red Cross and the Susan G. Komen Foundation -- Joe Johns, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: Joe, thank you.

And Joe touched on this, the deadly events that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia. Police in the United States are bracing for the possibility of more protests over Confederate monuments.

ALLEN: The fight to permanently remove these symbols is nothing new but has seemingly been given new life in the wake of Charlottesville. For more now, here's Nick Valencia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's not just in the South. This week across America, symbols and monuments to the Confederacy were either taken down or vandalized, sparking the fight over several hundred Confederate monuments and symbols.

In Brooklyn, grounds keepers outside the St. John's Episcopal Church removed two commemorative plaques for Confederate General Robert E. Lee. They were expected to be relocated to a church museum. Reactions were mixed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because of this man, 300,000 Americans were killed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At some point you've got to move on and you can't do stuff like this. It's just crazy.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Earlier in the week in Durham, North Carolina, demonstrators toppled the statue of a Confederate soldier. Seven protesters were arrested.

At Western Arizona, state and local officials woke up Thursday to an extensively damaged Confederate monument along the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's my family there.

VALENCIA (voice-over): People like David McCallister are trying to protect monuments like this one in his hometown of Tampa Bay. He leads a group called Save Southern Heritage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our agenda is the mainstream agenda of cherishing American history. VALENCIA (voice-over): Elected officials in New Orleans recently removed several Confederate monuments. Mayor Mitch Landrieu thinks those who support them endorse oppression.

MITCH LANDRIEU, MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS: These monuments celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy, ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement, ignoring the terror that it actually stood for.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Last week's deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, magnified the issue again. And in the wake of it all, the president's comments seemed to only widen the gap between opposing sides.

TRUMP: I wonder, is it George Washington next week?

And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after?

You know, you all -- you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?

VALENCIA (voice-over): Nick Valencia, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: And again the concern this weekend that there'll be more protests over what we saw in Charlottesville, Virginia, and over monuments. Obviously we'll be continuing to cover these stories.

ALLEN: It's going to go on. And just hopefully somehow we can stay peaceful through it.

HOWELL: Still ahead here on NEWSROOM, Spanish authorities have a daunting investigation ahead of them as they work to find the links among three terror incidents and bring those people responsible to justice.

ALLEN: Also, Sierra Leone, tragedy continues there; as a mudslide killed hundreds of people this week, now the country faces a potential health crisis. We'll have more about it.

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BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Live images of the memorial on Las Ramblas just 500 yards or so over my shoulder here in Barcelona as people continue to remember those who lost their lives and have been injured in what has been this awful terror in Spain.

Authorities still working to bring the perpetrators of Thursday's terror attacks to justice. But in the long term, perhaps the bigger question will be how to prevent more disasters in the future. With me now, Julia Rushchenko, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson

Society.

We are learning that this is a multifaceted, complex, ongoing investigation into what now seems to be three sites, a cell -- a significant cell, it seems, intent on wreaking havoc here in Spain.

As we consider what we are learning from authorities -- and I must tell our viewers we are waiting for more information in the next minutes from the interior ministry in which we may get an update on what they know -- just give me a sense of what you can see within all of this.

JULIA RUSHCHENKO, THE HENRY JACKSON SOCIETY: So of course, definitely the last year has been very tragic for Europe with regard to incidents of this Islamist terrorism, especially truck attacks that have hit Europe numerous times, different locations of Europe.

And, of course, more details regarding this particular case the Spain -- the Spanish case are yet to emerge. What we know so far is -- and what is really striking is the age of the perpetrators, of the suspects.

One of the suspects who was allegedly shot by the police is barely 17.

And in terms of future actions, how do we deal with these individuals?

Of course we can convict, we can prosecute. However, across many jurisdictions, people under 18 are considered to be children. And they have certain protections derived from their status as a minor.

So what are our next steps if we discover that people that young as 17 are involved in those plots?

And they already are.

ANDERSON: Right.

RUSHCHENKO: So this is one of the first --

ANDERSON: -- and you are posing some very, very important questions. And these aren't new questions. These are questions that authorities across Europe have been asking themselves now for years. Let's remember that one of the biggest attacks on mainland Europe was in Madrid here in Spain back in 2004.

But the last couple of years, we are all too familiar with the sort of scenes we've seen here in Spain over the past 72 hours or so.

So are we coming up with any conclusions, any answers to the questions that you have just posed?

RUSHCHENKO: Well, it is still an ongoing debate on what to do with the people who commit terrorist related offenses, of course. And especially when they are under age, when they're minors. What, of course, investigation has to do now -- [05:45:00]

RUSHCHENKO: -- is to carry out investigations into links Northern African locations.

For instance, in the case of Spain, a very interesting observation is that a lot of people who have joined foreign fighters from Spain are actually from the North African Spanish territories, from selton melia (ph), right?

And allegedly some of the perpetrators of this attack also have links to the Spanish ancloubs (ph). So that's one of the ideas, of course.

ANDERSON: If indeed a 17-year-old is involved in this attack, how do we rationalize that?

RUSHCHENKO: So, of course, the Spanish context is quite different from many other European countries because Spain is a recent destination for migration, right. We can't compare it to the U.K., for instance, or even the U.S. that has been a destination for migration for many decades.

However, we see very similar patterns also in Spain: alienation, immigrant syndrome that many young people experience from the second generation. Again, as I've already said, more details are yet to emerge, whether these suspects or perpetrators were indeed -- whether they were raised in Spain, whether they were -- whether they migrated there at some point and they experienced some inequality issues and so on.

But of course this is still one of the pressing factors that they could have experienced. Alienation, discrimination and other symptoms that migrants experience, especially we know that Catalunya is definitely one of the most biggest choices, one of the most significant choices for migration because it's a highly industrialized area. It's an area with many employment opportunities, right.

So Barcelona, specifically. So it is not as surprising that Catalunya has around 18 percent of immigrant population, with immigrant descent, right, whether it's recent or a little further back in time and Muslim community is quite significant, in fact, in Catalunya.

So we are talking about South Asian migrants from mostly Pakistan, Bangladesh; many of them are, of course, labor migrants. Most of them predominantly, if you look at demographics, they're male. They are -- many of the are not married.

We also -- there are also significant population of North African migrants, specifically from Morocco, again, not surprising why they choose Barcelona because it's a very important location in regard to job opportunities.

But we have to still look in the factors that force these young people besides the ideology, Islamist ideology, violent ideology. We already know it is a factor.

ANDERSON: We appreciate your thoughts this morning out of London. We are in Barcelona.

Coming up, Sierra Leone still reeling from this week's mudslide. Hundreds killed, hundreds more missing. And now a potential crisis for the health of those who survived and others.

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ALLEN: Sierra Leone is facing a potential health crisis as the search for hundreds of people continues after this week's deadly floods and mudslides.

HOWELL: So far more than 460 people are confirmed dead. Our Farai Sevenzo has this report for us.

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FARAI SEVENZO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The journey for those killed in Sierra Leone's mudslide ends here, at Waterloo Cemetery, a graveyard created for Ebola victims.

More than 450 victims of the natural disaster have been buried. According to government minister. That new figure includes those killed by flash floods in nearby provinces and there are hundreds still missing.

The risk of disease in this long-suffering country is real and so the dead had to be buried quickly. Cholera, typhoid, malaria, Ebola, all have stalked this city. Heavy rains, which caused the hills to give way, seized enough for the graves to be prepared.

Some people were so badly mutilated by debris carried in the muddy waters, only parts of them were laid to rest.

But even as the country reaches for closure, there are still body parts buried in the mud and some were washed away to sea. And that is the government's new concern, how the presence of so many corpses could lead to a serious health crisis.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have put cholera preparedness in place all across the city. And we will proceed to on the provinces also. We are seeing already the water that they're washing with, some people are coming away with skin infection.

The minister of health and sanitation has a big task ahead. We are quick to a point. But as you know, no country could do it alone.

SEVENZO (voice-over): And what cannot be imagined or seen is the smell of death which still lingers since Monday's tragedy unfolded. "We will bury our loved ones," says Sierra Leone's president, Ernest

Bai Koroma, "but we will not bury our hopes."

As the sun sets over Waterloo Cemetery, the living remember the dead in a candlelit vigil. it is their hope that Sierra Leone will rise again -- Farai Sevenzo, CNN.

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The journey for those killed ends here. A graveyard created for Ebola victims. According to a government administer, that new figure includes those codes by flash floods in nearby provinces. The risk of disease in the long suffering country are real and so the dead had to be buried quickly. All have stalked this city. Heavy rains which caused the Hills

Some people were so badly mutilated by prepared. Even as the country reaches for closure, there's still body parts buried in the mud and some were rushed to sea. The presence of so many corpses could lead to a serious health crisis.

We have put preparedness in place all across, you know, the city. And we'll proceed to the provinces also. We're seeing already, you know, the water that they're washing with skin infection. We are quick to appoint but as you know, no country could do it alone.

And what cannot be imagined or seen is the smell of death which still lingers since Monday's tragedy unfolded.

We will bury our loved ones but we will not bury our hopes. As the sun sets, the living remember the dead in a candle lit vigil. It is their hope that Sierra Leone will rise again -- Farai Sevenzo, CNN.

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ALLEN: And thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen.

HOWELL: And I'm George Howell. For viewers around the world, "CNN TALK" is next. Here in the United States, "NEW DAY" starts right after the break.