tv Anderson Cooper 360 CNN August 25, 2014 5:00pm-7:01pm PDT
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ant anti-racism point. >> that feels like a long way rupp. >> reporter: hope they didn't just drop the peels. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> a selfie with a message. "ac 360" starts right now. good evening, thanks for joining us. isis makes disturbing new roads. the question is will the united states expand air strikes to try to stop them? the syrian regime says it's ready to accept help. will the united states give it and will be enough as they take control of more of the country. napa recovering from the strongest earthquake it has seen in 25 years. see if this is a precursor for the next big one. we begin in missouri where the family of michael brown had a request to celebrate his life, to lay him to rest in silence. that request was honored today. protests gave way to peace, tear gas replaced with tears as people gathered at brown's funeral to celebrate his life
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just over two weeks after his death. family members spoke of the young man they called mike-mike, a big guy with a kind and gentle soul. thousands turned up at friendly semple missionary baptist church in st. louis, family, friends, community leaders, clergy member, strangers and stars, all to say good-bye to 18-year-old michael brown to honor the memory of his young life. victor blackwell reports. ♪ >> reporter: organizers called a celebration of the life of michael brown. family members and complete strangers jumped to their feet clapping and shouting. ♪ >> reporter: but not lesley mcspadden. she stood staring at her son's casket more than two weeks after he was shot. >> michael brown's blood is crying from the ground, crying for vengeance, crying for justice. >> reporter: justice brown's
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great uncle says for more than just his nephew. >> there is a cry being made from the ground. not just for michael brown, but for the trayvon martins, for those children at sandy hook elementary school, for the columbine massacre, for the black on black crime, there is a cry being made from the ground. >> it was a message of keep it peaceful and it starts at home, excuse me, it starts at home and goes out to the community and then into the world. you know, we have to start with ourselves and then go out and, you know, spread peace and be respectful definitely first and foremost, be respectful of others. >> reporter: ranita conway had never met michael brown, some wearing a memorial t-shirt and sharing a story of their loss. >> i know the grieving over lost grandchildren that will never be
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born. >> reporter: celebrities like spike lee and jesse jackson sat in a vip section next to politicians from the state capitol and the nation's capital. and there was plenty of politics. >> what you guys can do to continue this is show up at voting polls. let your voices be heard and let everyone know that we have had enough of all of this. >> reporter: but after weeks of protests with moments of violence, fogs of tear gas and standoffs with police, a plea. >> today is for peace. peace and quiet. we will lay our son, brother, cousin, uncle, our family, young man, young black man, young human being, but we don't say
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good-bye. we say good journey until we meet again. >> victor joins us live now. obviously an emotional day for ferguson. what's it like there tonight? >> reporter: well, anderson, most people i spoke with after the service say they expect things to be peaceful tonight and not to see those protests we've seen over the past 2 1/2 weeks now. there was one speaker who said that the heavens will shake with our shouts and our cries for justice and equality, but not today. today is for peace. you know, coincidentally i was sirting up in the balcony. a woman in front of me was one of the most vocal protesters we saw over the weekend. she was dressed in her black t schiff shirt and the cargo pants and military boot, wore dark glasses, she was shouting over the weekend but she sat silently at the service today out of respect and she left without incident, you know, the police, the law enforcement, every car you see over my shoulder are law enforcement cars, thisser ahe -- they're ready if something
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happens over the next few hours. will have to see what happens when night falls. >> thanks. joining me is eric davis along with generbenjamin crump, an aty for the family. our condolences to you and your family. as you saw today, what to you was the greatest message that came out of today's service? >> i think the greatest message that came out of today's service is that this is the beginning of a movement. this is not just a burial for michael brown, but a movement for the country, for the communities to come together and to speak to the police officers about how they are policing our communities. and i believe that that was a message that reverend al sharpton drove home very well today. >> and, eric, we saw some of that with voter registration drives, outside red's barbecue on thursday night when i was there last, do you believe that
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this will continue, that this will continue to be a movement that goes beyond the, you know, beyond your cousin and impact people around the country? >> yes, i do. michael did let us know as we spoke of today that his name would be known around the world. and i do believe that this is a movement that just the beginning of a movement because things that have happened here in ferguson, missouri, there were also protesters in new york city, los angeles and around the world, so i do believe that this is just the beginning of a movement for the african-american community can speak out to let people know that the police need to treat us fair and justly in our communities. >> ben, on sunday night, michael brown's dad pleaded for a day of calm as he and michael brown's mom have pleaded all along. explain to people why that is so important to them because my understanding they don't want people to lose focus of michael brown. they don't want the distraction to be the violence of
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demonstrations, they want the focus to be on what they call and demand justice for michael brown. >> absolutely, anderson, and really when you get down to the crux of the matter, for them to be able to have their son rest in peace as they put him in the ground today, they need everybody to be peaceful and focus on getting justice because as eric said, it really is a call for action today. we think how we pay respect to michael brown is trying to prevent anymore michael browns and we do that, anderson, by calling for mandatory body cameras on police officers and mandatory dash cam video for police departments all around the country so we can take the guesswork out of it and we can see what actually happens and it'll be transparent that ferguson has been so desperately calling for. >> ben, it may not be until mid-october until the grand jury
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finishes its work. what happens as far as you're concerned between now and then? >> well, i think certainly we keep the pressure on the justice department to keep doing the review and also i believe witnesses even today were still coming forward and i think we're going to have some new evidence that will come out that will give us more insight into what happened on that saturday afternoon when he was executed in broad daylight. >> benjamin, i appreciate you being on, eric davis, as well. i know it's been a long and difficult day. i appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. three amazingly strong women, the mothers of michael brown, trayvon martin and sean bell coming together for a conversation about how to go on after the death of a son day to day sometimes minute by minute second by second what they share is extraordinary you'll hear it here next.
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the funeral program for michael brown included a letter from his mother, lesley mcspadden wrote about how becoming a mom gave her a new sense of being that out of everything she did her son was what she got right and he was the purpose of her life. not many people can truly understand what michael brown's mother is going through but the mothers of trayvon martin and sean bell know what it's like, their sons were killed in the prime of life. 17-year-old trayvon martin was
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as you know killed by george zimmermann in 2012. 23-year-old sean bell was killed by police in new york city in 2 006. our don lemon spoke to all three joining together in support of one another. >> go ahead. >> we got it. we got it. >> we got it. >> we got it. >> we got it. >> hey, momma. hey, momma. >> god bless you. god bless you. >> reporter: an emotional embrace. >> just lean on him and he going to cover you and he going to cover you and make sure you're okay. >> reporter: the mothers of trayvon martin, sean bell and michael brown meeting for the first time. >> keep your head up no matter what, keep your head up so he can see. see your son in you. >> reporter: we stepped out of the room. >> see you in a few minutes. >> okay. >> reporter: giving them time alone before starting our interview. what can these moms, these
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women, they can offer you something that the guys can't, the husbands can't? >> yeah. >> reporter: what can they offer you? >> spree teaking to me from experience, you know. they offer me something right now. but i can't tell you what it is. but it's something. and something is more than nothing. >> reporter: when we were standing there waiting to meet her, you turned to valerie, sybrina and you said, are you having flashbacks of this moment. >> yes, she did. >> reporter: when it was the day before the home going -- >> if i wasn't here to be strong for her, my son eight years ago was the flashback and think about her at that time, her son was 10 years old when it happened and i thought to say to her keep the memories in your heart, that's going to help you
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to continue to carry on with your son and believe and have faith in god will help you and the close family members. that's what keeps me, the memories of my son. he told me i got this so i'm telling you, i got this. it's okay to scream and cry. >> you have to focus on when he was smiling. his first day of school and you have to focus on christmas day and things like that. the happier times and put a picture up when he was happy. >> yes. >> and you have to focus on those just don't know cuss on the death. because that's going to eat away at you. >> and, you know it's hard and you probably are thinking right now that i'm sure it doesn't seem real to you. but these ladies are examples that there's -- you can survive this. and i don't know -- i can't -- maybe i'm not putting it in the right words but can you ever be whole again or can you ever -- how would you put it. >> i don't think it's a matter of being whole. what i think it is is a matter
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of a new life and this is the new life. this is -- i can never go back to who i was and what i was because i'm missing something very precious in my life and something very special. >> losing my son was like losing a part of your body but you remember. you remember what that part of your body has done for you. like if you lose an arm you knew what that arm did so my thing is keeping the memories that will keep you and carry you on. >> i want you to talk about it because it's going to be very difficult is character assassination. i think you describe it as character assassination, one of them. what do you mean by that? >> that means that people that don't even know her son is going to say negative things about him just to portray him in a different light, in a negative light, just to try to justify what happened.
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>> is that one of the hardest part you even are thinking about, about people talking about your son? >> no, the hardest part for her is going to be the home going service. as i have said that is the absolutely worst day of her life as a mother because there is no words that can bring comfort to her as a mother by seeing her son in a casket. >> do you go around the house in the kitchen and talk to trayvon. >> absolutely. absolutely. >> do you? >> yes. if i know something has to be done, ma, i got this. ma, i got this. favorite saying. >> do you do the same thing, lesley? >> especially when it rain. yep. >> when it rains.
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why? >> something about the rain. i feel him. he's there. he's there. he's watching over you. >> what was it like meeting her? >> i'm glad i did meet you. it brought back memories of my son and i just thought of your son. >> it's hurtful but at the same time it's -- it's comforting because i know she needs people that understand what she's going through. >> and, lesley, what was it like meeting these ladies? they've been saying everything how they feel about you. what's it like meeting them? what do you want to say to them?
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>> i'm sorry what you had to go throu through. i'm sorry about your son. >> thank you all. >> he got you. he got you, baby. he got you. >> three mothers all who have been through the worst possible kind of loss. joining me now are cnn legal analyst and former prosecutor sunny hostin and charles bowe. so many people -- and we talked about this last week in the wake of something like this retreat to various corners and they see it through a certain press. they're either in support of the brown family, they're in support of the officer involved here. and, again, there's a lot we don't know about what went on
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but there is something and you wrote about it in your column in "the new york times" that everybody can sympathize with a mother's loss no matter what you think about this case, this is -- it boils down to for this family it is a loss which will be impossible to replace. >> absolutely. and sean bell's mother in that particular interview even compared it to phantom limb syndrome that there's something missing from you that you remember what it did, you remember the articulation of it and how -- but at this point it's no longer there and you are forever imagining it could be back or it has forever fundamentally changed who you are as a human being and i think that these particular cases are even more poignant because we as all parents regardless of what race or whatever you are, you always teach your kids to watch out for the bad guys. these are the people and in those cases you can talk about things like, you know, maybe we should address gun policy or address mental illness or maybe
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we should address gang violence in our neighborhoods and incarceration, whatever you want to talk about. in these cases these are the people that are supposed to have the guns and that is a more frightening situation because that is why you really want to have answers because, you know, how do you -- that's an extra burden that you have to have for some people to have to have a conversation with their kids and it is societywide, this extra burden that we sometimes overlook, that some people have to carry that others do not. >> it's also, sunny, one thing to -- the horror of losing a child but also to be in the public eye and in a case that divides people and then to find yourself having to defend your child. >> your child. >> in the wake of it and, again, you know, you can view this case in many different ways but that is just got to be -- i mean any parent is going to defend their child and to have to do that in the midst of grief has to be particularly horrific.
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>> i think it's remarkable. i got to know sybrina fulton very well during the zimmermann trial and know jordan davis' mother, as well. what has always been remarkable to me is the fact that she was able to publicly carry that grief with such elegance and i said that over and over again. she's such an elegant woman and really doo seemed to depend on her faith. as a mother myself of a young boy, he celebrated his 12th birthday, i'm watching that and i'm in tears, there's no purer love and in my mind than the love that a mother has for her son. it is a very, very spectacular special relationship and it's just -- i'm so saddened by the fact that i'm seeing this type of mother's loss and grief over and over and over again and to your point, charles, which i think is so poignant, as mothers of brown and black children, males, we do have that extra burden when you're teaching them about things, stranger danger
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and look both ways when you cross the street how do you teach them the folks that are supposed to protect you may, in fact, harm you. it's just -- it's the extra burden of the mother of color. >> you know, davis, michael brown's cousin was talking about having this result in some kind of lasting change. benjamin, the family attorney talked about dash cam cameras, camera on police officers nationwide. do you think this will lead to some sort of change, because we have been here before. >> and that is the problem. i mean, every, every tragedy and whether or not it is -- i'm going to group this in -- there is a kid who just got put in a grave today and regardless what have happened it is still a tragedy because he's not going to be able to come back. but every tragedy that we have as a country, we yearn for there to be some resolution to come
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from it that we say, well this, won't ever happen again this. is so bad we don't want this particular kind of thing to happen again. and yet you know we cannot get our politicians to muster the kind of political fortitude to make it happen and so while i am hopeful that this will lead to some sort of change because those seem like reasonable changes, although, you know, after -- newtown, we thought there would be reasonable changes. reasonable changes don't necessarily happen. >> i talked to the mayor of ferguson who said there is no racial divide in ferguson. >> yeah. >> then you start to look at the numbers and, you know, that police force is more than 90% white with a community aurora man 67% -- ray kelly looked at those and said i can't believe that they have those kind of numbers. >> it's bizarre. i mean i prosecuted cases in d.c. and the police force in many respect, the metropolitan police force while it has its problems and had its problems
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then, really was more of a reflection of the community and really the answer i think having been a part of law enforcement is that community policing, the community has to trust the officers, the officers need to feel a part of the community and need to be able to walk in the community. they need to be able to have witnesses feel comfortable with coming up to them and giving them firsthand accounts of what they've seen. what they've experienced and that's not happening in ferguson. >> that's typical so if you have a police force where people get the sense that they are against you, you are less likely to have that high school senior or college freshman that says i want to one day be a police officer. >> or won't run when they see the police. >> exactly. charles blow, sunny hostin, thank you very much. as always you can find out more on this story at cnn.com. jaws head why the indictment that so many people in ferguson certainly and beyond are calling for may not happen at all. reality police officers like darren wilson are protected by law and are allowed to use deadly force. that's eye fact. how those laws could shape the
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ferguson that have made it clear, for them justice in michael brown means a criminal conviction for darren wilson. for supporters of wilson that is the exact opposite. the fact that he hasn't been charged has fueled much of the outrage over the killing by people in ferguson. that decision, though, will rest with a grand jury. that will be presentedest in secret out of the public eye at least in initially. among the many factors they'll have to consider are laws that he will spell out when police officers are allowed to shoot someone. according to experts those explain why indictments of police officers are so fair. deborah feyerick tonight reports. ♪ >> reporter: despite the emotions around michael brown's death, and the ensuing cries for justice. >> no justice. no peace. >> reporter: there's no guarantee the grand jury will bring charges against police officer darren wilson. when considering the evidence it is not a question of race, but a matter of law. >> police officers are given a wide latitude when they can use
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deadly force. >> reporter: as a former district attorney in dekalb county, georgia, jay tom morgan prosecuted police shootings. now as a criminal defense lawyer he represents the officers. like it or not when it comes to deadly force, police have different rules than ordinary citizens. >> one possibility is that the officer had reason to believe in this person had just committed a forcible robbery. the other is did this person commit an assault on the police officer? if he did so, that is a forcible felony, therefore the officer would be entitled to use deadly force or that force necessary to make the arrest happen. >> reporter:. the same way as stand your ground laws allow private citizens to fire in self-defense, police are protected by laws that not only safeguard their safety but legally compel them to prevent crime. >> hey, hey. >> reporter: despite calls from some african-american lead
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attorneys appoint an independent prosecutor to replace robert mcculloch. he defends him. >> he will present the facts and evidence to the grand jury and missouri law as he is required to do so. we do not put defendants on trial just to see what a jury will do. >> reporter: as for an indictment based on the pieces of information widely discussed in the media. >> i think there is a good chance there is no indictment based on my understanding of this case and the missouri law. >> reporter: that's why the federal government comes in. the justice department will review the same evidence applying different laws to determine whether officer wilson intentionally and without justification violated michael brown's civil rights. deborah feyerick, cnn, new york. >> bears repeating. there is a lot we do not know about what happened between that officer and michael brown, forensic evidence, none of the
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forensic evidence has been released. a second autopsy results and independent results were released and a few eyewitnesses, people who say they saw parts of what happened have come forward to speak publicly but there are other witnesses presumably who have not come forward that will testify before the grand jury. joining me is cnn legal analyst sunny hostin and the defense attorney who defended george zimmermann. you've been reading up on missouri statutes. do police officers enjoy a kind of special advantage when it comes to the use of deadly force? >> first on this day of mourning for the brown family again my kuala lumpur s condolence s to them. they do have a great deal of advantages under the law and police in missouri not only have the right to use force when they are assaulted and may well happen in this case but have the obligation to arrest when they
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see a felony occur and that includes the one that may have occurred on them. they have particular privileges of protections because we give them the awesome responsibility of enforcing the law on the street and we tell them to arrest people who should be arrested. and in this case, if, in fact, there was a tussle, an assault of some sort on the officer at the car that he not only has the right, you might say but he has the obligation to effectuate the arrest. >> sunny, i mean, one of the things we do not know is exactly -- i mean the nature of that tussle, none of the eyewitnesses that have come forward have said they saw specifically what happened in that tussle or were sure about what happened and there's no video of the actual shooting itself, the aftermath, yes, the fact there's no video, does that work in the officer's favor. >> i am not sure because i think even though there was no video certainly we know at least of five eyewitness accounts and i know many people feel that eyewitness accounts are not
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creditable. i'm not one of those people. i think that prosecutors build cases on eyewitness testimony combined with forensics. >> they are notoriously unreliable. >> i don't agree with that. i think when you have one eyewitness there have been cases that have found that may be not as credible. but when you have two and three and four and five if there are similarities between those eyewitness accounts, case law will tell thaw makes that testimony more credible but i think to mark's point i want to address, yes, police officers can shoot and to effectuate an arrest. it's sort of this fleeing felon rule. if you know someone has committed a felony and get ago way you may be able to shoot but they also have grave responsibility because of their training so in order for an officer quite frankly to be allowed to use deadly force and to shoot to kill that officer has to be in fear of imminent bodily harm or death and so when we're talking about two people
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that may not have been that close and six bullets -- i don't know that that's -- >> my reading of various cases is it doesn't necessarily have to be bodily -- >> no, any person has the right to react with deadly force if they are in imminent fear of great bodily harm. a regular citizen. strangely enough, though, under most of the fleeing felon statutes in most of the protective laws that are out there for the police officers, and i'm not saying i agree with this, but the statutes are very clear that they don't have to be in fear when they are effectuating an arrest -- >> but, mark, we don't know that officer wilson, because we don't know that much about this case we don't know if he knew about this alleged strong-arm robbery. we don't know about that. >> i'm ignoring the strong arm robbery. i don't think he knew enough about that to give him that cause. if, in fact, there was this argument and if there was a strike to the face, one strike, sunny, as we both know, that's a
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felony. that's a class one felony in missouri that is a serious felony and would allow for the fleeing felon rule and protection of the officer. now, i agree it's going to be very, very specific as to when you do what you do. if there is evidence one, two, three, four eyewitnesses that say no question, mike brown turned around hands up in the air and said, i surrender, then at that point -- >> it's very different. >> i think the fleeing felon protection falls away. >> it doesn't apply. >> mark, do you believe that eyewitnesses are reliable? >> no, generally speaking eyewitnesses are, in fact, your word notoriously unreliable but i agree with sunny, if there are several of them and their evidence is corroborated by independent forensic evidence it can be strong evidence but we know all of the studies that talk about eyewitness ability to identify particularly a stressful event, we are not good at it. our brains are not programmed to
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imprint memories in a traumatic event. >> that is not the case when you have multiple the eyewitnesses telling consistent stories. that's the type of case we're looking at here at this point. >> if there are corroborative witnesses and if everyone sees a red light, the light was probably red. but the problem with it is most people in traumatic events from different perspectives -- it will have to be taken in context. we're not saying they have to be thrown out the window. >> i think so much is going to boil down to forensics which should be telling. there's someone who said there was a shot when the police officer was in the car and others say it occurred outside. forensics should tell us more. sunny and mark o'mara, we'll have more on this case in the next hour of "360." also talk to supporters of officer darren wilson to get a variety of perspectives but up next though in this hour after losing a vital air base to isis, syria agrees to usair strikes targeting the islamic ex-timist
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tonight syria is ready to accept usair strikes to help terrorists. the group sized control of the key air base in northern syria, both sides suffered heavy losses and isis fighters celebrated in the streets. the human rights group said they were seen carrying heads of syrian regime soldiers. they bomb eed roccah and they'r said to control all of the province. the other development, the release of peter theo curtis, an american journalist who was held for nearly two years by the al nusra front. jim sciutto joins me along with christopher dickey of "the daily beast." >> it was an interesting message. on the one hand he said we're willing to work with the international community to fight
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isis but said, hey, listen, don't come into syria without our permission. the administration considering air strike there is but it is a remarkable offer when you think about this administration's relationship with -- the obama -- his senior aides have said for years they want this regime to be done with. so this possibility here of working together, administration officials say they're not going to do it but just that possibility. >> christopher, do you see any chance that the u.s. would work with the sir jean regime? >> no, i don't i think they're saying we have to give you permission before you come bomb this territory that we completely lost control of. you know, we've just announced that roccah is gone and the whole province is under the control of isis that we're calling it and so now the u.s. has to get permission to do something. >> it also plays into the narrative which, frankly, syria has been using from the beginning of the revolution in
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syria. i mean from the earliest times when it was peaceful demonstrations in dare against the regime against children who had been arrested by the regime they're branding them terrorists and now in fact there is this terrorist group which has big gains in the battlefield, the idea that the u.s. would be kind of linking up with them certainly fits their narrative. >> a lot have suspected at least in the early days of isis it had the tacit approval or cooperation of the regime because it was spending more time fighting other jihadists and other rebels than it was fighting against assad. there are times when assad could have attacked and didn't. >> at least one effort to try to get hostages out inside syria so it seems like they do have the capabilities to operate. >> they do although administration officials say think didn't need permission.
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they did it like in pakistan to kill bin laden. you go in literally under the radar and make it happen. but it's interesting, you talk about fitting in the narrative. this new relationship with syria. it also fits the facts on the ground at the end of the day isis is the bigger threat than the assad regime so hasn't changed the administration's decision-making but it is changing the calculus on the ground, more of a threat to the u.s. homeland and have a totally new view. >> without human intelligence on the ground there's only so much one can do from the air without, you know, someone with a -- >> the real question is who holes the ground once it's taken. can you use bombing to take a lot of territory, but you can't hold it unless you've got boots on 9 ground. somebody's boots and what our reporting at "the daily beast," a lot of those forces that we might rely on, the free syrian army that we sometimes train, sometimes fund, sometimes don't
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or the curds that were supposed to be the greatest fighters in the middle east aren't up to the task and really can't do it. >> one thing i've been briefed by u.s. intelligence officials and say by having not having agent presence on the ground and having relationships arming some of these groups, you have an intelligence black hole there. and that's going to make it much harder to pick out the targets, now he, to truly hit heidi. >> fascinating developments. jim and christopher, thanks. a strong earthquake hitting california's wine country that sparks a fire that leave several homes in ruins. an update on the destruction ahead. over 20 million kids everyday in our country
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residents of the san francisco bay area are trying to clean up after it was hit by its largest earthquake in 25 years, the magnitude 6.0 quake struck sunday morning before dawn. take a look. >> it's an earthquake. it's an earthquake. >> not the wake-up call that a family expected and the napa valley it shattered bottles of the region's famed wines. more than 200 injured, one
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critically. in downtown brick and concrete facades fell to the ground. five miles north, all that's left of some hopes are ashes and gary tuchman is live from napa. gary. >> reporter: anderson, here in the city of napa, population 76,000, about 70 buildings including this office building behind me have been red tagged. too dangerous to go in. another 200 buildings yellow tagged. can you only go in if it's essential. there's been some close calls. bill has lived in the same house for many years. but this is all that's left. he and his wife teresa's mobile home in napa destroyed after the northern california earthquake. and he's looking for his kitten. >> cocoa. cocoa, girl. cocoa, cocoa, where are you at? mommy and i miss you, honey. >> reporter: bill who requested
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we only use his first name was in the house with his wife when the earth started rumbling and then a fire erupted. it's believed a gas line ruptured. three homes in this lot including bill and teresa's are total losses. the fire started almost immediately after the earthquake began. nobody had any time to take out personal belongings and lost everything. it's all unrecognizable. but everyone who love r lived in these houses escaped with their lives. >> you look at stuff on tv, right? about how people lose stuff, they lose their home. there's a hurricane or an earthquake or a fire or a lot of things. you look at that and go on tv, you if look at it on tv, you go what a bummer for them but you don't get it. nobody gets it until it happens. now it's happened to me. >> reporter: this community with 225 residents is very tight knit
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with many retirees. there is destruction everywhere. homes are off foundations. there's no water or gas and people are filling up buckets in the swimming pool for now. you're about to turn 93 years old and you look younger which is great. >> thank you. >> but and you're 93 have you ever experienced anything so scary as this? >> not really, no. i was even almost in a car wreck but that didn't even scare me. >> reporter: but this did. >> this did. >> reporter: how long have you lived here? >> six years. >> reporter: bill lives across the street from where the fire broke out. >> there was a loud explosion. at least it sounded like an explosion an a big, hard shake. that's why it didn't feel like an earthquake. it felt like a plane crash. and that -- i came out and saw the flames and thought a plane has hit the park. >> reporter: when the fire started in their home bill and his wife ran out quickly. he went back in to try to rescue cocoa but he had to leave when it got too dangerous. >> she follows us around all the time. she's like the cutest kitten in
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the world. i guess everybody's kitten is the cutest one but she's white with a black markings and she got black around here and a little black nose. >> reporter: bill will continue looking in and around this community that was jolted awake in the dead of night. >> hope the cat comes home. what do we know about aftershocks? have there been a lot? >> reporter: none of them have been strong but precisely 73 aftershocks since the initial earthquake. an average of about two every hour since this happened sunday morning. the strongest was 3.6 last night, that's not something most people can feel and that is the good news. anderson. >> wow, gary, appreciate the reporting. thanks very much. strong emotions and calls for action as thousands gather for michael brown's funeral. we'll take you live to missouri with new developments at the top of the hour. ♪ negatively impact good bacteri? even if you're healthy and active. phillips digestive health support is a duo-probiotic
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welcome back. thanks for watching "360's" extended live coverage tonight. it was a momentous day in missouri, not the way we've seen in the last few weeks but a day of peace and remembering michael brown. thousands gathered at a church in st. louis for the funeral, a little over two weeks after the 18-year-old was shot and killed by a police officer. his father called for calm, a day of silence to lay his day to rest and his mother wrote a letter saying there were no words to express how much he meant to her.
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brown's mother is enduring what few mothers have to, lesley mcspadden met with two other women who know all too well the pain she's in and the mothers of trayvon martin and sean bell who were both killed at young ages. >> do you go around the house in the kitchen and talk to trayvon? >> absolutely. absolutely. >> do you? >> yes. if i know something has to be done, ma, i got this. ma, i got this. favorite saying. >> do you do the same thing, lesley? >> especially when it rains, yep. >> when it rains. why? >> something about the rain. something about it. >> it makes you want to -- >> i feel him. he's there. he's there. he's watching over you.
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>> three mothers who know a special horrible grief. victor blackwell was at the funeral and joins me live. so tell us about the funeral. what was it like? >> reporter: well, anderson, there was a moment similar to what you just heard from miss bell and from miss fulton, there was a moment of empathy from a member of the clergy, he had lost his son to gun violence and he said something i never considered. that she's likely mourning the grandchildren who will never be born and that was a moment of punctuation for me and the cross section of people there. the church was filled with thousands of people, two or three overfill -- overflow spaces were filled, as well. it's probably pretty rare you get m.c. hammer and governor jay nixon in the same room, politicians and entertainers and local politicians and senator claire mccaskill was there and saw some of the protesters on west florissant day after day and one sat in front of me in pretty much what she was wearing
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outside the stores that were looted and she was wearing those cargo pants and the dark glasses, a revolution t schiff:30 and military boots but sat in that church respectfully and did not cause a scene. it was the collection of all of the politics which we heard call to turn this agitation into legislation, but also a traditional baptist home going. that blend really stood out. >> there had been some groups that announced plans to protest the funeral. did any of them actually do that. >> no, we saw just one or two people there alone but weren't protesting anything that was involved with this shooting or michael brown. there was one man standing there with a sheet that he printed out on 8 1/2 by 11 regular white paper protesting something that had to do with resources and the control of water around the world and someone else protested something involving gmos.
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at the service peaceful from start to finish. >> tonight what's it like in ferguson? >> reporter: you can see right behind me pretty much every vehicle you see is a law enforcement vehicle so they're prepared if something happens but just anecdotally one of our photographers just drove down that stretch of west florissant which had been the scene of the protests over the last 16 nights and he says that there are just a few people there selling t-shirts and just a table in that approved protest area who are just sitting there. nothing like what we've seen over the past few nights and hope -- the family hopes that will continue. >> victor, thanks very much. joining me is antonio french. good to have you on again. you were there today along with thousands of other, many who never even knew michael brown and his family. what was it like for you? >> well, it was a beautiful ceremony. as was said there was thousands of people there. a lot of people coming to show their support to the family. to let them know that they're with them in this time of
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tragedy and mourning but a lot of folks were there, you know, who had been often different sides of issues in the last few weeks and years before so it was a lot of people coming together for this singular reason. and it was a great event, i think. >> in that way was it a healing moment? >> i think so. i think it was part of the family's healing but also part of the community's healing to be able to come together and, you know, over the course of this 12, 13-day period, a lot of people brought a lot of different agendas to west florissant to protest and i think along the ways, a lot of people lost sight this was ultimately about a young man that lost his life, an 18-year-old boy who will never, you know, grow to be the man that he could have been and so it was an opportunity to be reminded of that and to really see that this deeply affects two people, parents who just lost their boy so it was sad but also
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joyous to see the community coming together. >> what is the feeling in ferguson now in the several blocks where michael brown was killed where we saw the protests? is there still anger, frustration? how would you characterize it? >> well, most people, almost all people are observing the family's wishes and not protesting today. and i think you may see some more people out there tomorrow, but i don't think the smaller crowds are any indication that the anger has lessened or the frustration has lessened. i think people are fatigued of the violence, fatigued of the heavy police presence and people are kind of focusing now on the next stage which is organizing the community, we're registering folks to vote. we're still keeping the pressure on the county prosecutor and his grand jury in session right now so people are looking at the next stage right now and trying to turn this moment into a
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movement. >> alderman, i appreciate you being on the program again. thanks very much. a quick reminder, set your dvrs to watch "360" whenever you want, coming up new information we're learning about darren wilson, the police officer who shot and killed michael brown. he has not been seen publicly but details of his life are coming to light. more on him ahead. [ female announcer ] we help make secure financial tomorrows a reality
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[ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real. ♪ [music] defiance is in our bones. defiance never grows old. citracal maximum. easily absorbed calcium plus d. beauty is bone deep. well, today was very much a day to focus on the life of michael brown, his family and friends said good-bye but we're learning more about the police officer that shot him. we heard nothing from the officer himself since this all started but he has supporters on the streets of ferguson and certainly online. a fund-raising effort on gofundme for officer wilson raised more money than michael
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brown's memorial fund on the same site and demonstrators showed up with signs supporting him. ted rolands reports. >> reporter: as darren wilson remains in hiding supporters for the police officer are getting more vocal. >> we once again declare we steadfastly believe officer wilson's actions were justified. >> reporter: dozens showed up to two rallies in st. louis. support online has been even bigger. financial contributions for wilson's legal fees have reached around $400,000. >> right, wrong or indifferent he has to be afforded the due process and we can't just throw him to the wolves. >> reporter: wilson served with the ferguson police department for four years. he started his career in the city of jennings, another st. louis suburb that in 2011 d disbanded its police force because of racial tensions between white officers and black residents. wilson was born in texas but
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spent most his life here near st. louis and by all accounts he a difficult childhood. his mother who was divorced twice was convicted of forgery for stealing thousands of dollars when he was just a teenager and then she died of natural causes when wilson was just 16 years old. jake shepperd is a friend of darren wilson's. >> it makes me sad, you know, i'm obviously sad for the family of michael brown but i'm sad for darren and his family too. every law enforcement officer dreads the time when they are forced to make that split-second decision whether or not they have to take someone's life. >> reporter: in february of this year wilson was commended for his work after managing to arrest a man allegedly in the midst of a drug deal. now as he faces the possibility of criminal charges for killing michael brown, supporters inside barney's say they're worried that he may not get a fair shake. >> he's done as far as his career is concerned and
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everybody wondering why we're raising money for him because he has to live and he has to survive. >> the officer's supporters, do he think he's innocent or they just want the case to be decided through the legal process rather than, you know, in the public sphere? >> reporter: well, i think it's a combination of both, anderson. the ones that seem to know him personally or his family personally, they've gotten the same story that we heard over the last few days, they absolutely believe every bit that have story so they think he's innocent and he will be found innocent. the vast majority of supporters that we talked to, however, don't know him and what they're saying is if he is guilty of some wrongdoing he deserves to pay for it but they feel like the media has been unfair and think he deserves every bit of the legal justice system to be noncombative towards him and he deserves a fair proceeding here and that's what they're worried about. they say it's so one-sided the media they're worried that will
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carry over in the judicial process. >> people saying there's a rush to judgment and i've been trying to repeat over and over again, we do not have any of the forensic evidence that prosecutors have that officials have and we don't have the full range of eyewitnesses or alleged eyewitnesses who have come forward to authorities and only have several who have come forward to the media so there's a lot we do not know. ted, i appreciate the reporting. joining me live is a general counsel for the st. louis police officers association. neal, the fact that the voices in support of officer wilson have been relatively quiet, definitely growing louder over the last several days, and at the same time more than $400,000 has been donated to him online, what do you make of that? do you think people are intimidated about coming forward or what? >> no, you have to know the police community and napa this area particularly this area and i think what you're seeing is there are a whole lot of people who are either related to police officers, are police officers in
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one way, shape or form have a connection and these are people who are trying to step forward because they try to take care of their own. i think there's a large belief within the police community they're not understood and frustrated as well so i think this is their way of quietly showing they are supporting darren wilson and i think what they're saying is, look, it's about the process and they recognize that the process unfortunately costs money and want to make sure he can get as fair a process as he can. >> just as people have been looking at michael brown, his life, his actions, people have been looking at what they can find out about the life of this officer. it doesn't seem just from his record that there are any red flags that have popped up in his employment history with the two police departments he's worked for. >> right, what you look for, what i would look for in these situations whether or not the person has sort of bounced around. here you have a fairly steady employment history. the reason he left jennings was
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because it was disbanded. he ends up in ferguson and been there steadily for these now four years and, you know, among the municipalities in st. louis county, you do see some movement between these various municipalities, because they have such limited resources, it's not at all unusual for people to move around so the fact that he has stayed there, that he has been steadily employed there i think may make a statement. just how much, i don't know and i think we have to be careful to extrapolate too much from any of this but i think there's a lot to be said for the fact he has stayed put. >> we'll know a lot more about him eventually. no matter what, though, the most important thing, do you believe is to look at the training, the police departments provide. >> yeah, i do and that's a huge issue on so many different levels. you know, we talk about what they're trained to do and that's, of course, important, but unfortunately, there's so much more training that is available but these smaller
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departments can't afford it. the larger departments can't afford it. you know, we have to look at ways to train an officer not just to get to a scene and to utilize his weapon and we're careful to make sure that we try and balance those things, but, you know, again, perhaps the good that can come out of this terrible situation is that we will rethink all of our processes and i think that will happen and i think everyone will benefit by that rethinking. >> well, i also think -- just in terms of rethinking, and this is police commissioners around the country have commented on this about ferguson. the fact that the police force there so does not represent the community that they are policing, a police force seems to me to be most effective when it has a variety -- when it has diversity, whether diversity backgrounds of ethnicity, whatever it may be, it makes them a more effective police department. >> but that's easy to say, anderson, but in its application it's hard to accomplish. you know, there are not, good
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bad or indifferently there are not a lot of black applicants in these department and really the applicants, black politics who decide that they want to become police officers, they will tend to go to the larger departments, there's more opportunity, better pay, better benefits so that's where they'll go so to reach out to the african-american community and say, look, we want you to be part of the ferguson department, that's a really, really difficult thing to do and see that in the public sector all the way around, not just policing so, again, it's a problem because as much as we can say, yes, that's something we want to accomplish, the reality is, it's very difficult to do and in talking to chiefs around the area and being aware of what's going on in this community, it's very, very difficult to reach out to the black community. they just don't have that tradition like, say, for instance, you'd find in the irish community. so, again, good, bad or indifferently it's really hard to accomplish that and try as they might they can't seem to make those numbers change. >> what impact do you think having dash cams will have on
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this local police department, on any police department? >> i personally believe that cameras are a police officer's best friend. you know, again, there's dash cams, there's on body cameras now they can use and there is a lot of discussion within, for instance, my own association about whether or not those are wise or not but candidly if darren wilson had had a camera on we wouldn't be having this conversation. >> we would know one way or the other what happened. >> yes, sir, so telling police officers and i often -- i often will lecture to police officers in various organizations and i say, look, cameras are ubiquitous, they're everywhere. you have to assume everything you're doing is seen on camera. if we have these dash cam, it will make a difference but how will we pay for it? a huge problem particularly for the small departments. so in the absence of a federal grant i don't know how we'll ever get there but we should try. >> interesting.
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neil bruntrager, thanks. >> more on cnn.com. just ahead after losing a vital air base to isis, syria agrees to usair u.s. air strikes. a journalist is freed by a different group in syria. the latest on those development as head. ing up the perfect weddg day begins with arthritis pain and two pills. afternoon arrives and feeling good, but her knee pain returns... that's two more pills. the evening's event brings laughter, joy, and more pain... when jamie says... what's that like six pills today? yeah... i can take 2 aleve for all day relief. really, and... and that's it. this is kathleen... for my arthritis pain, i now choose aleve. get all day arthritis pain relief with an easy-open cap. hey, i heard you guys can help me with frog protection? sure, we help with fraud protection. if there are unauthorized purchases on your discover card, you're never held responsible. you are saying "frog protection"? fraud. fro-g.
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over the weekend the group seized control of the key air base in northern syria. both sides reportedly suffered heavy losses. syria retaliated by bombing the city of raqqa that captured the air base and they're said to control all of the province. the other major development, the release of peter theo curtis. an american journalist, that's him, who was held for nearly two years by the nusra front. senior white house correspondent jim sciutto joins me now. what do we know about the new information regarding the flights? >> what we heard from our barba barba barbarastarr that he authorized flights over syria. in line with what i was hearing earlier that the president has not made a decision to take military action against isis targets in syria but they want to use what they're calling all the tools at their disposal and, anderson, i think this underlines one key issue for the
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administration and, frankly, one key problem for the administration and that is that they need to identify targets before they start taking them out. >> i also need to identify correspondents better. jim acosta. not jim sciutto. it's interesting, though, because the foreign minister signaled a willingness to allow military intervention. syria doesn't have control over these areas that the u.s. would be attacking isis in and the idea that, i mean it sort of plays into the narrative syria has been saying all along they're battling terrorists which in this case they are but the idea that the u.s. would do something that could prop up the syrian regime is a bizarre turn of events. >> the definition of choosing between the lesser of two evils but even though the foreign minister was out saying the united states has to go through syria and get a green light from damascus bair conducts air strikes senior administration officials say that won't happen. during the briefing earlier, it was said that look at the case
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of the killing of osama bin laden. that operation happened without the authorization of the pakistani government and so they think there's a clear precedent here. at the same time, you know, why should point out there was sort of a softening of the rhetoric over at the white house today. it was interesting to hear last week chuck hagel saying this is unlike a threat we've ever seen before and today, you know, the white house was saying that this is not exactly a 9/11 threat against the homeland, that the homeland was not been threatened at this point so a dialing back of the rhetoric and also one thing i wanted to point out an interesting picture posted on pete souz have's instagram account, pete being the white house official white house photographer of the president of the united states walking on the south lawn of the white house with the chief of staff denis mcdonough, anderson, it was exact -- almost exactly one year ago where these two men were taking almost the exact same walk around the south lawn of the white house about air strikes against syria and ultimately in that instance the
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president decided against those air strikes. it doesn't say -- that isndoesn preview what may be coming but he has a lot on his mind. >> general dempsey said allies would try to deal with isis. is what's happening now, i mean, is that what's happening now and already under way? >> well, and that was a key obstacle with the president when he decided to pull back and not conduct air strikes against syria a year ago. remember great britain decided not to go along and that was a problem for the president. that was a hesitation that he cited in his conversation with dennis when they took that walk around the white house and josh earnest was saying during the briefing that forming an international coalition is something that they would like to do. and so, you know, while there was a lot of tough talk last week about potential air strikes against syria i think the fact that you're seeing reconnaissance flights starting to happen and the white house talking about building some sort of international coalition is an indication we're just not there yesterday, anderson. >> jim acosta, thanks very much.
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want to bring in our panel, fran townsend and mark hertling. fran, do you believe that isis is already a direct threat to the united states? >> anderson, post-9/11 we stopped waiting for them to actually attack us here. they've attacked a u.s. journalist and got $425 million out of the bank of mosul when they seized that and have territory and u.s. made military equipment they seized and they are a better manned, trained, equipped and financed than al qaeda was before 9/11 and the killing of jim foley, an american, a direct indication of their intention and their capability and willingness to act against the united states makes clear that they most certainly are a direct threat today against the united states. i haven't even gotten to the foreign fighters yet, right? thousands, we know thousands are westerners which means they don't require a visa to get into the united states. of which at least accords to
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administration officials at least a hundred are americans. >> general hertling, do you believe they are currently a direct threat or is it more in your opinion a potential threat down the road? >> in my opinion it's more of a potential threat, anderson. i think the intelligence community is watching this organization very quickly. they are trying to establish the caliphate that has them certainly very occupied right now and they also have their fights against both the iraqi forces and the syrian forces so right now i don't think they're looking to threaten the united states or even western parts, they certainly have that potential and probably will be attempting to do that in the future. but the intelligence requirements as you pointed out earlier is what's key right now. >> fran, i mean, to what degree was the killing of jim foley, i mean, obviously it was -- it was a murder. it was also a propaganda tool. the way it was done, wasn't it partly a desire to kind of poke the united states into some sort of reaction? >> well, i actually think what
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they were trying -- it was an indication that the air strikes against isis in iraq was having an effect, right, because what they tried to do was push the u.s. back and suggest that they shouldn't continue with the air strikes by holding the other -- >> do you think they really believe that would stop air strikes. >> i think more than anything it was a propaganda tool and a recruitment tool and not an accident you had the bad guy in the video with the mask on has a british accent. it's a reminder -- >> vulnerability. >> the vulnerability and the foreign fighters, the orange jumpsuit is a throwback to gitmo. there was a lot of sort of suggestions in there about the propaganda they were trying to pro-met. >> general, it is a bizarre circumstance now that the administration is thinking about, you know, attacking isis in syria which i understand the reasons to do that but how do you do that without propping up at the same time the syrian regime, a regime which the administration has been opposing since for years now? >> yeah, you don't, anderson and
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i think the words you mentioned earlier that general dempsey used, he's very precise in the way he uses his words. he's building an international coalition. taking a look at not only european allies to help us with this in ways more than just dropping bombs and conducting strikes but other ways, as well and also looking as well as the second of defense and state looking at increasing the rhetoric in terms of moderate islamic imams to condemn this group so all those categories as well as the threatening and bankrupting as fran said of the iraqi -- of the isis threat is going to be critical in the next few weeks, months and even years. >> general, do you believe that the syrian regime kind of tured a blind eye to isis and almost helped their purposes early on because they, isis, spent a lot of time fighting other more moderate groups which were opposed to the syrian regime. >> i think in tracking the syrian fight, anderson, they were fighting all comers. they were trying to maintain their power hold in terms of
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government, the bashar government and anyone that was coming at them whether it be moderate or the extremists as we saw over the last two years, they've taken on. so i think isis has been the stronger, they've been the one that's evolved into the strongest threat in syria and now unfortunately syria's having to deal with them as is the rest of the world. >> general, i appreciate you being on, fran, as well. just ahead another story connected to syria. the family of peter theo curtis is speaking out about his surprise release after nearly two years in captivity. they were preparing for his homecoming for nearly a year. they had no idea where it was and how they found out about his capture and the remarkable report about his release next. hey. i'm ted and this is rudy. say "hi" rudy. [ barks ] [ chuckles ] i'd do anything to keep this guy happy and healthy. that's why i'm so excited about these new milk-bone brushing chews. whoa, i'm not the only one. it's a brilliant new way to take care of his teeth. clinically proven as effective as brushing. ok, here you go.
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welcome back. american journalist prlt is free tonight after nearly two years of being held in syria by the nusra front, a group with ties to al qaeda. his family is overjoyed and deeply thankful for the support they've gotten. here's what his mom said today. >> everybody has been so supportive and we really appreciate it. we've had tremendous support from people that we know, people that we didn't know before but we now know and also to people behind the scenes that we may never know their names. >> curtis' release was a surprise and came days after the beheading of james foley by isis
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terrorists. miguel marquez has more on the harrowing detail he's been through. >> reporter: peter theo curtis, nearly two years held prisoner in syria today free, a mother's relief, plain as the smile on her face. you happy that he's out? >> i am. >> reporter: captured late 2012 by al qaeda affiliated al nusra front writing under the name of theo padnos he covered the horrors of syria often critical of the regem, al nusra's enemy, family and friend has no idea where he was or what happened to him. >> i don't remember exactly how i discovered that he was being held. i think at first it was just a disappearance and then the information slowly came out that he was being held. >> reporter: others found out after matthew scheyer held captive with him managed to escape in 2013.
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the story terrifying to hear. >> all day long you're hearing people getting tortured. all day long you just hear whack, whack, their feet getting whacked and screaming and yelling. >> reporter: curtis' family gathering at his mother's cambridge, massachusetts, home, the news from theriot so far, positive. >> we've heard that his health appears good so that was very encouraging. >> reporter: but videos of curtis in captivity released over the last few months showed him in an agitated state. >> my name is peter theo curtis. i'm a journalist from the city of boston, massachusetts. >> reporter: then a week ago, everything changed. the shocking public killing of journalist james foley by isis an al nusra front rival may have pushed the government of qatar to step up negotiations for curtis' release. no word on whether a ransom was paid. >> after foley, the qataris probably moved fast and needed to show a victory. if this goes bad, syria and iraq, the qataris do not want to
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be blamed for this. >> reporter: now his family and friends prepare for curtis' run. one of this favorite things road bicycling. >> i can't wait to go on a bike ride in vermont. >> reporter: a very long bike ride, i take it? >> yeah, maybe. >> reporter: he's already had a hell of a ride. miguel marquez, cnn, new york. >> joining me is david rodin, an investigative reporter held for seven months, able to escape and jim jeffrey, former u.s. ambassador to iraq. ambassador, curtis' mom says no ran sam was paid for his release. why is that crucial? >> it's crucial because the united states policy is not to pay a ransom. it provides money to the worst inhumane elements in the world. it enhances the status and can lead and usually does to more kidnappings, some of which do not turn out as well as this one did. as a general practice we don't do it. >> we don't really know the
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details on what qatar promised to al nusra or if there were any promises at all. i mean, they were essentially handed over by the u.s. to qatar to deal with this. >> yeah, and i think a lot of people, maybe there wasn't a ransom paid but there will be perception among these groups and kidnappers that a ransom was paid. when i was in captivity, the famous raid happened where captain phillips was saved by the navy s.e.a.l.s offer the coast of somalia. my captor said that whole raid is fake. the u.s. government actually secretly paid $15 million or some crazy sum they came up so i don't know what happened. the question is, it's good qatar has done this. there's been complaints that qatar was funding nusra, this pro-al qaeda jihadist group, how are they suddenly able to, you know, get this captive free? why did it take two years. >> if it's true they were behind this group, that would theoretically give them some leverage with this group. >> that's why this is great thus
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and i'm thrilled for the curtis family. it may not help the americans who remain held by the islamic state, the group that killed jim foley. >> totally different group. >> yeah, but everyone i think is heartbroken by what happened to jim and for the foleys but as it was said in the report jim foley may have indirectly saved peter theo curtis by dying, he created lots of pressure on the qataris to produce a good outcome. >> ambassador jeffrey, do you think the death of jim foley may be put pressure on qatar? >> i think that all of the events of the last few weeks, the retaking of the mosul dam by forces linked with the united states and reaction to it pushed qatar to rethink its relationship with some of these groups including al nusra. >> ambassador jeffrey alluded to this earlier. there is no -- you and i have talked about this. there is no standard and there really need to be. you have western european nations paying millions and millions of dollar, sometimes
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more than double digit millions of dollars for captives from their country and the u.s. ostensibly not paying. you believe there needs to be an open conversation about this at the very least. >> there definitely has to be a conversation the groups in the region that do these will think there was a ransom paid even if there wasn't. there's only a handful of people that know what happened and there's the problem. there's still an incentive to do it. europe has paid millions of dollars. >> become a major source of income for a lot of these groups. >> very large, particularly in north africa and in jimmen. it's a big success for them. and then this is really sad and perverse but in this sort of terrible world that these guys inhabit the killing of jim foley generated publicity for them. it's a growing problem. this is a growing group and there is no strategy to deal with the spreading number of kidnappings between the u.s. and europe. >> ambassador jeffrey, is that a conversation the u.s. continues to try to have with western
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european nations about not paying for kidnapping? >> we sure should but we're not going to having been involved in these in iraq with friendly nations. we're not going to schedule, anderson. these countries are weak and their response to international terror and threats, they cave easily but people expect that. what people don't expect the united states which does take these folks on will cave and that's one reason why we're cautious about doing anything that looks like negotiating with or paying ransom to them. >> don't -- bade, don't these western european nations see that this just encouraging more kidnappings down the road? i understand the immediate desire to stop the pressure and save their citizens but don't they see the long-term on this. >> as we saw with mr. curtis' release and many people i was involved with in iraq there's a human element here that is really compelling and i have sympathy for anybody who tries to do anything to get people released. but there's a higher political and also security aspect to this
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and i think the u.s. policy is right. we should try to work with other countries to follow our standard. i don't think they will. most important thing is we continue to maintain the line against caving in to these people. >> as always, thanks. the earth rattling in napa valley and homes going up in flames and the wine industry taking a hit. barrels bottling crashing to the ground. c could you pay more for wine? . [ mom ] with life insurance, we're not just insuring our lives... we're helping protect his. [ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real. transamerica. transform tomorrow. transamerica. [ male announcer ] it's one of the most amazing things we build and it doesn't even fly. we build it in classrooms and exhibit halls, mentoring tomorrow's innovators. we build it raising roofs, preserving habitats and serving america's veterans.
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residents of the san francisco bay area are trying to clean up after it was hit by its largest earthquake in 25 years, the magnitude 6.0 quake struck sunday morning before dawn. take a look. >> it's an earthquake. it's an earthquake. >> the experience of a family in hercules, california, and in napa a lot of famed wines were ruined. brick and concrete facades fell to the ground and five miles north all that's left of some homes are ashes and gary tuchman is there. what's the latest there tonight, gary. >> reporter: firstly in the day and a half since the strong earthquake hit there had been 73 aftershocks. that's an average of about two
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aftershocks every hour and an aftershock is an earthquake so you've had 73 earthquakes since the original earthquake but the good news is none have been strong. the strongest 3.6, about 22 hours ago. that's something you normally can't feel and that is encouraging news. what isn't so encouraging is the heavy damage in this area. this town napa has 76,000 people. it's obviously the heart of wine country here in the united states and it's also a historic and quaint downtown. hundreds of buildings in this downtown including this office building behind me have been heavily damaged, certainly changed the character of this town at least right now. a few miles away from us is a mobile home community, a manufactured home community where there are 255 units. it's mostly seniors who live there. very nice people, they're very tight there and their units were heavily damaged during this earthquake. something else also happened there. there was a gas leak after the earth started rumbling and three
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of the units caught fire all inhabited. the people got out quickly and escaped with their lives. we talked to one man who ran out of his house with his wife. >> you look at stuff on tv, right, about how people lose stuff, you know, they lose their home, there's a hurricane, there's an earthquake, there's you a fire, a lot of things, you look at that and you go on tv if you look at it on tv, you go, gee, what a bummer for them. but you don't get it. nobody gets it until it happens. now it's happened to me. >> reporter: that's bill, his wife is teresa. they didn't want to use their last name on television but did want to tell us their sad story that they don't have any children but their child is a cat. a cat named cocoa is cocoa is missing. bill says he went back in the house and the smoke, it was too dangerous, he came out, wasn't
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able to find his cat. they do hope and there's reason to believe the cat was smart enough to get out and is alive somewhere and that's why he came back, anderson, because he was looking for his cat cocoa and that neighborhood is so tight knit they are all helping him look. >> how concerned are officials about the other buildings heavily damaged by the earthquake? >> right. well, we're talking about this building right here. take another look. this building has been red-tagged and what a red tag means is it cannot be inhabited. no possible danger of collapse. 70 buildings in the city of napa have been red tagged. another 200 have been yellow tagged which means you can only go inside for essential reasons. >> annum close look at the damage done to the napa valley biggest attraction, the wineries. nearly 800 are there attracting many visitors. most are still open for business but some, gallons of vintage wine have to go down the drain.
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>> reporter: across napa valley, forklifts taking out wine barrels and they're getting a first look at the damage. they were warned to move out. here's why. barrel after barrel accident entire stacks of them precariously tilting. >> big a pile back here where they've fallen. >> this is his precious vintage. each of these worth $10,000 to $24,000. >> these are full. these are all mine. that's really dangerous. >> there is some white wine on the grounds. until he can get all the barrels out and see them, he won't know what he's lost. it took him two years to go from grape to wine. now in the balance after the short but powerful quake. >> it's unbelievable. ten seconds. 15 seconds. yeah, yeah, making me nervous.
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>> reporter: he isn't just a winemaker in napa valley. this is the historic home he owns in downtown napa dating back to the 1800s. >> everywhere you look there is a sizable crack. >> reporter: he recovers from all this as well as everyone in his neighborhood and city -- >> wow! that's bad. >> reporter: like everything in napa, it comes down to the wine. there is spotty damage across the city to what has already been bottled like in the wine storage room. >> reporter: how many bottles? >> hundreds and hundreds. i would say maybe a thousand bottles. >> reporter: vineyards like this winery in sonoma saw 19 of the wine tanks damaged. in many vineyards, they are optimistic they can absorb this earthquake's damage and it won't have a lasting impact on california's wines. >> it hurts but you know, we're in agriculture.
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we're dealing with these things vintage by vintage. we only have one shot at making shot every year and then we move on. mother nature sometimes plays a role. >> do we know, is this going to affect the price of wine in california? >> reporter: well, let's give you some perspective. 90% of american wines are produced right here in california but of that 90%, only a smaller percentage is made here in napa. certainly a lot of excellent wine comes from here. what we're hearing is that some of the bigger wine producers, the bigger winemakers will be able to absorb the cost. they lost probably a smaller percentage. it is the specialty winemakers, the independent ones that will really take the brunt. they don't know yet if they'll to have pass along that cost to the customers. that is unknown. >> we wish them the best. up next, a call for change and peace. family and friends say goodbye to michael brown. sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering so, i'm walking down the street,
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>> i know that michael would be smiling that big gentle smile that he always gives whenever he greeted you. because michael was a big guy but he was a kind, gentle soul. >> he wanted to go to college. he wanted to have a family. he wanted to be a good father. but god chose differently and i made peace about that. >> i would be lying if he said i'm still angry in my heart. and i got revenge on my hands. but i can't be no fool. you got to do it the right way. >> we have had enough of all of this and this change must come. any time changes come in this country, it has come through the youth and the young generations. ♪
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>> it is imperative that we resist the desire to retaliate and looting in our own neighborhoods. instead we must prayerfully and full of faith allow the st. louis county police department and the fbi's investigations to be completed. >> we cover this family in prayer. may they feel that you are a heart fixer. may they feel that you are their strength. may they feel that you are the source of peace and hope. >> today is for peace. peace and quiet. but we don't say goodbye. we say good journey until we meet again. >> the sights and sounds of the service for michael brown,
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remembered today in missouri, laid to rest. that does it for this edition of "ac360." see you tomorrow. cnn tonight with don lemon cnn tonight with don lemon starts now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good evening. we're live on the streets of ferguson again. streets that are peaceful in the hours after the funeral of michael brown. three white house representatives on hand to support the grieving family and say farewell. i'll talk to michael brown's uncle and cousin, bishop td jakes and the man who was at mike brown's side moments before he was killed. dorian johnson who will be a key witness in the case will join me exclusively. and we're following the very latest in the pursuit for justice, justice for james foley who was executed by isis. president obama has authorized reconnaissance flights overseer i can't aor
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