tv 60 Minutes CBS November 12, 2017 7:00pm-8:01pm EST
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captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. >> brandon branch: bullets whizzing by, kicking up all around you. all you can do at that point is return fire and hope the next one, you know, doesn't get you. >> kroft: members of a special forces a-team were pinned down by the taliban. and by the time it was over, five u.s. soldiers were killed. not by the enemy, but by american bombs. >> branch: it was all of a sudden this shocked moment of "oh my god-- they just hit our hill." >> kroft: tonight what our "60 minutes" investigation has uncovered. >> studenmund: when we send our soldiers into battle, it's wrong to have them using a weapon system which isn't capable of doing what it's supposed to be doing.
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it's not murder, but it's close. >> lapook: you're saying you were sexually abused. >> aly raisman: yes. absolutely. >> lapook: by the national team doctor. >> aly raisman: yes. >> lapook: while you were out there representing your country >> aly raisman: yes. >> lapook: she's a three-time gold medallist and captain of gold medalist and captain of the last two u.s. women's gymnastics teams. ally raisman is one of the most accomplished olympians of our time. and as you're about to hear, she's not done working for her sport, and for other young athletes. >> aly raisman: why are we looking at "why didn't the girls speak up?" why not look at "what about the culture?" what did u.s.a. gymnastics do, and larry nassar do, to manipulate these girls so much that they are so afraid to speak up? >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm jon lapook. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight, on "60 minutes." as you can clearly see,
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♪ >> whitaker: on this veterans day weekend, as the trump white house plans to send more troops and planes into afghanistan, we bring you a cautionary tale of how five u.s. soldiers, including two green berets, died there on the night of june 9, 2014. the pentagon concluded the deaths were an avoidable accident, known by the contradictory phrase, "friendly fire." it was the deadliest such incident involving u.s. fatalities in 16 long years of
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ongoing war in afghanistan. it wasn't gunfire that killed the u.s. soldiers. it was a pair of 500-pound bombs dropped right on top of them by a u.s. warplane. you're about to hear what happened that day from three of the soldiers who were there, including the green beret commander. it's the first time they have spoken about the secret mission, and they dispute the official version of events and warn it is going to happen again. it started just after sundown on a sweltering night with a fierce firefight. >> brandon branch: bullets whizzing by, kicking up all around you. >> henry "hank" montalbano: at certain points it would die down, but it was unrelenting at other points. >> derrick anderson: it looked almost like a fireworks show, where they are shooting down on your positions. our positions. >> whitaker: were you scared? >> branch: absolutely. i think you would have to be borderline insane to not have some kind of fear.
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all you can do at that point is return fire and hope the next one, you know, doesn't get you. >> whitaker: brandon branch was a skilled army combat paramedic, attached to the green berets, who had dreamed since childhood of being a soldier. communications sergeant henry "hank" montalbano joined the green berets after graduating from williams college. and captain derrick anderson, the green beret team commander, could be a poster boy for the army. fluent in arabic, at 29 he was a bronze-star recipient in iraq and had led more than 80 combat patrols in afghanistan. this was supposed to be the team's final mission after a six-month deployment that started in january of 2014. >> whitaker: did you see much combat? >> montalbano: yes. it would be pretty typical during the course of an operation to take fire. >> anderson: we had had a long deployment. it was fairly kinetic.
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>> whitaker: a lot of action. >> anderson: yeah. everyone was coming home safe. we had a few guys from our sister team that had gotten shot on a previous mission. >> whitaker: the ten-man "a" team was part of the fifth special forces group from fort campbell, kentucky. the group's commander called them the most "disciplined, well-trained, and effective" unit in afghanistan. the green berets struck out from forward operating base apache, a dusty outpost in restive zabul province, an area dotted with beehives of taliban fighters, hidden in plain sight among the locals. >> anderson: we knew this area contained taliban and bad guys. so, we understood there was a clear possibility that we would be getting shot at, at some point. >> whitaker: captain anderson says the taliban stepped up its attacks when the u.s. announced most of its troops would leave after the afghan elections in june.
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>> anderson: i think the taliban was trying to make a statement before we left. >> whitaker: what was the mission in the gaza valley that day? >> anderson: so, our job, in conjunction with our afghan partners, were to help the afghans in going clearing the gaza valley from any taliban that may be hiding and waiting for the elections to come forth and attack the polling sites. >> whitaker: to help understand what happened that night three years ago, using satellite photographs of afghanistan's gaza valley, "60 minutes" commissioned a scale model of the exact location where the friendly fire took place, and brought these three soldiers who fought there to see it. >> anderson: it's just-- it's surreal to see the whole landscape again, and-- i mean, it definitely-- it definitely brings up memories of that day. >> whitaker: what's the terrain like? >> branch: it's steep and-- and slippery. >> whitaker: hours before dawn, on june 9, 2014, giant chinook helicopters, like these, dropped captain anderson and his 95-man
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task force of u.s. and afghan soldiers into the gaza valley to chase away the taliban fighters. temperatures soared over 100 degrees as the u.s. troops shadowed their afghan allies from rocky ridges. at the same time, radio intercepts showed the taliban were also shadowing them. at dusk, the soldiers climbed down to take up positions near three helicopter landing zones. >> whitaker: so the flag here-- the red flag-- what does that represent? >> anderson: so that represents where we ended up at the end of the day, getting ready for pick- up from the helicopters. >> whitaker: attached to anderson's green beret team was an air force controller, whose identity is classified. he was assigned to the mission just 72 hours earlier, and his job was critical: to guide air force planes on bombing or strafing runs against enemy positions.
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it's a battlefield tactic called close-air support. what the green berets didn't know was that their new air controller had been demoted and kicked out of an air force special operations unit for poor performance. >> whitaker: did you know this guy at all? did you know anything about him? >> anderson: at the time we didn't know anything. we-- he showed up a couple days before the mission, so he was getting caught up on what everything our previous air controller had planned out. >> whitaker: half a mile away from anderson's group was army medic brandon branch and two green beret weapons sergeants: jason mcdonald, at 28, a veteran army ranger, and 24-year-old scott studenmund, the grandson of a u.s. senator who continued a family tradition of service by becoming a green beret. >> branch: once we got down in this area, there was like a small ditch that actually kind of ran down through here.
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>> whitaker: just before 8:00 in the evening, suddenly taliban fighters began shooting down into the ditch where brandon branch was with sergeants studenmund and mcdonald. >> branch: it broke loose at that point. >> whitaker: captain anderson watched as the firefight erupted a half mile away. >> anderson: from our location here, we could see the fire coming right onto them. they were just in such a vulnerable location down there, being on low ground, in a ditch. the advantage was from the taliban. >> montalbano: you could see the tracer rounds. >> whitaker: where did you think the shots were coming from? >> branch: at first, just somewhere in this general direction-- in that vicinity. >> whitaker: you couldn't see anybody? >> branch: we couldn't see anybody at the time. it was just somebody shooting. >> whitaker: can you-- the bullets are hitting all around you. you can hear them going by? >> branch: right. yes, sir. >> whitaker: were you returning fire? >> branch: absolutely. absolutely. >> whitaker: under heavy fire,
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green beret scott studenmund scaled the hill with three other u.s. soldiers and an afghan sergeant to take up a more defendable position. they carried a machine gun, a grenade launcher, and rifles to fight off the taliban. before scrambling up the hill to join the other soldiers, sergeant jason mcdonald sounded an urgent alarm over the radio: "troops in contact." >> anderson: he started asking for immediate support from aircraft. >> whitaker: it got that bad-- that quickly? >> anderson: absolutely, sir. jason got on the radio and said, "get me the aircraft now." >> whitaker: have you heard him say that before? >> anderson: no, at no-- at no point during the deployment had we ever really heard anyone with the urgency in-- in their voice and, or necessity. >> branch: honestly, what's going through my head is that we're going to die. >> whitaker: the plane, sent to the aid of the special forces that night, was a b-1 like
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this-- a high-flying strategic bomber-- not the type of aircraft typically used for close-air support missions in afghanistan. that night, the b-1 had a belly full of bombs, and a cylindrical tube called a sniper pod slung beneath its fuselage. a sniper pod is a precision targeting system bristling with cameras and sensors that streams images like these to the bomber's four-man crew. as darkness fell over the moonlit valley, the green berets switched on infrared strobes attached to their helmets and pulled night vision devices over their eyes, which allow u.s. soldiers and air crews to identify friend-from-foe in the chaos of the battlefield. >> whitaker: you can see the strobe lights? >> anderson: yeah. >> branch: right. >> whitaker: and everybody's got one? >> anderson: correct. >> whitaker: so, if you're looking at all of your guys out there, you're seeing lights all over the place? >> anderson: yeah, i mean, i have pilot buddies and i have
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friends that have said it can often times look like-- like a christmas tree in the valley. >> whitaker: what about the b-1 bomber? does-- does it see the strobe lights? >> anderson: it cannot. >> whitaker: it cannot? >> anderson: we thought it could. >> whitaker: the classified official investigation obtained by "60 minutes" later concluded that everyone-- the soldiers, the bomber crew, the air force controller-- all thought the b-1 targeting system was capable of detecting infrared strobes. they were all wrong. so it was your belief that this b-1 bomber could see your strobe lights going off? >> anderson: correct. yes, and, you know, throughout any operation, we've always had the general assumption that these aircraft can. >> whitaker: as this animation shows, the b-1 targeting system could see gunfire coming from sergeants mcdonald and studenmund, who were shooting at the taliban from the hillside above medic branch.
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but, because the plane's crew couldn't see the green berets' strobes, they mistook their muzzle flashes for the taliban. and that was just one of a cascade of critical errors, according to the investigation of the incident. the report charges that, in the heat of battle, captain anderson lost track of the soldiers who had climbed the hill to fight the taliban. the air force controller with anderson, whose job it was to pinpoint enemy targets, admitted he made a mistake and sent conflicting positions for u.s. and enemy fighters to the bomber. the b-1 aborted its bomb run on three passes as technical glitches and the mountainous terrain garbled radio transmission. >> whitaker: how long did that take? >> anderson: it ended up taking a total of 21 minutes. >> whitaker: and all of this time you're-- you are under fire? >> branch: right. >> whitaker: the report also revealed that as the bomber circled 12,000 feet above them,
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instead of targeting the taliban, the air force controller made a fatal mistake. he gave the b-1 crew the location of the u.s. soldiers as the target, and, "improperly directed the aircraft over a friendly position." no one in the bomber challenged the air controller's conflicting positions for u.s. and enemy fighters-- that should have been a red flag. the air force controller with the green berets radioed the bomber: "be advised, friendlies are the only ones marked by i.r. strobes. so, anybody else is enemy target." six minutes later he asked, "any i.r. strobes in your sensor at this time?" the bomber crew responded, "negative i.r. strobes." the b-1 crew did have hand-held night vision goggles, but they were out of range of the strobes.
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finally, the b-1 released two 500-pound bombs, directly on the six soldiers at the top of the hill. >> branch: and, as soon as it happened, it was all of a sudden this shocked moment of "oh my god-- they just hit our hill." >> anderson: and, my gut dropped. i just felt something sink to the bottom of my stomach, and i was like, "no, this-- no. this isn't happening." >> branch: i grabbed my aid bag and i took off up the hill to try to go see if anybody had survived it, and if, you know, if there was anybody that needed help. and i heard, "you got to get over here. i found scott." >> whitaker: what was his condition? >> branch: he was in-- in bad shape. he-- he was talking to us at first-- asking what just happened. and, while we began working on
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him, we just told him, "i don't-- i don't know what happened. i don't know what happened, but something messed up." i was applying tourniquets and trying to stop what was happening-- trying to stop the bleeding. there was really nothing else that-- that i could do. >> whitaker: i understand you said a prayer? >> branch: i just asked that god be with him and with his family. >> whitaker: staff sergeant scott studenmund died on that hilltop. also killed: staff sergeant jason mcdonald, the father of two girls; 19-year-old private first class aaron toppen; specialist justin helton, 25; corporal justin clouse, 22; and 31-year-old afghan sergeant gulbuddin sakhi. over the next days, memorial services were held for the
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fallen soldiers at forward operating base apache, and at an air field in kandahar, afghanistan. later, scott studenmund and jason mcdonald were laid to rest with full military honors at arlington national cemetery. the official report of the accident pinned much of the blame on the green beret captain in our story. when we come back, what our investigation found about the deadliest friendly fire incident for u.s. soldiers in 16 years of war in afghanistan.
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of june 9, 2014. after a desperate firefight with the taliban, two army green berets and three regular army soldiers were dead, but they were killed by an air force bomber that was supposed to be coming to their aid. the pentagon appointed then-air force major general jeffrey harrigian to investigate the friendly fire accident. after an eight-week probe, the general issued a report that concluded the "incident was avoidable," and he spread the blame around: to the air force controller, to the bomber crew, and to the army green berets. let me go over some of the findings. it says, "though this was a challenging set of circumstances, had the team executed standard tactics, techniques, and procedures, and communicated effectively, this incident was avoidable." what do you think of that statement? >> anderson: i disagree with that statement. >> whitaker: but the
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investigation singled out captain anderson, who had led his team on more than 80 combat missions in afghanistan, for especially tough criticism. it charged that he lost track of his men and that his failures "caused him to misidentify friendly forces as enemy." they said you didn't know that five of the members had moved up the hillside, and that you should have. that-- that's sort of a major point for them in the investigation. >> anderson: i think that's an untrue statement. >> whitaker: anderson told us the soldiers on the hill were within what he thought was their standard security perimeter. do you bear any responsibility for what happened? >> anderson: i'm the commander of this team. this is my team. i miss my guys tremendously, but at the end of the day, there's
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nothing that myself or my team sergeant did that day or failed to do that day that caused that incident to happen. there's 1,000 different things that can happen during firefight missions. we made the decisions that we thought were best at the time on the ground for the guys that were getting shot at. >> whitaker: the report goes on to say that, from you, there was a sense of urgency to drop the bombs that was perhaps unnecessary. so, in other words, you were making this seem like it was a bigger deal than it actually was. >> branch: i was there. it was a big deal. >> whitaker: they called it a false sense of urgency. >> branch: they can call it that, but they weren't there. 21 minutes is an eternity when you're being shot at. >> montalbano: it's ignoring some of the fundamental reasons why this occurred.
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>> whitaker: they looked at the wrong things? >> branch: right. >> montalbano: yes. >> whitaker: the root cause of the friendly fire incident adequately addressed yet. there's an aircraft carrying out close-air support missions that can't detect the common marking mechanism at nighttime. it's dangerous to use an aircraft that's incapable of picking up infrared strobes. >> whitaker: the families of the fallen soldiers were briefed by a team of five officers led by general harrigian. one of those gold-star parents was woody studenmund, an economics' professor at california's occidental college, and the father of green beret staff sergeant scott studenmund. studenmund interviewed all but two of his son's teammates and has methodically and repeatedly reviewed every line of the declassified investigative report, in a personal quest to understand how and why his son
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died. were you satisfied with the investigation? >> woody studenmund: how can a parent be satisfied with an investigation into their son's death, when the basic cause hasn't been corrected? and that is that the b-1 bomber sniper pod was not capable of seeing the strobes that the green berets were wearing. so, they dropped the bombs. >> whitaker: in a skype interview from his headquarters in qatar, we asked general harrigian, who led the investigation, why the bomber crew didn't know their targeting system could not see infrared strobes on the soldiers' helmets? how is it possible that the air crew didn't know what their plane was capable or incapable of doing? >> jeffrey harrigian: they should have known, quite frankly. that's part of the academics that are given to them. so it was there, but the crew
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didn't remember that. the ground crew should have known just as well that their i.r. strobe could not be seen by the sniper pod. >> whitaker: yet, the general's own report says, "these capabilities were not specifically covered in sniper academics." in other words, air force bomber crews were not taught that their targeting system can't detect infrared strobes. general harrigian, who was promoted and is now in charge of all air force operations in afghanistan, iraq, and syria, says the command sent an urgent bulletin to all its air crews 11 days after the incident, "to ensure they understand the capability and limitations of their aircraft's sensors to detect" strobes. still, the air force general insists the b-1 is not to blame. he faults the people on the
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ground, the air force controller and the green berets, for failing to keep track of each other and accurately communicate their positions to the bomber. >> harrigian: the individuals on the ground have a responsibility, have a duty to know where their teammates are. and they're the ones that are communicating that information to the air crew. >> whitaker: could that discrepancy have been overcome if the crew had been able to see the infrared strobes? >> harrigian: without a doubt. >> whitaker: people will say that this incident proves that the b-1 is not suited for that kind of close-air support. >> harrigian: this incident had nothing to do with the platform. this incident had everything to do with the humans involved with what happened here. >> studenmund: i think that when
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humans are under fire, in fear for their lives, and they make mistakes, that's different from a government not understanding the capabilities of the weapon systems that it sends out to help our troops. >> whitaker: studenmund is convinced the b-1 targeting system is responsible for his son's death. >> studenmund: none of the other mistakes mattered-- none of them mattered. when we send our soldiers into battle, it's wrong to have them using a weapon system which isn't capable of doing what it's supposed to be doing. it's not murder, but it's close. >> whitaker: woody studenmund wanted to speak to us on camera, because he fears a similar mistake will happen again. his dead son's comrades agree and told us the report's criticism of captain anderson was unjust. >> branch: if i got a phone call today that said, "you have got to go back to afghanistan,"
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these were the guys that i would want to be back with. if they had messed up to the level that that report says that they messed up, i would not want to-- to do that. >> whitaker: captain anderson's role in the accident effectively ended his green beret career, even though his commanding general concluded he did not deserve to be punished. he left the special forces and is now a law student at georgetown university. anderson still serves in the army national guard. hank montalbano, who was held blameless by the investigation, also left the green berets and is now an m.b.a. candidate at the university of washington. brandon branch, who was also not faulted in the report, was medically retired due to injuries he sustained in afghanistan. he lives in louisiana. the air controller who gave the bomber the wrong target coordinates was stripped of his combat qualifications.
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he transferred to the air national guard and recently helped manage rescue helicopters after hurricane harvey. the b-1 aircrew, after re-training, was cleared to fly again. as for the bomber's targeting system-- it still cannot detect infrared strobes. it's been three years. do you ever stop thinking about that day? >> branch: there was a time frame after that day that it-- it literally almost destroyed me. and that, for a long time it-- it ate at me. and while i still think about that every day, while i still see that every day, i think it would do them injustice for me to live my life in that moment every day.
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>> whitaker: you fear what happened to you could happen again? >> anderson: yes. >> whitaker: all of you? >> montalbano: absolutely. >> branch: absolutely. >> anderson: we still have u.s. service members throughout the world in harm's way, that are going to rely on this aircraft again. and that's what disheartens me. that's what scares me. that's what i'm mad about. that we haven't fixed a problem that could potentially kill more of our service members. >> this cbs sports update is brought do you by ford. i'm james brown with scores from n.f.l. today. pittsburgh overcame a 14-point deficit to win its fourth in a row. case keenan threw a career high 14 touches as minnesota won its fourth straight. new orleans ran over buffalo with six scores and its seventh straight win. the rams won their fourth
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straight, third in a row scoring 30 or more points. atlanta gets the win, and the 49ers win their first game. atlanta gets the win, and the 49ers win their first game. for more sports news, go to cbssports.com. , santa, i got t. looks a little tight. perfect fit. santa needs an f-150. that's ford, america's best selling brand. hurry in today for 0% financing for 72 months across the full line of ford cars, trucks and suvs! and just announced... get 0 % apr for 72 months plus $1000 cash back! take advantage of these exclusive holiday offers during the ford year end sales event. psoriatic arthritis tries to get in my way? ♪ watch me. ♪ i've tried lots of things for my joint pain. now? watch me. ♪ think i'd give up showing these guys how it's done? please. real people with active psoriatic arthritis are changing the way they fight it...
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>> lapook: aly raisman is one of the most accomplished american gymnasts of all time. she's won six olympic medals, three of them gold, and was captain of the u.s. teams that dominated the last two summer games: in london in 2012, and in rio last year. she hopes to compete in her third olympics in tokyo in 2020. doing a backflip on a balance beam takes a certain type of courage, but tonight, raisman will display courage of another kind. she's sharing a story that's about hard work and athletic achievement, and talking publicly for the first time about a deeply personal and painful part of her life. it's a stunning development for u.s.a. gymnastics, the national governing body for her sport. raisman told us she was sexually abused while competing on the u.s. national team, and she says that's been difficult for her to acknowledge.
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>> aly raisman: i was in denial. i was like, "i don't thi-- i d-- i don't even know what to think." it-- you don't want to let yourself believe but, you know, i am-- i am-- i am a victim of-- of sexual abuse. like, it's really not an easy thing to let yourself believe that. >> lapook: you're saying you were sexually abused. >> aly raisman: yes. absolutely. >> lapook: by the national team doctor. >> aly raisman: yes. >> lapook: while you were out there representing your country >> lapook: few athletes have represented their country with as much distinction as aly raisman. her floor routines at the last two olympics dazzled audiences and judges, and provided some of the most iconic moments of the summer games. the doctor she says abused her, larry nassar, worked with the u.s. women's national team and athletes at michigan state university for more than two decades. raisman says nassar first treated her eight years ago, when she was 15 years old. >> aly raisman: i was just really innocent. i didn't really know. you know, you don't think that of someone.
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you know, so i just-- i trusted him. >> lapook: you thought it was medical treatment. >> aly raisman: i didn't know anything differently. we were told he is the best doctor. he's the united states olympic doctor and the u.s.a. gymnastics doctor, and we were very lucky we were able to see him. >> lapook: nassar is now in jail. he's pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography, but not guilty to charges that he sexually assaulted underage girls, most of them athletes who say his treatment for hip and back pain involved putting an ungloved hand inside the vagina. >> jessica howard: the girls would say, "yeah, he touches you funny." >> lapook: the first top u.s. gymnasts to speak out about nassar appeared on "60 minutes" in february, describing what he did to them more than a decade before aly raisman joined the national team. over 130 women have filed civil lawsuits alleging similar abuse. nassar and his lawyers declined to comment for this story. raisman, now 23, talks about her experiences in a new book called
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"fierce." it's the story of a girl who dreamed of going to the olympics, and how she managed to get there. raisman says she will not discuss the graphic details of what nassar did to her, but she does provide new insight into a scandal that goes to the highest level of her sport. she told us, a lot of people have asked her why nassar's accusers didn't speak up sooner. >> aly raisman: why are we looking at "why didn't the girls speak up?" why not look at "what about the culture?" what did u.s.a. gymnastics do, and larry nassar do, to manipulate these girls so much that they are so afraid to speak up? >> lapook: you're angry. >> aly raisman: i am angry. i'm really upset because it's been-- i care a lot, you know, when i see these young girls that come up to me, and they ask for pictures or autographs, whatever it is. i just-- i can't-- every time i look at them, every time i see them smiling, i just think-- i just want to create change so that they never, ever have to go through this. >> lapook: about 165,000
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athletes and 3,400 gyms are members of u.s.a. gymnastics. raisman is calling for major changes in personnel, training, and education to keep athletes safe. >> all right, aly! >> lapook: aly raisman first joined u.s.a. gymnastics when she was in elementary school. here she is competing when she was nine. as she got older, she sacrificed family vacations, parties and boyfriends, in favor of grueling workouts-- four to seven hours a day, at a gym in suburban boston run by her trusted coach mihai brestyan, who she credits for much of her success. coming up in gymnastics, did you think of yourself as naturally very talented? >> aly raisman: no. it's funny, because mihai will say i'm the most uncoordinated olympian in the whole world. >> lapook: is it true that you're afraid of heights? >> aly raisman: yes. i'm very-- >> lapook: how-- >> aly raisman: --afraid of heights. ( laughs )
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>> lapook: --is that possible? you're flying through the air. >> aly raisman: i don't know. you know, it doesn't scare me on floor. but it scares me on bars. >> lapook: her hard work and dedication landed her a spot on the u.s. team for the london olympics in 2012. during the qualifying round in london, this video of her parents, lynn and rick raisman, went viral. >> lynn raisman: let's go, let's go, catch it! >> lapook: at the london olympics, you became perhaps the most famous cheering section in history. >> lynn and rick raisman: just the hop! stick it, please! stick it! yeah! >> rick raisman: i just think we got caught up in the moment. the amount of pressure and, you know, that she was under at that time, it's just not easy for us to watch. >> lapook: in the first key test in london, the team finals, aly's performance on the floor clinched gold for the u.s.-- >> announcer: raisman finishes the job. team u.s.a. has got team gold. >> lapook: --their first gold ever on foreign soil. it was a picture-postcard moment that only told part of the story.
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one of the women standing next to raisman, her teammate, mckayla maroney, said last month that nassar sexually abused her before the team's victory. in a twitter post, maroney wrote that nassar's abuse, "started when i was 13 years old, and it didn't end until i left the sport." raisman says she and other athletes did not realize at the time that nassar gained their trust through a predatory technique designed to build an emotional bond with the athletes. it's called "grooming." >> aly raisman: he would always bring me, you know, desserts, or gifts. he would buy me little things. so i really thought he was a nice person. i really thought he was looking out for me. that's why i want to do this interview. that's why i want to talk about it. i want people to know, just because someone is nice to you and just because everyone is saying they're the best person, it does not make it okay for them to ever make you uncomfortable. ever. >> lapook: u.s.a. gymnastics has a long-standing policy that adults should "avoid being alone
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with a minor." despite that policy, raisman says she was alone with dr. nassar. he treated her and other athletes in their hotel rooms during competitions abroad. all those years, you were out there representing the united states of america. did our country's sports system look out for you the way it should have? >> aly raisman: no. i think-- nobody ever educated me on, "make sure you're not alone with an adult." you know, "make sure he's not making you uncomfortable." i didn't know the signs. i didn't know what sexual abuse really was. and i think that needs to be communicated to all of these athletes, no matter the age. >> lapook: after helping her team win gold at the london olympics, aly raisman had a crisis of confidence in the next competition, the individual all- around. she finished fourth. by the time she got to her last chance for individual gold, the floor exercise final, she was so nervous she considered not doing
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one of her more difficult moves. but then your coach said something to you. >> aly raisman: he said, "you worked too hard to not be olympic champion because you're a little afraid." >> she took coach mihai's advice, and won gold. >> aly raisman: it felt like i was like floating. it felt like it was effortless. and i've never felt like that before. but it was, like, the best feeling in the world. ( crowd roaring ) >> aly raisman: i learned a valuable lesson that day. in the all-around final, i was nervous. i doubted myself, and i made a mistake. in the floor final, i knew i was going to hit the best routine of my life, and i did. ( crowd roaring ) >> lapook: she returned from london with three medals-- a hometown hero, and an international celebrity. ♪ ♪ she competed on "dancing with the stars," got involved in business ventures, and struck endorsement deals with reebok and other companies.
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but it wasn't enough. she wanted to compete in a second olympics-- something no american gymnast had done in sixteen years. >> lapook: did you think that some people had written you off? >> aly raisman: yes, absolutely. i remember when i first said i was coming back, some other coaches would just say, i think it's going to be really hard for you. i don't think you can do it." >> lapook: that's not the thing to say to you. >> aly raisman: yes, yeah- >> lapook: "i don't think you can do it." right? >> aly raisman: yes. but there were so many days where i just thought, "should i stop? should i? this is just crazy. this is so hard." >> lapook: it got even harder in the summer of 2015, a year before the rio games, when an investigator hired by u.s.a. gymnastics paid raisman a visit. a coach had raised concerns about dr. nassar's treatment of athletes. raisman says she was caught off guard when the investigator asked her about it. >> aly raisman: and i said, you know, "well, he-- his touching makes me uncomfortable, but he's so nice to me. and i-- i don't think he does it on purpose, because, you know, i think he cares about me. >> lapook: so it was only after the investigator left that you
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began to put the pieces together. >> aly raisman: yeah. i mean, i think it's important for people to know, too, i'm still trying to put the pieces together today. you know, it impacts you for the rest of your life >> lapook: since the nassar scandal broke, u.s.a. gymnastics president steve penny has resigned, and this week, the organization announced the hiring of a new president, kerry j. perry. in a statement, u.s.a. gymnastics told us it recently adopted a "safe sport policy" that requires "mandatory reporting" of suspicions of sexual abuse, and also sets standards to "prohibit grooming behavior" and "prevent inappropriate interaction" between athletes and adults. "u.s.a. gymnastics is very sorry that any athlete has been harmed," the statement says. "we want to work with aly and all interested athletes to keep athletes safe." but raisman and her parents say the changes don't go far enough. >> lynn raisman: with the exception of steve penny, the same people are in place. so i don't really have tremendous hopes that a lot of those policies will be enforced.
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>> lapook: a lot of people are asking, where were the parents? >> lynn raisman: we were there. but if she's not knowing that it's wrong-- never in a million years did i ever even think to say, "hey, when you see the team doctor, is there someone with you?" >> lapook: if you could hit the rewind button, is there anything you would have done differently? >> lynn raisman: i think the most important thing, if anyone takes anything away from this interview is, sit down with your kids and explain to them that predators aren't just strangers. they can be highly educated. they can be very well-respected in the community. it could be a family member, it could be a family friend. so, you know, that's really the, i mean, if i could go back in time, i would do that. >> lapook: aly raisman's experiences with dr. nassar haunted her, but did not stop her from pulling off one of the most memorable performances of the olympic games in rio. in the all-around, she won silver.
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>> aly raisman: i finally competed in the all-around final without any major error. i finally competed for myself. and i finally believed in myself. >> announcer: a return to the olympics has been worth it. >> aly raisman: that was just such a good feeling it was really empowering for me. >> lapook: after she returned from rio, she says she spoke with f.b.i. agents who had opened an investigation of larry nassar. ( applause ) this summer, raisman and her teammates from rio were inducted into the u.s.a. gymnastics hall of fame. >> aly raisman: we must remember that protecting athletes comes first, and doing right by athletes is always the priority. i love our sport so much, and i want the best for it. >> lapook: some of the most powerful people in the sport were there, but raisman says it seemed that many of them were giving her the cold shoulder. >> aly raisman: there was a table of a lot of people that are very high up in u.s.a. gymnastics, that were in the room. and-- they didn't come over. you know, my-- my teammates and i were all sitting at the table, and they did not come over to
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say hi to us or to congratulate us. >> lapook: after your speech, or-- >> aly raisman: before, at all. the-- the whole time. all we've done is-- is worked really hard. we love the sport. and-- we were treated like, you know, "we don't want anything to do with you girls." >> lapook: are you concerned that being so outspoken could jeopardize your odds of making the next olympics? >> aly raisman: you know, i think that's a very valid point. but i think that this, speaking out, and creating positive change so that athletes are safe, is more important than any-- olympic medal you could ever win. >> talking to children about how grownups they trust could betray them. go to 60minutesovertime.com what is the power of pacific? it's life insurance and retirement solutions to help you reach your goals. it's having the confidence to create the future that's most meaningful to you.
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>> whitaker: 50 seasons of "60 minutes." this week, a look back to the second sunday of november 1994. that's when ed bradley went on tour with the rolling stones. the band was already in its fourth decade and showing no signs of letting up. over a cup of tea in new orleans, ed asked mick jagger about the stones' recipe for continuing to deliver satisfaction to their audience. >> bradley: the cliche that was, that was associated with the band for, for so many years-- sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll-- is... >> mick jagger: well, it's... >> bradley: ...you're beyond that. >> jagger: some of that's still in there, i think. i'm-- i'm afraid that's still there.
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i mean, i think that rock 'n' roll is still very much of that sexuality. i think the audience always-- you know, still takes a little drugs. and rock 'n' roll-- you have to deliver. >> whitaker: i'm bill whitaker. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes." finally. hey ron! they're finally taking down that schwab billboard. oh, not so fast, carl. ♪ oh no. schwab, again? index investing for that low? that's three times less than fidelity... ...and four times less than vanguard. what's next, no minimums? ...no minimums. schwab has lowered the cost of investing again. introducing the lowest cost index funds in the industry with no minimums. i bet they're calling about the schwab news. schwab. a modern approach to wealth management. for mild-to-moderate eczema? it can be used almost everywhere on almost everybody. the arm of an arm wrestler? the back of a quarterback?
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the face of a fairy? prescription eucrisa is a nose to toes eczema ointment. it blocks overactive pde4 enzymes within your skin. and it's steroid-free. do not use if you are allergic to eucrisa or its ingredients. allergic reactions may occur at or near the application site. the most common side effect is application site pain. ask your doctor about eucrisa.
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hi, i'm jeffrey tanner. welcome to sophe. we all know the internet changed the world. the only question is: into what? it can be a platform to bring us together or to tear us apart. i know, because i spent my life trying to turn it into something that would connect us all. then... i love you, dad. ...my daughter was murdered. nothing else mattered anymore. everyone was sure they knew who did it-- the police, my ex-wife-- but i was convinced the wrong man had been convicted and the real killer was still out there. so together with my team, i built sophe, a crowdsource crime solving platform powered by the smartest, most diverse, independent collection of detectives on the planet: you. let's get to work. previously on wisdom of the crowd... nell degraf sent a cease-and-desist, claiming sophe's running code stolen from allsourcer.
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