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Former Israel Security Officials Accept Iran Deal; New Aid Agency Footage Shows Life inside Yemen; Cuba on the Cusp of Change; Imagine a World. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired August 04, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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

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FRED PLEITGEN, CNN HOST (voice-over): Tonight: the Iran deal in the spotlight as President Obama and Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu trade

jabs. Former top Israeli brass urge their leaders to accept the deal. I speak live to the former head of Israel's nuclear commission.

Also ahead, first on CNN, the latest pictures from inside Yemen as fighting intensifies. Aid groups warn of famine. I speak to the head of

Doctors without Borders there.

And later, even after a trip to the moon, Buzz Aldrin still had to clear customs, believe it or not. What he declared on his mission

paperwork coming up.

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PLEITGEN: Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the program. I'm Fred Pleitgen in for Christiane tonight.

As the U.S. Congress weighs the Iran nuclear deal, President Obama is set to give a major policy speech tomorrow making his case for the

agreement once again. He faces strong opposition not only at home but of course also abroad, especially from Israel.

Only moments ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu blasted the deal once again, saying the days when Jews could not or would not speak out are,

quote, "over."

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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: Judge the deal on its substance and on its substance alone. The more people know about the deal,

the more they oppose it. And the more people know about the deal, the more the deal's supporters try to stifle serious debate. They do so with false

claims and efforts to delegitimize criticism.

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PLEITGEN: But Netanyahu is also facing dissent from dozens of former Israeli defense officials, who, today, urged him to accept the agreement

and move on, calling it, quote, "an accomplished fact." They asked Netanyahu to renew trust with the United States for the sake of Israel's

security and for the sake of stability in the Middle East.

Brigadier General Uzi Eilam is one of the former officials who signed that letter. He's the former director of Israel's atomic energy agency and

he joins me now live from Tel Aviv.

Uzi Eilam, first of all, thank you for joining the program. And second of all, I read the statement that you put out in the "Ha'aretz"

newspaper and it calls on Netanyahu to accept the deal. But it doesn't say whether you are in favor of the deal.

How do you stand to the nuclear deal?

BRIGADIER GENERAL UZI EILAM, FORMER DIRECTOR, ISRAEL'S ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY: Well, personally I'm in favor of the deal and I think that it is

more -- there is more promise in it than anything else and it will -- it was even much better than I felt and thought when they were discussing the

5+1 will arrive at.

But some of my fellows who signed the call to the government think that there is risk. And I am not neglecting the risk. I think that we

should -- Israel should cooperate with the United States and with the other five countries in order to ensure that what is written in the agreement

will be done. And it is more important in our eyes that the cooperation between Israel and the United States will come back to the way -- to where

it were in the past, because there is a lot of work to do from now on monitoring whatever is happening between Iran and --

(CROSSTALK)

PLEITGEN: -- one of the main issues that Benjamin Netanyahu has with this agreement -- and, indeed, many conservatives in the United States as

well -- they say they don't believe that this monitoring is good enough and that this monitoring goes on for long enough.

And I want us to really quickly listen to some more of what Benjamin Netanyahu had to say and then I'd like to get your take on what he's about

to say.

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NETANYAHU: The nuclear deal with Iran doesn't block Iran's path to the bomb. It actually paves Iran's path to the bomb. Worse --

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NETANYAHU: -- it gives Iran two paths to the bomb. Iran can get to the bomb by keeping the deal or Iran could get to the bomb by violating the

deal.

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PLEITGEN: What do you make of that criticism, sir?

EILAN: We should look at the whole picture and not only on the amount of enriched uranium because when they are talking about the breakthrough,

then they mean primarily the amount of the uranium 235 that the Iranians were able to do.

Even that in the next 10 years are in such low quantities that will remain in Iran, that there will be no ability to build even one bomb.

Now of course, if Iran will disrupt everything and will go out of the IAEA and decide to do a weapons system, sooner or later they can have it.

But on the other hand, when you look for what Iran is going to gain in order to be accepted economically, will be better off, there is a very good

chance that the agreement will be kept.

And we should do -- we, Israel -- is to come closer to the -- those who manage the monitoring of the agreement and learn as much as possible

and of course contribute some of our intelligence in order to improve the way we monitor.

And may I add one more thing? My fellow generals -- and many of them I know personally -- they are the ones who fought for Israel. They are the

ones who got wounded -- myself, five times -- and they are very much concerned about where Israel is going vis-a-vis the relations with the

United States --

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PLEITGEN: -- that's my next question, sir, because what I thought was very interesting -- what I thought was very interesting about the statement

that you put out in the "Ha'aretz" newspaper was that it not only said we need to accept the deal as a fate that's accomplished but it also talked of

broader political context.

It talked about trying to solve the Israeli-Palestinian issue. It talked about trying to create a unity for -- unity between what you call

moderate Sunni as well as a Western alliance.

Tell me a little bit more about that, about the broader political context that you and your fellow signatories have in mind.

EILAN: Well, there are so many things to do in this region that really the time that we have will not allow us to get into each of them.

But when we are dealing with the nuclear area, I think that at least myself, I feel quite sure that this is -- will be well taken care of. If

we are talking about terrorism, if we're talking about penetration of Iran to the Middle East, if we're talking about the Shia trying to get over the

Sunnis, there are so many problems that one had to be very, very wise and careful in order to manage all of them.

At least this area of the nuclear weapons, I think, the agreement got us into a very, very promising situation.

PLEITGEN: Uzi Eilam, thank you very much for joining the program.

And as Iran increases its influence in the Middle East, Yemen is becoming a casualty of the power struggle between Tehran and Saudi Arabia.

Saudi-led coalition has carried out thousands of airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen leaving an already poor nation in grave need of

humanitarian aid. The relief agency, Medecins sans Frontieres, has been filming video for a news documentary on the war and CNN is the first

channel they have shared some of the troubling footage with.

It shows the utter desperation of the people there but also how civilians are trying to cope with the violence and, of course, also with

the uncertainty. Earlier I spoke to the head of the group's Yemen operation, Hassan Boucenine. He joined me on the phone from Aden.

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PLEITGEN: Hassan Boucenine, welcome to the program.

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PLEITGEN: Now of course, one of the things about the Yemen conflict is it's been going on for a very long time, it's probably not in the news

as much as it should be. And there is a great deal of human suffering.

Now there's some people who warned about a possible famine in Yemen.

How bad is the situation there for civilians and how badly are they in danger of being hurt by the fighting that's going on there?

HASSAN BOUCENINE, HEAD OF MISSION IN YEMEN, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS/MSF: In the fighting, they are taking a heavy toll on the civilian

population for sure. Then difficulties of importing food and moving any type of goods in the country is a great deal. I mean, it's very, very

dangerous, both because of the airstrikes and because of the ground fighting.

So the population is really in danger today. The week that even before the conflict, Yemen was one of the poorest countries in the world.

PLEITGEN: One of the things that I read that I thought was very troubling was that, on top of the fact that you have these shortages, the

fuel shortage also makes it very difficult to, for instance, run hospitals, to get people to hospitals, to move food around.

How bad is the fuel situation impacting what you're trying to do?

BOUCENINE: It's extremely bad, sir.

First of all, almost all central power system had been damaged and/or destroyed. So all hospitals are running on generators, I mean, for

everything. It's not only lights, it's the medical equipment, x-ray machines, operation room equipment and everything. Everything runs on

generator. So when you have no fuel and when you have shortages, the hospital just close.

So I mean, more than half of the hospital in Yemen have now closed, not only because of shortages of fuel but also shortages of medicines.

But added to that, all water system are running with (INAUDIBLE). And they need fuel for the water. So even the water is a real problem because

of the fuel shortages.

PLEITGEN: How difficult is it for you to get supplies into Yemen and to move it around Yemen?

BOUCENINE: In Aden, we have a boat coming every week. We still have a plane on a weekly basis to bring food and personnel to the country. So,

really, we can import medicines and what that we need but we cannot face the whole country.

And now the whole country is facing the war.

PLEITGEN: When you look at the two sides or the sides that are fighting against each other, do you believe that enough is being done or

anything is being done to protect civilians in this conflict?

BOUCENINE: Absolutely not because many of the fightings were in the cities, where are displaced people, sick refused in some area and then the

front line move and then they're caught in the middle of crossfire.

Those parties, but especially in international (ph) communities should put pressure on both sides to avoid civilian casualties and finally to

enter a round of peace talks for sure, because now we have more and more civilian caught by the conflict, have been wounded, dead. It's really --

it's terrible, taking a heavy toll on the civilians for sure.

PLEITGEN: The horrible thing about conflicts like this one is they start out as limited conflicts but slowly they start destroying the social

fabric of the countries where they happen. We've seen that happen in Syria; to a certain extent we've seen that happen in Iraq.

To what extent is that happening in Yemen, that you see people fleeing?

You see the young generation getting killed in these battles; you see people dying and you see people also starting to distrust each other, if

you look at the different groups that are in Yemen.

BOUCENINE: You're absolutely right, sir. So a big positive side in the Yemen conflict that we have very few foreign fighters for now. But it

is destroying the social fabric, the very social fabric of Yemen. And it's -- people were largely accepting each other from north to south. I mean,

Aden was an open city (INAUDIBLE) also. But now it's really -- I mean, the war is everywhere, everywhere. I mean, any (INAUDIBLE), everybody.

Even where there is no fighting, the restriction on importation of our food and drugs affects everyone. Salaries of the states are not paid in

the south side also. People are working in hospitals, have just stopped working because they don't have salaries anymore.

So really it's really pushing people one against the other. It's a tragedy.

PLEITGEN: Hassan Boucenine, thank you very much for joining us today.

BOUCENINE: You're very welcome. Thanks a lot.

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PLEITGEN: The face of violence across the region, Iraq is digitizing its national library, safeguarding a millennium of historical documents by

sealing them away online, a place where ISIS will never be able to destroy them.

And while Iraq painstakingly preserves its past, over in Cuba, they're trying to move forward with a country that was once frozen in time by

sanctions finally opening up.

After a break, I speak to Cuban American business man Hugo Cancio as Cuba tries to cash in -- that's next.

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PLEITGEN: Welcome back to the program.

It's a country that sometimes seems stuck in another era. But now Cuba is on the cusp of radical change.

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PLEITGEN (voice-over): After Barack Obama restored diplomatic ties with the island nation, there are growing calls in the U.S. to go even a

step further. Here's Hillary Clinton.

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: We have arrived at a decisive moment. The Cuban people have waited long enough for progress to

come. The Cuba embargo needs to go once and for all.

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PLEITGEN: The U.S. and Cuba's detente has already made travel, communication and also business a lot easier.

Hugo Cancio is witnessing these dramatic changes first-hand. The Cuban American business man shuttles back and forth between Havana and

Miami, where he joins me now.

Hugo Cancio, first of all, thank you for joining the program and second of all, how big are the investment opportunities in Cuba and what

are people looking to invest in? What sectors?

HUGO CANCIO, CUBAN AMERICAN BUSINESS MAN: Well, thank you very much for having me on your program. Cuba is a land of opportunity. Cuba has

always been there and now since December 17th, it opens a world of infinite possibility for American companies, from America's in the tourism industry,

to the telecom industry, telecommunications sector, agricultural sector, media and entertainment also offers quite a bit of opportunities for

American companies. Pharmaceuticals as well, our company, Fuego Enterprises, represents or advises American companies how to maneuver the

difficulties of doing business in a socialist country in transition. This is what we have been doing for a while.

PLEITGEN: What are those difficulties? Because that's one of the things that you keep reading about is bureaucratic red tape. After all,

this is still a socialist economic structure that's trying to bring in capitalism.

What are the difficulties that companies would face -- and maybe some of the dangers as well?

CANCIO: Well, I'm not sure that the Cuban government is trying to bring capitalism into the country. They're trying to perfect socialism and

open up to international businesses to come into Cuba, foreign investors to come into Cuba, trying to now offer them guarantees to secure their

investments in the islands.

The red tape is there; the difficulties of doing business in a socialist country in transition, it's exactly that, a lot of red tape.

It's a country that is about trust. It's about building relationships. It's about getting to know the Cuban people, who we are as a country, who

we are as people, as a nation.

So understanding that, I think, is key to start traveling to Cuba and exploring potential business opportunities in Cuba.

PLEITGEN: I like your wording there, of not trying to bring in capital but perfecting socialism.

So what are they striving for then? Because there are some models that you could build on. There's the Vietnamese style of doing things.

There's the Chinese style of doing things.

What is their end game? And do they have one? Or are they just sort of making it up as they go? And are you doing the same thing? Because

you're basically setting the tone now aren't you?

CANCIO: Well, we are very well established. We have an online publication and media company called On Cuba. We also have interests in

telecommunications --

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CANCIO: -- and travel related businesses.

Cuba is a country that has opened up slowly, getting to know American companies. There's been an embargo in place; there's still an embargo in

place that prohibits American companies from doing business in certain sectors. So it's a slow process.

Perfecting socialism, it's the way to do it. Cuba has had the Cuban government and the Cuban people have had the historical opportunity to look

what happens in countries such as Russia, the old Soviet Union, and Vietnam, China. So they're trying to learn from the mistakes made and

things that worked for those countries to move forward their economies. And they're trying to come up with their own system.

What that system is going to be, we're still trying to figure it out. I'm in Cuba; I have access to Cuban officials and to everyday Cubans and

we're all expecting what's the next move for the Cuban government. Hopefully it's the one that we'll like to see, a more freedom of movement,

a more open economy for foreign investors, including Cuban Americans and including American businesses.

PLEITGEN: So I know that you're very successful in all this.

What's your secret to success in Cuba?

CANCIO: I have no secret. My secret it my passion for my country, my secret is 20 years of lobbying the hallways of Congress, for lifting the

inhuman economic embargo imposed on the Cuban people, of my sisters, my friends in Havana and all over the island. It's all about passion. I have

a tremendous amount of passion and unconditional love for my country of origin. And I think that's always the key in any business endeavor that

you go in, in anything that you do in life. You have to approach it with a tremendous amount of passion.

PLEITGEN: One of the things that I think was very interesting that you're saying is they do have some models where the transition from a

socialist economy to something else went well; some didn't go so well.

How difficult is it to manage the transition there? Because on the one hand, what you have is you have many people with a lot of hope right

now, many people who want a better way of life, many people who want to be able to make money.

But at the same time, you have a system that also wants to stay in place.

How is the best way to try and manage that transition to make it beneficial for everybody?

CANCIO: Well, a bigger issue than the system in place is still the embargo imposed from the United States government to the Cuban people. The

system, it's -- there's some flexibilities in the system. The Cuban government approved foreign investment reforms a few years back. Those

reforms include the possibility of American companies to invest in Cuba. But there's nothing that most of us could do at this particular point,

other than to go to Cuba, present our Cuba plan, present our projects and shake hands and start building relationships.

I am positive that Cuba is moving into the right direction. It's a slow process. It couldn't be any other way. It's 56 years of a political

system that has been unmoved, cannot change overnight. It's a process. And we cannot expect Cuba to turn into a type of capitalist system that we

have in the United States in my personal opinion. That is not happening. That will never happen.

So it's a process. They're trying to figure it out, which way to go next. And we all got to be patient. At the same time, I advise a lot of

American companies to start meeting and greeting some Cuban officials in their particular sectors they want to do business with. And think of a way

of presenting a program to that -- their businesses in Cuba, if and when approved and in -- and working. They could return some of those profits

back into the Cuban society and social programs such as free education, free health care, to maintain the type of system in place that takes care

of the people first and benefits the people versus a major corporation.

The Cuba of 1959 that we saw in 1959, to where the Cuban economy was in the hands of American interests and American businesses, I don't think

that Cuba is ever going to come back. So the process is slow in trying to figure it out, what's the next step and what the new Cuba is going to look

like in the future.

PLEITGEN: Hugo Cancio, thank you very much for joining the program today.

CANCIO: Well, thank you for having me, thank you.

PLEITGEN: And as relations finally thaw between Cuba and the U.S., it's important to remember an often forgotten middle man which kept

relations alive over the years -- Switzerland. As the former protecting power of Cuban interests in the United States, it's passed on diplomatic

notes and helped to deescalate conflicts between the two countries.

Of course, with the role there also came some perks. The Cuban interest bar was free from the embargo, giving the Swiss embassy --

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PLEITGEN: -- the only legal Cuban rum in all of the United States.

After a break, another blast from the past. Imagine a world where your expenses reach to the moon and back -- the world of Buzz Aldrin --

that's next.

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PLEITGEN: And finally tonight, imagine a world where the accounting department follows you literally everywhere. Buzz Aldrin, NASA's second

man on the moon, has revealed that the agency's bean counters followed him all the way to space. This week, Aldrin shared his old bureaucratic

memorabilia on Facebook and added, "Yes, the Apollo 11 crew also had to sign customs forms when we returned from the moon, showing we brought moon

rocks and moon dust samples back with us."

The paperwork tracking his points of travel from Cape Kennedy in Florida, where the launch took place, all the way to the moon, back to the

Pacific Ocean and finally to Hawaii. In the end he was granted expenses for travel of $33.31. This, keep in mind, for a journey of almost 800,000

kilometers to the moon and back and he was only able to claim those expenses because he used his private car to get to Kennedy Space Center

before the launch.

On the customs form, there's also a section asking any other condition on board which may lead to the spread of disease. His terrifying

response was, "To be determined."

Since his trip to the moon, Aldrin has always said he thinks humans will one day reach Mars and one can only imagine the expense report for

that.

That's it for our program tonight. Thank you for watching and goodbye from London.

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