Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
FBI Busts New York Bomb Plot; Accused 9/11 Terrorist Speaks; U.S., Israel Stage "War Games"; Candidates Court Women's Vote; Yelp Sets Up Sting Operation; Wrong Date On Voter Registration Cards In Arizona; Jesse Jackson Under Investigation; Rocking the Vote; Disney Introduces First Latina Princess; Hackers Name Wrong Man as Tormentor; Lava Lake in Hawaii at Highest Level
Aired October 18, 2012 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
Stories we're watching in the NEWSROOM, a major bomb plot busted. The target, the Federal Reserve in New York and the heart of the U.S. financial system.
Nineteen days until the election and some voters still doesn't know who to vote for, seriously? We'll go inside the minds of the undecided.
War games. The U.S. sends troops for an exercise in Israel, the largest ever involving the two nations. We have live report for you from the Pentagon.
And one of the world's most active volcanoes, Mt. Kilawea in Hawaii. Look at that. It reaches a critical point. NEWSROOM starts now.
Good morning to you. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Carol Costello. An FBI sting operation uncovers not only a bomb plot, but a possible assassination attempt, the targets, the Federal Reserve in New York and the President of the United States.
The suspect is now in federal custody. He is a 21-year-old from Bangladesh, but he was in the United States on a student visa. Get this, he's been studying cyber security at a college in Missouri.
Prosecutors say he was inspired by al Qaeda and tried detonating a 1,000-pound car bomb outside the bank. The bomb was a fake. It was provided to him by undercover FBI agents.
Former FBI assistant director and CNN contributor, Tom Fuentes, is on the phone. He is in Vancouver this morning. Good morning, Tom.
TOM FUENTES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR (via telephone): Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: I'd just like to talk to you a little bit about this operation. By all accounts this guy was a lone wolf. No one else was involved in this and some are saying this morning that the FBI actually enabled this guy, a guy who was incapable of carrying out such an operation himself.
FUENTES: Well, I talked to several officials at FBI headquarters and some other places that, you know, this is a typical problem in a case like this is that when someone reaches out to others to obtain help to carry out a bomb plot or shooting plot or some other terrorist act that they can't do all by themselves.
Then the authorities are very concerned about accusations of entrapment, that he couldn't have done anything or that he was only able to do it because the FBI undercover agent taught him how or provided significant help.
But this is someone who came to the United States determined to carry out a terrorist plot and if he didn't acquire the skills or the equipment to carry out an explosive attack, he probably would have had no trouble obtaining firearms.
And could have still done significant damage and killed dozens of people in the financial district of New York or any other place he chose. So this is a very dangerous person.
They took this to the limit in terms of trying to make sure that he didn't have other accomplices that he wasn't in contact with the network of other terrorists.
And once they determined that they had all of that aspect of the investigation completed then they went ahead and made the arrest.
COSTELLO: This was a pretty elaborate thing and it took a long time. And I heard what you just said, but why wait so long to nab him? Take him into custody?
FUENTES: Because they absolutely want to make sure that there's no one else involved. They're going to be monitoring at the same time as the investigation goes on undercover. They're going to be monitoring his phone calls.
His e-mail traffic if they're aware of all the e-mail accesses that he has and that is what they want to know. They want to know absolutely positively that there's no one else, especially in the United States that he might be in contact with or might be taking orders from in carrying out this plot.
That part of the investigation takes a long time and requires a lot of coverage overseas, his hometown, friends, neighbors and associates that may have been looked at, investigated back in Bangladesh or a country he may have been in recently.
They're not going to hurry as long as they're pretty sure they have in pocket, as they say, that they're aware of his movements and they're monitoring to make sure he doesn't go ahead and carry out something behind their back.
COSTELLO: Tom Fuentes, thanks so much for joining us this morning.
The accused mastermind of the 9/11 attacks slams the U.S. government, saying it sanctions torture in the name of national security. Khalid Sheik Mohammed spoke during a pre-trial hearing in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He compared then nearly 3,000 people who died at the 9/11 attacks to, quote, "millions who have been killed by the U.S. military." His trial is expected to start next summer.
It's being called the largest joint military exercise ever between the United States and Israel, more than 1,000 U.S. troops headed to the region as Israel is reportedly worried about growing threats from Iran and Syria. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressing his concerns during a recent appearance before the U.N. General Assembly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: If these are the facts, and they are, where should a red line be drawn? A red line should be drawn right here before Iran completes the second stage of nuclear enrichment necessary to make a bomb.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Chris Lawrence is at the Pentagon. Good morning, Chris.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hi, good morning, Carol. Yes, basically what they're saying publicly is this doesn't have anything to do with Iran, these exercises. But the generals in charge of the planning yesterday told us, look, the fact that we are working together and are doing this exercise is a message in and of itself.
In other words, there is obviously the context of Iran. This exercise was supposed to go on earlier this spring, it was postponed by Israel and here it is, you know, literally just a couple weeks before the U.S. presidential election in which Governor Mitt Romney has accused President Obama of sort of fracturing the relationship with Israel.
Well, here you have now just two weeks out the largest exercise of its kind, three weeks, going to cost the U.S. about $30 million, spread out over different sites in Israel, Europe and the Mediterranean.
COSTELLO: Yes, I know that many, many viewers probably don't know that the United States military does this with other countries. But how many U.S. troops are we talking about that are involved in this exercise within the country of Israel?
LAWRENCE: So far, Carol, already about a thousand troops have arrived in Israel to start for when these exercises kick off. Basically what they want to do is make sure that the U.S. systems and the Israeli systems can work together, so that in the event of a conflict or a war, they're used to the tempo of defending Israel against short range, medium range missiles coming from very different areas all at once. Israel has a new missile defense system, but this is going to be the Pentagon's first look at how it works and how well it works with the Israeli software.
COSTELLO: Chris Lawrence reporting live from the Pentagon this morning. It's 19 days until the election -- I was expecting that little stinger thing. Both campaigns are pushing hard for the woman vote -- the women vote. That key group of voters could decide which candidate wins control of the White House.
Over the next two days, the candidates' wives have some high-profile interviews to help out their husband's campaigns. CNN political director, Mark Preston, joins us now. I guess it can't be understated how important women are to victory for either candidate.
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, you know, Carol, they want your vote. I'll tell you what. They are trying very hard about it. You know, back in 2008, President Obama won the women vote by 13 points over John McCain. He won men by just one point. Now, here we are in 2012 and right now, Mitt Romney has a pretty healthy lead among men.
And what we've seen is that the gap that President Obama had over Mitt Romney with women has certainly closed. At Tuesday night's debate, they both made pleas to women. Let's hear what they had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: What we can do to help young women and women of all ages is to have a strong economy so strong that employers are looking to find good employees. And bringing them into their workforce and adapting to a flexible work schedule that gives women the opportunities that they would otherwise not be able to afford.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When we talk about child care and the credits that we're providing, that makes a difference in terms of whether they can go out and earn a living for their family.
These are not just women's issues. These are family issues. These are economic issues and one of the things that makes us grow as an economy is when everything participates and women are getting the same fair deal as men are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PRESTON: Now, you know, Carol, as you said at the top, the candidates' wives have become very important on the campaign trail, certainly reaching out to women. We'll see Ann Romney on "The View" today, a television show that certainly has a large demographic of women who watch it.
We also saw President Obama on "The View" just a few weeks ago. And we know that the candidates will be trying their hardest to try to get these women certainly in the nine key battle ground states that we're watching right now to come out and vote for them in November.
COSTELLO: OK, I'm sure many people are wondering, Mark. Over the past month, Mitt Romney's campaign has been able to turn the President's large lead among women and to just a slight edge. But will that comment about the binders hurt him in the long run or that's just go away?
PRESTON: Well, you know, the Romney campaign is pushing back very hard on that. They put out Kerry Healey, who was Lieutenant Governor for Mitt Romney when he was the Governor of Massachusetts. She is out there talking about how Mitt Romney, in fact, reaches out to women and certainly creates opportunities for women. They also say that this campaign is about the economy and it's about the deficit and that's what women want to hear.
Now we'll tell you the Obama campaign this morning pointed out to me that they have been working very hard certainly to try to get women to support President Obama again in 2012. They also point out they are going to make an effort to try to paint -- or rather Governor Romney as an extremist on women's issues. We saw that the other night during the debate when it comes to abortion and contraception coverage.
And it's no surprise that Cecile Richards, who is the President of Planned Parenthood, has taken a leave of absence in some way and is volunteering on behalf of the Obama campaign -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Interesting. Mark Preston reporting live from Washington for us this morning.
A sting operation at the web site "Yelp." Consumer Review says they caught several businesses red-handed trying to pay people to post positive reviews and now their pages are getting slapped with a consumer warning.
Alison Kosik is following the story from the New York Stock Exchange. Explain.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: OK, when you see these companies that post on these sites like "Yelp," you have to understand that reviews are really their lifeblood. So companies like restaurants and salons and auto mechanics that post, when someone says they don't like your place, chances are they're not going to want to go there. Some of these companies are reportedly offering money to people to post positive reviews.
Now "Yelp" discovered this and will be putting up consumer alert on companies that are listed with these sketchy reviews. So when you see the companies "Yelp" is questioning, it's going to have this big, red alert with this Alfred Hitchcock-looking guy with a trench coat and a magnifying glass. And you'll know that this is the consumer alert. And then you'll see a link to the evidence because in some in cases what "Yelp" says that these companies actually posted ads on Craigslist scouting for people to post good reviews and offered anywhere from $10 to $200 to do it.
Now "The New York Times" is reporting the "Yelp" had its own sting and what it did was respond to some of these ads on Craigslist to catch these companies. Now the newspaper also says these consumer alerts are going to stay up for another three months.
You know, in the current digital world, these personal reviews are really, really important as I said. You know, they really make or break these companies. You know, many people will say, you know what? I'm not going to go to these companies without checking out these reviews first so one bad review can be a huge turnoff especially where reputation means everything -- Carol.
COSTELLO: You got that right. Alison Kosik, many thanks.
Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. has been out of the spotlight for quite some time, but now he's back and facing accusations of misusing campaign money to decorate his home.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It is 15 minutes past the hour. It's time to check our top stories.
Authorities have arrested a man they say tried to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank in New York. Prosecutors say the 21-year-old from Bangladesh was apparently motivated by al Qaeda. They don't think he had any accomplices. The suspect caught in a sting operation. The public, according to the FBI, was never at risk.
To Arizona now, where one county listed the wrong Election Day on a set of Spanish voter registration cards, instead of November 6, the card said November 8. Officials say the error affected approximately 50 cards out of 2 million.
And after 80 years, "Newsweek" is ending its print edition on December 31st. It's going all digital. The magazine's editor-in-chief claims the growing use of tablet computer is weaknesses in print advertising.
Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. has been out of the public spotlight for quite some time. A mental illness has kept him out of Washington for four months, but that doesn't mean he hasn't been in the news. A federal law enforcement official says Jackson has been under investigation for possible financial improprieties.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's on the ballot, but not on the campaign trail and not on the job. The only place Chicago voters are seeing Democratic Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. is in the headlines.
A federal law enforcement official tells CNN, the FBI and federal prosecutors are investigating Jackson for possible financial improprieties. The probe was first reported by "The Chicago Sun Times."
LYNN SWEET, "THE CHICAGO SUN TIMES": This adds yet another legal headache for Congressman Jackson to face and of course, this does come just before the election.
TODD: "The Wall Street Journal" reports the probe centers on whether Jackson misused campaign money to decorate his home. The FBI declined to comment. This is separate from a previous investigation into whether Jackson was part of the scandal involving former Illinois Governor Rob Blagojevich.
The House Ethics Committee looked into allegations that Jackson or an associate offered to raise money for Blagojevich in exchange for Jackson being appointed to Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat.
Jackson denied any wrong doing. Another new headline, sitting on the stoop of his house with his father and a cigar on Monday, Jackson did his first interview in months. He told the web site "The Daily," he is not well and is going to doctor appointments twice a day. He did not address the allegation he misused campaign money.
We saw no sign of Jackson at his house in Washington. Jackson was treated for bipolar depression this summer according to doctors at the Mayo Clinic.
Before recent appearances, he hadn't been seen in about four months even though he was released from the clinic in September.
(on camera): A staff member at this bar, "The Beer Baron Tavern" in Washington tells us that Jackson was here on two consecutive nights recently and that he was drinking. No one here would go on camera with us.
(voice-over): For Lynn Sweet of the "Chicago Sun Times," that raises questions.
SWEET: If he's well enough to go out, I think the voters of Chicago want to see him.
TODD: Sweet says even though he hasn't been on the campaign trail for several months, Jackson is expected to win re-election still.
SWEET: All of this adds up to a very, very serious political problem for Congressman Jackson. So much so that even if he's re-elected, it will make it hard to see how at this point, unless he does publicly show people he's up to the job, it does make people wonder will he be able to be an effective member of the House of Representatives.
TODD: We tried several times to get Jackson's congressional and campaign aides to comment on the reports of a financial investigation, on the interview outside his home and at the sighting of him at a bar drinking. They would not comment. We could also not reach a lawyer for Jackson. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Today's "Talk Back" question: is the phrase "binders full of women" overblown? Facebook.com/CarolCNN. We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Now's your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. The question for you this morning: is the phrase "binders full of women" overblown?
First it was Big Bird. Now it's binders full of women. The two big talking points for Democrats apparently. The binder phrase, which Mitt Romney used to describe his hiring process for women lives on, on Facebook and certainly on the campaign trail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: See, we don't have to order up some binders to find qualified, talented, driven young women to learn and teach and thrive and start businesses.
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The idea that he had to go and ask where a qualified woman was, he just should have come to my house. He didn't need a binder. He didn't need a binder.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Romney supporters are saying, "Really? Seriously, Democrats, is that all you got?"
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KERRY HEALEY, ROMNEY CAMPAIGN ADVISER: And also it's the wrong approach, too. If you look at Governor Romney's record while he was in office, he not only asked me to run with him as his lieutenant governor, but his chief of staff was a very distinguished woman who also ran his presidential campaign. His chief policy adviser was a woman and half the people sitting on the cabinet were women. So I think that it's a stretch to make this an issue and it also is a misdirection.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: But is it a misdirection? Romney's binders comment came in response to an equal pay for equal work question. Of course, Romney didn't answer that, but his answer did focus attention on his hiring record in Massachusetts.
According to the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy, before Mr. Romney took over as governor, 30 percent of senior level state jobs were held by women. Romney did appoint more women in the first half of his administration, but in the second half the number of senior women fell to less than 28 percent. Of course, the sad fact is women are underrepresented in the entire world of politics.
But the question for Romney: Will it matter to that all-important constituency, women?
"Talk Back" question: is the phrase "binders full of women" overblown? Facebook.com/CarolCNN. Your responses later this hour.
You could say some voters have commitment issues because they still haven't made up their minds between Obama and Romney. So what are they waiting for? We'll go inside the minds of the undecided.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Good morning. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Carol Costello. It's 30 minutes past the hour, just about there. Let's check our top stories now.
Authorities have arrested a man they say tried to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank in New York. Prosecutors say the 21-year-old from Bangladesh was in the United States on a student visa and was apparently motivated by al Qaeda, but they don't believe he had accomplices. The suspect was caught in an FBI sting operation. The FBI says the public was never in any danger.
Cuba tries to quash speculation that Fidel Castro is near death. State media has put out a message said to be from him and also quotes his son who says Castro is well. Fidel Castro has not been seen publicly since March.
Dozens of residents evacuated from a fire in Santa Barbara, California, have now been allowed to go back home. Firefighters reportedly have most of the fire contained, but they had to battle the fire mostly by air because of steep terrain. No homes have burned. One firefighter did suffer a minor injury, though.
Voters in Ohio and Iowa, listen up. Today, you're going to get a message from Bruce. The Grammy and Oscar-winning superstar Bruce Springsteen has joined the effort to help get out the vote for President Obama.
The Boss isn't the on musician heading out for the campaign trail. Kidd Rock is declaring his support for the Romney/Ryan team and introduced vice presidential candidate, Paul Ryan, saying the Republican ticket shares his vision for the country.
Joining me now is Republican CNN -- joining me now is CNN contributor and Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen and Republican strategist Ron Bonjean. Good morning to both of you.
Good morning to both of you. OK, so I'd like to like talk about the celebrity thing in the context of undecided voters because they're -- they're the voter that candidates are really fighting for right now.
Does Bruce Springsteen sway the minds, sway the desire of an undecided voter Hilary?
HILARY ROSEN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: You know first of all I have to say I'm huge fan of Kid Rock too, so I'm not dissing -- I'm not dissing Richie here. But here's -- here's what I think a Bruce Springsteen concert in Ohio does. It's -- it's essentially a huge get out the vote rally. It's not necessarily going to say all right, I'm a Boss fan so if Bruce is for -- for President Obama, I'm going to be. What it is -- is at a time when voter turnout is going to mean everything in states like Ohio, Bruce Springsteen energizes the vote. That's what it is.
It's -- I don't think he expects to convert a lot of people but I do think he expects to double down on how important it is to stay engaged.
COSTELLO: Well, there seems to be this contest between Democrats and Republicans to get the best -- it's just kind o weird. RON BONJEAN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, I will -- yes you know I tell you if these celebrity you know this celebrity appearances work, you know politicians would be using them all the time. But I think this is more of a pep rally. You know, more people who are fans of Bruce Springsteen are just going to go to see Bruce Springsteen. What -- what the campaign is counting on is that a slice of them will go out and vote.
But you know I'm not sure about that. You know I'm a Bruce Springsteen fan myself, I'm going to see him in Charlesville, next Tuesday.
So if I saw -- if I was in Ohio and I might stop by just to see him sing but that doesn't mean I'm going to go vote for him as a Republican.
COSTELLO: Really?
(CROSSTALK)
ROSEN: You know let me say one thing that's kind of -- Springsteen and many -- he's got -- he's got some street cred with the working man. So you know there is a -- there is a natural affinity. And I -- I think it's pretty clear that sort of on the celebrity factor, it matches the youth support for President Obama.
So that, you know, we've seen across the board a huge amount of celebrities who are youth focused are -- are Obama supporters.
COSTELLO: Oh definitely for sure.
OK, I want to get inside the mind of the undecided voter. I mean, you're a Republican strategist, Ron. So as a Republican strategist, what do you need to say -- I mean, it's -- first of all, explain what's in the mind of an undecided voter. Because in such partisan times, you would think that everybody would have their mind made up.
BONJEAN: Well, I think Independent voters are looking for a plan for the future on where this -- because they're upset about where this country is going. And Mitt Romney is doing that. He -- you know keep hearing about his five-point plan to turn the country around. And in eight -- eight different polls he's leading Independent voters 49 percent to 37 percent, likely Independent voters.
And so that says to me this five-point plan that he's getting out there is working, while President Obama has been trying to switch up his strategy instead of you know his ads going after Mitt Romney now, he's trying to increase his likability and show people what he's done over the last four years because he has done -- he's not done a good job defending himself or laying out a future.
COSTELLO: Well -- well, so -- so you get inside the mind of an undecided voter by what, offering specifics? I mean Hilary --
(CROSSTALK)
BONJEAN: By being the man with a plan.
ROSEN: By being a man with a plan you know I am --
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Hilary, why don't you like one voter told me she's exhausted, she was exhausted after the debate.
ROSEN: Yes, it's such a great question, Carol, because I think everybody is trying to figure that out. And you know no disrespect to Ron but I think what he just said is kind of Washington consultant talk, which I'm guilty of sometimes myself.
But I'm in Florida right now and I will tell you sitting here in Florida for the last two days, you know I've been doing the campaign events, et cetera. Watching these TV ads, there is absolutely no way an undecided voter can look at what's going on and look at the campaign communications from a campaign and actually discern facts because there is so much noise.
And so I think what it's going to come down to for an undecided voter, who hopefully will make a decision to go to the polls as opposed to stay home, is who do you think is going to be on your side? Who do you trust?
It's going to be much more visceral. Who is speaking kind of the language that you can relate to? I think when it's women in particular it's going to be President Obama because he's more forward looking and -- and not trying to re-litigate the -- the old issues that women had fought for for years.
And I think the one final piece is not just what the candidates are saying but what people in your own personal life are saying who've already made up their minds, who may have looked more into the issues.
You know voting is a lot like kind of making a donation or going to a church. It's what's your community of trusted people saying about what you ought to do? I think that peer stuff means so much.
COSTELLO: And along the same lines, I was talking to one of my team members and she said you know what; I don't really believe there are that many undecided voters out there. I think they are just afraid to express who they're going to vote for because of these partisan times.
ROSEN: Yes.
COSTELLO: Have you seen that among voters, Ron?
BONJEAN: Well, I'll tell you what, you know it's interesting because before the first debate, Mitt Romney was really behind and we thought gosh all these voters were in President Obama's camp. But you saw that people are willing to switch immediately because they are looking for plans in the future. And that's why Mitt Romney in the first debate did so well.
These are shifting sands. You know these Independent voters are looking for someone to lead them. They're looking for a plan. And that's why I keep saying Mitt Romney by laying that out in that five- point plan has been extremely useful to punch through all the rhetoric. And all the, you know all the divisive talk by having a forward vision and keep talking about and forcing the President to try to debunk it, he's taken the lead. And if you're an Independent voter, I think that does have an effect.
COSTELLO: We'll see. Ron Bonjean, Hilary Rosen -- thanks so much for the discussion this morning. I appreciate it.
BONJEAN: Thank you.
ROSEN: OK, take care.
COSTELLO: From politics to showbiz, a Disney first. A new princess who is Latina, although Disney isn't planning on mentioning that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi kids, hi Ruby.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once upon a time in the kingdom of --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Over the years we've seen Disney depart from the traditionally Anglo-Saxon Princesses with the samples like Pocahontas, Mulan and Tiana, the African-American princess. Well, now there is a Latina princess, but her ethnicity is not so obvious.
A.J. Hammer of "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" is in New York to explain. Good morning.
A.J. HAMMER, HLN HOST, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": Good morning, Carol. Yes, Disney is being relatively low key about the introduction of Princess Sophia. She's going to be the first Latina princess on their roster. She'll be making her big debut next month on the "Disney Channel" in the TV movie called, "Sophia the First, Once Upon a Princess."
And there's going to be a TV series on Disney and on Disney Junior. So it's not a theatrical film just yet. The story line is about Sophia becoming a princess when her mother marries into the royal family of a fictional country. And while they're being pretty matter of fact about this, during a recent press tour, some of the people behind the show did confirm that Sofia is Latina.
But it seems that they don't plan to make a big deal of it. In fact they told "Entertainment Weekly", Carol, when it comes to kids, a princess is just a princess. And I think therein lies a great lesson.
COSTELLO: Absolutely. And I have to agree with that. A.J. Hammer, thanks so much. For the latest entertainment news watch "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" 11:00 Eastern on HLN. Angelina Jolie is donating $50,000 towards the education of girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She's making that donation in honor of Malala, the 14-year-old Pakistani girl shot in the head last week by the Taliban for promoting education for girls. Malala is now fighting for her life in a hospital in Britain.
Twitter censored. Say it isn't so. Oh, but it is. We'll tell you why.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It is just about 44 minutes past the hour.
Checking our "Top Stories" now. The accused mastermind of the 9/11 attacks slams the U.S. governments saying it sanctions torture in the name of national security. Khalid Sheik Mohamed spoke during a pre- trial hearing Wednesday in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. His trial is expected to start next summer.
Greece is brought to a standstill as tens of thousands of protesters hit the streets against more austerity measures. And for the second time in a month many of the country's transportation workers are on strike.
And for the first time, the people behind Twitter say they have censored the content of a group in a specific country. German police asked for the -- asked for the feed belonging to a Neo-Nazi group to be closed. The Twitter feed is still visible, though, in the United States.
A Canadian man says he's receiving death threats after a vigilante Internet group outed him as the one who posted topless photos of the teenager Amanda Todd. You may know that Todd committed suicide a week ago after going online and describing her treatment at the hands of a cyberbully.
On Monday night, the hacktivist group Anonymous released the personal information of a Vancouver man. They released his home address, his Twitter feed, Facebook profiles, but Canadian police say it wasn't him. And now the man says he's gotten thousands of death threats.
The bigger issue here, vigilante justice? Should just anyone be allowed to name a suspect?
Parry Aftab of WireSafety.org joins us this morning. Good morning, Parry.
PARRY AFTAB, WIREDSAFETY.ORG: Good morning Carol. Good to see you again.
COSTELLO: Nice to see you too. So for those out there who are not quite sure what the group Anonymous is, can you give as a short definition?
AFTAB: Sure. There's Anonymous and there are a lot of trolling groups, so we need to make sure we're talking about the right group. Anonymous is a smaller group of people who have hacking and high-tech skills that use them for good or not so good depending upon your viewpoint.
But there are lots of people who pretend to be Anonymous or are Anonymous wannabes who may be out there doing some of this thing. You never know who it's coming from, whether it's posted by kids or by people pretending to be hacktivists.
COSTELLO: Well, in this instance, Anonymous supposedly named this bully but it wasn't the bully who was responsible for this teenager's suicide and now he's getting death threats. So what do you do? Is it right? Is it wrong?
AFTAB: Well, it's absolutely wrong. If they've got information, they should give it to law enforcement. Vigilante justice, even if it were true, isn't what we need to do if this person had done what they did. They're trading in child pornography and they belong behind bars.
But there are lots of times they will do this to get even with somebody they don't like. And sometimes they may be well intentioned but have the wrong information. The only people who are going to get the right information up here are the RCMPs and Facebook's going to help them do that.
COSTELLO: Of course, it's very difficult to control if people do it on the Internet, especially a group like Anonymous.
AFTAB: That's it. And as I said, it's not so clear that this really is Anonymous. It was posted originally by somebody with a Facebook page called Anonymous New Jersey. So who you're dealing with isn't always so clear. But we need to recognize that if you believe somebody has committed a crime, there are ways to report that and the way to deal with it is not online because it's diverting law enforcement attention and Facebook's attention away from the people who really did it.
COSTELLO: Parry Aftab, thank you so much for being with us this morning. We appreciate it.
AFTAB: That's OK. I'm up in Canada trying to deal with this problem right now. When I'm back in New York, we'll be able to do some more.
COSTELLO: Wait, you're dealing with this specific problem that we're talking about right now?
AFTAB: Absolutely. I'm one of five members of Facebook's international safety advisory board worldwide. We're the ones who help deal with it, and I work with the RCMPs all the time.
So we're up here in Prince Edward Island today. I'll be out in British Columbia in another week where we're doing a lot there and working with law enforcement and with Facebook on trying to make sure we find the people who are responsible, as well as training teens and other people to become our cyber army in making sure when they see these kinds of things going on, you report it, report it in the right way so that the right people go behind bars and kids are alive. In this case Amanda had no place else to turn. She turned to the Internet for help and we all failed her. So no one reported it. It hadn't been reported to Facebook. If it had been, they would have captured this person and reported them to law enforcement. It hadn't been reported to Google on the YouTube videos. Many people stood by and did nothing.
So what we're going to be doing is make sure that everyone knows what to do when they see things happening online, where to report it, and how to get the most effective work and how not to stand by but to stand up against these things.
COSTELLO: So how difficult is it for to you track down this, you know, group that may or may not be affiliated with Anonymous?
AFTAB: Well, there are two pieces. The way to track down the person who did post the picture, Facebook collects IP information from everybody who has an account. They have lots of it and they lock these accounts, they work with law enforcement under subpoenas to take that IP information, the cyber bread crumbs, and track it back to a real person, a real location. So dealing with that is one thing.
Whether we need to track down the people from Anonymous or the people posing as Anonymous really isn't the issue. When they start dealing with this, they're dealing with it again in some cases through Facebook. Facebook can shut down those accounts and have in many cases. There a lot of trolls and others who are posting on the memorial pages for Amanda saying really horrible and nasty things. Facebook is on that, too, taking down anything that violates their terms of service.
We've offered our help in helping the kids who set up the page to police it using some technology that's been developed in Canada to help them keep it clean. So law enforcement knows the difference between credible resources and credible reports and those that aren't. But when they go to the public and try to set somebody up, you don't know if there's a hidden agenda.
There might have been in some cases here, they might have been well intentioned, they thought this person was behind it. The only person who knows who's behind it is Facebook and law enforcement because they have the real information. Everything else is just suspect. So when you hear the stuff, doesn't believe it until it's confirmed by law enforcement.
COSTELLO: All right. We'll take your advice. Parry Aftab, thank you so much for being with us this morning. We appreciate it.
AFTAB: Thanks, Carol. Appreciate it.
COSTELLO: We're back after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Mt. Kilauea is one of the world's most active volcanoes. For the past 19 years, lava has been flowing on the big island of Hawaii. In fact, in Hawaiian, the word "Kilauea" means spewing. Now all that spewing has reached new heights. the lake of lava inside is now 150 feet below the volcano's crater.
Meteorologist Rob Marciano joins us now and the pictures look cool --
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.
COSTELLO: -- but it's pretty scary.
MARCIANO: Well, pretty hot actually. That stuff is like 2,000 degrees Carol. So you don't want to be touching it or getting too close. It will bake a pizza up in a hurry, that's for sure.
Stunning pictures, no doubt about that. And we'll just kind of put them up as wall paper. This is the stuff you know, you see in movies. This is the steam of the volcano that from time to time will erupt on the side and actually spew lava into the ocean. That's the view from up top.
What's going on here, first of all? Within this volcano at the very top is a crater, OK. It's the Halemaumau Crater. And there's an observatory up there. And from about a mile away from where this is all happening, the people could actually hear the pop, the rattle and the roll of this eruption happening at the lake.
Now, the surface of the lava has actually come up and it's only 150 feet from the bottom of that crater. If it comes up even more, it will start overtopping that and building up on that.
They don't think that's going to happen for a couple of reasons. These guys out there are very, very smart. Let's go over the geography of this. Obviously, it's in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. This is on the Big Island. This is on the eastern flank of the Big Island east of Mauna Kea. And this is the area that erupts, has been erupting very actively for the past 30 or so years.
We'll zoom in just a little bit more here. You can actually see the crater. This is the lake of lava in the crater there. Here's where people hang out and just listen and at times see the steam. I sense a field trip for us go over there and make sure these scientists know what they're talking about.
COSTELLO: Hey, I'd like to go along. Good idea. I'll try to sell that to the bosses and listen to them say no.
MARCIANO: Scrap. You have a budget.
COSTELLO: Rob. Thanks so much.
MARCIANO: All right. See you later.
COSTELLO: Today's "Talk Back" question: is the phrase "binders full of women" overblown? Your responses next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: Looking for a way to flatten that spare tire? Crunches in the gym won't do it. Chris Powell from TV's "Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition" has today's "Daily Dose".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS POWELL, "EXTREME MAKEOVER: WEIGHT LOSS EDITION": People always ask me, Chris, how do I get rid of that spare tire? Well, it's really important to know where that spare tires coming from. We've all seen the poor individual in the corner of the gym doing a thousand crunches. But you can't spot reduce that area meaning that you can't actually reduce the body fat by working the muscle.
What we can do is that we can develop the size of the muscle by doing abdominal exercises but we can never see it until we reduce the layer of energy -- what we call body fat that's sitting up on top of the muscle.
And how do we do it? Well, there's a saying that we have in the industry and that's that abs are made in the kitchen. And so as long as we're focusing on good, clean nutrition, we keep ourselves at a calorie deficit meaning that we're eating pure calories than our body is burning. Then ultimately from the top down we're going to begin losing that body fat and eventually you're going to see that layer of energy, that body fat sitting up on top of the muscles slowly reduced down to a point where those abs begin to push out and you've got that beautiful six-pack.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: All right. Our "Talk Back" question today: is the phrase "binders full of women" overblown?
This from Sue: "Drop it, it must be awful to have your every word scrutinized. I know I'd be the brunt of a lot of jokes for the times I misspeak. I'm an undecided voter. The binders gaff didn't help me make up my mind at all."
This from Sandra: "This needs to be discussed since it's indicative of Mitt Romney and the Republican Party's position on women in general. They'll reduce availability to Planned Parenthood. They don't seem too keen to support equal pay legislation.
This from John: "It's funny. But we are a snarky crowd, including myself."
Keep the conversation going -- Facebook.com/CarolCNN. And thanks as always.
And thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello. "CNN NEWSROOM" continues right now with Ashleigh Banfield.