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Connect the World
Islamists Pour Into Syria From Turkey; India Launches Probe It Hopes Will Reach Mars; Rebel Group M23 Announces Cease-fire With Democratic Republic of Congo; US Election Day; Fighting Pedophilia; Leading Woman Yingluck Shinawatra, Prime Minister of Thailand; Looted Art Found; Parting Shots: Fast Chilling
Aired November 05, 2013 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BECKY ANDERSON, HOST: Tonight, Syria's al Qaeda reality: a new CNN exclusive report unveils life under Islamist rebels.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): They're closing hair salons. Women can't go out at certain times. They spat on one girl for disobedience. It's like Afghanistan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: So is President Assad now the lesser of two evils? Well, we'll debate that with former British foreign secretary Lord Owen and former U.S. ambassador Ted Kattouf this hour.
Also ahead...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My name is Witty (ph). I'm 10-years-old. I live in the Philippines.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: How this avatar helped snare thousands of sexual predators.
And, hidden gems worked by masters have found amongst a trove of Nazi looted art in Germany. The very latest from Munich for you.
ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN London, this is Connect the World with Becky Anderson.
ANDERSON: Tonight, failure in Geneva has taught to broker piece in Syria are delayed once again. UN, U.S. and Russian delegates failed to set a date for these long awaited talk. They offered a vague hope that a meeting may happen by year's end, but they are still bickering over just who will be invited.
Meanwhile, in Syria the situation on the ground is chaotic and it is getting worse. In this CNN exclusive, Nick Paton Walsh takes us inside the al Qaeda controlled town of Raqaah. A warning, this report contains graphic images.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is what happens when al Qaeda claims they came to help, but instead decide to rule. This man beaten for spraying graffiti.
"Every 15 minutes someone poured water on me, electrocuted me, kicked me and then walked out," he said.
He was dragged from the city streets of Raqqah into this church that al Qaeda had torched and marked as their base. They tortured many. "When a person is tortured in front of you, you feel responsible, that's the hardest. One guy still inside used to call me dad, as I taught him about democracy."
al Qaeda linked militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria known as ISIS have in the past month put an end to the liberal lifestyles of Raqqah. They put up posters asking women to cover their beauty. Here, they roam at night preaching to a cafe that smoking will be banned.
By day, they burn confiscated cigarettes.
Life looks normal, even though just filming it can get you flogged.
But look closer, women's rights are vanishing. There are new rules: wear Islamic clothing, don't see a male doctor, don't leave home without a male relative.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): They're closing hair salons. Women can't go out at certain times. They spat on one girl for disobedience. It's like Afghanistan. Now people call Raqqah Tora Bora.
WALSH: This Islamist school indoctrinates Raqqah's youngest, the first steps an Islamist caliphate unimaginable in Syria just months ago.
At the weekend, one nearby town awoke to signs saying thieves would have their hands cut off.
ISIS has in this graphic video filmed by activists their own form of justice.
In May, ISIS swept in. Their brutality against these alleged regime thugs an antidote to the weak and chaotic rebels. You can hear the crowds fury for blood revenge here, the hole in society al Qaeda slipped into.
But soon, ISIS's heavy hand sparked protests. They began arresting other rebels who didn't agree with them, like this girl's father.
"They've had daddy for a month," she says. "I miss him very much."
Today, locals complain using graffiti. They don't dare protest and only dare film this at night. The revolution sprang to life because the regime tortured boys for graffiti. Now al Qaeda does the same. And many wonder if the revolution itself is dead.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well it's not just Raqqah, ISIS controls large parts of Syria's rebel held north.
Let's cross to Nick joining us from a town just near the Turkish- Syrian border. Nick, what can the west do about this?
WALSH: Well, the dilemma has always been at the start how little could the west get involved assisting the Syrian rebellion, then how many were the Islamists in their ranks that could potentially benefit, radicals benefiting from any western support. But that whole dilemma appears to be turning on its head, because as we saw simply yesterday for the Turkish border, you can see the flag of al Qaeda. They have such an open and strong foothold inside northern Syria.
And this consistent failure of diplomacy, you mentioned earlier on, just month after month after month sees the humanitarian crisis inside Syria exacerbated, but also the grip of these al Qaeda linked militants expanding.
It's hard to really understand, Becky, quite how fast they seem to be moving. In the two weeks we've been looking into this, we've seen them gain significant more amounts of territory, the kind of rules they're expecting societies they rule to significantly become more conservative.
And I think many people were thinking the west would only really act out of necessity here. There were no good voluntary options. And it looks more and more like the necessity the west will see to act upon is the fact that now al Qaeda is simply sat on their border, Becky.
ANDERSON: Nick Paton Walsh for you on the story. Diplomats, then, warning that ISIS, the Syrian extremist group fighting to overthrow Assad on the ground in Syria, is doing more to help than hinder him.
I'm pleased to welcome two guests for you tonight. First, former British foreign secretary Lord David Owen here in London, and from Washington Ted Kattouf, the former U.S. ambassador to Syria.
Both of you I'm delighted that you join me. I think I'm right in saying that neither of you over the past couple of years has suggested a military option would be the right one. Both looking at a political solution for what is this mess we call Syria today.
Lord Owen, I start with you. At this point, though, it does rather seems as if President Assad is the lesser of two evils when you listen to Nick's reporting and you see what he's found on the ground.
LORD DAVID OWEN, FRM. BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: I don't think we should get ourselves into disputing who is worse. I think the honest answer is there needs to be a negotiation. And there may have to be in the light of the Orer (ph) report and the change in the balance of the elements of the Shia groupings, that there will be partition in Syria. It's not a good solution. But when you get longstanding civil wars, events are created on the ground and I must say for the first time I'm beginning to get a feeling that we're going to end up in a partition of Syria.
ANDERSON: Do you see the Balkanization of Syria as well Mr. Kattouf this evening?
TED KATTOUF, FRM. U.S. AMBASSADOR TO SYRIA: I'm afraid I do. Actually, when I was ambassador 10 years ago we looked at a scenario like this and one of our tentative conclusions was that if the Assad regime were destabilized it would lead to civil war and either de facto partition, Balkanization, whatever term you wish to use, or an Islamic takeover of the country.
ANDERSON: Lord Owen, it is clear that Assad is in no mood for compromise. He will not stand down. And quite frankly at the moment, there are those who are saying that this is to a certain extent a case of better the devil you know. You're looking at this stage to the idea of the partition of the country. And there will be those who back Assad: Russia and Iran, for two who says -- who will say actually isn't it better that we know support a man who knows his own country, a man who may defeat the Islamists on the ground. Would the west ever buy that at this stage?
OWEN: No, I don't think so. I don't think this is going to be decided, actually, by the west. And I think there's a very strong case for avoiding, you know, another sort of 1919 carve out in Paris treaties. I think this is going to have to come from the region itself. And Saudi Arabia and other countries sort of supported the Shia fighters will have to conclude whether or not they can bring back a more moderate Shia majority. And that's part of the country which the Shiites control. And I think that the solution will have to come from the Middle East itself.
This is not a case for a military intervention. I just cannot see why we should, or it would be productive, to get involved in what is becoming ever increasingly a Shia-Sunnis dispute.
ANDERSON: Right. Well, it does seem a shame that two-and-a-half years in 100,000 people dead, millions now displaced from their homes internally and externally, that this is where we stand.
Mr. Kattouf, if this a proxy war, than those backing the jihadists to stand to gain the most, of course, out of any land grab. And I want our viewers just to talk just to get a sense of the map of the region of the country as we now understand it.
ISIS has a stronghold in many northern Syrian towns. Let's bring this map up for our viewers. It shows the areas that the group either fully or partly controls. Many of these are near the Turkish-Syria border. And as you saw in Nick's report the militants aim to impose Islamic law on the residents.
Lord Owen is suggesting that we should leave this now up to the region, the players in the region, but that could be a very bloody war, couldn't it?
KATTOUF: Not only could it, it is. And we're seeing more and more as pointed out the opposition turning on each other. And unfortunately, the type of opposition that the west would like to back, the Free Syrian Army, the Syrian National Council are losing in this struggle.
And I have to agree, there is no prospect or reason for the west to try to intervene militarily. The best we can do is try to bolster allies like Turkey and Jordan and help them contain the al Qaeda and radical Salafist threats emanating from Syria. And there will be threats to those countries. And Iraq is already being destabilized as is Lebanon.
So it's a most disheartening situation and one that doesn't really have any solution.
But if I might just add, let's remember that al Qaeda always overplays its hand. In Iraq, we found the Sunnis rising up against al Qaeda in the Sahouwa (ph) movement. And I would not be surprised if over time that happens in Syria.
ANDERSON: Although it's got to be said it's a hell of a mess in Iraq at present as we speak.
I just want to get to you finally, Lord Owen, for your experience on the ground in the Balkans during the 1990s. If you had a hand to play in negotiations at this stage, what would that hand be? What would your advice be given your experience a couple of decades ago?
OWEN: I would go for a partition solution. If that could be agreed with the Sunni moderates and hope that Turkey...
ANDERSON: But why -- sorry, could I stop you there, Lord Owen -- why should and would Assad agree to that?
OWEN: I don't think Assad's in quite the strong position that we expect -- to expect to be reassert total control over the whole of Syria, I don't think he's capable of doing that. He is being bogged down. He has held his ground. He has got the, if you like, the old historic Alawite section on the Mediterranean. He's got Damascus with a small element of the suburbs not under his control. This is a partition line that makes some sense historically. And I think he might be accepted.
The problem will then be in the Sunni section. And that will be the resolve of -- we haven't mentioned Saudi Arabia, who has been financially supporting the Sunni fighters irrespective of where they stand on Islamic extremism.
ANDERSON: All right. And we've got to leave it there, gentlemen. But a fascinating conversation. I'm sure that we can continue at a later date.
Thank you very much indeed for joining us.
CNN is bringing you exclusive reports on Syria this week. Last night we showed you the first part of Nick's report and the experience he faced during his trip into southern Turkey. Hear more from the man Nick met who collects jihadists from the air port. You can find out more on that, it's exclusive content on the website, CNN.com/international.
Well, next on this show, rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo lay down their arms. So what brought them to the negotiating table after months of deadly violence?
And hung up like a fish, Michelle Knight, one of the three women held captive for years in Ohio describes her ordeal. A special report this evening.
And a staggering art haul is uncovered in Germany. We'll find out why the masterpieces were stashed out of sight for 70 years and what they look like. That and much more still to come here on Connect the World.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: This is Connect the World. 16 minutes past 8:00 in London. I'm Becky Anderson. Welcome back.
Now after 18 months of fighting, rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo have announced a ceasefire. M23 fighters say they'll seek a political solution with the government.
Now that comes after the army captured two of their major strongholds late on Monday. The government says it's a victory for the DRC.
CNN international correspondent Arwa Damon has more from Johannesburg.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This most certainly is not the final solution, but it is being touted as a positive first step. Part of the agreement was not just M23 agreeing to a ceasefire, laying down its weapons, but also coming out and denouncing its rebellion.
The government is touting this as being a military victory, saying that they managed to drive M23 rebels out of all of their strongholds. But bringing about a long-term political, sustainable victory, well, that is going to prove to be much more challenging.
Part of this agreement is going to see individuals who were simply part of the rebellion receive some sort of amnesty, be brought back into the military and social fold, but others, according to the U.S. envoy to the region, they are going to have to be brought to justice.
RUSS FEINGOLD, U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY, GREAT LAKES REGION OF AFRICA: They need to face accountability. They need to face justice. This is first and foremost up to the nation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And that all of us, the international community and others will do whatever they wish to assist them in the appropriate procedure of bringing these individuals to justice and proper prosecution and punishment of crimes.
DAMON: As with many ceasefire agreements in the past, this one at this stage does remain fragile. And M23 is just one of dozens of rebel groups the DRC's government is currently fighting. So the violence in this region that has already seen too much war might not yet be over.
Arwa Damon, CNN, Johannesburg.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, after months of repeated denials, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has finally admitted that he smoked crack cocaine. Now these allegations of Ford's drug use first surfaced in May and pressure mounted last week when police said that they had recovered a video showing him smoking a crack pipe.
But while he admitted crack cocaine use, Ford insisted he was not an addict.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROB FORD, MAYOR OF TORONTO: You asked me a couple of questions. And what were those questions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you smoke crack cocaine?
FORD: Exactly. Yes, I have smoke crack cocaine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When, sir?
FORD: But, no, do I? Am I an addict? No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When have you...
FORD: Have I tried it? Probably in one of my drunken stupors, probably approximately about a year ago. I answered your question. You asked a question properly, I'll answer it.
Yes, I've made mistakes. All I can do now if apologize and move on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: We are awaiting to hear from Rob Ford at any moment. The press gathered in Toronto. We're going to bring that to you as soon as it happens.
Well, another twist in the tale of international espionage as more allegations of spying between allies has now emerged. A report published in the British broadstreet the Independent said that the UK operated a secret listening post from the rooftop of its embassy in Berlin. Well, Britain's ambassador to Germany has since met with a senior German official.
Well, six months after being freed, a kidnapping victim is speaking out about her 11 years in captivity. Michelle Knight was one of three women held by Ariel Castro in a Cleveland, Ohio house. She described years of physical and mental torture to American television's Dr. Phil.
Our Martin Savidge has that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michele Knight says she was lured into Cleveland's so-called "House of Horrors" by Ariel Castro, telling Dr. Phil about the moment she realized she was his prisoner.
DR. PHIL MCGRAW, HOST, "DR. PHIL": Did you fight him at that time?
MICHELE KNIGHT, KIDNAPPING SURVIVOR: At that time, no, because I was shocked.
MCGRAW: You panicked, just froze?
KNIGHT: Yes, and the only thing I could do was cry, begging him to let me go back to my son...
MCGRAW: What did you say to him?
KNIGHT: I said, please don't do this to me and he said, again, he can't take me back and then he throws money at me.
MCGRAW: What was the significance of him throwing money at you?
KNIGHT: He was obsessed with prostitutes, and he thought I was a 13- year-old prostitute. When he found out my real age he got mad. SAVIDGE: It is the first time that Knight has spoken in detail about the decade of rape, deprivation and torture she suffered inside Castro's home. What happened in the home was known from police reports, but hear Knight recount it herself is almost unbearable.
MCGRAW: What did he tie you up with?
KNIGHT: One of those orange extension cords. I was tied up like a fish, an ornament on the wall. That's the only way I can describe it. I was hanging like this. My feet and I was tied by my neck and my arms with an extension cord going like that.
MCGRAW: My God, so he tied your hands and feet and also around your neck and hung you?
SAVIDGE: Noticeably absent from the interview were Knight's co- captives, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus. Together, those two have decided to speak out in the form of a book, slated to come out next year.Knight was also the only one to speak at Castro's sentencing in August.
Dr. Phil talked to Anderson Cooper on "AC 360."
MCGRAW: She said she was referred to as the unbreakable one. She fought him every step of the way. She would fight back. She would challenge him. She would argue with him and she would pay the price for it.
SAVIDGE: Martin Savidge, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, live from London, this is Connect the World on CNN. Coming up, she may look like any other girl, but she's not. Find out how Sweetie was used to fight pedophilia.
Plus up next, India's audacious attempt to reach Mars. That, after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: You're watching Connect the World live from London. Welcome back. I'm Becky Anderson for you. 24 minutes past 8:00 here.
To some science and technology now. And the space race was once a two nation fight, wasn't it, the U.S. versus the Soviet Union. The Europeans then got in on the act. And now a fourth contender is joining in -- I guess this is our fifth, China of course. China -- India is hoping to successfully send a spacecraft to Mars.
Today its orbiter started a 300 day journey to the Red Planet. Once there, it will be exploring the planet's minerals and atmosphere. Mallika Kapur has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MALLIKA KAPUR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The space craftblasted off from earth at 2.38 pm local time carrying with it great expectations. If it reaches its destination, India will go where no Asian country has ever gone before: Mars.
So far, only the us, the former Soviet Union and Europeans have successfully sent missions to the red planet.
The journey will take ten months. Once there, the orbiter will study the planet's surface and atmosphere, looking any signs that there could have been life on Mars.
The cost of this mission is 73 million dollars, that's a bargain by international standards. Still, critics in India say its a luxury this country cant afford.
Not when so many of its people live on less than a dollar a day.
But India defends this cost, plus its billion dollars annual investment in its space program, saying its satellites are used for a number of applications: in TV broadcasting, tele education, tele-medicine, defense, and meteorology.
Authorities say an early warning about a cyclone last month helped save thousands of lives.
Tuesdays launch has also fueled talk about a growing space race between India and regional rival China. China's attempt at a mission to mars in 2011 failed.
JOHN KREEGER, GEORIGE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: I don't think it will upset the geo-political balance particularly it's just another notch in the system. China has chosen to put a human being into space. India is sending a mission to mars. I think that's the way they play the game.
KAPUR: For the Indian public, Mangal-Yaan, which is Mars craft in Hindi, is a matter of great national pride.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm really excited by it. I actually feel proud that India is taking a big step towards it. If we can touch Mars, we can touch anything.
KAPUR: Mallika Kapur, CNN, Mumbai.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, our website gives you a change to explore the Red Planet through the mechanical eyes of missions over the past 40 years. Do take a look at the leaps and bounds of space travel and how we navigated Mars's lonely terrain. It's an interactive map that takes you through all the landmark discoveries on this far away planet. Take a look for yourself, CNN.com/international, of course.
Well, the latest world news headlines are just ahead. Plus, how thousands of pedophiles have been identified through the help of someone who doesn't even exist.
And we'll take you to Germany for the amazing stash of art works uncovered in an apartment. That, after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: This is CONNECT THE WORLD, the top stories this hour. World powers have failed to set a date for long-awaited peace talks on Syria. Diplomats were meeting in Geneva today to try and hash out a plan for the conference, but sources say sharp divisions persist between rival camps over conditions for their participation.
Iran's foreign minister says the country is prepared to call for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Syria. Iran, of course, is allied with the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah. It has fighters based inside Syria that are helping the Syria government forces in the conflict.
Rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo have agreed to stop a deadly fight against the government there. The M23 group says it will instead seek a political solution. Now, that comes after government troops launched a ten-day offensive against the rebels.
A court in Bangladesh has sentenced 152 soldiers to death by hanging. They were convicted of committing various acts of violence during a mutiny attempt in 2009, 74 people were massacred in that incident, including dozens of top officers. The court sentenced more than 160 other soldiers to live in prison. Hundreds more were given shorter jail sentences.
Many Americans are heading to the polls, and while it's an off-year election, for some races, it is seen as a test of party strength after last month's US government shutdown that infuriated voters, of course.
One exception is in New Jersey, where Republican governor Chris Christie is expected to sail through a second term ahead of a possible 2016 presidential run, while in neighboring New York, for the first time in 12 years, Michael Bloomberg is not running for mayor. It's a tossup between Democrat Bill de Blasio, seen here on the left, or his Republican counterpart.
And if polls are to be believed, it looks like the Big Apple is poised to elect its first Democratic mayor in two decades. CNN's Deborah Feyerick joins us live from New York with the very latest. And what is the latest from the Big Apple tonight, Deborah?
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN US NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the latest is that the candidates have all gone to the polls. Presumably they have voted for themselves. The Republican has said that he plans a surprise comeback, but he's got a long, long way to go. He is 40 points behind the Democratic front-runner. The front-runner, Bill de Blasio, is a Democrat. He was a staffer for both Bill and Hillary Clinton.
He's a local politician here and he's really captured the imagination of the city because not only is his family biracial, but also, he's trying to sort of thin the income inequality, close the money gap between the city's rich and the city's poor, and he's going to tax the rich to create better schools and after-school programs for low income families. Becky?
ANDERSON: Deb, is this a uniquely New York affair, as it were, or if the Democrat were to win, that does very much say something about the way that Americans are feeling about their politicians and their political persuasion at present?
FEYERICK: It's a very interesting question. You would think that in a city like New York you would have these two wonderful people that folks could vote for, but neither candidate really captured the overall imagination.
What it says is that a lot of New Yorkers have sort of fatigue of the Michael Bloomberg era. A number of people thought that he was distant, that as a billionaire, he didn't really connect with people from lower socioeconomic groups.
And so now that you've got a Democrat who's promising change, promising progress, to tap into different neighborhoods that have in some ways been ignored, those folks really want to see change. They want some of the good things that have been happening to places like Manhattan, just because they live out in the Bronx or Brooklyn or Queens, they say now it's their turn. They want to see some of that progress, too.
ANDERSON: Deborah Feyerick on the story for you this evening. Thanks, Deb.
In a unique sting operation, a Dutch NGO has identified a thousand pedophiles by using someone who doesn't even exist. They created an avatar of a young Filipino girl to set a trap for men who prey on kids online. Let me just show you how it all happened.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(TYPING ON KEYBOARD)
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: My name is Sweetie. I'm ten years old. I live in the Philippines. Every day, I have to sit in front of the webcam and talk to men.
ANDERSON (voice-over): When she logs online to internet chat rooms, Sweetie is bombarded by requests.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: The men ask me to take off my clothes. They undress.
ANDERSON: Men from all over the world, three, four, five times her age, ask her to perform sexual acts in front of her webcam.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: As soon as I go online, they come to me. Tens, hundreds, every hour. So many. So many.
ANDERSON: But Sweetie also has a secret.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: But what they don't know -- I'm not real. I'm a computer model, made piece by piece to track down these men who do this.
ANDERSON: She's the creation of Dutch NGO Terre des Hommes. They use her avatar to pose on internet chat rooms, baiting men who go online to prey on young children.
(TYPING ON KEYBOARD)
ANDERSON: In ten weeks, the charity says some 20,000 men contacted Sweetie, with 1,000 offering her money for explicit acts, a number the charity's director says illustrates the demand.
HANS GUIJT, TERRE DES HOMMES: With the extension of the internet, with the decreasing prices of the internet, it will get more and more accessible, not just for the Western part of this globe, but also for the developing world. Which means that there will be more victims, there will be more children exposed to this phenomenon.
ANDERSON: The charity has launched a campaign to end so-called webcam tourism, where men go online to pay children from developing countries to perform sex acts.
GUIJT: We have shifted our attention to the demand side. If nothing is being done about the source of the problem, this phenomenon will only increase even further.
ANDERSON: The charity has given the identities of the 1,000 men who offered Sweetie money to authorities. While Sweetie's true identity is now known, it's hoped she'll act as a deterrent, the project serving as a warning to predators that they can also become prey.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: So, is webcam sex tourism on the rise? And what is being done to tackle it? Well, Troels Oerting is head of the European Cybercrime Centre at Europol, and he joins us now, live from New York. Firstly, what's your response to this Sweetie avatar created by an NGO to effectively entrap those who might be online?
TROELS OERTING, HEAD OF THE EUROPEAN CYBERCRIME CENTRE, EUROPOL: I think it's very important that we keep on actually looking at this problem and also explaining that the problem is growing. So, I'm of course very happy for Terre des Hommes that they have made this case, and also the awareness that it creates.
Because sometimes when the cameras are off and the lights are shut off, the real work starts for us cops, and we have to continue. We do not always --
(CROSSTALK)
ANDERSON: Yes, sure. Let --
OERTING: -- have the possibilities and resources.
ANDERSON: And there's a thousand more names that you will now, one assumes, be investigating as a result of this organization, isn't there?
OERTING: Yes, we will. But I would have liked that if we could have been in this investigation from the beginning and not in the end. We will, of course, now look at the names, at the identities and see if we can identify some of those.
But what we have to be careful about is first of all, we don't want any legal problems to occur, so some of those who are guilty will get away with the crime. And secondly, we don't want somebody who is innocent to be accused of this crime, because this could also have a devastating effect.
ANDERSON: All right. Let's talk about who is behind the camera, as it were. Who is exploiting these kids? Just walk me through the players in all of this, what is a disgusting crime.
OERTING: I think that you see a number of groups. There are groups in the families which use actually also the webcam to exploit and to exchange livestream with other colleagues or friends that they exchange with, and they use this video streaming as a kind of commodity.
And then you have people who are online all the time trying to groom kids in order to get this access to an innocent kid. And then, unfortunately, in the end, we have real -- real organized criminal groups who for money will --
ANDERSON: Sure.
OERTING: -- rape children in front of you for as low as US $40. They will rape you for 20 minutes a kid.
ANDERSON: Twenty-two thousand hits in a month with just one avatar created by this organization, which begs the question: just how many people are out there online participating in this sort of stuff at any one time. Are we talking tens, hundreds of thousands? Millions around the world?
OERTING: I don't know, Becky. I don't think that anybody can give a precise number here. But what I can tell you is that this is just like a pyramid. In the bottom, you have loads of users and misusers.
And then you increase up in the hierarchy where you get more tech savvy and you also see crime where you also have sadism and you actually beat up the children. The number decreases here in the top --
ANDERSON: All right.
OERTING: -- but I think that it's fair to say that it's more than 25,000, 50,000.
ANDERSON: It -- it beggars belief, doesn't it? Listen, last question to you, and this is an important one. How are you doing in the world of policing in cybercrime? Are you -- how often do you catch people involved in this sort of crime?
OERTING: I would say that child sexual abuse is actually one of our few success stories in fighting cybercrime. I think we are much better to find these perpetrators than we are to find other kinds of cybercriminals.
But still, it's not enough. And we see cases and cases and cases where we have repeated the same perpetrators, the same networks again. We'll initiate their work just after we have hit them, and we are not able to identify all of them because there are so many ways to hide on the internet, and they use the facilities of the darknet, which actually effectively hamper our ability to identify them.
ANDERSON: Assistant director at Europol, Troels Oerting, we thank you very much, indeed, for joining us this evening.
What do you think about the use of this Sweetie avatar for identifying sexual predators? We want to know what you think and we want to hear from you, facebook.com/CNNconnect. You can have your say. You can, of course, as ever, tweet me @BeckyCNN. I'm also on Instagram. Search for BeckyCNN and watch my daily preview of the show. Lots of things you can do online there.
OK, live from CNN and London, this is CONNECT THE WORLD. Coming up, we'll show you the formerly secret collection of masterpieces in Germany that's got the art world all over the world talking.
And she has successfully made it to Thailand's highest office, but has she also broken through the glass ceiling? We're going to take a look at how Yingluck Shinawatra has fared as prime minister two years on. That after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: She entered politics in 2011 following in the footsteps of her father and older brother, Thaksin, the country's former leader who was removed from power in 2006. But after two years in office, our Leading Woman this evening has successfully escaped her bother's shadow. Or has she? Kristie Lu Stout has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CROWD (chanting): Yingluck! Yingluck!
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Yingluck Shinawatra stepped onto the political stage in 2011, winning a landslide victory in elections to become Thailand's first female prime minister.
(CHEERING)
STOUT: New to politics, she was criticized for her handling of the floods that devastated the country just weeks after she took office.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome, Her Excellency Yingluck Shinawatra, prime minister of Thailand and invited to address the Assembly.
STOUT: Now, more than two years after she stepped onto the global stage, Yingluck Shinawatra says she wants to be judged by her achievements.
YINGLUCK SHINAWATRA, PRIME MINISTER OF THAILAND: We have a lot of key stakeholders, so you have to make sure that you keep all the stakeholders happy.
STOUT: Her government raised the country's minimum wage and she's even taken on the job of defense minister, just one of the challenges she says she is uniquely qualified to handle because she's a woman.
SHINAWATRA: Females will be more concerned on the morale and the supporting and also building the team up.
STOUT: But Yingluck Shinawatra has been unable to bridge the deep political divide in her country.
(CROWDS SHOUTING)
STOUT: She is the youngest sister of the former prime minister who is now living in exile, though her critics claim he is still calling the shots.
STOUT (on camera): How do you respond to that?
SHINAWATRA: Just think that, OK, we have to work harder to show and to prove, but now two years, I think less criticism about this because if I rely on him, I don't think I can be so wise to handle doing -- especially doing the flat or during the hard times.
STOUT: You're saying you've proven yourself.
SHINAWATRA: I think I've proven myself, but people will trust me or not.
STOUT (voice-over): Under scrutiny, not only because of her family history, but for everything from her trips abroad to her fashion choices. One of Yingluck Shinawatra's priorities: improving opportunities for women and children and recognizing their accomplishments while weathering a tough political environment.
As she launched Smart Lady Thailand, a reality TV show that her government says is meant to empower young women, there was a jab from the opposition leader about a "stupid lady." While Abhisit Vejjajiva later said the remark was not directed at the prime minister and not intended as an insult to women, her supporters called it sexist.
SHINAWATRA: I don't want to interpret what he meant. The only thing that I would like to tell that please give chance for all ladies, all Thai people. Whoever gives the negative, we think that this is an opportunity for us to talk the positive things.
STOUT: That approach, perhaps a political strategy, but also what she sees as her signature style.
SHINAWATRA: People don't expect you to play the politics. People expect you to run the country, and also doing hard effort as much we can to deliver what we promised to the Thai people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: We're going to take a very short break. Coming up, a stash of art worth a billion dollars is found in Germany. How were the Nazis involved? Well, that story is up next. And the art of ice-cold refreshment just got a lot cooler. Find out what this contraption is. Up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Well, tonight, we're going to bring you more details on what is a huge stash of paintings that's been uncovered in Germany. We were telling you this story last night at this time, but we had no idea just what this entailed.
It's thought to be worth a billion dollars. Take a look, this one here, a painting by the celebrated artist Marc Chagall. It's believed to date back to the 1920s, and it's one of many previously unregistered works.
And this is what's interesting about this story. German artist Otto Dix painted these two, the self-portrait on the left, a new discovery for the art world. And French great Henri Matisse painted this portrait of a seated woman. It was another that wasn't recorded in his catalog of works. CNN's Jim Bittermann has more from Munich for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The art treasure trove of the century was found in a nondescript apartment building in a quiet Munich neighborhood. In the fifth-floor apartment of 80-year-old Cornelius Gurlitt, investigators found 1400 priceless works of art.
Largely unknown paintings by Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Max Liebermann, Otto Dix, and many others, including Picasso and Lautrec. Some were centuries old, like this Canaletto from the 18th century.
Many works were what the Nazis branded "degenerate art" and confiscated from mainly Jewish owners. Others may have been sold at a fraction of their worth by families fleeing the Nazi regime. Art historians say Gurlitt's father at one point worked for the Nazis, collecting the confiscated art. And his son is thought to have taken over the collection after the father died in a car crash in the 50s.
A prosecutor said it was a stunning discovery.
REINHARD NEMETZ, PUBLIC PROSECUTOR (through translator): The flat of the accused was searched by tax and customs officials. Here, 121 framed and 1,285 unframed pictures were confiscated, some of them by Max Liebermann and others.
Because of the immense idealistic value of the paintings, we have found clues that this find could be so-called "degenerate art" or looted art.
BITTERMANN: Authorities, assisted by art historians, have been working for more than a year trying to find the origins of the art. They say Gurlitt was being investigated because he was found carrying a large amount of cash back from Switzerland after selling this Max Beckmann painting to a Swiss art dealer.
MARKUS KRISCHNER, "FOCUS" MAGAZINE: The case is highly complicated and all the questions of ownership are not answered.
BITTERMANN: After an investigative report by a German news magazine, prosecutors finally went public with the story. The reporter says it was impossible to talk with Gurlitt and little is known about him.
KRISCHNER: I think he's a curious man, totally isolated.
BITTERMANN (on camera): Kind of reclusive?
KRISCHNER: Totally reclusive, living with his pictures and perhaps these pictures are proof that these pictures, they dominated his whole life.
BITTERMANN: Cornelius Gurlitt's name is still on the buzzer here at the apartment building where he live and kept his fabulous art collection, but he was virtually unknown to his neighbors. They've said he hasn't been seen around here for months. And he was unknown to authorities. He was on none of the tax roles, not even the social security tax.
BITTERMANN (voice-over): No charges have been filed against Gurlitt. He is not under arrest, and the prosecutor said it's not clear which laws if any have been violated. But the discovery in the fifth-floor apartment will almost certainly raise once again a nasty legal fight over who rightfully owns the works of arts the Nazis stole.
Jim Bittermann, CNN, Munich.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Tonight's Parting Shots just before we go. How do you cool a lukewarm drink without all that waiting around? Well, tonight, we've got the answer. Adam is with us. This is the V-Tex cooler and Ad is going to show us what to do with it.
ADAM DUNNAKEY, CNN DIGITAL PRODUCER: OK. Very quickly, I'm just going to put a can in the top here.
ANDERSON: Right.
DUNNAKEY: Regular drinks can. You select --
ANDERSON: Warm, here. This is warm.
DUNNAKEY: Room temperature can.
ANDERSON: Yes.
DUNNAKEY: You can select what size of can it is --
ANDERSON: Yes.
DUNNAKEY: -- so it knows how long to chill it for. I've told it to chill a regular-sized can for about 49 seconds.
ANDERSON: And while it does that, how much does this cost?
DUNNAKEY: Well, this one costs well over $100,000. It's one of two prototypes in the world.
ANDERSON: $100,000?
DUNNAKEY: Yes. But to develop it, the company has had a grant of more than $1.2 billion from the European Commission.
ANDERSON: Wow.
DUNNAKEY: It doesn't just do cans. You can put an entire bottle of champagne in.
ANDERSON: I'm not sure --
(LAUGHTER)
ANDERSON: -- at that price, it's worth it, whether it's a good bottle of champagne or not, is it?
DUNNAKEY: Well, yes.
ANDERSON: Twenty-two seconds to go.
DUNNAKEY: Champagne it won't take -- it won't be this quick. It will take less than ten minutes still. But compare that to a few hours in the fridge. Or compare this 49 seconds to 20 minutes if you put it in ice water. It really is a lot faster.
ANDERSON: It is a lot faster, but it is an awful lot of money. I know it's only a prototype at the moment. I'm assuming they're looking at knocking the price down at some point for the likes of you and me, right?
DUNNAKEY: Yes, definitely. They are going to come to the market next year, probably second half. You can do a DIY version.
ANDERSON: Oh, can you?
(LAUGHTER)
DUNNAKEY: You can. Let me just --
ANDERSON: Make one for you. I'm sure that's what he's going to see. You going to bring that out and let me --
DUNNAKEY: Well --
ANDERSON: -- feel it. That is absolutely freezing. I've got to say, that is remarkable, 49 seconds. But at that price, not sure I'd buy one. So DIY version is -- ?
DUNNAKEY: This basically spins the drink. I thought a drill does the same thing. So, I tried it. This is just something I knocked up. You can fit a can on the inside, spin it in ice water --
(ELECTRIL DRILL)
DUNNAKEY: -- and it was actually effective, did the same thing. Chilled --
ANDERSON: But was it flat when you opened it?
DUNNAKEY: It was not.
ANDERSON: Are you sure?
DUNNAKEY: Positive because --
ANDERSON: Did you try it?
DUNNAKEY: I did.
(LAUGHTER)
DUNNAKEY: It didn't bubble up. If I were to shake this can, it would bubble over because you're mixing the air at the top with the drink inside. Because this spins it and this does as well, you're not actually getting that mix, so it won't bubble over.
ANDERSON: That's brilliant. What are you doing working here?
(LAUGHTER)
ANDERSON: If I can get you a billion-dollar grant, will --
DUNNAKEY: No.
ANDERSON: -- will we see you tomorrow or not?
DUNNAKEY: No, this is the best job in the world.
ANDERSON: We won't see him for dust. That's fantastic! Excellent!
DUNNAKEY: Now, there is also another benefit to this. It uses less energy than a standard fridge. The idea is that you would have this in a shop, just this unit running rather than an entire bank full of champagne that people might go months without drinking. And that can save up to 80 - - uses only 20 percent of the energy that those big fridges do.
ANDERSON: How much energy did your DIY version use?
DUNNAKEY: This is just a battery-operated drill. But you do need an ice bucket.
(LAUGHTER)
DUNNAKEY: So it's not quite as good. But it's a quick fix for a barbecue if you don't have $130,000 lying around.
(LAUGHTER)
ANDERSON: (inaudible) Adam, thank you very much for this.
DUNNAKEY: Thank you.
ANDERSON: I'm Becky Anderson, that was Adam and that was CONNECT THE WORLD, thank you for watching.
END
