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South African High Court Bars Sudanese President From Leaving country; Thousands of Syrian Refugees Turned Back At Border By ISIS; London Paper Claims China, Russia Have Cracked Encrypted Snowden Files; Syrian Families Wait in Limbo For Asylum; Israel Defends Gaza War Tactics In New Report. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired June 14, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:10] LYNDA KINKADE, HOST: South Africa's high court issues an order preventing the Sudanese president from departing the country. Will South

Africa follow through on a request by the International Criminal Court to arrest him on charges for war crimes?

Also ahead, a new report says China and Russia have cracked encrypted classified documents stolen by Edward Snowden. We speak to journalist

Glenn Greenwald about the latest allegations.

And Syrians desperate to flee the violence find themselves turned away by Turkish soldiers and are fought back by ISIS fighters. We'll have more on

their plight and speak to the men behind these photos.

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is Connect the World.

KINKADE: Hello. I'm Lynda Kinkade. We begin in South Africa where the president of Sudan is waiting to hear whether he'll be arrested on charges

for war crimes. Omar al Bashir is in South Africa for the African Union summit. The court has barred him from leaving the country until it can

rule on a request by the International Criminal Court to arrest him.

Let's bring in CNN's Diana Magnay live from Johannesburg. And Diana, a South African court has issued this ban, which should stop the leader from

leaving the country. What's meant to happen next?

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the high court judge has postponed the hearing until tomorrow morning to give the state more

time to gather its thoughts and collect its arguments. And it will, then, resume tomorrow and the judge will eventually rule on whether he believes

that President Bashir can leave the country or not.

But bear in mind he arrived yesterday for the African Union summit and he's due to leave at the end of the day tomorrow. So, the clock is ticking.

President Bashir himself didn't seem particularly bothered. He appeared in the front row of the AU photo opportunity, gave a thumbs up to reporters

and was welcomed in the opening speech by the chairwoman of the African Union. So as far as the AU is concerned it appears to be business as

usual.

It is surprising that he decided to actually attend this summit given the fact that it knows South Africa's obligations under the Rome statute of the

International Criminal Court, i.e. it is obliged to hand President Bashir over because of the charges made against him. And those are very serious

charges. War against -- war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

He is effectively the biggest target for the International Criminal Court, and South Africa is obliged to hand him over. Whether it will do, or

whether it will somehow argue that the African Union invited him rather than South Africa we will see tomorrow.

But it certainly puts South Africa in a bit of a bind, but at the end of the day it will be the decision of the high court that counts -- Lynda.

KINKADE: And speaking of the support within the African Union, I understand members, some of the members, believe that the ICC should not

bring proceedings against a sitting leader.

MAGNAY: Well, yes. And the African Union generally is pretty much opposed to the International Criminal Court. It accuses the court of unfairly

targeting African leaders, that it doesn't act on any of the other cases that are brought against it, but only targets Africa.

The counter-argument to that is that most of those cases were brought by those African countries themselves.

But the AU has said that the dictates of the ICC shouldn't be followed in relation to President Bashir. And in fact when you talk to people here in

South Africa -- I've been questioning people today here in Johannesburg how they feel about the ICC. And they say Africans should deal with African

affairs. And it shouldn't be some international tribunal that waltzes into our affairs and handles them.

So, the populist view on this continent is very much opposed to the ICC.

But, if South Africa does hold that argument, that he's here on the invitation of the AU rather than South Africa, that's unlikely to be

something that will wash either on the national or international law -- Lynda.

KINKADE: We'll have to see how this plays out tomorrow. As you say, the clock is ticking. Diana Magnay in Johannesburg, thank you very much.

And South Sudan is facing the threat of starvation amid a surge of violence in the past four weeks. The International Committee of the Red Cross is

calling for urgent action to save hundreds of thousands of people. Now Isha Sesay reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISHA SESAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Villages in South Sudan surrounded by vast land used to grow food during Sudan's short planting

season. But what is not planted cannot grow.

Fighting in and around the town of Lea (ph) in central South Sudan has sent some 100,000 people fleeing for their lives.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They attacked all our cows. They burn up all the food for the civilians. And they take all the ladies. And they even kill

all the young kids.

[11:05:21] SESAY: And brought agriculture in the region to a screeching halt.

CAROLINE CRISTEN, ICRC FIELD DELEGATE: We're going into the rainy season, which also means that if they hadn't had the chance to plant their seeds

until now, they do not have any food stocks for the coming months. So, we're going towards a very, very difficult period for the people here in

South Sudan.

SESAY: The International Committee of the Red Cross is providing some aid, but their staff was evacuated.

Crucial food delivery to some 120,000 people was suspended and the risk of starvation looms.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The life for the people who are now (inaudible) is very difficult. They have nothing to eat at all.

So, up to the end of this month, people will die from starvation.

SESAY: USAID says South Sudan is in a crisis situation and needs immediate help to avoid famine.

Isha Sesay, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: ISIS is fighting back against joint Iraqi forces for control of the country's largest oil refinery. The group is claiming responsibility

for seven suicide car bombings near Baiji this weekend. 16 people were killed, 29 others wounded.

Pro-Government forces say they've pushed ISIS out of parts of Baiji last week, but it's unclear exactly how much the city and nearby refinery they

control.

Let's bring in CNN's Ian Lee. He joins us now from Cairo in Egypt. And Ian, as I said, this oil refinery is the biggest in Iraq, worth a lot to

both the Iraqi government and the terrorists. Who currently has the upper hand there?

IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. It's incredibly strategic for both sides, first for the Iraqi government. You

have it as the largest oil refinery. It also is on the road leading towards Mosul, up north from Baghdad. And so the government has been

trying to chip away at the territory that ISIS controls trying to push its way toward Mosul, although it's been a long, drawn out battle.

For ISIS, though, it also is strategic, because it is part of the rout the leads to the supply lines that for Ramadi. And so the government in Iraq

is trying to cut that supply line, ISIS is trying to keep it open. And we're watching them still use these very deadly and effective tactics of

driving these armored vehicles into the front line, detonating and exploiting that chaos.

You know, the U.S. government has sent missiles -- weapons, anti-armor to help stop these sort of suicide bombers, but they still seem to be taking a

deadly toll.

KINKADE: Ian, they certainly do. And a lot of the focus at the moment, Shia militia, say is on Fallujah, a city between Ramadi and Baghdad. There

was talk they could launch an offensive there against ISIS within days. Is that time line -- does that still exist, that time line? And what sort of

preparations are underway?

LEE: Well, that's what we're hearing, Lynda, is that the focus now has shifted from Ramadi to Fallujah. It is -- the city is about an hour-and-a-

half drive from Baghdad, one that the authorities in Iraq would like to take control of.

What we're seeing right now is the Hashd al-Shaabi. These are the popular mobilization units backed by Iran Shiite militias that are leading the way

to retaking Fallujah. That is going to be something we'll watch closely as they don't have the best track record of taking predominately Sunni areas.

We know that Sunni tribal fighters and the Iraqi government forces are being trained by U.S. soldiers between Ramadi and Fallujah. We don't know

if and when what part of the assault they'll take place.

But it will be a very bloody battle. ISIS isn't known for giving up territory easily. They dig in. They have boody traps, roadside bombs,

snipers. So, don't expect this battle once it begins to be over quickly -- Lynda.

KINKADE: OK.

Ian Lee reporting from Cairo. Thank you very much.

At the other end of the huge swath of territory ISIS controls, a refugee crisis is unfolding along the Turkish-Syrian border. Thousands of people

are trying to flee a Syrian town held by the militants. And as our Kush Bushar (ph) reports, Kurdish fighters are now closing in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KUSH BUSHAR (ph) CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A terrifying site, grinning ISIS fighters within meters of the Turkish border face-to-face

with Turkish soldiers. And just behind the militants, throngs of Syrians with their belongings, hoping to cross to safer ground, but herded back by

ISIS, the photographer who took the pictures tells CNN.

Thousands of residents from the Syrian border town of Telaviad (ph) are fleeing fighting between Kurdish forces and ISIS.

Hundreds of Syrians are at the border, many of them with nowhere to go as Turkey posed crossing over the weekend.

After 13,000 Syrians crossed over in one week.

Syrian activists posted pictures of Turkish forces spraying water cannons in the direction of Syrians approaching Saturday. Another activist group

says the Kurdish militia, the YPG, are now on the outskirts of ISIS controlled Telaviad (ph).

With the aid of rebels and coalition strikes the YPG are now in control of 20 villages around Telaviad and pushing forward toward the strategic town

near the ISIS self-declared capital Raqqa.

A brewing confrontation that means more scenes like these over the coming days.

Kush Bushar (ph), CNN, Abu Dhabi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[11:10:56] KINKADE: And coming up later in the program, we will talk to the AFP photojournalist who took some of those incredible issues.

Also ahead on Connect the World, Israel issues a new report on last year's conflict in Gaza. What the country has to say about allegations it

intentionally targeted civilians.

And next, reports that Russia and China have gotten their hands on Edward Snowden's encrypted files. We'll talk to the journalist who broke the NSA

leaked story Glenn Greenwald about that report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KINKADE: Hello. You're watching CNN. And this is Connect the World with me Lynda Kinkade. Welcome back.

The Sunday Times is reporting that Russia and China have cracked Edward Snowden's encrypted files. Snowden, as you may recall is the former U.S.

intelligence contractor who stole huge amounts of data from the National Security Agency and leaked it to the media.

The Times says the British government was forced to change its spying operations after Snowden's files were decrypted. But it left several key

questions unanswered.

CNN talked with the reporter who co-wrote the article. We asked him is the paper just reporting the government's statement unchecked.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HARPER, THE SUNDAY TIMES: No. I mean, we picked up on the story a while back from an extremely well placed source in the home office and then

carried on trying to substantiate what was going on through various sources in various agencies throughout Britain. And then finally presented the

story to the government and they effectively confirmed what you read in today's Sunday Times.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: Now CNN has not independently confirmed The Sunday Times' report. Phil Black has more on this from London.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[11:15:06] PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Sunday Times reports both Russia and China have decrypted top secret files originally

stolen by Edward Snowden, the whistleblower and former NSA contractor. It quotes multiple sources across intelligence agencies and government who say

this development has disrupted operations by potentially endangering the lives of operatives, some of which have had to be moved as a precaution,

but none has been harmed.

The journalists behind the story say the reports what they were able to substantiate. But it does not attempt to explain how the governments of

Russian and China may have obtained this information. Edward Snowden has always insisted he would never give it up voluntarily to any other country,

and always said that his skills were sufficient to protect that information even from governments highly skilled themselves at extracting digital

secrets.

Nor does the article attempt to explain how the British government knows that these files have been decrypted. The British government has made no

official response to the story. It's standard policy for intelligence matters. But British intelligence services had long argued that Edward

Snowden has damaged their intelligence gathering capacity, making the job of protecting national security, they say, much harder.

Phil Black, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Now for more on this, journalist Glenn Greenwald broke the original story on the NSA leak. He is the co-founder of The Intercept, a

news website. And he joins us now on Skype from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Thanks so much for you time today.

GLENN GREENWALD, CO-FOUNDER, THE INTERCEPT: Good to be with you.

KINKADE: Now we know Edward Snowden is in Russia. And according to this report, Russia and China have gained access to more than a million

classified files held by him. Is that possible? And do you think China has the capability to crack the encrypted codes revealing information about

British and U.S. spies?

GREENWALD: This is the kind of reporting that has singlehandedly destroyed the credibility of journalism around the world. That clip that you played

from the reporter for The Sunday Times is the funniest thing I've ever heard. You ask him are you only just repeating claims from the government.

And he says oh no, we have many sources. And he then went on to explain that he talked to numerous government officials and various agencies who

told him this.

I think that people are smart enough by now to know that when you read in the paper accusations and smears from the government who are too cowardly

to even put their names on it -- this is all anonymous officials making these accusations. No evidence is presented for it.

People know by now after the war in Iraq and the way the media helped the government to sell those lies, that that's completely unreliable, shoddy

journalism. That journalist is a liar who is doing nothing but writing down what his government friends tell him to and then giving them anonymity

to protect it. It's a ridiculous story.

KINKADE: It was absolutely full of anonymous sources. And you wrote a stinging response saying, and I quote, "this is the very opposite of

journalism. Ponder how dumb someone has to be at this point to read an anonymous government accusation made with zero evidence and accept it as

true."

So you think that this report is completely baseless?

GLENNWALD: Well, it's filled with lies.

For example, Edward Snowden has always said that he took no documents with him when he left Hong Kong. That he's never had any documents with him in

Russia, that he gave it all to journalists and then destroyed his own copy.

So, The Sunday Times reporter wants to help the government by claiming, no, Edward Snowden did have documents in Moscow. And the way they tried to do

that was by saying that my partner David Miranda was detained in Heathrow after coming back from visiting Snowden and receiving documents.

That is a total lie. David Miranda was never in Moscow prior to being detained at Heathrow. He had never met with Edward Snowden.

I believe The Sunday Times has now just deleted that paragraph without any indication that they did so.

Or they say, Snowden downloaded 1.7 million documents. The NSA itself says that they have no idea how many documents Edward Snowden downloaded, that

they're able ever to figure it out, because their systems don't allow that.

And so the article is just filled with lies in order to help these anonymous people in government who are too cowardly to say these claims

themselves.

KINKADE: And now although there's no evidence of anyone being harmed, the article did claim that a senior home official said -- they claim that

Snowden has blood on his hands.

Now you broke the original story on Snowden, do you take any responsibility for the harm that's been done, or could be done?

GREENWALD: It's completely moronic, that claim. In the article, it says the government official, whose identity we're hiding, says that Snowden has

blood on his hands. And then later it says there's no evidence anyone has been harmed.

Well, if there's no evidence anyone has been harmed, how can he have blood on his hands? It's just a way of smearing whistleblowers and sources.

If you go back to 1971 when Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers, who is now widely regarded as a hero, Nixon officials did the same thing, they

planted claims with the media that Ellsberg had secretly passed sensitive documents to the Kremlin, to the Soviet Union in order to smear Ellsberg.

This is what they do in every case. Responsible journalists question whether or not there's evidence for it, as to your credit are doing,

whereas propagandists simply print it without any questioning of it. And that's what The Sunday Times has done.

[11:20:16] KINKADE: And this article, of course, comes after significant wins for Snowden and for his supporters, specifically the U.S. Patriot Act,

which was struck down recently, reducing the U.S. administration's spying powers.

How do you think this issue will play out as the presidential race really kicks into gear? And do you think this will be a big deal?

GREENWALD: I think it's a great point. Not only did the congress just pass a law banning the program that we first reported at The Guardian

thanks to Edward Snowden, but two weeks before that an appellate court in New York said that the NSA spying program that we revealed was illegal.

And so you have this kind of pro-Snowden sentiment spreading throughout the media.

Well, you know what, maybe he was a patriot. I think he did do the right thing at exactly the time this article comes out.

You have members of both parties, Rand Paul Republican and Bernie Sanders a Democrat and even Hillary Clinton saying that the NSA has gone too far,

defending Snowden in some cases. And that's what they're really worried about is that the heroism of Snowden is now finally being accepted and

that's why they needed to smear him this way.

KINKADE: Well, we will see how this plays out over the coming weeks and -- well, the coming year-and-a-half as the campaign goes on. We really

appreciate your time today. Glenn Greenwald, thank you very much for joining us.

GREENWALD: Great to be with you.

KINKADE: This is Connect the World. Coming up, an American activist who says she's black is outed by her family who says she's white, and it's

created a lot of controversy.

Also ahead, Israel issues its own report on last year's war with Gaza. How that document is challenging allegations Israel committed a war crimes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KINKADE: Hello. You're watching CNN. And this is Connect the World with me, Lynda Kinkade. Welcome back.

Israel is slamming a United Nations report on last year's war with Gaza days before its release. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu caught

the upcoming UN report a waste of time. To counter it, Israel has issued its own report defending its actions.

CNN's Oren Liebermann has been following this story closely and joins us now from Jerusalem.

Oren, the 50 day Gaza war last summer killed more than 2,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, but this report by Israel clears itself of any

wrongdoing. What does the document cover?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lynda, this report is very much a look at the Gaza War, an examination of the Gaza war through the lens of Israel.

In it, Israel tries to explain how they chose targets, when they chose targets, what they used to strike a target. They say each strike had a

legal adviser attached to it that had to sign off on a strike.

So this is perhaps an unprecedented look into the decision-making process that Israel uses to conduct war.

The report acknowledges that of the 2,100 or so Palestinians killed in the Gaza War, more than half were civilians, but Israel says this is a function

or a consequence of Hamas fighting war -- fighting a war in an urban environment, a round a civilian population. And they point the finger

there at Hamas for conducting war int hat way and making it very difficult, perhaps even impossible, they say, to not have civilian casualties, to not

have civilian deaths in war -- Lynda.

[11:25:03] KINKADE: And Oren, what about the timing of this report? It comes, of course, after the Israeli military said it wouldn't take any

action against its personnel involved in the deadly airstrike on Gaza Beach last July and adys before the UN is due to hand down its own report?

LIEBERMANN: And that UN report from the Human Rights Council could come as early as tomorrow and this can very much be seen as almost a preemptive

response to that report.

Israel didn't take part in that report, the Israeli leadership felt that report was biased from the very beginning, because of the nature of that

resolution.

Now there have been a wave of reports here in the last month-and-a-half or so relating to the Gaza War. Right at the end of April was the UN

secretary-general's board of inquiry report into the Gaza War. Israel cooperated with that one. That report found major problems on both sides -

- on the side of the Gazans and the Israelis. Since then, there have been at least five or six reports, a number of them from the UN.

So, perhaps you can look at all of these reports, both the ones that are from Israel, from the UN and from other NGOs and other organizations, as a

new fight here over the Gaza War. And that's one over public opinion.

Now the Palestinians have of course responded to this report. Palestinian leadership rejects this report. Hanan Ashrawi says, and I quote here,

"this is totally fabricated. Full of lies, which Israel is trying to justify its violation through it. It's so far from reality, I don't think

anyone with common sense will believe this report. Israel wants to blame the victim by covering reality with lies through an unobjective

investigation." Hana Ashrawi from the PLO executive committee.

KINKADE: OK, Oren Libermann, we'll have to leave it there. We appreciate your reporting on this issue. Thank you very much.

The latest world news headlines are just ahead. Plus, we talk to the photographer who took these startling images. ISIS fighters you can see

grinning as they push Syrian refugees back and Turkish soldiers watch on. That story just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KINKADE: This is Connect the World and these are the top stories this hour.

In South Africa, the president Sudan is waiting to hear whether he'll be arrested on charges for war crimes. Omar al-Bashir is in South Africa for

the African Union summit. The court has banned him from leaving the country until it can rule on a request by the International Criminal Court

to arrest him.

Britian's Sunday Times newspaper reports Russia and China have decrypted classified files leaked by Edward Snowden, a former employee of the U.S.

National Security Agency. Downing Street officials tell the paper spy in hostile countries are now being moved from their posts. But the report

doesn't explain how Russia and China cracked the codes.

Five cases of the Middle East Respiratory Virus have been recorded in Saudi Arabia in the past week, that's according to the ministry of health. The

virus, also called MERS, was first identified in that country in 2012. An outbreak in South Korea has killed 15 people.

Thousands of people are trying to flee fighting from an ISIS controlled area of northern Syria along the Turkish border. The Syrian Observatory

for Human Rights says Kurdish fighters are advancing on the town of Telabiyet (ph). The opposition linked group says the Kurdish militia are

backed by Syrian rebels and are within five kilometers of the town's center.

Many of those hoping to cross into Turkey are being forced back from the border by ISIS militants. These images show armed men dispersing the

refugees within sight of soldiers at the Turkish border crossing. The crossing is 80 kilometers away from the self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa.

Let's bring in the photojournalist who took those images. Turkish photographer Bulent Kilic works for the AFP and is on the border right now.

Now you captured just some incredible images. We saw thousands of people and children lugging whatever they could as they tried to flee. Just

describe the desperation you saw on their faces.

[11:30:46] BULENT KILIC, PHOTOJOURNALIST: Actually, actually I can say now thousands of them half an hour ago, thousands of them came (inaudible).

They broke down the fences and they came inside. Turkish military (inaudible), but then they didn't do anything and thousands of them broke

down the fences and they just came inside with their children, with their babies.

And I can say it's incredible. I haven't seen any refugees coming before like this for four years, which I did a lot of job in the Syria border.

This was -- this was incredible. This was incredible.

KINKADE: One of the most chilling images you took were the terrorists that seemed to be laughing as they forced the civilians to stay in the war zone.

How far away were you?

KILIC: Yesterday, they came to the fence. Then after in the evening ISIS militants they appeared and they asked people, they shout to people to go

back to (inaudible). They went back, thousands of them went back, and then they turn us and they smile at us. I don't know why. This was a kind of

show or kind of a message. I don't have any idea.

Then after, they came back to border and (inaudible) been waiting there one day. And half an hour ago they come inside (inaudible).

Because I heard that ISIS didn't allow them to come inside from the crossing gate, from (inaudible).

KINKADE: You must have felt pretty hopeless on the other side of that border, the barbed wire there. What were the soldiers from Turkey doing

that were on your side of the border? What was their response?

KILIC: Yeah, first they didn't allow them, but half an hour ago, they allowed all people to come to Turkey. They didn't do anything, they just

take positions on this matter from the Syria border and they took all the people that they -- thousands of them inside Turkey

KINKADE: Well, I'll have to leave it there. We understand the border may have been opened again. So, hopefully some of those refugees...

KILIC: Now it's open. Now it's open.

KINKADE: OK. So you're seeing some of the refugees make that crossing?

KILIC: Yeah, half an hour ago it opened. But Syrians push the border open. Turkish government didn't open, Syrians pushed the fences and they

break down the fences.

KINKADE: And you can understand their desperation trying to get away from those terrorists.

We really appreciate your time and the powerful images that you captured. Thank you so much for joining us. Bulent Kilic, we appreciate it.

KILIC: Thank you.

KINKADE: And many of the people trying to cross into Turkey go on to make their way to Europe, where they hope to claim asylum and settle as

refugees.

Many routes are used by those fleeing and two of the busiest are the Mediterranean Sea crossings from North African and Turkey. Italian Prime

Minister Mario Renzi is now urging the EU to act to support southern states. Italy and Greece have been the first port of call for most of

Europe's estimated 100,000 asylum seekers and economic migrants this year.

CNN went to the Greek island of Kos to find out how people there are coping. Isa Soares met with one Syrian family who made it safely to shore,

but found there are more hardships ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[11:25:31] ISA SOARES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He has little to smile about, but he doesn't even know it, because unlike others he's made

it to Europe unharmed.

Walk the streets of central Kos and you start to get a sense of the challenge authorities have on their hands. Just behind me, the majority of

people there are from Pakistan. This is a group of friends who have arrived from Syria. Next door, a family from Aleppo with three children.

The other two houses are being rented full of people also from Syria. And right at the far end, a group of friends from Afghanistan. All these

people desperate, looking to Europe for a way out.

The Badedkhan family from Aleppo arrived in Kos only 10 days ago, making the perilous journey from Badram (ph) in Turkey.

MEDHAT BADEDKHAN, SYRIAN REFUGEES: It's so hard, because small shipping in air, not good shipping. And seven hour on water. And all the children and

women so scared.

SOARES: Here, they're a fractured family.

BADEDKHAN: This is my cousin, this is my wife, my daughter. I don't have no mother, no father, in Syria.

SOARES: A family ripped apart by war and torn by sacrifice.

Why didn't the money come?

BADEDKHAN: No money.

UNIDENITIFIED FEMALE: No money.

SOARES: Now living in this 15 euro a night apartment, they wait to be transferred to Athens.

Time is all they have here, so they tidy and dote on 6-month-old Anna (ph).

The boredom is so that even playing with pillows makes time go faster.

But a life on pause is better than one in conflict.

BADEDKHAN: I leave Syria, because I don't have nothing now. My home it's finished. I'm scared for my family.

So much war is big, big war. If you this house, if you're looking, you see people die.

SOARES: In case I still didn't understand, the grandmother, filled with emotion and anger, tells me what has been their biggest struggle to date.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): The free army is hitting Bashar, and Bashar is hitting Daesh and Daesh is hitting -- it's all on top

of us. All of it is above above above and we are here all of it boom boom boom boom all of it over us.

SOARES: The Badedkhans are one of thousands of Syrian families seeking shelter here. According to UNHCR, 70 percent of the refugees arriving in

Kos are Syrian. The war back home means their asylum applications are given over other nationalities.

But others are not forgotten. And every night, as the son sets over Kos, hundreds lead to Athens. And for these refugees, this part of their

journey is just beginning.

Isa Soares, CNN, in the Greek island of Kos.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: And CNN has been covering this story in depth and will continue to do so bringing you the stories of the people making the journeys and

what happens to them once they arrive in Europe.

For more, you can go to CNN.com for all our special reports, including this glimpse at a life inside a center for new arrivals to Italy. Photograph

Sophia Mali Kogart (ph) took a series of photos of young African men who made it to Italy only to be kept in conditions she described as prison-

like. There are some of her images there.

You can take a look at her work on CNN.com.

The American woman who made headlines this week after being outed as white by her parents says she might talk tomorrow. Rachel Dolezal is the

president of her city's chapter for an African-American civil rights group. And that group, the NAACP, says it is standing behind her.

Stephanie Elam explains the controversy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It seems like an easy question.

JEFF HUMPHREY, KXLY: Are your parents, are they white?

ELAM: But for Rachel Dolezal, it was enough to make her run from a local reporter.

Dolezal is president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP and professor of Africana studies at Eastern Washington University. For years, the 37-year-

old has claimed she's black, reinforcing that belief by posting pictures like this one from the Spokane NAACP Facebook page. The caption underneath

says her father presumably this black man will be a special guest at one of their events.

But this is the birth certificate CNN obtained from Rachel's parents. This is her biological mother and this is her father, proving that Rachel

Dolezal is white. The couple says their daughter has never claimed to be black in their

presence, though due to a legal dispute, they haven't talked to her in years.

[11:40:07] RUTHANNE DOLEZAL, RACHEL'S MOTHER: That's her request, that's because Rachel has chosen to distance herself from the family and be

hostile toward us. She doesn't want to be seen with us because that ruins her image.

ELAM: An image the Dolezals who adopted four black children say came about gradually around 2007.

R. DOLEZAL: Rachel has always been interested in ethnicity and diversity and we had many friends of different ethnicities when she was growing up.

ELAM: So interested in black culture that Dolezal left Montana to go to college in Jackson, Mississippi, before earning a masters degree from

Howard University, a historically black institution in 2002.

Throughout her career, she has fought for racial equality. Here she is with Baltimore prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby.

Dolezal was also appointed to oversee equality in the police department. On her application however, she indicated that she is white, black, and Native

American.

Now, the city is checking to see if this new revelation has violated any policies.

MARC LAMONT HILL, PROFESSOR, MOREHOUSE COLLEGE: The truth here is she is a white woman is exercising extraordinary privilege to try on blackness, some

people say to try on everything but the burden, and to decide how and when she wants to be the thing she can always walk away from.

ELAM: CNN tried unsuccessfully to reach Dolezal for comment. As with the NAACP, the organization is standing behind Dolezal, saying, quote, "We

encourage Americans of all stripes to become members and serve as leaders in our organization."

It is worth point outing that you don't have to be black to be a leader with the NAACP and you didn't have to be black to go to Howard University.

But what's puzzling so many people is that Rachel Dolezal has been known to be an effective leader when it comes to race relations. And many people

don't understand why she felt the need to lie, because they believe she could have done that whether she was black or white.

Stephanie Elam, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: And you can always follow the stories the team is working on throughout the day by going to our Facebook page, that's

Facebook.com/CNNConnect.

And you can get in touch with me by Tweeting me @LyndaKinkade.

And before we leave, I just want to remind you that Connect the World with Becky Anderson will be live in the Egyptian capital Cairo all next week.

You can tune in at 5:00 p.m. Cairo time, that's 4:00 p.m. in London.

I'm Lynda Kinkade. And that was Connect the World. Thanks so much for watching.

END