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CNN 10
Kurds and Other Ethnic Groups Regaining Kobani; "Bring Back Our Girls"; Writing to Bowe Bergdahl
Aired October 21, 2014 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: From the Middle East to North America to Africa, we are moving fast to the start of this Tuesday show.
U.S. airstrikes in the town of Kobani. It`s in Northern Syria near the border with Turkey, and it`s become a problem for the ISIS terrorist group.
Unlike some other towns in the region that fell to ISIS, the Kurds and ethnic groups have fought to regain control of much of Kobani.
About 70 percent of the city. U.S.-led airstrikes have helped along with an American airdrop of weapons, ammo and medical equipment. That happened
Sunday night. The Obama administration says it looks like the supplies fell into the right hands.
Kobani isn`t the only city under attack from ISIS terrorists. Yesterday, they launched 15 attacks on Kurdish forces in northern Iraq. The U.S.
military says the fight against ISIS won`t be quick.
Spinning the globe to Dallas, Texas. Some hopeful news to tell you about the Ebola virus. Yesterday a Dallas country judge cleared more than 40
people who`d had contract with Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan. The judge said none of these people showed symptoms of Ebola for 21 days. What
doctors considered the maximum incubation period for the virus. So, their quarantine is over.
Two nurses who apparently caught Ebola from Duncan are still hospitalized, and though Nigeria and Senegal say they are officially Ebola-free, the
disease is still spreading rapidly in the West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Just mentioned Nigeria. It was the news for a very different reason back in April. That was when the Boko Haram terrorist group kidnapped hundreds
of girls from a boarding school in northeast, Nigeria. The country`s government says it`s reached a deal with Boko Haram to set the girls free.
But that hasn`t happened yet, and the terrorist groups continues its attacks on civilians.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Bring Back Our girls," the world has cried.
MALALA YOUSUFZAI, NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER: So, girls in Nigeria are my sisters. And it`s my responsibility that I speak for my sisters.
MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY, UNITED STATES: Grown man attempting to snuff out the aspirations of young girls.
ANGELINA JOLIE, ACTRESS: It`s infuriating. And it`s - and it kind of goes beyond understanding that somebody could do this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s been six months, since almost 300 girls were taken from their school in the dead of night, at the hands of Boko Haram,
the Islamist terror group.
The overwhelming majority of them remain unaccounted for.
More than 5 million people have tweeted, "Bring back our girls." The social media campaign went viral in May, a month after the girls vanished,
and it hasn`t stopped. And now, the news Friday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There has been a huge breakthrough in the kidnapping ordeal that launched that global campaign, bring back our girls.
The deal was expected to include the release of the more than 200 kidnapped school girls.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The government announced a ceasefire, what they say as a step towards bringing the girls home.
MIKE OMERI, NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON: The terrorists have assured that the girls are alive and well. And their prescriptions will continue
in this direction subsequently. It`s all efforts that was the release of the government.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Skepticism is felt by many.
OBIAGELI EZEKWESILI, FMR. MINISTER OF EDUCATION, NIGERIA: We want to be able to see any evidence of this deal. It would help a lot. I`m sure that
majority of Nigerians are I think in - the same trend.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, Boko Haram hasn`t yet responded to Nigeria`s claim. The news has brought cautious optimism. But online campaigners say
they won`t stop until the girls are back.
More than 180 days since their abduction, hope and more waiting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just the facts, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl serves in the U.S. Army. He was deployed to Afghanistan in May of 2009. And he was
captured there a month later. In 2012, the U.S. government said it was in talks with the Taliban, Afghanistan`s former rule is to get Bergdahl
released. That happened in May of this year when the U.S. freed five Taliban prisoners in exchange for Bergdahl.
AZUZ: The U.S. Army has completed its investigation of Sergeant Bergdahl`s disappearance, but its hasn`t released results yet. The exchange for
Bergdahl was a major controversy, and investigative agency of Congress said the Obama administration broke the law because it didn`t notify Congress 30
days before the exchange. The administration said it had a limited opportunity and took advantage of it.
Also, some soldier who served with Bergdahl said he deserted his post and that`s why he was captured.
Bergdahl now has a desk job at a fort in Texas. CNN recently found a pile of letters sent to him before the exchange happened.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What you are looking at here is a little known secret that has been hidden inside the Hailey Idaho police department
for several months. All of these boxes are filled with letters that were sent to Bowe Bergdahl last Christmas. Letters of support and well wishes
and prayers for his release. Of course, all of these letters were sent just a few months before he was actually released. They were sent to the
White House, and they were put in boxes. And eventually, they made their way back here to the state of Idaho and the Bergdahl family asked some
friends to take care of them. And the big question is, what should be done with all of these letters? It`s not exactly clear if Bowe Bergdahl even
knows that these are here, and his friends here in Hailey are wondering if he`ll ever want to read them. That is a fascinating snapshot into the
efforts that many friends made to secure his release very different from the controversy surrounding Bowe Bergdahl after his release. So many
platoon mates of his who have come out and called him a deserter and a traitor. Obviously, Bowe Bergdahl has become a very controversial figure,
but in this boxes and the snap shots, very positive in nature hoping and praying for Bowe Bergdahl`s safe Release. This one in particular says we
are praying for you to come home soon, so you can b with your family.
But as far as we know, that hasn`t taken place which is just another layer to this story that has been very confounding for - for many people in many
different ways.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: For Monday`s transcript at cnnstudentnews.com, here are few of the thousands of request we got our roll call.
In Arapahoe Wyoming meet the Falcons or Arapahoe, middle school. In New Ulm, Minnesota, great the Eagles of New Ulm High School (ph). And in
Haftswjord, Norway, check out the Vikings of the international School of Stovanger. Thank you all for taking ten minutes for CNN STUDENT NEWS.
AZUZ: When you picture a robot, you might picture R2D2 or a computer that can interact with us, or something that can accomplish certain tasks, like
helping build part of the car or vacuuming a room. But where robot vacuum can sent you back about 300 or 400 bucks, they pack-back (Ph) kind used in
war zones, can run about 150,000 each.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In 1990, Helen Greiner and two other roboticists from MIT`s artificial intelligence lab had a realization: in
order for robots to have a real life everyday impact on regular people, they needed to be mobile, and so iRobot was born.
The Boston Robotics Company was made famous by their Roomba vacuum, but Greiner and the rest of the team went on to say lives with their series of
packbots. The packbot is a compact truck turbine device that is used by the U.S. military to find and detonate IEDs. Search and Rescue teams
deploy the backbit to locate missing individuals after natural disaster. And Security Teams have you sit to inspect vehicles at large public events.
Users control the packbot using of videogame style controller on the remote lap top. Where the bas activities are shown in 3d.
The current model of the Packbot. The Packbot 5 10 carries LED lights, four cameras capable of HD-photography as 312 time zoom in photography.
The Packbots manipulator arm can reach around corners and can raise up to 80 inches. And its grabber can hold up to 30 pounds. Dual rotating
clippers that can turn 360 degrees give it Packbot the ability to navigate the raw obstacles, or reorient something that lands face down. Several
other robotic devices have been designed to aid in military endeavors, including the (INAUDIBLE) which has been employed by the U.S. Army and the
Theodore, which has been used by the Spanish armed forces.
These robots look like something out of science fiction, but they are real, and they are saving lives every day.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: Before we go, human foosball (ph), yo. No one is actually attached to the - that get pretty sick after a spin or two. Folks just grab on to
expand a PBS pipe, move left and right and kick. It almost looks like fun. The goal of this event in Green Bay, Wisconsin, wasn`t just to score goals,
it was to raise money for a charity that aims to get girls in great school interested in science, math and engineering. So, if someone got roped into
the game or if it was more than they could handle, they said playing was off the table. The cause might have made them paws and take the idea for a
spin regardless of whether they heard cheers of foes. I`m Carl Azuz. We`ll see you Wednesday.
END
