Transcripts For CNNW Starting Point 20130515 : vimarsana.com

0 this is our starting point, damning accusations over its targeting of groups connected to the tea party so how deep does this scandal go? she survived trapped underneath rubble for 17 days for the first time in a cnn exclusive we re hearing from the woman who lived through the bangladesh factory collapse. and brad pitt talking about angelina jolie and how millions of women around the world are reacting. it s may 15th. starting point begins right now. good morning, everyone. exactly one month after the boston marathon bombings, boston fire chief is coming under fire for his handling of the terror attack. cnn has learned that 13 of 14 deputy fire chiefs have signed a letter of no confidence claiming that he was more of a spectator than a commander at the height of the chaos after the bombs went off. however, the embattled chief tells the boston globe that he believed the situation was under control and he felt no need to add another layer of management to what he calls a complicated scene. the fbi is going to investigate the irs stemming from a watchdog report that the agency deliberately targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny. president obama says it s intolerable and inexcusable. in few hours attorney general eric holder will face questions from congress about this and mo more. brianna keilar is following this for us. reporter: last night after reading this report from the inspector general that oversees the irs, president obama put a statement out, the white house put out a statement from him where he said the irs must apply the law in a fire and impartial way. he said the report shows the agency failed that test and he said he s asked his treasury secretary to hold accountable those who are responsible. the internal revenue service is facing a criminal investigation after a watchdog report found the agency targeted conservative groups starting in 2010. the agency s inspector general found the irs used inappropriate criteria that identified for review tea party and other organizations applying for tax exempt status based upon their names or policy positions instead of indications of potential political campaign intervention. after reading the report tuesday night, president obama called the practice intolerable and inexcusable after promising action monday. people have to be held accountable and it has to be fixed. reporter: irs officials told investigators they acted on their own without influence from outside groups. the report says managers were ineffective in overseeing lower level irs employees who don t have sufficient knowledge of the news governing tax exempt organizations. it s not the only controversy the obama administration is facing. expect fireworks today when the republican led house judiciary committee grills eric holder. this administration has put a real value on the rule of law and our values as americans. i think the actions that we have taken are consistent with both. reporter: tuesday reporters questioned holder at a medicare fraud event and peppered jay carney with questions at the white house briefing. the president is a strong defender of the first amendment and firm believer in the need for the press to be unfettered. reporter: republicans are seizing on the new controversies. we do know this. we can t count on the administration to be forthcoming about the details of this scandal because so far they ve been anything but. it lies at the president s feet. these are things going on within his administration targeting opponents. i ve never seen anything quite like this except in the past during the nixon years. i can tell you that the people who make those kind of comparisons need to check their history. reporter: the white house has also been plagued recently by questions about whether it downplayed the role of terrorism in that september attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi as president obama was making a claim on the campaign trail about the success his administration had against al qaeda in his first term. that had gone from sort of a right wing obsession to mainstream news recently but i will tell you it s really these controversies over the irs and the department of justice seizing these phone records from the ap that i think are concerning the white house more certainly on the political front. they see this certainly as more of a liability i think than the benghazi issue. they ve taken the white house off any other kind of message this week as they ve responding to these criticisms and claims, this has been the conversation in washington. brianna keilar, thank you. last week it was the air force and this week the army finds itself in the middle of a sex scandal. a sergeant at ft. hood in texas is accused of sexual assault and prostitution allegations are now swirling around this case as well. cnn s shannon travis is live in washington with the details. what s the latest on this? reporter: the latest is that soldiers under investigation and he s been suspended from all duties. we don t know his name yet. the army hasn t released that. we do know that he s a sergeant first class at ft. hood, texas, and the soldier has not been charged. we know the unfortunate irony here his job in the military is to protect sexual assault and harassment but is under investigation for sexual assa t assault. they are investigating assault and maltreatment of subordinates according to the army and an administration official tells cnn there is a distinct possibility this involves some sort of prostitution related activity. we want to be clear though that investigators have not yet determined if that s the case or even the scope of any potential criminal conduct. shannon, when i first heard this story i did a double take. we just heard a story of a soldier assigned to prevent sexual assault now charged with actual assault himself. we did just hear a story like this. what are lawmakers doing to keep this from happening again? you would be right to think about the recent allegation of a story like this recently that s because there was an air force officer just last week who was accused of grabbing a woman in a parking lot. that incident happened just near the pentagon. that service member also worked to prevent sexual assaults and was in a court appearance last week and he did not enter a plea. meanwhile you asked about what officials are doing, the pentagon is outraged by these allegations and are acting swiftly and lawmakers are equally concerned. a new york senator says she plans to introduce legislation this week to remove chain of command influence from prosecution of such offenses. all right. shannon travis in washington with this story that keeps on going and in some cases getting worse. appreciate it. attorneys for cleveland kidnapping suspect ariel castro say their client is not the monster everyone claims he is. and they re now revealing how they plan to defend him. pamela brown tracking the latest developments in this case live from cleveland this morning. a lot of people who have been following this story are surprised by what they re hearing from those defense attorneys, pam. reporter: yeah, that s right. defense attorneys spoke to one of our affiliates, wkyz and said that castro will plead not guilty if he faces kidnapping and rape charges with an indictment from a grand jury. the lawyer said that castro has not admitted anything to them. we ve been reporting that castro has confessed to authorities during interrogations. that s coming from law enforcement sources with firsthand knowledge of the investigation. we re not the only ones reporting that. our affiliates are reporting that as well. his attorneys are saying that he hasn t admitted anything to them and that they will mount the best defense that they possibly can. also, they talked about how they plan on moving the trial outside of cuyahoga county because of all of the media attention that this case has been getting and they talked about how the portrayal of ariel castro in the media has been unfair. let s take a listen. i think that the initial portrayal by the media has been one of a monster and that s not the impression that i got when i talked to him for three hours. he is a human being. what s offensive is that the media and i don t mean it toward you but the media and community wants to demonize this man before they really know the whole story and i think that it s unfair and it s just not equitable. reporter: that was castro s attorneys. they know how castro came in contact with the women and an explanation for that will come out in court. also, we re hearing new information this morning from one of our law enforcement sources talking about how castro s behavior toward the women evolved over time and that eventually amanda berry was treated slightly better than michelle knight and gina dejesus but only by a matter of degrees and that essentially the women were all treated poorly but that the treatment toward amanda berry did evolve and was slightly better than the other women but any notion of a hierarchy with the women is a bit of a stretch according to our law enforcement source. pam brown live for us this morning in cleveland. it will be interesting to see what kind of defense they mount and whether they will make those women live through some sort of court spectacle prolonging what s been a very long ordeal for them. thank you very much. a big day in court for o.j. simpson today. he ll testify today in an attempt to get out of prison. disgraced football star is trying to get robbery, assault and kidnapping convictions thrown out. he claims his old lawyer was ineffective and told him he was within his rights to take back property he believed had been stolen from him as long as it was done without trespass or physical force. simpson did not testify during his 1995 murder trial or the 2008 case that landed him in prison. jodi arias back in court today to begin the sentencing phase of other trial before jurors can consider imposing the death penalty they must answer a key question. was arias cruel when she killed ex-boyfriend travis alexander. arias is now out of a prison psychiatric ward and sent her first tweet. any donations to my family or me or made only at jodi arias is innocent.com. any other source asking for donations is fraudulent. thank you. angelina jolie is receiving overwhelming support after the revelation that she carries a breast cancer gene and underwent breast removal surgery. her biggest supporter is her partner of eight years, brad pitt. he told usa today she could have stayed private about it and i don t think anyone would have been none the wiser with good results but it was important for her to share the story and that others would understand it doesn t have to be a scary thing. in fact, it can be an empowering thing and something that makes you stronger and us stronger. wow. ahead on starting point, a beautiful model s life cut short. a shocking murder for hire case. who the defense is trying to blame next. prince harry takes on american baseball. do the yankees need another big bat? don t they have enough already? changing the world is exhausting business. with the innovating and the transforming and the revolutionizing. it s enough to make you forget that you re flying five hundred miles an hour on a chair that just became a bed. you see, we re doing some changing of our own. ah, we can talk about it later. we re putting the wonder back into air travel, one innovation at a time. the new american is arriving.