Transcripts For CNNW The Lead With Jake Tapper 20140404

But time is running out. What you get is a surprisingly top cal political thriller. Good afternoon, im jake tapper. Any moment now were expecting a briefing on the latest from ft. Hood, texas, where investigators are looking for any clue about the state of mind of the man who shot and killed three fellow soldiers there and wounded 16 others. Today were hearing from the family of the shooter. Specialist ivan lopez. They seemed just as hurt and confused as anyone else. Today rick perry and senator ted cruz visited the wounded patients. Five have been released with one more expected to leave soon. The office of senator john cornyn sent us a picture of a note from one of the Wounded Soldiers written to the medical staff which reads, sir, hows everyone doing . Let everyone know im doing good. Well get through this as a family team. Investigato investigators searched the shooters home but anyone wanting an answer came away sorely disappointed. Were hearing from the shooters father today, pamela. What did he have to say . Reporter yeah, thats right. The shooters father breaking his silence today in a Statement Released by a spokesperson of the family describing the father as astonished and also describing his son as a calm family man and a young worker who constantly sought to look after his familys future and in this statement, this is what the father of ivan lopez said. Said the situation is very painful. I seek prayers for all of the families affected more so when there is an Ongoing Investigation. My son must have not been in his right mind. He wasnt like that. And also the father talked about his son being under medical treatment and that the recent passing of his mother as well as his grandfather as well as recent changes here on base that his son experienced might have contributed to his condition. So perhaps giving a clue to the mental instability that we have been hearing about. Jake . Pamela, in a moment were going to talk with a family of one of the wounded, Sergeant Jonathan westbrook. They didnt know for hours whether he was alive or dead. Tell us about that. Reporter yeah. Thats right. Just an agonizing wait for this family, as you can imagine. The father of Jonathan Westbrook spoke to wlbt and shed some light on what may have happened in the moments right before the shooting. The father of him said that lopez walked into the building to get a leave form and apparently was told to come back the following day to pick thaup leave form and the father says that lopez walked out and came back with a gun and thats when he opened fire. Jake, weve heard from sources that investigators are being looking at whether lopezs anger over a canceled leave request might have contributed or triggered him to do what he did on wednesday. They are still trying to figure out that motive, though. Pamela brown at ft. Hood, texas, thank you so much. You just heard the story of one of the survivors of the attack, Sergeant Jonathan westbrook. We have his sister on the phone. Armetra otis is on her way to see her brother. Have you spoken to your brother . How is he doing . Hes doing really, really well. Were on our way to see him as we speak. He was discharged from the hospital earlier today. So we hope to see him in the spirits like we talked to him last night and early this morning. Armetra, what does he say happened . He just said that he was at work and a guy came in for a leave form and apparently he didnt want to hear that and so he came back and just opened fire into the office on everyone. So Sergeant Lopez asked for a leave form and he came back with a gun . Correct. Did your brother know specialist lopez at all . He said he saw him a few times but he didnt know him personally because he just arrived like on the base he was new to the base. So he didnt know him that well. He didnt know him at all. And your brother was wounded . He was. What happened . From what ive been told, lopez came in and he shot the first guy he saw and killed him and then turned the gun on my brother and he was shot four times. He was shot four times. Totally. So this is what im thinking and im trying to get up here now so i can see for myself. All right. Your brother has been discharged and im assuming hes been given something of a clean bill of health . Were all thinking and praying about him right now. That is correct. All right. Armetra otis, thank you for speaking with us. We certainly wish your brother a very speedy recovery. Thank you so much for that. The search for a motive. That aspect of human nature that makes us need to understand, to comprehend why this happened. This is what is keeping the shooters name in the headline but the focus ultimately must be on the lives that he took and the lives that forever changed. Now we know the names of all three men shot and killed at ft. Hood. Sergeant carlos rodriguez, he was from puerto rico, enlisted as soon as he could at age 18 after serving 20 years he was reportedly planning to retire soon from the military. Sergeant rodriguez was 38 years old. Sergeant Timothy Owens was an Army Counselor who had served in iraq, a native of illinois, owens had just gotten married in august. He had two children from earlier relationships. He was 37. And Sergeant Danny ferguson seen here in a facebook photo with his fiance, he had just returned from afghanistan. His fiance, who was also a soldier, said ferguson was killed trying to hold a door shut to stop the shooter and in doing so, she says he likely saved lives. He held that door shut because theres no locks. Those doors are it seems like they would be bulletproof but apparently they are not. If he was not the one to hold that door and shutting it, the shooter would have been able to get through and shot everyone else. Its too late, sadly, to thanks rodriguez, owens, and ferguson so perhaps we should thank their families for their sacrifices. As all of us struggle to make sense of the tragedy, investigators are trying to explain what ultimately set him off. I want to bring in pentagon correspondent barbara starr. Barbara, lopez had previously been station at ft. Bliss. Were there any clues from his time there . Well, i have to tell you, jake, this is what the army is looking at now. He had only arrived at ft. Hood several weeks ago, they are going back. What was going on in his tour at ft. Bliss before he moved to hood . Had he had problems there . Had he had Mental Illness challenges . Was he getting medication . Was he being treated there . One of the key questions is, it has been publicly said by officials he was on multiple prescription drugs. Could some of those drugs have been prescribed to him back at bliss . Could they have been so strong that maybe he should have been monitored more closely for stability . These are the questions that they are looking at. Now, that takes us to part two. He was at bliss, he moved to hood a few weeks ago. By all accounts, he had other challenges when he got to hood. Its a huge base. Even soldiers in the best mental frame of mind often find the base potentially overwhelming because of the sheer size and the number of people there. U. S. Military official tells us that one of the things they are looking at was how lopez adjusted to being in a place like hood. He had a new job as a truck driver. He had a new chain of command. He was getting trying to get settled into housing. All of these things add to stress. Its the issue of, did all of this just become too many triggers, too overwhelming, too much for someone that was in a fragile state of mind and clearly was on multiple medications for what the army says was depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance, and youll remember that yesterday the commanding general said there was evidence of unstable psychiatric conditions so did the medical staff at hood even know his state when he got there . Jake . Barbara starr at the pentagon, thank you so much. Coming up on the lead, were awaiting a press conference for the latest on this investigation. Well bring it to you as soon as it starts. Plus, after a mass shooting, politicians give lip service to improving Mental Health care. Many dont follow through. Our next guest is an exception. With his legislation keep Something Like this from happening again . Plus, the search for flight 370 enters a new phase but the families of those on board are no closer to an answer. The question, was there a coverup . Yes, sir, thank you. And mr. Chris gray, the spokesman for u. S. Army criminal investigation division. Were now bringing to you live the press conference from ft. Hood. Lets listen in. Thank you all for your flexibility in changing locations. We were all having a difficult time hearing yesterday with the traffic and the wind and i appreciate your flexibility. Id like to give you a short update on the incident and the investigation that happened last wednesday and then at the end allow your opportunity to ask a few questions. Had an opportunity this morning to visit some of the wounded again and i just want all of you and all of the community to know that we are all keeping them in our thoughts and prayers, both the fallen and the wounded and their families as they go through this grieving process and this difficult time and all of our leadership will be there with them throughout. We have completed next of kin notification on the three Fallen Soldiers and i can now confirm publicly their identities. Two of the soldiers from the 49th transportation battalion and one of the killed victims is from the first medical brigade. Sergeant first class Daniel Michael ferguson, age 39, from mulberry, florida, entered in active service in 1993 as a transportation coordinator. He was assigned to the 49th transportation battalion of the 4th Sustainment Brigade of the 13th sustainment command. And he was a transportation supervisor. His deployments include kuwait, iraq, and afghanistan. Staff sergeant carlos rodriguez, 38, from puerto rico, entered active duty service in february 1995 as a unit supply specialist. Assigned to the 21st assigned combat hospital of the first medical brigade in february of 2012 where he served as a unit supply sergeant. He deployed to kuwait and also to iraq. Sergeant Timothy Wayne owens, 37, of illinois, entered active duty service in july 2004 as a motor transport operator. Hes assigned to the 49th transportation battalion 4th Sustainment Brigade where he served as a heavy vehicle driver. He deployed to iraq and to kuwait. Releasable Service Records will be available to you at the presscenter. Com later on this evening. We will memorialize all three of these soldiers next wednesday. Details will be coming to you in the next few days. Also this evening were putting together for you a simple map and diagram of the incident site to include a basic sequence of events as we understand them now. They will be very basic, not to the level of detail of an investigation that is still ongoing. But very basic to help you orient on where this event occurred. In regards to the injured soldiers that we visited this morning, i had the opportunity both yesterday and today to visit all of the soldiers at darnall and scott white. We still have three remaining soldiers at scott white and three here at darnall on ft. Hood. They are strong and their families are resilient and i had a chance to meet with some of their families and they are dealing very well with a difficult situation and we all look forward and pray for their full recovery. Ten soldiers of the original 16 have now been released from the hospital and have returned to duty. I as a commander, as a soldier, am incredibly impressed by the medical professionals at both scott white, darnall, and the entire response of the Emergency Responders of ft. Hood and the community at large. As you know, theres a lot more details beyond what ive given you in the last couple of days and much of those details are not releasable to the public at this time because we do have an Ongoing Investigation. However, i do want to clarify two points specific to specialist lopezs medical condition. First, we are digging into his combat experience in iraq. And so far, we have not discovered any specific traumatic event, wounds received in action, contact with the enemy or anything else specific that he may have been exposed to while deployed. But we are continuing to examine this line of inquiry. Secondly, his underlying medical conditions, we do not believe, are the direct precipitating factor to the incident. Is underlying medical condition is not the precipitating factor. We believe it was more likely an escalating argument in his unit area. But were still conducting that investigation and well address every single one of the causal and contributing factors that resulted in this horrible tragedy. As you know, the Investigation Team here is robust in its multiagency. Right now we have almost 80 fbi agents working with us and forensic specialists. Over 20 Texas Rangers are contributing to the investigation and almost 50 u. S. Army c. I. D. Agents and military police Investigation Teams and our local Law Enforcement detectives from killeen and Harker Heights. Additionally, we have medical investigations on hand to assist. And altogether we have over 150 professionally trained investigators from federal, state, and local agencies. I will leave all of the further details of ongoing and criminal investigations to the Law Enforcement agencies and Health Care Professionals and at this point i would like to introduce colonel mike delato, the commander of the sixth military police group, cid, joint base lewismcchord up at Washington State and they will briefly now review the status of the investigation. After their comments, we will entertain questions. Chris . Thank you, general. Good afternoon. My name is chris gray. Im a spokesperson for the u. S. Army criminal investigation command base out of quaintico, virginia and the Multiagency Task ford led by army cid here at ft. Hood into the tragic shootings of the incident that took place on wednesday. Im here today to provide you with an update with an investigative update on record to the ongoing criminal investigation. Unfortunately, and as you know, we lost four soldiers on wednesday to include the shooter was one of those soldiers. That number includes 16 others who were wounded. On behalf of all Law Enforcement working the case, both civilian and military, let me express my sincere condolences to the loved ones, families, the soldiers of the wounded and killed in this incident. Ill provide as much information as i can today but please keep in mind this is an ongoing criminal investigation and we are only releasing facts at this point that we feel will not jeopardize the ongoing case. The ft. Hood director of emergency services, the military police, army cid and a host of other Law Enforcement professionals again responding to reports that shots fired at approximately 4 16 p. M. On wednesday. Numerous reports of gunfire and wounded personnel were received and it continued at various locations which contributed to the chaos and confusion associated with the initial reports. The alleged shooter, specialist ivan lopez, initially opened fire with a smith wesson semiautomatic handgun near the intersection of 77th street. The entrier crime scene encompasses an almost two city block area. We have credible information that he was involved in a verbal altercation with soldiers from his unit just frprior to him allegedly opening fire. The subject then proceeded to travel to two other nearby buildings, entering those locations and opening fire. In transit to those locations, while in his personal vehicle, he indiscriminately fired at soldiers while moving from one location to another. At this time, we are still processing a very large crime scene and will not be giving you a time stepbystep timeline of the activity in the investigation. The alleged shooter encountered a responding military Police Officer and approached her. Subsequently, there was a verbal exchange between the two. The military Police Officer drew her assigned firearm and fired one round when the subject brandished his weapon. Based on witness statement, the alleged shooter then placed his firearm to his own head and fired one round killing himself. Those actions by the alleged subject and the military Police Officer are obviously part of the Ongoing Investigation. At this time we have the one alleged subject connected to this shooting indicates that the subject acted alone in the actual shootings. We have no evidence thus far that contradicts that finding but its critical to point out that we are not ruling anything in or out at the early stage of the investigation and well continue to aggressively pursue any and all credible leads and information associated with this case. There were initial reports that there were possibly two shooters involved on wednesday. But that has been attributed to the chaotic situation and the suspect moved from location to location as i described earlier. We have not found any links to terrorism or any international or domestic or extremist groups at this time. Again, we have not completely ruled that out in order to conduct a thorough and complete investigation. Within the large crime scene i described, there are three significant crime sprees and three areas outdoors that were focusing our case on. Those scenes are currently being trained by highly trained cid agents, Texas Rangers, and members of the fbis elite team. That includes evidence collection, crime scene recreation, triangulation of evidence, studying the flight of the bullets fired and to date we have canvassed and interviewed more than 900 people during the course of this investigation. Immediately following the shootings, cid along with the assistance from the military police and outside agencies took positive control and screened more than 1,000 potential witnesses and possible suspects in the immediate vicinity before releasing them back to their unit. At this point in the investigation, we have well over 150 special agents from army cid, fbi as well as the Texas Rangers. The weapon allegedly used in the commission of these crimes has been recovered as evidence and well be processing that at the Forensic Science Center Laboratory in atlanta, georgia. We will conduct firearms forensic testing and ballistics to determine that the shots fired came from that specific weapon. We have also confirmed through our investigation that specialist lopez purchased the firearm recovered at the crime scene on march 1st. From a local establishment outside ft. Hood. But brought it on to ft. Hood in violation of d. O. D. , army, and ft. Hood regulations. We have not uncovered any history of criminal convictions or previous criminal activity by specialist lopez. At this time, we have not established a concrete motive but we will do everything in our power to do so. Given that the alleged shooter is deceased, the possibility does exist that we may never know exactly why the alleged shooter did what he did but, again, we are bringing the very latest technology and investigative methods in an attempt to find out. Finally, since wednesdays incident, we have received tremendous support from Law Enforcement officials and the community of ft. Hood inside and outside the gate. Wed like to thank the following agencies during this very difficult time. The fbi, the atf, Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Rangers, the ft. Hood director of emergency services, the Killeen Police department, the Harker Heights police department, Sheriffs Office and the Temple Police department. Wed also like to thank Lieutenant General milley while were conducting our investigation. Let me assure you, we are fully committed to this investigation. That concludes my update for today. We are not releasing any further details. I appreciate your patience and understanding during this very, very difficult time. Thank you. Well take just a few questions. And then were not going to do a press conference tomorrow, saturday nor sunday. Well do one again on monday. We will not do one tuesday, Memorial Service is wednesday and then the next one after that will be on thursday. We will not do a press conference at the Memorial Service. There may be some visitors show up and may be a chance to do press availability at that time. The next one is monday and the one after that is on thursday. At this time, id be happy to entertain some questions. Let me start over here. Go ahead. How many shots were fired . Do you know . Mr. Gray . Thats part of the investigation. Were looking at that. Is his wife cooperating with you and what is she im not going to reveal that information right now. Thats part of the investigation. We dont discuss we dont discuss witnesses, victims, that type of thing. Do you have any sense of what precipitated this argument . Again, thats part of the Ongoing Investigation. Was it all soldiers that were victims of the shooter . Yes, they were. Specialist lopez came in for a leave form . Again, thats all part of the Ongoing Investigation and when we can we will release that information. We want to make sure that we have all of the facts correct. Everyones rights are protected and we get it right the first time. So our investigation continues. General, yesterday you said no soldiers were specifically targeted and now were told that some of the victims were people that he was having an altercation with. Is there any revision of what you told us yesterday . No, theres no ill let mr. Gray override me in a moment but theres no indication of previous specific targeting of a specific individual. So that remains true. Even the people that he was involved in with the verbal altercation . As you know, thats how an investigation progresses. We uncover new information as we investigate. Thats why i confirmed that. Can you talk in general about what the altercation was about . No, can i not. Just a followup, to make sure that were clear, you said that some of the people that were involved in the altercation were victims but youre not saying that they were targets. There was no premeditated target of an individual in the sense of walking into specifically target a specific individual. Theres no indication of that. There was an argument. It escalated. The details of which will be discussed at a later point once the investigation is completed. Im sorry . Were any of those soldiers involved in the altercation fatly wounded . Id have to check that fact for you. Did lopez have a meeting with superiors about the leave of absence on wednesday . I dont know that. I dont think you know that. I dont know that for certain. Dont know that wone. Again, what i gave you during my briefing is all of the details. Im not giving any more specifics. So if you have specific questions about the investigation, im going to have to come back to, were not answering that at this point. Whats the policy and procedure that youre now going to do as a result of this that could have prevented, had personnel had a firearm in every building . We have a standard operating procedures. Most military installations throughout the army have a set of policies and regulations that we all follow. We have random access measures, Security Locations that require extra security, et cetera, et cetera. We are reviewing all of those and i have not issued specific instructions to make any changes to those at this time. We have adjusted some of the within the existing s. O. P. S, we have increased some of the force Protection Measures here. The temporary in nature, we shut down the base. There are some additional mps out, et cetera. But an overall change in policy, no, we have not done that yet. Is one of the crime scenes the Chaplain Service . Im not getting into the details. Ive given you as much about the crime scene and the location. Inaudible. Idan. The pronunciation of it. Excuse me . How many of the victims were involved in the altercation . Do you have a number . Again, im not getting into numbers or details. Like i said in my briefing, im not getting into specifics of a timeline. Im not getting into specifics of the timeline, step by step. Were going to break away from this press conference featuring lieutenant mark milley, the commander of ft. Hood, as well as chris gray from quantico. They are basically deferring answering questions from the reporters about the shooting. Barbara, it seems that there has been an updating of some sort of some of the information that we were told yesterday. It seems that some of the individuals who were wounded were individuals that specialist lopez was involved in an altercation with. So there was no premeditated targeting but perhaps an argument escalated and then they were targeted. Thats what general milley and the cid spokesman are talking about. They are saying that lopez was all all their evidence shows that lopez was involved in a verbal altercation with some members of his unit and that is escalated from there, that that verbal altercation may have been what they are calling the precipitating factor that led to these shootings. But that may be the precipitating factor that led to the shootings. What the Army Investigation is not talking about yet is where they will go back and see what led this army soldier to have a state of mind, a frame of mind that would have led him to be perhaps so angry, perhaps so much full of emotion. That they will go back and look at everything about his Mental Health, his situation at ft. Hood and try and determine how it got to this point, jake. Thats right, barbara starr. In fact, after the altercation, those individuals were shot by specialist lopez and he then shot other people in other buildings. Coming up, could better treatment of our veterans prevented this from happening in any way . Well speak with a congressman tim murphy of pennsylvania. [ male announcer ] when fixed income experts. Work with equity experts. Who work with regional experts. Who work with Portfolio Management experts, thats when expertise happens. Mfs. Because there is no expertise without collaboration. Mfs. At od, whatever business youre in, thats the business were in with Premium Service like one of the best ontime delivery records and a low claims ratio, we do whatever it takes to make your business our business. Od. Helping the world keep promises. Moments ago we learned that investigators have heard about no evidence of brain injuries. Specialist lopez was involved in an altercation with other soldiers from his unit before killing three and wounding 16 and then taking his own life. Investigators have been zeroing in on his mental state but his own father says he must not have been in his right mind. Lets bring in congressman tim murphy of pennsylvania, republican congressman clinical psychologist to talk about all of these new details. Thanks for being here, as always. I want to get your Immediate Reaction to what lieutenant mark milley said they have been looking into specialist lopezs past. They had found in his combat experience in iraq where he was reportedly a truck driver, no combat with the enemy, no specific wounds. Theyve concluded, as of now, that the underlying medical condition he had presumably if this was posttraumatic stress, anxiety, sleeplessness, that none of that was a precipitating factor. That it was more like the confrontation. I find that that doesnt make sense to me. It makes sense in terms of the shooting the individuals and the altercation but then he went to two other building and apparently shot randomly. When you have an altercation, its not normal to look for somebody and shoot them. Its not giving the full depth and understanding. We also know that most tbis traumatic brain injuries . Are not related to combat. Falls, fights, whatever it is. So we need to find out. I dont know how much is accurate or true, but that can affect a persons thinking and can add to anxiety and worries because it does affect your balance, your stability, your visual perception. And those can contribute to a posttraumatic stress disorder. They have also reported depression and anxiety. Im not here to diagnose him but when they talk about medications, its very important to understand that when a person is on medication, starting a medication, adjusting the dose, there can be a number of side effects which, for example, there can be an increase in suicide, an increase in hostility, anxiety, worry. Sometimes it can have the exact opposite affect . Thats why they have to be monitored very, very closely. When a person is engaged in that, youre watching them closely. Can i say one thing . I want to talk about these issues and you and i have talked about them and well continue to do so on the show because Mental Health is something that the country needs to talk about much more but we also dont want to stigmatize. Most people with anxiety, sleeplessness, posttraumatic stress do not have any propensity to violence. Thank you for saying that. Because ive seen too many people get into the media and talk about this and even military uses statements like crazy and lost it. This is a human being. We dont want to have a situation where other soldiers are afraid to get help because they are going to be branded as a killer, they will be stand down and taken away from their responsibility. They wont get promoted. Thats what the military has fought so hard for the last two years. Something else was going on for this young man. Something was taking place and that will be part of it. But to simply say a single event, an altercation precipitated it, no, its multiple things and lets look at the depth of what happened. When we go back and look for information about his past, when the army does that and the criminal Investigative Division from quantico, what kind of things can they be looking for . In his background . Family stresses. His mother died recently, his grandfather died. That can lead to problems. What was his sleeplessness . One of the predominant factors for military, they have studied that has led to problems is problems with sleep. When you do not get enough sleep. Its a form of torture, literally. Youre thinking is not clear. If he was not sleeping a lot, we dont know what was taking place there, which drug was he taking, all of those things have to fit together but we know it really affects a persons thinking ability, cognition, aim and performance in combat, on their job, all of those things. Was he being reprimanded for his job performance. Had he just moved to a new base. They should find out what was happening with his family, what stresses were there. So many things take place in the social, emotional, the background and biological you have to look at that whole picture to really understand. But lets not make it simple. I want to read this quote to you from a clerk at guns galore, the store where he bought his gun. And we dont want to demonize the store either. The store reportedly was involved in stopping the shooting at ft. Hood as well. The clerk said based on the fact that the military officials said specialist lopez was unstable, why on earth did they not flag his name . Whos responsibility is it . Ours or the government . This is an issue everybody says we need to keep guns out of the hands of those who are not mentally stable. It doesnt seem to me that the bar right now is adjudicated unstable. It doesnt seem to me that he was at that level at all to be told that he shouldnt be allowed to buy a gun. Well, when someone in the military is undergoing some treatment, one of the appropriate procedures to do is to do a risk assessment. What i do with my patients at walter reed, you say, do you own any firearms, do you have any ceremonial blades or swords in the house . You talk to perhaps a sergeant or some other officer and you get the team working as a team. That can be hugely beneficial. Say, we need to have somebody check on your buddy, check the risks. I dont know if that was done either. We will have to talk later about your lenggislation. Thanks for being here. Thank you. Up next, the Family Members of those on flight 370 have not been getting answers. Stay with us. Norfolk southern whats your function . Hooking up the country helping business run trains they haul everything, safely and on time. Tracks they connect the factories built along the lines. And that means jobs, lots of people, making lots and lots of things. Lets get your business rolling now, everybody sing. Norfolk southern whats your function . Helping this big country move ahead as one Norfolk Southern hows that function . Ben [ train whistle blows ] oh, that was close. You aint lying. Let quicken loans help you save your money with a mortgage thats engineered to amaze. Let quicken loans help you save your money [ female announcer ] the sun powers life. And now it powers our latest innovation. Introducing the worlds only solarpowered home energy system, which can cut your heating and cooling bills in half. Call now to get up to 1,700 dollars back or special financing on select lennox home comfort systems. Offer ends june 13th. Plus download our free lennox mobile app with an energysavings calculator. If your Current System is 10 years or older, start planning now and take advantage of special financing. So call now to get up to 1,700 dollars back or special financing on select lennox home comfort systems. Offer ends june 13th. And download our free lennox mobile app. Lennox. Innovation never felt so good. Welcome back to the lead, im jake tapper. Its time for our world lead. Four weeks ago to the day since Malaysia Flight 370 vanished, its been a grueling 29 days for those with loved ones aboard the flight and not just because so little progress seems to have been made in the search for the plane, theres also growing frustration with the malaysian government for what many perceive to be a lack of cooperation to keep families merely in the loop on certain aspects of the investigation. Many are asking whether this has something to do with incompetence on the part of these malaysian government officials or if theres something there that they are trying to hide. Cnns joe johns spoke with some Family Members in kuala lumpur. Reporter anger, frustration, and suspicion dominated the meeting between the passengers relatives and investigators and officials. The partner of american passenger philip wood who attended the threehour meeting said its impossible that this relatively sophisticated military power didnt see it. They are clearly hiding something. We just dont know what. A journalist and a Family Member of a flight 370 passenger, both present at the closeddoor briefing said that officials refuse to release the audio recording of airtoground conversation from the cockpit. They did, however, releas a transcript of the recording this week. The families are suspicious because officials changed their story about whether the last words came from the captain or copilot. And that the final message was, good night malaysian 370 and not all right, good night, as they had heard before. It was another blow to their credibility. The recording is part of the Ongoing Investigation and has not been released. They also havent released flight 370s complete cargo list. Earlier they said that the plane was carrying fruit, electronic equipment and a load of lithium batteries which, if stored improperly, can be a fire hazard. The airlines ceo said that the batteries were packed properly. They said that the plane made a westward turn after it lost contact rather than looping east and then heading west. The family wants to know more about the satellite data that tracked the plane after its intended route. They want a representative from inmarsat to attend the next briefing. Also, since some Family Members dont trust the satellite data, they want a search of the remote indian ocean of diego garcia. Some of the passengers relatives still buy the Conspiracy Theory that the jet was hijacked and either flown to a military base and hidden or shot down as it approached. In the end, the passengers relatives left the meeting dissatisfied. Translator so they told you old information . Translator yes, we had to keep asking them questions. Reporter its important to say that malaysian Law Enforcement officials have not been willing to release certain information because, in their view, this is still a criminal investigation until and unless the evidence suggests otherwise. Jake . Joe johns in malaysia, thank you so much. Coming up on the lead, the families of flight 370 were offered an initial 5,000 a piece but Malaysia Airlines will not get off that cheaply. Lawsuits are about to smack the company that managed to lose an airplane. [ male announcer ] this man has an Accomplished Research and Analytical Group at his disposal. But even more impressive is how he puts it to work for his clients. Morning. Morning. Thanks for meeting so early. Oh, its not a big deal at all. Come on in. [ male announcer ] its how edward jones makes sense of investing. Mman i dont know. I forget. It last time . Scott hello, neighbors. Man hey, scott. Perfect timing. Scott feeding your lawn need not be so difficult. Get a load of this bad boy. 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Call your doctor right away if you have muscle pain or weakness, feel unusually tired, have loss of appetite, upper belly pain, dark urine, or yellowing of skin or eyes. These could be signs of rare but serious side effects. Crestor yes [ female announcer ] ask your doctor about crestor. If you cant afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. Welcome back to the lead, im jake tapper. Financial compensation cannot bring back their loved ones. Jean casarez is joining me with more. What kind of legal action have you seen . Weve only seen one suit that we know of. Dismissed by a judge saying it was improper at this time to ask for maintenance and sales documentation on the boeing aircraft that went missing. But that does not stop the attorneys from the u. S. Flying to malaysia and elsewhere to get clients. Those clients being grieving fa. Ly Family Members. The images are heartwrenching. Families of the missing slowly coming to terms with what is beginning to seem inevitable. We must now face the reality that the plane is lost. Right now the families are being misled from very unethical u. S. Lawyers. Reporter justin green has tried aviation cases for 17 years. Green says he is aware of multiple u. S. Law firms who are in asia right now solace sitting Family Members from flight 370. These lawyers launched within days, maybe even hours of a crash. Ambulance chasers, in essence, but they are ambulance chasers on a global scale. Reporter how high are the stakes . Perhaps billions of dollars in cases that could potentially be brought against Malaysia Airlines and boeing, among others. But a legal victory is by no means guaranteed. And there are many legal challenges that grieving Family Members may not understand. They can recover some moneys, 100 to 160,000 with a death certificate but to really be compensated, theyve got to show Airline Responsibility for the disaster. Where is that evidence . And for the manufacturer of boeing, the same thing. What evidence shows their wrongdoing . In fact, one firm initiated a suit in illinois. The judge threw it out as improper and warned attorneys not to do it again. These families dont have closure. Reporter psychiatrist gail saltz says that it makes grieving family especially vulnerable. Someone comes in and says were going to hold the airline accountable or this Court Accountable and were going to sue them and punish them for what happened. That, unfortunately, is very appealing to anyone who is struggling with i want someone to be responsible for, this i want to blame them and i want them to pay. And Congress Passed in 1996 the aviation disaster family assistance act which states that attorneys have to wait 45 days before they can approach potential clients, Family Members who are grieving from an airline disaster. But the law doesnt specifically include overseas disasters. So some attorneys believe they have an obligation to let families know that there are a lot of legal decisions to make but the overwhelming majority say this is not the time. Jake . Jean, how much money are we talking about here . We can be talking about anything virtually. Under the montreal convention, which is what Malaysia Airlines will be governed under, families will go to the courtroom to look for the montreal convention, which is the applicable law. And once you get past the accident, which they can recover about 150,000, then, if the airline cannot prove that they were not negligent, they can really get many, many thousands, thousands which would amount into billions of dollars, ultimately. Jean casarez, thank you. Make sure to follow me theleadcnn. Thats it for the lead. Im jake tapper. I turn you over to mr. Wolf blitzer in the situation room. The hunt for Malaysia Flight 370 goes underwater. An urgent race against time to find the planes black boxes and even as the air search is about to resume. Why are officials keeping secret the audio recording of the conversations between the cockpit and ground controllers . Even the families arent allowed to listen. And new details on the bloody rampage at ft. Hood as investigators are scrambling to learn why the shooter attacked fellow soldiers. We have new information on the hunt for a motive. Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room