Transcripts For CNNW The Lead With Jake Tapper 20150206

That you heard here on the lead yesterday, the account seemed to corroborate some of the anchors war stories. No longer one supposes. This as tom brokaw weighs in with a very curious comment. Good afternoon. Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. We begin with the world lead today. Today, the terrorist group isis claims that its american hostage, 26yearold aid worker Kayla Mueller was killed during an intense round of air strikes by the jordanian military. Mueller was taken hostage by isis in aleppo in 2013. She was in the region helping families trying to escape from the violence in the region. Isis provided no way to verify its claim. The jordanian government was quick to label the announcement a p. R. Stunt and an attempt by isis to fracture the u. S. Led coalition. The claim is being met with heavy skepticism among u. S. Government officials. After all, this is isis that were talking about, a group that has documented seemingly every horrific detail of its executions and yet in this instance it has offered zero proof of this hostages death. Releasing only these photos of a collapsed building where the group says Kayla Mueller was being held. The timing of this announcement also fairly convenient. It comes as jordans military had just started ramping up its military campaign against the terrorist group as retaliation for the murder of a Jordanian Air force pilot who had been burned alive. Lets go live to Cnns Barbara Starr at the pentagon. The state Department Says they have not seen anything to corroborate this claim but of course that does not mean officials are not taking it seriously. Reporter taking it very seriously, jake. You know Kayla Muellers family at one point got a 6 million ransom demand from isis. Nobody has heard much about Kayla Mueller until today and now, across washington agencies are looking into every scrap of information to see if they can determine what happened to her. The isis claim, Kayla Mueller, a 26yearold american aid worker died in a Jordanian Air strike on this building in roqqa, syria. Immediate skepticism. Isis claims mueller alone was killed by a second round of air strikes by jordanian f16s. That seems very convenient from that point of view that she would be alone in this building without any other guards who are all supposedly out at friday prayers when this air strike happened to hit the house and they are of course saying it was from a Jordanian Aircraft. How on earth could they know that it was a Jordanian Aircraft rather than another aircraft from the United States or some other power. Reporter jordan calling the isis claim quote, the latest low p. R. Stunt and said isis is trying to drive a wedge between the coalition. Key questions, how would isis know it was a jordanian bomb. Is this a way to avoid the backlash of killing a woman. Why would she be left alone in a building . Could isis have abandoned her in order to make her a human shield . If i was isis with the prisoners and hostages that i held i would put them in key buildings and positions and try to get that out to the coalition against me to maybe deter them from bombing them. Reporter the Obama Administration had been worried about mueller since she was captured in august 2013. And after the violent video of the killing of the jordanian pilot emerged, u. S. Officials privately expressed growing concern about her fate. But as jordans queen marched in the streets of amman against isis, it appears the isis strategy is backfiring. Arab resolve is growing. We look at ourselves as principals in this coalition. This is our war. This is not the wests war. We are the spearhead of this war. Reporter now, you will remember last year the u. S. Special forces tried to stage a rescue mission in roqqa. When they got to the site where they believed hostages to be held none of the hostages were there but we know they found evidence the hostages had been there. Now we know that two pieces of evidence were fairly clear to them. There were writings on the wall and they found hair samples. One of the sources i have talked to said they couldnt confirm that that hair sample that one of those hair samples did belong to Kayla Mueller but i have to tell you, the Washington Post is saying that it was her hair. Jake it goes without saying today our hearts and thoughts are with her family who must be watching all of this News Coverage looking for answers and right now, there just arent any. Jake . We share their hopes that this is just propaganda from isis and not anything indicating something worse. Barbara starr at the pentagon thank you. Jordans government insists that this is just a cynical attempt by isis to create friction between the coalition. The foreign minister went so far as to call the claim an old and sick trick. Officials there have good reason not to believe a word isis says. Lets go live to cnns atika shubert. Isis tried to deceive officials by negotiating a prisoner swap with a hostage they had already killed. We know in jordan officials there think isis cant be trusted at all, of course. Reporter exactly. Jordan says they are investigating this but they say there is good reason to believe this is nothing but propaganda and a p. R. Stunt. They say they have been negotiating with them for a month now only to learn in the last few days of course that muath al kaseasbeh, the Jordanian Air pilot was brutally murdered weeks ago. As far as the jordanian governments concerned, isis has simply proven that they are capable of lying like this and there are multiple reasons they say not to believe this claim, but specifically there is no evidence that this claim is true at this point. They say its simply an opportunity by isis to try and drive a wedge into the coalition, to try and tarnish jordan once again, and they say the world should not fall for it. Atika shubert, thank you so much. Before today, little was known about american aid worker Kayla Mueller, at least no one talked about it publicly. The fbi and muellers family wanted her identity withheld by the media and others so as to protect her, but as details now emerge about what she was doing in syria at the time she was kidnapped, its clear this is a person who had devoted her life to trying to help other people less fortunate people people in the middle east. Im joined by cnns pamela brown. What have you learned . A spokesperson for the mueller family released new information today on kayla, highlighting her quiet leadership throughout her life and her strong desire to serve others. That sentiment echoed in a video of kayla expressing her support to the Syrian People before the rise of isis. I am in solidarity with the Syrian People. Reporter 26yearold prescott arizona native Kayla Muellers passion for helping people is what ultimately brought her to the turkish syria border several years ago. In 2011 she took part in this syria sitin video declaring her support for the refugees. The humanitarian aid worker volunteered with the support to Life Organization in turkey where she helped People Living in refugee camps. In 2013 she was credited by her hometown newspaper with reuniting a 6yearold boy with his family. She told the newspaper this story is not rare in syria, adding for as long as i live i will not let the suffering be normal. I will not let this be something we just accept. In high School Mueller volunteered with the save darfur coalition, among other organizations. She won a number of philanthropic awards and was recognized as a young leader. She told the Daily Courier in 2007 i love cultures and language and learning about peoples cultures. After graduating from Northern Arizona university in 2009 she lived and worked with humanitarian aid groups in northern india, israel and palestine. What isis has been doing for the last year and a half is collecting foreigners for hostages hostages. As we have seen they have been executing a lot of people who are tangential to the conflict. Reporter in august 2013 mueller was kidnapped in aleppo where she was volunteering for Doctors Without Borders. After the beheadings of hostages, she would be the last known american hostage held by isis. In may of 2014 the First Contact was made to the family confirming kaylas captivity. Since then there have been communications from her captors and of course you can just imagine how agonizing this must be for her family. Excruciating. I cannot imagine. Thank you so much. The battle against isis continues to rage of course not only in syria but iraq as well. Our own phil black is on the front lines in Northern Iraq. That is where we will go live next as our breaking news continues. Why do we do it . Why do we spend every waking moment, thinking about people . Why are we so committed to keeping you connected . Why combine performance with a conscience . Why innovate for a future without accidents . Why do any of it . Why do all of it . Because if it matters to you its everything to us. The xc60 crossover. From volvo. Lease the wellequipped volvo xc60 today. Visit your local volvo showroom for details. [meow mix jingle slowly and quietly plucks] right on cue. [cat meows] meow, meow, meow, meow. Its more than just a meal its meow mix mealtime. 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So we quit selling cigarettes in our cvs pharmacies. Expanded minuteclinic for walkin medical care. And created programs that encourage people to take their medications regularly. Introducing cvs health. A new purpose. A new promise. To help all those wishes come true. Cvs health. Because health is everything. Welcome back to the lead. We are following some breaking news in our world lead. Isis claiming that Kayla Mueller, an american hostage, was killed when jordan carried out an air strike in syria. The u. S. Government making it clear it is not taking the word of isis at face value. Jordan calling the claim a low p. R. Stunt. Meanwhile, kurdish fighters are desperately trying to keep isis from taking more territory in Northern Iraq. Cnns phil black joins me live now from the front lines, more specifically hes in Northern Iraq. Phil there is this isis Propaganda Campaign and then theres the actual fighting on the ground. What are you seeing there . Reporter the military campaign specifically here in Northern Iraq is not going as well for isis as it once did. Remember last year when they first crossed the border from syria, they came charging in conquering large areas of land very quickly. Since then kurdish fighters on the ground with the help of International Air power have really successfully stopped that advance to a significant degree and even rolled it back in parts. Taking back large areas of those territorial gains isis had made. When you talk to the fighters on the ground they say we believe we are winning this. That does not mean the defeat of isis is imminent. Far from it. They are still attacking or trying to at least, on multiple fronts still control big areas of territory and crucially, still control the iraqi city of mosul, just to the west of where im standing the countrys second largest city. But increasingly also kurdish fighters are choking off that city closing down its supply lines from across the border in syria. So isis is still very much a presence here but it is having a much tougher time on the ground here in Northern Iraq. Phil since this began with isis grabbing territory, especially in Northern Iraq kurdish fighters have been saying they need more help they need more help they need more international support, lethal aid, any sort of aid. What are they telling you today . Reporter yeah weapons. Thats what they say they want. You hear it at every level from front line fighters to the highest level officials. They are frustrated because they believe they are fighting well they are making progress but they are also suffering pretty high casualties. They have lost about 1,000 fighters since last june. They are frustrated because they say the iraqi army which proved ineffectual in dealing with isis have even left weapons behind as they fled before isis so it means isis has those weapons and is using them against the kurdish fighters. They believe they are not just fighting for their own survival here which they are, because their territory is threatened but also because they are part of the international coalition. They say they want to be more respected, they want that sort of help to really make a difference on the ground. Phil black reporting for us in iraq. Thank you. Please stay safe. Lets bring in david gardensteinross senior fellow with the center for defense of democracy and terrorism analyst paul cruickshank. How credible do you think this claim is either that the american hostage was killed by the jordanians accidentally in an air strike or just the fact that she may no longer be alive . The fact she may no longer be alive is pretty credible. I think isis is probably saying that because shes dead though lets obviously hope she isnt. As for the claim she was killed specifically by a Jordanian Air strike that just seems far too pat. Thats exactly what isis would like to have happen in that it seems to split up the coalition, it shows that the Jordanian Air strikes were for nothing good for the coalition, and also it robs them of this problem that they have which what is do they do with Kayla Mueller. Paul you agree . I absolutely agree. This just really smacks of propaganda from isis. Just all too convenient from their point of view. The idea as well that there will be no guards no isis operatives in this building with such a high value prisoner just buggars belief. Help us understand why isis would make this claim from the perspective of their propaganda goals. Obviously they want to scare people obviously they want to tell the world hey, jordan getting more involved was a mistake. Is that their main goal . Yeah. I mean yesterday all their headlines was all that joint resolve between jordan and the United States. So this is clearly to try to drive a wedge between jordan and the United States to blame jordan for the death of this american. The other messaging going on here though is that jordan attacked during friday prayers, a holy time obviously for muslims, and what they are trying to say there is how could jordan do this. They are claiming to be muslims but how could they do this. They are basically saying that jordan are not proper muslims to be targeting other muslims at this time. So very deliberate messaging going on here. This is pure propaganda. There was some hope by american officials that by isis killing a jordanian pilot, burning him which according to some interpretations of the koran is forbidden, that that would be a propaganda mistake by isis a propaganda coup for jordan isis getting in there saying not so fast this is our world of propaganda. Right. They have a base thats really attracted to the sheer brutality they have been carrying out. That being said i think that they have a strategy which isnt really sustainable in the long term. You can recall of course al qaeda in iraq and how their brutality exceeded what any of the other branches of al qaeda were doing and eventually that brand became toxic when it caused local uprisings against it in the awakening movement. Likewise with isis the burning probably alienates some of their supporters but only a few at this point. In the longer term especially if they seem to be losing and seem to be losing because of their own excesses then they will have real branding problems. Unfortunately, thats not the case right now. But theres many things that the United States and other Coalition Forces can do to dispel isis very powerful propaganda because the propaganda like isis itself is vulnerable. Is there any difference in whomever isis is trying to appeal to with their propaganda their warped messages is there any difference between isis killing a jordanian pilot and killing a woman aid worker . Does the fact that shes a woman, does the fact that shes an aid worker not change the equation at all . Well its been quite curious from the isis point of view that they havent beheaded any International Western females on camera they have all been male the victims. Of course we know that isis has brutalized young girls in just absolutely awful ways but for whatever reason they have not beheaded murdered women from the west internationals on camera in this way. Perhaps isis had a kind of dilemma with what to do with this american female hostage and perhaps they sort of gave them a very very convenient way out. Paul cruickshank and david, thank you so much. The white house responding directly to the claims by isis that an American Woman was killed in the Jordanian Air strike. 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So your sleep goes from good to great to wow now we can all choose amazing sleep, only at a sleep number store. Right now save 50 on the ultimate limited edition bed. Know better sleep with sleep number. Welcome back to the lead. Im jake tapper. We are going to continue with our world lead. This unconfirmed claim by the terrorist group isis that a Jordanian Air strike killed 26yearold Kayla Mueller, an american aid worker held by the terrorist group in syria since august 2013. If the claim is true she would be the fourth american killed while in isis custody. But let me reiterate, this claim is uncorroborated and for a group that in a sick way likes to broadcast its killings they are not providing even basic proof. I want to go right to cnns Michelle Kosinski at the white house. Both president obama and the National Security advisor dr. Susan rice spoke publicly. Did they have anything to say about Kayla Mueller . Reporter the president didnt mention it. We kind of expected that. We heard virtually the same things this coordinated response thus far from the state department the white house and the National Security advisor, all saying basically two things. That they are deeply concerned about these reports that are coming out and that there is no credible evidence at this point that these claims are true. That said the white house does say the Intelligence Community is obviously looking into this and trying to get some more information, because it has been interesting in these last two cases, first with the jordanian pilot, for a long time isis would not provide proof of life. Then it turns out it happened as we now know it did. In this case no proof of death, just this story about the death being caused by a Jordanian Air strike. I think it will be interesting to see how long it takes for us to get some corroboration. If its not going to come from isis that will tell us just how good the intelligence is coming out of there, if we are able to learn something more before isis puts something out. Of course i know i speak for you and everybody watching that we are hoping there is no corroboration because we hope its not true. So this hostage, mueller, has been held captive by isis for about a year and a half. Do you know of any attempts to negotiate behind the scenes . Was anyone in the u. S. Government trying to do something to secure her release or was her family trying anything . Reporter we know that the u. S. Government was working on it. They dont go into any detail. For a long time they didnt want to mention her name or any detail surrounding this hostage, but they did say that they were using every effort repeatedly we heard this using every effort intelligence diplomacy, to try to secure her release. They dont really like to go into a lot of details about these things but now that this news or this report has come out, we are hearing from her family that there was a demand made for five Million Euros and they put a deadline on it back in august. So far, the u. S. Government has not commented on any of that. We know there have been similar stories about other american hostages held by isis with those families saying the Obama Administration dissuaded them discouraged them from paying ransom. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. In our National Lead its a story that seems to evolve with every passing day. Every passing hour. Exactly what happened on that helicopter convoy in iraq 12 years ago where nbc anchor Brian Williams was reporting. Three members of that mission are now speaking out and they have a different story to tell from the one we heard from a pilot yesterday. Thats next. Theres confidence. Then theres trusting your vehicle maintenance to ford service confidence. 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[ female announcer ] boost complete nutritional drink has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones and 10 grams of protein to help maintain muscle. All with a delicious taste. Grandpa [ female announcer ] stay strong, stay active with boost. Welcome back to the lead. The National Lead now. Nbc news has begun an internal investigation into the most watched news anchor in america, Brian Williams of nightly news for repeatedly telling a false story in which he claimed to have been on a helicopter in iraq in 2003 that came under rpg and small arms fire. Two people with direct knowledge of the investigation tell Cnns Brian Stelter that the network is reinvestigating the events from 12 years ago and trying to contact some of the soldiers who have now publicly contradicted williams accounts. Williams has since apologized of course for saying his was the helicopter in this convoy that was hit by the rpg, but he has been less willing to publicly discuss other stories hes told about his chopper coming under fire about his fearing for his life and on and on. Yesterday on the lead we interviewed one of the pilots in that convoy former chief warrant officer 4 rich krell, seen in iraq with williams in 2003. Thats him on the right. He told us williams was in his helicopter and although they were not hit by an rpg they did take some small arms fire. That seemed to many observers to confirm some of williams stories over the years, but after that interview, three other members of that unit challenged krells account. Everyone agrees that krell was the pilot in that convoy but krell, who served honorably, now says that faced with these accounts from his battle buddies that contradict his, he is quote, questioning my memories unquote. Joining me now to discuss this is travis tritton, the stars and stripes reporter who broke the williams story. Thanks for being here. Great reporting. Let me start with the fact that you have been in contact with the troops who have been calling out Brian Williams. As we have continued to hear different versions of what happened, Brian Williams apology, krells story which he has since dialed back whats been their reaction . I think first of all, they were happy to have the record clarified. They were happy that Brian Williams came out and said that he wasnt on this chinook that was forced down by rpg and small arms fire. You know for them even though it was a flawed apology, i think that it was enough that they want to move on. They are looking for closure. They have been disputing his report long before he started talking about being in a helicopter that was hit by an rpg which as far as i can tell was a few years ago, maybe 2013 and then again last week. They have been disputing Brian Williams account of what happened that day since 2003 when he did that report. What are they saying . These guys remember very clearly watching this initial report from kuwait during the invasion and their initial impression was that it was misreported. So they have kept that all these years and each time its rehashed in various forms, it kind of reopens that old wound for them. You know this last time i think it was just kind of a Tipping Point for them. The troops you spoke with said that they tried to contact nbc back when this happened 20032004. Did they hear back . Was there any response . None of the guys i talked to said that they had tried to get a correction or contacted the network but that doesnt surprise me that one of them did contact, because they feel so strongly about this and its something that they have held in for so long. Its two Companies Worth of guys who are out there. So it doesnt surprise me that one of them tried to get some type of correction or retraction. The pilot of williams helicopter who wrote an oped in the New York Post, i havent spoken to him, i dont know if you have. No i havent spoken with him. He said the only thing that hit their helicopter was dust and nothing that williams reported in 2003 was accurate. I want to play some of what Brian Williams reported from 2003 in which there is this moment where somebody says that there was small arms fire coming into the convoy. Lets play that. Indeed just before were able to make our drop radio traffic makes clear this routine mission is running into trouble. Fire on the way in we currently are not under fire not under fire but relook for some type of security. Over. So there is this moment where somebodys saying our helicopter was taking small arms fire and we its not taking it now but they were and we need to find some place for security. Thats in the radio. Do you have any idea what that was in reference to . I do actually. I spoke with the Flight Engineer on williams chinook, joseph miller. What he told me as williams and the nbc crew actually they had been given a headset and they had taken a microphone and put in an earpiece of the headset so they could pick up the Radio Communications between the company that they were in and another company of chinooks that was flying a separate mission in the opposite direction. So what youre hearing is that radio chatter from that other company that was coming under fire. Fascinating. Today, former nbc nightly news anchor tom brokaw disputed some claims made in the New York Post and other places that he wanted Brian Williams fired. He released a statement saying quote, i have neither demanded nor suggested brian be fired. His future is up to brian and nbc news executives. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. But what about the troops from the mission . Do they want Brian Williams to lose his job or is it enough that he apologized . They just want to get on with their lives . I dont think they want to see him fired at all. I dont think they hold any harsh ill will toward him. What they wanted was the record to be cleared. They wanted him to make a public apology and say that he was not on that chinook that was hit by rpgs and small arms fire. Once they got that, they were more or less satisfied. One of them told me i dont want to kick him while hes down. Well great reporting, travis. Thank you so much for doing it and for coming here and talking to us. Really appreciate it. Coming up final seconds from flight 235. New details just in from the black boxes show problems started almost immediately after takeoff but did the pilot also make a critical error before the crash . Plus president obama is under some rhetorical fire for talking about isis and reminding americans that at one point, christians brutally killed in the name of god, too. Mouths are watering, lemons are squeezing and stomachs are growling. Or is it just me . Every minute between you and red lobsters lobsterfest feels like an eternity. And who could blame you for craving our largest variety of succulent lobster dishes all year . Dishes like dueling lobster tails. With one tail topped with creamy shrimp and a second tail stuffed with tender crab. I was hungry already and now you show me lobster lovers dream® lets make this dream a reality. A delicious, delicious reality. But one that wont last forever, so hurry in. Many people clean their dentures with toothpaste or plain water. And even though their dentures look clean, in reality theyre not. If a denture were to be put under a microscope we can see all the bacteria that still exists on the denture and that bacteria multiplies very rapidly. Thats why dentists recommend cleaning with polident everyday. Polidents unique micro clean formula works in just 3 minutes, killing 99. 99 of odor causing bacteria. For a cleaner, fresher brighter denture everyday. Welcome back to the lead. Im jake tapper. We turn now to other world news. We now have some answers about what may have caused transasia flight 235 to crash wednesday in taiwan. The Taiwanese Aviation Safety Council says both engines lost power and the stall warning went off five times in the cockpit before the plane clipped a bridge and plunged into a river. 35 people were tragically killed. Amazingly, 15 survived. Eight are still missing. Cnns aviation correspondent rene marsh joins us with the latest. The black boxes were recovered. What have authorities gleaned from them about why those two engines lost power . At this point, investigators know what happened. They still dont know why it happened. Was this pilot error, was it all mechanical. Tonight, newly downloaded data from the planes recorders not only reveal this plane was gliding without engine power, it also reveals the pilots final conversation during those tense moments before impact. Newly downloaded data from transasia flight 235s recorders reveal problems started almost immediately after takeoff. 37 seconds into the flight alarms sound, engine two is having a problem. But it appears pilots reduced power to engine one and eventually shut it off. By now, engine two has failed. For 1 06 theres nothing powering the plane. Five stall alarms sound. Then an emergency call from the cockpit. Mayday mayday. Engine flameout. Reporter speed alerts warn the plane is going too slow. The crew tries to restart the engine but its too late. Nearly two minutes after the first warning alarm, the plane crashes into a river. Once they shut the left engine down when that wasnt the engine with the problem, the flight was doomed because they just didnt have enough altitude and time to really restart. Reporter the aircraft could have flown on just one engine. The question now is whether pilot error contributed to the crash. Pilots have switched off the wrong engine before. This happens more than people might realize. I know of at least 15 crashes killing 185 people where the pilots shut off the wrong engine. Reporter investigators are still trying to determine if pilots of transasia flight 235 shut off the engine mistakenly or if it was due to a mechanical issue. The mother of one of the pilots defended her sons actions. Translator my sons life was exchanged for the lives of many others. This is worthwhile. Even though my heart is broken i am proud to have such a son. What he did was the right thing. Reporter more than 30 people died and more than a dozen survived. The search for missing bodies continues. I spoke with several people today, several analysts who say these pilots were heroes to the hundreds maybe even thousands of people who lived in those apartment buildings that they managed to avoid. They did say, though pilot error is still on the table. We know investigators are saying the same thing. That being said the airline, they have ordered all of their pilots to undergo testing and exams before they are able to fly again. They want to make sure that if a situation comes up these pilots know exactly how to react. Rene, thank you so much. Captain john gasinski flies 737s and is the former safety director for the coalition of Airline Pilots associations. He joins us live from virginia beach, virginia. Thanks for being here. If true obviously we are still waiting for all the information, but if true how could the pilot have accidentally shut down the wrong engine . Is it that easy to do . Given the type of environment they are operating in believe it or not, it is actually easier than you think to shut off the wrong engine. In fact thats one of the things that an instructor normally gives you in training they try to get you to shut down the wrong engine. Every Airline Pilot that i know of has gone through some kind of training where they will fail one engine and give a fire bell on the other engine to force, to try and trick the pilot into shutting down both of his engines. Unfortunately, for the first time you see that a lot of the pilots do make that mistake. That is a skill that needs to be learned and reinforced in the simulator and there are two kinds of checklists. Theres your normal checklist that allows you to fly the airplane and go through all your normal procedures for approach and landing and so forth and so on, then theres an emergency procedures checklist. What those do is they try and get a pilot to slow down and become much more methodical much more purposeful to concentrate on controlling the aircraft first and then mitigating any type of Human Factors or crew errors that could go on in this kind of a situation. Is it possible to steer the plane if both engines lose power . Well you need some kind of energy to fly the airplane for a sustained period of time. So if you lose power, as long as you have altitude and air speed, you can control the airplane. But if you are trying to if you are trying to keep the airplane airborne and you are sacrificing your air speed to avoid a building or tower or road or cars or people then at some point in time you are going to run out of air speed and then one wing will stall before the other and then the wing thats flying will literally fly around and corkscrew the airplane. That kind of looks like exactly what happened. That would normally occur. You think from this dramatic dash cam video that he intentionally turned the plane to avoid the city and to try to maybe hit this small body of water . Well im not going to put words in the mouth of the Aviation Authority who is looking at the accident. But it would be a very good bet to think that those pilots were doing everything they could to save the people on the ground and to put the airplane some place where it wouldnt harm others. What does it tell you as a pilot that the stall warning went off five times in the cockpit before the crash . What does that mean . They were right at the edge of the performance envelope for the airplane. The airplane gives a stall warning, a couple of knots, a couple of miles an hour before the wings start to lose lift. All airplanes, all transport category airplanes have a stall warning. That warning is to tell pilots to reduce the angle of attack add power and get more wind coming over the wings of the airplane. In this case they were so close to that stall warning that they were trying to maneuver and keep the nose up of the airplane so that it would fly, but they were just right at the edge of the performance envelope for the airplane. Very hard to control the airplane in that environment. Okay. Thank you, captain. Appreciate it. Wolf blitzer is here with a preview of the situation room. Mr. Blitzer, we will hear from the jordanian government on claims that one of its air strikes accidentally killed an American Woman. We know that they think isis is full of beans, as they say. They think isis is totally lying. We will speak to the chief jordanian government spokesman in amman. We will get the latest on what jordan is up to. As you know they say they are only just beginning their retaliation for what isis did to that jordanian fighter pilot. They are stepping up their air strikes, they are flatly denying the isis claim that Kayla Mueller, the 26yearold American Humanitarian worker who had been held hostage by isis for so long they deny that their air strikes killed this woman. They say isis is fabricating the whole thing. Amazing also how many of these westerners that isis has so brutally slaughtered that were there to help the people of the region either aid workers or journalists who were trying to get syrians and iraqis to tell their story. To a person they were amazing people. They just wanted to do good. Kayla mueller was working with Doctors Without Borders in a hospital trying to help little syrian refugee kids. She had earlier been in africa she had been in israel palestine, in northern india. Lets hope shes still alive. Thats what we are hoping and praying for. Thanks so much. We will watch the situation room in eight minutes. One republican is calling it the most offensive comment made by a president in his lifetime. What on earth did president obama say . It has so many conservatives criticizing him. The real question that needs to be asked is what is it that we can do that is impactful . What the cloud enables is computing to empower cancer researchers. It used to take two weeks to sequence and analyze a genome; with the microsoft cloud we can analyze 100 per day. Whatever i can do to help compute a cure for cancer, thats what id like to do. If you have moderate to severe Rheumatoid Arthritis like me and youre talking to your rheumatologist about a biologic. This is humira. This is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further damage. This is humira giving me new perspective. Doctors have been prescribing humira for ten years. Humira works for many adults. It targets and helps to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. 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So your sleep goes from good to great to wow now we can all choose amazing sleep, only at a sleep number store. Right now save 50 on the ultimate limited edition bed. Know better sleep with sleep number. Welcome back the the lead. In our politics lead today, it was supposed to be a morning of putting down the partisanship and pausing for prayer. But president obamas speech at the National Prayer breakfast is coming under major criticism for a comparison that christian conservatives are calling the worst ever made by a president. Conservative christians are up in arms about remarks president obama made at the National Prayer breakfast thursday about the islamic extremists the u. S. Is fighting in iraq and syria. And the atrocities that these terrorists are committing in the name of islam. Lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the crusades the inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of christ. In our home country, slavery and jim crow all too often was justified in the name of christ. Those comparisons did not sit well with many in the audience especially with republicans. Probably strategically and historically the worst thing that a president could have said at this moment because of the existing crisis that is going on this day. Former Virginia Governor James Gilmore says he does not understand why the president felt the need to equate isis militants with christians from decades, if not centuries, ago. The moment called for president ial leadership and instead, we got this moral equivalency that tried to equate Christian Faith and christian activities in the United States with the same kind of brutality that we are seeing overseas. The president s remarks came one day after a private roundtable at the white house with Muslim Leaders to hear their concerns about Civil Liberties and racial profiling. I think hes really trying to lift up this idea that muslims add value to our nation. Obamas supporters like Christopher Hale who helped lead catholic outreach for the 2012 campaign say the criticism is just gotcha politics. I think its important that christians do reflect honestly on our history and see both the good and the bad. I think the president was calling us to do that. Some religious leaders also took issue with what they say is an unbalanced argument of moral equivalency. I dont know why the president wants to stand up and speak as though hes in a religious studies doctoraly study rather than standing up as the commander in chief. Russell moore heads the Public Policy arm. Its almost as though Franklin Roosevelt were to stand up and say its a day that shall live in in famy but we surprised the british at yorktown too. Thats it for the lead. Im jake tapper. Wolf blitzer and the situation room start now. Happening now, shocking claim. Isis says a female american hostage, 26yearold Kayla Mueller, was killed in a Jordanian Air strike. The u. S. Is suspicious but scrambling to investigate. P. R. Stunt. Jordan flatly dismisses the isis claim as it pounds terrorist targets in revenge for the murder of a captured pilot. I speak live this hour with a top jordanian official in amman. And wrong engine . As alarms sounded in the