Transcripts For CNNW The Situation Room 20150106

With a new day about to dawn in the java sea, the search is about to resume for the wreckage of airasia flight 8501. Bad weather continues to hinder the search effort although two more bodies have been recovered and sonar has located more objects which may be part of the airliner. This is exclusive new video aboard the uss sampson. One of the American Warships taking part in the search off the indonesian coast. Even as the weather slows the recovery operation there are new questions about the dangerous conditions that flight 8501 encountered and whether the pilots were properly briefed. Our correspondents analysts and guests are standing by with full coverage. But first, lets take a look at the latest developments. Search teams aboard the uss fort worth detected two metal objects below water. But dangerous weather conditions monsoon rains, muddy water and Poor Visibility are making the urgent search in the java sea extremely difficult. Divers werent deployed tuesday because the underwaerpt current is still strong and visibility remains limited. Almost 100 divers are in the search zone and 15 more on standby to enter the water as weather permits. 20 helicopters and more than 40 ships remain focused on the area where its believed the commercial jet is located. Three seats from the flight were recovered on tuesday. A Flight Safety card and emergency equipment were also found. But the search continues for the downed planes wreckage and the black boxes containing the flight date and voice recorders. Indonesian officials believe icing may have contributed to the crash but they wont have answers until the black boxes are recovered. Time is running out before the pinging noise from those boxes fade away. So far, no pings have been detected. There has been progress finding bodies. Two more were found in the java sea, bringing the total to 39. The remains were airlifted and will be taken to surabaya where the difficult identification process will begin. Lately, youll find the bodies more decomposed. After the next few days r youll find maybe not an intact body. Reporter indonesia, which is leading the International Search effort is getting help from countries including malaysia, singapore and the United States. Cnn was granted exclusive access aboard the uss sampson where those on board are working around the clock to find anything connected to the missing plane. Weve recovered a lot of debris and bodies and quite tragic as it sounds it brings closure to the families. Lets go behind the scenes to the airasia search headquarters right now. Cnns kyung lah is joining us live from jakarta. What are you seeing and hearing over there, kyung . Reporter while that difficult search may be happening at sea, all the shots are being called here at headquarters in jakarta. We got our very first look at the headquarters with the man behind the operation. The intense search for airasia flight 8501 18 aircraft 38 ships in the java sea, in real time reporting into the command control center. Moments after we walk in whats happening . We have another two bodies. Reporter the plane just spotted two bodies . Yeah. Reporter two more bodies. But he wont know for sure until the ship reaches the coordinates and picks them up. This is the head of indonesia search and rescue the public face and recovery. The man calling the shots, a lifelong military officer trained for restraint and completing the mission. You want to find these bodies for the families. Whats possible becoming more challenging, as the search stretches into doubledigit days. Indonesia expanded the search zone further east. Officials at the command control center believe many passengers will likely be found on the sea floor still inside the plane. One clue for that theory search teams already found three passengers all from one row still strapped to their seat belts. But others are drifting a personal nightmare for the man charged with bringing them home. Youre sleeping here . Yeah. Reporter youre eating here . Yeah. Reporter you have not left here . Why . Because of the situation. The responsibility and the situation. And everything im an officer and a pilot. Reporter the ship radios back it has the bodies. Do you think you will find all the bodies . Im not sure, but i try. Reporter two more returning, more than 100 still lost at sea. The headquarters says the goals remain the same. The very first to find the bodies. Second the more pressing one, to give us all the answers, is to find the black boxes for the investigators, both becoming more challenging with these weather conditions. Certainly is. Kyung lah in jakarta for us, thank you. Lets bring in cnns Paula Hancocks. Shes right there on the indonesian coast watching whats going on. What are you picking up over there, paula . Wolf new information is coming out thats meteorological officials here in indonesia say that the airasia officials didnt actually pick up the meteorological report ahead of the flight. They didnt pick them up in person ahead of flight 8501. This doesnt violate any policies at this point. But it does mean according to meteorologists that they missed the opportunity to talk to them face to face so they could potentially tell them about any dangers that may be ahead in the atmosphere and the weather for that flight. It doesnt appear as though airasia has changed its policy since the accident. It appears they havent actually gone in person to pick up that information. But airasia Officials Say there is actually more useful and easier information to look at the electronic version of this Weather Report. So this is information coming in to us very interesting and Something Else that will be looked at very closely by investigators to see if weather had any bearing on this flight crashing. N the report reporting extreme weather, that that might could have been canceled . What are they saying about that . Reporter this is what investigators are looking at whether or not this flight would have even gone ahead. But theres no suggestion at this point that the Weather Report would have changed that in any way. Its not policy its not breaking any or violating any rules not to go in person to go and pick up this report. But when youre sitting next to a meteorologist, when you have a facetoface discussion these things can be discussed in more details. This is what the meteorologists are saying. And thats what investigators are going to be looking at. Paula thank you so much. Lets assess whats going on right now. Joining us miles obrien, peter goelz and our Law Enforcement analyst, tom fuentes, former fbi assistant director. At a minimum, if the weather is really bad, a pilot can always delay takeoff right . Its always the pilots discretion. Even if you have this facetoface meeting with the meteorologist, he doesnt make the decision on whether or not to go. The captain does. Nothing in those reports that would say, dont go. It was a weather challenge ahead of them. 300 miles away. But if every Airline Captain saw that and stayed on the ground we wouldnt get anywhere in the world. The metal objects theyre finding, they seem to be getting a setback. Is the search getting more complicated, more questionable right now . I dont get the sense that its more questionable. I just think theyre running into a very tough stretch of weather. There have been so many false leads. We thought there was the tail we thought it was major wreckage. Turned out to be junk from other planes or ships that went down in that same area. There seem to be all these false leads going on. Well, its tough. Theres a lot of stuff on the bottom of the ocean. Theyre not able to get a good view of it. The rovs, its too strong a current to put them down. And thats what you want down there, a goodsize remote vehicle that can cruise 24 7 to look for this wreckage. Youve been involved in these kinds of international investigations. Is there a level of frustration that begins to seep in at a point like this or are they motivated to just move and move and move because it seems to be very frustrating. Both. Theyre frustrated and theyre motivated. I think the more frustration that comes up the more motivation to keep at it and to keep working hard to resolve the issue. Richard, this frustration level, i get a sense that people are frustrated because they have been these false alarms, if you will. They thought they had the tail that could have been the black boxes in the tail. That was 24 hours ago. Seemed to be so promising but not so fast. Whats your sense of whats going on now . I think theyre doing their business in a very methodical, a very orderly way. And as peter says quite rightly, the weather is against them. They know what they are fighting against here. They know how difficult it is. These are thoroughly professional people and they know how they have to go about their business. So im sure theyre very frustrated because they know the plane is there. You dont get this much wreckage and this many bodies god forbid without knowing youre in the right area. So youve got the haystack. Its probably relatively not that big at least not compared to 370s. They know what theyre doing. Its just going to take time. But the fact that they havent heard one ping come from one of these recorders, theyre listening carefully, they have the best sonar equipment down there. The u. S. Has two ships on the scene with hightech devices, they havent heard a ping what does that say to you . Its disappointing, its not surprising. Its not uncommon for the pinger to be broken off for the black box itself to be embedded into a soft ocean bottom and the pinger to be covered with silt. Oftentimes the pingers dont work. Thats something the Aviation Community needs to think about. How do you strengthen the pinger . How do you strength benatteries so you can pick it up at a greater distance. Hard to believe at this day and age that a little cell phone, they can always detect wherever you are. But on aircraft equipment like this they cant detect they may never find these black boxes. They may never. And there are ways to solve it. You could have deployable flight data recorders that could float, or realtime streaming. When theres trouble on a plane, send information up to the cloud. The bottom line is regulators have to step in and say, this is mandatory. And you get the sense that the international cooperation, all the countries who are involved in this search right now, obviously indonesia, but the United States we know australias involved all these countries are working together or is there a little competition going on . Is there full cooperation . I think theres full cooperation. But to go back to miles point about the Auto Industry had the same protest when people were saying you need to put seat belts or airbags in. Oh, we cant. Its expensive. No one will pay the extra 30 for a car if we install these devices. How many tens of thousands of lives have been saved as a result of putting in seat belts . And this is kind of the same analogy to the aviation that they dont want to do it but if they do it, were not going to go through this every couple of months. Richard, the frustration is the technology is there but for some reason and youve studied it in depth over the years theyve decided not to go with the best technology. Even though so many lives 162 people on that plane, habit 3,300 of these airbus commercial aircraft flying around right now. We have no idea why this plane went down. It seems so frustrating that theyre not using the best technology. Its not only frustrating, its ridiculous. Its a little bit offensive. I spend an enormous amount of time talking to the top executives at the worlds airlines. They know what they have to do here. But they dont want to be mandated to do it. Because they fear that this opens up if you like a chain of events suddenly its this then the next thing. And not all airlines are the same. Not every airline needs the same level of technology because of the routes they fly. But the reality is airasia 8501 is proving that this process is not moving fast enough. The answers are on the table. And it now needs within the industry leadership for somebody to say, do it. Explain to our viewers who arent familiar explain what that means these International Aviation organizations. The u. N. Body that sets all the regulation globally, the global regulator. Its pretty toothless. It works by consensus. If we wait for them to do anything about it, we would have all retired. The industry body of the airlines when the airlines perceive that something needs to be done they get their act together. The working assumption is weather was the cause of this crash, right . Yeah we wont know for sure until we get the boxes. But that big blob of thunderstorm youre seeing on the screen is exactly where that flight was headed on that day. We know that the pilot, the captain requested a diversion, requested he was flying at 36,000 feet and he wanted to go up to 38,000 feet. Correct. And he never got a response . He was able to make the turn but he never got a response on the altitude change. It might have been an embedded thunderstorm scenario. Giant storm enshrouded by other clouds. So they wanted to get free of the clouds to avoid the big storm. How high can that airbus fly . Around 40,000 feet. It was getting pretty close what happens if it flies at 40,000 . Well you can squeak it out a little higher. But every foot of altitude you gain you lose performance on both ends. You can easily go too slow or too fast. And its only a few Miles Per Hour between both speeds. Gets very difficult to control. Well have more on this story coming up. Stand by all of you. Up next they face strong currents zero visibility dangerously sharp wreckage if they can even get into the water. We take a closer look at the risks confronting the dive teams. American divers are on the scene. Plus a visit to what may be the hideout of north koreas elite cyber attack unit. Stay with us. So nice, so nice sweet, sweet st. Thomas nice so nice, so nice st. Croix full of pure vibes so nice, so nice st. 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Despite bad weather, the search is about to resume for wreckage and bodies from airasia flight 8501. While the operation has managed to go ahead in the air and on the surface, the search conditions are extremely risky for divers if they can manage to get into the water at all. Brian todd is looking into this part of the story for us. What are you seeing . Tonight these divers are desperate to get in the water, frustrated that they cant. But according to a veteran navy diver who we spoke with whos worked these operations before once they get in, virtually every moment under water is fraught with danger. Searchandrescue divers aboard a ship in the java sea wait restlessly on deck, hamstrung by the weather. Translator the current under water is so strong so we cant use rovs or search with divers. Reporter how dangerous are those waters for rescue divers . In those type of currents theyre expending all of their energy and all of their concentration just trying to maneuver in those sorts of currents let alone trying to search for the wreckage in zero visibility. Its almost impossible. Reporter bobby skoley is a former u. S. Diver who helped in the rescue of the twa flight. A divers air hose is especially vulnerable. You are working in an aircraft wreckage that is full of twisted, razorsharp metal. And then it is intwined in miles and miles of all this electrical cable that you could get caught up in tangled in and then you would be trapped. Reporter then divers need to use knives like these to free themselves or their partner putting their own life at risk has to get them out. In the java sea where visibility is extremely limited, skoley says part of the airasia wreckage is likely buried in mud that divers will have to vacuum up using specialized tools. Divers can bump into wreckage or a body before they see it. The work is treacherous and traumatic. They start to decompose and then we had to worry about sea life as well getting to them. But you put that horror that personal horror aside while youre doing the mission and you dont think about that that is a person when youre doing the mission. All youre thinking about is ive succeeded in my mission to help this family recover their loved one. Bobbie says even some divers get nightmares. She says the twa salvage operation took four months with Better Weather conditions than theyre facing in the java sea right now. They could be there for a while. And the experts say even bringing one body to the surface with a diver can be extremely dangerous. Very dangerous, wolf. The dive teams have to often bring body bags down with them place a body in the bag and then maybe get it into some kind of a salvage basket or a platform lowered under water to raise it up. Sometimes they have to bring the body up themselves which is extremely difficult because the bodies get very heavy. So thats dangerous as well. We wish these divers only the best. Thanks brian. Joining us now, cnn analyst david gallo and colonel ken christensen, aviation consultant. David, apparently theyve discovered two more pieces of metal, significant pieces of metal aboard the uss fort worth right now, one of the u. S. Warships searching the area. How long will it take for them to determine whether these two pieces of metal are actually from the aircraft . Well again, wolf, its going to take getting eyes on that wreckage. Until tlahey get a robot or camera system or a diver in the water, not going to happen. Ken, the weather has gotten a little bit better, were told. But the current under water is very very strong r 2 to 4 knots, they say. How hard is this making this mission thats under way right now . I think because its a concentrated effort now in a different area than you were looking initially, theyre still searching from the air and still searching the water. So that coordination and all those assets are there expending time and monies. And that makes it difficult because the divers underneath the water are struggling so hard. So that coordinated effort can also be hindered by just minor what you and i would think are minor weather deviations. But theyre huge to people under water and on the surface. Depending on how high the seas are, that can make it very problematic for wreckage to be brought up ship side so it can be photographed and identified by the aviation experts that are very familiar with that type of aircraft. If its so dangerous for divers to go under that water, the visibility is sometimes nejc negligible can these rovs do the job . You need some sort of visibility. But there may be some talent out there may be time for plan b. The visibility is not going to change overnight or the next day. But im assuming theyve got all the resources and are thinking about the time to bring in the rovs. They could do the job. What does it say to you that they put in fresh batteries for the pingers for the cockpit voice recorder the flight data recorder fresh batteries that had just been put in but weve still not heard one ping. What does that say to you . Thats a tough one. Again, the pingers, you really have to be the conditions have to be right. You have to be in the right position. And im not surprised that they havent heard them yet. You have to be fairly lucky to do that and fairly close, within a couple of miles to three or four miles at most. If those black boxes are buried deep in mud at the bottom of the java sea, are we ever going to find hear those pingers or find those black boxes . Im confident they will find the black boxes. Its just going to take time and patience. What a horrible situation to be in for the families. Certainly is. Ken, what does it say to you that there were no mayday distress calls from the cockpit as this plane was going down . What that means to me wolf is the crew initially the First Priority is the safety of the aircraft and managing and flying the airplane. Then they get a mayday call off later. Just given their altitude i think they had a handful of airplanes. Something happened very rapidly inside the cockpit that prevented them from getting out that radio call as soon as possible. What that could possibly be is they flew into a thunderstorm downwind from a long wind or severe turbulence or inflight breakup all these factors could have happened. One by itself or a synergistic effect of them happening the at the same time could prevent a crew from gettinging that radio call off. If youre going to do a mayday call how long does that take just a second or two, doesnt it . Thats correct. And what that really helps is with the rescue the First Responders to help get the people to where that aircraft is probably going to go into the water. You want to alert air Traffic Controllers and they will give you a priority handling if youre going to return to a closer airport for an emergency landing. Thats what it initially is there for. But in this case i think they were overwhelmed and they were unable to or incapacitated to make that radio call. And they impacted the water. Is it a bad sign david, that searchers arent finding more of the plane wreckage day by day . They found some stuff, but now its been theres been a lull in discovery. Not if theres big pieces out on the ocean floor. But im really hoping that in bringing the pieces they have im hoping the other big pieces are part of the aircraft. That would mean theyre not in the right spot altogether and that would be horrific. Finally to you, ken, this notion that this was maybe an isolated incident but there are more than 3,300 of these similar airbus aircraft commercial airplanes flying around right now. I want to get your thoughts. Is it safe . Reobviously we obviously dont know what brought down this particular airbus. Yeah. We dont definitively know. Until we get eyes on the wreckage theres no definitive theres nothing definitively causal on what took the aircraft down. Thats why its so important to get that wreckage because you have such a large fleet flying worldwide. The manufacturer certainly wants to know. Airbus wants to know what went wrong with this airplane. And i know theyre hoping its not aircraft related specifically but if it is aircraft related specifically they need to know that so they can get that out to the fleet and inspect the Current Fleet thats flying and fix whatever could be wrong. But you wouldnt go so far as to say they should ground these planes for the time being until they figure out what happened . No. I wouldnt say they should ground at this point. This is they have triedandtrue procedures for this. Our faa is very diligent about doing that as well. If you look back to the Malaysia Flight 370, again, boeing the manufacturer of that aircraft they want to know why that aircraft went down because they have 997 boeing 777s out there flying that they would want to modify if they neededed to. Thats why the search is so important, the information is so important to try to figure out what happened so we can all learn from that to make sure it doesnt happen again. David gallo, ken christensen, thanks very much. Still ahead, well take you to the city believed to be the hideout for north koreas elite cyber attack unit. But up next the new isis propaganda video taunts the west just as the pentagon has a Surprising New assessment of the fight against isis in iraq. 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Were following reports that dozens of militants thought to be members of isis attacked several security posts and checkpoints in western iraq today. A newly posted isis propaganda video taunts the west claiming people actually like living in cities the militants have captured. But a very different story is coming from the pentagon. Lets go there. Our pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is standing by. What are you learning . Reporter you remember that Mission Accomplished banner from the Bush Administration about iraq several years ago . The pentagon isnt quite saying Mission Accomplished but it might be edging close to it. The u. S. Now believes isis momentum in iraq has stalled. Whatever momentum they had been enjoying has been halted, has been blunted. That has stayed steady over the last couple of weeks. Reporter also possibly slowing down the number of new foreign fighters traveling to iraq and syria, according to a senior u. S. Official. The u. S. Believes about 150 people from the u. S. Have traveled or attempted to travel to the region to fight, part of the 3,000 westerners from 90 countries. We know weve destroyed hundreds and hundreds of vehicles, artillery positions, checkpoints. We know that weve killed hundreds of their forces. Reporter exactly how many isis fighters killed . We dont have the ability to count every nose that we hit. Reporter isis still a significant threat with hundreds of millions of dollars torturing and killing. Syria remains their safe haven. Isis fighters in a new video in the Syrian Border town of kobani claiming gains. But kurdish fighters say they control much of the city. The pentagon is careful not to predict victory just yet. For months isis moved with lightning speed across northern and western iraq taking the town of mosul, moving into fallujah and ramadi in al Anbar Province. But for the last two to three weeks, isis has not taken significant new ground, the u. S. Says. Instead, isis has had to go on defense, trying to hold onto what it has. Theyre having trouble paying their fighters. Theyre having trouble governing. They dont have the leaders to actually govern the spaces theyve attacked and taken over. Reporter but with isis still able to launch attacks at places like al asas air base where 320 marines are located, an urgent effort is under way there and at other bases to train iraqi units. The u. S. Now plans to sell iraq 175 battle tanks and 1,000 humvees for nearly 3 billion. Its spending 250 mineresistant vehicles and 10,000 m16 rifles all aimed at getting iraqi forces not just trained but armed and willing to fight isis and take their country back. Now, the pentagon also revealed for the first time today that the military is investigating several allegations of potential civilian casualties from those Coalition Air strikes. Outside monitoring groups have long claimed hundreds of people have been killed in those strikes. How worried are they at the pentagon that all that military hardware the u. S. Is about to provide to iraq could wind up in the hands of isis if these iraqi soldiers do what they have done over the past year just take off their uniforms run away leave their weapons behind all of this u. S. Hardware in mosul, other parts of the Anbar Province which the u. S. Left behind for the iraqis already theyve wound up in the hands of isis. How concerned are they that a similar situation will take place this time . Reporter theres no guarantees about that. History is exactly what you said. It has happened before in iraq. It has happened in afghanistan. They are making every effort this time. They believe there is new Iraqi Military leadership new generals in charge that will be much more competent than who was in charge when isis began its sweep. Ive spoken to so many u. S. Military personnel who are so angry and frustrated when they see isis terrorists riding around in u. S. Tanks using u. S. Weapons that iraqi soldiers abandoned. Coming up following signs of a dangerous new breakthrough in north koreas military buildup. Could their longrange rockets soon be tipped with intelligence . And at the top of the hour live updates from indonesia where a new day of searching for wreckage of the airasia jet is now about to get under way. Ine, marching band playing ] [ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat . Campbells healthy request soup lets you hear it in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. Great taste. [ mm. ] [ tapping ] sounds good. Campbells healthy request. Mm mm good. ® please no. Run of the mill, everyday headache. Please . No. Please. Please. Please. Nope not bad enough for a lot of medicine pleeaassee but still bad enough that you want it gone fast. Please please go talk to your father. Introducing excedrin mild headache. 35 less medicine plus a booster to end everyday headaches fast. 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Our chief National Security correspondent jim sciutto is here in the situation room. Hes been working his sources. This is alarming stuff. It is. It comes from the south Korean Defense ministry. It paints a fairly alarming picture of north koreas growing military capabilities. South Koreas Defense Ministry finding that pyongyang has edged at least a step closer to arming an icbm with a Nuclear Warhead, the norths ability to mitch chur miniaturize a Nuclear Weapon. They already have the range to reach the u. S. Mainland and that pyongyang is now also developing submarines that could fire ballistic missiles. Im told the u. S. Assessment has not changed. The u. S. Continues to believe that the north has not yet achieved the capability to strike the u. S. With a nuclear tip missile but it has missile position defenses closer to mitigate any threat. The perceived threat today remains south korea, along the border with the south, forces have been set up that the south says would allow for a quick invasion. And north korea has a force of some 6,000 Cyber Warriors south korea says that it uses to launch Cyber Attacks on government and military entities which the u. S. Has experienced firsthand with the cyber attack on sony which the administration blames on the north korean government. I am told there is a broad gap between possessing the technology and perfecting that technology. In other words, it is believed they have the technology to miniaturize a warhead. But they havent done the years of test believed to be necessary to get it on top, launch it effectively and target it effectively. But the difficulty here and the trouble here is that they are moving closer in that direction. Thats an alarming prospect. Certainly is. Theyve surprised a lot of people with what they have been able to achieve over these years to begin with. Think of all the times theyve launched missiles when they launched a satellite successfully into orbit. The expectation was this one is going to blow up. It did not. Jim sciutto, thanks very much. The United States believes a mysterious north Korean Agency called bureau 121 is at the heart of north koreas Cyber Attacks, including the attack on Sony Pictures because of the movie the interview. A cnn crew is just back from the city where this elite group of cyber attackers are believed to be operating. It isnt in north korea. Its in china in a city just over 400 miles or so from beijing. Will ripley joins us from beijing right now. You had an exclusive look at whats going on. What did you see . Reporter wolf we know for a fact that nearly all of north koreas internet is routed through china. But we spoke with a north Korean Defector who says the connection goes much deeper than that. He says bureau 121 began a largescale operation in china a decade ago and hackers are still operating in this country right now. Shenyang, beneath the bright lights the flag of one of the most isolated countries on earth. This is the stateowned pyongyang restaurant. The waitresses are here on whats considered a prestigious threeyear assignment. They say theyre all from the same university in pyongyang. Nearby this hotel, a joint venture between north korea and china, the art, like Everything Else pure pyongyang propaganda. This is north korea state tv playing right now in our hotel room. Hallways are kept dark just like in north korea which struggles with electricity shortages. Shenyang is the biggest chinese city near north korea, a place where many from pyongyang come to work. This defector says they also come here to hack. Its easy for them to work secretly. It also has great internet infrastructure, he says. He claims north korean hackers operated secretly in shenyang for years. He says some of his own students became Cyber Warriors for the by day they worked regular jobs but the rest time they were acting on orders from pyongyang. Kim says hackers often work out of the basements of north korean owned buildings. Hes found no evidence hacking was during at the building think we visited but said the locations were kept secret and constantly changing. When they enter china, he says they come under different titles. An Office Worker an official with a trade company or even a diplomatic staffer. North korea has a staffer there. Representatives, the embassy in beijing, and government officials reached by email tell cnn they have no comment on the defectors claims. For its part china says ipt opposes any illegal cyber activity on its territory. A hub for North Koreans is that questions about what is really happening beneath the surface. The deif he canner we spoke with say the hacking activity really peaked in china between 2005 and 2011. Now that north korea is expanding access within its country, theyre moving operations back to pyongyang. But he says they have hackers operating all over the world because they can launch attacks that cant be directly traced back to north korea. It was remarkable to walk into a hotel, a restaurant and feel like youre transported back inside north korea. Pretty illuminating. Thanks very much. Doing some great reporting from beijing. With us in the situation room now, our guest, steven yates, christian whiten, a deputy special envoy for human rights in north korea during the Bush Administration and gordon chang, a columnist for forbes. Com. Author of the book Nuclear Showdown north korea takes on the world. If this socalled bureau 121 location the operation is so much public knowledge, why do the chinese allow this to go on. Why have they intervened . They must be okay with its operations. And of course china itself is one of the leading sources of Cyber Attacks against the United States and the United States interests around the world. So it wouldnt be too shocking for to us realize the Chinese Government says they dont condone or support anything like this happening on its territory. But they themselves do this. What do we know gordon, about these hack heres make up this socalled bureau 121 . Are any names of active members out there . Are they all North Koreans . Do they outsource or hire chinese or hire europeans . Hire middle easterners hire americans for all, for the possibility of getting the best hackers out there . Yeah unit 121 has outsourced a lot of their work. The hack on sony which is generally considered to be a unit 121 venture. Essentially worked lizard squad, guardians of peace and maybe even disgruntled sony employees. Primarily its staff is north korea. Theres about 1,800 of them. And most of unit 121s people are actually in shenyang. Clearly the chinese are very much involved with whats going on in this particular unit. The south Korean Ministry says north korea has increased the size of this socalled cyber army to about 6,000 troops. It doesnt seem like the u. S. Imposed sanctions over the last week or two have done much to deter the kim jongun. I dont think. So it only applies to 13 individuals in corporations that frankly have no exposure to the west any way so they wont have an effect. The administration appears not to have decided to put north korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism. So we havent done anything to push back. It is fairly alarming that the size of this army can double that quickly. It shows how Little Information we have about north korea and of course south korea didnt just say they got a lot better and bigger in their cyber offense capabilities but also their ability to strike the u. S. Potentially directly with a Nuclear Weapon. We know steven that North Koreans apparently back in 2013 they did some hacking of south korean banks, financial institutions. The u. S. Says they did the same thing to Sony Pictures in recent weeks and months. Do you have any sense of where this may be moving . Who may be the next target . Well we dont really get to know where the next target is. Certainly they take signals on what works and where they run into resistance or obstacles and try to work around them. The most troubling thing about the sony hack is how widespread that was. Whether they did it directly or indirectly by way of collaborators, they really got a great deal of privileged information from private companies. This is following a model the chinese have taken to gain economic leverage and advantage in recent years. They took down an entire country out of canada by way of cyber espionage. North korea could be looking to follow the same path. Kim jongun will be celebrating his 32nd birthday on thursday. Based on history, what can we expect . Well, there will probably be a lot of prop gand. A we know right now that the North Koreans are very interested in the south korean activists who have announced theyll take dvds of the movie, the interview, the subject of the hacking and put them into balloons and launch them over the detiltized zone. If we have to figure out whether there will be the next target it is probably the south korean groups operating on south korean spoil will probably be the next object of north koreas attack. Thank you very much. Appreciate your expertise. Coming up bad weather slows the effort to recover wreckage of bodies from areas of flight 8501. But there are some new finds and theyre ready to head out again. Sir, were going to need you on the runway. vo theraflu starts to get to work in your body in just 5 minutes. vo theraflu breaks you free from your worst cold and flu symptoms. vo theraflu. Serious power. Does a freshly printed presentation fill you with optimism . Then you might be gearcentric. Right now, all printers are on sale. Plus great deals on hp ink and toner. Office depot officemax. Gear up for great. Exclusive areas of the search of the crash search. A warning for the planes pilots that may have been missed. Nuclear threat north korea edging closer to a nightmare attack that could reach the west coast of the United States. The naacp alleging misconduct in the grand jury proceedings after Michael Browns death and asked the judge to take new action. And the socalled weeper of the house. John boehner gets very emotional as republicans take control of congress and overcomes gop challenges to his power. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. Were following breaking news at the airasia dive site. If there is a break in bad weather that has kept them out of the water for 24 hours, it is just after sunrise off the coast of indonesia when the search usually gets back underway. Investigators are studying two new metal objects discovered in the crash zone as crews tried to get closer to the area where they believe a plane went down. Were covering all the news thats breaking right now. The state departments deputy spokeswoman is standing by live. Along with our cnn correspondents and our analysts. First, lets go to our aviation correspondent rene marsh. She has the very latest. The search area has expanded to account for the sea current moving critical pieces of evidence belonging to the doomed jetliner. Meantime cnn has obtained a hard copy of the Weather Report Authorities Say the pilots didnt pick up prior to takeoff. Indonesian Officials Say airasia 8501 threw through storm clouds that could have caused icing on the plane and that may have caused the crash. This document obtained by cnn shows the official government Weather Report forecasting conditions the pilots would encounter. Indonesian government officials tell cnn, theres no indication airasia staff picked up a hard copy. Potentially a missed opportunity to discuss the report with the agency. Im not necessarily seeing these things as any indication of negligence on the carriers part on the crews part. It depends. We dont know what Weather Information, what weather data the crew didnt see and how relevant that is to what happened. The airline says the pilots got the documents electronically. But since the crash, indonesia now requires pilots to do face to face briefing with Flight Operations officers about conditions on the flight path. More than 40 vessels, 20 helicopters, and 97 divers are deployed to the search zone. The uss ft. Worth detected sonar of two metal objects but we need to confirm if this is part of the plane. One object about 56 feet long. The other, 14 feet. Elsewhere, a life vest. Safety cards and bodies recovered, a total of 39 of the 162 people on board pulled from the java sea. Muslim religious leaders on a search helicopter pray for the victims. Indonesias military chief now offering to take families to the crash zone for some closure. Translator i will prepare hercules and ships, either tomorrow or any time. I will offer my help to the families of the victims. Today monsoon rains, muddy water, high waves and Poor Visibility hampered the dangerous underwater search for the planes black boxes. The boxes have locator pingers that can be detected with sensors. But each day of delay, the batteries come closer to running out. The manufacturer tells cnn, fresh batteries were installed just last year. They will fade in another three weeks. This has not only resulted in a policy change for indonesias Aviation System but airasia now also requires a face to face weather briefing between pilots and the governments weather agency. We should note airlines handling of this Weather Information prior to takeoff remains under investigation. All right. Thank you. Lets go live to indonesia. Right now, cnns kyung lah. Reporter here in jakarta it is where the shots are being called. It is the nerve central, the place where the head of the operation is determining where the search will take place. And we got a very rare look at this nerve center. The head of the operation showing us how he directs some 20 aircraft and 40 ships at sea. The aircraft while we were there, spotted two bodies. And then he dispatched ships to those exact coordinates and then confirmed indeed those were the two bodies. This is a painstaking process. One that is being repeated over and over again. The planes combing back and forth across the java sea, hoping to find any wreckage any bodies, the head of the operation saying he has two goals. One, final the bodies. Two, find the all important black boxes. And he has a deep suspicion, also that there be large sections of the plane sitting at the sea with people still strapped to their seats. Do they think they have enough personnel, planes ships, sophisticated sonar equipment, already in place or do they need more . Reporter we actually asked him that exact question. He said he feels he has the people in place. He couldnt tell us exactly how many countries, how many ships and planes each one had contributed to the search. He says that he believes they have the resources, that they are narrowing down the search. They know where to look. It is a matter ofment on mizing the pieces that they have in places. Reporting live from jakarta, indonesia. Thats where the search is head quartered. Lets get an exclusive look at the airasia search and the operations after days of rough weather. Our reporter is back on land in indonesia. How did it go paula . What did you see . Reporter well wolf the weather on tuesday was actually better than it has been for many days. This is what we know from the u. S. Commander on board as well. But even though it was better above the waves, below the waves the divers couldnt get in. It was too murky. It is a 24hour operation at sea. As up you have an exclusive look to see what the u. S. Effort is. Reporter scouring the vast and panls of the java sea them work around the clock to find anything connected to flight 8501. Recovered a lot of debris and bodies and quite tragic it sounds it just brings closure to the families. Reporter a visit of appreciation tuesday from indonesias military chief. It gets really choppy. This is about the best its been. Reporter the general has a few words for the u. S. Troops. Words, he says are meant for all countries who are helping. Thank you very much for your what were trying to do is rule in or rule out reporter the general is convinced they are working in the right area but he is acutely aware of the challenges of this mission. Strong winds and currents he tells me the muddy waters make it hard for divers. I welcome the families here to see the situation for themselves and to throw a flower into the water. Aboard the Kri Banda Aceh he is coordinating the the search efforts. Reporter this is an indonesian warship. Behind me you have a u. S. Helicopter that has just touched down which shows the cooperation thats needed for this kind of operation and the International Help that is being put into it. Reporter russia france singapore, australia, to name but a few countries working together. Without the chance of Better Weather, the best technology in the world will inevitably have its limitations. Reporter its 6 00 in the morning. It is light as you can see. This is often the time the Aerial Search starts. And of course well be waiting to hear whether or not divers can get into the water today. Well stay in close touch with you. Thank you very much. Lets bring in our aviation analyst, miles obrien and peter, our long term analyst. And author clive irving. Richard, these two metal objects that were found today, what is your sense . Are these objects part of the play or just another false alarm . We wont know. One can speculate to the end degree. Clearly what weve heard so far from various ships and helicopters, for example, when reuters reported that they thought they had found the tail. There is so much garbage in that part of the world in the ocean. It is heavily shipped. Heavily trafficked so it is not surprising they are finding these pieces. As in Paula Hancocks report you heard the u. S. Navy officer say they are picking up debris so they know theyre in the right place. It really is just a question of time and effort. The debris theyre picking up that could be from some ship sunk during world war ii. Exactly. Theres debris all over. Theyre discovering even recent ships that have sunk in the java sea. Were learning that our oceans are filthy. They certainly are. Lets talk about the communications. It is so frustrating. They were flying at 36,000 feet. The pilot called Ground Control asking for permission to go 38,000. The maximum is 40,000 that kind of air bus can 90. Didnt hear anything. That was the last we heard. After that, there was silence. No more may days nothing. When you look at the radar data theres troubling information. It is hard to know what was really happening because were measuring ground speed and it may not be very accurate. What it does indicate is that the aircraft was dangerously close, if not at its stall speed. Meaning not that it is quitting. It would fall out of the sky. So a big question here he was not cleared of that altitude and yet ascended. Was at an Emergency Operation on the part of the pilot or an updraft which he could not control . Was he going for a ride courtesy of Mother Nature . He was technically allowed to go up. Even though he hadnt received permission. In an emergency situation, the captain can do anything he needs to preserve the souls on board the aircraft. Whats your analysis . Why was there no may day, for example . What could have been the cause for no may day . Simply they had their hands full. It only takes a second or two to say may day may day. Theres always a reluctance to call out may day. When youre flying the plane, thats your first responsibility. The nonflying pilot has got his responsibilities. He is reading out a check list. He is reaching for a check list. I just think their hands were full in a very challenging eventually catastrophic the fact there were new batteries inside these socalled black boxes, but no pings have been detected. It doesnt surprise me. It is disappointing. The black boxes often become covered with silt or metal. It is hard to final something in the ocean. It took us days to find the black boxes at twa 800. We were right over it. The pingers were never picked up. Clive irving no critical wreckage that would give an indication of the cause of the crash has been found. How unusual is this . Well, i want to talk about the frustration i think we all feel. Always searching, expensive searching. It would not be as important as it now is if we had the proper tracking system. I know we all feel action sense of that. I want to explain something. I went to london, the people who track 370, and they have this satellite system which could provide the information that we need to solve these problems. And i didnt understand how this worked. And whats important to understand about what they can do they already have equipment in more than 80 of the worlds wide body fleet that could be used to transmit crucial information. That would take two forms. The first would be the moment a plane was upset or deef indicated from its intended course the outset is very clear. From the moment that jump set occurred, the plane would start with crucial Data Information to the ground. Even before it hit the water, we would have a digital picture. That information would override all other information on the network. Would it get priority. The second thing we would have of course we would know exactly where it went. In one technical stroke we would have the information that we sorely lack now. What went wrong . What upset this and where is it . And its the scandal that the industry and the people who regulate the industry are not doing it. How many more times do we have to go through it. A really compellingly sad swagt. I think you agree with clive on that. It is a scandal that the technology is there but they dont use it. I do agree with clive. And i know the arguments and the political arguments for and against it. And they dont hold a lot of strength at the moment. There are competing, they have one system put forward. There are competing systems also saying no it isnt the right system. There are competitors. It is a complex issue. The issue really wolf is that the leadership of the industry has to now say this is a case where we must move forward. Why didnt that happen immediately after the malaysian airliner disappeared . It did to a certain extent. They had to find out the best way forward and i was tasked with this tracking task force. This task force put forward its report in december, wolf. Its task force was considered in december. But the body that the International Aviation safety body they are not due to meet until february. Now, you know i know everybody in the industry knows that something needs to be done. But this lack of urgency to now do it. Were talking here. To put in it perspective. 447 took ages to time. 317 took ages to find now. 8501 is taking ages to find. Many of these issues could be mitigated if the industry moved forward. You want to weigh in on this . Yeah. I just think richard is right on top of things. This is a solvable solution. There is a solvable solution here here and it goes back to 447. This industry has sat on its hands and it is up to all of to us demand it. And i know youre frustrated as well and youve worked with the international organizations. Theyre sitting on their hands. They make molasses look fast moving. I think one of the arguments will be someday more compelling if it turns out that somebody did survive the crash and died of exposure or shark attack or something in the water because they werent located soon enough afterwards. On that would be even worse. Faa could make this a regulation. Why dont they . Thats the thing them would have a ripple effect. They choose to act in concert with other bodies. They like the british and the french to come along with them. We learned faye the airasia pilot didnt pick up the necessary Weather Report in person. He may have read something online or got something on his ipad but didnt have the in person weather briefing before he took off. How significant is that . Im going to go out on my own and say it is not significant at all. No pilot goes into the air without knowing what the Weather Forecast is. If he had the chart, if he didnt have any briefing himself. If he didnt bother to look at the charts, if he didnt read the emails, then it is simple negligence. But i cant imagine any pilot would willingly get behind the side stick of an aircraft without knowing what the weather is. The fact that he didnt talk to a man to his face i think is pretty much irrelevant. And more importantly, ted details. He had his weather radar on board. He knew what he was probably going to face. And the indonesian authorities need to be at their role in that rather than trying to blame the pilot. Im going to show our viewers some pictures of the seats that were recovered from the wreckage. When we see these pictures can we tell from the damage of these seats, what may have caused the plane to crash . We cant tell what caused the plane to crash but you can tell the consequences of the crash. I saw when i looked at those, some interesting stuff. The main impact on the seats is in the lumbar and bottom area which suggests to me that the plane hit the water with some force. They suggest spinal compression. You can see if you look at the junction of the back of the seat and the back end of the cushion part of the seat. You can see theres maximum damage has been done in that location which seems to me to prove the bodies were lifted by the enormous gforce, were rammed down into those seats. Thanks very much. Well continue the coverage of this story. We have some breaking news coming into the situation room. Disturbing information. An active shooter now reported at the William Beaumont army medical central in el paso texas. Were standing by. Were getting information on whats going on. Well have details in just a minute. In my world, wall isnt a street. Return on investment isnt the only return im looking forward to. For some every dollar is earned with sweat, sacrifice, courage. Which is why usaa is honored to help our members with everything from investing for retirement to saving for college. Our commitment to current and former military members and their families is without equal. Start investing with as little as fifty dollars. [container door opening] what makes it an suv is what you can get into it. [container door closing] what makes it an nx is what you can get out of it. Introducing the firstever lexus nx turbo and hybrid. Once you go beyond utility theres no going back. Latte or au lait . Cozy or cool . Exactly the way you want it. 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Meanwhile other news were following. A chilling new assessment at a time of high tension between United States and north korea. South korea says the kim jongun regime is closer to striking the west coast of the United States. Gym sciutto has details. The south Korean Defense ministry paints an alarming picture of north koreas growing military capabilities including a force of Cyber Warriors a growing invasion force to attack the south and progress on what has long been the chief concern of the u. S. National security community, miniaturizing a Nuclear Weapon to fit on a missile capable of hitting the u. S. Homeland. It is a nightmare scenario. North korea with the capacity to launch a Nuclear Tipped Missile threatening the u. S. West coast. The new assessment by south Koreas Defense Ministry finds pyongyang has edged a step closer. The norths ability to miniaturize a nuclear women appears to have reached a significant level. South korea assesses the missiles already have the range to reach the u. S. Mainland. And that pyongyang is now developing submarines that can fire ballistic missiles. The u. S. Continues to believe Administration Officials tell cnm that the north has not yet achieved a capability to strike the u. S. With a Nuclear Armed missile. Though it has positioned Missile Defense systems close to north korea. We continue to closely monitor the situation on the Korean Peninsula and remain steadfast in our commitment of the defense of our allies certainly including south korea. Reporter the u. S. s greatest perceived threat remains its neighbor south korea. Along the border to the south, they have set up military posts as well as artillery pieces that the south says would allow for the Cyber Warriors south kreep says used to launch military entities in the south. This is what the u. S. Experienced as well the cyber attack on sony. So why is kim jongun building up his military now even as he offers renewed talks with his south korean neighbor . He has to double down on his resolve by showing that he is strong first before he can offer any kind of an olive branch he has to have a very clear sword in the other hand. There is a broad gap between possessing the technology and perfecting the ability that the u. S. And russia used to perfect the capability putting a Nuclear Warhead on a missile that you can target properly. The president has said he has to prepare for every contingency. Thats why you are seeing the u. S. With antimissile capability. A dangerous situation. Lets not forget there are still 30,000 or so along the dmz. Thanks very much. Lets get to more. Joining us the deputy spokeswoman, thanks for coming in. What do you make of the south korean report that north korea has a cyber army. We thought 1,500 or so but it is 6,000 or so. Is that consistent with what the u. S. Government believes . Without getting into specific numbers, he with dont talk about the intelligence assessments. Clearly they have a very significant cyber kale capability. Weve seen that over the last weeks and months. We know they have a very aggressive capability and it has the ability to be very disruptive as we saw with sony. The Administration Still believes the fbi, the state department the department of defense, north korea was in fact responsible for the cyber attack on Sony Pictures. Absolutely. All the evidence they have gathered has led them to that conclusion. Weve been very clear with that. Thats why you saw soongss additional north korean officials and entities as a result of that. Did they have help from any other party or was this solely north korea . We dont have information that other governments were involved. We know the North Koreans planned and put this attack into place. It doesnt rule out the possibility that individuals, private individuals may have helped them. We dont always outline all of what we know about how these attacks are undertaken or how this was undertaken. We want to protect the way we know that. Our reporter in beijing, will ripley went to this city in china which supposedly is the headquarters for a lot of these north korean cyber attackers. The Cyber Warriors if you will. The bureau 121, as it is called. Theyre based in the chinese city. Is that consistent with your information . Well again, we dont have any information that other governments were involved in this attack on Sony Pictures. We have conversations with the chinese. Secretary kerry spoke with his chinese counter part right after the attack to talk about the cyber issue, among other things. We know theres a significant threat in the world and we know that china can play a more helpful role if they could do so. Have you asked the United States government has asked china to shut down the north korean Cyber Operation inside china . Weve talked broadly with china about confronting these kinds of offensive Cyber Attacks. We know u. S. Companies have been at the receiving end of them. We know the u. S. Government has been at the receiving end. Weve talked to them about how we can Work Together more this issue going forward. Some of the experts, the cyber attack experts in the United States outside of the u. S. Government private firms. Theyve raised doubts about whether north korea was really capable of doing it. They pointed to the documents, the emails that were released on the internet. Very embarrassing email to Sony Pictures which maybe a disgruntled employee might have wanted to release as opposed to the regime. Which may not be following all the sordid details of hollywood along those lines. What do you make. Those accusations, that this wasnt necessarily a north korean operation. That there may have been a disgruntled employee who leaked this information or caused this damage to Sony Pictures. We are very confident that our assess pmt the north korean government is responsible for this attack. That does not pre chewed the possible that other private individuals somewhere around the world with some reason to help the north korean government may have done so. Were not always going to get publicly into what we know or dont know or confirmed one way or the other. Those two things are not mutually exclusive. Are you going to step up sanctions even more . The executiver to president signed last week is a very broad one. It gives us the ability at the time of our choosing to impose sanctions on individuals or entities. A very broad executive order as written on officials, members of the leadership party. So i dont think anything to preview about that but we certainly could. Will the state department bring north korea back on the list of state sponsors of terror . There is a process underway right now and were looking at that. North korea is one of the most heavily sanctioned countries in the world so theyre already under a lot of appreciate. I ban you to stand by. We have more questions coming up. There is new information coming in on the breaking news. A shooting going on at the v. A. Clinic in el paso texas. Our affiliate is posting photos. You can see them there. The station reports the El Paso Police have turned over the scene to u. S. Military personnel. The u. S. Military Police Federal Law Enforcement authorities are now on the ground. Were getting more information. Were going on check in with our sources there. Stand by. Much more coming up right after this. And an Early Morning mode. And a partly sunny mode. And an outside. To clear inside mode. Transitions ® signature ™ adaptive lenses. Now have chromea7 ™ technology. Making them more responsive than ever to changing light. So life can look more vivid vibrant. Why settle for a lens with just one mode . Experience life well lit ®. Speak with your eyecare professional to. Upgrade your lenses to transitions ® signature ™. Theres been a shooting incident at a v. A. Clinic adjacent to the William Beaumont army medical central in el paso texas. The cnn affiliate has been posting photos. Were getting more information. The station reporting El Paso Police have turned over te scene to u. S. Military police. Federal Law Enforcement authorities are on the scene. Were watching whats going on. Were trying to get a better sense of injuries. The shooting incident still underway. Well check in and get more information. I wanted to alert you to that breaking news. Lets go back to the state Department Deputy spokeswoman, marie. Im very concerned about whats going on in iraq. 3,000 military personnel. Theyre advising assisting the Iraqi Military. It looks like isis is 10 00 their operations and theyre shelling some of these. Especially the air base in the Anbar Province and these american troops could be in danger. Whats going on . Well we knew that iraq is a very dangerous place and isis was not going to get up and walk away and not fight when we hem the iraqis take the fight to them. In term of the al assad base bits the size of boulder, colorado. These attacks are putting folks at risk but putting it in some perspective is helpful. Theyre very random. Theyre not targeted. Theyre ricky but it is a very big area. And it is not just u. S. Troops there. It is iraqis as well. We heard Barbara Starr report a little while ago that the penn is about to sell to the iraqis battle tanks, sophisticated weapons. How concerned are you that the Iraqi Military might simply abandon these as theyve done over the past year or so. And they wind up using military sophisticated u. S. Military equipment. I think what you saw when isis first made its advance, parts of the iraqi army did melt away was really a wake up call. For the government, the political leaders and the military leaders and its army. Since then we have advisers on the ground helping get them equipped. They know how serious this fight is. This has been an ongoing process of getting them womens they need. They have stepped up . Have pushed isis back in some significant places. Very quickly. The democratic senator from new jersey, the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee still ranking democrat. Emover the week it will be very difficult to get anyone the administration nominates to be the u. S. Ambassador to cuba confirmed by the senate. How worried are you, if you have a democrat like bob, going to resist any such effort. This normalization of relations that the administration wants might never get off the ground. To be very clear, we are going to open an emi . Cuba. We have a Senior State Department official going to havana at the end of the month to start talks. We have an intersection there. An embassy is not a gift to the cuban government. It is to hem american citizens who travel there. It is to help push democracy at thisization there. Help push freedom of speech and all the things we want to help get the cuban people more say in their future in their lives. Having an ambassador there is the best way to do that. We are very committed to this. Thank you. Breaking news were following. Well get an update on that shooting incident at the v. A. Station. Major ok fitness class heres our new trainer ensure active heart health. Heart im going to focus on the heart. I minimize my sodium and fat. Gotta keep it lean and mean. Pear uhoh. Heart i maximize good stuff like my potassium. And phytosterols, which may help lower cholesterol. Major im feeling energized already. Avo new delicious ensure active heart Health Supports your heart and body, so you stay active and strong. Ensure. Take life in. [carpenters rainy days and mondays] [ac dc back in black] [ac dc back in black] chevy colorado. When you find new roads, you win motor trends truck of the year. Please no. 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Ask for it and register your lenses online today. Our chief National Security correspondent has some information on the shooting at the v. A. Building in el paso texas. This is preliminary information. We are now hearing from multiple officials that this situation appears to be resolved. There were two people wounded. Those there late. Figures and those could change. Hearing from multiple officials it looks there was a shooting but whether it is now over and you have Law Enforcement swarming around that medical facility at el paso. At least it is over with. Well get more information and update our viewers. Thank you very much. There are some major new developments in two stories weve been following. The naacp is demanding a judge investigate the furgs, missouri grand jury prosecutor. Also suspects have now been arrested and identified in the shootings of two new York City Police officers in the bronx. Lets get more joining us. Jeffrey toobin our Law Enforcement analyst, the former assistant tom fuentes, and our cnn anchor don lemon and Community Activist john. First of all, driving this new call from the naacp for a special investigation of the st. Louis county prosecutor. There are so many questions across the country bob mccoupling on has received regarding how he has hand the grand jury process. You have grand jurors who were really pounded with evidence throughout this process. Darren wilson was given no type of crossexamination compared to the other witnesses that went before the grand jury and there are many questions, and quite hongsly, theres a lack of confidence in the criminal Justice System not just in st. Louis county but across this country. So hopefully, the Legal Defense fund will get some of the things they are asking for, for that judge to go in and conduct her own investigation of that grand jury and take a look at those irregularities being pointed out. If the naacp were to get its way, would that mean the Police Officer in question, the case against Darren Wilson work start all over again . It could. The investigative process has been you know pretty much concluded at the local level. Not the federal level. The fbi investigation continues. But you know it is possible. I think at this point at the local level, almost anything is possible. They may want to start over again. There is a federal Investigation Underway civil rights allegations or whatever that could take months and months. Maybe even a year or two to continue. Thats going on even as we speak. It is. It is considered a long shot based on the facts. Case that there would be an actual prosecution of officer wilson under federal charges. Whether the entire Department Might be charged, that seems like a more realistic possibility. That would certainly only be a civil matter not a criminal matter. As for the issue of whether the grand jury investigation could be reopened or there should be some sort of investigation of the prosecutor frankly, i dont think anything ive seen would call for a new investigation. Look. He is an elected official and he can be voted out of office and i think that is the most likely place for some accountability to take place. Not the legal system which i think for better or worse has worked its course. Don lemon, you spent a lot of time in ferguson st. Louis county covering the story. Whats your analysis . Well i think if the prosecutor has nothing to hide i dont see anything wrong with an independent investigation. He said he was all about transparency. That after the special prosecutor after the grand jury i should say, came to its conclusion he would release all the information. People are saying much of the information is redacted and they have some information with that. So nibble transparency. If you dont have anything to hide you dont have anything to hide. And in an investigation, why not . Youre there in new york. Two new York City Police officers they were shot in the bronx last night. Another awful story. Do police in new york city based on everything youre seeing and hearing and i know youve been covering the story extensively, do they need to be concerned about escalating violence that is aimed against these Law Enforcement officers . I think everyone should be concerned about escalating violence. And i think the Police Department has every right to be. How could they not, after two members of their force were executed in broad daylight in brooklyn just before christmas. I think they should be concerned and i think they should be on alert. Whether or not the threat is real i dont know. Im not an investigator. I think they should be cautious and i think that they are being now, and by the way, the former Police Officer said as much. Go ahead. It just i think it is worth pointing out, these officers were in plain clothes. There is no it is not even clear that the defendants in this case knew these were Police Officers. The other point to make is that crime is at an historic low in new york city. The number of murders has plummeted and continued to plummet under mayor de blasio. So the police deserve all sorts of credit for what has gone on in this city. The reduction in crime. But also there is simply less threat to everyone now because this is so much more of a safer city than it used to be. I understand what youre saying but it doesnt matter. Even if theyre plain clothes or uniform, theyre still Police Officers. Whether or not the suspects knew or not, thats a Police Officers job to be in plain clothes or y that the officer ramos and liu were the other day. And the whole point, tom fuentes, is there is a slow down over the past week or two in new york city cops not necessarily doing the kind of arrests or citations, stuff that they normally should be doing and it is seen as an act of protest against the mayor. That is an act of protest. But that is regarding the type of crimes that the police look at that they are being used to create a revenue stream for the city. So they dont regard that as something crucial to the safety of the public. Something like this proves they will respond and risk their lives, even when they were getting off duty and free to go home and respond to Something Like this to protect the public. These two Police Officers who were shot they are listed in critical condition. We hope they both do well. I know don, will you be speaking with the father of one of the Police Officers later tonight. I will speak with a father who has visited and spoke went his son anddy ask him about the Current Events happening with the Police Department and the mayor and he spoke about that and his sons feelings about that. The son did go to both funerals. Don will be back later tonight. Just ahead, well have a live update from indonesia on the airasia crash search the slow struggle to find the black boxes. As easy as it gets. Wouldnt it be great if hiring plumbers, carpenters and even piano tuners were just as simple . Thanks to angies list now it is. Weve made hiring anyone from a handyman to a dog walker as simple as a few clicks. Buy their services directly at angieslist. Com no more calling around. No more hassles. Start shopping from a list of toprated providers today. Angies list is revolutionizing local service again. Visit angieslist. Com today. Does a freshly printed presentation fill you with optimism . Then you might be gearcentric. Right now, all printers are on sale. Plus great deals on hp ink and toner. Office depot officemax. Gear up for great. John boehner is holding on to the speakers gavel as the republicans take control of the house and the senate. He was reelected today despite some embarrassment, some conservative opposition but he overcame that. It was an emotional day for him. He got choked up during his speech on the house floor. Lets bring in our kmeef political analyst, Gloria Borger and dana bash. He did well. He got himself reelected speaker of the house. There was a little bit of opposition but not much. That is right. At the end of the day there were 25 republicans who did not vote for him, who protested with their votes. But that is twice as much more than twice as much as we saw two years ago when there were 12 of them. But the fact of the matter is he has a bigger majority now much bigger. The biggest since 1928. So he has more room to have more defectors. The one interesting thing is even in the hours since those rebellions took place, hes already retaliated. Two of the people who voted against him, one who challenged him, are now off the house ruled committee. There is politics going on the hill. They are off the house rules committee, which is very powerful people might not know what it is but it is incredibly powerful and it is the speakers committee, where he makes the sausage and they are off. So it was sort of a lead the gun and take the canolli type of thing. And by the way, that is exactly what a speaker should do. If people vote against you openly and they are in rebellion, you win and they lose. And as a result you have you are in charge of a powerful committee which decides what goes to the floor and what doesnt get to the floor and you say to these guys you just lost. The first piece of business likely to come up is the Keystone Pipeline from canada through texas and it looks like it will pass easily in the house and probably in the senate more than 60 votes to break a filibuster. But the president said le veto it and he is not ready to sign it into law. Will the republicans and the democratic alleys in the senate have 67 votes needed to override the veto . That point, they dont have the 67 votes. Both sides the democrats are saying they can sustain the veto and the republicans are saying maybe they could override it but they dont have the votes right now. The reason that they are raising keystone as issue number one here is that it is an issue that unites the Republican Party and brings over some moderate and conservative democrat and Mitch Mcconnell can say, see, i was able to pass something. Bipartisan votes. And it was no accident that the new congress was minutes old when the white house said well veto the very first thing the president will get. And that unfury ated the lead democrats. Joe manchin told ted barrett he was blindsided and thought he could work something out with the white house. Mentioning the Democratic Senate from west virginia. And this is the Senate Minority leader harry reid. I did video today. He was in an accident exercising in henderson, nevada over the weekend. Apparently something hit him in the face. An exercise machine. It hurts me looking at him. Well he was exercising as he does. And he used an exercise band and he fell and clearly hurt his face. He looks very banged up. Several bones in his face were broken. Literally broke his face. Broke many bones in his face. Hes not young either. And he broke ribs. He couldnt go up to capitol hill today. He was in his apartment today. His aide said it was doctors orders. He to sit up to eliminate the swelling. So for anybody who has an exercise band it stretched and broke. Not everybody has a exercise band. We wish him a speedy recovery. But he had to do that to show he was still in charge of the democrats. That is it for me. Thanks for watching. Erin Burnett Outfront starts right now. Outfront tonight, breaking news a new search for airasia flight 8501. The crew never picked up the Weather Report before taking off into a severe thunderstorm. This report was it a fatal mistake. And the miraculous story of a 7yearold the only one to walk away from a plane crash. Well hear from another sole survivor who cheated death. And a time capsule buried by paul revere. No joke. Its contents revealed after 220 years. Were finding them out at this moment. Well tell what you was inside. Lets go outfront