with the russians all the time, don t we? there is a sharing of information. bill: this is a hot debate in america how much you cooperate with vladimir putin in order to get some level of progress in syria. you write, eli, this doesn t look like collusion with the russians, collusion implies the information should not be shared. where do we come down on what should be shared and what should not when you consider, as we see the president when you consider that the russians, their own people and airline was blown from the sky on behalf of isis in sinai, egypt, 18 months ago. that s right. in the abstract sharing information about isis plots against civilian airliners is not only appropriate but probably important in terms of the fact there has been u.s./russian counter terrorism cooperation since 9/11. the issue is when you have a president going off script as what is reported in that washington post piece, did he
they need to take stock of what could potentially be a growing threat in the sinai potentially with this franchise of the islamic state growing in its capability and capacity. reporter: all of which may explain egypt s continuing sensitivity to letting outside personnel into the crash investigation, jake. barbara starr live at the pentagon for us. thank you so much. joining me now is republican congressman mike mccaul, chairman of the house homeland security committee. mr. chairman, thanks so much for being here. all signs point to isis in sinai being behind this attack, but then in this video that they released no mention of the attack. does that affect whether or not an intelligence ultimately believes they re behind it? no, i don t think so. they ve already taken credit for the bombing of the airline. i think all indicators, information that i have points towards a bombing event by isis
that angle very closely for us and joins us with the latest. good morning, barbara. reporter: good morning, michaela. now that national transportation safety board experts may join the investigation, this will give the u.s. for the first time a direct look potentially at some of the evidence that is being collected. but right now, absent that direct evidence, they are developing a working theory at least inside the administration based on intercepts, the satellite flash we ve talked about, video photographs of the scene. now what we are being told by several administration officials, yes, they do believe most likely a bomb. now, based on what they see, the intensity of this potential explosion, they believe likely it was c-4 military grade type explosive. that s something that is readily available in that region, that most likely would be available to isis in sinai. as they look at all of this, they are also looking at the prospect that maybe this bomb
aggression and again teams up with america s enemies drawing new concerns from u.s. officials tonight. the russian president extending his reach and ambitions from syria to europe to north korea. in recent days according to russian officials putin s forces have turned up the heat in syria. russian air power helping bashar al assad s army recapture a military airport near aleppo. a u.s. official tells cnn tonight it s troubling that putin s boosting the strength of assad s military. human rights observers say russian warplanes killed dozens including more than 20 civilians when they bombed the isis stronghold of raqqa. that was just days after the downing of the russian passenger plane, which u.s. intelligence believes might have been bombed by isis in sinai. it s quite plausible if this was a retaliation against isis for the bombing of the plane. it makes a lot of sense to see it that way. reporter: other analysts say putin s stepped up campaign in syria is more of a direct challen
that it would not detonate. it would be sure not to detonate until it was in midair, a timer of perhaps an hour or more. and what could have caused such a dynamic explosion? officials we re talking to say they re looking at the notion that it is c4 military-grade explosive or something like that, plastic explosive, small amount, very powerful. it can be molded. it can be easily hidden. most likely they believe this is what the bomber used. now, who is the bomber, of course, remains the key question. right now based on the intelligence they have, u.s. officials saying isis in sinai, but they don t think they have no evidence it was ordered by isis leadership back in syria. that at the moment they think it is self-contained to sinai, but look, u.s. officials want to get a direct look at what evidence there is. they consider that crucial to finding the perpetrator and to