and msnbc terrorism analyst, thank you so much for joining us. good to be here. tell us what your reaction was when you first heard there were two passengers on board with stolen passports. this went from an event which was all right suspicious to very suspicious. as tom and others have said, we don t know what it was, but certainly if you re in the counterterrorism business, you have to take small bits and try to understand the full picture. having two people with stolen passports who buy those tickets together, that s extremely suspicious and makes you look at this crash in a whole new light. where do you think the process broke down? explain what should happen and what failed to happen here? this was a complex endeavor, not as easy as some people may think. you have to make sure the stolen passports get reported to interpol. that may not have happened. and interpol sends that out to countries and the countries have to check that. ha happens pretty regularly but not always.
have to check the passports when they check someone in and my guess is malaysian airlines was not doing this on a regular basis. could this happen in the united states? i don t think it could happen in the united states. over the past 13 years the u.s. has invested huge amounts in a consolidated watch list system and screening for lost and stolen passports in something called security flight allows anyone flying in the united states or to the united states that that information is immediately compared in real time by the airlines and by the department of homeland security. it s not perfect but it s the best in the world. we contacted the department of homeland security and the tsa today, both refused to comment on this case right now. do you think there s more the u.s. could have done, should be doing? i don t think in this case there really is. this really is a fact an issue about malaysia and china and that transit. the u.s. globally can help set the standards with interpol
suggests this plane really deviated significantly and nobody knows where it is. i would hasten to add, the radar coverage is not very good. it s difficult to say would another radar have picked up this plane elsewhere? so far they have no images. all right, tom costello, thank you for that report. we re 13 years after 9/11. how exactly did two people manage to board a flight with stole an passport. a lot of people are complaining about this. interpol maintains a an international data base but four in 10 passports are never screened against that database because many countries and airlines don t bother to check it. interpol released this statement, for years interpol has asked, why should countries wait for a tragedy to put prudent security measures in place at borders and boarding gates? joining us is michael lighter
the past several years to get this advanced technology and screening in key areas, whether it s east africa or the caribbean, places where there s a lot of transit to the u.s. we re training and giving technology. we re helping people build the technology and build the wires between interpol and governments and airlines but can t do that all over the world. this is a global issue, tht interpol. the international civil aviation administration. the u.s. can do a lot and focus some resources but we can t cover the globe. thank you, michael lighter of the national counter terrorism center. we ll be coming back to michael on another issue, surveillance, later in the day. first coming up, we turn to that very topic nsa leaker and international fugitive, edward snowden stirring up controversy about a big video address to the united states. what did he reveal? we ll look at all facets and 30