Transcripts For CNNW Wolf 20150403

More times as flight 9525 descended toward its ultimate demise. By the way, that box that you see, well its normally bright orange. This dark color here youre seeing is a testament to the fact that it was scorched in the crash and the impact so severe that it buried this recorder under eight inches of dirt. Joining us from dusseldorf is cnns will ripley. Investigators are really just starting to go through this and theyre already learning so much. Reporter this is the first analysis and they will continue to go through it again to try to extract as much as they can about what was happening technically with flight 9525 when it made that deadly collision course with the french alps. But the information just released today is horrifying to say the least, because it shows once again evidence of a deliberate act by this 27yearold copilot Andreas Lubitz. He changed the autopilot settings programmed in 100 feet above the ground starting that terrifying descent. Passengers were well aware of what was happening, that something was horribly wrong for a full eight minutes as the plane began to accelerate because Andreas Lubitz continued the speed of the aircraft ignoring the loud alarms that passengers knew the front of the aircraft would have been able to hear. And you saw those photos of the black box, the sheer force of the impact damaged it so extensively, still not clear how much data will be able to be extracted. But whats within learned, very troubling. Also a tablet seized from the copilots apartment by investigators shows in the week leading up to doing this including just the day before the crash, he was searching on the internet for ways to commit suicide and also searching about cockpit doors and their security measures. It shows he wanted to lock himself in the cockpit, he wanted to commit suicide and he wanted to take a lot of innocent lives along with him. Talk to us about something thats so important to the family members of the victims. Theyre trying to get investigators are trying to get dna samples collected at the site. Where does that stand . Reporter they have collected 150 what they call dna profiles. As you know when the plane hit the Mountain Ridge at 420 miles an hour 675 kilometers an hour it was a tremendous impact that scattered debris and sadly remains over a very large area. But theyve now taken dna samples from a number of the families. Theyve collected dna from the crash site. But it will still be months and months before the families have closure. And that closure will come in a positive identification not in any sort of significant remains being returned to them. Just another tragic part of what has just been an awful, awful week here. Theres a task force thats been set up to try to figure out everything that went wrong. All of the safeguards that were put in place that failed so that hopefully some good can come of this and this will never have again, someone with these issues wont be allowed back in the cockpit. And your heart really goes out to those families. Will ripley, thank you so much. I want to dig deeper into what we have learned with our panel. In new york we have les abend, cnn aviation analyst, also a 777 captain. And with us in new york we have aviation attorney and private pilot and former military pilot justin green. Les, this is the new thing that we have learned. Previously we knew from the voice recorder that you could hear lubitz breathing. So there was certainly a sense that he was very much alive. But now weve learned from this data recorder that he was turning off these velocity alarms and descending at an even faster pace, right . Im not sure he was turning off alarms necessarily. But let me go back to the breathing, brianna. This is speculation on my part but i think we might have been hearing him breathing through the oxygen mask which is bizarre. Its a routine at the altitude that they were flying to have that mask on when theres only one pilot at the duty station. Thats my speculation on that part because its hard to hear normal breathing. But what i think he did with the autopilot was he used a mode called vertical speed and increased that vertical speed to impact quicker or tried to just utilize it to get to the point of impact that he was aiming for at this point. Justin is there any sort of automation in a way theres nothing that stops a situation like this from happening. Is there any way to find some sort of control outside of the cockpit when a computer knows that something is wrong when youre aiming for a mountain. Well what id like to say is since the dawn of aviation since airplanes have been started to be designed and built, people very smart people have been trying to design them so that they wont crash. So youve had improvements like the stall Warning System improvements like the ground proximity Warning System and now the enhanced ground proximity Warning System. And people are talking about now potential future advances including one in which a terrorist who takes over the airplane can be locked out of the airplane. But what i think is really important to understand is that any change you make you have to look out for unintended consequences. So as a lawyer i could say, maybe im not the right person to talk about it. But i do think it is important to talk about safety improvements because the people that are doing it the people like les, the people at boeing and at airbus who are trying to design new technology sometimes need the attention to get them across the goal line. And even if you were to control some sort of safeguard, if for some reason it was open technologically, theres always the concern of a cyberattack, Something Like that. Les, weve been talking about this for over a week. I think at first some people were giving this pilot a bit of the benefit of the doubt. There were i guess, questions of whether he was suffering a mental breakdown. But i wonder as youre seeing this now, are you seeing this more moving towards this is a coldblooded killer . Well you know brianna, its hard to say what was going through this young mans mind. I dont understand mental illness. But obviously where weve got to today, thats the situation that we seem to be investigating. The whole aspect of not being able to trust my colleague, its baffling to me. I would never even consider it. I think id mentioned early on in this discussion when we first started in the week when we found out that this man was committing suicide with his passengers behind him, i flew back from london with a gulf war hero 27 years in the air force, that had his own family issues. Never once would i consider getting outside that cockpit door and thinking id never get back in. Yeah. And you are speaking for so many pilots when you say that, les, thank you so much. Really appreciate you being with us. As well, justin green. Coming up an American Woman arrested and charged with trying to join isis. This news coming just one day after two other american women were in court charged with plotting an attack on the United States. Well dig a little deeper on both of these cases. And then theres an outline for an iran nuclear deal. But this is where the tough sell now begins. What can president obama do to get congress on board . Well be asking republican congressman peter king. 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Xarelto® has been prescribed more than 11 million times in the u. S. And that numbers growing. Like your guys scores. With xarelto® there is no regular blood monitoring, and no known dietary restrictions. Treatment with xarelto® was the right move for us. Ask your doctor about xarelto®. You may be able to get up to 12 months at no cost. Youre only young once. Unless you have a subaru. announcer the subaru xv crosstrek. Symmetrical allwheel drive plus 34 mpg. Love. Its what makes a subaru a subaru. Theres only one egg that just tastes better. With more vitamins. And 25 less saturated fat. Only egglands best. Better taste. Better nutrition. Better eggs. Iran is ready to cooperate with the world, thats the quote on its nuclear program. Thats the word from president rouhani. The preliminary deal was announced yesterday and the final details worked out by the end of june. Rouhani says the agreement proves the world agrees that iran has a right to Peaceful Nuclear power. But israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says it paves irans path to the bomb and would threaten the very survival of the state of israel. But secretary of state john kerry says that iran will be under very tight control. Heres what he told our elise labott. Reporter when this is over in 15 years, iran can pretty much do whatever it wants. So this is a well it cant, no reporter this is a real political gamble mr. Secretary, that the regime is going to be different in sa years . No it is not a gamble on the regime being different. Theres no element of trusting here reporter you dont trust iran . Thats not the issue. In any negotiation about arms you cant just do it on words, you do it on actions and verifiability. Theres obviously still a whole lot of tension over this deal and theres plenty of final details to hammer out before the end of join. I want to bring in congressman peter king. Thanks so much, congressman, for being with us. Really appreciate it. You heard that question that elise asked secretary kerry. Is this agreement is gamble . Do you think its a gamble . Right now, id have to say its a gamble. I had a very long conversation with u. S. Ambassador Samantha Power yesterday. They believe these verifications, these examinations basically right to inspect is going to be sufficient. I have real concerns about that. I dont know how we can trust iran. And i dont know if the iaea can they make spur of the moment inspections, can they inspect everywhere or just the known facilities . Again, considering irans history, its to me very doubtful. Having said that the president and his administration have negotiated this. I think we in congress have an obligation to examine it carefully, to go through it and then make a decision. I wish the president would agree to give congress more leeway and oversight on this. But we also in congress have the obligation to inspect it carefully before we make any final judgment. But right now, i am skeptical. Lets listen to what president obama said about congresss role and well talk about it. If Congress Kills this deal not based on expert analysis and without offering any reasonable alternative, then its the United States that will be blamed for the failure of diplomacy. International unity will collapse and the path to conflict will widen. So hes saying Congress Needs to have an alternative. I guess, what would that be and is there anything the president can do to sway you and other members of congress and give you a sense that this is sufficient to ensure that iran does not get a Nuclear Weapon . First of all, the president has not been dealing with congress in a way to win friends and influence people. To basically say its his way or no way and if congress disagrees, apparently the whole world is going to be critical of congress you have many states in the middle east many of the arab nations equally concerned about it. I have a concern there that we could see an arms race started by the saudis the egyptians, the qataris, perhaps the jordanians. Its not Just Congress that has these concerns. Again, i think the president would do better if he acknowledged that congress has very legitimate concerns and attempts to address them not to put it in a take it or leave it proposition and to be lining up the United States congress. This agreement, accepting it the way the president is laying it out is far different from when the negotiations began. Right now, we are agreeing to leave Irans Nuclear infrastructure in place. They are going to reduce the number of centrifuges. They are going to have as far as the enriching of the uranium, its going to be done at civilian grade level. Thats assuming that everything here is complied with by the iranians. Thats never happened before. So i think the president would do a lot better to talk in good faith and not be arrogant and above it all as if hes the font of all wisdom and hes the only one operating out of good intentions because a lot of people question his intentions. I know thats one of the big issues for you, the centrifuges. You have iran that basically theyre cutting down on its centrifuges and not as technologically advanced so civil grade material. And theyre cutting the uranium stockpiles by 97 . Thats certainly not 100 . So you have this issue of the inspections that you mentioned, which im assuming you feel this is the way to ensure that iran with its more limited means to develop Nuclear Material that this doesnt go towards making a m bomb even though certainly the ability to do that will be diminished and would take much more time. Right. And thats why the inspections are necessary. Also the president said yesterday really for the first time that iran was only three or four months away from having a bomb. Assuming all this goes well over the next eight or nine years and everyone lives up to the agreement, iran would have billions of dollars coming into its economy with the release of the sanctions, eight or nine years of increased funds it wouldnt have otherwise. And then at best, they would be a year away from the bomb. So were buying ourselves an extra eight months of leeway here. Thats assuming we could fully detect it. What i would foresee is having questions is iran violating it or not . Then the process begins. You determine if they are or not. And after four or five years if that is the case is the world really going to reinstitute sanctions . Is the u. S. In a position to take military action at that time . So again, let me say on the face f of it im willing to concede the president is making a goodfaith effort. But he has to make the goodfaith effort of having his people sit down with congress and go through it step by step and not just ask us to trust him and the iranians. Congressman, thank you so much for your insight on that. Really appreciate it. Thank you very much. Could this nuclear deal make iran a bigger threat to peace in the middle east . Iran is taking sides and aiding groups in iraq and yemen. When the sanctions end, will tehran be in position to wreak havoc in the region . Well discuss that next. Hello. Hi, marilyn . Yes. You got the job. In april when you buy a tracfone handset at Walmart Tracfone will donate 20 percent of the sales to dress for success. I will see you next week. To help give women the skills they need to get that allimportant job. I got it. So you buy a new phone and someone else gets the call that can change her life completely. Success is calling™. And you can help make a difference. As we discussed the framework for a Peaceful Iran Nuclear deal it opens up some broader issues concerning iran and its influence around the region. Richard hass is the president on the council of Foreign Relations and is joining me now. Thanks for being with us. I want to talk to you about this landmark deal. Positive or negative is this good for the u. S. And for other countries involved. Its a little bit soon to make definitive judgments. We have to go from an interim framework into an actual deal and then its got to be implemented. So i think the jurys got to stay out. Are there some promising and attractive in eaches to this . Absolutely. But it depends where you can go from the draft framework, the parameters to an actual deal. Then you have to live with it and deal with the inevitable questions, where iranian compliance questions are raised. Thats the question that congressman peter king just raised. He said when it comes to iran it is not trustworthy, you cant expect it to hold up its side of the bargain. When you look at the changing leadership in iran the changing sentiment in iran but also the fact that irans becoming such a big player in the middle east do you think that iran right now can be trusted to live up to its end of the deal . By and large, you dont sign agreements with countries you trust. You sign of this sort with countries that you worry about and thats why you build in all sorts of intrusive mechanisms for monitors and inspections and whats then really important is youre prepared, not just you, the United States, but others in this case to reintroduce sanctions if need be. The larger point to make is this is a significant deal but its a narrow deal. It deals simply with the iranian Nuclear Weapons program. It doesnt deal with deliver systems and the full range of irans bid to be a regional if you will imperial power in the region and all that its doing in places like yemen or syria or iraq or lebanon or what have you. So i think one has to place this in a larger context so even if this deal works, and i would obviously hope that it would, if it succeeds on its own terms, it still doesnt begin to address a much larger set of issues which is iranian behavior in the middle east. Lets talk about that a little bit. You have in iraq the u. S. Maybe not working with iran but certainly working toward the end goal that iran is as well trying to defeat isis. In yes, maammenyemen, its a different story, iranbacked militias started taking control of those locations. What happens to the u. S. Counterterrorism campaign there against isis and al qaeda in the iranian peninsula if you have houthis continuing to have control . Its got to be a real area of concern, not just houthis but its al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. Yemen is on the edge of being a failed state. Its on the edge of a major civil war. It could become almost like afghanistan was a generation ago. It could become a place from which a group like al qaeda could mount not just regional but global attacks. The United States has very few tools now to influence what goes on there. Ive got another concern. Saudi arabia for understandable reasons is getting very involved. Theyre obviously worried about spillover from yemen into their own country. But its not at all clear to me that saudi arabia will succeed. As it gets more involved militarily, that it will go well. If not, i think that has real risk for stability back in saudi arabia itself. Whats telling you that saudi arabia may not succeed and what are the ramifications, do you think, in this case . If they dont . Partially its the nature of yemen, given the divisions, given the size of the country and the size of the population. This is not going to be an easy place to pacify. Its an enormous enormous undertaking. And saudi arabias military strength is located largely in its air force. Its not located in its ground force. The idea that the saudis and this constellation of Sunni Arab States would impact an expedition nair force that would succeed on the ground youve got to be skeptical, given their lack of military prowess and the nature of the situation theyre walking into. I think skepticism is the order of the day. Then theres the issue of whats the consequence of what is not perceived as success . And weve learned all over the region an air campaign is not sufficient to defeat an enemy there. Richard hass thanks so much for being with us. Coming up another arrest of an isis sympathizer. Its a woman accused of plotting to join the terror group overseas. One of several that weve seen in recent days including two women accused of trying to build a bomb to kill people right here in the u. S. I love making sunday dinners. But when my back hurt, cooking all day. Forget about it. Tylenol was ok, but it was 6 pills a day. But aleve is just 2 pills all day. And now, im back aleve. [ female announcer ] when youre serious about fighting wrinkles, turn to roc® retinol correxion®. One week fine lines appear to fade. One month deep wrinkles look smoother. After one year, skin looks ageless. High performance skincare™ only from roc®. My tempurpedic made me fall in love with mornings again. I love how it conforms to my body. With tempurpedic the whole bed is comfortable. Its the best thing we ever did for ourselves. Its helping to keep us young. vo visit your local retailer and feel the tempurpedic difference for yourself. Youre driving along, having a perfectly nice day, when out of nowhere a pickup truck slams into your brand new car. One second it wasnt there and the next second. Boom youve had your first accident. Now you have to make your first claim. So you talk to your Insurance Company and. Boom youre blindsided for a second time. They wont give you enough money to replace your brand new car. Dont those people know youre already shaken up . Liberty mutuals new car replacement will pay for the entire value of your car plus depreciation. Call and for drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Switch to Liberty Mutual insurance and you could save up to 423 dollars. Call Liberty Mutual for a free quote today at see Car Insurance in a whole new light. Liberty mutual insurance. Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Im Brianna Keilar in for wolf blitzer. Federal authorities have made another arrest of an american citizen allegedly trying to join isis. Prosecutors say that her twitter account which was later deactivated posted this message, if we truly new the realities, we all would be rushing to join our brothers in the front lines and pray allah accept us as martyrs. Jason carroll, tell us what we know about this woman and how big of a threat he was posing. Reporter her name is keonna thomas. But she went by the nickname the young lioness. Shes a u. S. Citizen from philadelphia. Shes 30 years old. According to the criminal complaint that we had an opportunity to read through, he has been charged with providing Material Support to a terrorist organization. Also in the complaint, it reads that thomas attempted to quote, travel overseas in order to join fight with and martyr herself for isil. Federal agents say that as far back as 2013 she started posting a lot of these jihadisttype comments on twitter. You saw one of them there. Also back in 2013 she allegedly sent an electronic communication to a known somali terrorists. Federal agents also began looking at her travel plans. Back in february she received her passport. Then just last month, she got a visa to travel to turkey. Also last month, she purchased a ticket from philadelphia this barcelona, spain, with a scheduled return of april 15th. But clearly according to this complaint, she had no intention of returning to the United States but was going to try to cross over into syria. If shes charged and if shes convicted on these charges, she could face a maximum of 15 years in prison. We seem to be seeing a lot of these types of cases on the scale of what we saw yesterday here in new york compared to this case in philadelphia. Certainly not as serious as those two women that we saw being arrested yesterday in new york city. But still serious nonetheless. Talk about some of these other cases. The one in particular that looked like it could have led to a terror attack on u. S. Soil as opposed to this new one were hearing about today. Reporter youre talking about the two men arrested here in new york city from queens new york. Arrested on charges of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, those two women, noelle velentzas, 28 years old, married with a young daughter and also asia siddiqui, 31 years old. They were roommates, arrested for conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. Federal Authorities Say these two gathered bombmaking materials including propane panics Pressure Cooker bombs. According to the criminal mrant, complaint, the women talked about targeting police as well. Velentzas husband spoke out and said he had no idea his wife was involved with Something Like this. Not only did he say that about his wife but he also said it about siddiqui as well. He said he knew her. He said they were, quote, just two normal women. Also siddiquis attorney came out yesterday, spoke about his client. He said his client is not guilty and when pressed for more information about her and the case he said he wasnt going to try it in front of the press but in the courtroom. Brianna . Jason carroll, thanks so much for the report. Ahead, the first pictures from inside that school in kenya where 147 people were ruthlessly gunned down by al shabaab terrorists. As terrible as it is to imagine what those victims went through, what our team saw in the school very bad as well. We are live from kenya next. In this moment your baby is getting more than clean. Your touch stimulates her senses and nurtures her mind. And the johnsons® scent lather and bubbles help enhance the experience. So why just clean your baby when you can give her so much more™ . Ride away by roy orbison begins to play i ride the highway. Im going my way. I leave a story untold. He just keeps sending more pictures. If youre a freerange chicken you roam free. Its what you do. 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At least 147 dead many others wounded after a brutal attack by Al Shabaab Islamist militants. These are the first images were getting from inside of the school. It is a gruesome scene where the al shabaab somali gunmen stormed the university. They killed several students took others hostages. Witnesses say then they started shooting christians while sparing muslims. After several hours, Kenyan Security forces moved in and managed to kill four gunmen. There was a somber mood at Christian Churches across kenya today as worshippers attended good friday services. At this church here in nairobi, they prayed for the victims of the attack. Cnns Christian Purefoy joining us live from kenya. What are we hearing in the aftermath of the attack today . We understand the details are terrible and that these gunmen really lured so many of these students out by promising that they would live. Reporter yes, brianna. The Actual University itself has been on lockdown all day but a heavy security presence as the ambulances and Security Forces come and go from that campus and the scene of that terrible what is basically mass murder. But stories are beginning to come out from the injured, from witnesses. And they really are terrible. Some people still finding them hiding in toilets and under beds. But the really horrific stuff we spoke to one medical doctor who went in shortly after the Security Forces and he said he saw people lying down flat their face facing the ground and gunshots to the back of their heads. Some students in the bed shot randomly. There was another survivor we spoke to who she said had to cover herself with the blood of her friends so she could pretend she also died. So many dead but so many survivors, its expected that theres going to be a lot more. How does this community handle this . How are they coping . Reporter well to be honest, its not just this community. This was a multireligious school a Multicultural School with students from across kenya. In fact if anything this community here hasnt really been affected that dramatically. Its the rest of kenya youve got families across the country who are still actually waiting to hear if their loved ones were killed because these bodies theyve been recovered but not all of them have been identified yet. So you have families desperate to know were their loved ones in that university. Its so heartbreaking, Christian Purefoy, to hear about this story. Thank you so much. Well continue to follow it with you. Saudi arabias military is ramping up security at the border with yemen. But is the kingdom playing defense or are they preparing to escalate the fight against yemeni rebels . And could this fight draw in other arab nations turn it into an even more dangerous conflict . People with type 2 diabetes come from all walks of life. If you have high blood sugar ask your doctor about farxiga. 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Farxiga can cause serious side effects including dehydration, genital yeast infections in women and men, low blood sugar, kidney problems, and increased bad cholesterol. Common side effects include urinary Tract Infections changes in urination and runny nose. Do the walk of life yeah, you do the walk of life need to lower your blood sugar . Ask your doctor about farxiga. And visit our website to learn how you may be able to get every month free. On land and at sea, the u. S. And saudi arabia are beefing up security. There are several u. S. Navy warships patrolling the waters off yemens coast. And saudi tanks are on the move toward yemens border after a Saudi Border Guard was shot dead. Im joined by retired Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona and Nic Robertson joining us on the phone now from saudi arabia. Nic, tell us specifically when were talking about u. S. Navy warships patrolling the waters, what are they looking for . Reporter well, you have saudi aircraft flying over. They will be able to provide and assist if there are any aircraft down the saudi airmen that need to be picked up certainly will be able to provide a better intelligence or a more complete intelligence oversight than the saudis can alone. Those are two of the things that will be useful for the saudis right now. The saudis do not have a particularly large navy. So this is a component that they lack in substantial quality. That will assist them as well. What the saudis want to do is to seal off and control all the coastline of yemen so the houthis cannot launch ships from one part of yemen to reinforce other parts of the country. That is an important part of what the saudis are trying to achieve here. So control the coastline and then also theyre beefing up security at the border. Talk to us about that and what the saudis are trying to achieve with that. Reporter we were at the border here two months ago. And when i went back today, its night and day comparison. Theres much more and tighter security. The Border Guards themselves, theyve reinforced their numbers. There are fresh sandbag positions. There are more machine guns, heavy machine guns out there. The Border Guards themselves even just driving around wearing body armor helmets because they believe the threats against them have increased. And a significant component of whats happened is theyre now supported by the saudi army. We saw at least a dozen tanks and heavy Armored Vehicles on transporter trucks being driven to the border when we were driving away. That was just one tiny snapshot of whats happening. This does not configure on the border from what weve seen to look like an imminent land invasion. What the saudis are doing, they have the Border Guards in the front line if you will right at the border and then perhaps half a mile behind you have tanks, other heavy military vehicles and other reinforcements belonging to the army. The saudis are involved, their success is not guaranteed. Is this the kind of conflict that can just suck in other nations . Well i think it already has done that. If you look at what the coalition consists of they claim to have egypt and some of the other gulf countries as well as pakistan. What were really seeing are the saudis doing this with a little bit of egyptian help. But it could if it gets any worse. But what nic said about the configuration of the border with the saudi army behind the border guard, doesnt look like theyre preparing for an imminent invasion. This is the last thing the saudis want to do. Get involved in a Land Campaign in yemen. Its never been successful. What they want to do is reach some sort of agreement, force the houthis into a diplomatic solution where they can restore al hadi to some sort of power arrangement. But they dont want to get into a land engagement there. So i think nic is right. Were seeing a defensive posture, not something geared toward an invasion. Sort of containment as they try to move toward some sort of solution. You have the saudis obviously involved here. You have the houthis. You have iranbacked militias. Is this a proxy war . You could look at it that way. Last thing they want is yet another iran state on their southern border. Theyd like to take care of that if they can. I think thats where theyre going to start going after the iranian proxy wars is in yemen. So whats the goal then trying to stop irans ascendency . Is that the goal for saudi arabia here . I think so. They have been in a power struggle since 1979. Once they had the revolution the iranians began to export that revolution and we saw them move into lebanon, syria and other areas. The saudis regard themselves as the key power player in the persian gulf. We are seeing that the iranians are on the verge of taking over that position. Yeah, we certainly are. Lieutenant colonel thanks so much for being with us. Really appreciate it. Coming up the Political Drama with a plot line that seems ripped from an episode of house of cards. You have new jersey senator Robert Menendez accused of getting lavish perks. And then Hillary Clinton hasnt said she is running for president yet, but a new clue that shes ready to announce sooner than later. New jobs numbers are out and already theyre being called a disappointment. The u. S. Only added 126,000 jobs last month. That makes march actually the worst month for job creation since the end of 2013. The Obama Administration acknowledged the figures as below the recent trend, but the president himself focused on the positive when he spoke moments ago at Hill Air Force base in utah. This morning we learned that our business created another 129,000 new jobs in march and that adds up to 3 million jobs over the past year more than 12 million new jobs over the past five years. Thats the longest stretch of private sector job creation on record. But weve got to be relentless in our work to grow the economy and create good jobs. Parts of the globe have seen their economies weaken. Europe has had a weaker economy. Asia has been slowing down. We have had the strongest economy. But were impacted by what happens around the world. And thats why we have to redouble our efforts. Now, the Unemployment Rate is Holding Steady at 5. 5 but the labor force actually shrank. Hillary clinton does not have an official president ial campaign yet but shes got a campaign office. Team clinton signed a lease for two floors of office space in a Brooklyn Heights building. Thats what a person familiar with the lease told cnn. The story was first reported in politico and this is an office just across the river from manhattan, very convenient to public transportation. For all those staffers. And the ink is barely dry on the 14count criminal indictment against senator Robert Menendez. The New York Times is already calling for him to resign. The newspapers Editorial Board today said quote, he would be doing a disservice to new jersey by clinging to power as a disgraced politician. His colleagues in the senate should demand that he step aside. At the centering of the scandal is menendez 20year relationship with this man. According to the Justice Department menendez received nearly 1 million in trips, donations and other perks. In return the feds allege that the senator helped him obtain u. S. Visas for three girl friends. They say menendez intervened in a medicare billing dispute, totaling nearly 9 million. Menendez has not pleaded guilty pardon me, has pleaded not guilty. Lets bring in athena jones. There is some pressure that the senator is facing but hes not always been a stranger to it. No, he hasnt. So far hes not seeing a lot of pressure to step down. His democratic colleagues like senator harry reid and others are saying let the Justice System do its job. Senator reid said in a statement i appreciate senator menendez willingness to temporarily step down as ranking member. He has been a consistent champion for the middle class. As i have said about both democrats and republicans, our Justice System is premised on the principle of innocent until Proven Guilty and senator menendez should not be judged until he has had his day in court. Now, the nrc is saying menendez betrayed the trust of new jersey families and that his actions reinforce all that the American People believe is wrong with washington democrats. So republicans are making hay out of this without calling on him to resign. Okay. Thats really interesting. And then athena you have menendez in his defense here is that this is a friendship that he had with this doctor and that the feds are twisting it into this case of corruption. Critics say, look its one and the same. So when in the case of a member of congress or a senator does a friendly gesture actually become an illegal act . Well thats right. He was very very defiant at his press conference on wednesday night. He was calmer but still angry after entering that not guilty plea in court yesterday. Hes insisted hes done nothing wrong and hes not going anywhere. Of course thats up for a jury to decide. This indictment you mentioned the 14 counts it includes 18 counts of bribery and it has a lot of details about the perks menendez got from this doctor friend. Were talking about 20 flights on private jets or in First Class Airline seats, a 5,000 threenight stay at a luxury holtz in paris, the use of a villa at an exclusive resort in the Dominican Republic and 750,000 in campaign contributions. So theres a lot he has to deal with here. Its quite a story. His next court date april 22nd. The trial is set for july. Its so washington. You know a friend with a private jet is a friend indeed i guess you could say. Athena jones, thank you so much. That is it for me. Ill be back at 5 00 p. M. Eastern for the situation room. Newsroom with brook baldwin starts right now. Thank you very much. Great to be with you on this friday. Im brooke baldwin. Youre watching cnn here. Now we have it. It might be the biggest clue into what happened in those final moments aboard Germanwings Flight 9525 and its coming from this burnedup black box. Its the flight data recorder already telling investigators something pretty huge. That this copilot 27yearold Andreas Lubitz didnt just intentionally fly this plane into the french alps but that he sped up while doing it. Specifically quote, he used the auto pilot to put the airplane into a descent