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ISIS Unveils Brand-New Demand; Spain Arrests Four in Terror Probe; Patriots Coach Speaking on Deflate-Gate; Two Planes Land Amid Security Threat

Aired January 24, 2015 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


WHITFIELD: Anthony, what's next for you?

MACKIE: I started shooting "Captain America 3" in a few months. So I'll be falconing back up again.

WHITFIELD: Exciting. Thanks so much. Good to see you.

MACKIE: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Kevin, Anthony, thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Very fun talking to them. That's right, first name basis now.

Hey, Kevin Costner believed in it so much, "Black or White," that he largely financed the whole thing. You can see the movie in theaters next Friday.

I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Thanks so much. Much more of the NEWSROOM straight ahead.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone, you're in the CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Poppy Harlow, joining you live from New York. A lot to talk about this afternoon.

ISIS may be testing a new strategy after a chilling new video of two hostages is revealed. The video appears to announce that only one hostage is still alive now that a ransom deadline for $200 million has passed.

CNN is not airing the extraordinarily graphic new video in which hostage Kenji Goto is holding a photograph that appears to show fellow hostage Haruna Yukawa beheaded. ISIS released these images of the two hostages more than one week ago.

In the new video released today, ISIS relayed a brand new demand to keep the remaining hostage alive, and it is not money. It is not weapons. ISIS wants a woman prisoner.

This is the woman you see. Her name Sajida al-Rishawi. She was arrested in Jordan in 2005 on suspicion of trying to participate in a deadly attack that killed dozens in Jordan. Why is this woman so important to ISIS?

Our expert panel tackles that topic in just a few moments.

Also, thousands of miles away, four new terror suspects are in custody. Spain, Spanish authorities arrested two sets of brothers today in a remote area bordering Morocco. Officials say the brothers were ready to blow themselves up and try to take other lives as well.

Just ahead, we'll talk about the similarities with the recent "Charlie Hebdo" attack in Paris.

And we are covering every angle of today's terror developments. Our teams are on the ground with the latest information.

CNN's Will Ripley is live for us in Tokyo. Also Al Goodman live for us in Madrid.

Let me begin with Will.

Will, to you, this is appalling, and unfortunately, it is what we have come to see from ISIS time and time again. How is Japan reacting to this new demand from ISIS to try to keep that second hostage alive?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Outrage, Poppy. Even though the Japanese government has yet to authenticate this video, we've heard from the prime minister and these top officials condemning, strongly condemning this video. The prime minister said he was speechless thinking about the agony that these families are going through right now, but we -- you know, another key point here is that they need to investigate this video because it is very different, as you mentioned, from any of the other ISIS videos that we're used to seeing.

The high production videos with an ISIS logo stamped onto the screen. This has none of that. It's a still picture with a voice alleging to be Kenji Goto, but they're going to have to compare the voice on this new tape with Kenji Goto's voice from many of the reports that he's filed from war zones over the years. They're going to have to look at the photos to see if they've been altered in any way.

But for Haruna Yukawa's family, the possibility there's a graphic video of his decapitated body now circulating on the Internet, devastating, devastating for them. And for Kenji Goto's wife, Rinko, and -- who's home with two daughters including a newborn, I mean, this voice spoke directly to her saying that he could very well be a dead man walking, and urging her to pressure the Japanese government, to pressure the prime minister, to secure this Jordanian prisoner release. He said if they trade me for her, then I could be a free man.

Just unthinkable, Poppy.

HARLOW: It is unthinkable. And also what has changed dramatically, I mean, ISIS was asking the Japanese government, saying in order to get these two citizens back, you'll have to pay us $200 million, now they've changed that demand. They want this prisoner, this Iraqi woman who is a prisoner in Jordan for her attempt to detonate a bomb strapped to her. She confessed to it on television. Ultimately, this attack with her husband killed some 60 people.

Any sense of why ISIS is shifting its demand and if they think that they have any chance of getting Jordan to release her?

RIPLEY: Well, clearly, they have decided that there's no way, and we knew from the beginning it was impossible, a $200 million ransom would be paid. Some were saying that that might just have been a symbolic number because that's what Japan is contributing to the fight against ISIS, the humanitarian aid.

We know that the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, had at least one phone conversation several hours ago with the king of Jordan. And we also know that he -- he has been, again, in emergency meetings with his top level cabinet officials. But how much -- how much pressure can Japan really put on Jordan to release a convicted terrorist, convicted of an attack that as you said killed dozens of people?

One other interesting thing to note, this new video does not give a specific timeline, a 72-hour timeline like we saw in the previous videos.

HARLOW: Right.

RIPLEY: So potentially, Poppy, as long as ISIS feels, if indeed Kenji Goto is alive, if they feel that they can use him to get -- to leverage the Japanese government, this is something that we could see drag on and on or it could end very tragically.

HARLOW: Well, it is a tragedy what happened, the life lost of Haruna Yukawa.

Thank you very much, Will Ripley, joining us live from Tokyo this evening. We appreciate it.

Let's also address the situation in Spain. At least 40 people have been arrested in these raids across Europe since last month's massacre at the "Charlie Hebdo" satirical magazine in Paris. Well, earlier today Spain, Spanish authorities picked up two sets of brothers who the police there say belonged to a terror cell and were willing to blow themselves up.

Joining me now Madrid bureau chief Al Goodman.

What do we know about these brothers, Al?

AL GOODMAN, CNN MADRID BUREAU CHIEF: Hi, Poppy. Well, the difference here according to authorities is just that. That they were willing to carry out an attack here in Spain in Europe. And that's a big difference from what's happened in Spain in the last year. Dozens of arrests of suspected Islamic militants for allegedly recruitment, logistics, that kind of low-level stuff. And here we have this.

Now the Interior minister also said that they were highly radicalized, that they had training in weapons, they had mental and physical training, but they are not sure exactly how much other infrastructure they had. That's what they're taking a look at right now -- Poppy.

HARLOW: In terms of any charges brought against them, I know it's early going. This happened today, of course, it's 9:00 there at night, but do we have any sense of the charges that they're considering at this time?

GOODMAN: Well, the first charge based on the scant police notes that have come out would be membership in a terrorist group, that -- they can hold these people for several days, three days, and do interrogations, which is a standard procedure before they bring him into a judge. This was all run by -- basically the court that handles terrorism cases, so it's the most serious, and it was happening in these territories, Spanish -- tiny Spanish territories on Morocco's north coast that are really considered a front line in the fight against terrorism.

And this is why all of these pieces are falling into place on why there's so much attention on these arrests today -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Al Goodman, live for us in Spain. Al, we'll get back to you later in the program.

Right now, for all of you watching at home, I want to bring you a live press conference, Patriots coach, Bill Belichick, speaking at this moment. Let's listen in.

BILL BELICHICK, HEAD COACH, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS: It's clear that I don't know very much about this area. Over the last few days I've learned a lot more than I ever knew, like exponentially more.

I feel like this is important because there have been questions raised and I believe now 100 percent that I have personally, and we, as an organization, have absolutely followed every rule to the letter. I just feel that on behalf of everyone in the organization, everyone that's involved in this organization, that we need to say something.

So I've talked to and gathered a lot of information from members of our staff. I have talked to other people familiar with this subject in other organizations and we have performed an internal study of the process and I think there are certainly other things that I can do and there's maybe other research that can be done, but I'd say at this time, I definitely have enough information to share with you.

And so based on the events of today, I feel like now is the time to do it rather than wait. And so I know this is kind of an impromptu thing, but that's just the way it worked out.

First of all, let me start with the process. As Tom explained on Thursday, the most important part of the football for the quarterback is the feel of the football. I don't think there's any question about that. And the exterior feel of the ball is not only critical, but it's also very easily identifiable.

When I feel a football, I can feel a difference between slippery and tacky. I can feel the difference between the texture of the ball of how -- to what degree it's broken in. If you put five balls out there, which ball is broken in the most, which football is broken in the least. That's easy to identify. And that's the essence of the preparation.

We prepare our balls over time and we use them in practice. And that preparation process continues right up until the balls are given to the officials prior to the game. That's when they are finalized, if I could use that word. I would say that in that process I've handled dozens of balls over the past week. The texture of the balls is very easy to identify. The pressure of the balls -- footballs is a whole different story. It's much more difficult to feel or identify.

So the focus of our pregame preparation for the footballs is based on texture and feel. And I think Tom went into that extensively on Thursday and he obviously could go through it a lot better than I can because he is the one that touched them. But that's the heart of the process.

So we simulated the -- a game day situation in terms of the preparation of the footballs and where the footballs were at various points in time during the day or night as the case was Sunday. And I would say that our preparation process for the footballs is what we do, all right, I can't speak for anybody else. It's what we do, and that process we have found raises the PSI approximately one pound.

So that process of creating a tackiness, a texture, a -- the right feel, whatever that feel is, it's just a -- you know, it's a sensation for the quarterback, what's the right feel. That process elevates the PSI approximately one pound based on what our study showed, which was multiple balls, multiple examples in the process as we would do for a game. It's not one football.

When the balls are delivered to the officials' locker room, the officials were asked to inflate them to 12.5 PSI. What exactly they did, I don't know, but for the purposes of our study, that's what we did. We set them at 12.5. That's at the discretion of the official, though, regardless of what we asked for, it's the officials' discretion to put them where he wants.

Again, that's done in a controlled climate. The footballs are prepared in our locker room. They are delivered to the officials' locker room, which is a controlled environment. It's whatever we have here is what we have there. When the footballs go out on the field in the game conditions, whatever those conditions are, whether it's hot and humid, whether it's cold and damp, whether it's cold and dry, whether it's -- whatever it is, that's where the footballs are played with.

And that's where the measurements would be different than what they are, possibly different than what they are in a controlled environment. And that's what we found. We found that once the balls, the footballs were on the field over an extended period of time, in other words, they were adjusted to the climatic conditions and also the fact that the ball -- the balls, you know, reached an equilibrium without the rubbing process that after that had, you know, run its course and the footballs have reached an equilibrium, that they were down approximately 1.5 pounds per square inch. When we brought the footballs back in after that process and retested

them in a controlled environment as we have here, then those measurements rose approximately one-half pound per square inch, so the net of 1.5 back to a half is approximately one pound per square inch to one and a half.

Now we all know that air pressure is a function of the atmospheric conditions. It's a function of that. So if there's activity in the ball relative to the rubbing process, I think that explains why, when we gave them to the officials, and the officials put it out, let's say 12.5, if that's in fact what they did, that once the ball reached its equilibrium state, it probably was closer to 11.5, but that's -- again, that's just our measurements.

We can't speak specifically to what happened because we are not -- have no way of touching the footballs other than once the officials have them, we don't touch them except for when we play with them in the game. But it's similar to the concept of when you get into your car and the light comes on, and it says low tire pressure because the car has been sitting in the driveway, outside, overnight, and you start it up, you start driving it, and the light goes off.

It's a similar concept to that. So the atmospheric conditions as well as the true equilibrium of the ball is critical to the measurement. In no -- at no time was -- were any of our footballs prepared anywhere other than in the locker room or in an area very close to that. Never in a heated room or heated condition. That's absolutely never taken place to anyone's knowledge or recollection, and that's -- I mean, that's just not -- didn't happen.

When you measure a football, there are a number of different issues that have -- that come up. Number one, gauges, there are multiple types of gauges, and the accuracy of one gauge relative to another is -- there's variance there. We're talking about air pressure, all right? So there's some variance there. Clearly, all footballs are different. So balls -- footballs that come out of the similar pack, a similar box, a similar preparation, each ball has its own unique individual characteristics because it's not a manmade piece of equipment.

It's an animal skin. It's a bladder. It's stitching. It's laces. And each one has its own unique characteristics so whatever you do with that football, if you do the same thing with another one, it might be close, but there's a variance between each individual football.

Footballs do not get measured during the game. We have no way of knowing until we went through this exercise that this is really taking place. So when we hand the balls to the officials, the officials put them at, whatever they put them at, but let's just say it's 12.5, that's where they put them, then the air pressure at that point from then on until the end of the game, we have no knowledge of. And honestly it's never been a concern.

So what is a concern is the texture of the ball -- footballs, and, again, that's the point that Tom hit on hard on Thursday. We had our quarterbacks look at a number of footballs, and they were unable to differentiate a one-pound-per-square inch difference in those footballs. They were unable to do it. On a two-pound differential, there was some degree of differentiation, but certainly not a consistent one.

A couple ones they could pick out, but they were all so wrong in some of the other ones that they had. So you're welcome to do that yourself. But -- and I can tell you from all the footballs that I handled over the last week, I can't tell the difference if there's one -- a one-pound difference or half a pound difference in any of the footballs.

Again, anyone who has seen us practice knows that we make it harder, not easier to handle the ball, and our players train in conditions that a lot of people would recommend that we not drive in. That's what they do. They are a physically and mentally tough team that works hard, that trains hard, that prepares hard, and have met every challenge that I put in front of them. And I know that because I work them every day.

This team was the best team in the AFC in the regular season. We won two games in the playoffs against two good football teams, best team in the post season, and that's what this team is. And I know that because I've been with them every day. And I'm proud of this team. So I just want to share with you what I've learned over the past week.

I'm embarrassed to talk about the amount of time that I've put into this relative to the other important challenge in front of us. I'm not a scientist. I'm not an expert in footballs. I'm not an expert in football measurements. I'm just telling you what I know. I would not say that I'm Mona Lisa Vito of the football world as she was in the car expertise area, all right?

And at no time was there any intent whatsoever to try to compromise the integrity of the game or to gain an advantage. Quite the opposite. We feel like we followed the rules of the game to the letter in our preparations, in our procedures, all right, and in the way that we handle every game that we competitively played as it relates to this matter, all right? We try to do everything right. We err on the side of caution.

It's been that way now for many years. Anything that's close, we stay as far away from the line as we can. And in this case, I can say that we are, as far as I know and everything that I can do, we did everything as right as we could do it.

And we welcome the League's investigation into this matter. We think there are a number of things that need to be looked into on a number of levels, but that's not for this conversation. I'm sure it'll be taken up at another point in time.

And this is the end of this subject for me for a long time. OK? We have a huge game, a huge challenge for our football team, and that's where that focus is going to go. I've spent more than enough time on this, and I'm happy to share this information with you to try to tell you some of the things that I have learned over the last week, which I've learned way more than I ever thought I would learn.

The -- the process, the whole thing is much more complex and -- I mean, there are a lot of variables that I was unaware of. It sounds simple. And I'm not trying to say that, you know, we're trying to land a guy on the moon, but there's a lot of things here that are -- that are a little hard to get a handle on, and again, there's a variance in so many of these things.

All right. So I'll take a couple of questions, and then I'm moving on.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Did the NFL share be you the pregame documented PSI?

BELICHICK: You would have to talk to the NFL about anything they did or didn't do.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So you don't know if they documented it?

BELICHICK: Look, Tom, we could sit here and talk about some of those stuff for two hours, all right? You want to ask the League any questions about what they do or don't do, you should ask the League. I'm just telling you what I've learned, and the study that we've done, and the experience that I've had over the last few days in looking into this matter. That's all I can tell you. I'm not a scientist. And I'm not a league official.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you feel like after the amount of work and research you've put into this week that you'll be exonerated from this whole thing?

BELICHICK: I just told you what I think. That's what I think right there.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Has your game preparation been compromised at all? I know you usually spend this week in game planning.

BELICHICK: Well, I've spent a lot of the weekend game planning, yes. A lot of this week. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you feel like any of it has been compromised?

BELICHICK: We -- no. Look, I told you, I thought this was an important issue and we addressed it. So we did.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: If I hear you correctly, it sounds like it's a combination of atmospheric or weather conditions and then trusting that the officials did inflate the footballs to 12.5 PSI. Is that correct?

BELICHICK: Well, I think, look, you can take the atmospheric conditions out of it because if the balls are measured in the same atmospheric conditions, then it's a nonfactor. But if you measure a ball in a controlled condition like this and you measure a ball, and let's just say the night that we played Baltimore, there's no way they're the same.

You take that ball and set it outside and the ball becomes accustomed to those climatic conditions and those temperatures, there's no way it's the same. And if you take it out, and bring it in, and let it sit for X amount of time, then, you know, it probably is the same. So no, that's not the issue, although depending on where balls were measured and how they were measured, I mean, that's a whole another -- you know, that's a whole another discussion.

No, the situation is the preparation of the ball caused the ball to I would say be artificially high in PSI when it was set to the regulation -- regulated level, and then it reached its equilibrium at some point later on, you know, an hour or two hours into the game, into the -- whatever it was, that that level was below what was set in this climatic condition. I think that's exactly what happened.

And I think anybody who wants to do those experiments should go ahead and do them themselves. Don't take my word for it. But I'm telling you, like, we haven't -- we're trying to get to the answer to this, and that's what we have.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So you said you always try to err on the side of caution and try to stay on the right side of the rules, but with the videotaping it was clear that you were pushing the envelope on that. Is that something that changed that or is that --

BELICHICK: No, well -- I mean, look, that's a whole another discussion. But I'm just -- the guys giving signals out in front of 80,000 people, OK? So we filmed him taking signals out in front of 80,000 people like there were a lot of other teams doing at that time, too. OK. But forget about that. If we were wrong, then we've been disciplined for that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: That's clearly not trying to do everything you can to stay on the sidelines.

BELICHICK: The guy's in front of 80,000 people. 80,000 people saw it. Everybody on the sideline saw it. Everybody sees our guy in front of 80,000 people. I mean, there he is. So it was wrong. We were disciplined for it. That's it. We never did it again. We're never going to do it again, and anything else that's close, we're not going to do either.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So is that a change? I'm talking about what you said a few minutes ago which is that we always trying to stay on the right side.

BELICHICK: We always do. We always have. But I mean, anything that's even remotely close, we're on the side of caution.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Coach, you talked a lot about science today. Did you have any science people help with your investigation?

BELICHICK: We talked to a lot of people.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How much time did you spend on it? BELICHICK: I don't know. I didn't log it.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are you relieved by what you've found with your investigation or are you just --

BELICHICK: I didn't -- look, I came in here Thursday and I told you that I didn't have any answers. I just -- and I'm very confident in the things that we've talked about, the study that we did, the going through with a fine-tooth comb, everything. I'm 100 percent confident in everything that I've told you. That's what I believe. That's what I know. That's what it is. I'm as transparent as I can be on this one, period.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Is that a yes that you feel relieved by what --

BELICHICK: Look, I did what I did. No, I'm not using those adjectives. I told you what I did. That's what it is.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Is there one thing that you did that caused it to raise 1.5 PSI? Did you put it in front of the heater? Did you put it in dryers? Do you know what it was?

BELICHICK: No, it was never put in front of a heater. I just said that, Tom.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: No, no. I'm talking about whatever you do to the ball that makes it rise --

BELICHICK: You rub it. You try to get the texture the way the quarterback wants it.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I'm just trying to establish what it was that made it rise.

BELICHICK: I just said that, Tom. And I said that in no time was the football ever put in any type of heated environment. All right?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And so you rub it vigorously?

BELICHICK: We rub it to get the ball to the proper texture. Yes, it's -- I mean, I don't know what's vigorous, what isn't -- I mean, we're not polishing fine China here. We're trying to get a football to the proper texture the quarterback wants it to grip it. Does that stimulate something inside the ball to raise the PSI? I would say, yes, it does.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Based on the --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I'm curious, what do you do then differently going forward? You say you're always going to err on the side of caution? You're going to make --

BELICHICK: Well, that -- well, that's another -- you're getting into another whole area here. You're getting into another whole area as it relates to the next game. Yes? That's exactly right. I couldn't, and that's exactly why -- exactly why this whole process was done for that very reason. And I don't know the answer to that question, but that's a very important question.

Yes? OK. All right, thank you.

HARLOW: All right, you've just been listening to a live press conference from Patriots coach, Bill Belichick. The first time we've heard from him since that press conference he gave followed by a presser from Tom Brady on Thursday.

A few highlights, then I'm going to bring our experts in to discuss, saying 100 percent I personally and we as an organization have followed every rule to a letter, talking about the controversy over whether anyone on that team intentionally deflated the footballs in their last game. The game that they won, to head to the Super Bowl. He also said that the process they followed was that officials were asked to inflate the balls, the Patriots' footballs, to 12.5 PSI within regulation, then he said what they did after that, I don't know.

He also talked about the air pressure in the balls being a function of atmospheric conditions. Of course, there was quite a lot of inclement weather during that game, and 100 percent standing behind his team, his organization saying we did nothing improper here. He said he welcomes the league's investigation into the matter. He also said this is the end of the subject for me for a very long time.

Let me bring in Christine Brennan, CNN sports analyst and expert on all this.

Christine, thank you for being with us. First, I know you were listening into that as well. What's your reaction to what we just heard from Coach Belichick?

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST (via phone): Poppy, that was surreal. I mean, if we thought that this story was weird and strange, bizarre, all week, it got weirder and stranger today. I mean, that's kind of impromptu press conference by a man not known for softness or kindness. Obviously, Bill Belichick is disgusted. He just didn't want to be going into this, he's preparing for the Super Bowl, and yet he gave a science lecture, the likes of which many of us haven't heard since our freshmen year of college.

HARLOW: Yes.

BRENNAN: And, you know, it really kind of summed up I think everything we feel about this week. If you -- if you can't stand Bill Belichick and if you cannot stand the Patriots, you think they cheated and lied, well, you've got fodder there, and if you're fed up with the story and really think it's not a big deal, well, Bill Belichick is with you there.

HARLOW: Right. BRENNAN: I think the one thing, Poppy, that comes back to me still on

this is the air pressure, the weather, all of the things that Bill Belichick talked about, which were credible and interesting yet even. Bizarre as they were. That the issue is why didn't this affect the footballs being used by the Indianapolis Colts? Why was it only the Patriots' football that had this drop in pressure? And that, obviously, is something that we still do not know the answer to.

HARLOW: It's a great question, Christine. I wish you were in the room to ask that because none of the reporters -- they were able to get questions in, didn't ask that, so we don't have his response to that.

Do you find it odd that he did this really spur of the moment, very impromptu. We just learned this press conference was coming within the last hour. Why do it like that?

BRENNAN: Well, it sounds like, without knowing, I'm not there, of course, neither you or I are there, but it sounds like they finished up their work on this, and Belichick -- has had it.

(LAUGHTER)

I think we can safely say that Bill Belichick is absolutely had it. He's at wit's end. It's like the world's longest day at work, you come home, and you just don't want to talk to anybody, well, that's where Bill Belichick was. And by the way, I'm not -- I'm not saying this isn't serious, but you do have to have moments where you laugh or you kind of say, my goodness. What are we watching here?

HARLOW: Right. Right.

BRENNAN: So my sense is that Belichick said, we got it, let's do it. He's at wit's end, and so he wants to just do this on his terms.

Nothing new there. Bill Belichick of the Patriots doing what they want when they want to, being brash, not necessarily apologizing, being their own biggest advocates. This is standard operating procedures for the Patriots, and I've got to believe if the NFL did not know this press conference was coming, I've got to believe they're not entirely happy about this press conference.

HARLOW: Right.

BRENNAN: Because of course they are still investigating, so the plot thickens, and the Patriots, being the Patriots, the Patriots way, doing their own thing, I think we saw a perfect example of them just saying, we don't care what anyone else think, we're doing a press conference, and we're doing it right now.

HARLOW: Yes. Look, he was asked, is this sort of taking your focus off preparing for the Super Bowl? You know, he said, no, we've been doing plenty of preparing. He also said this is the end of the subject for me for a long time, but, Christine, Tuesday is media day, ahead of the Super Bowl. The only way he could not be asked about this is if he doesn't have any sort of press conference. That's not likely to happen, is it?

BRENNAN: No. This is not the end for him at all and it's not even close to the end. The timing couldn't be more interesting. It's Saturday. Everyone is going to the Super Bowl tomorrow or Monday when they have it on media people, I'm going Monday night, and when I arrive, as you said, Tuesday, that is, of course, the press conference meet day. It's kind of a ridiculous American cultural ritual anyway.

And now you throw this story into the mix, you -- he's not done with it today, Bill Belichick will not be done with it, but on Tuesday, he will not be done with it by next Sunday, and frankly, he probably will never be done with it again.

This will be part of his legacy.

HARLOW: Wow.

BRENNAN: Again, whether you think it's ridiculous or whether you think it's important, he's going to be dealing with this or being asked about it or having a trailing him on WikiPedia entries for the rest of his life and so it's not over, but I do understand from his perspective, if we look at that for just a moment, I do understand a man who's trying to be coaches. I've covered them for years. They do not like distractions. They want to be focused on X's and O's.

And so one can only imagine just distracted and how angry is -- Bill Belichick is over all of this that's been going on. So that's -- he's a chance to say, hey, I'm done with it. Well, obviously a lot of us will have another say in the matter.

HARLOW: Let me ask you this, Christine. So if he was asked by one of the reporters there at the end of his statement, whether, you know, this is a team that always follows the letter of the law, obviously referring to spygate if you will, you know, Bill Belichick himself being fined for, you know, there being spying within the organization years ago on other teams.

Do you think that should be part of this conversation?

BRENNAN: I do. I think past history is always a part of the conversation. If this were a team that has been squeaky clean throughout its entire existence, I'm not sure who that might be, but let's just there is one or two teams out there in the NFL, we'd have an entirely different reaction. Because it's the Patriots, because it's Bill Belichick, because of the history of spygate, and the abstinence, you know, the confidence in this ends today.

This is what we do and you know, we're not necessarily apologizing for it, what have you, which, by the way, good for them on some levels. Patriots really are at the top. I mean, they have every right if they want to go ahead and be confident and cocky about things, OK. But in the case of spygate, and that story, you even saw there where Bill Belichick was saying, well, 80,000 people saw it, hey, we apologized, but everyone's doing it, but hey, we apologized, but, you know, we paid the price. But everyone's doing it. He's still reluctant to cave in on that one, and so I think it's -- I

think absolutely, you can't say it's history, bottom line, on anything these days as we know in our lives with the Internet. It's never going to go away. You'll live with it forever, and because spygate was such a big deal a few years ago, and now this is such a big deal, it's absolutely appropriate and proper that we would be discussing both of those situations when we're talking about this one.

HARLOW: One of the things that he was asked is -- one of the reporters said, did you speak to any scientists in this investigation, and he didn't directly answer that. He said, we spoke to a lot of people, yet he came out and gave a pretty scientific analysis for someone who admittedly said he's not a scientist and not an expert in footballs in terms of, you know, how far they are inflated or not.

Did you find that surprising that he wasn't more forthcoming with the people that had done this internal investigation?

BRENNAN: I was surprised. It seems to me if you're going to these lengths on a Saturday afternoon, you know, this kind of press conference that's been covered by CNN and probably many other networks, that you would then say, here's who we talked to, we went to MIT and we talked to this person, we went to Harvard, and we talked to this person, went to Boston University, we talked to this person.

HARLOW: Right.

BRENNAN: I mean, it would make perfect sense to do that. And they didn't do that. So it does open the question of who they spoke to. I'm assuming some reporters, maybe the beat writers will get those answers, but that's another question, in addition to why the Colts' footballs were different in the same atmosphere.

The other question is yes, who were those sources, who did they speak with, I'd love to have that full list of people. I think that'd be helpful. And my sense is, Poppy, we will get that information.

HARLOW: Here's the thing. We are a week and a day out from the Super Bowl, right? So the NFL has left this investigation open ended. When you look at the investigation to bullying with the Miami Dolphins, you took three months. So it's not likely that we're going to get an answer from the NFL before Super Bowl Sunday.

In terms of fines, penalties, if indeed, if it is found that anyone on the Patriots' team broke the rules here, acted improperly, the penalty has a fine. Is that what penalties should be in this day and age in sports when you talk about the seriousness of playing the game fair?

BRENNAN: Well, certainly, we've seen in the past, with Belichick, you know, he was fined heavily $500,000 with spygate, the Patriots $250,000, and a draft pick. I think fines are certainly part of the process.

It's still important I think, Poppy, for all of us to start to figure out exactly how egregious this was. As we know, many other people play the game, not media people like me and you, but played the game, football players have talked about this, this is no big deal. Others are saying it is a big deal. Some say they can figure out the difference in the PSI, others cannot.

There have been times this whole week where I have wondered, do we laugh out loud about this or do we take it incredibly seriously?

HARLOW: Right.

BRENNAN: And I think a lot of Americans feel that way. How big a deal is this? Is this ridiculous that we're spending this time on it? Or is it important?

But I do think the answers will come. Obviously the NFL is looking into this. One would hope it would come soon, but with the Super Bowl, I'm not expecting that necessarily. I would expect fines, yes. Does it come to the level of losing draft picks or suspending people? I don't think we have the answer to that yet because so far Tom Brady says he did nothing wrong. Bill Belichick has now said twice he did nothing wrong and the Patriots did nothing wrong.

So if no one did anything wrong, obviously, you cannot find -- and if they can't find the answer, the NFL can't in its investigation, then you're not going to be able to throw a penalty, through suspensions of people because no one -- did anything wrong. That -- the jury is out on that.

But I think, again, this is something that we'll be following, obviously. We will not -- let this go for a moment.

HARLOW: Yes.

BRENNAN: And then I think it will become clear, once the answers are there, whether there should be fines or suspensions, or whether this is business as usual.

HARLOW: Right.

BRENNAN: And every team is doing it. I hope at that point there will be clarity in one of the more bizarre story that I have ever covered.

HARLOW: Christine, I think it's important to point out two things. Let's remember that this was -- this was found out during the midst of the game, and the balls were properly inflated to the correct, you know, league levels, and that the Pats still won the game. In the second half of the game they were played -- playing with balls at regulation inflation, between 12.5 and 13.5 PSI.

Let's also talk about what Tom Brady said in that press conference on Thursday. He was asked that question that you were just discussing. Is the media blowing this out of proportion? And he said, quote, "It's very serious. This is a very serious topic. Obviously the integrity of the sport is very important."

So, Tom Brady, quarterback of the Patriots, saying this is really important. We need to get to the bottom of this. BRENNAN: I think the reason we saw that is because he laughed it off,

on this radio show Monday, which, you know, also, he had no idea how a big deal this was becoming. I don't think any of us had an idea. I think it's important for members of the media to say, you know, we're coming along here, too, and realizing that this is becoming a huge story, whether, again, kind of shockingly in some ways.

Integrity is -- I mean, let's just clear, the integrity of any sporting event or anything we do is hugely important, and especially this year of all years in the NFL when we've had the start of the season in September with the Ray Rice elevator video. Thankfully, this story, deflate-gate, is nowhere near as important as the Ray Rice issue and domestic violence.

No way, shape or form does the inflating of football come close to the -- this hugely important societal issue that the conversation, national conversation we've all had over domestic violence because of the Ray Rice video on September 8th.

HARLOW: Yes.

BRENNAN: And so, the common denominator there is the integrity of the league. And that is why this story, coming at this time in this season of all season, is getting the attention that it deserves. I would say it does deserve it. And why integrity matters not only on this issue, but because of what's happened already this season in the National Football League.

HARLOW: Christine Brennan, very important point. Stand by. Thank you for the analysis. Stand by. Stay with us.

I also want to bring in to our conversation LZ Granderson. He joins us on the phone as well.

LZ, your reaction thus far to some of the headlines. I know you didn't get to hear the whole thing but some of the headlines out of the -- out of the Bill Belichick past coach press conference here, saying look, 100 percent, I have personally and we as an organization have followed every rule to a letter. He said that air pressure is a function of atmospheric condition. And he said, look, we asked the officials to bring the balls up to 12.5 PSI. What they did after that, I don't know.

Your reaction, LZ?

LZ GRANDERSON, CNN COMMENTATOR (via phone): Well, the problem is, is that is through the lens of spygate, and once you've had that happen to your legacy, to your franchise, everything you say going forward is going to be looked at with a little bit more scrutiny.

Had the league not destroyed the tape, had you not been fined the highest amount of money in league history, had you not had the admission of guilt to cheating before, then perhaps this does get kind of swept under the rug like a mistake of atmospheric pressure, whatever, but the franchise brought this on themselves. And so they have to deal with the fallout any time that you're in a

position to be called a cheater. You have to address those accusations because you've been caught and admitted it before.

HARLOW: LZ, can we talk about the second half, though? I mean, that's something that -- fact is fact, right? The second half of the game, balls were inflated to the regulation standard for the league. Should we be taking that into account as we discuss this and frankly, as we wait for any sort of answers from the NFL?

GRANDERSON: You know, anyone who covers sports would tell you that no game is decided by one play, or not even necessarily one player. No team sport. And so it's very difficult to look at one-half of a football game and say, well, we can discount the first half. Because things that were established in addition to the score that were established in the first half would have an impact of how a team is going to respond in the second half.

Case in point, if certain throws become easier, if certain catches become easier because the ball is so much easier, then a team is going to make a judgment based upon what played out in the first half. Now am I saying that, you know, an alleged deflated ball is the complete reason why the team were shut out in the second half and, you know, outscored by the Patriots, no.

But what I am saying is you can't -- you can't untangle this particular web. It would be like saying Barry Bonds had a Hall of Fame career prior to where he allegedly to be started taking steroids. So he should be let (INAUDIBLE) to the league. Well, no, it does (INAUDIBLE) into the Hall of Fame. No, it doesn't work that way.

I understand that you may have had these numbers in one-half versus the second half, but that impacts the entirety of how you look at a game.

HARLOW: So, LZ and Christine -- Christine, I'd like you to weigh in on this as well after LZ. We heard not only on Thursday from Coach Bill Belichick, and then from him again today, but also from Tom Brady. Now we haven't heard from Tom Brady since then. We may before the Super Bowl, but, you know, understandably listening to Bill Belichick, as you said, comes with the background of spygate and the penalty that he paid.

But what about listening to Tom Brady? Should that play into the credibility that we give to Tom Brady, though?

GRANDERSON: Well, I would tell you this, I'm a hack basketball player. Anyone who plays hack basketball can tell the difference in ball pressure as soon as you touch the ball. And guys are trying to knock you to get a better basketball to play with.

I'm a hack tennis player. I can tell immediately within three or four strokes whether or not my tension and my strains need to be adjusted or not, or if I need to grab a different racket. So no one who's played any sort of sports in a consistent basis believes that someone whose livelihood is upon the specifications of their football didn't notice that the ball was at a certain pressure. No one is buying that.

And that also is feeding into why we continue to press with this deflate-gate is because a couple of things that these folks -- these individuals have said just doesn't add up or make sense.

HARLOW: Christine, your take?

BRENNAN: Yes, I -- well, I agree with LZ on most things. And I do on this as well. I mean, you know, Brady came out there and he said what he said. So we as journalists listen, and that's what he said, and right now, you know, of course he's saying he had nothing to do with this and doesn't know how this happened.

I know there is a real -- whether it's -- there are two schools of thought here in terms of, you know, some people say I couldn't tell the difference in pressure, some could. Brady, obviously, you know, you would think he could. You also understand that they're very busy in the middle of a game and you're trying to win a game and you're not thinking about the pressure, if, in fact, Brady had nothing to do with it.

I think because of Brady -- the bigger issue here, Brady's, you know, golden boy personality, the golden boy kind of aura about him, I think he brings -- will bring more scrutiny to him. There's the sense that, OK, is he telling truth or is he not? He's got an image that has been pretty perfect, and is that going to change?

We will get the answer to that. Again, I'm not sure we know a lot -- enough now. But we will, and going forward, here comes the Super Bowl, as you said earlier, Poppy. Here comes media day. This is going to just be every question. I cannot imagine Tom Brady is going to get anything but this, except this and how it's relating to preparation for the game on Sunday.

And so it's not over. And I know that some people might say, oh, my gosh, I wish it would be over, but it's not. And we you get to the issue of integrity, as much as this is about inflating footballs, I think it shouldn't be over because this is what we do. If you can't trust the games that you're watching, if you can't, as LZ -- as he mentioned, steroids, performance-enhancing drugs, you can't trust that you're watching an unaltered product on the field of play, then what do we have? And what are you spending your money on as fans?

So I think that's the reason why we continue to pursue things. I promise I will, but as far as Brady, his image is hanging in the balance here, and I think there's a lot that we're going to have to find out to see which way it goes.

HARLOW: CNN sports analyst Christine Brennan, LZ Granderson, CNN commentator, thank you both for that.

Stay with us as, we'll be following this throughout the evening here on CNN.

Quick break, we're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. This just into CNN. We are learning that NORAD fighter jets have escorted two airline flights to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. This is related to credible security threats. Passengers at this moment being taken off the planes. They have landed safely both flights there at Atlanta's airport.

What we're looking at is a NORAD spokesperson saying the plane's intended destination was Atlanta so there was no diversion.

Also bomb disposal crews are inspecting the planes.

Joining me now on the phone aviation correspondent Rene Marsh.

Rene, what do we know about the threat that was called in? We know one flight is a Delta flight, one flight a Southwest flight.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (via phone): That's correct. And we know, Poppy, that they were apparently, according to my sources, these threats were posted on social media. And that is the route that they used to get this information out. Of course at the time that the social media bomb threats were posted, these aircraft were in the sky at this moment bound for Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport.

You mentioned the two fighter jets which were called into play to escort these two aircrafts until they landed safely there on the ground at Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport. This is all procedure. This is what happens when you have a threat such as this one with the, you know, passengers and the aircraft in the air as they do not want to take chances. I will say that this sort of threat, especially via social media, it happens. It happens a lot.

Unfortunately, way too often according to many of the people I speak to in the industry who have to essentially respond to this sort of thing. Many times it works out that there is an all-clear once they've searched the aircraft. However, in this day and age, authorities, law enforcement, airlines, airports, they don't want to take that chance.

HARLOW: Right.

MARSH: So whenever there's this sort of threat on social media, you take it very seriously. And both airlines telling us that the screening process is going on at this point in which they're essentially going through, making sure that there is no bomb on board these two aircraft -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Right. And for our viewers -- Rene, stay with me.

For our viewers watching, you're looking at live pictures from a tower cam there at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Passengers being deplaned from that Delta Flight 1156 landing safely there in Atlanta. Also Southwest Flight 2492 landing safely, passengers deplaning there as well.

Rene -- let me ask you this, Rene. When you're a passenger on the plane, whether they saw those fighter jets side by side with their planes, it'd be incredibly unnerving. At the same time, do we have any sense if the pilot or the flight attendants said anything to the passengers while they were on board or if as they deplane now they will just be learning what has happened?

MARSH: It is unclear at this point, you know, what was communicated to the people on board. You mentioned the fighter jets. I mean, if they looked out of their windows most likely they would see that. And I'm sure that many would begin to ask questions.

I'm going to bet that the people getting off of the plane that you're looking at there on your screen now are aware of this security situation, as I'm sure canines, bomb sniffing dogs, will be brought in as they try to screen this aircraft.

So it is a tense moment, scary moment for those passengers coming off of that plane. But, you know, if you just think back to just last weekend at JFK airport, similar situation. Bomb threats on social media. Once the plane was on the ground there at JFK, it was screened, it was swept, and they found that it was all clear. But again, this just goes to show you this happens so much. But again, I can't stress in the environment that we're in now, even if they find that this is all clear, the thing is, law enforcement, no one wants to take chance.

HARLOW: Right.

MARSH: So I can guess that all of the folks that are on the ground fleeing this aircraft are taking this threat very seriously. As for the fighter jets, their role simply when they're scrambled in a situation like this was to keep their eyes on the aircraft while it's in the air. Are they observing anything? Perhaps they may have also been in contact with the pilot to get a sense as to what's going on, on board.

But when these military jets are scrambled, their sole purpose is to escort the plane and make sure that they keep their eyes on the plane until the moment that it safely lands on the ground. And that's what we saw so far. So now the next stage is making sure that nothing is found on board this plane.

HARLOW: And we know that bomb disposal units, also canine units are inspecting the aircraft right now. But as we can see passengers deplaning safely.

Let me go to Mary Schiavo. Rene Marsh, thank you for that. Stay with us as we continue to cover this.

CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo joining me on the phone.

Mary, Rene said, look, this happens far too often, that these threats are posted on social media. However, it's certainly not that often that we see F-16 fighter jets scrambled and we see planes landed in a remote part of the airport, now being swept for any potential bombs due to the threat.

What is your take on how officials determine the credibility of this one in order to scramble those jets?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, part of the consideration that they have to make is what's going on in the world. And that threat level worldwide. And within the last week there have been other threats. There were, I believe, within a week there were some in London and other places in the world. And so given what's going on worldwide, and the threats of ISIS and al Qaeda, I don't think they really had a choice at all.

Granted posting a bomb threat on social media makes one wonder about, you know, the sanity of the person doing it and whether they're really a trained terrorist. But I think in this particular time, the authorities just don't have a choice. They have to do that.

In many bomb threats, the -- one of the things they do is scramble fighter jets to escort them back. Because often the threat is used -- in the past was used to try to commandeer the plane. So I think they pretty much have to do it, given the rest of the world situation.

HARLOW: And for our viewers just joining us, we're covering this news just into CNN of two passengers plane that have safely landed at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Delta Flight 1156, Southwest Airlines Flight 2492. F-16 fighter jets scrambled due to concerns, due to threats found on social media according to our Rene Marsh that there may be endanger, that there may be a bomb on board. Right now they are sweeping those planes.

Mary Schiavo, can you walk us through what is happening now as these passengers get off? What do the authorities do as soon as everyone is off the plane?

SCHIAVO: Well, unfortunately to the passengers, they're going to have to be interviewed. Look, the authorities are going to do is they're going to -- they're going to question them. They have the authority to do that. It's been a credible threat. And that was determined by the FBI. They determined it's a credible threat. And to do the response that they did with the fighter jets.

And so the persons will be interviewed. Because not only to determine if they had any connection to the person making the threats, but if they were the subject of the threats. You know, terrorism can be not just international terrorism or terrorism of extremists or people wanting to threaten or harm the United States.

The very first bombing, of course, was someone trying to collect an insurance policy. So those persons are going to have to be interviewed. And fortunately since September 11th, 2001, we have a lot more information on every passenger boarding the plane because of positive identification procedures.

So the FBI will have a little bit -- and the air marshals and the other federal law enforcement agencies assisting them. They will have more information than they ever had in the past. But those passengers will be in for a substantial trip delay.

HARLOW: Mary Schiavo, CNN aviation analyst. Thank you for that. Rene Marsh, thank you for working your sources. Getting that to us as

quickly as you could. Thank you both.

We'll stay on the story of course throughout the evening here on CNN.

All right. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Poppy Harlow. 4:00 Eastern.