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Hillary Clinton Speaks At University of Miami; Boko Haram Allegedly Joining Forces With ISIS; Two Additional Arrests Made In Boris Nemtsov Murder Case; Protesters Took To The Streets Last Night After Police Officer Shot And Killed Unarmed Teen; Tomorrow Marks One Year Anniversary Of Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight

Aired March 07, 2015 - 18:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, sweetie.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're welcome.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good afternoon, fifth grade!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good afternoon!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have about 1,280 students. Large homeless and highly mobile population. They're in great need.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When Maria came to my school, I was so excited. And she just gave us books for free and it was amazing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Literacy is so important in education. I want kids to have a better life. I know that reading can do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. 6:00 Eastern, and we begin with Hillary Clinton and the email scandal that could stain an expected run for White House in 2016. The former secretary of state is speaking that the moment at a Clinton global initiative event at the University of Miami. It is her first major public appearance since reports revealed that she exclusively used a personal email account during her time at the state department. Is she going to address the controversy? We are monitoring it and we will bring you any remarks certainly if she does.

Let me bring in CNN senior political correspondent, Brianna Keilar who joins me in Washington. Also with us CNN political executive editor Mark Preston, who is in Des Moines, Iowa, and CNN political producer Dan Merica who is on the phone with us from the Clinton event.

Brianna, let me being with you. Set the stage for us just in terms of how much you think this plays into a potential run for the White House. How important is it?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know, it is really hard to tell at this point, Poppy. We don't know -- first off, this is pretty complicated stuff. And we don't know if Americans are necessarily grasping all of the details. And then there's the stuff that isn't complicated, which is the question of, you know, do you trust Hillary Clinton, this issue of trustworthiness that comes out of this story. And we don't know if this is really changing what Americans think about her. Is it just Democrats who have stood by her saying, you know what, this is just a Republican witch-hunt? Do you have Republicans who, for instance, have issues with her over Benghazi, that this may just be reinforcing their view that she's not being fully forth coming?

I also think, though, that there's the issue of the kind of chattering class I guess you could say in Washington, a lot of political observers and some really influential people. And as Hillary Clinton looks to kick off her campaign, which we think could come here in just a few weeks, they've been waiting for this Hillary Clinton reboot. And I think many people are not seeing that and that's something that they may be judging her on.

HARLOW: So, Dan, you're there on the ground at this event. I know Bill Clinton spoke earlier today. Did he say anything at all about this?

DAN MERICA, CNN POLITICAL PRODUCER (via phone): Bill Clinton did not. He instead focused on the purpose of the event, which is bringing about 1,000 students from around the world to talk about philanthropy and especially their projects. They each have specific projects that they're pitching here to Clinton foundation trying to get funding.

He was on stage earlier today to talk about dealing with the national debt. And instead of talking about the email controversy or other controversies that have kind of defined the last two weeks for the Clintons, he focused really more on his record in the White House and on these projects. He said, you know, fixing the deficit and the debt isn't that hard and it's only difficult because it's become extremely politicized to deal with that.

HARLOW: Did he take any question from the audience?

MERICA: He did not take any questions. It was a short, 10-minute speech on stage with five students and there were no questions. The media was there, but no questions were allowed or we weren't even close enough to ask questions.

HARLOW: OK. So that's the difference here, because Hillary Clinton will be taking questions after these remarks. Stand by, Dan. Thank you.

Mark, you're in Iowa. A lot of Republicans there. A lot of Republicans that are eyeing a White House run. What are they saying?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, you know, we had nine Republicans on stage today talking about agriculture issues, poppy, but I will tell you, several walked off stage and were asked about the Clinton controversy, they really bit right into it. This is an issue I think regardless of what the American people are

thinking right now about it, Republicans think that they see an opening to try to criticize Hillary Clinton on an issue that, again, a lot of people don't understand still confusing, but they see it as an opening, especially when you tie it to Benghazi.

And quite frankly, you know, there isn't a lot that we don't know about the Clintons. And I think Republicans see this as a place to be critical of her, certainly when she launches her campaign, Poppy.

HARLOW: All right, Mark, Dan, Brianna, thank you. Stand by.

I want to talk more about this with our political commentators, Ben Ferguson, Marc Lamont Hill back with me. Let's listen to White House press secretary Josh Earnest this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: There is a separate email system that does pertain to classified information. So this question about classified information being passed around on these kinds of email systems, that is certainly not supposed to cur and frankly it raises much more significant problems than compliance with the federal records act.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. Marc, let me begin with you. There is the issue of the letter of the law, that 2009 law that was passed, and then the spirit, the intention of the law and full transparency, which people want to see. Do you think that this scandal has legs?

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think that it does have legs, but I'm not sure they're running in the direction that Republicans want them to.

In all likelihood, Hillary Clinton did not violate the letter of the law, not because I believe in the ethics and morality of the Clintons but because they're calculating people. She's an attorney herself. I'm sure they dotted every i and crossed every t before doing this.

So as a result, what you have is somebody who operated in a way that's probably unprofessional and probably problematic for the national security of this country. But what's going to happen is the American people are going to say, OK, she had a private email account, no big deal. Republicans are going to beat this down for months or maybe even years and it will make them look like a witch-hunt.

HARLOW: You think, Marc, you're saying you think it's problematic for the national security of this country?

HILL: I think whenever you have not just classified information but sensitive information that may not be classified per se, if you have a private email account, yes, I think that's dangerous. If it's housed in your house as opposed to the state department, I think that's a problem. I think it's very dangerous. So Ben, do you think people should maybe be talking a little bit more

about that than they are about sort of the does this follow sort of the Clinton narrative that some have that they believe some would say they're sort of above, you know, above the rules that apply to others here? I mean, it can be --

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think it's both.

HARLOW: If indeed there is sensitive information that is a huge deal.

FERGUSON: Well, I think it's both. I mean, a lot of her emails had to be going to foreign officials and foreign governments. The same foreign governments that were giving, you know, tens of thousands and then millions of dollars to the Clinton foundation while she was -- her time in office.

There is a lot of people that want to know about those emails and are have they been scrubbed from her hard drive. There is also the national security. She was dealing with very sensitive information, whether it be terrorist attacks, whether it be ISIL or ISIS, Boko Haram, or Al-Qaeda, and also on that attack on Benghazi. What about those emails? And could another government have been monitoring those emails because they were on her owner server? We honestly don't know.

But there's something else that Marc said here that I think could be the most damaging to her run for the presidency, and that's this. He said she's a very smart lady. I guarantee you they dotted all the Is and crossed all the Ts. When you do everything right to then get to do something you know is wrong, voters respond negatively to that every single time.

HILL: No they don't.

FERGUSON: And if Hillary Clinton and her team did everything right to purposely withhold information that was supposed to be a part of government records for the future and they did everything right to conceal what they didn't want the American people to see, that is a massive political problem of integrity when you're asking people to vote for you.

HARLOW: Marc?

HILL: I think you would love -- I think Ben would love for that to be true as would Republicans. But the truth is voters vote for people, they even re-elect people when they've shown they have violated the letter or spirit of the law. Reagan was elected twice. George W. Bush was elected in 2004 --

FERGUSON: Reagan never did anything like this.

HILL: He did far worse. But then what I'm saying is people who have been under these same types of spectacles and levels of scrutiny for violation of laws, for conspiracies, et cetera, they get re-elected all the time. Most presidents at some point -- FERGUSON: Maybe as Democrats, not as Republicans.

HARLOW: Guys, stand by for one moment. I just want to see if we have Dan Merica still on the line with us from the Clinton event that just wrapped up. We don't have him. We'll try to get him back because the video we just showed you, you just saw Hillary Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, walking off the stage. We had been under the impression they were going to take questions from the audience. So we're going to wait and see if that happens or not.

We believe that this is the gentleman, Larry Wilmore, from comedy central, who is going to be hosting the Q&A with Hillary Clinton. So as soon as they sit down, we are going to keep monitoring it and bring it to you live.

OK, gentlemen, back to our discussion.

I want to show you these poll numbers, Quinnipiac poll numbers, let's pull them up so you can see here. So you've got Democrats' choice for president among registered voters, Clinton still in the lead, dropped a little bit, 65 to 56 percent.

Let me begin with you, Marc. When it comes to Democrats and supporting her and having a really united front for the White House, does this damage that at all?

HILL: No. She's the only game in town. I am not a Hillary Clinton fan. I would love for someone else to be running for office. But it's not happening. And so, Hillary Clinton has nothing to lose.

The only thing Hillary Clinton needs to be thinking about is general elections and not being dragged too far to the left in primaries from people who have no chance of winning. I think this doesn't do anything. In fact, she's battle tested to some extent you want this to happen now and not -- exactly. Elizabeth Warren in particular. And then the vanity candidates like Bernie Sanders. But what you don't want is for a scandal like this to come out in 2016. You want it to come out now and deal with it.

HARLOW: OK. Ben?

FERGUSON: I think she actually has to worry more about Democrats right now than Republicans mainly because these are the type of issues that make other candidates who are not going to run against you when you looked invincible, and she was invincible. This is where you said, you know what, maybe I should run. Maybe people will be much more willing to listen to my story now because of the negative stories surrounding Hillary Clinton.

I mean, if I'm Elizabeth Warren today, I'm a much more likely to maybe get in this than I was two weeks ago, certainly more than I was a month ago because no one wants to run and lose in a primary to Hillary Clinton because it could be a throw down beat down by Hillary Clinton and that's why I think you don't have any other real names. But if I'm Elizabeth Warren, you now have to look at this completely differently and say, hey, maybe there is an appetite and maybe I don't have the baggage.

HARLOW: Ben, Marc, thank you very much.

I want our viewers and you guys to be able to listen in to #Bill Clinton, former president Bill Clinton speaking right now. He just sat down at this CGI event. Let's listen.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They're helping us fight ISIS. And they built a great university with NYU open to people around the world and they've helped us support the work that this foundation does. Same thing is true. We just had this -- Hillary and Chelsea were just up here talking about women and girls and do I agree with all the foreign policy of Saudi Arabia? No. But I think it's impressive that the recent king who just that built the first co-educational institution in Saudi Arabia and they have more men and women than colleges.

So what you find is, you have to decide when you do this work whether it'll do more good than harm if someone helps you from another country. But those countries that I've been criticized for include the United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, the (INAUDIBLE), the Germans came to me and wanted to participate in our agricultural efforts in Malawi because the first 20,000 farmers that we helped increased their incomes in one year 576 percent.

So I think it's worth getting support for that. If we could do that all over the world and farmers will be able to feed their own people and begin to export and we wouldn't have them thrown off the land.

So my theory about all this is disclose everything and then let people make their judgments. But I think there are more than 300,000 people, you should know this, who in some form or fashion have contributed money to the work we've done over the years. And I believe we've done a lot more good than harm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Great.

HARLOW: All right. President Bill Clinton there addressing the first question posed to him at this CGI event asking about recent controversy over foreign governments that have made significant donations to the Clinton global initiative and whether there was any conflict of interest there when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.

We'll keep monitoring that. We will see if he's asked about the email controversy over Clinton's emails while she was at the state department. We are going to take a quick break.

Up next, we are going to bring you more on breaking news just in to us that ISIS and fellow terror organization Boko Haram have now apparently teamed up. What does that mean? What is the significant? More on that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right, this just in to CNN. A disturbing development in the war against terror. An extremist group with a history of brutality, kidnapping, mass murders, all in the name, they say, of religion, well, today, announcing that they are joining forces with ISIS.

Let's go straight to London. Our senior international correspondent Nima Elbagir joins me now.

We're talking about Boko Haram in this horrific propaganda video saying ISIS, we are aligned with you. How significant is this?

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, for ISIS this is a huge propaganda gain. It gives them now this arc of allegiance due (ph) from Egypt, to Algeria, Libya, and then now with Nigeria that in fact pulls them down into west Africa.

You have Islamic extremism groups, I should say, from coast to coast in Africa saying that they will hear and obey as (INAUDIBLE), the head of Boko Haram said in his audio message that what purports to be (INAUDIBLE). I should say we've reached out to the Pentagon for comment on that. We are waiting to hear back from them.

But it does sound like him and it has all the hallmarks of his previous messages. And it comes off the back of some pretty horrific attacks today and also through the past week. And a beheading video that was very similar to what we've become unfortunately accustomed to see from ISIS.

So you see this kind of -- this direction that Boko Haram is heading towards, because much like ISIS and all these other extremist groups, propaganda, it is their lifeblood because it results in foreign donations and foreign recruits.

HARLOW: And Nima, this African union vast force has been trying very hard to hunt down Boko Haram. How do you think this impacts that effort?

ELBAGIR: And they have had some gains. They have managed to block their supply lines into the neighboring country, and there have been far less incursions into neighboring Cameroon chad (ph) than we've seen over the last few months.

This really shows Boko Haram trying to reposition itself in this new reality where it no longer has such safe territory in northern Nigeria to operate. They're moving towards much more towards asymmetric warfare, these horrifying attacks across towns in the north of Nigeria today. Really gives you a sense of them trying to attach themselves to that brand name.

HARLOW: Yes. And let's not forget, this Boko Haram is the horrifying group that took so many hundreds, I believe, right, of young girls hostage and still is holding some.

ELBAGIR: And continues to take more girls hostage, more boys, attacking schools, targeting bus stops. You may not have heard of as many horrible tragedies perpetrated by Boko Haram as we have of ISIS. But there is absolutely no doubt about the fact that they're equally matched in terms of horror that they impact on the communities in which they operate within. This, the issue going forward is going to be that you have groups like

Boko Haram, and when they come together with ISIS it's creating this megabrand name that will continue to bring in more and more donations because the people who share these ideologies will see this as a seemingly unstoppable force.

HARLOW: Nima, thank you very much for the reporting live for us in London this evening.

Let's talk about it now with Bob Baer, our intelligence and security analyst, former CIA operative. Also with me here in New York, Chris Dickey, the foreign editor for "the Daily Beast."

Bob, to you first. What does Boko Haram gives ISIS?

ROBERT BAER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: This is a huge victory. The Islamic fundamentalists are on the move the sub-Saharan Africa, swearing allegiance to the caliphate in Raqqa. This is a huge, huge propaganda victory.

And the rest of sub-Saharan Africa is not exactly stable. I talked to somebody about possibly going to Timbuktu. Said you can't do it. Even though there are French troops there. They are stationed outside the city, you definitely can't go in there at night. And you as a westerner, you could maybe drop in and drop out, but it's not a safe city. So even with French forces in place, sub-Saharan Africa is sort of a no-go area.

HARLOW: Chris, what do you think, outside of a common philosophy of terror and the use of these videos as propaganda, what do ISIS and Boko Haram give one another? Was this Boko Haram saying, hey, we're not getting all the attention so we're join this ISIS?

CHRISTOPHER DICKEY, FOREIGN EDITOR, THE DAILY BEAST: Absolutely is was. You have to remember that back in September, Boko Haram declared itself an emirate. It is like forget ISIS. We're an emirate here in Africa and nobody paid the least bit of attention.

Now, we're all focused on it because it's pledging allegiance, its leadership is pledge allegiance to the emir Ibrahim Abu Bark al- Baghdadi, and all of the sudden, because ISIS is such a hot topic, Boko Haram is a hot top pick once again.

But you should also know there are 30 other groups around the world from the Philippines to Afghanistan to Libya, to Egypt that have pledged allegiance to ISIS since last year. Most of them you never heard of, but it certainly is a global movement now.

HARLOW: Why is ISIS sort of winning in being the brand name, if you will, of this terror movement?

DICKEY: Well, there are several reasons. First of all, because philosophically, theologically, politically, they've sized territory and said we are now the Islamic state. That's one of the reasons it's important not to call them the Islamic state. Secondly, they are great propagandists. Even when they are losing on

the battlefield they are winning on the internet because they are producing fantastically slick videos that put across their ideas in a very seductive to a generation of young men raised on video games.

HARLOW: Bob, what is your take in terms of what this they mean in terms of the coalition forces fighting is? Does this change the game at all?

BAER: It doesn't change the game but it makes the problem almost intractable. We're almost going to have to wait for this movement in collapse of its own accord because --

HARLOW: Really?

BAER: Yes. I mean, you simply can't send troops into northern Nigeria and Cameroon. We don't have enough troops. We don't have enough troops to go into Libya where ISIS is spreading, at least people that swear allegiance to it. It's in parts of Nigeria. We're not sending troops into Syria.

I think ultimately this movement will collapse, but in the meantime Baghdadi is portraying himself as the defender of Sunni Islam. So everywhere you see a political vacuum, you see them at the very least, you know, getting a political propaganda. Look at Yemen where there are groups swearing allegiance, and that's because there's a huge power vacuum there. Some force, local force, needs to fill this vacuum and it will crush the Islamic state or ISIS or ISIL, whatever you want to call it. But it will take time. But not with American troops.

HARLOW: Chris.

DICKEY: No, not with American troops, but ISIS loves a vacuum and all these groups level vacuum. The Nigerian army is weak. Boko Haram took advantage of it. The Chatti army moved in, and kick the ass of ISIS.

Same thing is happening with the Kurds in northern Iraq. When ISIS is up against a real army it will fight, it may fight well but it doesn't win. The problem was it took advantage of an incredibly corrupt army in Iraq to roll into Mosul last year. It took advantage of a civil war that was already waging in Syria to expand its territory there.

HARLOW: Yes. It is going to failed states and that's where it has progress. That's really --

DICKEY: Well, it not progressing in a lot of area, but t is progressing on the Internet.

HARLOW: Yes, certainly with the message and the propaganda.

DICKEY: Absolutely.

HARLOW: Thank you very much, Chris. Bob, thank you very much as well. We are going to take a quick break. But stay with me because next

we're going to talk about the arrest that just happened today of two people suspected in the assassination of one of Vladimir Putin's biggest critics. Who are they? And are these legitimate arrests?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. This just in to us at CNN, two new additional arrests just made in the murder of one of Vladimir Putin's loudest critics. We're talking about four arrests in total suspected of the murder of Boris Nemtsov, who you know was executed just a week ago blocks from the Kremlin. All four of these suspects we are told are ethnic Chechens. And also according to law enforcement sources that is who has been arrested.

Opposition leader Boris Nemtsov shot in the back last week as he walked across the bridge, as I said, right near the Kremlin. Now, the Russian authorities say that these are people that they suspect, that they're looking into, and that are from a region known from unrest and rebellion against Moscow.

Our Matthew Chance has more.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: For more than a week after the killing of Boris Nemtsov, Russian investigators say they've made a breakthrough. The head of the Russian federal security service appearing on national television to announce that two people have been detained in connection with the shooting which took place right here on this bridge in the center of Moscow a short distance from the Kremlin.

The two men have been named. Police say they're from the volatile north caucuses region of southern Russia. Vladimir Putin has denied any involvement in the murder of Boris Nemtsov. A prominent opposition politician here in Russia. He's vowed to bring those responsible to justice. But critics accuse the Kremlin of responsibility for the killing if not directly ordering it, then of creating an atmosphere in Russia in which those who oppose the government are seen as enemies of the state.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.

HARLOW: All right, let's bring in our panel to discuss this, really, what happened in the shadow of the Kremlin. Former CIA operative Bob Baer joins me now, also "Daily Beast" foreign editor Chris Dickey still with me in New York.

Bob, what's your reaction to these arrests, you know, these four men being arrested?

BAER: Well Poppy, it sounds to me, and we will learn more about this, the usual suspect, Chechens have been rolled up, they are always accused of doing assassination. But in, you know, the 25 years I've followed Russia I've never seen the police be forthcoming on these assassinations. The opposition always pins them on Putin one way or another, but as far as real evidence coming out it would convince me, I'd be surprised if we're going to find out.

And secondly, I can't imagine a motive for assassinating an obvious motive. He was a bit discredited. He wasn't a threat to Putin. On the other hand, I don't see why Chechens radicals would kill him either. I think it will always going to remain a mystery.

HARLOW: Do you agree, Chris, these are possibly being used as scapegoats?

DICKEY: Well, you know, I think Bob's right. It probably always will be a mystery. People will not be convinced. But I'm sure that in Moscow people who were close to Nemtsov, the first thing they're going to say is the name (INAUDIBLE) who is a strong man in Chechnya now who's supposedly a huge admirer of Putin but a real hater of Nemtsov, the man who was shot down.

I don't think anybody at this point is saying that these people were from the north caucuses and they're some kind of Muslim extremists although that's possible. But I think a lot of people in Moscow are going to say if they're from the north caucuses then that indicates a (INAUDIBLE) connection.

HARLOW: I think it's interesting, Bob, that Nemtsov's daughter, who has been asked about this, told us that she is -- that she has not been contacted by the authorities. Does that surprise you?

BAER: No. First of all, I'd like to say Chris is right. I mean, Kadirov (ph) is capable of this. He's got blood on his hands. He could have been as a favor. It could have been a sub-dispute. We don't really understand. It could have been a commercial reason.

But the fact that the Russian police didn't contact the daughter, not at all. I used to work with the Russian police and they were always stony faced and I never got any facts out of them, even though as official liaison. So for them to hold the cards this tightly to their chest doesn't surprise me at all.

HARLOW: What I think is interest, Chris, is that we saw sort of a different reaction in this murder from Putin than we've seen in previous murders or arrest of Putin critic where is he usually doesn't say anything. And he came out very vocally right after this and said to Nemtsov's mother, we will hunt down whoever did this and hold them responsible.

DICKEY: Well, sure, but aren't we getting used to the way Putin operates these days? He says one thing and --

HARLOW: But he's operating differently.

(CROSSTALK)

DICKEY: Differently than in the past. But if you've watched Putin over the last year, if you watch the whole Ukraine crisis, we're not sending people to Russia, but of course, they are sending -- I mean sending people to Ukraine, but of course they are sending people to Ukraine. Putin is a liar. He's a KGB agent. He's a spy. No offense, Bob, but

he's a spy and that's exactly what he does. And that's the way he runs his country. For him, it is all just propaganda. I don't believe for a moment he cares who killed Nemtsov unless, unless it was one of his people who was behind it and he thinks eventually he will get nailed for it.

HARLOW: Bob, final word?

BAER: Yes, he's absolutely right. We are never get -- he was an ex- spy. You know, CIA lies, too, so does the KGB so let's don't expect the truth.

HARLOW: Bob Baer, Chris Dickey, thank you very much.

We are back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. Police in Madison, Wisconsin, are hoping for calm tonight. Protesters took to the streets last night after a police officer there shot and killed an unarmed teen. The crowd marched on city hall demanding answers in the death of a 19-year-old named Anthony Robinson.

This is important. Under state law in Wisconsin an independent agency, not the Madison police, will investigate this as is the case in all officer involved shootings. Madison police say what happened is that they say that Robinson was in an apartment and the police officer was coming after him. There was reports of dispute then the police officer shot Robinson after police say Robinson attacked the officer saying that is when the officer fired.

Now, the shooting comes at a time of heightened scrutiny over relations between police officers and minorities. Let's talk more about this with CNN political commentators Ben Ferguson and Marc Lamont Hill.

Guys, I just want to set the stage here. This is still early going, right? This is, you know, some 24 hours ago. The investigation is being handled by an outside body. But when you look at the state of Wisconsin, Ben, and I will begin with you, how important do you think it is there's a body there that does all the investigation, not the police department itself?

FERGUSON: You know, I think it is a good thing because it allows the people in public to realize that, you know what, this is not going to be internal where that there may be, you know, favoritism toward the police officer involved. And I hope that people looked at exactly what we found out specifically about Darren Wilson and the shooting that happened in Ferguson, you realized just because we use the word unarmed doesn't mean you're not a threat to the police officer.

From what from what we've been told, the police officer was attacked. He also was treated for an injury on his head at the scene. And if you're being attacked by an 19-year-old inside an apartment there's a very good chance that could end badly. And that is something I hope they look at and realize. You know, this idea now that everybody doesn't have a gun or a knife is now is somehow unarmed. If you attack a police officer you are a threat to that police officer regardless of the color of their skin.

HARLOW: Marc, I want to read you a statement just a few hours ago from the police chief there in Madison, Wisconsin, at a press conference. He said in part there is no doubt to the fact we have to be cheer about this. He, Tony Robinson, the teen was unarmed. That's going to make this all the more complicated for investigators, the public, to accept, to understand why deadly force had to be used. I think clearly they're alluding to Ferguson, Missouri.

HILL: Absolutely. And Ben said something that's important and that is that the term unarmed doesn't necessarily mean not a threat. So we don't want to assume anything. We want to get the facts in here. But every time a black person is killed by law enforcement, they always say he was unarmed but he was running at us, he was unarmed but he reached for the gun.

I've never meant so many reckless plaque people who reach for guns of law enforcement agents in my life. I mean, the stories at some point become implausible. That's not to say the police are wrong or this kid is wrong, I don't know yet. I need more information before I can make an assessment of this case. But I don't believe that just because a police officer said it that it's true and we cannot assume that because a police officer said it it's true. Because we've seen too many cases, whether it is in Cleveland, whether it is in Ferguson, whether it is Sanford, whether it is in, you know, what I mean, whether it is in L.A. and we see the same thing over and over again.

FERGUSON: Marc, look at Ferguson. You still don't even admit that the officer there was actually protecting his life, which is exactly what Eric Holder looking at it through the eyes of race, the lenses of race solely with this being a racial issue, department of justice, and he came out and said that Darren Wilson did not do anything wrong and he was protecting his life and you're still pushing a nary they've Darren Wilson somehow did something wrong.

HILL: Well, OK, if we're talking about Darren Wilson, again, civil rights prosecutions are difficult -- I'm trying to answer about Ferguson if you let me finish. What I'm saying is that in Ferguson or in Sanford for that matter when you talk about what's in someone's head whether they killed the person because they're black, that is always very difficult to prove.

I said before the investigation, after the investigation, it is very difficult to find someone on civil rights charges for killing somebody particularly when there's only one person left, that is the person who did the killing. So that doesn't necessarily mean that Darren Wilson did everything right. The report doesn't say Darren Wilson did nothing wrong. It says that they cannot prove he did anything racist. And I don't necessarily dispute that. But everything that lead up to that also invokes race.

Remember, the second report that comes out is there are deeply in trenched racial problems in Ferguson with the police department, with the laws, with the way things are practiced, even racist email. So let's not pretend race isn't a factor at every other stage leading up to the fact that Darren Wilson get (INAUDIBLE) -- go ahead.

HARLOW: No. Go ahead and finish.

HILL: The other thing here is that just because somebody doesn't think -- just because Darren Wilson doesn't walk into a room and say I'm going to kill a black person, doesn't mean that race doesn't matter. In his mind he just might be shooting the dangerous person. The problem is, every study show, particularly the most recent studies in 2014, when police officers see black people they tend to look at them as more dangerous and older than they typically are, older and more guilty than they normally are. So you might be thinking you are doing it because at dangerous department they always think black people are dangerous.

FERGUSON: But this is my point. You look at Madison and you have a police officer -- first of all, someone called 911 on the individual. He then hears a commotion inside of this apartment. He then goes in and that individual who he's trying to detain attacks him. I really don't think in that situation that race is near as big of an issue as people want to make it out to be. And I think the cautionary tale is exactly what we saw around Darren Wilson. He was attacked. There was no hands up, don't shoot. He charged at the officer and that's exactly what Eric Holder said this week.

HARLOW: Gentlemen, thank you both. We have to - -

HILL: Where are all the black people who reach for guns?

HARLOW: Gentlemen, we have to take a quick break. We have got much more coming up in just a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Well, can you believe it? Tomorrow marks one year since Malaysia airlines flight 370 vanished without a trace. Tonight, we expect to get a report from the Malaysian government on the latest on that investigation. Right now the search for the missing plane and the 239 people on board is still ongoing. They're searching a vast area of the Indian Ocean. But when it comes to what really what happened, there are still many theories and many more theories than there are answers.

Here's our Will Ripley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Taking off.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's an eerie feeling sitting in a cockpit virtually identical to the doom's Malaysia airliner, a simulator recreating what we know about MH-370's final flight on year ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Autopilot is engaged.

RIPLEY: Veteran pilot Rob Johnson activates the Boeing 777's autopilot 20 seconds after takeoff.

ROB JOHNSON, PILOT: It's automated.

RIPLEY: The autopilot follows way points along the flight path. It can even land the plane if necessary. Less than an hour into its flight, MH-370 veered off the planned route to Beijing. With the turn of a knob, our simulator makes the same sharp turn as the missing plane. Could the autopilot have made that turn on its own?

JOHNSON: No.

RIPLEY: Nobody knows why one or both pilots decided to change course or why the plane disappeared from civilian radar. The result of either a massive electrical problem or someone simply switching off communication systems.

Other theories include a cockpit fire, overtaking the crew and leave nothing time for a distress call. Russian hijackers faking satellite data, flying the plane north to Kazakhstan. The plane shot down, heading for Diego Garcia, a U.S. military base in the Indian Ocean. Even an elaborate murder/suicide plotted by one of the pilots.

JOHNSON: This is where the mystery starts because what happened?

RIPLEY: Johnson suspects a midair emergency or a deliberate act in the cockpit depressurizing the cabin at high altitude. Oxygen starvation, hypoxia could have killed everyone on board, turning MH- 370 into a ghost plane.

It's happened before. (INAUDIBLE) flight 522 lost pressure, the crew lost consciousness, and the plane with 121 people slammed into a mountain. Golfer Payne Stewart's Learjet depressurized after takeoff. The plane flew without a pilot for four hours before crashing into a field. The autopilot kept those ghost planes in the air long after all aboard were dying or dead.

If there's not another way point entered, what does the autopilot do?

JOHNSON: It's going to fly along until the fuel runs out.

RIPLEY: Our simulator shows how the autopilot untouched keeps the airliner flying south for hours. The fuel gauge drops to zero somewhere over the southern Indian Ocean.

JOHNSON: Look at the alarm (INAUDIBLE).

RIPLEY: For four agonizing minutes cockpit alarms sound as the plane becomes a giant glider, the ocean creeping closer. Suddenly, it's over.

All of those names started racing through my head again.

JOHNSON: Yes. RIPLEY: Wow.

JOHNSON: 239 people. Lost.

RIPLEY: One year later, still no trace of the plane or the people on board, only uncertainty and pain for those left behind. Until MH- 370's black boxes are found, nobody will know what  really happened.

Will Ripley, CNN, Toronto.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Wow. Your heart breaks for the families. Will Ripley, thank you very much. We'll let you know when that report comes out from the Malaysian government.

We are back in just a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Well, tomorrow night only right here on CNN it is the latest in our special new series "Finding Jesus." this week John the Baptist. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE ANNOUNCER: An unprecedented CNN event. He didn't vanish without leaving a trace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the first time in history, we're able to place these relics.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And grasp something that's changed the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This really is the moment of truth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE ANNOUNCER: This is the story of Jesus.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The rock upon which the church is built.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An icon of scientific obsession.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This extraordinary define an archeological piece.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do we really have here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did Judas betray Jesus?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody chose to write this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The science does matter. Is this the paranoid (ph) shroud of Jesus?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE ANNOUNCER: What are the clues he left behind? Faith. Fact. Forgery. "Finding Jesus" premiere Sunday night at 9:00 on CNN. (END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. 7:00 Eastern. And we begin with breaking news from the war on terror.

One brutal murderous extremist group swearing loyalty to another. Boko Haram based in Nigeria and ISIS rampaging across Syria and Iraq, the two groups that trade on fear and cruelty in the name of faith are apparently joining forces.

Let's go straight to London. Our senior international correspondent Nima Elbagir joins me now. Also with me here in New York Buck Sexton, former CIA counterterrorism official and also retired lieutenant general James Reese. He joins us from Baghdad today.