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French Alps Crash Investigation; Yemen on the Brink of War; Major Doubts for Iran Deal as Deadline Draws Near. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired March 30, 2015 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:32:48] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPH KUMPA, DUSSELDORF PROSECUTOR: Up to now, right until he took the plane, there have been several visits at medical doctors and we have found, as we have already communicated, evidence that his doctors documented him to be unable to work and to fly. But these documents don't show any hint of being suicidal or being aggressive against other people.

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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Of course he's talking about the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, the man who supposedly crashed that plane in the French Alps killing 149 people, including, of course, himself. You saw Pamela Brown standing right behind the German prosecutor there, Christoph Kumpa.

Pamela, tell us more about what he said.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this prosecutor only deepened the mystery here, Carol. He basically said that before Andreas Lubitz got his pilot's certification, that he had been suicidal. He said after he got his pilot's license, that he continued to seek treatment. He said psychotherapy, which psychotherapy alone is just talking, according to some doctors we've been speaking with, so alone that that doesn't involve medication.

Of course, the prosecutor did not expound on that if there was also a psychiatrist involved, but he said he was -- he continued to seek psychotherapy treatment, that there were no signs of aggression. That he didn't -- there was no indication of anything taken from his home that this was premeditated. The prosecutors is saying there weren't any journal writings, a diary, anything like that saying that he wanted to crash a plane.

And so that's really interesting to note here. And I asked the prosecutor, Carol, whether he had vision problems. As we know, it's been widely reported over the weekend that he suffered from some sort of vision problems. The prosecutor said that there's nothing in writing, no document suggesting that he had eyesight problems. He said -- now, we don't know if it was psychosomatic as a result, he was having these vision problems that's been reported, but the prosecutor making it clear that there's no documentation they've seen indicating that he had vision problems.

[09:35:15] Really, Carol, I mean, essentially he basically gave no motive. He said, we can't speculate on a motive. We can't give you a good reason on why Andreas Lubitz did this, according to authorities, crashed this plane into the mountain. But he made it clear, he had been suicidal. We know that in 2008 he took several months off from training. We don't know if there's a connection there because (ph) prosecutors said today in that (INAUDIBLE) time.

COSTELLO: Now, wait a minute, Pamela. Pamela, Pamela.

BROWN: Yes.

COSTELLO: Pamela, the prosecutor said there were indications that this guy was at one point suicidal? Is that what he said?

BROWN: That's right. He said, before he got his pilot's license, that he was suicidal. That there were indications he was suicidal. We know in 2013 he became a Germanwings pilot. We know in 2008 he was going through training in Phoenix, Arizona, to become a pilot. And we know in 2008, he took several months off. Lufthansa won't say why he took that time off. But as a source I spoke with, a German aviation source says, he wasn't required to tell anyone why he was taking this time off from training at that time. That's not a requirement. So if he took time off for personal mental health reasons, there wouldn't have been a requirement to say anything.

However, after that, it's clear, the prosecutor said, recently doctors gave him a note saying he was medically unfit to work. Now, under the rules and procedures of Lufthansa, he would have been required to share that a doctor said he was medically unfit to work. And we're being told that he was trying to hide his illness from the company.

Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. So, Les, I'm going to turn to you. Should this guy ever have become a pilot?

LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, if all these allegations are true, absolutely not. I -- you know, a lot of us, if we have some medical issues, we'll seek out other professionals outside of our aviation medical examiner to get some confirmation on the problem we have. Mostly it's physical. But he went through this whole training process with Lufthansa and I'm not sure what the relationship was with this training program here in the states in Phoenix. But if I was the airline, I would have said, wait a second, what -- what's the reason that this man had issues.

COSTELLO: (INAUDIBLE) six months, which is a long time.

ABEND: It's a long time, if you cannot deal with the training-type stress of your initial process of becoming an airline pilot, there's some problems there. COSTELLO: Let's go to the base of the French Alps because Erin

McLaughlin is standing there where, you know, workers are trying to recover bodies and body parts. I just can't imagine what's going through the minds of the families, Erin.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's absolutely horrifying, Carol. And, today, that recovery process that you just described has been slowed down by the wind. They only have one chopper in the skies today. Recovery workers actually driving to the site off-roading and then hiking, a process that takes some 45 minutes.

And they're also trying to build a road to the site. They hope that within the next 24 hours this site will be accessible via foot traffic. The hope being that eventually the families will be able to use that road. The families saying they want access to the site. After all, you know, officials saying that when that plane hit the mountainside, it was absolutely obliterated. And locals have expressed this fear that they may never recover all of the human remains. So the families say they want to be as close to their loved ones as possible.

So while they're waiting for access, they've been coming to this memorial site that's just behind me. You see the two police vans there. They've been put there to give the families who are visiting as much privacy as possible. One of the families that was here to visit over the weekend is the family of 28-year-old Paul Bramley (ph). He was one of three British victims on Flight 9525. His father says that he's calling for greater transparency from the airlines. He says that they need to look after their pilots. He says that the hopes the cloud will eventually lift one day from this area. He does not want it to be remembered for the actions of one man.

Carol.

COSTELLO: Oh, Erin McLaughlin reporting live from the base of the French Alps. Thank you so much.

Let's head to Cologne now and check in with Fred Pleitgen.

I don't know if you heard what the German prosecutor said but -- in his press conference, because, of course, you're busy with other things. But he said that their -- they found no letter that contains any type of confession and they say there was no aggression in this co-pilot's background. And you reported earlier on how calm this co- pilot seemed as that plane went down.

[09:40:00] FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is quite remarkable, isn't it? It was interesting also, I found that one of the key statements that this prosecutor/spokesperson made was the fact that he said that, yes, Andreas Lubitz had been in psychological consultation, yes, he had been seeing a doctor, and, yes, he did have these sick note, but there appeared to be nothing within all of that. That, on the one hand, said that he was at this point suicidal, and, on the other hand, aggressive towards other people. It's something that does appear to be very significant.

The other really significant thing that he also said, where he kept saying that he did not suffer from any sort of organic illness. That, of course, with that he meant a physical illness. One of the things, Carol, that's been speculated is, of course, if you remember that "New York Times" report where they were saying that he suffered from vision issues, there have been some German publications that have been speculating that perhaps he was suffering from a detached retina and that he might have felt that that physical condition could endanger his flying career.

It now turns out, at least as far as the prosecutor is concerned, that he did not have any sort of physical illness, at least as far as that press conference now is concerned. And, of course, there has been also some reporting that perhaps the vision issues that he might have had could have been caused by psychological issues as well, that clearly he was suffering from at the time that he did all of this.

But it clearly shows that he was trying to conceal his psychological condition from his employer. That's something that Germanwings has said as well. They said they never saw any of these sick notes. And then, of course, there's that troubling information that he did in fact have suicidal tendencies before he tried to get his pilot license. So clearly there were psychological issues that he had dating back well into the past.

Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Frederik Pleitgen, thanks so much.

Let's head to Atlanta and check in with Elizabeth Cohen and talk about these -- you know, he was suicidal a long time ago. Does that necessarily mean he couldn't recover from those feelings?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No. I mean people recover from suicidal feelings, you know, frequently. So it certainly wouldn't be out of the question that he was suicidal at one point and that he recovered. The question is, Carol, did he recover and to what extent did he recover and what medicines was he taking to help him deal with his mental health issues?

I mean we've been talking about the report from the Prisian (ph), the French newspaper, that he was taking Xyprexa (ph), thee generic name is Olancapine (ph), and that, you know, that's -- that's a heavy duty anti-psychotic drug that's used for people who have manic depression, for people who have schizophrenia, among other things. You know, was he hallucinating? Was he having manic episodes? I think that's -- that's really the question here.

COSTELLO: All right, Elizabeth Cohen. And thanks to all of our CNN correspondents and analysts that participated in this conversation.

We'll be back with much more in the NEWSROOM.

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COSTELLO: One of the Middle East's biggest powers could be on the brink of war. Right now, Saudi-led coalition air strikes are hammering Houthi rebel targets in Yemen, the group that has driven the country's government into retreat. We're also getting word from Yemen's defense ministry that air strikes hit a refugee camp, killing at least 40 people and injuring 250.

[09:45:07] A ground invasion actually could be next. New video showing Saudi military trucks less than 20 miles from Yemen's border.

Joining me now to talk about this, former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen, Stephen Seche. Welcome, sir.

STEPHEN SECHE, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO YEMEN: Thank you, Carol. Good to be here.

COSTELLO: Nice to have you here. Have there been any efforts to seek some sort of diplomatic solution with these rebels? Is that even possible?

SECHE: Well, if there is anything going on, it's behind the scenes at the moment. And what's on front and center stage obviously is the Saudi air strikes, and these are meant to kind of soften up the Houthis to draw them to the negotiations table. I'm not sure it's having that desired effect, and in fact if there are civilian populations coming under attack now and civilians casualties, this is going to create a blowback I think against the Saudis in the rest of the Arab world, which is using Yemen as its own platform for sending messages of this sort to Iran and, to a lesser extent to us, about their lack of confidence in the American security blanket being able to protect them from Tehran's machinations in the region.

COSTELLO: Well, there are rumors it's bound to get worse because there are suggestions of a ground war in Yemen with Saudi Arabian troops and perhaps Egyptian boots on the ground. Would the people, at least some of them, within Yemen welcome that?

SECHE: Presumably some would, but Yemen is a deeply divided country and I don't think Yemenis in general would look favorably on an invasion, even by Arab nations. And I think the Saudis had an experience in 2009 that left them a little bit I would say reticent, and rightly so, because they didn't fare very well in an earlier incursion against the Houthis. And the fact is that these are conventional troops, they're not that well trained, Yemen's a very inhospitable environment. And I think they're going to -- we'll see a lot more caution. This at the moment is a lot of sabre rattling and psychological pressure being applied more than I think it is a military reality or a military possibility in the short term

COSTELLO: So the Houthi rebels are supposedly backed by Iran. Egypt and Saudi Arabia don't particularly like Tehran, and neither does Israel. Is there a danger that this could turn into an Arab war?

SECHE: Well, that's the danger we have at the moment. And I think the longer these air strikes go on rather indiscriminately in urban areas, there is a real risk that this is going to be seen as not an effective deterrent. And then people are going to say, well, we have to do more. And we do need to put troops into the equation. And then I think that's where we have a real danger then of introducing ground forces. And where does this end up at that point? I don't know how it can do

-- have the outcome they want. Their outcome, ostensibly, is put the legitimate government of President Hadi back in place, but how you do that at the end of a gun is a mystery to me at the moment. And given the fact that they're still pounding away at military installations and other sites in urban areas, the damage is really growing, and I think the resentment is growing along with it.

COSTELLO: The United States has been publicly supportive of Saudi Arabia. Good thing, bad thing? And should the United States get involved more?

SECHE: Well, we can't get involved any more. This really has to be something the Arabs can sort out on their own. I hope that at the same time as we see this pressure in the military sense, there are really sincere efforts behind the scenes to try to say to Houthis, we can stop this, we need to sit down, discuss how we sort out the issue of governance in Yemen. You have earned a place at the table, and that's clearly they have. But we can't just have you running around and do this juggernaut, have a coup d'etat against the government, seize territory, and seemingly have no end in sight with that kind of a plan either.

So I certainly hope that's going to happen, because a military situation is going to be messy and bloody one with no real outcome that anyone's going to be satisfied with.

COSTELLO: All right, Ambassador Stephen Seche, thank you so much for joining me this morning. I appreciate it.

SECHE: My pleasure, Carol. Thank you.

[09:48:46]

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[09:52:10] COSTELLO: Down to the wire. With just hours to go until a critical deadline, major doubts that global powers will be able to strike a nuclear deal with Iran. Iranian officials now rejecting a key component of a proposed deal, saying they're no longer willing to ship out existing piles of enriched uranium to Russia. This as a number of core issues remain unsolved.

So let's talk about this. Let's bring in CNN global affairs correspondent Elise Labott; she's covering the talks live from Switzerland. We're also joined by CNN national security correspondent Jim Sciutto; he's in Washington. Elise, I want to start with you though. Set the scene for us.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: OK, well, Carol, on that issue that you just mentioned, U.S. really pushing back on that, saying that Iran never really agreed to ship out its uranium stockpile, and if it doesn't, there are a couple of other scientific ways they can make sure that Iran doesn't use that enriched uranium to move towards a nuclear weapon. But diplomats here telling me that there are three key sticking points

that are blocking a deal. No. 1, what happens in the end years of a deal? We're talking about 15 year deal. After 10 years, Iran wants to just go back to doing whatever it wants. The international community wants to continue to put curbs and restrictions on its nuclear activities, particularly advanced nuclear research.

Also talking about U.N. Security Council resolutions and sanctions. Iran wants those sanctions lifted on Day One; international community says Iran could get some economic benefits from the U.S. and unilateral sanctions from Europe, but those U.N. sanctions are a lot trickier. They have to do with Iran's nuclear activity and they'll have to be phased out as Iran shows its compliance with a deal.

And then, third of all, what happens if Iran does violate the deal? International powers want to have what they call a snapback, so those sanctions can be reimposed. Iran is really fighting that.

Carol, the parties, all of the P5 + 1 ministers met with Iran this morning. It's not looking good right now that there could be a deal. A lot of meetings going on back and forth, but they have not met with the Iranian side. The British Foreign Minister says Iran needs to take a deep breath and make some hard decisions if it wants a deal, Carol.

COSTELLO: OK, so let's play what if. If this deal goes through, Jim Sciutto, how is it expected to play with members of Congress?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Iranian side has given enormous ammunition now to opponents to this deal by saying -- drawing this line in the sand. And I was in touch with a senior Iranian diplomat earlier today who says that Iran does not intend to ship its enriched uranium out of the country. This is a big deal, Carol, because Iran has thousands of pounds of this stuff and the concern is can that be turned into something that could be made into a weapon?

And up until this point, up until the last 24 hours, there was a lot of confidence that shipping that material out of the country, mainly to Russia to be converted into nuclear fuel, which can only be used really for nuclear fuel, can't be turned into something for a weapon, that added a lot of confidence to extending this breakout time for Iran to weaponize.

[09:55:16] So that gives enormous ammunition. Removing that, taking that off the table right now, whatever U.S. officials are saying that Iran never agreed to it, that was at least an expectation of many who had been following these talks closely.

And if you listen to John Boehner was speaking to our own Dana Bash yesterday about the possibility of new sanctions if they don't like the deal, have a listen to what he had to say.

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DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: If there is no agreement, how quickly will you move to further sanctions against Iran in the House?

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Very.

BASH: Like, days? Minutes? Hours?

BOEHNER: Very quickly. Listen, the sanctions were working. They would have never come to the table -- and, frankly, we should have kept the sanctions in place so that we could have gotten to a real agreement. And the sanctions are going to come and they're going to come quick.

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SCIUTTO: And you know, Carol, the administration certainly feeling this pressure from Congress. There is now openness in the administration not to allow Congress to OK a deal, to vote on it, but to allow them to have a voice on the deal, for instance to vote on something to say, well, if Iran breaks the agreement, here's how the U.S. would react. Here are the new sanctions that would come in. They're hearing that and, keep in mind, remember, Carol, that's not just from Republicans like John Boehner; it's from many skeptical Democrats as well.

COSTELLO: All right, Jim Sciutto, Elise Labott, thanks to both of you, I appreciate it.

While the ramifications of a nuclear deal are quite serious, you can always count on "Saturday Night Live" to lighten things up a bit. The next hour of NEWSROOM after a break, but I leave you with this, The Rock Obama versus House Speaker John Boehner, who controversially invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't be alarmed. The Rock Obama, much like Barack Obama only larger and more violent.

(LAUGHTER)

Now, where were we? You, Orange Man.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Me?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You invite Netanyahu without asking?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Um -- I did --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You like Israel?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, maybe you should go visit Israel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Right now, a new bombshell in the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525. Just minutes ago, a German prosecutor revealing that Andreas Lubitz was far from the smiling, lighthearted man you see here. Years before he became an airline pilot and steered his flight into a mountainside, he struggled with thoughts of suicide.