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Boehner Travels to Israel; Iran Deal Deadline Passes; Tsarnaev Defense in Boston Marathon Bombing Trial; Iraqi Forces Take Back Tikrit. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired April 01, 2015 - 09:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

The deadline has come and gone, but world leaders are still trying to hammer out a nuclear deal with Iran. Despite some progress, officials say a major roadblock -- well, more than one major roadblock remains.

[09:30:02] All this as the Republican House speaker, John Boehner, travels to Israel and meets with the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who says a potential agreement threatens the security of his country. Earlier today Boehner and Netanyahu spoke at a news conference insisting that the bond between the United States and Israel is stronger than ever.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: In this violent and unstable region, where states are imploding and fanaticism is exploding, one thing remains rock solid, our friendship, our alliance, our partnership. It makes both our countries stronger. It makes both our countries safer.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), HOUSE SPEAKER: You can't continue to turn your eye away from the threats that face all of us. And as you said, the bonds between the United States and Israel are as strong as ever. Our two countries cooperate on many different levels. And while we may have political disagreements from time to time, the bonds between our two nations are strong and they're going to continue to be strong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Let's bring in CNN's Oren Liebermann. He's in Jerusalem.

So I'm sort of used to seeing the president in that spot. Is it unusual that the House speaker participated in such a news conference?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is perhaps a bit unusual, but not too unexpected, especially after it was Boehner who invited Netanyahu to speak before Congress in the first place. And that was a very interesting news conference because it was a very carefully worded news conference. They didn't mention Iran. They didn't mention a nuclear deal. They didn't mention Switzerland. They both focused on the strong ties between the U.S. and Israel and said these ties would continue and talked about how strong they are.

And then they sort of referred to Iran perhaps in a roundabout way by referring to the threats in the Middle East. A very short statement, but the bigger statement is almost the symbolic statement here, just that Boehner is here with the nuclear deal happening in Switzerland, Carol.

COSTELLO: No mention of President Obama either I would suspect.

LIEBERMANN: Yes. And, again, it was a very, very short press conference. Almost strangely short. Boehner just said just a few words. Netanyahu said only a few more words, focusing on the strength of the U.S./Israel relationship. No mention of Iran. No mention of Switzerland. No mention of the nuclear deal. No mention, as you said, of Obama. Very intentionally worded. Perhaps even carefully worded press conference. Maybe not to step on any toes on this one.

COSTELLO: Oren Liebermann, many thanks. Oren Liebermann reporting live from Jerusalem.

Well, the stakes are high for the United States in these nuclear talks with Iran. This is a new photo from the White House showing Secretary of State John Kerry briefing the president as discussions slipped past the deadline. But the White House says it would rather walk away empty handed than accept a deal that cuts corners.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: No deal is better than a bad deal. The United States will not sign on to a bad deal. The only kind of diplomacy, diplomatic agreement, political agreement that we envision is one that definitively shuts down every path to a nuclear weapon that Iran has and imposes and Iran cooperates with a set of extremely intrusive inspections.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK, so exactly how are these talks going? Let's head to Switzerland and check in with CNN's global affairs correspondent Elise Labott.

Tell us.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, the deadline of last night came and went. Negotiators kept talking. They said that there was enough progress that merited another day of talks. But there are still some key issues that remain unsolved. We're been talking about them for days. We're talking about the pace of lifting U.N. sanctions, the amount of enriched uranium and advanced nuclear technology Iran could do towards the end of the deal, and also the stockpile of enriched uranium. I mean these are key issues.

There's been a lot of progress made at these talks for sure, but these key issues remain unresolved. So what we're looking at is perhaps later today, maybe early tomorrow some kind of vague general statement of political agreements, but very notably it will not include some of the areas where there are disagreement. And the agreement here is really to keep talking, Carol.

COSTELLO: So it went from a deal to a framework to a general statement?

LABOTT: Well, the U.S. always wanted a kind of framework deal but the Iranians have been very clear that they want one deal at the end of June. That's that big, comprehensive agreement which would have all the technical details. The Iranians do not want to sign on to something right now. Maybe that's because they want to keep negotiating, they want to keep trying to get as much as they can and they don't want to sign on to anything right now.

The Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has been very clear that the only deal Iran will sign is at the end of the month. So if there could be enough for the U.S. to say, we've agreed with Iran for certain parameters to curb Iran's program, then they can fill in the details later on. But to be sure, President Obama is going to have a real hard sell with Congress with the lack of specifics that we're hearing would be in this statement, Carol.

[09:35:17] COSTELLO: Gotcha. Elise Labott reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, both sides have rested in the Boston bombing trial, but could the defense's less is more strategy win points with the jury? Alexandra Field has been covering the case.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Carol.

The defense spent just a few hours making their case. They called just a couple of witnesses. So what exactly did they want the jury to see? We'll break it down right after the break.

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COSTELLO: Closing statements start Monday in the Boston bombing trial. The defense resting Tuesday after just calling four witnesses. It's planned to paint Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as a victim himself, misguided by his older brother. The strategy was a stark contrast to the more than 90 witnesses and month-long testimony carried out by the prosecution. Alexandra Field has been following the trial. She joins me now with more.

Good morning.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

The prosecution spent weeks calling all of these really emotional, poignant, compelling witnesses to the stand who testified in graphic detail about what they had experienced. Very compelling for the jurors. By contrast, the defense calls a handful of people. It's very technical testimony.

[09:40:01] So, what are they doing? Well, they're basically looking past the verdict phase and skipping right ahead to the sentencing phase. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD (voice-over): The defense for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev starts with his own attorney admitting in opening statements it was him. It ends with his lawyers calling just four witnesses to the stand. Key pieces of evidence presented by the prosecution are proof, the defense says, of their theory that Tamerlan led, Dzhokhar followed.

The digital evidence on Dzhokhar's computer, jihadist materials, elaborate instructions for how to build a bomb, an electronic forensics expert, a paid witness for the defense, testifies those files were first on Tamerlan's computer and transferred to his brother's. It's Tamerlan, they say, who did the leg work, searching a host of incriminating terms.

March 4, 2013, he types in Rugger P-95, the same type of weapon used to kill MIT Officer Sean Collier, and the same gun used in the shootout with Watertown police.

A week before the bombing, Tamerlan searches "transmitter," "receiver," "fireworks firing system," "detonator." A few days later, gun stores in New Hampshire and "Boston Marathon."

Dzhokhar's to sites are FaceBook, closely followed by VK, a similar Russian site. He never searches the items on Tamerlan's list, only looking up Boston Marathon after the bombings.

There is the video of Dzhokhar leaving his backpack with a pressure cooker bomb outside the foreign restaurant. But an FBI investigator called by the defense testifies Tamerlan's prints are found on pieces of debris where Dzhokhar's aren't. Same goes, the witness says, for tools the defense suggests could have been used to build the deadly bombs.

Dzhokhar's attorneys make their case in a matter of hours with no effort to prove their client innocent and every intention of showing him as Tamerlan's victim.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD: So, Carol, court will be in recess until Monday. At that point the jury will hear the closing arguments from both sides. Then they'll go on to deliberate, deliver their verdict and then you really get a reset of this trial when you have a new set of witnesses who will be called for the sentencing phase. And we know that's when the jury will be asked to look at the death penalty here.

COSTELLO: It's so difficult to believe that this kid just followed his older brother. He's a good looking kid. He was popular in high school. You know, it's not like he was this wilting lily in need of a leader.

FIELD: The defense is trying to walk this very fine line here because, on the one hand, they want to establish him as this very normal kid who spent most of his time online, looking at cars, talking about girls, chatting with his friends, doing sort of typical stuff. On the other hand, they've got to acknowledge some of this very incriminating evidence that they found on his computer, the actions themselves and they've got to find some way to set that right for the jury, which to them is to say, he's the victim, he was, you know, the follower of his brother. Is that compelling to the jury? Will that matter? Will it garner enough sympathy? I think that's the part that we're going to have to see and that's the case that the defense really has to flesh out over those weeks of the penalty phase of the trial.

COSTELLO: Alexandra Field, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Tikrit has been under ISIS control for nearly a year. Now a breakthrough. We'll take you into the city, next.

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[09:46:47] COSTELLO: Right now Iraqi forces are trying to push out a final batch of ISIS fighters from Saddam Hussein's hometown. The city of Tikrit under ISIS control since June, now back in the hands of the Iraqi government. That's according to the country's prime minister who visited the city center earlier today. You can see him in these photos walking side by side with security forces that helped liberate the city.

(CLIP OF CHANTING)

COSTELLO: The sounds of celebration ringing out in the streets as Iraqi troops replace the ISIS flag with their own. This just days after U.S.-led airstrikes pounded the terror group. CNN is one of the only networks on the ground in Tikrit as government forces take back that city. Here's CNN's senior international correspondent Arwa Damon.

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: War in Tikrit city center, this is the main road that leads through it. The tank behind me right there is one of those belonging to the (INAUDIBLE) popular movement units. You also have Iraqi police. That building, we were told, had a sniper and a suicide bomber in it.

Over here, you see what was Tikrit's governor (INAUDIBLE). Now we were told that this is an example of one of the many buildings that ISIS fighters had booby trapped. Inside here, one of the majors was telling us, that as one of their officers stepped onto the stairs, they detonated. The stairs themselves had been in lane with explosives. Two officers were killed in here, three were wounded.

Further down, you can see smoke continuously rising. This is a scene that you see throughout the entire city. That is because, according to what we are being told, there are so many IEDs, so many bobby trapped homes that in some cases, they cannot be diffused. Forces are being obliged to detonate them in place. There are some homes that are actually on fire in the distance.

Now moving throughout the city, the devastation, the destruction is pretty widespread. We also were earlier inside the presidential complex. There, what were Saddam Hussein's palaces, many of them bearing the scars of what seems to have been the aftermath of massive explosions, bombing by both coalition and the Iraqi Air Force. Now we are still hearing sporadic bursts of gunfire, explosions in the distance. We're being told that there are small pockets where ISIS fighters are still holding out, not very large in number, though, at this stage, and the Iraqi security forces most certainly confident that they will eventually be able to secure the entire city. As you were saying earlier, the prime minister already declaring victory. But given the widespread devastation, given the costs that just this city alone has already paid in the fight against ISIS, well, this is pretty much what victory at this stage looks like.

[09:49:45] COSTELLO: All right. Arwa Damon reporting from Tikrit. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN BECK, RETIRED RADIO JINGLE WRITER (voice-over): Singing is in my blood. When I was a little boy, my mother and dad and I sang. So we had a trio and we sang barbershop without a bass. I loved it then. I love it now.

(on camera): My name is Brian Beck. I sang radio jingles for years. Now I'm retired and I sing in a barbershop quartet.

(voice-over): I was a jingle writer for 30 years. The jingle business really started about 1955.

(on camera): That was CJOR. That's in Toronto.

(CJOR JINGLE)

BECK (on camera): That was pretty good stuff. We were pretty good back then. (Laughing.) It was like heaven. Go to work, sing, get paid for it. What could be better? You've got to plan ahead. That's all there is to it. We didn't have any pensions. We didn't have any 401(k)s. We were all independent contractors. Wound up saving 10 percent of everything. Kind of saw the writing on the wall and my wife said, you know, I'd like to move to Colorado. At some point, the jingle business was winding down and it was the perfect time to retire. So let's do it. So we did it.

(voice-over): Saturday Evening Post is the name of the group.

We just reformed about six months go. That was the two gold medal quartets back in the day. They said, well, if you move here, you want to sing bass with our quartet? I said, well, yes.

Each member has to be at least 55. I kind of skew up the age so we have a comfortable total.

[09:55:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get this right. Come on. Here we go.

BECK (voice-over): We are the current 2015 International Seniors Quartet Champions. There are quartets that form a bond that's stronger than brothers. I think Saturday Evening Post is one of those. (SATURDAY EVENING POST SINGING)

(APPLAUSE)

ANNOUNCER: Ahead, retire your way is brought to you by Fidelity. Every someday needs a plan. Go to CNNmoney.com/retireyourway to see more people who are living out the retirement they have always dreamed of.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. The CEO of Lufthansa is promising help but he's not giving victims' family members the one thing they want. That would be answers. Earlier this morning, the CEO literally turned his back on reporters, refusing to answer questions about how the airline could have allowed Andreas Lubitz to fly when it knew about his depression.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARSTEN SPOHR, LUFTHANSA CEO: Merci beaucoup. Merci.

[10:00:01] UNIDENTIFED MALE: Sir, when did you find the 2009 e-mail from Lubitz? When did you find it?

UNIDENTIFED MALE: I'm sorry, there is no --

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Why did it take you so long?