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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Iran Nuclear Talks; Germanwings Investigation. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired April 02, 2015 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:15] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. We're following major breaking news. Breaking news involving those nuclear talks with Iran. Also expecting a live news conference out of Marseilles, France, about the crash of that Germanwings plane. We're going to bring it to you live, all of this, once it happens.

But the major breaking news out of Switzerland right now, the nuclear negotiations with Iran. Any moment now, Iranian and European envoys, they're due to make a public statement. We're also anticipating a statement from the secretary of state of the United States, John Kerry, and from the president of the United States, this two days after a deadline for a broad stroke agreement to try to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. All of those statements we're standing by for. We'll bring them to you live.

But let's go to Switzerland, to Lausanne, Switzerland, first. Elise Labott, our global affairs correspondent, has been covering these negotiations there. They're now in double overtime, as they say. What is the latest we're expecting, first of all, a statement from the Iranians and the Europeans, is that right?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, a statement by Iranian foreign minister Zarif and the EU foreign policy chief, Mogherini, Wolf. Now, these negotiations have gone on for the last seven days. They went two days past that deadline on Tuesday. But negotiators had said they had made progress. This has been a real roller coaster, Wolf. There have been ups. There have been downs. There have been blame games here throughout the delegations against the Iranians, from the Iranians against the West. But they have been inching towards progress.

And today we were told there was enough progress to keep going. They thought they would have something. I spoke with Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif this morning. He said he thought he would be making a statement later today.

But, you know, listen, there are still some issues, Wolf, although much has been agreed to. They started with about a hundred areas of disagreement. Now they're down to just a - three or four. But these are three of the four key issues. We're talking about the pace of lifting U.N. sanctions. We're talking about the amount of research and development Iran could resume at the end years of the deal. And we're talking about the flexibility to impose sanctions back on Iran if they violate the deal. These are some of the key issues that they have been unable to come to agreement.

I think they've come a little closer. But I think the statement that you're going to hear tonight and diplomats in the talks are telling me that it's going to be a statement about the ending of discussions and the beginning of a new phase of negotiations. They're going to be negotiating this more completive deal with technical details that will be due at the end of June. But I think the political framework that was due on March 31st, this framework of understanding that was going to form the backbone of these negotiations is going -- it's going to fall far short of what the president was hoping to present to Congress to ward off new sanctions against Iran, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, stand by because we, of course, will hear all of these statements live. The negotiations presumably trying to wrap up all of these very, very intricate but complex technical details. The negotiations presumably will go until the end of June deadline. We're anxious to hear what the foreign minister of Iran, the chief nuclear negotiator, has to say, the European delegation, and then, of course, the secretary of state, John Kerry. The president of the United States has delayed his departure from the White House. We anticipate he probably will be making a statement as well.

Let me bring in Gloria Borger, our chief political analyst.

Gloria, the president's under enormous pressure right now -

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: He is.

BLITZER: Because if this falls dramatically short of what so many members of Congress want to hear, not only Republicans but Democrats, they could go ahead, in the coming weeks, and push for a new round of tough sanctions against Iran.

BORGER: Absolutely.

BLITZER: And the administration fears that could undermine the entire progress if, in fact, there has been significant progress in these negotiations.

BORGER: You know, I think it's safe to say, Wolf, that Congress is poised to step in no matter what occurs today. There are Democrats and Republicans who don't like the shape of this deal. They believe that the president won't be able to negotiate what he wants to negotiate, the key points that Elise just outlined. And they've got these pieces of legislation sitting out there, the president said he would veto them, but the question is whether they would have those votes to override the veto.

And there are pieces of legislation out there saying you have to wait 60 days in order - and then you could resume sanctions. There's legislation out there to impose even stricter sanctions. And whether this agreement, if there is one, and, again, we don't know whether it's provisional or whether it's a little more technical than we might think, I think it - the Congress is just sitting out there waiting to analyze it and it's really a safe bet, Wolf, that the president's going to face a lot of opposition at home from members of both parties.

[12:05:14] BLITZER: Yes, he certainly will. The question is, if they do pass resolutions, language, legislation imposing fresh new sanctions -

BORGER: Exactly.

BLITZER: The president, presumably, would veto that. Would there be the two-thirds override votes that would be necessary -

BORGER: Exactly. Exactly.

BLITZER: To prevent that veto from going into effect.

Let's go to the White House. Our senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta is standing by over there.

Jim, I take it the president was supposed to leave a little while ago, but he's delayed his departure.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right.

BLITZER: Which, of course, those of us who have covered the White House over the years, that means he presumably is getting ready to make a statement before he actually leaves the White House, right?

ACOSTA: That's right, Wolf. I mean that is the working assumption that we have right now, that the reason why the president has delayed his departure by about 15 minutes at this point - and, keep in mind, he was supposed to head to Kentucky and then on to Utah for the next two days for some domestic messaging events. That the reason why he's delayed this departure is to weigh in, in some sort of fashion, on what's happening in Switzerland.

But, Wolf, what is confounding this White House right now is they don't know exactly what is going to come out of Switzerland because you have so many moving parts, that Elise has been talking about all week long, that this White House essentially is going to have to wait and see what they say in Switzerland and then have the president respond. And so the question becomes, Wolf, how long can they delay this trip? Can they keep the president waiting this long or do they let him go and then have some sort of statement later on in the day down in Kentucky or perhaps even tomorrow in Utah.

But keep in mind, Wolf, as they've been watching this here in Washington all week, they've been sort of wondering, you know, when are they going to get to the end. And it has been interesting to watch, you know, sort of the way this has evolved over the last couple days because there were - there were some high hopes earlier this week that perhaps they might need - might be able to meet this deadline by March 31st.

But then you started to hear some pretty strong language coming out of the White House press briefing. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest saying a couple of days ago and then yesterday that all options remain on the table for this president. That increasing sanctions on Iran, that the military option is still on the table for this president. And so as they were missing that deadline and as they - as hopes were dimming in Switzerland, you saw sort of a ratcheting up of the rhetoric. Not really getting into the details. They've been declining to really get into the details, the sticking points that Elise has been talking about, but they have been sort of there waiting with a stick in the back of their hand, making it very clear to the Iranians that if they walk away without anything at the end of this week, that there could be consequences, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, stand by. Everyone stand by.

We're awaiting a statement coming in from Switzerland, from those negotiations. The U.S., the other permanent members of the United Nation's Security Council, the EU, Germany, they've all wrapped up, at least this phase of the negotiations. We're standing by for a statement from the EU representative, together with the foreign minister of Iran, Javad Zarif. It's a little unusual to be hearing from the EU - from the EU together with Iran without the U.S., other members of the Security Council. We'll get some clarification on what is going on.

Much more coming in. This is important, breaking news.

The other big story we're following, there's new information coming in on the horrible plane crash in the French Alps. We're standing by for a news conference in Marseille. There you see a live picture coming in from Marseille, France.

Lots of news happening. We'll take a quick break. Much more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:12:10] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And we're continuing to watch a number of breaking stories this hour. Two major discoveries in two countries in the Germanwings crash. From the treacherous ravine where Flight 9525 disintegrated into the southern French Alps, recovery teams today found that much sought after flight data recorder. It is still not exactly clear the condition that the data recorder is in, but the prosecutor in Marseille is due to hold a news conference at any moment now. And hopefully he'll have some details as to what the investigators have been able to glean from that flight data recorder or if it's even been looked at yet or if it's in any condition to be analyzed.

And then in Germany today, a prosecutor has revealed something very troubling, that the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, left behind a tablet computer. And on that tablet, he had researched suicide methods. He had also researched cockpit doors and the safety of them. Now, that could suggest that his deliberate ditching and killing of all 150 people on board that Airbus was not in fact just a crime of opportunity or a whim at the moment, but instead was something far more nefarious, an absolute premeditated mass murder. I'm joined now by CNN aviation analyst Les Abend. He's a Boeing 777

captain, a contributing editor of "Flying" magazine, knows a lot about this.

Les, the first thing I wonder is, if the discovery of the second black box, the flight data recorder, will do anything to teach us more than we already know from the flight - from the cockpit voice recorder that was recovered?

LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, as we know, the digital flight data recorder has recordings of hundreds of other parameters. One of the parameters I think, in answer to your question, is going to be whether that co-pilot utilized the mode control panel with - in conjunction with the auto pilot to fly into terrain, or whether that co-pilot used hand flying and flew his airplane for one last time. That information will be readily available through the digital flight data recorder.

BANFIELD: Would we also find out if he manually used those available buttons that are right there in that center console, for lack of - you know, this is the non-aviators term for it, that will continually lock someone out of the cabin - of the cockpit, even if that someone is the pilot who knows the code and is requesting access?

ABEND: And it's a good question. I think so, but I think the cockpit voice recorder may give a mechanical sound of whether the mechanical latch was used for the cockpit door. If it was used electronically and perhaps, you know, we're speculating here about his research on the cockpit door. But if he pulled circuit breakers, that digital flight data recorder - circuit breakers, I mean circuit breakers to disable the electronic aspect of that cockpit door, those should come up on the digital -

[12:15:10] BANFIELD: Is that something simple? Is that something that anybody - a pilot, a co-pilot, somebody with only the minimal experience that he actually had, not like you with the decades that you've got, you just know that this is the circuit breaker you'd need to pull to disable it?

ABEND: It's - you know, there are not - the cockpits of modern airplanes these days don't have as many circuit breakers as they used to have in the past.

BANFIELD: Yes.

ABEND: So it's a simple matter of looking up - usually they're on the overhead panel - and saying, ah, that's the circuit breaker for such and such a system.

BANFIELD: Would the flight data recorder - and we don't know again at this point whether it was viable, whether what they found is something they can even analyze. We're waiting on this live news conference, as we mentioned off the top of this segment. The prosecutor in Marseille, his name is Brice Robin. He is expected to brief reporters any moment. And the minute he begins speaking, we're going to take you there, because this is critical information in what a is massive crime and a crime scene.

Would this - would this information yield the fact that this co-pilot may have, in fact, programmed the auto pilot to take this plane into the mountains?

ABEND: Well, let's distinguish - the mode control panel can work both in conjunction with the pilot hand flying and the mode control panel can work with the pilot using the auto pilot. So really what it comes down to is, we know the end game. He brought that airplane, as a direct result of his controls, whether it was through the auto pilot or through manual control, brought that airplane into the terrain.

BANFIELD: And that was my other question. If, in fact, this aviator buff, this young man who dreamt all his life of being a pilot, if he, in fact, chose to pilot the plane into the mountains, which no one can understand, but yet again no one can understand the larger aspects of this horror, would the flight data recorder give us that information that this man actually was on the wheel?

ABEND: It -

BANFIELD: He was at the yolk and took it into the mountain?

ABEND: And in this - in this particular case, the control stick, the side stick. Yes, it should indicate that data, that he might have said, you know what, I'm going to fly an airplane for one last time. And he may have very well clicked off the auto pilot, just used the mode control panel as a reference because it stops some of the warnings if you dial it all the way down to 100 feet. So, yes, indeed, it could.

BANFIELD: So distressing. I mean no matter how this happens, it is - it is terribly distressing. OK, thank you, Les Abend.

And I just want to remind our viewers, we're watching the live microphones in Marseille, France, where the prosecutor is expected to update the press. And there are many of them waiting on this much sought after second flight box. The flight data recorder. We've got the information that was leaked from - from the cockpit recorder, but this is the digital information.

And we've got another very big story that's breaking this hour as well. It's been a terribly busy news day. There has been an attack, a terror attack, on a college campus in Kenya. We've got new numbers on the people who were killed in that attack. And, of course, one of two terrorist attacks that we're covering today. The upsetting details, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:21:50] BANFIELD: Terrorists went to work today in two very unstable parts of the world killing a lot of people in one of those areas and setting back the war on terror in the other. And we're closely watching both.

We'll start in Kenya, where we're now told at least 70 people are known to be dead and many others were taken hostage after men with guns stormed a campus of a university there. The extremist group al Shabaab is claiming responsibility for this. And I'm going to take you live to Nairobi in just a moment. So stand by.

But also today, a large group of al Qaeda-linked militant fighters were effectively busted out of a prison in Yemen. At this count, it looks like more than 250 of them were broken free from the prison. A person believed to be a senior al Qaeda leader is among those who have been freed. Yemen is just spinning out of control with a rebel group taking over the capital.

I'm going to interrupt this story only to take you back to Marseille, France, where there is a prosecutor who's updating us on the very latest on Flight 9525. Let's listen.

BRICE ROBIN, MARSEILLE, FRANCE, PROSECUTOR (through translator): As long as the official documents have not been given to me, I will do so later on, but I cannot for the time being.

I also would like to thank all of the participants, the personnel mobilized with regards to this plane crash, and namely the investigators and the armed forces of the mountain Gendarmerie, the air services, the criminal investigation of the national police, but also doctors of the Legal Medical Institute of Marseille and technicians from the scientific laboratory of Marseille, who have done an exceptional amount of work under conditions which were particularly challenging, both on a human level and on a physical level.

As I've already told you by a communication, the second - the flight data recorder, the second black box, was found this afternoon by a policeman, a woman policeman, of Chamonix (ph), which was confirmed by the investigators of the BEA (ph). It is thanks to the BA (ph), who gave us a copy of the black box which was recovered from a previous crash, that we were able to undergo effective research. Indeed, this black of the same color - we've prepared some photographs for you, if you wish, where on the left side of a ravine, which had already been examined on several occasions, but it had been completely embedded and it was only by digging that the policeman was able to find it.

[12:25:04] It is completely blackened, so it was burnt. Its overall condition would let one hope that there is the possibility of further investigations. As you know, this black must include 500 recorded parameters. Among them, the speed of the plane, the altitude of the plane, the power of the engine, the action of the pilots with regards to their controls, and the different types of piloting of the plane. These elements are absolutely vital in order to ascertain the truth. This black box will be taken to Owasi (ph) Airport to be forwarded and subjected to the experts of the BEA investigations bureau.

The second point, and I'm informing you about the 2,850 -- 2,854 fragments that have been recovered and examined, 2,285 samples of DNA, of which 150 DNA profiles were isolated. One hundred and fifty DNA profiles were isolated by the laboratory. That does not mean that we've identified the 150 victims and I insist on this point. This does not mean that we've identified the 150 victims. Their remains to be carried out a comparison between this postmortem DNA, with the - the DNA prior to the crash submitted by the families of the victims. This work will be able to be carried out very quickly as of next week.

I now make the commitment that at the time of each identification, the family of the victim, victim thus identified, will thus be informed, regardless of its nationality. At the time of the identification of the victim, its family will be immediately informed regardless of nationality. On the other hand, the return of the bodies will only be able to occur when - after the commission of identification under the Interpol protocol and - which is constituted of the legal procedure, medical, otologists, biologists, people in charge of the investigations bureau and representatives of Interpol will have met to validate the results of these - of this identification. I don't know if I've been clear. There will be two events, comparison between anti and postmortem examination of DNA. As soon as identification, once there is a match, I will advise the families of the victims concerned.

On the other hand, I will need to wait for all of the operation - investigations for the 150 victims and the intervention by Interpol has taken place before I can finally return the bodies. I cannot give you further details for the time being, but I can assure you that everything will be done, both by the laboratory, as well as by the prosecution office of Marseille, so that the waiting period is as short as possible.

Thank you very much for your attention. We will now listen to General (INAUDIBLE), who will answer your questions. And if you have any questions.

GEN. DAVID GALTIER, GENDARMERIE NATIONALE (through translator): Thank you, Mr. Prosecutor.

[12:29:36] You've talked about these two matters, basic matters, which were at the heart of this investigation, the discovery of the second black box, the data - flight data recorder, and you talked about the identification of the DNA of the victims. All this is carried out during the scene in the Alps where you were last week and still this week and Paris (ph), where was carried out this very delicate work of comparing the postmortem and anti-mortem elements as explained by the prosecutor.