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Wife of Fallen Marine Remembers His Courage; ISIS Takes Key Iraqi City of Ramadi; Pentagon Gives New Details on ISIS Raid; At Least 9 Dead in Waco Shooting; Hacker Took Over Airliner Engine Controls?; Amtrak Crash Victim's Widow Speaking Out. Aired 50-6p ET

Aired May 17, 2015 - 17:00   ET

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


[17:00:04]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RONALD NORGREN, FATHER: He loved to fly and he loved to help people. And you know, I got to hand it to the Marine Corps for stepping up for Nepal and I want to thank all the people that said prayers. I know I've got a lot of friends out there but I've also got a lot of people out there that don't know me. And I want to thank them because of their faith and faith is going to hold my wife, and I through this, and I hope that the faith of the families, hope for them, too.

TERRI NORGREN, MOTHER: I know in my heart that Chris is doing what he wanted to do. He's always loved life and loved God and his family and he was doing what he needed to do to be able to help them. And I am so proud of everything that he has done and accomplished.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Captain Dustin Lukasiewicz was another pilot on board, he was from Nebraska. The "Omaha World Herald" reports his wife is pregnant with their second child. Captain Lukasiewicz was just featured in this Defense Department video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. DUSTIN LUKASIEWICZ, U.S. MARINE CORPS PILOT: My name is Captain Lukasiewicz. And we stand with Nepal. So we were able to deliver some rice, potatoes and tarps to smaller villages just east of Kathmandu, areas that are more difficult to get to via any sort of ground transportation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: That very video shot by Lance Corporal Jacob Hug, a combat videographer from Arizona. He was also killed in this crash. Another Marine featured in the Defense Department video was Sergeant Ward Johnson IV, the helicopter crew chief from Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. WARD M. JOHNSON, U.S. MARINE CORPS: Been over a week, HMLA 469 has flown over 54 flight hours, delivered over 68,000 pounds of needed supplies to the outer villages and we also plan to deliver another 140,000 pounds before we leave.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Corporal Sara medina was a combat photographer, she was also on board that helicopter. The woman behind the lens of these remarkable images, the governor in her home state of Illinois calls her courage and dedication, a role model for all of us.

And Sgt. Eric Seaman was a helicopter crew chief on this flight. He was a California native, a husband and a father of two young children. On a go-fund me account set up for his family, his mother-in-law says, "Thank you all for this. I just want the world to know that my son- in-law was a great man and a true hero. He was what a man is supposed to be."

Those are stories of six American heroes. And I want to focus on them and talk more about one of them, Eric Seaman. His wife, Samantha, joins me on the phone.

Hi, Samantha.

SAMANTHA SEAMAN, WIFE OF MARINE KILLED IN NEPAL CHOPPER CRASH: Hi.

HARLOW: Tell me a little bit about Eric. I know he was only 30 years old.

SEAMAN: Yes, ma'am. He turned 30 in October. He was a wonderful man. He loved me very much. He lived for his family and he would just always tell me that he couldn't wait to come home. He was a great father. He was a great Marine. He loved his country. And he really wanted to go to Nepal to help those people.

Last week, I got an e-mail telling me that he felt purpose and that he delivered 10,000 tons of rice and that he was going to feel it the next day, but he was a wonderful husband. I couldn't have asked for a better partner in life.

HARLOW: He felt purpose and he did --

SEAMAN: Yes.

HARLOW: -- what so many people don't do and that is he sacrificed everything for his country. You have these two beautiful children that we are looking at as we see images of him kissing them, Roman, 2 1/2 years old, Reilly, 1 year old. What will you one day tell them about their father?

SEAMAN: I just want them to know that their dad was the greatest man. He was a hero. That he loved them very much. And that everybody around me, all friends are going to make sure they know that and know up growing their dad.

HARLOW: What do you think he wanted to leave the world with, Samantha? SEAMAN: Love. He loved us very much. He loved his family and we are

going to do everything we can every day until we meet again to make him proud.

HARLOW: I have no doubt he is very proud of all of you and I have no doubt that he's looking down on the three of you. He was a decorated member of the Marines. He served since 2009. He was awarded the Air Medal, the Marine Corps Good Contact Medal with the Bronze Star, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal.

Why did he join? Why did he want to serve his country?

[17:05:10] SEAMAN: He wanted to make a difference and my husband, he loves his country and he wanted to protect this country. And he was a very selfless man. And he would have done anything to help others. And I know that right before he passed away, I know that he helped somebody. And that's exactly why he joined the military. He wanted to make a difference in the world and I absolutely know that he did. He has made this whole country proud. And I -- I'm so proud of him and I love him very, very, very much.

HARLOW: We are looking at these beautiful pictures of the four of you smiling. His smiles so big, mirrored in the smiles of your children together. What made Eric laugh?

SEAMAN: Everything. He was a movie buff. And on weekends, we would just sit and watch movies, stupid movies like "Super Troopers" and "Stepbrothers." And he -- he spent a lot of time with his son, Roman. They did everything together. They -- yard work, you know, tools and sports. He loved being around his best friend and he loved being around his Marines. He was just -- his smile lit up every single room and I love that smile and it's embedded in my heart forever.

HARLOW: Did he always want -- want to serve? I mean, when the two of you met, did he talk about one day wanting to serve?

SEAMAN: Eric and I have been together a very long time. We first started dating when I was just 17. And he always told me that he wanted to serve his country and make a difference. And he loved flying and he was a great crew chief.

HARLOW: He sounds like an extraordinary man, an extraordinary husband, and an extraordinary father. I am so sorry and so deeply sorry for your loss. Thank you for sharing a little bit about him with all of us.

SEAMAN: Thank you. I just -- I just wanted to say thank you to everybody that prayed for my family and sent well wishes and I feel the love, even if I don't respond, I feel the love. And I know my husband didn't die in vain. And I know that he's going to be with me and my family until we meet again. I love him. And I have no regrets. We had a wonderful marriage.

HARLOW: Samantha, thank you so much, and you're right. He lived and he served, as you said, with purpose, helping the people that needed it most. Our thoughts are with you and your family, Samantha. All right. We're going to turn to Iraq now and breaking news on a

major setback in the fight against ISIS. The terror group now in firm control of the key Iraqi city of Ramadi. This is only 65 miles from Baghdad. And when asked today if Ramadi had fallen to ISIS, a spokesman for the governor of Anbar Province said, quote, "Basically, yes. But it's a big city. There are still pockets of resistance."

ISIS, though, has already declared victory in Ramadi. They advanced this morning by detonating a series of car bombs, forcing Iraqi Security Forces to retreat.

Let's go live to Irbil in northern Iraq. Mitchell Prothero joins me now. He's a correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers.

Mitchell, you're just about 235 miles away from this firefight that by all accounts has gone to -- gone to ISIS' hands, that Ramadi has fallen to ISIS. What is it that you're hearing on the ground?

MITCHELL PROTHERO, MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENT: Well, basically this is the biggest victory or -- you know, for the Islamic State or perhaps the biggest defeat for the Iraqi Security Forces since last June's collapse that led to the takeover of Mosul. From a military standpoint, it is disastrous. The largest province in Iraq is essentially in the hands of the Islamic State at this stage and it's going to be extremely difficult for them to retake, you know, even the cities close to Baghdad. As you said, it's only about 60, 65 miles away.

HARLOW: Right.

PROTHERO: Let alone Mosul, which is hundreds of miles away, so it's just -- it's a terrible dire the coalition and for the Iraqi government.

HARLOW: This is, as you said, 65 miles. And when you look at it on a map it's frightening to see how close it is to Baghdad compared to the other parts of Iraq that ISIS has been able to conquer. From what you've seen, do you have any sense that this may go the other way eventually, that Iraqi Security Forces will be able to retake Ramadi or is this said and done?

PROTHERO: I mean, in the short term, it feels fairly said and done. I mean, eventually, the Iraqi government is going to have to reconstitute its military. The Shia-dominated government, political parties and their militias, are going to have to reach out to the Sunni tribesmen who control large swaths of the Anbar Province and even up in Mosul and come to a reconciliation with them and all work together, you know, to fix this situation if the modern state of Iraq is going to survive this. But for right now it's very difficult to see how in the short term, there could be a military solution coming out of Baghdad.

HARLOW: From your assessment, Mitchell, covering the events on the ground there, why did it fall? Is this the Iraqi army not being well enough armed and equipped? Because we've heard the U.S. government has been rushing arms over there? Is this a lack of organization among Iraqi Security Forces? Why were they not prepared to hang on to Ramadi?

PROTHERO: Well, it's a combination of factors. One, ever since the United States left Iraqi in around 2010, there have been increasing levels of corruption and just dysfunction as the Iraqi army was turned more into a patronage and sort of corrupt organization full of ghost soldiers, people who didn't show up and their commanders were just, you know, take their paychecks, selling ammunition and their food on the black market.

You know, all of these things are, you know, what led to the collapse last summer in June. You're not going to fix them in the course of a year, even under this much stress, as the Iraqi government's been. But it is shocking that they could know that for a year to a year and a half that Ramadi was in the sights of the Islamic State.

The head coalition air power coming in and giving them, you know, five to six bombing runs a day for months on end and still were in a position to lose, it really does raise questions about the overall competence of both the Iraqi government and the way they had trained and deployed their military forces in that area.

HARLOW: And the people of Ramadi -- before I let you go -- you expect they stay and live under ISIS control? Have they tried to flee to Baghdad?

PROTHERO: They tried to flee a few weeks ago when it looked like Ramadi might fall and Baghdad wouldn't let them in so this time because basically those Sunni tribes are often seen, you know, by the Shia-led government as sympathetic to the Islamic State, even if they are not. But what we are hearing, which is a change this time is that the Islamic State is not letting people leave.

Neighborhoods are being shut down, militants are going house-to-house looking for government collaborators or pro-government tribesmen, and executing them in the streets and we can't confirm any numbers at this stage but anecdotally it sounds like that there are some massacre under way in Ramadi right now.

HARLOW: It's a horrific situation.

Mitchell Prothero, thanks for the update from the ground in northern Iraq for us.

An important Amtrak update also for you. This just in. In the aftermath of that deadly derailment, the railway has just announced that there will be full Amtrak service restored on that part of the Northeast Corridor, that's the busy line between Philadelphia and New York City. It will happen in time for tomorrow morning's commute.

Of course the investigation very much still ongoing. Service has been in what they call a modified state since the accident.

Also, take a look at. Right now the mayor of Philadelphia, the governor of Pennsylvania, members of Congress and its Cabinet are all in one place remembering the eight people that died in that derailment. This spot is right near the place where the speeding train left the tracks on Tuesday night. All seven passenger cars derailed.

CNN spoke to the widow of one of the victims, she tells our Jason Carroll how she is explaining what happened to their two children. We'll bring you her story ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:16:40] HARLOW: This weekend's U.S. military raid that killed a major ISIS player in Syria may be most valuable not for taking a top terrorist out of the picture but for the papers and computers that American commandos grabbed in his hideout. That is the stuff that may contain secrets about how ISIS operates and critically how its' funded.

Here's CNN's Victor Blackwell with how the Pentagon tells us the mission unfolded.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The ground operation was led by the Army's Delta Force who entered the target area on Blackhawk helicopters and a V-22 Tilt Rotor Osprey. After landing about two dozen commandos scrambled off the aircraft which then took off but hovered overhead.

During a firefight, ISIS fighters defended the multistory building from inside and outside positions. But Special Forces were able to get close to the building and blow a hole in its side. They went in, encountered ISIS fighters, and there were more gunshots and reports of hand-to-hand combat.

The ISIS combatants apparently tried to use human shields but U.S. troops managed to kill the fighters without hurting the women and children. ISIS commander Abu Sayyaf was killed in the raid but Delta Force was able to capture and leave with his wife, Umm Sayyaf, and an unidentified Yazidi woman who they rescued along with collected communications gear.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Let's talk more about this. J. M. Berger joins me now. He founded the Web site, IntelWire. He is an author on extremism including of the book, "ISIS: The State of Terror."

Thanks for being with me, Jam. I appreciate it.

J. M. BERGER, FOUNDER, INTELWIRE.COM: Thank you for having me.

HARLOW: I know it's early going and the Pentagon isn't putting out the intelligence that they got from this raid, but look, I had Congressman Ed Royce on the program yesterday and he said it could be very significant in terms of having the ability now for the United States from what they have gathered in this raid to track down people that may be funding ISIS from outside of Iraq and Syria.

Do you think that we're going to actually get names here and get to those people?

BERGER: Well, I think that the target here is more people who are doing business with ISIS, particularly buying its black market oil. ISIS doesn't function on a donor model in the way that al Qaeda did, although it does take donations. We have seen the importance of that kind of activity has decreased over the last few years. They have an economy and they are trying to build a state and it has its economy and that's how they make their money.

HARLOW: It's remarkable that we've learned just in the last hour or so that ISIS claims that it has retaken Ramadi, that the mayor of Anbar Province, the largest province of Iraq, says it looks like that, that ISIS has fully taken Ramadi and that it is, as we just heard from our last reporter, not even letting citizens leave. It shows the power that ISIS has gained so quickly.

I want you to take a listen to what Senator Marco Rubio said this morning, saying that he's not convinced that this raid overall really hurt ISIS very much.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It doesn't take away from the fact that ISIS remains a group that just in the last 48 hours has captured yet another critical city within Iraq. It continues to be a dangerous group that now finds a -- for example, a very active note of operation in Libya that we'll have to confront here fairly soon and a group that I think has designs on moving into Lebanon, perhaps sooner than some of us had anticipated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Designs of moving into Lebanon. Could ISIS actually get a foothold in Lebanon?

[17:20:07] BERGER: Well it's certainly one of their goals, you know. They are pushing out of that territory in every direction, both by planting seeds in areas that are not contiguous with Iraq and Syria, and also it's slowly expanding on their borders. And you know, the value of this intelligence haul without seeing it, we can't know, but certainly intelligence only go so far in trying to contain the expansion of this group so.

HARLOW: So I want your reaction to this. This comes to us from former CIA official Michael Morell. He has a prediction about ISIS, writing, quote, "Today, an ISIS-directed attack in the U.S. would be relatively unsophisticated, but over time, ISIS' capabilities will grow. This is what a long-term safe haven in Iraq and Syria would give ISIS and it is exactly what the group is planning to do. They have announced their intentions just like bin Laden did in the years prior to 9/11."

Is that a fair assessment? Is that alarmism at all?

BERGER: Well, there's -- it's a complicated question. So ISIS has not made clear its intention to carry out a 9/11-style attack against the United States. If they chose to do that and they very well might, they have more manpower and more money than al Qaeda ever did in its history. The difference between al Qaeda and ISIS is really training. Al Qaeda spent many years training its operatives, people were, you know, extraordinarily well prepared to carry out terrorist attacks.

So, you know, what we could expect from ISIS, as he said, is something that's a little cruder perhaps but would potentially be staffed at the large level. I think we have to have some expectation that we're going to see that kind of attempt eventually. We do have better systems in place to try to prevent something like that and even successful terrorist attack is not existential threat to the United States.

We survived 9/11, we can survive anything ISIS throws at us. But obviously, you know, we need to start getting out ahead of this and start thinking about what could happen six months or a year from now.

HARLOW: Yes. And getting the best intelligence possible. We can from within ISIS, which has been certainly a huge challenge and that is confounded by the fact that we have, you know, this so much funding, as you said. It is so well funded.

Thank you so much, J. M. Berger. It's good to have you on.

BERGER: Thank you.

HARLOW: All right. We're also following a breaking story out of Waco, Texas. Nine people are dead in a shooting. We'll explain what happened with a live report next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:26:22] HARLOW: All right. We're following breaking news out of Waco, Texas, where there has been a shooting we're told between biker gangs. There are at least nine people reported dead.

Joining me on the phone, Grant Hermes, he's an affiliate reporter with KXXV in Waco.

Grant, what happened?

GRANT HERMES, REPORTER, KXXV: Well, Poppy, this all started around 12:15 this afternoon. Police were telling us they were monitoring the situation here at Twin Peaks Restaurant, and then they heard that there was a fight over a parking space is what it started as. That escalated to guns. After knives and chains were also brought out.

I just talked with a few witnesses a little while ago who said that they crawled into a freezer in the back of the restaurant with some other employees and the management there. They locked themselves in as they heard a terrified, obviously gunshots were going off. They were then brought outside, under police custody, after things had quieted down so they could get them out.

HARLOW: And you had said that police had been keeping an eye on these groups ahead of -- ahead of this incident? HERMES: Yes, that's right. We were told today that both local and

state police have been keeping an eye on these two gangs, two or three gangs, at least that's what we're telling us, for about a month now. They've been trying to work with the restaurant management and the owners but those owners wanted this business at their restaurant. So there was a lot of frustration we were hearing from local police today that they said this pack, you know, may have been not as bad if the ownership would had been able to -- or more willing really to work with police here.

HARLOW: We are looking at these still images, so we're not seeing live at the moment what's happening on the ground. Do you think that things have calmed, everyone who may have been involved that wasn't shot has, you know, been taken into custody, if you will? Is the area secure?

HERMES: The area is actually far from it at this point. Where I'm standing right now is inside two different police perimeters. There are police walking around with weapons out. We are safe where we are but we're being told that places elsewhere in Waco are not secure, especially places where they say these bikers may have left this area. They think there might be some sort of retaliation coming. They're telling a lot of us here to be safe and just not go a lot of places today in Waco.

HARLOW: Grant Hermes, thank you very much for the report out of Waco, Texas. Of course we'll keep an eye on this developing story and bring you the latest out of Waco, Texas. As we have it. Again nine reported dead in shooting in Waco.

Coming up next, a security expert telling the FBI he hacked an airliner, a commercial airliner, and took control of the plane's computer. The details next.

But first, tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN's "PARTS UNKNOWN," filmmaker Darren Aronofsky joins Anthony Bourdain in, where else, Madagascar, for two distinct views of the country's sights, people and, of course, the food.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY BOURDAIN, HOST, "PARTS UNKNOWN": I asked Darren Aronofsky, who directed such films as "Pi", "Requiem for a Dream.". If he can go anywhere on earth, where would you like to go? And he said, Madagascar. At least simple. So now the more you look, the harder you look, the more complicated it gets.

[17:30:12] Two different perspectives. One place. Madagascar.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right, imagine this. Being on an airplane and during midflight, the oxygen masks come down. You're told it was a computer glitch and everything is fine. You wonder what that glitch could be. Well, the so-called glitch could have been a computer hack of the airline. This is not a far-fetched scenario.

Last April, what I just described above was twitted about by a hacker named Chris Roberts. He is a cyber security expert from Colorado and he was on board a United Airlines flight when he tweeted, quote -- it's a little hard to follow, I'm just going to tell you, but here's what he tweeted. Quote, "Find myself on a 737-800. Let's see, BOX, IFE, ICE, SAT COM, shall we start playing with EICAS messages? Pass oxygen on. Anyone?"

Well, the FBI saw that tweet, they detained him and questioned him for hours. He said he was frustrated that Boeing and Airbus, the two largest plane manufacturers, aren't listening to his hacking warning. And he's been warning them, he says, for years.

Now Roberts has revealed even more disturbing information. For that, let's go to CNN justice reporter Evan Perez.

Evan, it's pretty remarkable, and you guys got a lot of information from this, from some court documents. What is he claiming that he has carried out?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, this is some scary stuff that's in this court document that the FBI filed as part of a -- as part of a search warrant request in order to go through some electronics that they seized from Chris Roberts back in April.

[17:35:10] So this all begins in February and March, according to the FBI, according to these documents filed in court, that they -- the FBI interviewed Chris Roberts and he told them that he has managed to hack into aircraft while he is on board 15 to 20 times from 2011 to 2014, and he describes one scary maneuver in which he manages to send commands to the engine of an aircraft on which he is flying and it causes the engine to actually respond, for the plane to actually have a lateral move.

Now we haven't confirmed this. No one has confirmed whether or not this actually occurred. This is all according to the FBI and they say this is according to Chris Roberts in interviews that he gave them.

Fast forward to April 15th. He is on a flight and he tweets those messages that you just described and so, of course, when he lands in Syracuse, the FBI meets him and they find a lot of stuff in his possession, including computers, iPads and what he says, according to the FBI, are thumb drives that have nasty, what he called nasty malware that could be used to take over the computer controls.

According to Roberts, the way he does this is simply by connecting with a cable from his laptop to a box that's right underneath the seat and that controls In-flight Entertainment System -- this is the stuff that you watch movies on -- on the back of the seat. And so that's how he says he is able to do this.

I should say that Chris Roberts in the last day or so has tweeted that this is all a misunderstanding. He says -- we have a tweet from him that says he is not able to address it all but he says that there is a whole five years of stuff that the affidavit incorrectly compressed into one paragraph. Lots to untangle. We reached out to him. He's not been able to respond to us.

HARLOW: Well, look, this isn't the first time we're hearing that this could happen, right? The GAO, the Government Accountability Office, came out with a report just a few weeks ago warning about this. So it makes me obviously want to ask, what is Boeing saying, what is Airbus saying? Are they saying yes, this is possible?

PEREZ: Well, Boeing specifically responded to us yesterday when we asked about this, and they said that they don't think it's possible, that they have separate systems from the in-flight control -- In- flight Entertainment Systems to the aircraft's controls. They're completely separate, it's not possible.

Airbus has said that they have firewalls to wall off the system. As you said, the GAO has raised questions and so technically it is possible and I will tell you, the FBI document that we read and that we have posted online says that the FBI's own technical experts say -- believe Chris Roberts, that, you know, he is -- has the capability to do this.

So we'll see, this investigation is still ongoing. He's not been arrested. No charges have been brought and that tells us that they are still working on this.

HARLOW: All right. Evan Perez with the story for us. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Let's get some more perspective now with the former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation and also aviation expert, Mary Schiavo.

Mary, how credible do you think that Roberts' claims are that he could and has hacked into commercial airliners?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, I think his claims that he could are possible. I think the claims that he has are not probable. And so it's going to come down to the difference between what's possible and what's probable. And I think what's occurring here, you know, I worked with the FBI for 15 years, first as a federal prosecutor, then as IG, and they had interviewed him months ago.

If that time, if they had determined that it was probable that he had done what he said, they would have never let him go with all this equipment again.

HARLOW: Right.

SCHIAVO: And so what I think what happened is when he is tweeting from a plane that he's doing this and one of the flights, remember, wasn't even possible to do what he said, they didn't have the entertainment system. I think the FBI had just had enough and the fact that they didn't have a warrant to seize this by the time they met him at the plane is pretty significant, because to get a federal warrant for seizure or for search and seizure rather, you have to have a judge's signature. So I think it's probable, even our own GAO has said that it is possible. HARLOW: Right.

SCHIAVO: But I don't believe that he caused un-commanded engine changes because that would have caused the autopilot to shut off and the pilots probably would have written it up in their squawk book. They would have had a maintenance issue if the engine did something that they didn't command. So, possible, yes. Probable, not yet. But it could be.

HARLOW: But we are looking at commercial airliners that are becoming more and more computerized and that's part of what the GAO pointed to in their report, is that when you've got these new airplane models that are more and more technologically advanced, so much of them run on these computer systems, does that open us up to more risk because obviously, you think could terrorists do this?

SCHIAVO: Yes. And I think that GAO report did a far greater service to aviation security than this individual because the GAO report made an important point. They said not only are the aircraft potentially vulnerable, but our air traffic control system is potentially more vulnerable because we are going to the next generation air traffic control system, which is satellite based and very much, you know, computer controlled.

[17:40:21] And the GAO said that's what we need to be worrying about is the actual control and the government part of it because they said the government build-out of the next generation air traffic control system did not have a robust enough firewall and could potentially be hacked. So the GAO report went one step furtherer and frankly, I find that more -- probably more likely target of terrorists or hackers than plane by plane targeting and that must be fixed. The FAA must and are setting about working on that.

HARLOW: All right, Mary Schiavo, thanks for the expertise. I appreciate it.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

HARLOW: You're looking at some live pictures right now. This is a remembrance ceremony taking place this afternoon in Philadelphia. It is honoring the victims of that horrific Amtrak crash last week. The details, also the latest on the investigation, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. This just into us here at CNN. Amtrak announcing that the busy section of rail between Philadelphia and New York City, that Northeast Corridor, will be restored to normal service by tomorrow morning's commute after that horrific and deadly crash.

[17:45:02] Also, I want to you take a look at these live pictures out of Philadelphia. This is a special service, a reflection near the spot where that train derailed on Tuesday night, killing eight people, hurting more than 200 others. They are remembering them today.

Amtrak's technicians spent this weekend trying to clean up that wreckage and installing speed controls on that curve section of the track where the accident happened. Amtrak officials say that the NTSB announced a couple of days ago that the train would not have derailed, it would not have happened if they had those speed controls in place. Investigators are still picking apart the onboard data recorder, talking to everyone involved.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT SUMWALT, NTSB BOARD MEMBER: The only way that an operable train can accelerate would be if the engineer pushed the throttle forward. And that's -- we are -- we -- the event recorder does record throttle movement. We will be looking at that to see if that corresponds to the increase in the speed of the train.

We've talked to the engineer, the person operating the train. So we've -- he was fully -- he was fully cooperative when we met with him on Friday and then we've also interviewed two assistant conductors that were on the train.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: They still don't know why this happened.

Jason Carroll joins me now because the human story of all of this is the most important, the people who lost their loved ones. You just this morning sat with a woman who lost her husband.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Jacqueline Gaines lost her husband, Jim. He was 48 years old. He was the man who worked for the Associated Press. He was the video software architect. He's coming back from Washington, D.C., from a business trip.

You know, we spoke to her this morning. It was a very difficult interview, I have to tell you. This was a very strong woman, a very spiritual woman, but having said that, it's still very difficult for her, very emotional as you can imagine. She talked about what she would remember most about her husband.

I just want you to take a quick listen to that first.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACQUELINE GAINES, WIDOW OF AMTRAK CRASH VICTIM: If there were any words to describe him, I would say -- probably the adjectives I would use would be he is kind, he is humble. He is family man, and not just with his children and his wife, but with the community.

I just feel completely blessed and I thank god that he gave me time with him because he taught me and I think he can still teach me. So he left a good imprint on the world and that's good thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: She really found the composure to find the words to speak about her husband. And you know, there's so much speculation, as you know, about what caused the crash. Was it a throttle, was it human error, whatever? I mean, she is not even focused on that right now, as you can imagine. She is solely trying to focus on her children, her family. The folks at the Associated Press even -- they've set up a scholarship fund for --

HARLOW: The kids.

CARROLL: -- Anushka and for Oliver.

HARLOW: I was going to ask you, 11-year-old and 16-year-old?

CARROLL: Oliver is 16, Anushka, 11, they've set up a scholarship fund for them. And one of the stories that she was able to tell me, which really gives you a sense of who this man was. She talked about Thanksgiving.

HARLOW: Right.

CARROLL: She said he would walk around and pick up pies and sider and bring it to everyone in the neighborhood, just shows what a big- hearted man he was.

HARLOW: She said he would leave and he's left a positive imprint on the world. When you think, when you boil it all down, it's sort of the best you could ask for, leaving this world a little bit better. And you look at these images.

CARROLL: Yes.

HARLOW: Of hugging, constantly hugging everyone.

CARROLL: His daughter right there. And perhaps that's what gave her the strength to speak to us today because she wanted the world to know what a wonderful man, what a wonderful husband he was.

HARLOW: Wow. I know you've been on this story all week. And there's so much focus on the investigation, understandably, but it is the human element that is the most important. This is one of eight people who died, 200-plus who were injured, some of them critically, some of them with brain trauma.

CARROLL: And they all have stories. They're mothers, sisters, daughters, they were aunts, uncles, whatever the case may be. They all have stories. And sometimes their stories get lost, right? They get lost with all the speculation about what cause and what we can do to -- what we can do to prevent it in the future and that's still important, but their stories are important as well.

HARLOW: Yes. And you think maybe hug your loved ones a little bit tighter before you go to work tomorrow morning, like he did.

CARROLL: Yes.

HARLOW: Thanks, Jason.

CARROLL: You bet.

HARLOW: Appreciate it very much.

Still ahead, reports of 29 tornadoes -- wow, look at those images. 29 tornadoes across nine states, flooding and damaging wind, more severe weather today. We'll take a look in the path of this storm with a live report, next.

[17:49:44]

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HARLOW: Well, residents in the Central Plains are still recovering from yesterday's severe thunderstorms that spawned dozens of tornadoes.

Can't imagine seeing something like that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, I think we're close enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas bore the brunt of the damage. The threat of severe weather not even close to over. More rain is expected. Dangerous flash flooding is still a possibility. And if that wasn't enough, the same system is moving toward the northeast and could drop cold temperatures in parts of the Midwest. Chicago, Minneapolis, and St. Louis could all see a 20 to 30 degree decline in temperatures.

Let's bring in meteorologist Tom Sater in the CNN Severe Weather Center.

It's day after day after day, more of these tornadoes.

TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It sure is, Poppy. But I do have some good news. I think we're going to be looking at a big break. If you recall last weekend, we had over 70 tornadoes, we had eight fatalities in the U.S. last week with over 130 total. This is some of the damage from that video in southwest Oklahoma. No injuries. Thank goodness. No fatalities. And the number of tornadoes yesterday, 29. Has been greatly reduced today.

But you're right, it's cool. Minneapolis, you made it up to 73. Tomorrow, maybe 45. And that's with the 35-mile-per-hour winds. Sounds fall like. But there is snow falling, too. Now last weekend, 10 states had snow, blizzard conditions. We've had 29 tornadoes in the same location. So it's nice to get a break from all the rescues that have been going on, the air lift, some flooding. Down on the ground in Texas, Oklahoma, parts of Arkansas as well.

[17:55:09] Our threat is starting to diminish and that's very good news, but we've seen two areas of concern. One to the north, it runs border to border really from Canada down to Mexico. So we'll run through a few radars here. Let's start up to the north where we have our area of low pressure. And this is where the snow is falling from Bismarck to Winnipeg. Two to four inches. But that's without blizzard conditions. But still, quite slick.

Thunderstorms, we had a brief tornado on radar. That was just northeast of Green Bay. But we haven't seen any tornado reports that have had visual reports, so we haven't seen any funnels touch the ground and become tornadoes. In fact, we don't even have a severe thunderstorm watch. No tornado watches. This is great news. We did have another tornado earlier, a little bit further to the south, but north of Jackson, to Tupelo.

Looks like moving in just to the northeast of Nashville. We had one that was north of Houston, a tornado. But Poppy, this is good news because we're going to see finally what has been a saturated ground start to dry somewhat.

HARLOW: Yes.

SATER: We're not going to have the rescues. But the cooler air, definitely a little reminder that we're still into spring and that's going to slide in toward your area and areas of the northeast this week.

HARLOW: I'll take the cool air. I'm glad they're getting a break there where they've had so much severe weather across the central plains.

Tom Sater, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

We have breaking news out of Iraq. A major development in the fight against ISIS. Another key Iraqi city has now fallen in the hands of the terror group. We'll have the latest at the top of the hour.

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