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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

New York Man Allegedly Tried to Aid ISIS; Aircraft Debris Found Near Madagascar. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired July 29, 2015 - 12:30   ET

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


[12:30:33] RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: All right, good, we got that sound bite in for you.

Now let me bring in CNN's Evan Perez. He's in Washington.

Evan, so tell me a little bit more. I mean who is this suspect and what specifically is he charged were doing?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Randi, his name is Arafat Nagi, he's 42-years-old and he's from that Lackawanna area.

And according to the FBI he traveled twice in October 2012 and in July 2014, both times with intent to try to Turkey, he traveled to Turkey, both times with intent to try to join ISIS. And both times he didn't make it. The first time is because he gotten an illness.

And in 2014, in July of 2014, it's alleged -- allegedly because he believed he was being followed by Turkish intelligence.

Now, we don't know if that's true and he doesn't seem like he had all his -- all everything together to be able to accomplish what he was trying to do. But he did appear to have a lot of intent according to the FBI.

Again, according to the FBI, he had talked to someone in the community about his support for jihad and his support and pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who's the leader of ISIS.

We have a list of things that he also bought on eBay before he traveled. According to the FBI, if we put that list up, he bought body armor, night vision goggles, camouflage clothing and a shahada flag which is a black flag with Islamic sayings on it.

So it doesn't look like this guy was all together all there and perhaps not the best of recruits for ISIS, but he did appear to have intent to try to join them.

KAYE: And meanwhile Evan, we have another terrorist arrest to talk about, this one in the Florida Keys. The FBI is saying that a man there was planning to use a weapon of mass destruction. What more do you know about that?

PEREZ: Well his name is Harlan Suarez and he's 23-years-old.

According to the FBI he was planning to detonate a backpack bomb on the beach there in Key West.

One of his plans involved trying to do this over 4th of July weekend. He also talked with an FBI informant and with an undercover FBI agent about plans to perhaps carrying out some kind of terrorist attack in Miami Beach, in south beach.

According to the FBI, in May while they were investigating him, they got a call from a pawnshop in Key West. They said that they had received that Suarez had ordered on the internet an AK-47 for delivery to this pawnshop. He apparently never took delivery of this weapon because there was some kind of clerical error, but that really showed, according to the FBI.

According to them, his intent to do something very bad and that's why they arrested him yesterday when he took possession of this backpack bomb that he thought was a real bomb, but turned out was something the FBI concocted.

KAYE: So that was a clue in other words that he was pretty much ready to go active in their view?

PEREZ: Right, exactly, exactly. Again, he's 23-years-old. And, you know, lot of times these cases, Randi, as you and I know, you know, there's criticism of the FBI for perhaps entrapping these people. But as both of these cases show, there's only so much you can watch these people before you have to arrest them for fear that they'll do something.

KAYE: Right. So what happens next for him?

PEREZ: Well, both of them are now facing court hearings. We're talking about years and years in prison depending on, you know, how they -- what they agreed to do plead guilty to. But these are very serious charges in both cases.

KAYE: Absolutely. All right, Evan Perez, thank you so much for keeping us up to date on both of those cases.

PEREZ: Sure.

KAYE: The world knows James Holmes as a mass murderer quite possibly bound for death row. But to Robert Holmes, the Colorado theater shooter is Jimmy, a boy with a story book childhood who somehow drifted away. A father's heart rending testimony when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:37:34] RANDI KAYE: And we are following breaking news just into CNN.

It is so too soon to confirm right now, but we can tell you at this point that some debris has been found in La Reunion which is about 500 miles off the Coast of Madagascar. And they are Looking that this debris as possibly being from that missing Airplane MH-370. Malaysia Airlines flight 370 which lost contact with the airport back on March 8, well over a year ago. Again, it is too soon to say, but we are being told that they are considering this debris could be from MH-370.

On the phone right now with me is Richard Quest who knows a lot about this flight certainly and a lot about flying.

Richard, first I guess, what do you make of this possible break in this missing airplane case?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN REPORTING: It's extremely important and of course, it falls into that category of it could be the missing piece of this jigsaw that confirms the plane did indeed crash, or it could not be, which sounds like stating the obvious. But Randi, no -- one of the big issues with MH-370 was the fact that no debris had ever been found, nothing. No floating pieces of seats, life vests, nothing.

Now, what they appear to have found on La Reunion is a piece of the wing. Some form of either the flap or flapper, maybe part of the elevator from the rear. It looks as though from the early pictures that it is one of those so-called control surfaces that is used to control the aircraft in flight.

And we can't really tell from the size or we cannot really tell from the scale at this point. But what I can tell you, Randi is that what they will be doing now is looking for the serial number. They will be looking to identify from which aircraft and then getting in touch with Boeing because every piece of aircraft have a serial number. Specifically for this sort of incidents, specifically so you can trace at any point, Randi, which piece have come from what plane.

KAYE: And Richard, you know -- I mean, you have followed the trail of this flight many times with all the twists and turns.

[12:40:03] What do you make, though, of this location, for where this wing was apparently found?

QUEST: Interestingly, in the last six months, there has been a lot of talk about it would be now that any debris that had been washed up would have started to come out, would have started to wash ashore in the outer regions of the oceans. It would have been drifted through the oceans and it would have been about now that you would have started now. But just to, you know, one of the things that oceanographers have been saying.

And so it's a -- it's certainly no question La Reunion is certainly -- I don't know how many miles, you can Google it. It's certainly a very long distance from the primary search zone at the moment which is off the Southwest of South West cost of Australia and that still the primary search. But if something had broken off in the plane when it went into the water then, then yes you're looking at having -- it having traveled many hundreds if not thousands of miles to the drift.

KAYE: But do you think though I mean considering all that was done to try and find some of the debris and they're dragging the ocean floor, I mean those search team used everything possible. Would you expect that, that if this did indeed belong to MH-370 that there would be more debris in that area?

QUEST: Well, that's a very, very good question Randi, because if something like the flap survived in terms of floated and floated on, then, yes, the nature of that piece of -- the nature of that piece of the aircraft one would have expected more debris.

And that the standard answer that's always given by the ATSB, the Australian, the Malaysians, all the search authorities is that it took 12 days from the day when the plane went missing to the moment they really started to search in to that area.

And the standard answer always given is that parts or even the floating parts would have become waterlogged; the vast areas involved would have meant that they would have sunk or you would have missed them.

And so, yes, it might be somewhat unusual that we've just got one piece of flap that would have drifted so many thousands of miles and ended up on the other side of the ocean. But nothing about MH-370 can be regarded as having followed the traditional past of an aircraft incident. So I have to wait -- I have to urge an open mind is kept.

KAYE: And just a reminder our viewers Richard, I mean this was the Boeing, the 777, Malaysia airlines flight MH-370 departing from Kuala Lumpur airport back in March 8th of 2014 and disappeared off the radar carrying 239 people on board.

I think, Richard, a lot of the families who might be learning this possible break in this new information coming in, they want to know about this investigation and who will be leading it. Who's going to be in charge of this?

QUEST: Fine, this is quite clear-cut now, absolutely clear-cut under the international treaty known as Annex 13, the investigation is being held by the state of registry. Because it's in international waters, it's the state of registry, which is Malaysia, Malaysia airlines. They are holding the accident investigation. However the lead on the search has been held by Australia because the crash site is believed to be -- or the believed crash site is in their Flight Information Region, the FIR.

No question, the two organizations that will be handling it from now will be the ATSB, the Australian Transportation Safety Board, and the DCA, that's Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation.

We would be looking to Malaysia now to confirm whether or not this is indeed part of MH-370.

KAYE: All right, Richard Quest, much more to talk with you.

And I want to get to the water currents in that area as well. So stand by if you can, we're going to take a very quick break and continue this conversation on a possible sighting of debris belonging to flight MH-370.

We'll be right back (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:48:06] RANDI KAYE: Welcome back to CNN. We continue to follow this breaking news debris found in the ocean near La Reunion. And it's about 500 miles or so off Madagascar. Too soon to say if this debris which apparently an airplane wing or part of an airplane wing, that has been found is related to MH-370. But certainly there has a lot of people wondering.

Let me just let me get to our CNN Aviation Analyst Mary Schiavo who is joining me.

Mary, first your reaction to this news and what would you be looking for at this point?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, actually, it's readily identifiable on the plane there will be numbers it's like a serial number but they have part number stamped on the plane. The Boeing numbers are very identifiable, so they will be able to determine pretty quickly if it is part of a Boeing aircraft. And if so, if it is this plan because of the numbers that are stamped on really almost all parts on the plane have these numbers stamped on. And the next to show what kind of a part of it and that is a prove part.

So that's what we want to know right away, is it what it appears to be or is it not because the families will be just absolutely on pins and needles.

KAYE: And Mary do you know, I mean is this a place where debris tends to gather, go you of anything have ever been found here before?

SCHIAVO: Well, you know, debris can be found anywhere the currents take it. And yes, I have work plane crashes before where debris has traveled hundreds if not thousands of miles.

And everyone will remember the horrific tsunami in Japan a number of years ago debris from that tsunami ended up on the western shores of the United States. So it can travel thousands of miles. But I have work plane crashes where it is has traveled hundreds or thousands miles that just depends what the part is. And if there was air trapped in that wing it's possible to ride with the currents.

[12:50:00] KAYE: Let me bring back in our Richard Quest who's also with us on the phone.

Richard, I mean, pieces do fall off planes, right?

QUEST: Yes, I mean there are two other aspects to this pieces do fall off planes and not terribly frequently because planes are made extremely robustly. But when they do fall off it's a matter of great seriousness but obvious reasons of hitting somebody on the ground.

And but also that we're looking to see, look if this is part of a flap? Some parts of the flap assembly on an aircraft. Any aircraft, any pilot is going to have known is lost a piece of the flap as well have fallen off, it's not some hidden part of the aircraft. But what you'll also be looking at here is whether this is part of any other plane crash that may have happened in recent years where only now we're starting to get some debris from that incident.

So the investigators will be looking, I mean first and foremost it will be easy to identify by the serial number that's stamped on the part of the plane. Once they've done that, they can then go back and work out if it's 370 or it's any of the other plane crashes where were only now starting to see the first piece of debris.

KAYE: And I can't emphasize enough that of course, it's too soon to tell if it belong to MH-370.

QUEST: Yeah, I mean Randi, I'm just looking at a picture at the moment. And, you know, in terms of where La Reunion is beach of the Western Australia.

Now, you're literally talking here about if this was from 370. It's gone from one side of the ocean to the other. There's no land mass in between, the currents could have take in that general direction, it's a straight shot if you like northwest wards up towards La Reunion. But the distance is very considerable. And that is something that would be born in mind in thinking about that.

KAYE: And Mary, let me ask you I mean, this is the picture we just got it up here, this is the picture of what they have found. Richard, can you see that? Does this tell you anything?

QUEST: I'm afraid not. I have the pictures of what you're -- I've seen the pictures so I can imagine what you're looking at and the pictures you're talking about. But the thing that I found interesting particularly is the picture where you see several men carrying this piece of aircraft, because that gives you scale.

What you just showed on its own, you don't realize if it, like aircraft or whatever it is. But the moment you see it takes five or six people to carry it, you're starting to say, well is it a 76? Is it an A-310 from another incident in that was in that part of the world and is it 370. And then you start looking at pieces where it might go. The flap actuator, where that would have assembled on to it. And you start piecing together exactly the part of the aircraft that it would have been.

KAYE: Let me bring in Jennifer Gray.

Jennifer, if you could, I mean Richard was just talking about the distance from where this was found to Australia where they believe this might have gone down. Can you talk about the currents in that area and what might have brought it to that area if it is indeed belonging to MH-370?

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, well Randi we talked about these ocean currents so much right around the time that we lost touch with MH-370. And we were doing us -- covering the search in such great detail, and we talked a lot about this Indian Ocean Gyre. And this basically goes north and around to the other side of the Indian Ocean.

And so it's basically a big conveyor belt. Anything that gets caught up in this could definitely drift up and over towards Madagascar.

It is been quite a while, you remember back in 2011 after the tsunami in japan and we started see thing debris wash ashore on the west coast of the U.S. about nine months later. And so that was because of the North Pacific Gyre moving from west to east.

And so it is something that we look at, of course, because that is what ultimately will carry things from one side of the ocean to another. But it's not that easy, very, very complex so, you're talking about these currents.

This is what we're looking at in the Indian Ocean Gyre goes around like this. But you see all these little squiggles in here basically depending on where storm is, depending on the winds, a lot of things can get out of that main gyre and get caught up in all of these little eddies. And so that's we've been talking about as well, when the plane first went missing.

And so, you know, you talk about the gyre but you also talk about how complex this is so it could take a very, very long time, as Richard has been talking about, for something to eventually end up off the coast of Madagascar or near there.

[12:55:05] So it doesn't give us 100 percent certainty that that could be what it is. But it's one more piece of that puzzle that we're going to be looking into now. Randi?

KAYE: All right Jennifer, thank you.

Let me bring Richard back in. Richard, I mean for so long now, well over a year, we've been talking about what might have happened to this plane? What was those final moments like?

If this is indeed a part of the wing from MH-370 it does turns out to be that case. Does it change what you think might have happened to this airplane in those final moments?

QUEST: No, not one jot. And, you know, if this -- if it is, and before I answer that, Randi, and if you will permit me, there has been one or two other plane incidents crashes. For example, in 2009 an Airbus, A310 of Yemenia airways went down in that part of the world.

So there has been a variety of other incidents where large planes have, I mean some people even talking about the 1996, 767 of Ethiopian airways that crashed that's what that took the hijacking that caused.

I think that's unlikely because it was a very long time ago for something to come up after that one. But there are these other incidents which all out there and could be relevant. But to answer your question, what -- if this is MH-370, then it confirms the plane has crashed. It confirms -- I mean ignoring the conspiracy terrorist who will take nothing for evidence. But it will confirm that we know that the plane did perish, did succumb into the Southern Indian Ocean. And it gives us no reason, it gives us no understanding at this early stage of what caused that to happen.

KAYE: Right certainly, those some answers for the families.

Richard, thanks to you, Mary Schiavo, thank you to you as well.

And thank you everybody for watching. I'm Randi Kaye.

Wolf starts right after a very quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)