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"Large Solid Debris" Sighting; Terror Downplayed in Flight 370 Mystery; Families Cling to Fading Hopes; Families Pin Hopes on Medical Marijuana; Florida Special Elections

Aired March 11, 2014 - 10:30   ET

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

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Also this morning, Malaysia's civil aviation chiefs saying pilots from Hong Kong spotted "large solid debris" in the waters off Vietnam.

AZHARUDDINI ABDUL RAHMAN, MALAYSIAN AVIATION CHIEF: We have not received any confirmation or verification of the debris. Are they come from -- are they from the aircraft or not?

CLANCY: U.S. intelligence sources telling CNN they are less inclined to think the disappearance of the Malaysian Air 777 Jetliner had a terror link. While keeping all theories open the sources say the two men who boarded the flight with stolen passports were more likely trying to gain illegal entry into Europe.

Anger and frustration mounting as the mystery deepens, families of missing passengers demanding answers from Malaysia Airlines being flown to Malaysia. The multinational search effort has squashed numerous leads, sighting of debris, oil slicks and the life boat all proved unrelated to Flight 370. But Malaysian Airline CEO says the search will go on.

AHMAD JAUHARI YAHYA, CEO, MALAYSIA AIRLINE: Be not discouraged. It must be there somewhere. We have to find it.

CLANCY: Many are turning to prayer to deal with their grief; 239 people from 14 different nations. Missing American, Philip Wood's family relying on faith.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, we are holding out hope. Because as of yet, there are no answers to any of this.

Jim Clancy, CNN, Kuala Lumpur.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And just a fabulous pass along you know these families they are dealing with so much pain and agony. Supposedly, their loved ones mobile phones continue to ring which gives them hope that their loved ones may still be alive and they maybe, but it is unlikely at this point.

We understand that the mobile phone -- mobile phone experts tell us the ringing could easily be a function of the call forwarding systems on those planes and not necessarily an indication that the phones aren't submerged in water or shut off, et cetera. So those ringing phones probably mean nothing but how painful for those families.

Also new this morning, investigators are downplaying terrorism in the disappearance of Malaysian Airline Flight 370. That's because they've identified both of the men who used those stolen passports to board the plane. One of them is a 29-year-old Iranian. You see him there and the other man is an 18-year-old Iranian. Police say there is no indication that either man had militant ties.

Joe Johns is in Washington. Nic Robertson is in London, welcome to both of you.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Thanks Carol.

COSTELLO: What more do we know about these men Joe?

JOHNS: Well we know quite a bit. But I mean we have to say I think the absence of any wreckage is only making the job of determining what happened even tougher. The head of Interpol, the International Police organization Ron Noble, a well-known law enforcement executive speaking in Lyon, France said, "The more information they get, the more they are inclined to conclude, this wasn't a terrorism incident. This appears to be part of a human smuggling issue", though there is no clarification on what he meant by that.

Parsing that entire statement seems to be suggesting terrorism has not been completely ruled out and we know that the search for something conclusive continues on all fronts.

Interpol has been looking into the fact that these two passengers on the plane had used stolen Austrian and Italian passports. Now they have questioned the travel agency that sold the tickets, these are both believed to be Iranian nationals. The younger of the two a 19- year-old was said to have been looking for asylum and wanted to go to Germany where his mother lived.

So pieces of the puzzle here, the important thing, I think, to take away, is that notion that terrorism doesn't look like the problem but they haven't ruled anything out -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well Nic, Malaysian authorities say they are focusing more on psychologically profiling the passengers and crew or finding out whether the passengers and crew had any personal problems that may have led to the disappearance of this plane. What are they doing?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well no doubt, they are talking to the families. And one would expect them to start with the families of the pilot and the co-pilot those who were deemed to have most control of the aircraft to find out if there was some reason that they would -- would intentionally, themselves, without provocation, without -- without somebody putting pressure on them, have done something to the aircraft that would cause it to disappear off the radar. They are also saying that they are not ruling out hijacking. And they are not ruling out sabotage as well. So clearly, they still are looking at avenues that -- that somebody has maliciously tried to bring down this aircraft. It may not be called terrorism here but hijacking and sabotage are both pretty negative connotations when you talk about an aircraft.

So while these two young Iranians may be ruled out from that equation, you still have over 200 other passengers on board that aircraft. So as well as sort of looking at the crew, they will be looking at those other passengers. Is there anything in their background that's going to give an indication that they perhaps were involved in this act of sabotage or hijacking, Carol?

COSTELLO: Well let's talk about the hijacking because this is a big plane. Wouldn't someone see it?

ROBERTSON: You know, we can only go and the investigators can only go with the information that they have in front of them. And one of the questions here is, the plane appeared to have turned around. And there was no explanation for that given by the air crew. That sort of scenario does suggest that they did something that they were not able, capable for technical or physical reasons to talk about or communicate about with air traffic control.

So either the system was shut down or not working. Or they have been told not to say anything. So -- so perhaps that's the avenue that -- that the investigators will look at here.

But again, we keep saying it. It's not until they discover the aircraft and not until the black boxes are recovered that we're going to learn these precise details. It's all just speculation. But really hijacking that's another form of terrorism here. We have to say that, Carol.

COSTELLO: Well you're absolutely right about that. And as far as sabotage goes, Joe, the pilot he was a very experienced pilot. He had over 18,000 hours of flying. He was passionate about his job. He had a flight simulator in his home. He knew that aircraft front and back. Is there anything in his background that you have been able to discover that might lead one to believe he had something to do with the disappearance of this plane?

JOHNS: No, he sounded like a very solid individual, very devoted to flying. And you also have to say that pilots go through some of these scenarios, so not completely unfamiliar in all likelihood with the scenario where someone tried to take over the plane or sabotage it or whatever. So that only deepens the mystery I think -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Joe Johns, Nic Robertson, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

We want to get back to the shocking claim now by Senator Dianne Feinstein. As you know she is the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee. And earlier this morning she accused the CIA of searching and removing documents from computers her committee used to probe a CIA interrogation program. Feinstein says an internal investigation is now being handled by the Justice Department adding that she has, quote, "Grave concern CIA officials violated the Constitution."

Athena Jones -- Athena Jones joins me now from Washington with more on this. Tell us more Athena.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Carol well in this speech that Senator Feinstein gave, she said she came forward to talk about this reluctantly. This is something this search the CIA made of the Senate Intelligence Committee's computers. She was told about his by the CIA back in January. And so she has been trying she said to deal with this behind closed doors. And she only came out today to deliver the speech on the Senate floor because of inaccuracies she has seen in the press.

The central question here is about separation of powers. Can the Senate Intelligence Committee do its job, can it oversee agencies like the CIA without fear of interference or fear of intimidation. The issue here is the Senate Intelligence Committee spent several years starting back in 2009 looking into the practices of the CIA after 9/11. Those enhanced interrogation techniques, also called torture also the CIA practices when it came of detaining people at secret prisons around the world. And so there were millions of pages, she said 6.2 million pages were provided by the CIA to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

But the CIA had questions at one point about an internal CIA memo that the Senate Intelligence Committee was able to receive. And they wanted to know how the committee got that medal. And so they searched this committee's internal network. This review was called the Panetta review. And that review that internal CIA review raised a lot of questions about the CIA's own tactics.

So now, this is all being investigated. But part of this investigation is the CIA general council saying that maybe these members of the Senate Intelligence Committee did something wrong. Maybe they got that internal review by some sort of illegal means. So let's listen to what Senator Feinstein said in response to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CHAIR, SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Our staff involved in this matter have the appropriate clearances, handled the sensitive material according to established procedures and practice to protect classified information. And we're provided access to the Panetta review by the CIA itself.

As a result there is no legitimate reason to allege to the Justice Department that Senate staff may have committed a crime. I view the acting council general's referrals as a potential effort to intimidate this staff and I am not taking it lightly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: So there you see she is not taking lightly the CIA's general council accusing her intelligence committee the Senate Intelligence Committee of acting illegally when they received these internal papers from the CIA itself. Again is said the issue here is separation of powers. Senator Feinstein believes that the CIA by searching the Senate Intelligence Committee's computers violated numerous federal laws including an executive order saying that you can't have domestic surveillance here also laws like the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, against illegal search and seizure.

So this is a big issue that's now coming to floor. And she said she wanted to clear the record and set the record straight on this. And certainly, certainly not going to be the end of this -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Athena Jones, reporting live from Washington.

While the world waits for answers about what happened to Malaysia Flight 370, the families of those on board are still holding out hope.

Up next, why some say a miracle could be possible.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: As the search continues for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, there are still so many unanswered questions. Dozens of planes and ships from ten countries are looking. But nobody has seen anything yet.

What we do know was that 239 people were on board that plane. And the wait for answers by those who love and knows those missing has been agonizing.

Here is CNN's Anderson Cooper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): For three agonizing days, family members of the missing waited with tears and with prayers for any news of their loved ones.

"I'm not going home until I know what happens," this father says. "We lost loved once. They need to answer our questions. When are you going to tell us and what are you going to do? We still don't know if they alive or dead."

The oldest of the 227 passengers is 76 years old, the youngest just two years old. Five of the passengers on board are under the age of 5. They come from at least 12 different nations around the world including three Americans. 50-year-old Phillip Wood from Texas is known as a kind and gentleman, a man of integrity, a man of God, according to his family.

Maling Ching is a Malaysian national who lives in Pennsylvania, who works as a process engineer at a chemical company. Twelve Malaysian and eight Chinese employees of a Texas based semiconductor company were also on board. Most of them engineers who were traveling on business.

Muktesh Mukherjee and Xiaomo Bai live in Beijing and had been on vacation in Vietnam according to Bai's Facebook. They have two young sons.

Also on board, a group of Chinese artists including a renowned Chinese calligrapher. They took this photo at an art exhibition in Kuala Lumpur before the flight home. Not everyone pictured here was on the flight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, everyone. This is YouTube video.

COOPER: The 12 crew members are all from Malaysia including the captain who posted this YouTube video a little over a year ago.

The search continues for any clues on the missing plane, with no sign of wreckage, some families still hold out hope that a miracle may still be possible.

Anderson Cooper, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And still to come in the NEWSROOM.

As Americans attitudes about marijuana change, more families are looking to medical marijuana as a way to help their seriously ill children. We will check in with Sanjay Gupta next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Should the use of marijuana be legal everywhere? A majority of Americans now think so. That's according to a CNN/ORC poll. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has continued to investigate the science behind using marijuana as medicine. His new documentary takes a look at the politics, the science, and the families trapped in the middle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN HOST: You see Brian Wilson's daughter, Vivian, was dying. Her brain continuously locked in seizures and nothing had worked. The Wilsons were now pinning their hopes on medical marijuana. They had read about marijuana on the Internet and they saw stories about it saving lives.

Like little Charlotte Figi, whose story was told in our first documentary, "WEED".

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I remember I was actually at the gym on the treadmill and say a preview. I was watching the TV and so excited. I knew that everything was going to change at that moment.

GUPTA: They hoped marijuana would rescue Vivian from the virtual prison she lives in where bright lights, loud sounds and patterns can all induce a seizure. That's why she wears that patch on her eye.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If she could be blindfolded, she would be seizure free. It is everything. It is all visual stimuli. She can't leave the house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now from Edwards, Colorado. First of all where exactly are you?

GUPTA: Edwards, Colorado -- we're at the New Hopewell Wellness Center, this is a medical marijuana center. These plants here are hybrid plants, they're all; designed for medicinal purposes. They hybrid these plants Carol to try and get the right strains for particular ailments. You just saw epilepsy there in that clip but also pain, multiple sclerosis, all sorts of different ailments.

COSTELLO: It was touching to hear Vivian's mother say her daughter can't leave the house. That was the heartbreaking part. But Marijuana may help her daughter live a normal life.

GUPTA: You know, we hear these stories and we profiled this girl in our first documentary who was having some 300 seizures per week. And they've tried all these different medications, basically everything that modern medicine had to offer her. She was on seven medications and none of it really worked.

And then she takes this Cannabis oil which is an oil that has high TDD (ph). This is a therapeutic ingredient in marijuana but low THC that's the stuff that gets you psychoactively high. And it's in oil. And so she was taking it in her tongue. And she went from 300 seizures a week to two or three per month. So it really -- it worked for her. And it was sort of an amazing story.

But there are hundreds and hundreds of patients like this again, who have all these different ailments who are coming to Colorado, because they can get this medicine here. And oftentimes, they are forced to stay because they can't take this medicine back home to their home states.

COSTELLO: You've become quite an advocate. And I must say that you are making waves across the country because of that. How does it feel?

GUPTA: You know, it's interesting and I changed my mind on this -- Carol. You know, when I looked at the literature in the United States a few years ago, I didn't find it particularly compelling. And then I realized that so many of the studies in the United States are designed to look for harm in this particular plant. A very small percentage -- a single-digit percentage were designed to find benefit.

When you start looking outside this country, start looking at labs that aren't funded by the government, you get a very different picture. So I don't know if I'd call it advocacy as much really looking at the science carefully.

It is a bizarre thing, Carol. In this country propaganda and politics have trumped science when it comes to cannabis. And it's been going on for 70 years now. And I think -- I ask people to not listen to me about this but to look at the science and decide for themselves. We're going to present a lot of that tonight in the documentary. COSTELLO: I can't wait to see it. Doctor Sanjay Gupta, many thanks to you. And you can learn more in that documentary including the science of what marijuana does for the body and to the brain. It's called "WEED 2: CANNABIS MADNESS", it premieres tonight 10:00 Eastern on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Today in Florida voters will finally get their say in a local race that could have national significance. It is a special election for the state's 13th congressional district. But the campaign has become a battleground over Obamacare.

Chief correspondent, Dana Bash, has more on this. Good morning, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. It is hard to believe that this is an election that is only going to fill a congressional seat for eight months. Millions of dollars are pouring into this because the national parties are making it a road test for their messages in the fall.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: In this frantic neck and neck House special election, every vote really does count.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is Alex Sink. And I'm a candidate for congress. I am just calling to ask for your support.

BASH: For Democrats, an Alex Sink victory would not just mean picking up a GOP house seat, it could also give other Democrats in November's midterm election a road map to beat back attacks on Obamacare. The message: don't end it. Fix it.

ALEX SINK, CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: My position is that we can't go back to where we were before. We have to fix what is wrong with it. And certainly the rollout was bungled and botched up and the administration didn't do a very good job of the roll out.

BASH: Sink talks about specific reforms like changing the requirement for businesses with 50 employees to provide health care.

SINK: That 50 employee just kind of arbitrary limit and I think it is a totally arbitrary number.

BASH: For Republicans, this is a 2014 message test to, repealing Obamacare.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The voters have made Obamacare the number one issue.

BASH: So have outside groups. A whopping $11 million spent on this race, mostly from the outside, mostly on TV ads and much of it about Obama care.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Instead of repealing the health care law, we need to keep what's right and fix what's wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's replace Obamacare, it's a mess of broken promises.

BASH: Still GOP candidate David Jolly argues, Republicans should be for solutions too.

DAVID JOLLY, CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: It comes down to making sure that we are talking about how to solve some of the special problems that led us to Obamacare.

BASH: But this Florida special election is important beyond Obamacare: the first test of a swing district in 2014. About a third of registered voters are democrats, one-third Republicans and nearly one-third independents, and a very high percentage of seniors even by Florida standards. It's why the Republicans' breaks from his party has proposed changes to their benefit.

JOLLY: I would not have voted for the Ryan budget based on changes to Social Security and Medicare.

BAH: The seat was in GOP hands for four decades under the popular Bill Young, whom Jolly worked for.

JOLLY: For 43 years, he took care of Pinellas County. This is personal to me --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Now Jolly was also a Washington lobbyist, something you hear in many of the TV ads running here nonstop. Right here where I am at this polling station Jolly came and voted, talking about the fact that he understands that the polls are going to be very, very close.

It is a true toss-up. Nobody knows how this is going to end up today. He insisted that this is still local even though he understands that all eyes are on this on a national level -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Dana Bash, reporting live for us.

Thanks so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"@THIS HOUR with Berman and Michaela starts now.