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Crew Races To Locate Faint Signals; Pings Haven't Been Heard In Days; Russia Warns Ukraine Over "Civil War"; Pistorius: "I Shouted For Reeva To Get On The Floor. I Shouted For Her To Phone The Police."

Aired April 08, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me this morning. The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 narrows as more precious time slips away. Crews now scrambling with new urgency, but they found no trace of those faint underwater signals they heard over the weekend.

Today the search area, though, for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is drastically scaled back. That red box, today's focus, it's dwarfed by the sprawling gray areas earlier searched by sea and air. One expert says the area shrunk from the size of Texas to the size of the city of Houston. But with the batteries on the flight recorders either dead or dying, search efforts are holding nothing back.

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DAVID JOHNSTON, AUSTRALIAN MINISTER FOR DEFENSE: You can be assured that we are throwing everything at this difficult complex task in at lease these next several days while we believe the two pingers involved are still active.

ANGUS HOUSTON, CHIEF COORDINATOR, JOINT AGENCY COORDINATION CENTRE: This is day 32. The battery life expires on the guys at 30 days. But experience with the kit from around the world is that they usually last longer than the 30 days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Will Ripley is at the heart of the search in Perth, Australia. Are they still out there, Will?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They sure are still out here, Carol. And there are two searches that are happening right now. The air search, 14 planes, many of them taking off from the base that I'm standing at, and what they are doing is they are flying over this area trying to find any sign of debris.

They have also been looking at the currents, looking at the fact that there was a tropical cyclone in that area a couple of weeks back and trying to figure out where this debris field could be right now. Because right now, even as we listen for these underwater pings, we have yet to find a single piece of physical evidence from Flight 370.

Much of the focus though now is on the "Ocean Shield." The most promising lead yet in this investigation, there is that pinger locator underwater listening for those signals that were heard twice by this U.S. Navy ship over the weekend, once for more than two hours, the second time for about 15 minutes.

It's now been more than two days since we've heard those signals. There is other technology on board including an underwater drone that essentially would scan the bottom of the ocean floor. But Angus Houston says that will only be deployed if they can get a better idea of where this wreckage might be.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOUSTON: We will not deploy the submersible. Is that clear? We will not deploy it unless we get another transmission in which case wield probably have a better idea of what is down there and we'll go down will and have a look. We're very hopeful that we will find further evidence, which will confirm that the aircraft is in that location.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY: There is a reason why he's saying that, Carol. One day's work for the pinger locator would take a full week for that underwater submersible. So if we don't find a signal and they have to switch to this other technology, this search effort is going to get much, much slower.

COSTELLO: All right, Will Ripley, thanks for bringing us up to date. We appreciate it. Each new lead sounds promising, but ends in dashed hopes. So let's talk about that. CNN analyst, Rob McCallum is an ocean search specialist and Thomas Altshuler is the vice president and group general manager of a company that develops and produces advanced underwater communication systems. Welcome, Gentlemen. Rob, is it surprising that searchers couldn't pick up anymore pings?

ROB MCCALLUM, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: It's disappointing, but it's not surprising. We've all learned a lot about debris in Indian Ocean over the couple of weeks. Now we're learning about underwater acoustics. We're learning that sound when it's traveling through water does not travel like sound through air. It's bent by temperature, by salinity, by a number of factors. And that makes the search complex.

COSTELLO: Does the absence of any new pings necessarily mean that the batteries are dead on those black boxes?

THOMAS ALTSHULER, TELEDYNE MARINE SYSTEMS, V.P. AND GROUP GENERAL MANAGER: Absolutely not. First of all, the pingers have a margin so that the -- what you do is you design the battery to last a minimum of 30 days. That's the requirement. So the lifetime is going to be dependent on a lot of other parameter, how it was handled, how it was stored. It could be much longer than that.

I mean, much longer could be two, three, five, even longer days and there are examples of that. So first of all, it could be out there pinging. The second piece of this is that just picking up that signal is very complex. As you look at the water, you could be very close to where the pinger is and see no acoustic response and you could be further response and see a response. So the needle in the hay stack problem is really true.

COSTELLO: Even though the search area has shrunk so much. Rob, I wanted to ask you about that. They won't send a submarine down until the search area is narrowed further. Right now, it's the size of Houston. How small must it be?

MCCALLUM: Well, sonar, you know, the sonar that's used to acquire imagery of the sea floor can be deployed in one or two ways. Either by an AUV, which is a battery-powered torpedo or by a towed sled. An AUV might cover something like 10 to 15 square miles a day, a towed sled might cover somewhere between 100 to 200 square miles a day. So they want to get that area as small as they can before they put sonar assets into the water.

COSTELLO: So Thomas, last question for you, 133 searches so far, all of them fruitless to date. Should we still hope?

ALTSHULER: Absolutely. I mean, you look at the problem. It's a very, very hard problem. But right now, there is a lot of information that has come from the Inmarsat data that was analyzed. There is some narrowed area of the search that the team feels is highly probable from how they're describing it. You don't stop. There is no reason to.

But there is no -- you really have to understand that it is a hard problem and it will be hard for them to be really successful the way you'd like them to be in a short period of time. This will take time especially if they do not hear anymore signals from the pinger.

COSTELLO: We understand. Robert McCallum, Thomas Altshuler, thank you so much.

Let's talk about the Ukraine now. Tensions are rising there. Fists are flying. Take a look. Pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian lawmakers started fighting on the Ukrainian parliament floor. This is right before a vote today to stiffen the penalties for anyone calling for separatism.

But this fight is not just taking place in Kiev. Russian protesters have taken control of three Ukrainian government buildings. They are still in control and Russia's foreign minister says any crackdown against those protesters could lead to a civil war.

Joining me now is Nicholas Burns of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Good morning. Thank you so much for being here. Supposedly these protesters are in Eastern Ukraine right now and they are saying they would like to be part of Russia. There is a sense that Russia is really behind these protests. So it can destabilize the country. What do you see?

NICHOLAS BURNS, HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT: Well, I think there is very strong speculation and well deserved. This is right out of President Putin's strategy in Crimea. He is instigating these ethnic Russian protests in Eastern Ukraine. The Russian government pushing these protesters to take over municipal buildings, create a sense of crisis. That in turn allows the Russian government to accuse the government in Kiev of chaos and you showed pictures of chaos in the parliament. And that Russia has no alternative, but to protect the rights of these ethnic Russians in the eastern part of the Ukraine. It's part of a strategy to weaken the Ukrainian government and to prepare the ground.

If not for Russian military introduction into Eastern Ukraine, at least for Russian influence into Eastern Ukraine. So it's quite a negative development. This is a real threat to the territorial integrity of Ukraine and to the credibility of the new Ukrainian government.

COSTELLO: So you're saying this is an effective strategy on the part of the Russians?

BURNS: Well, unfortunately, yes. It's the same strategy that President Putin followed a month ago go in Crimea and it seems to be playing out now. He's masked thousands of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine. He said in his speech to the parliament a couple weeks ago that he reserves the right to protect ethnic Russians wherever they are and most notably that is in Ukraine.

So obviously there has to be a response now from the Ukrainian government, from the United States and from Europe and that response has to be to threaten Russia with significant sectorial sanctions should Russian troops cross into Eastern Ukraine.

That really is the only effective deterrence that the United States and Europe have and we know that from the read out that White House gave yesterday and the State Department and Secretary Kerry raised that threat of sanctions in his phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov yesterday.

COSTELLO: OK, you talk about how the U.S. is responding. I think it just responded in part. Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon with news that U.S. Navy ships are -- tell us more, Barbara. I'm not sure.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. You're going to see a replay of something the U.S. Navy did a few weeks ago. By Thursday, the day after tomorrow, a U.S. Navy warship, the USS Donald Cook, a destroyer, is going to move into the black sea we have learned. How, this will take it up into the black sea near Ukraine, a very significant visual statement, if you will, by the U.S. that it is there, that the U.S. military is there, to reassure East European allies of the U.S. and of NATO's military commitment to Ukraine and all of Russia's East European neighbors.

You know, when I say a visual message, will it do any good? Is it going to change Vladimir Putin's mind, nobody here at the Pentagon thinks that is going to happen, but they do want to send this message of support for some very nervous countries in the region. Because those 40,000 Russian troops not only remain on the border with Eastern Ukraine, not only the U.S. believes the Russians are stirring up trouble already in Eastern Ukraine.

But the military calculation is that the Russians if they made the decision to roll into Ukraine could basically roll right through that country and achieve all of their military objectives in something like three to five days. They have that kind of muscle power, that kind of military fire power built up on that border.

So what does that mean, it means a real challenge for NATO and a real challenge for President Obama. Sanctions the next step, but will that change Putin's mind. Will he pull back those 40,000 troops, which is what the U.S. wants to see -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, Ambassador Burns, what do you think? A good move by moving this U.S. Navy ship into the Black Sea or will that even matter?

BURNS: Well, I think the U.S. is trying to do two things here. First and foremost, deter President Putin from going into the Eastern Ukraine and the only device we really have for that is the threat of credible sanctions, economic sanctions from the U.S. and from Europe. This other move of positioning a U.S. warship in the Black Sea in international waters, that was also done by President Bush in 2008 when Russia invaded Georgia.

It's largely symbolic and it's a second objective that the U.S. has and that is to reassure the NATO allies, in this case Bulgaria, Romania, that the United States will protect the NATO allies. Ukraine is not a NATO ally, but Bulgaria, Romania, further north, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithonia, all NATO allies.

Those allies are worried about whether or not President Putin will go further and I think President Obama's big test is to let President Putin know in no uncertain terms that NATO territory is sacrosanct and it's obviously subject to Article 5 of the NATO Treaty that is collective defense.

That the U.S. would defend those countries. I don't think it will come to that. President Putin is highly rational. He does respect power and strength. That is in NATO, but will he respect the threat of sanctions in Eastern Ukraine, I think that is the question for today and this week.

And we certainly need to hear more from the United States and Germany on that threat of sanctions. That is really the only hope I think to deter the Russians from going further into Eastern Ukraine.

COSTELLO: Nicholas Burns, Barbara Starr, many thanks to both of you. And that picture of the ship you saw was the USS Donald Cook, on the way to the Black Sea.

Still to come on the NEWSROOM, Oscar Pistorius in his own words. The disgraced track star testifies for a second day about the night he shot and killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OSCAR PISTORIUS: It was at that point that I started screaming and shouting for the burglar or intruders to get out of my house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Coming up next, the tragic moment when Pistorius says everything changed.

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COSTELLO: It's certainly one of the most compelling days of testimony in the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius. This morning, the Olympic runner took the stand for the second day in a row and described the night he shot and killed Reeva Steenkamp.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PISTORIUS: I heard a noise from inside the toilet. I perceived to be somebody coming out of the toilet. Before I knew it, I'd fired four shots at the door. My ears were ringing. I couldn't hear anything. So I kept on shouting for Reeva to phone the police. I was so scared to retreat because I wasn't sure if there was somebody in the toilet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So he kept shouting, he said he couldn't hear any response because his ears were ringing after he shot the gun four times. It was at that moment that changed everything for him. Listen to the story as he describes the realization that it was Reeva Steenkamp in that toilet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PISTORIUS: The first time I remember hitting -- I hit the frame of the door and the shock on my hands, maybe a saw piece opened. At that point, all I wanted to do was just look inside to see if it was Reeva. I think I hit the door three times and there was a big plank and I threw it out into the bathroom. I leaned over the little partition, tried to open the door from the inside, but there was no key in the door.

And I leaned over the middle partition of the door and I saw the key was on the floor at that point. All I wanted to do was just climb into the toilet. Once I got over the partition, I saw the key so I took it and I flung the door open. And I sat over Reeva and I cried and I don't know how long. I don't know how long I was there for.

JUDGE: Can we take adjournment? Court will adjourn.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: At that point as you heard, Oscar Pistorius was crying, sobbing uncontrollably and the judge called for the court to adjourn. Oscar Pistorius will return to the stand tomorrow.

I want to bring in CNN legal analyst, Kelly Phelps. She is in Pretoria, South Africa. So Oscar Pistorius sort of brought us through that night. He's terrified that an intruder is either coming into his home or already there. He says he's going through the dark. He whispers to Reeva Steenkamp to get down and then he fires off these four shots.

He doesn't know who is in the bathroom behind that locked door. And then comes to discover it indeed is Reeva Steenkamp. Is it possible in your mind that he didn't know where Steenkamp was in that span of time?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, absolutely --

COSTELLO: Goodness. Well, as you can see, we have technical difficulties. We'll get the gremlins worked out. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right, we got it together. Before the break, I was talking about the compelling testimony in South Africa. Oscar Pistorius taking the stand and describing the night Reeva Steenkamp was shot and killed. He talked about how terrified he was and he was searching through the dark thinking an intruder had broken into his home. He shot out those four shots through the bathroom door and as you know, those shots hit Reeva Steenkamp killing her.

Oscar Pistorius then described breaking down that bathroom door and he sobbed uncontrollably at this point on the stand. He could not go on and the judge adjourned the trial. Kelly Phelps is a CNN legal analyst is in South Africa to parse this -- to try to like analyze this testimony.

He certainly sounds believable, but of course, some believe, the prosecution, that he shot Reeva Steenkamp on purpose. Is it possible that there was no way he could know where Reeva Steenkamp was? He was in the same bed as she was. Surely he would have noticed she wasn't there.

KELLY PHELPS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, if we break his version of events down, it becomes easier to understand why on his version of events he wouldn't have known where she was. So according to his version of events, he woke up in the bed because he was very hot and at that point she woke up, as well, spoke with him briefly and he then got out of bed, got the fan from outside and it would have been at this stage on his version that Steenkamp while he wasn't in the room had gone to the toilet.

When he comes back in, he hears the noise, whispers to her to be careful, walks into corridor, screams to her to phone the police and then keeps quiet when he's in the bathroom. At the point that he screams on his version of events, that's when he hears the bathroom door slam shut.

So in other words, what he's saying essentially what happened there is a tragic misunderstanding, that she heard him scream, didn't realize he thought she was the intruder and she protected herself by slamming the door shut and locking herself in the bathroom. So nothing fundamental about the version that is improbable.

And this is why what the judge will need to do is decide by looking at all of the surrounding evidence that is proven, that isn't just one person's word against another, whether she thinks his version is more believable over the state's version.

COSTELLO: I was going to ask you, there was some damaging testimony earlier against Oscar Pistorius. How will the prosecution handle this when they get their turn?

PHELPS: Well, if you're referring to the text messages that were read earlier, he went over some of the text messages that showed the fights that he and Reeva Steenkamp had had in the months leading up to her killing. I have to say though the defense spent a lot of time placing those messages in context.

We already knew from the state's case that there were four negative messages in the context of over 1700 positive messages. The defense was essentially trying to create the impression that those four fights were just part of normal ups and downs in a relationship. They had been resolved and the couple had moved on from them.

But certainly the prosecution will try and shift the balance back when it comes to cross-examination and try to establish through perhaps tripping him up that in fact those fights were not as resolved as they led the court to believe today.

COSTELLO: We'll know more tomorrow. Kelly Phelps, thanks very much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, riots in Ukraine, fights in parliament and talk of a civil war. Now there could be more sanctions ahead. We'll take you live to Moscow and to the White House straight ahead.

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