Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Obama Vows Action against Russia for Hacking; Civilians, Insurgents Evacuated from East Aleppo; Syria's Crisis Hard to Watch for Refugees; Obama Vows Response to Russian Hacking; Egypt: Traces of Explosives Found on Plane Crash Victims; Video Shows Syrian Orphans Pleading for Help. Aired Midnight-1a ET

Aired December 16, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:00:10] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.

Ahead this hour --

President Obama's ominous threat to Russia blaming Vladimir Putin for hacking the U.S. election and warning there will be retaliation.

The transition honeymoon may be over with the Obama White House trading insults with Donald Trump.

And getting out of Aleppo -- convoys of buses carrying the wounded and the weary as President Assad claims an historic victory.

Hello everybody -- great to have you with us. I'm John Vause. The first hour of NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.

U.S. President Barack Obama has put the Kremlin on notice saying there will be retaliation for Russia's alleged cyber attack during the presidential election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections that we need to take action. And we will at a time and place of our own choosing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Well, for more on the Russian hacking, CNN contributor and former Moscow bureau chief, Jill Dougherty joins us now from Seattle, Washington.

Jill -- clearly this all depends on exactly what that retaliation will be. But could this -- could this lead to a situation of an escalating cyber war between the United States and Russia.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, you'd certainly have to hope that the United States would not want that to happen. But that said, they're not defining exactly what they will do and we may never what they did because they made it clear it will happen with their own timing and defined by them.

But this is the complication, John -- is that again, we're talking about uncharted territory here. There are no real rules of the roads yet, no rules of the law -- law of war to cyber yet. And so what they do, they have to tread very, very carefully because the Russians have cyber capability as well and could retaliate in kind or they could escalate and then it could very quickly get out of hand.

VAUSE: In terms of cyber capability, it would seem at this point the Russians and the Americans almost on an equal level here.

DOUGHERTY: Well, yes. In many ways they are. The understanding is however that when you get into the well -- let's say hackers Russia probably has many more than the United States. This is surmisal (ph). I don't think you can get any, you know, hard figures, at least publicly or even on background. But they have a very sizable hacking army which is bigger than the United States.

So, you know, it's just depends on what President Obama wants to do. I think obviously, he wants to send a very strong message and this is one way of doing it saying, look, we know what you're up to, you have to stop this. This is very serious. And here is how we can make life very difficult for you.

Now some could argue he should have done that quite a long time ago. But the point is right now he's making that very clear. And it's getting really very personal because some of those leaks that are coming are implicating as you know, President Putin himself in being involved some way in this operation.

VAUSE: Jill -- stay with us because Vladimir Putin is in Tokyo right now and our Andrew Stevens is there, covering a summit between Mr. Putin and the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

So Andrew, we understand there is a joint news conference scheduled for the next hour or so. Do we expect any kind of response from the Russian president?

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN ASIA-PACIFIC EDITOR: It will depend, I suspect John, on whether he is asked specifically about this. The press conference is being called really to talk about economic issues involving Japan and Russia. But it could be hijacked by these hacking allegations and the comments coming from the U.S. president.

It's difficult to say. They've quite highly regulated these press conferences. The Japanese media and the Russian media will be allowed to questions so we really just have to wait and see. But certainly this is looming over the Putin visit here.

I was just being told he's just arrived to the Prime Minister's residence so running about an hour or so late. Running two hours late yesterday arriving here so he's having problems apparently. Of course the local media with the presidential aircraft here to fly in the back-up plane. [00:04:53] But certainly this trip to Japan has been characterized

really about not even so much economic ties but more about security and particularly about a disputed ownership of territory of four islands between Russia and Japan that were seized by Russia just after the Second World War.

And Shinzo Abe, the Prime Minister here is really making this -- this meeting, the first meeting that Putin has had in Japan with Abe in 11 years. All about trying to work out a way for Japan to reclaim that territory, but at this stage that's not moving very far at all.

VAUSE: Maybe there is a problem with the computer system on board the helicopter -- who knows?

Andrew -- thank you. We will check in with you as soon as that press conference is done to find out the very latest.

That is our Andrew Stevens there, live in Tokyo.

Jill -- let's pick up on the Democratic Senator Harry Reid. He was asked directly if he thought Putin was involved in the hacking of the U.S. election. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: I understand the answer is clearly yes. And his having been former head of the KGB -- does that surprise. And does it surprise anybody today when he denied it?

VAUSE: Reid was referring to a denial which came from the Kremlin. But you know, Reid's logic is similar to the intelligence assessment in that this hack was so big, so wide scale and of such importance that it will be impossible for Putin not to know about it and not to be involved.

From what you know about how the Kremlin operates, is it possible that Putin was out of the loop?

DOUGHERTY: You know, in the initial stages, if you -- if you look at who was doing this which appears to be two groups, you know, military intelligence and then FSB, the former KGB intelligence -- perhaps. And this is just a surmisal. In the beginning they were simply doing their job which is to gather as much information on that election and of the United States' political system as they (inaudible).

And then that could have morphed into something else which would be more serious. Let's say, the theory has been it morphed from just kind of generally vacuuming up all of this information to a more overt attempt to undermine the U.S. democratic system to injuring Hillary Clinton then finally to helping Donald Trump.

Let's say if that's the operative theory, it might mean that, you know, ultimately it had to go up to the very top because when you start, you know, fooling around with the American system and deliberately going after it in some way -- again this was allegedly and according to what we're hearing -- but that just makes sense that the president would have to know about that because it is very, very serious. And they know that any type of attempt to do that really would apparently elicit some type of response.

VAUSE: Ok. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham -- he told CNN his own e-mails have been hacked. And now he's proposing sanctions against Russia. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: They're trying to destabilize democracy all over the world, not just here. It's just not about pulling for Trump. It's bigger than that. They're trying to break the (inaudible) of democracy. They're doing worst things in other countries. They're trying to get us to fight among ourselves.

And here's what we should do. We should tell the Russians in no uncertain terms, you interfere in our elections we don't care why. We're going to hit you and hit you hard. I'm going to introduce sanctions, they'll be bipartisan that names Putin as an individual whose inner circle for not only hacking into our political systems but trying to destabilize democracy throughout the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And Jill -- to the Senator's -- Senator Graham's point there. When it comes to cyber hacking and interfering in elections, not just in the United States but around the world the Russians have form on the board, if you like. In other words, they've done this before. What's your understanding of that?

DOUGHERTY: Well, they have done it in the sense that what they're trying to do, and I think you really have to back up with this, is they are trying to undermine American influence around the world. And the way you do that is by going after, you know, weakening the basis of American democracy.

Because what you have to say is, look, American democracy is dysfunctional, it doesn't work. And it's a message to the Russian people themselves like don't imitate American democracy because just look at it. It's a mess. It's chaotic. It's dysfunctional.

And then it's also a message that Russia can, you know, spread abroad which is the United States is unreliable. Look at their democracy. They're fighting among themselves. Maybe they won't supportive of their allies, et cetera.

[00:10:00] There are a lot of different reasons that the Russians can continue. They're going to want to continue to do this because it is part of their entire system of defense. And when I say defense, I mean war fighting defense.

We are not in, obviously a shooting war but this is all part of the aggressive actions that Russia takes in order to defend itself. And then to take the blow, you know, against the enemy.

So I don't think this is going to stop necessarily by having sanctions. It might, let's say, slap their hands a bit. But this is part of modern-day warfare and also I have to say state action that Russia is taking and I don't think they're going to stop very easily.

VAUSE: Ok. Jill -- thanks so much for your insight. We greatly appreciate it.

We want to stay with this story for a little longer. Political commentator Mo Kelly is the radio host of the "Mo Kelly Show" here in Los Angeles joining me in the studio.

Mo -- the threats coming from President Obama about retaliation, he's talking like he has another term in office.

MO KELLY, RADIO HOST: I understand why he's doing it. I don't understand why he's trying to do it now. Whatever retaliation that he's promised can't be sustained. And if anything if I'm Vladimir Putin I'm just going to wait him out.

And if it's not something that's on a nuclear level, I'm being serious, unless there's something that's going to stop Russia in their tracks, you know you're going to have a sympathetic president coming in. You know you're --

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: The secretary of State.

KELLY: Yes, you have a sympathetic secretary of State coming in. So if anything, you just -- you understand that there's rhetoric and there's actual real action.

We may not know what the real action is going to be but we know it can't be sustained whatever it's going to be.

VAUSE: Ok. This is now rocking to a real political fight between the outgoing and the incoming presidents. Trump, the President-Elect tweeted this. "If Russia or some other entity was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?" Which is wrong, but that led to this response from the White House spokesperson Josh Earnest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The primary defense -- well, first of all it is just a fact, you all have it on tape that the Republican nominee for president was encouraging Russia to hack his opponent because he believed that that would help his campaign.

That's not a controversial statement. I'm not trying to be argumentative but I am trying to acknowledge a basic fact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Would a White House spokesman come out and make that kind of statement without the President knowing? KELLY: No, there's no reason that I would suspect that he or she

would because that will be personal political suicide in the professional sense. But we also know that going back to President Obama saying there's going to be retaliation against Russia, he's going to be very free to do and say things in this last 30 days that he probably wouldn't. I don't believe that Josh Earnest is going to be acting at his own behest --

VAUSE: Right.

KELLY: -- On his own accord.

VAUSE: Ok. So after he made that statement Trump turned out for the rally, one of his thank-you tour rallies. This is in Pennsylvania. And he stopped short of criticizing President Obama. Instead he went after Josh Earnest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: Although this foolish guy, Josh Earnest -- I don't know if he's talking to President Obama -- you know, having the right press secretary is so important because he is so bad the way he delivers a message. He can deliver a positive message and it sounds bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So much for the peaceful transition.

KELLY: Yes, he's still trying to relitigate the election as if the White House is his adversary as opposed to his future residence. He's always one for ad hominem attacks as opposed to just trying to bring the country together. And he's going after the person, Josh, personally as opposed to actually addressing the issue with accuracy.

VAUSE: With that in mind, we had two big stories today. There was the issue of Putin allegedly personally overseeing the hacking of the U.S. election. And then there was the "Vanity Fair" story in which the headline read, "Trump Grill could be the worst restaurant in America". Which one do you think Trump tweeted about?

KELLY: Probably both.

VAUSE: Well, it was actually the "Vanity Fair" story is the one that caught his eye first thing in the morning. He tweeted this, "Has anyone looked at the really poor numbers of 'Vanity Fair' magazine. Way down, big trouble, dead, (inaudible), no talent, will be out."

You know, again it does raise the question of his priorities and his temperament and almost sort of the distraction which all these cause.

KELLY: Can we take him at his word? Can we believe him at this point? He has been consistent in the behavior. If you criticize him, he's going to come after you, talk about your ratings, talk about your lack of subscribers or your subscriptions, or how you are no talent hack. He is consistent because everything is personal with him. VAUSE: Yes. What appears to happen is that Trump continues to appeal to his base. He's doing these thank-you tours and you know, this latest one was in Pennsylvania. And listen to what he said there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[001502] TRUMP: This is the first time the Republican Party has won the state of Pennsylvania in almost 30 years. We made history together. You propelled to victory a grassroots movement the likes of which they world has never, ever seen. It's true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Well, maybe it is. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not. But, you know, normally a president-elect would use this period of time in office before the inauguration will need to try and win over those voters who didn't vote for him.

KELLY: Well not only that you would use this time to bring the country together and get people seeing you as a uniter, the person who's going to be representing everyone, not just the people who may have voted for you on a particular day in a certain state.

The fact that he mentioned the Republican Party and the win is disconcerting to me. Not that because his political issues, it's just that he's still not focused on what America needs to do. He's not going to divest. He's not going to stop tweeting. He's not going to release his taxes. So at what point is he going to start doing the things which will apply to all of us as opposed to just one individual?

VAUSE: Ok. Mo -- as always. Thanks so much. Great to have you with us.

KELLY: Thank you.

VAUSE: And we'll take a short break.

When we come back, thousands leaving Aleppo to safer ground. Next, the emotional reunion and why some residents don't welcome the evacuations.

[00:16:28] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: After several false starts and failed cease-fires, thousand of civilians and rebels in Aleppo are finally leaving the city. The Red Cross says these long lines of buses took about 3,000 evacuations to relatively safer territory on Thursday. Most have been arriving in neighboring Idlib while others are now in the government-controlled western Aleppo.

Emotions have been running as families and friends and loved ones torn apart by war are now reunited.

But amid those emotional scenes, there are some evacuees who say they're being kicked out of their homes in a forced displacement. Jomana Karadsheh is live in Amman, Jordan with the very latest on all of those. So Jomana, is this not all going to plan and what's the timeframe here? How much longer is this expected to take?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we understand John, is that this is an ongoing process that that 3,000 figure we heard from the International Committee of the Red Cross may have risen to a few thousand more overnight as these convoys continue to roll out from eastern Aleppo's besieged neighborhoods.

Now, we've heard that this is going to take several days, you're looking at about 19 or 20 buses that are evacuating civilians and it's the same buses that need to keep doing this rotation. You also have about 13 ambulances. So this is a continuous process and it's a lengthy one.

We've seen the evacuation of these thousands of civilians, wounded too who are in dire need of medical attention. And also some rebel fighters according to activists that we have spoken to. And there's always that concern, John, this is a very fragile agreement.

And the situation on the ground is so volatile that there's concern that anything could happen at any point to disrupt this process. So a lot of hope that doesn't happen but, of course things change really fast on the ground and we'll be keeping an eye on that.

VAUSE: And very quickly, Jomana -- many are heading to Idlib which is under rebel control. And that could be the next target by forces loyal to Bashar al Assad.

KARADSHEH: Well, that's the saying -- John. They're not leaving to really safe grounds. We're seeing these thousands who are being evacuated. Some are headed towards western Aleppo countryside, this is an area under rebel control; and also to Idlib province.

These are parts of the country that have seen airstrikes. What has been going on there has been overshadowed by the situation in Aleppo over the past couple of weeks but there has been also airstrikes, relentless attacks that are blamed on the regime and the Russians in these parts of the country.

So, a lot of concern still for the safety of these people. Leaving Aleppo doesn't mean that the war has ended for them -- John.

VAUSE: Jomana -- thank you. Jomana Karadsheh, live this hour in Amman, Jordan.

The human exodus from Aleppo is just the latest tragedy in a war which has seen almost five million forced to leave Syria. Most are living in harsh conditions in refugee camps in neighboring countries. A relatively small number though have been lucky enough to be resettled in Europe, Canada or the United States.

But no matter where they are, the misery and death in Aleppo has been hard to watch even at a distance. Ghosoun Alakiali (ph) fled Syria with her young daughter three years ago to live with her sister in Canton, Ohio and she joins us now from there.

Ghosoun -- thanks for being with us. Can you describe what it's been like to watch this catastrophe in Aleppo?

GHOSOUN ALAKIALI, SYRIAN REFUGEE: It's so hard. Unfortunately my child saw it last week because my -- you know her grandma always checking the TV for news six hours each day I think on news.

And she came to me and she said mommy don't let me to Syria. I don't like to go to Syria. And it was, you know, it's heartbreaking. Children -- I don't know what to say except it's a tragedy. It's sad. And this should be stopped. There should be an end.

VAUSE: For many in Syria and especially the ones who are living say, you know, they're experiencing almost like survivor's guilt watching what's going on in Aleppo and others parts of Syria. Have you felt that as well?

[00:24:53] ALAKIALI: Yes. Yes. Actually I have been for the past two years studying full time job. Like, you know, studying 10 hours a day to catch for my masters and I'm doing this also as a way of running, I think. Because -- even my mom told me you're going through a lot, girl. Just come downstairs. Come watch TV. No I don't want to watch.

I just check Facebook on some -- I will speak it honestly and in a very honest way -- I'm searching for some (inaudible) leaders in this world to stop this massacre, to stop this stupidity (ph), this criminality. Because this is too much.

VAUSE: And your family once lived in Aleppo. Do you even recognize the devastated city that you're seeing against the photographs in newspapers online, on television?

ALAKIALI: It's not Aleppo. It's not. I used to visit a lot and (inaudible) with my family from there and my brother-in-law from there. And oh my God, what is going on? This is nuts. Why are you doing this?

When you want to restructure a world, you have to take into consideration morality. You have to keep in your mind the effect. It cannot be like this. We are in a -- they say a crisis of morality. We are, we are admitting it.

VAUSE: Well clearly the Syrian dictator Bashar Al Assad and his backers the Russians, the Iranians are the ones who are directly responsible for what's happened in Aleppo and other parts of Syria. But what about the rest of us? What about governments in the west? The United States who failed to stop this from happening?

ALAKIALI: You cannot just blame let's say Russia, let's say because that's the big power. You cannot blame Russia. Russia is simply a state of organized crime. It's (inaudible) in crime. And I don't blame them. I blame actually who create, who contribute to the creation of such state.

VAUSE: What about the responsibility though on the United States, on President Obama? There's been a lot of criticism that the U.S., which was meant to be a world leader just simply didn't do enough to stop this.

ALAKIALA: I don't believe so. I do believe that, you know, for President Obama, he's a global leader. He did a great job for the Americans. But for the Syrian, I don't think that he did -- he tried. I will not say that he didn't try. But again, restructuring the world again -- especially the Middle East cannot be done with criminal on power. We cannot do that.

There should be global ethical system. There should be people who take into consideration that the (inaudible) of this land cannot be pulled over from its soil. And just kill them. You cannot do that. It has to be global ethical system. That's my point of view. I cannot tell you I want Syria back. It will never come back, never. Never -- not in my life, not my child's life. Never.

That's my message. The leaders of this world should find a way to create a global ethical system. We're restructuring and should be in an ethical way. This just cannot be done.

VAUSE: Ghosoun it seems we've lost a piece of our humanity with the events of the last couple of days and the last couple of years. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. And I know, it's must have been a very difficult time for you. So -- thanks for being with us.

ALAKIALI: Thank you so much. Thank you for letting me, you know, for giving me this opportunity to speak my mind.

VAUSE: And you can help Syrians caught up in this brutal civil war. CNN has a list of aid organizations helping families escape the danger and receive basic supplies. Please head to our Web site CNN.com/Impact and there you will find a full list.

Still to come here, it has been seven months since an Egypt Air flight plunged into the ocean. Coming up, new clues about what caused the crash which killed all on board.

[00:29:15] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:32:40] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles, I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour.

The U.S. today says no doubt the hacking of the U.S. presidential election was approve with the highest levels of the Kremlin. U.S. President Barack Obama says there will be a response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think there is no doubt that when any form of government tries to impact the integrity of our elections that we need to take action. And we will. At a time and a place of our own choosing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And to make that case, U.S. officials point to the sophisticated tools used in the hack, tools which are used only by Russians. And they add the Russian hacking continuous without let up.

While the U.S. put in actions against his government, Vladimir Putin arrived in Japan, Thursday, to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Mr. Abe says they discussed a range of issues including a decade's long dispute over the Russian-controlled Kuril Islands. Japan has claims on a number of the islands.

Thousands of civilians and rebels have left Eastern Aleppo on Red Cross convoys. The evacuations are expected to continue through the coming hours. Many residents, they have leave one war zone for another and they are happy. However, one have witnessed several emotional reunions of loved ones.

Traces of explosives have been found on bodies from the Egypt airplane that crashed last night killing all 66 people on board. Authorities are still working to piece together what cause the plane to go down. Egyptian officials have said it could be terror or technical failures. Audio from the flight recorder mentioned a fire on board and attempts to put it out before the plane crashed.

CNN's safety analyst and former federal safety inspector David Soucie joins us now from Denver, Colorado.

David, thanks for being with us.

Egyptian air crash investigators, they have a reputation for being slow, not especially transparent, but even by their standards seems odd to making this announcement now. You know, the plane went down back at night.

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, it does particularly because about six months before that, if you recall, there is an accident on a flight from Sharm El Sheikh that had crashed and killed everyone on board. And that, indeed, was a bomb. And they noticed and they found the explosive residue on the bodies just within really two days after that accident. They found that.

And so six months later, it makes me very suspicious about it. And it's just really cautious. We didn't perceive a caution on this part.

[00:35:10] VAUSE: OK. Well, the implication here is that maybe a bomb had been planted on board which would indicate some kind of act of terrorism. But, you know, in the eight months since the crash, there hasn't been a claim of responsibility.

SOUCIE: There hasn't and that's suspect as well. The other thing that concerns me a little bit about the thought of a bomb at this point is that the ACARS, the aircraft information that's been transmitted from the airplane at the time and then verified and validated by the voice recorders is that there was a fire on board. Typically, when there is an explosive or an incendiary device on board an aircraft at that stage of flight is going to explode and rapture the aircraft itself, not just start a fire and cause smoke and those kinds of reports that we got from the ACAR system and from the voice recorder saying that they were trying to fight a fire so it's very suspicious to me that we have these bombs.

If you're calling flight 800, when it crashed, they found explosive residue there and that was actually later determined to be from the fact that the aircraft carried military personnel who had just left a military live based and they track in the explosive materials. So it's too early to tell at this point. I'm waiting for more information.

VAUSE: Yes. I mean, if the Egyptians were more transparent, we would have that information. So we're kind of left to speculate. If there was a small bomb, though, maybe in the form of (INAUDIBLE), I think where there was the report of smoke, if there was a powerful, small directed blast, could that have enough impact to actually bring down the plane?

SOUCIE: It could in that area. Definitely could have ride down the plane because you're right. Over the top of the avionics bay, but going back to the ACARS reports, the first ACARS report that happened was windshield overheat which came from the cockpit.

The smoke and any other reports that came from it were subsequent to that. So it indicates to me that -- and those delegated in the flight data recorder as well that they were accurate reports. So that tells me that whatever started would have had to start in the cockpit. So the thought that someone brought in incendiary device into the cockpit and started it there, there is many other vulnerability points that would have been much easier to get an incendiary device on to the airplane, in the back of the aircraft and in the lavatory. But the lavatory reports of smoke came after the overheat on the windshield, so it's again, just a lot of things that make me very hesitant to think bomb at this point.

VAUSE: OK. Again, you know, if we are talking an explosive device of some kind, I guess we'll look into route of the plane had taken before the explosion. It left Eritrea to Cairo, to Tunis then to Charles de Gaulle in Paris. Could some kind of device made it on to the plane at any one of those points during the airbus' flight?

SOUCIE: It most certainly could have. In fact, the flight I'd mentioned before, that airplane had also gone through those areas. And each time the aircraft lands, it goes through a security check but it may not be good enough to find out if there was something on previous flights, then it's set off and would have been timed to go off at a certain time.

Those types of bombs are uncommon. Most of the bombs that we've encountered in the last five to 10 years have been those that encounter altitude so that they are sure that the bomb will go off at a higher altitude which is where the aircraft is most vulnerable.

So the fact that they have timing that could have been on the aircraft long before this actual accident happened from some of these other locations is unlikely, but it certainly is possible -- yes.

VAUSE: This basically raise more questions than answers from the Egyptians. But David, as always, thanks so much.

SOUCIE: All right. Thank you, John.

VAUSE: And coming up on NEWSROOM L.A., the heartbreaking plea from Aleppo's children. They are orphaned by Syria's conflict.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:41:00] VAUSE: The killing in Syria has been indiscriminate. Parents have lost children and children have been left orphan. Various children who have lost everything. Although one now has a chance to grow up, to have a normal life, a life which has been denied by war.

Here now the pleas from the orphans of Aleppo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: (SPEAKING THROUGH FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: I'm John Vause. "World Sport" is next. See you at the top of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)