Return to Transcripts main page

Erin Burnett Outfront

60 More U.S. Military Advisers Arrive In Iraq; Stepmother Of Missing Michigan Boy Arrested; This Isn't Your Backyard Soccer Ball; Head of IRS Speaks to CNN About Scandal; Report: North Korea Launches Three Missiles; Flight 370 Search Shifts to Massive New Area

Aired June 26, 2014 - 19:00   ET

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

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: More Americans arriving in Iraq today. Is this mission creep?

Plus a father finds out his missing son is alive on live television from our own Nancy Grace.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST, "NANCY GRACE": We are getting reports that your son has been found alive in your basement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?

BURNETT: Nancy is OUTFRONT with this bizarre story. Team USA advances in the World Cup. Let's go OUTFRONT.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, more Americans in Iraq. Another wave of American military personnel landed today. The actual number of U.S. personnel in Iraq right now is higher than previously thought. We're going to have a full report from the Pentagon in just a full moment.

And on the ground in Iraq today, the deadly battle for control of the country is raging. A bomb blast killing 19 and wounding 41 more. A new video of a suicide attack in a market south of Baghdad in which 13 people were killed yesterday. Then a car bomb explosion in northern Kirkuk, which killed six and wounded 21 other.

Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon with the details on what the United States is doing right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Baghdad, nearly 500 U.S. troops are now on the ground including 180 military advisers of the 300 President Obama authorized plus security teams and intelligence analysts already there. Priority one, determine whether the capital is in danger of falling to the ISIS militants. The current assessment? The Iraqi military will keep control and ISIS won't risk all-out war. But there is growing worry about the strength of Iraqi forces across the country.

MARIE HARF, DEPUTY STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESWOMAN: What we really need to see is the army get back on its feet we have folks there trying to help these elite forces do that and retake territory, but the situation on the ground is very serious.

STARR: Iraq's massive Haditha Dam, 170 miles northwest of Baghdad may be the most critical target to protect. ISIS and Iraqi units are battling for control of the largest hydroelectric plant in Western Iraq. The local police chief told CNN government forces are so far holding on to control, but U.S. intelligence is watching closely.

If ISIS seizes the dam, water and power for millions of Iraqis is in jeopardy and there's risk of flooding millions of acres. Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki tells the BBC he's happy to have Syrian air strikes against ISIS.

NURI AL-MALIKI, IRAQI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): There was no coordination involved, but we welcome this action.

STARR: The U.S. does not welcome what it says were Syrian air strikes that reached inside Iraq. CNN has learned U.S. aircraft flying reconnaissance missions over Iraq to collect intelligence are keeping an eye out for both Syrian war planes and Iranian drones. And keeping an eye on threats against U.S. military advisers. This video message reportedly from a Sunni cleric calls for attacks against U.S. Embassies worldwide if the U.S. conducts air strikes in Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STARR: Now, the Pentagon has sent a two-star general to Baghdad to lead the military advisory mission and earmarked another general to go to Northern Iraq if that part of the mission actually happens. It's a lot of intellectual muscle power for whatever may come next -- Erin.

BURNETT: Barbara Starr, thank you. Joining me now are CNN military analyst, Retired Colonel Peter Mansoor, who was the executive officer for General David Petraeus during the Iraqi surge, and a CNN counterterrorism analyst and a former CIA official, Phil Mudd. OK, great to have both of you with us.

I want to start first though with this issue of how many American troops are now on the ground. We're now being told it's about 500, nearly double what we were told days ago was going to be the upper limit. So first of all, is this enough to make a difference?

PHILIP MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: I think it's enough to make a modest difference, but there's not a game changer. There are a few in this story. That's the Iraqi military, that's ISIS and that's villagers. If we think in a civil war 300 or 500 that a couple hundred difference is going to change a civil war, I don't buy it. It's an interesting change. We could talk about why we've made that change. It's not a game changer though.

BURNETT: Phil uses the word "an interesting change." My question is more of what does it mean that the United States is changing the number by double in just days and not really talking about it? Is this already mission creep? COLONEL PETER MANSOOR (RETIRED), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: No, it will be mission creep or change of mission when the president decides it's in the national interests of the United States to back the Iraqi military with air strikes or other military force. What those troops on the ground now are doing is setting up joint operation centers. They're fanning out across the Iraqi army to assess the state of readiness of brigades and divisions. This is more of an assessment mission at this point than it is an actual combat mission or helping the Iraqi army defeat ISIS.

BURNETT: Phil, on this issue of mission, my question still remains making the case to the American people as to why the United States would need to do something right now. You hear the prime minister of Iraq saying thank you, Syria, we're so glad you helped us with those air strikes.

But of course, those air strikes came from Bashar Al-Assad so the U.S. says we don't like the air strikes. This is an incredible situation where the enemy of your enemy is your friend and how would you get involved in this and actually know who you're helping and who you're hurting?

MUDD: There's going to be a simple question and this won't be clear for a week or six months. When you look at the insurgency we're seeing in Iraq, they're inspired by an al Qaedist ideology. That doesn't mean we'll see that manifest itself today or tomorrow. But overtime, what I've seen in places like Yemen or Somalia is organizations like this will have a sliver of their leadership start to say, our immediate goal is Baghdad.

But long term, let's train some of these foreign fighters to go into European cities or Boston, New York or Chicago. We have to worry about if that happens not going in that day and trying to build an intelligence picture immediately. We have to say if we see foreign fighters directly to the United States, what do we do about it?

BURNETT: Colonel Mansoor, is there going to be an answer to that question? Does the U.S. have really any intelligence? Because clearly they didn't have any intelligence or good intelligence on how severe of a risk ISIS was when ISIS was really just in Syria.

MANSOOR: It will take time to develop and require boots on the ground to develop it. These ISIS fighters are very skillful. They don't use cell phones that much. You need people on the ground in contact with the Iraqi military that's opposing them in order to gain the kind of intelligence from the locals who would know what ISIS is up to. But this is going to require the Iraqi tribes to come on board because they're the ones that really could put a dent in the ISIS juggernaut right now.

BURNETT: And do you believe, Phil, that the United States has any sense of what ISIS is really about or what they're going to do? We heard Barbara reporting on the current assessment from the U.S. intelligence. ISIS isn't going to risk an all-out war, but then you see car bomb after car bomb after car bomb in market after market after market. MUDD: I think we have a sense of what they're about, but in the intelligence business, you have to differentiate two fundamental points. First is capability, how many of them are there, where are they, what kind of weapons do they have, how are they moving? So if we choose to use drones against them, can we put lead on the target? That's a fundamentally different question, though, assessing the capability of the adversary from assessing intent.

That's what's going on inside an insurgent's head. One message on that because I've talked to terrorists, I've listened to what they said on the radio and listened to what they said when we detained them at CIA, we do not think like they think. They believe they are ordained by God to take territory and to oppose a sense of law that returns that country to the 7th Century.

When you have those kinds of beliefs, to think that they're operating rationally, that they're not going to go into Baghdad because they're afraid of being killed is not the way to look at this. They're motivated by a different way of thinking and let's not pretend that we understand it.

BURNETT: All right, thanks very much to both of you. OUTFRONT next, goals being scored in the World Cup. Is the ball the reason? We have a special investigation.

Major new developments in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. I mean, major, this is it, in a sense, the Holy Grail. Were the pilots unconscious when the plane disappeared?

And it's the television moment everyone is talking about, a man finds out that his missing son is alive on television live.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are getting reports that your son has been found alive in your basement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Breaking news, a major development in the case of a missing 12-year-old boy. We're just getting word of an arrest involving a family member in this bizarre case. A boy has been missing for 11 days, and then was found alive and well in his father's basement yesterday.

That father, as you might have seen, learned that police found his missing son live, live television, in this interview with HLN's Nancy Grace. Now in just a moment we're going to speak to Nancy. We're going to play all this for you. But I want to begin with Susan Candiotti because she has the breaking developments in this story. So an arrest from a family member. SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's yet another strange twist. This is the step-mother of the boy who had been missing. She is living with his father and they arrested her this afternoon, but it's on a probation violation involving a weapons case that I am told by police is unrelated to the boy's disappearance or him being found again. Nevertheless, she was arrested late this afternoon. One can only assume that they would have known of this but for this case.

BURNETT: This case. All right, so the story is so bizarre. This boy is missing for 11 days. Police have been in this apartment, this house, where the father and the step-mother lived. They looked, they brought cadaver dogs. Nothing had a hit.

CANDIOTTI: Exactly.

BURNETT: And then the boy is found there.

CANDIOTTI: Yes, and it all comes down like this. This is what's so stunning about it. As the father is taping an interview with Nancy Grace, the news is breaking that the boy has been found at his house. So she breaks this brand new information to him live on television, and watch what happens next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We're getting reports that your son has been found in your basement. Sir? Mr. Bothel, are you --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?

GRACE: Yes, we're getting reports that your son has been found alive in your basement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?

GRACE: Yes. That's -- if you can hand me that wire very quickly. Yes, we're getting that right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Now, the boy was --

CANDIOTTI: I know. I know, what can you say? How often does something like this happen, number one, and then to watch it play out like this? Now the boy was immediately taken to the hospital. He was checked out. Police say he was fine. Now, he was interviewed today by a child psychologist and then police interviewed him to find out what happened. He did make a statement to police. They hope to talk to him again tomorrow. They're not revealing what he said. Now, they have also told us that he is staying now with his biological mother.

BURNETT: OK.

CANDIOTTI: And because the investigation is ongoing he is forbidden to have any contact for now with the stepmother that we just mentioned or his father.

BURNETT: I want to bring Nancy Grace into this conversation. Nancy, that moment was just -- I mean, it's incredible. That's kind of a once in a lifetime, if even that, when you broke that news to that father that his son had been found in his own basement. I know you had a chance to talk to that father again today. You have a lot more coming up on your show, we can watch the full interview. What do you think about him right now?

GRACE (via telephone): I tell you, when I -- I didn't have a lot of time to think about it when it all was going down. It all happened so quickly. We were doing the interview. We were going on the air and one of my producers came to my side trying to mouth something to me. Right as we started, he said the boy was found alive in the dad's basement. And I went with it. And asked the question.

And I watched very carefully. I never took my eyes off of him and I even watched him after to observe him. I found his reaction very unusual because I actually thought that my first comment was your son has been found alive in your basement, but what I said was, we're hearing your son has been found in your basement.

And he never asked, is he alive, is he OK? And there was a silence. And then I repeated it and said your son has been found alive in your basement, but when I look back at it, I realized he never asked, how is he? Where is he? Is he hurt? I found that very, very odd.

BURNETT: So do you think the father had -- I mean, people watching this are saying the father must have put him there. He was barricaded in this door. There are reports the child couldn't have done this himself. Someone had to have done it from outside. They searched the basement and the boy wasn't there. So at some point they brought the boy from wherever he was and barricaded him. Did the father give the impression that he knew something?

GRACE: That doesn't make sense either because why would you, as some sort of punishment, I guess, barricade your son in the basement, then call the police and the FBI, much less come on the Nancy Grace show and get a grilling. I mean, why would you subject yourself to that if you are covering it up?

Therefore, it leads me to think that someone else was harboring him, was helping him, And I'd like to know why. The fact that bloody clothes were found in the home, that we suspect the child was partially disciplined. I wonder if this is actually a way of protecting a child?

BURNETT: Were you surprised -- one thing I noticed when I watched, the nuance that you didn't put in the word "alive" and how crucial that was. But the other thing when we were talking about our show meeting today and you were coming on the show, were you surprised after you broke this news to the father, he didn't just jump up, rip his mike off and run off the set. If you're a parent, I got to go.

GRACE: Absolutely. Maybe I'm projecting as all parents do. I'll never forget when my son, John David, got lost in a Toys "R" Us or something. And I was beside myself, and when we found him, I ran, ran! To him on the other side of the store. And I don't understand it.

Let me follow along that same line of thinking because I watched, and he got home, and he was laughing and crying all at the same time seemingly in joy. Out of joy that his son was alive but he stopped. He stopped to talk to reporters. I would have gone straight in that house and found my boy.

And I didn't understand that. Now we're not getting a whole lot of statements because they're lawyered up, but I will be speaking to him tonight at 8:00. I have more questions today than I did last night. And that's not normal. This should unfold in a happy way that the child has been found alive.

Technically, it's the reverse. After a child's been gone almost two weeks. So this is not fitting together and things don't fit together forensically. Somebody's not telling the truth.

BURNETT: All right, well, Nancy, thank you very much. I mean, it is an incredible story, fascinating story. As Nancy said not just that moment, which you'll see on her show, but a chance to speak to the boy's father today. You'll see that interview tonight at 8:00 on HLN with Nancy Grace.

Still to come, a historic number of goals scored during the World Cup so far. Could it be because of the ball?

Plus the IRS commissioner admits to CNN that the case of the missing e-mails seems, quote, "suspicious."

And new details on the hunt for missing Flight 370. News of the pilot and the crew may have been unconscious long before the plane went down but still motive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Sometimes a loss is good enough. So Team USA lost but won. Germany beat the United States 1-0 in a hard fought match today. But because of the way the World Cup is structured, the score was such that Team USA still advances to the next round of play. Fans across the country stormed viewing parties in bars to support the Americans. Even after the loss, it was still planning a party to celebrate the events.

Didn't seem like anybody went to work today. Ratings for some games are beating viewership for the NBA finals and the World Series. Could be that people are watching because there's more scoring because so far 136 goals have been scored in this World Cup, which puts it on track to break the 1998 record of 171.

Now the players probably haven't gotten that much better. Let's be honest. Right, I mean, you know, evolution doesn't happen that quickly, assuming you believe in it or is it because of this ball? Dan Simon reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Every World Cup fan likes to see goals, and this year it's happening at a record pace. But are players scoring more because of the ball with a funny name?

Adidas, the maker would say there's nothing amusing about this year's World Cup soccer ball. It's invested a great deal in researching, manufacturing and advertising the Brazuca. And experts will tell you the effort seems to have paid off.

DR. RABI MEHTA, AERODYNAMICS ENGINEER, NASA: It's good because I think it's more stable, it flies truer.

SIMON: Dr. Rabi Mehta is an aerodynamics engineer at NASA, he's studied just about every ball on the planet.

MEHTA: Baseballs, tennis balls, soccer balls.

SIMON: Using a wind tunnel equipped with lasers and smoke, scientists can measure how the ball moves through the air. Mehta says the Brazuca travels better than previous balls, which may account for why there are more goals scored in Brazil than any other World Cup since 1970.

(on camera): Explain what makes this a good soccer ball.

MEHTA: This is a good soccer ball, for one thing, I haven't heard any complaints from the players. That's a good sign. I believe you can impart more spin to this ball, which is the bend it like Beckham syndrome. A lot easier to achieve with this ball.

SIMON (voice-over): The reason, the Brazuca has longer deeper seams and a pimple-like surface that makes the ball rougher. Mehta says a smoother ball is harder to control. The Brazuca has six polyurethane panels. Those old black and whites have 32. If you think a ball is, well, just a ball, then you'd have to go back four years.

(on camera): This is the ball from the 2010 World Cup. Goalies hated it because the ball knuckled. The path was unpredictable. Adidas apparently took that criticism to heart and this is the result.

(voice-over): In 2010, the South Africa World Cup had 77 goals in the first 36 games. In Brazil and with the Brazuca, there have been 108.

MEHTA: I would say the ball definitely has something to do with it.

SIMON: Mehta says part of it is psychological. Players just may be more comfortable striking it. It is a testament to sports engineering, the spirit of competition and clever marketing. The ball has its own page on Twitter with more than 2 million followers. For OUTFRONT, Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: I love it. They never thought of naming it before nor did I know it was called Brazuca, Brazuca. OUTFRONT next, a major development in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. You've never seen this many pages and this is a report of everything they know and new breaking news. Signs the pilot and the crew were unconscious.

And we're going to take you to the greenest city on earth. It's in the middle of the desert. I visited it on a day when it was 120 degrees at 8:30 in the morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news: the embattled head of the IRS speaking out to our own Wolf Blitzer today. He maintained there's not proof the Obama administration was involved in the IRS scheme to target political groups or the hard drive crash that wiped out e-mails belonging to the woman at the center of the controversy, the former IRS official Lois Lerner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KOSKINEN, IRS COMMISSIONER: Treasury turned over all of its Lois Lerner e-mails. Nobody has turned up an e-mail yet that says anybody outside of the IRS was involved in this.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: A lot of those emails are missing then.

KOSKINEN: Not from the Treasury Department --

BLITZER: But from Lois Lerner.

KOSKINEN: Well, if Lois sent an e-mail to somebody, they have it just the way we have 25,000 of her e-mails from the crash period that she sent to people within the agency.

BLITZER: But even though it's her right to plead the Fifth, and you and I have been in Washington for a long time, doesn't that look fishy, though? Doesn't that look weird? If nothing -- if she did nothing wrong, why does she have something to hide?

KOSKINEN: I have no idea why she took the Fifth. She and her lawyer decided to do that. Our responsibility is to find evidence, produce it and share it with the six investigations going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: This is not the first time government documents have gone missing. Now, again, there's a big question as to whether they really did go missing or not, the whole, as you said, suspicious nature of it. But why does it keep happening?

Tom Foreman investigates.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If every federal worker in the executive branch alone sent and received as many e-mails as an average business user, that would be more than 326 million a day or 3,777 every second. That's a lot to keep track of and now, not only the IRS but also the EPA is saying --

GINA MCCARTHY, EPA ADMINISTRATOR: We may have some e-mails that we cannot produce that we should have kept.

FOREMAN: The IRS boss says part of the problem is budget cuts, that have made it hard to maintain the government's vast network of computers, even though he admits this doesn't look good.

KOSKINEN: It is suspicious. When we uncovered it, we pursued evidence to try to figure out what happened. We found a train of e- mails that the Congress has had for some time that noted that they worked extraordinarily hard to try to recover those e-mails.

FOREMAN: Still, listen to what the U.S. archivist says about losing those and not reporting it.

DAVID FERRIERO, U.S. ARCHIVIST: They did not follow the law.

FOREMAN: This is a longstanding problem.

Back in 2008, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington noted that many agencies still print out documents, and then physically store the paper. And millions of important records have been lost. In the controversial firings of those U.S. attorneys under President George W. Bush, some memos regarding the interrogation of terror suspects and in the Bernie Madoff investigation, exchanges between government officials that are pure gold to watchdog groups.

ANNE WEISMANN, CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS IN WASHINGTON: It's unguarded moments where they say what really happened, what they're really thinking.

FOREMAN: That's why you want these e-mails kept?

WEISMANN: Absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this would be laughable if it wasn't so serious.

FOREMAN: And sometimes, it's laughable anyway.

Listen to a former IRS attorney when asked if she even recalled who worked on the computers that held those all-important records.

JENNIFER O'CONNOR, FORMER IRS ATTORNEY: I think his first name may have been Ben.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So a guy named Ben. A dude named Ben.

FOREMAN: Undeniably, many government agencies try to manage the avalanche of information. But often, it sounds like the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," even if they keep all those e-mails, where are the important ones? Maybe Ben knows.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: So the problem here, Erin, is that the explanation to critics also sounds a lot like an excuse. Investigators come around and say, where are these e-mails? We need to know something.

And they're met by all sorts of agencies being able to say there are so many we don't know, we've lost it, we can't find it. It becomes very, very frustrating.

Is it legitimate that maybe they can't find it? Could be. Could it be a way of hiding things? Yes, it could be that, too -- especially when you consider, Erin, that if you do the math, if all federal employees were at work right now from the time this report started until now, they could have generated about a half million more e- mails.

BURNETT: That right there might be the statistic for smaller government.

FOREMAN: Yes.

BURNETT: That's an incredible statistic.

All right. Thank you.

Well, we have breaking news just in. North Korea's state news agency reporting the country has successfully launched three, quote, "cutting edge guided tactical missiles". This is their words, in terms of cutting edge.

This report is dated June 27th. It does not say when the firing took place. We can't independently confirm the firing but Gordon Chang is the author of "Nuclear Showdown", on North Korea taking on the World," joins us on the phone.

Gordon, they're saying this is cutting edge, they're saying they've conducted all these tests. What do you think?

GORDON CHANG, AUTHOR, "NUCLEAR SHOWDOWN" (via telephone): I think they certainly have. Because we know that they've been conducting tests on precision missiles.

So, if they didn't do it yesterday. They've done it three or four days before. The important point here is that we have been moving our military assets away from the demilitarized zone, even away from Seoul to get them out of the range of North Korea's rockets, but this report from the Korean Central News Agency said that Kim Jong-Un, the ruler of the country, has been guiding the development of these tactical rockets. And these put our military assets back in range of North Korea's military.

BURNETT: All right. Back in the range of their military. Obviously, as we're waiting to get more information on exactly what might have happened there, that big development tonight.

Thank you, Gordon. And stunning developments in the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. It's been four months. It's been a while since we could truly say there have been a big development and breakthrough. But tonight, there is. Officials finally releasing key information about what happened the night the 777 vanished.

It's this report. They say the jet was likely on auto-pilot for at least five hours while the crew may have been unconscious possibly from a lack of oxygen. They also suggest the plane eventually ran out of fuel before spiraling into the ocean.

These new details lead authorities to a massive new search area that they're identifying. It is further south and it is much bigger than the previous search zone, 23,000 square miles, which is roughly the size of the state of West Virginia.

OUTFRONT tonight, our own Richard Quest, and our aviation analyst Arthur Rosenberg and Miles O'Brien.

You've been describing this as a treasure trove. This has been kind of dribs and drabs of information we would get, then it would be taken back and rescinded. This is -- this is real.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: This is the first full, authoritative account of what might have happened both in the search operation, how they got to the places, where they're looking next and the assumptions made to back it up.

BURNETT: And this is from the Australians?

QUEST: It's from the ATSB, which is one of the most respected organizations in aircraft investigation.

BURNETT: And they now, Miles, as a result of this decision believe it could be on autopilot, completely changing the search area yet again. What do you make of that?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, I think that's probably the wise thing to do at this point. You know, in retrospect, we now know that those pings were a red herring and the assumptions that they're making are the best guess assumptions.

But bear in mind, we still don't know what happened on that aircraft. This is a narrative, this is a statement with great detail probably about three months too late for my tastes, but better late than never, which explains how they're coming up with that definition of a search area. And what it does is it backs up what they're doing if great detail and makes good sense. So, I think what they're doing is the right thing right now.

BURNETT: All right. Arthur, what does this mean, though, in terms of let's get straight here to who did it, if that's the right word, whether it was mechanical or whether it was a person. They always said this plane deliberately turned off track. That's what they said, the Malaysians, and no one has ever changed that, at least to my knowledge, right? No one has changed this deliberately. OK. They're not saying the crew might have been unconscious from a lack of oxygen. Does this make you think that this could have been not malicious?

ARTHUR ROSENBERG, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: So, let's do it this way. I'm on the record as saying from the get go that I thought this scenario was a deliberate and intentional act.

BURNETT: Yes.

ROSENBERG: But this report, which is a spectacular compilation and chronology from an engineering and analytical and search standpoint of the events to date is not intended to answer the question of who done it. It's intended to answer the question of where is the airplane. And that is it. Now --

BURNETT: But if it turns out that it was on autopilot and they had died because they couldn't breathe --

ROSENBERG: Right. But they're not saying that the crew was out. They're saying whoever was in there was unresponsive. Now, unresponsive can mean a lot of things. I can be a passenger looking out the window of the pilot and being unresponsive to the control movements of the airplane. They're using as an example a hypoxic situation.

BURNETT: So they're not saying this was the case, they're saying this may have been the case.

ROSENBERG: Exactly.

BURNETT: What do you think, Richard, fodder to those who say mechanical?

QUEST: Here's the plane flying.

BURNETT: OK.

QUEST: The plane is flying on auto pilot. The plane runs out of petrol, out of fuel. What happens to the plane?

This report gives the scenarios so that you can then work out where it would go. Would it go like that, would it go like that? That's what this report is all about. It's furthering it out.

BURNETT: OK. So, let me ask you miles about this issue, because I know this is an engineering, you all a smart point of view on this. But all the conversations we've had for months where in that scenario where the plane just ran out of fuel, it would start to spiral backwards and hit the ocean in a way that it would break apart.

At least that's what people have said that. Now, Arthur is shaking his head. But people have said that. That would meant that there would have been evidence, pieces of the plane that somehow nobody saw.

O'BRIEN: Well, you know, this has been run in simulators, I've heard professional pilots talk about this and Martin Savidge ran this in a simulator. What happens is auto pilot tries to hold its altitude as best it can. And bear in mind, the autopilot doesn't necessarily know what's going on with the engines. And so, the nose gets higher and higher. Eventually, it runs out of authority.

And what happened in the simulator was it went into a stall spiral situation. If that did happen, you would presume that the plane would break up and there would be wreckage. So, is it possible that -- and I have seen some pilots talk about this, that it could have gotten into some sort of porpoise effect, and could it have glided in ever so gently in this scenario, that seems remote but I suppose it could have happened.

ROSENBERG: So, I would just add to that that both engines aren't going to flame out at the same time. When you're running out of fuel, there's a little bit more fuel on one side than the other.

BURNETT: That would lend itself to breaking apart.

ROSENBERG: No, but this is the way the system works. One engine flames out. It stops working, it ran out of fuel. The other engine is on.

The auto pilot is still working and it compensates and it keeps the plane more or less flying on a straight and level path. When that engine conks out, when it flames out, then the auto pilot disengages, and then you have a problem.

But, but there's something called a rear air turbine that drops down. You may still be able to get autopilot back.

QUEST: No, I'm going to cut quick here.

BURNETT: Yes.

QUEST: The quick is this, anybody who says this report gives evidence to one side or the other --

BURNETT: That's it one side is mechanical, one side is someone in the cockpit.

ROSENBERG: It's not someone to do that.

QUEST: No, but just in case anyone was thinking that.

ROSENBERG: We agree.

QUEST: We agree. But I can see (INAUDIBLE) you were trying to advance the argument.

ROSENBERG: I have more information that's not in the report.

BURNETT: But go ahead and make that case.

QUEST: It doesn't. He doesn't. BURNETT: Because I think a lot of people are watching this and saying

it might lead you towards mechanical because something might have happened, they're knocked out, auto pilot. That doesn't explain first term, Richard.

ROSENBERG: You cannot reach any conclusion of what caused this plane to do what it did from this report. This report is not a who done it or how they did it. It's where is the airplane.

BURNETT: And I understand that. But does it, Richard, when you read it, give you -- as you put -- how they're putting the dots together, lead you to understand what they're thinking on that front?

QUEST: Absolutely. No, not in terms of what happened. But in terms of where the plane is. They are looking in the right area. But it's a vast area to look in.

BURNETT: But miles, how do we believe them now they're looking in the right area when they were looking in the right area the first time and it's wrong. You know, they've been looking in the right area a lot of times.

O'BRIEN: Before, we weren't getting any facts to back it up. They weren't explaining their rationale as they have in great detail here.

BURNETT: Yes.

O'BRIEN: So, I feel what we're seeing is the kind of argument, case and data that all three of us have been calling for for literally months now. I should say that we've had three scenarios here, mechanical, hijacking or pilot suicide/murder. This report does not preclude any of those scenarios. All three of those scenarios are still in play.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much. That means all three of you will be back. But we do hope that we find this plane. Find it.

Still to come, Team America makes it through to the next round. We're going to go live to Brazil, next.

And jet fuel made from weeds -- just some of the innovations that we found in the city of tomorrow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: A big day for Team USA, OK? So, they lost but they won. They lost to Germany, 1-0, hard fought game and really foul, foul weather.

But here's the thing, Team USA still advances to the next round of World Cup because of however they do the math in soccer or football. Fred Pleitgen is in Recife, Brazil, where the match was played.

And, Fred, I know you had a chance to talk to players after the game. You know, what did they tell you? Were they thrilled to move on or mad that they didn't score? FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A little of both.

They weren't too happy about losing the game. They said hands down, it was difficult for them to pass the game.

The U.S. did try to take its chances. However, they didn't have many shots of goal and they also said they have to improve in the next game. (AUDIO GAP)

However, the main thing for them was that they are happy to be in the next round. And Omar Gonzalez, and both of them told me they believe for Team U.S., everything is now possible in this World Cup.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINT DEMPSEY, U.S. NATIONAL TEAM PLYER: Take each game one as they come. Win the knock out stages and everything and it doesn't matter what you done in the group stage, it matters what you do in the day.

OMAR GONZALEZ, U.S. NATIONAL TEAM PLAYER: We also said that we want to get to the next round and after that, anything can happen. And so, here we are now and we can get pretty far in this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: So, they certainly don't lack in confidence, however, they said that today was certainly not their best outing. Part of that has to deal with the conditions out there. It was raining the whole time during the game. The pitch was slippery. The ball was slippery. So, it was very, very difficult for Team USA today, Erin.

BURNETT: And, Fred, I have to say, you know, looking at you right now, you know, it looks pretty wet and miserable there and I mean, you can see the rain literally coming down in front of the cameras. I mean, what was it like watching? Look at it for the viewers of this rain coming down. What was it like to watch that game?

PLEITGEN: I mean, watching the game was one thing. Getting to the game was first of all, the most difficult thing, Erin. We left at about 7:30 a.m. We got about 200 yards away from the hotel and ended up in traffic for about an hour and a half.

Nothing was moving. The roads were getting flooded. At some point, our car was half way submerged and we were hoping that it wouldn't stall. We had to go through several different routes because all of them were close. We went through mountain villages and there was so much traffic, we saw a dead body on the side of the road because someone got ran over.

We did finally make it to the game. It was a difficult game to watch with showers coming down the whole time, certainly didn't make it very easy for players. I can tell you one thing, this day for the players and for all the fans who went to the stadium today was like being in the navy. It wasn't just a job. It was an adventure. And many here are happy to be safe back in their hotels, Erin.

BURNETT: Wow, I'm glad you told that story because I think that brings home to people how the extremes of this World Cup.

Fred, thank you very much.

Talking about a game and celebration and think about him going to that game and in process, car almost flooding and seeing a dead body.

Well, OUTFRONT, the world's greenest city is in the middle of the desert. We visited it. And the city of tomorrow is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Imagine a city with 100 percent renewable energy, producing close to zero carbon emissions. And then imagine the cities in the middle of an unforgiving desert, hot, humid without water. If it can be done there, it can be done anywhere?

Well, we went to Masdar City, a project under development just outside of Abu Dhabi, and the United Arab Emirates for tonight's city of tomorrow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT (voice-over): About 20 miles outside Abu Dhabi, Masdar City is driving to be the greenest city on Earth.

TONY MALLOWS, CITY DIRECTOR: I think the city of the future is going to be based on people walking to where they live, to where they work and to where they play.

BURNETT: And if you aren't walking, city director Tony Mallows says you can take a magnetically controlled car wherever you need to go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome to Masdar City.

BURNETT (on camera): This is a little car?

MALLOWS: Yes, this is a personal rapid transit. This is how you get around the city. It's electric and solar powered. It comes when you want it and takes you where you want to go and you leave it alone.

BURNETT: So it's driverless?

MALLOWS: Yes.

BURNETT (voice-over): Navigating the city's 2.4 square miles is relatively easy.

(on camera): This is a dream of what the future could be. But is it really going to happen? I mean, is it going to be anything more than a demo?

MALLOWS: It's a model for urban development. That it's really sustainable, but it's not only environmentally sustainable, socially and economically.

BURNETT (voice-over): Fewer than 500 people live here, that's far short of the original goal of 40,000 next year, a goal set at the pick of the economic boom. Right now, about 1200 people work here every day, in buildings that are specially designed to help reduce water and energy consumption by as much as 40 percent, according to city officials.

(on camera): You've learned over time with some of the successes and failures you had, right, that zero emissions is a goal but that's not reasonable at this point, it's extremely low but there is some.

MALLOWS: It's low emotions but zero emissions is being proved to be very, very difficult.

BURNETT (voice-over): With more than 87,000 solar panels, the city produces its owner electricity, offsetting 15,000 tons of carbon emissions a year. City engineers say that's the equivalent of taking about 3,300 cars off the road in Abu Dhabi and walking around the city, invasion can be seen everywhere.

(on camera): So you're looking at a wind tower, which is a traditional Arabic design to cool, right?

MALLOWS: Yes, absolutely. So, you take a traditional Arabic element on cooling, totally passive energy, totally sustainable, and then you use modern technology to make it efficient.

BURNETT (voice-over): The Masdar Institute has also partnered with MIT, to develop new renewable energy sources, like making jet fuel from the seed of a weed that grows here, in the desert.

(on camera): This is obviously happening here in the middle the desert. Your ambition and what you're trying to prove is much bigger?

MALLOWS: Absolutely. Globalization is the key issue for the future, not only because cities will attack global warming, we have to understand how to build cities that are low carbon and that's why Masdar City is such an important contribution to globalization and organization.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: So that last place where we were standing was actually the only room that was, I would say, truly cool. The other rooms were, I mean, it was very hot outside. It had to have been 120 degrees, maybe more in the sun, but that room is very cool. And one of the things about it, there is no vents for the air conditioning. It actually was radiating off the wall. So, when you touched the wall, it was cool and that was the most interesting thing that we experienced in that city.

Anyway, we'll put that online so you can take a watch and have a great night.

Anderson starts now.