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New Day Saturday

Sources: Boehner Faces Threat Of A Coup; Boris Nemtsov Shot Dead Near Kremlin; Iraq: ISIS Destroying Our History; U.S. Blogger Hacked To Death In Bangladesh; Growing Backlash Over Netanyahu Visit; New Revelations By Ex-Police Chief

Aired February 28, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, Congress beats the DHS deadline approving funding for Homeland Security for, really, just a few more days, but the drama is far over as the battle on the Hill enters a new phase.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: One of Vladimir Putin's most outspoken critics gunned down at a Moscow street. Why some say he was specifically targeted?

PAUL: And ISIS destroys thousands of years of history in Iraq. This morning, we have some harsh examples from the country's prime minister about that attack and what they plan to do.

BLACKWELL: Good morning. Good to be with you. I'm Victor Blackwell.

PAUL: And I am Christi Paul. It's so good to have you with us.

BLACKWELL: Breaking overnight, President Obama signs an extension to keep the Department of Homeland Security open for the next seven days. It happened just minutes before the midnight deadline and that means hundreds of thousands of TSA workers and border agents and federal employees will continue to get paid at least for now.

PAUL: It was a chaotic night and late this showdown on Capitol Hill. As we've said it's not over, all of this could have serious consequences for House Speaker John Boehner.

BLACKWELL: Yes, two senior House Republican sources tell CNN if Boehner caves and allows for a clean long term funding bill, conservatives may stage a coup.

PAUL: So how is this all going to play out on Capitol Hill next week? I want to talk to CNN's Erin McPike about that. Live for us this morning from Washington. OK, so Erin, what is next first of all?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christie, look, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest pointed out yesterday that Friday was the self-imposed deadline for Republicans on this issue. They still haven't been able to figure out how to maximize their political advantage so now they have one week left to try.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- vote, the yeas are 357 and the nays are 60, two-thirds being in the affirmative.

MCPIKE (voice-over): With the sound of the gavel, Congress compromised and passed a one-week extension to fund the Department of Homeland Security just hours before a Friday night deadline. Now, TSA screeners, border agents and federal workers can get paid and keep working.

But chaos came before the compromise, for most of Friday, lawmakers seemed poised to avoid a nail-biter showdown, but when it came down to a vote to fund the department for three weeks, a shocking twist in the House to an already dramatic day on the Hill.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The joint resolution is not passed.

MCPIKE: Nearly every Democrat and a few dozen Republicans voted against it. It all came down to playing politics. Republicans wanted a provision blocking the president's executive order on immigration, which the bill didn't have.

And Democrats didn't vote for it because they wanted to force Republicans to fund the department for the full year rather than just three weeks. As hope started to fade by the hour, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told the Democrats to vote on a patch that would found the department for a week.

REPRESENTATIVE NANCY PELOSI (D), MINORITY LEADER: We certainly want to protect the American people every minute of every day, 24/7.

MCPIKE: The House apparently took note and passed the temporary fix. Congress is expected to continue the debate next week.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCPIKE: But the Senate has already passed a bill that would fund DHS for the entire year without the stipulation that it would roll back the president's action on immigration. Now whether that Senate bill as it I can make it to the House floor is entirely at the will of House Speaker John Boehner -- Christi and Victor.

PAUL: All righty, yes, Erin McPike, thank you so much. John Boehner is the name on a lot of people's mind.

BLACKWELL: Yes, and the question is, can he survive this funding fight. Let's get the answer from a senior reporter for cnnpolitics.com, Stephen Collinson, and he is live for us this morning in Washington.

You know, there were some conservatives who voted against him to continue as a speaker this time around, but they couldn't organize around a singular alternative. Are they more organized this time around? Can he survive this fight?

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN SENIOR REPORTER, CNNPOLITICS.COM: You know, that's a good question. We have seen this repeatedly over the last 16 months or so. You remember there was a government shutdown back then, which was again caused by the fact that Speaker Boehner has found it impossible to sort of coral the more conservative activist members of his caucus in the House.

So once again, John Boehner is on a precipice. He has a week to figure out how to get out of this. You know, right now, it seems like he is in a very difficult position, but he sort of managed to deliver himself from the jaws of defeat before.

And one of the reasons for that is it doesn't seem like there is any particular alternative Republican leader that could be any more successful in getting these conservative congressman in line.

BLACKWELL: You know, if he gets through this when OMB says that the Congress will have to vote for an increase in the debt limit come mid to late summer so he may have to face this again. What does this mean moving forward for his speakership for this term?

COLLINSON: Well, it's going to be very difficult. It looks like we're going to have another series of rolling political crisis in Washington. This is going frustrate not just Speaker Boehner, but the Republican leadership on the Senate side, which wants to demonstrate that having won the Midterm elections last year and got a majority on both sides of Congress, that they were able to govern effectively.

And this is going to be something that's going to be very important running into the president campaign in 2016 and the Senate campaign in which the Republicans have to defend some very sort of difficult sits on Democratic territory in a presidential race.

So this is going to be very frustrating for the Republican leadership. It gives some ammunition the Democrats you can turn around and say, look, the Republicans have been given the trust of the American people and they've squandered it and they just can't govern.

BLACKWELL: Stephen, there's a Republican congressman, who is close to leadership, says this about Boehner. "It's a hell of a position to be in. I just can't imagine the frustration the speaker must have now."

I wonder if there are alternatives, but the people, the conservatives, who are voting against Boehner, they can't circle or consolidate around one. Are these possible alternatives that are angling for this? I mean, what are the big names that are in the running here?

COLLINSON: Well, there are some big names that has been sort of (inaudible), but most people that have tried to challenge John Boehner have been more sort of stalking horse candidates who are not -- don't have the sort of wide support to challenge the speaker effectively.

I've been out at the Conservative Political Action Conference this week just outside Washington, and people there are actually very frustrated that the Republicans have been unable to use the majorities to effectively fought President Obama's attempts, you know, reshape the immigration system by executive order. They say they sent this Congress to Washington to change things and you know, they don't mind that it's, you know, on a politically difficult issue like financing the Department of Homeland Security at a time of rising terror attacks, they want somebody to act.

That's why it's going to be so difficult for John Boehner to, you know, forestall this challenge, but right now, and you're seeing this in the presidential race too.

The conservative movement doesn't really have an effective leader, who can get people behind them and effectively challenge the hierarchy of the Republican leadership.

BLACKWELL: All right, we have seven days to see what happens at the next turns. Stephen Collinson, thank you so much.

All right, now, to the manhunt for the killers of Russian opposition leader and a vocal Kremlin critic, Boris Nemtsov. Russian investigators say whoever gunned down this 55-year-old knew what route he was taking, when someone from that car got out and started shooting.

PAUL: They say the shooting was, quote, "Carefully planned." Now this happened last night on a bridge in the shadow of the Kremlin just a hundred yards from the Vladimir Putin's office potentially.

CNN senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen, is in Moscow for us. And Fred, I know that you're standing basically at the murder screen and it looks like a lot of people have joined you there. What are they saying? What's the mood?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's an awful mood here. You can see that the people who are here, many of them are absolutely devastated. There are literally thousands as you can see by the crowds here, who are coming here to the place where all this happened at around 11:40 p.m. local time last night.

And many of the people, who are coming here are bringing flowers to -- a mound of flowers that's been ever growing since last night. I was actually here shorty after this happened and we came back throughout the course of the day today and it's unbelievable how many people are coming here.

Many of them with tears in their eyes, just absolutely shocked by what happened and one of the things, Christi, that we also have to keep in mind in all of this is that this is a very high security area in Moscow.

We're less than 100 yards away from the walls of the Kremlin. There are security cameras everywhere. We also know that the investigators have been looking at a lot of the footage from security cameras.

They've been speaking to witnesses as they and try find out what exactly happened here. We do know this happened at 11:40 p.m. last night. As you said there was a vehicle that shortly stopped and then from that vehicle opened fire on Boris Nemtsov. It must have been accurate fire because he was walking with a second person and walking with a woman that he was here with and all of the shots hit him. None of the shots hit her so this was something that was done very accurately as the Russian investigators have been saying -- Christie.

PAUL: Yes, and it's interesting because last year, Nemtsov we spoke with Anthony Bourdain of CNN for "Parts Unknown." Let's listen to a part of that here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANTHONY BOURDAIN, HOST, CNN'S "PARTS UNKNOWN": Critics of the government and critics of Putin, bad things seemed to happen to them.

BORIS NEMTSOV: Yes, unfortunately, existing power represent what I say Russia of 19th Century not of 21st.

BOURDAIN (voice-over): Critics of Putin beware. Oligarch Mitchell Korokovski (ph) accused Putin of corruption and wind up spending 10 years in prison and labor camps. Alexander Lidvenenko accused state security services of organizing a coup to put Putin in power. He was poisoned by a lethal dose of radioactive polonium.

Then Victor Yoshenko, the former Ukrainian president poisoned, disfigured, and nearly killed by a toxic dose of Dioxin. I am not saying official Russian bodies had anything to do with it, but it's mighty suspicious.

(on camera): I don't think you need to be a conspiracy theorist to say whoever did this very much wanted to everyone to know who done it. Everybody understands?

NEMTSOV: Yes, of course.

BOURDAIN: And everybody is meant to understand.

NEMTSOV: Everybody understands everything in this country.

BOURDAIN: Right.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: OK, and just two weeks ago, Nemtsov spoke to a Russian news web site and he said, I am afraid Putin will kill me. I believe that he was the one who unleashed the war in Ukraine. I could not dislike him more." Do people there, Fred, in Moscow believe the same that they think that the Kremlin targeted Nemtsov?

PLEITGEN: Well, there are certainly some people who do say that. There are some people that we've been speaking to who say that they believe that this is a clear message to the opposition is that you live dangerous if you are in opposition to Vladimir Putin.

There are other people who say that perhaps Mr. Nemtsov was on the verge of disclosing something about Russia's involvement in Ukraine and that would put him on a hit list. One of the things that we have to point out the approval rating is for 86 percent so he would in no way shape or form been a threat to Mr. Putin.

The other thing that we have to keep in mind is that Boris Nemtsov had a lot of admirers here in Russia, but he also certainly had a lot of enemies especially with his stance on Ukraine, which is one that many Russians take very personal that they see as a source of national pride as an endeavor of national pride.

So therefore at this point in time it's simply very difficult to say who might be behind all of this. Certainly there are many people who are saying they demand that this investigation bring something forward very quickly -- Christi.

PAUL: Yes, because they know there are people questioning the credence of that investigation. Fred Pleitgen, we appreciate it. Thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Still ahead, new pictures this morning of the ISIS terrorist zone as "Jihadi John." You see his face there. What we're learning about his childhood growing up in London.

PAUL: Also ISIS militants destroying artifacts of thousand years old, what the Iraqi government is now doing about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: We have new details this morning about the killer known as "Jihadi John." It's now known that Mohammed Emwazi, that's his real name, had a normal childhood in London. You see him here just a cute kid in his class in a school uniform there in London.

PAUL: Yes, and friends and neighbors say, Emwazi, you know, he was a typical boy next door, popular kid, loves football, pop music, The Simpsons. Now terrorism experts are trying to figure out how he went from that to the infamous killer seen in ISIS beheading videos.

BLACKWELL: Also new this morning, Iraq's prime minister had strong words for ISIS. He called the terror group barbarians, destroying the country's cultural heritage after they released shocking video of militants smashing dozens of ancient statues to dust with sledge hammers.

ISIS says the video was shot in a museum in Mosul and the militant explains in the video that God ordered them to destroy the artifacts. Let's go to CNN senior international correspondent, Ben Wedeman, in Erbil, Iraq.

Ben, some of the things they are destroying are not just in the museum they are central to the heritage of that region.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Indeed what you see in this five-minute is these men smashing statues that had come from the ancient city of Hatra, which is south of Mosul. That was a sort of a Greek inspired city there. Also it's the iconic winged-bulls of Nineveh that you see men defacing with an electric drill. These are images that winged bull of Nineveh has appeared on the Iraqi currency. They're symbolic of the country's ancient history.

Now, this morning, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, the Iraqi prime minister gave a live press conference at the museum in Baghdad, which is just re-opened. That itself is a treasure throve of Iraqi artifacts.

Now he did mention that he is reiterating the UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization's call for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to discuss how these artifacts, these antiquities, and archeological sites can be protected.

Because keep in mind that there are about 12,000 registered archaeological sites in Iraq, more than 1,700 are in the hands of ISIS -- Victor.

BLACKWELL: So much still possibly that could be lost. Ben Wedeman is in Erbil for us. Ben, thank you so much.

PAUL: Still to come, a small Missouri town gets a shock to its core after a shooter guns down seven people in a house to house rampage. What we have learned this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: It's 22 minutes after the hour now. Here is a look at other stories developing.

PAUL: Investigators in Missouri searching for the motive behind a house to house killing spree that left seven people shot to death across six different crime scenes, four of those people were from the same family.

Officials say the gunman, Joseph Aldridge, then killed himself after the rampage. They also found his mother dead, but that was apparently of natural causes so they're looking into her death to see if somehow that triggered this massacre. We have a live report coming up for you in just a bit.

BLACKWELL: It was an emotional day for President Obama as he said goodbye to outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder. The president was among those who attended a portrait unveiling ceremony for the attorney general at the Department of Justice yesterday. A legendary sole singer, Aretha Franklin, also attended and she

delivered a surprise performance of "America the Beautiful." She called holder both a champion and a warrior.

PAUL: Another farewell of a very sort, though, Kelly Osbourne is leaving her job as cohost on E! Television's "Fashion Police." The network says she is pursuing other opportunities.

But of course, this comes just days after her fellow co-host Juliana Ransic apologized for joking about actor/singer (inaudible) at the Oscar and Kelly was apparently not too please about that.

BLACKWELL: President Obama says long before nerdy was cool, there was Leonard Nimoy. We pay tribute to the beloved actor who died yesterday at the age of 83. Nimoy may be best remembered, of course, for playing Spock in the original "Star Trek" TV show and numerous films, and of course, all of the conventions he attended over the year.

PAUL: Still ahead, more westerners heading overseas and trying to join ISIS and new threats revealed here at home as well.

BLACKWELL: We'll take a closer look at what is being done to battle the spread of home grown terror. Also an American blogger who spoke out against extremist is hacked to death while waiting with his wife on the street, more on this story just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: This morning officials in Bangladesh are trying to figure out who carried out a brutal attack against a Bangladeshi-American blogger.

PAUL: Avijit Roy that lived here in the Atlanta area was hacked to death on the streets of the capital city, Dhaka, and his wife was seriously injured. Now the blogger had reportedly been the target of threats from Islamists for his views of religion and Islamic extremism.

I want to bring in CNN's senior international correspondent, Ivan Watson. This is so brutal, Ivan. What do we know this morning?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. The Bangladeshi police are still looking for suspects. They say they have not made any arrests yet.

We spoke with the doctor who carried out the autopsy and it gives you a sense of how savaged this attack was. That Avijit Roy, he had deep machete wounds to the back of his head, to his neck and to his back.

So the eyewitnesses say that attackers -- they attacked him and his wife as they were walking from a book fair where the writer had given a speech. Now, he was an outspoken atheist of all stripes, but he is a Bangladeshi origin even though he lived outside of Atlanta in Alpharetta.

What is very eerie and ominous is that in an essay, it was due to be publish in about month in the magazine, "Free Inquiry." Avijit Roy warned about threats against him.

I'm going to read an excerpt from this and he said that he was inundated with death threats after he published a book called "The Virus of Faith."

In the essay, he writes, quote, "Religious extremism is like a highly contagious virus. Death threats started flowing to my e-mail inbox on a regular basis. I suddenly found myself a target of militant Islamists and terrorists." He went to quote one of these threatening messages that he got. He said that "One man in Bangladesh wrote on Facebook, we can't reach Avijit Roy in America, but when he comes back to Bangladesh is when we will get him."

And reportedly Avijit Roy and his wife were scheduled to fly back to America in just a couple of days, but these attackers got to him first -- Christie.

PAUL: My goodness, Ivan Watson, I really appreciate the new information. Thank you.

Also, you know, it is a race against time for Canadian authorities as they try to hunt down at least four missing teenagers that are feared to be in or in route to the Middle East to join ISIS.

Officials believe they flew from Montreal to Turkey in mid-January, but it's not clear where they are now. The case marks the latest, though, in a sting of disturbing defections by westerners who seemed to be lured by the Islamist group.

BLACKWELL: Meanwhile, here in the U.S., federal authorities are also battling the spread of home grown terror. Three men are behind bars this morning following an alleged failed attempt to join ISIS in Syria, now two of the suspects in Brooklyn were attempting to fly to Turkey earlier this week.

This trio had ambitious plans and among them shooting and killing cops and they've been reportedly discussed assassinating President Obama.

Let's bring back CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director, Tom Fuentes. Tom, from Canada to here at home, what is spurring this home grown terror growth?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, Victor, we have seen this all over the world. I mean, you have how many dozen countries, dozens of countries all over the world, Asia, North America, South America, Europe, and Australia that have people that have become radicalized on the web sites or in person and have gone to join ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

So it's not a new phenomenon. It's just a continuation of seeing this over and over again. We had three girls from Denver that got as far as Frankfurt, Germany before being stopped and brought back to the U.S.

The FBI stopped another woman from Denver and tried to talk her out of going and got her parents to try to talk her out of going and she insisted. They arrested her on the jet way to get on the plane.

That's almost exactly what happened with the three in New York that were going to try to join ISIS and mention this. The FBI became aware of a posting on a Uzbek-backed language ISIS site, hilofat.com, the posting -- the very first posting said the individual wanted to join ISIS and possibly would it be OK to kill Obama and go forward with that? The FBI got the record of where the address was for the internet -- from the internet service provider and went there and talked to the first defendant, who is Uzbek speaking and he says yes, I posted that and that's what I want to do. If I cannot go over there, I am going kill somebody here.

A couple of days later the FBI comes back with an Uzbek speaker and this person actually writes out in Uzbek that's what I want to do. I want to be a terrorist. I want to go join.

They use electronic surveillance and he also identifies his partner, and then the third subject in Florida. So this is one of these cases where the FBI again is almost trying to talk somebody out of this. We're on to you. We know you want to do this. Don't do it. They want to do it any way.

BLACKWELL: Yes, Attorney General Eric Holder had some really strong words when talking about the growing threat of terror abroad and here at home. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL: We have shown that it doesn't matter how long it takes. It does not matter where you are. We will find you. We'll hunt you down and we will hold you accountable.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So in a world like Syria, can you really do that?

HOLDER: Whether it's through the use of our military and law enforcement capacity. If you harm Americans, it is the sworn duty of every person in the executive branch to find you and hold you accountable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Quickly, Tom, can federal authorities keep track of all of them?

FUENTES: No. They just can't. There are many, many, and they don't know of everyone. Many of these people you do not know until they post something, until they tell a friend, neighbor, or a family member, that they intend to join ISIS. You can't read their minds. They have to do something overt to give you an indication that that's what they are thinking about doing.

BLACKWELL: All right, we will talk more next hour. Tom Fuentes, thank you so much.

FUENTES: Thank you, Victor.

PAUL: You know coming up, there is a growing backlash ahead of the Israeli prime minister's address to Congress. The question is will the Obama administration be able to mend this relationship prior to his visit? We have some new details for you on that coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: It's 38 minutes past the hour. We are so glad to have you. You know, tension mounts ahead of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.

Netanyahu is expected to talk about Iran's heavily-discussed nuclear program. CNN's Elise Labott is going to be traveling with the prime minister and she has the latest for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The bickering between the White House and Benjamin Netanyahu over his planned speech to Congress hit a new low this week. The U.S.-Israeli relations deteriorating to the worst scene in decades.

SUSAN RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: There has now been injected a degree of partisanship, which is not only unfortunate. I think it's destructive of the fabric of the relationship.

LABOTT: The Israeli leader's decision to accept House Speaker John Boehner's invitation behind the White House's back further strained a frosty relationship with President Obama.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The prime minister and I have a very real difference around Iran. It does not make sense to sour the negotiations a month or two before they're about to be completed.

LABOTT: With the suggestion that Netanyahu was playing election politics, the administration refused to meet with him two weeks before Israelis go to the polls. Netanyahu has doubled down saying he too had a very, quote, "profound disagreement with the White House over Iran" and while he wasn't picking a fight with the president.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I intend to talk about this issue before the March 24th deadline and I intend to speak in the U.S. Congress because Congress may have an important role on a nuclear deal with Iran.

LABOTT: The speech became fodder for partisan bickering about two dozen congressional Democrats plan to skip the speech and are urging the speaker to delay the address which they warned was, quote, "undermining the president's diplomacy."

REPRESENTATIVE NANCY PELOSI (D), MINORITY LEADER: It's out of order in terms of the protocol and the respect.

LABOTT: Undeterred the speaker is taking on the White House head on.

NETANYAHU: What is destructive in my view is making a bad deal that paves the way for a nuclear Iran.

LABOTT: As the visit draws closer, the jabs are getting sharper and more personal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you even had this discussion?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He may have a judgment that just may be not correct here.

LABOTT: Leaving little hope for a thaw in this tense relationship any time soon.

NETANYAHU: I respect the White House and the president of the United States, but I must do anything to prevent such a great danger for Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LABOTT: This is just the latest war words in the long simmering feud between the White House and Netanyahu. Last October, an unnamed senior administration official was quoted using an expletive to describe the prime minister, calling him a coward for his refusal to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians. Elise Labott, CNN, Jerusalem.

BLACKWELL: President Obama is sending National Security Adviser Susan Rice and U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power to address a prominent pro- Israel gathering next week.

Now by some, this is seen as a move to mend fences after Rice's comments concerning the prime minister's visit. She called it destructive to the fabric of the relationship with the U.S. as you heard there in Elise' piece.

Let's bring in Steven Simon. He is the executive director for the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Steven, good to have you.

First off, is this move to send Rice to APEC, this pro-Israel gathering a way to mend fences? Is that the way that everybody is seeing this or different perspectives?

STEVEN SIMON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES: Well, administration officials typically attend the APEC conference so it's not surprising that Susan Rice or Samantha Power would be attending. I mean, in the past the U.S. president has also addressed on occasion the APEC conference.

And President Obama has done that himself. So you know, whether this is deliberate signal to mend fences or just business as usual is a little hard to determine.

BLACKWELL: Yes, it's been the president or vice president or the secretary of the state for each of the past years of the Obama administration. How can the Obama administration resolve this conflict or is it theirs to resolve?

SIMON: I don't think it's really subject to resolution at least in this administration and possibly afterward and this for two reasons. First because the U.S.'s real relationship is no longer the bipartisan issue that had been for decades, really, for half a century. It's now become partisan football that began in 2012 when the Republican candidate for president, Mitt Romney, accused the Obama administration of throwing Israel under the bus.

This was -- some thought an astonishing claim at that time because the Obama administration, by most measures, has been the most generous of all U.S. administrations here to for in terms of military assistance to Israel.

But the Republicans thought that this would be a good bludgeon to use against the president in what was expected to be a very close race. The question at that time was whether the politicization of the U.S.- Israel relationship would become a permanent feature of U.S.-Israeli diplomacy or it would fade after 2012.

And I think we now see that this is really becoming a built-in feature of the relationship.

BLACKWELL: Yes, a very challenging relationship with these two men we have seen on several occasions very difficult just personally in one another space. We will see what happens when Susan Rice and Samantha Powers speak to APEC in the next few days. Steven Simon, thank you so much.

SIMON: Thank you.

PAUL: Still to come, the police chief who led the investigation into JonBenet Ramsey's 1996 murder posted some shocking insights into this still unsolved case online. You're going to hear the new revelations and what does it mean for any kind of investigation?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: We're learning shocking new details about the 1996 murder mystery of 6-year-old beauty queen, JonBenet Ramsey.

PAUL: The former police chief during that case posted some shocking revelations about the little girl's murder. He did this on the internet. CNN's Ana Cabrera has the latest for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Who killed JonBenet Ramsey?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a killer on the loose.

CABRERA: The 6-year-old beauty queen was found dead in the basement of her family's Boulder home the day after Christmas in 1996,

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I tell my friends to keep your baby's close to you. There's someone out there.

CABRERA: While the killer has never been caught, new details about the case just revealed by a lead investigator, former Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner. In a recent "ask me anything" session with Reddit, which has now been deleted, Beckner shared new information about how JonBenet died.

Saying she was hit in the head, knocked unconscious, 45 minutes to two hours prior to being strangled. He also says JonBenet most likely was not sexually assaulted at the time of her killing despite a 1999 grand jury report that indicated there was reason to believe otherwise. Beckner suggests instead that was all staged.

CHIEF MARK BECKNER, BOULDER POLICE: My last count we had investigated over 140 people as possible suspects in this case.

CABRERA: In 2009, Beckner spoke regretfully that not one suspect had been identified, the mystery unsolved. Now, Beckner admits mistakes were made by police in the initial days after the crime.

In retrospect, he says JonBenet's parents should have been separated and their statements taken immediately, he called it a perfect storm type scenario.

It was the Christmas holiday and we were short staffed he writes, and there was confusion at the scene as people were arriving before we had enough personnel on the scene. As a result, some evidence was compromised. The redeeming value of Beckner's candid confession of sorts --

MEL ROBBINS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: All of these details converge and it will create renewed interest, renewed scrutiny and might trigger somebody to remember something.

CABRERA: Ana Cabrera, CNN, Denver.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Let's bring in HLN legal analyst, Joey Jackson, into play here. So, you know, we heard Mel say, sure, it might spark somebody's memory. Does it change anything in the investigation, which I believe is closed, isn't it?

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning, Christi. You know, I think it certainly could bring renewed interest. Remember, the media is a very powerful entity, the fourth estate they call it, right, because now the media focusing on, it could bring renewed attention.

Now there are two problems whenever you look at what we call a cold case. Remember this is 19 years old, Christi, and the one problem of course is that memories certainly fade. The other problem is that evidence could deteriorate.

But that notwithstanding, certainly you have a case file, certainly you have a team of investigators and detectives that cold still look into this case. Remember, the break that they got in this case a number of years ago, there was a false confession.

And of course, we heard that Mark Beckner say the only thing that would solve this case is a confession. Reminding you, briefly, you remember John Mark Carr, who confessed saying I'm the person who did it, come to find he was outside of the country at that particular time, wasn't even there.

But I think it's a good development that we have this because it brings renewed focus, which brings scrutiny which could bring resolution but that's a hope at this point.

PAUL: Joey, what if somebody has been hanging on to information and you know, they have got something they never revealed. Does something like this prompt them to -- is there a consciousness issue that people years later come forward and say my gosh, I can't hold onto this any longer? Does that happen?

JACKSON: You know, it certainly does happen and it happens in cases that are not really publicized in the media where people certainly they get a revelation and they have to come clean.

But you know, in instances like a murder case, remember, this is huge, coming clean in an instance like this would mean life in jail. So you don't -- I don't particularly suspect that someone would feel a revelation and say, I'm going to confess to this.

But I would suspect as a result of the renewed interest perhaps, Christie, we can get the team of investigators who have worked the case to continue to do so, maybe they get a break.

And we know after many, many years, murder, there is no statute of limitations. Renewed focus, renewed hope, renewed commitment perhaps can bring a renewed result. That would be of resolution to just who killed JonBenet Ramsey.

PAUL: Yes, even if it wasn't the killer itself, him or herself, but somebody who remembers something or held onto information. So Joey, when you look at this case, and all of the cases you know cases so well, when you look at it, is this just going to be one of those do you think forever who done it?

JACKSON: You know, I do have my concerns about that, Christi, because it has been so long. And you know, there were just so many initially problems and you heard them there, apparently, the parents not separated, again they have been cleared, the parents of JonBenet Ramsey, 2008, the district attorney said we're even sorry for looking at you.

You look at the fact that they were not interviewed until months later because of lawyers, if you look at the fact that there was no preservation of the crime scene, too many cooks spoil the broth, you have to really secure that area, it presents problems, and I think serious challenges moving forward in resolving the case.

PAUL: Yes, it's so sad. Joey Jackson, always love your voice on these things. Thank you.

JACKSON: Have a great day, Christi. Thank you.

PAUL: You too. And stay close, we'll be right back.

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