>> hello, you're watching aljazeer. it is just after 10:00 p.m. in smoke rising other open fields in northern ukraine. we will show you pictures of nit just a moment. a malaysian airline that fell out of the sky. this is al jazeera america, we are following two major stories. developing stories. first after 1:00 a.m., where israeli ground offensive is right now. crews are on the ground and reporting heavy helding possibly cheering away for israeli troops. but first, the crash of malaysia airline flight 17 in ukraine. intelligence officials say they have evidence that the plane was shot down.

it took off just after 6:00 a.m. eastern time. when the airline says air traffic controllers lost contact near the border with russia. video of the sea out of ukraine show as very wide debris field. the plane was shot down and u.s. intelligence officials seem to agree with that claim. all right, let's get to reporting with this. following with us. phil, what can you tell us from this vantage point. >> request have just had a statement come out of the british foreign run industry, that they do believe they are onboard. most likely going to see

around the continent, as this was an international flight, and of course as you mentioned we are hearing more and more from a variety of sources of folks willing to point the finger of became, notably, of course, the ukrainian intelligence agency and they say that they intercepted a phone call, between separatist and russian military advisers, in which they clearly indicated they were behind the downing of this plane. and that they were full hi acquire once it hit the ground that it is a civilian aircraft. >> . >> recorded phone calls where a terrorists are discussing to each other, that arrived to the place where the plane was shot down, that they recognized that the plane is civilian.

is this rah great number of casualties. >> . >> well, i was going to say, of course people are going to go through that phone call, and check out the veracity. they want to show that the russians are behind this, but what is also interesting to hear, that you just within the last half hour or so, the defense ministry is also put out a statement. they said if they wanted to, certainly they had the assets to do it. >> yeah, there's a certain degree of expertise you need to operate that kind of assistance. phil, appreciate it, thank you.

mike is following developments from the white house, in washington, and he has more on a statement earlier today from vice president biden. and so the question all along is what do officials believe, and who do they believe is responsible for the downing of this aircraft. now, we should note that boat president obama and biden are not here at the white house, nor in washington today. he did mention this tragedy at the top of his remarks he said he offered all the help that the united states had to offer. where once again he pledged all possible help that the united states can offer, and in fact,

that offer has now been accepted by the president. burr it was joe biden, a seriously scheduled event, in detroit michigan, he talked about who is responsible and very stark terms. heading from western europe, to kuala lumpur, has crossed near the border of the ukraine russia. apparently, i say apparently because we don't have all the detail. apparently it had been shot down, shot down, not an accident. blown out of the sky. we have heard reports there are american citizens on that. obviously that is our first condition. they are now working every minute to try to confirm those reports as i speak. this is a grave situation.

families, and our prayers and there are many questions that need to be answered. we will get those answers and we will take it to the next step accordingly. i was on the phone for a better part of half an hour, with the president, spoken with our president, as i see our contact with our president, as well as our national security team. he accepted that help, and they will be on their way rapidly to see if we can get to the bottom of this. president obama spoke with ukraine, when he is going from delaware, to new york city, to that fund raiser.

so he could have more time to have those conversations. according to the prime minister, both will insist, both presidents and leaders will insist on a humanitarian car car to the crash site. obviously controlled by rebel forces. this is a major source of concern. if they cannot have access to that crash site. with p.m.'s conversation, they both agree, and stressed that all evidence must be kept in place. ukraine spoke earlier, and said this is a deliberatist.

i offer men on behalf of the people. we are not calling it an accident or disaster, it is an act of terrorism. that's a mouth full. jim, let's start with the kind of a general political gain clanger. i am thinking about the european states that have been rather reluctant to follow the u.s. lead in strong sanctions against russia, or it's role in year ukraine, now we get to this flash point, where we have a commercial airliner that is shot down. according to u.s.

intelligence, this is an international flight. it presents putin with an opportunity to change course. whether he will take it or not, i don't know. let's look at what he will be facing. some of the fundamentals won't change. they still plan on russian natural gas, so tomorrow their headlines will be about the citizens in eeach of those countries. in germany, in the netherlands and then there will be funerals and investigations, and in some of these cases there may be elections so this is a story that is going to cap thursday the imagination of the europeans. it isn't going to die tomorrow or next week. so i think that will take a political toll. >> you can't be surprised that intelligence officials are essentially

confirming that this was a shoot down that it has checked all of these assets and come to that conclusion. stopping short of appointing the finger of responsibility at one group or another? >> yeah, we spoke last hour, and you know i tend to be cautious. there are those that -- but i felt like that this was not going to be a coincidence, and certainly looks like it. and the more we hear, more it sounds like that's what happened. >> all right, jim, appreciate it, let's bring in al jazeera transportation contributor. you have been poll hing the reporting over the last couple of hours now, certainly been working the story all day for us, what is your latest line of thinking on what happened here and certainly the intelligence officials here confirming that in their estimation, this flight was shot down?

certainly the circumstantial evidence is stronger than it was a few hours ago. that wouldn't be happened unless the u.s. military and the intelligence establishment had information. so the reports that came out of washington, i tend to agree with that. still until this' more definitive evidence, wreckage that there was a missile, i will still hold there was an inflight break up, a catastrophic event, i am not sure what caused it. >> whats the natural course of an investigation like this. i ask you, the perfect person to ask, because you have been involved in these. what is the natural course, and to what extend do you expect that natural course to be interrupted, by the fact that this plane went down

in rebel held territory? the natural course depends on whether it is an accident or not an accident. being charged with the investigation. of course, that assuming that it has control over the area where the accident happened. that's the first depar sure from the procedure. second, if it's not an accident, sabotage hijacking, the rules don't necessarily apply. you don't have the same international cooperation, openness about the data. there will be elements that will depart from the normal investigation, the transparency is essential, if it is going to be a satisfactory result.

who will be the investigating body? >> clearly ukraine does have sovereignty, they don't have the expertise to investigating this level of accident to the level that say the ntsb, or the british equivalent of that. what i think would happen, would be a consortium of countries especially those that have had a vested interest. u.s., u.k., the netherlands. bringing their expertise and their experts and their technical experience to bear on the situation. does russia have the capability? the reason i mention this, is there are some reporting the black boxes may have been apprehended by rebels, and that they -- that this group, that might be in possession of the data recorders, would want russia to conduct the investigation. so whether that's fact or not, let's put that

aside, would russia have the capabilities to conduct an investigation? they do have the capability to technically conduct an investigation, and in the past, for example, the crash a few years ago involvin involvie polish president, they had the capability of being open, and clear with what is going on, and to share that data with the world. and they certainly have a very sophisticated aviation sector. that's a political question, i think lit be resolved one way or the other, in the next few days. >> todd, appreciate it. transportation contributor, todd curtis with us from nugent massachusets. and size and technology is with us now from san francisco with more on weapon systems that target airplanes. and jake, is it possible for someone on the ground to tell the difference between -- this has been a conversation in your newsroom today.

between a commercial and military aircraft overhead? >> it is a great question, i know throughout the broadcast, you have been asking what is it like to sit at the controls of this thing. how much experience would you need to have to operate a good morning. well, the thing is we have been trying -- spending all morning to try to put ourselves a t the controls and figure out what the sky would look like, assuming this was shut down. the thing is, the system -- like acar in theory, works very differently on a small plane, it is a matter of the surface area. so a small like fighter jet, gives off a different signature than a bill bulky jet. when you are looking at fit a little port 8:00, a small radar installation inside of a unit, like they use, it is probably a pretty similar look. the thing is an experienced operator would look at that and say i know the flight

path, i know the altitude.

>> no, we have not discussed that today, task terrific information, scary, jake ward for us in san francisco. jake, thank you. is in washington for us,e coming to you for a update, or at least to give us where we stand in this investigation. what are you herning what is happening on the ground. >> the midnight hours -- a rebel controlled area, what is really happening and a lot of calls internationally, to say we need an open

investigation, we need an international investigation, the prime minister of the ukraine has pledged a thorough international investigation, there's been talk about opening a humanitarian corridors to that investigators and others can get to this and of course get to the unfortunate victims of this accident. and president obama has pledged help, vice president biden has said the u.s. will send investigators which the ukrainians are welcoming if they in fact will be in charge of the investigation. and also, the ma lay shower prime minister spoke today about his country's desire to help out with the investigation. here is what he had to say. >> just know, i received a call from president obama. he and i both agree that the investigation must not be hindering in any way.

and the international team must set full access to the crash site. the prime minister also stressed that no one should disturb the debris, or the black boxes that's obviously a big concern, who is in and around that crash site, who may be disturbing anything there. the prime minister has indicated hi wants help from the u.s., and malaysia, but this is a rebel controlled area, and will have to see how this plays out in the next day or to. >> terrific stuff, all right, thank you. we will continue our coverage now of the apparent shoot down of malaysian airline flight, what a year for malaysia airline, right? and then follow our other big story to the ground offensive by israel in gaza, we will take a break now andle co back with more, this is al jazeera america. >>

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♪ their voices out there, and al jazeera america is doing just that. so earlier today, some finger pointing by the russian president over this tragedy. vladimir putin said it would never have happened if there was peace in ukraine, so he blamed ukraine for what happened here today. let's bring in glen howard. he is is the president of the james town foundation. and an expert on the region. thank you for your time. what's your reaction to kind of the name -- the blame game, and the finger pointing that's coming from russian president vladimir putin? putin has always had a goal where -- his ultimate goal is not eastern ukraine, but to top the government. the ones that are elected. so the problem has been

the outside powers of germany and france, and the united states. the united states deferring to germany and france to try to get a solution to conflict. and the problem here is that you have the three persons you refer to as rebels are three citizens of russia. so you have this separatist movement, and then you have the united states, and european powers pushing for settlement, and then the whole way along is to try to delay the negotiations as long as possible, and every step of the way to try to prevent any type of negotiated settlement, so you crane has waited, and germany has pushed for this, but the thing has collapsed early this week. when they have refused to even appear in a conflict. so -- >> can i just in for a second. i want to read between the lines do you believe the united states had a stronger negotiating hand at it's disposal than it

used? in whatever negotiations to there might have been to end the crisis. >> i think the obama administration has tried to lead jointly, and he has seen that as a really -- there's no light at the end of the tunnel. merkel decided they were going to go ahead and support the sanctions. the united states is starting to realize that he needs to lead. >> what does that mean? terrific, glen, but what does that mean to lead in a situation where you have already put down the line, where you aren't going to send in ground forces? you aren't going to send in u.s. personnel, what does it mean to really lead then if you are not going to take that

ultimate step. >> you take it unilaterally. you put pressure on the europeans. you show them if your foot is dragging you say okay, fine, i will wait,ly wait, and then when they are ready to do it then you take the lead. and announce it. that put pleasure on the germans and french, and some of these defense companies as well, that's going to put pressure on people like the french, to russia that's building for them. is there a moment here? we have this horrible tragedy, russia feels very culpable in this. you talk about the russian citizens who are part of the military who are now part of the resistence operation, the rebel movement in eastern ukraine, is there an opportunity now for the european state to have been more reluctant to come forward to take a stronger position? >> oh, absolutely.

whatever reluctance has existed is going to be more solidified. and i think theger mapps have been reluctant, but now the other states will now -- it will point the blame at putin, and i think it had made it more difficult for him as he tries to deflect the blame. and put it on these rebels. and i would like to point out something you mentioned earlier, you kept honing in on the idea of these missles that are in eastern ukraine. >> yes. >> one thing your military analyst didn't point out is these systems when they operate with radar, the key question is whether the radar that they have and the data that is being fed to them is coming from those ground radars or coming from russian units. >> yes. >> if that's the case, if you have russian military knowing this was a 777, which is by your own -- as you talked about earlier, the distinction of this aircraft is a

huge signature, raises some very interesting questions will they knew it and when they participated in authorized. >> there you go. >> and authorized and i think that's the key question. if i am in the white house i would love to be asking the questions of vice president biden when they are bouncing this around, is what steps to you take if it turns out to be that it was authorized. i am old enough to remember when the south korea airliner was down during the reagan administration. this has very important consequences. and i think putin -- it is more than just tapping his knuckles and say we will put sanctions. my gosh, they have already taken the black box, and look at what happened to poland, when the plane went down, they still have never to do this day received back the black box. so do you think we will get the black box, no, it will just be this big

question mark, and that's the problem of this situation, and this tragedy in eastern ukraine. where the united states, i think has to call a spade a spade here. >> and calling a spade a spade, is saying what? i am saying stop having the ukrainians and giving them -- they have asked -- no one has asked for boots on the ground, but they have asked for weapons to defend themselves. and that's what we have been holding back by offering these mre rations and finally they have some armored vests with uh the problem has been the separatists/russian rebels in eastern ukraine are better armed. neff the best weaponry, is there in eastern ukraine, they may be small in numbers but they are very well equipped. >> let me ask the question that somebody in america is ask while not have the people that live in the countries with the closest proximity to where all this is happening take the lead. why does sit to be america that always takes the lead? >> because it is a moral

issue, it is the right thing to do. ukraine is a democratically elected government. 20 million loving abroad, 10,000 living in philadelphia, you have this -- this country matters to us, you don't have like in the case of iraq, the iraqi government is running away, throwing away it's weapons, ukrainians are fighting for their country. >> appreciate it. thank you. appreciate the passion. an expert on the region we have been discussing. al jazeera has learned the united nations security council will hold an emergency meeting tomorrow on the situation in ukraine, the meeting is set for 3:00 p.m. eastern time, again, that's the u.n. security council planning to meet tomorrow, and talk about the crisis in ukraine. now, airport officials in the nether-lands have just released the nationalities of many of the passengers most of the people onboard were dutch. so far, there is no word of any americans on the flight. and there are a little more than 40 passengers

whose nationalities are still being confirmed and when we get that additional information, we will pass it on. take a break, back in a moment,s in al jazeera america.

believed to be dead after a plane crashed. when it went downey the ukrainian russian border. this is video of the crash scene. which is in an area held by pro russian separatists. ukrainian officials say the plane was shot down.

the u.s. says it has evidence to support that claim. let's get you to scott, he is at the scene of the crash, and joining us now live, scott, i want you to take us back to the beginning when did you arrive? describe what you found when you got there. >> we lost him, my jim walshs. we will try to get back to scott in a moment here. >> and then he is the counter terrorism. thank you for your time. we are learning now from the vice president, and from some of the senator whose have come out of a briefing that all of the evidence seems to be pointing to the fact that this airline was commercial airline. was shot down, what are your thoughts and is that your conclusion as well. >> no. i haven't seen the

evidence that is presented to the senators but up until now, all of the circumstantial evidence is pointed in the direction of this aircraft having been shot down by a long range ground to aramisle. and there's yet more circumstantial evidence in that i understand that the u.s. military authorities have reported as far back a the 30th of june, that they had evidence to the effect that russians were providing training to ukrainian separate its on vehicle born systems like the sort that would have been necessary to take down an aircraft like this from the ground. >> would u.s. intelligence have the capability to -- i guess i know the answer to this, to intercept phone calls that would begin to pull the pieces of this information together. and that i think ultimately driving at here. is it possible to establish who was

communicating, and if there was a russian involvement in any of the actions leading up to this? this' also the whole issue of satellite based information, which can be used on a forensic bases it is quite possible that satellite coverage even if it was not involved in real time monitors can be used on a forensics bases to determine whether in fact there was the heat signal from a missle that was fired from the ground, and that would have taken down that aircraft. what are the next steps

and what we knows this a difficult situation, because it is rebel commed territory, what do you imagine are the next steps moving forward in this investigation. >> we have talked act the use of intelligence, to put together this picture, but the most important evidence is what lying on the ground, in eastern ukraine. this the fuselage will tell us everyone we want to know. aviation experts can tell us whether it was brought down by a missalt lake whether it was a similar mechanical malfunction, the most important thing is to have that evidence secured by competent authorities so we can get to the bottom of this. >> all right, appreciate your time, thank you so much. a former top counter terrorism official. joining us from washington, thank you. he filed this report just a short time ago.

>> this is the very tail section of that boeing triple seven. that's whether these people lost their lives. this is the tail section, after the plane, the very back part of the plane, about 200 meters down, deep entire the field, is the tail fin, with the logo very very visible, if you look down the road, again,s in a road that cuts between these two fields, down there there's another chunk of the foos lodge, it was burning when we got here, five hours after this came down. and in that wreckage you can see the landing gear with the tires still on, the rescue workers are here, they have been here since soon after the plane came down, but they are not taking any of the bodies out, they pitched a tent, they have flood lights so they will be working as much as they can through the night. it is very very dark, and this is a rural area, but the most pain staking part will be in that

field, because that's where there are remains of of those 295 people, remains scatters throughout the field. >> reporting just moments ago. we will take a break, when we come back -- we are working on getting nick chef ron up live for us, with the latest information on the israeli ground offensive. now underway, in gaza, the first to break,s in al jazeera america.

first, following the latest information on the information from gaza, where israel has just launch add ground defensive, and the communication minister has said the object save to demilitarize -- here

is what we know about the ground offensive, our crews in gaza report heavy shelling in the area that can be an effort to clear a path, some of whom have already -- are already on the ground in gaza. the number that the reservist has called up, haunch comes after a five hour truce earlier today. israel says it has urged residents to evacuate where they are operating. nick, i asked you this -- there he is. if you would, we are trying to get minute to minute, certainly half hour updates from you on the situation there. what's the very latest? >> tony, i will turn around here, you can see some lights oen in the background, but over to my left, it is completely black. hundreds of thousands of

gazans tonight are without power, there is some sort of blackout caused after an israeli strike, but we see off in the distance a few things. one, flairs, flairs being shot by the israeli military, kind of in the northeast area of gaza. which is out that way. those light the path for any troops that are coming in from there. they can see about a two or three-mile radius, we have also seen reports of journalist whose are about half a mile down, this way, that's toward the mediterranean sea, they have been evacuated. they were told there would be an amphibious assault. we have also seen a heavy barrage from two places one artillery, that's going to be positioned inside of israel. firing zoo gaza, but the really loud earth shaking booms are there ships. those are docked act a

mile out from the coast of gaza, and they have been firing constantly. so what israeli officials are telling me now, is there's a number of places where israeli troops have already answered gaza, and their stated goal as you referred to, tony, was to demilitarize the strip, or depending on who you listen to, target the tunnels. that hamas and other fighting groups used. what can you tell us about the timing of this offensive? where we have this terrible tragedy, in eastern ukraine, what are you hearing about the conversations, the planning, that led to the announcement that this offensive was happening this evening? >> absolutely, just before i say, if you can see those lights oit in the distance, those again, are either flairs

coming from israeli troops or attacks back israeli, toes. i am not sure there's any connection with the claim, cabinet officials are saying there was a decision made, in the last 48 hours, perhaps 36 hours to authorize the ground invasion, but of course, in israel, the final say comes from the israeli prime minister. that is benjamin netanyahu right now. the defense minister, the israeli military chief of staff is essentially the head of the israeli army. those three people would have made that final decision. in the hours tonight. the point as we have been talking about for days they have been preparing for this. they have been able to pull this off for a number of days. they have had -- >> okay, i thought that might happen. i want to get to scott now, he is at the scene of the crash or malaysia

airline flight 17. u.s. intelligence officials suggesting very strongly that it was shot down, scott, i want you to take us back to when you arrived i don't know how many hours ago that was, and what you found at that scene. question arrived about 6 1/2 hours ago, and you couldn't see much. this is a wheat field behind me, that's the tail fin from that triple seven aircraft. lying flat in the field. there's a farm road that goes down here. this' a farmhouse about 500 meters down there. this tail section, this fin is here, just a couple of hundred meters up from me, is the rear part of the fuse lodge that's where this snapped off from. it is there, there's some human remains in there, across the street, that's probably the biggest debris field if you will.

defense on fire for a long time that's where there's a lot of personal effects from those 295 people onboard, tourist guys i saw tourist guys from ballly, i saw some children's toys. clothing. human remains in there. then further down the farm road, on that same side, opposite from where i'm standing there's another debris field, landing gear from this large aircraft, the tire still on the landing gear. that reignited the fire there. they are telling us in a ten kilometer circumference, that's where they are finding debris from this crash. and there wasn't much of an investigation going on, we were stoled bute, and officials that the black box has not been found. human remains had not been taken out. throughout this debris field, but they have not been remove sod when the

sun comes up, that's probably going to be the first task, if you will, that these investigators and these rescue teams are going to do. >> rett me just say, a lot of people on this same page, who is in charge this? >> well, right now this is the part of eastern ukraine that is under the control of arm separatist fighters. whether they are self-appointed prime minister was here. taking a look around, and that's the person that told me about the area of the debris fields and the black box hasn't been found. what the challenging part is, they control this part of eastern ukraine. this has been heavy fighting here. by the airport, the air force shot down by missles.

another one was a fighter jet, a fighter aircraft, there's the ukrainian government, blames russia, russia denies it. what we need to think about and think heart about is who has this kind of equipment. these separatist fighters have these kind of weapons. i haven't seen them personally, i have seen rockets and things like that, nothing that can be something like this. so obviously that's where the investigation is focusing on. it points to that, i think that's something that is surveillance, that we are able to pick up a heat signature or something like that. but also because you asked who controls this area, it is a separatist

group, nos the central government, you will have international teams come in and investigate this, but you have the situation where they are at this stage, they say, they are not going to allow ukrainian officials to come in here. so clearly they are going to have to be part of this. that part has to be very difficult as things move forward. >> have you been hassles in attempting to get to where you are now? and do you work? no, we haven't been hassled. we have gone through multiple check points. but in this part of the country, because there's been such intense fighting that is usual. we were held back a little bit, because of the self-appointed prime minister, was on his way too, so this' security for him. so we had to wait until he came in.

keeping an eye on this site, and also there are battle lines. behind the front line in an active battle. but as far as us coming here to do this job, no. they allowed us to, but we just had to wait for the security -- for the prime minister. are you prepared for what you will see at first light, when you get back to do your reporting? the scenes from the two debris fields i imagine lit be pretty horrific. >> absolutely, yes. and when you are walking through here, and we got here just after sunset, so it was very difficult to see that much. and you can only see kind of like spots of what has happened and stitch together hypothesis of which direction the aircraft felt, and which parts of the aircraft are where. yeah, that will be a very

difficult scene in the morning. when it is all lit up and we can walk around and see exactly where the bodies the remains are. the specific pockets but yeah that will be a process that will take a while. that will be the concern when the first light. how are they going to do that, and do it properly, how do they take these bodies away properly. >> one last one, i don't want to let you go, i just don't, we heard the president the ukrainian president, suggest to the prime minister of malaysia, that there was going to be between his office and with the leaders of the rebel held territory. so that there are can be some kind of humanitarian corridor set up.

what are the chances of something like that happening in your estimation? >> when i spoke with officials here, i brought that up, because this' been on going attempts for cease fires. and clearly, they haven't been going successfully. but there was supposed to be one tonight. and i asked the official here, and he said it's taking place right now, and obviously, things have change add bit, because of this situation, because of this crash. he said so this will be brought up, and i asked will there be a cease fire, so there can be an investigation, and he said they are looking into it. again, this is a meeting that is already scheduled that can be because of this, but it would have been brought up at this discussion. what came out of that or if it is even done yet, we don't know just yet.

but we know that's entertained. the rhetoric coming up from both sides the last ten days two weeks a previous cease fire has been very very strong from either side. the russian army has -- sorry the ukrainian army has a gain, if you will. the separatist say they are not going to lay down their weapons. heated rhetoric to see if these discussions that are happening can change that, that is yet to be determined but right now if you look at the battlefield, lit be tough for them to sit down and talk about the cease fire. >> appreciate it. i just wanted to squeeze every minute out of this we could. scott, appreciate it, thank you. joining me now, a spokesperson for the euro activist movement, good to talk to you again, it's been a while, that

are your thoughts on this day? is as many as 292, 95 lives lost. and what is the growing evidence suggest a shoot down of this malaysia airline flight? hi, i hope this is a wake up, call, finally to see the nature of these separatists in the east as something that was discussed many times before. i hope after this incident, after so many people have no relations or no altitude in this conflict, or no connection in this conflict, died, no question they should be treated as terrorists. that happened here was a cheer for errorist act, with separatist shooting in the air, and shooting down a plane. skim my overwhelming they boast of the transportation.

they took down those reports and took down their own. america was we hind the conspiracy right now. is this a way for the ukrainian president, and the rebels in eastern ukraine, to take this moment and begin a serious dialog and maybe boast the idea of seriously of another cease fire. >> there's definitely an opportunity to realize that every conflict in this society, is a global conflict, and in in situation of world community, can realize how russia and how it's separatist are basically attacking not just ukraine and it's people, also attacking them, i hope in this circumstance it will realize that from

putin from his latest remarks he doesn't seem very apologetic, blaming ukraine for it, it seems to be a pocket for the world to come together and try and finally deal with this issue. and deal with this issue of people coming to a country and destroying the infrastructure. >> let's talk why are we here right now with this

story, and who you heard from scott? >> american intelligence officials and obama administration officials are going to crees on, and that that is the acting prime minister is that the block boxes have not been removed, so at least right now that key bit of data is still intact, and not been taken. the second thing that is so overwhelming this' scott in a scene where 295 human beings honest their lives, early this morning and over the past couple of hours symptom of us up in the newsroom have had an opportunity to see the pictures and video that first came in from the scene. and it is gruesome, and obviously made the decision to picks late the most gruesome stuff, but i think our heart goes out to everybody who is on that mane. but also it is not easy for people to scott and others to at dawn,

tomorrow, at daylight, you are going to be right there. and you are going to see some things that are absolutely hear fying and grew some. and again, your heart goes out to the people who lost their lives and you think well, maybe this is the story, maybe these are the images that will get the world's attention on this conflict. and figure out a way to solve it, words can't describe again, what people have seen in terms oif video. david, this is a real reckoning moment here. you will aware of some of the interceptions going on here. where are we if that information that is being gathers showed some kind of cooperation, between russia, and the separatists? is these actions in. >> that's the thing. intelligence has no doubt, they are certain that it was a missile that brought down this

airplane. they aren't sure of the exact location from where the urge launch happened but the key question is, they know that the separatists had this bok missile system, the question is when they got it, did the russians provide training there are ten people that serve in these squads is there is a russian, or two, or three -- >> that takes us to an entirely new place. >> that's why you are seeing members of congress trying to give them sot breathing room to figure this out, because it does change the relationship. >> all right, thank you so much. tuesday curtis, and contributor for us, todd, some thoughts for you, as we wrap three hours of coverage? >> well, the one thing that came to mind, looking at this, throughout the day, is this is the first day of this event. it's very shocking for all involved.

it's not even clear how many countries are going to be drawn into this as they discover how many of the citizens are there. and how many things that could have been done perhaps. to prevent this. now of course, there has been somewhat careful saying that well, we don't have proof that this was a missile, hitting the aircraft, but there is plenty of proof that this was an area of conflict. that there have been shoot downs of other fortunately not civilian aircraft, which means this is a very hazardous area, not the only in the world where this has happened. >> yeah. >> this might make it a situation where in the future, you and i or other people as passengers may be hesitant to fly in a situation like this. >> thank you, todd, thank you so much. president obama has directed his national security team to offer whatever assistance is necessary to determine what happened to malaysia airline. it went down in a region in the midst of a deadly dispute, and we have

reported u.s. intelligence reports are that there is evidence the plane was shot down. 295 people are believed to be dead, coverage continues all night here on al jazeera america, starting right now, with real money and ali. families ripped apart... >> racial profiling >> sometimes they ask questions... sometimes they just handcuff people... >> deporting dreams...

destroying lives... >> this state is literally redefining what it means to be a criminal alien fault lines al jazeera america's hard hitting... >> they're locking the doors... >> ground breaking... >> we have to get out of here... >> truth seeking... award winning investigative documentary series fault lines the deported only on al jazeera america destructive and deadly violence on two global fronts tonight. i'll tell you what we know about the malaysian airliner downed in ukraine, i'll talk to america's former crash investigation chief about what evidence would point missiles flying from the ground and why a packed jet was flying over the area in the first place. plus i'll tell you what all of this is