bags before letting passenger threat continues. jackie roland, al jazeera, brussels. president barack obama spoke during the second leg of his latin america trip. john terrett reports. in latin america's third largest economy. today, after the brussels attacks, his isil policy quickly cropped up in reported questions. >> my top priority is to defeat isil and to eliminate the scorage of this barbaric terrorism that's been taking place around the world. we see high-profile attacks in europe, but they are also

killing muslims throughout the middle east, people who are innocent, people who are guilty only of worshiping islam in a different way than this organize. >> reporter: he said fighting isil was his number one priority prior to and that of his military and intel genesis services around the world. >> they are poisoning the minds of young people everywhere, not just in europe but in the united states and undoubtedly in arran argenti argentina. >> reporter: he was asked about muslims living in america. trump has called for a ban on muslims entering the u.s. and cruz for sur alcoholance of neighborhoods where muslims are present. >> part of the reason we have not seen more attacks in the united states is we have an extraordinarily successful patriotic integrated muslim american community. any approach that would single

them out or target them for discrimination is not only wrong but it would be continuer productive because it would reduce the strength, the anti-bodies that we have to resist terrorism. >> i said it's important for us not to respond with fear. secretary of state john kerry will travel to brussels on friday to express the con dole he knews and meet with belljam and european union officials. john terret, al jazeera, washington. a report tonight says isil has trained hundreds of fighters to pull off terror attacks in europe. associated press says the attacks bob just like the ones yesterday in brussels with interlocking cells coordinating attacks. the ap report sites unidentified european and iraqi intelligence officials who say 400 fighters have received training in camps

in syria, iraq and possibly in some former soviet states. we are joined by max abrams at northeastern university, an expert on global terror. he joins us from boston. good to see you. first, there is growing anger about whether these massacres should have been prevented, the stacker from turkey, an arrest warrants issued for his brother, intelligence agencies were warned. how big an intelligence and policing failure was this? >> i am usually very synpathetic to law enforcement. it's common after a terrorist attack to blame the authorities for not breaking it up. the reality is, it's very easy to perpetrate terrorist attacks. he specially for a group like islamic state where the members are perfectly prepared to die and they are willing to strike any target. but in this case, i do think there is blame to go around. i mean the belgian authorities

should have understood that they have a very serious jihadist problem. they supply a higher portion of foreign jihadis to islamic state than any other european country. there had been many complaints about the porous borders in begem in particular and it seems as if at least one of these guys was flagged in advance as a foreign fighter. and yet, this went on. i have heard reports there were specific intelligence indications that the airport in the metro station were particularly at risk. >> that's right. that's the harratz report was that there were specific threats to those two. >> that's right. so, i mean, furthermore, another good indicator is that foreign governments, which are usually all in this counterterrorism game together are, you know, calling belgian authorities out

and saying you are doing a substandard job. i have seen u.s. officials saying that, turkish officials, israeli officials, french officials. so all of this suggests to me that belgian authorities have done an inadequate job. >> the problem in europe, of course, is with easy travel, the weakest link can affect the whole continent. as i mentioned, the associated press is reporting that isil has trained more than 400 european fighters to carry out attacks in europe. do you think isil is increasing its focus on attacking the west? >> i do think so. i think there is a paradox going on because on the one hand, the organization, itself, is getting degraded in its stronghold of iraq and in syria in all sorts of ways. the group is losing battles, losing territory, losing revenue. it's losing ability to pay fighters. its propaganda output is down. there are all sorts of signs that organizational capeability is diminishing, and yet, there seems to be an international die

fusion of attack. the group seems to be changing. it's becoming more decentralized and so, more and more, basically, the nightmare scenario is happening. where at first, the foreign doctor -- at first, the fortunately fighters went to syria. now, they are coming back and striking soft targets. >> 400 number is possible. >> that led the u.s. state department to issue a broad warning for all of europe saying there could be near-term attacks. so, i take it you obviously think they face a very serious threat. >> i do, but that said, you know, if i were in charge of the state department, i wouldn't relief that sort of a statement -- release that sort of a statement because it basically implies that the risk is uniform throughout europe. that's clearly not the case. there is wide variation in terms of which countries are supplying the foreign fighters. even within these countries, certain kinds of areas are much more dangerous than others. so, i actually think that you could

travel to europe very safely and that it's it important to understand the relative risks and not overreact here. >> max abrams from northeastern university, good to have you with us. thank you. ? >> sure. >> the remaining u.s. presidential candidates were celebrating wins today except for john kasich. dodged trump extended his count to 739 after a primary win in arizona. ted cruz won the utah caucuses increasing his delegate county to 465. kasich stayed at 143. hillary clinton racked up a double digit win in arizona, raisetion her pledged delegate count to 1214. bernie sanders took utah and idaho bringing his total to 911. as al jazeera political correspondent david shuster reports, all of the candidates are doing their best to spin yesterday's results. >> good morning, charlie. >> hours after a splitdecision

texas senator ted cruz went on television wednesday morning and declared victory? >> we are seeing republicans uniting behind our campaign. cruz and on six different shows in two hours. he down played a double digit loss to donald trump in arizona and highlighted his landslide kahningus win in utah. donald is unhappy that he got clobbered last night in utah. wasn't even close. he lost by 69%. utah was now the 10th state where we have beaten donald trump. >> former florida governor george bush underscored cruz's competitiveness with an endorsement saying ted is a consistent, principled conserve stiff who has demonstratedability to appeal to voters. we must move to overcome the divisiveness and vulgarity donald trump has brought into the political arena. >> we are seeing republicans united behind this as the only campaign that has beateng donald trump over and over again and

that can and will beat donald trump. >> trump has repeatedly called jeb bush and mitt romney who also endorsed cruz this week losers and the effort to help ted cruz may be too late. analysts point out despite tuesday's split, trump still has a decent chance to reach 1,237 nomination delegates before the summer convention. trump can get there by maintaining his usual vote ratios in the proportional delegate contests coming up in these states and by grabbing victories in some of these con tiftsz that are winner higher take-all. >> in the democratic race, the delegate math remains daunting for vermont senator bernie sanders and his nomination fight against hillary clinton. you wouldn't know it listening to sanders' news conference wednesday? >> we won with 20 del gamentsz more than her throw-in democrats. we had a good week where we won

25 more delegates than she did. >> it is true that clintston in tuesday's arizona primary, sanders had a net delegate gain thanks to his dominating vict odors in the utah and idaho democratic caucuses and two days ago, sanders won democrats overseas 69% to 31. but to close hillary clinton's pledge delegate lead. sanders needs to win the remaining contest and pledge delegates by a ratio of 58% to 42. at stanford university, wednesday, clinton ignored sanders and delivered a speech largely focused on her foreign policy differences with donald's trump. >> if mr. trump gets his way, it will be like christmas in the yes, ma'amlin. it will make america less safe and the world more dangerous. >> for at least several more weeks, though, a direct clash between clinton and trump remains on hold. democrat bernie sanders and republican ted cruz are still winning nomination contests and

gaining the delegates they need to keep their campaigns going. david shuster, al jazeera. the justice department is being asked to investigate a shortage of polling station in maricopa county. the city's mayor called for an official saying count e officials allocated over 1 polling place for every 108,000 residents. officials saying they did not anticipate the energy and interest in this election. today, the supreme court heard arguments in another challenge to the affordable care act. asked why the death of anthon inscal ea may be the deciding factor in the case the the latest track of a huge snowstorm in the middle of the country. >> your world this morning, real stories, real reporting, real

news. a spring snowstorm is bringing winter back from colorado to michigan. the blizzard conditions nearly shut down denver. snow brought traffic to a standstill in some areas and forced schools and government offices to close. the storm is moving across the plain states. meteorologist kevin corriveau joins us. this will be a serious storm for a awhile. >> tomorrow going in to probably friday. look at the scope of the storm right here. see the area of low pressure. we have snow stretching now all the way back here towards new york state, upper normal state but i want to take you over here towards colorado. they have cleared out particularly look what happened earlier today. we were talking being a thousand flights cancelled at the airport. we were talking about 300 miles of highway 80 closed down.

they are still closed down across parts of denver as well. and at one point, 200,000 people had lost power. now, we are allegations better at about 90,000 that are without power but the blizzard conditions have stopped across the region. roy talking about blizzard points of eastern colorado. but winter storm warnings all the way up towards the great lakes as well as right now talking about a tornado warning here across parts of arkansas. tomorrow, it's going to be another bad day across much of the area. heavy snow up here towards the great lakes. >> we expect to see up to 18 inches there and down towards the south where you see all of that red, that is going to be a lot of severe weather. >> all right. thanks, kevin. the department of justice announced a dragnet today that yielded the arrests of more than 8,000 dangerous fugitives. the six week operation focused on 12 cities experiencing upticks in violent crime. law enforcement teams faced gun

battles and stand ors. they apprehended more than .500 accused murderers, 600 gang members and a thousand sex offenders. the supreme court heard a key case. catholic byways and other groups are contesting an agreement that insurance companies provide freeze contraception. they say it violates their religious freedom. >> it's an unusual site, nuns dmoon straighting in front of the high court but the little sisters of the poor and other religious non-profits and universities say they cannot in good faith follow the man datas of the contraceptive requirements in the affordable care act. >> the government is requiring us to make changes in our healthcare, our religious healthcare plan to include services that really violate our deepest held religious beliefs.

>> the government has to accommodate reledgeous beliefs. it says it has done that. it's faith based groups opt out of contraceptive coverage, the government steps in, directing the insurance company to provide the birth control free of charge. attorneys for the chair at this told the chair at this that is not good enough, that the government is hijacking the insurance plan and making the nuns complicit. attorney paul clement said my clients would love to be a c conscientious objector but the government says they must be a conscientious collaborator. chief justice john roberts saying, quote, the petitioner has used the phrase "hijacking." it seems to me that's an accurate description of what the government wants to do. but the u.s. solicitor general argued the o-out provision is a sensible balance. the court's liberal wing was on

board. there has to be an accomodation. that's what the government tried to do. justice stephen briar: sometimes when a religious person who is not a hermit or a monk is a member of society, he does have to accept all kind of things that are just terrible for him. >> some religious groups support the government and the accommodations already in place. >> petitioners in this case are simply taking a bridge too far. the government has provided a very careful system of exemptions. >> as is often the case, the swing vote is likely to be justice anthony kennedy and he seemed to side with his fellow conservatives which would result in a tie. >> bottom line is we will not obey this mandate no matter how this court rules but we believe based upon what we just heard it will be a split 4 to 4 decision. >> a 4-4 vote is essentially a loss for the little sisters. it will set no national precedent and most of the lower courts have ruled against their

position. lisa stark, al jazeera, washington. >> a 95-year-old mystery at sea has been solved. next, how researchers discovered a sunken navy tug boat and what it means to the relatives of the men who died.

>> joe gariola has died at the age of 90 by his own admission, he was mediocre at best during his nine-year playing career but he became a household name on nbc's game of the week and the today's show. he hosted game shows and was inducted into the broadcaster's wing of the hall of fame. nearly a century after a navy tug boat disappeared with 53 crew members on board, the mystery of what happened to the craft has been solved wreckage found off of the coast of san francisco is that of the "us "uss conastoga" it is bringing closure to the crew's relatives. >> the year was 1921. warren g. harding was president. >> republicans came back to power. the roarring 20s were just

starting. the teapot dome scandal led the news. the air force was starting to challenge the supremacy of sea power. >> an aerial attack, the thought to be unsinkable prize of war goes down. >> in mash of that year, the conastoga left for assignment in samoa but never arrived at pearl harbor. >> conastoga hits the news. not in a pleasant way. loss at sea. one of the largest sea and air searches in the 20th century up to the search for ameli amelia earhart, close to 400,000 small rounds, all the way up to midway. >> for 95 years, all that was known of the uss conastoga was that in an age before sophisticated weather forecasting, it sailed into a storm where winds kicked up to

40 miles per hour and the ship vanished. in 2009, the national oceanic and atmospheric administration was mapping a marine sanctuary off of the coast of san francisco and turned up this thermal image which and to show a schip wrecking. five years later, using remotely opinion operated vehicles, nooah went back for a closer look. >> in september of 2014, we descended on a target which as we looked at it, immediately seemed to be a wreck of some age, stoned with marine life speaking to the fact that it is in a sanctuary, the haven for much marine life. you see a lot down there showing this wreck now is a place of life as much as it is memorial. >> turns out the ship and crew of 56 went down 27 miles off of the california coast in 189 feet of water. lieutenant earnest jones, the

conastoga's officer left a sing daughter behind. for her daughter, jones' grands daughter, the discovery fills a big hole in her family history. >> it is so overwhelming and such a close you're that the degree of definition to see these pictures, to see a portal is so overwhelming for all of us, but it brings the closure, this big mystery we had in our families. 95 years and all of the stories we were told. >> she will slumber there now for the rest of her time as a fitting place.

may you revert in peace. >> jamie mcintire, al jazeera washington. i am antonia morra. sheila macvicar is next with "inside story." have a great night. >> it was an historic moment, 88 years in the making. president obama speaking to the government and citizens of communist cuba on the island's capital city. the first sitting president to visit cuba since calvin coolidge, back in 1978. so with when all of the ceremonies, photo ops and speeches were over, was it all just political theater? or did the president really usher in a new era?