i'm not afraid of anything. >> reporter: in iran, he told his parents he had the time of his life, but after calling to say he was on his way home, he never made it, and disappeared. it was only after three agonizing months that his family found out he had been imprisoned by the iranian government, convicted and sentenced to death as an american spy. that sentence was later commuted. but he remains in jail, including 16 months in solitary confinement and a month-long hunger strike. throughout his family has pled with the u.s. and iranian governments for help. >> we just hope that we are reaching the ears of especially now with this new transition in government in iran, the ears of the right people. >> reporter: now with the election of a more moderate iranian president, rouhani, they have new hope that amir will finally go free. we are joined by amir's brother-in-law who is in michigan along with their

congressman. thank you very much to both of you for joining us. i want to begin by saying thank you very much for coming on. i'm sorry for your family, another holiday passing without your brother-in-law here. this historic deal reached between the u.s. and iran, are you disappointed that as part of this warming of relations between our two countries, that so far, your brother-in-law has not been part of that, no sign that he will be released? >> well, it has been sad that a second year in a row we spent thanksgiving with his seat empty but our family, we have hope. we are not disappointed in the sense that we are hoping for the future, not looking back. amir is a human being. he belongs home. and his father is ill, we need him home. >> congressman, if i could ask you, i know you have been advocating for this case for some time. you have even written a letter to amir in his prison cell there. did you speak to the white house, did you speak to the state department in these last few weeks relations have been warming about why they're not

pushing hard enough to get him released? >> first of all, while the release of amir may not be part and parcel of this current agreement, it has been part of an ongoing discussion. i know that the state department has been pressing. i spoke to senior representatives at the state department, our own u.n. ambassador and also i spoke to president obama, who raised amir's situation with president rouhani directly when he spoke by telephone during president rouhani's visit to new york during the united nations general assembly. so i'm confident that our government is doing all it can to get amir out. the real question is whether we can trust iran to live up to this agreement and one tangible proof, point of proof that we can trust them is if they take a step toward the global community by releasing amir and the other prisoners that are being held.

>> this must be a positive step, a different outreach coming out of tehran in a number of different ways. have any indications been communicated to you through the white house or the state department in terms of a reaction from the iranian government? are they open to at least talking about your brother-in-law's case? are they giving any positive signals that give you renewed hope here? >> well, i know from my point of view, i'm confident that ongoing direct communication during the current nuclear negotiations include sidebar discussions about amir and about the other americans being held. i think there's reason for us to have some hope and optimism but the real question again is whether the iranians will respond. >> this must be difficult for you and your family. he went there just for a trip to visit his relatives, your parents -- his parents' home country, ends up in prison 16

months in solitary confinement. how do you process that separation, as you say, a second thanksgiving, second holiday season with him so far away? >> well, our family, we have freedom guilt. we see that we enjoy holidays and sunny days, we know he's not with us. every day is an urgent day for us to bring him home. the politicians are working very hard for us, washington, the congressman, we're very grateful. we just want everyone to go home and look at their families every day and know that they're with them, whether they be in iran, the judiciary, we have a lot of respect for iran. we ask them to recognize amir as a human being, look at him as a family member. he's endured enough. it's time for him to come home. we need him home. we're looking forward now. >> i wonder if i could give you one last word, if you had a message for the iranian government what would you say right now? >> with great respect, we ask them to place great urgency on amir's case. we want them to recognize his role in the world as a human

being. belongs here. he's not had due process but we're not looking back. we want them to recognize what he's endured and to expedite this as quickly as possible. we need him home as soon as possible. we ask that sincerely. >> we hope your family gets the wish. thanks very much to both of you. coming up next, we will have more on the breaking news, a helicopter has crashed into a pub. the latest information, we will speak to someone at the scene live next. we're aig. and we're here. to help secure retirements and protect financial futures. to help communities recover and rebuild. for companies going from garage to global. on the ground, in the air, even into space. we repaid every dollar america lent us. and gave america back a profit. we're here to keep our promises. to help you realize a better tomorrow. from the families of aig, happy holidays.

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at night. very crowded time at night. there are reports that this bar was crowded at the time, dozens of people may have been injured. you're seeing now photos that are coming into "the situation room" right now showing the aftermath in scotland. you can see the helicopter on the roof, through the roof of that pub. we have an eyewitness on the scene who is news editor of a radio station. tell us what you're seeing now. how bad is it? >> it's surprisingly calm here at the moment. there's no fire or smoke coming from the pub at all. there are fear engines outside of the pub and they are on the roof assuming to check the situation there. witnesses were aware of a helicopter making a strange noise in the sky. it seemed to be descending unusually. they expected to see or hear signs of impact but they

haven't. i have also spoken to a member of parliament who happened to be driving by the scene. he went in to help and described the inside as a scene of devastation, rubble and he could see the blades of the helicopter sticking out of the roof of the pub. >> did you see any injured people being removed? have first responders taken any injured out of the pub that you've seen? >> i have personally seen two ambulances leaving the scene. i have been here for around an hour now. but i was told a number of people have been dragged out of the pub. there were a lot of people with cuts on their heads and things like that. it does appear, but there is no confirmation from police or health service at this time as to how many people have been hurt.

>> you can see the blades pierced the roof of the building and just the weight of the helicopter as it came down. this is a crowded, a popular pub area. it's 11:30 at night, i imagine a peak time at night. must have been a lot of people there as this happened. >> there would be. the bar sits at the fork of the road by the river, it's a very busy area. as i arrived on the scene, probably about 20 minutes after it happened, there were still dozens of people around. some were just in the area coming from other bars. but it was busy at the time and a number of people are thought to be hurt in some capacity. >> it's great to have you there. thanks so much for telling us what you saw. we have another eyewitness joining us via skype now. christine o'donnell. do you hear me? do you hear jim in washington? >> yeah, i can hear you. >> christine o'neill, apologies. tell us what you saw and where

were you when this happened, when this helicopter came down. >> i was getting ready to go in my basement and i heard the crash and i just basically started [ inaudible ] police, ambulance, as far as i could see, there was smoke coming off the helicopter. >> did you see any injuries? did you get a sense of how many people were hurt when the helicopter came down? >> well, i did see a couple body bags but that's not been confirmed yet. i know there was a lot of people [ inaudible ].

>> the possibility of injuries, serious injuries. how about now? we have heard that the first responders were there, ambulances leaving the scene. have they gotten everybody out that you can tell? >> well, it's a lot clearer than it actually was. it seems the helicopter fell on the roof but it's been cleared. >> you have a picture you took. tell us what we're seeing. it looks like the roof from your window with the helicopter on top of it? >> yeah. that's it. >> tell us about the sound as it came down. you said people heard it, it sounded like an airplane, i guess. did it sound like the engine had stopped or was it coming down, was it loud? tell us what it sounded like as the crash happened. >> well, basically, i just heard

something that didn't sound right for a couple seconds, then i heard a massive crash. so i looked out at the car park and i thought maybe it was a car crash, but it was really worse. >> devastating, i'm sure. tell us what it looks like now. are there still first responders poring over the scene that can see? okay. this is the view out the window. we couldn't see your view there. why don't you describe to us what it looks like. >> it's very calm now.

there's just a lot of fire engines, a lot of -- everything has been cordoned off. it's not as bad as it was before but there's a lot of people looking out. >> christine, i will ask you to try to move your camera one more time. i will ask our viewers to bear with us. you know how slow internet speeds can be. we will try to get you a live picture via christine o'neill's computer camera. if you could try to face it out the window for us. so we have an eyewitness now. you can see the lights of the first responders there. little blurry but i can see the figures all around the pub.

just hold it still, that will help us. so tell us what we're seeing there. i can see the flashing lights from some of the first responders. it looks like the pub on the left? >> yeah. pub on the left. >> still dozens of people there. what are the first responders doing? it's a little hard for us to see. are they still taking the injured out of the building? >> no. they must have stopped. what it looks like is -- it doesn't actually look like they're taking any more out. there's no sense of urgency the way you would see about ten minutes ago. >> have you been inside the pub before? i've read that it's an old pub that's been there for a long time. what's it like inside there? >> i have personally not been in

it, but i know that [ inaudible ]. i don't even want to think about what it would have been like. >> all of us imagining the scene inside there when rotor blades bursting through the roof. we are just getting some reports that it may have been a police helicopter. you can't make out from where you're standing any markings on that helicopter that might indicate it was a police helicopter? >> well, it's blue, black. i have heard from other people that it is but it didn't really seem like it at the time. >> i want to bring our viewers up to date. we're looking at a live picture now, that's a photograph from glasgow, scotland, where a helicopter, possibly a police helicopter, crashed into a pub

right at the peak of the evening hours, 11:30 live. there's a live picture now through the computer connection of christine o'neill, who lives right across the street from the pub. you can see the first responders there, the flashing lights. she says that they are no longer scrambling around, it's possible that they have gotten the injured out already, but a serious crash there. a very crowded time of the evening in a very popular area in glasgow, scotland. we have just been getting live reports from the scene from an eyewitness, christine o'neill. thank you very much for joining us and giving us that view. we will continue to follow this story on cnn. again, recapping for our viewers, a crashed helicopter in glasgow, scotland. stay with us. just by talking to a helmet. it grabbed the patient's record before we even picked him up. it found out the doctor we needed was at st. anne's. wiggle your toes. [ driver ] and it got his okay on treatment from miles away.

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welcome back. you're watching a live picture from glasgow via skype of a helicopter crash into a pub there. there are multiple ambulances and a special operations team onsite. they're not confirming the number of injuries but a witness that she saw numerous people being removed from the building. can you tell me what you're seeing there? >> at the moment i'm seeing a lot of vehicles, 30 or 40 firemen huddled together. a fire engine is blocking us from being able to see too much. >> can you tell me what you saw

and heard when the helicopter went down into the pub? >> well, i live around the corner from the pub and the first thing we heard was sirens coming from all directions. we went out to see what was happening. and it is just, there were emergency vehicles putting in from everywhere. we couldn't get it first. where we are now is on the corner of victoria pub. we can't see a lot nil. i was with a witness who was in his car when he heard what was happening and i heard the helicopter falling from the sky. >> we've seen from pictures earlier that those rotor blades spinning, broke through the roof of that pub there. have you seen any injured taken away? we've heard of ambulances speeding away. siren blaring. did you see any injured?

>> i didn't see any injured people. i have seen the ambulances driving away. at the moment i can see sort of a tractor vehicle that seems to be removing debris from the pub itself. >> they may be trying to get in there under that wreckage of the helicopter. do you get a sense that those workers whom we're seeing now, this is a skype picture. it is not perfectly clear. you know see the lights blinking lights. you can make out the rotors of the helicopter sticking out at the top of the pub. do you get a essential that those first responders are still working there? there are people inside they're trying to get out? >> there are definitely still something going on here. >> there are a lot of firemen. they are further away. i think there must be closer to the pub but there are a lot of firemen still standing around closer to where we are. >> i'm going to ask you to stay

there for a moment. we have cnn's richard quest live in london now. what are you hearing the latest about this crash and casualties? >> reporter: what's interesting is what we're now starting to hear from some of the eyewitnesses. some of the people actually inside the pub. one woman is saying she did not hear a bang. there was a rock band playing inside. there was a whooshing sound and it seemed as if there was a load of dust that came down from the roof. nobody realized initially the seriousness of the situation. and then more and more of the roof started to come in and then of course, the dust and everybody started to evacuate from the building. she said there was limited panic at that point. it was only when they got outside that people were talking about a helicopter having land on the roof or crashed on the

roof. this is an interesting, one point to make. there are slightly divergent views now of what may have happened. whether this helicopter crashed into the roof of the clutha club or whether it was an emergency landing. a sort of auto rotate landing. we know the helicopter came down very fast will according to various eyewitnesses and reports, there was no explosion. there has been no fire. but this helicopter obviously did crash into the roof of the pub. >> incredible. imagine the terror inside that pub as it happened. the word spreading around the uk right now. we have the british prime minister tweeting, my thoughts are with everyone affected by the helicopter crash in glasgow and the emergency services working tonight. we'll go back to christina o'neal who has provided thus live picture via skich of what is going on to the minute. tell us what you're seeing out of your window as you look at

the scene. >> reporter: well, the pub, the fire engines, the paramedics, most of the damage has been done and i think it is a matter of -- i think any casualties right now. a few people climbing up on to the roof to try and like minimalize -- >> still pouring over the night as it approaches the midnight hour. a helicopter crash at a pub. you are seeing live pictures. first responders pouring over the scene as eyewitnesses told us, still looking passively.

they've removed some injured from there. and we'll continue to follow this throughout the night. thank you very much for joining us. i'm jim sciutto in washington. anthony bourdain is next. >> what do you need to know? i am an aficionado of early erotica. >> i should have known that. >> i know hangover food well and this is good. >> ten years later naked in a bush with like a necklace of spam cans around our necks. >> i certainly cherish those golden moments. >> i'm feeling every hour, every month and year of my age. >> no. maybe we should figure out how to cook dinner unless you don't want to eat anything.