finally, his mission plan which he sent to a psychiatrist before he did it shows clear planning. >> guys all i can say is that the defense has such an uphill road. we have months to go. >> indeed. >> thank you, joey and paul. thank you, all of you, my colleague wolf starts right now. this is cnn breaking news. >> hello, i'm wolf blitzer, 1:00 p.m. in washington 6:00 p.m. in london 1:00 a.m. wednesday in beijing, wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. and we have major breaking news. we're following fifa president sepp blatter has -- is stepping down just only moments ago, fifa officials made the announcement at a news conference in zurich switzerland. all this coming on the heels of a corruption scandal that erupted last week. let's immediate gloi to our international sports anchor alex thomas joining us from london. a bomb shell right now. he was only re-elected last

week. all of a sudden he was getting another term. today this. what happened? >> wolf we were speaking on friday and talking about potentially the most historic week in the history of the planet's most popular sport and now i can safely say this is the most momentous day in the sport of soccer. we've never seen anything like it. i'm flabbergasted and a loss for words which isn't great for a correspondent but sepp blatter at fifa 40 years, this year his 40th anniversary, the third longest serving president in fifa's history, the world governing body for soccer but his fifth term has lasted only four days. he was re-elected at the age of 9 on friday, beating challenger prince ali bin al hussein in a week two investigations in switzerland and the united states saw dawn raids, arrests and indictments like a hollywood mafia movie and since blatter's re-election on friday day after day has seen more lines,

developments and scandals and seems blatter has bowed to pressure and getquit wolf. >> only the other day he was reelected and the runner-up jordan's prince ali bin al hussein pulled out, second round of ball lotting. do we assume prince ali will emerge as the leader of fifa? >> i don't think so, wolf. in a 12-minute news conference the reign of sepp blatter in charge since 1998 came to an end he spoke for several minutes and then the chairman of fifa's audit and compliance committee, he now has a huge job and laid out what's going to happen next. and that is this only fifa's congress can elect a new president. that's the 209 national soccer association's from every corner of the planet they came together in zurich to re-elect blatter should be asked to come back for an extraordinary congress but

won't happen until december at the earliest and some time between december and march next year because the next fifa congress otherwise wouldn't have been until mexico next may. they have to decide on a new president. blatter will not stand again. he's not seeking for a new mandate but understands he can't lead this organization with the scandal it's been hit with and instead will look for a new man. my reading of this i've only had moments to digest it the floor is open anything is possible and soccer is really looking for a few leader to turn a new page in its history. >> and everybody will wonder what happened over the past few days only the other day he was re-elected and talking about what he planned to do over the next several years. all of a sudden he resigns today. something happened in between and we're going to try to find out. stay with us alex. christine brennan is joining us on the phone, a cnn sports analyst. christine, i assume you're as flabbergasted as the rest of us? >> wolf i am and i can't help but thinking what happened over

the last four days to change things. sepp blatter is one of those officials that we know well from the international olympic committee, from all of the fifa and they are, these fed deteriorations that run sports. they are invincible. they're leading lives that we can't imagine in a democratic society. and so he had this. it was his. he had won and it was over. and the thought that now he's giving that up four days later, tells me something changed. and as we know the scandal continues, the fifa scandal, with "the new york times" reported that blatter's top lieutenant at fifa made $10 million in bank transactions authorities believe that. that was reported on monday. is it possible that they are getting closer to blatter himself and if that's the case maybe he knows more about the investigation and maybe he realized he had to go. it will be fascinating to watch how that plays out. there has to be a reason why this occurred.

this didn't just happen because blatter thought this is the best for fifa. no. it's all about himself and he has to be doing this for some reason we don't yet know. >> we don't know the reason although a lot of speculation, christine, that the u.s. attorney general, loretta lynch, who filed all these charges, the other day, against these other fifa leaders, the fbi director james comey, they repeatedly said their investigation is by no means complete. in fact it's only just beginning. and they fully left open the door more indictments potentially were on the way. i can only assume they are looking very closely at sepp blatt he and what, if anything he knew about the alleged wrongdoings, bribery and other financial irregularities. that's the assumption i'm working on christine. >> and i am too, wolf. how can you not be looking at sepp blatter, the man in charge since 1998. this organization we are finding out, because of the good work of loretta lynch and the

justice department and fbi, we're finding out this organization is corrupt to the core. this is a man who's been running it since 1998 as i said. how did he not know? i'm asking questions because you and i are journalists and have no idea for sure but we've been in this business for a while and it just makes sense that blatter had to know. it just defies logic he wouldn't know. if he knew, then are the authorities closing in. this is what this tells me without, again, any specific knowledge. but just logic and common sense tells you there's more to this now. blatter absolutely, wolf, he had to know. he's the man, he is soccer he's been soccer in the worldwide now for, well mentioning 40 some years, but really in charge for the last 17. this is a guy running the whole organization. fifa is crumbling around him and the authorities are, of course moving in and finding things out

that we kind of thought about but never would have known for sure until the u.s. was investigating and is doing this. now you have to wonder if he's next and he, of course, would be just a huge huge figure to fall if the u.s. does start to investigate and find that he was also involved. >> something happened over the past four days to convince him to resign. we will try to learn what that was. christine, thanks very much. s there's another breaking story we're following now. this one out of boston. a police officer and an fbi agent shot and killed a man who was being watched by the u.s. joint terrorism task force. the boston police commissioner says when the man was confronted by authorities he pulled out a large military style knife which he refused to put down. deborah feyerick is following the story. do we know why this man was being watched? >> we're learning investigators from the joint terrorism task force had this man on radar. it was for potential terror activity now we're learning specifically that it seems to be he was making threats against

police officers perhaps imminent threats against police officers. now at about 7:00 a.m. today in boston's roslindale section the police officer and fbi agent cub fronted the man and when the man turned around he was brandishing what they describe as a fairly large military style knife. he was told repeatedly to put down the knife and he didn't and, therefore police and the fbi agent felt they had no option but to shoot him down and taken to a hospital and died of his injuries. >> more on this story developing, obviously, right now as well. thank you. the u.s. senate here in washington votes on a bill that would give the national security agency the nastsa some of its powers back. major provisions of the patriot act expired after senator rand paul and others blocked the extension of the law the senate is taking up a house version known as the usa freedom act. republican congressman james sensenbrenner of wisconsin is the chairman of the house judiciary committee and

introduced the patriate act after 9/11 attacks and the usa freedom act. thanks very much for joining us. what's going to happen now? >> well the senate is going to have a vote and i hope that they pass the freedom act unamended and send it to the president for his signature, which will happen because the president has repeatedly stated he supports this bipartisan compromise which was overwhelmingly approved by the house. >> if the senate makes changes, it has to go back to the house. you then have to review it. it has to pass the house again. you could be going back and forth on the house senate conference committee. do you think that's likely. >> i hope it isn't likely. there are some authorities that the security people and intelligence people need and it's not just cutting back on what type of vare lens is needed but we've got to reinstate the lone wolf terrorist provisions and the court-ordered roving wire tap provisions which also

expire. together with my other house sponsors we did send a statement out that said that all three of the proposed senate amounts are poison pills and if the senate wants to have the bill bounce back and forth or further delay with the conference committee, then very important provisions of this law will end up not being implemented and i think that would make the american public more vulnerable. >> the freedom act which you support passed the house of representatives overwhelmingly with 338 votes, obviously a bipartisan statement of support. it moves the collection of the bulk phone data from the nast to the various phone companies, telecommunication companies like verizon or at&t. some have complained, though they wonder how long the phone companies would have to retain all of this bulk data. can you answer that?

>> well there's no provision in the freedom act that says they have to retain it longer than is necessary for their ordinary business purposes like sending out bills and making sure the bills are paid. if we need real time intelligence on who's calling whom that's sufficient. the nsa could go to the foreign intelligence surveillance court and get a warrant, but the warrant could only name a specific person. there would be no bulk collection either under the expired provisions of the pate yts yot act or other laws like the national security letter law which we're not a part of the patriot act. so i'm not overly concerned about that and i think that saying that we have to put in law how long the phone companies keep their records beyond normal business practices, is really a red herring. >> some have complained senator, angus king the

independent senator from maine, he said he doesn't know if they have to keep it for six days six weeks, six months six years, that's a problem. you've heard that complaint? >> i've heard that complaint and we know they're going to keep it long enough to make sure they can sepdnd out their bills and collect them and if somebody doesn't pay their bills they have to keep the records long enough to go to court to get a judgment to collect them. so again, i think that's a red herring. people keep accounts receivable and billing records long enough to protect themselves. i think that will be long enough to protect the public because old intelligence is useless intelligence. >> you think american -- the american public is less secure today than it was on sunday before the nsa, the patriot act expired? >> i don't tlipg so. i think the patriot act has made americans safer, which is not safe but safer.

on the other hand the original intent of the patriot act was to prevent data mining and beginning in 2006, the nsa und arer er both the bush and obama administrations ignored the law. the second court of appeals in new york said that the administration completely misconstrued the stated intent of the law and said that what they were doing with bulk collection was illegal. i think the court got it right. that means they'll be able to have corrections to only target people suspected of terrorism, the safer american people are. every day the senate delays on sending this bill to the president, is going to make us less safe. >> mr. chairman, thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you. >> james sensenbrenner chairman of the house judiciary committee. other news the fallout has begun after a stunning report on

taz security nurse. just ahead, i'll speak with a florida congressman who actually helped create the security agency. we'll find out what he says is going on right now. also a race against time to rescue more than 400 people trapped inside a luxury cruise ship that may have been hit by a tornado.

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insurance and you could save up to $423 dollars. call liberty mutual for a free quote today at see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance. the transportation safety administration, the tsa, has a new boss melvin carraway is out. he was reassigned following revelations that his security agents failed to detect banned items including weapons and explosives get this 95% of the time during a recent inspection by the department of homeland

security inspector general. homeland security secretary jeh johnson has already made some changes directing the tsa to revise its screening procedures conduct training and reevaluate its screening equipment. joining us now from capitol hill is representative john my ka the former chairman of the house transportation infrastructure committee and helped set up the tsa following the 9/11 attacks. thanks very much for joining us. i know you've been critical of the tsa in the past suggesting occasionally it's out of control. this report which we all learned about yesterday, it is so shocking what was your reaction? >> well nothing is new in washington or with tsa. in fact wolf i got a report that cnn did in 2007 the title is "airport screeners fail to find most fake bombs." you all reported, cnn, in 2007 that 75% of the time they failed and in this report it

says also they had 30,000 screeners. we now have 46,000 screeners and they're failing 95% of the time according to this report. so they're spending more money, bigger bureaucracy and performing even worse. >> i remember that report cnn did in 2007 and we all assumed, though in the aftermath of that report some major changes, improvements were being made at screening locations and airports all over the country. in this new report the inspector general the department of homeland security said there were 70 attempts to smuggle through tsa agents fake bombs, guns explosives and 67 times, 67 times, they got the stuff through the tsa, which is so shocking so worrisome. what do you do about that? >> well it's even worse than that wolf. that was dhs and tsa. they're doing red teams,

checking themselves there are other reports like gao and they have many reports here of showing the failures in training recruitment and row taining personnel. and the equipment management they don't know how much equipment they have they don't know how to maintain it. they don't keep regular reports on it. some of the equipment they bought we spent millions they had to be destroyed by d.o.d. after they spent millions of dollars storing them. the back scatter equipment, which you don't see at the airport the misplacement of the equipment they've got out there for detection and the failure of that equipment, we see, is not working after spending billions of dollars and hiring thousands and thousands of more peoplep we have 14,000 bureaucrats in tsa across the country, 14,000 and 46,000 screeners. it's out of control. >> because some people say maybe these screeners aren't being paid enough. i know you've in the past

proposed privatizing this whole operation. what would that do? >> well first of all, the government needs to get out of the screening business. it needs to set the standards, the protocols, it needs to do the audits and inspections and also go after people who pose a risk connecting the dots the intelligence and security portions not what they're doing, trying to manage this huge bureaucracy, get them out of that business and into the security business like almost all the other countries have done. u.k. israel we're like romania and bulgaria. we have the huge government bureaucracy that never stops. get people to do what they do best and government has an important role in setting the standards and protocols and auditing the process. >> congressman, thanks very much for joining us. >> good to be with you. thank you. >> john mica the representative from florida. coming up hundreds of people trapped inside a luxury ship now

floating upside down in china. the latest on the rescue efforts. that's just ahead. big day? ah, the usual. moved some new cars. hauled a bunch of steel. kept the supermarket shelves stocked. made sure everyone got their latest gadgets. what's up for the next shift? ah, nothing much. just keeping the lights on. (laugh) nice. doing the big things that move an economy. see you tomorrow, mac.

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china's weather service confirms a tornado hit the area where a luxury cruise ship capsized. more than 400 are missing. the ship was on a 13-day trip along the yangtze river when it went down two miles from shore in 50 feet of water. david mckenzie has more on the effort right now to rescue the people trapped beneath the hull. >> reporter: a harrowing escape after hours trapped below. chinese rescuers pulled the

65-year-old woman to safety after frantic searching. she made it out. hundreds of others haven't. after the eastern star overturned with more than 400 passengers on board. rescuers searched tuesday for the hundreds still missing. local media reported they could hear knocks within the ship's hull. and rescuers using hammers tried to make contact for proof of life. >> translator: as long as there's even a little hope we'll give it 100% and absolutely not give up. >> reporter: according to state media the ship's captain and engineer made it out alive and said the ship had been hit by a tornado and up-ended in 50 feet of water. now they are in custody of the authorities and being questioned. china's weather service confirms there was severe weather at the time. the frantic search continues from the staging ground next to the yangtze, but as the hours tick by the hope fades and the weather is playing its part making it more difficult to try

to find anyone trapped in the hull. passengers families wept as they gathered to wait for news news that for too many could be full of grief. david mckenzie, cnn, on the banks of the yangtze river. >> terrible story that is. when we come back the shocking news out of the world of soccer. the fifa president sepp blatter, announcing he's resigning only four days after he was re-elected. hey, you forgot the milk! that's lactaid. right. 100% real milk, just without the lactose. so you can drink all you want... ...with no discomfort? exactly. here, try some... mmm, it is real milk. see? delicious. hoof bump! oh. right here girl, boom lactaid®. 100% real milk. no discomfort and for a creamy and delicious treat, try lactaid® ice cream

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welcome back. i'm wolf blitzer reporting from washington. our top story the president of the world soccer governing body fifa is resigning, sepp blatter made the announcement at a news conference within the last hour in zurich switzerland. it comes on the heels of a huge corruption scandal that erupted last week. let's bring in our cnn international sports anchor alex thomas joining us from london. what a bomb shell, only four days after he was re-elected to another term he announces, stepping down. do we have any clue happened over the past four days? >> we don't know if there's something being untold yet, wolf did sepp blatter jump before he was pushed but certainly this man who is as famous as star players like lionel messy or christian reynaldo like manchester united and real madrid has been mr. soccer for 40 years, been at the world governing body for the

planet's most popular sport and president since 1998 the third longest serving leader of that organization but as you say his fifth term re-elected at the sage of 79 has lasted just four days. although he will continue to fulfill his duties as fifa president until congress 209 national associations from across the planet more members than the united nations, meet in the extraordinary congress to elect a new president. blatter has gone and it's flabbergasted the whole soccer world, wolf. >> it certainly has. as you know alex the u.s. attorney general loretta lynch who i a nounsed these corruption charges against so many of his top aides over the past several days she and the fbi director here in the united states james comey, have made it clear their investigation is continuing, so the assumption has been maybe they have specific charges or evidence againstblatter himself.

what are folks in europe saying. >> we know under the u.s. investigation one of the men kauth called in for questioning was jack warner. he used to be head of confa caf, the federation in charge of soccer for central and north america including the united states and the caribbean. one of blatter's trusted allies for years and years but left under a cloud a few years ago, accused of corruption. he's the focus of one of the specific alleges in the "new york times" newspaper on monday mentioned that explosive department of justice news conference last week that read like a hollywood mafia movie script in relation to a $10 million payment. if i go into the details it gets very difficult indeed but there will be suspicion, yes, that sepp blatter was concerned about what might have been said under tough questioning, although we have heard via rob harris at the associated press, that he's spoken to the swiss authorities conducting a separate and different investigation into the controversial bidding processes

for the 2018 and 2022 world cups. they say they are not looking at sepp blatter. their stance hasn't changed from last week at the moment no specific on mr. blatter. since being elected as president for a fifth time on friday we've seen scandal after day, scandals from new zealand to paraguay and brazil it's been never ending. >> they off go after lesser officials, they turn some of these lesser officials who then speak out against the big boss and i assume that potentially could be happening even as we speak right now. alex thomas we'll stay on top of the huge story. sepp blatter four days after he was re-elected the leader of the head of fifa stepping down. what a surprise this is. just ahead, hillary clinton's unfavorable ratings, hit a 14-year high. top republicans are closing the gap with her in our new poll. we'll discuss the results. our political panel is next. this is judy. judy is 65 years old.

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a flunew poll includes troubling negligence for hillary clinton. negative opinions of the secretaries has gone up since she kicked off her presidential campaign and her unfavorable rating at a 14-year high. all of this coming in a brand new cnn/orc poll. look at this 46% of americans now say they have a favorable

opinion of clinton, 50% say they have an unfavorable view. the highest since 2001. in the race for the republican nomination, florida, senator marco rubio leads a crowded field of candidates and possible contenders. rubio at 14% with jeb bush close behind at 13%. let's bring in our national political reporter mauve, joining us from los angeles, and chief political analyst gloria borger in washington. chaets most striking to you about the new cnn/orc poll. >> what's really striking to me for months we've been talking ability the possibility of a bush/clinton matchup, the two die nastic political families and how the public would kind of be sick of both of them. when you look at our poll we asked an important question because elections are about change and the future we asked the question hillary clinton represents the past or the future. take a look. 51%, even though she's been in

politics for decades, right, 51s% say hillary clinton represents the future. when you ask that same question about jeb bush take a look at this. jeb bush 62% say he represents the past. so hillary clinton probably by virtue of being a woman and her gender makes her look like more of the future gets the benefit of the doubt. jeb bush the name, not so much. >> maiv the former secretary had trouble connecting with voters according to our new cnn poll. only 47% of those polls say she cares about people like them that's down from 53% a year ago. and only 42% view her as honest and trust worthy, compared to 57% who do not. this is a problem, isn't it? >> it is. we should remember her people always expected her numbers to drop once she actually entered

the race nobody gets a free pass but i was in iowa last week and over the weekend talking to voters and you're hearing a lot of this now even anecdotally people are paying attention to the e-mail scandals and, you know, the clinton foundation discussion democrats that i was talking to were saying that they weren't sure that she was as strong as they were originally thinking and that's a really interesting to watches especially because you have some of the younger contenders like glorias has been talking about, like rubio, who potentially could say listen i can go up against her and be a much stronger challenger? >> gloria let's shift to the republicans for a moment. jeb bush his family ties helping or hurting? >> the at this point not helping. and that's -- that's a real problem for him, particularly as he goes up against some of the younger people that -- younger contenders that mauve is talking about. we asked the question bush family connections make you more likely to vote for him.

take a look. 27. less likely 56%. and i will tell you, when that same question was asked in 2000 when w. was running, 42% said yeah the bush name will actually help. so this time you see that the brand is kind of tarnished and that republicans have more of a choice a larger field. hillary clinton, not so much. so dmtss s democrats don't have much of a choice. they say compared to what and they have bright shiny candidates out there. >> republicans seem to be according to our poll closing the gap in a potential hypothetical head-to-head matchup with hillary clinton, running about even with rand paul marco rubio, scott walker leads bush and cruz by margins. what do you make of this? >> i think we're going to see those numbers evolve a lot over the next year but the important thing to remember is that they are really good selling point

for which ever candidate is coming out the strongest against her. you know, obviously jeb bush had argued he would be the strongest contender against hillary clinton or his people have but you're seeing how strong rubio could be what the contrast looks like and really that is going to be very helpful to the campaigns that are trying to rise to the top. the other thing that i saw in iowa this past weekend was that there really is a lot of room for a lot of those second tier contenders to vault to the top and i think we should definitely expect that to happen at some point, considering how unpredictable things always are in iowa. >> we got to leave it there. we'll continue this conversation later in the situation room. guys thank you. this just in to cnn, president obama will deliver the eulogy this coming saturday for beau biden, the son of the vice president joe biden. the younger biden died saturday of brain cancer. he was only 46 years old. his body will lie in honor at the legislative hall in dover, delaware on thursday.

public viewing will be held friday in wilmington. beau biden was a veteran of the iraq war, former attorney general for the state of delaware. still to come amir hekmati, an american veteran and inmate at one of iran's most notorious prisons. his family and law maker are fighting a huge fight for his freedom. they're standing by and join us live when we come back. my advice? look on the bright side... with aveeno® skin brightening scrub. it has moisture rich soy and gentle exfoliators for brighter more radiant skin. aveeno® naturally beautiful results®. (music) boys? stop less. go more. the passat tdi clean diesel with up to 814 hwy miles per tank. just one reason volkswagen is the

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tonight cnn will air a special situation room. in it i asked a number of generals and admirals what they think the united states should do now. >> the president of the united states calls you into his situation room and says what's the most important thing the united states can do right now to defeat isis you say? >> get the sunni tribes fighting. >> you say? >> ramp up support so they have the ability to fight. >> what does that mean? >> forward air controllers, more precise, more effective air strikes, as a start. >> what does he say to you? >> most important thing to do is get to the leadership in baghdad and tell them to get off their tails and make a difference out in anbar. >> initially, keep isis where it is in some form of containment, long term do everything these gentlemen said. >> all of the above but a focus on what admiral fallen said you have to persuade and we have not done diplomatically the things we need to do to get the iraqi government supporting all of their people.

>> don't miss our situation room special report isis what should the u.s. do now, that airs tonight 9:00 p.m. eastern only on cnn. the families of four americans held in iran testified before the house foreign affairs committee today and asked for more help to try to secure the release of their loved ones. jason risen, saeed abedineny, and amir hekmat ki. hekmati's sister made an emotional statement. her brother imprisoned in tehran's prison since 2011 when the former u.s. marine was arrested and accused of being an american spy. >> as a tourist, amir was kidnapped from the home of his relatives and taken to evan prison. as a tourist he was held in a one meter by one meter cell allowed out ten minutes a week to stretch his legs. he was beat on his feet with cables taser, held for months in solitary confinement. to date our family feels as

though we have exhausted every option reached out to the u.n. human rights groups islamic organizations, ambassadors from other nations and engaged with high level officials from the u.s. and iran. . >> sarah heck metty, and congressman dan kildee from michigan is joining us now. thanks very much for coming in. emotional hearing today. allowed five-minute phone calls every day. sometimes more. more toward my mother. these are sanctioned phone calls. prior to that we had no communication at all. this has been a newer development. it's been helpful one hand and then obviously we can't say everything that we want to say. how's he doing physical? >> he lost over 30 pounds in the beginning in solitary.

my brother's not a big guy any way. he's athletic. the nutrition is skim, the rationing. >> dr. curry, you're a physician. this has got to be what, 40 years, an emotional issue, as well? >> very much so. he is very strong. we're concerned about him and his psyche and how he's going to be impacted. >> and from your district in michigan you've been taking the lead in trying to generate outrage. is there any progress at all that the iranians are listening, that they might release him and the other americans? >> try to consider any progress when americans are still in prison. the p5+1 negotiations have given us space to have bilateral discussion that gives us a chance to engage with iran. we tend to see that as progress. progress was made this morning when the house foreign affairs

committee -- i was asked is on at this time in on the committee -- unanimously in a bipartisan fashion made a strong statement that if iran wants to rejoin the international community, they have to release these americans. that resolution will go to the floor of the house. it's progress when the united states government speaks with one voice. iran understands -- they can negotiate anything they want. they won't be welcomed into the community of nations until they stop this behavior and stop -- >> is there any connection, linkage between this and the proposed nuclear deal on the table, supposedly wrapped up this together? >> we have to be careful with linkage. linkage in the sense that there's opportunity for bilateral discussions. iran has to recognize it's going to be hard for congress or anyone to see this agreement if it is agreed to as legitimate when they continue to hold prisoners. we don't want to trade iran's nuclear capabilities or concessions, economic sanctions for the freedom of a man who

simply served his country in uniform and is being held in an iranian prison because of that. >> is that why they're holding him, because he served in the united states marine corps? is that enough for them to be holding your brother all these years? >> i mean that's what we're speculating. they've dropped the iesespionage charges completely when they annulled the death sentence. they say he's cooperating with a hostile government. his cooperation is for us what serving the u.s. marines. >> that's enough to hold him? >> according to the supreme leader's mandate, there's nothing wrong with a dual national serving in another country's military. really it's not even going in accordance to their own -- >> remind viewers, why did he go back? why did he go to? his family obviously of persian ancestry. why did he go back? >> amir and i were born in the u.s. our grandmother would come here to visit. she became elderly. it was hard for her to travel. he went. this was his first trip. he stay thursday for two weeks, enjoyed time with family. right before he came back is

when they took him. >> they took him because he was a former marine? >> he was under investigation and of told he would be acquitted and released, there was nothing to worry about. now it turned into him being a spy and later cooperating with a hostile government. we're across the table with the hostile government. that's what is questioning for us. >> doctor if you could speak to the iranians who are holding him, what would you say to them? >> we would implore that they realize we're not a political family. we never were. we're not trading a humanitarian gesture for world peace and taxi. amir deserve to be free regardless of whatever charges he has. his time is up. there's no reason to have him there. there's multiple outlets. we respectfully implore his release. >> would also like -- we mentioned that amir's father has been very sick. he has terminal brain cancer. he's gone through two strokes. time is limited for us.

amir actually did not know for a long time that his father was suffering with this. >> we want to put the urgency on the fact that our father is not doing well. and amir is there. even in their own accord, they said he could be eligible for conditional release, for amnesty. these are things that the attorney sees are avenues for potential -- >> i know you're grateful to the congressman for his efforts, the fight. what about the state department the u.s. government? are they doing enough to help your brother? >> as a family, it's never enough until amir's home. we as a family want to say yes, it's being recognized on a county is basis, but what's the -- on a consistent base but what's enough? it's been four years. when we're across the table from the iranians and they're the -- the previous americans arrested in iran that came back sooner that amir has. that's why we're struggling with this. >> it's hard for us watching the

negotiations -- a quick answer for you -- the iranians will benefit tremendously from the nuclear deal. tense of billions will flow to them -- tens of billions will flow to them. at a minimum gesture, they can release the americans. >> absolutely. specifically having vouched for amir and the charge they're not sbonl. we impleer respect fl-- we implore respectfully. we ask for his release. >> let's hope he's released three others released as well. congressman, thank you very much for what you're doing. thanks to you, as well. good luck. >> thanks for having us. >> that's it for me. i'll be back at 5:00 p.m. "newsroom with brooke baldwin" starts after a quick break.

here we go. you're watching cnn. we've got breaking news on this tuesday afternoon. i'm brooke baldwin. to boston, we've learned moments ago the name of the terror suspect who shot and killed at this crime scene here. still taped off this afternoon. has brother has identified him as osama rahim. we're waiting for a conference. in the meantime his brother is giving a vastly different version of how he died compared to what authorities are saying. boston police say a man under surveillance by the joint terrorism task force pulled a knife on officers when they were approaching him. >> the officers asked -- gave several commands for him to drop the weapon. and unfortunately,