truck plowed through the crowd, and this alert is coming as police admit that the suspect they have in custody may not be the man responsible for the attack. there's also been a call for increased security out of moscow. it is reaction to the very public assassination of the russian ambassador to turkey, who was gunned down at a gallery opening in the turkish capital. also, isis is claiming responsibility for a terror attack in jordan that killed ten people in a popular tourist spot. we begin in berlin, where police are planning to increase security around the city. this could include putting up barriers in and around popular tourist destinations. cnn's senior international correspondent frederik pleitgen is live in berlin right now. sounds, fred, like police thought they their guy and now don't seem so sure? >> reporter: yeah, you're absolutely right, brianna. exactly what police are saying. shortly after 8:00 p.m. this incident took place here in

berlin, and shortly after that the police announced they did have a person in custody. now, as they were interrogating this person it became clear this was apparently someone who had come here seeking asylum. at some point late last year, and he was from pakistan, apparently. however, as the police kept interrogating this individual, decrea increasingly it became clear they had the wrong person in custody and are saying they acknowledged that and saying people need to be on the lookout, because they believe somebody might still be at large after plowing through that christmas market with that truck, be at large, and also carrying a gun as well. because one of the things found was another body on the passenger seat of that truck with bullet wounds and no gun recovered at the scene of the crime or at the scene where they opeapprehended that one person they're interrogating.

potentially very dangerous when you look at the carnage left behind when that truck plowed through that christmas market yesterday. some of the accounts from people yesterday absolutely harrowing and saying people were dragged along by the truck. people couldn't get out of the way because the christmas market was so packed and that truck moving so fast. brianna? >> it's significant there was major concern initially when germany thought it had its suspect it could be a refugee. this is so important. tell us why. >> reporter: yeah. well, it certainly is, because one of the things that's obviously happening in germany over the past one and a half years, an open door policy where a lot of people here from places like iraq, afghanistan and syria as well nap led to discontent. a big upsurge in right-wing parties, regional elections where right-wing parties got a substantial part of the vote and

people believe if it turned out someone sought asylum in germany was behind this attack it to lead to a lot of discontent. criticism already of angela merkel who tacame forward today gave a speech, a statement saying she understands all that, the need for the public to feel secure and will be meeting with her ministers and other people in the cabinet to make sure that people can feel safe at venues like this one. yes, it is something that could potentially hurt her very badly politically. also in light of the fact she has an election year coming up in 2017. brianna? >> all right. frederik pleitgen in berlin, thank you. in turkey, state-run immediate jahr claims police found terrorism propaganda inside. home of a gunman who assass assassinated a russian ambassador. police also say they've detained seven people now in connection with this attack. i'm joined now by cnn international diplomatic editor nic robertson in ankara for us as well as cnn correspondent

mohammed lila in hatai. what more do we know about the shooter, his motive and those in custody currently? >> reporter: sure. police describe him as being 22 years old. a young police officer, had been with, and doing riot training the last 2 1/2 years. the seven detained, his mother, father, sister, a couple of uncling and a couple friends, these people may not necessarily be actually connected with his attack. it's not unusual in turkey for the government to arrest close family members, close, or detain close family members and friends. what has happened, though, here today, the russian investigators arrived here went just over the road here into the building where that murder took place. they had on their forensic overalls, their protective covers on their shoes as if they were going into the crime scene. they didn't stay too long there. went in with their turkish

counterparts, we've learned from a state news agency that, not just they say that al qaeda books have been found in his apartment, but also books relating to, the group, the government blames for the coup last summer. again, the government has rounded up tens of thousands of people over recent months connected to that coup. that's quite a -- a large brush, if you will. they target any of their enemies here. no evidence made public, but also, the investigation, we're told, going to his hometown, talking to his old high school friends, to his college friends, details of the -- that government media here are reporting include that his family wasn't particularly well off. that he didn't pass his exams to get to university. only managed to get into police school, that his mother had been divorced. that he had a half sister. so -- the picture that's being

painted, if you will, by the government media, is someone that wasn't a high achiever. a bit alone. something wrong with this guy. that's the image in state media. again, brianna, we don't have that evidence. hard evidence, made public. >> mohammed, we heard the gunman, yelling in turkish, he said, do not forget aleppo. do not forget syria right after this attack. the foreign minister, sergey lavrov met with turkish and iranian counterparts today to discuss the attack and also the deteriorating situation in syria. tell us about that meeting. >> reporter: well, brianna, actually a very important meeting and very big development today. russia now says it has a plan to solve the syrian crisis, and it looks like for the first time russia has buy-in from both turkey and iran. this is why it's important, brianna. turkey, iran and russia are the key players right now in syria. iran has its proxies and militias fighting on the ground. turk hey its, it is supporting

fighting on the ground including the free syrian army at one point being backed by the united states. as part of russia's plan, russia says all three countries will provide guarantees to rein in different groups on the ground so they don't violate a cease-fire. and that's key, because if anyone has control over these groups it's those three countries. this could be the building block for something bigger, but in that joint declaration that came out of this meeting today, there was a perceived slight or a perceived jab at the united states if you will. that declaration actually came out and made reference to failed u.s. plans to provide any cease-fire in syria. saying that the united states plans were "a non-starter" because the united states simply doesn't have any influence in the region. of course, we know that the united states has been slightly hands-off in syria over the last couple of years and what happens when hands off? that vacuum filled by turkey, iran and russia. >> thanks to both of you. president obama called german chancellor angela america

toll offer condolences in the aftermath of this attack in ber lirn and pledged the country's support to her. joining me now, ron johnson, chairman of the senate homeland security committee and i wonder, senator if there's anything you can tell us about what you're being told about these attacks? >> i don't know anything further than what's being reported, but it's getting pretty depressing, the frequency of these attacks. we'll develop in, find out more about these terrorists. find out about their motives and move on and report the next terrorist attack. so bottom line is, we got to get serious about this. this administration hasn't been. the policy, the strategy of peace withdraw a miserable failure that's allows this in the middle east. we're not even in the discussions of what we need to do moving forward with syria. this is controlled by iran and russia and turkey right now. >> how do you think donald trump is going to change that, when he seems to have a certain appetite

for some actions but also a limited appetite for some intervention? >> first of all, he's going to be inheriting a mess. face it, 2011 iraq was stabilized. isis hadn't risen from a fairly defeated al qaeda in iraq. we've seen the similarity of nearly half a million syrians. they've accomplished their goal. russia has a -- achieved its objective, and so maybe we can find shared goals of next defeating isis. only the first step. because it's isis that is inspiring the lone wolves here in america. potentially what we just saw in germany, but we also have to be concerned about the fact they've been in operation now for a couple years and caliphate, training children to behead, 7-year-old children to behead their enemies. we are talking about directed wolf packs. saw that in brussels. istanbul airports. we had fbi director comey,

threat hearing a couple weeks ago, said we are going to witness a diaspora of terrorists. once we finally defeat isis unlike the world's seen, because they've been trained, hardened, battle tested. the situation evolving, metastasizing and growing. >> i want to tell viewers, word the suspect in berlin, or who was a suspect, has been released. so at this point, it appears whoever is responsible for that attack on the christmas market is very much at large, which, of course, is very alarming. >> and of course, isis has been encouraging their adherence to attack with -- >> with anything you have. whether that's a knife, whether that is a vehicle. we saw that at ohio state university, we saw it in the bastille day attack in, in france last year. are you worried about that? especially when you have so many gatherings of people here in the u.s.? you worried about that here? >> unique about isis, unlike any other terrorist group, they're using social media, and so the

jihad is spread globally and instantaneously. new concept, new idea, can spread it and here and carrying it out. >> doing things that take a little less planning, or that have a smaller footprint that aren't as easy to trace. right? >> precisely, and not easy to stop, either. why you've got to start taking this one step at a time. we should have defeated isis literally two years ago. we better defeat it quickly in the first administration. that's a first step. i was nuft? israel, down in the sinai. now calmed global jihad. that's the isis affiliate in egypt in the sinai. they're growing in strength potentially in libya. they are spreading. iran, its influence spreading. setting up satellites in the western hemisphere and we entered a horrible deal funneling hundreds of billions into the economy, military of iran, self-proclaimed enemy, largest state-sponsored terrorist. take care of isis. it's only just the beginning. >> there are very few foreign

governments when it coming to this attack on the russian ambassador. who was killed by a gunman in turkey who has said, this is someone who is radicalized, but we do now know that state-run media in turkey is saying police found terrorism propaganda inside of his house. my question for you is, yesterday we saw donald trump tweet something that went further than the white house had. in addition to condemning the attack agency the white house did, donald trump attributed it to radicalized islamic terror. my question is -- is that him knowing something that at that point we didn't know? or is that him jump, the gun, and if so, is that a concern? >> well, i'm just responsible for my own actions. i try and confine my comments to what i currently know and advise noib take that approach. >> if he's not doing that, is that cause for concern to you? >> again what we know is that, you know, isis is inspiring lone wolves and these terrorist attacks around the world.

and we know they are occurring in depressing frequency. and we have to address it. we have to get serious about it. this administration has not been. the next administration has to be. by the way, i'm impressed with the people that president-elect trump is starting to appoint. general kelly, department of home 4r7bd security, serious individual. >> rex tillerson. you just met with him. >> i did. >> tell us about that. >> incredibly intelligent, accomplished, knowledgeable individual. has done business globally. knows world leaders. >> the concern people have he's too cozy with vladimir putin. what do you say to that? did you talk to him about that? what did he say? >> absolutely. >> what did he do to allay those concerns? >> chairman of an oil company that has to go and basically extract oil where it is. so he has to deal with governments and leaders, unsavory characters. >> but did support no sanctions against russia he had a different role at that point in time. >> you think he can take that

hat off and -- can do that and people shouldn't worry? >> an example, working for a company and decide to get a better offer at their competitor. your allegiance, loyalty, goes to your new assignment. people do it all the time. i have no doubt. again, his background, his experience. i think he brings a unique set of -- of experiences that very few secretary of states have ever brought. yeah, they may have had policy, policy experience in government, but he also brings that private sector, and it's a vast -- as well as just an accomplished individual. how many people do you know that rose from 1975 from being an engineer to the ceo, successful ceo of america's largest corporation? somebody that's got something on the ball. >> a long career certainly at exxon and did climb the ladder as you mentioned. senator johnson, appreciate you being with us. coming up, president-elect trump tweeted about these attacks, but how is he going to deal with global terrorism once he's in office?

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♪ share the joy of real cream... ...with reddi-wip. welcome back. breaking news on the berlin terror attack. police now released their original suspect. a pakistani man that applied for asyl asylum. they believe the man is on the loose and dangerous. joining me, clarissa ward and paul cruickshank.

paul, no claims at this point in the berlin attack, but tell us what officials are doing right now to try to track down this person, and, also, having thought it was some other suspect, has that cost them a lot of time that could have cost them leads? >> reporter: yes. they've just released the suspect detained overnight. i'm told by a german intelligence official that the reason they released this suspect is because they just didn't have any evidence linking him to this crime. they didn't specifically have forensic evidence linking him to the truck. so in a sense, they were able, obviously, to, from that point of view, rule him out to a certain degree as a possible perpetrator. and that's why they've let him go. that really returns the investigation back to square one. it's not clear at the moment whether they've got any good leads whatsoever and are asking

the public to send in video from the scene of the attack. perhaps if they're lucky they might be able to spot something from one of those videos that the general public may have shot of before and during and the after. but we really don't know who carried this out and it's not clear that the germans have any better idea at this point, and what i'm told by german intelligence officials is they're really is concern now, an armed gunman on the loose, who could strike again. after all, this is somebody who killed the germans believe the truck driver by hijacking this lorry in berlin. >> yes. and the concern he could do it again. heard people saying that as well. clarissa, this is an attack getting so much attention. that's part of the point, obviously. part of the motive here. is this something that serves as a recruiting tool, also maybe serves as an instruction tool for other would-be terrorists? >> reporter: well, i think what

we have to take into account, brianna, at this stage, we genuinely have no idea who was responsible for this attack. and it could well have been some kind of isis-inspired lone wolf. it could have been an isis operative even, or it could have been some type of copycat, not to get into the realm of conspiracy theories but deliberately designed to look like an isis didn'tish spired attack. i'm a little reluctant to specify what the specific purpose's this attack was. more broadly speaking, though, there is no question that these type of spectacular attacks on soft western targets often gratuitously violent targeting civilians specifically in this case a christmas market, it's impossible to miss the symbolism there. they do play well on jihadi recruitment forums and chats online, but, again, we haven't

seen isis which would typically claim responsibility for this type of attack on its news channel on telegram, or any of its other outlets. we haven't seen them claim any responsibility. previously, isis, if they haven't directly orchestrated an attack, just an isis-inspired attack, wait for the attacker to be named and piggyback on to it. it is possible isis is waiting to do that. at this stage, as i said, we simply don't know who exactly in r did th did this. which is astonishing, in some capacity guarding this market, it's astonishing this attacker, armed a possibly on the loose and dangerous. brianna. >> and a worry if on the loose, he is armed, as authorities believe, paul that something he -- he could do something else. we're seeing this attack nearing

the attack in nice, in july. it killed more than 80 peel. the -- 80 people. low-tech attacks that do a lot of damage. is this the normal when talking about these terror attacks? >> one of the aspects of the new norming, that low-attacks against soft targets. it's much more sophisticated plots like we saw in paris and brussels and in fact a few weeks ago, german authorities back in october arrested somebody in -- in germany who was constructing a device out of tatp, a similar explosive used in the paris and brussels attack. somebody with connections to isis. so really germans are dealing with the full spectrum, isis instigated, whether actually reaching out over encrypted

acts, actually holding their hand every step of the way in terms of grooming them for attacks and isis-inspired attacks, no connection back but inspired by isis calls, it's out of the m.o. of isis this attack in terms of that spectrum in terms of the fact they've been calling for these attacks and the fact that the nice attacker did exactly this, in the summer, killing 86 people, but i think clarissa is absolutely right to say we should not rule ot something completely different here. some kind of provocative attack which has nothing to do with the -- the jihadi cause to make it look like the jihadi cause. that's just to say we really don't know at this point who was responsible and i think we need to wait for more from investigators before assuming that this was an act of islamist terrorism. i recall that the, back a few years ago there was an attack in norway where there was many of the hallmarks, a bomb attack

terrorism, turned out an ultra right-wing naturalist, an anti-muslim campaigner. >> that's right. >> we've got to keep an open mind here. we just don't know who carried this out yet. clarissa, this assassination of the russian ambassador to turkey, so brazen, caught on camera. we're now hearing from state-run media that some jihadi propaganda was found in his home. maybe you can tell us how much stock we should nut that and als be -- put in that and also this is an attack different than what we've seen. >> it is different, brianna. you have two levels. the statededstateded -- stated . after he chillingly shot the ambassador in cold blood and expresses outrage over the syria

in syria in aleppo, russia's support of the, you know, the sort of cracking down and the bombardment of the opposition. so you have that component to it, and then beyond that, you also have this secondary idea that potentially he was connected to a larger ring, as you said. state-run media saying there was literature relating to al qaeda that was found in the home of this man. different to know what to make of that. does that mean he's connected to a larger network and part of a cell that he's operating in the name of a specific militant jihadist group or could it be another case of him being inspired by some of the rhetoric he's seen on these jihadi types of websites. some of the literature he may have come across? i think initially there was speculation that perhaps he was just a lone wolf who was genuinely horrified by what he saw in syria and somehow cracked, but with the revelation that there may have been some jihadist propaganda pit cher

found in this home, that certainly opens up the possibility there is a jihadist component to this, and the, of course, that will be of major interest, not only to the turkish investigators but to russian investigators who just arrived in ankara to help facilitate this investigation obviously russian officials want to make sure this does not happen again. not just in turkey but to any russian diplomatic official around the world, brianna. >> certainly right, clarissa ward, paul cruickshank, thank you both. coming up, president obama made a series of decisions during his final days here in office. and incoming president donald trump may not like all of them. details, after this. take one.

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with just over a month left go before eleaves office president obama has been busy in the last 24 hours working on key legacy issues. the president is planning to block sales of new offshore drilling leases in parts of the atlantic and arctic and working on transferring prisoners out of ga guantanamo bay and granted pardons and clemencies to hundreds of prisoners convicted of non-violent offense pms i want to bring in athena jones traveling with president obama in hawaii and we have cnn senior political reporter manu raju as well. so athena, is this president obama's way of trying to cement his legacy on these issues, but it's also very last minute here? >> reporter: that's right, bree non. exactly what he's trying to do. we've heard the president talk how he wants to run through the

tape on his presidency, to work up until the very last minute to get as much of his agenda done as he can, and he's doing this in the face of someone that we know has campaign and promises to undo much of that agenda. so he's working on two fronts. implementing some of these policies, some of which will be difficult for a president trump to reverse, but also using his conversations, the white house calls them consultations, with the president-elect, to try to, to nudge him on some of these issue, explain the thinking behind some of his policies in the hopes that a president trump could keep some of those policies. we saw that a couple days after the election when the two sat in the oval office 90 minutes and understand a few days later we heard president-elect trump, he maybe open to keeping, for instance, some of the popular provisions of obama care. like keeping kids on their parents' plans until the age of 26. the president is working on two fronts here. a two-pronged effort to protect his legacy, making these moves

and also influencing the president-elect. brianna? >> manu, as he tries, not reverse, trying to ban some of the drilling here in the atlantic, in the arctic, makes you wonder, how is it not that donald trump will just come into power and scrap whatever he's done here? >> reporter: that's the big question. but what's challenging for trump is actually, this is a little different than the other executive actions that president obama has taken. this is not something you can simply come in and revoke and wipe away on day one, because what president obama is doing here, invoking a seldom used 1953 law giving him wide latitude to certainly, essentially, deny oil and gas leases in offshore waters. so that law actually does not have any pro zigs svision sayin can rescind what the previous administration has done meaning it could be wrapped up in court going forward and could take years and years and years to

undo. this is not simply come in and just wipe it all away on day one, like trump could do on other executive actions like on immigration, for instance. this is much more difficult, which is why it's such a significant move to make with just a month to go in office. >> the 11th hour and trying to deal with gitmo, and move, and he has for years. the one of the thing hess wanted to do from the jump. close down guantanamo bay. >> reporter: it doesn't seem he can get all of them, but expectation several dozen who are left significantly dwindling down that population much bigger at the time he was in office. a deadline passed monday for president obama to notify congress for any further detainee transfers, and it sounds like there probably will be some more in the final days in office and it will certainly get a lot of attention from republican whose believe what he's doing is dangerous and

donald trump suggests he will ramp up the population in guantanamo. one reason the president is pushing hard in this final days in office here. >> athena in his final days in office, to be clear, this is a working vacation. yes, he's working, but he is also busy doing other things. what's been on his agenda and what's ahead in the coming days? >> reporter: we know, for instance, yes, it's a working vacation. the white house travels with him everywhere p/e he goes. he gets a daily presidential briefing. the only thing actually on the president's public schedule. interesting, of course, to note that, because we're talking about a new president, a president coming in, who has -- not emphasized these intelligence briefings not getting them every day. we know he's working on and keeping abrefabreast all that g around the world. >> athena, you're working hard, but manu raju and i are very

gemmous of your vitt min d you're getting there. keep working hard as you travel with the president. >> reporter: it is warm. >> sure looks like it. all right. we have live pictures now coming from berlin's brandenburg gate. the german flag is being projected there in this beautiful showing of support of the victims in monday's attack on the christmas market. now, this as we are learning that the terrorists responsible for killing 12 people at this berlin market is on the run. a suspect, someone thought to be a suspect, now has been released, ruled out, officials believe. we're going to discuss the latest on germany with former cia director james woolsey.

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an update on our top stories. in germany, the suspect arrest afrd a truck crashed into the berlin christmas market has been released. the general prosecutor says there was a lack of evidence in the case and a source tells cnn no forensic evidence that would tie that suspect to the truck. so the actual perpetrator may still be at large. 12 people were killed, dozens wounded in this awful terror attack and a team of russian investigators is now in ankara, after the assassination of their ambassador to turkey. a separate incident there. he was gunned down by a turkish police officer at an art gallery on monday, all of it caught on tape. i want to discuss this with my next guest. former cia director and former senior adviser to the trump campaign james woolsey. mr. woolsey, as you look specifically what is going on in berlin and we've learned there wasn't, according to officials, forensic evidence to tie that suspect to the attack, are you pretty confident that that means this is someone that wasn't

responsible? >> it's hard to say. it may mean, if the germans have a standard similar to ours, it could, by the preponderance of the evidence, guilty, but not beyond a reasonable doubt. i don't know the german standard for that sort of thing. as long as we play defense. as long as we just -- >> here in the u.s.? >> here in the u.s., or in europe. or just stay in place until somebody comes after us or try to blow up or kill with trucks or whatever, we will stop some of those sorts of attacks, just before they're effective, and we will stop some as they get going, and some will get through. but it's -- it's not going to be successful over the long run. >> i want to point out we're looking at live pictures coming to us from berlin. this is the memorial a beautiful memorial there in honor of the 12 people who died in this awful attack. someone driving a truck into a christmas market there in

berlin. so we've talked a little about the u.s. and the vulnerability compared to europe. but you actually think that we could be as vulnerable or more vulnerable here? what do you think? >> well, we have a -- an electric grid that was designed in the 19th century. >> talking sort of broadly? >> country as a whole. and it's reasonably easily attacked, either with rifles, with -- armor penetrating munitions on them or with a -- small booster launched from a, let's say a container ship off the coast of new york or san francisco, into orbit. that's easily done. putting something into orbit, the effect of it would be what? >> if you detonate it in orbit over the center of the country it could knock out most if not some cases all of country's

electric grid. >> you can defended president-elect trump for not getting the security briefing daily. he wants to know if things change and is always available. i wonder in light of what we're seeing here, these attacks, just a series of them, does he need to get that briefing more often? >> there's more ways to get information than there are people practically. president clinton when i was director, didn't want to sit there and be briefed. he's a speed reader and liked to read. he would take the briefing, take it away and read it. i would gove oth over ter in de with national security adviser tony lake, but bill clinton never sat there and read brief. >> it's widely documented donald trump doesn't like to read large briefs. the briefing is a more palatable

way -- >> it's not a huge document. for anybody a reasonable thing to go through, most of us can read faster than we can listen. so i don't really think this is a major issue. frankly. >> i've heard some people say, so you can speak to this -- that it's not just about getting information. it's not just a one-way process. it's a two-way process. that as someone who is briefed, whether that is through reading or that is through being, being briefed in person, that you then direct policy. so it's this back and forth that's going on. how important is that part of the process? >> it's helpful. i would have liked to have had a relationship with president clinton such that every day we going back and forth, but that's not the way he wanted to work. he would write me notes back, jim, this reads like a chapter from kaplan's new book. seen it yet? right a note back. we interacted in different ways. i was at all the national security council meetings and stay around a minute or two afterwards talking about someone really sensitive and important.

there's lots of ways to do this. one doesn't have to sit there and be briefed every day. >> sounds like you would have preferred that? more effective? >> i would have liked it. when that little airplane crashed into the white house fall of '94. >> people remember that. incredible, south lawn. yes. >> white house staff joke, woolsey still trying to get an appoint with clinton. we got the information the way he wanted it, to speed read. >> okay. so yesterday -- i will say this, this attack, this assassination of the russian ambassador to turkey in turkey, we've learned now from state-run media or it's state-run media only there was propaganda from al qaeda found in this man's home. we now know that. before donald trump tweeted this, basically attributed this to radical islamic terrorists, or a terrorist, the white house

didn't go that far. why the white house wouldn't go that nar condemning it, and is that donald trump getting ahead of his skis on something like this? >> this white house, this administration has not wanted to admit we are at war. have not even used words about jihadis, which the jihadis use themselves. they've talked about violent extremism. >> which is all fair, but when he -- my question is, when he tweets that, does that mean hess knows something definitively or extrapolating? >> i think it's common sense, extrapolating, but when 13 soldiers were killed by an islamic major in the army in fort bliss, the white house called this workplace violence, as if it's -- they were ridiculous. >> become very clear, inspired by a terrorist. so it's become very clear, indeed. >> so you know, trump may have jumped the gun by a little bit, but if he was guessing, his guess looks very much right, if

the guy's carrying around al qaeda material in his backpack or whatever. >> all right. thank you so much, former director woolsey. we appreciate it. >> good to be with you. and they've been searching for missing flight mh370 nearly three years now. could they have been looking in the wrong place this entire time? we'll tell what you a new report has to say, just ahead.

that two year long search for a missing malaysian airliner may have been conducted in the wrong area. a new report by the australian government says search crews are unlikely to find the plane in the part of the indian ocean where they have been looking the entire time. this report follows a november meeting of international experts where satellite and ocean current data was analyzed. i want to bring in david soucie. a cnn safety analyst, and a

former fda safety inspector, the author of the book "malaysia airlines flight 370." so this, david, was the head of australia's transport agency almost l exactly a year ago, let's listen. >> we're optimistic we'll find the aircraft. we have meters still to cover? >> different tune now, what's going on? >> commissioner dolan is using a scientific principle called yet it's not there so it must be here." they make it scientific, it's not. they've looked in the area they most thought it would be in and it wasn't there so now it's the discussion around how do we get to the next spot and should we look in the next area.

. it's cost hundreds of millions of dollars at this point. if they go on, who pays for that? . that's a very good question and this is the first step, who's going to but more philosophically is why should we? what's to be gained? is it more pain and suffering for the loved ones of those that were lost or do we spend that time and effort making it not happen again. what is it we can do instead of continuing the search. >> this report we've seen doesn't address the possible cause of the crash. certainly there's satellite information about what may have happ happened are we closer to finding out what happened when the plane went down in the first place. >> the clues we have so far are pieces of the aircraft which i feel have been discounted because they were hopeful that they would find the aircraft and those answers would rest at the bottom of the ocean. now i believe what will happen is they'll turn that search over to those parts and pieces and

try to gain information from that and there is information from that chthat still needs ye to be examined. >> a lot of pieces have turned up from african islands and the coast. can you extrapolate much from that? >> you'll learn something from how much time it took to get there but it could have been sitting on the beach for a long time so the information you gather the the types of things that attach themselves to those parts as they float and that will tell you where that part came from in some degrees so that's part of it. another thing is fractional separation of metal. can give you a lot of clues, was it sudden and accidental? was it over time. those kinds of things will give you information about what happened but not really how it happened so that's where the rub is. >> david soucie, we appreciate it. it also makes me think that at the bottom of all of this is families of these passengers who are just -- they just want answers, right?

and so that's really at the heart of this, that's really the human toll in all of this. david soucie, thank you so much for being with us. up next, the deadly war against drugs in the philippines, we are live inside of manila with police when they investigate what has become a slew of drug-related homicides. your insurance company

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the united nations human rights chief has asked authorities in the philippines to investigate president rodrigo duterte for murder. this was sparked by recent comments made by duterte. he claimed he killed "about three people" during his term as mayor. international correspondent will ripley is in manila. he is working an overnight shift at a police station now, will, and you are waiting for a signal from police. tell us what's going on.

>> reporter: we're told a drug raid is imminent, we'll be heading to one of the poorest slums about a mile from where i'm standing right now. this is one of many of the police stations that are conducting these operations around the clock. they are going to these areas which are heavily invested with drugs and drug trafficking and police have been told by president rodrigo duterte they have a license to kill if suspects resist so you can see all over these christmas decorations decorating these neighborhoods and it's ominous when you see the juxtaposition with dead bodies on the ground as a result of these shootoutouts with police. police have been authorized to shoot drug suspects as they see fit and there have been more than 3,000 people killed in the last six months. >> that's how this connects with duterte's comment because he was talking about killing drug

dealers, right? >> reporter: that's right. this is a war on drugs that began when the current president was the mayor of a city in southern philippines. he was the mayor there for 20 years. he launched this war on drugs and he told me at a prison conference on friday that he pulled out his m-16 in front of his other officers and opened fire, killing at least three suspects. he said to show his officers how it's done. there's a lot of concern among the president's political opponents here that this example encouraging these kinds of violen violence. there's a new public opinion that shows eight out of 10 people in the philippines are afraid somebody they know will fall victim to this war on drugs and yet the president's popularity ratings remain so high almost 80% because people say they're desperate to clear drug crime out of their neighborhoods so it's dividing this country but people being killed and a lot of orphans as we approach christmas here. >> that is terrible. all right, will ripley, thank

you so much. a very important report for us from manila. that's it for me. i'll be back at 5:00 eastern on the situation room. i'll see you then. ne "newsroom" starts right now. we are following news out of berlin where police say they arrested the wrong system and now this manhunt is under way after that truck plowed through a crowd of shoppers at a busy christmas market just about 24 hours ago. police revealed today they had the wrong person in custody, it's not the driver. so this person has been set free. this means, of course, that the killer behind this chilling ram pain is at large. the attack happened around 8:00