barbara starr reported that's what she had been hearing. david gallow asked the question, how do we know that? how are people coming to that belief? my understanding, and i don't know if you have heard or you know from your sources, is that because the pings stopped at a certain point, and they're making the assumption they would be able to tell it was on the ground or not is. that your understanding? >> well, that's right. we have to be very precise. the pings stopped and the aircraft were still in tact. either it crashed into the water, a deliberate act or because it -- something happened on the plane or it landed somewhere. i would say most of the investigators and folks who have been watching this would say the less likely option is that it landed somewhere. but it is an option, and at the time of the last transmission, the plane had about an hour's worth of fuel left. so it's not as though it was constrained, it could still travel many hundreds of miles in any direction. >> and i want to bring back in my panel. ron, first of all, what

official tells our barbara starr that radar movements show erratic movements happened. they believe the jet likely went down in the indian ocean hours and hours away from where it was supposed to be flying. this is classified analysis which shows it may have taken one of two different paths. tom foreman is "out front." tom, this latest reporting that we have, how did officials determine this is where the plane would be? it was supposed to be over here and now they're saying it was possibly all the way over here. >> what they're trying is a brand-new idea here to use technology that isn't really meant to tell them this information. remember, this is the flight path. here are the search areas. here are the expanded areas out to the west, to the bay of bengal and out here to the indian ocean. think about this, people on the sea for many years have looked at the stars to figure out where they are. this is reversing the process in a sense and using a star in this case, a stationary satellite, geostationary satellite meaning it's always above the same spot on the earth. acar,

barbara starr, let's work on this theory that the plane -- barbara starr's gone. e lost contact with barbara. let me go back to jim tillman. you being the pilot here on this plan panel i want to know this. if somebody with ill-gotten designs on this plane had taken charge of it, how far could they have taken it with the fuel that they had and the fact we now know it was flying for fourer of five hours longer than we thought? what is the area? i mean, i heard earlier somebody suggested it could have gone even as far as bangladesh or pakistan. >> well, that's true. it could get pretty close to that. then again it could turn and go the other direction toward north korea. there are so many options that are out there, it kind of defies the mind when you start thinking about where could he go. take that point of last known d depar tur and add to that kprx many of flying time, figure out what the range would be at that point. that's something i would love to see our authorities do. they could do it very quickly and accurately. >> let me bring in bill nye. you're shaking y

barbara starr joins us. barbara, the u.s. has put together this new classified analysis outlining the two distinct possible flight paths. what more can you tell us? >> reporter: anderson, good evening. this is in conjunction with malaysian authorities, the faa, the ntsb and military imagery and radar specialists. everyone putting their heads together, looking at all the data. and what they have calculated is that these two search boxes in the ocean that you showed a moment ago essentially these two areas are now the most likely areas where the plane might have disappeared finally. it flewókÑi for about five hour. it sent some pings if you will to a satellite, the satellite analyzed those. there were also some radar returns that showed it was headed in this direction over the indian ocean. what this finally tells us is that they don't have to look over the entire indian ocean which is massive. this begins to narrow the search. what they still cannot explain, however, is this erratic flight path. it did fly in multiple directio

default, they are looking again very seriously at that southern indian ocean region, don. >> and barbara starr with the breaking news. thank you very much for that and we wanted to get to barbara first, because she had a lot of developments here, and a lot of fast-moving developments. here is what we know. malaysian police searched the pilots' homes, and they were seen leaving the home of the co-pilot carrying small shopping bags. today, with we learned that the latest words from the plane communicated "all right, good night" were said after the plane's systems were shutting down. so whatever caused this plane to disappear was happening when those words were spoken, but sti still, so many questions, and so many questions that we want to get through, and again, we wanted to start with the breaking news and what we know, but talk about the possibilities, and start here at the front of the plane. was something going on in the c cockpit between the pilot and the co-pilot? did a passenger make their way up from the back of the plane to the front of the plane into the cockpit, or were they able to s

official telling barbara starr that radar readings show erratic readings. we know the last communication took place about an hour from takeoff from kuala lumpur. from there, the plane took a sharp turn, diverting from its scheduled path, which would have been to keep going straight north to beijing. as first reported by "the new york times," malaysian military radar showed the plane climbing to 45,000 feet. that is well above the approved limit for this type of aircraft. the radar track shows the plane descending unevenly to 23,000 feet, then flying northwest over the strait of malacca toward the indian ocean. where you see the planefku3 /Ñ÷ this is what the malaysian military has picked up, and it's sort of provides for the first time an idea of where this was going. and it raises all these questions, why is it that the plane was moving in all these different directions and going up and down in such a way? and who was controlling it at that point and why was it that that was happening? and these are all questions like this entire thing that we don't have

barbara starr with that report. flight 370.estigators can't afford to ignore any possibility right now including from concerns about lithium batteries in the cargo hold, and they also want to question the pile ots of this aircraft. >> that's right. so many more unknowns than knowns at this point. everything has been scrutinized from the passengers to the cargo to the crew. we've learneded that the pilots only started working together on the boeing 777 fairly recently. all right, good night. those are the last words heard from the cockpit of flight 370. while we don't know whose voice that was, one of the first questions for investigators, who were the two men at the controls of flight 3p70, the pilots. fariq hamid who was new at the controls and the captain zaharie shah seen here in a youtube video he posted with his own flight simulator in the background. >> if it was here in the united states, the pilots, all information about them would be looked at very closely. and that would include the searches of their residences, to se

i'm going to bring in barbara starr, working her sources nonstop on this story. barbara, a lot of significant developments here. first those in the cockpit being deliberately responsible. what more can you tell us about that? >> good evening, don. this is a theory that u.s. officials across washington are working off of. there's not enough data in any of this to come to any facts or conclusions. but it is a theory, and one of the reasons is, as jim clancy was just saying, they don't think it was a hijacking, per se, they don't think some passenger got out of their seat and moved to take over the aircraft. because the systems were turned off, because the plane made the very deliberate left hand turn in between the air traffic control of malaysia and vietnam so nobody really noticed right away that it made that left-hand turn toward the indian ocean. and the passengers by all accounts, perhaps remained in their seats for some time. they would have realized they weren't headed north to china which was their destination. why did they remain seated? did something happe

let's begin with barbara starr. she has new information. b barbara? >> wolf, u.s. officials are working with malaysians and there are pings, signals that they believe very strongly came from this aircraft as it was flying west away from malaysia. these pings are now being analyzed and it is what in great part leading to the expansion of the search area into the vast indian ocean. the official says the pings coordinate, koocorrelate, if yo will, with the type of aircraft with this kind of engines. none of it has been 100%. this has been a very confusing story, the information garbled and at times not accurate. u.s. officials are still being very cautious. but behind the scenes, there is an expectation that the u.s. navy will move its destroyer, the "uss kidd" where it has been searching on into the indian ocean. this is a vast area to search but they believe now that they have some information at least that indicates this plane may have flown up to four or five hours out into the indian ocean and that may provide the final answer about what happened to this flight.

multiple sources telling cnn's pentagon correspondent barbara starr the missing plane likely threw onetwo paths, likely crashed into the indian ocean, although there's no certainty according to these u.s. official. one route towards the northwest, another to the south. whichever way it went, authorities tell cnn the plane likely, once again likely, crashed somewhere in the indian ocean. the other breaking news from "the new york times," which is reporting the plane experienced significant changes in altitude after it lost contact with ground control, altered its course more than once as if it was still under the command of a pilot or someone in the cockpit. joining us once again, michael schmidt, he's one of the reporters of "the new york times" who wrote that story. also with us, cnn's richard quest. charles barnett, he's a 777 pilot and an aviation attorney and also joining us the former chief of staff of the faa, the federal aviation administration, michael goldfarb. i want you to talk about this "new york times" story. the plane is detected going up from its normal cruising level o

let's get straight to cnn pentagon correspondent barbara starr for the latest. what's going on here, barbara? >> reporter: brianna, two u.s. officials tell us that they can confirm in the last four hours russia fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, test fired. it was a test. and a test only. it launched and landed in kazakhstan, a remote area that the russians use for test firing these kinds of missiles. u.s. officials also tell us that they knew this was going to happen. under arms control treaties, the start treaty which regulates missiles, the russians notified the u.s. they gave them a four-hour window in which they expected to conduct the test. all within the rules and regulations of the start treaty so the u.s. was notified that this test firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile was going to happen and they were notified before the crisis in ukraine. this had been on the books we are told for some time. but nonetheless, getting a lot of attention because in these periods of tension, people want to know exactly what's going on and we are told t

barbara starr says it's not 100%. three indications are pointing that way. >> plus, as we learned, so many leads, as you heard, have been undermined by further examination. what other capabilities does the u.s. government have to look at this situation completely independent of the malaysians? >> well, that's what is so important right now. we're told by u.s. officials that there are a number of intelligence and military analysts working this problem right now, looking at commercial satellite imagery, trying to look across all of these areas and see if they can figure out any anomalies, anything in the water that might indicate a piece of debris rather than just trash or garbage floating through the ocean, something more legitimate than what the chinese purported to show about 24 hours ago but there's an even bigger mystery here of another piece that they can't confirm right now, the same u.s. official telling me the emergency beacon system on the airplane that would have transmitted an emergency if the plane was abou

let's go to correspondent wa barbara starr. what did he have to say, barbara? >> he had a short meeting with reporters here at the pentagon, just a while ago, wolf. and we asked him, is it at all possible that it could have been a terrorist attack? have you been able to rule that out? i want you to listen to his very careful words. >> i don't think at this point we can rule anything in or out. i think we have to continue to search, as we are, and you know the united states continues to stay committed. we have aircraft in the area working out of malaysia and perth. as you know, we have moved two of our most sophisticated locators to the perth area. so until we have more information, we don't know. >> now, if it was a terrorist attack or some act of political violence, the problem, investigators say, in and a number of u.s. officials we have talked to, there has been no claim of responsibility. and that's what you would expect to see in terrorism. they always, almost always, claim responsibility for it. they want the publicity. there is a related additional theor

barbara starr joins me now from the phone from washington. so, barbara, that statement, what about that statement, rather, stood out to you? do you think is particularly pertinent. >> reporter: yeah, fred. i've got to tell you, john kerry's words that he made clear continued military escalation, that was a big concern. this is escalation russian-style that the u.s. is so worried about right now. you know, there's no signs at the moment that putin is authorizing or orders enforcements in the thousands to cross in to kra miya, but look at the drip, drip, drip of the last several days. we've seen continued localized violence. we've seen troops associated with the russians all over kra miya, at strategic points, roads, roadblocks, the taking over of military bases. controlling things that appropriate's control we have, and we are also told that the u.s. is seeing some small numbers of additional russian troops going in. so putin, you know, is achieving escalation in a very, as i say, drip, drip way. you know, you add a little bit here, a little bi

barbara starr, cnn, the pentagon. >> how about that? >> that's pretty amazing.ain, don't forget to set your clocks forward tomorrow. watch us on "new day" tomorrow morning. a little sleep deprived. that will do it for us today. thank you for being here. >> and stay right there because there's a whole lot more ahead in the next hour of "cnn newsroom" turning it over now to our colleague fredericka whitfield. >> good to see you guys. i know you guys won't forget. just in case, i know you got my back, right? >> you're lucky. >> all right. good deal. thinks so much, joe and pamela. >>> hello, everyone. it's 11:00 eastern hour of the "newsroom" which starts right now.

thanks, barbara starr. let's look at the other side. the possibility that maybe there wasn't a villain, be it a potential hijacker but it was one horrific accident. joe johns, you've been looking into that for us. what is it about the flight path and behavior that tells investigators that it could be accidental as opposed to intentional. >> jim, this goes into the category of things that can't be ruled out as long as a black box is not recovered. a sudden change in direction suggests that something went wrong on the plane very rapidly. if that's true, the plane dropped altitude rapidly, that could have been because of a sudden decompression problem which could be explained by any breach, a big fire, explosion, even an open door. with this scenario, there could have only been seconds to react before passing out. the pilots would have been trying to get the plane to an altitude where the people on board could get oxygen. if it's true, the plane flew for hours afterwards and the question is whether the crew was incapacitated, jim. >> as we

barbara starr reporting on a classified analysis suggesting the airlinerad

thank you very much to barbara starr at the pentagon. threatening to move even more troops into the ukraine, and so what is the end game? up next some answers from a former u.s. ambassador. >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> welcome back. we continue the follow the breaking news. russian's parliament voting today to give president vladimir putin permission to use troops inside of ukraine. so what is the end game here for russ russia? we are joined again by christopher hill, the ambassador to kariokorea and poland, and s explain, ambassador hill, what you think that the hopes of russian hopes to gain here? >> well, one would hope that when obama spend 90 minutes talk talking to putin, he posed the question, because right now, it is unclear. it might be that putin wanted to make a clear statement that crimea is something that is very much russian. we are not going to see that go to the west. and so, kind of making a clear statement that there are limits to what they are prepared to see in ukraine. so that is one possibility. but then the ot

i want to bring in barbara starr for more on that. barbara, what they're saying is not too different from what malaysian authorities are insinuating? >> reporter: i think that's right, fredricka. as atika was just pointing out, it's a logical theory, hypothesis that they're moving towards across several agencies of the u.s. government that are working with the malaysians, that are familiar with the technical analysis of the data that they do have in hand. no facts yet. you know, nothing is proven and certainly nothing against any members of the crew or the passengers because nobody knows what happened. but if you begin to rule certain things out, it may be what you're left with, we're told. you know, there was that deliberate turn to the left, electronic systems were cut off. these are the kind of things that appear to be very deliberate actions by someone who has considerable flight expertise. that is leading them very much to look at the pilot, to look at the co-pilot, and as we saw yesterday malaysian authorities went to the homes

i want to turn to cnn's pentagon correspondent barbara starr. a significant wider search area, does the u.s. need to send more assets to the region? >> reporter: well, you know, it's hundreds of thousands of square miles. let's be clear. 11 countries in central asia to the north and thousands of square miles in the indian ocean to the south. sending more to look at all of this, where do you look. this is the dilemma facing all of the countries trying to help search. a lot of people are talking act slilts, but satellites don't just go wandering around up in the sky. they have to know where to send these things to some extent. there are navy ships. there are helicopters. there are aircraft search, but this is going to be very slow going. this area is just massive, candy. >> whenever i see where the plane possibly was, when they picked up that last satellite proof or supposed proof that it was there, it just seems almost impossible to me that that plane could have flown north over all those countries where, by the way, there is lot of radar and a l

cnn pentagon correspondent barbara starr joins me on the phone. barbara, it seems to me in cases like this the u.s. does have things to offer that other countries in this case, thailand and vietnam, may not have. in this case, what kind of equipment is this that? >> well, candy, what you're seeing in this as you said maritime part of the world is everybody join in, so the u.s. navy has sent that p-3 orion aircraft. it can stay up for hours, which some smaller militaries may not have those kind of assets. it has sonar. it can ping the ocean essentially and look for any indicators of objects under the surface. it can conduct aerial surveillance over wide areas. it's coming out of okinawa. there is another warship essentially, the "uss pinkney," it's got helicopters on its deck, it is in the gulf of thailand right now looking at the last known communications and radar transmissions from the aircraft. they're conducting surveillance. all of that can move around if the search area changes. and in a sign that this could go on for some time, the u.s. also

that's the united states secretary of defense, the top guy at the pentagon speaking directly to our barbara starrand we thank barbara for getting that direct reporting for us. it does keep open a very large other avenue of what happened to flight 370. in the meantime, still got to find it. that's the biggest problem right now. it's still missing. and one guy who is writing a lot about the search for the missing airliner says this is like looking for a needle in a haystack where the needle moves hundreds of miles every day. and others have said we don't even know where the haystack is, we don't even know where the farm is. we're talking about the southern indian ocean. and christine dennison knows a lot about just how hostile that part of the world is and what an unbelievable challenge it is to find anything in a place like that. and also joining us for the first time, we welcome nicholas malice, ocean debris specialist with the ocean conservancy. welcome to you both. nick, first to you. i want to get your reaction to this incredible report today, the satellite imagery from sunday showing 122 piec

let's go to barbara starr. what are you picking up over that, barbara? >> australia is searching a vast area, but right now, focus on about 117,000 square miles, big enough, isn't it, off that western coast of perth. the map really tells you everything you need to know about this. how are they coming to this calculation? well, what they've done is with the help of the u.s. ntsb, look at the satellite transmissions, calculated the fuel, the range and how many, most importantly perhaps, how many days this has been going on. that's what leds to the urgency of this. as the days go on, the ocean currents shift everything around every day. based on what they know now, calculating all that data from the time they lost contact from the last transmission of the airplane, that's how they come to this box they're looking at right now. but officials are saying every day, the search box is going to change as time goes on and the urgency will probably grow. >> that box still the size of about new mexico. so, does this mean they have effectively given up on the norther

screens and so far officials tell us they simply don't see anything. >> pentagon correspondent barbara starrall right. other big story we are following this morning, voters in crimea. they are going to be going to the polls. actually at the polls right now. casting ballots as to whether they are going to join russia or they are going -- >> voters facing these two choices. do you support the reunification of crimea with russia or do you support the restoration of the constitution of the republic of crimea in 1992, leaving it as part of ukraine? that's from the ballot. michael holmes is in the crimean capital. michael, we have been talking about the mood there this morning and we have also talked about the mood in moscow and kiev. what can you tell us from there and what people are feeling as they look ahead to the results from this referendum? >> reporter: we are expecting a huge crowd out here in the next few hours. probably about four, five hours now, it will be packed. they have been testing out the music, blaring. thank goodness it is down at the moment. it is going to be a celebration of

our pentagon correspondent barbara starr is on the phone with us now. barbara, what can the u.s.o to help out with the search. >> reporter: this is such an area to try and cover. the u.s. navy tries to join in when there's a maritime crisis and a number of countries joining in in the region. what the navy is doing is out of okinawa they are flying a patrol aircraft, it can stay up for hours. it has sonar, certainly capability over wide areas. it has spotted some debris. sadly it turned out to be a false alarm. this is the kind of thing that stay up for a long time and sem wide areas of water. there's a navy ship in the region with helicopters, also sonar and other search capabili capability. a supply ship on the way out of okinawa so it can supply efforts ongoing. u.s. supply ship sailing out of sink po singapore early today. you're beginning to see the u.s. both offer assistance in the law enforcement side of this of this situation and the mysterious side of where it went down. it's going to take a lot to locate it. >> barbara starr, appreciate that. >>> we've heard one man who

barbara starr, the pentagon. >> it means the focus of the search will move underwater, to the floor ofre, expensive arrived tmpt. how will it look for the plane's block boxes. one of them is headed to them. >> that is in less than two weeks. >> think of your cell phone, if you lose your cell phone, call it. you hear the phone ringing, you narrow down your search. >> this helped to recover record from 447 in the atlantic. the pinger locator, with a fin can listening to the black box signal. >> the outside edge is about two miles. a mile and a half to two miles away. if the pinger's battery is fading, they can still detecting it. here is a capable t am cans into the receiver unit. so, we have a speaker on here. all the power buttons, adjust the frequency, and out of this box, we have a computer set up that graphically represents the signal from the beacon. then a team on deck, a vehicle scans the sea floor, using a lawn mower pattern. >> this vehicle can go deep in the ocean, this one, recovered the block box, all of the. >> with battery life ticking down. every moment in critical. >> wi

let's go to our pentagon correspondent barbara starr. which do you think is more likely?>> wolf, officially they are looking at both, no question about that. let's look at the northern track first. every u.s. official i have spoken to raises questions about the logic of the northern track. technically possible but realistically, this is an area where the u.s. military and intelligence community has a good deal of satellite and radar coverage because they watch for ballistic missile launches. they have gone through everything one more time, looked at all of their data and the u.s. has not spotted any indication of a crash. what about the countries in the region? they all have radars and different capabilities and different types of radars. there are radar gaps on the ground but its it likely that te plane could have flown into a radar gap, crossed a border and possibly crossed other borders undetected and nobody would have noticed? the u.s. firmly believes we are told that if a court knew it had crashed in their territory, they would have said something about it. so there'

barbara starr is in washington right now. ou make of this latest call to bring back the ambassador in the u.s., russian ambassador to the u.s.? >> reporter: well, you know, in these situations, what the u.s. wants is some stability and deescalation. every one of these steps is now clearly escalating the crisis and it makes it very difficult to pull back from a security and stability point of view. you get to a point in these crises where everybody steps so far ahead and engages in these steps, it becomes very difficult to pull back. this is what the u.s. concern is. this is what the u.s. security concern is. so i think what we're dealing with is something both very fast-moving and the unpredictability of it. i have to tell you for the last several days, both u.s. intelligence officials, pentagon officials, state department officials, white house officials, let's just call it across the board, have been watching russian movements very carefully. they didn't want to talk about it publicly but we know, you know, that they were wa

let's bring in barbara starr. does the ship movement seem to give credence to the comment by a senior u.s. official that the plane may be at the bottom of the indian ocean right now? >> well certainly it is one working theory at this point, wolf. you know, malaysian officials -- countries from across the region sending their ships, their aircraft to look for any sign of a debris field from this aircraft. that's going to be the first thing they're going to look for. and actually, a u.s. navy aircraft, a longer range surveillance aircraft flew its first mission into the indian ocean earlier today. flew out about a thousand miles, didn't report seeing any debris field and came back. the "kidd" will use its helicopters. there will be more surveillance flights. they'll look at this from the surface of the ocean, from the air, anything they can use basically, though, they want to stay with ships and aircraft at this point because that's their best chance of using those very specialized radars to look out and see if they

barbara starr, we thank you so much for the report. good to see you this morning. >> thank you, barbara. >>> u.s. just one of 26 countries assisting in the search and the investigation and even with so many teams from around the world, searching this area is still incredibly difficult. >> yeah. we're talking at one of the most dangerous, treacherous parts of the ocean in the world that has been described by many experts this week. cnn's alexander field gives us a better idea here. >> reporter: on the horizon a small window of opportunity opening in one of the world's most remote and punishing regions. 1 20-foot waves forecast to subside this weekend as searchers scour a daunting swath of the south indian ocean for any sign of malaysia airlines flight 370 and its 239 passengers. >> it's about the most inaccessible spot that you can imagine on the face of the earth. >> reporter: 1400 miles off the coast of australia, the ariel search can last just a few hours at a time before pilots have to head back to refuel. >> that is really in the mi

let's bring in pentagon correspondent barbara starr. she's been all over this story. so why are they so confident that this is the right place to look, barbara? >> wolf, the path, the evidence, the investigation about what happened, all is taking them there essentially the most likely scenario for days, they say, has been the southern indian ocean. let's start with a new fact here. why not the north? well, we've now learned that the u.s. when the northern path emerged, very quickly looked one more time at chinese radar capabilities and came to the conclusion that the plane went anywhe anywhere near china, the chinese would have seen it. nothing goes into their air space that they don't see. that turned their attention back to the south. they started moving, based on the radar and the signals that the plane emitted, towards the southern indian ocean. then it was a couple of days ago when it even worked its way further south because the australians, once they took over, began to calculate, along with the u.s., the number of days elapsed, the drift of the ocean, the curre

our barbara starr is at the pentagon.s the military helping out in this new search zone? >> well, there are those u.s. navy pa long range surveillance aircraft, fredericka. they're able to stay up in the air for several hours. and joining the hunt, this has been the big challenge. as you were saying a moment ago, now that at least they've been able to bring some objects out of the water, the experts can assess whether or not those objects actually are part of flight 370. if they are, then two key pieces of u.s. navy equipment swing into action. one is the so-called pinger locator. this will be on a ship. it is essentially an array that is towed in the water and will listen for the data recorder's ping, a pinger locator. there also will be a small navy submersible, sort of a minisub, an unmanned drone underneath the water. it will be able to map the ocean surface and look for any objects under there that may be part of the debris. but all of this first depends on finding debris from the plane, verifying that it's from the

barbara starr took a look in this out front investigation. >> u.s.ials believe vladimir putin will decide in the next two to three days whether to send more troops and weapons into crimea and possibly into eastern ukraine. putin always the ex-kgb spy master is not showing his hand yet. >> translator: about the use of military, there is no need for this so far. but there is such a possibility. >> reporter: but if russia were to expand operations, just how strong is its military? >> when people say russian military might today, what they're largely referring to is their army. their ground forces. this it is always historically and traditionally been the foundation for the russian military and continues to be so. >> russia has more than 770,000 troops. another 2 million in reserves. ukraine, 139,000 with just under 1 million in reserves. if russia continues its soviet era style of reliance on troops to hold territory, it's got more than double the number of armor vehicle as ukraine and artillery pieces which give russia the ability to fire at long range

our pentagon correspondent barbara starr is joining us right now.lling back troops, but for u.s. intelligence, the u.s. intelligence community for the pentagon, what is the hard reality that they are actually seeing on the ground? >> well, i must tell you first, wolf, that several sources in the government i've spoken today have watched the reports from karl penhaul, our colleague on that frontier, and are watching very closely his photo, his pictures the of what is happening on that border. for the u.s. government, it's still very much a show me, show me the withdrawal because they are aware of the reports out of russia, but still they consider that nothing has changed on the ground. in potential reenforcement, positions ready to move in if it came to that. they do not yet see anything to verify that vladimir putin is withdrawing his forces from that border, wolf. >> what is the next step? >> i think tomorrow will be very interesting. you know the nato foreign ministers meeting to discuss all of this and will be meeting with nato allied commander w

we are joined by ivan watson and barbara starr. ivan, let me start with you here.ot of people find it curious that ukraine hasn't evacuated the troops yet. you would think they don't want to do anything provocative. it seems irresponsible. >> yeah. and i think more and more ukrainians are asking, what kind of plan do you have for the thousands of soldiers and their families who are spread out across the crimean peninsula. they have authorized their troops to be able to fire in self-defense. that's a measure we have not seen them doing. they are not using lethal force. they have prepared accommodations for 25,000 evacuees from the crimean peninsula should there be a mass exodus. we haven't heard of an actual plan. it's left individual base commanders, basically, to deal with a large number of pro-russian militia members as well as russian troops who kind of picked bases one by one across the peninsula and encircled them and forced the ukrainian troops out. a humiliating thing, certainly for servicemen in the ukrainian military. they are forced out of their bases, th

>> barbara starr, thank you for that. general spider marks, always good to hear from you, as well. thank you both. and cnn is continuing to watch live as these developments come in. it almost seems by the moment. stay tuned, my colleague wolf blitzer takes over the coverage right now. >>> russian troops swarming the peninsula, but deny an ultimatum to surrender. >>> also right now, new questions over whether a weak u.s. foreign policy contributed to the crisis in ukraine. senator john mccain says it did. he's here live with me this hour. >>> and right now, the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu is on his way over to the white house to meet with president obama, where he may be receiving a blunt warning about receiving a blunt warning about israel's future. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> hello, i

barbara starr, cnn, the pentagon. >>> well, adding to the urgency in the search for the flight, the plane'svoice and data recorders. they were crucial to investigators and malaysia is appealing to the u.s. to provide more of the devices that can detect the pings from those recorders. we get more on that from renee mar marsh. >> reporter: these two hints in the indian ocean may be the best hint yet. but even if they are from the missing plane, the real key to understanding what happened could still be miles away at the bottom of the ocean and it's call, but time is running out. >> so the minute this is no longer broadcasting things become much more difficult. >> reporter: the cockpit voice recorder stores at least two hours of audio and the data recorder contains at least 36 hours of instrument data. both crucial to understanding what happened. transmitters on the recorders send out a locating tone, but that only lasts for 30 days. malaysian officials say without the pings, they don't have the technology to find them on their own. >> looking about submarine technology and before that becomes

chief national security correspondent jim sciutto and barbara starr broke the news about those pings. jim, let's start with you. the shift west to searching the indian ocean, it's not just one clue, correct? but a compilation of multiple clues. >> reporter: that's my understanding. these pings is one. new information on the pings. the idea they were not sending data about the engines but they were at least giving a location of that plane. and what analysts did, they looked at all the other planes in that area which had transponders on as planes would normally. this one does not. and they determined that this plane had no corresponding transponder and therefore concluded this must be the missing plane that had turned its transponder off. you talk about other clues. it's my understanding they've pieced together several clues which makes them turn their direction to the west, to the indian ocean. the other one being the key information really that radar track that they've had from the malaysian air force for some days now that showed the plane going north and taking that southwesterly tu

thank you barbara starr. there is much more ahead. including analysis of the military options. our guests will be retired army major general. >>> just in the last few moments here, russian forces now have complete operational control. 6,000 russian ground and naval forces are now on the ground. in addition to that, we have development a short time ago secretary of state john kerry will travel to the capitol of ukraine this tuesday. two developments on the ground. the russians taking control in the view of the u.s. diplomatic development. putin is not blinking. you ukraine's new navy chief switched sides today. one day after he got the job. and we are tracking a strange standoff now in the region. pro russia forces are demanding that troops inside them turn over their weapons. here at home president obama met with his national security team at the white house. secretary of state john kerry says he needs to quote roll it back in crimea. if it comes to that. kiev may turn to the west for help. we are joined by former u.s. ambassador in falls church, georgia. thank you for joining

and then again, according to our barbara starr, she's reporting that the malaysian military radar readings may not be entirely accurate because of the distance the planes are measured from the ground. all of these points have been made here tonight. this information that i just read, especially the bottom part, it comes from cnn's richard quest and also barbara starr and also from one of our producers, raum gopal. anyway, that is the breaking news here on cnn. my experts, my analysts are here to give you all the information you need to analyze this new information as well as other information coming in. let's not forget, at this point there are apparatus in the sky. there are airplanes looking for debris in a number of different places. debris that has been spotted by satellite. and also there are at least 239 families who are waiting for some answers. we're back in a moment. on my journey across america, i've learned that when you ask someone in texas if they want "big" savings on car insurance, it's a bit like asking if they want a big hat... ...'scuse me... ...or a big steak... ...or bi

cnn pentagon correspondent, barbara starr, joining us now. a lot to break down here.et's first talk about who the man is that gave this interview to the national public radio. lieutenant general michael flynn is the director of the defense. all the questions in congress about whether the intelligence community missed the signs of what russia was up to. he says about 7-10 weeks before. he began to see russian trooping moving around. he thought that something might be imminent. he addresses that. the u.s. will be dealing with for years the sensitive information, the potential. he even has information about war plans. have a listen to what general flynn had to say. >> as far as capabilities, are we talking about u.s. war plans? >> are we talking about intelligence gathering methods. what exactly is it? >> it is sort of an all of the above. it is intelligence capabilities, operational capabilities, technology, weapons systems. >> do you thisnk that russia ha access to the kind of materials we are talking about here? >> you have to assume that if they don't have access, yo

barbara starr, cnn, the pentagon. >> how about that? >> that's pretty amazing. barbara starr, thanks for that. >> again, don't forget to set your clocks forward tomorrow. watch us on "new day" tomorrow morning. a little sleep deprived. that will do it for us today. thank you for being here. >> and stay right there because there's a whole lot more ahead in the next hour of "cnn newsroom" turning it over now to our colleague fredericka whitfield. >> good to see you guys. i know you guys won't forget. just in case, i know you got my back, right? >> you're lucky. >> all right. good deal. thinks so much, joe and pamela. >>> hello, everyone. it's 11:00 eastern hour of the "newsroom" which starts right now. >>> an urgent search and rescue mission is under way right now after a large passenger jet disappears on its way to beijing. no one knows exactly what happened or where the plane is. >>> now there are new questions about the identity of two of the passengers. the breaking story is ahead. >>> in the ukraine, tensions ratchet up. russia accuse of carrying out more agg

cnn's barbara starr joins us with more from the pentagon. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, carol. that phone call was scheduled to take place a short time ago as i look at the clock and we expect a readout here at the pentagon. the malaysian minister, indeed, asking for the possibility of two things, the hydro phone technology you're talking about and underwater remote piloted vehicles. but, there is a single but, they need to find a debris field first. they need to be able to narrow it down. when you put this kind of technology into the water you have to have a particular place to look. you can't just throw it into the water across, you know, 23,000 square kilometers so you have to find the debris field. you have to look at where the debris is, the current, the time, the winds and calculate backwards where you think the data recorders might be in the water and then you bring in this technology. so this is something that everyone involved in the search is very well aware of. they're just not there yet for this type of technology. as

let's bring in barbara starr. she's monitoring the hearing. and kevin ryan. et me start with you. hagel said that the current u.s. strategy in ukraine focuses on diplomatic efforts. do you expect him to mention ukraine during today's hearing? >> well, you know, jake if he doesn't mention it they are certainly going to ask about it. that may, in fact, be topic number one because he's is going to this committee to talk about cutting the military budget in the united states at a time when now suddenly the military is facing the potential of a major national security crisis. no one is talking about military options for ukraine and russia for this crisis, not putting military force into the mix. but certainly he'll be asked about could this budget make it more difficult if there was to be military force used. can the military still be large enough, strong enough to deal with whatever it might face, whatever threats it might face. hagel will say yes, but it is skirts the edge of that that he's concerned that the budget is getting cut to the bone. jake? >> general, c

meantime, our attempts to reach morris were unsuccessful and the army told barbara starr they removed from his position as soon as they heard of the allegations. fred? >> thank you. >>> cookie cutting, a whole new level. imagine printing all sorts of food in 3d? we're live at the south by southwest festival, next. [ mal] hey, look at you! you're an emailing, texting, master of the digital universe. but do you protect yourself? ♪ apparently not. when you access everything, you give everyone access to everything about you. but that's ok. while you do your thing... [ alert rings ] we'll be here at lifelock, doing our thing. watching out for things your credit card alone can't. [ alert rings ] and relentlessly protecting your identity. get lifelock protection and live life free. [ alert rings ] get lifelock protection and live life free. coach calls her a team player. she's kind of special. she makes the whole team better. he's the kind of player that puts the puck, horsehide, bullet. right where it needs to be. coach calls it logistics. he's a great passer. dependable. a winning team has

let's begin with our pentagon correspondent barbara starr. she's got the latest. barbara? >> they actually relied on embarrassingly old maps to make this high-technical cue lags about how this plane was moving and the way it was moving away from their satellite and that let them calculate where the plane went down offering new information that the u.s. and malaysia have suspected for days. for grief stricken families, unbearable news from the prime minister of malaysia. >> it is, therefore, with deep sadness and regret that i must inform you that, according to this new data, flight mh-370 ended in the southern indian ocean. >> based on data analysis from the british company inmar dlsat the potential that it is anywhere but here seems to have been ruled out. >> our engineers and scientists have continued to work on the data but it's led us to believe that it is the southern route. >> inmarsat satellites continued to receive several pings from the aircraft, including the final ping from somewhere over the indian ocean, according to a u.s. official. based on the assumption th

i under at the end of its range, i think that barbara starr, your pentagon correspondent raised serious questions about its accuracy as well. >> yeah, we're going to get to her in a little bit. ma'am thanks to boston you. we downed the malaysian prime minister will hold a live news conference at 10:00 a.m. eastern time, about 45 minutes from now. of course when that happens we'll carry it live four. maybe they will have new breaking information. gosh, i hope so. >>> also happening today and we have to get in this. in the united states emergency crews are actively searching for survivors after a deadly landslide northeast of seattle. so far eight bodies have been recovered. responders are struggling to reach more people because the area remains unstable. cnn george howell is outside of seattle to tell us more. good morning. >> reporter: carol, good morning. you mentioned that unstable land. so unstable that rescuers had to going by helicopter. that's the best option, going in by ground is not a good option. simply because of that land. it's what you call glacial till. it's a combination

what do we know about this, barbara starr? >> officials are telling us that the russians in fact notified it to the u.s. before this escalation of tensions with the ukraine. that the u.s. knew it was coming and they even had as much as a four-hour window when they were told that russia would conduct the test and that's exactly what happened, all with the parameters of the s.t.a.r.t. treaty on arms reduction. it doesn't mean that the tensions are not rising right now and people aren't concerned, but this missile test is something that the u.s. knew was coming. wolf? >> i know you've been doing some reporting with your sources. what are you learning about the latest u.s. thinking on where this crisis in ukraine is heading in the immediate future? >> well, vladimir putin will make that crucial decision that the world is waiting for. does he expand his military operations more in crimea? does he go into eastern ukraine in one of the things that the u.s. is watching so closely now, the 150,000 or so troops that were conducting the