our nic robertson will watch it for us in pretoria. so much for being with us this morning, nic. >>> the terrorism trial of osama bin laden's son-in-law begins today in new york. sulaiman abu ghaith, the former al qaeda spokesman charged with conspiring to kill americans, he is one of the highest level al qaeda figures to be tried on u.s. soil, just blocks from ground zero. the case is being seen as a major test for the federal court system. many critics arguing the trial should take place in a military court. >>> a big deadline today for two former top chris christie staffers involved in the bridgegate investigation. bridget kelly and bill stepien, both fired now, have refused to comply with subpoenas. today their lawyers have to explain why they are not turning over documents. the governor, chris christie, cut ties with kelly after her infamous e-mail "time for some traffic problems in ft. lee," after that went public, and he says he became aware of it for the first time. >>> all right, eight cities are vying to host the 2016 republic

nic robertson, cnn, kuala lumpur, malaysia. >>> this has been quite the challenge for any journalistver. clive irving, contributor to the daily beast and contributor at conde nast traveler. clive, as a journalist, you've got to be skeptical about just about everything but probing about fact separated from fiction. why has that story in particular taken you and so many others around the world, so to speak, trying to get to the bottom of how to present this story and at the same time also investigate so many theories that surround this mystery. >> well, this is a global phenomenon. there's a huge appetite across the world for information. that's information which no one is in a position to give, which means there's a great responsibility on the part of journalists to be sure of their sources. in this case i think we're seeing frequently that sources can be very flaky, particularly if they are malaysian. i can site the pilots began very early on by careful and deliberate release of information, no credence at all. people went chasing after it. i think that's dissipated to some extent. i

let's go to our senior international correspondent nic robertson who is joining us from kuala lumpur. what are you learning, nic? >> reporter: well, wolf, that issue of criminal intent. what we're learning from government sources here is they believe from the radar data that they have that the turnback of the aircraft when it turned back flying back towards malaysia within the first hour of flight, that they consider the nature of that turn to be a criminal act with perhaps become a little closer to understanding more of the nature of that, that turn. i say perhaps. the chinese families, relatives of people who were on board flight 370 have been desperate to ask malaysian officials specific questions. and one of them is a question about the precise flight route, the radar reading in that first hour and a half or so. they have made up a map taken, they say, from publicly available data. they wanted to show it to malaysian officials and ask some questions about it. they weren't able -- they weren't able to do that, but now they have. and this is what we've learned. this map of flight 37

nic robertson is in london. cnn analyst tom fuentes is in washington. tom, i want to start with you. is it clear who's in charge of this investigation? is it the military? is it civilian authorities? >> right now in malaysia i think it's a combination of both that appear to be in charge and both control different radar systems which they're trying to match up and figure out from the two systems which is the most accurate and i think that's why they're now asking for ntsb experts from the united states to come in and give them help, try and analyze their own radar data. but, again, as far as the investigation goes, it's still real important if there's any clue to find out if that plane was under the control of the captain with a mechanical problem trying to return to kuala lumpur airport and maybe they couldn't find it because they didn't have the navigation or if the plane had been taken and the transponder shut off deliberately but it was in perfectly functioning condition, if you can fly 560 miles an hour and if it can fly with enough fuel to go to be

now the potential for a threat that perhaps hadn't been adequately considered before, wolf. >> nic robertsonnews coming out of israel, stepping up its own security, fearful potentially that this airliner or others could be headed towards israel. we'll stay on top of this. nic, thanks very much. let's go to jim sciutto. let's take a look at the investigation, where it stands right now. >> no question, speaking to intelligence officials and other u.s. officials involved in this investigation this would normally be the time you would be narrowing down your targets but in fact the opposite is happening, they're expanding their targets of inquiry first of all on the possible people involved in this. first, you know, no cussing on the two people in the cockpit but now ten people in the flight crew, 227 passengers and even more than that, folks who have access to that plane on the ground, cleaning crews, baggage handlers, you name it. but let's look at the search area that is expanding as well. people have become familiar with this arc, where that last satellite contact here. they don't know where

nic robertson doing excellent reporting for us. thank you. let's bring in evan perez and miles o'brien and cnn law enforcement analyst, former assistant fbi director, tom fuentes. miles, let's start with you. what do you make of this information that they are making out? >> a 270-degree turn right all the way down to left, it's very difficult, wolf, to come up with a scenario where that is some sort of a mechanical failure or malfunction. if a pilot was in a bad way, rapid decompression, fire, whatever you want to say, he or she would not take that long way around to gain that direction. it would be a sharp turn to the left. and so it's very difficult -- i've talked to a lot of pilots about this, it's very difficult to look at that diagram and not say that it was an intentional act of some kind. that jives with what nic robertson's sources have been telling him. the one thing i might quibble with on his sources, that could have very well have been flown by autopilot. it could have been flown automatically and in a gentle way that the passenge

nic robertson covering the story. thanks so much, nic. >>> all right. this morning, the drai is denying a shocking allegation that it spied on senate staffers and even took documents off of their computers. senate intelligence chair dianne feinstein took to the senate floor on tuesday to make the claim that cia spies went into those computers without authorization. as the staffers worked on a report about the agency's controversial prison interrogation programs. >> i have grave concerns that the cia's search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied in the united states constitution. >> nothing could be further from the truth. when the facts come out on this, i think a lot of people who are claiming that there has been this tremendous sort of spying and monitoring and hacking will be proved ong. >> senator lindsey graham says if it's proven that the cia has interfered with a congressional investigation, senator lindsey graham says someone should go to jail. >>> happening today on capitol hill, the top u.s. commander in afghanis

nic robertson in london, thanks very much. let's discuss what we just heard. joining us, law enforcement analyst, tom fuentes. what do you make of this new piece of information we're now getting from nic? >> hi, wolf. it provides great leads for the investigators to follow up on, particularly in thailand. the passports were originally stolen in 2012, the second one in 2013. in phuket, thailand, a resort town. and now you have the tickets actually being fraudulently obtained by using the stolen passports in thailand also. and passports were paid -- or the tickets were paid for in thai currency, the thai bottom. so it will be a great lead to locate this individual dealing with that travel agency and intensive investigation of that agency themselves. are they providing stolen passports on a regular basis to a variety of customers for many different reasons, which could be unrelated to terrorism but passport fraud, people using for drug trafficking or organized crime or any number of reasons that could be possibly why they were used. >> and the fact that this indiv

let's bring in senior international correspondent nic robertson live from pretoria. up to speed on what's happening this morning. >> reporter: yeah john just another day of drama and intense questioning by the defense attorney barry ru, of the third witness, the husband of the first witness, the near neighbor just questioning him, piling the pressure on saying have you ever heard shots from a nearby house? no, i haven't, he said. have you ever heard somebody break down a door with a cricket bat from a nearby house? no i haven't. i put it to you that you weren't hearing a woman screaming, you were hearing a man, oscar pistorius, is what he was implying. and the witness said no i'm very clear, i heard a woman screaming, then i heard a man in a mono tone. then i heard the man sort of apologizing, almost in the sound of his voice, for the neighbors, for creating all this attention. but this witness has still stuck to his guns that there were screams of a woman followed by shots. the defense just trying to break that down because what the defense is trying to do is to sho

nic robertson is there.ive us a sense for what he says. >> reporter: his phone number was read out in court tuesday. that number has started ringing. he's closed the phone off. but he received a message that i picked up later from the phone saying what are you doing, man, edge knows that oscar is innocent. he's taking that as intimidation. today, the defense attorney gave hints on timing. he said to this witness you call security at 3:13 a.m., and that call lasted 58 seconds. then you got to your balcony to continue to witness what was happening at 3:17. oskar eriksson at 3 in the 19:50, you get the idea how precise the timings are becoming now, called for help after he had broken the door down. so what the defense is saying now to this witness. you didn't hear gunshots, you heard oskar eriksson breaking down the bathroom door with a cricket bat when he realized that reeva steenkamp, his girlfriend was shot or wounded inside. and we've had testimony from the fourth witness taking the stand, a professional bo

but now cnn's nic robertson reports, interpol is taking to malaysia to task for what it considers laxport security. >> reporter: three weeks ago, these two iranians traveling on stolen airports triggered interpol's investigation of flight 370's passengers. now in a statement, surprising for its frankness, the international law enforcers are lambasting malaysian officials for lax controls. the truth is, in 2014, prior to the tragic disappearance of malaysian flight 370, malaysian immigration department did not conduct a single check of passengers passports against interpol's database. the agency said in a statement. and they are not alone in their criticism. >> the idea that somehow governments don't want to query the databases because it takes too long is absurd. >> reporter: opposition politicians are also heaping on their criticism. >> it's quite clear that the impression given early by the government that it's not practical, takes too long is not an acceptable answer. >> it comes as malaysia's government is taking heat for their entire investigation. >> i don't think we have done a

much more on the search in a moment, but first, let's go live to cnn's nic robertson live in london for us this morning with more on these mystery passengers. nic, what's the latest? >> reporter: christine, so much scrutiny on who was using those two stolen passports. now malaysian officials ident y identifying one of those passengers traveling on the austrian stolen passport as being puria miridad, a young 19-year-old iranian. it appears he was essentially seeking asylum. the reason they say they know this is because his mother was waiting for him in frankfurt. when his flight didn't arrive, she contacted authorities. but police are also saying that they don't believe that this young man is connected with terrorism. >> we believe that he is not likely to be a member of any terrorist group, and we believe that he is trying to migrate to germany. >> reporter: so, the police have released a photograph of this man, and they've also released a photograph of a second man who they say was traveling on the stolen italian passport. a picture uploaded to cnn's ireport late last night named that

nic robertson has the latest live from pretoria.ery hard for oscar pistorius to listen to some of that testimony. >> reporter: yeah, it is, and it's clearly hard for this former girlfriend to give testimony. this is a young woman, samantha powers. the judge has been very specific -- samantha taylor, rather, excuse me. the judge has been very specific, saying no photographs of her can be taken whatsoever. she was just 17 when she started dating oscar pistorius in 2011. under cross examination, when barry rue, the defense attorney, starts questioning some of her testimony, she says that she broke up with oscar pistorius when he started dating reeva steenkamp, but then she breaks down into tears. listen to this. >> the first time our relationship ended was when he cheated on me with -- >> just take your time, please. we'll just pause for a moment. >> reporter: but what this witness has also said is oscar pistorius used to carry a gun with him wherever he went, used to keep it by his bedside, that they used to argue, that their relation

our senior international correspondent, nic robertson, is joining us from london, investigating what's going on. police say there is no evidence the two young men were part of any terrorist group. what do authorities say they know about these two individuals? >> reporter: well, they believe they were young men. one of them, the one en route to frankfurt, was going to meet his mother there. indeed they say it was his mother who raised the alarm when he didn't get off that flight. it seems he was trying to illegally emigrate to germany, at least. coming initially, as you said, from iran, using his own passport, along with the other young iranian, getting to kuala lumpur a week before flight mh-370. what we are hearing, though, from interpol, from the secretary general, ron noble, is specific to these two men. but as far as they were concerned, where there was so much focus on the question of whether or not they were on board with stolen passports to commit terrorism, he seems pretty clear on that. this is what he said. >> the more information we get, the more we're inclined to conclude t

let's go live to nic robertson for the very latest. nic?e, the burdens of this is really coming out in a trial that is under way. he's giving evidence via video link from the uk. he has talked about five malaysians that he met, one of whom was a pilot and they were going to hijack an aircraft. and this was all part of a plot that was supposed to take place shortly after 9/11 under the auspices and planning of mouhamed sheikh mohammed, the mastermind behind the attacks against the united states. what we have learned from u.s. investigators, although this evidence has been given in court now and came to light to investigators many years ago was actually known about in 2001 and what the investigators tell us is that the malaysian authorities also knew about it, that they moved on this malaysian al qaeda link group, some of them had training afghanistan training camps there pre- 9/11 and indeed the so called pilot in this case had never fully trained as a pilot. although this information is coming out in the public domain now and may seem to im

nic robertson is in jerusalem with that side of the story. >> reporter: for years israel has been at the forefront of global aviation security, if you will, sort of cutting their own path, analyzing the threats out there, taking their own measures and steps. what we understand now after several days of meetings looking what happened to flight mh370 considering other issues they are deciding to tighten up the way that they check civilian aircraft approaching the country. in israel's aviation security operation center staff are on heightened alert. from pilots calls to airport security, multiple information streams are mined for anomalies. in this room israel's security hangs on minute by minute second by second decisions about approaching aircraft. in here the possibility of a rogue passenger jet is a permanent threat. their system would have alert ad problem had mh370 been near their airspace. >> once identified as a possibility for security background for such an incident, security incident would be announced and started to be managed. >> reporter: managed by alerting the airline an

nic robertson live for us in pretoria. nic, what's happening in the court right now?matic, christine. just in the last few minutes, there's been discussion about how reeva steenkamp was shot, shot in the head. oscar pistorius in the dark there called for a box of tissues, given tissues to wipe his eyes, very emotional. but what we've heard, intense cross examination of this witness by the defense attorney representing oscar pistorius, questioning the statement that the witness had given to the police compared to what she said in the courtroom, at one point getting exasperated, saying "this is the eighth time i've asked you this question." the state prs interjected, objected. the judge said no, the question hasn't been answered, directed the witness to answer properly. this is what she said to her snp. >> when counsel asks a question, you answer the question. otherwise, you will be in that witness box for another day and maybe tomorrow or the day thereafter. the quicker way to get out of that box is to answer exactly what counsel is asking. >> reporter: so, this seemed

cnn's nic robertson is live near the hague with more on the diplomatic effort to isolate moscow. nic? >> reporter: well, deb, absolutely, there are 53 different nations here gathered for this security summit. this had been planned in advance. it comes every two years. this is the third such summit. and the dutch have planned particular scenarios to give leaders involved a direct experience of what some kind of radioactive-type threat could mean to them, the decisions they might have to make. but really, anyone sitting through that is absolutely going to note some of the key meetings taking place on this trip, and indeed later today, are going to involve the g-7, are going to involve european leaders, as president obama really wants to get a firmer and stronger, a more united commitment to send a stronger message to russia about the annexation of crimea and also about the concerns that russian troops may be massed on the border of ukraine on the east side of the country there, potentially contemplating crossing into ukraine. so, of course, this is expected to become, despite the re

nic robertson is joining us live from jerusalem now. what's the theory? are officials in israel doing about this, nic? >> reporter: wolf, this afternoon, we spent time at israel's aviation operation center. this works in parallel, in partnership with air traffic control. they are on a heightened state of alert. they have tightened up, if you will, their procedures, their checks, they're more rigorous, they're more thorough. what are they doing? they have a multilayered approach they describe as sort of data-mining on a matrix of information about security at different airports, about passenger lists, about air crew, about every piece of information they can have about the plane, where it comes from, who might have -- who might be on board. and that goes all the way down to when their pilots are trying to enter israeli air space and making the requests. we heard those pilots requesting to come into israeli air space today, to land at the international airport. so israel is taking much tighter control of identifying aircraft from a further distance. the chec

all right, nic robertson reporting for us from london. with richard quest, former faa chief of staff, and former fbi negotiate tore. chris, first to you. the u-turn we know how to about, without the trancsponder lettin anyone know where the plane was. what does that say to you you? >> well, it gives me indicators of two things at the same time. first of all, there is an indicator that whatever happened to the plane you can rule out as there wasn't a catastrophic event that immediately took down the plane. that begins to give you insight whether it be catastrophic mechanical failure or catastrophic explosion. and with the u-turn of the plane, it's an indicator of awareness by the crew that they were battling some sort of a problem. and as an investigator, i'm very interested in pulling their cell phone records, maybe they called someone, maybe they in particular texted someone while they were struggling with this event and some insight can be gained from that. >> michael, what does it say to you that this plane spent an hour and ten minute

nic robertson, cnn, kuala lumpur, malaysia. >> nic, thank you very much.:30 eastern for flight dwt "370 the final hours" it's a half-hour special that takes a detailed look into what we know about the flight's last hours. my colleague kyra phillips is hosting that. tempers are rising among the members of chinese passengers. we're going to look at that story next. jane. her long day on set starts with shoulder pain... ...and a choice take 6 tylenol in a day which is 2 aleve for... ...all day relief. hmm. [bell ring] "roll sound!" "action!" did you run into traffic? no, just had to stop by the house to grab a few things. you stopped by the house? uh-huh. yea. alright, whenever you get your stuff, run upstairs, get cleaned up for dinner. you leave the house in good shape? yea. yea, of course. ♪ [ sportscaster talking on tv ] last-second field go-- yea, sure ya did. [ male announcer ] introducing at&t digital life. personalized home security and automation. get professionally monitored security for just $29.99 a month. with limited availability in select marke

nic robertson, cnn, kuala lumpur, malaysia. >>> and coming up, here twitter account is being called theeeting the world about the dad that she misses so much. her story straight ahead. i have a cold with this annoying runny nose. [ sniffles ] i better take something. [ male announcer ] dayquil cold and flu doesn't treat all that. it doesn't? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms plus has a fast-acting antihistamine. oh, what a relief it is! >>> for exactly three weeks now, the families of these passengers and crewmembers have not been able to hold, kiss or speak to their loved ones. and that includes the husband of this flight attendant, a mother of two. the children keep asking for her. >> i even promised them i'm going to bring her home. i really don't know where she is now and i'm not sure really i can bring her home. >> another flight 370 family member is sharing her grief in a different way. not through reporters but twitter. she's been tweeting her thoughts since the first day her father went missing. >> reporter: maybe you think of twitter as a supe