. >> we have nic robertson following the developments for us. nic. >> reporter: secretary kerry before the meeting today over the weekend said he believes that the situation with the talk was iranians is like this that there are some technical issues to discuss with iranian foreign minister but it is a matter of political judgments. two weeks now is the deadline to get that framework agreement and final agreement by the end of june this year. however, when you listen to what the iranian foreign minister said, he feels this is still a lot of technical issues to get through here. both men were due to meet sunday evening. they did not. the deputies met earlier in the day. off to brucessels today to brief the germans and french. you get a sense they did not meet yesterday and a session this morning. it doesn't seem they are close to that framework agreement. >> nic robertson, thanks. >>> breaking overnight, three teenage boys out on bail in london after caught trying to join isis. two 17-year-olds and one 19-year-old stopped by turkish officials tipp

joining us now is nic robertson. here we have been watching this spying. a new very serious wrinkle. >> reporter: indeed. one of the points of the wall street journal makes is israel sent a delegation to paris to influence the french position. the implication it is not just sway pillolitics in the united states. they will use this information to gain a voice and stronger voice inside those talks. p-5 plus 1, united states france britain, germany, russia china. the state of the talks, secretary kerry said progress has been made but more needs to be done. the iranian position is entrenched. the president there is talking about progress but the supreme leader ayatollah khomeini in iran is saying at the moment the united states is in effect bullying iran and iran will not cower and give in to bullying. his position has been look you can choose the united states and allies. stop pressuring iran and the team at the negotiations. take the pressure off and you will get an agreement. the talks are still in a very rocky situati

joining us now with the latest is nic robertson. nic, what is the progress on the negotiations and how is the report of spying how will that effect the negotiations. >> reporter: what secretary kerry has said in his recent statements is progress has been made. he came to london at the weekend after finishing up in switzerland on friday to brief the british, french and german foreign ministers. we heard over the weekend from ayatollah khomeini the top religious leader in iran. the leader in iran. he has been very clear. he said the united states is bullying iran and we won't give in to the bullying. the toned down message from president rouhani. a deal is possible, but it depends on the political will. it is how secretary kerry deals with zarif. they have to choose if they want agreement or put pressure. progress has been made there are still divisions and issues that haven't been resolved of the eye the. the iranians are pushing back. now this article is something we are hearing already on the margins that france's position and view

nic robertson is there. he joins us now. what's the latest? >> reporter: well in all of this it's hard to say good information, anderson but at least it's a help for the families. we understand from the recovery teams now that they've identified 16 of the victims as being done in dna labs. the lights you see behind me police headquarters they're working through the night here. behind that the recovery teams are processing the bodies as they bring them up. we also understand they're bringing in biometric equipment as well to help in the process of identifying the bodies. this will include fingerprinting equipment and we also understand when the families come here the french authorities as we know given the opportunity to go as close as they can to the crash site but they're also taking dna samples from the families as well. and again, all of this to sort of speed the process by which they can make these very difficult identifications,

let's bring in correspondent nic robertson. nic. >> reporter: five hour talks yesterday with secretary kerry and zariff. we are not told what the response was and how secretary kerry dealt with it. the talks are back on this morning. kerry and zariff have been in a meeting coming up to an hour now. the mood surrounding the talks yesterday, not so good. the briefings we are getting from the state department really indicate their concern the deadline for framework agreement and the state department is not sure if the deadline can be reached at the moment. there are significant decisions that need to be made by the iranian side. there's really political decisions that are on the table for iranians. for their part the iranian foreign minister said we finally we will get something. the reality was he went off to brussels and met with the french german and british foreign ministers and a source speaking to the reuters agency look we had a long meeting, but the gaps have not been narrowed. there are substantial issues that are yet to b

. >> nic robertson is at the talks in lusanne. nic, what's the latest? >> reporter: i was speaking with the foreign minister as he was walking back in. i asked what he thought about president obama's message to the iranian people and negotiators here. he said i already tweeted that with a smile on his face. he is a supporter, it seems of getting a deal here and the necessary steps that are taken. when he went out to take his walk as he does every morning about half an hour ago i asked him then what he thought the chances are of getting a deal by the deadline on the 31st of march. this is what he told me. >> do you think a deal is possible by the 31st of march? >> i think indeed a deal is possible anytime. whether there is a political will to reach one. >> reporter: well there you have it. for him, it is about the political will which is interesting because earlier this week he was talking about the need to make progress on technical issues and we heard earlier in the week from secretary kerry putting emphasis on political compromise. it seems the iranian

let's bring in nic robertson.this is a grim picture this morning. >> reporter: it is grim christine. one reason it is grim is al qaeda in yemen has a history of planning to perpetrate the most sophisticated attacks yet on the united states. the under pants bomber was an effort to bring down an airliner in detroit in 2009. the bomb maker there is the best they have. the year 2000 the "uss cole" attacked by al qaeda. what you have right now is an environment where al qaeda can thrive. it is an environment where isis is thriving. they attacked two mosques killing more than 130 people and wounding hundreds of others in twin suicide bombing attacks. you have the houthis rebels who isis and al qaeda are fighting. they are taking the airports and government buildings as they continue to push to the south where the recognized president is. the united nations security council meeting on sunday in an emergency session gave the united nations full support for president hadi. he appears to be in a precarious position right no

nic robertson, thank you. >>> breaking overnight.hree teenager boys out on bail after trying to join isis. the two 17-year-olds and one 19-year-old were tipped off by british authorities. they were arrested saturday night after being brought back to the united kingdom. we have arwa damon with more from istanbul. arwa turkey has been criticized for not being quick enough to bring these issues to light. >> reporter: and maintained it is doing all it can. it is not turns a blind eye to the flow of weapons and isis fighters. in cases of this one like the three teenagers. saying if you share intelligence and turkey wants more intelligence sharing, they will take action. they received the tip early on friday and that evening, that night when they arrived in istanbul's airport, they immediately detained. turkey feels at this stage it is being made out to be much more of a scapegoat. too much blame laid at turkey's feet when it comes to preventing these individuals from reaching isis territory. turkey says europe has to have a certain level

let's get more from cnn's correspondent nic robertson in london. ning, nic. >> reporter: good morning, christine. what is odd and strange here is you have on the one hand characterizations like this from the sort of isis defector if you will and on the other hand we hear other narratives from the cage group. they say he was a nice guy. one newspaper here has tracked down his former employer. a computer company in kuwait. that company says that emwazi was their best employee. the perfect salesman. he was a nice guy. you know you have the two very contradictory images. another journalist here said a couple of years before he left for syria, emwazi contacted him by e-mail. saying he was a dead man walking. under pressure from the british intelligence services. this organization cage activist organization cage, released e-mails exchanged between them and emwazi. the narrative has expanded. emwazi feels he was put under pressure by british intelligence services. they tried to recruit him. people here familiar with the way counterterrorism officials work

let's bring in nic robertson. a grim assessment nic. >> reporter: it is a grim assessment. no indication that the houthis rebels are about to put down the weapons. the united nations said they support the elected president hadi in the south in the southern city of aden. his presidential compound was bombed by aircraft on thursday. on friday more than 130 worshippers to sunni mosques near the capital for attacked by isis. more than 300 people were wounded along with the dead. you have the u.s. special forces pulling out, but also the houthis rebels extending to the south and taking the city of taiz. that puts them about 100 miles of the international by backed president hadi. a real concern that not only will this civil war escalate but it could overturn and overrun the internationally elected government. the concern behind all of this particularly when you pull out the last of the u.s. special forces that are really there to target al qaeda and isis is what we have seen in syria is isis and al qaeda will take advantage of the civil war situation to build themselves up and m

helicopters have airlifted those remains out of the site. >> nic robertson is at the staging area in french alps and as he reports, the search process is slow and it certainly is difficult. >> reporter: ropes, harnesses, recovery teams and equipment. this no straightforward crash recovery. high in the frechnch alps, only helicopters can only get to the site to drop in investigators by rope. this lady lives here, heard the crash, knows the mountains as well. >> in fact, it's behind here. you see? it's a very small valley, very close. >> reporter: helicopters in the air all day. priority recovery of bodies. slow, as none can be moved, until remains are documented. [ indiscernible ] >> reporter: each helicopter one step closer to recovering the bodies of the victims from the mountainside. this now a race against time. concerns are that the weather is closing in. that rain, even snow could be coming, hampering investigators, as well. air accident and criminal investigators taken into the mountains, too. not just the cause of the crash in question, but responsibility for the deaths. the f

nic robertson, cnn, france. >> and derek vandam joins us now for more on the difficult weather, which some of these searchers are encountering right now. we've been talking about this weather, how bad it's been. is there any possibility of a break? >> fortunately, they're in a narrow gap of 24 hours where they do have a break in the weather, but the winds will be a factor going into friday. these crews, both in the air and on the ground, are truly risking their lives as they go forward with this recovery effort. these helicopters are flying into a ravine. that's only 250 meters wide. let alone the crews on the krounld have ground have to deal with terrain like this. that leaves the possibility of rock slides. this is the spring season, so we have varying precipitation. so rocks will expand and contract, depending on the temperature and precipitation they're dealing with. that's going to make the rocks very unstable, leading to the possibility of slides in the ravines below. these crews having to rappel to locate some of the body remains and some of the plane, as well. the fact that we

nic robertson, thank you. >>> u.s.s have been tracking shipments for weeks and none of the weapons have been used yet. they could cause civilian cast casualties. the terrorists innflictsing heavy casualties. the white house is monitoring the issues closely with the help of david petraeus. the retired general now consulting the obama administration on the iran strategy. that is although petraeus was convicted of leaking classified information to his mistress and lying about it to the fbi. >>> let's bring alison kosik for an early look at your money. >> good morning. asian markets closing higher. european markets mixed. monday's stocks jumped. rebounding from big losses last week. the dow gained 227 points. the s&p and nasdaq added 1%. that puts the dow and s&p back in positive territory for the year. if you are not keeping track, stocks are close to highs. dow is about 2% away from the record. the nasdaq and s&p are not far behind that. we are watching oil prices. oil continuing to fall. plunging yesterday to the lowest

nic robertson is at a staging area now. what's the latest nic? >>. >> reporter: the crash site is above us in the mountains. about 7 miles this way and of those, hamper efforts and the fact the whole side is so steep there, the wreckage side is over several hundred meters. that's a concern. access is really only by helicopter. we've seen those helicopters sitting on the ground here throughout the day and the question when daybreaks in the morning, how low is the clouds and will the helicopters be able to fly and get access to the site? the rain has been coming over some of the high mountain passes here. particularly strong also that. falling rain or snow again at the crash site. that also worry, anderson. >> obviously, concern for families is have they been able to cover any of their loved ones. have teams been able to recover any of the passengers? >> reporter: yeah. from what we understand so far, helicopters have only been able to fly over the site. although we do understand one black box has been recovered and taken away. but as far as landin

our nic robertson joins us from there. good evening, nic. >> reporter: each day begins here.elicopters lifting off. local rescue pilot among them friday particularly tough. >> the winds was always turning inside so, sometimes this way, sometimes this way, and for us it was very difficult. and the meshing, we are always in very very closely knit. >> reporter: lives are in his hands. luring recovery teams to the crash site. >> in the closed crews area very very close from the mountains. it's a very short place, so it's quite difficult for us. >> reporter: as the teams make their gruesome discoveries, locate the victim he comes back lifting literally swinging them homeward. >> i don't want to focus on the possible victims i see on the floor, so i'm proud because i know i will bring back bodies to the family and i think it's very important. it's my duty. >> reporter: from the mountains, the bodies are brought here to a mobile forensics lab for biometric and dna testing. all of this happening in a remote and small alpine village. and here they have opened their hearts touched by t

our senior international correspondent, nic robertson, joins us to talk about the situation. we've seen scenarios like this before when you talk about a failed state and groups wanting to have a foothold there. have we seen this type of scenario where you is sunni aqap fighters shia-backed houthi rebels and isis looking to make gains? it almost looks as if it's a two, three-sided battle in this almost failed state. >> reporter: you know if you sort of change the names a little bit here not only of isis and al qaeda but change the name of the houthi rebels for the shia backing for the government of president bashar al assad, his drawing on shia support in the country, his drawing on hezbollah from lebanon was drawing at least on shia fighters from iraq and is getting support from iran. in that way, there are a lot of similarities here. this of course is the real concern for the international community. when you pull out the british special forces, the u.s. special forces who would have been there on missions to target the growth and stop the growth of al qaeda and isis we've s

nic robertson, we'll continue to check in with you. we're just learn that the french government formally requested the fbi assist in the investigation into the germanwings air crash and the copilot. back to cnn law enforcement analyst tom fuentes formally with the fbi. how does that work? >> they would already have been assisting in this case from day one. this happens in every international air crash, that the host crash asks the fbi to look at the passenger manifests, the crew, anybody that came close to the aircraft when it was on the ground if they think there are sabotage involved. the fact they have finally gotten around to a formal request, to make it politically correct or whatever really doesn't matter. i'd also like to correct the notion that this has suddenly become a criminal investigation. every air crash where it's not obvious what happened, like the plane off the runway in laguardia in the ice. every one is a criminal investigation simultaneously conducted with the mechanical and engineering investigation, as to whether

nic robertson, first to you. here's this ceo of lufthansa just this past hour. he did make news and they'll be providing a flight for some of the family members to come as close as possible to where you are to this crash site. but can you just explain to all of us watching, this is a crash site where you can't even land a helicopter here. >> yeah it's just difficult to understate really how steep the mountainside is where the crash took place. what we're expecting is the first of those family members who want to come here will be arriving in france in the south of france possibly marseilles as early as tomorrow afternoon. some of them would be expected to stay in this village here. it's a very small village in the mountain mountain. so others would stay in other places. however the chance of them actually getting into that site are going to be very very unlikely in the short term. why? because even today the air accident investigators were only overflying the site looking from the air. the recovery teams were only getting on the ground because the helicopters we

nic robertson has more on this. >> reporter: each day begins here. helicopters lifting off. local rescue pilot david among them. friday, particularly tough. >> the wind was always turning inside. sometimes this way, sometimes this way. for us, it was very difficult. we are always in very, very close limits. >> reporter: lives are in his hands bringing recovery teams to the crash site. >> we are in a closed area, very, very closed from the mountains. it's a very short place. it's quite difficult for us. >> reporter: as the team makes the gruesome discoveries, he comes back, lifting, swinging them homeward. >> i don't want to focus on the possible victims i see on the floor. so, i know i will bring back bodies to the family and i think it's very important, it's my duty. >> reporter: from the mountains, the bodies are brought here to a mobile forensic's lab for dna testing. all of this happening in a remote and small alpine village. here, they have opened their hearts, touched by the tragedy unfolding around them. people at the nearby building gathering at the memorial for the

we have cnn's nic robertson joining us live from beirut. >> reporter: good morning, john. you have to look at the map of yemen to realize the air strikes are going on all over the country. in the north, close to the saudi arabia border, air strikes. up around sanaa, air strikes. to the town east of the country air strikes according to the houthis. women and children killed and more people wounded. look at the south of the country. aden, this is the last stronghold of president hadi. houthi is closing in there. the war ships shelling the road coming into the town to cut the houthis houthis off. aden may be the place if a ground offensive is placed it could come from there. yesterday, in a displaced person's camp close to the saudi border according to red cross officials and doctors without borders, they say 29 people or up to 40 people killed there. saudis say the houthis rebels are hiding and may have shot at the aircraft. >> nic robertson, thank you. >>> jay-z wants you to drop spotify and subscribe to his music service. what will it cost you? look at the lineup of people

a loner associated with terrorist circles. >> nic robertson.you so much. >>> 53 minutes past the hour. silicon valley is where all the money is. not for everyone. we have more on a clash with the haves and have-nots there next. sometimes the present looked bright. sometimes romantic. there were tears in my eyes. and tears in my eyes. and so many little things that we learned were really the biggest things. through it all, we saved and had a retirement plan. and someone who listened and helped us along the way. because we always knew that someday the future would be the present. every someday needs a plan. talk with us about your retirement today. major: here's our new trainer ensure active heart health. heart: i maximize good stuff like my potassium and phytosterols which may help lower cholesterol. new ensure active heart health supports your heart and body so you stay active and strong. ensure, take life in. i love my shows, but i can't just sit around all day. that's why i have xfinity. their cloud based dvr lets me take everything i recorde

senior correspondent nic robertson following the latest for us. is going relatively well. villages have been taken. tikrit not just strategically important, but because it is to the north of mosul. it is if you will the part of the government would see the sunni resistance against the government. this is the birth place of the former president saddam hussein. it is important on many levels. they are saying they are attacks from five sides. the tribe getting isis from getting in. the potential of problems of ieds. i think if we look at the recent track record of the iraqi army taking quite an amount of time to take a percentage of that village al bagdadi in the west of the country. taking a long long long time to take control of the oil refinery to the north of where they are tikrit. success here is not expected to happen overnight. part of the success will come in the composition of the 30,000 troops involved. it is not just iraqi army. shi'a militias but significantly some sunni tribesmen fighting alongside the government forces there. why is tha

. >> senior correspondent nic robertson is at the talks in switzerland. nic, we have the multilayer negotiations going on behind you at the hotel and the president speaking to the iranian people and the foreign minister speaking to the american people. >> reporter: there is a lot going on. not clear if a meeting started yet with secretary kerry and foreign minister zarif. it is not unusual for the meetings to slip. we had a chance to talk to the foreign minister this morning. i wanted to know if a deal is possible by the 31st of march. this is what he told me. >> do you think a deal is possible by the 31st of march? >> i think indeed it is possible at anytime. it depends on the political will to reach one. >> reporter: you know which is interesting because earlier in the week, a lot of technical issues where secretary kerry had said the emphasis was on political will. i asked the foreign minister what was his response to president obama's message to the iranian people. he told me he tweeted that already. the tweet is interesting. i'll read it to you. he sa

but let's begin with our senior international correspondent, nic robertson. he's near the crash scene and has the latest. nic? >> reporter: well this was a day where the family members of the victims of that crash got a chance to get close to that site. they couldn't get all the way there. the german authorities from lufthansa organized flights to bring them to france. the french authorities organized a memorial service in a field. this field just a couple of miles from the crash site itself. an emotional day for more than 100 family members who made the journey to southern france so they could spend time near the place where their loved ones perished. the grieving relatives arrived at the site just hours after french investigators described in chilling detail the final moments of germanwings flight 9525. marseille prosecutor bryce robin says it seems co-pilot andreas lubitz wanted to destroy the aircraft but it's unclear why. the audio from the aircraft's mangled cockpit voice recorder reveals the 28-year-old german co-pilot was alone at the controls when the

nic robertson, cnn, switzerland. >>> u.s.e speaker john boehner plans to visit israel in the next couple of weeks. it was boehner who invited israeli prime minister netanyahu to deliver a speech to a joint meeting of the u.s. congress earlier this month. just this week netanyahu won re-election. during the campaign he said there would be no two-state solution in the middle east. netanyahu's statement led president obama to warn he may reassess the u.s. relationship with sdap. cnn senior white house correspondent jim akomptrksccostaccosta has more. >> reporter: if there's one thing clear after president obama's phone equal israeli prime minister in the the netanyahu, it's that a single conversation won't repair a damaged relationship. netanyahu said in at least three interviews that he still believes in palestinian statehood despite his pre-election flip-flop on a two-state solution and desperate appeal for votes. "i haven't changed," high told npr. but it's not good enough for the white house. >> why not take him at his word?

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nic robertson in london thanks very much. yemen is clearly split three ways there's the elected government forced out by the rebels. those rebels are these iranian backed houthis who control areas of the capital and are now in the southwest as well. then's al kei ga also known as aqap. they're in eastern yemen. let's talk about all of this with our cnn military analyst retired lieutenant colonel from california. our cnn intelligence and security analyst, former cia operative and our cnn terrorism analyst. colonel, with the u.s. and british special forces now out, are there any eyes and ears on the ground specifically as related to aqap or even isis that could help the u.s. appreciate what's going on? >> this is a major blow. we've lost our ability to find out what's going on on the ground. british have lost theirs. without the embassy, we've basically got nothing there. we can view this from the air using drones. but it just makes it that much harder. this has been a big problem for us. >> last september, bob baer the preside

let's bring in senior international correspondent, nic robertson, who joins us with more. hi nic. >> hi carol. that is the real concern. we've seen it in syria where isis and al qaeda took advantage of the civil war to build strongholds, places for recruitment and places for training and plan to turn it around and export terror to the united states. that is the big concern for yemen at the moment. it really is moving quickly towards a civil war. now in control of the international airport in the southwestern city of taiz the u.n. warning yemen is at the edge of civil war. this sectarian violence between shiite rebels and sunni majority government spreading across the country, where houthis who control the cap salkapcapital of sanaa and areas of the north to taiz the country's largest city. following the embassy's evacuation last month, the u.s. pulled out 1 whun00 special forces. this attack on friday. more than 130 killed and hundreds more injured. >> as we're seeing extremists try to capitalize inside of yemen to carry out these acts of violence. >> reporter: the nation n

nic robertson is there. he joins us now. what's the latest?>> reporter: well, in all of this, it's hard to say good information, anderson, but at least it's a help for the families. we understand from the recovery teams now that they've identified 16 of the victims as being done in dna labs. the lights you see behind me, police headquarters, they're working through the night here. behind that, the recovery teams are processing the bodies as they bring them up. we also understand they're bringing in biometric equipment as well to help in the process of identifying the bodies. this will include fingerprinting equipment and we also understand when the families come here, the french authorities as we know given the opportunity to go as close as they can to the crash site, but they're also taking dna samples from the families as well. and again, all of this to sort of speed the process by which they can make these very difficult identifications, anderson. >> horrific process. clearly seems communication is much better with family members than we ha

and cnn reporters are live throughout the areas, and nic robertson is there, and we have richard queste in new york and fred pleitgen in dusseldorf. richard, what do we know happened? >> we have absolutely no idea. it was 40-some-odd minutes into the flight, and it had reached the cruising altitude of 38,000 feet and about two minutes after it did, that it sudden starts to descend. there is some dispute as to what rate of speed it is descending. some suggest it is a consistent descent at around 3,000 feet per minute and one or two reports suggesting it is more erratic, but we have no idea what happened at that moment. >> and even though it was 8,000 foot plunge we have no idea the if it was erratic. >> it was going down 3,000 feet per minute give or take, and now one or two people saying it is more erratic, and if you average it out it is more than the range of 1,500 to 5,000, and we don't know. what is significant in this area is that was this a koncontrolled gradual descent albeit e steep by the auto pilot under descent of the aircraft or out of control? we have no idea certainly of

let's get now to nic robertson in switzerland to catch us up. this is pretty significant. tell us what's going on nic. >> reporter: it certainly is. secretary kerry has just told us in the last couple of minutes that the talks are going into recess. he says it will be back next week. he didn't give a specific reason but certainly from following events very closely here over the past few days even today, we can see there are a number of growing reasons. one is that they have made some progress but issues still remain. president obama reached out to the iranian people you know saying that this was a time for -- you know for their leaders to choose. this was an important moment. this was part of a new year's message. it is iranian new year on saturday so there was always the expectation that the iranian delegation might leave the weekend because of the iranian new year. that secretary kerry might leave because he would have to meet as expected expected as planned with the afghan president. that has been in the air as well. when you add to that also and you understand better wh

nic robertson maintains that as of tuesday, hadhi is in yemen. >> we're joined by nick paton walsh. nic, now that saudi arabia has launched this military operation in yemen, what is the latest on the houthi targets that have been hit and the response from the rebels? which countries are involved and what roles are they playing? >> reporter: it is still early days here. we know that saudis say they have 100 planes and on the border 1 50,000 troops potentially involved. we know that the egyptian government said it is ready to offer political and military support, as well. it is unclear if any of that is already involved in the operation. there are plenty of conflicting reports about the scale and breadth of the gulf countries involvement wee heard a statement out -- involved. we have heard a statement theyithey i combined and under the houthi advance three yemen, calling it a dangerous step for global security. if you listen to the white house statement, they refer to gcc-led operations which does suggest there will be more than just the saudis involved in this in in the hours or dice

nic robertson, difficult day. i appreciate you being there. while investigators now believe the crash of the flight was deliberate they say so far they have not found a connection to terrorism. as we said france has asked the fbi for help with the investigation. joining me law enforcement tom fuentes and richard quest back with us. fran town zendsend, they say no terrorism. >> they searched the parents home. looking at documents, computers, was there a personal reason? not just terrorism but some obvious personal reason they can get from e-mail or documents on his computer. they're going to look at all that. medications he was on. try to figure out who was his doctor they'll talk to friends. they'll talk to coworkers. they're going to try to take the pieces and make them mosaic to give a better sense of this individual in his frame of mind to answer the big unanswered question. >> they have to also go back before he joined before he started training because then there's the question well did he become a pilot in order to do something like this

our nic robertson has this story. >> we were put in afghanistan.s as though he was on patrol with his gun. >> reporter: this lieutenant colonel was the most senior british officer killed in afghanistan. for his father there is no doubt he died doing what he loved. leading his battalion from the welsch guards. >> he was very proud to be there, he told me that. he was certainly -- he was extremely proud that he was going to afghanistan in command of the welsch guards. >> reporter: he was killed by a taliban ied in helmand in 2009. british forces took over the lead for security in the province in 2006. the final british flag lowering there late last year. more than 400 troops killed. more than 2,000 battle wounded. was it worth the sacrifice? >> he would say it was. of course he would say it was worth it. i don't think it was. as i understand it about 400 were killed. one never knows. they would say it was. it's a difficult question to answer. >> by the time we left helmand was in a far worse situation than when we found it. so the answer is no, it wa

cnn's senior international correspondent nic robertson is following these talks. where do we stand right now? >> reporter: we may never know precisely how it interfered with negotiations when the two men get face to face. they spent five hours together. by any measures of recent talks they've had, that's a relatively long time for a single session. they were supposed to meet last night. they met this morning. they are still saying different things. foreign minister saying we believe we have technical issues to get through. secretary kerry saying, yes, there are technical issues but we really think this is the point where the iranians need to make some political judgments. this is getting sort of beyond the scope of what needs to be done. technically there are technical things to do but they need to make this political judgment. when you listen to what both sides are saying going in, you get the impression they may not be that close right now. the iranian foreign minister is going to brussels now to brief those part of the european group that are pushing to get thi

have c nshgs nshgsnn reporters life all over the world to bring us the latest information and nic robertson is in the mountains, and diana magnate is at the home of the co-pilot, and we have stephanie e elam in victorville, california at the airport where the maintenance work is done on the airbus and richard quest here with me in new york. and sara sidner as well. and so richard, we had information that the pilot was locked out of the cabin and now we know that he was, and that the co-pilot brought this plane down. why are they so sure? >> because they have listened to the voice recorder, and it is clear. they can hear the captain leaving the cockpit after a conversation and hear him banging to get back in again, and they can hear the cockpit, the co-pilot doing nothing. the word we heard again and again today, don, he was silent. no word ss, and nothing was said just quiet breathing. so he ignored all of the banging, and then we hear the screams, and we have heard from the cockpit voice recorder about the controls but then another piece of the jigsaw that we heard from the atsb transponde

let's begin this hour with nic robertson joining us from london many. where do the talks stand right now. >> reporter: right now you are the iranian foreign minister in brussels briefing. he's expected to go back to switzerland today. he had a five-hour meeting in switzerland with secretary of state john kerry. both sides recognize they only have two weeks to get the deal done. if you listen to what they said going into the talks when they arrived in switzerland, slightly different narrative. there are technical issues to accomplish heerp. you have from secretary kerry say yes there where technical issues but this is a time for political judgment on the iranian side. secretary kerry expected along with others from the state department to be in switzerland for talks. both sides recognizing the clock is ticking on this 31st of march deadline wolf. >> and another related matter the secretary of state john kerry spoke about a willingness to sit down with syria's president, bashar al assad. i want to play a clip from the interview. >> everybody agrees there

. >> all right, nic robertson. thank you, nick. >>> happening this morning a u.s. air force veteran goes before a judge, he's accused of attempt to go join isis in syria. the experienced airplane mechanic was caught and turned back by turkish authorities in jarn. u.s. investigators found a letter on his laptop. let's get the latest from cnn justice correspondent pamela brown. >> reporter: according to court documents 47-year-old day rod nathan webster pugh from neptune, new jersey who was at one point a mechanic for american airlines trying to travel to syria to join sighs. also he apparently was in the air force for several years where he trained in the installation and maintenance of aircraft and weapons system. they say that's concerning because he could have brought his expertise to the terrorist group if he made it over to syria to join isis as authorities allege in this criminal complaint. according to that complaint, pugh left the air force in the '90s then worked for several private aviation companies and in january he allegedly flew from egypt to turning y

nic robertson has been following all this therefrom london. u.s. being an ally with a now ousted president using this country as a launching pad drones what now that the u.s. presence is gone? >> well, certainly there are drone possibilities just beyond the borders of yemen from saudi arabia and across the sea from djibouti. but what you lack is the sort of connectivity on the ground with spies on the ground people within al qaeda maybe even isis who can provide tiny anysnippets of information. and with a civil war going on, al qaeda and isis in yemen only have to look at their brethren in syria to see, look make use of the civil war grow your areas, get stability in those areas, take over towns set up operational bases and take control of chunks of territory to use them potentially to attack let's say the united states in the future. so the implications for these pull out of the last troops an everything that has been happening over the past few months it's very serious, brooke. >> so isis could capitalize. we're reporting that the lives lost duri

nic robertson live in london. good morning. >> reporter: the foreign minsters have been meeting for three hours this morning. zariff when he arrived in switzerland said he believed they were technical issues. secretary kerry said look there are technical issues to get through here. he now believes this is a matter of political judgment. they were supposed to meet sunday. >> that didn't happen. zariff off to belgium to meet with the european leaders to brief them on a deadline. it doesn't appear we are close to crossing that final hurdle if you will. >> the british foreign minister saying there is a long way to go there. also secretary kerry also speaking out about a willingness to sit down with syrias a bashar al-assad. listen to what he had to say. >> everybody agrees there is no military solution. there is only a political solution. i am convinced with the effort of our allies and others there will be increased pressure on assad. >> and you will be willing to negotiate with him? >> well we have to negotiate e ne

nic robertson, thank you so much. >>> new today, the army and navy warning u.s. service members to limit how much personal information they share online. this comes after a group claiming to be an isis affiliate called for attacks against 100 service members posting their names, photos and addresses on this website. cnn national correspondent suzanne malveaux here with me in washington. i suppose there are two big questions which is how credible is this group and what concerns exist now for the safety of these some 100 personnel. >> when you think about this, it must have been so alarming for those service men and women to actually learn that their names and photos and rankings, home addresses were out on this alleged hit lit. pentagon officials and fbi are working together and they say they don't believe that this is a credible group first of all. it could be an individual. could be an isis sympathizer. they don't believe that this is a credible organization necessarily. even having said that, there is word and need for precaution. they have actually gone to eac

nic robertson, cnn, france. >> it is still early on in this investigation. let's bring in captain desmond ross, an aviation industry veteran. he joins us live from sydney, australia. thank you so much for being with us, mr. ross. french authorities have been very quick to draw conclusions. they believe this was a deliberate act by the co-pilot. what are your thoughts on that and are there other reasons you're looking for that might have caused this other than a deliberate act? >> i agree with you, i watched the press conference last night. it was a chilling event, and i'm amazed at how quickly they've drawn the conclusion. it does seem to be a logical conclusion. what can you say other than a mental disturbance, some sort of stress in his life, whatever. there could be other reasons, who knows if he has some terrorist connections? i think all these things are still being examined. what's concerning me now is we're starting already to see knee jerk reactions from government authorities around the world. one of my concerns right now, and of my colleagues, is t

so that may take quite a long period, anderson. >> nic robertson, appreciate the reporting. one thing to imagine what went on inside that cockpit. it is another thing entirely to be inside a cockpit like 9525 and to see it especially if you're a seasoned aviator like the one our kyung lah introduces to us to tonight. >> reporter: he cannot imagine why a pilot would do this. but foresight knows how. a retired military commercial pilot, said he's flown thousands of hours in the a320 cockpit. one of the safest high-tech passenger jets used around the world. normal? >> lock and unlock. >> reporter: he like all pilots used the switch hundreds of times. >> tun lock, you have to pull up and hold it. light comes on, said the door's open but if i unleash it, goes back. >> reporter: norm means it's locked. >> correct. >> reporter: according to airbus operations video, there's a key pad entry on the outside that allows entry if you know the code. but if the person inside the cockpit switches it to lock, the key pad won't work for five minutes. and there's another override that goes bey

. >> nic robertson is in london watching this all unfold. we know the evacuations respect yemen has served as a counter terror launching pad for this part of the world. drone, et cetera. how will the u.s. gather intelligence if the presence is gone? >> there will likely be a few spies out there but it's going to be -- sort of lines of communication will be stretched. so that will make it harder. and it's not like having special forces on the ground who can react quickly. there are a number of al qaeda leaders that you had want to target there. one is the bombmaker. very sophisticated bombmaker. he's a target. the head of al qaeda there is the number two for al qaeda core will also be a target. so if you do get information, you can't agent on it quickly on the ground if it requires special forces on the ground to do that sort of thing. p that he's oneehe's's one minus. but the real danger is a syrialike scenario where they use the civil war to take chunks of territory, make it safe for them turn it into bases of training and operation that mu

cnn's senior international correspondent nic robertson joining us live in london with the latest on thishreats are we talking about here? >> reporter: well what isis or this affiliate of isis is saying is twitter started a war with them and this means that for isis all the, as they say, the necks of the twitter employees are now the targets of isis. this is a very blunt and stark warning for twitter executives. they say their security team is investigating this with relevant law enforcement officials. this isn't the first time they have been threatened by affiliates of isis but the concern here would be perhaps it's not isis themselves or this particular affiliate that would carry out any act, but it's a lone wolf that would be inspired by this rhetoric that we have seen that recently in copenhagen and in paris, and that's where the concern begins to become real. >> very alarming to hear that. tell us a little more about what we're learning. we have new information about mohammad emwazi the british man who is seen in isis videos beheading or certainly taking that role before the beheadin

thank you, nic robertson, and we appreciate that.k with me patrick smith, richard tilman and matthew wald and on the phone carlene pettis and david soucie and richard quest and thank you all for joining us. >> as a faa investigator i want to say that if we are divulging some secrets, but if the seek security is so weak that we have to rely on the communication between the pilots and the crew and then it is seekcret. it is archaic thought to believe that it is controlled by the secrets. it is not. safety is controlled by the mitigation efforts of events from occur, and they are strong and public and anyone can look them up. there are some secrets, of course, and as a federal agent, and federal aviation inspector for several years, we are trained or on that and very well and thank you for letting me defend that. >> go ahead, jim and i will let you respond. >> i apologize to anybody who may be bent out of shape over this but the difference is where the information comes from. if it is coming from the internet study or whatever else are

cnn senior international correspondent nic robertson is joining me now.know about mohammed emwazi's parents and his background. >> justin emwazi says he's the father of the man identified by others as being jihadi john. he has contacted a newspaper in kuwait and has spoken to them on what he told that newspaper was that there was no video evidence there was nothing that he had seen in the media that shows that his son, mow head emwazu is in fact jihadi john so he's dismissing this for lack of evidence. the lawyer that he has hired to represent himself is saying look no western or local intelligence agency presumably local in this context means kuwait has given any information, has put anything available in the public domain that would say that mohammed emwazi is jihadi john so the father and the lawyer representing him are very strenuously denying it and also going to the point, the reason this lawyer hired as you say, they feel that the father is a victim of libel here and they say that they will pursue any media organizations that continue with that lin