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Israeli PM and Spy Agency at Odds on Iran Nukes; Interview with Nicholas Burns; Drones Spotted Flying Over Paris; Passenger Train Details in Los Angeles

Aired February 24, 2015 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you for joining me. I would also like to welcome our viewers from around the world.

We begin with breaking news. We're following that breaking news north of Los Angeles. A Metrolink passenger train has struck a truck on the tracks. The truck was at a crossing, we understand, when the train hit the truck. A number of cars from the train had derailed. You can see that. We were just told that up to 30 people could be injured. Of course, we'll bring in more information when we get it. We have reporters working their sources right now.

In other news this morning, Secretary of State John Kerry expected on Capitol Hill at any minute. First up, the Senate Appropriations Committee where he's making the case for the State Department's 2016 budget. This afternoon, Kerry will appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Fresh off nuclear talks with Iran, Kerry is expected to update the progress as a March 31st deadline to reach a political deal nears.

Now Kerry's appearance comes as new reports claim that Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli spy agency may have had differing views regarding the threat of Iranian nukes.

Those reports published by "The Guardian" and Al-Jazeera cite intelligence dating back to 2012. Intelligence that was prepared just one month after this appearance by Netanyahu before the United Nations General Assembly. This took place in 2012.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: If these are the facts, and they are, where should a red line be drawn? A red line should be drawn right here. Before, before Iran completes the second stage of nuclear enrichment necessary to make a bomb.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. We should note that CNN has not been able to verify the authenticity of those documents or if Benjamin Netanyahu and the spy agency did indeed have different opinions on how dire the situation is with Iran. Joining me now, CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson.

Tell us more about these leaked documents, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, what Al-Jazeera and the "Guardian" newspaper have got is a throve of, they say, about more than 100 different documents. They range from confidential to top secret. And one of those documents, they say, is a briefing given by Mossad agents to the South African Intelligence Agency. Then it appears to be notes written up by the South African Intelligence Agency a month after that speech at the U.N. by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

And the headline that Al-Jazeera and the "Guardian" have taken from this is that the Iranians essentially were not working -- they believe were not working at that moment to produce a weapon. However, it also goes on to say that they're trying to close their technology gaps by legitimate means and if they are successful in that then their ability to produce a weaponized -- to produce a weapon could be much shorter.

So what we're hearing from Israeli officials is there's not actually such a big gap between what the prime minister was saying and what his intelligence agency was saying about a month later. And the other part of this picture is here. Of course we don't know the whole throve of documents that Al-Jazeera and the "Guardian" have. And this is an issue that's been circulating for some time.

You know, the disagreements over time between the politicians in Israel, the intelligence service and the defense service about how best to deal with Iran. But the prime minister there was speaking about Iran continuing to enrich uranium which indeed it was until the following summer when by agreement with the international community they decided to neutralize some of that 20 percent enriched uranium -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Nic Robertson reporting live for us from London.

These bombshell leaks come days before Mr. Netanyahu speaks before the American Congress and is snubbed by President Obama. That said, we assume the Israeli prime minister will still urge America to get tougher on Iran despite John Kerry's assessment that progress is in sight when it comes to Iranian -- Iranian nukes.

With me now to talk more about this, former ambassador, Nick Burns.

Welcome, sir.

NICHOLAS BURNS, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: What do you make of these leaked documents and what Benjamin Netanyahu said in 2012?

BURNS: Well, of course I can't speak to the documents. Haven't seen them. But I would say this, you know, for -- for several years now there's been an open public debate in Israel between former members of the government and Prime Minister Netanyahu as to the seriousness of the threat.

I think that the United States for a decade now has been very concerned about the possibility that Iran will arrive at a nuclear weapons capability, construct a nuclear weapon. I frankly think that we share that interest with Israel. And so there's a dispute over whether or not the prime minister should speak to Congress on March 3rd.

But I really think Israel and the United States, the Arab countries, the European countries, are essentially together in needing to convince the Iranians hopefully by negotiation that they need to back off and that they need to have a verifiable agreement hopefully by March 24th to convince the rest of the world that they're not going to become a nuclear weapons power.

I think maybe too much has been made of the American-Israeli differences when in fact neither of us want to see this happen.

COSTELLO: That's absolutely true. But I think that people actually want to know what the truth is, too. So when Netanyahu calls talks with Iran dangerous and astonishing in light of what Nic Robertson just reported, should we listen to the prime minister skeptically?

BURNS: Well, Iran is -- Israel is a front line state. Israel is going to be very much affected by whatever happens here. So, you know, I certainly think as former diplomat that Israel has every right to express its view but I happen to be very supportive of President Obama as I was of course when I worked for President Bush and Secretary Condee Rice that we ought to be negotiating with Iran, that we ought to see if a diplomatic resolution is possible here.

Secretary Kerry is working very hard. And I think the administration deserves a chance and hopefully support from the Congress in trying to get to a peaceful resolution. If that's possible, Carol, because we still don't know whether the Iranians are willing to make the necessary compromises particularly on verifications.

Having an outside agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, be able to verify 24/7 that the Iranians are keeping to whatever deal is made.

COSTELLO: OK. Just going back to Netanyahu one more time. The Obama administration says Netanyahu is distorting Washington's position. Do you agree with that?

BURNS: I think that -- I think that he has been unfair in many of his public comments about what the administration is up to. As someone who served in the Bush administration, I think what President Obama has been doing since 2009 is a direct extension of what the Bush administration tried to do and that is stop Iran, sanction Iran, try to achieve a diplomatic resolution. If that's not possible, of course, we always reserve the right to use military force.

I think negotiations first before the use of military force makes absolute sense in that respect. I would hope the Israeli prime minister could be more supportive of what President Obama is trying to do.

COSTELLO: All right. Former NATO ambassador, Nicholas Burns, thank you for your insight as always. I appreciate it.

BURNS: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: A disturbing sight across the night skies in Paris. Five drones spotted hovering over some of the city's most famous landmarks including the Eiffel Tower and the American embassy.

Isa Soares is following the story from London for us.

Tell us more.

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. That's right. Five drones have been spotted overnight. 1:00 a.m. time in Paris and then 6:00 a.m. They were seen at various sites including, some say, the Louvre, Place de la Concorde, which is very close to the U.S. embassy, as you're saying, as well as a couple of museums, too, in Paris.

This is a concern for authorities because clearly Paris is still on high level alert following those attacks at "Charlie Hebdo" seven weeks ago and at the kosher store. What police are saying is they went to these locations but by the time they got there, the people in charge of these drones had already left.

They say it's too much of a coincidence that these two drones -- these five drones were seen the same day and same night across the -- the Parisian sky. So what they've done, Carol, is they've set up a team of 10 police officers that are just focused entirely on this aspect of the investigation.

Now what we are hearing and these were small to medium sized drones. They were not military. But of course police are taking this highly seriously because if you remember last month there were -- more drones were seen flying over President Hollande's house basically, Palace -- the Elysee Palace.

And now we've seen more than 15 cases of drones flying around some of France's main sites including EDF, which is a leading French -- it's a leading French -- pardon me. A leading French nuclear plant. And so they have -- they said they are concerned about this. It's not the first time. They're taking it very, very seriously.

But interestingly, there is no way of knowing, it is so easy to buy these drones nowadays. You know that. Our viewers know that. They can range between $300 to $500, you know, some of the cheapest ones. And so we do not know at this stage if they are malicious or simply drone enthusiasts -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I know, because you know, we just experienced a drone crash landing at the White House not too long ago. So I get what you're saying.

SOARES: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: Isa Soares -- Isa Soares, many thanks.

I'll be back with the latest on that big train derailment in California next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right. We're continuing to follow breaking news north of Los Angeles. A Metrolink passenger train struck a truck on its tracks. A number of train cars have derailed and we're told that up to 30 people could be injured.

We're just trying to fare through this new information slowly coming into CNN.

Alexandra Field is here. And we understand that the truck exploded upon impact?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're told this is a large truck possibly a semi at this point that did sort of erupt in flames upon impact when it struck that train. Cannot say at this point what caused this collision to happen. Of course, you know, it's way too early for that. But the immediate aftermath we're hearing is that at least three of the train cars derailed. Not yet clear how many passengers are on that train in total. But this is a commuter train.

We're talking about the early morning hours in California. This is a Southern California commuter train. It was running between Oxnard and Camarillo. Headed in the Los Angeles direction. So unclear how many passengers would have been in each of those cars that derailed but the preliminary reports from the initial first responders were down there now, or if that we're talking about at least 30 injuries. We don't know the extent of these injuries. You can imagine, though, that when --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: That's the truck that was hit right there.

FIELD: Yes. You have to think about --

COSTELLO: Truck within a railroad crossing when the train hit.

FIELD: And you take a look at the condition of that truck and you can imagine the flames that engulfed that truck and you see the aftermath.

COSTELLO: I actually have Scott Johnson on the phone. He's from Metrolink. Hopefully he'll be able to provide us more information.

Hi, Scott.

SCOTT JOHNSON, METROLINK: Good morning, everyone. And actually your reporter provided rather accurate information. At approximately 5:55 local time, Metrolink train 102 did strike a tractor trailer at Rice Avenue in the city of Oxnard. As your reporter indicated this was an early morning commuter train. It had made two stops, East Ventura and Oxnard stations. The passenger count has not been determined. Both the engineer and

the conductor unfortunately were also injured in the collision. We have the initial reports of up to 30 people who were injured and at this point are being addressed by the Ventura County Fire Department and Sheriff's Department along with California Highway Patrol and have been transported from the scene.

COSTELLO: What do you know about the truck that was hit and the driver?

JOHNSON: The specifics of what the -- what and how that individual came to stop on the tracks have yet to be determined. But obviously we warned the community that the train cannot stop quickly. When a train sees something or someone on the side of the tracks, the typical protocol is the engineer certainly would attempt to stop and I'm sure that occurred in this incident. But the collision certainly could not be avoided from a -- from a rail standpoint.

COSTELLO: We're getting some preliminary information coming in that sort of confuses me about a driver that fled the scene. Do you know about that?

JOHNSON: I do not know the specifics. There are times that when a vehicle does come to rest on the tracks that a driver would vacate the scene just to avoid being involved. So that sort of may have occurred. But in terms of specifics for this morning, that's still yet to be determined.

COSTELLO: Yes. It's preliminary information. I'm just reading the urgents coming over on my e-mail. I just wanted if you knew about that. Talk about what a difficult operation you're facing now to get all of these injured people to the hospital.

JOHNSON: It is a challenge. Obviously the initial responders from the California Highway Patrol and the county fire department are doing outstanding job addressing the initial injuries with the triage area and then transporting those perspective individuals to look for care facility. We are trying to establish exactly the identifications and so the families and friends can identify who was on that train this morning and where to go.

So we will do our very, very best to work in collaboration with the local authorities and the local responders to notify family and friends of where their loved ones are.

COSTELLO: And again, it's train 102, is that what you said? It was -- the accident occurred at Rice Avenue. Is that correct?

JOHNSON: Exactly. Exactly. And three of the four passenger cars did come off the rail but also three of those four cars were installed in what's called the collision energy management technology following the tragedy at Chatsworth. Metrolink invested largely in technology in our passenger car that would allow then an incident does occur, a collision occurs, that the energy from that impact would go outward as opposed to inward to hopefully prevent any crumpling of the cars. From the initial reports and coverage from the helicopters at the

scene, it appears that those cars did stay intact in terms of not crumpling upon themselves. So in terms of that that would have prevented a larger scale of injuries.

COSTELLO: That is more positive news for sure. But still, you know, it would be difficult to get out of those train cars if you're injured. How does that work?

JOHNSON: Absolutely. Yes.

COSTELLO: How does that work -- go ahead.

JOHNSON: The -- our responders in terms of all of our counties are trained in terms of how to access these cars from a safety standpoint so the windows themselves can be removed by emergency personnel and they appear to have done so succinctly and effectively, and then they would have addressed any non-ambulatory passengers who would not have been able to move on their own.

COSTELLO: I just want to ask my producers a question so stand by one minute, Scott.

Are these live pictures you're showing, producers? These are live pictures.

I'm just wondering, Scott, because I don't see any people. Is everyone out of the train cars now?

JOHNSON: This incident occurred more than an hour ago. I am not at the scene either. I'm actually in San Bernardino County which is a significant distance in the Los Angeles basin from Ventura and so these reports that we have that the vast majority if not all of the passengers have been extricated from the train and are being treated to at the scene if not -- if they haven't already been transported to a local care facility.

COSTELLO: OK. I'm just getting a little bit more information about the driver of that vehicle who supposedly fled, Scott. And I know you don't know much about this. But this is from -- this is from police sources, producers?

Battalion chief. This is from the battalion chief. The driver of the vehicle that crashed into the train fled. Police have now tracked him down. The driver is currently in custody and not injured.

So, Scott, going back to what you said about this kind of -- isn't so unusual when this kind of accident occurs that the driver of the vehicle in question would flee the scene.

JOHNSON: It's not so much -- it's fairly rare that someone would flee the scene. But certainly -- if a car comes to rest on the tracks, they would try to avoid injury to themselves. Obviously I can't get into any detail of what was in the mindset of the driver but certainly when there are trains coming that it would be in the person's best interest to get off the tracks. Unfortunately he or she left his or her vehicle.

COSTELLO: I know, it's just -- it's hard to believe anyone could survive because when you look at the wreckage of the truck, it's incredible that anyone managed to survive that.

JOHNSON: Yes. It -- obviously this type of collision is very, very sad.

COSTELLO: OK. Scott, thank you so much for providing us so much information. We sure appreciate it.

JOHNSON: Bye-bye.

COSTELLO: Do we have Rene Marsh available from Washington, our transportation correspondent?

Rene Marsh, this just reminds me uncomfortably of the most recent train accident that we had to cover.

RENE MARSH, CNN TRANSPORTATION CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Carol. And you know, as we're watching these images on our screen there, I mean, just yesterday the NTSB put out their preliminary report regarding that Metrorail deadly accident that happened there in New York and here we go again. We're now looking at another train derailment. Again, look at those images.

What is remarkable, though, is although you see the three of the four cars derailed, as far as that crumpling goes and the damage to the actual cars, you don't see a lot when you look at it from the outside and you just heard your guest there talking about that technology that was onboard.

Essentially what that does is just -- it improves the crash worthiness of these vehicles. They go through testing, things of that sort to make sure that if, god forbid, this sort of thing happens that people can walk off alive.

We are getting word as far as multiple injuries at least 30 patients are being treated -- more than 30 patients being treated. And, you know, when we look back at prior events, we do know that the last Metrolink crash in this area happened in 2008. In that case, we had an engineer that was texting and 25 people died.

We do not know at this point what is the reason why we're looking at these images. We do know that this train essentially struck a vehicle on the tracks but we don't know anything more than that. We do know that the NTSB is aware of this situation. They say they are currently gathering information. They have not decided at this point whether they will launch a go team.

Of course we're in close contact with them. As soon as they make that decision, we will know and get that to you, Carol. But, I mean, just looking at these images here, they have a lot of work to do. When the investigators do go in, they're going to look at a number of issues. Was there something wrong with the tracks? They are also going to want to get the recorders that were -- are most likely onboard this train to try to get to the bottom of what happened here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Again, I just -- I just can't get past the fact that the driver of the truck survived. That truck looks like -- it looks like it disintegrated but apparently the driver of the truck that the train hit managed to flee the scene.

MARSH: Yes, that's the report that we're getting that the driver was found unhurt and you have to believe that, of course, that driver will be questioned as far as, you know, what happened in the moments leading up to this impact.

But yes, amazing, because going back to the New York case, we know unfortunately in that case the driver in that SUV did not survive and we also know that there were casualties on that front car in that case in New York. So to really to hear that this person was able to escape this unscathed amazing. But again the details as to perhaps, you know, when this person was able to get out of the vehicle, we don't have that right now.

But perhaps as this investigation moves forward later on today we'll get more to understand how is it possible when you look at what's left of that vehicle, what's left of that truck on the track, that someone actually survived. Of course keep in mind this was during the height of rush hour so you have to believe that many people were onboard this train so there's that factor as well.

Investigators, they're going to want to talk to the people who were onboard, what do they feel, what kind of -- you know, how is the train going? What did they experience in the seconds before this impact happened -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. So, Rene, we have some reaction now from a KABC helicopter that flew over the site. So let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was a very violent crash. You can see by the damage to the cars and especially by the damage once again we'll go up to it just in case you didn't see it earlier. This is what we believed caused the accident. This truck. There's a portion of it. And another portion of it on the train tracks which caused the train to derail.

We're not sure why it stalled out on the train tracks. And we're not sure that the crossing guards were working. They both look up to me. They didn't need to raise them in order to get access to where they were going. And the train had not cleared the area in which would automatically make those come back up. So they'll have to look into that. But it appears the crossing guards at this point we're up.

Not certain exactly the state of affairs when the train went through or if the individual got out of the truck that was struck and caused a derailment. That will all be under investigation. I'm sure we'll get that.

(END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining us.

We're continuing to follow breaking news north of Los Angeles. A Metrolink passenger train struck a truck on the tracks. A number of cars have derailed. We believe three to four. We're told that more than 30 people have been injured.

Alexandra Field has been following this story, she joins me now with more.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. We are hearing from a local fire chief who is near the scene that the driver of the truck had fled from the truck and that police now have him and that they'll be able to speak with him. Obviously, this is going to be incredibly key to the investigation, because we have no idea why that truck was on those tracks when that commuter train collided with it earlier this morning.

It was around 6:00 a.m. local time. We're looking at pictures of this commuter train. Three of four cars derailing -- this is a southern California line. We know now that at least people were injured when those cars derailed. We don't know the extent of these injuries. But you can imagine the force of something like this. We've seen injuries from people who survived these kind of wrecks and we know that collisions can be very serious.