A saudi king dies and a deadline passes. Chaos and confusion in the middle east. Yemens president resigns and a power vacuum takes hold. So the question now is what happens next . Who does the u. S. Deal with. America cutting Embassy Staff. I think we ought to get our people out. I dont want to see a hostage situation. And saudis King Abdullah dies. The succession is going to be very important. A key ally. The 90yearold leader laid to rest. He was probably the most progressive and liberal minded king of saudi arabia since the early 1970s. This morning new concerns about the stability of the volatile region. And fate unknown. Two japanese men held by isis. Kenji is not an enemy of islamic states. Pleas from a mom this morning as a deadline passes. There are serious fears here in tokyo that perhaps isis never really intended to negotiate. A tense and delicate situation playing out on the world stage. Lets talk. Live in the cnn newsroom. And good morning. Im carol costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We begin this morning with a deteriorating situation in yemen. As the Houthi Rebels take control of the capital city of sanaa, the u. S. State department is starting to withdraw Embassy Staff because of concerns over safety but despite the risks, Officials Say the offices are still open and theyre still operating. Lets learn more from our chief National Security correspondent, jim sciutto. Good morning jim. Good morning, carol. The embassy there in sanaa was on an ordered departure which gets rid of virtually all nonessential staff. They took an additional step yesterday and into today to bring it down to a smaller skeletal staff. Just a few dozen left there. This is an Important Mission for the u. S. , both in political terms, an ally in the fight for terror military terms. Cooperation in the Drone Campaign particularly in the southern part of the country targeting aqap. Its a staff that you want there, but really the danger reached such a level that the administration the state department decided to take this additional step and theyre prepared to completely close the embassy if necessary, but thats something its a step they havent taken yet. All right. Were going to talk more about that in just a bit so stick around. Jim sciutto, thank you so much. Because adding to u. S. Concerns in this very volatile region neighboring saudi arabia has a new leader. This morning americas top ally in the arab world bids farewell to King Abdullah who has led the oil rich country for over 19 years. His 07yearold brother inherits the concern and with it concerns about his own health and questions about the future dealings with washington. Cnns Becky Anderson joins us live from abu dhabi with more. Hi becky. Reporter yes, hes certainly a man with experience both on the domestic and sbrr National Stage and the view seems to be that king solomon, who has succeeded King Abdullah will be looking for stability and for clarity about what happens next for the saudi kingdom. He is one of the sons of the founders but the more interesting side to this transition it was extremely quick, within an hour of King Abdullahs death is that the first of the grandsons of the founder of the kingdom, this is important, he is salamans nephew. Hes from the ministry of intelligence. Hes been appointed second deputy Prime Minister and future crown prince. That means youve got a 55yearold second in line to the throne and so potentially the first grandson of as i say, the founder to take to the throne. Hes u. S. Educated has excellent ties to washington and is known for being a main force behind saudis war on al qaeda in the kingdom between 2003 and 2006. Not suggesting that he is in charge suggesting that he could be very soon the heir to the throne. Do remember that king salaman is 79 and is said to be suffering from dementia. It is clear at this stage internally they are looking for what will happen down the road, and that is very important to a key ally like washington. All right. Becky anderson reporting live for us this morning. Thanks so much. As i said, the kings death could not come at a worse time. Yemen is in chaos. If you take a look at the map, saudi arabia is surrounded by terrorist states yemen to the south, iraq and syria to the north. Libya not far away. Keep in mind the saudis are allies in the u. S. War on terror so lets talk about this. Im joined now by former cia Counter Terrorism official and cnn Counter Terrorism analyst phil mudd and our chief National Security correspondent jim sciutto is back. Welcome to both of you. Thank you. Thank you. Phil ill start with you. Chaos reins, oil prices are dropping. What does the kings death mean . One of the things youve got to think about here weve heard the word stability since the kings death. From the saudi perspective, change is bad. You look at whats happened in libya, in egypt in syria, in iraq in every circumstance and now yemen when you see change be you see instability. For a monarchy thats been around for decades and that watches this instability on the outside of the arab world, they want stability to rein and part of stability means talking to the americans about common interests in places like iraq and syria against isis and in yemen where we both have a common interest in ensuring that we fight against the al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in the south. Despite some of the differences in egypt on oil prices, on whats happening with the Iranian Nuclear program, i think there will be conversations with the americans about keeping things cool in the critical areas of iraq syria, and yemen to the south of saudi arabia. Jim, you would think saudi arabia would be doing all of those things. In Many Americans minds, saudi arabia isnt doing nearly enough even when its own interests are at stake. Well its interesting. I was speaking to senator richard burr. Hes the new republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence committee this weekend and he made the point that you know in this battle against groups such as isis and aqap ideology is arguably as important as military action and saudi arabia while its a military partner, feeds he says, the extremism. It helps fund the madroses around the region that create the jihadis. On a week when you have the attacks in paris you had the saudiing flogging a blogger, 1,000 lashes for beginning a debate online about extremism within the kingdom. So you have this contradiction there. Thats something that u. S. And western officials have wanted saudi arabia to address. On the military side saudi arabia has been a great partner of the u. S. I think while you do have change there in the leadership, you do have consistency, now king salaman, the new crown prince consistency ideologically. Becky made a good point of lining up the next heir. Someone who has been key in the fight against al qaeda, thats a sign of stability Going Forward in that part of the relationship. As far as specifically what the United States is doing to fight terrorism within yemen, which is now in chaos, it could dissolve into a civil war, we just dont know yet, the u. S. Embassy there is in part being evacuated, right, but well have personnel who stays. So specifically phil, what is america doing militarily so to speak, in yemen to fight terrorism . To understand the problem of al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula youve got to Counter Terrorism operations understand the leadership understand the players. The primary purpose of drone strikes against al qaeda in yemen will be to eliminate the kind of leadership that creates terror cells that staged attacks in places like france. So the criticality of the embassy is to work with the Security Services in yemen to say, can we collect enough intelligence to map the leadership of al qaeda in yemen so that we can eliminate them with drones with Yemeni Military or Security Operations . The problem today, carol, to cut to the chase, what Security Service are you going to work with . Is the Security Service focused on the fight against al qaeda or are they focused on what appears to be an emerging civil war. Theres a vacuum. If im sitting in the embassy, whos my partner if the government falls . Who am i going to work with to collect the intelligence to map the al qaeda presence. Jim, because of what phil just said, Many Americans are wondering why were keeping any personnel inside that embassy in yemen. Reporter its a fair question. Keep in mind it is down. It is a skeletal staff. They have two u. S. Warships off the coast for a military evacuation if necessary. Theyre prepared if it reaches a point where they think their lives are in danger. Keep in mind the Houthi Rebels are not seen as a threat. They dont have the u. S. In their targets, in their cross hairs, but why do you want to keep people there . Because this is an important military relationship. You need that cooperation with the government to carry on the Drone Program which puts enormous pressure on aqap there. Thats a key partnership. We saw what aqap is capable of in paris so yes, there is a danger but theres also a danger in leaving Going Forward because you do want to keep pressure on that group there and without a u. S. Presence on the ground its really hard to do that. All right. Ill have to leave it there. Jim sciutto, phil mudd, thanks so much. The fate of two japanese hostages held by isis unknown this morning after a deadline to pay a 200 million ransom has apparently passed. The men shown here in iraq last summer were featured in a video released by isis earlier this week just hours before that deadline an isis spokesman telling a japanese broadcaster that a statement about the hostages would be released. That statement has yet to come. Now one of these mens mothers is making a desperate plea for her sons life while trying to appeal to his captors in the process. Translator to all members of isis kenji is not an enemy of isis. I really think he is a man who is able to help you as your friend once you get to know him. Since august isis has issued multiple videos featuring brutal beheadings among them five western captives including three americans. Still to come this hour health alert. Measles outbreak. Any compliance base with a lot of people. If you have somebody thats infectious and youre not protected, theres a 90 chance that youre going to come down with the disease. New details and new cases this morning. They should get protected because it is in our community. What you need to know to protect you and your family. Also tom brady deflate gate and isis . This isnt isis. No ones dieing. The press conference everybodys talking about. I have no knowledge of anything. I have no knowledge of any wrongdoing. As other quarterbacks call him out. Its obvious that tom brady had something to do with this. First in a country mile. The case of whodunit on the 50 yard line. Tom brady didnt want anybody touching the balls or rubbing the balls because theyre perfect. The members of the press took a 45 minute giggle break. [ female announcer ] we help make secure financial tomorrows a reality for over 19 million people. [ mom ] with life insurance, were not just insuring our lives. Were helping protect his. [ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real. Transamerica. Transform tomorrow. You give. And you give. And then you give some more. But sometimes you get. And so you take. Tylenol® cold is Strong Enough for you while childrens tylenol® is gentle enough for them. We give you relief from your cold and flu. You give them everything youve got. Tylenol®. Does a freshly printed presentation fill you with optimism . Then you might be gearcentric. Right now, get this case of paper for only 24. 99 and save even more after rewards. Office depot officemax. Gear up for great. Health officers confirmed 59 cases of measles in the state, 42 directly linked to disneyland. Heres how the numbers break down. 28 were unvaccinated, one had received one dose and five had received two or more. In the meantime publications are taking on the issue. The Washington Post cleverly giving a voice to the germ. He writes quote, doctors call people who dont get vaccines stupid. That sounds like bullying to me. These doctors sound less like medical professionals and more like meanies. Lets talk about this decision to vaccinate or not. Heres dr. Sanjay gupta. Remember that the threat of ebola captured the worlds attention, in part because there is no vaccine or treatment. While outbreaks of mumps measles and whooping cough have returned and Health Experts say its fueled by people not getting vaccinated. For example, in 17 states less than 90 of children were vaccinated for measles in 2013. And that makes it less effective for everyone. Were all immune if all of us who are strong are protected and then the weak among us are protected also because we surround them and the bad germs cant find them. We ward them off. So why the reluctance . Well some parents believe that vaccines may be linked to autism but remember the 1998 study that made that claim was completely discredited. Others are concerned about the use of mercury but that hasnt been used as a preservative in routine childhood vaccines since 2001. There are also some who feel the cdc recommendations are motivate motivated by the money the agency makes from vaccine manufacturers. The cdc says that is just incorrect. Some parents say its simply too many shots. More than 20 vaccines by the age of 1 so they choose to use a delayed schedule. Some mothers are concerned doing all those vaccinations simultaneously. Wont that in some way harm the baby . The American Academy of pediatrics the pediatricians who care for those children assure you that theyre safe and effective. In 2014 according to the cdc there were 644 cases of measles in 27 states. Thats the largest number since the year 2000 when the disease was considered eliminated. The u. S. Had over 48,000 cases of whooping cough in 2012. The highest recorded since 1955. And last year there are over 1,000 cases of mumps in the United States. More than double the year before. The outbreak even side lined 15 professional hockey players. A rising tide of cases that all could have been prevented. Carol, i do want to point Something Else out as well. Just how protected are you against a measles virus . If youre an adult and you got the measles shot and then a booster shot you should be protected. If youre not sure about that you can get a blood test from your doctor and find out how many antibodies you have in your blood. That will give you an idea how much protection you have. You could just get another booster shot as well, which is what some doctors are advising their patients to do if theyre unclear. Carol, well keep an eye on this. As more details come to us well bring them to you. We appreciate that. Dr. Sanjay gupta. Still to come in the newsroom, 48,000 worth of crystal meth. Thats how much this drone was carrying when it crashed south of the u. S. Border. Up next well talk to a former International Drug smuggler about how dealers are using this new technology. Your daughter has a brilliant idea for her science project. And you could make it happen. Right . Wrong. Because youre not you youre a Cancer Hospital and your daughter. Shes a team of leading researchers. And that brilliant idea is a breakthrough in patient treatment that could save thousands of lives. Which means you need a diverse team of advisors helping you. From Research Data analytics all the way to transformation of clinical care. So you call pwc. The right people to get the extraordinary done. Please no. Please . No. For those headaches that just arent bad enough for a lot of please. Please. Please. Medicine, theres new excedrin mild headache. Please please 35 less medicine plus a booster to end everyday headaches fast. Wow, my headaches gone. Excedrin mild headache. Youre driving along, having a perfectly nice day, when out of nowhere a pickup truck slams into your brand new car. One second it wasnt there and the next second. Boom youve had your first accident. Now you have to make your first claim. So you talk to your Insurance Company and. Boom youre blindsided for a second time. They wont give you enough money to replace your brand new car. Dont those people know youre already shaken up . Liberty mutuals new car replacement will pay for the entire value of your car plus depreciation. Call and for drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Switch to Liberty Mutual insurance and you could save up to 423 dollars. Call Liberty Mutual for a free quote today at see Car Insurance in a whole new light. Liberty mutual insurance. We have disturbing new details about inside the cockpit of airasia flight 8501. Officials said the plain climbed rapidly and stalled shortly before this crashed killing all 162 people on board. Heres what we now know. At 6 14 in the morning the cockpit asked for permission to climb and turn left. They only had perfect m igs to turn not to go up any higher. 3 minutes later the plane deviates from the flight path. It climbs at a rate of 1400 feet per minute. It then reaches maximum altitude at more than 37,000 feet. Thats pretty much as high as that plane can go. At 6 18 the plane simply vanishes from the radar. 6 19 would be the last known detection from the aircraft. Lets bring in cnns avery sayings analyst mary sciavo. She joins us on the phone. Hi mary. Good morning. So what can you dell us about this time line . It appears everything happened very quickly, correct . Very very quickly. I think once they hit the stall, which is what happened when they climbed so rapidly and dramatically and they reached the top of their thats the top of the performance ceiling on this air bus and they really if they lose altitude it doesnt have a lot of well say wiggle room it doesnt have a lot of give anymore. In fact that area of the performance on the performance charts for the aircraft is actually called coffin corner because any mistake can be so deadly. So once it stalled what appeared happened is it really was falling pretty much falling flat or i dont think it was in a dive. It could have been in a dive but it was literally falling from the sky like a leaf. There was at that point i dont think really anything this pilot could have done to recover once it was in that terrible of a stall. So at one point it appears to me that the plane climbed almost 6,000 feet in less than a minute. How fast would the plane be going . Thats three times what this air bus should have been doing. At these altitudes the maximum climb rate is about somewhere between 12 1250 to 1800 feet per minute so doing 6,000 was beyond what the plane could do on its own, beyond what it should have been doing and it could have obviously caused great damage to the plane, if thats what it was really doing. Of course what it could have been doing is having been caught in a horrific updraft so the instruments would have been reading that it was climbing on engine power when, in fact it was a variance on what was actually happening with the weather. But either way, what that meant is it was it was going up way too fast and then it reached a maximum ceiling. At that point mostly the engines ingested horrific amounts of rain which caused both engines to fail. They already would know that from downloading the flight data information. Its unfortunate the families wont have that until they decide to release it but once it stalled and entered the fall it are you still with me, mary . We lost mary. I apologize for that but, again were finding out new information about how the airasia flight 8501 crashed. Mary said it went into that unnatural climb at a speed too great for that aircraft to handle and it simply crashed into the ocean. The whole incident probably took less than five or six minutes. Well keep you posted. Still to come on the newsroom, Bill Belichick said he didnt do it. The same answer from tom brady. So andy scholes, are we any closer to finding out what happened at deflate gate . Reporter doesnt look like it carol. No one knows anything. Well examine what brady said and when the balls may have been tampered with when newsroom continues. Dont let a severe cold hold you back. Get theraflu. It has the power of three medicines to take on your worst pain and fever, cough and nasal congestion. Theraflu breaks you free from your toughest cold and flu symptoms. So you never miss a day. Theraflu. Serious power. Why do we do it . Why do we spend every waking moment, thinking about people . Why are we so committed to keeping you connected . Why combine performance with efficiency . Why innovate for a future without accidents . Why do any of it . Why do all of it . Because if it matters to you its everything to us. The xc60 crossover. From volvo. Lease the wellequipped volvo xc60 today. Visit your local volvo showroom for details. When heartburn comes creeping up on you. Fight back with relief so smooth. Its fast. Tums smoothies starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue. And neutralizes stomach acid at the source. Tum, tum tum tum. Smoothies only from tums. And good morning. Im carol costello. Thank you so much for joining me. As the nfl looks to get to the bottom of deflate gate under inflated footballs are not likely to show up in the super bowl. The nfl is following a tradition, its picking an equipment manager from another team to be in charge of the game balls. This year it will be the chicago bears. All this after tom brady takes a shot at quieting the controversy over the footballs he used during the afc championship game against the colts. Brady says it is not his fault. Is tom brady a cheater . I dont believe so. I mean i feel like ive always played within the rules. I would never do anything to break the rules. I believe in fair play. But brady is not winning over critics including hall of fame quarterback troy aikman who thinks the penalty needs to be as severe as the new Orleans Saints punishment for paying to injury opposing players. Obvious that tom brady had something to do with this for the balls to have been deflated. That doesnt happen until the quarterback wants that to happen i can assure you of that. So youre asking yourself more than once do tom bradys answers make any sense . What happened to those footballs from pregame to the snap . Andy scholes joins us now with some answers, good morning. Reporter good morning, carol. The Million Dollar question remains when and how did these footballs get deflated. The nfl is in a tough spot. Evidence is hard to come by. No one is taking responsibility especially tom brady. I have no knowledge of anything. I dont know what happened. Im not i dont know everything. Reporter the theme from tom bradys press conference is he claims to know nothing about how or when the patriots game balls ended up under inflated against the colts. I didnt alter the ball in any way. I have a process that i go through before every game where i go in and i pick the footballs that i want to use for the game. Reporter according to the nfl rules each team supplies 12 footballs to the officials when theyre on the field. Those footballs are tested by the referee 2 15 prior to each game to make sure they meet league requirements. When i picked those footballs out at that point to me theyre perfect. I dont want anyone touching the balls after that. Reporter 11 of the 12 footballs were under inflated and that the patriots footballs were properly inspected by Walt Anderson before they were returned to the team. People are trying to figure out as the nfl is trying to figure out part of the process. From when i saw the ball which was five hours before halftime you know what exactly happened . Reporter balls are required to be inflated between 12. 5 and 13. 5 pounds per square inch and weigh between 14 and 15 ounces. Once the balls are approved they are put into bags and are set on the sidelines for each team. The balls are not guarded or watched in any way. Im very comfortable saying that nobody did it as far as i know. I dont know everything. I also understand that i, you know was in the locker room preparing for a game. I dont know what happened over the course of the process. According to weei in boston the patriots used 12 backup balls in the second half against the colts after the footballs in the first half were found to be under inflated by a reported 2 pounds per square inch. I did not feel a difference between the first half and the second half. Im not squeezing the balls. I dont thats not part of my process. I grab it i feel the lace, i feel the leather. Reporter altering footballs after they are approved is a violation of league rules. A person found tampering with footballs could face up to a 25,000 fine and potentially more discipline. Did the league talk to you as part of the investigation . Not yet. Its odd that they havent at this point then . Im not sure. Have you been told whether they will talk to you . Im not sure. So hes not sure. Carol, in terms of ball custody lets break it down a little bit. Once the fnlsootballs are on the field. Hell come out, warm up. Ela he pick out a couple of balls. The ball boys on the sidelines will circulate the game balls brady picked out throwing them back and fourth with the referee. When and how did the balls get deflated once they were on the field . The big its a big mystery carol. Apparently no one knows anything at least in the patriots organization. No no one has the nfl talked to tom brady . Reporter we dont in what we heard from brady, he said yesterday he hadnt heard from them yet but he kept saying im not sure if theyve reached out to me yet. Left himself a lot of wiggle room with saying im not sure. So its possible the nfl wont have any answers when the super bowl rolls around . Reporter you would think they would want to have this wrapped up by today going into the weekend so when the teams arrive in phoenix that this would be over with but, carol, who knows . This thing could drag into media day on tuesday. That would just be a disaster for the nfl. That really would be. Would be so bad. It would spoil a good time, wouldnt it . Reporter sure would. Andy scholes, thank you so much. So tom brady said he didnt notice a difference in the football game, but a former nfl ball boy says he could have. If he was really looking for it but i do have to say in the heat of the game with everything going on i can totally believe that brady might not notice a drop in pressure in between quarters or plays. So maybe he would notice and maybe he wouldnt. Joining me now is former new England Patriots linebacker and teammate of tom brady, chad brown. Welcome, chad. Thank you. Good morning. Nice to have you here. So you played with tom brady. Do you believe him . I do. I do. Tom bradys character has been proven to me over the years and in my time as a patriots linebacker and being in that facility and being in that locker room i never saw any, you know cheating going on. I saw the hardest working, best football environment i was ever a part of there in new england so their success is much more due to that than it is due to any kind of cheating. Have you read some of the vitriole online . There are plenty of people who think tom brady is lying. Why do you think that is . Well when youre successful you know teams orphans of other teams arent going to be happy about that. There are 32 teams in the nfl. The patriots typically beat those other 31 teams on a regular basis. You would expect them as fans to not be happy about that. Unfortunately, you know tom brady is the target of all of this i guess fan hatred because of what Bill Belichick did with spy gate but, again, ive never seen anything dirty or cheating going on in the patriots locker room. What about what troy aikman said . He said that brady had to know. Hes handled footballs for, what since he was a child. He would notice a difference. There are other quarterbacks who came out in support of tom brady. Now manipulating the footballs, buffing the footballs, polishing the footballs has always been a part of preparing the game for every quarterback so perhaps, you know tom was aware of the treatment of the balls, how they get to be polished up to his standards but, you know i doubt that tom would purposefully ask the ball boys to under inflate the footballs. Okay. Lets talk about Bill Belichick because you played under him as well. Do you believe him when he says i dont even know how the process works . I do believe bill. You know a lot of nfl coaches like to go out there before the game and throw a football around with the players. Pete carroll, example for the Seattle Seahawks he does that all the time in pregame throws the ball around with his players. Bill belichick is is reelingly focused on the xs and os in the game plan before the game. Bill picking up a football and grabbing and going, oh, this ball feels a little light, i dont think thats something bill would notice nor is it even on bills radar on game day. So hatched happened . Whats your theory . I dont really have a theory. The difference in air pressures do you think someone on that team cheated . It certainly is possible but did Bill Belichick know . I dont think so. To troy aikmans credit if someone is manipulating a football you would think the quarterback would know but at the same time there are other quarterbacks who have said you know the balls are always polished up and manipulated and the quarterback never asks about the specific ball pressure he just wants the ball to feel right in his hands. So it is certainly possible that tom brady received an under inflated ball but did not notice. Okay. Im going to Say Something harsh and i apologize in advance, but a lot of people feel the new England Patriots are arrogant cheaters and this is just something that everyone should have expected to happen. I understand the patriots because of spy gate are always going to be guilty in the court of Public Opinion but, again, what Bill Belichick did years ago, does that automatically make tom brady a cheater . Is Bill Belichick going to the ball boys on one of the most important days of the season and asking them to under inflate footballs . Again, these are things that i seriously doubt. Im not doubting that the balls were under inflated but to say that Bill Belichick was come police citysitcity complicit in this. There is no doubt Bill Belichick is a great coach. Tom brady is a fabulous quarterback, but whether theyre guilty or not, theyll be forever tainted by this. Yeah. And there are always fans who, you know want to put an asterisk by patriot super bowl titles because of spy gate and, you know, i bump into fans all around town here in denver who know that i played for the patriots and they want to discount the patriots success and think its all about cheating but as i said earlier, i was in that locker room. It was the hardest working, most passionate set of football people ive ever been around. The best football environment i had ever been around. So the success of the patriots is due to that hard work, to that passion, to that ingenuity, to that creativity not to bending and pushing the rules. So what will it be like for the patriots to play in the super bowl this year . I think the patriots are going to use this as a rallying cry and i heard you earlier talking to a guest about, you know hopefully this is over by media day. I dont think this will be over by tuesday, the media day down there at the super bowl. This is going to continue to be a topic, not just going into the week of this game but past this game regardless of the results. The patriots are going to be labeled as cheaters by most in the public and thats unfortunate because they didnt get here by cheating they got here by hard work and by being a very very good football team. Chad brown, thanks for being with me. I appreciate it. Thank you very much for having me. Youre welcome. Of course there are a lot of jokes about deflate gate and its helping the late night comics get quite a few laughs. If the patriots are found to have knowingly under inflated the balls, they might lose draft picks and the league could take away Bill Belichicks favorite hoodie. Gloria allred is now representing 9 of the 11 balls they squeezed. Deflate gate which means now my wife will have to use a different term to describe our honeymoon. Hm. When heartburn comes creeping up on you. Fight back with relief so smooth. Its fast. Tums smoothies starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue. And neutralizes stomach acid at the source. Tum, tum tum tum. Smoothies only from tums. Sure sounds like something out of hollywood. A drug smuggling drone crashes before crossing the u. S. Border. You listen to me youve got the greatest meth cook, the two greatest meth cooks in america right here and with our skills youll earn more from that 35 than you ever would on your own. We have 35 pounds of product ready to ship ready to go. Are you ready . If only those had walter white by their side but they didnt. Heres what we know the drone crash landed in a supermarket parking lot in tijuana. The problem, the meth was too heavy for the drone. To put it in perspective, on the streets six pounds of meth is worth about 48,000. This isnt the first time smugglers have tried to use this. A former International Drug smulgleer and the author of the book high. He served ten years behind bars for importing 75 tons of marijuana into the United States. Were also joined by former d. E. A. Chief of International Operations michael viehill. Welcome to you both. Its a pleasure to be here. Brian, i want to start with you first. Tell us about your own experience in the drug world. What kind of business did you operate and how did you get out . Well the business i started like most people who got in that business just kind of sharing doan with dope with my friends, and 20 years later it was 75 tons from vietnam into alaska and basically distributed across the u. S. How i got out of the business was after that last deal i had too much money and not enough brains and had a heart attack from a coke overdose and that got my attention. I got sober after that and actually went to work in the drug and alcohol rehab before the d. E. A. Showed up and thrilled me with a 10 year sentence. Should i talk about that with you, michael . You can. Because im sure michael would have a whole other viewpoint on that ten years thing. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Michael, seriously. Officials say this drone crash because of course the meth was too heavy, do you think this was a small scheme personal delivery kind of thing or is this part of something bigger . Well it could have been either. Keep in mind that drug smugglers always look at technology theyre always very dynamic in terms of diversifying their routes using different methods to smuggle drugs, particularly across the u. S. mexico border. They use tunnels. They use ultra light aircraft. They use pneumatic cannons to shoot loads of drugs across the border. Theyve un used cat a catapaults to shoot it into the United States. So brian, do you think that this has been going on for a long time and we havent noticed or have drug dealers just started to use drones . Well its certainly recent. My partner, henry less was one of the first feel shoot with the drone niagara falls. When we did this i saw this cop ter go down the face of the falls and i thought its going to be five minutes before smugglers get one of these and start coming across the border with it. Im just surprised its taken so long for us to find one. Look for every one thats caught there are probably 100 that are not caught. Theres a huge demand for drugs in the United States and that demand is being supplied. People who want to do drugs are using them theyre getting them and so if weve caught one drone, there are probably 100 that have gotten through. Yeah. Michael, how easy is that to detect . I mean you can see the drones flying overhead right . Well these drones are you know these small drones are very difficult to detect. They fly at a slow speed. Theyre very light weight and you need specialized radar to be able to detect these little drones but they have been used in the past for example, in South Carolina georgia where little drones have flown into some of these prisons carrying cell phones marijuana and, you know cigarettes so they have been used in the past on a limited basis, but i would venture to say that you know this may definitely be the wave of the future. Okay. So brian, lets say drug officials somehow are able to shoot every single drone thats carrying drugs somewhere down right . Is that the way were going to win the war on drugs . Absolutely not. You know its time to make a different mistake, wouldnt you say . Weve been making the same mistake for, what 50, 60, 70 years throwing in excess of 1 trillion dollars. Building more prisons, locking people up and we call that a success. Its no success. Its time to make a different mistake. This little badge that im wearing is from Law Enforcement against prohibition. My good friend Neil Franklin former police commander, baltimore, maryland hes the head of that now, and they have a saying alcohol prohibition, drug prohibition. Same problem, same solution. Look we have there are only two options how people get how people can get drugs, you can either have them distributed by criminal gangs who control neighborhoods, destroy families kill people or you can have them distributed by medically savvy people who in that distribution to the drug addict has an opportunity to have a conversation with them and help them change their point of view. Until we take that approach were not going to see any change and like i said there is no other choice. Its criminal gangs will give drugs or control distribution through medically savvy people. Personally we have chosen the first. Weve seen where that has gotten us. Nothing has changed. Its exacerbated. Im going for the second. What do you think, michael . Well i disagree simply because the experiment of legalizing drugs has been attempted in many countries and its met with dismal failure. Quite frankly, you have seen the addict populations significantly increase and quite frankly youre not going to get rid of the criminal element because unless you are willing to legalize drugs for School Age Kids the kids of today have expendable money and they are able to afford buying very dangerous drugs. Unless you legalize it for the youth of america, you are going to still have criminal involvement. A fascinating conversation. I have to leave it there. Thank you so much. Still to come in the newsroom, tough talk from the top leaders in the Republican Party as they weigh in on president obamas state of the union wish list. What do you think they said . Well tell you next. President ial run in 2016. Dana bash has confirmed rubio has hired anna rogers, former finance director for karl rove and is expected to miss a string of senate votes and in their place a series of fundraisers in california. Rubio is scheduled to visit some early primary states next month. In the meantime president ial rumors are swirling around mitt romney. His top advisers meeting in boston today to discuss next steps. A top donor telling cnn he believes strongly romney will run again. Mitch mcconnell and john boehner have three simple words for president obama and his state of the union proposals. Not going to happen. The two Republican Leaders talking tough during a joint interview airing this weekend on 60 minutes. John boehner tackling the idea of raising taxes on the rich headon. From the president s state of the Union Address let me ask you, dead or alive . Raise taxes on the wealthy . Why would he want to raise taxes on people . Theres no free lunch. The president wants to raise taxes because he wants to increase washington spending. Ill take that as a dead. Dead. Real dead. Its going to be deja vu all over again. I hope not. Thats not the only issue. Free College Tuition and raising minimum wage. Those are likely dead too. There are some areas of compromise for congress and the white house. Really. Seriously. Im telling you the truth. Cnns athena jones joins me now to tell us more. Good morning. Listening to the Republican Leaders take on the president s middle class economics wish list and looking at that graphic, you can see there are not a lot of areas where the two sides are agreeing. They did mention a couple of issues where they might be able to work with the president. Lets go ahead and play that clip. Dead or alive, tripling the child care tax credit for employees. Were all for helping working class families around america. Well look at this when he sends his budget up. Possible area of compromise on child care tax credit. Something we would look at. I would add trade. Virtually every republican in the audience the other inside stood up when the president talked about trade. There are areas of agreement we can make progress on and we intend to do that. While republicans have been slamming all of the president s other ideas, not just since the state of the union but in the days leading up to the state of the union when the president began to lay them out, a couple areas where they may get something done but even on that Child Tax Credit which would be expanding the Child Tax Credit up to 3,000 for a preschool age child, thats money that can make a difference in peoples pocketbooks. Its possible they could find an area to agree on that. Lets talk about the child care tax credit for just a second. Thats the most interesting one to me because the democrats always talk the supposed war on women, right . So if the republicans go ahead with helping families with child care thats sort of deflates the war on women thing, doesnt it . Certainly republicans might argue that. I dont think you can expect democrats to drop that line of attack. And of course as they indicated, this is something that they are leaving the door open to maybe working on this. Its not really a definitive yes in the way trade is. We know republicans want to see fast track for trade deals to get through and to expand trade with europe and transpacific with asia. Well see what happens on the Child Tax Credit. One thing that both sides agree on is cybersecurity given the sony hacking and state of the world right now, both sides want to see something done to improve cybersecurity. All right. Athena jones, thank you so much. Athena jones reporting live from washington. The next hour of cnn newsroom after a break. [ male announcer ] its a warning. A wakeup call. But its not happening out there. Its happening in here. [ sirens wailing ] inside of you. Even if youre treating your Crohns Disease or ulcerative colitis, an occasional flare may be a sign of damaging inflammation. Learn more about the role damaging inflammation may be playing in your symptoms with the expert advice tool at crohnsandcolitis. Com. And then speak with your gastroenterologist. You get sick you cant breathe through your nose suddenly, youre a mouth breather. A mouth breather well, put on a breathe right strip and shut your mouth. Cold medicines open your nose over time, but add a breathe right strip and pow, it opens your nose up to 38 more. So you can breathe and do the one thing you want to do sleep. Add breathe right to your Cold Medicine shut your mouth and sleep right. Breathe right. And look for the calming scent of new breathe right lavender in the sleep aisle. Happening now in the newsroom, yemen falls. A saudi king dies and a deadline passes. Chaos and confusion in the middle east. Yemens president resigns and a power vacuum takes hold. The question now is what happens next . Who does the u. S. Deal with . America cutting Embassy Staff. I think we ought to get our people out. I dont want to see a hostage situation. Saudis King Abdullah dies. A key u. S. Ally the 90yearold leader being laid to rest. He was probably the most progressive and