Transcripts For ALJAZAM Consider This 20140329

An afghan girl caught in the cross fire died. President obama has asked president putin to pull back his forces from the russian border. The purpose of the phone call was a discussion for a diplomatic resolution to ukrai ukraine. In missing malaysian flight 370 search teams still have not recovered debris. Those are your headlines. Consider this is coming up next. Im Morgan Radford. You can always go to www. Aljazeera. Com. Gls a growing number of Russian Troops, they cant even agree on what they talked about. Also, has the debris field from malaysia air 370 finally been found . Plus on the heels of president obamas vatican visit, the striking deals of the Catholic Church and the deals that come with it. Did noah tell a biblical story . The president is on the ground in saudi arabia. It is mr. Obamas is first visit to the kingdom in nearly five years. President barack obama received this warm welcome. The saudis are still a vital ally. A massive weather system is right now dumping rain on washington. Hundreds searching through the debris for any sign of a miracle. But that hope is fading. Areas going to become more saturated with water. And also very, very dangerous. The Catholic Church of the 21st century is a Global Financial power and has investments across the planet. The aroma of insense ofte i incence. Bits the spirit. We begin with the search for bodies in the horrific mudslide that devastated a community in oso washington. Crews struggled with rain, wind and cold friday at the recovery site where so far 26 bodies have been found. But another 90 people are still rescue Officials Say the death toll should climb soon. Karen carolyn neils father told his wife he had to take care of an emergency plumbing job right before the emergency i hit. She said, i thought you were going to make coffee. He said, im that woman is without water. Im going to go take cawfer care of it. The death toll grew by one. Are they simply paralyzed by the weather and the enormity of if situation . Wee have been hearing that same thing for about 72 hours now, that there will be a dramatic increase. Paralyzed might be the right word by logistics and the gruesome logistics of recovering people at the scene and identifying them properly and then notifying relatives before releasing their identities and putting them officially on a deceased list. So theres a variety of things that are contributing to that just sort of very major slow down in those numbers that weve been hearing. Theyre being very careful and i think theyre facing sort of forensic challenges at the scene and at the medical Examiners Office slowing them down. Its a really unpleasant job theyre doing and taking them some time. So many different levels. Were seeing pictures of some of the work theyre doing and just how slow and painstaking and the weather has just made it all that much worse. It has. The work has been amazing. I mean theyve sectioned that landslide off as best they can using gps systems into a grid. And theyre having people search each square of that grid as best they can times two or three times. But the weather just makes a mess of it. And its three quarters to an inch of rain in the last 18 hours or so. The more of the same is expected tomorrow, probably thunder and lightning tomorrow afternoon. None of that is good news for the people out on the debris pile because its very dangerous, very soupy ground and where are these huge clay deposits that have come down the hill very slick as well, makes everything very much harder and more dangerous in very dangerous situation he. Workers situations. Workers work in mud up to their waists. Are there more crews coming in to help . There are, National Guardsmen set to be deployed today, we understand nine more dog teams sent in, 90 more people working this site. They are doing absolutely amazing work under absolutely amazing circumstances. On many cases there are local emergency responders, local people finding people they knew and loved. Its a very difficult scene and its a scene that is going to continue for some time. Sadly, they may not be able to find everyone who may be buried there. Al jazeera are correspondent allen schauffler, thanks. A search team of at least ten planes and seven ships is heading to yet another search area where five planes friday reported sighting debris. The plane may have traveled a shorter distance before crashing into the southern indian ocean. The new search area is about 700 miles northeast of the one searchers had been combing through debris for much of the week. Its also still enormous. About 123,000 square miles, the size of new mexico which is this countrys fifth largest state. For more im joined from austin, texas ir , by robert goyer and robert williamson, a Marine Survey search firm, credit a firm that helped find air france that crashed off of south america. In this day supercomputers and advanced credit technology, how sit that we are getting new analysis of radar data and now exploring a whole new area . Its the old story of the quality of results you get from any kind of computer analysis are directly related to the quality of the input. So when they come up with new assumptions about what the plane was doing and how it was doing it theyre going to come up with new conclusions. Theyre using the very best of a very limited data set to come up with some kind of an analysis that will help them not pinpoint the location of the crash but at least narrow it down some so they can start the search. They seem to be very confident that in new area this new area is going to yield the first debris recoveries. We keep our fingers crossed that they are going to be right with that. Yes, we do. Robert mccallum, if the plane ask in this area, what kind of research will that have especially on the depth of the sea bed . You know hugely beneficial because we are moving north 12 over latitude and as we head into the a credit austral southern winter time that will be a inticia beneficial effect. Its deep, its flat and not do complex. Now robert could s robert goyer, we are not talking about satellite pictures, we are talking about pictures from airplanes and sightings from are airplanes. Do you think this is the debris field . Id hate to hazard a guess. It is very hopeful. There are more objects, grouped more closely together. The photography they have appear to be much sharper than imagery from before. We all hope it is. Because as robert was saying, we have a much better place to search. The aircraft are going to be on site for a couple of hours longer maybe than they were before. The weather will be generally a better. It is better in the prospect for the search, if it is indeed we start recovering debris from this area. Robert, i know theres a handful of ships in the area that have a hydrophone can technology that can hear pinging from the area. But they can only cover a very correct . Thats correct. The first discovery of the debris will just retronavigate to the start point, to the crash point. And from there we will design a search point, from which to search with like sonar. The black box locators before they run out of battery, in truth they are very, very shortrange device he. They are designed device he. Evices. They are not designed to have the range to help searchers find wreckage wreckage why iflts. Sifts. Itself. The air france credit wreckage was located two years after the wreck happened. Our job at the moment is to try and find the wreckage itself. And once we do that it is a matter of combing through debris to find the black box. Of course we know where the black boxes are located on that model of aircraft and that makes things a lot easier. It took two years with those automated underwater vehicles to find the air France Flight and we knew much more clearly where that was. Robert goyer, according to the New York Times the air fraft aircraft accelerated over the pen insular far east. Clarify if the pilot deliberately rerouted the plane. I know im asking you to go deeply into speculation but do you think the crew could have been trying to safe th save the . Its one of those case like weve been haunted by, by every little piece of evidence in this mystery, antonio. We have one piece of evidence that could be are interpreted in many ways. If the attempt was to try to save it from hijacker or to get away from radar locations as quickly as they could . We have no way of knowing at this point. What we do know is that once again proves the theory that ive had from early on is that the movements of the airplane suggest that a skilled pilot was at the controls and made these diversion. And that the diversion he suggest that it wasnt with diversions scu suggest it wasnt done by any mechanical failure on the airplane. We appreciate you both joining us tonight. Thank you. Thank you. To thto the cries in the crisis in the ukraine. Anywhere from 50 to 100,000 Russian Troops massed on ukraines eastern border president obama in an interview with cbs news recorded before he spoke with putin called for russia to deescalate the situation. To move back those troops and to begin negotiations, directly with the ukraine and the international community. Meanwhile deposed president Viktor Yanukovych called for the demill tarrization of all the portions of the country. Mr. Putins Office Released a statement that said that he had this is a quote, continued rampage of why extremists who are continuing acts of intimidation in various regions in ukraine. Now, it may be just a negotiating stance but it sure doesnt sound like putin is back down. Well, its not clear, actually, because typically, soviets in the past, Joseph Stalin was an example and probably putin, have hidden are concessions behind rhetoric. Its too soon to whether putins call to obama, and remember, calls were previously from obama to putin. It could also be a deception to throw the west off balance, throw the ukrainians off balance so that the russians can achieve a tactical surprise in the east and north with their troops on the edge of ukraine. But putin already has crimea as a result of his congregation against ukraine. His office also claimed that in the conversation with president obama he talked about the russian majority area of transnistria which was once part of the mu muldova. Is he making word about going into there . Again thats totally false, there is a small area in estonia called narva that is heavily ethnic russian occupied. And then in kazakhstan in the northern and western regions of kazakhstan, the largest number of russians outside of ukraine who are living out of russia. All those are areas where president putin wants to protect why compatriots, are potential areas where he could go. The thing that really struck me, as i looked at both statement, the statement from ukraine and statement from washington, none of these were mentioned by the american statement. The american statement just focused on diplomacy and asking putin to deescalate. The russian statement was much more aggressive. The only thing the two had in common was secretary of state john kerry and russian minister sergey lavrov, are supposed to credit talk soon about whatever it is to deescalate the crisis. What is your reaction . It is too soon to tell. The russian he are concerned if they occupy part of ukraine, they could open up a land bridge, they could go further, try to take kiev for example, probably not the western portions much ukraine because resistance would be greater. The way the Russian Forces are deployed, they are prepared to good into kiev. If they were going to do that they would probably go ahead and take the rest of georgia as well. I the could be a very big step. The problem for the russian he, if they occupy areas there would be an insur gentcy. In insurgency. As we well know its much easier to take control of land than it is to then occupy it for a long time. But u. S. Officials are saying that tens of thousands of troops are on ukraines western border more than we had thought before. There was a quote, talking saying these troops are could be sealing positions and concealing position he, again its positions, it is difficult to understand what speunt trying to do here putin is trying to do here. There is really a threat that russia could go and try to take central ukraine as well as Eastern Ukraine because of the disposition of forces. In crimea russia had tactical strategic surprise. In ukraine, they will no have strategic surprise because the ukrainians, none of the force he are massed there. They might have some tactical surprise but not much. Through selective attacks, selective defenses they could concentrate their fire against certain elements of russian innovating forces and take a toll. I imagine russia is worried about that. Russian speakers are in the majority have frums and follow referendums,. In crimea the are are referendum, after crimea was militarily occupied and russia could control the outcome with a lot of premarked ballots and things like that. Reverenda woulreverenda risky bf people there are leap being in ukraine despite the massive propaganda barrage into Eastern Ukraine. So if they are really talking about reverenda, they might mean reverenda after occupying the eastern regions. Scary thought. Before you to join you us, thank you. Cormincoming up. Allegations of, whats trending hermella . Antonio, homelessness is on the decline in the u. S. But disturbingly attacks on the homeless are on the rise. Ive got the details coming up. And while youre watching tell us what you think. Join the conversation on twitter scared as hell. As american troops prepare to leave afghanistan get a first hand look at what life is really like under the taliban. Were going to be taken to a place, where theyre going to make plans for an attack. The only thing i know is, that they say theyre not going to withdraw. Then, immediately after, an america tonight special edition for more inside and analysis. Why did you decide to go. Its extremly important for the western audience to know why these people keep on fighting. Its so seldom you get that access to the other side. Faultlines on the front lines with the taliban then an america tonight special edition, only on Al Jazeera America president obama met with king abdalla of saudi arabia for two hours in an effort to improve a strained relationship with one of our most important allies. The crisis in egypt and iran has differences in their approach to some issues but agreed both sides remain strategically aligned. For more were joined by Professor Bernard hakel, director of the institute of transregional studies. Very good to have you here. I know you did not think that there would be too many niceties in this meeting. So far the only comments made after the meeting are the typical diplomatic stuff, they are working together and the usual blah blah blah. You said you didnt know how much would come out of this meeting because the president has proved to be incredibly policy. Do you think this will lead to some real changes in american policy towards the middle east . From the saudi perspective the president has really been timid. He has not been willing to get involved in syria militarily. Whether he will change the fact that russians have now got involved in crimea and pushed in europe maybe the president will change his mind and become more aggressive to show he has more spine than he has up until now. One of the things that worried the saudis is what happened in the fall with syria and until now the u. S. Has really not provided much in the way of lethal aid, humanitarian assistance and nonlethal aid, the saudis want the u. S. To give manpads, shoulderfired missiles. The saudis want the u. S. To give the green light for more weapons. Thing problem is, hard core islam ists and the u. S. Is worried about blowback. Once they leave the theater the man pads radicalized back to the west there are othe over a thousand f them with western passports and want more from the u. S. Not just to give green light to weapons but the saudis want to u. S. To get militarily involved. Thats not where obama wanted to go. Then theres iran which is the big elephant in the room. The saudis are really concerned about iranians, the military force and the iranians and their surrogates like hezbollah. The iranians since 2003 have taken over effectively in terms ever influence over iraq, influence over lebanon and the palestinians, and the saudis see this as iranian hegemony. They are worried that it will end up in a cozier relationship u. S. That is something they dont want. If the iranians, give a promise that they will not build a nuclear program, the had he will do it anyway. The saudis are concerned that the u. S. Did not support hosne mubarak. One, a long and loyal and faithful ally of the United States for many decades was abandoned overnight and the Muslim Brotherhood was given a green light by the president because president obama felt that they had won the election which they had done and they should be given a chance to rule. And the saudis regard the Muslim Brotherhood as a ideologic and political threat to their own regime. One great issuey on all these issues the saudis and the israelis are actually on the same page. They are on the same page with respect to iran, with respect to the Muslim Brotherhood and whether that means this theres a more formal alliance, no, i don i dont th. The saudis want to keep an arm length distance from the israelis. They really need the American Military to pretty much keep the peace in that area and to patrolth the gulf and to make sure that the iranians dont go further than they already have. They dont have much ench le. Leverage. The main thing the saudis really have, oil production, if they reduce oil production, they are not willing to do that they need that oil revenue to maintain the massive system of entitlements that they have given their own people. To keep them in line. To keep the budget in line. Talking about keeping the budget in line, something crazy happened today, is that abdallas daughters ended up doing an interview with british news and saying that hes keeping them prisoner. Right. And the president of the United States should now be talking to their dad. Thats right. Apparently there are four daughters of the king of saudi arabia who have been kept under house arrest for a decade. Two of them gave an interview, lashed out against their father and said president obama man. This is a major pr disaster for the saudi kingdom and for the king himself who has better than depicted as a great reformer and someone in favor of womens rights until now. He didnt look particularly healthy himself. He had an oxygen tank in the meetings today and the daughters coming out, the saudis are not used to seeing female members of the royal family. The first time that they have seen female princesses of the royal family. Speaking beautifulfully in english. We dont think he will absent cait power. He was using an ox year oxygen tank. He has created a credit succession of the particular branch of the family. Whether he succeeds in that and how long hell last is really a total unknown. Very interesting relationship and really appreciate you coming here to talk to us about it. Pleasure, thank you. On the heels of president obamas visit to the vatican an older scandal is rearing its head again. The former head of the vatican bank who was fired in the middle of a scandal is threatening a lawsuit to clear his name. A documentary holy money that looks at the Catholic Churchs massive financial power and questionable behavior all the way from rome to your local parish church. The Catholic Church of the 21st century is a Global Financial power. May be one of the biggest landlords of the world. The church is spending heavily on political lobbyists. 21 of the diocese tell us they never audit their parishes. We found that 85 of the parishes have experience ed an embezzlement, more than one. John webb joins us from london and charles zeck is also featured in the film, joins frus us from villa nova. Nova. Holy money premiers on Al Jazeera America on sunday night at 9 00. The breadth of the wealth is astonishing. It surprised even me. But remember thats not how its experienced by many front line priests who are you struggling to mend the roofs on their church and whatnot. But within the vast organization that is the church there are pockets of enormous wealth. That extends from the vatican bank to real estate. The bible says, you cant serve both god and money. And we of course know that money can be a corrupting influence. You found evidence of all sorts of corruption not only at the vatican bank but elsewhere. And one of the things that really struck me is theres simply no transparency. That is the running theme of our program is the lack of transparency. And you find it at every single level of what is a very diffuse organization, right from the very center as you say, with the vatican bank which is only now beginning to learn some of the lessons of transparency, and particularly with the vaticans real estate portfolio, that is still very, very mysterious. And extensive. Chuck, corruption has been found at high and low levels. You found 87 of American Diocese have experienced embezzlement, are collection to writing the bik checks, and virtual none of these diocese guess audited. What kind of money are we talking about here . First of all, being antonio, this is not rocket science. This is something that is done every day. We are talking about priests, embezzling millions of dollars a year, as the documentary points out some were egregious cases. This is baloney. Catholic parishes go through a lot of money every year and its very easy for priests to take advantage of that. Internal financial controls that are routine in the Business World. How do they let this go on . Why cant they put in those things that are routine in the Business World . Well, the basic problem is that as faithbased organization we are too trusting. No one would think that a priest would embezzle from the church. They think theyre offending them by putting on these internal controls. I say listen, this is for your own faith. If god forbid something is wrong, nothing could possibly accuse you. John, one very colorful, socalled father 500 euros, escunsio, he lived in a 17 room apartment, that had a chagal, even though he earned less than 60,000 a year. How can that happen . He worked for vaticans property organizer, and for that reason was given an account at the vatican bank. Once nuer, once you have an account like that you are pretty much, he set up essentially a fake charity and trurnd into it a huge money turned into it a huge Money Laundering operation, for whoever wanted to avoid taxes or whatever in the region and thats what paid for his art collection. Cufertioa accusation of Money Laundering is what got auteri gotti, this is another big black eye for the church and how bad could this get if this actually does go to court and all sorts of documents come out . Its anybodys guess. The problem all the way through this story, im an historian, whether youre trying to write the history of the churchs finances or trying to do contemporary investigation, is the lack of transparency. The abc of transparency is something that pope francis is trying to introduce now. In the teeth of great resistance, it has to be said, there are sections of curiae that are used to a very very cozy relationship with political power. We hear much politicians getting cheap apartments from the vaticans Property Portfolio and this kind of thing. And these are the conservative elements that really quite like the obscurity that pope francis is trying to combat. Yes, the size of that Property Portfolio is incredible as you point out, just enormous amounts of property in rome and around the world. Chuck, talking about pope francis, he dismissed all but one of the cardinals who was in charge of overseeing the vatican bank. He is reportedly taking some tough action. Do you think well see that tough action in the United States at diocese to take control of its money. As mentioned with the roma curiae occurs in the United States. Put in place guidelines that would eliminate all the embezzlement problems we are facing. Unfortunately they are only recommendations and they are ignored by the bishops at the diocese an ian level. Honestly its going otake more than one popes tenure to accomplish it if we are committed to it. A lot of interesting things raised by this documentary, loyal money premiers on Al Jazeera America, on sunday at 9 00 p. M. Eastern. Hermella. Violence crimes against those living on the street is on the rise. According to a recent report, National Coalition of the homeless violence against homeless rose 23 from the year before. Because its based on reported crimes in the news of news media the actual volume of attacks is likely much high are since many go your honor reported. Nor the longest time florida had more attacks on the homeless but now more reports of violence of the homeless in california. Jerry jones told al jazeera that the homeless are attacked solely because of their circumstances. Often preyed upon. Now to your reaction, they should set aside public space for homeless camps as a temporary solution. Homelessness is not going to go away. And bobby land says, violence against homeless is also violence against the mentally ill. You can read more at the website website. One womans personal journey to find her own identity outside her religion. The film noah premiers to mixed reviews. What is it like to leave one of the insular religious organizations, and strike out on your own . Faith based on some of the strictest interpretations of talmud. , leaving the Community Means leaving everything behind, your family, your childhood, everything you knew, trying ofind tofind, whatever you could, are can her new book, exodus , describes her outlook. How and why did you leave . Basically my community was founded by holocaust survivors, the only way to prevent another one from happening again, to do extreme jew extreme judaism. I was a curious child with an extreme curious streak. So that was tough. How many ended up leaving . Used to be almost none. It has become more possible lately because of the internet and smartphones. Suddenly we have are access to information and we can bridge the gap between us and the outside world. When i was growing up we knew maybe one or two people and it was considered really rare. Interestingly, one of them was your mother. Your mother ended up leaving and you ended up being brought up by your dad and your grandparents. Your grandmother is a survivor of the holocaust. Terrible story, very large family she lost almost everyone. And you decide and you described that in this book to go back and to kind of see where she came from. Right. My grandmother was one person who really plofd me because of me. Loved me because of me. She put that all aside and just loved me and she filled my childhood with joy and beauty. When i grew up and decided to leave, i felt very inspired by her. As i was finding who i was, was feeling very lost, i remembered her being lost. She wasnt a fundamentalist herself. This whole fundamentalism happened after the war. I went to her home town in hungary, found that she had grown up a traditional jew. I realized i hadnt ended up being had ha hasidic. She had tried to emigrate to be palestine and cube. In doing you traveled around the United States and what did you find, you felt that you didnt fit in in many places. I couldnt find anything familiar. Like American Culture is so rich and diverse, none of is it felt familiar. And so i traveled everywhere and tried to fine it but i didnt. And ironically you live in a rural place now which is the opposite of law grew up in. I did. There is no cell phone service, you have to drive for an hour just to get to groceries but it was a way for meef drying a line. Me of drawing a line. The modern world is overstimulating and scary for them. But it was scary for me too. I dont want to join a cult, but i definitely need some space to figure out who i am. Your faith how has it affected that . My faith was never really tied to the religion i grew up in. The god i talked to in i me private thoughts was my friend and that never changed so. Thats an interesting story. Debra feldman, the story is exodus. Coming up, the movie noah debuts to calls that it traces too far from the biblical story. Hollywood loves to Court Controversy and noah is swimming in it. Ignited a debate especially among the devout, some supporting the theme messages of the movie while others argue that it trays too much from scripture to make political statement. Glen kinney this film has been wage controversy since way before it got on film, when it was just a script. A screen writer said, if you expected a retelling of the greatest mariner in history, you will be somebodily disappointed. Was sorely disappointed. Was he right . The biblical paragraph of noah doesnt last more than a couple of paragraphs. I read it today. Ridges dogma for century. Dante didnt go by the bible comedy. This is a practice this has been going on for centuries. There is no description of his wife or any other women in the bible so he had to fill in. The author had to craft a story, he added conflict involving child bearing, conflict what noah vision of what his mission was. There are a lot of liberties taken, it is two hours and ten minutes. But the big issue that they are upset about is they are saying that they have kind of ignored the biblical story in order to make a political statement about environmentalists, environmentalism. Glen beck said the credit movie was proanimal and antihuman. I wouldnt say the movie is, but the way noahs character is drawn, he sees his mission as saving the paradise the creator made. The vision that the creator gave him is that the creator made a mistake by making man kind. In the make of the world over six days you have the there was light, there was there were animals, there was plant life then there was man and gof gave admin and god gave dominion over animals. The character played by ray winston, in noahs vision dominion over man has given up his right to admin i dont know becaus dominion becausehe is too selfish. About. The argument is that the movie goes too far in that direction. Takes it too far im just repeating what ive read here is that noah goes to two of his baby grandchildren and contemplates killing them, eliminating man kind from the earth. That does sound like an extreme it veers wildly from it veers from the biblical story to john fords the searchers, to me, that movie is very moving and russell crowee is very moving. But the way the actors move through the film give life to these ideas and makes the story in fact very, very touching and very engaging. If you are looking for a very strict bible story, youre not going to get it. But you know, people believe what they want to believe. People of faith, and i you know, i dont disparage them, but they flock to see the passion of christ which, in its way, takes as many liberties, biblical accounts as this film does. You know in the passion of the christ you have the crow biting out the eyes of one of the beg gars burglars on the cross, you have judas, and none of that stuff is in the gospel. But in this case they argue that they choose not to use the word god and use creator, and ochristian reviewer said thats a taicialg movie and secular christians hate they think christians will late it for ideological reasons. God is said in the film. Tonal creator is god. Historical precedent because in the Early Practice of these religions gods name was not said. And in the testament, you said i am he who is no name. There are arguments both way, for someone to say i am going to defend this crap because there are no christians, i have no answer to that. Could they be shooting themselves in the foot by 1 alienating you said the passion of the christ made tremendous amounts because a lot of religious people went to see it. The passion of the christ wasnt represented as a hollywood film, the passion of the christ was represented as a project by mel gibson whose status as a man of faith helped sell that movie as much as anything else, the movie is called the gospel according to st. Matthew made in the 60s. Was almost word for word, except it was made by a homosexual italian. So fidelity to a bible can come from any source. They do want to make money, they are going ochange things no matter what. Im not quite sure what people expect in these cases but we got to leave it there. Were at the end of the hour. Good to have you the show may be over but the conversation continues. You can also find good morning and welcome to Al Jazeera America. Im Morgan Radford with the stories for you right now. Russian foreign minister said that his country has no plans to invade Eastern Ukraine, but troops are still on the border. And in washington, honoring those killed in a fatal mudslides. And many shaken by Early Morning hq