Transcripts For KTVU FOX News Sunday With Chris Wallace 2014

Split off from ukraine, in what president obama calls a slapdash referendum. We reject its legitimacy. It is contrary to internation 58 law. We believe that a decision to move forward by russia to ratify that vote would, in fact, be a back door annexation of crimea. Will todays vote for tough sanctions on russia and start a new cold war . Well ask the leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chairman robert menendez, and Top Republican bob corker. Plus, a special election in florida gives the gop its first big win of 2014. Can republicans continue to ride the antiobamacare wave through november . Our sunday panel weighs in. And our power player of the week. With a behindthescenes look at the special room where american and foreign leaders negotiate. The collection now includes 5,000 objects, valued at more than 100 million. All right now on Fox News Sunday. And hello again from fox news in washington. Its day nine in the search for Malaysia Airlines flight 370. And we have blanket coverage. Including the chairman of the House Homeland Security committee. Malaysian officials now say the planes disappearance was deliberate, not an accident. The focus of the investigation is on the aircrafts two pilots. And malaysias Prime Minister says the last satellite communication with the plane came almost seven hours after the flight went dark. Chief washington correspondent james rosen has the latebreaking developments. James . Chris, good morning. While the search zone for the missing airliner widens, the probe into what happened is narrowing with malaysian authorities saying their investigation has entered a new phase. The planes pilots are drawing increased scrutiny now that malaysian officials have disclosed that the Communications System for the boeing 777 were intentionally shut off in successive fashion 14 minutes apart. Police on saturday searched the homes of the two copilots, and took a special interest in the Flight Simulator installed in the home of the captain, 53yearold Zaharie Ahmad shah who had logged more than 18,000 hours in the air. And showed hf the simulator in his youtube video. The turning off of the planes data reporting system and its transponder, which transmits location and altitude, coupled with the known movements of the aircraft, which some have likened to evasive tactics, have led authorities to frame the disappearance of flight 370 not as a catastrophic systems failure but as the result of intentional conduct by someone who knew well the planes intricacies and capabilities. Up until the plane had reach ed the military radar coverage, these movements are consistent with deliberate actions by someone on the plane. 25 countries are now said to be involved in the search for the plane, or for its wreckage. The u. S. Navys guided misle destroyer uss kidd is scouring the indian ocean while the navys poseidon plane is flying over the bay of bengal. In all, the search zone now encompasses a 5,000 mile area. Chris . James, thank you. For more we want to bring in the chairman of the House Homeland Security committee, texas congressman michael mccaul. And here in studio, peter goetz, former managing director of the National Transportation safety board. Chairman mccall what is your latest information on what happened to flight 370 and where it is now . Well, theres still a lot of mistry behind this. One thing we do know, this was not an accident. It was an intentional, deliberate act, to bring down this airplane. And the question is who is behind that. There are a lot of warning signs along the way. The fact the transponder was turned off, the flight pattern changed abruptly. We had two iranians with stolen passports that were not checked with interpol, which we would have done in this country. Oneway tickets bought with cash that the hijackers were known for doing. There are a lot of these questions raised, but i think one thing is very clear, chris, is that this was an intentional, deliberate act that unfortunately probably killed 239 people. As we said, theyre now focusing on the crew and the passengers. Any evidence that you have heard, excuse me, so far from your intelligence sources, that the pie lots would have had any interest in trying to sabotage this flight, or any information that any of the passengers would have had the Technical Expertise to take over the plane and do all the things that apparently were done . Well, we dont have any evidence this was terrorist related. Although you cant rule that out at this point in time. My understanding is the malaysian authorities now have searched the homes of both the pilot and the copilot, for information that could lead us to determine why this was done. I think all the evidence, though, chris is pointing towards the cockpit, towards the pilot and the copilot. The motivation and intent as a former federal prosecutor, im always concerned about, is unclear at this point in time. All right. Let me bring in mr. Goetz. Were now told that the transponders and the data flow in the cockpit were turned off separately, not at the same time, but separately, one, how much training do you need to do that . And what about immediate why reports that, in fact, some of this was done before the pilot said all right, good night to Malaysian Air Traffic Controllers . I think that final point that the signoff came after the physical actions of turning off the transponder, is absolutely critical. It shows that someone in the flight deck, someone with training, was able to do both functions, and that in between the two he signaled all the crew signaled all right, good night. I mean, that is damning evidence that indicates something was going on in the flight deck. Now you were saying to me before we went on the air, and youve been involved in some of these investigations, that in addition to whatever they may be able to find on the ground, that they may do some analysis of these communications between the cockpit, and the ground . Sure. Youre going to look at youre going to go back and look at every transmission that is taking place between the aircraft, and the controllers. And do analysis. Even as far as stress analysis to see if theres anything different about this flight and their communications from normal flights. And we did that in the accident at egypt air where the pie all right did commit suicide. Let me just briefly set this up as i can. Egypt air flight 990 crashed in 1999, off the coast of new england, and it was later determined by the ntsb, and you were leading the investigation, that it was pilot suicide. Tell us what you did there, and how you think that might apply here . Well, the difference was, we had five different sets of radar monitoring egypt air. We were able to recover the data recorder, and the voice recorder, nine days after the accident. As soon as we had that information, coupled with the radar data, we knew what happened. And it was clear that the pilot, the copilot, had deceived the captain to get out of the cockpit, shut the door, put the plane into a fatal dive and then fought with the captain to continue the suicide mission. Then the question, if, in fact, it is one of the pilots, the question becomes why, chairman mccaul, and there has been speculation that this plane may have landed somewhere with the hope that it could be used at some point later as a weapon, perhaps loaded with explosives. How seriously, is the chairman of House Homeland Security, how seriously are Security Officials taking that scenario . Well, were concerned with that. I know there are two routes that it could have possibly taken. One would be toward the north towards kazakhstan which would be close to afghanistan, pakistan. I think that would be unlikely, because our radar system, detecting systems, would have picked that up had it gone that route. I think the Intelligence Community and Homeland Security believe that possibly more likely went the southern route, which would be towards australia, indonesia. Now, two scenarios are here. One is that the plane ran out of fuel and landed in the ocean, and its, you know, thats a bad scenario. The other one is it landed in a country like indonesia, where it could be used later on as a cruise missile, as the 9 11 hijackers did. Thats something we have to use our imagination in these situations. We dont have all the information before us. But we have to look at all these possibilities, whether it be towards kazakhstan, which i do think our radar detection systems would have picked that up. Or to the south towards indonesia, which is, you know, a friendly country to the terrorists, and used the land there and used later, in a plot to to blow up an airplane. Having said all of that, what do you think is the probability that that was the point of this . That it was a terror act, to try to land the plane and use it as a weapon . I think from all the information ive been briefed on from, you know, high levels within Homeland Security, National Counterterrorism center, Intelligence Community, that something was going on with the pilot. I think this all leads towards the cockpit, with the pilot himself, and copilot. I still am concerned about these iranians on board, and 9 stolen passports and the fact that interpol checks were not made with them. I know there have been interviews with the families and the individual involved getting them the tickets, but its way too early, chris, to, you know, to be i think the jury is still very much out on this strange mystery tragedy. I want to go back, and bob if you could put up the graphic that shows that arc, and the reason that there is an arc, all the way from kazakhstan in the north down to australia, just off australia in the south, is because the satellites can only measure how far the plane was away from it. Its not measuring, you know, where it is on that plot. So it knows that somewhere on that line, but it doesnt know where it is on that line, i guess one of the questions, mr. Goetz, is, lets assume that the point of this was pilot takeover and like flight 990 suicide, why not just put it in the drink right away . Why fly it or six or seven hours . Well, you know, aviation commercial aviation cannot stand a vacuum. We need to find out what happened here. Air france 447, which crashed in the south atlantic, they searched for two years until they found that. And weve done it on other accident investigations. And terrorist acts. The pilots may have wished to go to the most remote section of the indian ocean, where tis 12,000 feet deep, to make the mystery complete. And the reality is, you know, we have this arc. We have a ping coming out of the aircraft. Because Malaysian Airlines was not subscribed to a more expansive service, all we got was, im ready to send data, im ready to receive data, do you have any. No response. Satellite moves on. You were saying that you believe now that the prime search area is in the southern part of that arc off the west coast of australia . Yes. And i think the u. S. Experts, both the faa, and the ntsb on the ground, agree with that. That theyre diverting u. S. Assets to that area. Now, given what a remote area that is, given the fact that were in day nine, what are the chances theyre going to find anything . Its going to be very, very difficult. But as i say, a vacuum is unacceptable. The search is going to continue until some resolution is found. Whether it takes months or years. Mr. Goetz, chairman mccaul, thank you both so much for coming in today. Of course we will stay on top of this story. Thank you, both, gentlemen. Thank you. Up next, crimea votes on whether to break away from ukraine and join russia. Are we headed for a new cold war . Were joined by the leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And be sure to tell us what you think on facebook about the malaysian plane mystery along with other fns viewers. [ male announcer ] how could a luminous protein in jellyfish, impact Life Expectancy in the u. S. , real estate in hong kong, and the optics industry in germany . At t. Rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. Its just one reason over 75 of our mutual funds beat their 10year lipper average. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. Request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. Russian troops have now moved across the crimian border, seizing a village six miles farther in the ukraine. Meanwhile, inside crimea, theyre voting today whether to split off from ukraine. And while the outcome is certain, they will approve that step, the question is, what happens next . Fox Senior Foreign Affairs correspondent amy kellogg is live in ukraines capital of kiev with the latest. Amy . Hi, chris. Well kiev is calling the seizure of that gas distribution plant just outside crimea a military invasion. While crimeas prorussian government says the troops involved were simply selfdefense forces. Locals, given that helicopters were involved in this operation, theres very little doubt that this was just a further push by russia into the region, more facts on the ground. Now the referendum voting is taking place in the absence of election observers in crimea, but with 22,000 Russian Troops watching. The result is expected to be a vote to join russia. Now to be fair, its clear that many people in crimea actually do want to be part of russia. But with the level of intimidation thats been reported there, it may be impossible to ever know how many are okay with what has happened. Russia is citing violence, meanwhile, in other parts of ukraine, where two people were killed in clashes friday night as possible grounds for going in to, quote, protect russianspeaking populations in certain eastern regions next. Senator john mccain, visiting kiev this weekend, said that would be a game changer. What i think it will be a breach of such enormous consequence that the United States of america and our european allies will be contemplating action that we have not ever in our relations with russia. Now, mccain and the other seven u. S. Senators here in ukraine are worried about the fate of the 15,000 ukrainian soldiers, either holed up or locked inside their bases in crimea. And finally, chris, secretary of state john kerry and his russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov did have a further conversation yesterday, apparently without results. This as the u. S. , and european nations think very hard this weekend about further sanctions for russia, possibly as early as next week, depending on how things play out here in the next 24 hours. Chris . Amy kellogg reporting from kiev. Amy, thanks for that. We turn now to the leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. From new jersey, chairman robert menendez. And from tennessee, the Top Republican, bob corker. Well, gentlemen, now we not only have the crimean referendum, where voters will certainly vote to break away from ukraine. We now also have this incursion across the crimean border, six miles further in to ukraine. Senator menendez, how far do Vladimir Putin to go . Well, president putin has started a game of russian roulette and i think that the United States and the west have to be very clear in their response. Because, he will calculate about how far he can go. So that means theyre having very robust sanctions ready to go, starting with the crimea vote and moving onward depending upon russias continued actions after the crimea vote. Senator corker, well get to the sanctions in a moment. But in addition to the steps that weve already talked about, the russians have thousands, some say tens of thousands of troops massed along the border of Eastern Ukraine in russian territory. What do you expect putin to do there . Well, as was mentioned i think that will be a major game changer, and hopefully thats not going to take place. I think its a show of intimidation, but the fact is, that we do have to show resolve. I think were the European Community has stepped up, and made commitments to do some things that they have never done before. The sanctions that we passed out of the Foreign Relations committee the other day are very biding, one of a kind. Weve never done this before where economic extortion and corruption are a part of those. And i think this is a major this will be a major miscalculation on behalf of putin if you were to move in to Eastern Ukraine. I dont think thats going to happen. But, look, hes taken steps in the past where hes miscalculated, and again, i think us, and europe, are showing tremendous resolve in countering this, and certainly it would be an economic huge economic problem for him if he were to do this. Let me bring in senator menendez. Because assuming, and i think its almost certain, that if crimea does vote to break away, do you expect those economic sanctions, and talking particularly about freezing the assets of specific russian and ukrainian leaders who are involved in this, do you expect them to be imposed in the next day or so, even before russia decides whether to annex crimea . Well, i think that the question will be, what does russia do in response . And having those sanctions ready, whether it be against the defense minister, the federal security service, the secretary of the security council, possibly the executives of gazprom, and rosneft, which are there oil and gas companies, send a very clear message. Now if russia doesnt act in the duma, their congress, to go ahead and accept annexation, thats one thing. But if they move towards that goal, then i think ultimately, the sanctions need to