Transcripts For MSNBC Andrea Mitchell Reports 20130708 : vim

Escalating violence is spiraling into civil war. Snowden speaks. Guard ythe guard yathe guardia part two of the interview. I think theyre going to say ive created grave crimes, violated the espionage act, ive aided our enemies in making them aware of these systems. Whose voice is crying for help . The defense calls friends of George Zimmerman to testify about the 911 recording from the night Trayvon Martin died. Could the defense also call martins father to the stand . Well bring you the trial live whether it resumes from the lunch break. City of Second Chances. Former new york governor Eliot Spitzer is trying to reclaim his political career after being caught up in that prostitution scandal. This time is he running for new york city controller. What im looking for is a chance to be heard. Want the voters to listen to what ive done, look at the record i developed as an attorney general, as an assistant attorney general, as a governor, and say this guy assisted the public interest. Rule britainnia. Andy murray brings the wimbledon trophy home for the first time in 77 years. Fred perry was the last brit to win the singles title at wimbledon. That was all the way back in 1936. This morning andy murray told the today show his new reign at the Allengland Club was well worth the wait. Its been a lot of years since any brits have won there and ive been reminded of that most days of my life for the last five or six years. So to finally get to do it was great and i just hope it is not that long again. What a match it was. Good day, im Andrea Mitchell in washington. We are expecting new details today from National Transportation safety board officials about saturdays deadly plane crash at San Francisco airport. This afternoon the ntsb agents planned to speak with the flight crew onboard asiana flight 214. The focus is centering on the pilot who only had 43 hours logged on that 777 aircraft. Tom costello is live in San Francisco. Tom, what about the possibility of pilot error . Reporter clearly that is going to be on the ntsbs radar here as they try to figure out what happened. The reason they are looking at that is because we know this plane was coming in very low and very slow at between 100 and 116 knots. Generally when you come in to a landing here at San Francisco International Airport with a 777, you want to be at 137 knots, then add five knots for safety. Out there on the runway behind me, you see the broken shelf flight 214 out on runway 28 left right now. Investigators going through that wreckage, piece by piece, and they will do that for the next several days. This will be a long exhaustive process and you can imagine it is going to take some time but we do know that that pilot you were talking about, his name is captain cook, had he one had on hours in the 777. Hed flown it nine times and this was only his first approach to San Francisco in the 777 but he had flown it in other airplanes. He had flown a 747 in here. This was an experienced pilot. There were, we are toll, other pilots in the cockpit, not just as copilot but two others in the cockpit jump seats. Four pilots. The question is how could they allow their air speed to drop below 137 . Were they distracted . Was there a mechanical issue . In no way is this resolved yet. There are many questions to be determined but you can imagine they have a lot of those questions for that crew. There is another tragic development here we should tell you about, that is this. The Fire Department here in San Francisco says it believes its possible that one of its responding fire engines had hit and struck one of the two teenage girls who were killed here on saturday. Now we dont know if that actually killed that child and the investigation is still ongoing to make sure that that is in fact what happened, that the fire truck hit this child. But they are going on the investigation right now and looking at that possibility so it is yet another traj twist to this entire thing. Andrea . Is. Adding to that tragedy. Im no pilot, and you know this issue better than anyone, tom, but when you are going that slow, isnt there the risk of stall and wouldnt the rudders start shaking, wouldnt there be alarms going off . Was pilot fatigue a possible factor here . Listen. I think you are absolutely right. After 10 1 2hour flight theyre going to be looking at pilot fatigue. The engines were on idle. Thats very concerning to people when you look at this approach on to this runway and they were supposed to be a good 16 to 20 knots going faster than they were. Why were the engines at idle . We know that at four second they got a stall warning. The stick shaker, the yoke began shaking warning them that they were going too slow. Then at 1 1 2 seconds they tried to abort. 1 1 2 seconds before impact. Obviously it is far too late at that point. So the question is, as you back up the sequence of events, theyre going to back up an entire hours worth of events. The investigators are going to look at every piece of the conversations that were going on inside that cockpit between every pilot, every flight member, to ascertain did somebody else think that they were supposed to be watching the air speed . How did this apparently break down . Thats exactly what they are looking at. Tom costello on the scene, thank you so much, tom. In egypt today, violence is now escalating out of control after supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi clashed with the military and police leaving at least 50 dead, more than 400 wounded. Joining me now from cairo, nbc newss ayman muhyeldin. Military is saying they were returning fire. How is it affecting whats continuing to be a political and military crisis . Reporter well, andrea, we spent the better part of the day speaking to eyewitnesses, going to that field hospital, speaking to some of the people that were injured. If you ask the supporters of the ousted president twlb is only one narrative here, and that was they were simply engaged in a peaceful protest and prayer in the early hours of the morning outside the Republican Guard headquarters. It was at that point the military and the police opened fire on them killing more than 50 people. They believe they were doing this the military was doing this to send a clear message to these protesters that they want them out of this area because it is a Military Area but more importantly because they are fed up with this protest that they think is stalling the country. When you ask the military and the military itself held the press conference today, they say that isnt further from the truth, that they allow everyone peaceful protests but in fact what did transpire was that armed gunmen stormed or tried to storm the Republican Guard headquarters. Its soldiers came in under attack. In fact one soldier belonging to the Republican Guard was killed and it was only at that point that its soldiers acted in selfdefense and had to open fire. The question though that i think human rights activists and democracy activists we are speaking to are asking, why did the military use that type of force . Why do you have a death toll of nearly 50 people . Why did you use live ammunition when you over the course of the last several days knew there was a staged sitin protest outside the Republican Guards . I think these are the questions that will be the center of an investigation thats now been launched by the countrys interim president. He says he wants to get to the bottom of this and hes formed a Fact Finding Mission to try and find out exactly what happened this morning. What how do they justify keeping morsi under house arrest . Reporter well, the militarys position is he is no longer the president. If the Muslim Brotherhood is out on the secret on the streets, they fear it will lead to the riots. Other islamist politicians have been detained and their channels shut down because the military took it as a preemptive step concerned that if in fact they were disappointed with what happened last week, they would incite their supporters and followers to violence and they dont want that to happen. Right now thats one of the justifications of why president more ty si remains under detent. We understand he is the subject of an investigation under a cairo prosecutor. Hes now on a travel ban along with other leaders of the freedom an justice party. There are some who have accused him of being involved in the killing of protesters during his time in office so certainly there are prosecutors and lawyers that will also want to try to bring those cases against the former president. Eamon moil dean, thanai ayma much. Edward snowden has spoken out again. Earlier today the guardian released part two of its exclusive interview before he fled to moscow. He now has three countries offering him asylum but he remains at the moscow airport where hes been hole up for the past two weeks. He told two reporters why he leaked the information. The nsa doesnt limit itself to foreign intelligence. It collects all communications that transit the united states. I dont want to live in a world where everything that i say, everything i do, everyone i talk to, every expression of creativity or love or friendship is recorded. I think anyone who opposes that sort of world has an obligation to act in a way they can. Of course with, it is not just snowed than has put the white house and its National Security team under pressure from all sides. In the escalating crisis in egypt accused of propping morsi up and now under fire for abanening him and they say, acquiescing into what has all the earmarks of a military coup. Critics on all side. Joining me now, former defense secretary william cohen, chairman and ceo of the cohen group. Bill, this is a very tough time indeed for this administration. You have a knew National Security advisor, susan rice. She took over a week ago today. The secretary of state has been traveling nonstop in the middle east and now you have egypt absolutely in flames. Well, i think it is a Pivotal Moment for egypt and for the administration and how it deals with this. We have very limit leverage with egypt at this point 1. 5 billion isnt enough. Economic assistance that goes to egypt and military assistance going to the military. The question the administration is wrestling with now in terms whether to call it a military coup or some kind of hybrid is whether or not cutting off the ate at this point would only deepen the crisis and send egypt into a further meltdown than it is currently experiencing. I think theyre waiting to see whether or not any kind of order is going to be restored, whether or not the brotherhood is going to be excluded from the political process which would be a big mistake and whether or not at some point they are going to allow mr. Morsi to come out of confinement. He has been removed and it is unlikely hes ever going to get back into the presidency as such without causing the division to go even further but there has to be a resolution. Middle of the roaders have to come to grips an say, look, there are conservative radical islamists who have also opposed his presidency and there are liberals who want to see democracy established. What has to happen is you have to have some kind of a unity government formed and the egyptian people have to come to the realization, the old african proverb when he will fantastic fight, only the grass suffers. The egyptian people are now the grass thats being trampled on between one elephant and the other, between those who are advocating morsis cause and those who are opposed to him. The Muslim Brotherhood are not going to go away. They can only be even more radicalized but can they be brought back into the process . Or does what the military did just mean that there is no possible reconciliation between these two forces . The question becomes one of timing. How quickly can they call for new elections . For example, i heard one military official say a year. Thats really thats far too long. Somewhere between three and six months call for new elections and to insist that they be fair, that they look at the constitution that could be modified somewhat but the constitutions already been drafted, and then insist that these elections be held and whoever wins has the power to lead that country. Without that i think were going to see a continuation of a meltdown in egypt with the fracturing of the country looking more like syria than it does today. John mccain called for the immediate cutoff of military aid. What would be the ramifications . Well, others will provide the aid. For example, the egyptians look out to uae, to saudi arabia for others to help them economically. The military does have sufficient equipment, certainly to function in the short term. But i think senator mccain is correct, this is going to be the lever we have in terms of the military saying if you want to continue this reelship and we do have a long and historic relationship with their military if this is going to continue, you cant continue to be an occupying force, as such, in the political process. You have to have subordination to civilian rule. Bill cohen, thanks very much. Dire time in egypt, indeed. In other news making headlines today another plane crash. This one in alaska. It killed all ten people onboard sunday. The air taxi crashed and burst into flames after departing a small airport southwest of anchorage. The ntsb is investigating this crash as well. Teresa heinz kerrys condition has been upgraded from critical to fair as they continues be treated for an unknown illness at a boston hospital. Wife of secretary of state john kerry was rushed from the familys Vacation Home in nantucket sunday afternoon by ambulance, then flown to massachusetts general hospital. Mrs. Kerry is 74 years old and was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in 2009. These are pictures of her boarding a flight for europe with the secretary of state about a month or so ago. Family says that they were not releasing any more details but they are touched by the outpouring of well wishes. John kerry was due back in washington today but his schedule is now, understandably, in flux as he remains at his wifes side. A runaway train loaded with fuel rammed into a small quebec town and exploded over the weekend. 72 oil tank cars somehow came loose early saturday morning, sped downhill nearly seven miles and derailed in a small town. At least five people are dead, 40 still missing and that figure is expected to rise. Canadas Prime Minister Steven Harper at the scene sunday. My thoughts and prayers and those of all canadians are with the people as they deal with this disaster in their community. Tragically it is clear there has been loss of life, but we still do not know how extensive that is. Nbcs katie terr joins me now. It is inexplicable that this train would have been parked outside the town and those cars 72 cars loaded with fuel oil not hooked properly and then rolling right into the town, driverless, runaway train. Reporter there is a lot of questions on how exactly it happened, whether or not they werent hook properly or if there was some sort of other mechanical error going on. We are hearing reports that there was a fire on the train earlier that evening and something may have happened when they tried to put out the fire. The operator of the rail cars, the owner of them, says that the engineer of the rail cars wasnt the last one to touch it so there are a lot of questions right now. Certainly a lot of unanswered questions. But firefighters and investigators are trying to get to the heart of the blast zone today. They havent yet been able to really get in there because its just been too dangerous. The last two fires that were burning for about 48 hours have been put out. But the pressure within those two tanker cars is still so extremely high that they werent able to get close to it. As of now, five people are officially dead but that number could be deceptively low as there are at least 40 people who are right now unaccounted for. 40 people that have been roared missing. Weve spoken to a number of people throughout the day who say that they are sure some of their friends and loved ones were down there that night and they do not know where they are. This happened 1 00 a. M. Saturday morning, andrea. Thats when the tanker cars somehow detached themselves. They were northwest of town and they rolled about seven miles into town, derailed right behind me. Then five of them caught on fire. Again the company doesnt quite know what how it happened. But once they did derail, it sent a massive fireball into the air. People described it as a river of fire in some areas. 40 buildings completely flattened, decimated. 2,000 people forced to evacuate. We are hearing, 1,500 of them, unfortunately, will not be allowed back in their homes. Katy, thanks so much for the report from there. In arizona, the bodies of 19 fallen firefighters have been returned to their home base of prescott. Thousands lined the streets to pay their respects as a pro tegs of white hearses rolled through town. Memorial service is set for tuesday. Funerals will take place throughout the week. Massive blaze that killed the 19 men on june 30th was 90 contained heading into todays efforts. Investigators are still trying to figure out though what caused that tragic loss of life. Well also be bringing you the George Zimmerman trial live when we come back. Vo traveling you definitely end up meeting a lot more people but a friend under water is something completely different. I met a turtle friend today so, you dont get that very often. It seemed like it was more than happy to have us in his home. So beautiful. Avo more travel. More options. More personal. Whatever youre looking for expedia has more ways to help you find yours. [ john ] nope. [ tires squeal ] twelve bucks a night no. They have waterbeds. Ew. No are we near a gas station . [ phone beeps] [ phone ] no. Is that from the mini bar . [ both ] no. Is that a cop . No. [ cop ] do you know how fast you were going . No. Eightyseven [ groans ] hes right. Is that oscar mayer . [ karen] yes [ male announcer ] in a wor