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being on. let s reset at the top of the hour now. i m anderson cooper. thank you for joining us. we re following two major breaking stories that the hour. the downing of malaysian airlines flight 17 that killed 298 people in ukraine. and i m wolf blitzer reporting from jerusalem. the other major story, the breaking story we were following, the crisis in gaza, where israel launched a major ground offensive and it continues. a lot to get you up to date on in this hour. president obama today laying out the priorities and the aftermath of the airline crash in the ukraine. the priorities, learning the truth first, he say then acting. there has to be a credible international investigation into what happened. the u.n. security council has endorsed this investigation and we will hold all its members, including russia, to their word. in order to facilitate that investigation. russia, pro-russian separatists and ukraine must adhere to an immediate cease-fire. evidence must not be ....
happened. it seems dubious that the russian military, in other words, would want to take down a major passenger plane. certainly with not the intent of taking it down. again, we simply don t know who brought this down. i m also here with lieu dtenant colonel rick francona. just in terms of kants, we have not seen separatists heretofor, they have brought down at least one transport plane, but they were not flying at 33,000 feet. yeah, this would require, as we were talking about, a more sophisticated system. talking about, you know, hitting it inadvertently, it would be very difficult for that to happen. generally once you re locked onto the target, it goes to that target. and if it veers off that target and is no longer being guided, they self-destruct. but when you re targeting a plane at that altitude, are you clear on exactly what kind of a plane it is? no, it s a return on your radar. right. it will be a certain size, you can estimate the size of the aircraft. ....
barking dog and that appears to be what alerted the hostage s captors to what was going on. during the firefight that then followed, u.s. forpdss saw a militant go into the shack where the hostages were being held. it is believed that is when he shot both of the hostages, both of them died as a result of those injuries, as u.s. forces were transporting them away. u.s. intelligence did not know the identity of the other hostage being held with somers. he has since been identified as south african teacher pierre korkie. a char that worked with korkie says he was due to be released today. to discuss this and many of the other top stories for the week, joined by our panel, bring in democratic strategist basil smythe, jr., political consultant and former adviser to mitt romney, cater packer gauge and msnbc correspondent, casey packer hunt. obviously on this hostage story, we are learning the details, obviousiously a heartbreaking story, another report i know in the new york times this ....
they don t know yet how far with this. but people are were tired already of this not having a relationship with america and now they will see an opportunity to increase business and things will come from america that will create jobs. people in cuba believe that we have so much in common with america. and with americans. and so this is certainly good for both partners we believe. cuba plays a very important role and now they are expressing how happy they are and they see america with different eyes. so it opens a new market for american producers is good for the american business with the congressman, your thoughts as alan gross comes home and the possibility of normalization with cuba. first of all, we re always elated when an american gets to come home, so i congratulate alan gross. he got his freedom, he got to spend hannukah with his family. that s wonderful news. what is not wonderful news is that the families of the brothers to the rescue shootdown, those four wonder ....
at today s sessions hearing. the equivalent of being made to go to the back of the bus. major holes in tillerson s sanctuary. were we lobbying before or against? i m a germaphobe, believe me. when all in starts right now. good evening from new york, i m chris hayes. there are just nine days until donald trump becomes president of the united states. today we were inundated with news, much of it disturbing, about what to expect when he takes office. in fact there was so much news today it is, frankly, impossible for us to fully cover what we saw and heard, which may well have been the point. we are going to aggressively cover the issues we have deemed most important and they are big ones. among them, the president-elect evoking nazi germany to characterize u.s. intelligence agencies, offering kind words to the russians who the intelligence community believe hacked the dnc and clinton campaign. trump s secretary of state pick exxonmobil ceo rex tillerson possibly ly ....