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CNN NEWSROOM

Manhunt Ongoing for Nemtsov Killers; Mystery of MH-370; Time for Airlines to Use Real-Time Tracking?

Aired March 8, 2015 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York, 7:00 Eastern.

And we begin in Russia because this weekend, the hunt for perpetrators in what some analysts say is a political killing is ongoing. Five suspects have been detained in the shooting death of Putin critic Boris Nemtsov. One man who Russian authorities tried to arrest blew himself up to avoid capture. That according to Russian state television.

This is an investigation that stretches from Chechnya to the Kremlin and possibility beyond.

Our Matthew Chance is in Moscow this evening.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, police have named the suspect who killed himself as Beslan Shavanov, a 30- year-old man from the Chechen capital Grozny, according to state television.

The building in which he'd been hiding was surrounded. There was a fire fight with the police when he detonated a hand grenade that killed him. Meanwhile, here in Moscow investigators say they have now at least five suspects under arrest in connection with the killing of Boris Nemtsov. One of the five, a Chechen man named Zaur Dadayev is reported to have confessed to the killing.

The plot thicken, as well, because the pro-Kremlin leader of Chechnya has now issued a statement essentially praising Dadayev saying that he was a Russian patriot, but also a Muslim who was angered by support for the cartoons that appeared in the French "Charlie Hebdo" magazine.

Boris Nemtsov as well as being a Kremlin critic was of Jewish heritage and spoke out strongly against the "Charlie Hebdo" attack. One official line of inquiry in Moscow has been that he was killed because of that, not because of his opposition.

Critics though say that it is the Kremlin that should bear responsibility for the killing of one of Russia's most prominent opposition leaders.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow. HARLOW: Matthew -- thank you for that. Let's talk about it. Bob

Baer joins me -- former CIA operative and our intelligence and security analyst; also with me here in New York Christopher Dickey, foreign editor for the "Daily Beast"; and Michael Weiss, he is a fellow with the Institute of Modern Russia.

Michael let me begin with you. Just remind our viewers of the significance of Boris Nemtsov and his assassination.

MICHAEL WEISS, INSTITUTE OF MODERN RUSSIA: So he was the first deputy prime minister under the Yeltsin government. He was one of the sort of very rah-rah about the liberalization of the Russian economy, liberalization of Russian politics as well. I mean he really believed in democracy and kind of a pro-western orientation for Russia.

So it's true that over the last decade or so his star has dimmed as others have brightened, particularly the anti-corruption crusader and Alexei Navalny who is now seen as the de facto leader of the opposition.

That said you couldn't go to a western capital. You couldn't go to a conference about, you know, European security without running into Nemtsov. I mean he was very popular. He was very prominent in the work that he had done, spearheading this corruption investigation.

HARLOW: And he just wrote this big, you know, this big study, investigation into the Ukraine situation and also what he called major fraud about the Sochi Olympics.

WEISS: Right.

HARLOW: He didn't quiet down.

WEISS: No. The Sochi Olympics report was huge. A lot of people paid attention to that, I said on the earlier segment. If you look at the U.S. Treasury sanctions against Russian officials and the response to the invasion of Ukraine --

HARLOW: Followed that --

WEISS: -- and the biographies and the dollar amounts followed that Nemtsov had written to.

HARLOW: If you are, you know, the opposition leader, you just mentioned Alexei Navalny who just, by the way, this week was released from prison and you are vowing to avenge the death of your comrade, Boris Nemtsov, what are you thinking about these five arrests that have been made, Christopher?

CHRISTOPHER DICKEY, "THE DAILY BEAST": I don't think Navalny or anybody who is associated with Nemtsov is likely to feel that these arrests are credible or if they're credible there is this twist.

I mean if you've got Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya, Putin's man in Chechnya coming out and saying he admires one of these guys and this guy was just motivated to do it because of the "Charlie Hebdo" issue. Then you start to think maybe Kadyrov was involved and maybe his people were involved because it all fits into a picture of his activities very well.

But the idea that these guys were the masterminds? No. It's not even clear these guys were the shooters.

HARLOW: Right. Bob Baer to you. All of these men who police are accusing of this in their 30s and all from Chechnya, what do you make of these allegations?

BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: Well, as we talked about, Poppy. It's the usual suspects.

HARLOW: Right.

BAER: If you can assassinate somebody in Russia you go to Chechnya and it doesn't matter who you are, whether you're Islamic fundamentalist, a foreigner or the government. These people will confess to anything and I don't think we're any advanced who killed Nemtsov than we were the day he died.

I mean the Russians -- there is just no transparency in any of this and frankly, again, I will say I just can't imagine why Putin would risk an assassination like this outside the Kremlin when he could have done this in all sorts of ways. The FSB is very good at this. It was distant from him and they know how to do this stuff.

So, you know, it's all a mystery wrapped in an enigma and I don't think we're ever going to get an answer to this. Everybody's got a motivation, but I can't give you a good answer.

HARLOW: Bob, are you -- are you saying that you don't believe this is in any way tied to the Kremlin?

BAER: It could -- I mean it could. It could be because he's liberal, because he's Jewish, because Chechnya is driven by still -- by tough (ph) theories. Let's don't forget the Boston bombing. The Russians warned us about that. That movement is very active and very supportive of ISIS and very supportive of those attacks in France. It is a possibility, but there's just no good evidence out there.

HARLOW: Chris.

DICKEY: I mean I think there's a lot of psychological game playing being done by whoever was behind this and one of the things that you have in a place like Russia is a situation where I kill you or I kill somebody you know. You know I did it. You know I'm lying about doing it, but that's part of the intimidation.

You're never going to solve this mystery and that's the kind of game that Putin plays.

WEISS: You know Nemtsov in recent months have said I actually do think Putin is gunning for me.

HARLOW: Yes. WEISS: Mike McFaul, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia was tweeting the other day that he had personally witnessed Nemtsov being tailed by the FSB, Russian security --

HARLOW: And yet he walked around defiantly with no protection.

WEISS: Well, let's assume for a second he had 24-hour surveillance on him or tail. These guys didn't see a Chechen hit squad also trailing Nemtsov? And weren't there on the scene the minute he was assassinated?

HARLOW: Yes.

WEISS: There was another Russian blogger I think or a journalist who said, you know, I put a flag on that bridge. Within a second the security forces came in and removed me.

HARLOW: Right.

WEISS: It took about ten minutes for anybody to reach the site of the hit -- yes.

HARLOW: Bob, to you, I know -- go ahead.

BAER: Poppy, you don't tail anybody to assassinate them in Russia. I mean I've worked in Moscow. They've got complete, total coverage, the FSB does downtown through cameras and the middle man (ph) and the rest of it. So the idea that Nemtsov was being tailed doesn't suggest it was the Russian authorities doing it.

DICKEY: That's not what Michael is saying.

HARLOW: Go ahead, Chris?

DICKEY: Michael is saying weren't those guys there to witness it? Not did they do it?

HARLOW: Let me ask you this, Bob. I am very intrigued by the fact that suspect number six, if you will, of Chechen descent all of a sudden, according to Russian TV, blows himself up. Why?

BAER: Well, if in fact, that story is true I mean that's the story they're putting out, the police. He may have been completely unconnected with the assassination. And again, they were running with the usual suspects and they just throw his name in there.

But I come back to it -- this has been going out in Russia -- these assassinations and murders and blowing up buildings and the rest of it since the early '90s and we've never got a clear answer to a single one of these crimes. I mean, you know, it could be the state, it could be the, you know, the Chechen mafia, it could be the Russian mafia. And the country is a black hole.

HARLOW: But yet it's a country that a lot of multinational companies have to operate in some way, somehow. It's the country that the United States has to deal with on a geopolitical level. WEISS: Absolutely. And again, you know, coming back to this point.

Putin has always sold himself despite the anti-Americanism, despite the kind of fever swamp of conspiracy theories that America and the CIA and the State Department are to blame for all the world's evils. He has always sold himself consistently as an integral and indispensable partner to the West on a host of issues. Economics, energy --

HARLOW: Terrorism.

WEISS: -- terrorism. Remember he became president because he was the strong man who pacified Chechnya.

HARLOW: Final word, Chris?

DICKEY: Well, I think if we look at the way Putin operates, look at the way he operates in Ukraine. That is all of this, writ big -- writ large. We are supporting our brothers in Ukraine but we're not really giving them weapons --

HARLOW: Yes, we're not there.

DICKEY: -- we're really not there. They're all volunteers. They're little green men. These are little green men murdering people outside the Kremlin walls and somehow they're not associated with Vladimir Putin.

HARLOW: Michael, Chris, Bob -- thank you very much.

Coming up after a quick break we're going to talk about a very big story on a day one year to the day after Flight MH-370 disappeared and grief and warnings for the families and a desperate search for answers to why that plane vanished and where it is.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared one year ago today sparking a global search and a frenzy of speculation. A new report just out today from Malaysian authorities reveals this: that a crucial battery on the plane had actually expired. The battery was on an underwater locator beacon attached to the flight's data recorder. And for grieving families of the 239 people onboard that plane no words can describe their pain especially today.

Some of those families wanted one simple thing to honor their loved ones at a Chinese temple. That desire denied. Our David McKenzie was with them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The family members of those onboard MH 370 had planned to come here to the Lama Temple which is in Beijing to pay their respects one year on, but frankly, there are more police here than family at this point. Some of them say they are intimidated and normally I would be able to get through this area -- excuse me, don't push him -- normally I would be able to get through this area. But through here is where there are some family members and maybe about ten and they're not letting me get in.

Just come inside, please. You can't on -- don't touch me.

This is family members who are trying to grieve and you're stopping them.

239 people died on this plane and you're telling me they can't com here to commemorate.

"I just want to know why the police are treating us like this" says Ming. "We didn't do anything illegal. We're just looking for our families. Why are they doing this?"

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. Joining me now David McKenzie in Beijing. David, it's heartbreaking and it's incredible to see. I mean I know you've been treated like that by the authorities in China before, but you know, for this, for families wanting to go to a temple?

MCKENZIE: I know. It's extraordinary, Poppy, and these families were wandering together in several places in Beijing. And every place they've designated the police were there. It may seem very hard to imagine but these families have been harassed and detained in recent months by the Chinese authorities because, frankly, as a powerful group they represent a threat in some small way to the Communist Party because they are vocal and they're critical of the Chinese government, of the Malaysian government. Those family members though, say, all they want is to get any information that can lead them to some kind of closure because it's been a year now of this harrowing grief -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Are they, David, some of these family members still holding out hope that their loved ones are still alive or at least that some debris from this plane will be found?

MCKENZIE: Well, they certainly say without any debris or any physical proof they won't believe anything that's put to them whether it's from a report, an interim report or data coming from the satellite transponders. These families want something concrete. Until they have it, yes, they do hold out hope

I know it's very hard for us to logically understand how a year on with a plane and with all of these people vanishing some way possibly in the southern Indian ocean and how anyone could have hope, but you know, this is -- these are humans. These aren't people who think only logically. They want to believe that there's hope.

And the tragic thing is it means they can't move forward with any kind of closure either through the grieving process or through getting financial support from the Malaysian authorities. They just won't accept it because they don't want to believe that their loved ones are dead -- Poppy.

HARLOW: And let's not forget, these are families that had to really be jerked around by the airline, by the government getting all of this misinformation being told some things by text message that all of a sudden it was definitive, the plane had gone down in the south Indian Ocean and their family members were all dead.

MCKENZIE: Well, that's right. I mean the trust was lost, I think, when they received that text message that the families were told that the plane had gone down. This was in the very early days of this saga and from then on the families didn't want to believe anything the Malaysian authorities told them.

So once trust is lost it's very hard to get back. And in the absence of physical proof these families are going to be stuck in this limbo for a very long time indeed, potentially -- Poppy.

HARLOW: I completely understand that. David McKenzie -- thank you for going there and showing us what these families are encountering, just trying to go pay respects for their loved ones. Thanks so much David -- I appreciate it.

Also attorneys for the families of those -- people -- all of those 239 people on MH 370 say they deserve a continued and robust search. Australian officials are leading this effort and at some point they do know the search may have to stop but they are committed to carrying it forward. That's what we heard from Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott today.

Let me bring in aviation attorney Daniel Rose, he joins me now. Your firm is representing 24 families, right?

DANIEL ROSE, AVIATION ATTORNEY: 27.

HARLOW: 27 now. On this day, one year later, what do the families want the most?

ROSE: What they really want is a commitment that the search is going to continue until something is found, until there's some resolution to this.

So what you heard from Prime Minister Abbott today of Australia, he said look, we're going to continue with this. But he also noted it can't go on forever. How did you read that? Were you encouraged?

ROSE: Well, not really. It's an equivocal commitment to a search that needs to not be terminated in May or perhaps even in a year after that. There really should be a commitment by, for instance, the Malaysian government and maybe even the Chinese government to a time certain whether it's ten years and a commitment to fund every year of that the next ten years toward a search.

HARLOW: Can you give me a sense of how the families that you represent have been treated recently? I know there was a lot of pain from how they felt they were treated and not given information in the months after the crash. What about now?

ROSE: I think we see what happened today is just a continuation of the whole pattern of mistreatment of these families.

HARLOW: That's the Chinese government and what about the airline, what about Malaysia? ROSE: Well, not only that. Not only that, but the actual data dump

of information in this so-called interim report on the anniversary. I mean it's like a dagger in the heart of the families.

HARLOW: this 600-odd page report came out today from the investigation authorities. Not a lot of information. It appears but one of the headlines is that it appears that this key battery on the underwater sort of dinger, pinger, if you will, should have been replaced and it wasn't.

ROSE: Right. Well, you know, at best it's just another example of a maintenance error that is evidence of the way the airline conducts itself. At worst, it's something that could have seriously jeopardized the ability to locate this aircraft. So it's again, it's something that especially on the anniversary of the crash that is incredibly traumatic for the family members.

HARLOW: How do the family members that you represent think this search has gone thus far? Because right now there are 40 percent through this very broad zone where they think it is most likely the plane went down.

ROSE: Well, you know, the problem has been the lack of transparency up until now.

Nobody, I'm sure, including in the families are faulting everybody that's out there trying to find the wreckage.

HARLOW: Sure.

ROSE: But the question is, you know, are we looking in the right place? What else in terms of information is out there? What else do we know about the pilot, the crew, the other employees in the airline? None of that has come out except, part in this data dump today which is just rubbish.

HARLOW: Is there an overarching theory that they have or that you guys have?

ROSE: Well, you know, of course understandably the family members would like to see a scenario where the plane is intact somewhere. I think that drives a lot of them understandably that their loved ones are still out there.

You know, we've been talking about this scenario since the day after this crash happened a year ago. And that's a possibility, it certainly is. And we're hopeful it's that but it could very well also be something else.

HARLOW: Dan Rose, thanks for coming on. We appreciate it.

ROSE: Sure. My pleasure.

HARLOW: Please send our best to all those families. Today has to be excruciating for them. Thank you very much. Coming up next, we're going to talk about something very integral in the wake of 370. Calls for planes to be equipped with real-time tracking gear. The technology is there. This company, First Air, is using it. Why isn't everyone?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: One year of searching and still no answers about Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The fact is, though, we're actually able to track and find our cell phones when we lose them, planes can actually be tracked. It's just that a lot of them don't have that technology installed. Paula Newton has more on a Canadian company that is actually doing that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It seems it defy common sense that a small, regional airline that flies to Canada's north and high arctic can get it done when others can't. First Air is the first and so far the only airline in the world tracking its planes any time, anywhere.

If this flight was having any kind of trouble you would know about it very quickly.

VIC CHARLEBOIS, FIRST AIR FLIGHT OPERATIONS VICE PRESIDENT: UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. We would be able to swing into action to provide support to the crew, to the aircraft, to the passengers for whatever they need to get them safely on the ground. That's been a big bonus for us.

NEWTON: A system that could monitor the aircraft and automatically trigger a warning alert.

The system is called the Automatic Flight Information Reporting System or AFIRS developed by Canadian company Flight Aerospace Solutions. And here's how it works. There's a blue box inside the plane's electrical system that monitors location, flight path, fuel and engine levels. And that data is streamed from the aircraft in real time.

If anything abnormal happens, an event button is triggered and the ground crew will know exactly where the plane is and what the problem is.

CHARLEBOIS: Now we know about the event within 30 to 60 seconds. Historically it would have taken maybe an hour to find out that there was an event. There's no air traffic control in the high north. It's procedural. You're not always able to talk directly to somebody on the ground.

This is our Hercules that's out to the Calliwit (ph) flying up to the diamond mines north of the (inaudible).

NEWTON: The system has been available for a few years and First Air says it's not prohibitively expensive. It gives the airline with a fleet of about 20 the peace of mind to know it can track its fleet over the vast and harsh landscape of Canada's arctic. So the question is if First Air can do it why not others? What's

taking so long for the airline industry to catch up?

In the wake of the MH370 tragedy the International Civil Aviation Organization or ICAO says its members, most major airlines around the world, will now adopt new aircraft tracking standards by the end of next year. Those include tracking a plane's position at least every 15 minutes.

BERNARD ALIU, INTERNATIONAL CIVIAL AVIATION ORGANIZATION: (inaudible) which help to locate the aircraft after an accident. Our priorities have always been given to those issues that would prevent the accident happening in the first place.

NEWTON: Knowing where a plane is any time, anywhere would have seemed like common sense, but MH370 proved it was instead a safety feature that's not been implemented by most airlines around the world except one.

Paula Newton, CNN, Ottawa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: All right. So if that airline can do it, why not every airline? CNN aviation correspondent and anchor of "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" Richard Quest joins me now.

Richard, why not all carriers?

RICHARD QUESTION, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: There are several reasons. Cost is obviously one of them and in many cases it's not necessary because obviously, if you're an airline that's flying over the continental United States or you're flying over a large parts of Europe then your plane is being tracked by radar all of the time anyway.

So you're talking about oceanic flights and there you're talking about the amount of data necessary to go up to the satellite. There are real issues about the broadband and the width necessary and whether or not current infrastructure can withstand it.

That said, the new regulations which will come into force by the end of next year mean that every plane will need to report its position at least every 15 minutes. Many airlines do it more frequently, but that will become the norm.

HARLOW: Is that good enough?

QUEST: Every 15 minutes probably is, in most cases. Yes, it probably is good enough, but you've got to bear in mind, you are talking about two different things here, Poppy. One is real-time tracking and the second is data streaming. All of the data going from the aircraft, so you don't really have to worry about the black box; and then you've got the situation you could to become more complex.

I'll give you an example and the plane sends a signal every 15 minutes telling you where it is but that would increase to maybe every five minutes or every one minute even every 30 seconds if there was a deviation or an emergency.

The goal here for the industry -- and I'm not by any means an apologist for the industry on this -- I think they've been slow. The goal is for a performance-based result, in other words, we don't care how you do it, just make sure you do.

HARLOW: Richard, you've got the report there with you, 600-odd pages that came out today from everyone investigating what happened to MH370. Bottom line, what does it is a?

QUEST: Bottom line, we are no wiser about what caused the incident, what caused the plane to deviate and we are no wiser about where the plane is. All we know is how everybody reacted on the night. It's not satisfactory but nobody -- and as you're looking at there the search area, they're still in the best prospect area. But Poppy nobody can tell you tonight they know where that plane is.

HARLOW: It is incredible and it makes it all the harder for all those families that just want some answers.

Richard Quest, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

Coming up next, we're going to switch gears and tell you about an absolutely miraculous story. You see that car? It crashed into that river in Utah. Guess what, though? The baby inside lived after 14 hours in the river. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: A tragic yet miraculous story out of Utah for you this evening. A fisherman discovered this car upside down in the frigid Spanish Fork River. Inside, the driver, 25-year-old woman who had died. In the backseat her baby still alive after being trapped for possibly half a day.

Joining me on the phone is Spanish Fork Police Lieutenant Matthew Johnson. Thank you for being with me, sir. This is indeed a miracle. Have you ever seen anything like this in your years with the department?

LT. MATTHEW JOHNSON, SPANISH FORK POLICE: I have not, in 20 years and several thousand traffic accidents that I've been present on that this is like you stated prior, a miraculous situation that this infant could survive 14 hours being strapped upside down in a car seat, and the bleak weather conditions.

HARLOW: I know -

There were police officers and four firefighters were treated for hypothermia. You've got to ask how could this child make it?

JOHNSON: According to the EMS responders on scene the vehicle was on its top and they entered the river and tipped the vehicle on its side and then noticed the infant in the car seat. They believe that the infant was suspended out of the water just by inches and the infant was wearing a fleece pants and a jumper-type suit and they believe that that material was able to protect the infant through the evening hours.

HARLOW: Do we have any idea why - why this car veered off the road there and ended up in the river? Was there any inclement weather? How could this have happened?

JOHNSON: No. The weather was clear and there's not any evidence on scene to indicate any skid marks or any movers. So we're not sure why the vehicle left the roadway. Toxicology tests are pending, so the vehicle looks like it doesn't have any mechanical issues so we haven't ruled anything out at this point and we don't know if it's driver error or if the driver fell asleep or what the situation is.

HARLOW: What are the family members saying right now?

JOHNSON: It's a tragedy due to the loss of the driver of the vehicle and the mother of the child, but they're grateful that this infant was able to survive throughout the night. They're very grateful for the very courageous and heroic actions taken by the police officers and firefighters that risked their lives by jumping into the river and locating the child and removing that child from the dangers it was in.

HARLOW: Absolutely. What a miracle. Lieutenant Matt Johnson, thanks for being with me tonight. We appreciate it.

JOHNSON: Thank you. Have a good night.

HARLOW: Coming up next, we're going to switch gears and take you to the staggeringly beautiful Galapagos Island with Bill Weir as we preview the wonder list.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: So is one of the most fascinating places on the planet fast becoming a paradise lost? Tonight on "The Wonder List" our Bill Weir takes us to the Galapagos Islands where he found a bird with quite the evolutionary back story. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN HOST (on camera): I am headed to a deserted island with a cold-blooded killer.

All right.

This is cool.

People don't get to step on this.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: No. People don't get to come here. Champion Island.

WEIR: His name is Carl Campbell. Big hearted in his love for animals, but cold-blooded in what he's willing to do to save them. I hear the cheap, the chirp.

CARL CAMPBELL: Yes, there is one just up here if you go a little bit further.

WEIR: Oh, look. He's right here.

(voice-over): He's brought me to this tiny haven to look for the one creature that inspired Darwin's ideas more than any other.

(on camera): Hey, what's up, buddy? I came a long way to see you.

(voice-over): The Flooriana mocking bird.

(on camera): My goodness. Look at how curious he is about us being here.

CAMPBELL: Yes. When Darwin came here he collected these guys with a stick.

WEIR: Just whacked them with a stick?

CAMPBELL: Just whacked them with a stick. That's how naive they are.

WEIR: They didn't know to fear man yet.

CAMPBELL: They didn't know to fear anything. They don't really have predators out here.

WEIR: And there's maybe 90 left in the world, in the world.

CAMPBEL: This is one of the world's rarest birds.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Bill Weir joins me now here in New York. I love this episode.

WEIR: Thank you.

HARLOW: I love that your clothes had to be quarantined before you went.

WEIR: It's really amazing. Yes, they're so careful because on these islands even an errant seed or one fly or mosquito that sneaks in a plane or through cargo can throw the whole ecosystem out of whack. Like that island, Champion Island, we were the first human beings to set foot there in a couple of years.

HARLOW: Wow.

WEIR: So we had to take all the clothes we were going to wear and give them to the Ecuadorian government, to the national park and then we didn't get them back until we were going right ashore.

HARLOW: The story that you bring us in this begins with how Charles Darwin got there after divinity school.

WEIR: That's right. People don't know this, the captain of the beagle was sort of a manic depressive and his family wanted him to have a traveling companion. His best friend bailed and he settled on this 23-year-old guy just out of divinity school. Because the captain was a devout Christian and he was given a ship to sail to South America and he said this is my chance to prove the book of Genesis and little did he know who he was bringing along would change that idea for a lot of people.

HARLOW: I've never been to the Galapagos. Most of our viewers probably have never been, these lava burks as you describe them create very different islands -

WEIR: Exactly.

HARLOW: Some flat, some mountainous.

WEIR: That was sort of the seed of Darwin's theory that on this island which has high mountains and that means clouds stop, more rain, grass. So there are tortoises that come there and over on this island it's flat and desert and so that's more iguana country and each creature over millenia adapted to its prey, its predators and the conditions around it and so if you're an animal lover this is the happiest place on earth because it's like going back in time, pre- human existence.

HARLOW: But even not all species are able to survive forever there, right? George, the last of the certain type of tortoise I think a lot of us associate the Galapagos with eventually died and you talk about this inner battle of having to play god, basically on the island and what species to keep alive.

WEIR: Sure.

HARLOW: And what may have to be sacrificed.

WEIR: Yes. You'll see a lot more later tonight, but in the case of these giant tortoises, goats, these invasive goats that were brought to the islands by whalers and pirates had eaten all of the turtle food and so they were starving to death and the realized, oh my goodness, there's less than 100 of these left and what do we do?

Well, what they did was hired snipers and helicopters to shoot a quarter million goats over the course of over five years in order to save this one creature. That worked. That was a sort of a ground breaking experiment in species survival.

HARLOW: Sure.

And having to make that tough decision.

WEIR: Right. Yes.

HARLOW: So tourists are allowed on, and I think 240,000 a year which is actually not a lot at all. WEIR: Compared to most resorts. Yes.

HARLOW: When you were there did you think at all about whether or not whether we human should even be allowed to be in such a special place?

WEIR: Absolutely. That is a real sort of a fault line debate among conservationists right now. There are these garden of Edenists who think certain corners of the planet should be no-go zones for human beings but others would say that's not realistic. We got seven billion and we're headed towards 10 billion in this century. We got to learn how to co-exist with these amazing creatures and be respectful of it, but still progress, and that's what this hour is really about.

HARLOW: Well, it's beautiful. You're pretty lucky you got to go, you and your team.

WEIR: Thank you, Poppy.

HARLOW: Exceptional cinematography, story telling. It's fantatistic. Tonight, 10:00 p.m., only here on CNN, "The Wonder List" with Bill Weir.

Thanks, Bill.

WEIR: Thanks, Poppy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: The trial of the accused Boston marathon bomber resumes tomorrow after an emotional first week of testimony. Survivors who lost limbs and a father who lost his young son have already given heartbreaking accounts of what happened that April day. Our national correspondent Deborah Feyerick was in the courtroom and has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The survivor stories are both incredibly powerful but also incredibly painful. The number of people have walked up to the witness box wearing one or two prosthetic legs to replace those that were blown off during the bombing.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev sits about six feet away, barely looks in their direction, barely even turns his head as the survivors relive that day in graphic detail.

(voice-over): Twelve seconds after the first bomb exploded, the second bomb in a backpack carried by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev detonated outside the Forum Restaurant. Initially the crowd having heard the first blast can be seen turning to look at the finish line.

Images show spectators standing one moment and seconds later flattened on the sidewalk. Bill Richard and wife Denise were outside the restaurant watching the race with their three kids, 11-year-old Henry on the left and six-year-old Jane in the middle and eight-year-old Martin on the end are seen balanced on the metal barrier, blissfully unaware of the man in the white hat behind them.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev slipped away seconds before allegedly detonating the device. Richard frantically tried finding his family grabbing his daughter Jane whose leg had blown off. He testified "I looked at Martin for the last time."

The carnage was similar at the finish line.

Jeff Bowman was standing next to one of the bombs when it detonated, obliterating his legs. When he heard the second blast he testified, it clicked. "I knew we were under attack." Bowman testified in court he'd seen a suspicious-looking man next to him. Both are seen here under the red and white flag. When he turned the man's bag was on the ground, but the man wearing aviators and a black hat was gone.

A day after the bombing from his hospital bed Bauman scribbled a note. "I saw the kid. I know what happened." He helped the FBI identify Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Dzhokhar's older brother. During the first days as witness testimony, new video reveals the horror, the images described in emotional detail by the people who lived through it.

UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: That's my sister. This is my brother. FEYERICK: Inside the courtroom, jurors and others could be seen

fighting back tears. Tsarnaev sat slouched in his seat, rarely turning to make eye contact with the witnesses he's accused of trying to kill.

(on camera): The prosecution is moving very quickly through their witnesses. Tsarnaev's lawyers have barely cross-examined any of them. They have already acknowledged that it was him that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should be held for the death and destruction. Their goal is to try to spare him right now from the death penalty.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Deborah, thank you and as Deborah just reported, the trial isn't about guilt or innocence but whether Tsarnaev should live or die.

Joining me now to talk about it from Boston, CNN commentator and legal analyst Mel Robbins. Let's talk first about this, right. The defense here has complained that some of the testimony from the witnesses has been too gruesome and should have been reserved for the victim impact portion of the trial. Any merit to that, Mel?

MEL ROBBINS, CNN COMMENTATOR AND LEGAL ANALYST: You know, I think that you've got a world-class defense team here, Poppy, and they're going to do everything that they can in order to dial down the emotion. And so this is just yet again an attempt on their part to try to give him the best representation that they can.

But do I think that there's any merit to it? No. This is a death penalty case where you've got over 200 people injured, four people killed, and so yes, this is relevant. The state, remember, still has to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and that's what they're doing, Poppy.

HARLOW: We also know the defense has had a really hard time. They've admitted finding anyone to testify on the defense's side.

ROBBINS: Yes. And you know, here's the thing. We've got two phases to this trial, Poppy, as you already mentioned. One is the guilt or innocence phase. They said in opening statements he did it. There are 30 counts. And what's going to happen is in every aspect of this case, the defense is trying to build up little pieces of fact that they can argue to try to spare his life.

And as you have a parade of witnesses coming in, talking about the horror that they lived through that day, it's very hard to do anything but sit there, which is why you're not seeing them question these witnesses really much at all.

HARLOW: Well, it's interesting because if you look at sort of precedent here, right, the defense's argument likely going to be Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sort of coerced into this by his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, therefore he should not be killed. A defense like that worked in 2001 in the beltway sniper case. Do you think it works here?

ROBBINS: Well, it's the only defense that they have, and there's a massive difference, Poppy, between the beltway shootings where they were just shootings, and this case where you have these guys assembling a bomb, placing a bomb, going to a place where they're going to have mass casualties.

And the most important piece of evidence in the sentencing phase is going to be his own words, what he wrote inside that boat saying he was jealous his brother had died before him. And the reason why they did this intentionally, and that's going to be very hard for the defense to overcome, Poppy.

HARLOW: You know it was so powerful this week, Mel, as we watched this trial go on, seeing the survivors testify and seeing one of them write that long post on Facebook saying "I survived and I am not scared of you anymore." That is what matters most.

Mel Robbins, thanks for being with me. Appreciate it.

Coming up next, an unlikely inspiration for the Netflix hit "House of Cards." Stephen Colbert, really? We'll explain next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: It's the political drama that millions of us just cannot stop binge watching on Netflix, and now the creator of "House of Cards" is sharing his surprising source of inspiration for the series about a power-hungry politician. Here's our Brian Stelter.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Is it true that before every season's writing starts, you all watch Stephen Colbert's speech?

BEAU WILLIMON, "HOUSE OF CARDS": That is true, yes.

STELTER: Why that speech? What do you all draw?

WILLIMON: There's something dangerous in that speech. It is - I wasn't in the room that night. I've been a number of -

STELTER: I was. You're right, it was dangerous.

WILLIMON: Yes, and I've spoken to a few of my friends that were there. It was deeply uncomfortable. Here you had a guy that was saying very funny things but also things that were too important to be funny and saying it to a president's face.

Now, in terms of power, in terms of seizing a moment, in terms of leaving nothing on the table and taking off the kid gloves, that sort of energy, that sort of bravery, and also that certain ability of Stephen Colbert to, like, not take himself too seriously when it comes to very serious matters. The balance of all of that, I think, was just kind of like a perfect moment. And it's great to look at some perfection when that's what you strive for in your own endeavors.

STELTER: Are there any other materials like that you all watch or rewatch or read?

WILLIMON: We watch all sorts of stuff in the writers' room, and sometimes it might be a speech. You no he, know, we might look at a convention speech from back in 1960 or something like that. You know, we also can watch all sorts of silly things or things - scenes from movies, you know. You know, I remember at one point we were watching a scene from "Last Tango in Paris." It doesn't ostensibly have anything to do with "House of Cards," but there's a sort of surreal danger and rawness to that movie that for whatever reason I can't even remember why. You know, we felt like it was important to watch that and see what we could glean from it and absorb, you know.

You know, storytellers are part of a long stream of storytellers that came before them, and a long stream will come after. It's important to steal from each other as much as possible. We all live the same human condition, and a lot of very talented people have had a lot of interesting things to say before us. So we look everywhere we can for things to steal from.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Brian Stelter, thank you for that. I will continue binge watching "House of Cards" tonight when I go home.

Thanks so much for being with me. We have a great night of television ahead for you right here on CNN.

Coming up next, "Finding Jesus" and the tug-of-war between science and faith in the investigation into the Shroud of Turin. Then at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, researchers open a medieval relic to examine a bone believed to be from John the Baptist. Could its DNA prove he and Jesus were related? Then at 10:00 p.m., "The Wonder List with Bill Weir," stories of extraordinary people, places, cultures and creatures at a crossroad. The Galapagos Islands tonight.

I'm Poppy Harlow, thanks so much for being with me. Have a great week.