CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

Interview

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BURNETT: And joining me now is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Republican Congressman Mike Rogers.

Great to have you with us, sir. Really appreciate your taking the time.

I know you've been watching the developments and getting briefed on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

John Brennan says the CIA isn't ruling out terrorism. Look, there are so many theories on the table. You've been briefed.

What's your view on the situation now?

REP. MIKE ROGERS (R-MI), CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Well, we see no evidence that it is terrorism. Unfortunately, we don't see evidence that it's much of anything. We can't get any good determination about what happened to the flight based on the collection points that our intelligence services are engaged in today.

BURNETT: Has the search mission been handled properly? I mean, it's got to be frustrating a plane goes down with 239 people, transponder gets turned off, plane changes directions and we have no idea at all at this point of anything.

ROGERS: Yes. And you know, not knowing its direction at the time that they lost contact is incredibly frustrating. And there hasn't -- you know, the Malaysians have not been fully cooperative in making this a scientific search pattern using all the assets very wisely. So, you start out in one place and you're 500 miles away the next day. That tells me they've got a lot of gaps to try to fill and hopefully, that will come together.

I mean, obviously, you want some closure for the families and we need to get access to the airplane to get some forensic evidence to try to make a determination to see where we go next.

BURNETT: Two men were traveling on stolen passports. Obviously, we reported extensively on that. We have no idea if they were involved in the disappearance of the flight. Interpol, though, has a database of 40 million stolen or lost passports.

According to Interpol, last year, passengers boarded planes more than a billion times without their passports being checked against the database. That is stunning.

ROGERS: Yes, it's a huge problem. Maybe this is a catalyst to try to get the problem fixed. And this is relatively easy to fix but you have to have the international community to cooperate.

And you know, there are organized criminal groups who partake in the thievery of these passports and/or purchase of them and repurposing them. It's a fairly significant business internationally, which causes problems. A lot of it is human trafficking or moving drugs and other things. But it also leaves open this gap that where terrorists could fill in.

And that's why so many are concerned, including me, and would like to push out some international solution pretty quickly.

BURNETT: So, Chairman, let me ask you, though, about the situation overall. Given there's so many questions and so much uncertainty. But that there are some pretty terrifying prospects on the table, right, which may or may not be true whether that includes as an option, or whether that includes hijacking as an option.

Have there been any changes in the United States in the past few days in response to this, given that there are some are saying, well, look, maybe this was a one-off. Maybe this was a dry run. Maybe this is something that there would need to be a response to.

Has there been one?

ROGERS: Well, you can imagine when something like this happens and there are questions we just can't get answered that the intelligence community is going to run through its worst case scenarios up front. You want them to do that. You want them to assume that this was a dry run and there might be other activities, what kinds of things would we look for, what kinds of changes would we make.

So, those things have to happen. They are happening. And they should continue to do that even though, again, I want to be very clear, there is no glaring evidence yet that there is any terrorist activity involved in the flight.

BURNETT: All right. Chairman, I want to ask you about another big story today. Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the Senate Committee, was saying she thinks there has been CIA surveillance of what's going on in the Senate, right? She's obviously your counterpart over on the Senate Intelligence.

ROGERS: Right.

BURNETT: So, John Brennan today categorically said nothing could be farther from the truth, we wouldn't do that. Beyond the scope of reason is how he described that. She says, of course, it would violate the Constitution.

Do you believe, John Brennan, that he didn't do it?

ROGERS: Well, I have faith in the I.G. system. And the I.G. referred something to the Justice Department when it came to believing that there may have been criminal charges on behalf of the CIA. I don't know.

I have immense respect for Dianne Feinstein. We work well together between the House and the Senate Intelligence Committee. If she takes to the floor to make a statement about something she feels strongly about, I can guarantee you there's more there than a simple floor speech.

So, I don't know all the facts. Clearly, we need to get to the bottom of this very quickly so we can de-escalate what appears to be a very unproductive and I could argue damaging exchange.

I was a little surprised that the director took out so strong, given that the I.G. had referred a case. Maybe it was best not to be out there talking about it.

BURNETT: Right.

ROGERS: But we have to get this thing -- we very so much work to do, so much you know, facts to find when it comes to other cases counter- terrorism cases, foreign intelligence collection. We'd better get to the bottom of this quickly.

BURNETT: And, Chairman, Ukraine obviously is a huge issue. The president is going to be meeting with the interim prime minister of Ukraine tomorrow, coming to the United States.

But, obviously, the interim prime minister is, you know, the states calls him the interim prime minister. You know, the parliament put him in power after there was -- I know people are touchy about the word used here but Russia calls it a coup. Either way, it was crowds on the street that got the elected guy kicked out.

Should -- does Putin have a point that this was a coup and the United States is now supporting an interim prime minister who is not democratically elected?

ROGERS: Hard to believe the Russian point of view when you have troops who basically pushed out and have taken over military bases in south Crimea. You have a huge and growing problem. I think where the legal problem is going to get questionable is if they -- the south Crimeans -- or the Crimean peninsula votes on Sunday o be part of Russia, to secede --

BURNETT: Right.

ROGERS: -- from Ukraine and join Russia, that creates a whole host of problems. What I think we have is a very long problem.

This is not going to heal overnight. There's going to be diplomacy and other aggression I think before this is over. I don't think it will break into big military exchanges.

I do think there could be skirmishes.

So, I think the next month and a half, I think we know what's going to happen on Sunday and the referendum is going to be really interesting and it's going to be a challenge for the -- I think the diplomatic relations between our European friends, this new Ukrainian government and how we contain, if you will, Russian efforts for influence in the region.

BURNETT: All right. Well, thank you very much. Chairman Rogers, we appreciate your time.

ROGERS: Thanks, Erin.

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