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Search for Missing Malaysian Airline Plane Resumed; Oil Sales Financing ISIS; Aral Sea Dried Up Due to Manmade Ecological Catastrophe
Aired October 08, 2014 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: More is known about the surface of the Moon and Mars than the bottom of the Earth`s oceans. That`s adding to the challenge
of finding a missing passenger plane.
First up this Wednesday on CNN STUDENT NEWS, the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. It`s entering a new phase, the jet and its 239
passengers and crew members disappeared in early March. Officials believe it crashed in the southern Indian Ocean. The primary search area is about
the size of West Virginia. No trace of the jet has been found. Part of the reason, we know so little about the ocean floor. Just five percent of
it has been mapped. And one expert says we`ve only seen one percent. Why? For one thing, pressure. Engineers have trouble constructing machines that
can stand the weight of the water above them. But new data can help explore the ocean floor.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All through the thundering waves of winter, the ships have pressed on across the Indian Ocean, pulsing out
sonar signals. And this is what they have to show for it. The most detailed map ever of the seabed in this area, 16,000 square miles covered
with crumbling underwater volcanoes, winding valleys, plunging canyons and just maybe the solution to a mystery. The new map is not fine enough to
show wreckage, but it is a wealth of information to guide under water search vessels.
DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST, Tom, there makes a great deal of difference, because they`ll be able to hold a tighter path right above the
ocean floor knowing what`s coming ahead of time, so that they can go a little bit faster and get a lot more done in the less time.
FOREMAN: Before the search broke off earlier this year, much hope was pinned on the Bluefin underwater search robot. It came up empty, but now,
with the new map, a much broader search with toad sonar erase is beginning.
Australian authorities remain convinced this arch is the right place to look, saying recent refinement to the analysis of satellite data about the
plane`s flight path has given greater certainty about when the aircraft turned south into the Indian Ocean. And that gives them a better sense of
where it ran out of fuel, most likely south of this submerged mountains called Broken Ridge. But .
SOUCIE: We have to be very cautious about over-predicting or over- confidence in those predictions that you make or you`ll end up exactly where you thought you would, but it may not be the right place.
FOREMAN: Don`t look for people scanning the surface for debris, those days are over. Now, it is all about looking in some places nearly four miles
beneath the waves, and once again, hoping for a break.
The search is scheduled to last for about a year, and if they find the plane during that time, of course, it will be a huge step, but a big
mystery still remains, whatever caused this plane to go down.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: It appears the ISIS terrorist group is gaining ground in Syria despite U.S. -led airstrikes against it.
Yesterday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the city of Kobani was about to fall to ISIS. For days, the terrorist group has been fighting
to get control of Kobani and ethnic group called the Kurds is fighting back with support from U.S.-led airstrikes.
But a U.S. military official says it`s challenging, because many of the ISIS targets are too close to either the Kurds or the Turkish border.
Turkey`s president says it will take ground troops to defeat ISIS, something President Obama has ruled out as far as the U.S. is concerned.
Despite the airstrikes, what keeps ISIS going? What keeps it funded?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the southernmost edge of Turkey. Just across those hills, is the border with Syria, and the area where
extremist Islamic rebels known as ISIS are fighting to create an Islamic caliphate, or Islamic State?
It is also an area in villages like this where ISIS can make money to finance its worth. Small oil smuggling operations, some estimate adding up
to millions of barrels in the last few months have been uncovered. The oil comes from refineries ISIS has taken inside Iraq and Syria. Up until just
last week, it was easy to smuggle into this part of Turkey.
Why? Smuggle, cheap oil is a much price commodity here, and it doesn`t matter who is selling it, even if it`s your enemy.
Buy gas at any station just across the border here in Turkey and you`ll see why it`s so easy to overlook who is selling what. Gas here in Hatai (ph)
costs roughly $7.50 a gallon.
U.S. coalition forces just in the past week have destroyed attack and bombed ISIS oil facilities, precisely to cut off the group`s funding. But
if you think just knocking out ISIS oil will stop this radical Islamic army, you don`t understand just how many ways ISIS funds itself.
MATTHEW LEVITT, WASHINGTON INSTITUTE: We`ve described this as the best financed group we`ve ever seen.
GRIFFIN: Born among the crooks and thugs of Iraq, it is at its roots, says Levitt, a criminal enterprise.
LEVITT: They were always primarily financed through domestic criminal activity within the borders of Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s massive organized crime run amok with no cops.
GRIFFIN: You want to do business in ISIS control territory, you pay a tax. You want to move truck down a highway, you pay a toll. Villages on ISIS
territory pay for just about everything.
Mawaz Mustafa (ph) is the executive director of the Syrian Emergency Taskforce in Washington, D.C. He says ISIS literally formed in the void
made by the pullout of U.S. troops and the retreating Iraqi army. That kind of self-financing mob, he says, can`t be destroyed from airstrikes.
You need to take back the territory and restore order.
U.S.-led coalition airstrikes have now begun targeting ISIS locations, attacking the oil facilities and even grain silos. But as long as ISIS
controls any ground where civilians can be taxed, extorted and robbed, ISIS will remain self-financing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: Its state nickname is the Sagebrush State, or the silver state or the battle-born state. It`s the state of Nevada, and it`s where you`ll
find the Laughlin Junior Senior High School. The Cougars in Laughlin, our first on today`s roll.
Next, we are traveling south to Mountain Brook Alabama. The Spartans are watching. Welcome to Mountain Brook Junior High.
And the northeast is where you`ll find Syracuse, New York. The black knights are online and on our roll at Henninger High School.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Time for a geographic shoutout. Which body of water is bordered by Kazakhstan? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it
Caspian Sea, Black Sea, Indian Ocean or Lake Ladoga? You`ve got three seconds, go!
Part of Kazakhstan`s western border is formed by the Caspian Sea. That`s your answer and that`s your shoutout.
AZUZ: The Caspian Sea is the largest lake on earth by surface area. Kazakhstan also borders what was once the world`s fourth largest lake, the
Aral Sea. But that was before it started to dry up. The Aral Sea was once fed and maintained by two rivers, those were diverted, so the lake, which
was pretty shallow, began to evaporate and shrink quickly and dramatically. The consequences, its salt and mineral levels rose killing its fish. That
killed its fishing industry. Ports on the Aral Sea shoreline literally dried up, towns once on the coast were stranded miles from shore. People
left. That pictures are incredible.
A lot of people think the Eiffel Tower gives them a bird`s eye view of Paris. Nope. This does. It`s from a camera strapped to the back of a
white-tail eagle as it flew from the top of the Tower back down to earth. OK. It looks cool, sounds cool with the wind noise, but why? It`s a
project to raise awareness about white tailed eagles. "Freedom," the group that set this up, hopes this will inspire people to want to protect these
European treasure.
Of course, it`s not as good of you as the animals have themselves. After all, they are eagle-eyed. It didn`t look like the camera was a bird.
Then, the eagle never said it was imperchinate (ph) and it didn`t fly off with it, so you could see everything came to feather. I`m Carl Azuz. Hope
to see you Thursday.
END
