Investigation Into Boston Bombings Continues
KAYE: It is about half past the hour now. Welcome back, everyone. I am Randi Kaye coming to you this morning from Boston. Thanks for starting your day with us. Let's check in with my colleague, Victor Blackwell, at CNN Headquarters in Atlanta. Victor, what are you watching this morning?</s>BLACKWELL: A couple of big stories, Randi. We are going to start on the West Coast, northwest of Los Angeles, in fact, a raging wildfire there. You and Alexandra (ph), you talked about them this morning. It's nearly tripled in size. It is threatening thousands of homes now in the Ventura County area. The Springs fire as it's known has already burned 43 square miles, has damaged or destroyed at least 30 homes and a few other buildings. There is a mandatory evacuation for some areas. Here is some good news. Firefighters could get a break tomorrow because rain is in the forecast. U.S. federal officials believe Israel has carried out an air strike in Syria. Two U.S. officials tell CNN that the strike probably happened Thursday or Friday. Washington does not think Israeli warplanes entered Syrian airspace, but Israel has long promised to strike at any target it suspects being used to transport weapons to Hezbollah or other terrorist groups. An American journalist who's been missing in Syria for almost six months now may be in the hands of the Syrian government. That's according to the man's brother and the Global Post News outlet. James Foley was kidnapped by gunmen, rather, in November. Now, the Global Post says it's likely Foley is being held in Damascus with other Western journalist, including at least one other American. The FBI is now looking into the mysterious death of this woman. A doctor in Pittsburgh. Local authorities think that Autumn Klein, that's her name, she died from cyanide poisoning. Her husband called 911 after he found the body at their home on April 20. Now, the Allegheny County district attorney's office says her death is being investigated as a potential homicide or possibly suicide. Almost three weeks after the Boston bombings, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is warning against racial profiling. She is talking about this as customs agents get new orders that require them to verify that all foreign students have a valid visa. She spoke in Denver. Listen.</s>SONIA SOTOMAYOR, ASSOCIATE SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: If you are thinking, if you are a police officer or anyone else thinking that only profiling is going to prove who did something, you are probably going to be wrong most of the time. Because that's not the way the world works. Are there sort of indicators of sorts that have to be listened to? Absolutely. You know, they are talking about if you have been following the news about the Boston bombing and about criticisms, whether they are justified or not, about following up on the activities of the two young men who were involved. Is that profiling? Could be. Is it something that you just can't ignore? Maybe sometimes not. There's a fine line that society walks in trying to be fair.</s>BLACKWELL: We'll talk about some of the other big stories of the weekend in a moment, but for now let's head back to Randi, live in Boston this morning. Randi.</s>KAYE: Victor, thank you. Investigators in Boston find residue from explosives inside the apartment that slain bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev shared with his wife and young daughter. The substances were discovered at the kitchen table, the kitchen sink and also in the bathtub. Tamerlan's brother Dzhokhar has told the investigators the pair built the bombs at Tamerlan's home. Meanwhile, Tamerlan's widow, 24-year-old Katherine Russell, maintains she knew nothing about this entire bomb plot. Joining me now is former FBI Assistant Director Tom Fuentes. Tom, good morning to you. So, listening to that, how does the discovery of explosives residue in her own home change the investigation as it relates to Katherine Russell?</s>TOM FUENTES, FORMER FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Well, Randi, I don't think it changes the investigation, because this has been something that they have been looking at from the very beginning, the possibility that she may have known something or she may have been involved, even, in obtaining the materials that were used or somehow allowing them to make the bombs. So that's been something that they have been concerned with and would have looked at from the very start. Now, actually gathering the evidence that she was aware of it is another matter. Especially even though it's her residence also, it was reported by her attorney early on that she worked seven days a work, 17 hours a day, was rarely home. So it's remotely possible that the two brothers made the bombs and cleaned up most of the mess before she got home, if that's true. So we don't know all the things that the FBI knows at this point, or what they have known from the very beginning in trying to investigate this case.</s>KAYE: Right. Let's talk about Dzhokhar, the younger brother. It appears he is sharing quite a bit of information with the authorities. How much do you think his cooperation will help when this case gets to court? Will it help him?</s>FUENTES: Probably will not hurt him. So how much it helps will have to be determined. But yes, he talked extensively, about 16 hours to the FBI before the initial appearance hearing, where he received his Miranda rights. From what I have heard, the FBI was pretty satisfied that he had said about as much as he was going to say at that time. Not it's not that they believed every word he said. They took everything with a large degree of skepticism. That's what the investigation has been about since, determining how much of what he said was true, how much could they determine and corroborate the statements that he made.</s>KAYE: We all have so many questions, I'm sure you have questions of your own, but what pieces do you think of this story do investigators really still need Dzhokhar to flesh out and answer for them?</s>FUENTES: I think they will need him to basically say how much Tamerlan's wife, the widow Russell, knew. If he says or did say from the beginning that she was there or she went out and purchased some of the equipment that was used to make the bombs, such as the pressure cookers, if that was the case, then that's what they are trying to focus on, much of that aspect of what he said. Also, all the initial statements, that they did it by themselves, that maybe big brother -- we don't know yet if Tamerlan learned any of the bomb-making skills when he went back to Dagestan for six months. But if in fact the brother knows more about that or made statements about that, that would be something that they would be very interested in. And also, you know, right now, the other three that have been charged with disposing of the evidence and helping him hide evidence after the bombing, how much involved if any were they before the bombing. Is that verifiable to a great extent, that they had no knowledge prior to that, maybe going to the river and exploding fireworks and having some idea, but not ever realizing that Dzhokhar and his brother were actually going to make a bomb and do an attack.</s>KAYE: Yes, those are all good questions, a lot of blanks to fill in, no doubt. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is warning, as you probably heard before we brought you in, about the possible racial profiling of foreign students in the wake of the bombing. How can border agents crack down on student visas and still stay within the bounds of the law?</s>FUENTES: Well, the law says if someone does not have a visa, they cannot come into the country. So if they have the ability to quickly determine which student visa is valid and which one is not, then that's not profiling, it's a fact, either you have it or you don't, or you have an accurate, valid passport or you don't. So that would apply to any student. There are a lot more students from other countries than Kazakhstan or the countries involved in this case. We are talking about students from a country that has not had any terrorists group that we are aware of, I'm talking about Kazakhstan now, that has been involved in this kind of activity, much less help in an attack on the United States. And there is no information that the two Kazakh students did. All we know is that they were friends of Dzhokhar, at least at this time, and felt whatever allegiance to him after the bombing to get rid of the backpack and take his laptop and hide it.</s>KAYE: Tom Fuentes, as always, we appreciate your expertise. Thank you.</s>FUENTES: Thank you, Randi.</s>KAYE: Seven acres of guns, gear, and controversy. The NRA's annual meeting is off and running. But joining tens of thousands of gun lovers are supporters of tougher gun laws, who plan to challenge the NRA this weekend. We will talk to one of them, next.