‘This Week’ Transcript: Sec. John Kerry and PM Benjamin Netanyahu
— -- Below is the rush transcript of "This Week" on July 20th, 2014. It may contain errors.
ANNOUNCER: On a special edition of This Week Crisis Point, a passenger plane shot down. 298 innocent lives lost.
In the heart of the Middle East, Israel begins its ground assault in Gaza. Civilians caught in the middle.
Here at home, warnings of new terror threats.
Uncertainty across the globe. What's next? Who can we trust? How will the U.S. respond? This morning, breaking details, insight and analysis from our team around the world and Secretary of State John Kerry plus Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
From the global resources of ABC News, a special edition of This Week Crisis Point.
Here now, chief anchor George Stephanopoulos.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, HOST: Good morning, we're tracking breaking news overnight from Gaza and Ukraine. And we begin with new outrage over Malaysia flight 17. Relief workers being forced to hand over the bodies of victims to armed rebels as the U.S. government pins more blame on Russia for the downing of the aircraft.
ABC's chief foreign correspondent Terry Moran is on the scene. Good morning, Terry.
TERRY MORAN, ABC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, George.
There is confusion and chaos surrounding this scene, the evidence, much of it still unguarded in these fields and the bodies who are now being recovered slowly. No one knows where they're going to go.
Nevertheless, the U.S. and others are beginning to build a case.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MORAN: From U.S. officials this morning, powerful new accusations that a surface to air missile from rebel controlled territory brought down a plane and more evidence, they say, of a Russian connection to the shoot down.
The statement from the U.S. embassy in Ukraine, it asserts a missile launch was detected from eastern Ukraine at the time the plane vanished from radar. Russian backed rebels bragged about taking down a plane on social media, then deleted their posts and that Russia has been training rebels on using air defense systems.
They also point to video of a missile launcher crossing the border back into Russia 12 hours after the crash with at least one of its missiles missing.
Meanwhile, back at the crash site, bodies of nearly 200 MH17 victims have been removed, emergency workers forced to turn them over to rebels. Some, put in refrigerated Soviet era train cars, their destination unknown.
When we visited the site earlier, people had just begun to collect the bodies. Not a single professional air crash investigator was present.
Even though this crash site remains unsecured, and there are no professional air crash investigators on the scene right now, they have begun collecting the bodies out of these fields and stacking them like cord wood in these trucks.
And there were reports drunk rebels had intimidated international monitors who were only given partial access.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a lot of security, people with heavy arms. We're being watched very carefully.
MORAN: So now three days after that jet was shot out of the sky, still no one know when the bereaved will be able to bring their loved ones home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have not been able to gain any guarantees from the authorities in Ukraine that there would be safe passage allowed for family members.
MORAN: And so the anguish of the families is deepening. We are also hearing that their anger is rising, quite understandably.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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