CIA Chief Confirms Reports Malaysia Jet's Transponder 'Disabled or Turned Off'

On March 11th CIA Directer John Brennan “confirmed reports” that Malaysia Flight 370’s transponder “had been disabled or turned off at some point during the flight” and said he is not ready to rule out terrorism as the cause behind the plane’s disappearance.

According to ABC News, Brennan was speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations when he said these things. 

He said:

[There have been] some claims of responsibility that have not been confirmed or corroborated at all. We are looking at it very carefully. We, the CIA, are working with the FBI and TSA and others. Our Malaysian counterparts are doing everything they can to try to put together the pieces here. But clearly this is still a mystery, which is very disturbing.

On the same day that Brennan said these things, The New York Times (NYT) reported on “two Iranians known to have used stolen passports to board the Malaysia Airlines jet.” However, NYT indicated they “were unlikely to be linked to terrorist groups.”

One of the two Iranians, 19-year-old Pouria Nourmohammadi Mehrdad, “was using a stolen Austrian passport to fly to Germany, where he was to meet his mother.” The second Iranian using “false documents” was 29-year-old Seyed Mohammed Reza Delavar.

Both men arrived in Malaysia on February 28th.

There is a discrepancy on whether Mehrdad was 19 or 18-years old.

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