Self-described “citizen journalist” James O’Keefe appears to have snagged himself yet another unsuspecting victim: Joseph Scaffido, the assistant dean of students at Cornell University.

A video released this week by O’Keefe’s nonprofit Project Veritas purports to expose the Ivy League institution as a welcoming environment for terrorist groups like the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) and Hamas.

The video shows Scaffido, unaware that he is being filmed, answering questions from someone offscreen about whether Cornell would be open to campus groups supporting Islamic State extremists and Hamas. As far as Scaffido is concerned, he’s talking to a Moroccan student named Ali. But as O’Keefe explains in voice-over narration, the faceless inquisitor is actually a “Project Veritas undercover reporter” who dropped by Scaffido’s Ithaca office posing as a potential Cornell student in search of the truth.

“Ali” tells Scaffido he’s interested in starting a “humanitarian group that supports distressed communities” in “northern Iraq and Syria.”

“I think it would be important for especially these people in the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the families and the freedom fighters in particular and their families,” he says. “I think it would be important to maybe just probably educate, but to maybe send them care packages whether it be food, water, electronics.”

Scaffido nods along, responding that “there are a lot of our student organizations that do things like that all over the world.” Scaffido did not answer a Yahoo News request for comment on the video, but his unflinching response suggests that he may not totally understand what “Ali” is getting at.

View photo

.

This October 2009 file photo shows Hannah Giles, left, talking with James O'Keefe III during a news conference …

After all, IS members or their supporters are rarely referred to in the media as “freedom fighters.” And while most news coverage of the current situation in northern Iraq and Syria now uses “ISIS” and “the Islamic State” interchangeably, the subtitles on the Veritas video include “(ISIS)” in parentheses following “Ali’s” first mention of the Islamic State, acknowledging that the average viewer might need some help putting two and two together.

When asked whether the school would have a problem with students supporting “Hamas or something like that,” Scaffido delivers what sounds like a politically correct stock response designed to depict the Cornell campus as nothing short of liberal and open-minded.

“The university is not going to look at different groups and say you’re not allowed to support that group because we don’t believe in them or something like that,” he says. “I think it’s just the opposite. I think the university wants the entire community to understand what’s going on in all parts of the world.”

Through voice-over interjections, O’Keefe elaborates on Scaffido’s words. Taking a comment like “Ithaca is a great place. Ithaca itself, the community of Ithaca is also very active. ... It’s very liberal,” and translating it to mean that “Ithaca, New York, where Cornell is located, would be sympathetic to even the most provocative causes.” Or explaining that, by noting that the school makes resources available for student groups to pay for speakers, Scaffido is saying that “thousands of Cornell University dollars could be found to bring an ISIS guest to visit the campus.”

Unfortunately for Scaffido, his apparent inability to recognize “Ali’s” references to “Hamas,” “the Islamic State,” and “freedom fighters” as euphemisms for terrorism, coupled with what seems like a desire to not offend someone he’s been led to believe is a potential Middle Eastern student, made him the perfect target for the kind of selective editing that’s become something of a Project Veritas trademark.

O’Keefe's sneak-attack reporting style first gained national attention back in 2009, when he released a series of surreptitious recordings that ultimately led to the dissolution of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, previously one of the largest nationwide community organizations benefiting low- and moderate-income families. Two years later, a sting operation at National Public Radio resulted in the resignation of NPR’s then president and CEO.

While hailed by conservative media for taking stereotypically liberal organizations to task, critics have described O’Keefe’s tactics, from his undercover reporting to postproduction editing, as misleading, dishonest and potentially illegal. Some of his projects have even gotten him into trouble.

In 2010, following a foiled attempt to break into Sen. Mary Landrieu’s Baton Rouge, La., office disguised as telephone technicians to tamper with the phones, O’Keefe and three of his accomplices pleaded guilty to entering federal property under false pretenses. O’Keefe was ordered to pay a $1,500 fine and complete three years of probation as well as 100 hours of community service for the misdemeanor. The others received slightly lighter sentences.

In 2013, O’Keefe agreed to pay $100,000 to settle a lawsuit by a former ACORN employee from California who claimed that O'Keefe's widely viewed video had not only portrayed him in a false light, but also violated California state law by filming their interaction without his consent.

The Cornell video is O’Keefe’s first project to attract media attention in a while — at least since last year’s “American Hustle”-style attempt to trick Hollywood environmentalists into agreeing to accept Middle East oil money to fund an anti-fracking film.

James O'Keefe @JamesOKeefeIII Follow We just did TV interviews with CBS and NBC affiliates all across the State of New York. 1:52 PM - 25 Mar 2015 28 RETWEETS 44 FAVORITES

Cornell’s Vice President for University Relations Joel Malina responded to the video in astatement to the New York Post. “Cornell fully supports the free exchange of ideas and does not review or control the political ideology of our students," Malina said. "We do not, of course, tolerate unlawful advocacy of violence, and the comment about training by ISIS freedom fighters does not reflect university policy.”

In a separate statement published in the Ithaca Voice, Cornell University President David Skorton defended Scaffido and derided the undercover filmmaker.

“It is shameful that any individual would pose as a student facing racial discrimination at another university, ask leading questions on hidden camera about Cornell’s tolerance for differing viewpoints and backgrounds, and then conveniently splice together the resulting footage to smear our assistant dean and our University,” Skorton said.

“After speaking with Assistant Dean Scaffido, I am convinced that he was not aware of what he was being asked,” he added.

James O'Keefe @JamesOKeefeIII Follow .@Cornell If your assistant Dean of Students has never heard of Hamas or ISIS, @Project_Veritas should be the least of your concerns 12:34 PM - 25 Mar 2015 92 RETWEETS 51 FAVORITES

O’Keefe posted a response to Skorton on the Project Veritas website, arguing that “if your assistant Dean of Students has never heard of Hamas or the ‘Islamic State of Iraq and Syria,’ Project Veritas should be the least of your concerns” and promising “there is more to come.”

ADEN, Yemen (AP) — The flag of once-independent South Yemen is visible everywhere around this port city, once the country's capital. The banner — red, white, black and blue with a red star — is painted on walls, flown from homes, and flutters from the vehicles and checkpoints of militiamen in the streets.

"We want freedom," declares an English-language slogan spray-painted on a wall on a main road. Another proclaims: "The Free South."

Calls among southern Yemenis to break away once more are accelerating as the country collapses into conflict. Shiite rebels known as Houthis have taken over the capital, Sanaa, and much of the north, and are storming south in a bid to secure their hold on the country. President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi was first driven out of Sanaa, then tried to make a last stand in the southern city of Aden. But on Wednesday, he fled the city — and the country.

On Thursday, Saudi Arabia began launching airstrikes in Yemen in a bid to oust the Houthi rebels from their strongholds.

Hadi's supporters remain behind, including army units loyal to him and militiamen. But many in the south are likely to fight not so much to try to restore Hadi's rule but to carve out their independence. Fueling the separatist sentiment in the almost completely Sunni south is the widespread belief that the Houthis are proxies for Shiite powerhouse Iran to dominate the country. Moreover, the Houthis' top ally is Yemen's former autocratic leader, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who ruled for nearly 40 years until his ouster in 2011 and was widely hated in the south.

Already, members of the "Southern Movement," the main pro-independence group, have joined pro-Hadi militiamen and military forces in their defense against the rebels, according to Shafie al-Abd, an activist and a prominent member of the movement.

View gallery

In this Saturday, March 21, 2015 photo, graffiti depicting the old South Yemen flag that was used wh …

"It is our duty to defend the south. It's a fight that may eventually become one for liberation and independence," he said. "We in the movement will abandon our peaceful means and take up arms against the Houthis."

North vs South is not the only faultline along which Yemen can fall apart. Equally dangerous are sectarian divisions, which traditionally were long dormant in Yemen. Around 30 percent of the population is Shiite — belonging to the Zaidi branch of Shiism, which is almost only found in Yemen — and the rest are Sunnis. Already, some Sunni tribesmen in the north are fighting back against Houthi domination, some of them by allying with al-Qaida, some backed by neighboring Saudi Arabia. Also, the military and government are fragmented from city to city across the country, some units and officials backing Saleh or Houthis, some backing Hadi.

Many southerners may feel they are better off by breaking away. But they likely would have to fight the tough advance by the Houthi-Saleh alliance. Many of the country's best trained and equipped military units remained loyal to Saleh since his 2011 ouster and are fighting alongside Houthis now.

"The crisis in Yemen is far greater now than the issue of the south," said southern activist Zeid al-Salamy. "The option of a 'war of independence' is more likely now."

After more than 100 years of British colonial rule, South Yemen, with Aden as its capital, was an independent country from 1967 and 1990, ruled by a communist government. Southerners also see themselves as culturally different from the north, which they view as more tribal and more religiously conservative — though in the past two decades, the south has moved away from its secular traditions — now significant numbers of men boast beards and women can be seen wearing black veils, signs of conservative Islam.

View gallery

This Monday, March 16, 2015 photo shows a Jewish school turned to the city's tax department in A …

The impending showdown evokes memories of Yemen's ruinous 1994 war, when Saleh's government in the north crushed an attempt by the south to break away again, just four years after the two were united.

"Secession will comfort the southerners after years of suffering since the union," said Salwa Mobarak Amber, who served as an adviser to Saleh for some 15 years in Sanaa and is now the head of an Aden-based research center, al-Masar.

"Now that Iran is involved in the north in support of the Houthis, we definitely need our independence. There will be war in the north," said the British-educated Amber.

Hadi is a southerner. Still, even as he fled to Aden last month, Hadi insisted that his resistance to the Houthis was aimed at keeping a unified nation. Speaking to The Associated Press in Aden, one of Hadi's advisers, Sultan al-Atwani, acknowledged that recent developments in Yemen point to secession as one likely outcome, but he warned against it.

"The dangers in Yemen today will not allow the emergence of a clearly separate south and north," he said. "Yemen's future is in its unity and anyone campaigning for secession now is being superficial."

But that stance could be overtaken by events. Political leaders of the south, long at sharp odds over ideology and conflicting interests, are scheduled to meet soon in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to map out the way forward for their region. If the meeting takes place, it would be the first such meeting in more than 20 years.

And Hadi could find himself being pushed by southerners to lead the movement if the Houthi-Saleh alliance seals its control.

"Everyone respects him," Radfan al-Dubais, a senior figure in a grass-roots secessionist movement, told AP, arguing that Hadi could unite southern factions. "The south will emerge on the world stage under new management."

By Parisa Hafezi

ANKARA (Reuters) - Iran demanded an immediate halt to Saudi-led military operations in Yemen on Thursday and said it would make all necessary efforts to control the crisis there, Iranian news agencies reported.

Warplanes from Saudi Arabia and Arab allies on Thursday struck Iran-allied Houthi forces fighting to oust the country's Western-backed president. Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV reported a ground offensive with troops from other Muslim states was being prepared.

"The Saudi-led air strikes should stop immediately and it is against Yemen's sovereignty," the Students News Agency quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying.

"We will make all efforts to control the crisis in Yemen," Zarif said, according to the agency's report from the Swiss city of Lausanne where he is negotiating with six world powers to resolve a years-old dispute over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Earlier on Thursday, the Foreign Ministry in Tehran called for an end to the military operation.

"Iran wants an immediate halt to all military aggressions and air strikes against Yemen and its people," Fars quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham as saying.

"Military actions in Yemen, which faces a domestic crisis, ... will further complicate the situation ... and will hinder efforts to resolve the crisis through peaceful ways."

Violence has spread across Yemen since last year, with Houthi militia seizing Sanaa and sidelining U.S. ally President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. It has made Yemen a front in Saudi Arabia's region-wide rivalry with Shi'ite-dominated Iran.

Tehran denies providing money and training to the Shi'ite Houthi militia in Yemen, as alleged by some Western and Yemeni officials.

Yemeni Foreign Minister Riyadh Yaseen called on Monday for Gulf Arab help to prevent the Houthis from gaining control of its Yemeni airspace.

Afkham warned that the Saudi-led "aggression is a dangerous move which is in violation of international responsibilities for respecting the sovereignty of countries. It will lead to the spread of terrorism and extremism in the Middle East region."

Negotiations between Iran and six powers in Lausanne are aimed at striking a detailed political understanding by the end of March and reach a full agreement by June 30.

Saudi Arabia fears that the atomic deal would leave the door open to Tehran gaining a nuclear weapon, or would ease political pressure on it, giving it more space to back Arab proxies opposed by Riyadh.

"I am concerned by the impact of regional and international events on the nuclear talks," Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters in Lausanne, saying there were people "who are trying to ensure there is no deal."

(Additional reporting by John Irish in Lausanne, Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Tom Heneghan and Crispian Balmer)

Houthi fighters sit on a tank near the Presidential Palace in Sanaa March 25, 2015. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

By Khaled Abdallah and Sami Aboudi

SANAA/ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - Warplanes from Saudi Arabia and Arab allies struck Shi'ite Muslim rebels fighting to oust Yemen's president on Thursday, in a major gamble by the world's top oil exporter to check Iranian influence in its backyard without direct military backing from Washington.

Iran denounced the surprise assault on its proteges in the Houthi militia group and made clear Saudi Arabia's deployment of a Sunni coalition against its Shi'ite enemies would complicate efforts to end a conflict that will only inflame the sectarian hatreds already fuelling wars around the Middle East.

The Saudi intervention marked a major escalation of the Yemen crisis, in which Iran backs the Houthis, and Sunni Muslim monarchies in the Gulf support President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his fellow Sunni loyalists in Yemen's south.

In the capital Sanaa, which Houthi rebels trying to oust the president seized in September, warplanes bombed the main airport and the nearby al Dulaimi military air base, residents said, in an apparent attempt to weaken the Houthis' air power and ability to fire missiles.

A Reuters witness said four or five houses had been damaged. Rescue workers put the death toll from at 13, including a doctor pulled from the rubble of his clinic.

View gallery

Houthi fighters ride a patrol truck in Sanaa March 25, 2015. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

In a day of heavy fighting, warplanes struck Houthi fighters near Yemen's border with Saudi Arabia, tribal and Houthi sources told Reuters.

On the northern outskirts of Aden, Houthis and army loyalists fought extended gun battles with militiamen loyal to Hadi. 13 pro-Houthi fighters and 3 militiamen were killed, the militiamen said.

Fighters loyal to Hadi retook Aden airport, a day after it was captured by forces allied to the Houthis advancing on the city. The facility remains closed and flights are canceled. Saudi Arabia also canceled flights to its southern airports.

There was also heavy street fighting in Houta, north of Aden, which killed 5 pro-Houthi fighters and 4 militiamen.

Thousands of Houthi supporters gathered to condemn the air strikes at the gate to Sanaa’s old city, waving Houthi banners and chanting, “Death to America!”

View gallery

Saudi Ambassador to the United States Adel Al-Jubeir walks from the podium after announcing that Sau …

"We will do whatever it takes in order to protect the legitimate government of Yemen from falling," Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, told a news conference in Washington.

In an apparent reference to Iran, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said the operation aimed to counter the "aggression of Houthi militias backed by regional powers".

Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV reported that the kingdom was contributing 100 warplanes to operation "Storm of Resolve" and more than 85 were provided by the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Morocco and Sudan.

Jordan and Sudan said their forces were involved in the operation. Egyptian air forces were participating, and four naval ships headed to secure the Gulf of Aden.

Pakistan was considering a request to send ground forces.

View gallery

Anti-Houthi protesters seek refuge as pro-Houthi police troopers use tear gas to disperse them in Ye …

A Saudi official familiar with defense matters told Reuters that a "land offensive might be needed to restore order."

Meanwhile, Iran's Foreign Ministry demanded an immediate halt to the "aggression and air strikes" in Yemen, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

"Military actions in Yemen ... will further complicate the situation," Fars quoted ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham as saying.

A senior Iranian official told Reuters: "Iran will use all possible political ways to allay tension in Yemen. Military intervention is not an option for Tehran.”

A United Arab Emirates official expressed Gulf Arab concerns about Iranian influence in Yemen.

View gallery

Armed militants loyal to Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi ride a patrol truck in the cou …

"The strategic change in the region benefits Iran and we cannot be silent about the fact that the Houthis carry their banner," UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Mohammed Gargash wrote on Twitter.

Saud al-Sarhan, director of research at King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh: “It is a clear message on the ‘Saudi defense doctrine’. Security and stability in the Arabian Peninsula is a red line, and Saudi Arabia doesn’t tolerate any attempt to destabilize the region."

While the advance against Hadi has been publicly led by the Houthis, many Yemenis believe the real instigator of their campaign is former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, a fierce critic of Hadi who retains influence in the army.

PRESIDENT "IN HIGH SPIRITS"

Yemen's slide towards civil war has made it a crucial front in Saudi Arabia's rivalry with Tehran, which Riyadh accuses of stirring up sectarian strife throughout the region and in Yemen with its support for the Houthis. Iran publicly denies funding and training the Houthis.

View gallery

People seek shelter during a gunfire at an army base in Yemen's southern port city of Aden March …

Fighting has spread across Yemen since the Houthis seized Sanaa and forced Hadi out of the capital.

Ambassador Jubeir said the assaults were in response to a request by Hadi.

The White House said it supported the operation and that President Barack Obama had authorized U.S. "logistical and intelligence support". U.S. forces were not involved in direct military action in Yemen, a National Security Council spokeswoman said. France and Britain also backed the operation but the European Union said military action was not a solution.

In Lebanon, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group condemned the strikes.

HOLED UP

View gallery

Houthi fighters ride a patrol truck in Sanaa March 25, 2015. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

Hadi has been holed up Aden with loyalist forces since he fled Houthi custody in February. An aide said Hadi was in the city and was in high spirits.

A Houthi leader said the air strikes would set off a "wide war" in the region.

Houthi-run al-Masirah television said the strikes had hit a residential neighborhood north of Sanaa and caused dozens of casualties. It urged medical personnel to report to hospitals.

Al-Masirah showed the body of a girl and several of the wounded, including a weeping man who said the strikes had killed his son and destroyed his home.

One witness said: "Why are you hitting Yemeni civilians, women and children?"

A widening Yemen conflict could pose risks for global oil supplies, and oil prices surged more than 4 percent on Thursday. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia stepped up security at oil installations.

Yemen closed its main ports. But the U.S. military said it would work with Gulf and European partners to ensure the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the tip of the Red Sea remains open.

(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick, Phil Stewart, Patricia Zengerle, Yeganeh Torbati, Sandra Mahler, Michelle Nichols, Mohammed Mukhashaf, Mohammed Ghobari, Noah Browning and Parisa Hafezi; Writing by Noah Browning and William Maclean; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Reuters Videos
Germanwings crash: Pilot locked out of cockpit before crash

PARIS (AP) — The co-pilot of the Germanwings jet barricaded himself in the cockpit and "intentionally" rammed the plane full speed into the French Alps, ignoring the captain's frantic pounding on the cockpit door and the screams of terror from passengers, a prosecutor said Thursday.

In a split second, he killed all 150 people aboard the plane.

Andreas Lubitz's "intention (was) to destroy this plane," Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said, laying out the horrifying conclusions French investigators reached after listening to the last minutes of Tuesday's Flight 9525 from the plane's black box voice data recorder.

The Airbus A320 was flying from Barcelona to Duesseldorf when it lost radio contact with air traffic controllers and began dropping from its cruising altitude of 38,000 feet. The prosecutor said Lubitz wordlessly set the plane on an 8-minute descent into the craggy French mountainside that pulverized the plane.

He said the German co-pilot's responses, initially courteous in the first part of the trip, became "curt" when the captain began the mid-flight briefing on the planned landing.

Robin said the pilot, who has not been identified, left the cockpit when the plane reached cruising altitude, presumably to go to the lavatory. Then the 28-year-old co-pilot took control of the jet as requested.

"When he was alone, the co-pilot manipulated the buttons of the flight monitoring system to initiate the aircraft's descent," Robin said.

The pilot knocked several times "without response," the prosecutor said, adding that the cockpit door could only be blocked manually from the inside.

The co-pilot said nothing from the moment the captain left, Robin said: "It was absolute silence in the cockpit."

View gallery

A French gendarme helicopter flies over the crash site of Germanwings Airbus A320, near Seyne-les-Al …

The A320 is designed with safeguards to allow emergency entry into the cockpit if a pilot inside is unresponsive. The override code known to the crew does not go into effect, however — and indeed goes into a lockdown — if the person inside the cockpit specifically denies entry.

During the flight's final minutes, pounding could be heard on the cockpit door as the plane's instrument alarms sounded but the co-pilot's breathing was calm and that of a fully conscious man, Robin said.

"You don't get the impression that there was any particular panic, because the breathing is always the same. The breathing is not panting. It's a classic, human breathing," Brice said.

No distress call ever went out from the cockpit, and the control tower's pleas for a response went unanswered.

Air traffic control cleared the area to allow the plane to make an emergency landing if needed, and asked other planes to try to make contact. The French air force scrambled a fighter jet to try to head off the crash.

Just before the plane hit the mountain, passengers' cries of terror could be heard on the voice recorder.

"The victims realized just at the last moment," Robin said. "We can hear them screaming."

Airlines in Europe are not required to have two people in the cockpit at all times, unlike the standard U.S. operating procedure after the 9/11 attacks changed to require a flight attendant to take the spot of a briefly departing pilot.

View gallery

Graphic shows aircraft and victims by country; 2c x 5 inches; 96.3 mm x 127 mm;

Neither Robin nor Lufthansa indicated there was anything the pilot could have done to avoid the crash, saying he had acted appropriately.

Robin said Lubitz had never been flagged as a terrorist and would not give details on his religion or his ethnic background. German authorities were taking charge of the investigation into him.

Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said the airline was already "appalled" by what happened in its low-cost subsidiary.

"I could not have imagined that becoming even worse," Spohr said in Cologne. "We choose our cockpit staff very, very carefully."

Lubitz had joined Germanwings in September 2013, directly out of flight school, and had flown 630 hours. Spohr said the airline had no indication why he would have crashed the plane. He said pilots undergo yearly medical examination but that doesn't include psychological tests.

Lufthansa's chief said Lubitz started his training in 2008 and there was a "several-month" gap in his training six years ago. Spohr said he couldn't say what the reason for that was but after the break "he not only passed all medical tests but also his flight training, all flying tests and checks."

Robin avoided describing the crash as a suicide.

"Usually, when someone commits suicide, he is alone," he said. "When you are responsible for 150 people at the back, I don't necessarily call that a suicide."

View gallery

Germanwings CEO Thomas Winkelmann, left, and Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohrin arrive for a press …

In the German town of Montabaur, acquaintances told The Associated Press that Lubitz appeared normal and happy when they saw him last fall as he renewed his glider pilot's license.

"He was happy he had the job with Germanwings and he was doing well," said a member of the glider club, Peter Ruecker, who watched Lubitz learn to fly. "He gave off a good feeling."

Lubitz had obtained his glider pilot's license as a teenager, and was accepted as a Lufthansa pilot trainee after finishing a tough German college preparatory school, Ruecker said. He described Lubitz as "rather quiet" but friendly.

Lubitz's Facebook page, deleted sometime in the past two days, showed a smiling man in a dark brown jacket posing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The Facebook page was restored after the French prosecutor's press conference.

Robin said the Germanwings plane's second black box still had not been found but remains of the victims were being collected and DNA identification had begun.

In the Alpine hamlet of Le Vernet, French authorities set up a viewing tent for family members on Thursday to look toward the site of the crash, which lies on a steep, treacherous site only reachable by a long hike.

Robin said Lubitz's family was in France but was being kept separate from the other victims' families. The victims' families were briefed ahead of the press conference.

"The victims deserve explanations from the prosecutor," Robin said. "(But) they are having a hard time believing it."

The principal of Joseph Koenig High School in Haltern, Germany, Ulrich Wessel, which lost 16 students and two teachers in the crash, said the state governor had called him Thursday afternoon to tell him about the probe's conclusion.

"It is much, much worse than we had thought," Wessel said. "It doesn't make the number of dead any worse, but if it had been a technical defect then measures could have been taken so that it would never happen again."

The circumstances of the crash are likely to revive questions about the possibility of suicidal pilots and the wisdom of sealing off the cockpit.

"From the moment it became apparent that the Germanwings flight had made a controlled descent for 8 minutes with no 'Mayday,' one feared that either pilot suicide or hijack was the cause," said Philip Baum, London-based editor of trade magazine Aviation Security International.

"The kneejerk reaction to the events of 9/11 with the ill-thought reinforced cockpit door has had catastrophic consequences," he added.

___

McHugh reported from Montabaur, Germany. David Rising in Berlin; Kirsten Grieshaber in Cologne, Germany; Alan Clendenning in Madrid; Danica Kirka in London; Sylvie Corbet, Philippe Sotto and Angela Charlton in Paris; and Greg Keller in Vernet, France, contributed to this report.