Former CIA official: I'd 'bet a heavy paycheck' against Flight 370 being terrorism

(CNN) – Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was hundreds of miles off course, traveling in the opposite direction from its original destination and had stopped sending identifying transponder codes before it disappeared, a senior Malaysian Air Force official told CNN Tuesday.

The head of the international police organization Interpol said that his agency increasingly believed the incident was not related to terrorism. Among the evidence pointing in that direction, Noble said: news from Malaysian authorities that one of two people said to be traveling on stolen passports, an Iranian, was trying to travel to his mother in Germany.

"The more information we get, the more we're inclined to conclude that it was not a terrorist incident," Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said at a news conference in Lyon, France.

Counter terrorism expert Phil Mudd agrees, saying it doesn't "feel" like the situation is terrorism-related.

"This really doesn't smell like what I dealt with in 25 years," Mudd, a former CIA and FBI official, said in an interview with CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper."

"I'd bet a heavy paycheck against this being terrorism if I were in Vegas," said Mudd.

For more of our interview with counter terrorism expert Phil Mudd, check out the video above.