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Terror in Canada; ISIS Recruitment Efforts

Aired October 23, 2014 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Tears and a standing ovation for this man, hailed a hero, House of Commons Sergeant at Arms Kevin Vickers.

Vickers was the man who took down that shooter, but not before the gunman shot and killed Corporal Nathan Cirillo at that war monument, Cirillo's life taken by the man we now know to be Michael Zehaf- Bibeau, a man Canadian authorities believed was a threat. He converted to Islam.

A U.S. law enforcement official tells us his passport was confiscated by Canadian authorities when they learned he planned to fight overseas. His mother telling the Associated Press she's crying for the victims and not for her son, saying -- quote -- "We all wish to apologize for all the pain, fright and chaos he created. We have no explanation to offer."

Let me take you to Ottawa to our correspondent there, Ana Cabrera.

And, Ana, you just spoke to some M.P.s, some members of Parliament who were there who saw this with their own eyes. What did they share with you?

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The words I would use are strength and bravery, Brooke, everyone out here, certainly a somber tone because of the death of Corporal Nathan Cirillo.

But today it was back to work. And they also opened Parliament to members of the media to also do our jobs, including getting an opportunity to see inside the hallway where a lot of the action inside Parliament took place. We want to show you that video.

We actually witnessed bullet holes in the glass panes in there and parts of the wooden tapestry and in parts of the stone walls that are along this hallway that's called the Hall of Honor. On both sides of this hallway where this gunman apparently busted through the doors and went running down the way, members of Parliament, all of the members of government, even including the prime minister, were meeting in rooms just off to the side.

But this man ran straight toward the library, we're told. He hid behind an archway at the end of this hallway and there was some gunfire exchanged. In the meantime, that sergeant at arms, the hero in all this, Kevin Vickers, we have learned, was in his office, was just a few feet away around the corner. He heard the gunshots. He grabbed a gun. At this point as the suspect was hiding, he eventually kind of crawled

along the wall, we're told, and was able to get in a position to take multiple shots, ultimately shooting and killing Michael Zehaf-Bibeau. Listen to what the members of Parliament described hearing, seeing and feeling during this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW CASH, CANADIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: Suddenly, the door barged open, this one. And it was a security guard who is usually manning the door. And he runs in and he shuts the door and locks it and starting to tell everybody to get down. But as he opens that door to come into our room, the gunshots fire.

LAURIN LIU, CANADIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: It took us a few seconds to realize what they were and I think what kicks in there is just panic and instinct, and so we all kind of went in all different directions. It was very scary.

STEVEN FLETCHER, CANADIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: If the gunman had turned left or right a little earlier, this would have been -- could have been a massacre.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: As you heard, it could have been so much worse. Gratitude is another word to describe how these members of Parliament are feeling today, gratitude for Sergeant at Arms Kevin Vickers, gratitude for rest of the team and gratitude the country and they say they will continue to do their jobs without fear and they will not be shaken.

They have steadfast resolve to be able to move forward in the Canada they love and know and not let the bad guy win -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Just seeing those bullet holes, Ana, that is absolutely chilling. Ana Cabrera in Ottawa, Ana, thank you.

Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird telling Christiane Amanpour that there is no evidence at this point that this gunman here had ties to jihadists, but U.S. sources tell both Jim Sciutto and Pamela Brown he did indeed have connections to others in Canada who share this radical Islamist ideology.

Jim Sciutto is joining me now.

Jim, let me just first play sound from the Canadian foreign minister.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As we drill down on who exactly this Zehaf-Bibeau is, is he as reports are indicating linked to a wider network of jihadis?

JOHN BAIRD, CANADIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: There's no evidence at this stage for us to know that. Obviously there's an investigation going on and we hope to learn more in the coming days. It was clear that police authorities now have announced he was acting alone yesterday.

AMANPOUR: Have you ruled it out or is that something you're still looking at?

BAIRD: I think that's something the authorities are looking at right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So that was the foreign minister with Christiane.

What are your sources, Jim, what are they telling you as far as this gunman and possible connections?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That he had ties and communications via social media online with other known extremists in Canada.

In fact, we were able to identify one of those extremists that he had such communications with. He's Hasibullah Yusufzai. He was a Vancouver resident who was actually charged in July with traveling to Syria to join and fight for a terror group there. He's still at large. These are communications. Are they operational connections with a known network of jihadis in Canada? No. That's not what U.S. sources are telling myself or Pamela Brown.

But links, communications, via social media online, and keep in mind, Brooke, that these are fairly common things. There are a number of online forums for people with this point of view frankly sharing Islamist extremist propaganda, perhaps expressing their support for groups such as ISIS, et cetera, and that's one of the troubles here, that you have so many of these things where people can communicate and so on.

But it doesn't mean that they have to organize together. That's another trouble with lone wolf attackers, that they don't have to tell anyone frankly that they are planning to do anything. They could do it very much on their own and that's one reason why they're so hard to track.

BALDWIN: That's the scary part, isn't it? Jim Sciutto, thank you.

I want to say on here because Canada's role here in this global fight against ISIS, it makes the country a target certainly of this terrorist organization and one way ISIS is retaliating through its recruiting and it's working.

This summer, ISIS actually put out this video. I want you to watch this. Look at how this is edited and put together. It features a Canadian reportedly named Andre Poulin baiting these recruits. And you can see just rife with beauty shots from Canada and in it this guy paints himself as a man who gave up this good life of comfort to join jihad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was like any other regular Canadian. I watched hockey. I went to the cottage in the summertime. I loved to fish. I wanted to go hunting. I liked outdoors. I like sports.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: We should note there is no indication of any connection between that video we just played for you and the attack yesterday in Ottawa.

But let me on this vein bring in CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank.

And here we are now, what, 24 hours later putting some of the pieces together. You heard the foreign minister talking to Christiane. No evidence that this guy was linked to a wider group, possibly just acting alone. But knowing that and seeing that at least this individual was inspired enough to act certainly is frightening.

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: It certainly is frightening.

The big question is was he inspired by ISIS propaganda? The spokesman of ISIS a month ago put out a tape where he called on Canadians to launch lone wolf attacks in Canada, possibly that he might have acted on that. We saw an attack earlier this week in Canada where a guy rammed his car into a Canadian soldier. He was consuming ISIS propaganda. The big question will be whether the gunman yesterday was also consuming ISIS propaganda.

BALDWIN: If he was, it appears that it's working. I was talking to Kimberly Dozier earlier and she said that's obviously a victory for ISIS, even though this guy, to Jim Sciutto's point, may not have been talking to a broader group, that all of these videos and the beauty shots and that the online forums is working, so how does the U.S. counter that?

CRUICKSHANK: It does appear to be working. There are believed to be 30 Canadians now fighting with jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq.

A good number of them are believed to be with ISIS. Some have returned to Canada so there's a lot of concern about that. With regard to the United States, it's believed about a dozen Americans are fighting with ISIS. Also concern that some are now coming back, Brooke.

BALDWIN: On that point of the numbers, the number I had according to a government report and this is from August, 130 Canadian citizens have gone over, which is fewer. The number from the U.S. is smaller. Why is that? Why more Canadians?

CRUICKSHANK: That 130 actually refers to all of the different jihadist battlegrounds overseas, so Yemen, Pakistan. It's 30 when it's comes to Syria and Iraq.

(CROSSTALK) CRUICKSHANK: They are very, very concerned about these individuals. One of those Canadian fighters just early this month called for attacks in Canada in response for Canada joining this anti-ISIS coalition, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Why is it more Canadians?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, there's been significant problem with radicalization in Canada over the last 10 years. We have seen a string of terrorist plots in Canada. There's a lot of concern of second and third generation immigrants who have become radicalized looking for a sense of purpose and identity.

BALDWIN: Paul Cruickshank, thank you so much for your expertise always.

Now to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM CIRILLO, UNCLE OF CORPORAL NATHAN CIRILLO: I know no one deserves to die at a young age or whatever, but he didn't deserve that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: This is the uncle of that soldier who was shot and killed in Canada just yesterday, has this emotional message from his family. We will play that for you.

Also ahead, we will talk with an FBI analyst about this new dash-cam video which appears to show that gunman in Ottawa moments after the shooting at that war memorial.

And as questions surface about how ISIS is recruiting these Westerners, as we were just discussing, new details about the three teenaged girls in Colorado accused of playing hooky from school. Oh, no. They wanted to join ISIS. We have all kinds of details on them. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

I just have to share this piece of video with you. This sound, this is from the uncle of Canada's fallen soldier just broke down into tears as he described his beloved nephew Corporal Nathan Cirillo. The 24-year-old was shot to death yesterday while standing at Ottawa's war memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

His uncle says Cirillo's mother is absolutely shattered by her son's death.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CIRILLO: When she called me, she's saying she doesn't believe it. And I says and I told her, yes, it's true. My son just called me. She went on the Internet and she saw it.

And she's -- I don't know how she didn't pass out. She's just completely broken right now. And now for him to sort of get shot and pass away, I don't know if life is fair. I don't know if -- I know no one deserves to die at a young age or whatever, but he didn't deserve that. I don't know how someone could have picked him out and just did that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The mayor of Cirillo's hometown also visited the family and he says the fallen soldier's funeral is expected to include full military honors.

The FBI is trying to figure out if those three American teenage girls were coerced into allegedly trying to join ISIS in Syria. Remember, these girls as young as 15, they were caught in Germany after skipping school leaving their homes in Denver, Colorado, just a couple days ago and now we're learning about how they were caught.

Here's CNN justice reporter Evan Perez -- Evan.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Teenage girls 15, 16 and 17 years old played hooky from school. Two of them stole $2,000 from their parents. But instead of spending the day at the mall, as many teens would do, these girls grabbed their passports and flew to Germany.

Their destination was Turkey and eventually Syria to join ISIS. Here's what happened, according to police reports. Last Friday, two of the girls, 15- and 17-year-old sisters, told their dad that they were sick and stayed home from school. Their dad last talked to them around 10:30 in the morning and they said they were going to the library.

Across town, their 16-year-old friend also skipped school. Her dad got a call from the school to find out why she wasn't there. He called his daughter and she said she was only running late for class. The dads called authorities later on and when they couldn't find their girls and saw their passports were gone.

The father of the 17- and 15-year-old sisters also discovered that he was missing $2,000 in cash. The FBI flagged their passports and German authorities detained them at the Frankfurt Airport, then sent them back home over the weekend. The case is causing concerns from federal authorities because they think it shows that slick propaganda videos by ISIS and other terrorist groups are drawing a really young audience.

There are no charges expected in this case because of their ages. But the FBI already has its hands full with dozens of investigations of Americans who either plan to travel or have returned home from Syria and Iraq. But the FBI is now trying to determine who they are in touch with online and who lured them to travel overseas.

Reporting from Washington, I'm Evan Perez. BALDWIN: Evan, thank you.

And now any moment, just a heads-up, police in Canada getting ready to hold a news conference on what more they know about that shooter and what happened yesterday there on Parliament Hill. I will talk live with a former FBI assistant director about this new dash-cam video that we're just now playing for you here on CNN which appears to show -- you see in the spotlight -- this is the gunman apparently holding something in his right arm. How will the FBI and Canadian authorities begin going through this? We will explore all those questions coming up.

And a story I am so mad about today, this massive cheating scandal at my alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. CNN broke the story that involves thousands of students and athletes, fake classes, automatic grades. I will talk live with one of those athletes and students involved. Don't miss it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right, let's look at a piece of video together here just into us at CNN. This is dash-cam video. I want you to watch the spotlight here.

This is the car. And apparently it appears to be the gunman here to the left of the car opening up this driver's side door with his left hand. Appears that he has something in his right hand. He's got a white scarf and he's getting into a car -- again, this is according to guidance we have -- without any tags. That said, that's all we have for now as far as timeline.

Is it after that initial shooting, perhaps before Parliament? We just aren't totally clear.

But, Tom Fuentes, let me bring you in, CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes joining me here.

Obviously, there's a lot of question marks. But when you look at the video, does anything jump out at you, Tom?

TOM FUENTES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: The only thing that jumps out, Brooke, is that he doesn't seem to be in too big of a hurry. I would say that he's not done the shooting yet.

I think that he's -- maybe he got out to look at the place and then went back to the car. Maybe he moves the car if he had the shotgun. Maybe it was in the trunk of his car. He gets it out later. But it's just too little to tell from this. What the police will be doing is getting every video camera together that they can, all of the videos taken by bystanders with their smartphones and they will piece together a timeline of everything they can do going as far back as when he arrives at the general compound of the war memorial and then the actual attack at the memorial and then how he escapes from that.

We had heard from witnesses that they thought he did a carjacking taking a car away from someone, driving that car up to the entryway of the Parliament and then storming inside where the shoot-out took place. But they will have plenty of cameras to look at and they will be trying to set those in a chronological order to piece together every second of his day leading up to the attack.

BALDWIN: It's interesting hearing and reading this detail about the car not having plates. I remember specifically hearing one of the members of Parliament on TV with Ashleigh Banfield when this was all unfolding yesterday and he said there was something fishy as I was heading into work. There was this car sort of in the middle of the Parliament Hill area without its flashers on, without any tags.

And so when I hear no tags to your point according to maybe an eyewitness, this was a car that was carjacked. We just don't know. But it would again go in with that line of a plan, a plan for carrying this out.

FUENTES: That's true. The problem with so many of the eyewitness reports is -- it's not their fault, but they just don't realize in some cases what they're looking at and if it matters.

For example, that's why you think there's multiple shooters. In all of these cases, people after the initial shooting see other people running around with guns that aren't in uniform. Invariably, it's authorities, it's police in plainclothes, but to the average citizen, it looks like more bad guys.

And so we had this with the Navy Yard shooting here in Washington recently and we have had this in almost every other shooting. People see people running around with guns and think that there's a large group of bad people attacking the facility and it may only be one and the rest are law enforcement.

BALDWIN: That's why initially you hear reports of possible multiple gunmen, and then 24 hours later we know it was this one guy.

(CROSSTALK)

FUENTES: Exactly.

BALDWIN: Tom Fuentes...

(CROSSTALK)

FUENTES: Yes.

BALDWIN: Final thought? Did I cut you off? I didn't mean to.

FUENTES: No, I was just going to agree with you, Brooke. You're right.

BALDWIN: OK. Thank you. Tom Fuentes, appreciate you coming on.

FUENTES: You're welcome.

BALDWIN: Any moment here, staying on the story out of Ottawa, Ottawa police, Royal Canadian Mounted Police getting ready to hold a news conference on more details, what more they know about the shooter and the shootings that happened yesterday.

Also, just in, we're getting word there is a patient in New York being tested for Ebola because he just returned to the United States and has an extremely high fever. Details after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right, so we're getting some breaking news here.

Actually, let me just -- on Ebola in the city of New York, not that it has happened, but that there is a possibility that there is a doctor being treated right now at a hospital in the New York City area who has just recently came back from one of the three Western African nations affected.

Poppy Harlow just sat down. She is joining me now with the very latest.

Doctors Without Borders doctor.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is a doctor.

And, as you cautioned, this is not a positive case of Ebola. This is a test for someone that's exhibiting symptoms that are like the Ebola symptoms. This is a doctor from Columbia Presbyterian Hospital here in Manhattan. We know that he was in one of the three countries affected with Ebola in West Africa, Guinea, Liberia, or Sierra Leone, treating Ebola patients.