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Manhunt and State of Alert in Paris; Gas Station Robbery and Police Woman Murder in Paris; Protecting New Yorkers; French Muslims Condemning Ruthless Terror Attack

Aired January 08, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. Thanks very much for joining us. Here are the very latest developments in the Paris terror attack, right now France's President Francois Hollande is meeting with both Houses of parliament that follows a crisis meeting that he's held with ministers over yesterday's brazen terror attack. A manhunt is going on right now for these two men. They're the suspects now being identified as two brothers, Cherif and Said Kouachi. They're considered armed and very dangerous. French media this morning citing police reports say they robbed the gas station outside the city, it's about an hour northeast of Paris.

Almost three dozen police officers are there, they could be seen transferring a number of items from the station to a forensic truck. Also developing overnight, a police woman is shot and killed in a southern suburb of Paris. Minutes ago we learned it's being treated as a terror attack. It's not known if there's a direct connection to yesterday's massacre, but witnesses, eyewitnesses say today's killer was dressed the same, all in black uniform, wearing a bulletproof vest at the same time. Just as the gunman yesterday, that gunman also still now on the loose.

Hundreds of police reservists are being deployed to Paris for a burst of violence that has been as unsettling as it has been tragic. In the meantime, bells chime and a nation pauses.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: From the Notre Dame Cathedral to mosques around Paris, one of the busiest cities in the world grinds to a halt for a minute of silence.

Let's get the very latest now on the manhunt. That is intense attention now shifting west where police have possibly located the suspects, but they are still on the loose. It's about an hour's drive from the gas station that the men reportedly robbed and were spotted at. CNN's Atika Shubert is joining us now. She got details on police possibly, possibly locating the suspects. Atika's joining us on the phone. What's the very latest, Atika? What do we know?

Unfortunately, I think we've lost our connection with Atika Shubert. We're going to reconnect with her momentarily. But in the meantime I want to bring in John Miller, he is the New York City Police Department's deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism. He's joining us now live. John, thanks very much for joining us. First of all, I know you're up to speed. You have representatives of the NYPD in France right now. They're briefing you on what's going on. You're extremely well connected. What's the very latest that you're hearing on this manhunt for these two suspects?

JOHN MILLER, NYPD DEPUTY COMM. FOR INTELLIGENCE AND COUNTERTERRORISM: Well, we have to be careful to separate that. We have a detective who's assigned to Paris. He's giving us operational updates as we go. But I want to be very careful not to speak for the Parisian prefect of police on an ongoing operation.

BLITZER: So, right now - but as far as you know, these two suspects, Said and Cherif Kouachi, they are still on the loose. They have not been apprehended, is that right?

MILLER: That's what we believe at this time. And I think what you're seeing here, Wolf, is very similar to the dynamics of what we saw here after the Boston marathon bombing suspects, when they were identified, their pictures were put out and they quickly went on the run. What you saw there was they attacked a police officer and killed him in an attempt to steal his gun. They carjacked the victim in an attempt to get money from his ATM and then steal his car to drive to New York. What you see is an attack with a lot of preoperational planning in Boston, or if you look at Paris you see the same thing.

What we're seeing now, the attack on a police woman, if it involves these suspects or another that's connected, the robbery of a gas station, the carjacking of vehicles, what you see now is a plan that had a lot that went into planning and executing the attack with much less that went into the back end of the getaway, where to go, how to get there, what to do. And I think that is what we are watching unfolding in these hours.

BLITZER: Is it too early to say that this murder of this police woman in the southern part -- one of the southern suburbs of Paris is connected to what happened at the French magazine yesterday?

MILLER: I think it's too early to conclude that, but I also think it's an awful lot of coincidence to believe that it would not be connected, either with the same individuals or some other connection. It's certainly something they're looking at very hard right now.

BLITZER: Because we've been told that this killing of this police woman and the wounding of another person who was there, it's not far from some sort of Jewish school in the area. And that's raising a lot of suspicions. At the same time there have been attacks on other Jewish institutions in France and Belgium in recent weeks and months as you well know, right?

MILLER: That's correct. But, you know, again, we're drifting into the area of speculation there. And as you know, Wolf, because you do this better than most, the first version of events is never quite right. So we have to look at that and say was that a car accident that involved a shooting? Was that an attempted carjacking? Who is this individual who shows up all dressed in black with a semi- automatic rifle and the bulletproof vest? So, there are layers to that story that they will have to peel back and figure out what was that event and how, if at all, is it connected to these other events?

BLITZER: Well, tell us how all of this is impacting New York City, your city, where I understand yesterday you did take some measures to tighten up security at various locations including the French consulate in Manhattan.

MILLER: Well, we have over 150 units that are out there every day called the CRVs, well, those are the critical response vehicles. And they will go to key locations that we'll designate from one day to the next based on the threat picture in the world. Based on yesterday's threat picture, we moved the critical response vehicles to certain French related locations in the city. We did a deployment to a number of media places that we keep in kind of a standard plan when the threat shifts that way. We have heavily armed teams called the Hercules teams. And you just saw one of those on your screen, where they'll show up with heavy vests, heavy weapons. And they'll show up without notice.

You don't know where they're going to be or how long they're going to stay. And part of that is just keeping people who might be thinking about or planning a potential attack off balance. The key is, you never know when these units are going to show up. But the other piece of this, Wolf is, they're all out there and they're all out there all the time which means, if something happens, we're able to surge a lot of people with the right equipment almost anywhere, particularly around Manhattan very quickly.

BLITZER: But what's really disturbing, this was not apparently what would happen at the French magazine yesterday, some lone wolf, some home-grown individual that may have just gotten carried away. This looks like a pretty sophisticated, well-planned operation. And that raises the threat level a little bit higher, right?

MILLER: Wolf, I think if you look at the videos of this attack yesterday, what you see is a couple of people who appear very comfortable and fairly calm and focused in the kind of environment when most people would be very much off balance. Their first mission was to kill people that they had identified. Their second mission after killing those people was to take on the police including stopping in mid-escape to take time out to go execute a police officer, and on behalf of the New York City Police Department, our deepest condolences as a department who has lost officers in the last few weeks to the Paris -- the French national police, the Paris prefecture police. But you also see when they have to move, they run. But when they want to walk, they walk.

You see that he apparently dropped perhaps a magazine from his rifle as he's getting back into the car. And he stops to pick it up. These do not appear like people who were in their first shooting or shootout. It's likely that they were either trained around a lot of gunfire or may have fought in some of the foreign theaters, whether that was Iraq or other places. So there are certain indicators that suggest that this could have been directed by al Qaeda or ISIS or al Nusra. But I think while we look at those indicators, we also have to bear in mind, well, there are magazines that encourage these kind of attacks, al Qaeda's "Inspire" magazine, ISIS' (INAUDIBLE) magazine that come with the tactical instructions that you can train to and they call on people to do that on their own. So, I think there's going to be a big intelligence piece on the back end of this to figure out where they sent, recruited and trained and sent and, if so, by whom, what group, what organization, and that has a certain likelihood, or are they part of this new breed that is self-actualizing.

BLITZER: One final question, John Miller. Before I let you go, these two guys, Said and Cherif Kouachi, were they on the U.S. radar screen? One of them had spent some time in jail for supposedly recruiting individuals to go fight in Iraq and/or Syria. Did you know about these two guys?

MILLER: I think if you look at the fact that they were investigated by French authorities, prosecuted by French authorities and that they -- their existence lived within the public record of terrorism which is something that is accessed globally by all intelligence agencies, you'd have to say they were on the radar. One of the great challenges that the French face that we face here in America, the Boston marathon bombing underscored this is, that we are all nations of laws. Not all the same laws, but there's a lot of people on the radar who, either the system has dealt with or who surfaced in investigations that have not necessarily committed a crime that you can charge them with at that moment. In this case one of these people was charged, but was also out. So this is a real challenge. There are only so many people that you can surveil or watch or follow at any one time. And a lot of these boils down to triage.

BLITZER: John Miller, he is the deputy commissioner of the NYPD for intelligence and counterterrorism. John, thanks very much for joining us. Good luck to you, good luck to all the men and women of the NYPD. I know you're doing everything possible to protect the people in New York City. Thanks very much for joining us.

We've gotten connected now with CNN's Atika Shubert, she's chasing details on police possibly locating the suspects. Atika is joining us on the phone. Tell us where you are, Atika and what you've learned?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I've actually just passed the gas station in the last - that is the last location the two suspects proceed at 10:30 this morning, apparently coming in and holding up the gas attendant there at gunpoint, taking gas and food and driving off in the direction of Paris. I was just there earlier, I saw a number of plainclothes policemen gathered inside forensics there. Taking materials in and out. Now, since then we have seen at least two helicopters circling the area and a number of police convoys going back and forth on the highway. They seem to be searching the area. Now, we don't know if they have pinpointed a location for these two suspects yet, but clearly they are sort of looking through here, looking for any signs of the vehicle that they were in.

And if we get any sense that they have located them, we will definitely give you the latest details on that, Wolf.

BLITZER: Remind our viewers, Atika, that what happened here, these two suspects, these two brothers, Said and Cherif Kouachi, supposedly drove the vehicle to that gas station and then they robbed the gas station. But the gas station attendant spotted them. He survived obviously. And after these two guys escaped, he then called police. Is that what happened?

SHUBERT: Exactly. They were quite heavily armed. --

BLITZER: I think we're losing Atika again. Obviously, the connection not so good. We are going to reconnect with her and get the very latest, but she's on the scene for us, at this gas station. A massive manhunt under way for these two suspects, Said and Cherif Kouachi. I want to bring in our senior international correspondent Jim Bittermann. He's joining us from Paris as well. Jim, you are watching what happened elsewhere in a southern suburb of Paris today where a police woman was executed, if you will, shot and killed by an armed individual dressed in black, similar to the two terrorists who killed those journalists and the police officers at the French magazine yesterday. What do we know about this fluid situation where you are?

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in fact, precious little. I'm actually here at the scene of the shooting yesterday. But in fact, this morning's shooting that was down in the south side of Paris where that took place. And basically, a police woman got shot and died from her injuries. She was directing traffic around a rather common traffic accident when somebody got out of the car, the submachine gun, dressed in black and shot her as well as another city employee, and he's wounded. But in any case, the police then called in their very special riot squad. And we thought for a moment they had tracked somebody down. There was an apartment that was surrounded. They brought up an armored car and the SWAT team was brought up. And in fact, after a while, along about the time of that break for the moment of silence at noon, they withdrew the whole team.

So whatever they thought they had, they didn't have. And that means, though, however, that there is a third gunman out there who -- whether he's connected with this attack here at the "Charlie Hebdo," or I'm clear at this point, the prosecutor has not made that clear. And it is being treated, however, as a terrorist act. The prosecutor has told us that much. I just want to show you what's happening out here, Wolf, so it's quite interesting, it's been just a steady stream of people who are paying homage to those who were killed at the magazine yesterday.

And in fact, one of the things that the crowd is - over in the center of that crowd over there, there's the imam of Drancy, here is a rather moderate imam, and he's been a quite outspoken, saying a lot of things to his fellow Muslims about the way they should behave and what they should act. Drancy, if you remember, Wolf, was the shipment point for Jews out of France in World War II. So it has a very strong historical significance. And, of course, having the imam speaking out very strongly in moderate tones is something that I think a lot of people here would like to see, Wolf. BLITZER: Yeah, that would be very - that's very significant indeed.

And very quickly, Jim Bittermann, the gunman who killed this police woman today in one of the southern suburbs of Paris, that gunman was wearing a black uniform, if you will. Was he also masked as the two gunmen were yesterday?

BITTERMANN: According to eyewitnesses, yes, he was also masked and armed with an automatic weapon, which, of course, as you know is not very easy to obtain here in France. He was also wearing a bulletproof vest, which would be another thing that you wouldn't find ordinarily in the supermarkets here in any case, Wolf.

BLITZER: Do the police officers normally have weapons, guns in Paris? I'm told they usually don't. I wonder if this police woman, was she armed.

BITTERMANN: She was not. But she was a local police woman and she was not armed, as far as we know. But normally policemen - one of the reason they call them gendarmes, it means that people with guns, and, in fact, normally the police on the streets of Paris do have weapons with them. They are now, however, this morning at that scene of that shooting. I noticed that a number of the police had automatic weapons themselves. So, they're armed with the police version of an assault rifle that they are carrying as well as everyone now, all the police have got bulletproof vests as far as I can see, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yeah, well, that's important to know that they can protect themselves. Because I know at least some of the local police, they are unarmed in Paris and elsewhere in the suburban areas. Jim, we're going to get back to you, Jim Bittermann reporting for us live from the scene.

It's a day of mourning in France, understandably so, as it remembers the 12 victims of this terrorist attack. We're going to take a quick break. As we go to break, I want to show you that French President Francois Hollande, he observed a moment of silence for those 12 people who were killed. We'll be back in a moment.

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BLITZER: Here in Washington, D.C., the White House is lending its support to the French people, defending their right to freedom of expression. We're joined now by our senior Washington correspondent Joe Jones. He's over at the White House. The president, obviously, is very, very concerned about what's going on in France. The ramifications for the United States indeed for the entire world, Joe, they are very significant. What's the latest over there?

JOE JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, they've certainly tried to balance the value of freedom of expression with some other values including freedom of religion. But there has been a tiny bit of a discernible shift. Back in 2012, for example, after "Charlie Hebdo" published some controversial cartoons and after the release on social media of a very controversial anti-Islamic film. Then White House press secretary Jay Carney weighed in, sort of questioning the judgment of publishing some of this stuff. And then after that, listen to the president of the United States in the Oval Office talking about freedom of speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The fact that this was an attack on a journalist, attack on our free press also underscores the degree to which these terrorists fear freedom of speech and freedom of the press. But the one thing that I'm very confident about is that the values that we share with the French people. I believe a universal belief in freedom of expression is something that can't be silenced.

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, we are aware that a French magazine published cartoons featuring a figure resembling the Prophet Muhammad. And obviously, we have questions about the judgment of publishing something like this. We know that these image will be - images will be deeply offensive to many, and have the potential to be inflammatory. But we've spoken repeatedly about the importance of upholding the freedom of expression that is enshrined in our Constitution.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES: So, a slight difference in tone coming out of the White House from 2012 compared to just now here at the White House. And to underscore that, just yesterday White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest suggesting the White House isn't now going to pass judgment on what journalists do saying it's hard to imagine the president putting himself in a position where he is offering advice or even direction about what should or shouldn't be published by legitimate, independent journalists. A very slight shift, at least in this situation after the Paris terror attack. Wolf.

BLITZER: We don't know yet, the president is out of town today, if he's going to be addressing this issue once again. Is that right, Joe?

JONES: No, we do not know, I've actually posed that question to the White House press office, and they haven't gotten back to us, so it's clear it's on everybody's mind here, whether the president says anything about it out in Phoenix as anybody's guessed this day

BLITZER: All right, Joe, let's check back with you. Thanks very much. Joe Johns reporting for us from the White House.

Some are asking if France is seeing repercussions as it takes a higher profile in this global fight against terror groups. Last fall French converts to Islam were seen in an execution video and in 2012 a Jewish school was attacked by self-styled al Qaeda jihadist. To discuss, where all this is heading, let's bring a CNN global affairs analyst and managing editor of Quartz Bobby Ghosh. Bobby, thanks very much for joining us. Are the French in an increased target list right now because of their more visible role in this fight, against terror, for example, cooperating fully with the U.S. in this war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria?

BOBBY GHOSH, CNN ANALYST: Well, they have been a target for a few years now, and not just because Iraq and Syria, but actually much more because of their role in driving out al Qaeda from Mali and places in francophone Africa. Their role there is far more forceful, shall we say, and because they've more or less gone alone there, they're getting some amount of blowback. But we should say that this particular attack had nothing to do with France's foreign policy or France's involvement in any foreign adventures. This is - you know, if that were the case, these guys would have chosen to attack a military target or a government target. The fact that they picked on this magazine for what these people would regard as offenses going back a decade in some instances suggests that this was a far more targeted attack.

BLITZER: I've seen some statements coming from Arab countries, Muslim countries, condemning what happened in Paris yesterday. A statement from Jordan, a statement from Pakistan, I think there was a statement from Saudi Arabia. But has there been enough condemnation coming from the Muslim leadership, from the Muslim countries, the Arab countries based on what you're sensing right now, Bobby?

GHOSH: I think there's a lot. On my Twitter feed there's an outpouring of anger at this attack and condemnation of these people. The trouble sometimes is that when there are these -- when Arab leaders or community leaders speak, they're speaking in a different language, sometimes literally in a different language and on different platforms and different media so we don't often here it here in the west. But if you're following imams and religious figures on Twitter or on social media, you're hearing condemnation across the board. Almost immediately, pretty much within minutes of this attack taking place, the moment the fact that the words Allahu Akbar were heard on that video, the moment that fact became known, my Twitter feed began lighting up with people, both ordinary Muslims but also religious figures saying these is just - these people have done more damage and have offended the prophet much more than any cartoons could possibly have.

BLITZER: Is the connection or lack of a connection between what happened today when a police woman was shot and killed by a masked man dressed in a black uniform with a bulletproof vest, the semi-automatic weapon, very similar in operation to what happened yesterday at the "Charlie Hebdo" magazine, do you sense a connection, a copycat, no connection, what's your indications - what are you indications giving you, Bobby?

GHOSH: Well, instinctively we're all going to jump to that conclusion, you know, happening so soon after and with the similarities that you described. But there are criminal gangs in France and in Paris that are quite frequently in conflict with the police. Since the police haven't yet come out and made that connection, I think we should just hold back for a little bit and get that absolutely right. In this time, sort of heightened tension, there are attacks on mosques in several places in France, you can understand why the police has been very careful about just coming out and saying, making a direct connection immediately. There is a lot of criminal activity in France and a lot of the

criminal gangs there are armed. So that's -- we shouldn't rule out that possibility right now.

BLITZER: Yeah, that's a good point. The only thing the French police have said so far, this killing of this police officer, this police woman in the southern suburb of Paris was an act of terror, but they are not making a direct connection, at least not yet, to what happened at the magazine yesterday. Bobby, we're going to stay in close touch with you. Bobby Ghosh, helping us better appreciate what's going on. Much more of the breaking news right after this.

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