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Terror Sleeper Cells Activated in France; Global Hunt For Dead Terrorist's Girlfriend; World Leaders To Attend Paris Unity Rally; Count Terror Cells Await Activation in U.S.; Grading France Terror Attack Response, Able to Prevent More; Immigrant Lack of Integration Problem in France; AirAsia 8501 Tail Found, Black Boxes Next

Aired January 10, 2015 - 17:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Brianna Keilar in New York.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto in Paris. Welcome to our coverage of events in Paris, in France, including a new terror warning tonight. A fresh wave of fear rising in Paris. A French police source tells CNN terror sleeper cells were activated just over the last 24 hours inside France. Police officers have been told to erase their social media accounts and to carry their guns now at all times. Up next I'll talk to a CNN analyst who spoke with French police about those terror cells.

Meanwhile, the hunt is on for a woman personally connected to all three terrorists who launched attacks in and around Paris this week. Hayat Boumeddiene is the only person suspected of connections to the terrorists in Paris who is still alive. A source tells CNN that Boumeddiene entered Turkey on January 2nd from France, a French store says, she may be on her way to Syria.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah's leader is condemning the terrorists who slaughtered 12 people at "Charlie Hebdo," a satirical magazine. Listen to what he had to say --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN (through a translator): And those through their actions, words and shameful, heinous, violent, inhuman and brutal practices, offended the messenger of god. The religion of god, prophets of god, the book of Allah and the Muslim nation more than his enemies did. Even those who have attacked the messenger of god through books, depicting the prophet or making films depicting the prophet or drawing cartoons of the prophet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: In Paris today crowds gathered outside "Charlie Hebdo's" offices to honor the victims. The magazine plans to issue a million copies of its next issue. One terror suspect remains on the loose today from the terrifying and deadly events in and around the city this week. This is that suspect, a woman, one of few pictures we have of her that shows her face during a police hostage standoff Friday. French officials believed at the time she was with another suspect holding hostages inside that kosher grocery store. Today there are new reports that she was not there. In fact, not in the country.

Frederik Pleitgen is in the eastern part of Paris where that store standoff happened. Fred, who is this woman and where is she believed to be right now?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, she's 26 years old and she has been living with Amedy Coulibaly apparently for the past five years. In a suburb in the south of Paris. We actually had a crew, one of our crews, go down to the apartment where she and him were staying before all of this happened. And they said that it was still all full of police. That obviously the police there was also questioning people that she might have known. People also that she might have associated with. But, of course, the news that perhaps she wasn't even in the country when all of this happened is something that is going to be very significant to this investigation as it moves forward, of course. The police was hoping to confirm a lot of details with her. Also confirm possibly the motivations of not just Coulibaly but also the Kouachi brothers because apparently there was quite a bit of back and forth between herself and the wife of one of the Kouachi brothers which seems to indicate that possibly there was a higher level of coordination between all of them than previously thought.

But, remember, that one of the things that Coulibaly said when he was on the phone to a journalist is that he said that he had been synchronized with the Kouachi brothers. So, certainly it would have been very interesting for French authorities to speak to her. Nevertheless, that is something they would still like to do. Of course, the big question is now would she still be in a place where authorities could get to her. As you've just said the police and the Turkish authorities as well believe that she left this country on January 2nd, went to Turkey, and that her final destination most probably would be an attempt to get to Syria and it's unclear whether or not she might already be there.

Certainly if she is, it would be almost impossible to get to her. If she's not, however, there are efforts the French could make to try to extradite her back to this country if, in fact, these Turkish authorities manage to get their hands on her. The big question the of course would be could she shed some sort of light another possible networks that might be operating here, that might be also have had contact with any of these three people and also possibly especially in light of what we're reporting now is that apparently some sleeper cells have been activated, maybe she could also say what she knows about all of that, Jim.

SCIUTTO: That's right. If she's essential not just the investigation looking backward but looking ahead. Tied to this terror cell. It is this terror cell that is believed involved in this current threat because it was the hostage taker at that kosher grocery where you're standing that made those calls to other contacts, encouraging them to carry out attacks on police. Really essential to keeping this city, this country safe going forward. I wonder, Fred, if you could talk about what's going to happen tomorrow. A unity rally here in Paris. A number of people from around the country taking part but also around the world. World leaders as well. PLEITGEN: Yes. This is really gained global traction if you will. I

mean, if you think about the fact that right after these horrifying attacks happened, how the Je suis Charlie sort of hashtag and saying -- has taken global root, if you will. Of course, that's something that's also fueled this unity march that's going to happen tomorrow and so certainly the people who are organizing it believe that tens of thousands, if not well over 100,000 people, are going to participate in that march that starts on Place de la Republique in the afterhours and also a lot of foreign dignitaries, foreign leaders are going to be participating really on very short notice.

Very difficult to -- now something like this on such notice. You have the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, you have the king and queen of Jordan who are going to come here, Angela Merkel of Germany is going to be coming as well as the British Prime Minister David Cameron. So this is going to be a gigantic event, a gigantic show of unity if you will and also a show of how tragic world leaders hold these events to be and how important they believe and how essential the time is now to try and heal these wounds that have been so badly cut into this nation.

SCIUTTO: And as you say, Fred, it's a truly diverse group. And it is not just European leaders, Europeans standing up to this, it is other Muslims, the leaders of Muslim countries, the Jordanian king, the prime minister of Turkey coming to join to show that same defiance in the face of extremism.

I want to bring in our terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank in Washington. Paul, so many new developments today. First, I want to ask your view, help put into context for our viewers this latest threat warning to police around the country about the possibility of new terror cells, activated or other terrorists activated, encouraged, to attack police. How serious a threat do you believe this to be?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, Jim, the French are clearly very worried. After all we've had this terrible attacks in France this week. The fear I think is twofold. One there could be more accomplices of this terror cell they took down in Paris this week, and, two, there could be lone wolf attacks against French police and other targets in the days and weeks to come. And we've seen in previous attacks that others have been inspired to take action. For example, in New York in October, Zale Thompson a radical extremist carried out a hatchet attack on the NYPD police officers, right of -- famous events played out in Canada with the gun attack on the Canadian soldier outside the Canadian parliament in an attack to get into the Canadian Parliament by an Islamic extremist over there. A lot of concern in France and that's why some of these warnings are now coming out. A lot of concern that police and soldiers will be targeted. Either by people who have sympathies with AQAP but also ISIS and ISIS have called for attacks on soldiers and police in France.

SCIUTTO: Just such a diverse threat. You get it there. There's a whole range of possible assailants in this case. There could be lone wolves, radicalized on their own. No contacts with groups in the Middle East or they could be in the category like the Kouachi brothers who had some contact, some training there, perhaps planned this on their own. That's one new development today. Sleeper cells activated. Another new development from an interview we did a short time ago with Eric Pelletier, he is with "L'Express" magazine, he learned the Kouachi brothers were under surveillance for some three years in France but taken out of surveillance just six months ago. Really a remarkable development. How much of an intelligence failure is that, Paul? Or do you think it's just a measure of how many potential terrorists there are to track and how difficult it is to make those judgments?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, my understanding is that there was significant surveillance on these brothers including surveillance of their phones and that ended in June of 2014. And when they sort of were reserving these brothers, they didn't seem to be that radical anymore, so they decided that they weren't a big priority. And this was even after they learned that they probably went over to Yemen at least one of them to get terrorist training with al Qaeda in Yemen. But the reality is, the French have to look at about 5,000 people at any one time that they're concerned could be a threat in France so they have to prioritize. And clearly for whatever combination of reasons, this past summer they decided that these brothers were no longer a top order threat in France. And that raises the question of whether these brothers were deliberately pretending not to be radical so they wouldn't get any more attention from French security services -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Absolutely. That's a good point. I spoke to the former head of the French counterterror police a short time ago who made the point that with some 5,000 suspected terrorists in France, it takes three to ten people to keep just one of them under surveillance. Imagine those numbers, just impossible numbers, calls for judgment calls, sometimes clearly intelligence services, sadly, get those calls wrong. Thanks very much to Paul Cruikshank our CNN terrorism analyst in Washington.

Well, it has been a time of chaos and mourning certainly here in France but this nation is far from the only one suffering right now. We've seen bloody attacks in several countries showing that France is certainly not the only target for extremists. We'll have more on that broader threat right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: And this is just in. We've learned from a White House official that the President has been briefed today on the most recent developments in Paris. He's, of course, been staying abreast of the situation there and he did receive a new briefing with the latest developments. I want to go live to Paris now where our Jim Sciutto is there with a guest who is going to explain some of the challenges certainly that is facing -- that French authorities are facing -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Thanks very much, Brianna Keilar, in New York. The news we have tonight is of a new threat. The activation of French police believe terror cells around the country with the intention of targeting police officers. I'm joined now by CNN terrorism analyst Samuel Laurent. So, this warning resulted from a briefing this afternoon among security services here, is that right? SAMUEL LAURENT, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Exactly. Security briefing

this afternoon in anti-terrorist, basically explaining that some cell has been activated and those cells specifically targeting police officers in France.

SCIUTTO: And how do they believe these cells were activated exactly?

LAURENT: Well, actually, Amedy Coulibaly the hostage taker at the kosher shop, has played a main role in that according to the latest hours of his life, the last hours of his life, he's been passing some phone calls. And basically activating some guys in his network that were specifically ready to act in this purpose.

SCIUTTO: So, they believe that when he was holed up in that kosher market which ended, of course, in that police raid last night, I was there as the raid took place, he was making calls, not to random people, friends, contacts, but to other members, trained members of a terror network?

LAURENT: Yes. Definitely. What we can say is that all these people were organized. They were trained. And they all originated from one cell that had about 10, 15 people in 2008. And that had probably grown exponentially with the Syrian and Iraq war with the flow of jihadi, going to Syria, then getting back battled hardened and being able to basically train and keep on living there. Going below the radar and the surveillance of the French intelligence.

SCIUTTO: Let's remind our viewers in the U.S., it is estimated that France has some 1,000 people who either went to fight in Syria and Iraq or attempted to and just by comparison in the U.S. The number much closer to 100, so an order of magnitude larger that the problem here.

LAURENT: Yes, yes. And on top, if I may complete this number it's growing nowadays. But day by day roughly. If you took it, like, one week ago, one week ago the French government was talking about 400 and that was grossly underestimated. Even 1,000 is still grossly underestimated. Some research has been conducted by a man named for example (INAUDIBLE) in the south of France, and this man, which is a researcher on the problem, has concluded that we were closer to 2,000.

SCIUTTO: Incredible.

LAURENT: And actually those people coming back to France are posing a huge threat. As I said battle hardened, motivated and ready to act.

SCIUTTO: And we saw some of that combat experience that appeared, certainly training on the way that those attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices were carried out. You may remember the videos that showed them calmly handling their weapons. One question for you, so if these calls have gone out to other terror cells, the French police were clearly aware of this terror cell before because they had for a time the Kouachi brothers under surveillance. They had had some run-ins with Amedy Coulibaly who took the kosher market before. Should we assume, can we expect, can we hope, that they have tabs on other members of that network that right now they can be seeking out to either arrest or prevent carrying out more attacks?

LAURENT: Well, the positive thing is that obviously they have tabs and they have indications about who belongs to this network. On more pessimistic side we can also notice that they had tabs and they had all the indications regarding those people and that this is probably among the biggest ever intelligence and security failure in the west. Those people were the easier and the most obvious to trace. Those three terrorists has been identified, were on the no-fly zone -- no- fly list.

SCIUTTO: Had been to Yemen and had contacts with known terror groups before. That's a key point. Because while I understand and grant that intelligence services have a tremendously difficult job making judgments about who is a real threat and who is not, when you look at the rap sheet as we would say in the U.S. about these particular suspects, the Kouachi brothers and Amedy Coulibaly who took the kosher market, if you were going to keep anyone under surveillance, it would seem they would be -- they would be the ones?

LAURENT: Exactly. And, you know, on top of that I think there is a problem to French intelligence nowadays, because let's not forget they were monitored still and forbidden of entry in the U.S. and possibly it's now confirmed in the UK and actually posed a problem of knowing whether U.S. is more able, U.S. intelligence, is more able to track, to monitor, the French jihadi on the French territory and that is very disturbing pattern actually. Because I think after Mohammed Mira that had been followed, that has been known to travel in Afghanistan a few years ago and then after the Jewish killing in Brussels, all those were denoting large and very serious security failures. These people have been traced back coming back to Europe. (INAUDIBLE) came back, was signaled to the French, stayed three months without being caught, without being monitored and then ended up with killing those people in Brussels.

SCIUTTO: Right. It's incredible to watch it. But to be fair, no one gets it right all the time. The Americans had some -- American intelligence had some information on the Boston bombers, some warnings before that attack, and there was criticism after the fact for not keeping them under more surveillance. But I'm sure that in France there's going to be a postmortem on this to see why these decisions were made.

LAURENT: I totally agree with you. The point is that we had early warning even this time. We had three attacks in France that were clearly terror attacks. And there is a kind of cowardice in this government that is not willing to expose the problem of radical Islam. Because the situation is very different, you know, from in the U.S. It's clearly an electoral and a political I would say, you know, issue for French. And so, therefore, you know, we had those attacks in November, in December. And the media has been explaining that that was mentally ill people while it was very clear that these were terrorist attacks. Those signals were ignored and this is -- this is probably explaining also that the Salafi (ph) are thinking that France is, I would say, an open lend for them.

SCIUTTO: Samuel Laurent, thanks very much. A great description of the real challenges France is facing right now and a reminder as well to our viewers that there's a new terror alert under way tonight for the possibility of new attacks on French police. Thanks very much to Samuel Laurent.

LAURENT: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: While France mourns and prepares, the rest of the U.S. wait and wonder. Could the U.S. be next? What's to stop a terrorist from making our country his next target? We'll have that right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: French law enforcement officers have been ordered to carry their weapons with them at all times. This is a mandate that's in response to the terror sleeper cells reportedly activated over the last 24 hours, which brings us to one of the biggest concerns for the federal government how to protect so-called soft targets from terrorists. These are places that you and I go every day, malls, offices, restaurants. CNN national security commentator Mike Rogers explains.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FMR. REP. MIKE ROGERS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY COMMENTATOR: We know that in places like Syria in Iraq with ISIS members that they're encouraged to either stay home in a place like France or go back home to a place like France to conduct the terrorist activity. It's very, very difficult. There are thousands of individuals we believe from all over Europe and the United States, by the way, Canada and Australia, who have traveled to Syria and come out. It's hard to say that it's a failure if they don't get everything exactly right.

What it was is that we just didn't catch up in time to this individual plot. I've been concerned when I was chairman, I'm still concerned today, that the sheer volume of those possibilities are just one plane ticket away. They fight in Syria for some period of time and they become more radicalized. They have combat experience. They go back to their home country somewhere in Europe. They decide they want to conduct an attack in the United States, they buy an airplane ticket and come here. And if the intelligence services don't catch them coming in or out of a theater of battle like Syria or Iraq, then they'll going to be allowed to come back to the United States. That's very, very concerning and candidly, it is a matter of time before something like that happens in the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And our panel of experts includes former NYPD detectives Harold Thomas. We have Harry Houck and CNN security analyst Bob Baer and Tom Fuentes. And that's really the question, Harry, and you were nodding when we heard that, it's only a matter of time before it happens in the United States.

HARRY HOUCK, RETIRED NYPD DETECTIVE: Exactly.

KEILAR: You feel it is.

HOUCK: Yes. Well, without a doubt. Because the fact that, you know, here in this country the police departments and the homeland security are doing a good job. They can't watch everybody all the time. So, I'm really quite surprised. We haven't had an attack like this lately at all, because they're so easy --

KEILAR: We haven't had an attack around the world or that we, the U.S., have not had an attack?

HOUCK: No, here in the United States, we haven't had an attack like this, you know, where gunman came in and they took out a self- location. It's so easy to commit here in this country and it hasn't happened. So basically, apparently homeland security is doing a hell of a job.

KEILAR: I'm surprised quite frankly in the way that you are surprised. When we are looking at what happened in Australia, we're talking about people who are trained or inspired by Islamic extremists and they are carrying this out. Is this going to become a way of life, whether it's in France, whether it's in Canada, whether it's in Australia, whether it's in the U.S.? Do you think, Harold?

HAROLD THOMAS, NYPD DETECTIVE: I mean, it's always going to be in the back of everyone's mind. I retired from the joint terrorist task force and I can say in the past couple of years they've thwarted -- they've stopped, like, 16 plots that have been thwarted. And it's, like, Harry says, it's inevitable unfortunately. Those are the times that we live in.

KEILAR: Is that the reality, Tom, that you just -- you can't score 100 percent on preventing things like this, that there's always going to be something that falls through the cracks?

TOM FUENTES, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: No, I agree, Brianna, that it's impossible. It's not just difficult, it's impossible. You know, we have 1.1 million people on our terror watch list. You have, you know, almost 50,000 on the no-fly list. The idea that our resources both at the federal level or at the city level, state level, can fight that every time, you know, what you have to do is if we develop mind reading capabilities so that you know when somebody like this is going to launch and become operational, maybe you could prevent them all. But I don't think -- I think it's a matter of time also.

KEILAR: Bob, talk about that a little bit. And if there are -- there also while you can't get everything right, there has to be ways to improve intelligence in such a way that more of these can be prevented, or do you think they can't?

BOB BAER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I agree with the other panelists. I think it's frankly a miracle that we haven't been hit at this point. It is so easy to get a gun in this country. So easy to get in, French, German, Danish, new passports. People traveling out of Syria. And it really scares me that they're combat trained. They know how to conduct an offensive attack which our police are not prepared to take on. We just don't do that kind of training, so why they haven't, I can't explain why. I go to law enforcement. I ask them, you know, what's their opinion. I trust them. They said, it's inevitable. We can't stop them all. Metadata is not enough to get into somebody's mind as Tom said and, you know, we are an open society. And the other choice is simply to turn these people away at the port of entry, anybody we suspect, put them in jail which obviously we can't do, so this is just a new way of life we're going to have to adjust to.

KEILAR: How do people adjust to this new way of life? If this is inevitable, what do people do?

HOUCK: Well, the Israelis have done it. They live under the threat of an attack almost every day over there so we're going to have to learn to live with this. Our law enforcement is going to have to -- our government is going to have to put more money into law enforcement to make sure that they have the things that are required to be able to take on the terrorists in the event they attack, like New York City is very prepared for an attack like this.

KEILAR: All right, address that. And also there have been recent concerns about the militarization of police. You know, we're seeing that happen when it comes to dealing with civilian issues. So, how do you balance that, Harold?

THOMAS: I mean, it's just like the NYPD has a saying, if you see something, say something. Everybody as a whole has to be alert and contribute to helping to stop this. Every day the gentlemen and women that I work with in the drug -- in the joint terrorist task force, they follow leads every day.

They work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But you'll never hear about the cases and the work that they do because in order to be there, you have to have top secret clearance and you can't talk about the cases. And the main thing we're going to have to worry about nowadays is the lone wolf who sits at home and he's on a computer and he's -- he's -- you know, he's just soaking all of this up and he's, you know, believing, you know, all of the rhetoric that he's reading on the computer and he decides to get up and get a gun and do something himself. Until we get a machine where you can read people's minds, we're not going to know until this guy acts, unfortunately. KEILAR: Tom, what is it? There is no mind reading. I expect that's

not going to happen. But, Tom, what can people do? And do they have to change how they live? Be more vigilant? What can they do?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I don't know how you can be that much more vigilant. In all the places described in the warning -- You can't go shopping. You can't go to church. Can't go to the synagogue. Can't ride a train. Can't ride a ferryboat. Can't get on an airplane -- I mean, what do people do? And I think sometimes these warnings become useless because they over threaten us with all the things that are dangerous and it's pretty much things you do every day unless you're a hermit. So I think it's a very difficult problem to address.

And the reality is after a while, if there isn't another attack for a while, even if people are on alert -- and I'm talking about, you know, the public -- they'll go back to normal and things will stay normal. Or maybe they stay normal now. For law enforcement, for the intel community, as everybody on this panel knows, there's no rest. They're going to be at this full bore all the way through. They don't need additional alerts to tell them to work harder or be more vigilant.

KEILAR: Yeah, just keep fighting the fight, law enforcement will. And people will, I guess, continue living their lives knowing that this is a threat.

Gentlemen, thank you so much for talking with me.

Bob, Tom, Harold, and Harry, thank you.

FUENTES: Thank you.

KEILAR: And as France reacts to these events, many are asking, were the attacks an act of revenge for the American-born al Qaeda cleric, Anwar al Awlaki. Go inside the story of the double agent that worked to take down one of the world's most wanted terrorists. It's called "Double Agent: Inside al Qaeda for the CIA." That's tonight at 9:00 p.m. on CNN.

We have more coverage of the terror attacks in France ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our coverage of the terror attacks in Paris and a new terror alert tonight. Here's the latest. A French police source tells CNN that terror sleeper cells were activated over the last 24 hours inside France. Police officers have been told to erase their social media accounts and to carry their guns at all times.

Meanwhile, the hunt is on for a woman personally connected to all three terrorists who launched attacks in and around Paris this week. Hayat Boumediene is the only person suspected of connections to that terror spree who is still alive.

And in Paris today, crowds gathered outside "Charlie Hebdo" offices again to honor victims there. The magazine plans to issue a new copy, a million issues, a million copies of its new issue this week.

So, how do we grade how France has done so far and do we have confidence in them going forward, preventing new attacks.

Our panel of experts includes former NYPD detective, Harold Thomas and Harry Houck, as well as CNN security analysts, Bob Baer and Tom Fuentes.

So, I want to begin, if I can, with our -- with Tom Fuentes, former assistant director of the FBI.

When we look at this new terror alert, Tom Fuentes, based on what we know, how well can France track other members of these terrorist cells to prevent new attacks?

FUENTES: Jim, that's a good question. I don't know, you know, how many other cells they have on the radar right now and how closely they're watching him. Something that's not been mentioned that I fear al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has been mainly famous in the last few years for their bomb making capability -- the school of al Asiri, who makes bombs out of PETN, the underwear bomber in 2009, the printer cartridge bombs in 2010. And what I fear most for the large crowd tomorrow in Paris is what's now to stop them switching tactics, dress like everybody else in the public, wearing big, thick winter overcoats, and have PETN in a suicide vest underneath the coat? You know, right now we saw them with assault rifles, dressed in black, looking like ninjas, but if they switch to look like one of the crowd, and we don't know how many million are going to be out there tomorrow, that could really be dangerous for the public tomorrow.

SCIUTTO: Well, you make a good point, Tom, because this has been something different from AQAP, al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula, assuming that the connections that police here are talking about are substantiated. As you said, AQAP, the principal threat, concealing explosives, particularly on airplanes bound for the U.S. This would be a different M.O. for them, expanding the threat.

I wonder if I can go to Harold Thomas and Harry Houck, both with experience in the NYPD. And the NYPD, as our viewers may not know, has its own counterterrorism unit following the attacks of 9/11. Tremendous resources there.

Harold, if I could ask you first, how would the NYPD be reacting tonight if they had similar information to what the French police have tonight? What would they do to prevent sleeper cells from carrying out attacks?

THOMAS: Well, they would be having their officers contact all of their informants. And they would be trying to gather as much as intelligence as they possibly could and decipher that intelligence and act accordingly.

SCIUTTO: All right. Harry, I'll ask you to pipe in as well.

I think you make a good point. Harold, that intelligence is never perfect. It's not exactly scientific. You have to arrange and collect the best information you have and make the best judgments you can.

Harry Houck, I'd like to ask your thoughts as well. What is the process at this point based on limited information to minimize the threat as opposed to eliminate it? Because that's the best they can do.

HARRY HOUCK, HOUCKCONSULTING.COM & FORMER NYPD DETECTIVE: Well, we know we're not going to be able to eliminate the threat. It's almost impossible to do unless we have some specific intelligence telling us exactly when and where an attack is going to occur. The fact that they're having this large gathering tomorrow and I don't even see how police can be prepared for that tomorrow. Where they'll have hundreds of thousands of people in France including, you know, many dignitaries coming in from other countries when they only have 24 hours to prepare for something like this.

SCIUTTO: Bob, I wonder if I can ask you how the U.S. responds to this additional warnings going out. The department of homeland security, the FBI putting out warnings in the last 24 hours around the country, warning in effect of similar attacks without any specific and credible threats. How does the U.S. respond now? And would you say that the threat of lone-wolf attacks, copycat attacks, has increased in the wake of these attacks here in Paris?

BOB BAER, CNN TERROR ANALYST: Well, exactly. It's the copycat attacks that they are worried about. It worries the FBI. I talk to them regularly. And they can't predict when someone is going to go from simply reading websites which a lot of people do, jihadi websites, and then flip over to violence. It's impossible to do. As we were talking about with acetone and peroxide, both were the detonator in the explosive. They know how to make this stuff. It can be made in the kitchen, whether it's in Paris or New York, and there's no way for the NYPD to do anything about this, I mean, in crowd control, if they go to suicide bombings.

And in Paris, the attacks could come from anywhere, because the airports are a lot of North African workers who are working them, how many of them have been turned, are planes in danger? So they have to be looking at threats coming from everywhere. And to get 100 percent successful, if these people are really determined to attack, I just don't see how they can do it.

SCIUTTO: Just not possible. The old saying always is the terrorists only have to be successful once. Counterterror services, security services, have to try to be successful all the time. That's just not possible.

Bob Baer, Tom Fuentes, Harold Thomas, Harry Houck, thank you very much for joining us.

We'll have more on the latest developments, including a new warning in France tonight about potential attacks on French police. We'll have that right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCOIS HOLLANDE, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE (through translation): I express myself to the French people, this is our best weapon, unity, that we must demonstrate our determination to fight against anything that can divide us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: The #jesuischarlie resonated with many people after the massacre at "Charlie Hebdo" magazine offices in Paris. Others are turning to a different hash tag, #jesuishamed, the name of a Muslim officer killed in the attacks. Some tweet that officer was murdered while defending a magazine accused of insulting his Muslim faith. Officer's brother says do not confuse Muslims with extremists. The brother said the officer embraced the responsibility of being a police officer and taking care of his family.

My panel now back with me. And I want to bring in Samuel to talk a little bit about the situation there in France and how some people assimilate to new cultures, others struggle to do so. And you're seeing that more so in France than other nations with immigrants. Why is that?

SAMUEL LAURENT, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, actually, there is obviously a problem in France about not only about immigration but I would be more tempted to speak about integration. France has tried very bravely to cut committing terrorism but for many reasons, according to history with colony and according to its urban policy that basically puts some -- some blocks, some rings, all around the main cities of France, we have created some suburbs that basically belong to some communities, whether it be Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian, therefore, I would say that the complete management of immigration in France unfortunately seems to be quite a failure.

And we are experiencing now basically the next step, which is those people who cannot really fit in and who cannot really find their identity into the French model, I would say, and that are now turning to, I would say, other options, and especially radical Islam, for people with Muslim background.

KEILAR: And, Harry, you've written about this. There's a lack of integration. You've got areas where you have high poverty. You have high unemployment. It's not a life that people really want to live, and it foments anger and anger turns to violence. So, talk about really how this is playing out.

HOUCK: Well, these people become susceptible to al Qaeda and that ideology. What happens is, if you're a young man and you don't have a job, you have nowhere to go, nothing to do, right? One of the big problems to me is that how does somebody like these two brothers, all right, leave a poor area and fly overseas to be trained, and somebody -- a flag doesn't go up saying, how do these guys get the money to go fly to another country for a couple years. To me, that should be a flag that these brothers were doing something like that.

KEILAR: Well, they were under surveillance for a few years.

HOUCK: Yeah, but still, you figure they are coming from an area like that where they're unemployed and they virtually have no money, so how are they getting the financing?

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KEILAR: They should have been more subject -- they should have been more suspicious of them.

HOUCK: Exactly. More suspicious of that and then when they come back to the country, you know, look what happens. Of course, it's two years later. KEILAR: Are you seeing, Harold, like, do you see examples of this

happening in the U.S. or happening in other countries?

THOMAS: Well, I can see it happening because, you know, like Harry said, you know, you'll get some poor person and they're looking for a cause. And they get -- they get on the computer, and they get radicalized. It's almost like how young men were getting into the gangs out in the streets.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: They don't have any options, right?

THOMAS: Right. And a gang will say, we'll be your family, we'll take care we'll take care of you, and all of you think, the way we think. And the young men embrace the gangs and they feel they're the ones who really care about me. And it's almost the same way with the -- with these radicals.

KEILAR: Some of the same formula going on.

THOMAS: Yes.

KEILAR: All right. Harry, Harold, thank you so much.

Thanks to Tom and Samuel, as well.

And I want to turn right now to some other news, and this is a huge development in the search for missing AirAsia flight 8501. The tail has been recovered. Can the black boxes be far behind? We'll be talking about that, next.

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KEILAR: Welcome back. Right now, a French police source telling CNN, terror sleeper cells were activated over the last 24 hours inside of France. A dramatic development in the terror attacks, and we'll have more on that, next hour.

But first, the other big story that we're following today, a significant development in the AirAsia flight 8501 crash that killed 162 people last month. The chief investigator tells CNN, the flight data recorders will likely be found in, quote, "a few days." He says small boats picked up several pings emanating about 500 meters from where the jet's tail was found.

And joining me now to talk about this is CNN aviation analyst, Jeff Wise, author of "Extreme Fear," a fascinating book about why some people do better under scary situations and why some people just come undone.

And that's really what we're trying to get at here when we find the black boxes, right, to find out whether this was pilot error, perhaps or whether this was purely a mechanical error, maybe caused by weather. JEFF WISE, CNN AVIATION ANALYST & AUTHOR: Right, exactly. And all of

that will come out when the black boxes are found. When, not if, hopefully. I mean, these things should be located within a tight radius of where the tail was found. As you know, the black boxes are located in this tail section. But unfortunately, this tail section was not complete. It was only about the top half and really one side. And so that part, that actual structural member that -- to which this is attached wasn't there.

KEILAR: It sort of may have come apart or broken at a very key point. Because, you look at it, and you see it, and here we have it as its being pulled out of the water here. And you can see it, sort of that tip of the tail, and then the area where you would expect the box to be lodged.

WISE: Right.

KEILAR: But certainly this is good news, if they're getting pings very close. I mean, we're talking 500 -- was it 500 meters from where the jet's tail was found, right?

WISE: Yeah, it's a little hard to parse that. I mean --

KEILAR: Why is that?

WISE: The black boxes should emit continuous ultrasonic tone.

KEILAR: Not just several pings.

WISE: Not just several once in a while. You remember back to --

KEILAR: This was like a metronome that --

(CROSSTALK)

WISE: Yeah, exactly. And remember back with MH370, they thought they located a few intermittent pings, and it turned out that was not the case, that there was bad data. Here -- I have to assume -- I think the most likely explanation the pingers aren't working.

KEILAR: That they are not?

WISE: They are not working.

KEILAR: Are not working.

WISE: Because you can hear them for about a mile, maybe a half mile. And so you would have expected, given that this debris should be in a fairly tight area they would be able to hear it pretty easily. I have to assume they're actually broken. That shouldn't be too big of a problem. They should be able to scan --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: They're in the right area. WISE: They've got to be in the right area.

KEILAR: They have the tail piece.

WISE: Which is why, even in the absence of the black boxes themselves being found -- and that's the Holy Grail they're looking for. Even in the absence of that, this is a very significant development.

KEILAR: Finding the tail?

WISE: Because now we know where it really hit on the surface. Because it had to be within a pretty -- stuff hits the surface and it sinks more or less straight down. There's some currents and whatnot. But this is heavy metal stuff and it goes straight down.

KEILAR: But are you pretty sure we'll find the black boxes, that they'll be discovered?

WISE: After MH370, one hesitates to be certain about anything, but I think this is a fairly conventional air crash. I think nothing truly weird is going to happen. I think we will find it soon.

KEILAR: So key to find those, to find out exactly what happened, the voice and the flight data recorder.

Jeff Wise, thank you so much for being with us.

WISE: Thank you.

KEILAR: And we have breaking news out of France today. Police are on high alert and already looking for a key suspect in the terror attacks while world leaders, dozens of them, are heading to France to mourn victims, and also some surprising names on that list. We have that ahead, next hour.

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