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A Rare View from Inside Yemen; Terror Raids Across Belgium; Obama, Cameron Talk Terror at White House; Hackers Hit 19,000 French Websites

Aired January 16, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: NEWSROOM starts now.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, ladies.

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We begin this hour with a continent on alert and millions of people on edge.

A massive anti-terror sweep descends over much of Europe and harried government officials say a sprawling jihadist network was not only in place but also on the verge of striking.

Here's what we know right now. One intelligence source says there was as many as 20 sleeper cells nestled in neighborhoods in plain sight. As many as 180 people awaiting their orders to strike. The target is a huge swath of Western Europe, France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. And Belgium may have been in the most immediate danger.

Intelligence agencies both in Europe and the Middle East say the threat of the attack was imminent there, but here's an unnerving reality check. The latest official reports show fewer than two dozen people have been taken off the streets. That leaves well over 100 sleeper agents still on the loose.

Also breaking overnight, 400 American troops will deploy to Syria to train moderate rebels. That's expected to begin in a few months. That's on top of the 3,000 troops already authorized to be dispatched to neighboring Iraq.

I'm going to have much more on this in just a moment. But first, we want to seize on a rare opportunity.

Right now CNN is the only major news network in Yemen. The terrorist hotbed just south of Saudi Arabia. That's where the killers in last week's magazine attack, Cherif and Said Kouachi, received their orders to launch the terror strike.

But did they actually meet with the mastermind of that massacre, U.S. born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki?

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is in Yemen. NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What is key is for

French investigators to swiftly establish the links in reality between here Yemen and those attacks in France. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's 11-minute statement suggests that a U.S. citizen killed in 2011 by U.S. drone strikes, Anwar al-Awlaki, was in fact operationally running that attack, what they call the Blessed Battle of Paris in their own sick terminology.

What is vital for French investigators to work out after that 2011 death there were continued conversations or resources passed from here, Yemen, to the Kouachi brothers. We know that potentially one of them came here as early as 2009 and maybe Cherif potentially traveling under his brother -- older brother Saif's passport came here in 2011 and may have returned to France with tens of thousands of dollars.

That's vital information because there are these other cells around Europe. Do they have links to the al Qaeda hotbed here of Yemen? Very keen to put its branding on what it calls, as I say, the Blessed Battle of Paris, troublingly. And of course now a quiet day after Friday prayer here in the capital Sana'a. But much anger on the streets at the image of the Prophet Mohammed, offensive to so many Muslims, being published again in the "Charlie Hebdo" satirical magazine in its latest issue.

The government angry at what it considers Yemen being scapegoated. But in truth, this is a failed or failing state. A lot of questions still to be answered by Yemen when the Kouachi brothers come here, where did they train? Who did they get resources from? Did they get commands from Yemen to launch their attacks? A lot of answers still to come from here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Nick Paton Walsh reporting live from Yemen.

Now let's turn our focus to that massive anti-terror sweep in Europe and all the information that's been streaming out over the last several hours.

CNN's senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen is in Brussels, Belgium, to break it down for us.

Hi, Fred.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. And Brussels in Belgium, of course, is one of the places where authorities here say a terror attack might very well have been imminent. They say it might not have been a matter of days, it might in fact have only been a matter of hours and that's why they had these massive anti-terror operations which happened here last night.

The most violent of which happened in a town called Verviers, which is about 40 miles outside of the capitol of Brussels. What happened was that a police squad went into a house there. They were immediately apparently met by gunfire. A gun battle went on for about -- I would say about 10 minutes and then afterwards two of the people inside that house, two of the supposed jihadists were killed. Another one managed to get out of the house. He was wounded but was

then taken into custody. But again that was not the only terror raid. There were terror raids at 12 sites across this country. And the police here is saying they believe the targets were law enforcement officials, most probably police, because inside some of the places that they raided they found AK-47s, they found handguns, they found communications equipment but they also found police uniforms.

And they say they believe that these people wanted to kill police officers, both on the streets as well as in police stations.

And Belgium, Carol, is reacting. They are going to put troops on standby to be ready to secure sites. Also Jewish schools were closed today and police officers, of course, are being ordered to be extra vigilant.

COSTELLO: Understand that.

Frederik Pleitgen reporting live for us from Belgium. Thanks so much.

As I've said, fears of an imminent terrorist attack sparked the raids in Belgium. But the threat isn't over. A Western intelligence source tells CNN up to 180 people could be involved in some 20 terror cells ready to strike several countries. Belgian officials acknowledge their goal was not only to disrupt one of those cells but also the network behind it.

And in an interview this morning CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem offered insight into the strategy behind the raids and why the timing was so critical.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: What imminent means in this instance is that the moment that it could have been disruption, the window was closing. And so you go in as law enforcement, as counterterrorism officials, and you shut it down. And what was amazing about last night is how simultaneous the attacks were in different places. That takes a lot of coordination and --

ALYSIN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR, NEW DAY: The raids were?

KAYYEM: Yes, how the raids were just consistent and at the same time because if they had been missed, if things had been off key or off timing, one of the cells, two of the cells, you know, 10 people could have gone into hiding.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So let's talk more about this with CNN global affairs analyst Bobby Ghosh.

The suspects in these latest anti-terror raids appear to be part of a larger network, Bobby. First of all, welcome.

BOBBY GHOSH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Hi. COSTELLO: So these sleeper cells, it's part of a larger network.

That's much different from the lone wolf attacks we've been hearing about. Has something changed?

GHOSH: Well, yes. What's changed is Syria. We've been worrying about this now for several years, since the -- since ISIS began to rise in Syria and then subsequently in Iraq. All these young European men going over there, learning how to fight, getting some experience in fighting, becoming thoroughly immersed in this perverse ideology and then coming back home, bringing with them a desire to do harm.

The fact that there are many cells is not entirely surprising. The nature of cells vary. Not -- no two cells are necessarily alike. Not all cells are equally dangerous, for instance, but their presence is something that we should be alarmed about.

The other alarming thing is the geographic spread, obviously. Not just in one country or one city, but in multiple countries. And finally, the range of different targets. The Kouachi brothers went after "Charlie Hebdo", a very specific target. Amedy Coulibaly goes after a policeman in the street, a Jewish kosher deli or market. And then these guys are looking to attack law enforcement, which means that it's hard to put a pattern to what it is they want to attack.

And therefore law enforcement agencies have to work extra hard to defend not just one type of target but all kinds of targets. And that takes a lot of resources, a lot of men, a lot of policemen and women, a lot of spy --

COSTELLO: And money, too.

GHOSH: And a lot of research money.

COSTELLO: So where do these direct orders come from? You know, people are saying, well, yes, they came from Al Qaeda in Yemen but, you know, the brothers who attacked the magazine in Paris, their plan was three years in the making and they say their plans came from Anwar al-Awlaki who's been dead for a few years.

So is it really possible that Al Qaeda in Yemen planned this and, like, sent these troops out to different countries in Europe?

GHOSH: It's unlikely that they would have planned it to the detail -- to a level of detail that we've seen. More likely they would say, we want you to attack this target. Figure out how to do it. Here's the training. Here's the money. And that's crucial. And we learn more as the French authorities go into Yemen and begin to extract information.

We've known for years that this particular magazine, "Charlie Hebdo", has been on Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's target. The editor- in\-chief that was assassinated, one of the men who was murdered, had been on their most wanted list. So we -- it's been known for years that they wanted to do damage to this magazine.

It's possible that the Kouachi brothers were told that's going to be your number one priority, but I suspect that would also -- they would also be told you figure out the best timing, then maybe there's coordination after that. Once they've figured it out, once they've -- let's say, they've scoped out the place, they've worked out when the editorial board meeting takes place, when it makes more sense to conduct an attack.

The question is, do they then go back to AQAP and say, hey, this is the plan we have worked out, do we get a green signal for you? Or maybe they don't need the green signal which is more dangerous.

COSTELLO: Maybe not. The other question I have, you know, Belgium, like who knew, right? All these sleeper cells in Belgium. Where were intelligence officials? Were they just waiting? Did they know about the sleeper cells? Or did the attack appears that to happen before they acted?

GHOSH: No, they knew the cells were there. Belgium, despite being a very small country, fewer than 12 million people, have been disproportionately represented in the number of people who have gone to fight in Syria and Iraq, and these investigations in Belgium have been going on weeks, before Paris. So the intelligence officials in Belgium knew these cells existed and had been tracking them.

What happened is that once Paris took place the alarm grew that that would inspire one or more of these cells to activate And so they felt that it was important to go in quickly.

Again, we don't have all the information. We'll find out, I'm sure, in the next days and weeks ahead whether there was specific chatter, whether when they were listening in on the cell they heard something about, well, this has happened in Paris, we need to start attacking now. Perhaps that was what set off the police raid but, you know, talking about small mercies.

The fact that they were able to conduct all of these raids quickly, simultaneously and efficiently suggests that they have been watching very closely and it is to be hoped anyway that they're watching others as well.

COSTELLO: I hope so.

Bobby Ghosh, thanks so much, as always.

The West isn't the only place worried about is. According to reports, Saudi Arabia is beefing up security. It's actually building a 600- mile long wall. This wall is supposed to keep terrorist fighters from crossing over its northern border from Iraq.

Now this picture gives you a sense of what the wall will look like when it's all finished, among these many security protections, I tripled layer steal fence. Forty watch hours, seven command and control center, a surveillance radar, an underground motion detectors. We'll keep you posted on its progress.

Still to come on the NEWSROOM, Muslim Americans are distancing themselves from the terror attacks in France. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANUSHE HASSAN: I feel like Muslims are finally standing up and saying, hello, they're crazy. What are we supposed to say about these people? How can we keep on apologizing for these nut jobs?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: We'll hear more from the outspoken Anushe Hassan next, including why she says the millions of peaceful Muslims in the world should not be made to apologize for terrorists.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A call to prayer, some might say that's what we need right now, unless, it's a Muslim call to prayer. Duke University has canceled plans to let Muslim students chant from the bell tower. It would have sounded like this.

That's the Muslim call to prayer.

Duke canceled it in part because of donations from Christian donors including Franklin Graham who wrote on his Facebook page, quote, "Christianity is being excluded from the public square and followers of Islam are raping, butchering and beheading Christian Jews and anyone who doesn't submit to their Sharia Islamic law. I call on the donors and alumni to withhold their support of Duke until this policy is reversed."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKLIN GRAHAM, PRESIDENT, BILLY GRAHAM EVANGELISTIC ASSOCIATION: Violence is there and it's coming and it's going to come to this country. It has nothing to do with what I say. I'm trying to warn America as to what's coming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Duke says its decision to cancel the call to prayer is also because a number of Muslim students and faculty have been threatened. Duke says those threats are external but it has not provided any other details.

Now what happened to Duke worries American Muslims like Anushay Hossein. She's the editor in chief of Anushayspoint.com and an expert on global women's issues.

I sat down with her on what it's like to be Muslim in America today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: When terrorists happen like what happened in Paris --

ANUSHAY HOSSEIN, EDITOR IN CHIEF, ANUSHAYSPOINT.COM: Yes.

COSTELLO: -- you as a Muslim woman, what goes through your mind? HOSSEIN: I'm like, oh, my goodness. These crazy people have done

something violent and every single brown person is going to be on the TV in this week or so having to apologize, having to explain. What I really like what's happened with the Paris attacks is Muslims are standing up saying, hello, they're crazy. What are we supposed to say for these people? How can we keep apologizing for these nut jobs, and finally kind of flipping the narrative and being like, white people never have to do this. Christian people never apologize for KKK, the abortion clinic bombings, I mean, the mass shootings, nothing.

So, I feel like we're kind of -- there's 1.7 billion Muslims in the world. Just look at me. I have no idea how we're supposed to respond. I think it's great that everyone is, you know, uniting, everyone saying we are all Charlie, but at the same time it's about what about Ahmad, what about the man who died at the kosher grocery store? He saved so many hostage's lives.

I do want to say that Muslims are terrorists' hostages. We are held hostage by them. We have to explain their actions. We have to go through increased security. We have to pay the racial ramifications of their actions so --

COSTELLO: So do people ask you inappropriate questions at times?

HOSSEIN: All the time.

COSTELLO: Like what?

HOSSEIN: I mean, why do you hate us so much? Why are you Muslim? Why would you be a part of a religion that hates women so much? And we're so lumped together.

You know, I'm a Bangladeshi Muslim, born and raised there. I'm married to an American who's Iranian. He's a Shia, I'm a Sunni. Our daughter is what we like to call a sushi. But at the same time we get these questions. It's like, should we condemn what happened? Should we be responsible for explaining ISIS?

COSTELLO: That's what people say. Why aren't Muslims more outspoken?

HOSSEIN: We are so outspoken.

COSTELLO: Well, they would say, why aren't we hearing you?

HOSSEIN: Because I don't think the media wants to hear it. It's not a sexy message.

Hezbollah, the leaders of Hezbollah, the greatest extremists ever, have been condemned. These attacks been condemned by every single major Islamic organization, Muslim organization, I mean, you name it. Everybody. Nobody wants to hear this. Everyone's all like, where are the moderates? What's going on?

I mean, like we -- I mean, if we -- if we condoned what was going on, then you really wouldn't hear a peep. But I think my theory is, is that the West and the media in general, let's not say the west, but this image of the veiled Muslim woman, victim, who is so helpless, uneducated and oppressed, there's nothing sexier that you can put on the TV. I really don't want to let that tag line go. I'm not the only modern Muslim woman.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: You'll hear more from Anushay Hossein in the next hour including why she says Muslism mothers are the next line of defense stopping terrorism. Fascinating ideas and insights.

Also to come on the NEWSROOM, a renewed pledge to fight terrorism as John Kerry heads to France while U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron visits Washington. Live report from the White House next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A living nightmare, that's how John Kerry described the "Charlie Hebdo" attacks during a visit to Paris where he met with the president, Francois Hollande. Kerry who laid a wreath at the kosher supermarket involved in one of the attacks said he wanted to, in his words, share a hug with all of France.

Kerry's visit comes as British Prime Minister David Cameron makes a two-day trip to Washington. One thing on his agenda: fighting terror.

White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski joins us now from the White House.

Good morning, Michelle.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

Right, we're seeing these allies in a show of unity, they're trying to be as strong as possible in their conveyance of that. This meeting between President Obama and David Cameron of the U.K. is going to be interesting. We know it's going to be far reaching with the most pressing issues of the day at the top of their agenda.

Of course, what's been really publicized is David Cameron wants things like Facebook and Snapchat and Twitter, other social media entities in the U.S. to be more open about sharing information with U.K. investigations.

Encryption has been a big part of what he's concerned about, that they can't access that information. He's wanting some changes in that arena, but it's unclear that that's really ever going to happen. I mean, that's been a big battle within the U.S., too.

I would say that the FBI feels the same way. They had an interesting quote this week saying, why would you create a car trunk that can't ever be opened even by law enforcement or an apartment that nobody could ever access the lock if there was an investigation, especially an investigation into terror. This is what everybody is banding together right now to try and prevent.

The White House has been noncommittal on this. They're not wanting to publicly take a side or say that, you know, the Googles and Snapchats need to be more compliant in this. What they've said is that privacy is a big concern, so is stopping terror and that everybody needs to work together into the battle. That's where it stands. We're waiting for them to take questions later because you know they're going to be pressed and pressed hard on this, Carol.

COSTELLO: Oh, absolutely. We're going to talk more about this subject in the 10:00 Eastern hour of NEWSROOM. So, thank you very much. Michelle Kosinski reporting from the White House.

It's being called a cyber jihad -- a massive wave of hack attacks across France. In all, 19,000 websites targeted. Investigators have traced much of the work to Islamic hacker groups.

CNN's Samuel Burke is here to talk about that.

SAMUEL BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The head of cyber defense for France says this is an unprecedented surge in attacks against French Web sites, something they've never seen before, from military Web sites to civilian websites. This includes the Web sites of businesses, Carol, religious groups, city government, universities, they're being filled with pro Islamic images and messages on these sites.

Now, it's interesting. At the same time these attacks are happening against French Web sites seemingly from Islamic groups, at the same time Anonymous launched their own campaign that they say will be a reprisal campaign for what happened in the "Charlie Hebdo" shootings. Take a look at what they posted on YouTube.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Attacking freedom of speech is attacking Anonymous. We will not permit it. Any organizations and enterprises linked to those terrorist attacks should expect a massive attack from Anonymous. We are tracking you down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURKE: So, Carol, on the one hand you have these jihadist groups or Islamic groups attacking French Web sites, on the other hand you have anonymous saying they're going to be attacking jihadist Web sites. And people said, oh, that's so great that they're going to go out and do that.

But cyber security experts tell me that that could exacerbate the problem. That may be exactly what we're seeing play out.

COSTELLO: Why could it exacerbate the problem?

BURKE: Because let's say anonymous goes after the jihadist groups. That stirs it up. Then they go after these French Web sites, businesses, universities. You have to understand that Anonymous is deciding who's a jihadist and who isn't. Do we trust these guys en masse to decide who they are or do we trust in the government?

COSTELLO: Well, is the government working on flooding jihadist Web sites with images of, I don't know, something not jihadist?

BURKE: Well, there are -- the government does work with the social media companies to try to bring these down. The social media companies try to keep their eye on them to bring them down, maybe not fast enough. Who do you want more, the government or these guys? It can exacerbate the problem and cause a cyber back and forth.

You see attacks play out on the streets of Paris offline and then you see online attacks. This happened Ukraine and Russia after the skirmishes there. You see this between Gaza and Israel. So, first, something happens online, and then this parallel of attack is happening in the online world.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Samuel Burke, many thanks. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, fears of terrorism spike in Europe as police launches sprawling sweep over several countries, terror cell expose. New concerns awakened.

We'll have all the latest developments for you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)